Fred Manteghian Blog

Don't say "Gesundheit!" That wasn't a sneeze, but it is a mouthful. The company, eWoo, and their amazing not-so-little iPod doc, <a href=" http://www.ewoo.com/products/efizz.html" target="new">the eFizz</a>, all twenty pounds of it, has been holding down my credenza at work for almost six months. Things got off to a grinding halt with this review as the remote control for the first unit became utterly crippled when I tried to up load the latest firmware version as recommended by eWoo's PR firm. Another victim of the Microsoft Vista system I think.

I'm hardly the first reviewer to get my mitts on this do-everything Polk iPod docking station, and yeah the official name is a mouthful, so "I-Sonic ES2" will do just as well here on in. The ES2 is a direct outgrowth of the original ES which lacked an iPod dock. We all remember those pre-Apple-monopoly days with fondness, but the truth is, if you don't iPod dock, you don't rock. And one the thing I want you to come away with from this review is that the Polk I-Sonic ES2 <i>really</i> rocks!

Up until some dreadful time today, Connecticut radio station 104.1 played new alternate rock music and did it very well. Not enough of a market to justify formulaic shock-jocks, the former owner, the great, the diseased, the much-maligned Clear Channel radio conglomerate ran 104 WURH like a great indie radio station. No live DJ's, in fact, the few radio breaks they took between songs mostly made fun of the other stations (many of whom they owned). WURH was where I could hear the Killers, the Kings of Leon, Cage the Elephant and a bunch of stuff I didn't care for either, but it was all new for the most part and who isn't at least a little sick of classic rock at this point! Once a week, they played an oldie like that dreadful Four Non-Blondes song whose title I paid a hypnotist to make me forget, but for the most part, radio 104 was always fresh!

The Black Crowes, <I>$hake Your Money Maker</I> (LP, DEF American Records, 1990), picked up during my first trip to Las Vegas in a used record store on Sahara. Even 20 years ago, The Black Crowes were doing what bands like the Rolling Stones seemed incapable of anymore. This hard-driving rock has no missteps and no end to the catchy tunes. Singer Chris Robinson's distinctive gravelly voice, a cross between Rod Stewart and Mick Jagger, gets stellar backup from the two guitars, bass and drum line-up that's as tight as it is raw.

If you look real close, you can see Capt. James T. Kirk sitting in his command chair. The <a href="http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2131034" target="new">Radio Shack Indoor VHF/UHF/HDTV Antenna with RF Remote Control</a> may not be able to pick up intergalactic transmissions, but it does a decent, if somewhat mixed job, with HDTV signals. In one case, it reached out over twenty miles to pull in a full-time digital <a href="http://www.stationindex.com/tv/callsign/WSAH" Target="new">"multi-cultural shopping"</a> station (so now you can not only buy things you don't need, you can buy them in languages you don't understand). But what wasn't so impressive was its inability to pull in the closest tower, a mere 8 miles away, in anything but analog (and miserable looking analog at that!).

First of all, I think TV is better than movies. Anybody can write a movie script. You need about sixty minutes of material for a two hour movie, and you're done. TV on the other hand, is judged every single week, every single episode, on how well they've woven their pack of lies. It takes a lot of talent to keep a TV series going (<i>Saturday Night Live</i> excepted).

Here's the thing about a sagging world economy, it puts a damper on the number of yachts being sold. Or in this case, the yachts of the plasma TV world. Pioneer, recognized by all as manufacturing the best plasma TV, at a price that naturally reflects its quality, is throwing in the towel, if <a href="http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7596_102-0.html?forumID=60&threadID=329158&m... target="new">this report</a> is to be believed. The Kuro line of plasma TVs is just a production run away from coming to a close and the planned switch to Panasonic glass to reduce cost is now also falling by the wayside.