A lot of new releases to check out from the past 2 weeks:
The Windham Hill Guitar one isn’t new but I just added it to my library, the rest though, I’m excited to check out. I’ve already been really loving the new Vasen/Hawktail release. Can’t believe the Brand New Heavies album is 30 years old. Stoked to check out the Billy Strings album especially after reading the great interview from last week in GQ.
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Jimmy Bruno has the best musical instruction channel on YouTube in case you are interested:
Generative AI tools further the importance of quality over quantity in employee evaluation. Another key future skill: managers who can spot true excellence amid AI-enhanced mediocrity. #FutureOfWork#AI
– I’m on board with the idea that computing’s future is shifting away from mobile towards wearables, likely eyeglasses. Might be worth looking into Luxottica investments given their Facebook partnership.
– The concept of companies using AI chatbots as customer-facing agents with real agency? Yes, I can see that happening. These AI instances could represent brands, proactively engaging customers through messages, ads, etc.
– AI-generated content in social media feeds seems inevitable, but I’m not thrilled about it. It’s unlikely to match the novelty or appeal of human-created content. However, the idea that social networks’ role is to spark conversations in private channels is intriguing. Take TikTok, for instance – people watch videos there but share and discuss them in private chats elsewhere.
– There’s definitely going to be a demand for user-friendly, private channels that offer more than just text messaging. But can anything really beat the richness of a letter with a photo? I’m not so sure.
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Of all the new features on ios 18, the one that no one has talked about and that has made the most impact on my day-to-day life is that Siri now AutoCorrects wanna to “want to.”
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I’m not sure if it’s just me or if it’s a universal experience for musicians but: periods of progress and improvement when practicing my instrument usually translate—at least temporarily—to lousy public performance.
A few years ago I picked up a pair of KEF q150 speakers for my small listening room, at the time I had them paired with a NAD 7125 amplifier. When I first fired up that pairing I was a bit dissapointed in how bass-heavy everything sounded. I learned that the KEF’s came with some foam baffles that I could put in the back of the speakers and that helped a lot. I ran that setup for a couple of years.
Yesterday while cruising FB marketplace I came across an older Cambridge Audio amp for cheap- the 340a. I wired up the speakers and at first was shocked at how much less power the Cambridge had from a sheer volume perspective but, that said, the room is so small that it’s plenty of power, just much much less than the NAD.
But more importantly, the overall frequency response is light years better than the NAD. I was able to take the foam baffles out of the back of the KEF’s. The high end is a little less brittle than the NAD which just makes the overall stereo imaging feel that much better.
People rave about the KEF’s. I was honestly a bit dissapointed with them and was always keeping my eyes out for possible replacements but paired with the right amp, they are a killer pair of speakers, especially if you can find them used.
This is the best bluegrass festival, period. The size is perfect. One stage, no lines, nothing is crowded* Almost everyone who attends plays an instrument so the campground jams can be amazing.
(*except the handicap bathroom stall of which there is only one and when you’re helping someone navigate the festival in a wheelchair that makes it tough, but that’s my only complaint.)
Del McCoury’s set was legend. Just kept on going. At 85 years old they had to practically drag him off the stage at 11PM. Del feels like the last living bridge to Monroe from a musical and performance pov and his band is the quintessential traditional bluegrass sound.
Asleep at the wheel also killed it. The intricacy of the unison/harmony parts on fiddle, pedal steel, guitar and sax was just awesome to watch. They made it look soooo easy which is half of the appeal given how complicated Western swing is.
I didn’t get in nearly as much playing as I’d hoped but it was great to know that scattered across the fairgrounds were pockets of players who I knew and had jammed with in the past so that, had I had more time to play, I could have jumped into any of several different sessions.
Guitar nerd notes: I’ll add that the picking I did do was on my D-18 which i strung up with martin PB lifespans (13/mediums) just before leaving for DelVal and the guitar just felt so lifeless compared to my 28. It was a challenge to really make any music on it. It did start to feel better towards Sunday morning so either the strings needed to break in a bit or i got used to the lifelessness of it. I don’t know. I haven’t played my 28 since I’ve been home. I need to do a side by side. I did play my OM-18 when I got home and that is the most comfortable guitar to play but i need new strings on it.
The large majority of the world’s decaffeination still happens through chemical-based processes that use things like methylene chloride or ethyl acetate. I don’t know what […]
FWIW, my Emacs of the moment is emacs-plus@29 installed by Homebrew: brew install emacs-plus@29 –with-mailutils –with-xwidgets \ –with-imagemagick –with-native-comp Source: Browsing in Emacs – Volume […]
