Loved this Rolling Stone review of Rush’s night two performance in LA. I am sure lucky to have been there. This Reddit thread on the show isn’t bad either. The two old guys and the new drummer knocked it out of the park.

Catching up on sleep a little at a time, though the time zone delta is large – 9 hours difference between the UK and Pacific time. The rule of thumb, that one can expect to shift an hour or two per day, is holding true for me this time. My sleep patterns, bad as they are, got waaaay out of whack this trip. Tomorrow’s trip to Nashville, 3 hours delta, should be a bit easier. But the return on Monday will put me back in big delta territory. I’ll then be in a single time zone for 15 whole days. Woo hoo!

It’s definitely a rough stretch right now. Sleep problems, some long travel days, stress/sadness over my brother’s passing, and yesterday we learned that we have a bad case of identity theft to deal with. Someone is using K’s name/address/SSN to file fraudulent tax returns and attempt to get refunds. I’ve been in touch with the IRS, they’re aware now and say they’ve stopped the fraudulent returns. But now there’s a huge cleanup problem involving banks, credit agencies, the IRS and Franchise Tax Board, Social Security….ugh. It’s a mess. I’m well equipped to deal with all the online steps one needs to take to clean it up, but there will be lots of time on hold with various agencies. And now we’ll have to change most financial passwords and enable two-factor authentication for everything.

Scanning the news this morning, it’s pretty awful. Convict Donnie and his flying monkeys continue their destruction of everything they touch, and continue their right-out-in-the-open looting of taxpayer funds. It’s depressing. I’ve gotten to the point of wishing a terminal health event on the central figure, ASAP. If he exits, much of the evil infrastructure he’s installed should crumble or at least weaken. Don’t get me wrong, Vance will be bad, but Convict Donnie is a once in a millennium locus of chaotic evil.

On a positive note, I got my new/vintage Harman Kardon 330c receiver yesterday, hooked it up this morning, and it sounds great. I can’t A-B it with the Sansui 505 yet, but when I get back from TN I’ll be able to. Its sound is clean, understated. Plenty of punch, but not in-your-face like the Pioneer in KY. But I’ll know more when I can have a real A-B session with the Sansui. Here’s a picture of the setup in the living room listening room, facing southwest. The 330c is the equipment on the left side.

Title picture above is another Rush shot from Tuesday night. Quite the memory. Need a few good memories lately.