Stephen Brown argues that Sid Vicious and Mozart shared the quality of primitivism, by which he means the winnowing away of unnecessary complications. I see his point with Sid, but in Mozart's case, I see it as the essence of the refining fire. Still, a good read and well-argued, even though, IMHO, wrong.
<I>Caution:</I> This is just a theory.
Frankly, I think this site has more Ronald Reagan than it needs, but it does have Richard Nixon's farewell address (man, I never get tired of that one) and a ton of other winners—in both text and MP3. Obviously slanted towards stuff they have audio files for, but a goldmine for those of us who appreciate good oratory.
<I>Ampulex compressa</I> is a wasp that uses its stinger to temporarily paralyze and then hot-wire a cockroach so that the wasp can "drive" the larger critter home, where it can lay its egg on the roach host and seal it into a nursery. When the egg hatches, the larva chews its way into the host, where it feeds itself and then spins a cocoon.
Beautiful photographs of ghost towns.
Hilarious rant by anthropologist Roger Sandall over Lynn Truss' <I>Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of Everyday Life</I>. I have to confess I haven't read <I>TTTH</I>, not least because I didn't enjoy her hectoring <I>Eats Shoots and Leaves</I>. Geeze, if you're going to write a book about the failure of everybody to observe proper grammar, wouldn't you want it to be copyedited to a fair thee well? Ms. Truss didn't proof her proofer—and all I could think as she wagged her finger was that she should have washed it first.
Wes Phillips <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/012306requiem/">wrote last week</A> about the closing of yet more music stores and what this means for the future of music. How are the stores in your area doing?
Much as I like the prospect of being able to grunt a heartfelt Je ne regrette rien immediately before expiring, I know there will be too many what-ifs and wish-I-hadn'ts to make that even remotely possible. But here is one missed opportunity that won't flash before me, because John Atkinson has granted me a second chance.
An amplifier producing nearly 400Wpc, weighing close to 100 lbs...from <I>Rotel</I>, of all people? Don't they know their <I>place</I> in the audio world? Next thing you know, Krell will start making integrated amplifiers! Oops—Krell <I>is</I> making integrated amplifiers...
Just in case you didn't know this when you bought the Parasound HCA-3500, it says on the cover of the owner's manual: "Designed in California, USA by John Curl." Described as an "audio design legend," an appellation with which he seems quite uncomfortable, John Curl has certainly been around the audio business longer than most. He's been employed by or has consulted for some of the biggest names in consumer and professional audio—including Harman/Kardon, Ampex, and Mark Levinson—and was the designer of at least two classic products: the Mark Levinson JC-2 preamplifier and his own <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/phonopreamps/640">Vendetta Research phono stage</A>, still considered by many people to be the best phono stage ever built.