J Larsen

Really? They told me it would e available ##/## for $xx.xx.

Edit: My initial response wasn't quite accurate. Here is what AMG says:

Male sylist. I pay more than most women, but that's what you do when your regular hair makes you look like a mushroom (I must have one of the thickest heads of hair on the planet, at least as far as humans are concerned).

I really like Louis Smith.

No kidding: I saw this guy driving up my block a few weeks ago.

Agreed - as long as its not the transformer I should get it back in better condition than when I bought it. ← Who's fixing it? ← Blackie at Tubesville. The first three people I asked for recommendations all sent me to him.

Agreed - as long as its not the transformer I should get it back in better condition than when I bought it.

Well, that didn't do it. I'm taking it to the doctor tonight. ← Probably just a bad tube then. I'm sure it will be an easy fix. ← Is it normal for a tube to go all at once like that? I was under the impression that they sort of slowly fizzled out.

Well, that didn't do it. I'm taking it to the doctor tonight.

I have two S-500. I love them both. I think there different radius offered. The necks on mine are not huge. Check with these folks. ← Thanks. Do you think it is worth it to track down an older model, or do you think the newer ones are of about the same quality? I'd love to have a handmade strat (legacy) and tele (asat).

I'll try that as soon as I get home... thanks!

Yep. BTW, the hissing/static noise occurs even with nothing plugged into the input jacks. In the past its always been perfectly silent with nothing plugged in.

When I plugged in my early 70's Fender Champ tonight, it made this really awful static/hissing sound, and received no signal from my guitar. After turning it on and off several times and switching back and forth between inputs 1 and 2, I finally got some sound out of it, but it was pretty flat sounding. Up until tonight it has been very reliable and has always sounded great. Any idea as to what could be wrong? I've grown really attached to it and I'll really bummed if it's just dead....

Any opinions on G&L guitars? Someone told me that their quality started declining in the mid-90s - is that true? Are the necks always super-thick? Thanks.

Stranger than Paradise is one of my favorite movies, period. Down by Law is very good, but the style to substance ratio is a bit high, IMO. However, it is a very cool style. IMHO, Mystery Train and Night on Earth are pretty much crap. There are a couple of fun bits in Night on Earth, but he pretty much lost me with these two. Dead Man was okay. Ghost Dog was friggin' embarrassing.

Man, that's rough to think about. Although I did have to do that myself, once. A friend had caught a mouse in a glue trap in her apartment. It was trapped, but it wasn't dead. I figured the most human thing to do was drop the trap (w/ mouse attached) in a bag and hit it full force with a cat iron skillet. Still felt wierd about it, though. If my cat gets a mouse, it seems like the natural order of things. But if I kill it with my own two hands, I feel a little guilty. That's probably silly, but it is what it is.

On the flip side, I live within walking distance of at least a dozen record stores, including Other Music and Downtown Music Gallery, and that costs me a lot more than four bucks a day!

It's probably already been addressed, but a cat that still has real hunting instincts will ward off or consume any mouse problem. However, a cat is useless against rats. Cats recognize that rats are too big for them to attack, and frequently you'll even see stray cats and rats eating side by side in the city. House cats are often seriously injured by rats. (However, if you spring for a Savannah or a Chausie, that just might take care of a rat problem...)

Happy birthday! I just noticed that your Wikipedia entry makes special note of your message board contributions, btw...

It wouldn't be particularly wise to release a virus that spreads uncontrollably, has no cure (being a virus), and is resistant to vaccine. That's very likely to come back and bite you in the ass. I'm not guaranteeing that no one would ever do something this stupid, but it has to be a far less attractive means of attacking an enemy than detonating a bomb (nuclear or otherwise) or contaminating local warter supplies, just for example.

Sadly, it appears that we're in the minority. Most Americans could care less about putting 1000+ CDs on their ipod, and I think the main reason is that most Americans have fewer than 100 CDs, to say nothing of 1000. ← But you'd be surprised at how many iPod users have thousands (even tens of thousands) of hours worth of dowloaded MP3's - a lot of people out there could easily fill a 100GB (or larger) iPod. I was really surprised that they didn't do an 80GB model this time around, especially since this thing does video. The only reason I was excited about a video iPod in the first place was that the concept seemed to imply a larger drive. Toshiba has had 80GB microdrives for over a year now - they will make their way into iPods eventually.

It comes out tomorrow (10/18) - the reviews in the NYT and on the All Music site are very strong. Anyone heard it yet/picking it up?

Kalo gave a good description. The reason I brought up Feldman wasn't exactly that I find him dark (though he's hardly bright and bubbly), but because I've spun Music for Rothko Chapel for a couple of different avant-jazz freaks at my place and they both bought it afterwards. Regardless of what you think of Gorecki, he can certainly be dark and brooding! Come to think of it, Bach's Mass in B Minor is pretty dark in spots. I have the Klemperer version. I rarely listen to it, but every time I do I'm blown away. But then, I know even less about classical than I do about jazz, so I'm probably not one to be handing out advice...

Does Morton Feldman count as a "major composer"? How about Gorecki?

This album came out right around the time I was born. My dad says he used to play it to calm me down and help me sleep. I listened to it again a few years ago and remember thinking it was a little too "slick" and "pretty" for me, but that was when I was heavy in a avant-jazz/noise trip. It may be time to pull out the record again.