Author: DOuG pRATt

Insider Incomes

Parade has stopped publishing as a Sunday supplement and gone 100% online. A feature I have always looked forward to seeing in Parade is “What People Earn.”

https://parade.com/living/what-people-earn-salaries-2022

There is a big ongoing push for pay transparency beyond the categories where it’s always existed — jobs that pay minimum wage to start, pay grades within unions, and what public employees are paid, unionized or not.

This comes after the Great Resignation, which was followed by Quiet-Quitting, and now there’s the inevitable Big Layoff. At a personal level, the guy who took over my job when I retired didn’t quiet-quit, he just plain quit. He submitted his resignation and declined an unprecedented counter-offer. His area of expertise — cloud computing — is in high demand.

I was never the quiet-quitting type, and neither is my replacement who has moved on to another opportunity. I would suggest that those who have been doing the quiet quitting, especially while working from home, are among those who are now caught up in the layoffs sweeping through the tech sector.

Brideshead Revisited Revisited

I greatly admire the superb television production of Brideshead Revisited, that I first watched on a 19-inch black & white TV when it originally aired in 1981. Brideshead is as far from British Kitchen Sink Realism as it gets, this side of Shakespeare.

The series was co-directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, whose name was heard often a year ago when Disney released The Beatles: Get Back. Lindsay-Hogg directed Let It Be, and his original reels of film were used by Peter Jackson for his project.

The complete Brideshead series is here, although the playlist has the eleven episodes out of order. I’ll leave it to you to sort them out from the drop-down menu.

Sixty-Seven Minute Man at 67

I’ve finally returned to running for more than an hour straight. The pace isn’t what it was in my younger years, but I’m very pleased with being able to go the distance without ankle trouble. I’ve been carefully working my way back up to this since Daylight Saving Time.

Here’s a bit of what Jim Dawson says about “Sixty Minute Man” in his book, What Was the First Rock ‘N’ Roll Record: 30th Anniversary Edition, Updated and Revised.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947521969

Why important: It was the first raucous, bluesy R&B hit to cross over to the pop charts, the first shamelessly double-entendre pop it, and the first million-seller by a formative R&B vocal group.

Onkyo Lives and Updates

Another nice tech surprise. Onkyo, operating as a unit of VOXX/Sharp, has updated its phone app, and it’s a significant improvement. Unwanted sources listed for my versatile TX-NR676 receiver, that I enjoy using very much, can now be hidden in the app. Yes, I want to keep AM radio as an option!

A major functional fix is the Music Server client now works as it should with my DLNA server, which runs on an old Windows netbook concurrently with Logitech Media Server. The receiver still can’t play the lossless WMA format, but almost nothing outside of Windows and LMS does. I’m in the process of re-ripping those CD’s to FLAC anyway.

The BIG enhancement is the addition of — be still my heart — GAPLESS PLAYBACK! Yet another niceness is the ability to play albums by either track number or by the song title. A very good job by Onkyo.

They Said They Said

Click the pic to hear an interview with John and Paul from August ’66, upon the release of Revolver, although the album is not even mentioned by name. You’ll hear some cover versions of Beatles songs you probably haven’t heard before. The BBC will expire this link in one week.

Paul McCartney and John Lennon during rehearsal for “Saturday Club” on 21st December 1963.

P.S. The sound on this tape is in pristine condition. With headphones, even a clock ticking in the background at Paul’s house is clearly heard.