Month: September 2010

The Rise and Fall of High-Fidelity Music

I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s when high fidelity was important to music listeners.  I first heard music on a 1955 Pontiac radio – AM mono in all its finest.  Later on I got a tiny 5 transitory radio with a single ear-bud.  The sound was terrible but I didn’t know it.  In 1962 I got a clock AM radio that I listened to for years.  That same year my sister got a portable stereo that I eventually stole.  In 1968 I bought a console stereo with my own money.  In 1971 I bought my first component stereo, and it’s been a series of component setups ever since.  Life was always about stepping up sonically.  Strangely enough, living in the 21st century means stepping down in high fidelity.

Currently I can listen to music on these systems in descending high fidelity:

  • Playing CDs and SACDs on a modest $1400 system with floor standing Infinity speakers
  • Playing CDs in the car
  • Playing CDs on my computer through Klipsch THX speakers
  • Playing ripped CDs on the stereo or PC
  • Playing Rhapsody downloads on the stereo or PC
  • Playing Rhapsody streams on the stereo or PC
  • Playing MP3s on my iPods or Zune portable player through ear buds

I have over a thousand CDs but I seldom play them anymore.  I have ripped 18,000+ songs to 256kbs MP3 files.  I have access to ten million songs through Rhapsody that I can save as 160kbs WMA files or stream live.  Right now I’m listening to the new Neil Young album Le Noise playing loud through my PC’s Klipsch speakers, the most common way I listen to music daily.  It sounds good, but not nearly as good as CDs on my living room stereo, and especially not as good as SACDs.

Why didn’t Super Audio CD catch on?  Probably for the same reason quadraphonic systems didn’t catch on back in the 1970s, because people had to buy too much extra equipment.  On the other hand, people are buying surround sound systems for their high definition TVs, and SACD could have easily integrated into such systems.

I can’t believe kids today love iPod quality sound.  Not only has the SACD quality music been rejected in the marketplace, but now people are rejecting CD quality sound in favor of digital download song quality.  A small percentage of music fans are returning to the LP and turntable, but I don’t know if that’s because of sound quality or nostalgia.

I remember when I was much younger going to audiophile stores and listening to very expensive equipment in custom sound rooms and dreaming of having the money to buy such setups.  Those $25,000 systems made recorded music sound as close to live as I’ve ever heard.  But those showrooms also featured a trick.  When the salesman puts you in a chair in the aural sweet spot and cranks up the volume, you aren’t doing anything but concentration on the music.  People seldom listening to music today with the same concentration they put into watching TV or reading a book.  Why?

Back then, in the 1980s, I assumed that one day those $25,000 systems would one day sell for $1,000 or even $500 because of the relentless drive of technological development.  And it would be cool if a $149 iPod Nano did play music like those $25,000 sound room systems, but they don’t.

When people started ripping MP3 music for their computers they decided that their sound quality was good enough.  People marvel at Blu-ray and DVD sound on movie discs, but they no longer want to sit in their recliner and just listen to music.  Music has become the background beat of an on-the-go-life.  People who really love music go to live concerts, and maybe that’s where they expect to hear high fidelity.

The real audiophile fanatics are usually classical and jazz music fans, and fans of those genres seem to be dying off, which might explain the declining interest in high fidelity stereo systems.  But what if some company started marketing a PC soundcard with a simple soundbar that had magnificent dynamic range and filled a bedroom or living with the sensation of being in a small club listening to music live?  Would such a gadget becoming a game changer like the iPod?

Everything is about carrying around tech, iPhones, iPads and iPods – but will we ever return to sit on our butts in the La-Z-Boy tech again?

If we can stream high definition movies over the Internet, why can’t we stream SACD quality sound?  How long will the MP3 file define the sound of music?

JWH – 9/29/10

Dear Me

Dear Jimmy Age 10

If you would study more and watch less television I could finish college.

Love Jim Age 22

———-

Dear Jim Age 16

If you could run away to California it sure would be nice remembering the Monterey Pop Festival.

Love Jim Age 52

———

Dear Jim Age 22

I’m watching the Flintstones – you guys leave me alone!

Love Jimmy Age 10

———

Dear Jim Age 35

You need to start putting away money for our retirement, I’m running out.

Love James Age 72

———

Dear James Age 72

What’s in it for me?

Love Jim Age 35

———-

Dear Jimmy Age 10

Turn off that goddamn TV.

Love Jim Age 25

———-

Dear Jim Age 25

Make me.  You sound like Dad.

Love Jimmy Age 10

———-

Dear Jim Age 35

I know two women who told me I should have hit on them when we were younger.  Show me some money and I’ll tell you who they were.

Love James Age 72

———-

Dear Jim Age 17

You should hitchhike to Bethel, New York this summer.  Don’t worry about buying tickets, just remember the name Woodstock.

Love Jim Age 52

———-

Dear Jim Age 17

Tell me the secrets of getting laid

Love Jim Age 16

———

Dear Jim Age 100

Are you there?

Love James Age 77

———

Dear Jim Age 16

Ask one of the older Jims, and then let me know.

Love Jim Age 17

———

Dear Jim Age 15

The Beatles are coming near you, think you can steal $40 for tickets and bus money.

Love Jim Age 52

———-

Dear Jim Age 13

Quit reading so much science fiction, girls don’t like it.

Love Jim Age 21

———

Dear Jim Age 13

Stop reading that science fiction all the time – take up sports.  Boy am I out of shape.

Love Jim Age 45

———-

Dear Jim Age 13

Do you think you could get some older guys to place bets for you at the track?  I need  money to buy science fiction books.  I’ve read all the SF books at the library.

Love Jim Age 14

———-

Dear Jim Age 13

Get your head out of that goddamn book and do something real.

Love Jim Age 57

———-

Dear James Age 99

Are you there?

Love James Age 77

JWH – 9/17/10

My Fiction Addiction

Some addictions you know you can never give up.  Even when you know they are bad, and it’s even harder when think they’re good for you, like when you’re under the illusion you have a positive addiction.

If you’ve never had a substance abuse problem, you might think I’m using the idea of fiction addiction as a simple metaphor, but I’m not, I’m talking about a real addiction.  People crave drugs for more than just feeling good.   A good high can make life worth living, give it meaning, making a dull world dramatic, and instill the desire to go on.  Without the high, you feel what’s the point.  Fiction has me hooked like that.

I have many sources of fiction.  I listen to books, I read books, I watch stories on TV and I got to the movies, and on most days I spend several hours feeding my habit.  And when I’m not taking in stories, I make them up in my head.  I seldom take my reality straight.  A Zen master would be constantly bashing me with his bamboo cane because I just can’t keep my mind focus on reality.

I chain smoke books.  If I can’t sit and read, I plug in my iPod and listen.  If I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t sleep, I make up stories that I fantasize about writing.

Now I know that many bookworms are going to horrified I’m suggesting that fiction is bad for you, and I am, but don’t worry, I’m not suggesting you give it up.  If you’ve got the fiction addiction I don’t think you can give it up.

You know you have it bad when you’d rather read your book or watch your show than talk with a real person.  You know you have it severe when all your favorite memories are from stories.

I could be doing something real, but I choose not to.  At least that’s what I tell myself.

I’m going back to my book.

JWH – 9/21/10

Can Politicians Really Help Us?

I fear the Republicans and I’m disappointed with the Democrats.  Can either party help America get out its economic rut?  No matter what politicians promise us to get elected, the only real work they do is to stay in office.  Once elected they won’t make waves, won’t make hard decisions, won’t do what’s needed to get the job done unless it keeps them in power.

I fear the Republicans because they only have one goal – pay less taxes.  Everything else about their endless soap boxing is smoke and mirrors.  Republicans want to be rich and there’s nothing wrong with that, but they want to get rich at the expense of everyone else.  If we followed Republican desires America would end up like India, lots of poor people and a few rich ones.  Basically Republicans believe that nothing should stand in the way of getting theirs, and they don’t give a fuck about what happens to anyone else because that’s their damn problem.

Democrats want to be social engineers but they don’t want to put in the study and work it takes to help America without without causing economic hardship.  Obama had a tremendous opportunity to be a historically great leader, but he won the election and then pulled back.  He was given over eight hundred billion dollars to jump start the economy – that’s a lot of graft to buy favors, so why has a nearly crushed Republican party roared back to life?  Because few people know how that money was spent.  That would take work, and the democrats don’t seem to want to do that kind of work.

The size of the stimulus package should have had some kind of checks and balances.  It should have been spent completely publically, and with public involvement.  I think the essential problem with the political system is people want politicians take care of everything, to treat voters like babies, to wipe their ass, change their diaper and tell them goo-goo, ga-ga and bounce them on their knee.  As long as the people are babies, politicians have all the power.  They want to be the grown-ups and make all the decisions.  But can so few people make wise decisions?

Obama should have told the states and cities that there was stimulus money but the mayors and governors were responsible for spending it wisely.  Governors and mayors should have been required to propose projects that would have created the most jobs and offered the best long term benefits for their communities, and then held referendums and let the people decide which projects to back.  Everyone should have been involved.

Instead of blaming political parties for our failures we should be blaming ourselves.  We treat politics like an endless playoff game between two long-time rivals.  It’s rah rah rah for my side against yours.  Switching leaders every two, four or six years really doesn’t do much, has it?  Isn’t it just playing Mom off against Dad, or Dad against Mom?

What we want is prosperity.  That requires full employment.  More Americans than ever are living in poverty.  You can’t have prosperity with numbers like that.  We can’t change anything by just picking which team we want to win, the Republicans or Democrats.  I think we need a more participatory government where voters directly decide the issues and the spending.  Let’s cut out the middlemen.  Everyone needs to study the problems, and everyone needs to take responsibility to solve them.

Unless everyone is studying the problems, unless everyone is working on the solution, things are going to stay a mess because what we’re doing is shirking responsibility.  Expecting politicians to do everything is crazy.  How can a few thousand people make the decisions for over three hundred million people?  How can two philosophies be the only solution for a reality as complex as ours.

The philosophies of lowering taxes or social engineering are as silly and simplistic as Santa Claus delivering Christmas presents in one night by a reindeer powered sled.  We need a new system for processing complex economic and social problems.  We need a Democracy 2.0.  Power and responsibility needs to be shifted to everyone.  I’d say get rid of both parties and find a way to deal with issues one at a time.  We need open source politics where the source code for how everything works is open for all to inspect.

JWH – 9/19/10

The Metamorphosis Diet

Most people when they hear the word metamorphosis think about a caterpillar and butterfly.  Fewer people, those with a literary bent, are reminded of Kafka’s Gregor Samsa, the dude who turned into a big bug.  I need to meta-morph myself, but I’m afraid it would be too much to believe I could become young again and go the butterfly route, however if I don’t, I do see myself going down the dead bug path, flat on my back with my feet up in the air.

I’ve reached a time in my life I’ve been avoiding for thirty years – the time to diet.  My doctor insists I need statins for cholesterol, but they just don’t agree with me.  Since my father died of a heart attack at age 49 after having three previous heart attacks and a stroke, I am an obvious candidate for such drugs.  To go without them demands dramatic changes in diet.

I’m overweight – tipping the scales at 232, at five ten and three quarters, which gives me a horrible body mass index of 32.4.  Being fat hasn’t been unpleasant until I became unhealthy, so I had no incentive to diet.  Feeling bad is an incentive, but then my father had many such demons driving him and he never changed his habits.  Only 1 person out of 20 can diet and keep the weight off.  What makes that 1 person succeed?

I also have spinal stenosis, so I want to believe weighing less would ease the pressure on my back, which is yet another incentive to put myself through some kind of metamorphosis.  Now I wished I lived in the world of Harry Potter where I could buy a transformation potion, but that’s not an option.  The only real choices are the same ones I’ve been hearing my whole life:  diet and exercise.

But if I dieted like skinny-crazed actresses could I somehow morph myself into a new me?  I found this book, Stop Inflammation Now! by Richard M. Fleming, M.D. that promises dramatic change (read the Amazon customer reviews).  The trouble is Fleming’s diet is hard!!!  The phase 1 diet, the prescription to get your cholesterol numbers under control, is composed of only fruits and vegetables.   I’ve been a vegetarian since 1969, but I find it almost impossible to eat as many fruits and vegetables as Fleming wants me to.

I’m a lacto-ovo vegetarian, one who doesn’t eat animals, but will eat eggs and milk products.  And since I’ve also discovered The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone after watching Food, Inc., I’ve been thinking about becoming a vegan vegetarian.  But even the vegan diet is far more varied than the Fleming diet.  Giving up cheese, yogurt, ice cream and scrambled eggs is scary to me, since they are great comfort foods.   The Fleming diet, at least the early phase 1, doesn’t even provide salad dressing for salads – no fats allowed.  Under the vegan regime, I can have rice, oils, and even mutant pasta and breads, as well as fake meats and cheese.

So in my waffling, I’m shifting toward the vegan diet, but hoping I can eventually build up the guts to do the Fleming diet for a few weeks and see if my cholesterol numbers do come down.  The Fleming phase 1 diet is almost identical to many cleansing diets.  When I was 26, and only weighed 155 pounds, I did a cleansing diet that had dramatic effects in two weeks.  This diet was based on eating fruits one meal, and veggies the next, and the only condiments were pepper and lemon juice.  The day was started with a bracing wake-up of hot water and garlic.  I remember, the first thing I ate after going off this diet was scrambled eggs.  I don’t think I’ve ever felt as healthy as I did after that cleansing diet.

However, dieting is hard.  But after seeing Food, Inc. and many news films about the recent egg contamination scare, with all those warehouses of monster ugly chickens, I’ve decided that eggs aren’t that appealing anymore.  Giving up cheese and milk is going to be much harder, no matter how badly cows are treated.  But whenever I see how milk is produced, I waver.  That’s why the agribusiness keeps animal production hidden.

Ultimately, the hardest part of dieting is fitting the new way of eating into my existing lifestyle.  Being a normal vegetarian has made me a social outcast of sorts, and going vegan will distant me further from normal people.  Going out to dinner, either at restaurants or at a friend’s house, becomes trying at best, and sometimes impossible at worst.  The transformation I’m seeking will make me far from normal.  And that might be the key to why diets fail.

I think I can make it to veganism, especially after reading this New York Times article on vegan cupcakes.  It proves tasty food can be vegan.   Also, Alicia Silverstone preaches a hell-fire sermon for vegan living.  Time will tell if I can meta-morph into a better eater, and whether or not it will make me butterfly-like.  Even if I got down to 199, I doubt I’d float like a butterfly.  Maybe I can be Mothra.  I’ll keep you posted.  I will say that after making this decision I got up early the next morning and drove to the store and bought myself some soy milk for my cereal.  Yuck.  I have adapted that much.  One step at a time, as they say in the metamorphosis business.

JWH – 9/16/10