Thomas Beller meditates on the pleasures of taking an aural time out. At Tyll Hertsens' urging, I began doing this about 10 years ago—it's amazing how much it makes you hear what you normally tune out. Of course, that's not always a good thing, as Beller points out.
"Intelligent teenagers often listen to heavy metal music to cope with the pressures associated with being talented, according to research."
The Japanese orbiting solar observatory Hinode has captured startling images of the Sun's outer limb and giant magnetic field loops crashing down into its surface. "Where astronomers expected to see a calm region called the chromosphere, they saw a seething mass of swaying spikes."
It's a good thing for us that Jeremy Denk got restless at a concert recently. One thought led to another, he rushed home to check out a CD he thought linked to his thoughts, and the next thing we know, he's deep into an analysis of the chorale in Beethoven's "Spring" sonata (No. 5 in F, Op. 24).
"Nice blogging," says JA.
Especially when it comes to Nikola Tesla.
Greg Stepanich watches <I>House</I>. It seems like he got more out of the recent episode featuring Dave Matthews than I did.
<I>Business Week</I> has a cool photo essay on the making of a Steinway. The accompanying article is worth reading, too, but the pix are primo.
Who knew there was so much librarian humor out there?
Check one and two, but you won't find any of three in my apartment. Unless, of course, you count <i>Story of O</i>—and you <i>might</i>. I like to think of it, however, as erotica. Then there's <i>The Forty-Eight Ways</i>. Is that porn? Nah, it's more of a manual. Takeout menus are few, and include: Wild Fusion (their green curry is delightful); Frank's Pizzeria (a large regular costs five bucks!); and La Conguita (their <i>pernil asado</i> reminds me of my grandma's). I don't keep a very large collection of <i>Stereophile</i> back issues at home, but I do have a few special issues on the bookshelf in my living room.