Boston Section

Happy Holidays to all! The annual holiday party of the Boston Chapter of the AES was a huge success. Held this year at the Needham Masonic Hall, this year's event brought a larger than usual turnout. Great fun was had by all the revelers, and a delightful dinner was catered by Marty Polon's secret and yet famous Middle Eastern chef. China, napkins, and tableclothes set a festive atmosphere. This event is nearing Banquet style and, I hear, there are even bigger plans for next season!

In particular it was nice to see many of our newer, younger members coming to celebrate. I met several new folks in music, post and loud-speaker engineering. It is great to see the chapter growing and fostering its new members!

A new addition to this year's event was live entertainment. Singer/songwriter James O'Brien played a 45 minute set as background for the evening's merriment and energetic accompaniment to the White Elephant trading. For more on James O'Brien please visit his web site at http://jamesobrien.cc/

The White Elephant sale was its usual success and great fun. Many items from the simple to the sublime changed hands. I bought a really cool tube phono preamp from Monte McGuire. In true White Elephant style, however, I decline to pay him the $3 he was asking, but rather asked him to change the RCA inputs to phono, add a volume pot, and properly ground the chassis and then I'd pay him $100. So you see, I get a great, unique item, Monte gets a cool project qua prototype and a much more handsome price. Aren't While Elephants cool?

Other cool objects were found like a vintage Rockman distortion unit, second hand CD, myriad computer cables, and so much more. Unfortunately, no one wanted my nearly new USB/Firewire PCI card - maybe next year...

The banter around the dinner tables was all AES! I caught bits of Protools vs. Native, PC vs. Mac (no contest), why we need 96KHz, where are the DVD-As, and yum this food is great! If you weren't there, we missed you. Please come to the Banquet, it should be quite the event!

-- Jordan Tishler