Kitty and Music
Apr. 19th, 2018 08:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogKitty stuff!
Seregil almost convinced me to pet him long enough to miss my train. I was sitting to put my socks on and he jumped into my lap and started headbutting me. I think it's fair to say he's pretty content here. He is unhappy about not being let in the bedroom at night. For the last few days he's been meowing, pawing at the door, and scratching at the carpet. He's actually done a little damage, but we're going to replace the carpet someday anyway, and it's been better since we trimmed his claws.
Trimming claws was a little tricky, but he's such a forgiving boy that it went just fine. We'd clip a claw or two and he'd squirm loose and cross the room to get away, but he was always back in a just a minute or two for more snuggles (and trimmings).
My parents never trimmed their cats' claws, so this was new to me with our former housemate, whose cat's claws I helped clip. It makes sense though, and has been easier than dealing with dog nails. It seems to be a lot easier to see the quick on kitty nails and avoid hurting them.
I want to get nice pictures of Seregil, but getting my camera out and finding good light and catching him in a nice pose has always been a bit more than I want to get into in the evenings after work when I could snuggle my partner and play Parkour Pirate. This weekend there will probably be more pictures.
Music Stuff!
I've mentioned the mysterious, never-open record store on Belmont that I walk by after therapy on Wednesdays. The posted hours include Wednesday afternoons, but end with "Or whenever I feel like it." Every week, I look over as I pass the doorway, but the lights are always off.
Yesterday, I was looking forward to getting home to snuggles and kitty petting. I glanced into the windows of Groovin High as I walked by and actually did a double-take; it was open! I had to drop in.
There were just a few people looking through the records and CDs in the small, cozily-full-of-media storefront. I rummaged through the discount bins, and then moved to the regular used and new sections, looking for prog rock and other things that might catch my fancy. I found plenty of things I'd buy if had more disposable cash, but new vinyl is pricy. I came very close to ponying up for a new pressing of King Crimson's "In the Court of the Crimson King," but finally set it back among it's friends and moved on.
I saw the owner wasn't busy with other customers and asked him whether he had any Laurie Anderson. "Sure! CD or vinyl?" He knew who she was!!
In LP format, he had "Mister Heartbreak," which I already own on CD, and "Strange Angels" which I do not own and haven't heard. Sold! But it was $8 and the minimum purchase with a card was $10. I looked through the discount stuff again, but half-heartedly. I kept thinking about the King Crimson album. It's one of the most influential and well-known prog-rock albums; of great importance to forming conceptions of the genre as a whole. And I've never heard that one either.
The album is on heavyweight vinyl, and mixed from original masters that were located in 2003 rather than the 'corrected' (to fix some problems introduced by bad head-alignment on the original multi-track tape recorders) stereo mixdown that a lot of pressings prior to that were made from. It was priced around $25. It has now become the first LP I've ever bought new, and the most I've ever spent on a musical album in any format, given that most of my stuff comes from thrift stores and buying "Nevermind" at Half-Price Books a few months ago felt like a splurge.
I hope to set aside an hour block this weekend to put it on my turntable and sit close-eyed on the couch to listen to it all straight through, as prog-rock and concept albums in general were made to be heard.
I haven't opened that one up yet, but I looked at the Anderson LP once I got home. It's such a difference to look at clean, well-cared for vinyl instead of the usual thrift store fare!
---
I've picked up a few other records lately, including a copy of the Vee-Jay records pressing of "Introducing the Beatles." I was pretty excited to see that at a thrift shop! I think it's one of the later pressings that isn't worth as much (it might even be counterfeit; I gather there are a lot of those around). It also has a chip on one edge that makes the first track on each side unplayable. But it has a number of songs on it that I'd never heard before; Danae and I both really enjoyed listening to them.
*As an aside, the King Crimson remix is an example of why vinyl is sometimes 'better' than CDs. I'm not convinced that that the objective sound fidelity is necessarily better. It's that the mix on the vinyl version is often higher quality. If you're interested in this, there's a great Wikipedia article on the so-called 'Loudness War' that makes for really interesting reading.
Seregil almost convinced me to pet him long enough to miss my train. I was sitting to put my socks on and he jumped into my lap and started headbutting me. I think it's fair to say he's pretty content here. He is unhappy about not being let in the bedroom at night. For the last few days he's been meowing, pawing at the door, and scratching at the carpet. He's actually done a little damage, but we're going to replace the carpet someday anyway, and it's been better since we trimmed his claws.
Trimming claws was a little tricky, but he's such a forgiving boy that it went just fine. We'd clip a claw or two and he'd squirm loose and cross the room to get away, but he was always back in a just a minute or two for more snuggles (and trimmings).
My parents never trimmed their cats' claws, so this was new to me with our former housemate, whose cat's claws I helped clip. It makes sense though, and has been easier than dealing with dog nails. It seems to be a lot easier to see the quick on kitty nails and avoid hurting them.
I want to get nice pictures of Seregil, but getting my camera out and finding good light and catching him in a nice pose has always been a bit more than I want to get into in the evenings after work when I could snuggle my partner and play Parkour Pirate. This weekend there will probably be more pictures.
Music Stuff!
I've mentioned the mysterious, never-open record store on Belmont that I walk by after therapy on Wednesdays. The posted hours include Wednesday afternoons, but end with "Or whenever I feel like it." Every week, I look over as I pass the doorway, but the lights are always off.
Yesterday, I was looking forward to getting home to snuggles and kitty petting. I glanced into the windows of Groovin High as I walked by and actually did a double-take; it was open! I had to drop in.
There were just a few people looking through the records and CDs in the small, cozily-full-of-media storefront. I rummaged through the discount bins, and then moved to the regular used and new sections, looking for prog rock and other things that might catch my fancy. I found plenty of things I'd buy if had more disposable cash, but new vinyl is pricy. I came very close to ponying up for a new pressing of King Crimson's "In the Court of the Crimson King," but finally set it back among it's friends and moved on.
I saw the owner wasn't busy with other customers and asked him whether he had any Laurie Anderson. "Sure! CD or vinyl?" He knew who she was!!
In LP format, he had "Mister Heartbreak," which I already own on CD, and "Strange Angels" which I do not own and haven't heard. Sold! But it was $8 and the minimum purchase with a card was $10. I looked through the discount stuff again, but half-heartedly. I kept thinking about the King Crimson album. It's one of the most influential and well-known prog-rock albums; of great importance to forming conceptions of the genre as a whole. And I've never heard that one either.
The album is on heavyweight vinyl, and mixed from original masters that were located in 2003 rather than the 'corrected' (to fix some problems introduced by bad head-alignment on the original multi-track tape recorders) stereo mixdown that a lot of pressings prior to that were made from. It was priced around $25. It has now become the first LP I've ever bought new, and the most I've ever spent on a musical album in any format, given that most of my stuff comes from thrift stores and buying "Nevermind" at Half-Price Books a few months ago felt like a splurge.
I hope to set aside an hour block this weekend to put it on my turntable and sit close-eyed on the couch to listen to it all straight through, as prog-rock and concept albums in general were made to be heard.
I haven't opened that one up yet, but I looked at the Anderson LP once I got home. It's such a difference to look at clean, well-cared for vinyl instead of the usual thrift store fare!
---
I've picked up a few other records lately, including a copy of the Vee-Jay records pressing of "Introducing the Beatles." I was pretty excited to see that at a thrift shop! I think it's one of the later pressings that isn't worth as much (it might even be counterfeit; I gather there are a lot of those around). It also has a chip on one edge that makes the first track on each side unplayable. But it has a number of songs on it that I'd never heard before; Danae and I both really enjoyed listening to them.
*As an aside, the King Crimson remix is an example of why vinyl is sometimes 'better' than CDs. I'm not convinced that that the objective sound fidelity is necessarily better. It's that the mix on the vinyl version is often higher quality. If you're interested in this, there's a great Wikipedia article on the so-called 'Loudness War' that makes for really interesting reading.
