Stefan Wood

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.

He's a necessary evil, unfortunately. At least Snyder has learned to back off and let others handle the football business. There's just a lot to fix still. At least he's not Jerry Jones.

I support my team. But I was so damn angry after watching Washington lose to Houston........ Not giving up on RG3. It's the other teammates' mental errors that are driving me crazy.

Has a new pressing plant been made in thirty - forty years?

Steve Hoffman is just plain annoying. He has done some good work, but I wouldn't take his word as gospel. He's as much influenced by trends as anyone else.

Up, prices lowered and two new cartridges added.

25 years later you get a threatening letter? Does the Chicago Tribune digitally archive their material? This person is nuts.

I enjoy his conducting. His interpretations of Schoenberg and Webern are outstanding. Even, surprisingly, Bruckner's 8 on Deutche Grammophon. Having said that, the only way I'll get this set is when the prices fall, which they seem to do on these large box sets.

sold.

Have they ever?

Book is on hold, pending sale.

I have a near mint softcover book of "Il Secolo del Jazz," published in 2008. Subtitled "Art, film, music and photography from Picasso to Basquiat." Published by Skira. Over 400 pages of jazz posters, lp covers, and art relating to jazz. The texts are in Italian, but there are enough pictures and graphics throughout the book to make up for it. $30 including shipping in the US.

I'm glad I held off. I ended up buying a Nagaoka cartridge instead for my turntable.

So the Emotiva DAC wasn't all that it was supposed to be?

I read this article many years ago, and it is interesting, and at least in my lp collecting experience, found to be mostly true: **As stated in "The Audiophiles Guide to London Bluebacks" written by Robert Moon & Michael Gray (on page 20): "...there is a harsh brightness to the Decca-London early stereo records because the disc cutters were weak in reproducing frequencies above 10khz. The pressings made after 1968--to my knowledge all FFRR--were made with the Neumann SX-68 helium-cooled disc cutter which could reveal the sweet high frequenices on the original tape. It's for that reason that the later FFRR pressings are often superior to the early FFSS pressings." The same was said about Shaded Dog RCA Living Stereo original pressings, Westminster bluebacks, etc. Whether the same can be said about Jazz and Rock I can not say, but it shows that even in the lp era there was compression issues.

There is an expectation bias, for either format.