Audio News for July 15, 2014

by | Jul 15, 2014 | Audio News

Charlie Haden Dies – Legendary jazz bassist, bandleader and educator Charlie Haden died last week in Los Angeles. He was a major part of the West Coast jazz scene and is credited by some jazz experts at having launched the entire free jazz movement together with Ornette Coleman. Among his many innovations was his elevation of the double bass from its traditional place in the rhythm section to a true melodic instrument. He collaborated with many jazz leaders, including Carla Bley, and was active in world music.

Snobs About Film Scores? – The chief operatin officer of Royal Albert Hall says movie music must be released from the snobbery confining it to a “lesser genre” and let it take it place in the concert halls alongside the classical composers to help classical music live on. Writer Ivan Hewett disagrees, saying that while there was golden age of Hollywood film scores in the ‘30s and ‘40s with Korngold, Rosza and others, do they work well in the concert hall? He feels this sidesteps the issue of whether film composers are truly classical. With the images you need an irresistible musical logic to carry you along. It may be better to value film music for what it does do:  fusing image and narrative together for an unforgettable moment of truth. However, an increasing number of symphony orchestras are doing “movie night” programs in which they play only great film scores, often in conjunction with a showing of a particular feature film.

Five Top Vampire Appliances in Your Home – 1) Your TV; can suck up over 1400 kilowatt hours a year if left running a lot, which can cost over $150. This can be especially true if you have an older plasma display. Best way to save energy is to completely unplug the TV whenever you leave the house and at night. 2) Video game consoles can waste around 230 kilowatt hours a year—around $25. 3) Laptop computer; costs around $15 a year in wasted energy. Even when it’s fully charged and plugged in the wall it still uses energy. 4) DVD player. When left plugged in, it still uses energy 24/7—around $8 a year. 5) Cell phone chargers. They use less energy than the others but added to the above four makes a lot of energy loss. And they’re useless without the phone.

The Internet of Things – is what they’re calling the new effort to make our homes and all things around us smarter. With increased competition from the Amazons of the world, there is shift toward a new world order in which every home appliance and personal system talk to one another and are controlled by a smartphone. This is an opportunity for stores to enter new categories or reinvent old ones. As a consumer, one of your purchase decisions has implications for another purchase decision, and at some point you find yourself not simply buying a hodge podge of stuff but instead investing in a system of interconnected products working in concert to organize, simplify and make your life better.

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