May 2013

From The Editor's Desk...
What do you love about music?
Article By Steven R. Rochlin

  Many years ago, probably around 1995, a small site started online. Not many people online back then really, but there was some guy with his 'Senseless Ramblings' page. Think of it like blogging, but about four years earlier. Many of my previous "In This Issue" was more akin to my old blogging… or Senseless Rambling if you will. As such, it made sense to write two separate articles from now on. One about the magazine titled "In This Issue", which will follows the industry standard line-item about what's in the issue plus some other relevant stuff about the industry, music or whatever. Then we have "From The Editor's Desk" that will be a rebirth of my early Senseless Ramblings. Please don't read the early stuff, I was much younger then, a surfer, sk8boarder and... Probably called a delinquent by some within this industry at the time.

So where to begin? Well, I have to be fair to you, and most importantly myself. And with that said, I have not been an audiophile for about the past three years. Now before you throw something at your computer in revolt please hear me out. And don't look surprised either as I have not reviewed ultra-high-end gear in years. So you want to know the reason why? Ok, here it goes pure and simple.

I love music. No, let me say that again, I love music. Maybe I'm sick, or twisted, or there is something missing within my bodily chromosome makeup? Whatever the case may be, am sure the jig was up years ago when as the Editor I could review $100k speakers and $50k amps for the asking yet never did. The whole circus that revolves around reviewing those pieces is fun! Ah yes, the glitz and glamour and bragging rights. Uh huh, ok. Without a doubt us Editors can play with some very serious kit. So why'd I stop? Was the proverbial merry-go-round spinning too fast? Dare I mention that literally just hours ago as of this writing (April 29^th) the owner of a very prestigious high-end audio company offered me to review anything from their complete line of products with prices reaching into something like, for a pair of 50w monoblocks mind you, at around $250,000... or is it $350,000 as I forget. Frankly, at this level if you actually have to ask the price... Look, you don't walk into, for example, a Bentley dealer and ask how much the extra wood panels in the rear to match the front doors cost. You just tic off the specification box and move on to the next option without a care or thought other than what other nice things can they offer me today?

SQUIRREL!
Or Is My A.D.D. Kicking In Again?
Would love to say not reviewing has giving me loads and loads of 'spare time' to just flitter about, yet in 1995 when my Senseless Ramblings began this site was about 15 web pages and there was plenty of time. At last count on Sunday (April 28^th) Enjoy the Music.com is at over 5700 pages. Yes I'm very active as an audiophile (wait, didn't I just say I'm not one of those?) and my activities with this site will also grow. Of course you can sit back and relax as we ramp things up a notch to make 2013 very exciting! Also my car 'fever' is ticking upwards again and thus debating...

So Where Was I Again?
Oh yeah, I love music. Music does not just reside in the livingroom, or some small corner in the kitchen. Whilst yes those are in place, add in multiple office systems (see desk photo), the bathroom, the bedroom, the car, when traveling on an airplane... The Matrix music is everywhere, it's all around us, here even in this room. You hear it out your window, or on your television. You feel it when you go to work. For me it is all about and for the music, and yes in finding ways to achieve ever-higher satisfaction and thus, at times, also enhance my life's experiences at a given moment. But does that make me a <cough> audiophile <cough>?

Example, during my first drive in the new GTC it was the first truly warm day here in New England, with the sun blazing, and thus chose to hear Louis Armstrong "What A Wonderful World". What a great song to drive to in the Spring! Or there was the most memorable time on Valentine's Day playing "Wonderful Tonight" by Eric Clapton and slow dancing with my wife on the last night of our honeymoon. Before every SCCA Formula 2000 race i'd listen to DMX "What's My Name" (explicit version) to get my juices flowing and focused. For me, it is that without the music during the drive, honeymoon dancing, before a race, etc said life experience would have been diminished to a certain extent. Does that make me an audiophile… or a music co-dependent; and what 12-step program would one join for that?

Squirrel Again!?!
No, Here's My Point Of This Senseless Rambling
After coming home from the recent New York Audio Show, the wife and I were both exhausted from the great event. New York City and I are like gasoline (NYC) and fire (Yours Truly)! All the amazing high-end audio gear, seeing longtime Big City friends, the taste of NYC food... So much great live music flourishing on the streets, in Central Park, etc. Exhausted, to relax Monday night we watched the movie Almost Famous. If you haven't seen it, basically it is about the life of a very young journalist as he reports on this up and coming mid-level rock band. Could say more yet have lots of work ahead of me to get out the May issue of the Review Magazine. The flick is indeed worth a watch; fun movie! And so I'll leave you with a few quotes from the movie Almost Famous:

Lead Guitarist To Young Journalist: And some of the people that you meet on the road are really amazing people. Like you. But some of the stuff that happens, it's good for a few people to know about, as opposed to, say, a million people. (Oops, wrong quote! I mean the quotes below).

Hopeful New Band Manager: Right now, you owe the record company more than you've got. But your record is selling. There's money to be made. So I brought a plane in. We could add more shows to make up the difference.

Band Member: Respectfully. We travel by bus. Doris is the soul of this band. That bus has been our home since we were the Jeff Bebe band. No way.

Hopeful New Band Manager: Hey, man, I'd travel on a pogo stick if I thought we could make more money. You could play more dates with a plane.

Band Member: Well, it's not about money. It's about playing music and turning people on.

Lead Singer: I work as hard, or harder, than anybody on that stage. You know what I do? I connect. I get people off! I look for the one guy who isn't getting off and I make him get off.

Cream Magazine Editor To Young Journalist: Your Editor at Rolling Stone magazine is gonna ask you how the story's going and this is what you do. Tell him, you know, it's a... it's a think-piece. A think-piece about a mid-level band struggling with their own limitations in the, you know, harsh face of stardom.... Yeah, he'll wet himself.

Band Aid: I always tell the girls, never take it (too) seriously. If you never take it seriously, you never get hurt. If you never get hurt, you always have fun. And if you ever get lonely, you just go to the record store and visit your friends.

SPOILER ALERT! At the very end of the movie the lead guitarist finally gives the young journalist the interview he has so desperately waited many months for. And so...

Young Journalist: What do you love about music?

Lead Guitarist: To begin with… everything.

 As always, in the end what really matters is that you...

Enjoy the Music,

Steven R. Rochlin

"...The world is full of compromise, the infinite red tape
But the music's got the magic, it's your one chance for escape
Turn me on, turn me up, it's your turn to dream
A little magic power makes it better than it seems...

I got the music... in me!"