Scott Dolan

Oh, I hear you. My wife has always said of me, "you've never met a stranger". And she's right, I'll strike up a conversation with anyone. But, I also get that people live incredibly busy lives these days, and sometimes in order for them to accomplish other things (i.e. family time) they have to squeeze in things like music or podcasts on the fly. I can dig that. I don't think, in most cases, they're intentionally shutting out the world around them, I just think they're maximizing their time.

I completely understand your point, which I already agreed with to a certain point. I was just offering some additional food for thought. But, I also have to ask, how much interacting was going on before the portable music player? I rode subways, buses, walked around many towns well before the iPod was a gleam in Steve Jobs' eye. People seemed to pretty much stay to themselves then, as well. Whether they were reading, (or later) working on a laptop, talking on a cell phone, or simply lost in their own thoughts.

All I'm saying is that podcasts are incredibly popular. So there's more people listening to them than just me. I'm sure the majority of people of people are listening to music, but probably not as many as you think.

How many of those people are listening to something relatively educational, though? I listen to podcasts at work 99% of the time. And most of those are political. So I'm learning a great deal while I'm listening. Don't just assume everyone with earbuds in is simply wasting the minute/hours listening to music.

I actually agree with fasstrack. Now, I do use my earbuds quite a bit at work, and when I'm mowing the yard, for example. But, when I'm out and about I really like to take in what is going on around me. Whether or not it be interacting with others, listening to nature, or the sounds of the city.

That's interesting. What if John McLaughlin was a fan of John McLaughlin, but John McLaughlin wasn't a fan of John McLaughlin? Awkward. What if Jon McLaughlin and John Mclaughlin were really John McLaughlin?! You know, like a Clark Kent/Superman kinda deal. Well, only they went by the same name, I guess. So there's a difference...

No, I got your point entirely. I just saw no reason to get so upset about it. Click the link, read the very first sentence, breathe in, breathe out, move on.

That you're too lazy to to look at the forum once you click on a link. Then choose to whine about it as though it's the fault of others? Yes, you've made that perfectly clear.

Probably because most of us are capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time. That's the reason why we have a miscellaneous sub forum here.

I actually got into baseball very late in the game, when we moved here in 2002. I started listening to Royals games in the mid 2000's after a co-worker told me there is nothing like listening to baseball games on the radio. He was right.

Ah, so they DON'T sound like transistor radios! And that higher-pitcher squeal and warbling...where has it gone?!

Transistor radios did indeed have a sound unto themselves. And I can dig the nostalgia angle. Though oddly enough, I have a very different reaction to them. More along the lines of, "ugh, remember when all radios sounded that way?!" I'm about as happy to re-live those days as I am the days of tooling around in my sister's 1976 Ford Pinto. Bad is bad, nostalgia can't fix that...

Packaged speaker cables?! I've never seen that before. What were they, crappy little 24AWG cables?

There's always the chance someone will buy the place and keep everything intact. I always thought the kids would do something with it, but they can't seem to get along with each other these days. It would be sad to see it destroyed, but we got a lot of outstanding music from it.

I don't "upgrade" iTunes until I absolutely have to these days, ever since iTunes 11 lost my entire music library. I had it all backed up, but it was still a pain in the ass to get things back on track.

Who gets the UMRK?

iTines as a program is about as clunky as they come, and seemingly gets worse with every "update". But, the store and service is top notch, and something I've never had a problem with.

I don't know, this is still one of the most active online message boards I run across.

We invested in one of these for each of our vehicles. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Stanley-600-Peak-Amp-Jump-Starter-J309/14560015?action=product_interest&action_type=title&item_id=14560015&placement_id=irs-106-t1&strategy=PWVUB&visitor_id&category=&client_guid=de6e1e69-d115-4c20-934f-7518c659f764&customer_id_enc&config_id=106&parent_item_id=13035281&parent_anchor_item_id=13035281&guid=7a7ac336-c654-43c3-8bf8-55fa357a9934&bucket_id=irsbucketdefault&beacon_version=1.0.1&findingMethod=p13n Just a few weeks after we purchased then I had to jump start my truck with it. Worth every penny.

Listening to it now. BTW, what do GD and SBD stand for? I keep seeing them come up regarding live Dead recordings. I'm assuming SBD is shorthand for soundboard?

Thanks, brother!

OK, well how about this. Is there any one series that is best to start with?

Nah, I'm not a resale kind of guy, Lon. I pretty much always give things away that I no longer have a use for. The Fillmore date does strike me as a must have. So I'm going to get 29 first, and follow that up with 4. As for sound quality, some opinions I read made some of the dates sound like The Olatunji Concert would be an upgrade. But, I think you nailed it with your assessment underlining the differences in ears between the average Rock/Pop collector, and Jazz collector. Some of our finest releases have highly questionable sound quality. Just think how a Rock/Pop listener would react to the sound quality of things like the Hot Fives & Sevens. Or Spiritual Unity...

I can't even imagine what an 80 disc boxset would even look or feel like. Must be pretty impressive aesthetically. I prefer the early years as well, but there are some interesting moments on Without A Net. Unfortunately, not enough to justify a double cd... BTW, what are the best DP's in your opinions? I've seen 4, 8, 15, 31, and 36 mentioned a LOT. Also, is the sound quality of these really as bad as some make it out to be?

Do you have the four disc set, or the 80 disc set?