Republicans Hate Sex

And they hate you all for getting more action than they ever will. Pretty much sums it all up, dontcha think?

Ironic

When you think about it, President Obama's Inaugural speech - and I will never grow tired of hearing the words "President Obama" - was almost classically Conservative. It was a call to tradition, history, and the values of the past. He also preached responsibility, sacrifice, and adherence to the rule of law.

Barack Obama marks the generational paradigm shift in American politics. This happens every 40 years or so, and it establishes the vocabulary and the rules for how our politics operate. Since 1968, we've been living in Nixonland. For the 40 years before that, it was FDR and the New Deal. Now it will be Obama and...what, exactly? Ah, that's part of the mystery. The poles are being reshuffled. Concepts that were once defined as "Conservative" - tradition, caution, prudence - will be redefined to Obama's realm.

Today's conservatism - the GOP right - is hopelessly lost. They've burned away their candles at both ends, and all that's left is cruelty, paranoia, fear and loathing. They're a support group for cranks, conspiracy theorists, and Oxycontin junkies. Their kind will not return. Their time is past.

The Madness of King George

I think one of the enduring mysteries of this past decade is why exactly Conservative Republicans lost their minds. Somewhere along the way, between Reagan/Bush, Clinton, and Bush II (forgive me, I keep wanting to type 'Stupid'), these people went completely, laughably insane. And as the Bush/Cheney presidency collapsed, so did the conservative ideology.

What's left now more closely resembles the rantings of frustrated teenage nerds than sober adults. This can't possibly be the face of the GOP. Right? These are emotionally troubled children with unresolved Daddy issues. This is not a viable political party. And I think it may take a couple more election cycles before this situation changes.

Why any Republican worth their salt would continue to cling to George W. Bush in 2009 is just bizarre. We're talking "Vanilla Ice has a new CD" bizarre.

Words Fail

The Inauguration was a wonderful moment, transcendent, historic. I wish I had the words to describe it or provide context, but words fail. We see history being written before our eyes, and for the first time in many years, I have hope for the future again.

President Barack Obama. Isn't that just amazing? It's almost as surreal as President Miles Davis.

Change We Can Believe In

Excellent first steps towards repairing America's reputation. Of all the crimes of the Bush era, the torture regime was the most apalling. That will be the stain that Bush and Cheney are remembered for, and it will take us years, decades possibly, before our global image is restored.

I remain skeptical that there will ever be formal investigations and prosecutions for torture, rendition, Guantanamo, CIA "black sites," etc. But Obama's first moves as President give me a glimmer of hope. These criminals must be brought to justice.

Now it's Crystler's Turn

That didn't take too long. Surprise, surprise.

The Party of Personal Responsibility

Somewhere along the way, the Republican Party became the domain of whiny crybabies. Nothing is ever their fault. Whaah! Whaah!

Deep Thought

Three days until we have President Obama!! Yaaay!

As Leonard Cohen once promised, democracy is coming to the USA.

Two New Turntables!

Today I find myself the proud owner of two new turntables: the frightfully impressive Sony PS-X5, and the spectacular Sony PS-X75. The first one arrived on Thursday, and I've been having enormous fun playing with it. The second arrived on Friday, but I wasn't able to get at until this afternoon. A fella has to catch up on sleep sometime.

I'll post pictures later today if I can. For now, I'll be switching my Denon DL-160 MC cart between the two. I picked up a Sumiko headshell from Needle Doctor, and it is absolutely spectacular. It's a real joy to be able to switch headshells on these classic turntables.

Considering my January turntable budget was $1,000, I came away with a spectacular hunt. The PS-X75 cost just under $300, and the PS-X5 cost a mere $100. Each table today would easily sell for a couple thousand. The moral of the story, kids? GO VINTAGE.

My humble Pro-Ject Debut III will now sit in a closet somewhere, until I can find it a new home. I may just put an Ortofon 2M Red cart on it and give it to my sisters. We'll see what happens.

Deep Thought

Remember back when Ralph Nader said there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between the Democratic and Republican Parties? What a kooky guy.

Waylon Smithers Offers Tax Cuts?!

Are you freakin' kidding me? Tell me this isn't some sick joke, that this is really some sort of master head-fake on Obama's part.

The problem with American politics is that one party fights a full-court press, regardless of their popularity or the election returns. And the other party endlessly frets about accomodating them. Back in the '90s, we thought of our two-party system as Kang and Kodos. We were wrong. It's really C. Montgomery Burns and Waylon Smithers.

If the Dems can't show any damn spine, even now when a generational opportunity presents itself, we're screwed. It's gonna be a long four years.

Your 2009 Republican Party

Release the hounds, Smithers!

Amazing, really, that such monsters are ever successful in American politics. That the GOP has been in dominance since Richard Nixon, I fear, says something about the character of the American people.

Fun With Plasti-Clay

One very easy tweak to perform on old turntables, especially the cheap-ass ones, is to pack the innards with molding putty. Plasti-Clay (hope I'm spelling that right) is a perfect example of this. As the era of vinyl records gave way to compact disc, the market was flooded with countless plastic turntables. These were nowhere near as well built as the monsters of the late '70s and early '80s, and they probably did as much to cement the death of LPs as anything from the digital side. Still, there are many great turntables to find for little to no money - $100 or less, I mean.

Plastic is a terrible material for turntables, because of their resonance and vibration problems. It's clearly the bottom of the totem pole, before fiberboard, hard wood, and other exotic materials like marble and metal. All these vibrations compromise your sound, and result in a poorer turntable. It doesn't help that most of these models are hollow and empty. But watch at how you can change that, only with a few pounds of molding clay.

See that?! That's insane. It also yields shocking results. When you want great music on the cheap, that is, without spending a grand on a Rega or Pro-Ject (or more!), you need every trick in the book.

You can probably try this on some cheap, old Technics that's always available in rummage sales and thrift stores. You'll likely pay only a few bucks for one, certainly never over $100. Perform this Plasti-Clay surgery and suddenly your table will sound much....much better. Then throw a decent phono cartridge - I always recommend the Audio Technica 440mla - and prepare to be amazed.

This trick should work on any turntable that has empty space inside the board, so feel free to experiement and see what that does for you.

Pioneer PL-70 II

I want this turntable! When's my next paycheck?

Ever since my week with the (Radio Shack) Realistic LAB-420, a 1970's Direct Drive turntable that just trounced my Belt Drive Pro-Ject Debut III, I've been educating myself on the classic Japanese DD turntables from a generation ago. Back in the peak days of vinyl lp's, Japanese engineers were creating some of the greatest audio gear known to man. With the arrival of CD in the early '80s, turntables were left by the wayside, and in many ways, the Japanese turntable classics have never been surpassed.

Today, you'll have to spend a couple thousand dollars to match the performance of these giants. Not to knock our modern BD designs, but they are horribly expensive, really playthings for the wealthy. You likely won't find a turntable that's worth your salt for under $1,000. And when dealing with the belts, you'll need some sort of speed-control device to keep 'em remotely stable.

Meanwhile, we can score the old DD classics for a song. The only caveat is that 30 years have passed, and maintainence may become an issue. The more careful music lovers too good care of their tables; far too many, sadly, foolishly dumped their turntables in a dusty basement somewhere. So finding one of these tables may involve a certain degree of restoration.

Fortunately, I've found a couple vintage shops online that cater to the vintage Japanese tables. Which leads us to this beauty...

This is Pioneer's PL-70 II, circa 1985. It's based upon their audio masterpiece, 1980's Exclusive P3. That table is remembered as Japan's most successful high-end turntable. An enormous box, the P3 sells for well over $3,000 today, and likely more if the bidding becomes fierce. Fortunately, Pioneer created a series of more affordable tables, for those of us who don't have money to burn. These include the PL-30, PL-50, and PL-70 series.

This table in question is available right now at Hi Fi Do, a Japanese import shop that's loaded with classic DD tables. The price? A mere $750 or so, depending on the currency rate. The smaller and more compact PL-30 II sells for around $250. The two tables appear to be roughly the same, although the PL-70 is much bigger (duh!) and the tonearm appears to be beefier. I have no doubts either one would be spectacular.

You would be amazed at how many fantastic DD tables can be found for under $300. It's enough to turn me into a collector. Today's audiophiles hold a very poor attitude towards DD, in favor of the BD's that dominate, but I think this is due to the flood of cheap, plastic toy turntables that swamped the audio market in the '80s. Ugh, those are terrible. No wonder everyone switched to CD. If everyone had a turntable like this...well, things would likely have been very different.

After my next payday, it's time to score a new turntable. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping this beauty is still available when the time comes. If not...ehh, there are a dozen other contenders that each look amazing. I'll score one of these monsters either way.

Denon DP-500M Direct Drive Turntable

Now this is an interesting candidate. I have no idea if it's any good or not, despite much searching on the internet. Denon is famous for their excellent phono cartridges, and they've made some classic turntables back in the '70s. But what about this modern unit? For $700, it does look nice. But how does it sound? How does it compete to Technics, or the belt-drive giants, Pro-Ject and Rega?

I honestly don't know. Perhaps this truly is a cheap table. And perhaps it's bias against direct drives. The audiophile community is heavily tilted to the side of the belt-drivers, so it's tough to say. My own experience shows that a direct drive can produce excellent sound. But they have also fairly earned a poor reputation, due to many cheap tables in the '80s.

So what about the Denon DP-500M? I don't know. But I'd like to at least hear this table in action once. If it's good, then we'll have another competitor in the sub-$1,000 market. If not, ehh. Whatever.

Update 12/30: Nope, avoid this one. Turns out the stats on this table are weak, really weak. It really does demonstrate how much smaller the turntable world is now, compared to 25 years ago. You can't get a fraction of the old performance with the same money today. A far wiser choice would be to find a vintage Denon table, one of the old masters. You'll find something truly brilliant for half the price of this simple box.