Overbearing, infantilizing authorities grow in all climates, some public, some private...

If you want to be artistically really puzzled, try Artifact Puzzles (a friend's business for full disclosure).

In that case, I'll call out the album that really got me into modern jazz:

Them fighting words ;) but listening to one of my best setups right now (ending in Focal Utopia) and I won't contradict you...

Juan Ibarra Quintet is a recent discovery via Bandcamp. The closest well-known band is Brian Blade's Fellowship Band. I'll be listening to this a lot!

Don't tempt me... I've enjoyed some amazing spring ski touring on South Sister, and I'm in general highly tempted by Cascade volcanos :grin:

Tasting notes look like the sake list at a Japanese place I frequent :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Heard Dave Holland with Lionel Loueke and Eric Harland at SFJAZZ on Saturday, unusual renderings of several of their compositions and a couple of new Loueke ones. Very much worth shuffling our schedule considerably and the additional driving.

I had left the Hugo2+2go unused for a while as my wired speaker and headphone systems were doing their jobs. When I got to it again, it got stuck in some weird state and I had to do a factory reset, which is a PITA as the little control switch does not register properly sometimes, and returns to...

Well... in that case, what about some Mali kora music? A good starting point with two of the masters: Then, a favorite by each of them:

My jazz offering for tonight

Reminding me of when I heard them at SFJAZZ, thanks!

Recently got Utopia 2020s for a good price, enjoying them a lot with tubes, not yet as convincing with (some) solid-states.

In my experience, OG Yggy (A2) is more impressive with a good speaker system than with headphones. It's very, very good with headphones, but not radically better than some competitors. With speakers, a different story. In our previous house, the space was a great fit for a particular speaker...

Not always. For instance, sometimes Qobuz has the 96/24 hi-res album, but the same album on Bandcamp is 44.1/16 (guess how I know...). The whole digitral download market is a mess, quality control could be better. For non-Bandcamp albums, I go to Qobuz (to enjoy my Sublime discounts), then...

Yup. I download my Qobuz purchases from the Qubuz website, to my Mac, using Qobuz's download manager app.

I've been to many live gigs with him in different bands, he can switch from delicate, spacey to explosive thunder in a split second. All-round, my favorite active jazz drummer.

Varies, typically in the $7-$11 range. My most recent purchases:

My solution to that problem is to use Qobuz to learn about new music, and then buy the albums I like, mainly as digital downloads. I have a Qobuz Sublime annual subscription that gives good discounts on downloads, but I also (actually, mostly given the music I listen to) go to Bandcamp and find...

New jazz, Intakt label, released today, via Bandcamp: Very good straight-ahead: Very good anything but straight-ahead:

Of his long books, the only one I really like is The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. 1Q84 and Killing Commendatore are mixed bags, great sections surrounded by clutter and derivative material (IMO). My absolute favorite is After Dark, short and eerie. Second place, besides The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle...

I don't do Spotify, but there's this... Actually, for us Qobuzers, there's this.

Things are getting so unromantic these days, with college term papers being now fueled by big AI server farms :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

The only tools I've done that level of damage (different types) with were skis. And the recovery time was comparable to what expects you. But we were having fun...

Lisbon Edinburgh Bay Area Cambridge (UK) Bay Area Northern NJ Philadelphia Bay Area Most of my personal vacations: snowy mountains. Yes, we like the cooler version of Mediterranean climate for everyday living. Edinburgh summers were awesome for light. But I also love cold weather, something I...