J Larsen

Even though they have not been explicitly advertising a BN sale, all standard and RVG BNs that I've bought in store at J&R over the last several months have rung up at $6.99. The cashier always looks a little confused, but always gives me the price. As you noted, there is no special pricing on Conns, nor has there been on double discs or contemporary recordings. As a caveat, the in-store selection blows now. It's not a sure bet that they will have the particular RVGs that you are looking for.

I'm as much for free markets as anyone, but the idea of easing or eliminating planting restrictions does not sit well with me. I'm sympathetic to the French on this issue.

I'm really surprised that that album and the two Ornette studio albums weren't RVGed a long time ago. Actually, I think the McMaster of Leapin isn't really that bad, but those Ornette cds are brutal.

The thing you have to keep in mind with PE firms is that their acquisitions are funded by medium-length term (5-7 year) investment funds - they have to flip their acquisitions in that approximate time frame in order to pay out to their investors. So they are not thinking in the long term. If anything the trend is towards PE firms are holding on to their acquisitions for shorter and shorter time periods.

Are the new boxes remastered? I've had the big box for years, and the sound, while passable, isn't the greatest. Thanks.

I think that is right. But Terra Firma is not known for being sentimental.

I should also point out that PE firms have been known to shut down even very profitable parts of their acquisitions if they aren't seen as being "synergistic" with the whole. Thus business segments in "niche" markets are always vulnerable.

Well, yes or no depending on where you're coming from with your question. All stars emit very broad bands of electromagnetic (EM) radiation. A very narrow band of this EM the visible spectrum. For evolutionary reasons, the visible spectrum is more or less centered on the frequency at which the sun outputs the most energy (i.e. green); this is in turn determined by the surface temperature of the sun. But the visible spectrum is really a quite narrow strip of real estate on the EM spectrum, so stars with even a modestly different surface temperature would likely be orbited with plants whose colors were outside of (our) vision range. That's the explanation behind the "yes" answer. The explanation behind the "no" answer is that all stars are emitting some light in our range of vision, while at the same time all stars (including the sun) are emitting a whole lot more outside our range of vision.

It's not a matter of whether the reissues are making a profit or not - clearly they are. The question is how much profit are they making compared to the cost of the program, and how does that ratio compare to the other business operations at EMI. I don't know what the ROE on the BN reissue program is, but it can not be very high.

More likely than not it would end up being a color outside the visible spectrum, so it would just look dark. That would be kind of a trip. Come to think of it, it is quite possible that our colors would be out of the visible spectrum of any sighted inhabitants, so we would look dark to them.

I think J Larsen said made an interesting point in another thread a while back (too lazy to search the archives) -- even if intelligent life exists somewhere else in the cosmos, the relatively short life span of any given civilization means that contemporaneous existence with ours is much less probable. Guy Unforturnately I can't take credit for that little insight... that was Fermi. There is a very famous and VERY, VERY cheesy formula with about 12 free parameters called the Drake Equation for estimating the number of contemporaneous intelligent civilizations, taking into account their necessarily finite lifespans. In any event, the current methods are no good for distinguishing between intelligent societies and "unintelligent" life. I suspect that "unitelligent" life is fairly common, particularly given that DNA formation is known to be an energy minimizing process. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it were found elsewhere in our own solar system (e.g. on Europa).

private equity modus operandi return on equity Thanks, Guy. Sorry for the acronyms. I am posting between emails at work.

The PE MO is strip it down, and sell at a profit within five years (this is largely a function of how their funds work). I expect to see all low ROE segments of EMI shuttered over the next year. I could be pleasantly surprised, but if I were betting that's where I would lay my chips.

Man, I've become one of those people who already has just about everything that is going to be reissued. I selfishly wish they had selected Stop and Listen instead of Face to Face, but these are mostly pretty solid choices (except The Latin Bit ...) We each have our quibble or two, but BN has done a very good job of making their catalog available in challenging times. Like Kev, I don't expect to see many more batches, though.

What's lame about it? Seems to make sense to me, given that 'Chasin'' was from the 1961 Vanguard sessions and had nothing to do with Newport. The lame part is repackaging material that any interested party already has in an effort to get some percentage of them to, knowingly or unknowingly, repurchase it.

Based on the track list, it looks like it is the first three tracks from the Newport '63 cd (Chasin' Another Trane has evidently been excluded) plus the two Coltrane tracks from the New Thing at Newport CD. I'm sure the last three tracks are from the New Thing cd because of the Norman O'Connor introduction. In a word: Lame.

I only saw the Eddie Gale set at Vision Fest tonight - from what I gather from jazzshrink and msheldon, I missed out by skipping the afternoon set, but I really needed a little time for rest and chores. Anyway, the Gale set was very good - very inside by Vision standards, but Kidd Jordan, Prince Lasha and Gale all had great solos (especially Jordan) and everyone played very well. It was almost disarmingly hardbop, but very, very good. Panda Bear was great. He did not make the mistake of trying to replicate the album live (I didn't expect him to). Instead he played realistic solo interpretations of songs on the record, as well as a few new things. It was a GREAT set. See him if you can.

I'll play anything, but I'm not a big chess fan, which usually surprises my friends. My favorites are probably Go and Scrabble. I usually don't have a lot of time for Go, so will usually play Othello (essentially a dumbed-down version) when I'm in the mood for that kind of thing.

I didn't notice that they had finally released that in the US. I remember people complaining about its unavailable status for a long time. I will check it out. Thanks.

Not be harsh, just telling the truth. I'm sure there is something there, because plenty of people with taste dig it, but to me it sounds like a bunch of studio musicians sitting around noodling. It has a really gross feel to me. BTW, I messed up - I've never even heard the first one, but I bet I would like it. I have, listen to, and like I Sing the Body Electric. I really hate Mysterious Traveller, Black Market, Heavy Weather and Mr. Gone. In a way it makes me feel bad, because I know there has to be something there. But I can't get past the (at least superficial) grossness.

Those really are classics.

Alice Coltrane - Lord of Lords Archie Shepp in Europe v. 1 The Sounds of Yusef Shelly Manne @ the Blackhawk v 2 & 3 Van Dyke Parks - Song Cycle (based on Clem's raves) Bad Brains - Rock for Light Pere Ubu - Terminal Tower (I rarely pull out the 7" records)

Very cool stuff.

Except for the first record, Weather Report makes me want to barf. Is this substantially different?

Well, you know, that's why I live here. I work a hell of a lot, but if I didn't make it out to the gigs/art shows/etc., I couldn't justify the expense of living here. If it wasn't for the (admitedly declining) cultural opportunities, I'd probably leave the city; either for a place like Philladelphia where I could keep my current job but have a house and garden, or for Paris where I have a couple job options. As it is, I'm relatively happy... for now.