Year 2, Day 220 (A True Audiophile)

This past weekend, when I was at home, one of the tasks I take on from time to time is converting some of my vinyl records onto my iTunes library. There have been many people that have asked me how that is done. Anybody who is a tech geek (like myself) will either find the technology or find a way. Fortunately I have the former, a turntable that plugs directly into the computer via a USB cord.

I have sporadically gone through this conversion procedure for the past few years, sometimes a song or two from an album, sometimes an entire album. This weekend was a little of both. One of the complete albums undergoing said process was one which I had not heard in its entirety in years (since high school, to be exact), yet still remains intact as one of his best albums, period. the album: The Nylon Curtain by Billy Joel. Though radio stations still play "Allentown", and occasionally throw on "Pressure", there are still many solid gold gems among those grooves, including the Beatles-esque Magical Mystery Tour era flavored "Scandinavian Skies" as well as Joel's tribute to Viet Nam veterans, "Goodnight Saigon".

Even though there is a program - which I have - to clean up the "pops" and "hisses" that are trademarks of vinyl record, I choose not to simply because that's the beauty of music via vinyl. That, and the fact that, even decades later, vinyl is STILL superior for the quality and depth in music.