Thirty years ago, the ads in the hi-fi magazines said that Compact Discs offered “perfect sound forever.” “Perfect sound” is a complicated topic, but it’s apparent that “forever” isn’t happening. NPR has this piece on CD deterioration.
Some CD players do a better job than others at handling marginal discs, as I demonstrated in this post. It seems that the gold discs manufactured by defunct specialty labels like Mobile Fidelity and DCC are superior after all.
On the subject of “perfect sound,” I have come around to accepting that the CD format is as good as 2-channel audio gets. 44,100 samples per second, 16 bits per sample, represents the limit of what the human ear can hear. There are plenty of things that can be done wrong, and were wrong for a long time, with digital-to-analog conversion in CD players, but the bit depth and sampling rate are fine. Here is the best explanation I’ve seen.
The Market Basket saga continues. The latest is that Governor Deval Patrick is calling for workers to return to their jobs, but that position seems to reflect the Arthur S. Demoulas side of the feud, and Patrick’s wife works for the law firm that represents Arthur S.
Apparently, Arthur T. made an ill-timed 2008 investment of the $46m employee trust fund in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock.
The timing of the investment was disastrous. Only months after Demoulas poured Market Basket’s profits into Fannie and Freddie, the US government took over the two companies, wiped out their preferred stock so that it was worth zero, and made them wards of the state. The upshot: Market Basket’s entire profit-sharing plan was lost in the stock market…
Something that Denro and I talk about incessantly is how drastically music changed year-to-year in the 1960’s. The best place to go for a thorough and insightful exploration of Sixties popular music is Andrew Sandoval’s unique and outstanding online show, Come to the Sunshine.
Andrew Sandoval, “Come to the Sunshine”
After Pop gave way to the Psychedelic shake-up of 1967, 1968 was the year when underground FM stations started to take over the older teen market. The influence of FM on AM could be heard in records like this one, which became an unlikely top 20 hit.
What made underground, aka Hippie, radio possible in the Sixties? The same thing that was behind other 60’s happenings like NASA, the pre-Internet Arpanet, and the Vietnam War. The United States Government, that’s what.
To promote the adoption of FM stereo radio, on January 1, 1967 an FCC mandate went into effect that required radio broadcasters to no longer simulcast their AM signals over their FM stations. College-aged disc jockeys started to flood the airwaves in major cities, formats changed overnight, and instead of playing the latest singles they played album cuts.
The iconic Boston station, WBCN, had an overnight format change, but it didn’t happen because of the simulcast requirement. What made ‘BCN possible was the desperation of the owner of a failing all-Classical station. Former ‘BCN disc jockey Carter Alan, who is now on WZLX in Boston, has the story in his excellent book, “Radio Free Boston: The Rise and Fall of WBCN.”
For ten years, living in our first house, Market Basket was the only convenient supermarket. It’s a local, family-owned chain with the slogan “More For Your Dollar.” The way the store manager pronounced it, with his Boston accent, made it sound like the title of this post.
Although Market Basket’s prices are lower than elsewhere, we had some complaints, including consistently stale and sometimes spoiled food. Over the 15+ years since we moved, the chain has expanded and, we have been told, improved, especially since Arthur T. Demoulas became CEO in 2008. That must be true, because Consumer Reports now places Market Basket sixth in its supermarket ratings.
After decades of one faction of the family battling the other for control of the Market Basket chain, they have finally succeeded, and the non-union, multi-billion dollar business instantly began to fall apart. Why? Because the unprecedented thing about this crisis is that the employees, managers and hourly workers alike, are protesting for the return of the former CEO. Here’s some background from PRI’s The World, a radio show produced in Boston by WGBH.
The Market Basket in Somerville that’s featured in the story is where my friend Morris shops, or shopped, and having the place essentially shut down is big inconvenience for him.
The Arthur S. side of the family, now in control, is killing the golden goose — the goose that Artie T. made possible through his excellent management. This situation can’t go on for much longer, and whatever the outcome, it is destined to become a case study in every business school. If Arthur S., and the board of directors he controls, have any sense at all, they will accept Artie T’s offer to buy them out.
My hope is that Warren Buffett is going to step in and give Arthur T. the leverage he needs to push his cousin out the door.
One of the first comic books I bought after my family moved to Massachusetts in 1968 was Marvel Super-Heroes #18, featuring the introduction of an oddball band of space rangers called the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Marvel Super-Heroes #18, Jan ’69
Written by Arnold Drake and drawn by Gene Colan, the original incarnation of the Guardians was a one-off try-out story that went nowhere for decades. Today, a completely revamped version of the team includes a 1970’s Marvel character called Star Lord, who is played by Chris Pratt in a big, new movie that is getting generally favorable reviews. A Pratt saving the galaxy is something I’ve gotta see.
And where did Groot the tree character come from? He’s one of Marvel’s old, pre-Fantastic Four monsters.
