Thursday, August 8, 2013

Open Thread

Rush - Chemistry (Lyrics)
 
bagoh20 said...
 
I started listening to Rush in 1975 with their second album often in a pitch black attic bedroom with it spinning on my Technics turntable with my JBL speakers cranked to 11 on my Pioneer amp or even better with headphones. In those days every little thing mattered. The cartridge on the tone arm, the paper used in the speaker drivers, the placement of the chairs in the room was critical. Most of my extra money went to buy new stereo equipment that was advancing every month. Money was tight, but this was important stuff.

For some reason I stopped listening to Rush much, and it seems that I and everyone else had stopped listening carefully to Rock for decades. I've recently started listening to Rush again, but still not carefully like I did everything back then. A very talented Rock band I think from the beginning. 

70 comments:

Icepick said...

From the files marked:

Yeah, nothing bad can POSSIBLY come of this....

Exclusive: U.S. Will Now Let in Thousands of Syrian Refugees

Icepick said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Icepick said...

Which brings to mind another point. Joker Tsarnaev became a naturalized citizen last year on September 11. He must have been investigated by someone in authority for his naturalization process. That investigation failed to note what he was.

Now the powers that be want to greatly increase the number of people becoming naturalized citizens. Anyone want to bet on how well the screening process will be for this new flood of Democratic voters?

Dante said...

I'm curious what the purpose of the "donate" button is, and how the funds are used/disseminated.

bagoh20 said...

I started listening to Rush in 1975 with their second album often in a pitch black attic bedroom with it spinning on my Technics turntable with my JBL speakers cranked to 11 on my Pioneer amp or even better with headphones. In those days every little thing mattered. The cartridge on the tone arm, the paper used in the speaker drivers, the placement of the chairs in the room was critical. Most of my extra money went to buy new stereo equipment that was advancing every month. Money was tight, but this was important stuff.

For some reason I stopped listening to Rush much, and it seems that I and everyone else had stopped listening carefully to Rock for decades. I've recently started listening to Rush again, but still not carefully like I did everything back then. A very talented Rock band I think from the beginning.

bagoh20 said...

I believe the funds are used to light big fat cigars with hundred dollar bills while sitting on a yacht in pajamas stained with fine brandy and caviar, all the while staring at a gemstone bedazzled Ipad and laughing maniacally.

bagoh20 said...

Lem, you have a little caviar on your chin there.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I'm curious what the purpose of the "donate" button is, and how the funds are used/disseminated.

If I remember correctly, the donation button came out, evolved out of a comment I made suggesting I was going to increase the size of memory available for comments. the comments started disappearing after around 200 or so. I increased them by buying a bigger package twice.

After increasing them somebody (Meade, I believe) suggested I get donations to cover the cost.

Its all there in the early comment archives.

As for how donations are used/disseminated. I believe I need to consult that with the contributors who might be expecting to remain anonymous. All of them, with the exception of Meade (I think, I'm recounting from memory) made no mention of donations in the open comments. So, I have to assume they would want to remain anonymous.

W/O mentioning any names, I've received in donations a total of about $510.00

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Snowden's E-Mail Provider Is Closing, Cannot Legally Say Why

Chip Ahoy said...

Lavabit:

I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work

continue to fight for the Constitution in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. A favorable decision would allow me resurrect Lavabit as an American company.

without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.

Wait, did he say, without congress and without Judicial action? That only leave one branch. Whatever could he be getting at.

Come on, out with it, say it.

Silent Circle:

Today, another secure email provider, Lavabit, shut down their system lest they “be complicit in crimes against the American people.” We see the writing the wall, and we have decided that it is best for us to shut down Silent Mail now. We have not received subpoenas, warrants, security letters, or anything else by any government, and this is why we are acting now.

Silent Phone and Silent Text, along with their cousin Silent Eyes are end-to-end secure. We don’t have the encrypted data and we don’t collect metadata about your conversations. They’re continuing as they have been. We are still working on innovative ways to do truly secure communications. Silent Mail was a good idea at the time, and that time is past.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

and it seems that I and everyone else had stopped listening carefully to Rock for decades.

Please count me as amongst those who stopped listening carefully to rock, or any music for that matter.

I think it has something to do with my waning sex drive.

In a few short years I expect to become wholly indifferent to music altogether.

My old stereo equipment is piled up in the basement, disconnected.

The internet tells me that Sansui stereo components are considered "vintage."

* sigh *

KCFleming said...

I no longer lust after songs, but I remain heavily interested in new work.

Lana Del Ray is a recent favorite, along with Cat Power and Lykke Li.

But like bagoh, I was intense about music back then. Elvis Costello, Brian Eno, Mike Oldfield, and This Mortal Coil. I knew stats like some people know baseball.

Not sure what it all meant, but damn I knew it was important.

Meade said...

"W/O mentioning any names, I've received in donations a total of about $510.00"

My hope is that Lem receives at least 100X that amount over the course of a year. I enjoy making weekly donations. My opinion is that he should do whatever he feels like doing with the donations.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

My Nephew takes music lessons at "The School OF Rock". He loves it, it's his salvation.
They've covered The Who and Pink Floyd and other artists. This summer at the Creek Fest, I was sitting off to the side waiting to pick him up... just listening. The band played a Rush instrumental.

I was all... cool! and it was well done.

There are a few Rush songs that I will always like. Timeless rock. The real thing.

bagoh20 said...

"$510.00"

OK, so maybe not the yacht, but the cigars, caviar and brandy, for sure. Pajamas optional.

bagoh20 said...

I bought some more candy cigarettes through the portal, so I think Lem can move up to the real caviar now and move past the salmon eggs from the bait store.

rhhardin said...

Bach rocks.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I think it was back in the mid-1980's that I got the urge to listen to the old LP albums I'd been saving, so I bought one of those linear tracking turntables because it was encased and you could stack other components on top of it.

It was a Sony and it broke very soon after purchase so I bought another. That, too, soon broke.

That's when all my LP's went into the dumpster.

Truly it was the will of Allah, may his name be praised.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

The internet delivers. LINK.

Aridog said...

Dante said...

I'm curious what the purpose of the "donate" button is, and how the funds are used/disseminated.

It is there for the Amazon-disadvantaged, such as me, who will "donate", but who can screw up ordering one roll of TP from Amazon. I classify Amazon, other than for books, in the same class as "Ideeli."

Also for those who otherwise find Amazon an incomplete listing site, but still wish to contribute. Recently looked for a HDD drive reader for both IDE and SATA...using the CH portal...the one I wanted was not on Amazon, but was on Newegg. Just saying...

Why, yes, I am a putz.

chickelit said...

@bagoh20: Rush takes me back to the space time coordinates of Madison's Dane County Coliseum, 11/16/75. I was 15 and there! Rush opened for Ted Nugent who opened for Aerosmith. A friend and I were so close and upfront we were inside the sonic blast cone. I had never heard of Rush before.

ndspinelli said...

"Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out."

Frank A. Clark

ndspinelli said...

"Generosity needs no logrolling."

Toba Beta

ndspinelli said...

"For it is in giving that we receive."

St. Francis of Assisi

ndspinelli said...

Pride only helps us to be generous, it never makes us so, any more than vanity makes us witty."

George Eliot

ndspinelli said...

What is called generosity is usually only the vanity of giving; we enjoy the vanity more than the giving."

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

ndspinelli said...

"I try not to speak about all the charity and people I help. because I believe we can only be truly generous when we expect nothing in return."

Muhammad Ali

chickelit said...

bagoh20 wrote: The cartridge on the tone arm, the paper used in the speaker drivers, the placement of the chairs in the room was critical.

Ted Nugent's Stranglehold was a good speaker test. The opening guitar riff comes mostly through the tweeter and midrange speakers until the bass and drums kicked in through the woofers.

deborah said...

Great link, rh.

William said...

I think many people back then were greater fans of audio technology than they were of music. Classical music fans were the worst. I knew one guy who actually wore white gloves when removing the record from the envelope. Fetishism.

Anonymous said...

I lived in Boston in the seventies. I've forgotten the names of the two big stereo chains then, but I remember drooling over their catalogs with the delightful yet tedious process of matching receiver, turntable, and speakers to one's apartment, taste, budget, and fantasies.

I settled on an all-black SAE receiver and Infinity speakers. Turntable forgotten. I sold the receiver to a friend. The Infinities lasted over twenty years until the sound became fuzzy and crackly.

I took the speakers apart and saw that the rubber foam which surrounded the cone had rotted. On the inside of one of the particle board pieces I saw the name "Angie" written in large black felt-tip with a high school girl's swirls.

But today the mystery is gone. Buying a stereo is like buying a washing machine.

chickelit said...

@creeley: Quite a bit of high-end audiophile equipment came out of Cambridge back then--companies KLH, Acoustic Research, etc. I still have and use an old pair of Advent loudspeakers.

Methadras said...

I was never a Rush fan. Not sure why. I just couldn't get into them at all. A great band, great musicianship, but just couldn't do it. However, my affinity for A/V, like you, went unabated for a long long time.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Many years ago a buddy invited me over to hear his new speakers. He got them used but they were still very, very expensive.

It struck me as extremely odd that the cabinets were ENORMOUS, like the size of a dog house, while each had only two rather small little drivers.

He said, "I know what you're thinking, but just wait till you hear what they can do."

So he put some album by Steely Dan on the turntable and then he cranks the volume and I was ABSOLUTELY ASTONISHED!!

It was like the band was performing right there in the room, with the two of us just standing there in front of the speakers, surrounded in all three physical dimensions by wave after wave of perfect sound.

The moment my friend started that LP was also the exact, precise instant that the marijuana kicked in so that might have had something to do with it all, I should probably add, in the interest of full disclosure.

Anonymous said...

Meade: Still with the donate-to-Lem stuff, I see, which I've always taken, as others did, as a guilt trip for how much we should have given Althouse. Although I'm glad Lem is covered for comments>200 expenses, I can't imagine it was that expensive, storage being so cheap these days.

The Sitemeter site was down Sunday, so I didn't get back to you, as promised on the Althouse numbers. Sorry about that, but Sitemeter's back...

Ooo...the numbers are down, baby, solidly so. The 30-day moving average looks bad, barely bouncing off the 25,000 base line. But for the real story, sports fans, look at the monthly visits chart where we see the Althouse stats have been kneecapped by almost 75% from the previous month.

True, the month doesn't end until August 13, but that's only four days away, so we can comfortably project that Althouse's tantrum cost her more than two-thirds of her monthly visits.

Which, getting back to our debt to Althouse, you can see that Althouse commenters did contribute substantially to her blog's presence. At Alexa can see that her blog's global rank dropped from around 45,000 to around 90,000.

You can buy extra space for comments cheap, but try buying web traffic.

Commenters, you make a difference!

bagoh20 said...

Holy crap, creeley! I knew we were good, but not that good. As self-inflicted as it is over there, I do feel some sympathy. What's that you say? She voted for Obama? Well then, yea, maybe she just needs to go back to school and learn how to make better decisions.

bagoh20 said...

I think there was some alluding in my comment, and so I apologize for the wrath that may bring to this site.

Aridog said...

bagoh20 said...

I think there was some alluding in my comment, and so I apologize for the wrath that may bring to this site.

"Alluding" only counts if you are posting with your pants on.

bagoh20 said...

I'm remodeling my house, and all the blinds on the windows are removed so I can paint. Consequently my standard blog reading dress code is drawing a large crowd of viewers outside the house, and I think I know what they want - my ever popular yoga routine, especially my patented "upward pooping dog" position. That always gets 'em.

Anonymous said...

I think there was some alluding in my comment, and so I apologize for the wrath that may bring to this site.

bagoh: It's win-win, bro. The Lem/Meadhouse wars drive the numbers up at both sites. You're doing them a favor, dude. That's just the kind of guy you are.

Phil 314 said...

creeley;
Maybe the Professor was just getting tired of it all.

Aridog said...

Phil 3:14 sez ...

... the Professor ...

Who?

Anonymous said...

Phil 3:14: It wouldn't surprise me in the least. I give Althouse full marks for her day-in, day-out dedication to the blog for all these years.

But that doesn't explain or excuse her meltdown and subsequent slamming shut of comments. If she needed a break, she could have done so. If she wanted the commenters to settle down, she could have asked.

No one forced her to carry on in such an unprofessional, contemptuous way. That was her choice. Not only was it nasty, it was also self-defeating. One can only hope the emotional satisfaction was worth it.

Icepick said...

"Alluding" only counts if you are posting with your pants on.

What if he's wearing shorts?

Meade said...

"If she wanted the commenters to settle down, she could have asked."

Creeley, would you please settle down? Thanks.

Oh and how about sending Lem a few bucks for keeping this place open so you have somewhere to grouse.

Double thanks.

Anonymous said...

Meade: If that's all you've got, I'll take it that what I said stands.

Althouse really has lost serious traffic despite your earlier brave claim to the contrary.

One man gathers what another man spills.

Not to bring up the Althouse Principle of Absolute Male Sperm Responsibility again...

Meade said...

Yes, the Althouse blog was all about your comments, Creeley. Your deeply insightful intelligently humorous comments.

What can we do to get you back? Before it's too late and the Althouse blog sputters to a complete failure.

Anonymous said...

Of course, that has nothing to do with what I said. Nor am I interested in returning to Althouse, not that it matters.

'Til next week, my friend!

Revenant said...

If Althouse didn't think the comments were worth it to her, getting rid of the comments was the right choice.

Speaking for myself, though, without comments I don't see the point. The community was the reason to visit the blog.

Revenant said...

True, the month doesn't end until August 13

Creely, "August 13" on that chart means "August 2013", not "August 13th". Her traffic's only down by 10% or so.

Meade said...

What I meant was - how can we get intelligent humorous commenters like Revenant back.

bagoh20 said...

Meade, I stopped by TOP to compliment you on your beautiful floor. It really is nice, and I've done a lot of solid oak floor myself. Now get over there and moderate me. It's gonna be a very rare opportunity.

bagoh20 said...

Ahh, the power of the allude. Maybe it's just the way I do it.

bagoh20 said...

" Her traffic's only down by 10% or so."

Kinda like nonfat milk, or nonalcoholic beer.

Revenant said...

Did you just compare Althouse to non-alcoholic beer?

You know, in Germany and the Czech Republic that would be considered hate speech.

Anonymous said...

Revenant: Good point. I believe you're right. Ten percent sounds low, though.

1 -((31/9 * 200) / 800) = 14%

We'll see for sure on Sept 1.

Meade said...

Thanks for your comment, bags. Sometimes it takes me a while to get to those awaiting moderation. Hitting "publish" over and over again won't really speed things up and in fact only adds to the time it takes me to read through and click allow. On the other hand, multiple publishes does add to page views and will probably make up for the 10-14% drop off we've suffered since ardent commenters like creeley began their crippling boycott of The Other Place Formerly Known As Althouse.

Meade said...

So THANKS!!!

Meade said...

So THANKS!!!

Meade said...

So THANKS!!!

Meade said...

So THANKS!!!

Meade said...

So THANKS!!!

bagoh20 said...

I only hit publish once, but that is an easy way to "havocate" a blog. Yes, I made up that that word, and I like it. Havocate: to cause havoc, disrupt, meadefy.

Aridog said...

Revenant said...

If Althouse didn't think the comments were worth it to her, getting rid of the comments was the right choice.

True enough. But she hasn't eliminated comments, just added moderation. Anyone is free to visit and comment if they can pass moderation muster.

As for Laurence's remark about one or more former readers and commenters
"boycotting" the "new" Althouse: I find that funny considering how much he has told us that he helped Lem get this place going and contributes to it weekly, blah blah.

For one, I am not going back to comment because of one person, Laurence, and his behavior here early on, not Ann, her ideas, or anyone else. I will read a few times a week, maybe...depending upon subject matter.

No, I am not "alluding" I am flat out saying what I think. It is not a "boycott" when one is just no longer interested.

Anonymous said...

The bad actors are boycotting Althouse because of OTHERS bad behavior. It is to laugh.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
chickelit said...

Inga wrote: The bad actors are boycotting Althouse because of OTHERS bad behavior. It is to laugh.

Why don't you go jump in your lake?

Aridog said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Meade said...

creeley23 said...
"True, the month doesn't end until August 13, but that's only four days away, so we can comfortably project that Althouse's tantrum cost her more than two-thirds of her monthly visits."

Well, August has ended, just as you predicted.
How the blog will ever bounce back without you, Creeley, I will never know.