Back in September I mentioned how much I had enjoyed the challenge of writing very short, streamlined liner notes for the SF Symphony’s “Keeping Score Soundtracks” releases. How to describe the Eroica in 150 words? Quite the writing étude.
Although the physical media set isn’t yet available, Classical Archives is distributing the recordings as downloads, together with those in-a-nutshell liner notes of mine. Each liner note is on its own tab, nicely reproduced save no italics for foreign terms. So if you would like to determine whether or not I was successful with my ultra-compressed essays, you may read them here: http://www.classicalarchives.com/features/san_francisco_symphony_keeping_score_concerts.html#tv=no6
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I read that Apple is consigning upstart computer assembler Psystar to oblivion. This was a foregone conclusion given Psystar’s business model of assembling plain-jane PCs and selling them with OS X installed, clearly in violation of the license for OS X which specifies that the operating system may be installed on Apple hardware only. So Apple has reamed them out in court, as is Apple’s right to do.
I read also that Psystar managed to sell a grand total of 768 computers during their short existence.
Despite the bleating in the computer press about Apple’s unfairness and exclusivity, it’s obvious that nobody wanted those Hackintosh clone computers. And why would anyone? A large part of the attraction to Apple has to do with the company’s hallmark design and execution. An iMac is a desirable computer in and of itself, whether or not you’re running OS X, Windows, or even Linux for that matter. (Although why anybody would want to run Linux on a Mac is beyond me, given that OS X is actually a full-tilt Unix under the hood.)
I value my three Macs not only for OS X—dandy though it is—but for all those sweet extras, such as the whisper-quiet operation of my Mac Pro, despite its being a huge, heavy aluminum box filled with fans, hard drives, processors, memory, and the like. For the lightness and sturdiness of my one-piece aluminum MacBook Pro, not to mention its drop-dead gorgeous 17″ display and the best trackpad in the world. For the simplicity and quiet of the Mac Mini that powers my living room audiovisual center. For the great little wireless keyboard, and the dandy new Magic Mouse. For the iPhone and its svelte beauty.
I’ve even cooked up my own Hackintosh out of an HP laptop and I can assure you that the end result isn’t worth the bother. Even allowing for all that doesn’t work—trackpad, camera, wireless, Bluetooth, sound—it’s still a clunky plastic slab, more concerned with lots of doodads than with classy design.
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Rafel Kubelik’s Dvorak recordings are just plain stunning—the Stabat Mater, the various symphonies, the tone poems. I don’t know when I’ve heard a more altogether satisfying Eighth.
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I’ve taken a few listening tests today challenging my ear to hear the difference between a lossless audio file such as one in FLAC or Apple Lossless, and an audio file of the same music in mp3 format at 320 kbits. I’ve been able to distinguish them more often than not, so there remains at least some difference to my middle-aged ear. I’m using extremely fine equipment, to be sure: the digital output from my Mac goes into a Benchmark DAC1 USB, the output of which powers my Sennheiser HD 800 headphones. Not only is this high quality, but it is also a very short signal chain. I can’t always hear the difference, and in no way do I find mp3 320 audio files unpleasant. In fact, I really doubt I would notice any difference except via side-by-side comparisons. Still, just to be safe, I do all my ripping in Apple Lossless format. After all, hard disk space is really, really cheap.
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There is no comparison between a heritage turkey—i.e., one of the original species before modern cross-breeding, allowed to grow naturally, eating a good diet of grass and the like together with organic, zero-antibiotic feed—and those grocery-store Butterballs or the like that I grew up with. I can imagine some people not even liking a real, honest-to-God turkey; the flavor is definitely more bird-y and individual than that oddly neutral meat of today’s factory-farmed bird. I’ll grant you that a real turkey is expensive; a four-pound breast set me back $30.00. But said breast is good for quite a few meals, and factoring in the vastly higher quality of the meat, I think it’s money well spent. Certainly that bird, together with some nice organic cornmeal stuffing, a squash-y thing whipped up with some spices and butter, fresh organic salad greens, oldstyle Southern brown flour gravy (my favorite) and a truly lovely Ridge Zinfandel, made for a light, relatively pricey, but well-nigh perfect Thanksgiving meal that required only brief preparation and simple cleanup, and is yielding an excellent supply of leftovers.
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Speaking of turkeys, Obama’s pardon-the-turkey speech the other day: as he put it, Sasha and Malia talked him into sparing the turkey’s life; otherwise, “I was going to eat that sucker!” chirped our Prez. I’m delighted (and relieved) to know that the pressures of his high office aren’t having too much of an impact on his sense of humor—one of the most robust in Presidential history, I think.