how hi the fi?

How Hi The Fi is the personal blog of Paul Rehm that might more aptly be named "Ranking Everything." The focal points of the blog are the posts in which I take an artist's career - be it musical, directorial or something else - view, listen to or read their work chronologically and then rank them from best to worst. In between these posts, I share my day-to-day happenings and plans for future lists. The blog is named after an album by jazz musician Buck Clayton that captures the attitude this blog would ideally convey. Be sure to bookmark this page and come back often!

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Vinyl Find Of The Week, Etc.

Finally able to start my "Vinyl Find of the Week" gimmick. I have no idea why this would appeal to those of you who read me regularly, but this is the crap I care about and some of it is pretty interesting. To kick it off, I went with the record that is the blog's namesake: Buck Clayton - How Hi The Fi. I love the album, obviously. It's only worth $50 which is far less than most of the records that will be on here, but I think my price guide undervalues it. I saw one for sale at Wuxtry Records in Athens, GA for $40 which means it's price guide value should be quite a bit higher. Buck Clayton isn't the most famous jazz musician and I wouldn't call him prolific, but this one is about perfect if you like upbeat jazz. Since moving to Buckhead, I've had a much greater appreciation for my record collection than I've had in a long, long time. It is wonderfully on display in my new living room and there's something majestic about it the way we have it arranged. As I mentioned, a lot of the junkier records are getting sold off so that helps things as well. It's nice to have moments where you appreciate what you have more than what you want. I have these same moments with a lot of my various junk. My roommates agreed that they had never seen a guy with as much "stuff" as me. I can see this making sense, but I'm curious as to what it says about me. Most people seem to think it's a good thing, so I guess I shouldn't worry about it.
Ever since I posted the link to my blog on Facebook, I've been getting quite a few hits. Miraculously I didn't get any comments on my list of 25 favorite movies. I thought that one would garner some sort of discussion. A year or two ago I posted my favorite movies by decade on Facebook and got tons of comments. Oh well.
Work has been stressful lately. I've been doing all of my regular work on time but I've been struggling to get photos that accompany the stories I write that take place outside of Douglas County. I rely on the interviewed subjects to submit photos and they forget or whatever and I'll get phone calls from the powers that be wondering what happened. It makes me look bad and, lately, feel bad. The higher-ups scheduled a meeting at the same time of what might be my biggest local assignment ever (that is, I've recruited several people to show up somewhere to do something for a story and now I won't be there to ask them questions). It's technically not a HUGE problem, but didn't help anything. I've taken on a lot of extra work outside of my coverage area without asking any questions and all of the problems regarding it are probably making me look bad to the higher-ups rather than making me look good for doing thankless work without ever really being asked to do diddley. Oh well again.
On a lighter note, I'm still loving the Jason Bay/Manny Ramirez swap. We lost our first game since getting Bay last night but he still has a hit in every game he's been with us. Meanwhile the Yankees' big trade deadline pitching acquisition gave up a walk-off grand slam yesterday. Gotta love that. I haven't been worried about the Yankees all year, then, right after the All Star break they started catching up, then they almost swept us, then they were right on our heels, then they picked up lots of good players at the deadline, but suddenly I'm back to being comfortable with them. Their pickups weren't very good afterall, their pitching staff is falling apart like crazy, the guys who were having insane months are coming back to earth and they seem extremely beatable. Meanwhile, the Jason Bay Red Sox seem relaxed and relieved to be rid of Manny. I'll take it.

1 comment:

nichole davis said...

that sucks that work is stressing you out. it's gotta be complicated when you're pretty much a one man band. how do they expect you to travel outside the county all the time to get this stuff? you're doing your best ... hang in there, i'm sure it'll all even out.

sorry about not posting on your 25 favourite movies. i don't feel like i ever have a right to post about movies considering, as you know, i think i've seen less movies than anyone on the planet.

i'm incredibly excited about jason bay! still! it's hard not to be excited by him. he's like a breath of fresh air. the yanks were looking to catch up but you're right, it looks like they've been beaten back into their place again, especially with joba's potential injury last night.