Don't know why anyone should be surprised that Norah Jones is loosening her shirt more and more these days. After all, growing up, the ingénue liked Mötley Crüe! "My neighbor and I would go listen to Mötley Crüe all the time," she says of the boys at right. And in her concerts, she's been known to do a gritty cover of "Ride On" by the boys Down Under, AC/DC.
Here are some photos from this year's annual RAVE (Recognizing Audio and Video Excellence) award taken at the 2006 Home Entertainment Show at the Sheraton Hotel in Los Angeles.
You want a Renaissance man? Look no further than T Bone Burnett, the producer behind the soundtracks to O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Walk the Line. Now, after a 14-year break, Burnett re-dons his singer/songwriter and recording-artist hat to drop a gritty new album, The True False Identity (DMZ/Columbia, also available on DualDisc).
Does the BD abbreviation stand for Blu-ray Disc or Blu-ray Delayed? The latest setback has Pioneer Elite's BDP-HD1 pushed back from July to September, while reports now have Sony's BDP-S1 sliding from July to August 15th. On the plus side, the Pioneer Elite player's price has officially dropped from $1800 to $1500.
<LI>Price: $2099</LI>
<LI>Technology: LCD</LI>
<LI>Resolution: 1366x768</LI>
<LI>Size: 40"</LI>
<LI>Inputs: One HDMI, two component, one each composite and S-Video, one RGB on 15-pin DSUB </LI>
<LI>Feature Highlights: Over-The-Air and cable HD tuners, Picture-In-Picture, built-in DVD player, built-in speakers, tabletop stand.</LI>
The Home Entertainment Show—affectionately known among old-timers as the Stereophile Show—blossomed near LAX last week from June 1-4. This was the first year at a new location, the Sheraton Gateway. Far from the madding crowds of CES and CEDIA, HES does a great job of bringing manufacturers together with dealers, press, and public in a friendly context. That includes live music, reminding everyone present why we got into this business in the first place. The show has been extensively covered by our sister publications Ultimate AV and of course Stereophile. Their reporting skills and, in particular, their monopod-steadied photo prowess shame me. But then, I see this show differently than they do, with an eye for monitor-sized speakers that can be multiplied by five in a surround system, and a more jocular view of the show's historic two-channel orientation and some of the oddities that entails. Following are a few impressions. I'll post the least awful of these pictures to the Gallery plus a few extras.
There's a revolution happening in high-definition televisions. Plasma and LCD flat panel displays are on the verge of dominating the market. CRTs still sell in higher numbers, but primarily in smaller and cheaper models. Once you get much over $1000 and 30-inches diagonal, CRTs are dying off like flies.
