h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Did you get spellbound by the sight of the black disc whirling around on the turntable?
]
From what I can tell, DJ's still use phonograph records. It's handy to position the needle arm on whatever track you want.

Modern radio is mostly digitally sourced and playbacks are
from playlists on hard drives. Of course, the actual insertion
of a cd or dropping a needle onto a vinyl disc has become a
mark of distinction and reverence on the smarter programs.

You are probably aware of cbc.ca with three levels of live
broadcasting (Radio One, Two & Three). 'music.cbc.ca' has
50 channels of nonstop music in assorted genres. The main
sections are on the right hand column and each link opens
to a choice of several channels in that genre. There are no
fewer than two full times blues channels streaming nonstop.

My recommendation to you, on the basis of comments you've
made here over the years is the category called 'luminaries'
and the program called "Laurie Brown's the Signal" - classics,
new age, jazz edge, sonic... the criteria are quality, skill,
vitality and originality.

I became hypnotized by spinning records back when all we had
was 78rpm (my dad was in radio). I had a small yellow vinyl
recording called 'Tuffy the Tugboat' - dad said I had to change
the needle after every seven plays; he got free needles - and
I can still see that smiling tugboat spinning in the yellow sea.
My other early memory is Peter And The Wolf - a 4 record set.
I was the first deejay to play Bob Dylan in Canada - July 63.
That summer - four months before the assassination and 8 months
before they appeared on Ed Sullivan I also discovered a British
group who did a better version of a big US Billboard hit called
From Me To You.
http://www.beatlesagain.com/btcovers.html



~jwf~

My vinyl, when I get them out, still somehow seem to have held on to the smell of all the joss sticks I used to burnt (well, the sleeves held on to the smell, I'm far too err protective of my vinyl to have actually gotten the sufaces dirty )

There are still a few albums, when I listen on CD, or another media, they just sound so* wrong.... becuase they're missing the jump/loop they had on some ancient inherated vinyl copies... the anamalies from such slightly dubious looked after vinyl copies, just never seem to leave my memory of the songs in question ,doh>

John WF - the Canadian John Peel !

We are in the presence of greatness I was born far* too late... half the artists I listen too were dead by the tiem I discovered them, Or several decaded after their actual 'time' as it were I can't quite develop the same sense of nostalga for the 80s and 90s (kinda my times), as I can for the preceding few decades, and indeed hundreds of years prior to that also

At the risk of sounding like an old fogey , I have to say that no one will ever equal Kate Smith in her 1963 Carnegie Hall performance. In her mid-50s, but at the top of her game, she sounded fantastic all the way through her immense range and at every dynamic from soft to loud. The lady had a great voice and knew every possible way of using it. Ethel Merman was into belting but not much else, and Julie Andrews had subtlety down pat, but Kate had it *all.* I'm also a huge Judy Garland fan.

As for being fashionable in terms of clothing, there are some who advise you to find what works best for you and stay with it. In my generation, very few of us are model-thin, and we have to accommodate our ensemble to shades of gray or white [or no] hair that the young models never have to deal with. Some models look great in everything, which is why they're in such demand as models. It takes more work to look good as you get heavier and/or older. I wear suspenders to hold my pants up [I believe the English call them braces], which many people probably consider retro. I'm not making a fashion statement, I just don't have good luck with belts.

I've been loosing weight as I've gotten older (on purpose mind) I'm sure my wearing a leather corset is some kind of 'fashion statement'... no idea what* statement though I'm now, err 38 years old I think, and down to the weight I was when 16, and the same waist... I am really* really* really tempted to shrink myself, and my waist even further... not really for any fashion reason, but just to really* annoy my younger Brother though I think bone structure might hazard my aiming for a 28" waist now... if only I could shrink my 'belly' area a bit more to match the rest of the shinkage

There may be a book in your story, 2Legs. The title could be "The Incredible Shrinking 2Legs."

I've been secretly working on an unauthorised bio:
"2Legs And One To Stand On'
Anyone know a publisher whose only in it for the money?


~jwf~

I don't know of any publishers that *aren't* in it just for the money.

We'd need a publisher who's in it just for the surrealism and giggles though.... defo not in it for the cash

Surrealism and giggles are high on my list, too, but I don't have a good track record for figuring out what the market will go for.

The 'market' wil go for, exactly what it is tol to go for... its not in the armpits of the beyonder, or, indeed the giver, but, rather, in otter-words, it is all in the ear of the besotwer of our destonty.... some set the trends, some follow the trends, and otters, can, forever both be in teh quake of the trends, and at their figurehead, both at the same time... we need to shape, mould, and manipulate it; judge not who determiend our destony, but but by what means we shape and mold our own destony...

i had rather got the impression what hipster is rather a negative word. Like the difference between describing someone as slim and skinny.

Yes hipster often has a negative connotation in much
the same way hippy did for those on the outside of it.

But the value judgment aspect does not corrupt the overall
or universal meaning. A hippy is a hippy no matter what
one might think of their lifestyle or condemn them as a
species. Same with hipster.

~jwf~

There are so many hippys still about... many of whom arn't old enough to be hippys... and most of whom don't even realie they are* hippys No one can truely know who they are, themselves, though, they are only a series of differnt versions of their own persona, each differed only by the perception of the invididual percieving at a given time

I only ever hear "hipster" used as a negative term. A modern hipster is a poseur, someone who appropriates the outward trimmings of the style and culture they're pretending to be part of, in order to be perceived as hip and cool. And all that scruffy facial hair looks nasty.

My take on hippies is that they go their own way without much caring what other people think. Hipsters are *very* aware of what the world is doing. They have to, so they can stay on the leading edge of trend change. By that definition, my brother is a hipster. When he was younger, some people called him a Yuppie. One even asked if I was one too . Nowadays my brother has me pegged as an anachronism, so apparently that constitutes proof that I'm *not* a hipster. If anything, I'm the opposite.