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BOOK REVIEW
CHAIRMAN AT THE BOARD: RECORDING THE SOUNDTRACK OF A GENERATION, by Bill Schnee. Backbeat Books, 2021. 219pp. $24.49, hardcover; $21.49, Kindle e-book.
NAD C 298
POWER AMPLIFIER
ELAC Alchemy DPA-2
POWER AMPLIFIER
Fun with Moose and Squirrel
’Cause, it’s hard to say what’s real / When you know the way you feel —Flaming Lips, “One More Robot/Sympathy 3000-21,” from Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Marten Parker Trio Diamond
LOUDSPEAKER
GRAMOPHONE DREAMS
The bijou sub We have inherited an infinitely vast library of recorded musical art, the majority of which is well-recorded but has yet to be fully and completely reproduced.
Clearaudio Concept Active Wood
TURNTABLE
Focal Aria K2 936
LOUDSPEAKER
DCS BARTOK DAC/HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER
THIS ISSUE: Herb Reichert on the dCS Bartók; Ken Micallef reprises his Schiit Sol review, trying it out with some better ancillaries.
Classical Rock / Pop Jazz: Record Reviews
In its sixth year, International Anthem seriously stepped up production. 2020 saw the Chicago label releasing a fast succession of rewarding albums, including a standout disc by Tortoise guitarist Jeff Parker and adventurous jazz by Rob Mazurek and the collective Irreversible Entanglements.
Golf in the Lowcountry
Place South Carolina’s Kiawah Island Golf Resort high on your must-play list.
PUBLISHING AMID A PANDEMIC: How Board Games Survived and Thrived in 2020
COVID’s lasting impacts on our health and economy are still far from being understood. It will take many of us years, perhaps even a decade, to unravel what has changed in the last year. But some patterns are emerging, at least in the board gaming hobby, that indicate many publishers were well ahead of the curve even before the threat of a pandemic affected their supply chains worldwide. As the world began locking itself down to quell the threat of COVID-19, people continued to find solace in hobbies. Soon, the business journals and magazines of the world began tracking the increase of sales across a wide swath of interests as people did anything and everything to take their minds away from the weight of a pandemic circling the globe. Turns out, everything from toys, guitars, crafts, and board games were selling well despite a deflated economy. Report Linker’s “Board Games Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2021-2026” estimates that sales in the hobby will grow by 13 percent in the next five years, even with continued lockdowns. But what about the hobby as a whole? This article examines how 2020 affected the board gaming industry through three facets — big box stores, local board gaming cafes and stores, and the digital space — and how the pandemic has shaped them in the interim as well as moving forward. Is this projected forecast of its growth still as rosy?
ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH IN ‘GODZILLA VS. KONG'
“Godzilla vs. Kong” begins, fittingly, with the big guy asleep.
SLIDING FOR ADVENTURE
For the last 25 years I’ve been riding off road on everything from a 450cc lightweight to a heavily laden 1200cc adventure motorcycle. Although I was usually able to handle anything through rough terrain at slower speeds, I struggled at higher speeds on loose surfaces. And the biggest pucker moments occurred while approaching tight turns on gravel roads at high speed—barely navigating them safely.
How to Spot and Avoid Credit Card Skimmers and Shimmers
The moment I realized how woefully insecure credit and debit cards are is still vividly clear.
POP MUSIC
Cat Popper has earned her stripes as a bassist with a long list of big names—so a solo career is long overdue. We meet the reluctant star...
RESCUE DOG RETURNS THE FAVOR!
THE FAVOR! Pulls owner to safety after devastating stroke
TAKE THE HIGH ROAD
Solomonson Family Heirloom the FFG Way
MICROSOFT SERVER HACK HAS VICTIMS HUSTLING TO STOP INTRUDERS
Victims of a massive global hack of Microsoft email server software — estimated in the tens of thousands by cybersecurity responders — hustled this week to shore up infected systems and try to diminish chances that intruders might steal data or hobble their networks.
GOOGLE ENDS SALE OF ADS USING INDIVIDUAL WEB TRACKING DATA
Google says it won’t develop new ways to follow individual users across the internet after it phases out existing ad-tracking technology from its Chrome browser, a change that could shake up the online advertising industry.