Hello Harmon

This item has a MSRP of $400, but is going for about $250 via the above link. I'm expecting some extra $ in about a couple weeks so hopefully the price will stay put or within that vicinity...I prolly won't get more than $250, if that, 'cause I moved this summer and my prior landlord isn't communicating with me...so I'm only eligible for half a year's rent...in fact, the household income has increased as well, so it may only be half of THAT...(1/4 of $500/$125?). I could get a less expensive receiver. Not sure if there's any reason to tho...now that I think about it, with this knowledge in mind...what's the point?? Anything with less than a $300 MSRP would be virtually useless...that SONY receiver I had was virtually useless...that's why I sold it. Hmm...........

out with the new(ish)...

forgot to mention; picked up THREE (3!) vinyl records (and $4.50 change) in exchange for the 3 CDS (and 1 DVD) I took to my local music store (Pmac!). You haven't heard the half of it though - the price tag was $0.99! That's NOT $99. That's NINETY NINE CENTS!!!! Key word: CENTS!!!!!! And ON TOP of this, they have a "20% off used vinyl" sale going on now, so they took $0.60 off the price!

And I haven't even told you WHAT vinyl records I picked up yet have I?

Michael Jackson - Thriller
The Beatles - Let It Be
Genesis - Duke

Speaking of MJ, I haven't seen THIS IS IT and I don't intend to. I have no interest in watching a 1/4 finished concert. If they could have pieced together all the footage they got and added in some CGI stage props etc., maybe they could have re-created the actual "THIS IS IT" experience, albeit in smaller form...needless to say, nothing can compare to an ACTUAL Michael Jackson concert, but at least we COULD see a recording of one...? Who knows when or if any of the respective parties will endeavor in that prospect...

pl

I had to create a 2nd 'playlist'(dot com) account 'cause apparently it's not associated with ANY of my used email addy's (I have 5 main ones from 3 different places). Weird...and Yahoo deleted my sub accounts, or so it seems...don't see them listed. Just says 'create new sub account'...

hmm...wonder if I could afford a music-writing software...so I can write music like actually WRITE music, not just lyrics...I made a 2 1/2 or so minute song in my head, very reminiscent of Oingo Boingo (who I'm listening to right now, via playlist) titled "I Swear (There's An Underground City)". Or at least that's what I WOULD call it if I had any way to record its existence...of course, I also don't know HOW to write music, money concerns aside...brg...

blug

I now have 0 compact digital audio discs. ): Sold the last 3 I owned yesterday in exchange for $5. Well, actually I have like 2 others, but...well, I tried selling 1 and it got turned down and the other one is on Amazon for sale (camel's "A Live Record" w/ BT). Just totally pointless to bother trying to build a respectable music collection. I've been trying for the last six years and it's been failing. I don't even have the equipment required to receive the max. enjoyment out of that technology. And if I did, I'd just go for vinyl anyhow, since most say it sounds better.......I'm lost! Well...anyway. tt4n

poetic lie

I think people pour way too much of themselves into admiration of musical artists. Neil Young and/or Radiohead, etc., may or may not be substantially talanted, but it's hard to tell when people just assume that if you don't like them you have no taste. People talk about Radiohead's OK COMPUTER (1997) and how you have to listen to it repeatedly for it to sink in. Sorry, folks. I did that with Sunny Day Real Estate's DIARY (1994) and I still don't think it's all that. The ONLY CD that took time to "grow on me" was The Get Up Kids' SOMETHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT (1999) and I still don't like the singer's vocals, even though they somehow manage to display emotion...I also don't like the cardboard-sounding production. But the music is eloquent and passionate. For that it deserves at least 4 stars. But a 5/5? C'mon, people! I swear, people's lack of vision is appalling. I mean, I haven't ever written anything or envisioned anything, specifically, that blows the majority of music out of the water, but at least I know it's possible for someone who has enough talent to do so! I mean, for cryin' out loud, when are people gonna take Get Up Kids' "Company Dime"'s honesty and mix it with Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On"'s beauty? Why does all rock (honest) have to be ugly while pop (beautiful) tends to lack in integrity? And then rock artists who come 1/4 of a cm into "pop" territory get ousted for being "sell outs".
I know music is supposed to come from within. But why should anyone aside from people who write the music care unless it does something for someone else? I mean, anyone with enough brain cells and discipline can pick up a guitar and sing or get someone else to sing along with it. Writing a beautiful or ugly melody is not hard to do! Coming up with tiny little details to sandwich between is ALSO not difficult! I was reading a review of a Cap'n'Jazz CD and someone acknowledged that writing a loud thrashy song was not hard to do. Yet he gave the CD 5 freakin' stars b/c of some "details" in between the loudness that I have not picked up on after at least 3 listens...I almost BOUGHT the CD 'cause it was so "radical" or whatever but then I realized I would have been paying an overbloated price for JUNK!
I guess music is supposed to be a social experience, something you can blog about, feel like you're a part of, or whatever. But it doesn't have to be. Why do I have to be hanging around someone in order to like a song? If the song, or album, doesn't stand on its own, then it doesn't deserve 5 stars! If you have to be doing or saying or thinking something in a certain way or any way, in order to enjoy something, that means at least half of the "greatness" is in YOUR head! The artist certainly cannot be credited with how you felt about a song while smoking weed or hanging around someone with a lower I.Q. or whatever!

war, peace & the points in between

It seems obvious that mankind cannot help but be entangled in some kind of drama. Man/woman can't just enjoy life continuously. There's work, of course, which isn't always pleasurable, but what about when thou punches the clock and its time to do other stuff? Is there anything that doesn't involve some kind of friction, if not all out caos?
Given this dire state of affairs, wouldn't it make sense that wars and fights would be rather widespread? Take, for instance, the setting in the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day when Ahnald says "I want yo cluthes, buuts, ond yo motocycle". Not that this particular scenario has any bearing on my point, but just to get the image in mind of what I'm talking about - those bars with big-muscle dudes wearing tattoos and drinking themselves silly; but anyway, is there anyone who can honestly say there isn't a war without guns (i.e.: fist fighting?) taking place in that kind of institution somewhat regularly?
Here's another film-based example: Edward Norton in Fight Club narrates 'You might be surprised, but it's very difficult to get an ordinary guy into a fight' (paraphrasing, sorry...). Who do we see as "ordinary guys"? Guys in suits, who probably use their BRAINS to make the large sums of money required to buy those suits. People, or at least my mom (don't know very many people, as odd as that may sound...yes, I don't get out much; does anyone have anything to refute my argument that actually makes sense? No? Maybe? Feel free to comment in the provided area) say how it's a shame that big-muscles-required-work doesn't generate that much money. She notes that people get paid more for mental work rather than physical labor.
I don't actually think the work that requires the brain necessarily makes the world a better place; however, I think the personality traits that enable a person to care about the work of brainiacs tames the harsh WarMonger in people and gives us more to think about, and more to love about life.
The truth is that a muscle-job doesn't pay well b/c society is working constantly on ways to eliminate the need for those jobs. Muscle-jobs have a much larger margin of error and are often not thought about.
The jobs that pay the most are the jobs that benefit the most people. Try living in a world without the internet; you'd have to if Bill Gates didn't decode the internet so that people could actually use it. Try living in a world without Luke Skywalker; HEED! No, that's not necessary. Just pay your dues and carry on.

Pieces of October...

..., 11 of them! Received January 5th on u2's 2008 remaster of their 1981 album, titled, you guessed it, OCTOBER.(!)

It's not as great as I remember though. I like how it begins, and the production throughout, but it's kinda slow and groggy...it's a lot better than their newer stuff (and I mean "newer" as in since 1987's THE JOSHUA TREE). So; I'll probably sell it...

Nothing much else has been goin' on...I'm already out of $, but should have some more before the month's end, from rebates and "cash back" via this Complete Savings membership I signed up for...free trial as of now. I'm thinking maybe I'll keep it, it's only $12/mo and I'd be saving at least $20 minus the cost of membership...

Anyhoo...

I took a couple walkin's to & fro a video store about 20 minutes from my house on Saturday & Sunday. Yesterday it was too cold for the first part of the day, and then later in the day, at about noon, my mother was out anyway so she picked me up after she came back from her dr appt, and we painted the town...seemed redundant to walk after that. Today I guess I'm just feeling lazy. I think it might be warmer today than it was yesterday, but...idk...part of me wants to go to bed. Thank goodness my psychiatrist removed me from that medicine that was making me so sleepy...