2015 — 30 November: Monday
Much as I despise Christmas1 I think I loathe November even more. Whether listening to Jackie Leven's 1971 album "Control" will help remains to be seen. It certainly is, so far this morning. I was introduced quite late to the chap but greatly enjoy his music. As does crime writer Ian Rankin, I learned last week. I also cordially loathed Thatcher. This morning I met the first reference I've seen to her speechwriter (Ronald Millar) since I bought, read, and greatly enjoyed his 1993 memoirs:
A typical snippet of Millar, when recalling the IRA's 1984 Brighton bomb attack:
Keith Joseph, immaculate in a Noël Coward dressing gown over his silk pyjamas, was the only one, so far as I could see, who had remembered his red Cabinet despatch box. He had been discovered sitting on it on the promenade immediately opposite the hotel staring calmly out to sea, which I thought was intellectual, sophisticated and entirely apropos for a Fellow of All Souls...
Alan Clark's corresponding diary entry (in predictable contrast) merely recalled Sir Keith "wandering around in a burgundy dressing gown."
I was reading Sam Leith's thoughts on the lack of memorials to "the unknown speechwriter" through the centuries:
There exist, here and there, statues to great orators — though in the modern age it is as warriors that they are normally pictured, a horse and a sword being that much more butch on a sculpture than a toga and a mouth set to catch flies. But where we are invited to shed a manly tear at any number of eternal flames dedicated to the memory of this unknown soldier or that one, where is the flame dedicated to the unknown speechwriter?
Other audio thoughts...
... include what (if anything) to do about what's left of the shattered remnants of the system upstairs now that I've just excised my Marantz A/V amp from it for (frankly much better) use downstairs. Although I've enjoyed my six-year dalliance with the Zen simplicity of my Audiolab pre-amp / power-amp approach — and I certainly have no intention of departing from my simple stereo approach — I admit that the video side of things has been more than a little clumsy. A fact borne in upon me as I have been gently struggling with the various obstacles involved in integrating my Linux PC into the system. The (largely hdcp-related) deficiencies of the Audiolab (with just two HDMI inputs, and an unwillingness to play as nicely with these as more modern kit does) has brought me to a personal tipping point.
HDMI centricity
I like the new, more HDMI-centric2 simplification down here, and I'm now looking forward, in due course, to being able to welcome my Linux BlackBeast PC into full-fledged membership (as it were) of my little A/V family circle. There are updated notes on audio (and video) obstacles here.
The Marantz is a fully-fledged 4K-capable A/V receiver.3 (Hi-fi separates that are (a) in my price range and (b) have adequate digital inputs other than HDMI are nowadays few and far between.) It has six HDMI, one co-ax and one optical SP/DIF input, plus three simple RCA analogue stereo pairs — just about enough. It also has a headphone socket — another comparative rarity these days. Still, I no longer need to cocoon myself in headphones, though they do usually sound marginally better than any other acoustic transducer in the house or my price range.
In the real world...
... I'm now contemplating both breakfast and the clouds that have been scudding past in a way that suggests the Met Office was sensible to issue its weather warning yesterday. I have a lunch date tomorrow, a possible walk on Wednesday, and a fun session with Windows 10 on Thursday for my friend Iris. The irony of my receiving Linux help while giving Windows help hasn't escaped me.
Back from my little expotition (it turned too wet during it for me to bother getting out of the car) to an unwanted call from an Indian-accented lady selling life insurance followed by a wanted call ticking another box on this week's dance card. Lunch somewhere on Friday while a couple of chums get their chisels sharpened in Alton.
In the unreal world...
... having finished re-building and testing a somewhat etiolated version of my former A/V stack, I'm now contemplating another rather tasty Rotel...
... though to use it (a) only as a pre-amp and (b) stereo-only might be a step too far.
I confess I won't be buying the Taschen book of early German colour photos that's appeared in their new catalogue, either, though I once knew a lass who would have loved it! And would have roasted me when I bought it for her, at the price. Those were the days, heh?
What's the point...
... of being able to relabel the names of the inputs on the Marantz A/V pre-amp if — on inserting a minidisc into the Sony MD deck (and successfully playing it) — the thing now refuses to eject my MD but goes into an endless repeating cycle of "Welcome", "Reading TOC"...? Not much fun, or use, to be derived from perfect playback of just one minidisc, is there? Last time this happened (with a James Bond DVD in a Helios DVD player a mere 3,178 days ago) I ended up contending with 18 or so fiddly self-tapping screws. I hope the Sony isn't similarly constructed.