Stefan Wood

Been trying to sell my Mangelsdorff vol 2 box and live sets for some time now.

There are a couple of sources to check out for restoring the Thorens. There is a guy from Pittsburgh who restored my Thorens 160 who is considered an excellent repair guy -- his name is Spiros. I can send you his email address. He will even upgrade the power cord and rca links, as well as calibrate and lube the turntable. He can also restore the plinth as well. There is also a guy who restores Thorens and AR tables -- he has a web address, I think it is Audio Restorations, but you can google AR restorations and the page will pop up. Be prepared to spend $250 minimum for a basic restore. You can repair the surrounds to the speakers yourself. Orange County Speakers has a web site, and provide surrounds for every imaginable model. The instructions are easy to follow.

Bummer... still looking forward to hearing it, will probably benefit from the slightly lowered expectations (although, having said that, i wasn't expecting a mind blower, but still). I heard the group, it's fantastic. I haven't heard the record, but I expect it to be be just as good. Not just being a fanboy, or if I am, its OK, because it seems justified here. Nothing wrong with being a fanboy, and I like all the artists involved in this group. There are some great tracks, but again, there are some fair to middling as well. It just feels like there's a limited bag of tricks that they play here, whether by design or otherwise. Like they are being challenged and can only give one kind of answer. I was disappointed, given the expectations. I wouldn't be surprised if they kill it live.

DC teams doing what they do best in the post season. Fail.

It's an understandable problem. But as you said, you gotta prioritize. And the constant stream of new releases isn't going to stop -- what is important is that you should not feel that you have to keep up. Let that go, and focus on the few key titles that the most interesting to you. BTW, the Halvorson is not bad, but not great, either.

The Creative Studio set is fantastic, highly recommended. Sound quality is variable, but not the music.

This may be the one Mosaic box I will want to buy in a long time.

What a horrible game last night. In less than a week, the Redskins have gone from improved and competitive to inept basement dwellers. Again.

The Eddie Cano P.J.'s is a fantastic latin party album.

They remastered this again????

What a tough, nasty, physical game in Eagles vs Redskins. I thought Washington had a chance, but there was some bad play calling and a missed FG that prevented overtime. Well played by Foles and Philly.

:tup :tup

Yes, it is worth buying.

Believe me, it was shown many times here in DC. Just bad luck.

Redskins pasting the Jaguars. RG3 hurt, on a mysterious ankle injury where no one touched him. We got a QB controversy here, with Cousins looking great.

Rice's indifference doesn't add to the scene. He knocked her cold. He may have not have been indifferent - but stunned that he had struck her. We don't know. The fact that we see it shouldn't produce this manic outrage. Apparently the NFL did have the video back in April, independent of the police, through murky means, but this has yet to be substantiated.

I'll get Starless, but hopefully much lower than that listed price. Yikes!!

The law enforcement official, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, says he had no further communication with any NFL employee and can't confirm anyone watched the video. The person said they were unauthorized to release the video but shared it unsolicited, because they wanted the NFL to have it before deciding on Rice's punishment. Yup, he's in trouble. And what about this NFL executive? Should this person be in trouble as well, for not informing the commissioner? At the very least the executive has contradicted Goodell's assertion that no one in the league has seen the video.

Yes, I am Captain Obvious. And you are General Instigator, as well as The Man Who Has to Have the Last Word. Always. Can't help yourself.

Espn, etc manufactured the outrage. NFL and the Ravens made fumbling attempts to cover their behinds, exacerbating it even more. And the Ravens press conference was strange. They knew the issue was going to be addressed, yet they let their head coach go out on the front line and deal with it instead of the GM.

The Giants were awful last night.

No, they don't. Unless it was leaked. All security video taken is off limits to anyone who does not possess a subpoena, unless the owner grants them access to it. I don't give two shits who you send to retrieve it. Look, I work for a local drug rehab unit. We have cameras in our parking lots, and at least every other month the local Sheriff's department will come to us wanting to see video. They are politely shown the door. Keep in mind, these are sworn officers of the law, and legal authority. They possess the legal authority to arrest people for obstruction. And we send them on their way if they don't possess a subpoena. You know how loud we're going to laugh when someone shows up saying, "I'm from the NFL?!" If Rice had beaten his girlfriend in our parking lot, the NFL would have had zero access the video confirming it. Zero. OK, this explains some: http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11493042/nfl-never-asked-casino-video-ray-rice-elevator-incident The NFL has shown to be a strange place with regards to management/employee relations. They show amazing diligence on finding out every nugget of information on a player before they even come into the league; they also quietly fix situational problems when players get into trouble. That they chose to turn a blind eye on this is damning to them.

When you say "due diligence", what are you referring to? The in elevator video? They couldn't have seen it unless someone leaked it to them. They're not a legal entity, and have no authority to make any demands. Not until they enter into a court case. That's the one thing that really pissed me off when Florio came out talking about how "easy" it was for the NFL to see that video, and that it was something he learned from the movie, My Cousin Vinny. He made it perfectly clear with that statement why he was a failed attorney. As far as "banned him to save their own skins, and that is shameful", you couldn't be more spot on, IMO. It's as I said elsewhere, the NFL and the Ravens got the greatest get out of jail free card I've ever seen. I'm just shocked they had the wherewithal to actually take advantage of it. Though, I guess in fairness we should call what they did "shameless" instead. When I say due diligence, I mean that the NFL has the means to access the elevator video. It was mentioned by many people who had played and worked for the NFL -- officials, general managers, etc. Florio is an ass, but he is not alone in that view. The local Baltimore stations are on fire with this news. A guy working for CSN Baltimore, and also an ex Raven, had a long rant about how well networked and informed the NFL authorities are about the players, from top tier to those with "problems." It was mentioned that they employ ex FBI and CIA people for their own internal investigative purposes. He made it very clear that they could have gotten access, but chose not to do so. Whether how true that it all is, it is very clear that they had no provisions for punishing players who are physically abusive.

He deserved punishment, but Roger Goodell and the NFL deserve blame for not handling this properly in the first place. It is now known that the NFL did not have access to the video that TMZ had back earlier this year; that they did not do due diligence in investigating the matter. They banned him to save their own skins, and that is shameful. He could have had a year long suspension with no financial compensation.

Banned from the league as well. He can't come back even if some team wanted him.