spring time melbourne - going the punt

For those of us who don't regularly follow the gee gees spring time in Melbourne presents a dilemma. How to get the good oil on a nag to do the betting thing. I can usually rely on my mate Stan to give me the drum but others are less connected.

Problem solved. I’ve discovered a Melbourne blogger who seems at home with the bookies, strappers, slappers and squeaky voiced jockeys of the Spring Carnivale.

Cat Politics not only knows the form guide but likes cats and real country music and is a female of the species. Say no more.

i'd love to kiss the bangles

I see the reformed Bangles are touring. The Bangles had little effect on me one way or t'other. The Saw Doctors are one band I find myself listening to a lot these days. Especially watching the DVD Live In Galway and the song Joyce Country Ceilhi Band. I came across one of their lesser songs - I'd Love To Kiss The Bangles.

They are not loud or angry, or vigorously uncompromising. They have no image, message of "attitude"… Yet in Ireland, where the critical establishment has greeted their uniquely emerald brand of post punk country-rock with sniffy talk of "designer bogmen" they are adored in a way that even U2 would envy.

It is not just that their singles and albums have topped the charts or that their biggest live show there last summer attracted a crowd of 50,000 devoted fans. They are loved for their lack of pretension, the catchy choruses and for a repertoire of songs which give universal expression to specific aspects of Irish culture.

In the way that Lou Reed or Paul Simon can paint a picture of life in New York that often has a vivid resonance regardless of where in the world it is heard, so the Saw Doctors draw their inspiration, both lyrically and musically, from a parochial Irish background, and then use it to create the kind of songs that will strike a chord anywhere that people have ears.'

David Sinclair, The Times.

tell 'em they're dreamin'

Tell ‘em they’re dreamin’ alright. As part of my continuous quest to understand local cultures I call into a Crime Cash Converters store whenever I see one. I have a quick squiz to see what the local specialties are then I’m on my way. I can report that the Forest Hill branch of this home grown Aussie business isn’t hiring. At least that’s what they told the perky passionate people person girl who asked. The cheapest DVD player on sale was a cruddy scratched 2 or 3 year old model for $120. Across the road at Big W the cheapest new DVD player with a guarantee was $45.

Having a bit of a poke around on eBay just before I found this Giant OCR 3 bike for auction with a Buy Now price of $800. Second hand, no warranty, or at least no shop to take it back to, could probably do with a service, so that bumps the price up by at least $80, not to mention picking it up. Say around $900 all up. I had a quick google for a similar bike. Ivanhoe Cycles has one advertised for $595.00 brand spanking new without any bargaining.

eBay sellers are blinded by thinking sunk costs matter to buyers and Cash Converters buyers must work overtime to reduce the cognitive dissonance enough to convince themselves that second hand is always a bargain no matter what. It's a funny old world isn't it.

karma

From: Mugshots The Smoking Gun

takin' tha piss

Urine
Urine is produced by the kidneys, and plays a vital role in maintaining homeostasis by removing excess water, electrolytes such as sodium, chloride, potassium, and calcium ions, urea and other metabolites from the blood. Urine excreted by healthy kidneys is sterile.

Uses
Human urine has energising and strengthening properties which make it most useful for treating many deficiencies. Although it can be used externally as a baldness cure or as a cure for trembling hands or persistent itching, it is probable that is is most usual medicinal use is as a drink. Drinking your own urine is a excellent cure for scurvy,dropsy and jaundice

From: Wiki4CAM - an online encyclopedia for Complementary & Alternative Medicine!

close shave

"..Sometimes it's hard to be a man.."

Astute observers will spot Tom Waits connection in pic.

easing back in

Web 1.0 was invented to allow physicists to share research papers.

Web 2.0 was created to allow people to share pictures of cute cats.

"Porn is a weak test for the success of participatory media - it’s like tapping a mike and asking, “Is it on?” If you’re not getting porn in your system, it doesn’t work. Activism is a stronger test - if activists are using your tools, it’s a pretty good indication that your tools are useful and usable."

From: Ethan Zuckerman: The Cute Cat Theory

george len brennan pell

virgin on the ridiculous

Mobile phone plans seem to be designed to drive people to despair or at least confuse one enough to defer switching to another day. Even economists like Joshua Gans and Nic Gruen , who no doubt have hundreds of research assistants slaving away, have trouble figuring stuff like this out.
I‘ve had a reliable Siemens phone now for a few years and seeing I mainly only text and talk and don’t need a camera or an MP3 player in my phone I have seen little need to enter into a contract involving a “free” phone. Much of the last 5 or 6 years I’ve been out of contract. Occasionally I have gone into contract and got a cash rebate of around $150 per phone from a local independent phone agent.

I have avoided Capped Plans because my usage varies a lot from month to month, and being an old fashioned kind of guy, I tend to not yap for long on mobiles if I’m paying. Capped plans come with super offers of $200 for $49 or so but the trouble is most capped plans aren’t really capped at all and the charges are at two or three times the normal fee.

Firstly I set about to find out exactly what plan I’m on and the item charges. No luck. As far as I can see my provider's site has not been operational for the last two weeks. I tried to complain to them but got nowhere. Talking on the phone to Optus owned M8, in the Philippines I think, is hopeless. All they seem to do is spout scripted sales blurbs.

Anyway I sniffed around and somehow got to Slimtel a small Vodafone reseller. They have a nice bring your own phone, no contract, no minimum monthly, no flagfall, 1 Second billing, 11c per 30 seconds to any landline any time, 11c per 30 seconds to Vodafone Mobile any time, 17c per 30 seconds to Non-Vodafone Mobile at any time, 18c per SMS, Voicemail d 7.5c per 30 seconds and only $11 exit/porting fee. Seems pretty good to me.

Old geeky habits die hard so I thought I’d have a squiz at Whirlpool to see what the sadly obsessed had to say. There a person aptly called G WiZZ has taken the effort to set up a spreadsheet with what seem to be all the possible current plans and providers available. G Wizz has also placed a nice little usage calculator in the top right had corner of the spreadsheet so that you can adjust for your usage needs. Download the spreadsheet here.

The very strange thing about all this is that the Virgin Pre paid no contract, no monthly minimum, no cap, el cheapo, for the kids Bean Counter plan seems to outperform almost any other plan or be in the top 5, no matter what figures I punch into it. I’m about to buy myself into the Virgin Bean Counter and give it a go. After all with no contract and no monthly minimum I don’t think I can lose. The weird thing is Virgin Mobile, at least in Oz, is owned by Optus.

I’d be keen to hear what others think.

mark steyn

No doubt most readers will have caught up with the legal, liberal, libertarian and left blogging on Mark Steyn’s right to turn a phrase as he pleases about what pleases him not.

I don't much read Steyn’s current writings on politics. He’s not to my taste and I reckon his writing has gone downhill. I should add the usual disclaimer; as much as I disagree with what he says at times, I would defend his right to say it. At least until I was placed under a mild degree of discomfort. Say threatened with a paper cut or having to drink instant coffee.

However I’d like to praise Steyn a bit not bury him. I still enjoy re-reading Broadway Babies Say Goodnight one of the must have books if you enjoy musicals.

Some of the time Steyn misses the mark and doesn’t run a good argument but mostly this lament on the decline of a great art is a delight to read. There’s enough insight and ideas to force the reader over to the radiogram to spin a platter or two in order to check up on him, disagree or just to enjoy the music. If, like me, you have no time for the crop of Lloyd-Webbers, Cats and Phantoms you’ll enjoy his deft ranting, feel his love of musicals and not be irritated by squinting through his ideological prism.

If you can’t get the book try this for a taster: The Death of the Show Tune, A rant on Rent.

Mark also does a nice line in grumpy old men type writing about popular culture. Granted a lot of the content is a predictable but the occasional flowing paragraph makes it worthwhile. A bit like finding a tasty black olive in an otherwise flaccid 70’s cold platter.

From Twenty years ago today:
And most of us of Sir Mick Jagger’s age and younger don’t want to hear, either. To be sure, this or that gangsta rapper is a bit much, and Britney’s a sad old slapper, and Madonna’s a clapped-out provocateur, but what’s wrong with a bit of rock and roll? Nothing. Except that, when it’s ubiquitous, it’s stunting. Paul Simon and I once had a longish conversation about this and eventually he conceded that even the best rockers had nevertheless been unable to develop beyond a very basic harmonic language: There isn’t enough there to teach in a “music” course. But what else is left? The old middle-brow middle-class couples who subscribed to the symphony every season and dutifully sat there through Beethoven, Bartók, Brahms, and Bernstein are all but extinct, and pitied for their inability to cut loose and boogie in the same way we feel sorry for those trapped in a loveless marriage. What a difference it would make if grade-schoolers could know just enough of a smattering of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony to recognize the excellent joke “The Simpsons” makes of it. What an achievement it would be if every high-school could acquire a classical catalogue as rich as that used in Looney Tunes when Elmer Fudd goes hunting Daffy Duck or Bugs Bunny. Carl Stalling, who scored those cartoons, often fell back on formula: If someone was in a cave, the orchestra would play “Fingal’s Cave.” But you can’t even do that any more, because no-one gets the joke.

bill henson photo

This is a photo of my mother taken about 1924. The whole family has always admired this and I have it hanging framed in my hallway for all to see. I've loved it ever since I was a little kid.

plug & play 4 faggots

The other day I bought an external USB hard drive enclosure that will do both IDE and SATA. Only $45 at my local computer shop. Looks pretty spiffy with shiny black case and blue led light.

Anyway I needed to find out more info than was on the bit of paper that came with it. So I googled "Ritmo Quiro External 3.5 Hard Drive enclosure".

One of the pages gave me this:

Ritmo QUIRO 3.5" IDE/SATA USB 2.0 ENCLOSURE
CE-3586
* Compatible with both USB 2.0 and USB 1.1
* 2 colour indicator
* Screwless, easy to install
* Plug & Play 4 faggots
* Stylish Aluminium cover and stand
* Support Win98/98se/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/VISTA, MAC OS 8.6/9 and above.

Plug & Play 4 faggots?

Sheesh go easy - even Linux has plug & play these days.

Some one should grab the /. nerd who wrote that web page by his security lanyard and have a quiet word in his shell like.

happy birthday bob

Tomorrow Bob Dylan will turn 67. Thanks for all the goodtimes Bob. And thanks for giving all smalltown youths a chance to dream. Not only of being yourself but becoming somebody else as well and impacting on almost the whole known world.

Dylan Days In Hibbing Minnesota

33 1/3

Forgotten I ordered them. They arrived last night from Amazon.

Robert Johnson, Mythmaking, and Contemporary American Culture (Music in American Life)"Patricia R. Schroeder; Hardcover

Swordfishtrombones (33 1/3) David Smay

Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste (33 1/3)Carl Wilson

The whole 33 1/3 series is marvellous and at around aus$10 a throw I'll be chucking at least one in all future Amazon orders as well as reading their blog.

I immediately stuck my nose into the Celine Dion book and despite being less than halfway through I already have my money's worth. Carl Wilson explores his own music snobbery, the meaning of cool, notions of low brow, high brow and non ironic middle brow and kitsch, in an effort to understand the appeal of his fellow Canadian Dion.

Those defenders of the faith in music blogging Flop Eared Amanda and Shaun "Leather Pants and Vest" Cronin had already given me the good oil but it was walking around Beijing last month and hearing that Titanic song everywhere and then a 4 day sell out concert in Beijing at the same time that propelled me to jump onto Amazon and swipe the plastic.

I'm already learning what I already know again about my tastes and I'm feeling more and more comfortable about my love of sentimentality in songs from Frank and Elvis through to smaltzy Irish pub ballads from The Fureys. (At this point I'm still snobby enough to reject Daniel O'Donnell).

A quote from Carl Wilson: To the extent we agree that coolness and lack of same are enormously influential-and that coolness is a social category, not a natural attribute (with the possible exception of Keith Richards)-we are all Bourdieuvians.

beijing bicycle

I've upped a big bunch of Beijing Bicycle photos at Melbourne Cyclist

hutong happiness

Looking down our Hutong.


Looking out our bedroom window onto courtyard.



Looking across courtyard to bedroom.

Beijing's hutongs are intricate maze-like lanes, made up of courtyard houses built with incredible attention to detail in accordance with the principles of feng shui. Hutong is a Mongolian word meaning water well, indicating that homes like these were built around wells since the 13th century. Due to the imperial rule that no building should be higher than the palaces, these low-level buildings spread out from the Forbidden City, creating a large part of the physical landscape of the city. More importantly, hutongs formed the social framework of the city. With several families living in close proximity, using communal courtyards and toilets, the community network and support system was very tight. Still today in the hutongs of south Beijing and around Houhai, men drink beer on the streets while watching the world go by as women gossip and knit, and children chase and kick balls off the walls of the narrow alleys.

But increasingly, sprayed on the wall of a hutong in white paint, is the character 'chai' – demolish. The increase in land prices, combined with the urgent need for further infrastructure, has led to large swathes of hutongs being destroyed to make way for road expansion and new property developments. With almost no legal tenants' rights, combined with the rampant corruption of officials and property developers, land is cleared with almost no concern for either the heritage being destroyed or the people who once lived there. Residents are often offered paltry compensation and have to move outside the city – forced evictions are not uncommon, with families protesting and even using suicide as a tool to be heard.

Records show that there were 3,679 hutongs in the 1980s. That figure has dropped by over 40 per cent, with up to 600 hutongs destroyed each year. Homes, shops and restaurants have all been demolished, most notably in the south of Beijing around Qianmen and Dazhalan – home to some of the most interesting and famous hutongs in the city.

Walking through bulldozed Hutongs 8 April 2008

ich bin ein beijinger

Not only am I good at the lingo like Kev, I also have acquired Beijinger aspirations. 
I want what all Beijingers want - a black Audi A6 with blacked out windows:



If I can't afford the Audi I'll settle for a Police bike: 


Or an electric bike: 


Or if I can't afford that I'll settle for a rusty but trusty old Flying Pigeon like everyone else. 

hi [gloss] fi in beijing

For Harry Clarke.
It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that bling. There are a bunch of audio / home theatre shops near XiSi Crossing in Xicheng.

sound advice 2.5

Speakers and Value

I was going to save this and write a longer post. But a few people have been nagging me. So here is the quick and dirty version.

Most decent speaker drivers are a comodity product all made by a few manufacturers. Most boxes and crossovers are designed and made overseas and a very large part of the cost is transport to import a large box. Added to this wholesaler and retailer margins and the cost of even very ordinary speaker is high.

It will come as no surprise then that the big savings to be made in purchasing speakers is to avoid transport and re-selling costs and if possible cabinet making costs.

You can avoid all of this by buying an Australian designed speaker kit and putting it together yourself – this way you save on cabinet making labour, overseas shipping and retail and wholesale margins.

My favourite Australian kit speaker is the LoudSpeakerKit company’s M6 large bookshelf. I have a pair and so do many others I have helped. They are currently $599 a pair. In my listening I haven’t found a pair of made speakers under $2,000+ that sound as good. They are easy to put together and well designed crossovers and enclosure with a very good midrange sound. The Kit people started off in Essendon but then moved to Perth. The have a demo room in Narre Warren as well.

I have found the larger floor standers from the same company not as good in my listening. Too bassy and boomy. The M6 is easy to put together in about 4 hours over two night to allow glue to dry. The kit is precut mdf that slots together well and even includes the glue. MDF is in fact the preferred speaker material due to its density and rigidity. Dan’s Data has a review and pictures of M6s and howto.


The LoudSpeakerKit people also have another cheaper little ripper of a small shielded speaker for the price - the M4 at $99 each. Dan’s Data has a review and pictures of M4s.

There are other Australian kit speakers around.

A well regarded Australian designer seller of ready made speakers is in Melbourne Whatmoughs are out at 1352 Ferntree Gully Road, Scoresby. I think he designs them here and now has them made up overseas. But they have been generally well regarded for many years. The P33 series are well thought of.

I’m biased toward what used to be called the English sound of speakers such as Castle and B&W. The “English sound” s generally considered to be warmer and have good midrange and tight bass. The “American sound” on the other hand can be a bit harsh with louder looser bass and more high end. The Bose Sound on the other hand has managed to combine the worst of all worlds in domestic speakers and systems. Bose car systems however are amongst the best.

A weird and sometimes wonderful audio site is the delightful Italian TNT Audio. Baised toward DIY and with a great section on second hand gear it does however at times tend toward the homeopathic handwaving non evidence based end of audio such as "breaking in" amplifiers, cd players and wires. It's DIY speaker stands are a winner.

sound advice 2

Listening, Speaker Placement and Room Dampening

I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to post no 2. I’m also off to Beijing tonight and so possibly won’t even be able to access blogspot due to censorship, for about the next 10 days.

The practical exercises herein require no one else in the house except you and your helper for a good 4 – 5 hour afternoon. The helper will need to be a sympathetic audio nut or a beginner nut. You will need the house empty not only because you will be playing strange bits of music and odd sounds but you will be doing some things that may appear stupid to an audio philistine and having to explain will be unrewarding. From much experience I can warn that this can easily turn into a 12 stubby job for two. Non drinkers should stock up on good coffee, biscuits and Lapsang Souchong.

I classify listening into two categories:

1. Active listening – where the listener is in their lounge room or similar and concentrating almost exclusively on the sound and is seated about 6 (1.8m) to 10 feet (3m) in front of the speakers in a sweet spot. (Most headphone listening is active.)

A subset of active listening, which I think is underutilised by household listeners, is Nearfield Listening. Nearfield listening is what recording studios use for monitoring and playback. The speakers are usually smallish or bookshelf size and placed anywhere from 6 inches (.15m) to 2 (.6) feet apart. The listener is not usually more than 3 feet away from the speakers. This tends to minimise many room effects and give a better sound at a lower volume.

I use this in my office with two Yamaha NS-10s on a shelf at ear height and about an arms length in front of me. (NS-10s are of course famous – mine cost me a slab of green tinnies). Nearfield listening and speaker placement can also work well for those in flats and or small rooms. Sitting close to speakers saves space and will allow lower volumes. You can even do this with your existing speakers (or those in a shop) to get an idea how they sound with minimal room interference. Just bring them to within one foot of each other, toe them in and drag a chair up to about 3 feet away so that you ears are roughly at tweeter level.

2. Everyday Listening – where the listener is in the room but perhaps wandering around to different rooms or reading or writing or eating at a table but not in the sweet spot. Most people, including me, do most listening in this mode. This is louder and more involved than background listening. Background listening is low volume and incidental. The effect is a bit like lift muzak. I generally disapprove of background listening but will sometimes have FM classical on very low.

One of the most common mistakes made in sound is speaker placement. It is also the easiest to fix and the most likely to make a difference in sound.

Whilst it is true that the room probably has the most impact on sound, the fact is that most of us do not have the luxury of a purpose built dedicated listening room. Generally the sound system is plonked in the lounge or living room and juggled around furniture, views, fireplaces, TVs, pathways, heater vents or partner needs.

In the ideal audiophile’s view, and in most hi-fi magazine articles, the listening room is at least 25 feet (7.6 m) X 20 feet (6m) and dedicated almost solely to the hi-fi setup. (Many American audio nuts seem to have much bigger rooms usually in the basement.) These rooms are well suited to large floorstanding speakers and need largish speakers with big woofers to fill the room properly.

Speakers consist of an enclosure (the box) and drivers (commonly called speakers) and a crossover or possibly more crossovers. In oversimplified terms: Drivers are the smallest called tweeters, which carry the higher sounds, midranges which carry the mid sounds (voices etc) and larger woofers which carry the low sounds. Subwoofers carry even lower sounds. Crossovers essentially separate out the signals and send high sounds to the tweeters, mid to mid and low to woofers. It’s not quite that simple but that’s the essentials.

The art and science of good sound is basically in the crossover design and the calculation of enclosure volume for the drivers. Despite all the marketing spin drivers are a mature commodity and very few speaker brands make their own. The well known Scandinavian driver manufacturers turn up in many top end brand speakers which incidentally is what makes speaker do it yourself kits with well designed crossovers extraordinary value. But more of that later.


Most speakers these days will be two way. That is they will have two drivers - a tweeter and a combined woofer/midrange. Older or floor standing speakers commonly are three way -one tweeter, one midrange and one woofer. Home theatre set ups commonly have a sub-woofer.

Think of the tweeters as relatively directional, that is the sound will travel in close to a straight line from the tweeter. Think of midrange / woofers as relatively non directional. Following on from this it is obvious that the tweeters should be at, or slightly above ear height when seated in the ideal active listening position. For most people that will involve raising the speakers off the floor. If you have bookshelf speakers you may eventually get proper stands but for the time being use anything solid to raise the tweeter height to ear height. Milk crates (all music lovers have a cache of milk crates) or small tables or even bookshelves. Bookshelves aren’t the best as we will see a bit later.


There are many complicated formulas for setting up speakers in a room which I will provide links for later if you are inclined but basically it boils down to having the speakers themselves about 6 feet apart and the listener at the apex of a triangle about 8 to 10 feet in front. Toe the speakers in a bit to aim the tweeters at about where the listeners ears might be. Depending in the size of your head and ears that should be around 8 inches apart at the listening point.
If at all possible the speakers should be a meter from any side wall and a meter from the rear wall. In most modern rooms this just isn’t practical but try as much as possible to have speakers away from walls.

Start off with the speakers a meter out from each wall but just say about sic inches away from each other while you sit directly in from about 6 – 8 feet away with tweeters at ear height. Get helper to move speakers slowly apart to eventual 6 – 8 feet apart while you listen.

Get your helper to move the speakers in toward each other and out and at slightly different angles whilst you sit and listen. At some point in the process you will begin to hear and understand stereo imaging and there will be a sweet point when the sound has some depth and seems to come from somewhere in the middle of the two speakers rather then from each speaker. Mark your listening spot and the speaker spots with something like blu tac or chalk on the floor not texta. It is most likely that this set of spots is not practical due to everyday use and other family members. But keep it marked as you will eventfully try to slyly creep to this arrangement over the next few months.

You will of course have been playing some well chosen music or sounds that has a good stereo image and a bit of depth. I can recommend any of the test discs from Chesky which these days usually also contain a good selection of well produced jazz music as well as test sounds.  JB will have some at times.

Another extremely useful and supremely enlightening fiddle you can try now is room damping. Ths is where mny advice to have house empty will be appreciated.

Music will reproduce best where the room sound is flat and the room provides little or no additional echo or bouncing of sound waves around the room. (There are exceptions but this is a basic rule). Notice how a radio studio always is dampened and dead and how the music from the studio speakers sound great. Or a recording studio is similar.

Now most people cant realistically have a dead listening room but you need to hear your speaker at least a few times with the room as dead as possible in order to see if perhaps you speakers are ok and not really in need of replacement. Anyway, after this exercise you will be constantly seeking to deaden the room.

If the floor isn’t carpeted throw as many rugs as possible on the floor especially in front of the speakers to cover floorboards or tiles. Grab as many doonas and blankets as you can and somehow get them around the walls around ear height. A good but embarrassing way to prop them up is using brooms and sticks to prop up doonas on the walls. Or hang carpets from picture rails. Crowded book shelves also work well. The object is to cover all the floor and surfaces up to a bit above ear height or higher with soft sound absorbing material.

Now sit down and listen properly to a well produce bit of music for a long time – at least and hour. Your speakers are now in the best environment to perform for you.

Listen to see if they can reproduce a bass well – tightly without booming, listen to hear if the mid range reproduces voices guitars and piano well. Bad speakers will have a booming or non existent bass. The hardest bit to get right is the mid range. It seems to me that these days the emphasis is all on tweeters and woofers and midrange is ignored. Most cheaper and even a lot of the more expensive home theatre sound is all high end and low end with no midrange. You will find that this combination is fatiguing as well as missing out the wonderful sound of voices guitars and pianos.

If you have done all the above this last hour or so will be your peak experience with your current system. It is pointless getting new speakers without going through all this set up. Naturally you probably can’t leave the doonas and speakers and seats exactly where they should be forever. But you can know that this is where you are aiming and gradually dampen the room with furnishings like couches, carpets, wall hangings and book shelves full of books.

You will find that if you do the above even a crappy old all in one stereo will sound better than expected. It will even improve a boombox.

Good listening. Link to a page of mad speaker links to keep you busy for hours.

Next up in the series Choosing Speakers and perhaps fixing up good old speakers and I would like to do a list of true hi-fidelity recordings. Perhaps commenters could throw in a bunch of suggestions.