audiophilism full circle
It's raining so instead of gardening I'm inside playing on the computer and listening to music. Tough life, eh? In any case, the performance of my sound system prompted an observation I would like to share with my audience here:
If you frequent certain corners of the internet you will have noticed that there is a discussion ongoing about what "bitrate" is acceptable in music that is available for download. For the most part, it seems, any reluctance on the part of audiophiles in regards to music encoded with as few as 128 "kilobits per second" applies only to songs that they would have to pay for; the discussion seems to be a coded explanation of why they are not yet patronizing any of the various music download sites that have been set up by those companies who are actually attempting to carry on a legitimate traffic in musical recordings. As an unimpeachable source notes, at 192 kbits/second (well below the level demanded by the audiophiles), the flaws in quality "can be heard by only a few." We would all, naturally, like to be part of that auditorily gifted few.
In ages past, a similar discussion centered around the transition from records to compact discs. Certain musical enthusiasts presented the opinion that it was possible to hear the difference between the two media, and that records sounded better because, thanks to their analogue encoding, the music recorded on them sounded more alive. The digital cd sound, on the other hand, was cold and dead to them. I am happy to say that my computer speakers, a bargain at Radio Shack three or four years ago, replicate some of that "liveliness" we used to enjoy from our record players. Yes, rather than reproducing the sound coldly in pure digital perfection, they add a whole array of clicks, pops, and hisses that take you right back to the old days of huddling around the Victrola to hear the Fred Fisher's latest. Only now it's in stereo! That is, when one of the speakers doesn't stop working suddenly, leaving me feeling like one ear has been stricken with an unusually rapid wax build-up. Ah, the joys oh digital hi-fi: good thing I encoded at 256 kbit/sec!
direct democracy
This evening I visited the BHS auditorium for the second time in my life. The last was some years ago when I took in a performance of Meredith Willson's Music Man; tonight's purpose was more serious but just as entertaining. I was there to take place in that paragon of American democracy, the open town meeting, and to vote on a proposal to rezone part of Bedford Center to allow more freedom in creating mixed-use development. This is how our town government works: everyone who shows up at the meetings is part of the legislature. Pretty cool, if you ask me!
And also, a little tedious. Because a very large number of people had to get up on their hind legs and present their own opinions, often couched in the stilted pseudo-parliamentary language so beloved of committee meetings and phrased as a very pointed question to the town officials who supported the proposed changes nearly unanimously. The speeches were divided evenly between the fors and the againsts, which only points to the ultimate pointlessness of all the discussion because the vote was very strongly in favor of going ahead with the changes.
I was with the majority, and the only reason I bothered to go was to do my part to help get the measure passed: the Center is awfully ugly as it is, so almost anything would be an improvement. I have to say, though, the representative for the developer (who is very much in favor of the new zoning, having been unable for many years to come up with a redevelopment plan under the old rules) just about made me change my mind with the blatant threats she trotted out in the two speeches she made. If we didn't vote for the measure, she announced, the property owner would probably end up putting a concrete shopping mall on the parcel or something. Never mind the fact that if he could have gotten that through the current zoning he would have done so long ago, when you have nine tenths of the audience on your side already threats tend to be not the best way to proceed in convincing the remaining holdouts.
Still and all, it was a fun experience, and quite as good as musical theater. Next time I'll bring Leah along.