steve reich on the cd.

are you a minimalist? steve reich seems to be. spare, modern music composed for fleets of instruments (18 musicians, 4 organs, etc). so that brings me to tuesday night. it’s been one hell of a busy week. it’s only the second week of the semester, and i have the feeling that things will calm down in a couple of weeks. my new life as an adjunct professor moves forward. this morning i spent in meetings. this afternoon i spent on the phone. no class today.

i hate to say it but i’ve almost been too busy for much reading. i’ve been keeping to lighter fare. a colleague gave me his copy of fortune and there were a couple interesting articles. most of my subscriptions to things have lapsed. i’m down to just a few — including vanity fair, stereophile, and the wsj. the stereophile subscription is a new one. my interest in stereo gear has been rekindled in the past year or two. i don’t much care for home theater, but two-channel audio is really what i’m at home with.

i had a system for about ten years and then most of the pieces started failing all within a short timeframe. i eventually got around to assembling a new setup, and it’s fairly good. it’s more power than i could hope to use, but it sounds very sweet. the system has a great sound, thanks much to the speakers — Paradigm Reference Studio/60. a great speaker for the money. i listen to a lot of classical, but i liked the paradigm’s better than the b&w’s in the same range. A bit more dynamic and certainly more well-rounded. the paradigm’s are good for a wide range of music. i share this interest in gear with my brother. he’s more interested in home theater, but there’s definitely some overlap. he recently built on a home theater room to his home. he just got carpeting. it’s not quite finished, but i’m excited to see what he ends up with.

well, that’s life from this side of the equator. take care.