2010 — 30 October: Saturday
Again it's somewhat after midnight.1 It seems to have been raining out there. I wouldn't know — I'm currently glued to my electrostatic headphones, which are being fed from the analogue output of the NAD CD player at the other end of the room. Magic. Or, to be more precise, Traffic's "Low Spark of High Heel Boys". All 12 glorious minutes of it.
I still clearly remember listening to this on the radio one Sunday evening early in 1974 (shortly before I met Christa) in the bed and breakfast2 in Windsor where I was staying during my first few weeks in ICL. It was played only occasionally, of course, because it was deemed far too long for air play. In fact, that was only the second time I'd ever heard it. And I was annoyed because I was recording it, but picked up some car ignition spark noise on a quiet part of the recording. So, until I bought a copy of the vinyl album, I had to put up with this "imperfection" every time I played the tape.
It was just right for the 1900 Series PLAN (assembler-level) programming exercises I was doing at the time, mind you. G'night.
Bright new day
When I mentioned last November I'd found an open-reel tape spool of a dummy head stereo recording up in the loft I didn't bother to say I'd also found the Sony manual for my first "real" amplifier. I recalled that in the context of this new mini-marvel that's driving the ancient headphones, and here's a picture of that original Sony behind its then 24-year-old owner's right hand:
Taken for the July 1975 issue of "Popular Hi-Fi" magazine. I was pleased to learn from Brian yesterday that he'd been able to pass it along to a teenager a few years ago as it was still going strong. I now wonder where dear Mama's even older Sony HP-488 music centre will have ended up (and, yes, I still have the manual for that too). Dad bought that system3 in 1971 when they lived for a few months in a bungalow in Meldreth. It replaced a far older valve-based Decca radiogram :-)
It's 09:27 and time for some breakfast before I assemble my next crockpot creation. It's also seems to be clouding over considerably, so will probably be an "indoors" day, methinks.
Gawker? Moi??
In my chat with Steve yesterday we touched on some aspects of American life, society, and politics. Not to mention religion, hypocrisies, and bureaucratic idiocies. I confessed my own views are very largely malformed by close study of "Doonesbury", the "West Wing", "Northern Exposure", "Boston Legal", "Seinfeld", and the "Larry Sanders" show (though my good friend Carol in New York injects a voice of calm sanity from time to time, and I know my chums Gill and Chris think I ought to be watching a lot more Jon Stewart than I do). Steve's (American) wife is heartily sick, for example, of the mid-term election process and its current descent into mud-slinging. As a non-US citizen, Steve is unable to vote, so can be as detached, I guess, as Christa was in her acerbic observations to me over many years of the sh1ts who like to think they run (or should run) things over here.
However, I was living a life blissfully unaware of the existence of this story, let alone the web site on which it appeared. Thanks for nothing, Grauniad. I did like the call-out box, however!
A heroine of mine
I peek, from time to time, at Alison Bechdel's blog — I'd hate to miss her latest collection of the delicious "DTWOF" strip. I liked this:
Yale University Press published this really beautiful book last year called "Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books". It begins with Walter Benjamin's famous essay about collecting books, Unpacking My Library. Then it shows you the actual bookshelves of 12 architects. Close-up, all the books on all of the shelves. As someone who always ends up in the corner at parties poring over the host's bookshelves, this was a voyeuristic treat.
Now they're doing a follow-up book about writers and their books, and I've been asked to be part of it. The photographers were here the other week, which prompted me to rein my books back into some sort of order after years of entropy.
Get thee to a kitchen, David. [Pause] The crockpot was enjoyably stuffed while listening to the chatter between Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson on Planet Rock — this station is in some danger of dislodging my former allegiance to BBC 6Music. Crikey. Right. It's 11:57; what's next, Mrs Landingham?
Well, you could try publishing the missing file, I guess! Oops.
Is there any point...
... in my trying to explain why this is so totally wonderful? (Alas, probably not. Though I love the answer to #4 on the FAQ.) Simon Garfield used the poster to top and tail his book about fonts which Mr Postie dropped off with a couple of other bits'n'bobs a few hours ago. To be precise, four DVDs, two CDs and the book:
- Chloe
directed by Atom Egoyan, a chap usually worth watching - White Palace
replacing a dubbed LaserDisc. The book by Glenn Savan is excellent, too - 2 Days in the Valley
My third edition — finally with the correct aspect ratio. But no extras. Typical - Powder Blue
I know nothing about this, but the cast looks very promising
- Just my type
Mr Garfield writes well - Re-covers
my second CD by this throat singer - McDonald & Giles
the 2001 re-mastered version. Very nice job, too
It's getting horribly dark out there, yet it's only 17:58. [Pause] Next thing you know, it's 22:43 and sleep is approaching...