Cool Music A couple years ago, I was turned on to Devin Townsend. I can thank the inimitable Mario Parga for the introduction. I fell completely in love with his music, and quickly snarfed up most of his work. The most interesting was the Devin Townsend Project albums. Each one was distinctive, unique and in a very different style. From mellow, space you out (Ghost) to in your face, kick ass...
Last week, I fancied a bit of nostalgia, and enjoyed playing LPs on a real turntable. The ritual of playing the music harkened back to a much simpler era, and it was quite enjoyable. I can't way that the vinyl sounded better, or even different than CD's (alas, I don't have an apples-to-apples comparison set), but there was something satisfying from digging out a Miles Davis album...
Early in my life, I became a music buff. Sometime in High School (probably by my sophomore year), I pieced together a simple hifi system, saved my paper route money, bought a decent turntable and the best needle I could afford, and started buying records. Lots and lots of records. I could be found at Tower Records in Campbell California at least once a week. When I started driving (at 16) we...
A couple months ago, I took the plunge. I canceled my Spotify premium account, and was grooving on the Apple iRadio option on iTunes. While I missed the “on demand” library, I thought that the radio stations on iTunes radio were great, with a very good algorithm at grouping songs in genre’s and subgenre’s. But a couple weeks ago I reactivated my Spotify premium membership...
Not sure where it came from. Perhaps it was playing too much guitar, or all the motorcycle/bicycle riding I have done over the years. Or it is just bad luck, but the arthritis in my left thumb sucks. I started noticing it a few months ago. When I started cycling again seriously (more than once a month 😉 ) I noticed that my left thumb was sore afterwards. It has gotten progressively worse, until...
We are having a sales meeting next month, and one of the organizers thinks it will be a great idea to have some of the team play and entertain at the group dinner. There are at least three guitar players, a bass player, and a drummer who can get together, so it is a reasonable idea. But I will decline to play. Apart from the “thumb” issues I have, these impromptu jams are awkward for...
Today I turned off my Spotify premium account. It was not a step taken lightly, as it had thoroughly trounced Google Play All Access when I was comparing them. Spotify was/is a solid player, with a large library, and great radio option. But the one downside was what they didn’t have in their library. Led Zeppelin? Not there. Paul Gilbert and Racer-X? Nope. The Beatles? Nein. Yep, I could...
In the past I have pitted Spotify against Google All Access, and while the Google offering was slightly cheaper, it had enough warts to drop it into second place. At that time, I mentioned that I looked forward to Apple’s offering, and would revisit when it was officially launched. iTunes has long supported internet radio stations, but they were all third party, and of quite varied quality...
A while back I commented on the disappointment I experienced with my Bose QuietComfort 2’s broke (plastic fatigue) and the AWESOME support that got me a new set of better headphones for << 1/2 price. I work in a cubicle farm. My cube is about 10′ from my boss, who is also in a cube, and I am up against an engineer’s cube who like to hum. Fortunately the Bose headphones are...
I am back in the south bay for my high school reunion, and I visited two places that I have always loved. The good: Guitar Showcase Way back when I first started playing guitar, I was introduced to the legendary Guitar Showcase in Campbell. It is an iconic music store, and naturally has a wide selection of guitars (as well as other instruments). They have greatly expanded the store, and added a...