Leaving L.A.

Leaving L.A. - 1
Just before the van with our gear left the hotel this morning at 6AM, I decided to travel home in it rather than flying home. I took this photo through the windshield a little later.

Radiohead lets fans pick price for new album

Radiohead lets fans pick price for new album – Boing Boing
Radiohead has just announced the details for their new album, In Rainbows.

They’re only selling it through their website (at least for now), and for the digital download version, they’re letting listeners pick their own price for the album – it’s literally a donation-based product.

Obviously this is sparking confusion among many, but the only help the website provides are the words “It’s up to you.”
(Via BoingBoing)

Direct link.

Walking

Coffee at King's Road Café

Walked from the Hyatt on Sunset to King’s Road Café on Beverly. A few years have past, but the coffee is still great and the poached eggs (with chili flakes and romano cheese) were as good as I remembered them.

I walked a lot in L.A. this time. The evening before I walked from the Hyatt to Elixir on Melrose – only it is now called Tea Garden and the employees wear silly orange outfits. The garden is still a nice oasis in the middle of L.A… After a couple of pots of Jasmine Pearl tea it was time to walk down Melrose to Fairfax and back.

Window with Wood

Shop on Melrose. Wood pieces frame the windows like hair.

Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace

Long Views » Blog Archive » All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace
Instead all were treated to a reminder that our new future is represented overwhelmingly in the negative by our artists and poets. He points out that if we can only imagine an awful techno future, that that is what we will get.

So Saffo read the one piece he could find that depicts a world run by computers in a positive light. Amazingly it was written in 01967 by someone who was likely programming computers with punch cards.
(Via Long Now Blog)

The text can also be found on Saffo’s journal.

Wednesday Evening

I am listening to Ahmed Dickinson, a wonderful live recording he sent me last year – I should email him and ask whether he has new recordings. Tonight Keith Vizcarra came over and we talked about this and that for three hours. Politics, sound, music, strings, good old hardware stores vs Home Depot and Walmart… and a million other subjects. What’s better than a conversation between friends? Gave him a book of Hafiz poems. Damn, look at that moon!

RE strings: I am trying out strings right now, mixing and matching different brands, because some seem to make better trebles and other makes better basses… have been playing D’Addario strings since 1990, but it’s time to see and compare what’s out there… I might not be able to endorse one brand, because at the moment I prefer to mix trebles and basses from two different companies.