• My Inner Groove Distortion: compassion 4 compression

    I’m still trying to understand why I did it. Why I purchased vinyl for the first time in decades (first the new Rush album, Clockwork Angels, later the three reissued The Jimi Hendrix Experience studio albums in honor of my son, Hendrix R.), and carted back dozens of decades-old scratchy records from my parents’ basement.…

  • Everybody’s talking about revolution, evolution…

    Not sure which song should be running through my head after getting a tour of Montreal’s Queen Elizabeth Hotel’s Room 1742: Give Peace a Chance (which John Lennon recorded there in June 1969 during his historic 10-day bed-in with his wife), or You Can Be My Yoko Ono. The staff at the Queen Elizabeth were remarkably…

  • What’s a “pro” anyway?

    Microsoft’s freshly announced Surface for Windows 8 Pro; Apple’s slightly-less freshly announced (it was last week after all — almost ancient tech history) Macbook Pro with Retina Display. Both a mouthful of names, both differentiated from their “amateur” brethren with a higher price, higher resolution and of course, the all-important “Pro” suffix. As I consider myself…

  • I’m quite ready for another adventure

    For some reason, I can’t get that Return of the Kings quote from Bilbo Baggins out of my head, as he sets off for the Grey Havens during the third ending of that very long film. But these days, as a father of two, “adventure” takes on a new definition. No more war zones for…