Site Report: 2/20/08


Just a brief check-in with the readership…

I’ve lost track of everything that’s been added since the last report – a few reviews here, a couple of essays there. It’s been sporadic. Most recently, I’ve added some Miscellaneous jazz titles that I was saving for a rainy day, or perhaps I was waiting to see if I could tally more albums by the artists in question. More reviews will be forthcoming in the next few months.

Over the past winter, I went through a rock nostalgia phase, revisiting Zeppelin and the Stones among other things, stuff I hadn’t heard in several years. I have to ask – why are “Tumbling Dice” and “Happy” the perennial representatives of Exile on Main Street? Give me “Soul Survivor”, “Ventilator Blues”, and “All Down the Line” instead. Heck, I think all of my favorite Stones cuts are just below the popular surface. I’m the only guy at the party who wants to crank up “Slave”. Twice.

“The CD is dead, or gasping for air,” say the tech pundits. Sales figures indicate such pronouncements are premature, and personally, I’m not looking to rip and dump my collection anytime soon. I still patronize the local record store, still order discs online, and still find the CD a convenient format. What’s next, the complete Miles Davis on a flash drive? No thanks. Here’s something that came out of my mouth in conversation not too long ago – I don’t associate music with computers, period. I don’t mean to dismiss anybody else’s methods; as long as you’re digging the music in your preferred player, enjoy. I’m just amused by all this “death to physical media” noise. And a little saddened, because sound quality, mixing dynamics, and album integrity might all rocket down the tubes someday. (Professional engineers are now mixing music so that it will “sound good” coming out of a cell phone. Think about that.)

Well, that’s the short version, and I’ve babbled about it before, so I’ll leave it. In any case, thanks as always for visiting this site, and happy listening.


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