at some point awhile back i went by the tweeter on westheimer again and bought some more cables and stuff. they were around 70% off. all audioquest, i got one cable each of: vdm-xr 2m video/digital audio, vdm-1 2m video/digital audio, yiq-x 4.5m component video, mini-a 1m 3.5mm to rca stereo, mini-a 3m 3.5mm to rca stereo, and mini-1 1m 3.5mm to 3.5mm.
i had thought i’d go by the one on kirby again tuesday (dec 2nd) after work, but they were closed. i knew the sale was supposed to last until the 7th or the store ran out. i figured they just shortened their hours, or maybe the stores in houston collapsed down since they had less inventory. i got home and went online trying to find info, and that’s when i was led on the tweeter odyssey. it turns out schultze, who bought them after they declared bankruptcy the second time, decided to shut down the stores early. they fired all employees and locked the doors. the liquidators were freaking, the employees were freaking. no one was getting paid. then schultze filed to change from chapter 11 (restructuring) to chapter 7 (liquidation). it was approved. they had paid off wells fargo, their largest secured lender before they shut down. in the chapter 7 filing, they set aside $900k for employee pay. supposedly employees are going to get at least some of the pay they are owed. and under chapter 7 it’s possible the stores will open again to liquidate their final stock. under the chapter 7 agreement a court trustee was appointed to run the liquidation. oh yeah, and the day after this happened someone hacked the tweeter website and put up some disparaging remarks about schultze and boucher (another tweeter guy). there are lots of interesting comments from tweeter employees in the various news articles online. it’s pretty crazy how things happened. two of the best sources have been twice and george gombossy at the hartford courant. it comes across like corporate greed and me-ism at the cost of the employees, and vendors, and trust, and honor. just another day at the office for most of corporate america i guess.
while doing all of this reading, i also come across a few audiophile sites i hadn’t seen before, and they had some really cool articles and commentaries. (audioholics.com) they seem practical and reasonable to me, and it’s led me to re-think some of the esoteric claims of lots of the “high-end” audio cable companies. (including the company who makes a lot of the ones i’ve bought.)
on tuesday (dec 2nd) i used a border’s coupon to get a 40% discount on dvd/blu-ray box sets. i was looking at a couple of things, but they were cheaper through amazon even taking the 40% discount into account. so i ended up getting these (which were cheaper):
- peanuts deluxe holiday collection
- the original christmas classics (limited keepsake edition)
the peanuts collection has “a charlie brown christmas”, “a charlie brown thanksgiving”, and “it’s the great pumpkin, charlie brown” as well as a few other odds and ends and a cd of some music from the shows. the christmas classics collection has “rudolph the red-nosed reindeer”, “frosty the snowman”, “santa claus is coming to town”, “the little drummer boy”, “frosty returns”, “mr. magoo’s christmas carol”, and “cricket on the hearth”. i already have a christmas story, so now all i need is “how the grinch stole christmas” and maybe the missing christmas classics like “jack frost”. (why is it not in this classics collection i bought?)
friday night of last week (dec 5th) was the geek gathering. i convinced the hrc to go, seeing as she is a geek and all (and she’d been before). this gathering was at coffee groundz, which seemed like a decent enough place. unfortunately the gathering was outside and it was rather chilly. there were free-standing tower heaters which helped when you were near them, but it was still chilly. plus this gathering was a mash-up with the tiara happy hour — which meant a lot more people, but it seemed like it changed the vibe of the whole thing. i ended up not talking much, mostly just sitting and talking with the hrc. nevertheless, jay managed to get a pretty cool pic of me (yes, my face is covered).
last saturday evening (dec 6th) i was picked up by jack and sue and their daughters, and we went and ate at chuy’s. where were the boys? they’d already been dropped off at houston’s first baptist because they were in the children’s choir for the xmas celebration. they’ve remodeled the big auditorium since i was last there, so now they have big projections on the walls along with the two big screens. it was funny, but kind of cool, that the first kid they zoomed in on during the kids’ part was dietrich. his white turtleneck sort of stood out, but i think it was the 3 inch tall mohawk that did it. i wonder what some of the people in the audience were thinking? probably either “oh, it’s a good thing that kid is in church so he can be saved and set straight” or “oh, that’s disgusting they would let someone looking like that on the stage!” i’ve seen and heard both reactions over the years. the orchestra performed some classical pieces, which were cool. the modern soloists and operatic bits i could have done without.