Its been a while since I last posted. The site is more a work in progress than any kind of ongoing commentary. Life is pretty sweet over the last 10 years and I don’t often stop and write it large onto the æther …
Anyway, I am just recovering from a nasty bout with Norwalk virus- or something like it – ugh its nothing you’d want to talk about – certainly nothing you’d want to experience, but I’m pulling through and should be back to work shortly.
Happy Birthday to me, he he …
Couldn’t resist! A few months back Emma and I were driving through the neighborhood and saw this old Kenmore canister type vacuum on the side of the road, awaiting trash pickup. Other than a scary dry-rotted power cord, it was in immaculate condition!
Chrome was perfect, logo was intact, paint unscarred. She tossed it in the back of the truck and it sat on our screen in back porch until last weekend, as we started prepping the porch for winter. I visioned it as a odd retro reading lamp beside my chair, and with a few lamp parts and maybe 2 hours of work, voila! The cool thing is, if I replace the vacuum power cord, it still works as a vacuum!
ACKKKK!
After all this time I’ve moved the blog from MT and into WordPress. I’ve got a lot more to do – create and import some header graphics from my photos, hand tweak the local (non-blog) pages, and generally carry the update through the rest of the site – but – its a start!
I’ve been real impressed with the Maggies, but when I played some King Crimson or other bass heavy music I can tell the difference – so – I dug out my old M&K Volkswoofer, dropped in the plate amp my friend Wilfredo kindly gave me, and brought it up to play.
Now, the Maggies are 5 ohm speakers and not real efficient – it take a bit of power to make them sing, but I’m using a vintage Carver receiver that put out 150w/ch – PLENTY of power. None-the-less, I did turn the level down on the subwoofer so it wasn’t over powering – and – its a REALLY good match.
Plus, the Volkswoofer is a gorgeous walnut box – so its nice to have it back in use!
I hadn’t heard flat-panel speakers before, but I’ve heard folks speak well of them in some of the speaker forums. So when I saw a pair of American made Magneplanar MG-IIb speakers listed pretty cheaply in Craigslist, I decided I should go have a listen!
I took some Accoustic Alchemy, Aja, some Klezmer, James Taylor, and Sinatra’s “For the Lonely”. Listened for about an hour, I was completely intrigued, made an offer, and soon we were loading them into the CRV. An hour later I was setting them up in our living room, and we spent the rest of the evening listening to various Cds …
Wow. What a sense of space! Emma says its like swimming in the music – sound comes from the front and back of the panels – MUCH different than the sound-in-a-box of regular speakers …
These are older models from the mid-80s – they cut off a bit above 16k and don’t play really low notes – so I’ll probably tie in a subwoofer for low base – but – I am REALLY impressed!
All these religions, all this singing
One song.
The differences are just illusion and vanity.
Sunlight looks different on this wall
than it does on this wall,
and a whole lot different
on this wall over here,
but it is still sunlight.
We have borrowed these clothes,
these time and space personalities,
from a light,
and, when we praise,
we put it back in.
Just as one man can be a father to you
brother to another and uncle to yet another,
what you are searching for has many names
but one existence.
Stop looking for one of the names.
Move beyond attachment to names.
Every war and conflict between human beings
has happened because of some disagreement about
the names.
It’s such unnecessary foolishness
because just beyond the arguing,
where we are all one people,
there is a long table of companionship
beautifully set
and just waiting for us to sit down.
We’ve had Cox CATV & High speed internet since we’ve been here, but their newer HDTV channels don’t always play well with our HD-TIVO. So, after seeing many ads, figuring its cheaper, and having good feedback from a neighbor, we decided to go with FIOS. I did all this in mid-MAY, and had the install scheduled for Sat May 29th – Memorial Day weekend!
It turned out to be a mess, and the installer had no idea what he was doing …
Of course, once we got our marriage license, we wanted to do something about it.
The marriage had to be done in DC, and I’ve always loved the light and airy space of MCC DC – so Emma pulled some strings, and got it reserved for us on Weds March 31st.
Our Anniversary is April 1st – so that was perfect.
We just wanted a small, quiet ceremony. Rev Kharma Amos was the officiant, our good friend Elethia took pictures, and Emma and I were wed!
After 13 years of relationship, Emma and I went into Wash, DC and applied for a marriage license! She’s going to make an honest woman of me yet!
The Beautiful South: Miaow
You’ve gotta love this update on the old RCA Logo. But for contractual reasons, this album art was prohibited and the band went with a couple dogs in a lifeboat in a stormy sea.
