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Dave Garrett

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  1. Not the same as seeing it in person, of course, but PBS aired it last month as part of the "Great Performances at the Met" series. I was only able to watch a few minutes of it at the time and figured I'd catch it when it reaired, but so far there's no indication of that happening. Wish I'd DVRed it, but I didn't know it was going to be on until I stumbled across it by chance.
  2. I only have the Ellington, and wasn't sure until now how many had been released. Might have to track down some of the others, since they appear to be available at bargain prices.
  3. You're probably already aware of this, but Bear Family will remove the VAT for international customers who are not subject to it if you ask them to do so. It's been quite a while since I ordered directly from them, and I'd forgotten about this until recently when someone on the Hoffman board mentioned it.
  4. That's certainly true of current and relatively recent Toyotas (and many other makes as well), but not as much when it comes to 20+ year old ones. The latter-day move away from standard, unadorned DIN car stereo bays to oddly-shaped dashboard trim that discourages you from installing a non-factory head unit unless you want it to look like crap is inexcusable. For what it's worth, I drive a 25-year-old Honda, and although it still has the factory stereo in it, the car that preceded it was an identical model, and I had no trouble getting a new deck like the one pictured upthread installed in that one. I used to stream music from my phone to it using either Bluetooth or a direct USB connection.
  5. I can't remember the last time I watched an F1 race live. I DVR them and usually watch later that evening, and try to avoid motorsport news articles until I've watched that week's race. Although there's not much in the way of suspense these days, given Verstappen's dominance. Verstappen is clearly an elite driver, but he also has the undeniable advantage of having the best car, and it's not even close. Put Hamilton in a Red Bull, and I have no doubt the two of them would run away from everyone else while fighting among themselves tooth and nail, the way Senna and Prost did in the 80s when they were both driving for McLaren. Some of the other constructors have made midseason improvements to their cars that have narrowed the gap somewhat, but it'll be interesting next season to see if Red Bull continues to have the best car or if Mercedes/McLaren/Ferrari manage to improve enough to actually compete for wins on a weekly basis.
  6. Yep. I can't believe anyone still does that, but they do. Along similar lines: people who treat Springsteen's "Born in the USA" as if it were some sort of hyperpatriotic anthem, when it's anything but. Guess no one actually listens to lyrics anymore, beyond a catchphrase or a chorus that can be taken wildly out of context.
  7. Not according to Ken Rosenthal, at least as of a few hours ago. They certainly have more to offer in terms of prospects than the Astros, but given that Verlander has the final say over any potential trade destination, I'd have to think he'd be more inclined to return to the Astros than make a move to LA. Assuming the Mets actually decide to pull the trigger on a trade, anyway, which is far from a foregone conclusion.
  8. Definitely. If you can get a ticket, anyway - from what I've been hearing, most of the 70mm IMAX screenings are already sold out well into August, if not later. Given the very limited number of theaters that can screen that format, there are people that are traveling considerable distances to be able to see it in one of them.
  9. If you change your mind, don't go too far out of your way to see an IMAX screening unless it's actual IMAX 70mm - the regular "IMAX" screenings are digital and don't even have the resolution of regular 35mm film. The best summary I've seen of the confusing array of screening options that are available is the "Film Formats" illustration a little ways down the page in this article: Only 19 U.S. theaters will show ‘Oppenheimer’ in 70mm Imax.
  10. There are already plenty of electric motorcycles out there, as opposed to e-bikes (pedal-operated bicycles with an electric assist). It's definitely a growing market. A few examples: https://www.topgear.com/car-news/electric/best-electric-motorbikes
  11. Not sure if it's the same one you're referring to, but a Hoffman poster has a site that not only documents the missing tracks but also has links to FLAC downloads of them. Not going to post the link here for obvious reasons, but if you Google "missing bennett tracks blogger" it's pretty easily found.
  12. My engagement with Twitter has lessened significantly since Elon bought it, but probably not for the same reasons most other people cite. I have long found the official Twitter app to be hot garbage, and had been using the far superior third-party iOS apps Twitterrific and Tweetbot for over ten years. A few months ago, Elon cut off third-party developer access to Twitter's API without any warning, meaning all the third-party apps suddenly stopped working. I tried using the official app for a while before giving up, and now when I do look at Twitter, it's either via the website on a computer or not at all. I never used the algorithmic feed, and have always preferred the chronological feed, which in concert with the now-defunct apps allowed a much better degree of control over what you wanted (or didn't want) to see in your feed. Reddit has also limited API access recently, announcing they would start to charge huge access fees that most developers won't be able to pay, so the most popular third-party app, Apollo, went dark a week or two ago. They are preparing for an IPO, so I expect other changes to follow which will be in the best interests of the investors and not the users. Facebook I have long regarded as a necessary evil, as it's the only social network that many longtime friends and acquaintances use. I've never had an Instagram account and don't intend to start now, so I won't be on Threads. Mastodon seems to be the most promising, but as others have pointed out it has a long way to go to reach any sort of critical mass. Decentralized networks like Mastodon, and Usenet long before it, are a far better option than the walled gardens that practically every VC-funded/publicly-traded social network has implemented. The walled gardens' only interest is in mining user data and monetizing it, and that means engineering their sites and apps to keep users' eyeballs on them for as many waking hours as they can. Why this is a bad thing should be fairly obvious.
  13. Peach pits contain a chemical that is converted to cyanide when it's digested. A single one probably isn't enough to poison you, but I'm not sure I'd press my luck much further than that. I can't think about peach pits without remembering the old saying "shaking like a dog shitting peach pits".
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