SOUND PRACTICES SUMMER 1994 by Vinny Gallo
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Sound Practices gets 8,000 fan letters a day praising my famous articles, 10,000 fanatic fan faxes addressed to me, and the office gets swamped with hundreds of phone calls from thrilled Gallo fans from around the world. And one time, one lousy time, the Gallo receives negative criticism, and boom! there it is in Print: Volume 2 #1 page 44, that's right! center page. Joe Roberts, you sneaky rat bastard. How could you do it to me, Joe, you half a man, you Judas? How could you print that piece of crap letter, you ungrateful spineless worm? And as far as being able to afford the damn Ongaku, don't make me laugh. I'm rich, you fool. Besides, the fans want the Gallo, the real thing, the one and only - ME. That's right, ME! Not all those pale imitations of me. They want Vinny G, Doctor Brown, Grandmaster Vincenzo, Kid Hi-Fi. Me, that’s right, me. The Gallo. So Ladies and Gentlemen, my faxing fans, MY praising pen pals and all my loving callers, the Gallo is back. Id like to first thank you for taking time out from one of those ridiculous waste of time amp columns to read my latest hi-fi poem. It’s about the life, death, and resurrection of Vinny 21st Century, Future Boy. Born Vincent Gallo in Buffalo, N.Y. in 1961. Grew up there poor with his mom and pops (immigrants from Sicily) during the 60s and 70s. His pops was very proud. His whole family lived on plain boiled macaroni but he insisted on driving a brand new Cadillac every year. He had to have it, always black with that white interior. Every time Future Boy sat in it, he got a beating for dirtying the seats and carpeting Pops, even though he's got three little kids, he's still gotta have a white interior. Future Boy loved going with his pops to the dealership to pick up the new car. In the 60s it felt like each year the new things got better and better, it was so exciting. Future Boy thought by the time he was 21 all disease would be curable, cars would fly and run on water and people would live forever and stay young looking. He'd fly the first spaceship to Pluto. He loved all the new modem things. He was a techno-loving guinny, Vinny 21st century, Dr. New. His friends called him FUTURE BOY. And that was me, I was future boy. But one dark day my daddy picked up his new Caddy and started complaining about it, things like “Ah I shoulda kept the old one, Goddamit! Look at this cheap thing." Then one week later he traded it back in for a new version of the last year's model. It was the last one on the lot and he had to take a gold with a black interior. He kept that car 10 years, and my half deaf, half blind grandpa drove it over my uncle Angelo's favorite lawn statue of St. Anthony of Padua, through his tomato plants and into the side of the Bunza's house next door. No one was hurt, but my pops' last great Caddy was gone. Forget the tomato plants and that beautiful statue. Pops' Caddy was killed and he would never love another one. He drove them, yes, but he never loved them. It feels horrible to be disenchanted with new things and the future. It's the tragedy of the 20th century. By the age of 18, "Future Boy" was dead. After that I started running around pumping old folks with the "what was it like back then' question. I've spent most of my adult life wishing, wishing it was still like that, wishing they still made those, wishing it was still there, wishing people still did that, wishing you could still buy them. Wondering why they stopped making them, wondering why they had to change. And it wasn't even a nostalgia trip, after all I hated Elvis and that whole 50's thing. But it just felt like all the great things had already happened. I became stuck, locked into an image of the past and cynical about the future. I began romanticizing things that were just normal for the people who experienced them. For instance, I love my 1951 blond D'Angelico New Yorker cutaway guitar, sounds great, it's incredible. It's super cool but a lot of tired businessmen now want it so they can pretend that they are a jazz legend. This guitar is now worth 75,000 dollars. Great jazz players can sound good on any guitar. They bought D’Angelicos in the 50's because at $300 it was a fine hand made working guitar they could use to make $75 a week playing in a band 7 nights. I would buy some old guy's old car and spend months and tons of money and aggravation trying to make it original, like new. I'd look up from under my car, grease on my face, the old bastard who sold it to me would be driving by in his brand new car, steering with a pair of clean hands. And laughing. And me thinking I was so smart and cool. Like an asshole I spent $30,000 rebuilding a 1967 Chevy 11 SS. The car is cool, no question. It's fast, good looking, but let's face it, it's just an old car. No air bag, no seatbelts, it’s loud, bumpy, bad on gas. I think the people who I drive past enjoy it more than me. They get to go, 'Wow, look at that neat or car," then go back to their happy lives, while I the asshole drive it back home to' start fixing it again. I was insane to sink $30,000 into it. The car is an emotional burden. A few months ago I drove the $22,000 brand new 1994 Chevy Impala SS It was cool, fast and good looking. And it was brand new. Nobody else's dirty fat ass rested on its brand new seats. I didn't have to leave it with the paint guy for 6 months, I didn't have to make 7,000 phone calls tracking down rare original parts. It was right there man, brand new with a warranty. And I loved it and I want it, and as soon as I can find another loser like me who'll give me some cash for my '67 I'm gonna run and buy the '94. I love new things again. And it feels great and I don't have to and haven't stopped loving great old classic products like my hi-fi gear or my old D’Angelico or my great old stove. But the '67 Chevy, that's got to go. Old cars are like an old pair of underwear. They stink. Although I would travel long and far and pay top dollar for an old pair of dirty panties for my collection, I still prefer a brand new pair of cotton Jockey midways for wearing comfort. Future boy is back and he's better than ever 'cause this time, not only do I have an interest in everything that’s new and fresh, but have kept my interest, experience and knowledge about what came before so I can enjoy the whole picture, pick and choose. And then move forward. With excitement and hope. This guy from the New York Times calls me today, Rene Chun, says “Hey Mr. Gallo, I heard you're an expert on vintage hi-fi. I'm writing an article for the Style section of the Times and wanted to ask you some questions." I say, "Sure, buddy.' So he's PUMPIN’ me about the Garrard 301 and I'm answering but I'm thinking, wow, vintage hi-fi in the Style section of the Times... Garrard makes a turntable like the 301, produced first in 1953. It’s well made, sounds great and looks great. Was one of the best in its day. However, they themselves had to change and alter the model and eventually replace it, meanwhile a bunch of other tables got offered and sold. Newer and newer stuff all the time. Some junk, some of it not so bad. Guys like me rediscover the original and buy them at junk sales for 5 bucks, set them up and love 'em. A bunch of people get hip and the piece becomes worth $600. Suddenly a used primitive worn-out table from 1953 becomes a $600 turntable and the feeling is that everything new is junk. Then the fashion boy journalist from the US; next thing you know it's a prop in an MTV video. And starts selling like hotcakes for $2,000 to fashion models. You can't give away vinyl anymore and boom, suddenly the Times is doing articles on stylish vinyl record players from the 50s. Anyway, don't fool yourselves, vinyl won't make a comeback, it may be trendy but not for long. Love and keep your records. But new things are coming out and you might, if you let yourself, really love them. For example, I love my VCR and Laser Disc player. Of course it's thrilling to see an incredible film at the most beautiful old movie theater on a lovely summer night. But I've also heavily enjoyed staying at home during a blizzard and watching a great film on laser disc, eating Provolone cheese in bed with a fat hooker. I love them both. Besides, a great film at home on laser disc is more fun than seeing a shitty movie in a shitty theater. The thing is to allow yourself to enjoy them both for what they are. I know a famous fashion photographer, he makes millions, says to me, "Hey Gallo, you like old things, I want to buy an old Mercedes from the sixties, I saw one I liked for $35,000, what do you think?” I’ll tell you what I think. No, don't buy that piece of shit car for $35,000. Stop trying to be cool, just get yourself a nice new car. And enjoy it. I think that it's great to be hip enough to appreciate old products, to be sensitive to their beauty and quality, but some old things are a pain in the ass and one shouldn't be a slave to them out of fashion or cool. Everything new is not junk and everything old is not great. For example, how would you like to do your laundry with a good looking, beautifully made old-fashioned cool clothes washer? Try spending the day winding clothes through rollers 100 times to get them clean. Why isn't it cool anymore to drive a new car? Or wear new clothes? When I was a kid, new clothes were very cool. What happened? And who thought of distressed leather or stonewashed jeans? Screw that. I want a brand new car. I've changed, I don't want every single thing I buy to have to be hard to find and difficult to use so I can feel special and cool. Man, I want to be open and interested in everything. I'm Vinny 21st century, that's right, Future Boy, Dr. New. But try touching my Western Electric gear and I'll kill ya! I had my first real run-in with CD about 4 years ago; I'm in L.A., friend of mine there works in a record shop. Desperate he calls me up for cash (Junkie). "No loans," I say, "but come over and I’ll give you a twenty." A minute later he shows up, takes the $20 and offers me a pile of CDs for another $100. There's about 200 CDs. "I don't want em," I say. Tears fall, he begs. "Okay, okay, I’ll take them." He takes the money and runs. GREAT!!! There I was, Vinny Gallo, Mr. Western Electric, Mr. I'm-only-into-monotube-gear, Mr. I’ll-never-own-a-CD-player-in-my-life, Mr. I-make-my-own-pizza-from-scratch and a junkie just sold me 200 CDs. What could I do? The guy was crying. A week later I'm talking to the King, no not Elvis, the Bender, Walt Bender. Bender's cool. However, I've never seen him actually play a record. He has very cool gear, yes, but he listens to it only with a Patsy Cline CD through a cheap portable CD player. We're talking CD and he tells me about a guy named Scott Nixon who hand-builds a D/A processor in N.C. It's supposed to be good and it uses tubes. It must be OK if it has tubes, right? I call this cat up. He agrees to build me a tube unit and will model it after my WE 41 42 43 amp. Big thick black face plates, cool old meters, bakelite knobs, old style switches. Ya know. We discuss installing some WE input transformers and he agrees to build it mono (monomia!) Thanks, Scott, bye. That's the last time we spoke. He's never returned one of my many calls since. I refused to give up on him for three years, partly 'cause I thought his was the only good one made and because his had tubes, and he shared his last name with my idol Richard. Anyway, after no returned calls for three years I broke down. It was one night again in LA I was at this 24 hour electronic store, "The Good Guys". It's 2 a.m., I'm with a chick buying batteries for her massager, we walk past the portable CD display. There are 70 choices and you can A/B them through head phones. The Gallo's ears pick out a Magnavox Model AZ6827C. I actually buy it. My first CD player. Got a $200,000 collection of vintage hi-fi gear and I buy a $200 portable CD player. I’ve got an adapter to play through my car cassette deck. Five minutes later, me and the chick are driving around listening to a CD in my car while she's installing the batteries in her massager. I loved it. I was skipping and back-spacing and skipping. I've always hated the fast- forward and rewind on cassette. This was great - The next morning first thing, I'm at five different hi-fi shops looking at CD stuff, saw it all. That night I try Nixon again, leave a message, "Scott, hi, it's Gallo. Please, I’ll take any unit you got ready, please, please call me.' He never calls The Gallo back, the minchia. So I call up my pal Mark Lyons. My pal who looks like a cop. Best guy I know. He' s my favorite cop. Also has some great hi-fi gear he's kinda the poor man’s Vinny Gallo. Mark will spend on the right piece. He's got taste. And a good wife. So we're talking CD. He gives me his famous ten-year old line, “I'm not spending money on an expensive CD player.' I said, "Listen you cheap bastard you listen to CDs all the time, get rid of that bullshit Sony player and come shopping with me.” "No way," he says. Anyway, he tells me that Joe Grado, Dick Sequerra, and some other guys have discovered a $150 CD player that blows them all away. Mike LaFevre told him about it. The Realistic Model 3400 portable. "A portable!" I say, "I already have a portable. "Mike La Fevre says this one is supposed to be awesome," he says. And like a retard I rush to Radio Shack to buy it. Let me remind you that Joe, Dick and Mike (sorry Mike) are all cheap penny pinchers and I'm sure they never listened to a real D/A and transport in their lives. And the real Tricky Dick, Dick Sequerra probably saw an opportunity to sell people his over priced $500 power supply to fire up their crap machines. Thought batteries worked best but they get eaten fast so with mine I made up a power supply using a motorcycle battery and a cheap charger. Within a week though, both my and Mark Lyons' machines were skipping. I shoulda known. It's built like a real piece of shit but the killer punch was when Lyons and I compared the cheap, skipping Realistic to the cheap, skipping Magnavox and the cheap, skipping Magnavox blew it away. So if you want to own a smelly cheap ugly piece of shit CD player that lasts about a week, definitely get the Magnavox. The horror of this part of the century is that people are so willing to buy the cheapest and poorest engineered and manufactured products, therefore all the new technologies never really seem exciting. And people confuse themselves by romanticizing old products that were made well without recognizing the glory and possibilities of the new technology around them. It's really not that things are not more evolved or can't be made as well, there are just fewer people who put value on these kinds of products. For example, push button phones blow away the old rotary type, yet when rotary types were made they were made to last by the phone company and they were expensive. But there are millions of the shittiest push-button type built now. They break like crazy, so in our delusion we begin to romanticize the rotaries, while purchasing the cheapest push buttons we find on sale. Well, if we were all willing to pay for the highest quality push button type and that was all that was around, only a big asshole could possibly romanticize the rotary type. So why do guys who are so willing to spend tons on vintage hi-fi- say $500 for a Western Electric 300 B tube, HA HA HA! or $ 10,000 for a pair of shitty sounding Marantz model 9s, or $3500 for the winner of the overrated amp of the century award, the Mac 275 or the Marantz 7C for $2000, man that pre-amp is so dry it's like a pair of dead chapped lips. (... and don't tell me about your "modified" 7C or I'll fart) -why are they the guys who own the cheapest shit CD players? Don’t they know the way those beautiful collectibles held their value was because originally they were designed, engineered, and built on the highest level and of course they were expensive? Dick Sequerra's FM tuner was incredible and shockingly expensive, a real classic, yet we should buy a $150 CD so he could sell us the $500 power supply? The 3400 and the $500 Tricky Dick power supply together will be worth a nickel by Christmas. Once I got the cheap portable shtick out of my system, I pulled out ten copies of 'Stereo Sound, a Japanese magazine I pay $40 each for, to get maybe 2 pages of Western Electric gear photos to squirt on. Suddenly, I'm on the floor groping, looking at all the photos of CD gear. I'm obsessed, excited and loving the future. There's pictures of all the players, converters and transports. I start talking CD to everyone, to hi end guys, tube nuts, technos, Romantics - anyone who will talk CD. I beg to borrow everything and listen to it through my Western Electric 300 B amps and several different WE home systems. I spend six months researching. I ship things from France. I drive all the way to Chicago. I went crazy, bought, sold, bought, sold. I forced myself through piles of Absolute Sound and Stereophile reviews. I did it all. And it was tons of fun. The whole time I would compare CDs and records either against my EMT 927 turntable arm and cartridge or a Garrard 301 with Ortofon arm and cartridge. By the way, the EMT 927 is awesome. So the CD setups had to battle against the best. The very best. I listened through push pull triodes, (Western Electric 86s), then single ended (Western Electric 91 s), then pentodes (Western Electric 124s), through Marantz Is and direct into the amps. I even set up stereo using Western Electric 757s. Then a pair of Western Electric 755s, then back in mono with one 757. Then my dream system, a single Western Electric 4171 bass, Western Electric 26A horn, Western Electric 594 driver and Western Electric 597 tweeter, Western Electric TA7331 baffle, a Western Electric 26A horn biamped with a Western Electric 86C, Western Electric 91 A and Marantz 3 crossover. I had my gear all wired up with the fantastic incredible sounding Kimber KCAG interconnect wire and Kimber 4AG speaker wire which blow away any other wires I've ever heard in my life. And I've heard them all. The Kimber stuff is perfect for all you triode tube freaks, incredibly smooth and detailed. That cool cat Jack King and the boys of Kimber know all about triode tubes and horns. Imagine a hi-end wire company with guys hip to tube gear. Wow! Jack King and Kimber, we love ya. While living with CD plugged into my best system alongside the turntable of all tables, the EMT 927, 1 noticed that I loved the ceremony of records, the smell, touch and beauty of them. You drop the arm down, go sit, ears cocked and listen, really listen. Oh boy do I listen, but most often to the same few records. The ones that make the system sound best. With CDs I'm a bit More liberated. I listen to music I want to hear, not just what made my system sound best. I did other things while listening, like clean the house, chat with friends. I would never chat over a record. I love the ease of skipping songs or repeating them with the remote, I can move around. I can even fail asleep with the hi-fi on. I found I was using my hi-fi much more. I could also use the CD to learn songs on guitar, it's so easy to return to a spot in a song. What kind of jerks would totally refuse owning a CD player? And isn't that like saying that you have absolutely no interest in new music? I want to be interested in new music and I don't have to throw away my old records. I can have it all. You know, my girlfriend Victoria has been banned from my system since the day she trashed the stylus off my EMT TMD 25 cartridge. But with a CD deck in the house she's back on the system. The Mark Levinson 30.5 and 31 Let me stop here for a moment to tell you about this great chick I know. She's really nice and sweet and super smart and has a great sense of humor. She loves sex and cooks and cleans like a professional. She's great, right? Oh ya, by the way, she's 6' 9,” weighs 600 pounds and has got a wonderful case of severe acne and lovely greasy hair. Her tragic breasts look like empty hot water bottles and her teeth are a beautiful battleship gray. The Mark Levinson 30.5 and 31 are by a million miles the best looking digital hi-fi gear ever made. "So what?" you say. Listen you phonies, don't give me that looks-don't-count crap... Hi-fi is a hobby and part of the attraction to the hobby is when the gear is so good looking. The Mark Levinson CD stuff is also built like a mother______ As far as quality and craftsmanship, comparing it to old McIntosh and Marantz gear is a joke and the joke is not on the Levinson. The Levinson is built more in the tradition of companies like General Radio and Westem Electric. The 30.5 and 31 are all modem classics. The Mark Levinson digital audio gear is the best sounding CD gear I've heard. Yes, it was better than the supposedly great Denon DPSI DASI that Thomas J. Norton, a.k.a. Big Tom Brown Stain, said was so warm and wonderful. Listen Norton, if you need your digital CD stuff to warm up your hi-fi, you're in trouble. My system is already warm, all warm means with digital is colored sound. Most guys who write about digital audio equipment must have horrible sounding systems. They love the "it's so warm" line. A black man don't need no suntan. Yes, my loyal fans, Hi-fi writing is just passing gas. And you know that only The Gallo can turn that kind of brown gas into the finest perfume. OK then, I thought that the new Krell MD20 and Studio D/A are very very, good sounding and very well made. If there was no such thing as Levinson, I might have bought the Krell. Unfortunately for Krell, there is the Levinson. The Levinson blew away the Goldmund Mimesis D/A and transport. My retard friend who loaned it to me has all the Goldmund gear, always has (fool). I still have never liked a thing from this overrated pretentious company, lay down and die. And the Spectral SDR 2000 is the American Goldmund. Yucki Forget the Forsell - Forsell-forschmeB. And forget the Jadis. Neither sound better than the Levinson. They are both built for trouble, and you can't give 'em away used. Fat chance getting a quick overseas repair. Don't buy foreign computer stuff. Didn't like the Studer or the EMT but the Esoteric P2 is a great transport for you tragic smaller budget guys. But forget all the Asian built CD stuff. As a matter of fact forget all Asian-built products Period. Remember companies like Nakamichi, builder of fine cassette players? Well, just five years after the production of their shocking expensive top of the line cassette units, parts were no longer available. Levinson services every single product they've sold since 1972. I'd bet my life in twenty years only Levinson owners will be able to say things like "bought that little honey CD stuff 20 years ago and it still works perfect." Funny the 30.5, 31 and 35 are sold in droves in Japan. Smart rich Japanese don't buy no Sony Panasonic digital crap. I couldn't wait to hear the Cello/Apogee D/A converter. Too bad it was just OK. The Counterpoint D/A and transport - just OK looks, nothing special sound, and built pretty cheap. The point about Counterpoint is that there's no point in buying it. The Theta Generation V D/A sounds very good but the transport was just average. Very good + just average = just above average. Don't play matchmaker with digital gear. It's always better to use a transport and processor designed to work together. Trust me. A used Wadia 6 is a good player if you're a cheap penny pincher. I talked my cheap penny pincher pal Mark Lyons into one, but when he got it he discovered a problem. Like his idol, me, Mark listens only in mono but D/A outputs are stereo only, they cannot be Y adapted to mono. When I ordered my Levinson I had to ask them to solve this problem for me, so they designed their first D/A mono adapter for The Gallo. It's basically a pair of resistors, simple, right? Well, a frantic and teary-eyed Mark Lyons called Wadia in a huff, talked to their technical gurus, explained his problem. A stumped fellow explained to Mark that nothing could be done. It was impossible, he said. Lyons, tears still flowing said, "But my idol Vinny Gallo bought Levinson and they made a mono adapter for him." The stumped fellow replied, 'Oh great, I have a friend over at Levinson, I could call him and ask him how it's done." Wadia has got alot of nerve making a twenty-five thousand dollar D/A and transport combination if they have to call Levinson for that kind of technical help. Plus the 7 + 9 combination is barely better than the 6 player. Companies like Wadia and Theta change models much too often. Their approach to model changes and upgrades is a bunch of technopolitics that gives digital audio a bad name and makes people scared invest. They are really just correcting own mistakes, unlike the two enduring Levinson classics. I think that digital audio is at the point where units like the ones from Levinson Krell are so good sounding that if I like it much today why should I ever dislike it? It’s classic gear. Even if new things came out sound incredible this gear will always have appeal. A lot of the gear I listened sounded at least pretty good. I could have lived with several. I just liked the whole Levinson package best. You should see the lid open on that transport! Even the less expensive 35 sounded incredible. It's so great have both the best CD player and record player in the house. I'm very lucky ( ... lucky MY ass, I'm Vinny Gallo). Great records are great records. I like them most but great CD can crush bad vinyl. Anyway, they are different and for different things. CD is a miracle and should be very celebrated. Come on you children of tired hippies, let’s celebrate the new again and still dig our old. My thrilling CD experience got me to even buy a laptop computer now. I can’t believe I lived without one. I had been buying used vintage hi-fi things for so long it was tons of fun opening the boxes of my Levison stuff, even their packaging is incredible. I can’t believe I have something under warranty, oh my god, 5 years with the Levison. Now I can kick back and really enjoy the music, just like the people with cheap boom boxes. Before I was too busy tracking down gear or begging asshole technicians on my hands and knees to take time out from their ego maniac amp designs to fix my gear. Good-bye to incompetent technicians like that inbred Eric, author of the novel “1000 Ways to Tell a Lie,” or that hi tech electronics abortionist Nick the rip-off master gimp from NY, not to mention wacko Rick Nasty-As-They-Come from NJ. Man I got 5 years from Levison and it feels good. The last guy to fix something for me was Joe Roberts. I sent him my mintest Western Electric 91 via Priority Fedex. Took him 3 years to finally open the box. If it were Levison gear, at least I would still have 2 years left on the warranty. By the way, I finally heard the Scott Nixon tube unit with his TEAC-based transport, borrowed it. Sounded like an over tubed Realistic. Tubes just color digital audio period but his solid state piece Model TX-ATAX is pretty good. Solid state gear has finally come into it’s own with digital audio. Scott Nixon sure is a very bright and clever guy, a genius technician and engineer. But Madrigal Audio labs, a.k.a. Mark Levinson, has about 18 genius technical people working there. I even went up to the factory to tell ‘em that they done good. Everyone at Madrigal was supercool and together, the place was phenomenal, not a sour puss in the joint. I got to meet the guy who does all the cosmetic design (I am a fan) plus I got to see where all the metal work, anodizing and engraving is done. The guru who is in charge of that department is a god. It’s the best metal work I’ve seen anywhere. Even the packaging and shipping guys were super efficient and organized, not your usual warehouse clowns. I also met some cool older ladies putting together circuit boards and soldering like they were at a veteran needlepoint convention. It reminded me of those old black and white Western Electric factory photos only these girls were soldering with the help of computers! Super nice guy Martin French, Madrigal’s domestic sales coordinator who invited me in for a visit, spent hours and hours with me, showing me every part of the whole joint while I pumped him with a million questions and even begged him to describe the last day Mark Levinson was actually there. I also loved meeting with my hero technician, the guy who solved my adapter problem by building me a stereo to mono box adapter using some Madrigal RCA jacks mounted on a cool vintage hammertone bud box. The guy’s work is perfect, I mean OK, it’s just a little mono box, but it’s beautifully done. I should be so lucky to have him repairing my Western Digital gear. But the best thing about the Levinson is that it’s brand spankin’ new without cigarette smoke stains from the projection booth. I didn’t have to buy it sight unseen over the phone from one of those lying and cheating audiomart small time charlies. It’s not rare and irreplaceable and it’s not unfixable. I’m not changing no caps inside the thing, instead I’m home on my ass laughing and listening to music. Hi-end Audio does have a future and Future Boy will be there. |
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SOUND PRACTICES - "Future Boy" - SUMMER 1994, by Vinny "21st Century" Gallo