Featured
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- Category: Blu-ray movies Blu-ray movies
"Minding the Gap"
January 2021
Raw and Riveting Documentary About a Lot More than Skateboards
The Criterion Collection 1061
Format: BD
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While best known for their restorations of classic films, once in a while The Criterion Collection deems something recent worthy of its attentions—such as Minding the Gap (2018), the first feature-length film to be directed by Chinese-American cameraman Bing Liu. It’s less “a skateboarding movie” than a riveting documentary on the lasting effects of domestic abuse.
Boosting the Grooves—"American Beauty" Blossoms Anew by Tweaking My Phono Signal with NAD and AudioQuest
January 2021
As a professional writer, I’ve spent a lot of my life interviewing electrical engineers about technology and then communicating how things work to lay audiences. From the basics of sending voices down copper lines to cloud storage for data, I like to think I’ve done a good job of explaining technology. And while I could do the same with the way physical vibrations are generated on a record and transformed into sound, there’s a black magic to that particular feat of engineering that always makes me shake my head in wonder.
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- Category: Music Everywhere Music Everywhere
iHome Playtough Pro iBT158 Bluetooth Speaker
January 2021
iHome makes a wealth of Bluetooth speaker models, many of them including light shows. I ordered the Playtough Pro iBT158 ($79.99 USD) for its intriguing light-show rings and because it’s waterproof and dustproof.
Jimi Hendrix, Curated
January 2021
In September 1966, when James Marshall Hendrix arrived in London to record his debut album, fronting his own band, he was just two months shy of his 24th birthday. He had been playing professionally since 1962, when he and bassist Billy Cox had left the US Army, where they met, and moved to Nashville. While he was in Tennessee, Hendrix played on the Chitlin’ Circuit, sometimes referred to as the urban theater circuit. These were venues in the South, the Eastern Seaboard, and the Midwest that featured African-American performers. Hendrix backed a number of soul singers during his time on the circuit, including Wilson Pickett and Sam Cooke.
Sonny Rollins: "Rollins in Holland"
January 2021
Resonance 2048
Format: CD
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Instrumental virtuosity can be a mixed blessing, even if some of us would put it in the category of “nice problem to have.”
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- Category: Blu-ray movies Blu-ray movies
"Moonstruck"
December 2020
The Moon, Magic, and Perfection in the Air
The Criterion Collection 1053
Format: BD
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Canadian Norman Jewison made some fine films in his 41-year career as a director, including The Cincinnati Kid (1965), In the Heat of the Night (1967), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), A Soldier’s Story (1984), and Agnes of God (1985). But Moonstruck (1987) stands out as a masterpiece of romantic comedy, a film so perfect I find no fault in it.
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- Category: SoundStage! Encore SoundStage! Encore
High-Res Recording for Musical Authenticity
December 2020
Located in Ultrecht, The Netherlands, TRPTK is a recording studio that specializes in producing multichannel, high-resolution music recordings. In our first video TRPTK video, released in May 2020, we talked to recording engineer Brendon Heinst about what attracted him to create high-resolution, multichannel productions. In this video, we talk to classical violinist Merel Vercammen and jazz musician Teis Semey about what drew them to record the TRPTK way and how they feel about the results achieved for their recordings.
Taking the NAD C 538 to Church. My "Kind of Blue" CD Never Sounded So Good.
December 2020
Oh, the hi-fi equipment and music I have known.
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- Category: Music Everywhere Music Everywhere
JBL Go 3 Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker
December 2020
JBL’s new Go 3 portable Bluetooth speaker, attractively priced at $39.95 USD, is no mere update but instead a virtual redesign of their popular Go 2.
The Nels Cline Singers' "Share the Wealth" and Dave Douglas's "Marching Music"
December 2020
The Nels Cline Singers: Share the Wealth
Blue Note 0737079
Format: CD
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Dave Douglas: Marching Music
Greenleaf Music 1078
Format: CD
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Jimi Hendrix’s epochal “Machine Gun” in the time of Richard Nixon, the Clash’s unforgiving “Clampdown” in Margaret Thatcher’s Britain, Bruce Springsteen’s elegiac “Long Walk Home” in response to George W. Bush: musicians frequently have created some of their best work in response to autocratic leadership and social oppression. Those artists who employ vocals can easily make their opposition known; for composers who work in instrumental settings, it’s a higher bar.
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- Category: Blu-ray movies Blu-ray movies
"The Hit"
November 2020
A Slow-Burn, Murderous Road Trip Through Spain
The Criterion Collection 469
Format: BD
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Stephen Frears directed The Hit in 1984, shortly before making what many consider his best-known film, My Beautiful Laundrette (1985). In The Hit, Willie Parker (Terence Stamp), a London gangster, turns court evidence on his four co-conspirators. Flash forward ten years -- Willie, living the life of Riley in Spain, has a hacienda with a spectacular view, a fabulous book collection, and goes on bicycle rides accompanied by an inept bodyguard.
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- Category: Music Everywhere Music Everywhere
Audioengine A1 Powered Bluetooth Loudspeakers
November 2020
Powered and active loudspeakers continue to grow in popularity. They offer an inexpensive way to set up a high-quality music system without having to assemble separates: a receiver, integrated amplifier, or preamp and power amp. Audioengine has had great success with its larger A2+ stereo speaker system ($269/pair, all prices USD). Now they hope to repeat that with the less expensive A1 ($199/pair).
Cindy Blackman Santana: "Give the Drummer Some"
November 2020
Copperline 105
Format: CD
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At 60, drummer Cindy Blackman Santana has had an exceptionally varied career that has seen her perform at both massive arenas and tiny clubs. The former came courtesy of her long tenure with singer-guitarist Lenny Kravitz, whom she first played with in 1993, the latter from her long apprenticeship as a jazz musician. In an interview, she once told me that the primary difference was what happened before and after the shows.
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- Category: Blu-ray movies Blu-ray movies
"Brute Force"
October 2020
Prison-Reform Agitprop ca. 1947
The Criterion Collection 383
Format: BD
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In these weeks and months following the death of George Floyd, we’ve heard a lot about prison reform and police brutality. The issue has been around a while -- witness this 1947 film from director Jules Dassin and producer Mark Hellinger. But there’s a huge difference between the prison-reform controversy of the 1940s and today’s: Few Black faces are seen among the prisoners in Brute Force, who are mostly white. The themes, on the other hand, are all too familiar.
