Copper


Every New Beginning

Issue 67Opening Salvo

Welcome to Copper #67! It may be my Irish heritage and genetic memories of last call, but the melancholy song "Closing Time" has always resonated with me. For those who have somehow avoided this...

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50 Ways to Read a Record Part 3

Issue 67VINTAGE WHINE

It’s difficult to explain the basics of a highly-technical process like record playback without getting bogged down in eye-rolling minutiae. I’ll try to stick to the big-picture trends and details,...

Free Bird!

Issue 67HAND PICKED

On October 20th, 1977, a Convair CV-240 carrying the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd and their touring party went down just outside Gillsburg, Miss. The crash took the lives of the...

The Gibson Saga Continues

Issue 67INDUSTRY NEWS

We’ve written about the continuing saga of Gibson Brands numerous times, most recently when they filed Chapter 11.  As has been the case with many major companies in decline, Gibson financed a...

Wine Like Grandpa Used to Make

Issue 67FEATURED

When I told Editor Bill Leebens that I write about wine for a living, he wanted exciting, off-the-wall stories about my day job. Such anecdotes might have been more common...

Peter Gabriel

Issue 67OFF THE CHARTS

Until May 2018, Peter Gabriel resisted allowing his solo albums to appear on subscription streaming services like Spotify. Since that date, more of his records are being made available each...

Love Stories

Issue 67MUSIC'AL NOTES

Would you like to go somewhere beautiful?” I asked. “More beautiful than this?” She asked, incredulous. Raymond and Jennifer. Raymond was married to Sophia for 63 years. They were inseparable...

The Needle and the Damage Done

Issue 67TWISTED SYSTEMS

No, this is not another “confession’ about past drug use. It’s a review of an amazing stylus cleaner. First though, I knew that my story about how I dealt with...

Building Teams

Issue 67QUIBBLES AND BITS

I spent the latter half of my career as an entrepreneur, building two venture capital backed technology corporations.  These are proper, bricks-and-mortar, hardware-based companies, engaged in the development of real-world,...

Welcome to the Machine

Issue 67THE AUDIO CYNIC

Pop music has always had machines: groups of people who were responsible for an unconscionable, unbelievable percentage of all the hit songs that have permeated the airwaves and our lives....

The Great Wall, Redux

AND OTHER ILLNESSESAUDIOIssue 67MUSIC

[Our friend and regular Copper columnist Dan Schwartz is under the weather—and so we’re re-running a classic Schwartz column from Copper #39. Best wishes to Dan, with hopes of sunny days and better health!—Ed.]...

Steve Jobs, the Opera. Really.

Issue 67TOO MUCH TCHAIKOVSKY

Mason Bates wrote the music, Mark Campbell the libretto. They took their work seriously. The Santa Fe Opera offered the world premiere last summer, and Pentatone (PTC 5186 690) was there to record...