Thank You Sgt. Pepper

Until I was about 11 or 12 I lived in a monaural world. A world of clock radios and 13" black and white TVs. We had a stereo, but it was usually only used at Christmas for a stack of Firestone Christmas albums.

Then one time I was spending the weekend at my dad's and asked if he had any music I could listen to. So he gets down this record and cues it up. Then he hands me a pair of huge '80s over-the-ear headphone and changed my life forever. I like to think that it wasn't just the experience of hearing true stereo for the first time, but also hearing one of best albums ever recorded by the Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.



From that point on I consumed music. I also yearned for better and higher quality systems for my listening pleasure. I didn't have much money, but I used my strawberry picking money one summer to buy a huge boom box and even got a Walkman for Christmas one year. I've plateaued nicely on the equipment and haven't gone the way of some audiophiles. Either I am not one, or managed to let my finances dictate that area of my life. It pains me to report that the integrated amplifier I bought when I graduated from high school has finally bit the dust. And the tweeters on the Polk Audio Monitor 5Bs I bought with my friend Eric the first time I drove into the Portland area without grownups have tweeted their last.

Fortunately, I am not without:

Rotel RB-985 THX-certified 5-channel power amplifier
Rotel RSP-1066 Surround Processor/Preamp
Polk Audio RT-8 tower speakers
psb Alpha Sub-Zero 6 powered subwoofer

Funny thing is I had the amp and speakers long before I had the preamp. While the cinema performance was excellent, the stereo was flat and dead. That all went away with the 1066. Now the whole set up sings in both 2- and 5-channel.

Last thing I listened to in glorious stereo (and loud!):

"When Will You Die For the Last Time In My Dreams"
-Polvo, Exploded Drawing
1996, Touch & Go Records

#OccupyMatt

Protest in Hotel Room Verges on Violence

18 October 2011

Goldsboro, NC - A single man protesting against debt and crony capitalism has threatened to take himself outside for a "good old-fashioned Southern butt-whooping" over what he believes are serious breaches of personal responsibility.

"Matt has not made the best financial decisions and my debt is the direct result of those decisions," said Matt, oddly referring to himself in the third person. Matt cited his own desire for a fast car and a house as examples of not living within his means.

"Rather than carefully considering all the implications of home-ownership, such as lack of mobility and the expense of maintenance (those gutters don't clean themselves!), Matt bought a house near the peak of the housing boom," said Matt. "Now I'm stuck with a mortgage to pay and live more than an hour from work."

When asked why he still makes the payments on the house despite owing more than it's worth, Matt replied, "When Matt borrowed the money he agreed to pay it back. None of the loan documents implied that it was no longer necessary to make payments when it didn't feel good."

"Matt needs to bail out Matt," said Matt regarding a solution to the problem. "When Matt lives within or, even better, below his means the situation will correct itself. We even expect surpluses over the long-haul."

Traveling Sucks

Some random thoughts on traveling in this day and age:

• Young(er) people don't know how to turn off their fancy smart phones. (Hint: putting it in airplane mode is not turning it off. Turning it off is turning it off.)
• An $8 fruit and cheese platter that sounds ridiculous on the ground is a luxurious feast halfway through a 4-hour flight
• If you have a bladder the size of a walnut, request an aisle seat
• Zone 2 people don't like having to wade through a crowd of zone 4 and 5 people to board the plane
• Your bag will come back around; no need to bowl people over trying to get it. It's called a carrousel for a reason
• I will shed no tears when you have to check your suitcase because the overhead bins are full after I paid $60 to check my bags at check-in
  
• No one has to use the lavatory until the seat belt sign comes on
• No one has any problem calling the bathroom a lavatory because it's on an airplane