No Static at All

I've finally gotten my audio consumption delivery capability to a place where I'm pretty much content/ The ACDC is driven by two competing desires: to have everything work perfectly; and to spend as little as possible. And it has to cover a number of scenarios: at home; walking the dog; working out; and in the car.

I came home with the following set up:

• music and podcasts managed on computer and played at home through a sound dock connected by cable to a computer;
• Bluetooth sound dock in the living room (birthday present for the OG, not part of my ACDC);
• Ipod shuffle for the gym and other out-of-the-house activity (wireless headphones broken and discontinued by the manufacurer;
• car radio, with occasional iphone connected via cable.

The biggest catalyst for change was Spotify. The Gs love it, and though I installed it years ago, I've never really used it. But when they announced last year that a family plan was available for the premium model (unlimited skips, available offline), I decided to give it a try, and it was part of a birthday present for the BG in November, although we didn't get it up and running until the following month.

I installed it on my computer, and it quickly and efficiently indexed the music in my ITunes library. After a few hiccups in syncing the files on my phone and tablet (it kept wanting to store files locally, filling up my phone with files from my computer), I learned via the Internet, that if I mirrored my ITunes library in Spotify's "Songs" folder, I  would have a link to my universe of music, and could shuffle through my collection, using either my phone or tablet to skip a song that I don't want to hear.

Mine are black

So now when I'm cooking dinner, I take the phone and the dock into the kitchen, connect them via bluetooth and shuffle through everything from Afrika Bambataa to Warren Zevon. I love how songs that I haven't thought of in years pop up and remind me who I was in the 80s and 90s.

When it's time to walk the dog, I do the same thing, except that I have a $30 pair of bluetooth headphones that I pair with my phone, In the morning, it's two plays of the news on Radio France, and in the evening, the LeDuc shuffle.

About the same size as the shuffle

When it's time to go to the gym, I load up the WeFunk podcast on my shuffle, and I've purchased a $20 transmitter that sends the audio to the bluetooth headphones. This means that I can either clip the shuffle to my shorts, or put it in one of the cubbyholes while I work out. The range is about thirty feet, so if I were to, ahem, when, I forget it, I get an "out of range" message from the headphones. If I'm walking to and from the gym (usually on Saturdays) I'll switch to talk, usually Bill Simmons (if it's basketball or an interesting guest), Econtalk or the Ted talks.

In the car, I have a magnetic dock for the phone, and I'll connect it to the AUX jack on the radio with a cable that stays in the car, and plug it into the cigarette lighter for long trips. I'll either shuffle through my own music or I've been experimenting with Artist radio, which so far, seems better than Pandora, which I tried and ditched a couple of years ago. So far, it has worked great, and I can run the music and the GPS simultaneously. It still kind of eerie when the music suddenly stops and the phone tells me to get ready for a turn. But in a "whoa" kind or way.

My only complaint is that this ACDC does not expose me to a lot of new music. The Gs monopolize the radio when I'm chauffeuring them to one of their many activities, but their taste is a little poppy, and I'm just not feeling the constant cycling through Maroon 5 and the like. Occasionally we'll find a song we like (the new Ed Sheeran for example), but I can only listen to it 4-5 times over the course of thirty minutes before I'm a little tired of it. But the OG has done some digging in the crates, and her tastes are maturing (though they are also countrifying), so perhaps there is some hope that she can play the "tastemaker" role filled by various cool friends with large record collections over the years.

It's interesting to compare this ACDC to the walkman, mix tape, mtv world of yore, and I look forward to telling my grandchildren about the old days, when I needed to pair devices before they would work together; when wireless range was only thirty feet; and the cloud thought that George Benson belonged on a radio station inspired by the Fatback band. This may help me remember.

March Books

Full list for 2015 is here. This month was nicely balanced, with hints of technology, travel and history. Disappointed by fiction.

Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

by Chuck Klosterman

Building on the national bestselling success of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, preeminent pop culture writer Chuck Klosterman unleashes his best book yet—the story of his cross-country tour of sites where rock stars have died and his search for love, excitement, and the meaning of death.

For 6,557 miles, Chuck Klosterman thought about dying. He drove a rental car from New York to Rhode Island to Georgia to Mississippi to Iowa to Minneapolis to Fargo to Seattle, and he chased death and rock ‘n’ roll all the way. Within the span of twenty-one days, Chuck had three relationships end—one by choice, one by chance, and one by exhaustion. He snorted cocaine in a graveyard. He walked a half-mile through a bean field. A man in Dickinson, North Dakota, explained to him why we have fewer windmills than we used to. He listened to the KISS solo albums and the Rod Stewart box set. At one point, poisonous snakes became involved. The road is hard. From the Chelsea Hotel to the swampland where Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane went down to the site where Kurt Cobain blew his head off, Chuck explored every brand of rock star demise. He wanted to know why the greatest career move any musician can make is to stop breathing...and what this means for the rest of us.

A little disjointed and not about what it purports to be about, but I'm pretty certain he could write about anything and I'd love it. His encyclopedic knowledge of the collective (and solo) oeuvre of Kiss is really something.

Spring Chicken: Stay Young Forever (or Die Trying)

by Bill Gifford

SPRING CHICKEN is a full-throttle, high-energy ride through the latest research, popular mythology, and ancient wisdom on mankind's oldest obsession: How can we live longer? And better? In his funny, self-deprecating voice, veteran reporter Bill Gifford takes readers on a fascinating journey through the science of aging, from the obvious signs like wrinkles and baldness right down into the innermost workings of cells. We visit cutting-edge labs where scientists are working to "hack" the aging process, like purging "senescent" cells from mice to reverse the effects of aging. He'll reveal why some people live past 100 without even trying, what has happened with resveratrol, the "red wine pill" that made headlines a few years ago, how your fat tissue is trying to kill you, and how it's possible to unlock longevity-promoting pathways that are programmed into our very genes. Gifford separates the wheat from the chaff as he exposes hoaxes and scams foisted upon an aging society, and arms readers with the best possible advice on what to do, what not to do, and what life-changing treatments may be right around the corner. 

An intoxicating mixture of deep reporting, fascinating science, and prescriptive takeaway, SPRING CHICKEN will reveal the extraordinary breakthroughs that may yet bring us eternal youth, while exposing dangerous deceptions that prey on the innocent and ignorant.

Enjoyable and well-researched review of the "anti-aging" market and what you can do (and buy) to stay young and avoid dementia.

Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages

by Frances Gies, Joseph Gies

An illuminating look at the monumental inventions of the Middle Ages, by the authors of Life in a Medieval Castle. 

Interesting look at the many technological advances during the so-called :dark ages." A little slow sometimes, but worth the effort. Recommended by Pat.

How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World

by Steven Johnson

From the New York Times–bestselling author of Where Good Ideas Come From and Everything Bad Is Good for You, a new look at the power and legacy of great ideas.In this illustrated history, Steven Johnson explores the history of innovation over centuries, tracing facets of modern life (refrigeration, clocks, and eyeglass lenses, to name a few) from their creation by hobbyists, amateurs, and entrepreneurs to their unintended historical consequences. Filled with surprising stories of accidental genius and brilliant mistakes—from the French publisher who invented the phonograph before Edison but forgot to include playback, to the Hollywood movie star who helped invent the technology behind Wi-Fi and Bluetooth—How We Got to Now investigates the secret history behind the everyday objects of contemporary life.
 
In his trademark style, Johnson examines unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated fields: how the invention of air-conditioning enabled the largest migration of human beings in the history of the species—to cities such as Dubai or Phoenix, which would otherwise be virtually uninhabitable; how pendulum clocks helped trigger the industrial revolution; and how clean water made it possible to manufacture computer chips. Accompanied by a major six-part television series on PBS, How We Got to Now is the story of collaborative networks building the modern world, written in the provocative, informative, and engaging style that has earned Johnson fans around the globe.

Really enjoyed this, but I'm a sucker for this kind of stuff. Is air conditioning as important to society as agriculture? Maybe not, but it's a legitimate question.

The Complete Stories of Truman Capote

by Truman Capote, Reynolds Price (Introduction)

A landmark collection that brings together Truman Capote’s life’s work in the form he called his “great love,” The Complete Stories confirms Capote’s status as a master of the short story.
Ranging from the gothic South to the chic East Coast, from rural children to aging urban sophisticates, all the unforgettable places and people of Capote’s oeuvre are here, in stories as elegant as they are heartfelt, as haunting as they are compassionate. Reading them reminds us of the miraculous gifts of a beloved American original. 

After a hundred pages, I was not enjoying these. I skipped to the story mentioned on the flyleaf as noteworthy. Didn't care for that one either, so I gave up. He tries to be fantastic in a way that wasn't interesting to me, in the same way that zombies aren't today.

The Broken Road: From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos (Trilogy #3)

by Patrick Leigh Fermor

A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water were the first two volumes in a projected trilogy that would describe the walk that Patrick Leigh Fermor undertook at the age of eighteen from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople. 'When are you going to finish Vol. III?' was the cry from his fans; but although he wished he could, the words refused to come. The curious thing was that he had not only written an early draft of the last part of the walk, but that it predated the other two. It remains unfinished butThe Broken Road completes an extraordinary journey. 

Enjoyed this even more than I expected to--and even more than A Time of Gifts-- perhaps due to the location of his travel this time (the Balkans) or for the wistful take on what actually happened in the region and to the people.