THIS IS NOT A TEST

mjp

mjp

Founding member
Ha. "Everybody agrees that vinyl sounds better than digital - except audio engineers, and the people who invented the compact disc."

Thanks, I hadn't read that. Even though it was published at the same time I was writing the podcast. I wish I had read it, I could have used some of that stuff. But Bob Clearmountain makes my point for me when he says, "That's what it sounded like. That's what I remember doing in the studio."

And all of this:

...it's not clean reproduction of a recording that makes vinyl a preferred format; it's the affect the vinyl adds to a recording that people find pleasing.

"I think some people interpret the lack of top end [on vinyl] and interpret an analog type of distortion as warmth," says Jim Anderson, a Grammy-winning recording engineer and professor at New York University's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. "It's a misinterpretation of it. But if they like it, they like it. That's fine."

"Every way you can measure it, digital is going to be superior," Metcalfe says. "It really does come down to the preference of the end user."

Or, as Kees Immink says: "Some people like marmalade and some people like mustard. If people like to listen to vinyl, do so, enjoy life. But don't say that the sound is better."
 
hoochmonkey9

hoochmonkey9

Art should be its own hammer.
Moderator
Founding member
Johannes said:
The one about your life reminded me about a novel in progress you once spoke about, about your time in the bands? Do I remember correctly?

How is this coming along?
Click to expand...

the galley proof was leaked online today...

mjp.jpg


can't wait.
 
Bruno Dante

Bruno Dante

jordan said:
i'm thinking of restarting my podcast. it's nowhere near as interesting as mjp's, and i only did 3 episodes and then got tired of it. but now i feel like doing some rambling into a cheap headset microphone for 30 - 45 minutes at a time telling jokes that only i think are funny, so i may drop episode four on you soon.

mjp's podcast is good, though. i suggest you listen to it if you haven't yet.
Click to expand...
I'd be happy to have a listen if you stick the url up on here.
 
Bruno Dante

Bruno Dante

Just listened to the first one. I liked it even though (or maybe because) it's pretty stupid. The arts and culture section about the importance of dirt :D
 
Bruno Dante

Bruno Dante

The Oscars one is pretty funny. We recently had The Brits (British Phonograph Industry Awards). You may have seen the footage of the attempted strangulation of Ramona (lucky she was miming, eh?) which has also pretty much become a parody of an awards. Perhaps it always was. And I agree about Patricia Arquette. I loved her in Boardwalk Empire too.
 
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d gray

d gray

tried to do his best but could not
Founding member
#13 was real good. and mat was great. he'd be a good regular guest.

look forward to part 2.

btw his "top 10 most overrated painters in art history" article was pretty funny.

whether he was serious or not he was spot on about renoir and chagall ...

...but modigliani??? how dare he!
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
Whenever he talks about something being overrated you can be pretty sure he's serious.

I'll definitely have him on again, there's a lot to talk to Mat about. I steered him down the punk rock road on this one because he's been interviewed a thousand times and no one has ever come at him from that angle. Seems obvious to me though that the punk era/attitude made him who he is. It made a lot of us who we are.

Glad you liked it. I'm sure when he promotes it to his crowd I'm going to hear a lot of criticism from them. Some of them spend too much time trying to "out-Mat" him, at least in the way they see him. But you know how people are, they see or hear a guy like that and they think it's all about being abrasive, so when they try to be like him they get it all wrong.

We see that here all the time. ;)
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
I just realized that the individual article pages I've been sending everyone to since I started the thing didn't have the audio file play/download widget on them. Only the main page of the blog was showing those. How the hell did I miss that? I'm like a rookie over here.

Anyway, now if you follow an individual episode link the player widget will be there.

I can only imagine that some people clicked on a Twitter or G+ or Facebook link before now and thought, "Is this a blog? I don't see any podcast file..." I'm sure most people figured it out (obviously you guys did), but I still fucked that up. What the hell?
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
Well don't get used to it being smart and funny! I can't have Mat on every week.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
I thought I'd link to this week's episode because I was drunk when I recorded it, and this is the Bukowski forum and everyone knows all he was was a drunk.

Anyway, you can listen to this and get a taste of what it's like to try to have a conversation with me when I've had a few cocktails. Whiny, slurring, belligerent. Well, I'm always whiny and belligerent, but you get the gist.

http://thisisnotatest.com/this-is-not-a-test-16-whats-in-a-name
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
I haven't really talked about this much around here, but I don't know why. So here it is. It's a podcast. Get with it. They're all the rage.

God bless our troops - THIS IS NOT A TEST #19

You may also hear me talking about office chairs, Malcolm Gladwell, technical people not being great communicators, baking pies, fundamentalism, the death of white America, dinosaurs, carbon, Rodney King, living in a cave in the desert, heads on pikes, Mad Max, Goethe and Mozart.

http://thisisnotatest.com/god-bless-our-troops-this-is-not-a-test-19

Subscribe, yo!

this-is-number-19.jpg
 
skiroomalum

skiroomalum

Some more good stuff. The idea that long-term employment is a possible deterrent to a better gig is a really scary thought.
Jobs, like people who work them, are just more fodder for the consumer machine. I've been in the same gig for 7 years and I'm like a dinosaur there.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
It was a shocking thing for me, seeing so many young people's resumes and they way they work, a year here, a year there. But it's pretty common now. It got to the point where a long stint at one company was surprising to see, and I'd ask them about it.

The idea of working for a company for 25 or 30 years and then retiring is antiquated. Not just because the kids don't want to do that, but because it's increasingly rare that a company will keep you for that long. Or can keep you for that long, what with every company being sold to a bigger company every five years.

One of the last episodes of Parks and Recreation had a funny TV ad in it (the episode was supposedly taking place in the near future), the company's tag line was, "Proud to be one of America's four companies!" And that's probably going to be true sooner than later.
 
Skygazer

Skygazer

And in the end...
The bumper stickers thing, you think; okay they're showing their support for family members in the military or just generally, but there is the subtext of sabre rattling/moral superiority propaganda that seems innocuous, but ends up getting more troops killed. Conflict will never go away but we should have learned by now how not to escalate it and contain the warmongering elements - the people/politicians safely away from the conflict.
 
bospress.net

bospress.net

www.bospress.net
They don't really support our troops. They support the killing of brown people. If we invaded England, Ireland, Italy... they would NOT support them. They don't support our Muslim or Atheist troops enough to let them worship their god or NOT worship a god. They have no problems with their Jesus being forcibly shoved down the throats of troops that do not want to worship Jesus. They do not support our mentally ill troops that return home. Mostly, as Michael Moore said, they do NOT support our troops because they keep sending them off to die to make the rich owners of defense companies (like that dick, Cheney) richer and richer. Being used as cannon fodder to make the 1% even richer is NOT supporting the troops and anyone supporting THOSE missions is doing anything EXCEPT supporting them. Supporting our troops would be supporting Ron Kovic as much as you support Chris Kyle.

Support is more than a faded and weather-worn bumper sticker.
 
Ewok

Ewok

Hey man. Some interesting thoughts, especially about how maybe us humans aren't all that.

But sometimes I think hey, we're great...I mean we ARE great as a species it's just pretty much everything is built around promoting self-hatred and insecurity so we buy more stuff. And even the people put in pedestals (like Lennon/Cobain/Morrison or uh...Bukowski) well it's done in a way like 'here's some great guys way better than us because we suck'....not saying those guys AREN'T better than regular people but it'd be healthier if we all felt like we were great in our own ways cos every human has the capacity to be great, and even a low-achiever can have great things in them....sense of humour, stories to tell, perspectives.

And the idea of us all being disconnected for sure is true. I mean....I don't know, the idea that we don't relate to one another...that part really saddens me...and all this sitting around in front of screens. I don't think things are going in a good direction. But I wish I could find all the gloom about the state of the world more exciting, cos when I go out of the house it seems just a lot of people walking around plugged in and distracted, and then I hate myself cos I'm not really 'above' that or a part of it either...just a pair of damn eyes.

I don't know a lot about jobs in America (being an expat in self-imposed exile from the UK) but the way I see it if you can work without it destroying your energy and motivation/passion outside of that then there's no problem. I don't know how I'll feel in 5 or 10 years though.
 
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