Thursday, October 28, 2010

Information Of Condoleezza Rice

A red light district to the Spanish Steps, and even of France

Come! Cor ner de Rome Cuel 'de hell whores de plaza de Spain? ( GGBelli)
In 1832 Belli wrote a sonnet about the problem of prostitution, a very active in and around Piazza di Spagna. In key moralistic and puritanical, but also satirical, as we read in the last stanza (see below). But why in the Square, which was to become an icon known around the world?
After the sack of Rome in 1527 the city had slowly taken with the reconstruction first and then new construction of public buildings, especially churches, convents, hospices, with the contribution of the great Catholic countries, especially France and Spain, which competed in asserting their presence in the Eternal City.
Goethe, Mozart, Stendhal, Montaigne, Montesquieu, Shelley, Keats, Lord Byron, along with thousands of less famous of the pilgrims' trip to Italy, "so popular in the Age of Enlightenment and Romanticism, came to visit Rome, Caput Mundi for centuries and defense of Christianity for many. The end point was through the Via Cassia, Flaminia and Porta del Popolo, Piazza di Spagna own.
The hotels, inns and taverns, stables for horses, parking for coaches and carriages employers (the name says nothing "because of Coaches"?), The coffee shops, barbers and then, pharmacists, shoemakers, tourist guides, "Cicero", scribes, charlatans and shops of every kind, settled quickly into the area of \u200b\u200bPiazza di Spagna. The wealthy travelers of the time were a boon to many new craft and business initiatives.

Prostitutes were among the first to operate in the area, attracted by two primary considerations. The passengers were almost all male, and often stay for long. In addition, and especially since the end of '600, the area enjoyed the extra-territorial jurisdiction in favor of the English crown.
An entire neighborhood was under the jurisdiction and protection of Spain, who had right to exclude any interference administrative and police forces of the Church. In practice it was a free zone for all economic activity, including prostitution. Spain, although they may have with his troops to police, was limited to inspection of his delegation and the large complex (church and home) of the Discalced Trinitarians, also owned. But the "English Quarter" covers a large district in the middle of the 700 that included the English Steps, Piazza Mignanelli the current building, Via Condotti, Via della Mercede, Via Mario de 'Fiori, Via Capo le Case, Via Gregoriana The last stretch of Via Felice (now Sistina), Piazza Trinita dei Monti, Via Vittoria, Via della Croce, via Bocca di Leone, via Frattina. L'area contava alcune migliaia di abitanti. I confini furono codificati, come rivela uno studio di Alessandra Anselmi, in una mappa disegnata dall’architetto Antonio Canevari nel 1725 ( v. in basso ). Gli accordi raggiunti tra Spagna e Papato furono faticosi e contrastati, per la concorrenza della Francia che accampava analoghi diritti. Ovviamente i vari Papi mai giunsero ad un protocollo ufficiale, che avrebbe comportato nientemeno che la cessione a una potenza straniera di una parte della città. Tutto era stabilito alla stregua di un gentleman agreement . Ma tant’è, la Spagna di fatto esercitava il potere sulla sua giurisdizione, seppure con molta tolleranza verso tutte quelle activities that made "her" the most cosmopolitan and friendly neighborhood of Rome.

One step back, how would the Belli. Misogynist and sexist society in Rome in the Pope-King, relegated to the role of the woman to wife and mother, a nun or a whore. Were very few professions in which a woman could try: in practice, the seamstress, the "scuffiara" (artisan of headphones and women's hats) and the few that need attended to the wives of the gentry. Forget the perpetual priests and pastors, but many of them had a double, ambiguous, role of women "do everything". The totality of the other professions was restricted to males, even the role of women in representations theater and music (well, 'just men no: it was the era of the castrati, who sang and appeared as women on stage and in the Sistine Chapel). The women rebels who refused to submit to the prevailing machismo did not have many chances: either whores or witches, sorcerers. But it was very dangerous profession: there was the fire, after a long process of the Holy Inquisition.

Prostitution, however, did not lead to the stake, and made (and makes) the good. It was the only alternative, always illegal but often tolerated, for women who were unable or unwilling to find a husband-master. It 's true that the Cardinal Vicar supervision of customs, "to review the sleeping whores," as Belli said, but there was nothing in the English quarter.
Prostitution in Rome was a reality so established that there was a hospital, the San Rocco, for giving birth outside of marriage, and another, the San Gallicano, in widespread use for the treatment of venereal diseases. The "French disease" or syphilis, was the most widespread and dangerous. Not to mention the hospice for the recovery of "missing women" in Ladders, as a matter of Lungara [will not, by chance, the current House of Women, the seat of feminists, which is accessed by a striking double staircase? Nemesis would be a nice ... Ed] and the Cardinal Vicar who was watching over everything.
.
The steps of Trinita dei Monti was built and designed by Francesco De Sanctis with a bequest of 20,000 crowns made in 1655 to Minims of St. Francis of Paola by a French nobleman, Etienne Gueffier, who had held senior embassy of France in Rome. It 's interesting to note that these monks had kept the money in hand for nearly three quarters of a century before releasing them for the construction of the staircase, at the insistence of Pope Clement XI. The square was
diplomatic battleground between Spain and France. In fact, in the '600 north towards Porta Flaminia, was "Square of France", and that which is overlooked by the English embassy, \u200b\u200bnow Piazza Mignanelli was square Spain. It was the influence of Isabella Farnese, wife of King Philip V of Spain, together with the powerful ambassador Cardinal Trojano Acquaviva of Aragon, whose secretary Giacomo Casanova liked to call "man in Rome is worth more than 'the Pope," to tip the scales in favor of English jurisdiction, relegating the French zone in the top of the famous scalinata.Nel during these skirmishes of diplomacy, money orders Spain even the possibility of closing the staircase with a coup-based chains and padlocks.

Even before the construction of Trinità dei Monti, which was inaugurated by the Pope in 1725, along the unstable slope with trees which connected the French church of San Francesco Fathers minimum da Paola (in alto) con la piazza della berniniana Barcaccia e col quartiere spagnolo (in basso), esistevano alcune casupole abitate da donne che praticavano la prostituzione, come documentano le proteste dei preti francesi agli inizi del ‘700, e come risulta da una stampa dell’epoca.

Ed ecco il sonetto del Belli, celebrativo dell’editto che vietava alle prostitute di adescare i clienti stando affacciate alla finestra appoggiate ad un esplicito cuscino, sovente decorato di merletti in modo vistoso, come avveniva senza ritegno nel quartiere di Piazza di Spagna. Strano, però, quello che non si può fare con le prostitute si può fare impunemente con la moglie, nota sarcasticamente il Belli:
.
GIURISDIZZIONE
LA is a great rascal who futtuto iff
complaining of things PPIU mmejjo der Government.
What! cor ner de Rome de cuel'inferno
whores de Plaza de Spain?!
S'aveva to see 'na sow bitch
of istat'e utunno pprimaver'e and winter
cquer zante on the pillow, in a zempiterno
cchiamà cojjoni them to the bonanza? They did
bbenone: Armance now
fucks eg if the houses in the minor key, and
CCOR your neighbor as yourself. Mo
tAll if some ffa CCOR zu 'which was about
co cquella Zignore distinguish yourself, and ar
piuppiú cce cquarche bbastardo little came out.
Rome, December 5, 1832
.
version. It 's a great fucking bastard who complains of the best measures of the government. But how, in the heart of Rome hell whores of the English Steps? You had to see a sow sordid summer, autumn, winter and spring, on that holy pillow all the time, to call the customer to the bonanza? The government has done just fine, at least now you have sex for the holiday quietly with your neighbor as yourself. Now you can do everything with due respect to your wife, and at most will come out of some bastard.

whores But despite edicts and proclamations, are quietly stay in the former "English zone" until recently. In fact, we put the house. Who does not remember, among the old Romans, "case closed", hypocritically also called "tolerance", in Via della Vite, via Belsiana, via Capo le Case, Via Mario de 'Fiori, Via Borgognona (where was the " Georgina, known meeting place for fascist) and all the way around? The Merlin Law that closed the "Casino" in 1958.

IMAGES (click to enlarge ). 1. The wooded slope of Trinita dei Monti before the construction of the staircase, complete with houses of prostitutes (drawing prob. G. Maggi, 1600 ca.). 2. Prostitutes erano spesso alla finestra. Doppiamente obbligato, perciò, il riferimento al dipinto "Donne alla finestra" dello spagnolo Murillo. 3. La fontana della Barcaccia e la selvaggia salita di Trinità dei Monti (dis. prob. di GB.Falda, 1676). 4. La mappa del "quartiere spagnolo" (Canevari 1725), secondo lo studio di A.Anselmi ( Il quartiere dell’Ambasciata di Spagna a Roma, in "La città italiana e i luoghi degli stranieri. XIV-XVIII secolo", a cura di D.Calabi e P.Lanaro, Laterza 1998, pp.206-221). In seguito l'area fu ingrandita fino ad arrivare al Corso, proprio per la costruzione del complesso extraterritoriale spagnolo dei Trinitari Scalzi (iniziata nel 1731-32), with the approval of the competent "master of the streets" arch.Cipriani.

Monday, October 25, 2010

How Long Does The Oster Dehydrator Jerky

Good dinner poor: the grandmother omelette, salad, nuts and wine

It 's time for dinner, and we are in a dilapidated old house and scraped the Rome disappeared, perhaps in a dark alley and wet, like some colorful watercolors Roesler Franz looked on the card because the lost places of old Rome, in dilapidated and unhealthy, had to be completely lost in the memory. It was good, because photographs, paintings and drawings at the time of the papal city are rare.
So, it's dinner time, the hours are 7 or 8, depending on whether winter or summer ("1 hour in the evening" to the backlog calculation Roman) exile and in the light of a candle flame of beef tallow oil lamp od'un (*), an old woman stops spinning and fanned a fire, too poor to heat coal indeed.
E 'grandmother, mother-pathetic figure around which the whole scene, painted in strong and rapid strokes on effective drafter Belli. And if
is called "Grandma" means that the narrator is the grandson, then a young age. Young people were numerous in Rome of the Popes, kings, as still happens in poor countries, where ignorance, the high rate of infant deaths and economic needs push couples to believe that their only wealth is the offspring. The
old son waiting for the arrival of some ephemeral or unlikely to work, and equip a dinner on the table that, although healthy, is poorly defined as poor. Also poor in calories, according to what the Bell, which does not mention even the bread, of course taking it for granted, as the city's poor ate bread, albeit poor, also to reduce the cost of cooking. As well as those of the country, for which the wood was almost always free, polenta wheat, maize and millet. It has been, imagine a dark bread of the second or third choice, perhaps, mixed grain, certainly too rich bran, which fills but does not nourish. I mean the cheapest.
Grandma, therefore, prepare a omelet, almost transparent as it is fine. Which means that in a large frying pan beat a few egg fails to give adequate protein nutrition, and thickness of the four poor people. Luckily there is some walnut, and certainly - but in the sonnet is not talked about - some large gray slice of bread, to feed with its truly carbohydrates. But if so, the dinner would not be so poor, indeed it would be sufficient. And if the lettuce leaves were not so few, and if there was at least one fruit, it would even be perfect ... Even in Rome under the Popes, the people are vegetarian without knowing it, a strange forced vegetarianism. While they are not only noble but also popes, cardinals, monsignors, priests and monks to overeat meat.
But back on the pancake so thin as to be almost transparent, says Bell, who perhaps is not meant for cooking, and so quickly to the lay reader wants to give a measure of material poverty. But it is not credible, psychologically.
Especially in tight, a cook knows all the tricks of anything to fill a cake or a pancake, tricking the eye and the throat of her husband and children, making her look thick, rich, overflowing, perhaps because only wild grasses, the absolutely free. Think of the jets of clematis bitter, slightly poisonous, the populace in Rome was used precisely in omelets disguised as "asparagus" (omelette "vitalbini" or "Ticchi", as they said so many "marchiciani" immigrants in the city). Dozens and dozens of herbs commonplace, everyday in the Roman cuisine, also mixed ("mixed salad" raw or cooked, depending on the hardness). And besides, an onion or a few leaves of cabbage, if desired, would have achieved or nearly free from the "verduraro.
Fortunately, some walnut, a few leaves of lettuce, imagine little or no sauce, some good bread gray, and a small glass of wine (to sip in four), complete dinner.
dinner that could be called "monastic" or "monastery", as the monks of the Holy Roman Church, by contrast, enjoyed traditionally lavish lunches, except that in the few days before, were usually full of meat, particularly poultry, game and fish (see Massimo Montanari, Food and culture in the Middle Ages , Laterza 1988).
Although this house is not a married young and active, but an old (but still has young grandchildren around), this frugality, this risicatezza extreme, unless the author does not intend to describe a pathological sloppiness depression (poverty also leads all'abulia), has all the functions of literature, is that in order to better represent an environment, a mood, in short, inexorable summary of the model:
.
THE bbona FAMIJJA
Mi 'grandmother to one hour of the night vviè Ttata
If lever by row, ppovera old stokes a
Carboncella, sciapparecchia, and
mmaggnamo du' Fronne of inzalata.
Quarche vvorta Famo if an omelette, put the ssi
that ar sce light as if reflected
Fussi to ttraverzo of ear:
four recognition, and the scene is tterminata. Then while I
partners, Tata and Ccrementina
follow me from now on a par sgoccetto,
arissetta she clears the table and the pillow. And just
ar er seen fonno letterbox,
'pissciatina na,' na sarvereggina,
and feeds in Zakynthos, SCE n'annamo to bed.
November 28, 1831
.
version. The good family. My grandmother for an hour in the evening (around 20 hours in summer or 19 in winter, according to the antical'antica division of the hours of the day in Rome 800), when Dad stops spinning, poor old , lighting a charcoal ember, we set food and eat two lettuce leaves. Sometimes we have an omelette, that if you put it near a light is as clear as an ear, four nuts, and dinner is finished. Then while I, father and Clementina continue for a couple of hours to make us a drink of wine, she clears the table and arranges the kitchen. And as soon as we get to the bottom of the jar [sgoccetta '= booze to continue for some time, notes Belli, ie sip), a pisciatina, a Salve Regina, and in peace, there andiamno to bed.

.
fried bbona Famija
Ingredients: Four eggs, 1 or 2 onions (or jets of clematis, or other vegetable or vegetable) cut end, chopped mint, oil, salt and pepper to taste Instructions
. Let simmer a little onion or vegetables, pour in a capacious bowl or salad bowl, add the mint, then the eggs well beaten, and mix. In a large skillet, heat a little oil and pour it. Good cook, over low heat on both sides. Be certainly less transparent and more tasty in that sonnet. The cooks "philologists" Doc Belli, of course, following the sonnet will pignolescamente less than onions and vegetables. Too bad for them.

.
"Despite the critical issue considers the age of the speaker [ the narrator, Ed], I always thought he was talking about a guy (because poetry is dominated by the figure of the grandmother)," he wrote the critic Valerio Magrelli Corriere della Sera on , about this sonnet. "That's why, despite countless transformations that everyday life has undergone in nearly two centuries, I think the biggest difference compared to the Rome of today does not involve video games and posters of sports heroes, but the condition of the adolescent. What distinguishes the current situation of young people is, in fact, if possible, a heightened sense of alienation, loneliness and alienation. " In short - Magrelli concluded - that diversity in the state today, both of the family, both the existence of youth! "
course, young people in the world of beauty are the majority, even though most intuits, glimpsed in the background. The average age at the time of the Romans Belli was much lower than that of modern times, as was typical of a backward society and poor. The comparison with today's young people is stark. "They eat, play with play-station and go to bed under the poster of Valentino Rossi and Francesco Totti," he wrote in the Corriere Eraldo Affinati, a writer who covered the youth, speaking of the typical evening of the younger guys, in Rome as in other cities. "Reading this sentence - the answers Magrelli - I came back to Belli's sonnet" The bbona famijja " with the famous final stanza: "And just saw er fonno letterbox ar / 'pisciatina na,' na sarvereggina, / and, in Zakynthos feeds, SCE n'annàmo to bed." That family was preparing to sleep out in 1831 finishing a glass of wine, going to the toilet, recite the evening prayers ( Corriere della Sera, June 30, 2003).
.
The vast majority of the population of Rome at the time King of the Popes lived in extreme poverty. As in all underdeveloped countries, lack of economic freedom, political and cultural, religious bigotry and fanaticism, the social privilege, widespread corruption and the eye complaint, not only prevented the advancement of ideas, but also the flourishing of crafts, arts, professions, trade, industry, in short, not only spread the wealth, but life itself. Even so the Church will one day be called before the tribunal of History.
Rome, in short, was a small dead city, where even some aristocrats sought public pensions, not unlike the rich today seeking a scholarship for the children (see s. The bbonificienza previous article). The gap in economic status, legal and social differences between clergy and nobles, on the one hand, and common people, on the other, was enormous, a figure considered offensive to the conscience of today, and even contradictory for the ostentatious and hypocritical "Catholic morality", which only the cynical promise of "reward in the Other World" could make tolerable in the eyes of the people and the clergy. Clergy who could not find this intolerable difference between theory and practice.
Thus, while the nobles, popes, cardinals, bishops, priests and monsignors lived in luxury, idleness and exercising a sadistic taste of power (which also compensates for the last few degrees, the poorest of the hierarchy of control: the simple priests) , families of Rome is stumbling along in everyday life, looking for material to survive hunger, disease, all'abulia. A material poverty and psychological Belli describes participation, having proven himself for most of his life.
Meanwhile, as the veccharella prepares its thin omelet, the rich and the priests carouse. And, indeed, it is rumored that Cardinal Vicar not only eat and drink per cent, but even being appropriated for public collections, which he called at a trick "scientific" (as appears to the populace), probably a "diabolical" barometer ( Er Cardinal caluggnato, June 10, 1834):
.
Nun j'abbasta al'arètico
de murmured discontent cch'er Cardin Vicar
maggna eight Vorta PPIU dder nescessario, and
CCIRC ar eg drunk then bbeve CCENT.
(...)
fact, comes from al'accesso bet that
Below cquello instrument on 'Your Eminence
sce ingergo the rule in the collective. What a bugger
ssi er his disciples: it pours, er
Cardinal beam Dispenza
a team of appetènna-impruvia.

.
version. It's not enough disgruntled heretic [the Devil ?] To mutter that the Cardinal Vicar [ Placido Zurla, cited by Belli in 10 sonnets ] eats eight times more than necessary, and as for drink, and , drinks per hundred persons. (...) Indeed, goes so far as to bet that with his instrument [ the populace was rumored that he had a secret unit that included the rain ] His Eminence cheating maneuvers of the collections. So if the unit says it pours, the Cardinal now has a collection to public petendam pluviam, [that is, to implore God for the rain].
.
(*) The tallow candles emit a smell, something that was not the case with the olive oil lamps, even the worst and rancid (not coincidentally the inedible oil is still called "lamp oil" or lamps). It was very cheap, because a liter was enough to illuminate a lamp for 200 hours, but gave light very faint, ill-suited to reading, unlike oil. This fuel is widely used in the homes of Roma in the second half of the 800.
.
IMAGES. 1. Here's how it should present a typical home of a poor house of the early nineteenth century, with small chairs, a flask, the bottle, the kettle over the fire (it was suspended by a chain) and the table. 2. One lane of Rome disappeared Roesler Franz: Via Giulio Romano. 3. The omelette cooked on charcoal fire irregularly.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Birthday Facebook Event Description

GarageBand per digitalizzare LP

A giudicare dalle numerose offerte in Internet di scatolotti per trasferire in digitale LP in vinile e cassette stereo, sembrerebbe una necessità diffusa e pressante per molti.

La cosa mi lascia perplesso perché: 1) digitalizzare in modo accurato una musicassetta e ancor più un LP è un lavoro piuttosto lungo e che richiede attenzione e in genere più attempts, and 2) the music on physical media is that in 99% of the cases already available digitally, so official or unofficial.


Even without wishing to follow this second route, since this is obviously not for novelty but a catalog of material, it is likely that at Amazon or in stores you find the same album that we want to scan at 5 or 10 €, and it remains to be seen whether our time is worth less. But still wishing to follow the path of scanning, perhaps for an LP actually been out of print and unavailable, I propose an alternative to the usual use of squared like type Terratec
o iMic .

Questi oggetti, come noto, contengono un ingresso linea in grado di gestire anche il segnale a basso livello di una testina phono, un equalizzatore RIAA (la curva standard, non lineare, usata per il formato microsolco o LP), un decoder analogico-digitale, e una uscita digitale USB. Il tutto per poche decine di Euro.

Sono prodotti "made in China" e questo giustifica il prezzo così basso. Ma qualche perplessità viene, considerando che nel settore Hi-Fi sono in commercio preamplificatori phono RIAA che costano migliaia di € (e oltre) ed i più economici non scendono sotto i 200. Si tratta evidentemente di un compito difficile, where even small variations of the project produce noticeable changes in the sound.



Objective quality

If our goal is to digitize the LP can maintain the original quality, and not simply retrieve the music (as I mentioned before, there are ways to do this much more practical and fast) Perhaps you need to follow a different approach. I do not mean analog decoder - professional digital (it's assumed that this would be the best way) for this purpose but the use of an application included in Mac's operating system, so free, that among many other things can also do this job. Connections not but the turntable directly to a Hi-Fi RIAA phono preamp. In the test I did I used one of the simplest, the "Phono Box Pro-Ject, but it is already included in the above phono pre amplifiers and mid-level is definitely higher than in the circuitino Terratec or in ' iMic or USB turntable with integrated decoder. Wanting to invest more than there are excellent phono stage than in the same range Pro-Ject, or NAD, or Lehmann Audio. Hi-Fi and many fans will already have one and can also use it for this purpose.


GarageBand work

The output from the phono stage will be connected to the audio on your Mac (A Mac Mini in my case) that includes a decoder analog - digital sound quality (the same is not true for Windows PCs and in particular for the vast majority of laptops), this certainly more than what is available in the squared like mentioned above. Here will run from GarageBand, an application, as they know the possesori Mac, which is a simplified recording studio, with ability to record and mix music, adding effects of various kinds, but also has the ability to simply record that arrives on the input line (Figure 1). And record it in high quality. In fact, in selecting Preferences> Advanced "quality optimal "you find that your sound card can be instructed to carry out an encoding to 24 bit / 44.1 kHz, with quality greater than that of regular CDs (Figure 3).
This then is the first thing to do. The second is adjust the recording level, you can also select the automatic, but it is not advisable, the system may vary in level which will be noticeable. We must do a few tests on the tracks at the lower level and higher LP and check that the "instruments" (which are the ones found in all the recorders) will always be there in the red zone. It 'also includes a monitor function, or the ability to listen to what si sta registrando. Sembra una cosa ovvia, ma GarageBand ha un controllo sul rientro (feedback) molto sensibile e a volte può essere necessario disattivare il monitor. Nella figura 3 questa funzionalità è visibile in basso a destra.



Una volta completata la registrazione (all'inizio, un brano per volta) si controllerà il risultato dopo aver salvato (
registrato
in terminologia Apple) il contenuto. prima di esportarlo si potrà anche elaborarlo direttamente dentro GarageBand, ad esempio tagliando la coda o il bump iniziale della testina che atterra sul disco e separando tra loro i brani dell'album. Il pannello di GarageBand mostra i classici pulsanti per avanti, avanti veloce ecc. e lo spettrogramma music experience and move through the various functions is intuitive. In any case, with USB squared like you need to do the same operation with the software that provide a kit or other audio editors such as Audacity or Free Audio Editor.

To use the music in GarageBand acquired the function is "share" (Figure 5). E 'possible to transfer it directly in iTunes or download it to disk for other purposes, the format used will be the standard uncompressed Mac, that is, AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format). Before exporting, however, you must remember to clear the compression function, otherwise our precious audio will be captured so lovingly, in fact, collapsed, resulting in loss of quality (and now with the capacity of current memory and the transmission speed Internet standard 10Mbit and beyond, there is simply no reason to compress the music). As shown in Figure 6 next to the song in iTunes (in this case, Harvest by Neil Young) is actually 24/44.1, and can be treated and managed in the library like everyone else.



The insatiable

But because the acquisition is limited to 44.1 KHz? You can not record at 48 or, better yet, 96 KHz? With GarageBand, no, it's a limitation imposed by Apple and that, as pare, rimarrà tale.
Non si tratta di una limitazione fondamentale, acquisendo LP non recenti o musicassette, la qualità, grazie al campionamento a 24 bit, sarà comunque superiore a quella del CD.
Volendo andare oltre ci sono altri programmi come Audacity o Logic Express della stessa Apple, che però è a pagamento (e si capisce quindi che GB abbia qualche limitazione).




Immagini


Ecco infine, come al solito, alcune immagini che illustrano il funzionamento di questa via semplice e un po' più "analogica" alla acquisizione in digitale di vinili.
Cominciamo da GarageBand e da come si presenta (figura 1):

























Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Drinking Too Much Perrier Side Effects

Pronti per la musica liquida?

Grande entusiasmo generale attorno alla musica liquida. Articoli, siti, ed ora persino le riviste più tradizionali di Hi-Fi o quelle che erano più specializzate sull'home theater che provano music servers e media player, sia basati su PC sia stand-alone, e nuovi DAC che escono continuamente, sia da piccoli produttori sia da affermati nomi del settore.





take as a starting point contained in the reviews (always excellent) music section of the last number of Audio Review (AR). Let yourself as a fan of today's music, which has no CD or album to other formats and want to start directly with the liquid music.

Cominciando dalla classica. Il disco del mese è la sinfonia n.10 di Mahler, diretta da Boulez, un disco DG registrato a febbraio 2010. DG (Deutsche Grammophon) vende da tempo la propria produzione anche via rete, in formato "liquido" appunto, anche in qualità CD, Flac lossless e senza vincoli, DRM free. Quindi dovrebbe esserci questo titolo.



Andando invece sul sito si trova la prima sorpresa. Non tutto è disponibile per il download. In particolare, almeno per Boulez, è disponibile la produzione sino al 2008. Quella posteriore solo per ordine postale (CD per corrispondenza) ma a volte, come in questo caso, neanche quella. Gli ultimi album sono disponibili quindi in diversi casi sono nella classica catena distribution of stores. But there is an alternative liquid: iTunes. Here, the latest work by Boulez is present, but in compressed form (and even iTunes Plus, with increased quality). For the great Mahler orchestra is a little 'bit.

Let's try the second album, the last sonatas of Beethoven in a performance deemed exceptional by the reviewer, Elisabeth Leonskaja. An album released by German label MDG

, we discover to be available in hybrid SACD format. Easily available from Amazon and other online stores. But not for download. This, for the record, there is not even on iTunes. (It is not indicated in the review available in SACD)

continue with a most unusual album, Riccardo Chailly and Stefano Bollani involved with well-known compositions by Gershwin, Decca disc. This is not even in the on-line Decca (which is shared with DG, it is perhaps too recent (but the reviews of AR go back a few months ago.) On iTunes but there is, though always in compression standard and plus. Let's move on. A disc
Hungaroton
with the national orchestra of the Central European country involved, of course, the compositions of Bela Bartok (Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta and others). it turns out that this is a SACD, although curiously it is not identified as such, even this time, in the review. Available from Amazon, but not for download.

last test, this is a record of BIS Records obviously a SACD (we talked about this label in the previous post), Villa-Lobos, Floresta de Amazonas with the Orchestra of Sao Paulo. This recent recording of 2010, we can even listen in streaming and full from the site of the BIS Records. In low quality, of course. But it is also not downloadable in liquid. To buy it you must go to the store, even after contacting the Italian distributor, to find out what is available. Theoretically it would be available through Amazon, but only on order. But even this is little BIS Records on iTunes, where you can buy this album for the modest sum of € 8.99 (less than half). But always compressed and AAC with DRM.

So our hypothetical fan who wants to abandon the CD and the physical media in general, would face serious difficulties, according to this test, to feed his disco classic on the basis of challenging reviews of Philip Gonnelli, Marco Cicogna and other reviewers AR. Unless I'm not saying give up high definition, but also the medium-resolution, quality and content of compressed music. Which the classic does not go very well, if u do not listen to your iPod.

Let the pop-rock

But maybe it's just a limitation of the classical genre, fence for adult fans in general (and beyond), particularly related to the physicality of the media. time a little 'page and go to the section on modern music. The record of the month is the latest release of Antony Hegarthy. The record of the 2010 Canadian musician with his Johnsons Swanlights is published by Rough Trade. On the site of the label is, you can buy (at a great rate, just over 10 pounds). But do not download, only iTunes standard.





And we continue with an album for Universal, the latest work by John Mellencamp, No Better Than This. iTunes ok (but still standard, what happened to the iTunes plus?). Amazon ok. From the website (you should arrive to that of the Verve) you can listen to streaming songs, but only by registering, it is designed for those patients then. No possibility to download in CD quality. Let's just another test because by now it was clear to the course. Record companies, even those prone to liquid music and download sites, including those that produce classical music, not exactly the kind preferred by young downloaders, do not trust and expect that their precious albums have at least finished their cycle as new during which it is planned, of course, the balance of production costs. For immediate download, but high definition, we are still in compressed format.
The last test is on a record label, an indie, again taking the Review of HR, the third of those featured is dedicated to testing new live guitarist and songwriter Richard Thompson, with whom he speaks very well (it's pure rock electric guitar, however, no folk). The site dedicated to the album, Dream Attic

, there are different forms of marketing. Apart from a deluxe edition with various ammenicoli to $ 90, which does not concern us much, you see that you can download DRM-free MP3 (at 320kbps) at $ 10. Not CD quality, so. The album is also available on iTunes, always a quality standard (and therefore a bit 'below).

Let the music catalog

Okay. The novelties are closed, the hypothetical recruit the liquid music. We see the catalog, always taking as test the latest issue of AR, in the CD shrine, dedicated to the classic "can not miss." begin by Queens Of The Stone Age Rated R with their classic, an album of 2000, 10 years ago. At least that Universal makes it available for legal download in CD quality? No, it is found only on iTunes, as standard, but it costs more than usual (€ 13.99) because it is the "deluxe edition" with some bonus tracks. Is it cheaper to buy the CD in full quality (and new) on Amazon.




Two other Universal discs are randomly and then go further, to an even earlier classic, Belafonte Sings The Blues, reprinted by the English Blue Moon. It 'a collection of praiseworthy English label Fresh Records, who re-publish editions of the album, very comfortable right out-dated (originally published 50 years ago, so before 1960, right now, this was 1958). A low price, € 10.9, then there is sin that we ship and you come to 17 €, which as usual comes down to buying more CD drives together. They are also found in Italy in the shop, at a much higher price (19 € in this case, according to AR). So, no download, their strength is to sell a good CD with booklet, photos and everything else. on iTunes is not this issue, that of '58, and lower price (here the catalog does a bit ', albeit for very long time), to € 4.99. We could not find anything, so let's make a last attempt. We always in the CD showcase some of the previous issue. For example, in 312 it was recommended to discover a 1984 album by Steve Wynn of Dream Syndicate, Medicine Show. Doing the usual searches on the site of leader Steve Wynn shows that you can buy album, also in digital download. In reality there is no album reviewed. And there is also no way to understand the format or the compression applied. It is not really given this information anywhere. The one is to buy a song or an album, such as Day Before Wine And Roses Live, a concert of 1982 in the first training. With the Euro back to 1.4 against the dollar seems to be the easiest thing, even though the instructions warn that once "outside U.S." will be a additional fee of $ 5, a sort of shipping cost also applies to download via the Internet ( !). In reality then, for unknown reasons (perhaps because your PayPal account is in dollars) the fee is not applied. And I can see che la musica è compressa eccome, sono MP3 a 128 kbps.



Ci manca da esplorare solo il

versante jazz

. Anche qui le cose vanno più o meno nello stesso modo. Le etichette, piccole o grandi che siano, non consentono il download dal loro sito o non sono collegate a siti di download a qualità CD. Se il download è previsto (non sempre) è in formato compresso. Trattandosi poi di piccole etichette la presenza su iTunes non sempre sussiste.
Unico elemento positivo per il genere jazz e che, essendo come la classica un genere più "da audiofili", la sezione relativa su HDTracks è abbastanza ampia e consente una discreta scelta. Sempre e comunque un piccolo sottoinsieme dell'universo.

Conclusions

So, our hypothetical recruit the liquid music has its own music server connected to the system, with a tera-byte hard disk to fill, law reviews, he is willing to buy music, is willing to buy it, maybe spending a little less (waiving the cover, the booklet and everything else), just wants the "liquid", without sacrificing quality, at least stay with CD quality. It must give up his intention, after having noted with some surprise that there is much more neglected in the SACD format. He in fact only two alternatives before him: 1) content of the music compressed format, just maybe not the most compressed, the iTunes AAC standard, maybe even iTunes Plus (if lucky), or 2) buy a second two approaches to see what is available on the sites for downloading music HD or CD quality HDTracks, Magnatune, Linn Records, Deutsche Grammophon, and limit their choice to those titles. And so it must still surrender to the physical media: buy CD (or SACD) on a physical medium, digitized with a ripper and transfer them to your music server, the cost is almost the same as buying on Amazon (see below), the quality is at least one of the CD and the choice is as wide as possible. Indeed, even after they have been "ripped" could resell i CD "come nuovi" su eBay.

C'è poi anche una alternativa numero 4, che però non possiamo approfondire su un blog pubblico.



Escludendo quest'ultima, la strada non sembra proprio agevole per il nuovo entusiasta della musica liquida. Paradossalmente, è ancora più ardua se vuole seguire pienamente la via legale. Il fatto è che le case discografiche non si fidano di lui.