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<i>Photo: <a href="http://michaelschmelling.com/">Michael Schmelling</a></i>
Look: I mean, listen: I mean, look: I'm the sort of guy who is comfortable with the idea that there's more than just music to this whole hi-fi thing. It's not <i>all</i> about the music. That's bullshit. It's also about friendship and peace and art and beauty. It's about <i>belonging</i>. You can get into hi-fi even if you don't listen to music. What? Yes! It's about getting drunk and high and lost. It's about girls and boys. It's also about the gear. But you can get into hi-fi even if you don't like gear. What? Yes! It's about more than just what the gear <i>does</i>. It's also about how the gear <i>looks</i> when it does what it does. Hi-fi is a full-on sensory attack, a blissed-out mind-fuck, an ocean, a sky, a lion in the tall, yellow grass. We feel with our heads and our hearts, with our ears and our eyes and every little bit of our little human selves.
If <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/vinyl_man/">Vinyl Man</a> had a shield, it would look something like the Thorens TD 309 turntable. But it would be orange. Or green.
Um, Vinyl Man's favorite colors are orange and green, obviously. This photo was taken by intrepid crime photographer, Michael Lavorgna, outside the old Justice League Europe Headquarters in Paris, France.
<B><I>It's a Vinyl World, After All: Michael Fremer's Guide to Record Cleaning, Storage, Handling, Collecting, & Manufacturing in the 21st Century</I></B><BR>
MF Productions mxangle3 (DVD). 2008. Michael Fremer, prod.; Joe Shelesky, Andre Kruger, Jeff Wilerth, dirs.; Joe Shelesky, editor. $30; available from <I>Stereophile</I>'s <A HREF="http://ssl.blueearth.net/primedia/home.php">secure e-commerce page</A>.
Back in February 2008, senior contributing editor John Marks decided to hold <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/thefifthelement/208fifth/index.html">a competition</a>.
There has been a lot of Leonard Cohen talk going around the office this week. You will find out why when you receive your September issue of <i>Stereophile</i>. You will enjoy it, too, I am certain.
There has been a lot of Leonard Cohen talk going around the office this week. You will find out why when you receive your September issue of <i>Stereophile</i>. You will enjoy it, too, I am certain.
Here in the office, I am (like most jerks in the corporate world) constantly juggling several tasks at once. Sometimes these tasks seem to have absolutely nothing to do with one another, and nothing to do with the making of a magazine. So it goes. To keep everything from crashing down at my nervous, trembling feet, I scribble little reminders on yellow Post-it notes and stick them to everything around me: Post-it notes on my computer screen, Post-it notes on my telephone, Post-it notes on my calendar, Post-it notes on my stapler, etc.