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Cox Communications is a terrible cable company.  Compared to cable providers in Orlando or Tampa, Cox offers less value for money.  While viewers in those cities have the option of enjoying fine-arts programming, or television from overseas, Cox subscribers don’t.  I have repeatedly requested that they carry Classic Arts Showcase or Ovation.  Naturally, they just give me a typical boilerplate response.  When they added high-definition capability–which came later to Cox than other cable providers–they initially carried an HD version of NBC, which for Gainesville comes from Orlando.  One Saturday night–during SNL, no less–a message appeared on screen suddenly saying that they would no longer be carrying NBC in HD because the Orlando affiliate wanted too much money.  The tone of the message was so smarmy and childish.  And, as a customer, I don’t care if it cost Cox a lot to air NBC in HD; that’s what I am paying them for.  Still, almost two years later we still have no high-def version of NBC.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the 2008 Summer Olympic Games come and go and I’m still watching 480i.  Meanwhile, I see the HDTV options available to others, Cox is clearly way behind.

So, with all that crapulence, it was rather surprising to turn on my TV last week and see something called “On Demand”.  At first I thought it was some lame pay-per-view initiative that I would get no use out of.  It turns out, however, that it is rather convenient.  The way it works is that there is a menu with several different channels listed, including HBO, Showtime, and Starz.  When you select one of these options you get another menu listing many movies and series that these networks telecast.  Selecting any of these allows you to watch it whenever you’d like.  This is particularly handy when you want to watch, say, any of this last season’s best show, Flight of the Conchords.  It’s rather like having everything on DVR.  The most amazing thing is that there is no extra charge for this if you already subscribe to those particular premium channels.

Still, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that other markets had this technology long ago, or that theirs was better.  Cox still sucks.

A sad year for opera lovers rolls on. Today, Luciano Pavarotti died.

In his younger years Pavarotti was absolutely stellar, and through his entire career he was blessed with a voice that was unmistakable. You could not hear it for a second and be unsure who it was. Anthony Tommasini writes more about that in today’s New York Times.

While Pavarotti was not my favorite tenor–and the circus that was his later years was unfortunate–many records that feature him in a lead role are my favorites, including his first complete Rigoletto, as well as his Lucia di Lammermoor, La Bohème, I Puritani and L’esir d’amore.

And what stands out to me most of all about Pavarotti’s voice was how, even during his highest notes–and they were very high–it retained its beauty. There are a lot of faceless tenors who sound indistinguishable from one another in Bel Canto repertoire, and whose high notes leave something to be desired. But listen to him as Tonio in the first act of La fille du régiment and you will hear seemingly effortless singing with a timbre other tenors just couldn’t match.

I know that lovers of serious music would be worse off without Luciano Pavarotti.