August 20, 2019

An hour and 30 minutes have passed since the first post of the day.

It was that thing about the vasectomy cake, which might make you think I have a low standard, but in fact the vasectomy cake met a very high standard, and I have been looking ever since to find something else that meets my standard.

I really mean it when I say better than nothing is a high standard. The vasectomy cake was in fact the only thing in an hour and a half of reading that was better than nothing. I considered and rejected:

1. "The U.S. must take Greenland by force!" by Dana Milbank (WaPo). Who cares how Milbank hits a softball?

2. "Trump is melting down. Again" by Eugene Robinson (WaPo). First line: "Uh-oh. President Trump is in such a state of panic about his dimming reelection prospects that he’s getting his lies mixed up and occasionally blurting out the truth." I considered a post title like "Uh-oh, WaPo is in such a state of panic about the Democrats' dimming reelection prospects that..." and then I just felt disgusted with the me who would write like that. A computer could be programmed to write a blog that just flips the partisanship of every headline.

3. "Conservative Scholar: The Real Racists Are People Who Call Trump Racist" by Jonathan Chait (NY Magazine). So the conservative scholar flipped a liberal meme to make it anti-liberal and liberal Chait will flip it back. Am I supposed to expend my cruel neutrality on such low-effort stuff? Chait has to write a column. He's paid to do it. I don't and I'm not.

4. "A Party Room and a Prison Cell Inside the Friends writers’ room," a book excerpt by Saul Austerlitz (at NY Magazine). I'm interested in "Friends," and the article is long. I read it. But that doesn't mean it has to become a blog post. It's less interesting than the vasectomy cake. And a vasectomy cake would be a great plotline for a "Friends" episode.

5. "Neil Young’s Lonely Quest to Save Music/He says low-quality streaming is hurting our songs and our brains. Is he right?" I love Neil Young. Nice black-and-white photograph of Neil Young. The first sentence is "Neil Young is crankier than a hermit being stung by bees" and we were just talking about bees, but the article is about digital audio, a topic he's been perseverating about for a quarter century. I make a mental note to pull out "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" for the next time we get together to play records.

199 comments:

MadisonMan said...

The sky was a marvelous orange color earlier. Now rain approaches. I've noticed that even though it's been wet, the skeeters have not been so irksome. We sat out on the deck for dinner last night -- no bugs! What a delightful summer.

I was wondering about the slow follow-up. If you're looking for suggestions -- how about Quintez Cephus? Poor Becky Blank, caught between two groups.

AllenS said...

The whole national debate that is going on is getting tiresome. Those stories are getting harder and harder to read.

MadisonMan said...

Oh wait -- I see he has been reinstated. Hadn't read the paper yet today.

Quayle said...

All the “news” that’s fit to ignore.

Thank you, Ann, for bringing efficiency to our morning. I’m going to head off to work and not think about anything social/political until Althouse posts.

Ann Althouse said...

"Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" and yet it's difficult to come up with a place worth traveling to.

Ryan said...

Two discs and only 7 songs! Okay.

Ann Althouse said...

"The sky was a marvelous orange color earlier."

I know, I was watching through the picture window behind my computer screen.

"Now rain approaches."

A quick walk might be the right choice.

"I've noticed that even though it's been wet, the skeeters have not been so irksome...."

I was just saying that yesterday.

"I was wondering about the slow follow-up. If you're looking for suggestions -- how about Quintez Cephus? Poor Becky Blank, caught between two groups."

Hmm. That or the quick pre-rain walk.

Ryan said...

Places with people we want to be with can be worth traveling to.

Ann Althouse said...

"Two discs and only 7 songs! Okay."

It's just one disc.

I've been playing it for half a century.

Ryan said...

Oh I see. Makes more sense. Amazon says disc 1 and 2. I will check it out!

Skeptical Voter said...

Can there be anything drearier than thinking about Eugene Robinson, Dana Milbank and Jonathan Chait? Yes--add Charles Blow and Paul Krugman to the list. What a buncha downers.

rehajm said...

How about a palette cleanser: We're at war with palmetto bugs this morning (aka- roaches). Six lively ones in a couple days. Lots of 'sign' of activity left behind. They like the mantle of the screened porch fireplace for some reason. I'd suspect there's a dead critter in the flue but why then go to the trouble to climb up on the mantle to poop? The pros are coming this morning to spray (again). The stuff works but it feels like the roaches are winning the war...

rhhardin said...

Read Trump's sense of humor. That doesn't get reversed on the left.

Ryan said...

I was ten feet away from Joe Walsh at an event a couple weeks ago. Was pretty cool.

rehajm said...

What to do in a post-journalism world?

rhhardin said...

Erehwon is supposed to be nice, in the summer.

henry said...

nothing but fog here this morning.

David Begley said...

Great post, Ann! A post on the posts you didn’t write.

And the Fake News TDS is getting very old. Gene Robinson has never written something sharp his entire career.

Howard said...

I hear you, Ann. I have cut back on my news scan bigtime. If something is actually important, it'll be on the radar. The dog days of August.

rhhardin said...

Jean Shepherd's favorite Indian restaurant: The Jaded Palette.

rehajm said...

The Fed is still too restrictive- that's what the inversion was telling us (not: vote for Democrats). They're still behind the curve. Trump knew it a long time ago. Breaking News: Trump Right Again.

rhhardin said...

"You want hot, or not so hot?"

"Not so hot."

Did you ever suck on a blowtorch? Shepherd adds.

Kevin said...

To paraphrase Scott Adams: things are so good this is all the news they have.

Ryan said...

There is real pleasure in being a musician. After many years of practice I can now sit at a piano and play for hours, for fun. Love it! Anyone bored or frustrated with the world, learn an instrument!

rhhardin said...

Trump doesn't understand matching the supply of money to what the economy is capable of doing at once. The interest rate is an output of the economy from the Fed doing the matching.

A boost in economic activity leading to a boost in inflation after the election isn't the Fed's idea of its job.

Hagar said...

The Danish government seems to have forgotten that in 1814 their Frederik VI gave Norway to Marshal Bernadotte, then "king-in-waiting" of Sweden, without a fight and no request for compensation on the mere threat of being invaded, so there is precedent for them giving up joint sovereign territory without even pretending to consult the people of the nation involved.

tim in vermont said...

I have no idea what Neil Young is talking about. If you pay extra for the CD quality streaming, and you have something besides an iPhone streaming it, and something better than the stock sound system of a Toyota Camry playing it, the sound quality today is amazing. At least compared to the vinyl my daughter’s hipster boyfriend listens to. I haven’t listed to a straight up CD in a long time, they are the standard. Maybe I am missing something, IDK.

stevew said...

This is a great day for not much stuff to explore and talk about here, I've got a lot of work work to do.

This time of year in my neck of the woods the damn bugs are plentiful and plenty obnoxious. Midges, black flies, horseflys, and mosquitos. Need a good couple of nights days in the high 40's or low 50's to put them to bed.

As I recall, Neil Young argues that digital music and streaming, which deliver more music more broadly to more people, is bad because of the sound quality. Nevermind that most people cannot discern the difference in quality between the various popular media, especially with simple music like pop and rock.

Have a good day folks. Beautiful sunshine here north of Boston, I'll be holed up working on closing out the quarter.

Qwinn said...

The Left's only tactic is projection. It is unfortunately an extremely effective tactic that apparently successfully cons nearly half the population regularly. Is ignoring it likely to effectively combat it? What IS an effective counter to projection? Cause I don't think I've ever seen one.

rehajm said...

A boost in economic activity leading to a boost in inflation after the election isn't the Fed's idea of its job.

Their idea, perhaps. To Trump's point: full employment is literally in the FOMC's job description. See dual mandate. Stimulus, or absence of hindrance, is all they have to work with.

Quayle said...

Tidal is my main music source now. I pay up for the high definition stream. And the catalog is huge far bigger than I could possibly ever own myself

David Begley said...

Young owned 1,000 acres of real estate in Malibu! Rich guy.

JAORE said...

Are Milbank or Robinson ever worthy of a blog? Chait either.

I've been cutting down and cutting up an old Magnolia tree in 95+ degree weather and I find that more insightful.

Laslo Spatula said...

"Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" has "Cinnamon Girl" and its famous one-note solo.

This set me off on the Google Merry-Go-Round, and I found this:

"...About that guitar solo. While it probably wasn’t the first one-note guitar solo in the history of rock ‘n’ roll — hell, Pete Townshend at least started one on “I Can See For Miles” before showing off — it remains completely and totally unique, inspiring somebody to a just-audible-enough “hoo” after just a couple of measures, cos they’re into it so much.

That “hoo,” of course, has long been an audience staple: everybody knows that it exists somewhere in the solo, but no one can agree on exactly when, so throughout every single moment in the solo somebody in the audience is deciding to “hoo!”


It's interesting how such an offhand thing -- 'hoo' -- can become an indelible stamp in the musical memory.

And -- with a one-note solo -- there is no brief melodic snippet to tie it to a particular point in time in the song.

So: memorable, simple, but constantly shifting on you.

I was going to try to tie the one-note solo to Althouse's 'better than nothing is a high standard' -- I see a connection to unfurl -- but I gotta get to work...

I am Laslo.

alanc709 said...

I still prefer listening to my 33's, although I have CD's for most of my favorite music. Something about listening to music with the imperfections of vinyl makes it feel more personal and real.

doctrev said...

Oh, the struggles of being Althouse. Given your choice of reading material, I'd have more respect for you if you threw in some Tiger Beat magazine, or Cosmo Teen. Whatever corporate magazine the teenyboppers are reading. Oh, the magazine industry is dying and no one calls them teenyboppers? Well, dang. I guess I'm out of touch too.

At some point, it must have dimly occurred to you that the liberal media -hates you- for being slightly Trump-positive, and would happily sent a mob of howling goons to your house because they in no way recognize your right to live in this country as a heritage American. So why read newspapers featuring utterly inept affirmative action wunderkinds, or the untalented spawn of nepotism? Johnathan Chait hasn't been relevant in a practical or moral sense since the Iraq War, yet he still has work because it's apparently illegal to fire hack columnists. This is how you people, by which I mean credentialed academics, get Trump. It's probably how you'll get a lot worse than Trump.

J. Farmer said...

Audiophile or Audio-Fooled?

tim in vermont said...

I guess if you find the tastiest note, that’s the one to play in your solo. Most people kind of noodle around it like a fan dance, coming back to it and giving the folks a little flash now and then, but why not go full frontal with the note everybody loves?

Mr. Majestyk said...

Did you blog about the South Dakoata woman who didn't know she was pregnant (with triplets!) until she was in labor?

Quayle said...

Compare with Garcia on "Pride of Cucamonga". It was the notes he elected to NOT play that to me made the solo.

rehajm said...

Families are migrating home from their summer vacations, the kids are headed back to school and soon informative and enlightening journalism will return to the pages and the cable sh...hahaha! Just kidding.

Rusty said...

"Trump is melting down. Again" by Eugene Robinson (WaPo). "
Eugene is one of the many people at the Washington Post that has made it the greatest high school newspaper in the country.

narciso said...

I was on a high school paper, bezos emo blog doesnt qualify:

https://reason.com/2018/07/19/slavery-did-not-make-america-r/?amp&__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR0BSAp_6fc_1zIM_gD12cO2B4eneTIduEFfXkK7d-ozPZXA7EJViMvpBWo

Original Mike said...

"A boost in economic activity leading to a boost in inflation after the election isn't the Fed's idea of its job."

What inflation?

narciso said...


Where there enemy action is:

https://thefederalist.com/2019/08/20/ghost-john-c-calhoun-haunts-todays-american-left/

tim in vermont said...

J. Farmer, I really like Rick Beato’s videos myself. I liked his top twenty guitar intros a lot for instance. He makes the point that I think that Neil Young misses, these tracks are not mixed for perfect reproduction. I remember the Mad Magazine bit on Hi Fi, where I think the joke was that “you can hear the dandruff falling on Ringo Starr!” Well who wants to hear that? It’s like looking at your HD TV so closely that you see the little dots instead of the picture the director had in mind for you to see.

I remember once walking into a room where a vinyl record was being played when I wasn’t expecting it, and it was a blast from the past, like being in 1978 again for a moment, but it’s not great sound quality as far as reproducing what you would hear in concert.

narciso said...

You can look at every bit of tripe from robinson blow et al like the eloi klaxons in the time machine, summoming them back into the bunker

Johnathan Birks said...

Poor Neil. His venture with Pono hasn't produced a generation of audiophile millennials and nobody cares about his luddite views on GMOs. The 21st century just isn't working out for him.
That said "Tonight's the Night" is one of the greatest albums ever.

tim in vermont said...

"What inflation?”

Exactly!

tim in vermont said...

I really liked Young’s guitar on “PowderFinger.”

buwaya said...

From the Times of India -
India's Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft enters Lunar orbit.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/chandrayaan-2-successfully-enters-lunar-orbit-heres-the-moon-landing-plan/articleshow/70749649.cms

It is a lander, and will attempt to soft-land sometime next month.

The larger point is the changing nature of the global technological-economic balance. India is six years behind China in managing a lunar soft-landing, if this works.

A mission like this is a complex test of technological management. Most of what went into this is no secret, the tech itself is public domain for the most part, and largely off the shelf. Putting it together however, and achieving such a result, is a question of organization and skill. And it is possible only to a country with the ability to fund it.

yoobee said...

"Friends" had the episode in which Rachel ordered a cake for Emma's birthday but the bakery messed up and gave her an erotic cake with a penis instead. Ross apparently fixed it by changing the penis to look more like a bunny.

Krumhorn said...

Am I supposed to expend my cruel neutrality on such low-effort stuff?

Years of reading this blog...and perhaps, not carefully enough...and until this morning, I haven’t seen any overt sense of humor from our hostess. It’s not that humor is likely absent in the Professor. I’m sure that in person, she’s warm and laughs freely and fully capable of making others laugh or, at least, grin in response to something she says or does.

But until this comment in this post, I can’t say that I’ve ever actually laughed when I read something she has written. I frequently laugh reading our fellow commenters. For example, Laslo Spatula puts me on the floor. My wife runs in horror when I chase after her with my iPad to read her something he has written. I guess it’s the anal sex. It gives new meaning to “beware of Greeks...”

So, in response to this blog post, I say to Ann, good ‘un!

- Krumhorn

Quaestor said...

The sky was a marvelous orange color earlier

The augurs foresee a Trump landslide.

Fernandinande said...

I have no idea what Neil Young is talking about.

Neither does Neil Young.

At least I hope not, because the alternative is that he's running a scam with his silly PonoPlayer, and I'd much prefer to think he's just goofy, like most musicians, and not a scammer.

narciso said...

Have you looked at the price of basic staples,

gilbar said...

here's some news, that Professor Althouse missed:
Six-Year-Old Saying, 'Why Don't We Just Give Everything Away For Free?' Surges To Top Of Democratic Polls

Fernandinande said...

Audiophile or Audio-Fooled?

Also see my link above.

A different youtube guy has some pretty involved demos showing that guitars and basses which cost about $99.99 sound almost exactly like those costing 10 or 100 times more.

buwaya said...

The larger point is about power. If India can do this, it is comparatively trivial to manage a global-range ICBM with an accuracy radius of a few hundred meters. Or other such military capabilities.

These "stunts" serve various purposes. One of them is in the way of a friendly warning, that an arms race, or attempts at regional dominance (hint, China, and its ally Pakistan), are likely to face independent opposition. Its not just the US against the rest anymore. Its a multi-polar world.

doctrev said...

Dear gilbar, Althouse does not find the Babylon Bee funny. I think that headline is great, but clearly she requires a sophisticated level of humor, like reading the Washington Post, or watching a dog run into a wall.

gilbar said...

i'm awaiting Snopes' "factcheck" especially of THIS line
President Trump has taken notice, vowing to trounce Susie in the general since Trump himself can “read and write at the level of an eight-year-old.”

Sebastian said...

"Am I supposed to expend my cruel neutrality on such low-effort stuff?"

Well, since we all know by now that cruel neutrality is a phony pose, it would cost you very little to address the prospects of flipping the Trumpists-are-racists meme.

Since you are guilty of racism by association, and you are timid enough to avoid being targeted by more obvious racism smears, this part of the culture war concerns you too. So, what do you think? Or are you just hunkering down, hoping that the accusations and denunciations will pass you by?

Drago said...

Skeptical Voter: "Can there be anything drearier than thinking about Eugene Robinson, Dana Milbank and Jonathan Chait? Yes--add Charles Blow and Paul Krugman to the list. What a buncha downers."

One pictures LLR Chuck waiting with adolescent-Christmas-morning-anticipation for the next salvo of far left offerings from this august crew of hacks from which he will draw additional talking points for the day.

Nothing sadder than a Reid Hoffman-"conservative" awaiting his next lefty narrative "fix".

Anonymous said...

buwaya: And it is possible only to a country with the ability to fund it.

I would think that "has its own space program" would be a criterion for *not* receiving foreign aid from other countries. But, no.

Seeing Red said...

This is just a little Samba built upon a single note....

buwaya said...

New York Times article -suggested by Steve Sailer - this has many angles though, runs across the grain in many ways -

"It’s Not the Same’: Why War Refugees Who Helped Revive St. Louis Are Leaving"

Synopsis - St. Louis took in 70,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees, who succeeded in America. They are now fleeing for the suburbs.

Beasts of England said...

I’ve tried to write this comment three times but it kept getting longer. Short version: my brother and I are life-long musicians; we’ve owned a recording studio; we’ve been studio musicians in Muscle Shoals; and you can still hear his voice, songwriting, and/or musicianship if you listen to enough oldies stations... I know live and recorded music, and Neil Young is full of shit. And Canadian.

Phil 314 said...

The guy with the winey, off pitch voice is complaining about sound quality?

He can write good songs (except for “Southern Man” and other political diatribes) but someone else should sing them.

buwaya said...

"I would think that "has its own space program" would be a criterion for *not* receiving foreign aid from other countries. But, no. "

"You might very well think that, I couldn't possibly comment."
Francis Urquhart, "House of Cards"

alanc709 said...

Yeah, if I was picking a favorite Neil Young/Crazy Horse album, it would probably be Rust Never Sleeps.

Fernandinande said...

CD-Quality and High-Resolution Music Files

"Musicians who were more confident than average got even worse results: [chart]

Most interesting were the results of people who claim to be audio hardware reviewers. They were more often wrong than right: [chart]"

Gunner said...

I don’t understand how these lefty, black newspaper columnists, who constantly cry about the hopelessness of America’s white supremacy, are also so optimistic about beating Trump.

tim in vermont said...

I don’t think Neil Young sings off pitch, but I don’t have perfect pitch, so maybe I’m wrong. He’s no Judy Collins in that department though.

Mr. Forward said...

I was told there'd be cake.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Well, here is an article that might inspire some cruel neutrality and cause all of us to examine our own belief systems

Luxury Beliefs are the latest status symbol for rich americians.

What are our own "luxury" beliefs. Ideas that we can hold because our own personal lives are so privileged and safe?

Amexpat said...

If I had to pick one Neil Young album, EKTIN would be it.

Fernandinande said...

"Am I supposed to expend my cruel neutrality on such low-effort stuff?"

Well, since we all know by now that cruel neutrality is a phony pose, it would cost you very little to address the prospects of flipping the Trumpists-are-racists meme.


RuPaul and TV makeup and visits from adult children are the high-effort subjects.

I'm more interested in Mac Donald's "Trump Isn’t the One Dividing Us by Race" (WSJ). Working...

MacMacConnell said...

""Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" and yet it's difficult to come up with a place worth traveling to."

"Don't Let It Bring You Down" "Country Girl"

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I don’t think Neil Young sings off pitch, but I don’t have perfect pitch

I don't think it is so much that Neil Young is off pitch. More that he searches for the note. By that I mean that he (like many other singers) doesn't hit the note dead on but warbles a bit around it until he does settle on that note.

Gliding up or down into the true note, if you get what I mean. It isn't a bad thing if it is done subtly. Many great singers do this. Frank Sinatra for example. It is a style. Just like Willy Nelson singing off the beat.

What I always disliked about Neil Young's singing is his nasal whiny tone. His songs and lyrics are good.

gilbar said...

we’ve been studio musicians in Muscle Shoals; and you can still hear his voice, songwriting, and/or musicianship if you listen to enough oldies stations... I know live and recorded music, and Neil Young is full of shit. And Canadian.

You could ALMOST SAY, that "A southern man don't need him around anyhow".

Michael K said...

St. Louis took in 70,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees, who succeeded in America. They are now fleeing for the suburbs.

They are being attacked by you know who. They are probably finding better places to live.

Police have arrested two juvenile suspects and are still looking for two after a fatal hammer attack in St. Louis.

According to Fox 2 Now, police are investigating an overnight homicide in south St. Louis. It happened around 1:15 am Sunday on Gravois and Itaska, near Bevo Mill. A man, identified as Zemir Begic, 32, was struck on the head, face, mouth, and abdomen by juveniles with hammers. Begic, a Bosnian, was taken to a hospital where he died of his injuries.


"Youths" no doubt.

Susan said...

In a world where Break Dancing is an Olympic sport...

David Blaska said...

Great idea for a blogge. "Things I'm not going to write about."

gilbar said...

DBQ's link said ...
she comes from an affluent family and works at a well-known technology company. Yes, she personally intends to have a monogamous marriage — but quickly added that marriage shouldn’t have to be for everyone.

Well, IF you're RICH, AND you don't want OTHERS to Become RICH; you WOULD want to maintain that that traditional families are old-fashioned and society should “evolve” beyond them.

After all, It's Why YOU'RE RICH

Beasts of England said...

’You could ALMOST SAY, that "A southern man don't need him around anyhow".’

Well played!! And I’m fortunate to have know all the Swampers, but I was never in their league. :)

tim in vermont said...

Every singer who is any good, at least in rock, glides around the notes. Just like every rock guitarist uses bends. In fact, lack of bends and probably vibrato too, is maybe the defining characteristic of a poor to mediocre guitarist. You don’t like his voice, I do. I like Bob Dylan too, and if you listen to some of his early stuff, before he sort of full on adopted his style, he had a nice folk singery voice, but I like his stylized singing too. I also like Frank Sinatra, Willie Neslon is great, Jackson Brown, tons of singers.

mockturtle said...

The Saul Austerlitz article might have been fruitful in that we could, tangentially, discuss the battle of Austerlitz.

Ken B said...

New slogan: “Apophasis is better than nothing.”

walter said...

Neil and the Farm Aid crew will be at Alpine Valley 9/21.

tim in vermont said...

"Great idea for a blogge. "Things I'm not going to write about.”

"Compare with Garcia on "Pride of Cucamonga". It was the notes he elected to NOT play that to me made the solo."

Ken B said...

To those of you who prefer vinyl: you are wrong. Try Edison cylinders; they're so much warmer.

Tacitus said...

Of course it is a time of Slow News. This is what was once called "The Silly Season" when newspapers printed lightweight nonsense recognizing that many of their readers were on vacation physically and/or mentally. Interestingly in much of the world it is alternately called "The Cucumber Season", although locally the cukes are way past their prime.

TW

Maillard Reactionary said...

There's a special place in Hell for whoever told Neil Young that he could sing.

rightguy said...

Great stuff Laslo ! Another great one note solo is McCoy Tyner on My Favorite Things. A 6th sounds so cool in Dorian.

gilbar said...

it's TRUE! the world become detached from feelings, when they got rid of shellac for that no fangled vinyl

Anonymous said...

buwaya: Synopsis - St. Louis took in 70,000 Bosnian Muslim refugees, who succeeded in America. They are now fleeing for the suburbs.

According to the article, apparently because of some inexplicable lack of appreciation for the amenities of downtown living. Oh sure, yeah, the perception of danger from some nebulous class of criminals may have been a minor motivator for the exodus, but mainly, well...Bosniaks just aren't hip enough, I guess.

buwaya said...

Austerlitz is an excellent example of Napoleonic genius.
And so is the whole campaign of 1805. Or 1806. Or 1807. Or 1809. Or 1796-97, 1800, etc.

Which is a point often missed, too often.
It is usual to stress his defeat, or his defeats.
But its rare to even to try to understand why his defeats mattered.

Known Unknown said...

Way to blog about things you were not going to blog.

mockturtle said...

Buwaya, no one can [with any degree of honesty] deny that. That he was a military genius is beyond debate. Just as Hitler was a political genius. And, while I don't find either of them interesting, their strategies are worth studying.

Regarding Austerlitz, the Russian army was in disarray and just about as poorly led as an army could possibly be.

Charlie said...

Actual headline in today's Boston Globe: "President tweets doctored photo of Trump Tower looming over Greenland"

rhhardin said...

I don’t think Neil Young sings off pitch, but I don’t have perfect pitch,

Perfect pitch means you can identify what note something is without context, not that you can sing well.

Relative pitch identifies notes within whatever context they're in, and is all that's needed to play by ear.

Judy Collins (Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez) are among the singers who don't use vibrato, or don't use it much, so they're always singing the note they're supposed to be singing.

Opera singers exhibit what Hoffnung calls "wobble," where you can't even identify what note they're trying for, they put in so much vibrato. People without a musical ear seem to enjoy it and buy tickets.

Nonapod said...

I know a fair amount about the whole digital music audio quality arguments, audio sample rates, dynamic ranges ect.

In my opinion, even though I really like a lot of his music, Neil Young is an idiot and Pono was a very silly idea.

I could write a very detailed, long and boring post about it. But suffice to say the human capacity for discerning the differences between even 128kbps MP3 and an uncompressed, full range .wav or .flac or whatever is virtually non-existent to all but the most trained ears listening carefully. If you don't believe me, do a blind A/B test with the same song and see if you can pick which one is the mp3 and which one is uncompressed.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Every singer who is any good, at least in rock, glides around the notes.

True. Almost every good singer does this. In fact it sounds weird when someone does not and only hits the true note. Almost robotic. Lacking in warmth.

The gliding effect loses its charm when there is too much "gliding". Then you get the feeling that the singer is wandering or trying to tread water too hard.

Here is a very short list of current singers who have perfect pitch. Frank Sinatra is on it.

My brother who was a rock musician, guitar and piano has perfect pitch. We all tuned our guitars to the piano. When I was searching for chords that I wanted to use for a song or notes.....he could tell me from the other part of the house what key I was in and which notes to use. ("Try B-flat" Use an augmented 6th chord" Show off!!! ) I can get close....but not perfect.

wildswan said...

A person I know is putting out a book series called Very Young Catholics. So far Very Young Catholics in Milwaukee and Very Young Catholics in Togo are out. There will be one book for every 15 degrees of longitude. "From the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, let the name of the Lord be praised" is the idea. The Togo book is one of the most interesting books on Africa I've ever seen because it's just a quiet day in an African village. You can get them on Amazon and you can see me in the Milwaukee book - although maybe you can't see that it is me at 100 yards distance in the dusk walking down to Lake Michigan behind the kids. To me, it looks just like me and is one of the better pictures.

rehajm said...

Try Edison cylinders; they're so much warmer.

My latest nightmare is being stuck on an airplane with a vinyl and pot advocate.

Leslie Graves said...

I think the national and state press corps are taking their very last break before November 2020, here in the last couple of weeks before Labor Day.

Tuesday, September 3 is when sharp reporting will recommence. Right now they are dialing it in and pushing out somewhat lame human interest stories that have been sitting on their desks for awhile, like others might clear out their closets.

rehajm said...

It's good for you- and just look at the economic benefits!

rehajm said...

It just sounds better...

Drago said...

Leslie Graves: "I think the national and state press corps are taking their very last break before November 2020, here in the last couple of weeks before Labor Day."

This is why LLR Chuck is in such a funk.

He isn't getting enough lefty red meat lies from the MSM so he is having to wing it all by himself on a daily basis.

Hence his pathetic attempt to derail the Althouse thread on the NYT fully exposing their intent ("Russia Russia Russia!!!" to "Racism Racism Racism" to "White Supremacy" for the 2020 run up) just the other day and his attempt to inject a total non-story about Trump and Health care to paper over the dem candidates implosion are excellent examples of that.

buwaya said...

"My latest nightmare is being stuck on an airplane with a vinyl and pot advocate."

The discussion will end when I express my admiration for Youtube music over tablet speakers.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

"Youths" no doubt.

*Yoofs

chuck said...

Scott Adams calls this the Golden Age of no news. The downside is that there isn't anything to talk about.

Seeing Red said...

Paul Ryan is moving his family to the city he was always giddy to leave. The former speaker of the House and onetime GOP vice presidential nominee is leaving his longtime home of Janesville, Wis., and will rent a house in the Maryland suburbs of Washington. "Now in the private sector, Paul and his family are temporarily renting a house in Maryland, and he’ll be spending time there as well as their family home in Janesville," a Ryan aide told POLITICO

rhhardin said...

Vinyl has to get its sound from the RIAA curve, just as AM radio stations always had proprietary audio processing to make music sound better.

CD doesn't have RIAA and so has not been through the same audio processing in recording and playing. There must be thousands of differences, from harmonic phases to S/N.

buwaya said...

Vibrato

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sPjpt8V0kfU

Supervia, Carceleras

Nonapod said...

AAT said...
I don’t think Neil Young sings off pitch, but I don’t have perfect pitch, so maybe I’m wrong.


He's generally around the pitch, he glides around notes. It's his style. I suspect if you were to load one of his vocal tracks into Auto-Tune you'd find he'd waver a few cents around the note most of the time. He's not as bad as some. For example, Anthony Kiedis from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers is often noticably off.

rhhardin said...

Buwaya: that's more of an amplitude vibrato, not a frequency one. The pitch isn't much changed.

Beasts of England said...

’For example, Anthony Kiedis from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers is often noticably off.’

That’s because he lost his virginity to Cher... 😜

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

I gotta take credit for Kellyanne Conway calling Antifa "Anti-First Amendment", whether I deserve to or not.

doctrev said...

Damn, Drago. I too think that constant reminders about shills are excellent inoculation against their lies, but this is a 100+ comment thread and Chuck's nowhere to be seen. What do -you- think? Yes, there's an unprecedented array of idiocy and tyranny against the many sources of actual American news, but overall it's never been a healthier time to be on the hard right. Epstein's obvious murder vindicates us more or less completely, and watching morons claim that his suicide is as official and unquestionable as Barack Obama's birth certificate...

... mostly has us nodding along, to be honest. Muahahaha.

tim in vermont said...

We are down to de gustibus on Neil Young. I think its a style choice that could have been trained out of him if he didn’t like it. Listen to the vocals in Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young and ask yourselves why they put up with him if he was such a lousy singer, because they liked his lousy singing is one possible answer. The Roche Sisters seem to hit every note exactly, and it’s kind of cute, but cloying after a while.

I think he should keep his mouth shut on American politics but I am free not to listen, and when he is not in studio, I don’t care a hang for his opinion on anything else, but I respect him as an artist, it’s not easy to create good art.

tim in vermont said...

"People without a musical ear seem to enjoy it and buy tickets.”

Saying the things we are all thinking, but none dare utter.

Ray - SoCal said...

I find the ongoing war between Snopes and the Babylon Bee amusing.

My money is on the Bee...

Some Recent Headlines:

Under Mounting Pressure From Snopes, Babylon Bee Writers Forced To Admit They Are Not Real Journalists

Snopes Strikes Deal With Netflix To Provide On-Screen Fact Checks Of Fictional Shows, Movies

And Snopes retaliated with:

A tag on not real satire.

And quoted a problematic study on people believing satire is real.

Only in America!

Michael K said...

Which is a point often missed, too often.
It is usual to stress his defeat, or his defeats.


I am reading Chandler's "The Campaigns of Napoleon," one of the books I have in various rooms. It is a book I read on the patio outside and it has been too hot to continue. I'll resume next month.

Nonapod said...

Listen to the vocals in Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young and ask yourselves why they put up with him if he was such a lousy singer, because they liked his lousy singing is one possible answer.

You point out a interesting fact. In fairness to Neil Young's pitchiness, he did sing multi-part harmonies in Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. When you're singing harmonies, you have to be relatively in pitch or it'll sound dissonant and wrong. This suggests that Young is fully capable of quickly finding and holding a relative pitch when he needs to.

rightguy said...

Audiophiles claim analogue recordings are "warmer" than digital recordings. Warmth is a quality of music that I prize above all others. Yet I strongly prefer high quality digital recordings (no MP3's). I wonder if some people don't have a negative emotional response to having their favorite music reduced to zeros and ones.

Laslo Spatula said...

I did not take particularly great care of my vinyl LPs back in the day; it wouldn't take long for them to accumulate pops and scratches.

What I find mildly remarkable is that when I hear a 'clean' version of some of those songs, decades later, my memory fills in exactly where most of those scratches and pops were -- they are an ingrained part of my memory of the songs.

It also tells me I listened to 'Dark Side of the Moon' far too much.

I am Laslo.

First Tenor said...

The flipping stories meme reminds me of a riff a colleague and I used to do at a major wire service as we watched poorly written business headlines come through: The opposite of that headline would be news. Most business headlines are pure banal drivel and that banality can be extended to the realm of politics.

BTW, the top editors' desk pretty much hated us because we weren't exactly quiet when we made fun of them.

tim in vermont said...

Speaking of Napoleon, I am trying to get through War and Peace available on Amazon Prime, with Henry Fonda (who ruins this movie) and Audrey Hepburn (who is just OK but decorative) This time I fell asleep during an cavalry charge following an infantry charge that had been turned back. Dino De Laurentis sure knew how to put on a show, but I can’t make it through battle scenes without dozing off.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Experiencing Neil Young at the Hollywood Bowl several years ago, when he did a (mostly) solo acoustic set, and he sounded awesome accompanying himself on guitar or piano. One of my top ten favorite concerts, and I wasn’t even a Young fan at the time. He finished by bringing some friends out to do CSNY’s “Ohio” with Bruce Springsteen filling in for Graham Nash. Nice.

Nonapod said...

Audiophiles claim analogue recordings are "warmer" than digital recordings.

This is generally because analogue reduces the dynamic range, cutting off the harsher higher frequencies as well as some rumble in the lower frequencies. Ironically it sounds "warmer" because it's limited in that it's not a perfect representation of the full audible spectrum of human hearing.

Caligula said...

"Vinyl has to get its sound from the RIAA curve

It does? The RIAA equalization curve is applied to what goes on the record; then, the record playback equipment applies the inverse of this curve to what comes off the record. The expected result of RIAA plus (inverse RIAA) should be ... nothing at all.

Of course, this equalization is done with analog circuits, but, these circuits are not at all complex. If the result of applying inverse equalization to the equalization is not null it should be easy enough to quantify just what's different. Yet, somehow, no one seems to have done so.

There are certainly many compromises that go into capturing recorded sound on vinyl due to the limitations of the medium: there's the necessity for volume compression, the reduced fidelity in the inner grooves as opposed to the outer ones, there's the apparent inability of record makers to always get the hole right in the center, physical limitations in the cartridge and tonearm and on and on. Wouldn't it make more sense to look at these before looking at the equalization?


tcrosse said...

Speaking of Napoleon, I am trying to get through War and Peace available on Amazon Prime, with Henry Fonda (who ruins this movie)

A great moment in cinema is when Henry Fonda says, "Damn you, Napoleon! Damn you to Hell!" as Tom Joad.

rhhardin said...

The RIAA equalization curve is applied to what goes on the record; then, the record playback equipment applies the inverse of this curve to what comes off the record. The expected result of RIAA plus (inverse RIAA) should be ... nothing at all.

You can't invert it without violating causality. Which is to say that the harmonic phases will be wrong.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

A headline you won't see at NYT, WaPo(D) or any Hollywood-alphabet "news" outlet.

Federal Judge Orders FBI to Search for More Christopher Steele Docs

Ann Althouse said...

Nobody said that they too are gathering with other people to listen to records. Are we at Meadhouse the only ones?

William said...

I wonder who R. Kelly will endorse for President. Musicians have special insights into how to achieve harmony in our body politic, and I would be eager for his guidance in the current election. Phil Spector has been strangely mum lately. I wonder if someone has got to him.....There are plenty of hot button issues to wax wroth about: the firing of Pantaleo, April Ryan and her bodyguard. What does the first amendment mean if reporters are not allowed to have bodyguards and those bodyguards are not allowed to body slam people who report on reporters.....But anyway it's August and who wants to wax wroth.

mockturtle said...

AAT, just read the book. The movie, as is usually the case, isn't worth bothering with, IMO.

Nonapod said...

I should clarify that I was referring to listening to recordings on traditioanl analogue media, specifically things like vinyl and cassette tapes. The actual recording of things with analogue equipment like Otari Reel-to-Reel and Neve consoles or whatever is pretty lossless in terms of frequencies.

eric said...

The biggest thing I'm seeing today in Christian circles is the defunding of planned Parenthood.

The love we Christians have for Trump just got turned up to 11.

mockturtle said...

Tcrosse recalls: A great moment in cinema is when Henry Fonda says, "Damn you, Napoleon! Damn you to Hell!" as Tom Joad.

And when he mows down an entire family in cold blood as Frank.

ga6 said...

Paul is leaving the people he screwed over six ways from Sunday...

gilbar said...

Phil Spector had it right: Back to Mono!
GOD Intended music to heard through one 8 inch speaker, powered by a Delco radio, inside a 1964 Chevy Impala

AZ Bob said...

He (Neil Young) finished by bringing some friends out to do CSNY’s “Ohio” with Bruce Springsteen filling in for Graham Nash.

More likely he filled in for Stephen Stills.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I sold some records and gave the rest away to a friend who has a turn-table.
I kept one.


Beasts of England said...

’Audiophiles claim analogue recordings are "warmer" than digital recordings.’

It is true - sound is analog, not digital. And nothing beats tape. :)

William said...

Jefferson takes a certain amount of heat for owning slaves and maybe having sex with some of them, but Napoleon has a far worse record when it comes to slavery. He sent an army of 25,000 to reinstate slavery in Haiti. The family of his wife Josephine owned the largest sugar cane plantations in the West Indies. Sugar cane plantations were death factories. A North American slave lived out his natural life. Slaves in sugar fields lasted about seven years. When Napoleon went to Egypt it never occurred to him to free the slaves there. He didn't free the serfs in Russia either.....The awful thing about Napoleon is not that he was so awful but that so many people of his era found him to be an inspirational figure. He was closer to a proto-fascist than to a neo-Charlemagne.

Maillard Reactionary said...

My objection to Neil Young is not his intonation, but the high-pitched nasal whine.

Traditional Asian singing styles (one usually hears females) are also particularly grating to my ear.

I agree with those who feel that Western opera singers often overdo it on the vibrato. Some vibrato, rubato, etc., is part of the art of course, but I think it works better when it doesn't call attention to itself.

Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice was on the radio a few weeks ago and was performed in a period-appropriate understated style. I'm not the world's biggest opera fan but it grabbed me right away. Way to go Gluck.

But, de gustibus, as they say.

Aside from the RIAA equalization curve (used as I recall to compensate for the frequency-dependent response of magnetic phono cartridges), are not LP's also rolled off below 60 Hz, and compressed to some extent due to limitations of the medium?

I have both LP and CD versions of many pieces and I can immediately tell the difference. I greatly prefer CDs, although some early ones could sound harsh, before they started to use oversampling to simplify the filter design.

I don't listen to much MP3 music but I wonder how well the lossy compression would hold up with an orchestra in full roar.

narciso said...

Everything you dont like is white suprenacy

https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/white-supremacy-culture-characteristics.html

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I have a thumb drive in my car loaded with music. I am amazed.
My ears are shot after years of turning up the volume and other abuses.
I arrive with a cosmic alien dump truck revving in my head.

I'm finding my horrible taste in music changing to more subtle textures.

Mandolin Orange.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

oh yeah - white supremacy is everywhere now. Under ever bed, right there crammed in next to the Russian Oligarchs.

eric said...

Blogger Ann Althouse said...
Nobody said that they too are gathering with other people to listen to records. Are we at Meadhouse the only ones?

8/20/19, 10:10 AM


My daughter, who is a college student, just bought a record player.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I'm afraid that my LP collection is not in the best of shape. (129 records not counting the double albums...I listed them in a data base one day out of boredom and curiosity) Many of the records were greatly appreciated (used a lot) at parties in the 60's and 70's when I lived in SF. Scratches and pops galore, I'm quite sure, on the popular records.

I do have a very nice turn table that was given to me by a client, but none of the other items to make actual sound. Like a good receiver and speakers. It would be nice to listen to some of those records again, particularly the rarer music or relatively unknown artists. Some of the records are "promotional" records obtained from a friend who worked as a DJ at a radio station in the 60's.

Maybe someday.

chuck said...

> Sugar cane plantations were death factories. A North American slave lived out his natural life. Slaves in sugar fields lasted about seven years.

Among other things, malaria species varied from region to region and when people moved to a new region they were more susceptible. That affected both slaves and European immigrants.

Maillard Reactionary said...

AA said: "Nobody said that they too are gathering with other people to listen to records. Are we at Meadhouse the only ones?"

We used to do that all the time back in the 70s and 80s. (Drugs were usually not involved.) But time passes, musical tastes change, there are children, and life goes on.

It may be because I don't use music as sonic wallpaper. When I listen to a piece, I listen to it, the way you watch a movie. You can't really hold a conversation at the same time, and people who want to end up disappointed.

I do have one fellow I've kept up with who is a great classical music fan (he used to play the violin, married a professional singer, and has a daughter who's in music school). We could certainly spend evenings discussing various performances of Bach, Mahler, and Schubert, but he travels a lot and lives in another state. So it's usually just me and the CD player.

Fernandinande said...

If you like your analog recordings, warm or otherwise, including vinyl, you can digitize those recordings @44.1kHz with any normal computer built in the last 10 years and completely preserve all the characteristics that you can hear, indistinguishable from the original.

My favorite quote about music -

"My favorite phrase about this style of playing [open G] is that all you need to play it is five strings, three notes, two fingers and one asshole." -- Keef.

mockturtle said...

It may be because I don't use music as sonic wallpaper. When I listen to a piece, I listen to it, the way you watch a movie. You can't really hold a conversation at the same time, and people who want to end up disappointed.

I'm the same way with music. When I listen to it I'm totally involved.

mockturtle said...

My objection to Neil Young is not his intonation, but the high-pitched nasal whine.

Yes. I much prefer John Fogerty's growl.

Nonapod said...

Phidippus said...It may be because I don't use music as sonic wallpaper. When I listen to a piece, I listen to it, the way you watch a movie. You can't really hold a conversation at the same time, and people who want to end up disappointed.

I've do quite a bit of both, listening to music as background or listening as an exclusive activity. A lot of it depends on the music itself. There's music that's relatively light and straightforward that can be consumed without much investment of attention. And then there's some music that's so intricate and layered that it demands your full attention to fully understand it and appreciate it.

Tommy Duncan said...

" Sugar cane plantations were death factories. A North American slave lived out his natural life. Slaves in sugar fields lasted about seven years."

Forced labor workers in German camps like Dachau were lucky to last a few months. Many were killed when they got off the train (assuming they arrived alive). Others were starved and worked to death. My family name is represented (as German forced labor) in the Dachau records. When do I get my reparations?

Laslo Spatula said...

You could make the argument that the analog-to-digital change in recorded music had a greater impact on how the music was made, rather than to how it was heard.

In the Neil Young / Bob Dylan days you would often hear a recording of a band playing through a song in its entirety. It sounds easier than it is, as far as getting a quality recording — hence the proliferation of session musicians through the 50s and 60s, where bands were deemed not proficient enough to play their own songs for a recording (McGuinn was the only Byrd allowed on one Byrds’ recording, for example).

Neil Young in particular was about the feel of a take: he didn’t mind mistakes, if the overall feel was good.

Sure, you had multitrack analog, and there was always studio magic (Beatles as an obvious example) and perfectionist solo takes (Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, etc) — but typically the basic tracks of songs were played front-to-back by the performers, in real time.

With digital, many bands record a good bar or two, then loop. Mistakes are removed, parts are programmed, things are stretched and tweaked and quantized. EQ is filled because you can fit frequencies like a jigsaw puzzle, dynamics are pushed because you can.

In some ways, many musicians today are more akin to DJs, physically playing a ‘sample’ on an instrument; the band is not much different than the old American Bandstand ‘performances’ where the members would mime to the recording (which would fade out on-camera, leaving the players to figure out how to mime THAT).

I’m not arguing + or -, just pointing out it affects input as much as output.

I am Laslo.

n.n said...

She's right, diversity breeds adversity. Don't indulge color judgments, including race and other low information attributes. #PrinciplesMatter #HateLovesAbortion

buwaya said...

"Napoleon has a far worse record when it comes to slavery. He sent an army of 25,000 to reinstate slavery in Haiti. "

Yes he did. And besides that he took that opportunity to rid himself of some inconvenient people. Two (or many thousands) of birds with one stone.

http://www.soldiers-of-misfortune.com/history/polish-legion-haiti.htm

Ice Nine said...

>>Blogger buwaya said...
Vibrato
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sPjpt8V0kfU
Supervia, Carceleras<<

God, that is unreal. I just listened to it three times. Where has she been all my life!

SeanF said...

Dust Bunny Queen: Here is a very short list of current singers who have perfect pitch. Frank Sinatra is on it.

Ol' Blue Eyes is a "current" singer?

I just went to the link - seven people, and only one of them (Mariah Carey) is "currently" a singer. The other six are all dead.

gilbar said...

the RIAA equalization curve

before laying the track...
lowered the bass end, so the groove wasn't too wide
boosted the high end

while playing back...
boosted the bass end (back to where it should be)
lowered the high, back (back to where it should be), which reduces the hiss of the vinyl

I hadn't thought about overtones and harmonics and such; i'd always thought that what when in would sound like what came out (with a low level of hiss)... But some bent and un bent is NEVER really straight again; i could see that affecting the sound.

OF COURSE; once you take your vinyl,tape,CD,mp3, etc; and play it through a proper 60w tube amp (and an old pair of Cerwin-Vegas ), it's ALL going to sound great (or, at least it's going to sound LOUD)

Beasts of England said...

’If you like your analog recordings, warm or otherwise...’

I understand your point, and I’d agree that it’s true for about 95% of listeners. Even with my background, I listen to almost all of my music via Spotify (premium) and it’s more than fine.

Skippy Tisdale said...

"and yet it's difficult to come up with a place worth traveling to."

Grand Isle, LA

Skippy Tisdale said...

"Gene Robinson has never written something sharp his entire career."

This reminds me that years ago, I got a letter published in the WaPo calling him out as a racist. He had written a column that said troubled, black, inner-city boys needed black males as mentors. I'm white and at the time was working with troubled, black, inner-city boys and they didn't give a rat's aft about my skin color. Racist bastard.

buwaya said...

"God, that is unreal. I just listened to it three times. Where has she been all my life!"

I don't know if you like the piece or the singer.
That vibrato style of Supervia's was fairly common in her day and earlier, but she was exceptional at it. These days it can be considered as something of an acquired taste.

The piece is a classic selection from the world of Spanish zarzuela. Its fairly commonly presented these days as an art song, in operatic concerts. You will find many recordings by big names. Stylistically they vary of course.

Angel Blue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZEdVVEfV9E

Elina Garanca
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kjafVENwZ0

Chris M said...

According to the tours in Martinique, Napoleon was even worse as slavery had been ended on Martinique but Napoleon reinstated it after marrying his Josephine. There is statue in the harbor area of Josephine that the locals will cut the head off and smear red paint on the body and then the head will be found and replaced to continue the tradition of demonstrating the hatred of Josephine from her home.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"Actual headline in today's Boston Globe: "President tweets doctored photo of Trump Tower looming over Greenland""

Those whom Trump would destroy, he first drives fucking batshit insane.

Sigivald said...

Except - maybe - Austerlitz, these people are all idiots. Milbank has always been one, no?

(Neil Young should stick to music creation, and that, really only with Crazy Horse.

His stupid "Pono" FLAC service was the dismal failure it deserved to be; he never understood any of the technical details, I can only assume. [Shannon-Nyquist, Neil.]

I suspect his hearing is so damaged from performing that he can't even tell, anymore.

If he wants to save music, he should convince producers and labels to not overcompress*, and to master better.

* Sound level compression, not digital size compression.)

Dave in Tucson said...

YouTube is enabling me to explore a lot of music I probably never would without it. Artists like Art Blakey and Lester young would likely be lost to me without YouTube.

As for the quality of it: I pretty much always listen to music through a pair of $25 Bluetooth headphones or a pair of grocery store desktop speakers. It may not be the best dynamic range, but it's at least passable to my (admittedly not very discerning) ears.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

SeanF Ol' Blue Eyes is a "current" singer?

Within living memory then. My life. Maybe not yours :-D

Marc in Eugene said...

David Samuels, in the Neil Young article, mentions using a DAC. You lot seem to know what you're talking about: anyone want to explain to me why I would want to use a DAC? (There seems to be some association of headphones and DACs: am not interested in headphones at all.) When not playing CDs, I use the laptop to stream via Spotify (or via Primephonic or Idagio, and, yes, the difference is discernible) with a Bose speaker.

I thought that Samuels did a great job putting crazy old man Neil into a sympathetic context, describing the children's neurological challenges (not that I know anything about such things, 'neuroplasticity' etc etc).

Clyde said...

Althouse said...
Who cares how Milbank hits a softball?


Like everyone else in the media lineup, he bats left.

Beasts of England said...

’If he wants to save music, he should convince producers and labels to not overcompress, and to master better.’

I understand the basis for compression / limiting in the mastering process - releasing the final product so it sounds decent across a wide variety of broadcast and reproduction platforms - but it’s painful to my ears. Music needs to bloom in its natural fashion, and compression destroys that almost completely.

Fernandinande said...

I understand your point, and I’d agree that it’s true for about 95% of listeners.

No, I mean it's a fact for 100% of everybody. You can capture all the sound of a tape or a record with 44.1kHz/16bit digitizing and nobody can hear the difference between the original and the digitized version; you don't even need fancy equipment, just a decent consumer computer.

anyone want to explain to me why I would want to use a DAC?

DAC = Digital to Analog Converter. It converts a stream of numbers into a analog voltage that varies over time. You would want to use a DAC if you want to hear audio from a digital source, like a computer file of whatever format. The sound card on your computer has a DAC, and expensive aftermarket DACs are a scam.

tim in vermont said...

"but it’s painful to my ears.”

For a short time I was driving a 2018 Camry with the base stereo, I drove in silence rather than listen to Spotify though BT from an iPhone seven. It drove me back to my Samsung phone for a while. It was like the music was played on toy pianos and rusty saws. Or the “World’s Tiniest Amp” setting in GarageBand.

tim in vermont said...

Some DACs are better than others, as my iPhone 7 showed me compared to my Galaxy. I did a little research and it seemed like Apple was in a lawsuit with the makers of the Codec that did a decent job. When I connected my Bose earphones, Bose demanded that it’s own drivers be installed. They sounded fine.

Beasts of England said...

’No, I mean it's a fact for 100% of everybody.’

Have you ever listened to music on 2” tape in a studio?

Marc in Eugene said...

Thanks for the DAC comments. I guess I ought to do some research; it never occurred to me that there has to be a DAC of some sort already in the laptops.

rcocean said...

Eugene Robinson comes with an automatic "Boring" tag.

Maillard Reactionary said...

SeanF said: "Ol' Blue Eyes is a "current" singer?"

In the sense that his artistry is timeless, yes, he is.

Since musical performance, as an art in itself, cannot be notated and passed down, we need recordings for this.

It is a pity that we have no recordings of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, or Chopin to refer to, but we do have their written music and a tradition of musical education to pass it on. And we are the richer for that.

For Frank, (and the bands!) we have the recordings, and we are the richer for them.

Let us now praise Tom Edison and Claude Shannon, and those in between and thereafter.

Bunkypotatohead said...

Some day there will be no president Trump. The WP and NYT will have nothing to write about. A thousand bloggers will have nothing to blog about.
I'm looking forward to the "silence", though I'll miss the man.

readering said...

More evidence that Potus is a nut case. Blames Greenland issue for his canceling his trip to Denmark right after saying his scheduled trip to Denmark had nothing to do with Greenland.

readering said...

Old Blue Eyes is not a current singer. But he remains my favorite.

readering said...

I'll skip the evidence from the conflicting statements on payroll taxes (represent the incompetence of his staff, not necessarily him) and from the conflicting financial statements for his Scottish properties (represent his casual criminality).

tim in vermont said...

"Have you ever listened to music on 2” tape in a studio?”

Through tens of thousands of dollars worth of sound gear?

tim in vermont said...

""Compare with Garcia on "Pride of Cucamonga". It was the notes he elected to NOT play that to me made the solo.”

I tried to listen to that song today, the notes he elected not to play were the good notes, I guess. OMG what a train wreck.

Drago said...

readering: "More evidence that Potus is a nut case."

LOL

How about "Israel is not a US ally" or "Israel is not a democracy" or "RFK and MLK were assassinated in the late 1970's"......

Too funny.

This is literally all the lefties and LLR-lefties have left.

So. Much. Winning.

Drago said...

How about "The Soviet Union only invaded Poland from the East because Hitler invaded Poland from the West"!!

Cuckoo...cuckoo...cuckoo.....

readering said...

Hi Drago.

readering said...

How about Jews who vote for Democrats are disloyal.

Drago said...

readering: "How about Jews who vote for Democrats are disloyal."

Unquestionably true, given the democrats (like Labour in Britain) clear anti-semitism problem and alignment (thru their most radical members whom all of the dems support) with actual islamic terrorist groups who are pledged to the destruction of Israel.

Drago said...

But hey, someone like readering who has spent 3 years pushing a now fully exposed lefty hoax lie about half the country being traitors with Russia would like to assume the Inga Memorial Chair For Absolute Moral Authority to deny the obvious.

Its a bold move Cotton. Lets see if it pays off for them.....

Donna B. said...

A few years ago, Neil Young was not an artist I sought out, but occasionally would notice something and think "oh, that's nice". And then a relative bought a Pono. We were in my 2010 Corolla with factory speakers and she made me listen to everything she'd downloaded and it was all Neil Young this and Neil Young that for 200 miles. Now I hate him and his music. Also not as fond of my relative as I once was.

Shawn Levasseur said...

Re: Item #5.

Given Betteridge's Law of Headlines, the answer is "No."

Early low bitrate user-ripped mp3's could be pretty bad. But with the ultra-high bitrate nonsense Young is pushing is overkill, beyond what even the most sensitive human ear can discern. Never mind the real-world conditions we listen in pose a greater impediment to audio quality than recording formats.