Grahame

Meanwhile ... North Carolina House Passes Bill to Ban Squatted Trucks | The Drive

Another Fridge Food picnic at Heart's Desire Beach

McVitie's Chocolate Digestive (Biscuit) Thanks to another Brit at a Piper Park picnic

Dessert

Civilized Jack London State Park picnic

For those that did / didn't watch ...

Happy Birthday, Brent! What does a Brent mid life crisis even look like?

The Eurovison Song Contest 2021 Final, with Graham Norton's (snarky) commentary, Thanks to those nice people on the internet https://old.reddit.com/r/notpanelshow/comments/niyehg/eurovision_song_contest_2021/

Chicken 'N' Bacon, two ways Live audio accompaniment is a Prince song (Cream) done in the style of an early Beatles cover band . 🤷

Happy Birthday!

Giri/Haji ( 義理/恥) "Smart, suspenseful, and superbly shot, Giri/Haji is a near-perfect crime thriller with a surprisingly sharp sense of humor." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giri/Haji Because: We'd just finished Line Of Duty S6 (which is now available on Britbox) which is well worth a watch When Youtube suggested this interview ... Which got me intrigued in Giri/Haji, so we watched it. I'm very glad we did. Check out the comments on the YouTube trailer to see the impression it made on other people. Well worth your time to watch (IMHO).

As the world returns to "Normal", behold Eurovision 2021! And now you can watch it Live!, or on demand in the US, without having to rely on those nice people on the internet https://collider.com/eurovision-2021-how-to-watch-usa-streaming-where/ Hint: https://www.peacocktv.com/ 7 day free trial

cynics might argue just how courageous it was to delete the headphone jack, in hindsight, wired (analog) headphones (e.g. JH-13's) being able to do lossless, assuming the necessary hardware (dacs etc) onboard. Meanwhile ... https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-monopolist-worm-in-apple-11621290094

I think the use case has always been there "As an Audiophile, I want to listen to lossless audio on wireless headphones, so I don't have to look like some kind of savage" The need is a classic chicken / egg for the apple ecosystem* - no lossless audio from Apple - so no requirement. *Other ecosystems exist outside the walled garden. https://darko.audio/2017/12/how-to-enable-aptx-hd-bluetooth-audio-on-your-iphone-ipad/ But the tension between a low energy local communication protocol ( bluetooth) - to improve battery life on wireless devices, and the need for the required bandwidth for lossless audio ( and the energy it would take to implement it ) have now come to a head. So probably a new version of bluetooth and an supported codec (aptX lossless?) is required to make it a reality , for a given bit depth / sampling rate definition of lossless. New hardware / software all round to get this tick box requirement met! Yay!

^ https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/should-joe-biden-worry-about-soaring-lumber-prices-n1267475

Oh well, The Verge: Apple’s $549 AirPods Max can’t play lossless Apple Music — even when plugged in. https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/17/22440788/apple-airpods-max-lossless-music-explainer-spatial-audio #AirPodsMaxPro?

Meanwhile ... Originally broadcast 29 March 1971 https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/vinyl-restoration/zvm2cqt Also Monitor takes a wonderfully entertaining look at a very modern phenomenon; the audiophile. ↗ Originally broadcast 12 April 1959 https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/hififofum/zjt6kmn Plus ça change?

Meanwhile ... The next step in Head Case stick smashing vertical integration? https://www.npr.org/2021/05/17/996913329/as-lumber-prices-climb-diy-ers-cut-out-the-middle-man-and-mill-their-own

Happy Birthday, Chris!

Airstrike / Rebuild ?

There is a video review from that other place I'm seeing £1099 (GBP) 1299 (EUR) https://www.whathifi.com/us/news/sennheiser-ie-900-earbuds-announced-with-eye-watering-price so may be $1299 depending on conversion rates they want to use ...

On the plus side (allegedly)* ... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2119505/amp/Kazakhstans-prostitutes-cleanest-region-Shocking-blunder-Borats-National-Anthem-played-medal-ceremony.html * All that superior potassium, obvs.

Happy Birthday, Shelly!

"Tawny" Kitaen, Star of 1980s Music Videos, Dies at 59 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/08/arts/tawny-kitaen-dead.html https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/tawny-kitaen-whitesnake-video-dead-obituary-1167012/amp/

Then what %age would you recommend?