__
__
A reminder to breathe, from the artist who brought us Song of Mitt’s Self and U Didn’t Build That by MC’Bama.
And the AtlanticWire explains why Trump’s next very big important bigger than huge publicity event probalby won’t include “CNBC’s shouty monyman Jim Cramer“:
… Uh, okay, Jim. That’s Obama winning a whopping 440 votes in the electoral college. Cramer’s only commentary on his prediction is, “the Presidential race is nowhere as close as the polls suggest.” To which we say: apparently! …
***********
So… What’s on the agenda for the wrap-up of the weekend?
PsiFighter37
At the Columbus airport, waiting to fly back to NY.
I met my first lean Obama / solid Mandel voter earlier today. Makes zero sense to me how that works…aside from that, a very solid weekend of canvassing.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
Walkies with the dog. Listen to some records*. Maybe rake some leaves…nah. Unplug the phone as a defense against robocalls. Nap. Pack for Mexico trip.
* I was in an Urban Outfitters today and they had albums for sale. Dylan, The National, Fleet Foxes, Adele, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, etc. Not a lot, but they were there. And they sell a decent TDK turntable for a reasonable price. I was flabbergasted. Record racks have been disappearing from stores for 25 years and this is the one and only case I’ve seen of a store ADDING records. But then, I don’t get out much.
ETA: Annddd… there was a robocall from the GOP as I was typing.
trollhattan
Trying to decide whether to mow the lawn and I’m now informed it’s evening. Thanks, decision self-made!
NotMax
Shallow side of the Bell curve?
AA+ Bonds
Advice for the next few days: don’t be like this
Maude
Voted early and often.
Not much doing, which is good.
@PsiFighter37:
Safe home
Maude
@trollhattan:
The day just flew by, sdidn’t it?
Told a woman at voting not use a camping stove inside. She said they didn’t have it on long. I couldn’t get through to her.
Roger Moore
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
I think vinyl is now obsolete enough to have retro chic, so a place like UO that’s selling to hipsters is going to add it.
cmorenc
Cramer’s perhaps right that 2012 won’t be quite so razor-close as many MSM networks are portraying it, but IMHO he’s way off about how decisively big the electoral or popular margin will be. Although demographic evolution will turn Texas into a purple swing state in another two to four election cycles, IMHO it’s a bridge too far into the future to think it’s arrived yet for 2012, and there’s no way Obama could get to 440 electoral votes without Texas. It’s also one to two election cycles premature for Arizona to evolve into a purple state just yet. This cycle, the possibilities are just close enough to be tempting, but it’s still middle to high single digits away from being a ripe possibility yet.
PsiFighter37
@NotMax: more like the weird side of the Bell Curve.
I’m at the airport bar enjoying a Columbus Brewing Co. Pale Ale, which is delicious – very clean flavor matching the copper color. Well done on this beer, Ohio.
PF37 +3 (had a couple Hennepins at lunch)
P.S. Pew has O+3. We’re going to win, bitches.
Jay S
It seems to me that pundits are staking out the long shot bets in the hope that everyone will forget if they lose, but there will be a big payout if they “win”.
Cramer is likely shooting for the headline, and probably considers the attention the win.
Fleischer may be placing a more reasonable bet, given that Nate Silver gives a recount chance at about 8%. The pundit payout for putting a marker down on recount would probably out weigh the cost of flushing the specifics of his projection down the memory hole (since his specific scenario would likely be wrong even if we are caught in recount land).
PsiFighter37
P.S. Cramer is a fool and should never be listened to, on financial matters or otherwise (especially on electoral politics, it would seem).
rlrr
If Obama wins, Anarchy Will Devour Society
Big R
@AA+ Bonds: Poor baby.
Haydnseek
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: As a lifelong vinyl junkie, this is great news. For a non-music, national retailer to add vinyl is quite surprising, but it wouldn’t be happening if some smart people didn’t think it would be profitable. Independent record stores are popping up all over, there are more turntable manufacturers now than ever, a lot of bands require a vinyl release in their contracts, and a few outfits are making a large capital investment in refurbishing old cutting lathes and pressing machines. We live! Nice to see another vinylphile here.
Anoniminous
Finish the chores.
Then grabbing a couple of bottles of wine and heading over to the residence of our DFH pinko-commie friends to drinky the vino, eat lamb stew, and talk about politics, painting, politics, culture, politics, music, things literary, and politics.
The soft, lyrical, melodies of Chumbawamba will be heard.
Anoniminous
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
VINYL RULES!
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
Krugman makes a valiant attempt to straighten people out about what polling is and means. Apparently he got trollblitzed and it trying to school the ignorant. Nice try, but it won’t work.
Mark S.
I’ve read some things in the past week about undercounting Hispanics and younger people who don’t have landlines that makes me guardedly optimistic that it won’t be as close as the national media is hoping.
I wish the universe had enough of a sense of humor for Romney to end up with 47% of the vote.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Anoniminous:
Word. I’m spinning Bella Davidovich playing Chopin. On a 1975 Sony 2251 pro ‘table with A-T 1009 arm and Denon DL-103R cart (modified). Custom speakers & Accuphase amps. Heavenly.
Political obsessives have nothing on audiophiles when it comes to fussiness.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
Phone polling has always been problematic. Basically there’s a bias toward people who have nothing better to do at the moment than talk to a pollster. It’s getting worse now. land lines with published numbers are no longer the household standard they were even 5 years ago. Nobody who does large scale polling has any idea what to do about this, either.
Haydnseek
@Roger Moore: Partisan that I am, I must admit that it is true that a lot of it can be attributed to retro-chic trendiness, but DJ/scratch culture has been enormously influential in raising awareness, and when I see kids scouring the stacks at thrift stores it brings a smile.
arguingwithsignposts
@Mark S.:
I’ll see your 47 and raise you a 27.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
And if he doesn’t win 440EVs, Obama won’t have a mandate.
/fucktard
arguingwithsignposts
Sorry, but as someone who once owned a 3-sided Matching Tie and Handkerchief LP, fuck vinyl. I don’t miss moving those stacks of records around, and I don’t miss the potential for scratches or warped disks, either.
ETA:
This, I will grant you.
Haydnseek
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Word is right. Some of the stuff that’s said on Audio Asylum and other audiophile sites makes the most vicious political blog comments seem like bedtime stories.
Professor
Is anyone who wanted to VOTE able to vote? If NOT, then you don’t have a DEMOCRACY! Have you heard about the early voters in Dade county, Florida? SUCKS
jl
Didn’t put the clock back until I got up this morning. And such a beautiful warm still sunny summer (“SF summer”, that is) morning, over such a beautiful deep blue and turquoise Pacific Ocean in SF, after I turned the clock back an hour, I decided to just keep it there.
I will keep you people updated on how my experiment goes.
dedc79
Haven’t you guys heard? Romney is surging again! (This made me laugh so hard, I had to share)
hueyplong
I love the Fleischer comment. Since when has any GOP guy confident of victory said it wouldn’t be decided the first night?
That sounds like a guy certain he’s behind and praying it will be close enough either to steal or delegitimize.
Roger Moore
@Haydnseek:
The people scouring the second hand bin for vinyl are probably serious about the music. People picking it up at Urban Outfitters are probably hipsters.
Joel
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: You have to use non-automated polling and probably buy cell phone lists from various sources. Notice that Survey USA, who was huge in the 2008 election, is basically done as a pollster. You hardly see them pop up anymore. It’s because (thank god) you can’t robocall cell phones.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Haydnseek:
DJ culture also kept the middle/low price range of turntables and cartridges alive and available for new buyers. Without DJs all of the cheap hardware would have disappeared and the bottom buy-in price to get into vinyl reproduction would be up in the audiophile stratosphere.
Guitar players did the same thing for vacuum tubes, blowing up enough of them to keep the Russian and Chinese factories running and making tubes for audio experimenters as well.
Per Krugman, industrial ecologies are interrelated and the loss of one part can lead to collapse.
Litlebritdifrnt
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
I think it was Eugene Robinson who said on MJ last week “you have to remember they are polling people who don’t even have caller ID for goodness sake”, and that made me chuckle. So yeah, they are polling people with landlines who don’t have caller ID who have the time to answer a poll once they pick up the phone. Hmmmmmmm….. wonder who that demographic might be?
Joel
@Roger Moore: Hipsters would never shop at Urban Outfitters. More like proto-hipsters, also known as teenagers.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Roger Moore:
The new stuff was really spendy there. I’d have bought the new Shins record is it hadn’t been $26. Or is my wife hadn’t been standing there.
Patricia Kayden
This is a great read, especially the second to last paragraph where it’s revealed that Repugs are already claiming that some voting machines will malfunction in President Obama’s favor in Nevada.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/opinion/sunday/voting-rights-upholding-democracy.html?hp&_r=0
rlrr
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
While a Republican winning 270 electoral has a mandate…
Mark S.
@dedc79:
Victor Davis Hanson, wrong since 548 BC.
Roger Moore
@Joel:
That hasn’t stopped robopoll only Rasmussen. Of course they’re more of a propaganda outfit than a serious pollster, so that may not be a good example.
Haydnseek
@Roger Moore: Oh, absolutely! I’m just enjoying the fact that a medium that the full weight and majesty of the mainstream audio equipment and music industries gleefully killed and then left for dead is enjoying a resurgence. CD’s in Starbucks? Of course. Vinyl at UO? Just the tip of the iceberg.
moda31
@Mark S.:
If only.
Roger Moore
@Joel:
Hipster wwannabes. That’s where the real market is.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Haydnseek:
Part of the appeal is that there are literally billions of records out there that will never be available in digital formats and you can buy most used albums for the cost of a single song download.
Plus there’s an element of retro cachet.
Went boutique shopping with my 21 YO niece and she was most excited about buying records from Dr. John, Miles Davis, Tom Waits, Muddy Waters and Django Reinhardt. All for about $20. Good taste!
ETA: prerecorded cassettes had vinyl on the ropes long before CDs killed it. Convenience rules for the general consumer market.
trollhattan
@arguingwithsignposts:
Hah, I still have my “Matching Tie and Handkerchief”–the import no less. Still remember when I bought it, the two clerks looked at each other, “Should we tell him?”
“It has two tracks on one side” made no sense until I got it home and figured it out after…some delay.
Was too lazy to ditch my ellpees after CDs hit so now I’m, uh, hip (for the firstest time!) because I still have them. I’ll add this: phono cartridges are phenomenally better than they were back in the day, and dig out a lot more information, despite time-and-volume ravaged hearing. Old direct drive tables suck, however.
Haydnseek
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Exactly. The Technics 1200 table deserves a place in the vinyl hall of fame. As for tubes, my guitar amps are, my amps and preamp at present are not, but I might go back……….
Aimai
@dedc79: Holy shit–that isn’t an onion parody?
gelfling545
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: My daughter gave me a turntable last Christmas along with LPs of the Beatles’ “Revolver” & “The Freewheeling Bob Dylan”. I knew a few people who claimed that music made to be recorded on vinyl is never as good in digital form. I always thought that was a show of overly delicate sensibilities but, having heard the music again on vinyl, I have to say I think they were right.
Haydnseek
@trollhattan: Re: old direct drive turntables. As per Matching Tie and Handkerchief, add a Belt.
Violet
@Litlebritdifrnt: I have caller ID on my phone, but whenever the English family members call it shows up as “Out of Area” on the caller ID and the number is not available.
Because I don’t want to miss one of their calls, I answer all calls that show up as “Out of Area.” Most of the time that means I’ve got some junk call on the other end. I don’t think I’ve ever been robo-polled or real person polled for any political anything (Red state living, bitchez!), but I do get political recorded calls when it gets near to election times. They almost always show up as “Out of Area.”
So that’s why I answer those stupid calls. If only I could figure out how to get legitimate overseas calls to show up properly in Caller ID.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@trollhattan:
I have dozens of carts. My daily driver is a DL-103R, a conical moving coil Denon designed for DJ use in 1962 and made continuously for 50 years. Still sounds fabulous.
The really bad carts are gone. Stuff like the Shure M97xE for $70 blows away the cheapo carts of yore. Even a $25 AT is likely to be a nice performer.
trollhattan
@Haydnseek:
Decided instead of resurrecting the Luxman to get a new Rega. Wow, what a difference. Buy oy, picking up the arm at the end of each side reminds me of our kiddie record player, growing up.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@trollhattan:
Goodle Pahmer Q-up. It’s a mechanical arm lifter for manual turntables. I have them on all of my ‘tables now. Because I’m old and forgetful. I’m building a controller to interface with the lifter and shut off the platter when the arm lifts up.
Haydnseek
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Excellent! A used-record shopping story is always made much better when it involves an enthusiastic young person. Absolutely right about cassettes, which I loved. Not just mix tapes, but my old Tascam 4-track got a lot of use back in the days in the band. Good times.
trollhattan
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
Trying to recall, don’t you restore old audio stuff?
Litlebritdifrnt
@Violet:
That is weird because whenever my Mum or someone else from England (or Australia) calls the number always shows up and I know it is them by the last five digits. I have my phone through Time Warner.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@trollhattan:
Used to, but I’m not home enough now to get into restoration projects. Still have tons of tube audio stuff for ‘someday’ renovation.
trollhattan
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Cool. Thanks for the tip!
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Just got done checking out the annual fiber show from the So Cal Handweavers Guild, where I managed to not buy anything. Eating a sandwich in my car before heading down to Anaheim for GEC employee-only shopping and dinner with my friend who lives behind the Orange Curtain.
(It’s okay — she’s the daughter of a UAW worker, so it would take more than a few drones to get her to vote Romney.)
Violet
@Litlebritdifrnt: AT&T here. Not sure why it’s that way, but it is. Supremely frustrating.
For awhile, a family member’s company-issued cell phone, that usually says the company name on the caller ID, came up as different people’s names–like, John Smith, Robert McDonald, etc. Every time they called it was a new name. It was bizarre. Happened for about a two week period, then switched back to the company name again.
I figure it’s gotta be AT&T’s fault, as the company cellphone plan is also AT&T.
Haydnseek
@trollhattan: Yep, have to lift my Rega RB300 on my VPI HW 19 at the end of each side, a ritual I gladly perform as a tiny part of the zen of vinyl, until you wake up to the ka-thunk ka-thunk of your expensive cart/stylus merrily going around in the lead-out groove. If you’ve been around long enough, you might remember the old Audio Technica Safety Raiser arm lift. If it wasn’t set up exactly right, it turned you tonearm into a catapult.
Yutsano
@Violet: My default position is it’s always AT & T’s fault. T-Mobile is looking better and better.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Haydnseek:
The Pahmer Q-up is based on an old Thorens design. It’s spring loaded and fully adjustable. Each one took me 5 minutes from opening the box to having it ready for use, and it performs flawlessly. Cheap insurance for the easily distracted.
iasa
I’m going to lie on the couch, read The Long Goodbye, and watch the Falcons beat the Cowboys tonight.
Violet
@Yutsano: I had T-Mobile with my previous phone. They had great service. I switched to AT&T when I got my new phone because after looking into how I could use the phone when in the UK with both AT&T and T-Mobile, I decided that AT&T worked better for my needs. The service has been okay, but I think T-Mobile’s service is better here in the US. Costs were about the same for the plans I was looking at.
Roger Moore
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
Ability to play music in the car is a big deal, too, and I’ve never seen a usable in car turntable. Not to mention being able to make your own mixes.
mai naem
Another possible voter fraud case. Actually not voter fraud but election official fraud care.
http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-29390-department_of_justice_investigating_alleged_ballot_fraud_at_clackamas_county_elections.html
Also too, Nate Silver’s got some buddies.
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/11/dayintech_1104
Both via the Slog.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Roger Moore:
Sony and others wanted MiniDisc to be the digital replacement for cassette in portable applications. It had a niche due to random access like CD and recordability but it never caught on big and I think it’s obsolete.
Downpuppy
I had a very minor mishap this afternoon, that got me thinking about religion.
Mostly thinking about how much crap they get away with.
gnomedad
This PAC money animation by NPR is one of the most education 3 minutes I’ve spent. More of this, please.
Splitting Image
I’m watching The Princess Bride. Every time I pull out that DVD I have to watch it twice. Once to confirm that it is, in fact, as awesome as I remember it, and again just to enjoy all of the parts I missed the first time.
Haydnseek
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Thank you for this. On occasion, i imbibe adult beverages while listening to music. Henceforth, I will now be happy to refer to a lapse of consciousness as a “distraction.” At present, I’m using a Grado Prestige Gold cart, which has a replaceable stylus assembly. When I go to my dealer for a replacement, I just write it off as “tired cantilever, Irish whiskey fatigue.” Works like a charm.
PsiFighter37
Would DougJ have any care in setting up the NYC BJ meetup on Election Night instead of the weekend? ‘Cause I would…
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Haydnseek:
I have a Grado Gold but the diamond is worn. Wondering if I should go with stock or opt for one of the many Grado styli that will fit it as an upgrade. It’s destined to go on an Infinity Black Widow tonearm that I just repaired for installation in a vintage turntable. Should be a nice setup.
Grado is one of the companies that kept vinyl alive. No matter what table you had there was a Grado cart for under $50 that would sound great on it. Wonder how they ever made any money doing that.
Ditto the outstanding Grado SR-60 headphones. $69/pair for decades and hard to beat for less than double the price.
Raven
We’ve got some kind of really noisy critter(s) in our attic. A couple of weeks ago I put one of those glue traps up there and the next day it was turned over and had cellulose insulation all stuck to it. I did a search and found where I think they are getting in. I built a big screened porch about nine years ago and put together a utility closet around the waste pipe venting. There was chewed up plastic containers, some so fresh the liquid hadn’t completely drained. I emptied the closet and put in a ceiling and patched the baseboard that I had left open. Now I have to see if this will do the trick.
feebog
Just got through walking my precinct for my future (fingers crossed here) Assemblyman Ed Headington (D). My feet hurt, and I need a shower, it was pushing 90 here in the San Fernando Valley. Maybe catch the end of a football game if I don’t fall asleep…
The Other Chuck
Jim Cramer draws a paycheck playing a character on a show called Mad Money. Making a prediction drawn from reasoned sober analysis would jeopardize his job far more than being his being constantly wrong does now.
PsiFighter37
And just to prove that I don’t stop fighting for the cause, I just trolled, in-person, a Romney supporter watching TV at the airport.
America, fuck yeah
Yutsano
@PsiFighter37: Okay I LOLed.
Anne Laurie
@gelfling545:
Thing is, IMO, a lot of people don’t have the “ears” to pick up the difference, due to a combination of physical factors & lack of training. First CD I ever tested was Streisand’s then-new ‘Back to Broadway’ album, and her voice sounded much better to me than it did on vinyl/over the radio, so I was eager to get into the nutech. My audiophile housemate (hi, Ken J!) kept pointing out the distortion at the high end, particularly the instrumental backup, but I literally could not hear the flattened signal that he found so painful. And I was never an earbud-wearer, nor a rock-concert devotee — my audio intakes weren’t damaged, just relatively insensitive and (partly as a result) “ignorant”.
Also, there’s the famous anecdote about Pete Townsend saying that the Who’s early “masterpieces” were recorded to sound good coming out of cheap tinnh little transistor radios — “It would have been a waste of money and effort to cut tracks for musical snobs, even if we’d known how to do so.”
JPL
For the Elizabeth Warren fans, Barry at the big picture has a nice graph related to her quotes. link
Haydnseek
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:I use the Grado in large part because it’s a great match with my phono stage. The replaceable stylus is a nice bonus. I would get all the info I could on replacement stylus types. Some of them might me line contact types, or other exotica that require extremely precise SRA/VTA. The black widow was (and is) a great arm in the setups I’ve heard, but owning one you would be in a much better position to know if it would work with exotic styli that required special care and feeding. Finally, to be honest, we’re not talking about the ultimate in resolution here. My advice would be to install a factory original styli and sit back and enjoy that midrange, plus the overall presentation.
Litlebritdifrnt
Okay this is funny, all that corporate cash has nowhere to go but somewhere it will make not the slightest bit of difference.
When you think about it that is truly fucking funny.
Duane
How the hell anyone thinks this is really all that crazy, is beyond me…he is making a point about the EC that we all make…. hell Dick Morris and Karl Rove have been talking about a Romney blow out…well until Sandy went and ruined it for Mitt.
As for the stock stuff…. everyone talks about Lehman but at what price did he say buy and how much did he say buy? I know that he was recommending to sell the bank stocks all summer long…. at a cerain point things get so bad bankruptcy gets priced into the stocks and you buy a basket of bad ones…. some make it some dont…. as to the person mentioning that Cramer said to sell Apple at 100…. wanna bet that after Apple dropped to 80 that he then called to buy it back…. I know this is tough stuff but the stuff some folks do on the left to Cramers stock calls is Fox new worthy. Cramer is as good or better than anyone on TV talking stocks…I will take the better….and outside of the time when he on the insipid show with Larry Kudlow…. he is usually pretty good with general commentary…. but damn he let Kudlow influence him on politics during that time and he was so wrong about stuff it was crazy.
one last point on the lehman stuff…if Cramer made the call for people to sell Lehman at 40 then made the call to buy at 5 or less…. How is that really all that bad? most stock folks never made a sell recommendation all the way down…how did that turn out?
trollhattan
@Haydnseek:
Heh! And after the catapulting, tonearm swordfight!
Still recall my awe at the B&O 4000(?) photoeye thingie that located the blank space between tracks and could plant the stylus there. Pack of tiny trolls lived in those things, manning the works.
trollhattan
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Am convinced Willard’s secret time-traveling plan to win is massive ad buys for Wednesday.
Yeah, they’re that good. Wonder what the #s would be if the president had done well in debate 1? I think, ghoulish, instead of merely quite bad.
quannlace
Wishing that CNN would get off their weird obsession with an Electoral tie. “A Romney-Biden White House? Let’s rehash it again for another hour!”
I mean, anything is possible. But , Sweet Jesus……
Gozer
Went to Wegmans to get stuff to make turkey tacos (well…for Dr. Mrs. to make turkey tacos) and got a case of beer to put down the fire of said tacos.
Then later it’s Walking Dead and Homeland.
rlrr
How Mitt Romney sees us…
Gravenstone
@NotMax: Shallow side of the
Bell curvegene pool?the Conster
@Litlebritdifrnt:
I think one of the (yet) untold but way interesting stories of this election will be where all the UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH went. My spidey sense tells me that it ended up in a Romney front group, and nowhere near a GOTV operation. Shocking, I know/
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@trollhattan:
You’re thinking of the Accutrac 4000 turntable. I have one. Good idea, bad execution. I also have a B&O 4004 linear tracker. I modded with a wireless remote control so I could skip Stairway to Heaven from anywhere in the house.
Michael
Biden on Tweety said he doesn’t think the Electoral College will be close, that they’re winning Ohio, NH, NV, and IA easy, and have even odds on both VA and FL. Meanwhile, Romney aides are talking about losing (anonymously of course).
Haydnseek
@Anne Laurie: It was standard practice in the 60’s and 70’s to mix singles so that they would sound best coming out of crappy car dashboard speakers. Ya know what? They did. Play one of these on a good system and it’s semi-nostalgic fun, but sonic torture.
LD50
@Litlebritdifrnt: They’re just not thinking ahead. They could have thrown away that money on advertising in California. When asked, they could have said they had “private polls” that showed California was in play. Wouldn’t have made any sense, but so what?
aimai
So, do any of you think that Romney will concede? I tend to think that he will–that his ego won’t brook staying in the fight for long once he has really been shellacked. To me it comes down to whether his kids and his (few) close supporters demand that he stays in the race, sulking in his tent, until the last bitter contested ballot.
aimai
NotMax
@Gravenstone
Not sure how that represents a fix. Voting preference is not genetically coded.
suzanne
Went canvassing most of the day yesterday, and am spending much of today trying to get both my literal and figurative houses in order. I got my new iPhone yesterday and will be setting it up here shortly. Woot woot.
NotMax
Sure, but it will be done via a collect call.
Haydnseek
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Wasn’t the accutrac the BIC turntable attempt to do the select track thing? It had that spherical death-star module off to the side that didn’t work very well, but the add copy in the audio mags was hilarious.
Litlebritdifrnt
@the Conster: @LD50:
Someone on MHP’s show this morning said that the SuperPacs were basically Wingnut Welfare (I think they said a Conservative Con Job) but you know what I mean. The whole purpose of the SuperPacs is to make wingnut operatives a shit load of money, and nothing more. One of the examples given was the way they buy advertising, they are shelling out boat loads of money for spots that cost the candidates half the amount because of the way they do the ad buys. I wonder how much the Pacs are paying their “staff”? I am guessing that the majority of the donations are going on salaries and “consulting fees” and an absolute minimum going to actually getting the candidate elected. It is how they roll.
suzanne
@Haydnseek: My old turntable didn’t survive my move, and my husband would love one for Christmas. Can you recommend one in the $300-or-less range?
jayboat
Spent a part of my afternoon tweaking wingnuts as I watched football. Thanks to what I’ve learned from lurking here, my snark-fu is strong these days and it kinda gets boring fairly quick- they are such a gullible bunch of mulletheads.
Every one of the boating forums I frequent has a 20-1 ratio of R-to-D so there’s never a shortage of targets.
There’s a particularly nasty bunch of maybe a dozen at one place and I’ve been paying particular attention to them today. The forum allows unfettered speech in the political forum w the one exception of family members, and damn- do they use it- some of the most racist, ignorant vile stuff I’ve seen. 20 new threads every day re every single perceived slight you can imagine. Makes Red State look like a finishing school.
Gonna be a fun party in there Tues evening. I told em to wear their hats with the little tea bags.
Cheap thrills, I know…
dmsilev
@aimai: I think if the result is overdetermined (in other words, if flipping a single swing state won’t give him the win), he’ll concede quickly. If it does come down to one state, and that state is anywhere near close, he’ll drag things out as long as possible.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Haydnseek:
Production values and mixes varied greatly then as they do now. There were often different mixes for airplay that had different frequency balance and compression suited to the purpose. The album version was usually better, if the band and producer cared at all.
The deal with analog vs digital is several issues. You can make a very very good digital copy of an analog master but it takes work. A lot of digital reissues are just good enough but don’t capture the original fidelity.
Modern pop digital recordings are often made to sound OK coming from a smartphone, computer speakers or $5 earbud headphones. Lotsa compression, no dynamic range and grainy sound as a result. You can make outstanding digital recordings but the market demands something else and quality has never been the dominant goal in popular music.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Haydnseek:
That’s the one. They had a defect returns rate of over 100%. There are lots of them out there and I’ve never seen one in working condition.
The concept was full remote control, track programmability and random access. A tall order for early ICs and opto-mechanical systems.
NotMax
@jayboat
If there were a futures market for sour grapes, would counsel investing heavily now. Demand from those posters you mention (and their ilk) gonna soar come Wednesday.
suzanne
@PsiFighter37: I love you so much.
mainmati
The Refs evidently feel bad about NY and NJ after Sandy and I completely sympathize but they are clearly throwing the game for the NY Giants given the truly awful calls that have given the Giants a 14 – 7 lead at half time. Just sayin’…
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@suzanne:
If I may, TDK has a very nice one in that price range. I’d avoid Gemini, Numark, Stanton and other DJ type models. They have a poor repairs record, unlike the rugged Technics 1200 that was the DJ standard for decades.
Rega and Pro-ject also make moderate-priced ‘tables geared toward home use.
1badbaba3
But 440 is good, innit? How come nobody’s all like, “suck it righties Cramer sez landslide, bitchez!” Fuckin’ Libtards, snatchin’ defeat from the jaws of VICTORY.
@rlrr:Oo’er, what a giveaway.
suzanne
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Of course you may. THANK YOU!
Is this the TDK model you’re talking about? I, being a design nerd and a font savant rather than an audiophile, this it looks great.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@suzanne:
It is. There’s a USB version that’s about $100 more. I saw that ‘table in person today at an Urban Outfitters and it really does look great. The audiophile press reviews are quite positive as well. That price is just about the bottom rung buy-in for a decent ‘table.
Roger Moore
@1badbaba3:
Because we don’t actually believe it. We’re happier with Silver and Wang giving realistic predictions of solid but unspectacular victory than some off the wall prediction by an out of control asshole like Cramer.
Steeplejack
@mainmati:
I usually don’t sympathize with Cole’s Steeler-centric whining, but you are correct. Some really bad calls, all going the Giants’ way.
the Conster
@jayboat:
BJ is such a great place to hone one’s snark skills and wingnut counterarguments, isn’t it? Mr. Conster has learned to ask me what underlies the MSM stories by asking “what are they saying on Balloon Juice” because he trusts my (and its) take on things, and I can’t count the number of times I’ve used BJ commenters’ insights on FB (unattributed, sorry).
redshirt
Worst day of the year, IMO!
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
Back to the election, I’m kinda glad the R’s are starting to whine that the hurricane gave Obama a boost. Maybe that will divide and blunt the claims that the election was stolen. Give them an ‘out’ to save face so they don’t have to go all-in with Black Panthers, ACORN, etc.
JPL
@Michael: My stomach will be in knots until Wednesday. I’m far more shrill than I was in 2008 because I fear for our nation if Romney repeats Bush’s failures.
MikeJ
@JPL:
There’s nothing that Romney or Bush would do that McCain wouldn’t have.
redshirt
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: That’s a wonderful analysis. Seriously – the hurricane might disengage many degrees of right wing frothing. And since every step counts, this is an important thing.
LD50
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Nonsense. They’ll claim that the election was stolen, that the hurricane ruined Romney’s momentum, AND that they didn’t run a conservative enough candidate, all at the same time. Each argument will be dragged out to fit the rhetorical needs of the moment.
gogol's wife
@the Conster:
Sounds just like our household. My husband says, “Balloon Juice is your church.” Don’t tell anybody here though.
1badbaba3
@Roger Moore: But, but, they don’t have their own show on the teevee, so how much can they know? Besides, if they believed in what they were saying they’d say it LOUDER, like a real man that’s got his own teevee show. SUCK IT & BOOKMARK IT LIBS! ! !
MikeJ
@LD50: Don’t forget ACORN and the Black Panthers.
JPL
@MikeJ: Romney is Bush on steroids. McCain would have tried to boost the economy with tax cuts and he would have invaded Iran but Romney is talking about getting rid of regulations, vouchers for medicare and education and invading Iran. McCain at least recognized global warming.
gogol's wife
@1badbaba3:
Why is it that I can’t stand that troll but I really enjoy imitations of him?
LD50
What I think is horribly unfair is that if Sandy benefitted ROMNEY, all the Christianists would be touting this as indisputable evidence that God Is On The Republicans’ Side. However, since it’ll probably just benefit Obama, somehow Jeebus has nothing to do with it.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@LD50:
Overheard on a radio chat program in Birmingham, Alabama:
Host: “So you think these storms are being manipulated for political purpose?”
Guest: “Oh absolutely. They’ll do anything within their power to hang on to office and keep their grip on America.”
And so on. I was half listening, and thinking that they were discussing the reporting on the hurricane and politicization in the news reporting.
No.
It became clear that they thought THE WEATHER ITSELF was being manipulated. That the government can control hurricanes, and does so regularly. Just two otherwise not-insane sounding people calmly discussing wholesale meteorological tinkering for political purposes.
Raven
I got rid of all my vinyl 2 years ago. I had the whole setup, turntable hooked up to the mac and spin doctor to do the conversions. I did maybe five albums out of probably 1000 records after 10 years. I wondered if I had anything of value so I had a trusted friend who knows that kind of stuff evaluate my stash. He made a piles of worth a bit, worth a little and the bulk he recommended I donate to the Women’s Crisis center thrift shop and take the deduction. I knew I was never going to get around to it and I’m so deaf it doesn’t really make any difference to me how great records sound. Every time I go it the store they rave about how much people enjoyed going through all those albums. Fine with me.
Haydnseek
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Let me second RossinDetroits comments and recommendations. The only thing I might add is to expect to pay a bit more than you originally planned. When the smoke clears, any table/arm/cartridge worth buying will cost at LEAST 400 bucks, and perhaps more. Ross is right. Don’t buy some plastic DJ table out of some catalog. My late, great father had a saying that has served me well when making a purchasing decision: “When you buy quality, you only cry once.”
The Other Chuck
@Duane:
Considering that it ended up worth $0, not too well. It doesn’t take a genius to say “buy opportunity” when a stock dips to an extreme low, but it takes the likes of Jim Cramer to tell people to gamble on one that’s going *all* the way down.
He was also screaming (literally) that Bear Sterns was doing just fine a few days before they collapsed.
trollhattan
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
Was thinking of this one and its spawn.
http://www.soundfountain.com/amb/beogram4002a400.jpg
Your remote control mod is numerous dreams come true from back then.
I had a couple B&O–a 3000 and IIRC a 1900, could never quite swing the more expensive cousin. May still have the 1900 in a box around here, but presume cartridges and belts are unobtanium by now.
Swedes.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Haydnseek:
Thanks. I’m eyebrows-deep in vinyl and turntable tech these days but I don’t know the new gear all that well. One more brand that gets good reviews for price/performance ratio on the audiophile boards is Music Hall. Most quality manufacturers have entry level tables with pre-installed cartridges to avoid that hassle. The cart can be replaced with an upgrade later if desired.
rlrr
@dmsilev:
At some point he’ll concede but it won’t be easy for him. His whole life has been dedicated to becoming President, a Mormon JFK, and the White Horse Prophecy…
jayboat
@the Conster:
True dat! (I’m not really that hip, I just like to say it)
Back in the good ol’ days of 2008 I would actually get into arguments with some of these dipsticks.
Balloon Juice has shown this grasshoppah the error of his ways and for that I will be eternally grateful.
also, too- lovin all the vinyltalk
Amanda in the South Bay
Urgent question for the people here:
I start a new job tomorrow morning, in a very transit poor part of Oakland. However, it is near Coast Guard Island, and there is a government shuttle bus that runs between CGI, and Lake Merritt BART station. Would you think it’d be okay for me to hop on the shuttle (seats permitting) at Lake Merritt BART, and take it over to my workplace (the shuttle stops outside of CGI, near a Coast Guard building down the street from my new job). It’d be really helpful, and since I”m not going on CGI itself, wouldn’t need a DOD id. Any thoughts?
trollhattan
@Haydnseek:
When a kid I waz, I knew to stretch to get my first turntable and put up with a lousy plywood department store stereo, because a shitty table ruined your records but quick. The other stuff would get upgraded over time but you didn’t want to replace all those dang LPs.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@trollhattan:
Thanks. Here’s a stream of some pix of the remote control mod. It was surprisingly cheap, easy and effective due to the turntable’s built-in control circuits and switches. I missed the remote capability of CD when I started listening to vinyl again and this was a fun project.
gogol's wife
For those who, like me, will be too nervous to watch any election coverage Tuesday evening, TCM will be showing two Constance Bennett movies: at 8:00, Lady with a Past (1932), with David Manners; and at 9:30, Sin Takes a Holiday (1930), with Basil Rathbone.
1badbaba3
@gogol’s wife: Well, it is the sincerest form of flattery. Hah! Fair enough!
LD50
@Amanda in the South Bay: Try it and see what happens. The driver may not care at all. Besides, your taxes pay for that shuttle!
gbear
I worked at a record warehouse in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Most of what we processed was out-of-print records (cut-outs) so all the collectors worked their way into the receiving department to get first look at the stuff that came in. I bought tons of vinyl while I was there, some of it pretty rare stuff (Richard Thompson’s first solo lp on Reprise, etc).
When CD players came out, people were dumping their record collections so I picked up another ton of good stuff at the local used shops (entire Dylan collections, etc). I still have all of it. I’ve only moved twice in the last 30 years.
The local cool record store, The Electric Fetus, has been expanding their record section and it’s usuallly more crowded with shoppers than the CD sections. They just had a halloween sale so I picked up Peter Bucks LP ONLY solo release, Patti Smith’s new LP, and reissues by Blur and Low. The Urban Outfitters at Mall of America has records and turntables too.
RossInDetroit: My turntable is a Goldring GR1.2 that I picked up for a little under $400 with an Electra cartridge pre-installed. I’ve updated it with a new stylus, platter pad, and belt package from LP Gear. If I told you what I use for amplification, you’d throw up.
jayboat
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
Damn, obi-wan… that is impressive. Pause that sucker without having to release your beverage first- a drunkard’s dream if I ever did see one.
And that Beomaster… pure art.
gbear
@gogol’s wife: I’ve been invited to an election night party by the group that worked to defeat the same-sex marriage ban in MN. I’m to nervous about it to attend. I don’t want to be there if we lose.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@jayboat:
Thx. B&O gear is like a work of art. Far more sophisticated and developed than run of the mill audio. It’s worth keeping it running. That ‘table is from the ’70s and still runs fine despite the complexity.
I’m designing a lot of stuff for digital music players these days due to market preferences. In a couple of weeks my latest project, a powered DIY speaker for MP3 players, will be up on the great MAKE Magazine website. I’ll post a link in an OT when it goes live.
gogol's wife
@gbear:
I was traumatized by a dinner party in 2004 at which we had the TV on all evening and kept seeing Dubya’s smiling face pop up as he racked up state after state. Never again.
PurpleGirl
I didn’t have a lot of vinyl but at one point I got rid of the albums I didn’t play very much. I kept the Musical Heritage Society classicals and the Beatles and a bunch of others. I knew I couldn’t replace the albums with CDs because of the cost and I kept playing the vinyls. I’ve been ever so happy that I kept what I kept. My hearing my not be acute enough to tell the difference but they just sound so good and they are what I’m used to.
Raven
@gbear: God, I worked at the Champaign, Il post office in the early 70’s and we were the return PO for the Columbia Record Club. Huge ass rolling bins full of albums. The only thing worse were the canvas bags of National Geographic, because of the high quality paper they were a beast!
Raven
@PurpleGirl: There were nice collections of seeds and stems in some of my double albums!
LD50
@gogol’s wife: If the election goes the way you want, watching news shows can be pretty thrilling. It’s funniest when some crucial state falls into place early in the evening and the talking heads can’t come out and admit that it’s over til 8pm PST.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
We should start a pool on who will jump the gun and call it first. There are competing pressures to draw the coverage out as long as possible to keep the eyeballs on the commercials, and to scoop everyone by having the ‘result’ first.
Haydnseek
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Music Hall is great quality at a good price. If you buy one, you won’t go wrong. I’ve seen ’em, I’ve heard ’em, and they’re good. They’ve been around quite awhile. Parts and service shouldn’t be a problem. I have several friends that bought them and they’re very happy, always commenting on how the sound is so much better even through the phono stages of old receivers from the 70’s. On really good gear, they shine at their price points.
PurpleGirl
NYC vs. Sandy comment: I went shopping this afternoon. I got to see some very long lines of people in cars trying to get gasoline. Lines even blocked bus stops. A lot of small delis were closed — I guess they haven’t been able to get deliveries of food items they need. The Barnes & Nobel, Trader Joe’s and Michael’s I went to were about the same as normal. But the buses were way more crowded and behind schedule. I was able to take a car service home from one stop because I knew I’d be waiting for a long time to get my bus. This was in an area of Queens that didn’t have many problems to begin with.
One good note: The little park on Queens Blvd in Forest Hills that lost almost all its trees in the wind storm last year, didn’t lose any of the new plantings from this past spring (trees or shrubs). I was worried that we might lose some of the plantings.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Haydnseek: \
Rega, Pro-ject and Music Hall are the Big Three in cost conscious turntables. They all have many happy users and very good reliability.
Mid-fi gear used to have good phono stages because that was the dominant source before CD. It’s actually not that difficult to make a decent sounding RIAA phono preamp.
Ditto FM tuners. FM used to be a legit high fidelity medium and most receivers had a well made tuner section. Just try to find a decent sounding tuner these days. Or radio station, for that matter.
MikeJ
@RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
I was going to say that, but it’s not a recent phenomenon. In the 90s we always made sure the monitors in the studio were pre-effect because the air signal sucked so bad. No, I don’t want more reverb, and god no more compression.
Haydnseek
@gbear: Great post! Don’t think about gear too much. You’ve had great experiences there and have some great vinyl. Enjoy the music. Easy for me to say, from the audiogeek island of equipment fetishism and lost musical innocence.
the dude
I have a lot of vinyl, but it’s a struggle to maintain the enthusiasm sometimes: crackles, skips, warps, fiddling with carts and arms, the increasingly high prices, etc.
But most modern CDs are compressed to buggery, and sometimes the vinyl will have a better mastering, which can restore my faith somewhat (although I’d rather have the 24/192 hi-res mixes from which the vinyl mastering was likely obtained).
But now I’ve ripped my entire CD collection to lossless format and I stream my music via multiple Squeezebox devices around the house. I’ve also signed up for MOG that streams decent-quality MP3s over the interwebs to my Squeezeboxen. And I’m slowly digitizing my vinyl collection to 24/96 lossless files (personally I cannot pick the vinyl vs the rips).
Which is a long-winded way of saying that everything will be digital for me at some point, with convenience [b]and[/b] quality.
But having a wall full of framed record covers still looks pretty damn cool. One can’t say the same for a wall of framed CD covers …
jayboat
@Raven:
I knew it! Another DFH.
It’s a double album and a rolling tray! Dunno how I managed it, but I still have the paper in my copy of Big Bambu.
Jebediah
I am at work today/tonight. I went out to get some food and on the way back had a unusual experience – a guy sitting on the sidewalk begging for change refused my dollar because I profess no faith. (I then noticed that his sign said “hungry Christian.”) I should have told him I was Pastafarian… He told me he had given up all of his possessions and that it isn’t too late for me. Luckily I found someone else begging for change who nearly took my fingertips off grabbing the dollar. (All of this was a few blocks east of the KTLA lot, for the locals.)
redshirt
@jayboat: Cheech and Chong released album sized rolling papers. Cuz they’re awesome.
Toschek
If anyone wants to make some effective donations to help the folks in far rockaway, who have had almost no assistance from FEMA or the Red Cross, occupysandy is doing some wonderful work:
https://www.facebook.com/OccupySandyReliefNyc