10 Albums

March 4, 2008

The formatting of this post did not make the blogger-to-wordpress transition very well, and if you’ve never tried it before, rest assured that trying to undo all of blogger’s weird code is not a project that you really want to take on. So I’m redoing it here. Enjoy. (again)

The idea here is to come up with your ten favorite albums that you could listen to front to back without skipping tracks or getting bored. In fact, you often have to fight the urge to just start it right back at the beginning when it is done.

In no particular order, except alphabetical. Also subject to change. In fact, this has already changed slightly from one I posted to my old blog about a year back.

Fickle.

A-Z Colin Newman

My photographing soundtrack. I picked this up on cassette back in college and haven’t stopped listening to it since. Still dialed up on the ‘Pod to this day whenever I’m out shooting.
Highlight: “I’ve Waited Ages”

 

Aja Steely Dan

An album best savored with a bottle of wine and a quiet, warm evening. Staring vacantly off into space completes the experience.
Highlight: “I Got the News”

 

A Bell is a Cup Until it is Struck Wire

There are those who would argue that this album pales in comparison with the holy trinity of the first three (Pink Flag, Chairs Missing, 154). There’s a certain logic to that. However, this was my first Wire album and still a remarkable document. I could listen to this one all day long.
Highlight: “The Queen of Ur and the King of Um”

Copper Blue Sugar

Busy, distorted guitar work always kind of annoyed me until I heard this record. Now I appreciate it much more.
Highlight: “The Act We Act”

 

Innervisions Stevie Wonder

Stevie’s made some wonderful albums. This one, though, not only makes my top ten, but should probably have some kind of place in the top ten albums of all time.
Highlight: “Livin’ for the City”

 

Night and Day Joe Jackson

I don’t give this album nearly enough credit on a day-to-day (night-to-night?) basis. Great to put on… well… whenever.
Highlight: “Another World”

 

Official Version Front 242

The Art of Noise and Depeche Mode got me off the Billboard Top 40 charts and onto more adventurous music (although there are those who would debate Depeche Mode’s role in “adventurous”). Front 242 improved on those themes and gave me a little clanky computerized area of modern recording to call my very own. Seemingly political, but what’s the message? Who knows. Oddly emotional, but about what? Search me. Ominously angry, but why? Haven’t the faintest.

I know the feeling.
Highlight: “Rerun Time”

 

Satyagraha Philip Glass

The opera that really marks the transition from the early Ensemble days to the more grand orchestral style of his later years - an exhausting yet highly invigorating experience from beginning to end.
Highlight: “Indian Opinion”

 

Scenes Michael Galasso

A wonderful album for sleeping.
Or riding in a bus, late at night, watching the snow fall.
Highlight: “Scene VI”

 

Tusk Fleetwood Mac

What can I say? As the band goes off the rails (due to over-reaching artistic ambitions, or cocaine, or band politics, or all three) they produce 20 outstanding songs that range from old fashioned bar rock to nutty Lindsey weirdness. As I grow older I find myself warming to well-played basic rock. It’s a nice contrast to some of my more oddball choices.
Highlight: “I Know I’m Not Wrong”

There’s always room for honorable mentions:

 

Music For Fruit / Insiding Bruce Gilbert
Wire’s guitarist makes fascinating ambient noise epics. Both records are rather short, so they always get merged in a playlist.

 

Bookends Simon and Garfunkel
Also my favorite album cover ever. I love that the “purists” get upset about the Moog synthesizer being used on this record.

 

Foxtrot Genesis
A smidge boggy in places, but easily the best Genesis album (in my book).

 

I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You Aretha Franklin
I’m sick to death of “Respect”, but the rest of the album is completely amazing.

 

Rubber Soul The Beatles
If not for the tired “Run For Your Life”, this album would be in the top ten.

 

Scoundrel Days a-ha
I make no apologies for my a-ha fetish.

 

Security Peter Gabriel
A slightly flawed classic, and what is up with that cover?

 

Te Deum Arvo Part
Brilliant and beautiful. If there’s a god, s/he’s speaking through Pärt.

 

Warm Leatherette Grace Jones
Slave to the Rhythm.

 

Who’s Afraid of The Art of Noise?
I’m not.
Well… not very often.
Ethan might be.
Just a little bit.

Posted in: distractions, sound, wonderful things No Comments »

And The Winner Is…

October 16, 2007

The Beta/VHS wars were decided for me. By the time our family invested in a VCR VHS was firmly in place. Why does it not surprise me that my junior high was firmly rooted in Beta?

As far as Blu-Ray and HD-DVD goes, though, it has all been up in the air for me since the two formats were announced. I had no real interest in sorting out either, to be honest. The only thing I knew was that I had grown severely skeptical of Sony over the years, so was leaning away from Blu.

Not anymore.

For it appears that the Blu-Ray copy of Close Encounters of the Third Kind is set to be released in November.

 

Of course, I have no intention of investing in HD anytime soon. It would mean an upgrade in my television, and I’d have to figure out the best way to adapt the LaserDisc/Selectavision stuff - most HDTVs are not set up to display the old stuff properly right out of the box.

(No. I am not going to give up on either of those old video formats. Thanks for asking.)

I still have time to see how this all plays out. I hadn’t intended to address any of this until I really had to. As far as settling for one format goes - well, it may just be that Blu-Ray dies and they release an HD-DVD version anyway. After all, Close Encounters has seen a number of releases: VHS, Beta, Selectavision, LaserDisc, 8mm videotape (!), DVD… what’s the harm in releasing a few more?

I’ll tell you, though. I’d love to see how the transfer looks.

Posted in: distractions 3 Comments »

Coaster Pilgrimage!

June 28, 2007

When I was growing up Riverside was the local amusement park. Large enough to be interesting but small enough to still feel “local”: any trip up to Agawam, MA was cause for celebration.

During my youth their big, impressive ride was the Loop Coaster. Compared to today’s coasters it can only be described as tame, but at the time it was pretty damn cool. The premise is simple: after you climb the six flights to the loading platform you board your train. Being a launched coaster, you didn’t ease your way down to a chain that hauled you up the first hill. A sled would thrust the train forward until gravity took over and pulled you down the hill and into the loop. That done, you would go up the other end of this symmetrical coaster and wait on the other side until the ride operator felt you were anxious enough - and then launch the train in reverse back through the loop.

This last sequence was the real joy of the Loop Coaster. If you sat towards the front of the train, you could feel the acceleration as the tail end cars pulled the train down the hill, but you were never quite sure when you were going to start falling backwards into the loop. It’s a wild feeling.

I was fascinated by the Loop Coaster when I was a kid, but not enough to give it a shot. I did watch it obsessively, though. I can still quite clearly visualize the train being pushed forward, and the sled slowly returning to its home position after it had dispensed of its cargo. I also remember the lights than ran the length of the track - they would appear to move forward, like many chaser-type coaster “Christmas Lights”, but would then reverse direction like the train itself. It always disappointed me that they didn’t change direction at the same time the cars did. (on a similar note, the Loop Coaster was wild at night)

It took me well into my adolescence to actually climb aboard the thing. It’s hard to imagine now, but looping coasters were still looked upon as “ultimate tests” back then, maybe because they were still fairly rare - they’ve only been in existence for about 30 years, and when I was a kid (late 70s/early 80s) they were new, and very intimidating.

Alas, things change, bigger thrills crop up, and a few years back when Six Flags starting rumbling through Riverside I feared the worst for the Loop Coaster. By the mid 80s it was known as the Black Widow - the installation of the infamous Riverside Cyclone right next to the Loop Coaster blurred the distinction between the two at they were both painted white, and a new identity for the Loop was born after a sexy black paint job. I lamented the change at the time and insisted on calling it the Loop Coaster, but in hindsight I have to admit that it did look much cooler.

At any rate, whilst prowling the ‘net one year I found the sad report: the Loop Coaster had not survived one of Six Flags’ park updates (they also ripped out the Monorail which, even though I loved it, had admittedly outlived its usefulness). A bit more searching turned up these depressing images, and I mourned the passing of an era. Seems that Six Flags relocated some assets out to a defunct park with the plan of perhaps reactivating them at some point. If you look closely at the pictures you will also see the remains of “Little Rickie’s Little Twister”, a kiddie coaster that I rode many times in my very early years.

Alas, any second life for the once mighty Loop Coaster was not to be. One year I checked on the status of it, and discovered that it had been sold for scrap. It was a sad day. Not to get too sappy, but I look over those pictures of the dismantled Loop Coaster and think “I rode those rails. I sat in that train.” sob.

This year I decided that I needed to ride this style of coaster at least one more time before they all fall apart. A quick search through the Roller Coaster Database revealed that there are only four of this type of coaster - Arrow Dynamics Shuttle Loop - left on the planet. The nearest one is out in Indiana.

That’s where Melissa, Baha, and I are headed in a few weeks. I have to ride one again. Theirs - known as “AfterBurner” - is said to be Arrow Dynamics’ prototype of this kind of coaster, built 30 years ago in 1977. So, we’ll be out there celebrating its anniversary, and I’ll be having one hell of a time reliving a tiny part of my youth.

Oh - and, uh, - hoping this doesn’t happen again.

Posted in: distractions 9 Comments »

analog to digital

June 6, 2007

I got into a conversation with a friend of mine at Chain Camera Store last night about video. I was still giddy over my LaserDisc purchase.

The scan conversion problem never occurred to me when thinking about my eventual move to HDTV. I knew there’d be some teething problems connecting an LD player, but it appears I have to watch for one very particular component: the scan converter. Many of the new TVs have very poor ones built in, presumably to make you forget your old components and buy new ones. The other option is to buy an outboard scan converter.

Hmm. I think I’ll be waiting until 2009.

Either way, the VHS tapes are in considerable peril. I’m going to go home and go through them again - anything that is easily replaced with a DVD (if I so desire) is gone. Everything else is going to be backed up to DVD as soon as possible.

In the meantime, I’ll stick with an analog-to-digital conversion that I’ve already got a firm grasp on: photography!

This is one of the first shots that I took at the terminal, when we feared that there wouldn’t be much to do besides some exteriors. The bland lighting reflects the very overcast day, another detriment to getting any positive work done at the site.

Eventually we found a way to sneak into the old baggage building - well, sneak isn’t really the right word. The door was wide open.

The back side of the baggage building, facing the tracks. I don’t really think I like this image.

Amusingly, my two favorite image (so far) from the trip were totally unexpected, and from the same lunch trip. Here is the side of a West Marine store (this one’s for you, Dad!), and below is a bit of wall from some restaurant we had a nice buffet at. There are more from the Terminal, but only a couple. I’ll post them soon.

The following two are “local practice”. Not bad. At least I still know how to shoot horizontal - I was fearing I’d forgotten.

My thoughts on all this are leaning towards totally forgetting about location and compiling shots from all over. Calling them the same place. Or calling them no place. Something like that. If I told you the above two shots were also in Buffalo you’d believe me.

Right?

Time to dig out the critical theory tomes from grad school again.

(p.s. whilst prowling around forums and such to figure out what life held for me with the LaserDisc/HDTV problem, I discovered one amazing thing: people are vicious to LD owners! I mean, if you phrase the question “I’ve got some old tapes, so I need to be able to connect my VCR…” you get pleasant, sound advice. Bring up LD? Just kill yourself. It’ll be easier. Now I remember why I loathe forums.)

Posted in: distractions 2 Comments »

Last One. No, really.

June 5, 2007

Today I asked the head of A/V here at MIT if he knew anyone who might want the giant old Sony top-loading LaserDisc player that I got for free a few years back.

I could almost see the eye-roll in his email reply.

Oh well.

We were once at the forefront of video fetishism, we LaserDisc users, but now it has turned on us - marginalized video weirdos, stubbornly hanging on to dead media, open to scorn and ridicule from those who favor shiny little 5″ discs and real-time video streams.

With that in mind, I proudly bought another LaserDisc player.

As penance for this purchase I am getting rid of the aforementioned Sony player. It was time. Also going out is the basic Pioneer player I picked up at Goodwill. Not to mention, I have also decided to eliminate two SelectaVision players (out of 5!) - one beyond repair, one old and iffy.

OK, so maybe I shouldn’t cling to obsolete formats. But at least I’m eliminating four excess players. That’s, uh… progress.

This leaves me with the nice combo LD/DVD player that Megan gave me from a Bose demo player liquidation a few years back, and now this one.

It’s a beauty. Part of Pioneer’s “Elite” series, it was the near-flagship player at the time. Picked it up for almost nothing down at Q Audio in Cambridge.

Why? Why LaserDisc? Why would I hang on to some dippy old format like this?

Well, most importantly: why not.

Also, the giant discs are too cool. I have a great collection of titles. I like the format. The players can still be repaired. I have Koyaanisqatsi on LaserDisc, not to mention the Criterion edition of Close Encounters of the Third Kind that contains both the original 1977 theatrical release and the “Special Edition” from 1980.

It’s stayin’.

I constantly debate my obsolete formats, and think I’ve made some good choices - see the previous entry for tales of slimming down the CD collection, for one. I hate 8-Tracks and will never collect them. I have a tiny collection (~15) of irreplaceable cassettes (mix tapes, etc.) I have a grand total of perhaps 6 DVDs (I’m waiting to see how the HD thing pans out). My VHS tapes are constantly being thinned out to almost nothing.

Periodically I wonder if I should eliminate my LPs, my SelectaVision collection, or LaserDisc, and must admit that LP would be the first to go if things got that far.

But I don’t think they will.

Posted in: distractions 6 Comments »

Methodology Revision

June 4, 2007

Something was bothering me about my iTunes library.

Basically, I had separated my music into two groups: CDs I wanted to keep, and CDs I wanted to get rid of. The CDs I kept I ripped into iTunes as 128k MP4 files. The CDs I got rid of came in as Apple Lossless.

The problem, of course, is that should I want anything on the iPod from discarded CDs, the Lossless files would have to be re-ripped into 128k unless I wanted to constantly drain my battery with big files. This meant redundant files and all sorts of weird Library nonsense.

So I decided to re-rip everything into 224k, except for classical entries which were jacked up to 320k. Lossless files were downsampled to 224k, 128k files were redone from the CDs (yes, it took a long time and was quite tedious). This left me with files good enough that I didn’t care about throwing out the Lossless files, and small enough to not torture the iPod.

There is a noticeable sound improvement. You may not believe me, but there is. I also recovered about 50GB of my hard drive space, bringing the total down to 85GB - much easier to back up onto DVDs.

Also through this process it has also come to my attention that Wire’s Send is the most poorly mastered, most horrifying-sounding pile that I’ve ever heard. Shame, really, as underneath the screaming, distortion-causing “loud is good” mastering job is a great album.

This is my nerdy minutiae-obsessed entry for the month. Stay tuned for further neurotic behavior.

Posted in: distractions, sound 2 Comments »

One Thing

March 29, 2007

There must be a ton of these somewhere. There has to be some decrepit station being upgraded, or moved, or something that could yield one.

But I don’t even know how to describe it. All search term combinations have yielded nothing.

What am I rattling on about now?

Those black molded “TV Viewing Chair”s that show up in low-budget bus stations across the country.

I want one.

It’s dumb, it’s retro, it’s hipster-retro-chic-a-kooky, but I don’t care.

I want one.

I know, I have my whole anti-TV spiel, but for whatever dorky reason I envision myself having one of these in my home someday.

I can’t find them, though.

It occurs to me that Worcester’s bus station closed not too long ago, and they had a few of them, but I think I probably missed the boat on that one.

Keep your eyes peeled. I have no intention of spending any kind of significant money on something as ludicrous as this, but - just -

let me know if you see one.

Posted in: distractions 7 Comments »

Tales of Turntables

March 28, 2007

I don’t yet know if there is actual audio coming out of the connections (nowhere to plug it in here at work), but the Pioneer PU-41 turntable is up and running!

My solution to the thrust plate problem was pretty basic, not very audiophile, and will probably induce howls of horror from any turntable geek who reads this - I tossed a nickel into the spindle assembly and slathered it with oil. It works fine, the turntable spins freely and at something approximating the proper height. Whatever. Someday I’ll replace it with something fancy and impressive that absorbs vibration and lord knows what else.

The belt I installed also has a marginal problem - it does not appear to be the right width to accomodate the mechanical 33/45 switchover. So I will order one online from the 800 places that offer replacement belts, and in the meantime pretend I don’t have any 45s. Big deal.

I have polished up the wood cabinet and all metal parts to a high shine. It looks so wonderful I simply can not get over it. I’d post a picture, but my camera is at home!

Now the Philips is in considerable peril. I stripped off my good ol’ Grado Green cartridge and transferred it to the Pioneer. If the Philips were anything approximating an attractive turntable I’d hold onto it, but what for? I’m sticking with the Pioneer until it runs - there are solutions for any big problems that I might have all over the net.

I had thought about dumping one of the 12″ formats (vinyl, LaserDisc, SelectaVision) that I have stuck myself with, but I still don’t think I can do it. Oh well.

Posted in: distractions, sound 2 Comments »

Early Eighties Top 20!

March 15, 2007

Last night while I was scanning some of the flower pictures I shot in Buffalo (and pondering the reality that I’ll have to spend $75 for a better negative carrier for the scanner - ugh) I remembered my post about the eighties project and decided to take a look and see how these songs were rating in iTunes.

The results are in some ways totally bizarre, but on further review seem to make some sense in a weird way.

1. “Turn Your Love Around”, George Benson, The George Benson Collection
This is kind of a surprise. I like the song and all, but it is odd that it has received so much play.

2. “Trouble”, Lindsey Buckingham, Law and Order
Having this on one of my playlists boosted its count, certainly, but it is still a pretty cool little song.

3. “Holiday Road”, Lindsey Buckingham, Vacation Soundtrack
National Lampoon associations aside, I think this song is great. Classic Buckingham construction, just short enough (just over 2 minutes) to not make you nuts.

4. “Overkill”, Men at Work, Cargo
Men at Work will always be regarded as something of a novelty band due to “Down Under” and “Who Can It Be Now?”, which is a shame really because some of their songs were exceedingly well constructed. This one, for example.

5. “Automatic”, Pointer Sisters, Break Out
Huh? Well, I have no problem with the Pointer Sisters, but before I dug this one out for the Project I couldn’t even have told you how it went - I guess that was a bonus, for hearing it often now seems to always be a good thing.

6. “Love Plus One”, Haircut One Hundred, Pelican West
This is such a summer song. Just, well… nice. Brilliant, crystal-clear engineering.

7. “Tom Sawyer”, Rush, Moving Pictures
Bought this LP for a dollar at Nuggets in Boston. Remembered the song more fondly than I thought I would.

8. “Gypsy”, Fleetwood Mac, Mirage
Really the last gasp of mid-period Fleetwood Mac. For me, the culmination of everything they had developed over the previous three albums. Outstanding. I know it seems like adult contemporary fluff sometimes, but listen a little bit closer.

9. “Empty Garden”, Elton John, Jump Up!
The best of the John Lennon tributes in my book.

10. “She’s a Bad Mama Jama”, Carl Carlton, 45
What can I say? The song is hilarious, and the grinding synth bass lines are too damn cool.

11. “Are We Ourselves”, The Fixx, Phantoms
The Fixx is one of those bands that I always wanted to like much more than I really do. When they let a great song fly, though, I was all over it.

12. “Don’t Ask Me Why”, Billy Joel, Glass Houses
Another mystery. I like Billy Joel to a certain degree, but… I don’t know. Weird. Don’t ask me why.

13. “Controversy”, Prince, 12″
One of Prince’s all-time greats. The lyric is priceless, and it is always fascinating knowing that he is playing every last instrument.

14. “Ain’t Nobody”, Rufus, Breakin’ Soundtrack
It appears that I am a sucker for a good early eighties R&B track with nice synth bass lines. That, plus Chaka Khan was always a fantastic singer.

15. “Nightshift”, The Commodores, Nightshift
Part of the reason for this one’s high count is that I think it is easily the best sounding recording I made for the project - the record had been unplayed, so that helped, and it just came out great. There’s those great bass-y synths again!

16. “I.G.Y.”, Donald Fagen, The Nightfly
There’s a tremendous amount going on in this seemingly-simple song. Outstanding.

17. “Human Nature”, Michael Jackson, Thriller
I still really enjoy half (Billie Jean, PYT, Human Nature) of the big hits while the other half (Beat It, Thriller, Wanna Be Startin’…), well, not so much. I won’t even get into my opinion of that “The Girl is Mine” travesty.

18. “Don’t Stop Believin’”, Journey, Escape
My cousin’s partner Glenn used to comment that it was impossible to cross the state line into CT and not be able to find either a Journey or a Lionel Richie song on the radio somewhere. I don’t have much to say about Lionel, but I do enjoy Journey now and again. Must be nostalgia.

19. “Baby Jane”, Rod Stewart, Body Wishes
Rod made a few great 80s singles - this one and “Young Turks” were both fantastic. The same can not be said for “Love Touch” or “Some Guys Have All the Luck”, unfortunately.

20. “Everything She Wants”, Wham, Make it Big
I used to point to this song as an example of George Michael really being a great pop songwriter. Then I learned that the arrangement was completely handed over to Anne Dudley of the Art of Noise, and it all made perfect sense.

I always say that my favorite song from the Early Eighties Project is “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, and that’s still true. There are also a lot of other songs that are notably absent from this count, but I think all of this can be chalked up to the fact the bulk of the songs listed above were recorded very late in the game, and therefore were not a part of the endless listening that the others were.

Posted in: distractions, sound 5 Comments »

Reflection

March 14, 2007

Fascinatingly, “Turn Your Love Around” by George Benson is the only song out of the entire Early Eighties Project that makes it into my top twenty most-played iTunes songs. None of the others even come close, although I’d have to check this more thoroughly when I’m in front of my home machine.

It is approaching two years since the project was completed, which seems aboslutely unbelievable.

I don’t miss it.

Since the project was completed I have purged the bulk of the records and officially abandoned any notion of continuing it in any form. There are those that periodically push me to expand it to cover the entire decade, but this is not something that I am willing to do in any capacity.

MC Hammer. Belinda solo. Martika. Hair bands.

Nope, I’m not going to be taking up that challenge.

It is also interesting to note how my photography started to come back into my life full force once the project was done. I don’t think the two events are related in any meaningful way, but that is how it has worked out.

I am at a crossroads with my work. I am fairly good at the stuff I do, and could go on doing it quite comfortably, but it is time to decide what path I want to take with all of this. Is it going to support me? Am I going to work to support it? What’s the best way for me to market this kind of work?

Well, one thing I have to admit. Conceptually, the work is pretty flaccid. I take pictures of buildings. Highly aesthetic. Despite my attempts in my artists statement to elevate the work to some level of theoretical polish, the reality is that it is really no suprise that the work does not “say” much. There’s really very little I want to say with my images.

Grad school did their best to teach me that this is a bad thing, and for the most part they succeeded. I recognize the challenges that I am creating for myself if I continue to shoot in this vein, and feel that my days of trying to walk a tightrope between the two are numbered. The options are to conceptualize my efforts, or freely admit that I am fine working outside of this condition and shift my path to capitalize on my work rather than impress the invisible group of art critics mumbling in my head.

I will always, to some degree or other, make images for myself - that isn’t an issue - the question is whether or not I wish to juggle things around to generate income from some aspect of my photography. If I do, then it is time to act fast. The plain truth is that my current habits and practice are deluded and unrealistic if I ever expect to see a return on any of my work.

Hmm.

Posted in: distractions, photo chatter 3 Comments »

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