ET breaks the news that comedian George Carlin has died from heart failure. The man who made famous the “seven words you can never say on television” passed away at 5:55 p.m. Sunday at Saint John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, his longtime publicist said. He was 71.

Monday morning, his daughter Kelly Carlin McCall had the following to say about her dad: “Most people know George Carlin as an icon of comedy and an advocate of free speech. I just know him as Dad … And what a dad he was. He taught me the value of speaking the truth in a world that doesn’t always want to hear it and gave me the gift of laughter. He was loved and revered by so many and will be missed beyond words — but never forgotten. Our family wishes to thank everyone who has sent love and support our way. Your kind words and thoughts are bringing much comfort to us during such a difficult time.”

His wife, Sally Wade, also spoke out about the loss of her “soul mate.” “George Carlin was and always will be the greatest love of my life. We had meeting of the minds, heart and spirit. It was a big love. He was my soul mate and always will be. Tomorrow is our tenth anniversary, and it was the best ten years of my life. It’s quite a shock right now, but I wish to express my sincere thanks and prayers to all who have reached out during this very difficult time. It is deeply appreciated.”

Carlin, who has had several heart attacks and a history of cardiac issues, went into the hospital Sunday afternoon after complaining of heart problems.

HBO, which submitted the funny man’s last special, “It’s Bad for Ya” for Emmy consideration this year, issued the following statement: “Because HBO has had such a long and close relationship with George Carlin, his passing is like losing one of our own. George had been a part of HBO almost since its beginning, performing his first concert for us in 1977, and his 14th special just earlier this year. No performer was more important to helping our network define itself in its early years. And no performer was more committed to the ideal of freedom of speech, a principle he embodied for the 50 years he performed with his trademark wit. We will miss his humor and his righteous comic anger, and we will simply miss him.”

Carlin has more than 20 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, numerous TV and movie roles, and three best-selling books to his credit. Last year, he celebrated his 50th year in show business.

He is survived by his wife, Sally Wade; daughter, Kelly Carlin McCall; and older brother, Patrick Carlin.

Sample is from the movie Network (1976)

As counterintuitive as it may seem in this age of iPods and digital downloads, vinyl — the favorite physical format of indie music collectors and audiophiles — is poised to re-enter the mainstream, or at least become a major tributary.

Talk to almost anyone in the music business’ vital indie and DJ scenes and you’ll encounter a uniformly optimistic picture of the vinyl market.

“I’m hearing from labels and distributors that vinyl is way up,” said Ian Connelly, client relations manager of independent distributor alliance IODA, in an e-mail interview. “And not just the boutique, limited-edition colored vinyl that Jesu/Isis-style fans are hot for right now.”

Pressing plants are ramping up production, but where is the demand coming from? Why do so many people still love vinyl, even though its bulky, analog nature is anathema to everything music is supposed to be these days? Records, the vinyl evangelists will tell you, provide more of a connection between fans and artists. And many of today’s music fans buy 180-gram vinyl LPs for home listening and MP3s for their portable devices.

“For many of us, and certainly for many of our artists, the vinyl is the true version of the release,” said Matador’s Patrick Amory. “The size and presence of the artwork, the division into sides, the better sound quality, above all the involvement and work the listener has to put in, all make it the format of choice for people who really care about music.”

Because these music fans also listen using portable players and computers, Matador and other labels include coupons in record packaging that can be used to download MP3 versions of the songs. Amory called the coupon program “hugely popular.”

Portability is no longer any reason to stick with CDs, and neither is audio quality. Although vinyl purists are ripe for parody, they’re right about one thing: Records can sound better than CDs.

Although CDs have a wider dynamic range, mastering houses are often encouraged to compress the audio on CDs to make it as loud as possible: It’s the so-called loudness war. Since the audio on vinyl can’t be compressed to such extremes, records generally offer a more nuanced sound.

Another reason for vinyl’s sonic superiority is that no matter how high a sampling rate is, it can never contain all of the data present in an analog groove, Nyquist’s theorem to the contrary.

“The digital world will never get there,” said Chris Ashworth, owner of United Record Pressing, the country’s largest record pressing plant.

Golden-eared audiophiles have long testified to vinyl’s warmer, richer sound. And now demand for vinyl is on the rise. Pressing plants that were already at capacity are staying there, while others are cranking out more records than they did last year in order to keep pace with demand.

Don MacInnis, owner of Record Technology in Camarillo, California, predicts production will be up 25 percent over last year by the end of 2007. And he’s not talking about small runs of dance music for DJs, but the whole gamut of music: “new albums, reissues, majors and indies … jazz, blues, classical, pop and a lot of (classic) rock.”

Turntables are hot again as well. Insound, an online music retailer that recently began selling USB turntables alongside vinyl, can’t keep them in stock, according to the company’s director, Patrick McNamara.

And on Oct. 17, Amazon.com launched a vinyl-only section stocked with a growing collection of titles and several models of record players.

Big labels still aren’t buying the vinyl comeback, but it wouldn’t be the first time the industry failed to identify a new trend in the music biz.

“Our numbers, at least, don’t really point to a resurgence,” said Jonathan Lamy, the Recording Industry Association of America’s director of communications. Likewise, Nielsen SoundScan, which registered a slight increase in vinyl sales last year, nonetheless showed a 43 percent decrease between 2000 and 2006.

But when it comes to vinyl, these organizations don’t really know what they’re talking about. The RIAA’s numbers are misleading because its member labels are only now beginning to react to the growing demand for vinyl. As for SoundScan, its numbers don’t include many of the small indie and dance shops where records are sold. More importantly, neither organization tracks used records sold at stores or on eBay — arguably the central clearinghouse for vinyl worldwide.

Vinyl’s popularity has been underreported before.

“The Consumer Electronics Association said that only 100,000 turntables were sold in 2004. Numark alone sold more than that to pro DJs that year,” said Chris Roman, product manager for Numark.

And the vinyl-MP3 tag team might just hasten the long-predicted death of the CD.

San Francisco indie band The Society of Rockets, for example, plans to release its next album strictly on vinyl and as MP3 files.

“Having just gone through the process of mastering our new album for digital and for vinyl, I can say it is completely amazing how different they really sound,” said lead singer and guitarist Joshua Babcock in an e-mail interview. “The way the vinyl is so much better and warmer and more interesting to listen to is a wonder.”

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Source: amateurphotographer.co.uk

Polaroid chiefs are in talks with the maker of Ilford film over the possibility of producing Polaroid black and white instant film at Ilford’s base in Cheshire, UK.

In February, Polaroid announced plans to axe film production, blaming competition from digital cameras, 61 years after it hailed the birth of ‘instant photography’.

A spokesman for Harman technology Ltd, which trades as Ilford Photo, told us that Ilford Photo and Polaroid are ‘talking’ but added that ‘it’s very early days’.

He said discussions are focusing on Ilford Photo ‘taking on production of Polaroid monochrome instant film’.

Polaroid Europe’s general manager Philippe Kalmbach confirmed that Polaroid is ‘working on various options to keep our instant business alive as long as possible’.

In an email he told Amateur Photographer (AP): ‘As you can imagine, we are working on several scenarios but none of them are locked yet.

‘We have to give the best possible support to the instant community, either by leveraging further some of the portfolio or by giving them new options based on our digital instant products with technologies like Zink.’

Zink stands for Zero Ink, technology that Polaroid hails as the digital equivalent of instant film. It uses a process similar to dye-sublimation printing to produce an image on special paper.

Polaroid plans to include Zink technology in a range of digital compact cameras later this year.

In an interview with AP earlier this year, Kalmbach revealed that Polaroid may also launch a Zink-enabled ‘bridge’ camera – a model with a non-interchangeable lens, positioned in the market between a compact and a digital SLR.

The first product to incorporate Zink technology will be a printer scheduled for UK launch in June.

Formed in 1879 - and based in Mobberley, Cheshire - Ilford became famous for its black and white film, paper and darkroom chemicals.

PORTISHEAD “MACHINE GUN”
by portishead