YouTube once again has me in its grip. This Star Trek thing William Shatner made in 2014 is my latest distraction. It can’t be embedded, but click on “Watch on YouTube” to watch on YouTube.
Brooks’ No Denial
David Brooks has come a long way from when he supported the invasion of Iraq. He has said that some personal trouble he went through had an effect on his outlook, but it was Trump that really helped Brooks to see things more clearly politically. I was nodding as I listened to this little speech he made last Friday on the PBS Newshour.
A Point Worth Repeating
This is a comment I made on Facebook:
It’s much easier to not infect someone else than it is to avoid being infected yourself. Preventing the spread can be done with the cheap, blue surgical masks. Protecting yourself requires a more expensive, and much less comfortable, N95 mask.
It’s now clear that someone who is fully vaccinated can infect others with Delta-Covid. So the obvious thing for everybody to do, including those of us who are vaccinated, is to return to wearing proper masks in public when indoors. The virus doesn’t know politics, it only knows biology, and yet many people insist on making this a political issue.
Another Definition of Insanity
In an effort to trim back on the number of my YouTube subscriptions, I succeed only in finding more channels of interest. AudioPhil (get the joke?) has a $10,000 amplifier, a $4000 turntable, and a $1000 phono cartridge.
Phil is using two platter mats, a tweak of debatable value as all audio tweaks are. Note that even a deluxe specialty pressing like that one is a bit off-center. And now for reference, the official digital copy of “Light My Fire.”
They sound surprisingly close to me, probably due in part to the use of a digital master for the record. A compulsion to make this sort of “angels on the head of a pin” comparison is proof that audio guys are a certain sort of crazy. My hearing is still just good enough to enjoy playing this game, but I know it can’t last.
(Time passes)
Must… play… more! Here’s a sample I can really appreciate. Who’s Next was the album that motivated me to spend $200 of very hard-earned money from my restaurant job in high school to buy my first stereo system. That $200 is equivalent to $1300 today. It bought a Pioneer SX-440 receiver, Garrard 40B turntable with Pickering XV cartridge, and Realistic MC-1000 speakers. Later I bought Pioneer SE-20A headphones for $20.
This capture is from an original 1971 pressing. The sound is tops, with a surface that’s quiet enough to hear the master tape hiss at the opening. The only problem is Roger Daltry’s shriek at the end breaking up. Put on decent headphones to hear why turntables and vinyl records persist.
Listen carefully for the guitar strumming that almost sounds like an unplugged electric guitar, more than an acoustic guitar. I wasn’t hearing that on my SE-20A headphones when playing the record as a 16-year-old with superb hearing. But I was hearing it when WBCN-FM played “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”
Was the phono cartridge the problem? Yes, as buying a Shure M91ED cartridge for $20 proved. But the high-compliance Shure needed anti-skating to keep the stylus centered, and that was a feature the inexpensive Garrard turntable lacked. And so the madness took hold of me, as it does everyone seeking the perfection that doesn’t exist. The very fact that I remember all of this is proof of my condition!
Mars War!
I’m very impressed with Criterion’s Blu-ray presentation of Paramount’s 2018 restoration of The War of the Worlds, from 1953. The print was created digitally, for perfect alignment of the scans made from the original 3-strip Technicolor negatives.
Paramount’s goal was to recreate the Technicolor experience as much as possible, and I can confirm they succeeded. This Blu-ray really comes alive with a good video projector.
A fascinating and entertaining alternate take on the H.G. Wells classic is the fantasy docudrama, The Great Martian War 1913–1917.
Aww, who needs to worry about a Martian invasion anyway, when we have the pandemic? Or… has it been their plan all along, to weaken us with a virus they’re immune to, avoiding the fate of the Martians at the end of Wells’ book??
Pieces of Me
No, this isn’t a selfie in the manner of Anthony Weiner and Jeffrey Toobin! That’s my chest hair in the photo. Some of it was shaved before having a cyst removed. Like an iceberg, it was much bigger under the surface. The size of a grape, the dermatologist said. Too much information for an otherwise pleasant Saturday?