Over the past couple of years, I have cut back substantially on prepackaged or prepared foods. I’ve almost eliminated buying them for a few different reasons, and have found homemade alternatives that are better in many ways.

An article this morning in the New York Times mentions that album sales are on a decline (16% last year), and the sale of individual songs via downloading services (such as iTunes) is on the rise (54% in the past year). Should we be worried that the album is a dying relic of the past, or happy that single songs are selling better than they have been able to in recent years?

In the world of LP collecting, anything is fair play.  LPs were a common format back in their day, and were developed to overcome the short playing time of the 78RPM shellac discs of the day which, in their 10″ configuration, were only capable of about three minutes of music.  And when LPs first arrived, they were only available in monaural, and it took about 10 years for that to be replaced by stereo on a regular basis.  The short answer to my own question is:  “Yes.”  But, why?

“5.1″ and “7.1″ are popular marketing terms today for modern home theater equipment. What does it all mean? This article will explain the different channel configurations for audio playback and, hopefully, help you make a decision as to which is best for your listening experience.

I’m usually not one to say much about films, unless they are classic movies, which are the staple of my collection.  But having seen numerous discussions online about the content of modern films, I have to wonder what brand of handcart our society is going to hell in, and how quickly.