I would say that most of you have heard my rants about CDs already. Basically, there are pros and cons to the digital format. The major con for me is that you’re actually getting less music than you get with analog recordings. On a record, you’re hearing the full sound wave. On a CD, you’re hearing a sampling of points along that wave. Some people claim that the difference is indistinguishable to the human ear, but I don’t buy it. Ezra and I tested out this theory when my parents came to visit one time. He has a jazz album on vinyl and CD. So, we listened to the same track on both the vinyl and the CD. The vinyl sounded much richer, and we could actually hear things that we didn’t notice on the CD. If you take care of your vinyl and have decent equipment (especially a decent needle), vinyl just sounds better than CDs, period.

I also like the substantial physical qualities of records. I love album covers and “secret” messages written in the vinyl. The presence of records is really appealing (in many senses of the word “presence,” I guess).

I guess that I want to revere the physical casings of my music. I don’t want to just toss my music around carelessly. That devalues it (no wonder I feel like I should be paying about $4 for a CD, not $18).

Well, I could probably go on, but you get the idea. I need one of those Save the LP buttons.

Terri and I both have different gripes with CDs. I’ll let Terri explicate her own reasons, which she tends to do with little provocation and with great gusto.

But my main two are these.

1. Bonus tracks on Jazz CD re-issues. My new copy of Sketches of Spain has two alternate versions of one track, making a total of 3 for the album, and an additional track which didn’t make the original album. The version of Mingus Ah Um is by far the worst culprit in my collection. It has bonus tracks of several songs that were never on the album, but inexplicably, Fables of Faubus has had the lyrics removed, and the original album version is nowhere to be found. Three other tracks have been “un-edited”, that is, they were edited down on the original to fit the format, and now they’ve been restored to their unedited version.

   Look, I appreciate that these things are just sitting in a vault somewhere, and they should definitely be released, and even done at no extra cost to the buyer. But a CD is about $.05 worth of plastic, and a hinged 2 CD case takes up no more space than a single CD case. Why not put the original album, as released, as has been heard for the last 40 years, on one CD, and put the bonus tracks and outtakes on a separate CD? That way, I can listen to the original version for everyday use, and check out the alternate tracks on my own time.

2. The death of the album side. 20-25 minutes is a reasonable amount of time to listen to music without fatigue setting in. 74 minutes is way too long. Even 45 minutes is way too long. You need a break halfway through where you clear your mind for the second half. Until I figured this out, I never paid the proper attention to the second halves of CDs. Now, when I buy a CD, I listen to the album all the way through for the first week or so. Then, starting the second week, I start the CD at the halfway point and listen from there. At that point, the soungs sound vaguely familiar, but it’s really like hearing them for the first time.

Of course, CDs are better for classical, and albums really were always a sort of awkward format for classical.

Justice Scalia’s hunting wabbits.

James Brown’s new mugshot makes him look like he was just pulled out of a so-called spider hole.

Actually, screw “poor James Brown.” Poor Mrs. James Brown.

NYT article about targetting eBay sellers who don’t spell check.

When Holly Marshall wanted to sell a pair of dangling earrings, a popular style these days, she listed them on eBay once, and got no takers. She tried a second time, and still no interest.

Was it the price? The fuzzy picture? Maybe the description: a beautiful pair of chandaleer earrings.

Such is the eBay underworld of misspellers, where the clueless — and sometimes just careless — sell labtop computers, throwing knifes, Art Deko vases, camras, comferters and saphires.

It’s Tuesday evening, January 27th and I am at work, but it’s 5:24 and I’m feeling exhausted, so I’ll probably be leaving soon. We’re supposed to get a big snowstorm tonight. I can’t be the only person who gets excited for this stuff.

In knitting news, I am finally almost done with the cabled long-sleeved turtleneck I’ve been working on for the past, oh, two years. I think I’m going to try re-blocking it after I finish sewing up the sleeve seams. It’s not too bad as is, but I think it could be better. I’m making good progress on the blue sweater I’m working on (my first Rowan pattern, Heather from A Season’s Tale). I haven’t picked up my green sweater from the vintage pattern in a while. I think I may have to work some trickery on that one (take a bit out). It’s a little long, I think, which might actually be a problem given the early 1960′s sizing. So anyway, even with all of this, I am starting to think about my next project. As soon as the cabled turtleneck is done, I’ll probably pick one out.

In reading news, I’m working on The Corrections. It’s pretty good. Everything is still paling in comparison to Empire Falls, but I’ve read some pretty good things of late.

I’ve been plowing at work, but that means at the end of the day I’m pretty worn out (like now!).

Our upstairs neighbors, Ed and Juliet, had their baby on Friday night. It’s a boy–Jacob Francis. They sent around pictures on email on Saturday. He’s a cutie–looks like Juliet (so far). I haven’t heard him yet, though Ezra says he heard him crying last night after I fell asleep.

Hope to add some new features relatively soon… keep an eye out on the stories, creations, and music pages. Eventually, they will contain goodies!