EyeSpeech

I saw Spalding in Tyner's band when he played Yoshi's a little more than a year ago. She's awesome. I about fell off my sofa when she won best new artist over Bieber. I've never been so happy with an award result.

No worries...I didn't explain my reasons fully. Years can go by. Then I will decide to pull Blue Lights off the shelf. If the autograph is on Midnight Blue, I wouldn't see it and wouldn't be reminded of the show or of meeting KB. So that's my reason I want all those titles signed. As for the artist, you're right he may think to himself "why can't I just sign one and be done with it?" But more likely he's thinking, "cool, this guy is a fan who took the time and spent the bucks to listen to my music, drove out here tonight to see my show. I'm happy to sign a few things." At least that's the vibe I get when I'm able to meet the artist.

I'm not into streaming yet. Part of the problem is I have a relatively slow connection. The other issue is like Jazzbo I have an old-fashioned mindset about optical discs and tend to collect titles in the same way I did when VHS was king. But I also agree with Greg about only collecting movies that I'll watch repeatedly and, yes, True Grit will be one of those. King's Speech is, too. But even more than those, I'm interested in Mad Men 4. Been looking forward to that one since I saw MM 3 many moons ago.

Agreed...the Neil Young Archives part 1 is an amazing example of what can be produced to comprehensively package a 10-year output of an artist, with solid sound quality and artwork. I'd give anything to get this kind of treatment for certain jazz musicians. There would need to be extensive artist involvement as it was Neil's personal touch and commitment to the best sonics that made his archives worthwhile on BD.

Yeesh, tough crowd. Guess you had to be there.

Just watched Children of Men with my fiancee...a bit intense but we survived.

Can't wait to hear Soul Samba...and the others. I wish the Sonny Clark stuff was coming. His Blue Note stuff is amazing and his Audio Fidelity SACD trio recordings is darn good too. I think the ice has been melting since the last ice age.

Haven't heard those mixes on any format...but that is indeed promising news. I think I will have to splurge on this import!

Yep, that sequence was awesome! I also liked the sequence "It Was a Very Good Year" in season 2.

By the way, if anyone's heard those particular titles who cares to comment on how they sound, it would be great to get your input as I await their arrival!

Dang you can really talk some trash!

This is why I have a fairly rigorous collection policy...only titles that I know will be getting repeat listening. No point in collecting things that get spun once and then put on the shelf for eternity. It also has allowed me to splurge on a nice stereo and avoid storage headaches.

Haha...if you like that, you should have heard him throughout the set. He has a wicked sense of humor. He introduced his drummer, a talented Israeli guy named Ziv Ravitz who shaves his head, as "baldy". He was also challenging the crowd with song titles all night and throwing zingers our way.

It takes just a moment for each signature and the artist is usually happy to do it, to see which of his albums I brought in and have a chat with me too. I'm not pushy about it--if it happens, great. If not, I completely understand. But like I said, I do derive some value from seeing these autographs and the memories they give me as I load a disc in my player.

Haha...that is so '80s. Yes, there were a few mentions of Tones for Joan's Bones in the thread, but even more than that I like Inner Space and the "Is" sessions. Those can be seen as compilations that Cuscuna willed into existence--for Atlantic and Blue Note, respectively. There isn't any other Chick that I play anymore.

Sopranos is a messy show. It often didn't resolve issues or tie up plot lines in a neat way, except during the first couple seasons. I think this is what you're reacting to. The cognitive dissonance caused by Tony being a likable guy the viewer relates to on many levels and also a sociopath/murderer gave viewers discomfort over the course of many seasons. But this is part of the brilliance of the show. Even as Tony killed Chris, as disturbing as that was, you knew in a cerebral/business/strategic sense he was probably doing the right thing because Chris was such a liability going back many years. He was a drug addict, he dabbled in screenplays, he would always hold Tony responsible for Adriana and he was weak enough to be flipped by the feds under the right circumstances. Tony knew it. That's why mafia shows are interesting--loyalty and honor is tested in ways none of us have to deal with in real life. It's interesting that you wanted Tony to get killed rather than leave the mafia or get thrown in jail. I do agree about that arc in season 6 part 1 following the gay captain in Tony's crew. That resulted in zero insight, character development, subplot or worthwhile narrative. I see it as Chase's only mistake in the entire saga.

Is that 'See bald people touring mothballed battleships and protecting their computer data from the comfort of your Corpus Christi hotel room!' thread one of yours? http://forum.eyespeech.com/showthread.php?1262-lodging-in-corpus-christi Nice eye for spam! If you want to leverage your mod skills there I'd be lucky to have you.

Yeah, the way I see it, the first episode in Season 6 part 2 when Tony and Bobby were fishing and Bobby says, "At the end, you probably don't hear anything, everything just goes black," was all the clue you need. But the brilliance of the "Don't Stop Believing" song and the way Tony's family was surrounding him...it was done in character all the way. I challenge anyone critical of the ending to come up with a more satisfactory approach. Chase did it right. This was a beloved family in pop culture and a bloodbath would have been wrong on so many levels. The later seasons had acting, writing, arcs and subplots just as strong as the early seasons. The entire Tony-in-a-coma-living-an-alternate-life arc was absolutely brilliant, surpassing anything in the first five seasons. The writers even brought in eastern mysticism and some buddhist references. That line attributed to the Ojibwe, "Sometimes I go about in self pity and all the while a great wind carries me across the sky," was nothing short of a life-changing stunner that applied so deeply in the context of the show and stands just as strongly on its own as an existential tenet. Sheer brilliance. The politics of the mob life also got more interesting as the seasons wore on, with Johnny Sac on a totally unpredictable arc that spawned countless subplots. AJ's suicidal side was also handled well. The music remained strong throughout. The show kept everyone on their toes, guessing through the very end, I'd rather have seasons 2-5 released on Blu-ray than a movie.

I agree, Dave. For starters, the mafia genre is great to explore sociological and psychological themes like honor, loyalty and family. Then there was the writing. I never saw a TV series so well conceived that you live inside the head of the protagonist. Mad Men has at times risen to the level of Sopranos in my opinion. The way it looks at identity through the crucible of rapidly changing social norms of the '60s is just so well done. The writing in certain episodes pays off subplots in ways even stronger than Sopranos. Matt Weiner is a genius. I'll check out that link you posted.

The strings are not the greatest ensemble for NKC...I agree. But at least it's not like Lady in Satin where the singer has a foot in the grave and is far from peak power. Nat's voice sounds so good over the strings! And as sappy as the arrangements are, the strings sound darn good too. Looking forward to the small ensemble Nat stuff in the series.

Yep, but the other titles are BNs of course...I couldn't resist getting the NKC as his voice had such incredible presence on the other SACD I got in the series--Love Is the Thing. The content is produced in mono, stereo and 3-channel, AP does a wonderful job with the productions.

He also had a small role in the Coen brothers' The Man Who Wasn't There--one of the few Coen bros movies I didn't care for. Getting cast as Tony Soprano was the best thing that could have possibly happened to him as an actor. Sure, he'll always be seen as that character but given the quality of acting and writing, that's not a bad thing.

Pretty sure I fixed the issue that was causing your IP to be banned, if you want to try again. Just ordered several of the BN SACDs as Dmitry tipped me off about the better pricing. Wish I had known about it earlier! Artist / Title #Ordered #Shipped #Open 3 Sounds Bottoms Up! 1 1 0 Ike Quebec Soul Samba 1 1 0 John Patton Along Came John 1 1 0 Lou Donaldson Blues Walk 1 1 0 Horace Silver Tokyo Blues 1 1 0 Nat King Cole Very Thought Of You 1 1 0

Indeed the code was THANKS and it worked only briefly for preorders. Now it's not working at all. Barnes and Noble has half-off sales on Criterion stuff every so often.

When I pull a disc off the shelf that has an autograph, it gives me a memory jolt of watching the artist perform and meeting him. This puts me in a slightly elevated state to hear his music. For example, until I saw Bobby Hutcherson live, I had no clue how much humor and energy he put into his playing. Of course each musician has physical idiosyncrasies, affectations or traits that relate to their music. I don't "get it" without seeing them perform. I believe it's important to listen in that context, and the autograph can help me get there. Also, I believe there is value in meeting an artist after listening to his recordings for most of my life, and telling him face to face that his music means a lot to me. Even though they hear the applause, I think it's nice for some artists to see that they've had an impact on a fan.