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struggled a bit with this episode
I knew the showdown was coming, and it had to be Sunday, but I find it much harder to write these dramatic episodes than the lighter, more humorous ones. Then I'm pretty much like that with real life too :)
Of course it wasn't helped by the new Stone Gods LP, which demands listening to at high volume, frequent breaks to turn it over and some shameless air guitar and throwing shapes all around the living room... hopefully the neighbours didn't see, they've never recovered from witnessing my 'TNT dance'.
LP?
That's a bit 20th Century, isn't it? I didn't even know LPs were still being made! :-)
KJT
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
Still made for we Luddites
LPs did go out of production for a while in the early nineties, but most major label releases are available on vinyl again... it's better quality than the old days, heavy gauge virgin vinyl that can't be bent like those of the eighties did. I love my hi-fi (I've lavished the money and time on it that most people reserve for their cars), it's a butt ugly collection of black boxes, on top of which sits my turntable like a queen (and I her lady in waiting).
It does surprise people that I still listen to records, last year the geeks in work were comparing storage capacities for music, there were all types of gigs and such being waved about... they asked me, and my answer of 'about fourteen feet' caused some confusion :)
A lot of fuss
Is made over the quality of LPs vs. CDs. When they first came out, the good CDs were breathtaking in their clarity compared to the same album on vinyl; however these days I've read that CD's are being mixed down to MP3 quality, the sound compressed and boosted as badly as any early FM radio station.
I used to buy a select few albums from a company that made their own from the original master tapes, like the ones you mention they were made out of high-quality vinyl, nice and thick like in the older late Sixties, early Seventies LPs. They went out of business some years back, and I wasn't aware of anybody else making them now.
That said, 90% of the music being played is crap (9/10th's of anything is crap), so it doesn't really matter how it is being recorded or played back. And 90% of what is left doesn't need (or deserve) the extra fine reproduction, IMHO.
I used to have a stereo like that, but it has been gathering dust for years. For casual listening I just don't need it, and that's all I have time for anymore.
KJT
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
the joy of decks
What I love about vinyl is that you can tune a turntable to personal taste in a way that's just not possible with digital formats... it takes a lot of time, and isn't something you can pick up (no pun intended) straight away, but I love things like that... my darkroom practice is even more arcane.
I can't comment on modern music to any great extent (except that Scouting For Girls should never be allowed to make another record), the only new stuff I buy is from bands like Wolfmother, Stone Gods, Rose Hill Drive, Airbourne - young bands who take their inspiration from old rock bands - 'retro rock' is the new 'trad jazz' :)
I bought a remastered CD compilation of Sinatra's Capitol records from the Fifties, and compared to the original vinyl albums (now too precious to play often) they're dreadful. The old vinyl recordings reproduce a fantastic sound stage where you can pick out the sections of the orchestra, as well as Francis Albert; the remastered CD just clumps everything into the middle - great if your speakers are a few inches apart, but awful when they're six feet apart. It was the most expensive drinks coaster I ever bought :)
Cluttering my workshop/study right now ...
... and for some time is an oak cabinet dad had made to hold his Quad amplifier, tuner and pre-amp; it has a Thorens TD150 turntable. It's mono because the old bugger was deaf in one ear and didn't see the point of stereo. He was obsessed with HiFi since the 30s when it was the esoteric pastime of what we would now call geeks. I'm a solid state person myself even though I cut my electronic teeth on thermionic valves ('tubes' in $) but those KT66s are quite impressive beasts.
I'm afraid rock and pop music does nothing at all for me so my music collection is mostly Schubert, Schumann, and Mahler et al and so-called classical CDs aren't usually dynamically compressed quite so much, if at all. I appreciate the better signal to noise ratio of digital recordings because there's a lot of quiet passages in my music that are spoilt if they aren't.
Digital signal processing is very powerful. It was when I was still working and it must have improved greatly in the last 12 years. Fast fourier transforms rule OK! :)
btw what has this to do with Ceri's serial? lol Thanks for it anyway and I'm delighted you're back in good enough health to continue it.
Geoff
Ceri's serial
"btw what has this to do with Ceri's serial?"
Got people talking, didn't it? ;-)
KJT
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
Looked on Amazon UK
Edited: Ceri beat me to the response.
Stone Gods, "Silver Spoons and Broken Bones" is available on vinyl as well as CD. The reviews are very positive. So, it's possible that Ceri's reference is accurate.
Didn't doubt her
No reason why she would mislead us. I've never heard of this group, so I can't render an opinion on the quality of their music.
The whole LP/CD/MP3 debate borders on the same fringe level where you have people debating rollover points, tube vs transistor amps, and the whole "oxygen-free" mega-sized cable nonsense. At my age, my hearing is simply not good enough to detect the real differences in the various formats, and I'm not self-deluded enough to think I can hear the imaginary differences.
Most music marketed today, IMHO, doesn't need archival-quality reproduction, so I see no need to pay for it. ;-)
KJT
My original comment was simply intended as a gentle tease, things are slow today and I thought I'd see if anybody was awake. ;-)
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
dodgy analogy coming up
For me buying an album on vinyl is something like buying the hardcover edition of a book when the paperback is also available... the contents are the same, but there's just something so pleasing about a hardcover, even if it's a bit less convenient to read.
As showdowns go...
... it didn't end so badly. At least Stevie not alone and suicidal.
It was a nice chapter, full of venom, vulnerability, and kindness.
And no story can be laughs all the way... we need a good cry to relieve the tension.
Kaleigh
Having only 8 CD players
in the house, having virtually given away my Rega P3/Shure combo when I moved North, and being what most people would refer to as 'older than granny' I don't think there's a contest here. And if an author tells me something, and it sounds plausible, then I'll probably believe it. I do know that vinyl is making a comeback but I don't know how much and for how long.
Back to the story. I'm still trying to work out if Penny wants an instant daughter or a lover. We know from previous that Stevie is a teenager and that Penny is in her thirties so either is still possible.
And I like the story reminder that fathers don't have a monopoly on non-acceptance of transpeople.
Susie
Severe A.D.D.
That's what most of you lot have got. You've presumably just read a most absorbing chapter of this marvellous soap opera in which Stevie's mum blew a gasket and Stevie is on the cusp of a epiphany and what are you doing? You're wittering on about vinyl versus CD!! This is just SOOO BC:-
"Isn't it a lovely day?"
"Superman was born on Krypton."
"The slithy toves did gyre and gimble..."
I love you all,
Joanne
See above
Subject: "Ceri's Serial"
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
At the risk...
of being hoisted on my petard for being on topic (Ceri's excellent soap-serial), this was an excellent chapter and a nice set of cliffhangers, too.
We have Stevie's mom well off the deep end, and Stevie's father acting way too reasonable. Is it to much to hope that he and "uncle Bob" can talk mom of the ledge, or is it better to let her jump?
The Stevie/Penny relationship is warming up, and I am pleased that Ceri is no longer channeling Tern and Ford. Stevie's a girl (quelle surprise), but maybe not ready for Penny's charms?
The little bit about the wonderful Frank thinking about some matchmaking was a really neat twist. Trying to picture Stevie as a gay Marine Officer's wife...hmmm.
Mommy Dearest
JEEZ! How'd I almost miss this chapter?? I started to read #16, and it said something about a row between Penny & Stevie's mom. Well that did not sound familiar at all. I remembered all the stuff about CD and record players, but somehow I missed the story chapter itself .......... What a conflagration! This kind of hysterical refusal to even listen to anything but the gibberish generated inside her own head really hit home for me.
My own mother is 6 years dead and I still don't have much good feelings or kind thoughts about her.
Hell of a thing to admit but it's true. Anyway this was a good chapter. A heavy scene well told...
~~~hugs, Laika
for the axe had convinced them that because his handle
was made of wood he was one of them.