Back at work today after a few days off. I've transferred the last few Christmas music MP3 files from my player to the hard drive of my office computer, and got everything organized into a Christmas playlist. There's complete albums by Take 6, Michael W. Smith, Nat King Cole, Bruce Cockburn, and Amy Grant, plus a bunch of other tracks from various artist CDs and elswhere. I've got the playlist set on random play right now, and everything is right with the world.

Some of my favorites:
Jesus Christ
You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch…

Well, it is actually a pre-owned turntable. I bought a Technics SL-1700Mk2 via eBay. Its a quartz controlled semi-automatic table, something of a releative of the manual SL-1200Mk2 that's the DJ standard. I had to use a rubber band to replace the missing cue belt, and I was able to get a slighty used Technics headshell and a new Grado Black cartridge at a local hi-fi store. Now all I need to do is replace the badly cracked dust cover.

Next up is getting into my old vinyl from the 80s. Lots of alternative rock 12" singles with some now…

I've been to two funerals this week, for two ladies who both passed away Sunday. My parents are out of town on vacation thousands of miles away, and I had the job of telling my mother on the phone that one of her best friends passed away.

Part of going to a funeral is listening to the music that the decedant and/or their family has selected for the occasion. Some of it was live, and some recorded. I don't think I could sing at someone's funeral, so I'd hate to arrange for someone to sing at mine. So driving home…

The Capitol Years (disc 1)
The Capitol Years (disc 3)
Judy Garland - The London Sessions
Dino: The Essential Dean Martin

I recently purchased some Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland CDs from the local used music store. I got a Dean Martin CD last month, and have also been thinking that I need more Nat King Cole CDs too.

Not too long ago, I would never have considered buying music by these artists. My CD collection was strongly skewed toward CDs recorded since (and influenced by) the Punk/Post-Punk days of the late 1970s and early 1980s. I always thought that…

I've been out of town on holiday for a week. Didn't touch a computer the whole time, which was marvelous. Hurricane Ophelia missed Edisto Beach, South Carolina where we rented a house for a week, but gave us some very high tides so the beachcombing was great. The weather calmed down for the second half of the week. I got some sun, built sandcastles with my daughter, and read a good number of novels, including The Barrytown Trilogy by Roddy Doyle.

On the MP3 player (192 MB of flash memory):
T-Bone Burnett - Self-titled
The Choir - O How the…

Earlier this year I learned that my grandmother had a first cousin, Ernest Ulmer, who was a concert pianist and a professor at the Manhattan School of Music. Some searching on the 'net and I now have a two CD set of him playing Debussy piano preludes (I got a few extra sets to give as presents to other relatives too). After letting it sit on the shelf, I ripped it to MP3 files so I can listen to it more. I'm really not sure when these were originally recorded, but it seems to be a reissue of an…

Four and a half years later, and it still hurts.

There's a bunch of Kirsty MacColl product being released in England this year, but none of it here in the states so far. There's been an authorized biography, a DVD, a 3 disc box set, and the latest is a single disc anthology culled from the box set that's entered the English charts this month, up to #12 in its second week.

I ordered a used import copy of the box set (see From Croydon to Cuba . . An Anthology (disc 1) & From Croydon to Cuba . .…

Last month, I was on an audio message board, discussing my home town of Johnson City, Tennessee. Someone who lives a few counties over asked me if Back Door Records was still in business. Unfortunately, Johnson City's best indie record store shut down several years ago. The new stock tended to be too metal for my tastes, but they had the best selection of used vinyl and CDs for years.

That got me to thinking about my days back in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a student at East Tennessee State. I knew several guys that worked at…

Here I was complaining about anthology overload, so of course the next day I go to the local used CD store and pick up another one. $5 for a UK import CD of The Best of Altered Images. The prickly early Siouxie-influenced singles are interesting, and it features the 12" mix of their big pop hit "Happy Birthday" (a song about Marilyn Monroe serenading JFK on his birthday). In the long run, 17 tracks worth of Claire Grogan's little-girl-lost voice is more than I have been able to stand in one sitting.

I also got a CD of The…

Bought a bunch of collection type CDs the other day, by mail order, all on sale. Think I spent $30, shipping included, for the lot. They arrived in the post today.

Stereolab - ABC Music Collection of BBC 1 radio sessions. Liked what I heard on the first disc, still need to spin the second.

Ramones - Anthology: Hey Ho Let's Go! I've had some of their early albums on vinyl for years, seems odd to listen to them on CD. Something this lowbrow and punk just sounds odd in clear digital sound.

Smash it Up: The Anthology 1976-1987 I've…