danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

Earlier this year, I purchased a Fender ’65 Reissue Twin Reverb guitar amplifier from my local independent music store, Lipham’s.  I not only got a great deal, but I was glad to support local business, particularly one that’s been around for so long.  I’m not saying that Lipham Music is the best store in history–their selection is fairly modest, and they seem to be stocking many more Chinese-made instruments these days–but they do sell Fender and Martin guitars, and, what’s more, they’ve outlast most of the other shops in town.

Last night, after dinner, Miriam and I went somewhere I haven’t been in a long, long time: Best Buy.  I used to go there a lot in days of yore, especially back when HDTV was just being introduced, and I was eager to see what it looked like.  Their service was always lousy (not as lousy as Circuit City, of course), and just about everything I ever bought there broke within two years, but they’ve always had a lot of stock.  Last night, I discovered a new department in an area where CRT televisions were once displayed.  Best Buy now sells musical instruments.  They have drums, keyboards, DJ equipment, and guitars, including Fender and Gibson.

A number of things bother me about this.  First, I don’t think their staff cares about these instruments, since I found every guitar grossly out of tune.  Second, their prices were absurd.  The same Twin Reverb I bought for $899 at Lipham’s was marked $1,699 at Best Buy.  Maybe that’s what they’re going for elsewhere, but it just seemed extreme to me.  Finally, I think musical instruments are just Best Buy’s latest passing fancy.  That’s what troubles me most.  In a worst-case scenario, here’s what I imagine occurring:

1. Lipham Music loses sales to Best Buy.  There are only so many new electric guitars and amplifiers–particularly higher-end models–that will sell each week in Gainesville.  If Lipham loses those sales, it could hurt them significantly.  Lipham’s closes.
2. Musical instruments make up so little of Best Buy’s bottom line that they give up on the endeavor.
3. Gainesville has no music store.  Since Best Buy’s decision is made at the national level, they don’t care that Gainesville is left with nothing.

I don’t know how likely this scenario is.  I may just be paranoid.  But I know that I’d never get a deal on an amp at Best Buy like I did at Lipham’s, and Best Buy doesn’t have the tradition of heritage that Lipham’s does.  After all, a little more than ten years ago, the Best Buy was a Montgomery Ward.  Lipham’s has been in business for fifty years.  But these are hard times.

I hope they can weather the storm.

Filed under: Gainesville, Rantings, Technology on May 30th, 2009 | No Comments »

I am not what you’d call a sci-fi fan.  I don’t go out of my way to avoid it, but I also don’t go out of my way to see it, either.   And, to be frank, there is quite a bit that seems silly to me.  I didn’t see any of the Star Wars films until I was in my 20s, so I’ve never seen what’s so special about them.  And, though I knew they were classics, I never saw an episode of Star Trek in my life.  But there was a good deal of buzz surrounding the recent film, and since just about everyone I know wanted to go see it on opening day, I went along.  It was fantastic!

I won’t go into any detail about the plot, but it was thrilling, if somewhat complicated.  I actually didn’t fully understand it the first time around, and it was only with Karla’s help that I was able to grasp some of the more sophisticated elements.  She and Ryan know a lot about Star Trek, and they thought it was excellent; I know nothing, and I thought it was great.  So it seems that the filmmakers really did something right.  Karla was mildly obsessed, and had seen the picture four times already by last weekend when Miriam and several other GRR people wanted to go see Terminator: Salvation.  I really didn’t want to see that, and, since Karla and a couple others were going to see Star Trek again, I went along.  It was even better the second time.  I understood more.

I think this film will be a classic.

Filed under: Film, Friends on May 30th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

On September 30, 2000, I went to a yard sale in front of this house.  Jeff’s then-girlfriend Britt lived there, and she and a couple other people were selling their personal belongings.  A fellow named Chris, who lived a few houses down, had some instruments for sale, and it was obvious that he needed to sell them to pay his rent (my recollection is that he lived without electricity).  I generally don’t care for yard sales, and I am sure I didn’t buy anything, but I was there because my friends were, and if you weren’t present back then, it was likely that you would miss something fun.  In fact, when this yard sale concluded due to rain, Britt and several other attendees proposed running down to the above-ground pool on SW 2nd Avenue for swimming.  I didn’t go because I was, and still am, no fun.

This house stands in a neighborhood we used to call the “Emo Ghetto”, since it was–and still is–home to some of Gainesville’s skinniest and tightest-pants-wearing hipsters.  You never knew who you’d run into hanging out there.  A fellow whom I recognized as Jeff’s neighbor was there, and with him was a girl I had never seen before.  She was dressed rather fancifully and wore sunglasses.  We didn’t speak that day, but 1,701 days later–four years ago today–we were married.

Filed under: Dana Heritage Project, Friends on May 28th, 2009 | No Comments »

Last semester, my favorite class was called Advanced Exposition.  We studied the nuts and bolts of expository writing, including sophisticated punctuation, major essay models, and the various types of sentences.  I love grammar, so, naturally, I found all of this fascinating.

A consequence of taking this Advanced Exposition course has been that I am more finicky when it comes to others’ writing.  I frequently find myself mentally rewriting poorly composed sentences.  Take this one from a New York Times article about Jay Leno’s new prime-time show:

The advantage of a show like that is it’s easy to join, DVR-proof due to its topicality and different.

I should note that this was a quote, not something the journalist wrote.  But, still, it’s bad.  The problem lies in the parallel section.  It’s always better to place the longest element of the parallel last.  Plus, the lack of a comma before the last element in the series leads to ambiguity.  Working only with what’s there, here’s how I would rewrite it:

The advantage of a show like that is that it’s different, easy to join, and DVR-proof due to its topicality.

(Important note: I love grammar, but I do not claim to be a perfect writer.  I am just a guy with a webpage.  Still, I make no apologies for my use of the passive voice, or for adopting the British method of placing periods and commas outside of quotation marks.)

Filed under: School on May 26th, 2009 | 3 Comments »

On Fresh Air today (Memorial Day), Terry Gross replayed a March 3 interview with Donovan Campbell, who served two tours of duty in Iraq and another in Afghanistan.  He has written a book describing his experiences there, and on the show he read a bit from the book, and talked at length about what it was like to lead men in the difficult street fights that have been the hallmark of the war in Iraq.

What was immediately clear in the interview is how extraordinary Lieutenant Campbell is.  Not many people would leave Princeton to join the Marines.  Modest and amazingly articulate, he recounted the challenges he and his men faced, and, through the interview, it became quite evident that intelligence, sound judgment and a strong moral compass abound in this man.  On top of that, of course, is tremendous courage.

Knowing that men like Donovan Campbell exist–and have positions of responsibility–is reassuring.

Filed under: Current Events, Literature and Books on May 25th, 2009 | No Comments »