Alexander

It's even better! I checked online, and this guy is the drummer for a Dutch band called Blof! Here's another picture of Norman Bonink communing with the dolphins...

I mean, just look at the guy! Can you imagine having a conversation with that face? He probably wears earth shoes...

The marriage will never work out, because the dolphin has another special friend that she doesn't know about You can tell just by looking that that guy is a real jerk...

Yeah, my local paper is carrying the headline that 12 miners are alive and that one died. Aside from the fact that this situation is terribly sad for the families of the miners, it's also a big black eye for the print media (which can't update and/or retract a story once it's "out there"). It's certainly a hell of a lot worse than "Dewey Defeats Truman."

Got mine on my b-day (last week), but as I had something of a backlog of discs to listen to, I didn't get around to the first disc of this until this evening. I'm only on the second track of the first disc, but I have to say that it pleases me! Everyone sounds great (including Jarrett, on whom I tend to run hot and cold). The sound is much better than a good deal of the electric live material Miles released on Columbia. I look forward to hearing the rest of the set! I'll be dividing my listening between this and the Ray Charles box (I'm through the first two discs of that). After that, I have to get through "Goodbye, Babylon" and the "Fonotone" boxes I got from Dust-to-Digital recently...

The Barron album, titled Canta Brasil, is very nice indeed. Recommended...

Those of you who heard my BFT (waaaaaay back at #9) know how fond I am of the ivories. For those who might be on the fence regarding this set, I highly recommend it. Excellent performances all around. When I got it, the only two that I know I'd heard before are Freeman and Rowles, but Twardzik (who died tragically young, and who's only performances as a leader (at least in a trio setting) are on this set) and Fischer are excellent. I'm especially taken with Fischer who is heard to great effect with Gary Peacock on disc three. Two thumbs waaaay up from me!

My three: Little Wing One Rainy Wish (I love the bit where he sings: "I have never...laid eyes on you...") Rainy Day, Dream Away I guess I liked Jimi best when he was in his "mellow" bag... It's all good, though...

I just saw it tonight, and I thought it was VERY good. I didn't find the plot difficult to follow at all, but the film does leave one asking a number of questions. SPOILER ALERT!!!!! I, too, wondered just what Clooney's character hoped to accomplish by stopping Prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig). Was he trying to warn him? Was he trying to take him out himself? And, I had to wonder, was Matt Damon's character in on the hit the whole time? It seemed a little too convenient that Damon moved to a different car when he did. Was it blind luck? Did he suspect something? Or did he KNOW something? Watching this film, I was reminded of a quote from Alan Moore: "In espionage's twilight world, all shadows have substance." I think part of the point in this film was that most of these characters wear more than one mask and their allegience is transitory at best. It also does a great job of showing the law of "unintended consequences." Alexander Siddig's deal with the Chinese is what loses the oil-field worker his job and leads him to terrorism. George Clooney's hit on the arms dealers at the beginning goes awry and one of the missles goes missing, only to turn up in the hands of the oil-field worker when he becomes a suicide bomber. Clooney's superiors sell him out when one of their deals goes sour. The African-American lawyer sells out his own superior in order to secure the merger between the two oil companies. The common denominator is the oil. People will do anything to anyone in order to have it. I think the film succeeds very well...

I was also very impressed with the lack of dialogue. Lots of things are implied, but not stated outright - which is nearly always preferable (IMHO). Exactly. As I always tell my creative writing students, "Show. Don't tell."

Actually there is no "unnecessary dialogue" in the film. That's one of the things that impressed me most in the film. Most of the scenes between Naomi Watts and Kong are silent.

I've seen the film twice. "Failure is only momentary" is the line.

Again, thanks to all for your wishes. I had a very nice day. For my b-day dinner I ate lobster and raw clams, drank a fantastic martini, and had my favorite birthday cake (chocolate mayonnaise cake with buttercreme frosting). I got a book on Monty Python from my dad, as well as a TON of his old LPs. My wife got me the Miles Cellar Door set (haven't listened to it yet). On the whole, a good day!

I agree that it's a great film, but it has been discussed elsewhere...

I've only ever been pulled over once. I was driving home from a friend's farewell party (he was leaving Barnes & Noble, as I would eventually do as well) at about one in the morning. The road was empty and I was probably speeding, but I honestly wasn't paying attention since there were no other cars on the road. A cop car pulled up behind me and I pulled over. I immedately started thinking of all the things you're supposed to do when you get stopped: I turned off the radio, rolled down the window, got out my license and registration, etc. The cop came over and asked me where I was coming from. Me: I'm coming from a party. Cop: Had anything to drink? Me: No (true). Cop: Where are you going? Me: Home. Cop: Where's that? Me: Right up the road there. Cop: Know how fast you were going? Me: Honestly, no. I wasn't paying attention. Cop: I'll let you go with a warning. Just please watch your speed. Me: Thanks. Have a good night. That was it. I didn't get a ticket.

Geeeeee....tanks!!!

Mine is currently sitting in wrapping paper waiting for me to open it during my b-day celebration tonight. Dammit!!!

Wow! That's awful! I have no problem with donated items being resold, but I think that the staff "getting first crack" at the donated items is ethically wrong and just plain lame. I will now plan on more carefully researching the situation before I donate anything of value in the future. I'm certainly not criticizing you, Alexander, just the policy of the library allowing staff to do that. It's one thing for employees in a used record store to do that, but a donation intended for the public is another matter IMHO. It depends a lot on the policies. If the material is all to be sold (frankly a kind of sucky policy) and the library staff pay for it (unlear in this case, but was the case where I worked), then the net effect on the public is zero. Yeah, I realize that I was unclear in my wording. I meant that library employees were able to paw through the stuff and put aside anything they'd like to buy. All the LPs I got cost me about a buck a pop, if that.

Wife gave me the new Guralnick Sam Cooke bio and a copy of "Night Beat" on CD. She also gave me a beatuiful book called "The World on Sunday" which contains beautiful reproductions of full pages from the "New York World" sunday paper from 1898 to 1911. My birthday is on Wednesday, and I'm looking forward to the Miles "Cellar Door" box set. I got a few things I need to exchange (sister-in-law gave me an iPod Nano, even though I already own an iPod) so I'm hoping to be able to get either the Ray Charles Atlantic box or the "Goodbye Babylon" box with some of the proceeds of the exchage...

Both volumes at Yoshi's are excellent. I also second "Wingspan." Great stuff!

I don't know if this is true of all libraries, but I've worked in several and I can tell you that in no case did we ever add donations to the collection. Donations were always sent to the bookfair, which is usually held once or twice a week. I can tell you that many patrons who were donating books, records, magazines, cds, dvds and videotapes were very insulted when they learned that their donation was bascially going to be sold for a buck over the next several weekends. When people give to the library, they have the idea that they are contributing to a collection, but libraries have their own ways of acquiring materials. I know that whenever anybody donated *good* records or books, the staff was given first crack at them. I have several LPs in my collection that were donated to the library. Again, I'm not saying that this is what *your* library did, but it seems to be a pretty common practice in my experience. Not to burst anybody's bubble...

Happy Decemberween!

Dammit! You beat me to it! I was also thinking, "The bitch is back..."

I'm no troll, but I LOVE Flaubert. I remember spending a wonderful Christmas break reading "Madame Bovary" and "L'Education Sentimental" in my fiancee's grandmother's basement (where they made me sleep until we got married)...

I disagree. "The Delivery Man" was released in 2004. Rereleases with extra tracks shouldn't count...