J Larsen

Let's see, I work around 60 hrs a week as a financial consultant, I teach two undergrad physics courses at NYU (thank God they just ended) and my PhD dissertation is due in a year. What, me stressed?

First of all, this is not a flat-out disagreement with you, J Larsen. Just pushing the conversation... Brandon - that was an obvious typo - I meant 10 years, hence the bronzing started showing up in the early/mid-90s. My cat likes to sleep on my keyboard, and as I result I have a lot of keys that stick a lot. Sorry for the confusion.

You're right, Johnny. If I recall correctly (and I'm nearly certain that, in this case at least, I do), it is well documented that Doubleday wasn't even in Cooperstown in 1839.

My PhD advisor used to be a senior research scientist in the recordable media division of IBM. I know the following to be true, but I can't give you references right now. In the late eighties, one of the major cd pressing plants used a chemical in the plastic layer that the Aluminum (Al) cd layer is encased in that has a slow reaction with Al. This reaction caused the readable Al layer to become corroded over the course of about 10 [NOTE: typo corrected here to prevent future confusion] years in millions of discs. This is the cause of the "bronzing" problem that you often hear about, and hopefully don't experience. This should, hopefully, affect only discs manufactured in the late 80s through the early 90s. For a limited time I believe the responsible plant offered replacement CDs, but I'm sure the window for that closed a long time ago. Barring chemical reactions between the protective plastic layer and the "read layer", a properly handled cd should last forever. Plastic does not spontaneously decay - this would imply that it is radioactive which it obviously isn't. The same goes for Al. I think that a big part of why discs don't last as long as their owners expect is that they don't realize that the printed side of a cd is at least as fragile as the read side.

Got my very first SACD: Mission of Burma On Off On They sound just like they did 25 years ago, which isn't a bad thing.

PIL - Second Edition (to replace the Metal Box LP I sold) Stooges "Raw Power Genesis Selling England By the Pound Grant Green Goin' West (I have to say this was a bit of a letdown - I overhyped it in my mind) Jimmy Smith Rockin the Boat Duke Pearson Sweet Honey Bee Archie Shepp Cry of My People (REALLY like this one) Cecil Taylor Conquistador (finally have a legit copy of my favorite Cecil!)

I'm considering buying the HK3380 receiver tomorrow for $250. I just want something that will sound half decent and that I can connect to both my turntable and DVD player (most units will handle one or the other, but not both). I'm looking to spend <$300, as this is a temporary solution that I see myself upgrading in a year or so. Anyone know of a better option, or do you think I should jump on this deal?

And here I am wanting to get away for a while...

I've been going back to books I haven't read since high school to see how my attitude towards them has changed. I still really like Catcher in the Rye, though not quite as much as I did 13 years ago. I love The Great Gatsby, which I despised in high school (must have been in a bad mood that week, because it's an amazing book). Next up: Go Tell it on the Mountain.

Who gets to decide this? When I stayed with a friend briefly in Harlem, I heard a hell of a lot more Nelly and Eminem being blasted at the late-night street parties than anything else. I have an enormous hip-hop vinyl collection (and Nelly is most certainly NOT featured in it), but I'm 0% hip hop and the guys throwing those parties are definitely 100% hip hop. Sometimes things just aren't what we want them to be...

If you go to Jamaica sometime, you should try one of the Chinese restaurants. The indigenous Asian-Carribean fusion cuisine can be pretty interesting - though I get the impression that they dumb it down a little since the Chinese restaurants seem to draw mostly travelers.

I like Propeller best by FAR, but that's also the album where I jumped on the bandwagon so that COULD be the reason I like it so much better than the others.

Okay, I like Prince, I like Leo Kottke, I love Van Morrison, and I'm not too offended by Norah Jones BUT... I think it's getting to the point where it's silly to call BN a jazz label anymore.

In my controversial opinion, Wu only had one good album as a group. The first one was a classic. The rest were piles of crap. They've had a lot of good "solo" records, though, so the "break up" may be a good thing...

This seems totally irrelevant to me - you know, a rose by any other name and all.

I've heard a few good musicians in the subway, but I'm far more likely to get the froggy-voiced elderly man who sings his barely recognizable version of "It's Getting Hot in Here" or the 30-year old long-haired well-dressed white guy doing his lame whitewashed folk-rock version of "What's Going On", which really doesn't come across the right way when sung by a person who isn't a member of an opressed group, IMO.

I can go along with that - it's probably their weakest record (though I never liked Let it Be much, either). The first few songs on Beatles for Sale are pretty good, though. I am glad that John got off the Dylan trip quick, though.

I'll Be on My Way?

Help is a great album!! The first few songs on "For Sale" are all great, then it gets spotty. Rubber Sole was a 1965 record, and a damn good album IMO. How did this dissing on '65 thing get started?

Born in the USA and Raspberry Beret are good calls. So is Burning Down the House - not a great Heads song IMO, but great for an 80s top 40 tune.

I don't mind Revolution #9 at all. I never have - even when I was a small child. I mind Mr. Moonlight very much. What a piece of crap! I'm also not too into the McCartney songs on Let it Be (although the title track is okay). Oh La Di was a pretty bad attempt at ska, but it was no Mr. Moonlight.

"Once in a Lifetime" - Talking Heads. I think that was popular enough to qualify.

I have a video of their first concert. Pretty intense stuff. Guy wasn't playing guitar - he just jumped on stage to do a little singing. Sorry, I can't make copies for anyone - I'd like to say I would but I know that in practice I would never actually get around to doing it. I have videos of a few other DC shows too - one where they had a woman singing for a few songs, another that was their first anniversary show (I believe), and another that was outside on a very cold day, near the White House from the time of the first Gulf War. They were all great concerts. I've seen them in person a few times as well. They're good performers. They never seem to get tired.

Was that REM song really a radio hit? I thought it was more popular on an "indie rock" level. Just curious, not questioning.

Off the top of my head, 1) "Don't Stop 'till You Get Enough" Michael Jackson (you could probably sub any of his other singles from Off the Wall or Thriller) 2) "Little Red Corvette" Prince 3) "Walk this Way" Run-DMC (there are 100s of other rap tunes from the 80s I'd put ahead of this one, but I think this is probably the only one popular enough to qualify)