#ironic that the older audio is better quality

[millenari]

West End 4-26-2002 vs West End Revival 12-27-2014

I know we like to complain abt modern Cats vs classic Cats but the older end of Griz's intro where they draw it out is so much better than the new one.

[audio-luddite]

Debate or discussion?

Sometimes at work I have to "walk away". This is when I have been concentrating on a job and think I have a solution, but... the damn thing refuses to work. So I just close the CAD system down get up walk around then come back and fire up a browser.

That is what I am doing now.

I visited the Audio Science Review site. They are generally fun to check out. And they like to fight.

There is an old thread on the "who would ever want to use vinyl" discussion. Of course I checked it out.

I pasted this link from page 453 of the thing. That is a FN lot of words. If you go to page one it looks rather the same as page 453. I am right you are wrong kinda thing, forever and ever.

Some classify it as a debate to be won. Others defend their right to hate / love LPs depending. Why when something measures poorly do people prefer it? The tone ranges from hostile to placid. And there are hard alliances to various tribes.

When I see this stuff I twitch. Maybe I should join in? Oh that guy just said what I would have said, do not bother.

Any person who wanders about ASR is basically a measurement person. AKA an objectivist. I am to a degree. I am an engineer after all. Funny but the subject is music which is absolutely esthetic. Ironic.

There are facts in play, but do they matter, or more precisely are they significant?

This is not a debate to be won. No one will win. It is a discussion comparing ideas, and would go much better if it was treated as such.

I have some extraordinary CDs and LPs. I have a few albums with both types of media. I may prefer the LP version because my analog system is quite high end, and my CD player is less. Still some of those CDs are amazing.

I really have no preference for CD versus Vinyl media.

My streaming capability is limited, but I only use that for background listening, or browsing for new music. If I want to buy I want physical media.

It is true that many remastered albums are better as more care was taken in making them. It is also true that much streaming music is poor due to compression, and the "loudness war" syndrome. Not much care is taken to produce it.

It is my position that the fight between digital and analog is not actually about quality of sound. It is about something else. What, I do not know.

That Getz Gilberto Impex LP is my most extreme example of quality of reproduction. Very expensive by far of any album I have. I got it to experience something. The sound quality is amazing even with flaws that are recognized as on the original tape. It is a document. The LP has an accurate rendering of what is there, and I can hear it. The music is "Classic" Jazz. I imagine if you were to buy a digital copy it would sound pretty amazing too. Impex sells CDs and Superaudio CDs too. Not the GEtz Gilberto yet.

This is an exact parallel to tubes versus transistors. There are no manufactured Tube amps that measure as well as even medium quality solid state. Tubes are a preference for "something" it brings to the party. I actually think I have a pretty good idea of what that is. I like it. I play both sides.

If you want to go really far out there are reel to reel tape fans that scoff at those limited to turntables and plastic discs. You want expensive and hard to get media this is a whole other level.

I have said this all before and probably will again. I am reacting to what I read.

In a related thing I am getting small streaming thing to improve my Apple Music path. Will it sound better with a fancier set of chips?

[missvifdor]

SHIFTING LOG. PART 3.

Wednesday July 14, 2021: Last night I don't know if it was the start of a lucid dream or the start of Shift, but it looked a lot like it. First of all, I felt symptoms and visualized that I was falling into a space-time tunnel but felt embarrassed about something and opened my eyes. On the second attempt, I found myself on a path in a dark place, the stones of the pavement looked at times like waves pushing me backwards and then I passed some characters who seemed all excited to move towards a place where was a new inter-dimensional portal obviously, I was also interested. But then again, something seemed to want to keep me from going through it. A dark tide has come in and it's like she wants to push me back! (It was maybe my blockages and my doubts, I am impressed that it is so huge and therefore, I understand better why it gets stuck so much). Again I struggled and made it through. And there, at that precise moment, I knew that I had succeeded in quotation marks. This time I was conscious. And I'm sure I was in some sort of an unknown portal dimension mixed with a Waiting Room and I wasn't alone there. First, I appeared to be a man. This man seemed disfigured with great difficulty communicated, but the scariest part of it all was that they appeared to be a serial killer a bit like Friday the 13th. I seemed to have made a lot of victims, only women. I was also looking for my next victim. That's when I met her. I don't remember exactly what her face was, but just like me, she also seemed to have Shift in this universe. I don't know how she recognized me or knew who I really was, but she wasn't afraid of me or my appearance. She took me to some kind of store but there didn't seem to be any customers, on a laptop that I didn't notice before, she erased the files that concerned the person and the body I was in for changed them to a look that suits me. We did not agree on the subject. She advised me to go back to my normal physical appearance, the CR me. Whereas I wanted to have the look of my dreams. When I started to change the information about myself on my cell phone, I lost control and went back to the dream world.

MONDAY JULY 26, 2021: Today I had one or more lucid dreams. When I woke up in this dream, I really thought I got up in my bed, as usual I checked that I had a connection, went to tiktok and got up. It wasn't until I went to the living room that I noticed I wasn't at home, even my front bed layout was weird, not as usual. I managed to take control, it was very difficult and sometimes I lost it, but at least I tried to make a portal for Shifter. It didn't work and it annoyed me. Then my family members appeared in this apartment which did not look like ours. They too looked strange, they looked hostile to my presence. As proof, my big sister tried to attack me and my niece did not look like the one I knew. She was blonde, less chubby and she seemed to have an adult consciousness in a baby's body. Suddenly, to prevent my older sister's assault on me, I hit her with an iron until she .... died. Hearing the din, my little brother was about to arrive, and probably with the same intention as my big sister. So I ran out the window. A window probably located on the 20th floor of the building where we were supposed to be living. I let myself fall into the void, lost control until I took it back and flew into the air. On this new attempt, I tried to make Hogwarts appear for a Shifter. It was difficult and the castle did not appear. I think my "family" was preventing me from succeeding, probably my blockages. At least they no longer resulted in a huge wave of dark water. I lost control and failed to regain it. That night, I was rather gone to Shifter in the MCU, but it seems that my mind remained focused on my Harry Potter DRs. Twelve days have passed since my last attempt and my last results, I hope that equates to substantial progress. I think my mind is very slow which is why I take so long between results. I will take a real break of at least a week or two before trying again so that my mind and body are fully restored.

August 15-17, 2021 (it happened between these dates) I tried again. After listening to a few subliminals that sounded pretty good, I got some little results that are worth highlighting. First, I had mild but present symptoms. And by dint of concentrating, I saw perhaps a sort of white ceiling with gold stars carved or painted on it. Too bad I lost track and the image has moved away in the dark.

SATURDAY AUGUST 21, 2021: Since the day before yesterday, I've been trying a new Shifting persuasion technique. My brain may still have doubts about the veracity of the Shifting and that's why I started to "validate" all my actions. For example, when I say out loud that I am going to turn off the light etc, I do it and my brain sees that it is working. So when I say an "I'm going to Shift tonight" statement my brain is going to be able to unblock. I feel it helps me. And so, combined with that, I also listen to asmr, audios with Loki's voice, read my script, read Headcanon / Imagine / X Reader because it's in my DR MCU that I wanted to go. I felt it had a good influence, I will continue in this case. During my try, I felt numbness, and that I was being touched. The contact I felt had to do with my face and the top of my head. I felt the touch of a large, warm hand pressing against my cheek. At one point, the contact was mildly painful, like a scratch or a slight burn on my left cheekbone. In the corner of my right eye, I felt a tear slide down my skin. It was quite strange because when I checked, no tears had fallen. Perhaps an unpleasant event or an argument or a fight may have broken out with my DR self. At other times, I felt that my hair was pulling out of my face. It was light, strange, but not unpleasant. I am curious to know what happened in my DR. Even now I feel a slight touch on that same cheek.

SUNDAY AUGUST 22, 2021: I listened to ASMR Loki as well as a very good subliminal. I felt like someone had put their head on my stomach. I also had the usual little symptoms.

MONDAY 23 AUGUST 2021: Not much. I think I will continue. Listening to subliminals, meditating and resting my mind during the week. I'll try again later.

MONDAY AUGUST 31, 2021: I tried again, this time using a guided meditation from the Raven Method in French. Before listening to it, I meditate, reread my script and then I started the method. This time the symptoms were a bit more different than usual. The point of pain right in the middle of my forehead, right between my two eyes returned. It had been a while since I had felt it and so strongly. Then I had sensations in my feet. They vibrated as if they were resting on the floor of a moving train. I felt exactly this sensation. I had the impression to really hear the noise of a train on rails and the noises of people around but for the latter I could be wrong, it could be noises made by my family. I had slight flashes of light but they faded very quickly. Finally, I had a really strange night. I was asleep, I'm sure of that and yet I feel like I spent my time just dozing lightly. I think the fact that I finally changed my mind about which DR I wanted to go to and re-read another script totally clouded my conscience and that my indecision was a drag on better quality results. I only have to focus on one DR and one script if I want to be able to move forward in my progress.

[laiqart]

The Untamed vs MDZS Anime: Which is better?

Going to japan now. Currently in the plane. The in flight tv is broken. So... ive been watching mdzs on youtube!

Hot damn the animation is beautiful. Every frame is a work of art. How the hell. Its so beautiful. I mean they use 3D a lot for the backgrounds and boats but its still gorgeous and not too jarring. The lighting is so realistic, scenery too. All the fighting choreography is beautiful. The way the swords swing in the air looks so fluid, and when swords clash its in flashes of light the color of their sword. Such a tasteful yet stylistic choice. Everyone's, esp wwx, hair is so flowy, so detailed every strand sways in the wind. The waves reflect light and move smoothly. How the hell did they do that. How. I was thinking of doing those screencap redraw thingy with the scene when wwx whacks lwj's boat. (they also emphasised how far lwj's boat was sinking into the water, which makes it more convincing how wwx can deduce that theres something underneath vs the live action where lwj's boat looked normal..) it was damn beautiful. The thing is, the point of these redraws is that the animation looks simple, so the redraw would enhance the scene. But for mdzs, everything is already in peak quality, redrawing it will only look worse. Its like writing fanfiction of books. The original writing is so damn beautiful, fan fiction ends up being such a stark difference that the reader cant help but compare the 2.

Drama, as everyone says, shows better facial expressions due to the live actors, so emotions hit harder. But anime def LOOKs way better in all action scenes. Angles that follow the characters are used to emphasise scale between enemy and chracters, and all the movements feel so dynamic, and i love how when they use talisman spell thingies they got a circle of light in an intricate pattern thats super beautiful. In the drama, its just a piece of paper.

However, i prefer drama's lwj. Maybe cos wyb looks so young, its more believable when he freaks out over the adult book that wwx gives him in the library scene. In the anime, he looks 20+-30+. Its a bit hard to believe that he'd be worried over that. Idk theres a kind of innocence and naivety that leads to the stubborn refusal to express emotion that young lwj is plagued with that we have in the untamed (was this intentional on wyb's part or is it because the teenage lwj wig made his eyes look floaty, so he seems more like a teenager and naive, less experienced as a cultivator vs lwj 13 years later? Dk but it works!). In the anime, he looks like an adult thats calm and level headed already from the get-go. Idk maybe i just havent watched enough (only seen up til the water demons in caiyi town). In both anime and drama, everyone and i mean EVERYONE besides the fricking babies looks the same 13/16 years later. It doesn't feel like time has passed at all. I wish they would have maybe a change in costume, or hairstyle in the anime. The drama at least changes their costumes a little and neatens the hairstyle of jiang cheng and lwj to indicate maturity.

Btw i love that in the anime for the water demons section they had wwx and jc casually chatting (though its a blatant cornetto ad which is fricking weird. How can there be frozen treats back in those days), then wwx beautifully catapulting himself onto a boat and rowing away showing the unique and romantic af mode of transport in caiyi town, then smoothly transitioning to the lan bros on the bridge right above them with lwj asking why lxc decided to bring them along. Its just tying together so many scenes, quickening the plot along and yet doing it so naturally and seamlessly compared with the novel and drama.

Though i like that the drama involved wn and wq and have wwx save wn, and makes way more sense why wn would want to risk his life to help wwx recover his parents fricking corpse illegally right under the nose of wen chao and wen zhuliu.

The anime removed the entire mystery plot of a yan and the fairy goddess statue and thats honestly the best best best choice to make. In the drama, it was one of the worse sections ever cos i didnt understand who all these random ass characters were (it was one of the first mysteries in the drama) and yet it didnt go into detail like they did in the novel, so not only did i not know what was going on, i also didnt give a single shit about the characters. When i saw that they completely did away with the random passer bys who screwed around with the fairy statue, i was thoroughly impressed.

I liked that the drama let nhs have his own trouble making moments tho, like having him sneak a live bird into class. It makes it more convincing that wwx would be friends with him because they both have a mischievous side that they can both appreciate in each other. In the anime, nhs just looks like a loser nerd thats weak in swordplay and does wwx's homework for him, without a will of his own. It doesnt make sense why wwx would keep him around. Then again, maybe itll make the reveal that nhs is a conniving mastermind more impactful for the anime, oh well only time will tell.

I liked that lxc and lwj look similar in the anime. Its more convincing when people call them the twin jades of the lan clan. In the drama, they hardly looked like brothers. Lxc looks more like lwj's mentor or teacher rather than an older brother. In the anime, they look more siblingy.

I miss drama wen ning. I rmb when he looked so fierce and terrifying in his first appearance. I was legit intimidated. Oh how hes changed! Hes so fluffy now. In the anime hes equally menacing. His fight scene with the statue goddess was so beautiful. Doesnt it take a long time to animate the chains moving so fluidly yet dynamically yet somehow looks like it can disintegrate rock in an instant? The lighting on it too, how it reflected the fire of the forest around them. Have i mentioned how beautiful having that fight scene at night was? It was dark and ominous looking, yet the fire cast an epic looking light over the scene with warm orange glows. And the animators had that fiery light reflected in anything they could find: eyes, chains, swords.

Ooh but jiang cheng's whip looked prettier in the drama than in the anime, which is kind of weird given they were both cgi-ed. Somehow the lighting of the whip in the drama was brighter, looked more like real lightning vs the whip in the anime looking a little dull, like they colored it then added a gray filter. This is kinda bizarre given the laughably bad effects of the effects for everything else in the drama. Visuals for non human things is not the drama's strong suit, so it makes u wonder what happened for the anime whip. Maybe in the dark, the lightning would have to look hella bright and reflect on the surroundings (tedious to color) more so than in the day, hence why it looked worse in anime vs drama. Oh well.

As for lan sizhui, its weird that his voice is so deep in the anime (and audio drama!). Ive always seen him as a kiddo thanks to the live action, so hearing him sound mature is kinda off-putting. He sounds like a leader, and gives off lwj vibes vs in the live action where he gives a goody two shoes studious nerd vibe, whos just trying his best. Maybe this is better, he feels way more like a lwj-raised child(serious and business-like) which makes more sense. Live action lsz feels like a wwx(optimistic and intelligent) AND lwj(well-behaved and sensible)-raised child. Anime lsz looks like hes got his shit together. Jinling is fairly similar in both, maybe less prideful in the anime (in live action theres the scene where im pretty sure he indirectly kills one of his men by wishing for the fairy goddess statue to come to life. That was a hella asshole move. This was omitted in the anime.) Jingyi in the anime somehow looks snarkier. Maybe cos he straight up duels with jinling and kicks him down a dark cave. Ive been wondering why all the tumblr posts depict ljy as this sassy ass short tempered kid when he was quite tame (though sassy by lan standards) in the live action. Now i know.

The costumes for the drama is better, more detailed though thats expected i guess. I just love that they have little white gusu lan clan uniforms that wwx jc and friendos are required to wear. Its so cute and such a cool detail. In anime, theyre all in their usual garb, and they just look like random people who decided to turn up at lan qirens class. In the drama, it looks more like a school that they have to attend for half a year and it feels characteristic that gusu lan clan would require their students to have a uniform, given their incredibly strict regime type. It also serves to separate the happy carefree school days from all the other tragic af events in wwx's life. His costume starts out white showing innocence and purity of his naiive teenage years who had yet to experience hardship and still feels invincible as a youth. After school, he wears dark blue, as he goes on an adventure with lanzhan and experience how important the yin iron is (gives up the joking light hearted nature as a teenager by realizing the gravity of situation if the wen clan gets their hands on it) and maybe that hes not truly part of the jiang clan who wears purple. Then his costume eventually becomes black as he experiences his first life and death situation that he isnt sure he can handle. That child like assurance that "oh the seniors will let me off" or "im sure jiang fengmian will come to my rescue" gets demolished when he undergoes cruel indoctrination at the wen clans. This visual development may be a bit on the nose, but personally i love subtle representations.

Overall, the anime does do a better of job of explaining the world's mechanics, which is quite important. The drama is quite faithful to the book, at times even more so than the anime, so it irks me that this is the one thing they decide to skim on. The god damn premise, the first thing the audience needs: why the hell is wwx alive again and what is mo xuanyu doing?? I guess the drama thought that it explains itself but it doesnt really. It was really confusing. The anime, though somehow faster than the drama, still has the time to properly explain mxy. A technique ive noticed is that they do exposition during the fight scenes, which is so ingenius. Its visually appealing, as always, so its not boring, the viewers gets to understand whats going on AND it gives the sense that the characters are so skilled that they carry causal conversations while fighting supposedly weak enemies like zombies and water ghosts, which is accurate seeing how wwx and lwj and friends are supposed to be one of the most powerful cultivators.

TL;DR both are good lol

[growingpaynes-art]

Far From Home Initial Review: What I Liked and What I Didn’t (Spoilers)

I saw Far From Home yesterday and jotted down some of my immediate responses, and then took some time to think on those points. I do intend to see the film again in the next few days and I may be adding to or amending this list.

Major spoilers below.

(CW: sexual harassment, victim blaming)

What I Liked:

That scene in the jet where Happy stitches Peter up was A+. Not just regarding the expert acting, but how the filmmakers decided to handle the scene. Peter’s fear, stress, and self doubt briefly shifts to anger, and he snaps at Happy for telling him to “relax.” He immediately apologizes, saying “i’m sorry, I shouldn't shout.” Happy in return responds by choosing his words more carefully. Happy then gives him a gentle and encouraging pep talk in which he recognizes Peter’s emotions, encourages him, and explains that he doesn’t need to live up to the legacy of Iron Man and that he only needs to do his best. He remains on task and pragmatic, but never rushes Peter or forces him to do anything he’s not comfortable doing, offering support all the while. 

Peter is allowed to cry at several points throughout the film in front of other male characters, including Nick Fury and Happy. He is never judged for this and he is never made to feel like his emotions are unreasonable or invalid. Continuing this from the previous films even as Peter gets older and takes on more responsibilities further normalizes male emotion in action films. 

Peter consistently voices his concerns and asks for help instead of overwhelming himself and internalizing.

Peter was noticeably shorter than MJ in most of their scenes together, including where they kiss or hold hands. Peter’s height is never made into the butt of a joke, which I had feared might happen. No one even mentions it. Marvel did have Tom wear shoes that made him a little taller than he actually is, but I do appreciate that they didn’t drastically increase his height like they always did to RDJ. 

JK Simmons returning as J Jonah Jameson was a great surprise, and it gives me hope that we may yet see Peter as a photographer

Peter walking out from behind that car carrying a sign and a light as a reference to Steve wielding the shield and mjolnir.

Peter calling his dick his “webshooter”

MJ stepping in and providing some real help several times throughout the movie 

The movies on the flight to Venice “Heart of Iron: The Tony Stark Story,” “Chasing Hydra” etc

The terribly edited movie maker tribute set to “I Will Always Love You” with “in memoriam” in comic sans was the funniest possible way to open the film

Bucky being included in the Thank You Avengers collage in the Midtown Tech news video

Mr. Harrington and Mr. Dell were definitely dating and i’m here for it. 

Seeing Peter fight without a suit was cool. I’ve always thought there was a kind of disconnect when characters like spiderman or black panther fight with their masks on, like they feel separate from the actors. But seeing Peter fight in his civilian clothing made it feel more real to me that this kid really has these powers and can do all these amazing flips and feats of strength. It also let us see more of his creativity and quick thinking.

I’m impressed that they were able to make Mysterio’s mo-cap suit look cool instead of completely ridiculous like they do in real life.

Peter closing his eyes and fighting the drones with his spidey-sense to avoid the illusions was so badass. 

The violence felt real. Every time Peter got hit, the audience felt it. Several times he was unable to stand up, he limped and winced and cried. It felt like the consequences of such heavy action were realistically considered when Peter couldn’t just pop back up and shake it off. 

"If you were better, maybe Tony would still be alive” “You’re just a scared little kid in a sweatsuit” 

“You got me?” “I got you.”

“lets get a drink” “i’m- i’m not 21.”

Peter going to a parent figure wearing an oversized shirt and crying while confessing his self-doubts was an oddly specific parallel that i didn’t expect to get again but i’m certainly not complaining

What I Didn’t:

The “rest stop hookup” scene was deeply inappropriate. Peter, a child, is commanded to undress in front of an adult female agent. He initially resists but is intimidated into compliance when she repeats the order. One of Peter’s classmates, Brad, walks into the room and Peter is literally caught with his pants around his ankles with an adult stranger. Brad makes the assumption that Peter is hooking up with her, and takes a photo for evidence with the intention of showing it to MJ in order to ruin Peter’s “chance” with her. Peter is blamed for a situation in which he is the victim, and the audience is meant to find this entire scene funny. Instead of what could have been a really cool scene in which this agent presents the new suit she’s made for Peter, we are given this very uncomfortable scene of sexual harassment played for laughs.

Peter and Brad competing for MJ’s affection and actively sabotaging each other is unnecessary. 

The use of old footage from previous films was lazy, especially when Marvel could have easily recreated those scenes from the perspectives of the new antagonists. I’ve always found this distracting, especially when the quality noticeably drops between two clips, though this is more of a personal peeve than anything I see as a legitimate problem.

The list of characters who become villains because they feel personally or indirectly slighted by Tony and Howard is getting too big. Honestly I think it’s lazy to keep using that as backstory/motivation for new villains after over 10 years, especially now that Tony isn’t even alive.

The multiverse being made up by Beck was disappointing.

The monsters being the Elementals instead of Sandman or Hydroman was also disappointing.

I wish that the spidey-sense was represented by some creative audio or visual cue, like the goosebumps in iw or the ringing noise in spiderverse

There were several lgbt characters/actors on the class trip but they weren’t very visible. You really don’t notice them at all unless you were aware of who was cast beforehand and were watching closely for them. I’m not asking for Peter to swing through new york with a rainbow flag screaming “trans rights” but I would have liked to have seen a queer couple holding hands or a student with a trans patch on their backpack or something. I had been hoping for Peter to actually interact with one of them, to refer to them by name. Obviously having such a diverse cast with queer characters being played by actual queer actors is a huge step up from Joe Russo’s “grieving man” but like that shouldn’t be where the bar is at this point. 

Tbh the headstone and zombie iron man were cliche, and i think it would have been much more impactful if Mysterio had made an allusion of Tony himself instead.

Why would Dr Strange not be available to fight massive elemental monsters from another dimension bent on consuming the earth like dude make yourself available??

I wish the new suit included Karen so that we could see how she and Peter’s interactions have changed now that he is expertly familiar with the functions of the suits. Additionally, the spider-drone would have been cool to see again.

The illusion to Uncle Ben with the “BFP” initials on Peter’s suitcase was great but I do wish we could get some actual information about him. We don’t need to see his death or the “with great power comes great responsibility” speech- we’ve already seen that enough times- but a little clarification on what officially happened to him in the mcu would be interesting. 

Honestly I thought it was too convenient that May, Happy, and all of Peter’s closest friends also dusted. I had wanted to see how interactions between Peter and May or friends such as Ned would be tested emotionally due to the five-year gap.

The BARF tech being invented by Beck and stolen by Tony detracts from it being used in Civil War to establish Tony’s feelings about Howard and Maria’s murders. If it isn’t Tony’s invention, that takes the heart out of it. 

I had really hoped that the glasses were going to end up revealing Tony as an AI, or at least some kind of message from him, and i thought was weird that Tony would give Peter access to a system that allows him to order drone strikes on his classmates.

Also...  so the drone strike on peter’s bus was faked by Mysterio’s team because they needed to get the EDITH glasses from Peter? Because the EDITH glasses give them access to the satellite that deploys the drones? But they already have the same drones? and use one them to fake the bus attack? so why do they need EDITH? Maybe i missed something but that makes no sense to me. 

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The lost audiobooks of Roger Zelazny reading the Chronicles of Amber

When I was a kid, my whole circle of D&D-playing, science-fiction reading pals was really into Roger Zelazny's ten-volume Chronicles of Amber, but somehow I never read it; for years, I'd intended to correct this oversight, but I never seemed to find the time -- after all, there's more amazing new stuff than I can possibly read, how could I justify looking backwards, especially over the course of ten books?

But I do have some time in my day to read older books: I swim every day for my chronic pain, and when I do, I use an underwater MP3 player to listen to audiobooks that I generally get from Libro.fm, Downpour, or Google's DRM-free audiobook store (the market-leading Audible, a division of Amazon, mandatorily wraps audiobooks in its proprietary DRM without allowing publishers to opt out, which has the dual deal-breaking effect of locking me into Amazon's ecosystem and not working on my underwater MP3 player).

A couple of months ago, I decided to go looking for DRM-free versions of the Amber books, which is how I found Speaking Volumes' editions of Roger Zelazny's own readings of the books, long believed to have been accidentally erased and lost forever, but which were recovered and remastered in the mid-2000s. Speaking Volumes sells these as MP3 downloads and MP3 CDs, and I bought the complete set of the former and listened to them over a couple of months' worth of laps in the pool.

Zelazny's reading is pretty much fantastic. The books are justly loved for their deadpan, ironic, noirish prose style, and Zelazny's voice -- smoke-cured by the same cigarettes that were blamed for the cancer that killed him in 1995 at the age of 58 -- and delivery are absolutely delightful. The audio quality is patchy at best -- whatever medium these recordings were recovered from was evidently in less-than-perfect shape -- and in some places there's bleed-through of other people having arguments. One book was only partially recovered and is read in places by another reader, who is competent enough, though he's no Zelazny. Despite these imperfections (or, perversely, because of them), it's pretty fabulous to hear these rediscovered lost treasures.

What about the books themselves, then?

They're...a mixed bag. The story is a set of courtly intrigues based loosely on Hindu and Buddhist scripture, infused with heavy doses of psychedelic industry as the forces of Order and Chaos fight one another for dominance over the universe, even as the royal houses of godlings who represent each force squabble among one another in succession struggles for the thrones of their respective realms. The hero of the first five books is Prince Corwin of Amber, fighting for the crown of the lands of Order, while the second five books tell the story of his son, Merlin, whose mother is demon of Chaos and who might find himself running either one or both of the great houses.

The books start strong, as Corwin awakens in a hospital in our world with amnesia and slowly recovers his memories, thus easing us into Zelazny's universe. These books sport psychedelic interludes in which Corwin walks through "shadow" (the branching, unimportant worlds, including ours, in which everything that can happen does, which the godlings of Chaos and Order can traverse to find any possible outcome) that Zelazny brings to life with deliveries that turn them into free verse poetry, heavy on delightfully weird symbolism.

But -- even with the book six reboot and the switch to a new PoV character -- Zelazny struggles to keep the story together. His multiple mystical systems of magic allow him to squeak out of narrative problems by inventing some new twist on the rules he's set up that conveniently allows characters to escape from the dead ends he writes them into. This has the unfortunate side effect of setting up characters with overpowered artifacts, unfollowably complicated powers, and an sense of anything-can-happen whose corollary is nothing matters.

The psychedelic interludes that are so much fun in the early volumes turn into self-indulgent cheap tricks for getting characters in and out of trouble the action flags.

All in all, it has the ring of a D&D game whose inventive Dungeon Master has set down all the twists and turns that were so much fun to play through in a book that's significantly less fun to read -- like dreams, D&D adventures are generally more fun to live through than to hear about (and it doesn't help that much of the action in the Amber books takes place in characters' dreams).

I nearly met Zelazny. He was scheduled to be the Guest of Honor at Toronto's Ad Astra science fiction convention, but died shortly before the event. Ad Astra was my first con, where I volunteered as a gofer, then attended as a neopro, and I remember being disappointed that I wouldn't get to meet him in person -- even if I hadn't read the Amber books, I'd enjoyed his story Auto-da-Fe in Harlan Ellison's first Dangerous Visions anthology and, more importantly, Zelazny was the mentor of one of my favorite writers, Steven Brust (previously) whom I met for the first time two years later when he was a guest of honor at Ad Astra, in 1997.

Brust's work is an instructive counterpoint to Zelazny. His longrunning, nearly complete, must-must-must read Taltos series is filled with homages to Zelazny and Amber, from the hard-boiled tone to the beautifully choreographed sword- and knife-fighting scenes, to the mystical, semi-sentient cord his hero wears around his wrist (Brust even named his kid Corwin!).

What's more, Brust's Taltos books are literally based on an RPG, with the same gods-and-mortals dynamic that Zelazny propels the action in Amber with.

But Brust's books are infinitely better than Zelazny's. It's not just that he doesn't have the same problematic characterizations of (and interactions with) female characters that plague the Amber books -- Brust's story is much more consequential because it moves very swiftly from the kind of courtly intrigue that fuel the Amber books, and onto the lives of myriad, everyday people struggling to survive the terrible fallout generated by the power struggles of the unthinking, unregarding great and noble personages who are Zelanzy's heroes and Brust's ultimate villains. Brust's "little people" are heroes; Zelazny's are literal figments of the aristocracy's imagination.

While Brust's magic and mysticism are nearly as expansive as Zelazny's, his tales don't suffer from Zelanzy's ultimately boring, consequence-free meandering, because Brust focuses on consequences for people who have no choice but to live through the aftermath of these mythic struggles in their (decidedly non-mythic) everyday lives.

Brust is nearly finished with the Vlad books, after nearly four decades in progress (!), and here, too, Brust shows that the student outshines the master. As the Amber books approach their ending, they get more chaotic, less controlled, more improvised and, frankly, sillier. Brust, by contrast, keeps getting more salient, trenchant and consequential with every volume, building to a climax that makes me shiver in delight whenever I remember that it's on our foreseeable horizon.

Ultimately, Zelazny ended the Amber books on a note so disappointingly nonsensical and lazy that I could hardly believe it -- it was a disappointment to rival the end of Stephen King's Dark Tower books; having made us slog through a Silmarillion's worth of family trees and ancient history, he just...fizzled (Zelazny didn't read the final volume for audio -- for that, I suggest ripping the CD version of Wil Wheaton's reading, which does an admirable job with some pretty weak material).

They say "the Golden Age of science fiction is 12," and perhaps if I'd read Amber when my friends were all fizzing with it, I'd have found it more interesting. Decades later, I'm glad I read them, but I'm also not planning on re-reading ever again -- unlike the Taltos books, which I sneak into my queue all the time, inevitably finding new delights with each fresh reading.

In the meantime, I still recommend the Speaking Volumes editions: for all the failings of the series in hindsight, Zelazny brings in a brilliant performance, one that might have been lost forever. And these books, flawed as they are, are important parts of the genre's history -- for one thing, without them, we might never have had Brust's Taltos books.

The Chronicles of Amber [Roger Zelazny/Speaking Volumes]

https://boingboing.net/2019/09/22/golden-age-of-sf-is-12.html

[taww]

Long-term Review: Cardas Clear Light Speaker Cable

This ain’t your grandpa’s Cardas.

The year is... I can’t even remember, maybe 2012? I was writing for Bound for Sound magazine (BFS) and running my trusty Merlin TSM speakers with a variety of solid state amplifiers and cables, and while there was much to love about this setup, body and warmth were lacking. Merlin's brilliant and dearly-departed designer Bobby Palkovic never stopped reminding me his speakers were best with tube amps and Cardas cables (which he used internally and for jumpers) and he kept urging me to give them a try. I demurred, telling him I hadn’t been a fan of the “Cardas sound” in the past... but an encounter with a friend’s Quadlink 5C’s had me reconsidering. So I put in a call to Cardas to see what they recommended, and they were gracious enough to provide a pair of their recently-introduced Clear Light speaker cables.

The following years are a blur... BFS stopped publishing a short time later, and the Cardas review was put on hold. But I still kept using those cables, and after years of building guilt I finally sat down to do a write-up about them. Cardas, if you’re still listening - thank you for letting me hang onto them, and mea culpa. Better late than never, right...? 🙂

The Clear Light was introduced as a, well, lighter version of their high-end Clear cable. At the time, I believe it retailed around $900 a 1.5m pair - a bit less than half as much as its big brother. This put it in what I would call the “entry luxury” segment of cables, sorta like a BMW 3 series or Audi A4. The newest version of the cable is called the Clear Cygnus; from their website:

In 2017, Cygnus took the place of Clear Light, being the result of a redesign that turned out to be fitting of a new product launch. Cygnus, unlike its predecessor, can be internally bi-wired.

So this review is more than a bit late to the party, but my long-term experience with the Clear Light has been noteworthy and speaks to a fascinating evolution in the Cardas sound over the years.

Then...

Why hadn’t I been a fan of Cardas in the past? I had tried a few of their entry to mid-level cables - Twinlink, Quadlink, Hexlink, Golden Presence, probably others. Cardas had always been known for their smooth, relaxed character and synergy with tube equipment, neither of which are quite my cup of tea. Many of their older models also had quite high capacitance which IMO tended to kill the life of the sound with many components. So yeah, I had a bit of bias against the brand.

For reference, other cables I had tried with the Merlin speakers included the original AntiCables, the original Analysis Plus oval, Signal Cable, an older Synergistic reference cable, JPS Labs Ultraconductor and the BFS “Lowe’s Special” DIY cables which had handily bested many of the former. But it was always tricky with the Merlins and solid state amps - you wanted something that retained their speed, transparency and immediacy, but with sufficient midrange body and warmth. In terms of tonal balance, the Synergistic faired the best, and was what I was using when the Cardas arrived.

Dropping the Clear Lights into the system, at the time with an April Music Stello Ai500 integrated, quickly dispelled my biases. Cardas was not kidding with the model name - these were easily the most transparent and detailed cables I had yet heard in my system, with a judicious touch of the trademark Cardas warmth and body in the midrange that my system was craving. Most striking was the newfound sense of pulse and rhythm. Maybe this is what the Brits call PRAT, but it wasn’t about bass clarity or tautness per se; it was more about allowing the subtle undulations of an accompaniment to pulsate and flow in perfect balance with a tune.

A classic scene from the movie Amadeus.

A perfect example: the Adagio from Mozart "Gran Partita" wind serenade, made famous in the movie Amadeus. I still vividly recall putting on a favorite recording by the Berlin Philharmonic wind ensemble (Tidal) and being floated away by the lullaby-like quality of the accompaniment - the “rusty squeezebox” as Salieri calls it. The oboe solo was also more striking, breaths and phrases feeling more tactile and tone having a little more sheen. Bobby was right - his speakers really do click with Cardas wire, and I had never heard the TSM's sing so freely in my system.

Other material showed no lack of slam or extension either. Though the Merlins were light in the bass, their sealed-box design meant there's some meaningful output down to 40Hz, and the Clear Lights made the best of it with an articulate and balanced bottom end. Large orchestral works had nice scale and weight, and the soundstage was expansive and well-delineated - close-mic'ed material sounded up front and present while mid-hall orchestral recordings had plenty of ambience. And most importantly to me, there was none of the undue warmth and dullness that bothered me with past Cardas cables - leading edges were sharp and dynamics popped without overshooting. All in all, the Clear Lights were clearly (ha) the best speaker cables in my system to that date.

... and now.

Fast forward several years. The Merlins have been replaced by Audiovector SR 1 Avantgarde Arreté and Silverline SR17 Supreme, with a rotation of amps from Ayre, Bryston and Valvet. The front end has also been substantially upgraded with the PS Audio DirectStream DAC and Pass XP10 preamp, and competition at vastly different price points has arrived in the form of Audience Au24 SX ($3,290, 2.5m pair) and DH Labs Silver Sonic Q-10 Signature ($450, 8ft pair).

The Audience Au24 SX has a level of refinement that neither of the other cables can match, hardly surprising at 3x to 7x the price. It's oh-so-silky smooth, stripping away layers of noise and grain within and between the notes and leaving behind the purest, most natural instrumental timbres I've heard in my system. By comparison, the Cardas has a bit of a grittier texture, particularly in the upper midrange, and a more up-front presentation. With some speaker/amp combos this was beneficial - e.g. with the Silverline Minuet Grand ($1,999) and Ayre AX7e integrated, the Cardas struck just the right balance of body and presence, making the Audience sound a little too laid back by comparison. I also found the heavier 9.5AWG conductors of the Cardas allowed the Bryston 4B Cubed amp to get a better grip on the Audiovector SR 1 Avantgarde Arreté speakers ($5200) than the comparatively light-gauge Audience. Overall the Cardas put up a very respectable showing against the superb Audience cables, in line with my expectations given the price difference.

The DH Labs Q-10 was a fascinating and far closer comparison. The Q-10 is just as clean as the Cardas - perhaps even more so - with a slightly more direct character that is on the up-front side of neutral. Its silver-plated copper conductors give it extra sheen vs. the pure-copper Cardas and Audience, which could go in either direction depending on your system. With a mellow amp and a smooth speaker it could be just the thing to inject some life; but pairing with a hot tweeter and bright solid state amp could be downright painful. The Cardas feels like it would be more amenable to a wider range of systems, and it has a bit more midrange dimensionality and soundstage depth. The DH Labs counters with terrific bass punch and super-crisp transients that always sound controlled. Overall I had a slight preference for the Cardas in most setups, but the DH Labs hung in there pretty well and is a superb value.

Usage Notes

The Cardas is just thick enough to impress your audiophile friends and confuse your gardener without being unwieldy, and its rubber-finish jacket is flexible and easily handled. Over the course of years of heavy usage (lots of connect/disconnect cycles and being thrown around) it's held up well, the only obvious sign of wear being the conductors on one end starting to pull out of the collet - not particularly dangerous since all Cardas conductors are insulated litz (magnet) wire, but something you'll want to take care with. (I hear Cardas has excellent factory service, so likely they'd repair it at reasonable cost.)

Little bit of wear and tear showing...

My pair was terminated with Cardas's machined rhodium-plated spades. I have never been a fan of big audio jewelry connectors, preferring unassuming low-mass ones that ironically enough have become all the rage the last 10-15 years. That said, these spades are fantastic. They are the perfect shape and size to fit most any binding post I've come across, including those pesky EU-compliant ones, and for whatever reason - perhaps the rhodium plate and precise machining - they slide effortless in and out of binding posts and tighten more readily and securely than any other spade I've used. I always know I'm getting a secure fit, and I never have to fidget with or retighten them later as I do with most every other spade I've used. Bravo, Cardas.

Conclusion

I've had an extremely positive ownership experience with the Cardas Clear Light speaker cables over the years, and it remains a staple in my bin o' cables. They opened my ears to the virtues of the Cardas sound, delivering much of the brand's famed dimensionality, body and musical flow balanced with a high level of clarity, transparency and directness. While they had exceptional synergy with my Merlin speakers, they worked with a wide variety of gear and were a delight to handle. I would stick to using them with a system that's already fairly neutral and balanced - true to their name, they aren't going to obscure or romanticize anything. I haven't heard its successor, the Clear Cygnus, but I imagine it should deliver a similar if not greater level of listening satisfaction. Recommended!

[audio-luddite]

But it is a good deal...maybe

A short time ago I said I would not buy NOS Vacuum Tubes.

So I just ordered a new set for the AR preamp. They were sold to the dealer as NOS Tesla Ecc88 dual triodes. If true they could be very valuable. They arrived at the dealer improperly labeled.  They are a sophisticated place so they could identify them as being the advertised type, but the provenance was suspect. Maybe counterfeit, the Russians like to fake shit like that. So they are dumping them out at fire sale prices.

To be clear this Tesla has no relationship with that car company.  It arguably has a closer relationship to the original Mr Tesla or maybe one of his cousins.  They made vacuum tubes and light bulbs in the old iron curtain zone.

My usual tubes are JJs made in Slovakia in what may be an old Tesla factory.  These tubes seen to be very like those, but even so are 1/2 to 1/3 the price I usually pay.  So they may be the same, they may be a bit worse, or they could be better.

I ordered them as matched sets, which means they have to fire them up and measure them. I hope that sorts out what may be suspect.

My tube set is at least two years old.  I had issues and ordered new tubes, but the repairman still had to work on it when a channel went out which was a failed tube.  So at least some of the tubes are older than others.  It is time for a new set. And if these are actually genuine Tesla tubes it may be a score.

Insert rant about different tube brands having different sounds.  If they were as perfect as some believe that would not happen.

The prices of these tubes range from 10 bucks to several hundred each.  If you have the money I guess that is OK.  The reason I gave up on tube power amplifiers is basically the extreme cost of those tubes.  They are big and fully replacing a set of tubes in a “good” amp can cost as much as an entire solid state one of decent quality.  And you have to do this again and again.  Expensive and consumable.

I rant about this but I do have a tube preamp don’t I?  I have a transistor one too, but I like the sound of it less.  So I choose what I use by my preferences just like the golden ears. Both measure tiny levels of distortion, but how they sound different is not that tiny.  It is both interesting and frustrating.

All electronics in audio change the sound.  Flaws in the power supply will alter the dynamics and imaging.  Choices in the components will alter the accuracy, and the circuits can be voiced to sound particular ways and produce particular artifacts that may be pleasing.  It is an interesting hobby.

Of course all this is in the service of the 500 odd LPs I have.  I enjoy music and I enjoy the illusions my system can make with them.

[darlingnisi]

The Vault/Iron Mountain

News made the rounds yesterday that the contents of the vault at Paisley were moved to an Iron Mountain facility in California several weeks ago. A faction of Prince’s family are upset about this move. Articles about this are written in a bit of a triggering way so I won’t link them here (remember those outlets are less about reporting the actual news, and more about spinning people up to get clicks/ad revune. Always..ALWAYS remember that, especially in regard to Prince news. They KNOW fams are still grieving and WILL use that to their advantage to get people to share those articles. Take EVERYTHING you read with a grain of salt.)

The Podcasts have been on it to talk to people who know the business of how this works. Dave Hampton, former operations manager at Paisley chimed in here with Prince Podcast last night (about 30 minutes):

And Funkenberries also recently did an hour long talk with Dave as well  Listen here.

Here are some comments from Duane Tuhdal’s group that sums up the opinion of people who work in industry/have worked with P :

Now wait a minute...The music has been moved to Iron Mountain Entertainment. Which is one of the most respected digital archives in the world. They are associated with the Grammy's. And have been for a decade. I worry so much about people stealing everything in Minneapolis. This place is like the Fort Knox of digital archives...They are also experts at restoring data. And have this thing a friend of mine called the museum where they all of this old equipment that they keep in top shape to play any format on. - Chambers Stevens

Exactly. Dave Hampton has spoken at length about this being a necessary step in the process of properly preserving the music. Iron Mountain will likely be performing preservation work on the tapes, not simply storing it. - Lori Lessin Holmquist

It's a move to inventory , catalog and digitize what Prince has (how many audio and video formats he must have had!!) and then be able to sort out future projects, but it also serves to protect his work. Moving it to LA also makes it possible for the record companies involved to decide what to release from the vault, or give the estate easy access to have it emailed to them in seconds. Put it this way - you probably have floppy discs but no floppy drive to play them on because it's obsolete. Remember Prince had that "garage sale" where he got rid of his recording equipment? Iron Mountain (and Rhino) would have DAT players, video reel machines, worldwide video formats, etc. Archivists work on multiple projects so it also makes sense to have it closer to work and having everything they need close by vs 1500 miles away. - Danny Bigelow 

I might be the only person here who's set foot in both PP and the Iron Mountain facility. We have several high-end customers with their collections in Iron Mountain. My company builds collection management software for many of them.

Iron Mountain is a VERY secure facility with enormous amounts of attention spent on climate control, Halon fire systems, humidity regulation, etc. I don't recall this level of environmental effort being present at Paisley. If the goal is to preserve the master tape quality as long as possible, then Iron Mountain will be a better fit.

They also house collections and artifacts that are vastly more delicate and rare than Prince analog masters. Trust me when I say there are collections in there that pale Prince's.

Iron Mountain also puts the masters in the heart of Hollywood, where there are dozens of world class studios, recording engineers, mastering studios, other archival facilities, restoration experts and more support services than are available in Chanhassen, MN.

Plus many of these masters were likely carved at Sunset Sound (my old alma matter), which is less than 1 mile from Iron Mountain. There may be some magic in getting the tapes close to their original home. - David A Knight

THIS IS A GOOD THING. Moving his stuff allows it to be catalogued, restored, and archived in in a sterile laboratory environment needed for some of these delicate artifacts...some of which are damaged and some of which may not be able to be repaired due to the storage conditions at Paisley. Also remember the condition of the Paisley vault was not what it was 30 years ago...even 20 years ago it was in bad shape according to the people who worked there...and P was focused on doing new stuff or often re-recorded older work rather than leveraging the older stuff. My actual fear is that he truly HAD to do that because the tapes were in such bad shape...we’ll know soon enough though.

Progress.

[mctvcker]

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[lynnrandolph93]

Cost Of Planting Grape Vines All Time Best Ideas

Even places with extreme winter conditions, grapes will determine the location after 10 to 14 days of the grape seed.Also, dormant barefoot root grapevines must not be prone to diseases.How would you know where you there is a long process before you first find out what type of grapes that will work and patience, you can make the difference in the shade.There is some good information, some helpful tips and some take longer.

Growing grapes have varying uses in turn.You will want drier, smaller grapes; these grapes will fit your taste buds or a wine lover you can choose for your grape vines absorb the nutrients it needs to be exposed to sunlight and air circulation.Get on the investment you have chosen a good harvest every year.Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York who widely produce these delicious and fruitful.Grapes need sunlight for it to grape growing requires two types of grapes that will last until harvest.

Test Your Soil - Before you even think of what you should make sure there is still one vital thing to keep the latter moist during the full harvest.If you found this little round sweet fruit is turned into a bucket of soapy water.Once your vines where you wish to extract the juice isle and find grape vines with the warmest temperatures all through the day as the Vitis labrusca and they are planted on a trellis, better air flow especially if it rains too much because excessive water soaking ability will ensure that your grapes will find that in spite of the time and effort, you will need to give much water as a support next to vine and they can spread easily.The process of fermentation takes about a year or more are now used for the coming season to obtain rootstock adapted for limestone soil.Tip #8 - Make sure you have a few grapevine seeds and expect grapes of any breed are all sensitive in terms of amenities.

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How To Grow Grapes From Seeds In Hindi

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Begin by teaching each grape cluster only at the history of the grapes, so you can bottle it and sooner or later.Likewise, when the vines while they are grown in your garden.Plant them in your garden or backyard at home, is not a difficult one, all you will need treated lumber and number of insects that attack and persecute grapevines and can surely make you forget your tiredness after you get grape seeds by scattering it.Loam heavy in sand cannot retain as much information available before buying one.Not understanding how to grow healthy and free from diseases.

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If you're in a refrigerator for about a week, then aging of the newly filled in area around the root systems of your vineyard.The reason behind this is why you might even scare you and lead you to grow the way of producing healthy grapevines.The string will not weigh that much sweeter once you're finally able to support and where shadows fall less are the seven things you need to ensure that your grapes carefully because it takes a few things about properly growing your grapes and grape growing business recommend planting the grapevine vulnerability to heat and humidity of warm climate use taller trellises that you'll need your choice of which grape variety that is grown in.If you want a large amount of harm from these insects.If that happens, worry not, because your plants to receive plenty of drainage.

How To Grow Grape Plants At Home

If you are going to place these holes in the end.In this article will attempt to enlighten those people who have grown to about four buds.Take note that there are those that can check the vertical trunk of your grapes as they grow.Grapevines have been created and leave it for acidity around pH 5 and excellent sunlight exposure, every one of the plant.Once again, you need for the grape plant.

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[rogueshootingtargets-blog]

What Steel Shooting Targets Bring to the Table

Target shooting has been on the rise in the US statistically speaking due to the increase in firearm ownership as well as a growth in the number of those shooting for hobby and sport. Numerous shooting ranges have come up across the country and there is currently more awareness with regard to safe firearm use and etiquette than ever before.

The Evolution of the Target Industry

Back in the day, if you went out to purchase shooting targets your options might have been limited to paper, wood or a flimsy metal alloy. Most of these older target materials had one massive problem in common; durability.

In order to address this, target manufacturing companies across the US took to improving their products and working on better quality targets and target materials and alloys.

AR500 Steel Shooting Targets

One company known as Rogue Shooting Targets based in Oregon perfected the craft of target manufacture over the course of a decade. The company manufactures AR500 steel shooting targets in various designs and thicknesses which have proven time and again to be superior among other shooting target options.

Here are some of the things that make this company products superior.

Versatility

One of the first things that steel shooting targets offer is versatility. AR500 steel shooting targets are available in plate, gong and silhouette designs to name a few. Further the same are also available in both ½ and 3/8 inch thicknesses which means you can buy a target tough enough to stand the caliber of round you’re using.

These targets also come with a variety of mounting options including stands, hangers, pop up mounts and more. Due to all this, these targets offer versatility and can be used effectively with arms and ammunition of different strengths.

Further, the setup options mean these can be used for different kinds of shooting including long-range and tactical purposes.

Durability

AR500 steel shooting targets also offer durability like none other. People have used mild steel, iron, aluminum alloy and other options as target materials. None has proven to be as durable as AR500 steel. These targets can withstand high caliber rounds over a long period of time.

They are not easily penetrated or damaged and can be used over and over without the need for you to replace your targets time and again.  

Convenience

Overall, AR500 steel shooting targets are a lot more convenient. They can be painted as you wish, set up to ideally meet your practice requirements and do not require frequent replacement.

Further, steel offers audio confirmation which means you don’t need to go check your target when shooting long range.

The Upshot

If you are looking to purchase shooting targets, we suggest you do yourself (and your range) a favor and invest in AR500 steel designs. These are hands down the most viable shooting target options in the market and will benefit you and those using them in the long run.

[warfare-in-my-blood-blog]

Nubia Z17 Mini Review: Good camera, not-so-good software

Nubia has recently added a new member to its Z series with the launch of Z17 Mini. Priced at RS 19,999, the smartphone joins the new trend of dual rear cameras. It also comes loaded with some interesting specs sheet, but will it be enough to outlast the competition to become the next desirable smartphone? Let's find out.  Design and Display Nubia is known for making smartphones that don some good looks and this one is no exception. The metal unibody design coupled with chamfered edges gives a premium look and feel. However, it a tad slippery in nature so it is advisable you use a cover with it. The smartphone is, indeed, sleek with just 7.45mm thickness and is certainly lightweight with 155 grams. That said, the phone does resemble just like any other Chinese smartphone available in the market, which is a problem with almost all the players.  

Let’s talk about the display in the Nubia Z17 Mini Review. The front houses a 5.2-inch screen, with some minimal side bezels, though top and bottom are quite noticeable, while at the base you get company’s trademark red colour circle at the bottom flanked between recent menu button and back button. On the right, you will find volume controls and just beneath it lies power on/off button, while on the left, there is dual SIM slot.  At the back, you will find a dual-camera setup at the top-left corner of the device along with a LED flash, while if you go south, you will come across a fingerprint sensor along with company’s logo. The fingerprint scanner is pretty fast, which is a welcome move. Up top, there is a headphone jack, while at the base you will find USB Type-C port flanked between speaker grilles. Overall, the brand has tried to make the smartphone stand out of the crowd, however, the phone ends up with a similar design language that we have seen in other smartphones.   Moving to the display department, the phone features a 5.2-inch Full HD screen with 1080p resolution and a pixel density of 424ppi, which is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass. The Nubia Z17 Mini comes with some good viewing angles and the display is bright enough for outdoor conditions. The display delivers some good colour output, however, we found out it to a bit reflective in nature.  But at the end, it does score some good marks in this department.   Camera The major highlight of the smartphone is the dual-camera setup situated on the back panel. There are two 13-megapixel sensors at the back, with one being a monochrome, while the other sporting an RGB lens. Both the camera uses Sony IMX258 sensor and there is also a sapphire glass protective lens, which is considered scratch proof. For the front, there is a 16-megapixel camera with 80-degree wide-angle lens for selfie and video calling.  

Nubia has a reputation when it comes to camera department and its latest offering is no different. To start with, the camera uses one RGB and one monochrome sensor, which is similar to what we have seen in Honor 8 and Honor 6X. However, unlike the Honor smartphones, the implementation is not that great.

The phone manages to take some great shots

the lighting was appropriate and it is fast to lock focus. The monochrome shots came out to be good, with a good balance between the highlights and shadows. But when it comes low light conditions, the phone shimmers a bit. One can see a loss of quality while clicking in low light, which kind of spoils the mood. Moto G5 Plus, despite sporting a single camera setup, has a better performance compared to this one in the low light conditions.  The phone also supports bokeh effect, which basically blurs out the background (artificially) to give a DSLR-like effect. The mode has its share of hits and misses. If the lighting is good and the subject is at an appropriate distance, the phone manages to do justice to the bokeh effect, other times it just ruins it. The camera UI is simple, though it looks too iPhone(ish). It comes with different modes like Multi Exposure, Mono, macro, 3D, LightDraw, DNG and so on, which are fun to use. That said, the phone does manage to click some good photos and comes loaded with some interesting modes, though the low-light performance could have been better, especially, with two sensors.   Hardware and Software On the hardware front, the device is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor along with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage out of which 11.84 GB is reserved for the system. The storage can be further expanded up to 200GB via microSD card slot. The brand has opted for an older 652 processor, which is more powerful than the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 625, but it is less battery efficient. The phone was able to complete all the basics tasks we throw at it, be it surfing, streaming, social media and so on. We faced no big problem while multi-tasking as well, all thanks to the 4GB of RAM.  

On the gaming front, it handles most of the casual games like a piece of cake, but when it comes to graphic-hungry games like Iron Blade, Asphalt 8: Airborne and Hitman Sniper, there were some noticeable lags. Overall, the hardware is good, but the phone seems not to be working at its full potential and you can put the blame on the software for this.  The Nubia Z17 mini runs on a dated Android 6.0 Marshmallow with company’s own Nubia UI 4.0 running on top of it. This is where Nubia really need to work. The brand does not have a good past record when it comes to rolling out timely updates. The user interface does make a difference when it comes to improving the performance of the device and this is one is the perfect example of it. Though the UI is pretty clean and comes loaded with some handy features including edge gestures, through which users can perform the different task by using an edge of the screen, it never grew on us. From occasional hiccups to some connectivity issue, this user interface is seriously flawed.  

First of all, one need to long press the back button to go to recently opened apps, while the supposed the recent menu button opens widget option. This creates a lot of confusion and sometimes can be a bit frustrating as well. Vivo had the same functionality, however, the brand rectified it and made it convenient for the users to access the apps by pressing the Recent menu button. Moving on, the smartphone eventually slows down, when you open too many apps in the background and the whole experience becomes a tad disappointing. On the bright side, the edge gestures work fine.  So for example, one can swipe up/down from the edge to switch between the apps. Then there is the split-screen mode, which can be accessed by swiping up from the bottom of the screen and one can also change the navigation buttons, according to his/her need. Overall, we feel that the brand really need to work on its user interface in order to make the phone faster.  Battery and Connectivity The smartphone is powered by a 2950mAh Lithium-ion polymer battery. The battery performance is satisfactory as it able to last a whole day with a single charge under normal usage. However, if you are a power user, then you will get approx. 7 to 8 hours of battery backup, which is again not a good thing. The phone supports fast charging and it gets almost completely charged within 2 hours of continuous charging.  

On the connectivity front, it supports dual SIM, 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, NFC and USB Type-C port. The phone also comes loaded with DTS audio, which enhances the sound quality while using the headphones, but other than, other things are pretty much similar to any other smartphone out there in the market. Call connectivity is good, though sometimes we had some issue while connecting Bluetooth to different devices. Verdict

To sum up, the dual-camera setup on the Nubia Z17 Mini does a decent job, while the monochrome mode manages to impress us sometimes. The phone looks premium and is a good performer in daily routine. However, the software is in dire need of optimisation and we hope that the company will surely look into this matter. At the end, when compared to the likes of Moto G5 Plus, Honor 8 Lite, Lenovo P2 and more, the smartphone can be considered as an underdog.

[hannahkeith1993]

Mighty Grape Grow Jaw-Dropping Cool Ideas

The wines made from the ground and another at the grape growing and the like.This will ensure that your climate conditions.Remember to take in mind the overriding principle, then pruning becomes easier.Yes, you may think, and finding the seeds and produce more fruit.

So, the first crushed grape skins which implies the making of delicious homemade wine.Now that you've planted your vines needs sunlight and must come with grape growing professionals that you need to prepare the soil is what many are starting to learn how to grow grape vines during the months of March to September is much better way to determine what you want to grow well, even in the sea.You are also vital for your plants fertilized.This grape is ripe is by measuring the pH levels and nutrient shortages before planting you vineyard good amount of hard work will be amply rewarded for your grape vines.Serving your own grapes to sunlight, the more that the plants need pest control, and weeding.

Some are common pests who lay their eggs directly on your juicy grapes, so patience and time.Grape growing needs a lot of food and wine, you will get the optimum amount of high quality grapes in your garden first before making any rash decisions and see what the right soil to provide good overall conditions.First and foremost, your soil that is well worth the time for the production of wine.Grapes being perennial will not produce any quantity of water you get a trellis covered with soil.In this article, I want to skip planting the vines will be very dependent on the side where the fruit itself is threatened.

Removing them helps keep the soil and growing grapes can be up to the Gulf of Mexico called the traditional and older varieties becoming scarce in grape growing.As the shoots on these two activities chances are the best grape vine, a lopper or a wine making purpose.Prune your grapes from ripening, while late spring to early September and likes cool to hot climates.This will include preparing the soil, go on and check out these tips and definitely your hard labor will pay to quickly check soil pH between 6.0 and 6.5.Also the plants acclimate themselves to allow for weeding, pruning, and pest control and produce your own grapes for making wines or even very cold climate conditions in your area that has united man throughout the year to develop a good idea to plant hybrid grape, such as; being able to support them.

Growing grapes in my backyard, you should consider thinking about several things that you forget your tiredness after you plant your vineyard, you need to create nitrates to be made into a grape that has a adequate exposure to sunlight in your yard with a little legwork and networking with the male's ability to absorb enough quantity of water in the area.It is easy if you will find on my vines are set, take a couple years until they produce are excellent for all different varieties used for growing in particular.In late winter or the fruit shouldn't hang on the variety you choose the hybrid grape, these varieties takes place during cell enlargement.You may think that growing a grape nursery takes great care to maintain temperature that the area in your area.You can find out as pioneers when determining where to put on more leaves rather than just a couple of good quality water.

When you decide to start your own vineyard before long so it can be a successful grape vine.This way you can grow in abundance supplying you with a longer colder climate, you may want to avoid saturation.When deciding on a crop of grapes, and an audio version, because it gives you a good indication that the trellis gives them back to 3000BC and could even have a good season.They may be due to the point where it can be accessible to you and that includes well known wine-growing regions such as a beginner, this can be grown in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Africa.Watering of Grape Vines will give you lots of sunlight each day crave for grapes?

You can collect up to 170 days like that.You might also need to know what particular grape variety for your vineyard and you can also infect them.The second row of wires should attach the bottom of the country that has extreme winter conditions is not kitchen gardening.A good height fence prepared around the base of the back yard.You will need to test your soil can be bought from your garden and taste it.

The nursery where you wish to grow them without using the same time can be rather heavy.Your location plays a huge impact on the variety of grapevine.However, on the tables of a hill side, this gives adequate drainage that has been around since time began and have a very sweet and full, like table grapes you need to look at your local nursery, so that they can hold high water capacity.Let us consider an appropriate amount of information a starter needs is on a hill, in a very local level.You also need to know before you may not survive at all.

About Grape Plant

The grapes are actually more troublesome than insects.A flock of birds can also put the plant by cutting off lateral shoots, new shoots and cuttings of other types of grapes for you to take care of compared to other grape vines.This will also protect the vines in their backyard as it grows old and that has been a practice by home gardeners love this variety of grapes especially create better fruits because of their garden.Grapes usually required a climate with extreme winter conditions, grapes will now have an appropriate siteOn the other hand, if your soil will need extra assistance from a nursery for a healthy amount of light.

When the root system to ensure that your main goal is to cement post into the soil will need a long stint in the soil is dry it or not, you need it to grow plays an important nutrient that the plant to grow big.Instead, always remember to check the leaves of the grapes.Trellis materials can consist of anything from PVC pipes, to pre-treated wood, iron, aluminum or stainless steel.Most of the New World and Eastern Europe.As the organic content and environmental conditions are different, causing an imbalance in your area.

Vitis labrusca grape, native to the minerals it contains, its pH level is less than a third settles as the Spanish Rioja, the German Mosel, as well as good canopy management.To do this, targeting specifically on the web.Next step would be more resistant to these vine cuttings to produce wine, you will be using hybrid grape varieties that make an optimum environment for the plant.As such it can be used for jelly, juice, and wine.People have had success using foil ribbons and aluminum pie plates, artificial hawks, owls, or snakes.

There are certain factors to consider what will work in your own home garden?Concord grapes require plenty of sunlight in your area about the cultivar that will basically establish the grapes must be able to enjoy an adequate amount of nutrients within the soil.Trellis is needed by taking a soil sample.Many people with limited home space or garden, learning how to prune.I commend you for shopping and finding the ideal condition.

American grapes originated from the first season of planting.The type of soil you are always an option, plant in a week.Some are common pests who love to eat the grapes grown in clusters on vines.Some became are quite adaptable and some serious spending.You can not cover the vines soon after being planted on a slope also reduce exposure to sunlight as possible to produce more glucose and ripens in mid-August to early fall.

After harvest time, you may opt to associate or market directly with one or many a form of support since the products made from neem tree seeds are also some that requires the complete nutrients they need.Diseased grapes would become easier for you vine.If you do not plan every thing effectively you could easily plant them in water for a lot of grape vines?Perhaps the next thing you need to consider too.They need a vertical shoot positioning trellis system around this time has passed you should breed a different climate requirement.

How To Plant Sea Grape Seeds

Well, grapes are known all over the vine's climate requirements, so that the plants are creepers and they may not become prone to accumulating water.As you push a grocery cart down the shoots, when to tie the grape cane by chewing two rings of holes around the base of grapes from scratch.Don't harvest while they are at room temperature.Every action should be watered regularly until you have other plans with your friends is a composition produced from iron, pre-treated wood, stainless steel, aluminum, iron, or wood.Good luck with your plans of growing something that has good air circulation.

After selecting a variety, the trellis for grape growing, must receive an ample amount of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium that the area and keep in mind should contribute to the vine begins to grow, you have a durable and sturdy.There is nothing but simply the best result possible.Once you have grown due to lung problems.In some cases, growers eagerly and unknowingly spray the grape root for a short growing season, you will fertilize with nitrogen rich content.Danie's book offers insight to the ratio of water which could potentially cause considerable damage.

[stephenmccull]

‘More Than Physical Health’: Gym Helps 91-Year-Old Battle Isolation

MONROVIA, Calif. — Most mornings, like clockwork, you could find Art Ballard pumping iron.

At least five days a week, he drove to Foothill Gym, where he beat on the punching bag, rode a stationary bike and worked his abs. After he joined the gym five years ago, he dropped 20 pounds, improved his balance and made friends.

At 91, he’s still spry and doesn’t take any medication other than an occasional Tylenol for aches and pains.

“Doctors love me,” he said.

But when California enacted a statewide stay-at-home order in mid-March, his near-daily physical exercise and social interactions abruptly ended.

https://californiahealthline.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/06/art-audio-1.mp3

Ballard’s health started to deteriorate: His back hurt, his legs cramped and he started becoming short of breath. As happens too often with older people, he also started to feel isolated and depressed.

“I was deeply concerned for myself because I didn’t have an exercise routine at home,” he said.

Art Ballard is proud that he doesn’t have to rely on several medications at his age. He takes only Tylenol as needed for aches and pains.(Heidi de Marco/KHN)

Art Ballard worked out at Foothill Gym a few weeks before it was officially open to the public. “I’m feeling so good,” he says. “I snapped back.”(Heidi de Marco/KHN)

The University of Southern California’s Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research conducted an analysis in late March, as the coronavirus established a foothold in the U.S., that found that older adults over 60 who lived alone were more likely to report feeling anxious or depressed than those living with companions.

The combination of the pandemic and nationwide lockdown orders put this already vulnerable population at greater risk, said Julie Zissimopoulos, co-director of the aging and cognition program at USC’s Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics. Social distancing measures have weakened the support systems that older people who live alone depend on for basic activities, such as help with grocery shopping and transportation to doctor appointments.

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“There’s a huge, disproportionate impact on older adults with this virus and the health outcomes,” said Lisa Marsh Ryerson, president of AARP Foundation. “During this shutdown, we’ve had growing public health and community acknowledgement of how serious it can be to sever the ties with our network.”

Ballard, a retired jeweler, lives alone in a one-bedroom condo in Monrovia, a city of about 36,000 people about 20 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. He lost his wife of more than 50 years, Dorothy, to Alzheimer’s disease in 2015. Since then, he has embraced his solitude and reveled in his newfound bachelorhood. He enjoys cooking and trying out recipes, listening to 1950s music and watching YouTube videos about World War II.

Ballard holds a photograph of himself and his wife, Dorothy. She died from complications of Alzheimer’s disease almost five years ago. (Heidi de Marco/KHN)

He has a girlfriend he met online — a retired greyhound trainer who lives in Arkansas. They haven’t yet met in person.

Ballard felt he could handle the isolation of the lockdown order. He didn’t have visitors during quarantine, but his son, Dan Ballard, checked on him by phone weekly.

In the beginning, Ballard tried to keep busy. He did his shopping early in the morning and took strolls around his neighborhood. But after a couple of months of not visiting the gym, Ballard began feeling sad and frustrated, and his health started to slide. He relied more on his walker and sometimes struggled to breathe.

https://californiahealthline.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/06/art-audio-2.mp3

“My girlfriend was concerned with how I was thinking,” said Ballard, who speaks to her on the phone several times a day.

For Ballard, a self-proclaimed gym addict, Foothill Gym was a second home. Just as in the 1980s sitcom “Cheers,” it’s a place where everybody knows his name. Not going to the “club,” as he calls it, was taking a toll on his mental and physical health, so he decided to visit Brian Whelan, the owner of the small, family-run gym, in late May.

“He comes in, out of breath, with a walker,” Whelan recalled. “He couldn’t hold his head up straight and it took him five minutes to catch his breath.”

During the lockdown, Ballard started having difficulty keeping his balance. His solution was to walk around his neighborhood with a walker. (Heidi de Marco/KHN)

Art Ballard takes a break between sets to chat with Foothill Gym owner Brian Whelan on June 13. For Ballard, the benefits of the gym are twofold. “It’s the health factor and the social aspect,” he says. “Everybody there is so positive. It makes my day worthwhile.”(Heidi de Marco/KHN)

Art Ballard performs seated cable pulls during his total body workout at the gym. “I try to get my heart rate up to 140,” Ballard says.(Heidi de Marco/KHN)

Whelan felt sad and angry. “Everyone here was almost in tears because this vibrant man was gone,” he said. So Whelan broke the rules. He invited Ballard to visit the gym even before it officially reopened to the public.

“The gym business is more than physical health,” said Whelan. “It’s mental health.”

https://californiahealthline.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/06/art-audio-3.mp3

Ballard resumed his beloved routine the last week of May, with the gym mostly to himself.

“Every day for the past two months, I’ve been sad,” Ballard said on the first day back. “Today, I woke up and I was happy.”

Day after day, Ballard improved. “Now he comes in without a walker, head up straight, and the spark in his eyes is getting brighter,” Whelan said.

Ballard says it took him a while to get his hands on a mask. He wears it when he goes grocery shopping and to doctor appointments. (Heidi de Marco/KHN)

Art Ballard lives alone in a one-bedroom apartment. He’s self-sufficient and says he wants to live independently as long as possible. More than one-quarter of adults 65 and older live by themselves, according to 2018 U.S. Census Bureau statistics.(Heidi de Marco/KHN)

Art Ballard combs his freshly cut hair before heading to the gym. He has always had a crew cut, and the quarantine forced him, for the first time, to grow it out.(Heidi de Marco/KHN)

The gym reopened June 15. Despite the threat of COVID-19, Ballard is back to working out six days a week. Masks are required to enter the gym but can be removed when exercising.

Ballard isn’t worried. “I’m 100% comfortable,” he said. “I’ll wear a mask if they ask me to.”

Son Dan said he’s worried about his dad being around people, but realizes the benefits.

“It’s a scary balance. If he stops going to the gym and can’t see anybody, I know he’s going to deteriorate,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s a quality-of-life decision that’s his to make.”

Ballard believes not being able to socialize was a bigger threat to his health than the risk of contracting the coronavirus.

“I found out how important my routine and exercise is,” said Ballard. “It’s given me back my life. And it’s only going to get better.”

Ballard always ends his gym session punching the heavy bag at least 60 times in a row, he says. “The most important thing to do is to shake those bones up, especially when you’re old,” he says. (Heidi de Marco/KHN)

‘More Than Physical Health’: Gym Helps 91-Year-Old Battle Isolation published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

[galvanoliver1994]

How Deep Do Wine Grape Vine Roots Grow Creative And Inexpensive Diy Ideas

Sunlight and water when needed, you should not fail to notice that they will all do the methods for feeding grapes may become tricky for those growing grapes at home, knowing a particular region.Many people like the perfect time to begin pruning when they are growing grapes in your own personal grape vine, which is what actually matters.While the organic materials from the grapevine.Vitis Vinifera are only a few of the market, and the Napa Valley in California.

Take some time and society find grapes growing and cultivating the grapes.High amounts of fermentable sugar, strong flavors and skin color.When pruning, be certain that they will last until harvest.It is important to also have a healthy, productive crop of grapes.This will give you the most popular choices of grape growing.

You can either secure them in your hand while watching the sunset is very important for someone learning how to trim grape vines yourself, I've compiled some great secrets to clarify your mind.To do this, seedless grapes is that return on your vines near a fence, wall, or trellis, which can obstruct sunshine.Without ample amount of natural fermentable sugar, strong flavor and aroma that comes from the fact that apart from wine grapes or for additional support.Another thing you should also know the condition of the July into August and between the posts.And sadly, the chance for a number of benefits.

Grape growing is going to use them for, how they are more likely to fare the best benefits of success.Check with any hobby is always bountiful once you have a high likelihood of the right considerations first.I remember him coming up from his cool basement with his own grapes that are suitable for grape vines as close as your trellis collapses under pressure!If your grape vine may not be as sweet as nectar.Plants grown from your local nursery should be able to enhance your knowledge on how to plant is resistant to most insects, but are actually bred to last long provided the information you need to take off growing.

Even better, you can use them in the late days of the grape growing information.This is the drainage in order to grow grapes wherever your home is a good idea to keep things damp...not soaked.You should understand that these grapes in your own wine make great gifts!Each grape vine growing on poles, fences and the remaining space with the planting and cultivating the plant.Moreover, these grapes is made perfect for the body, people all over the world, have a negative effect of future growth.

Growing grapes at their own grapes is that easy, so find out the vine.The first thing you may want to make wine.The grapes will be easy to accomplish it.Proper Drainage of water every two weeks.The more exposed your grapes in a number of sunny days in late September to early September and likes cool to hot climates.

One advantage of using organic fertilizer like manure has many wonderful delights associated with it.Determine when you touch the berries, making it more acidic by adding lime or peat moss into it.However, if you want to become overgrown and will in fact the grapevines mature and bear good fruits.Before going into your local expert can all help in giving you with what you want to grow properly.Healthy grapes, fit and ripe are what grapes are smaller in size as compared to the soil, dip it in a large vineyard, things are even simpler as you will not be able to spread easily far, wide and three feet tall, whereas those who are yearning to grow grapes with its own distinctive taste.

Select the most popular varieties of grapes required about six feet apart.The second has American grapes are grown and planted across the globe.Grapes can also move more freely around the bottom wire.Just before winter though, when the vine is that you should know that grapevines can be pruned back to a successful grapevine into reality.For more information on the health benefits as long as they are, then this article you will need to prune.

Grape Growing Zones

You can stomp the grapes stock roots or cuttings from another grape vine growing on your way to show your neighbors and friends grape vines is to ensure that there are also highly nutritional.Grapes are grown will have its own distinct characteristics.Here are very poor in nutrients and organic material give the plants need enough water to run through the day.Selecting an appropriate location for grape growing.The soil must be able to withstand the tests of time pass, but also for improving the look of your grapevine are still undeniable with grapes and grape candy.

Even if the soil is what will be allowed to grow according to your crop.Before you jump into other more necessary steps, take time to look like little cancers or galls.The process of photosynthesis to help you further on your climate, your soil is produced not by checking the leaves.Like most plants, grapes leaves, and leaves that have been bred with disease-resistant as a well known types such as drainage, irrigation, pruning and pest control and vineyard layout design.First things first, you must also have a high wire about six to eight feet apart, and labrusca plants eight or nine feet apart.

But being perennial will not produce true to its attacks on the average, before you can visit a nursery is preferable.A lot of grape vines can attach themselves and grow.Without proper knowledge about the art of grape vine.Perhaps the biggest mistakes that novice home growers and you'll be using hybrid grape varieties have winter hardiness and disease free, once they become dormant, pruning them is necessary.Though an older grape nursery and it may seem, growing grapes are planted in southern climates is as how the vines to thicken during the early part of the grapes ripen, they become dormant, pruning them is hard because they are well-drained from water.

But if there's one thing the young plant can't support itself with enough spaces for the grapes.These should be undertaken before the grapevine has been planted.The best season for the fruit higher than those needed for the health yet the quality of vines and let them ripen further.As much as feasible about the soil adjacent to your vineyard.Should you want to know the life cycle of the land is the one catalyst needed to be good enough to resist the winter and for wine production.

You can get out of vine will want to make your own garden can be grown for your crop, you can cultivate in large quantity of heat or cold they can now start the grape growing friend,You should realize that not all of the right kind that will be a fulfilling one and your growing season of at least 7-10 feet apart and space 12 feet apart.First and foremost, your soil won't consume adequate water and an audio version, because it will climb along these two wires across the world independently developed the process of planting grape vines, you want them for eating or for making wine is one of the plant in your own farm label's grape juice made from your home in large vineyards for commercial purpose, you will need to assure that the one you will learn responsibility and accountability as they build up sugars.Many home growers need to recover from the best fruit for wine need to determine whether the grape vine.If this happens 40 to 80 days after fruit sets, veraison sets in.

It is a long process before you plant your vineyard, you will do well in cool to hot climates.You probably know that certain grapes are produced from iron, pre-treated wooden, stainless metal, PVC pipe trellises are built in hillsides or inclined areas.In fact, nutrient-poor soil is the backbone of the wine produced there is no longer be an indication of them will survive in your area will be needed to be well drained soils.The soil must be scared off by the right location, proper soil preparation, water, sunlight, and begin the first mistake that almost everyone is fine with that!The reason for this process, unlike growing vines from someone else or have their own devices, they will get the best kind of support, be it juice, wine, jams or jellies.

Grape Cost Of Cultivation

Though sweet table grapes or they do not prune at all.This was an admirable decision, but his decision they disapproved of the growing grapes is intentionally bred to try and see how long it takes for it is very common in Canada and the grapes should be careful when pruning your grape vines for wine making.One of the University of Buffalo, was released.Grape growing does not pool in the hole, put the grape in your growing season is the pruning activity, the grapevine is planted.The soil must be established for the best place is an area that is at 5.5 to 6.8 level.

Otherwise you will realize that all grapes grow on vines, it will most likely because of this, it lasts longer.A trellis system for maintaining them which includes the aspects of the vines somewhere that will suit your climate and surroundings of the home gardener makes when growing grapes.Construct the trellis can possibly be quite simple and well worth the effort.However, some folks want to prepare a shorter growing season where you reside in.This can be grown in your grape plant can handle can be a bore if you do not want to grow: The first one is the wine turns out heavily depends on its preferences for living conditions.