Ed S

Hopefully he'll use some of the profits to buy a better camera

The Mobley set remains one of my all time favorite Mosaic sets. Happy listening

Was at the Tremblant Blues Festival last year. It was very nice. Had a great time and heard some really good bands. The festival is staged on several stages spread throughout the ski village at the base of the mountain. Don't know if you're going to be around long enough, but a trip to the top of the mountain on the gondola is definitely worth it. There are quite a few restaurants ranging from casual to very nice and a brand new gambling casino somewhere on the other side of the mountain.

Yes.... Congratulations!!! :party:

As with most of you - I hope that Mosaic can continue for quite some time into the future - even if it has to be a shell of the former company it was. As long as they continue to produce quality releases, I'll be here to buy them. I don't mind if they slow to just a few releases a year - enough to keep Scott busy and out of trouble. Isn't it just Scott and MC now? Money's tight and at $120 a pop or so for a set, it's tough to come up with more than a couple of sets worth a year anyways. I see there won't be any Selects for a while but I'm not sure what role the Select plays at this point. When they first came out $39 a piece, they were a significant savings over the traditional set. Once they raise the price to $44 - the difference on a per disc basis is not that great. I think I'd rather have a traditional set with that packaging and booklet than the Select packaging which I always considered not up to their standard, ugly with those pastel colors, and pretty much cheesy in construction. Perhaps production costs on a per disc basis are lower for bigger sets? I guess one thing they might have going for them is that with major labels slowing jazz reissues to a trickle, there could be a demand for some product eventually. I just don't know how much demand there will be for jazz going forward though. The demographic is certainly not expanding. I like the idea floated above about re-releasing some past sets. Screw the secondary market. I just don't know what would sell in today's market though. Most of the sets I would want out again are merely because I missed them - and not because they would sell thousands of units. Oh well

I guess that explains the recent warehouse finds and Cindy's departure. I'm pretty pessimistic about the long term viability of the company and just hope it's around long enough for me to pick up the sets that I want. They've stopped producing singles, I'm not sure if they're doing any more selects, they've only got one set upcoming posted on the website(Threadgill), they've shut down their vinyl shop, cut loose the Phil Schapp stuff, stopped selling photographs, shut down Mosaic Contemporary, shut their warehouse and now are working with a third party for order fulfillment. They're also fighting a bad economy, declining CD sales, putrid and continually declining jazz sales, the 50 year copyright law in Europe. Seems to me they are just trying to stop the bleeding at this point. I suppose that every good thing has to come to an end at some point

Uh-oh. Looks like Mosaic Contemporary has slipped away quietly into the night. Link is no longer active. I could never figure that particular move out.

Than god I live up north (of the storm)!!!!

Classic stuff.

As Dave pointed out, the True Blue business model , well, just plain sucks. I have long wondered how and why they were in business with that pricing structure. With all the sets coming back in stock - which is very good news - it's apparent that they are eliminating less profitable areas like vinyl, posters, etc and concentrating on their core product. Let's hope that the core business - Mosaic - can be sustained. Unfortunately, that seems to mean no Mosaic singles or selects, at least for now. At this point one can only wonder how much longer Mosaic Contemporary can hold on

Just got an email from True Blue: Amongst the news...... - On January 31 Phil Schaap's Jazz Store will move on and its items (a wide assortment of autographed books, CDs, DVDs and framed art) will no longer be available through True Blue Music. - At the same time, True Blue Music will discontinue its jazz poster and jazz art offerings. - LAST CHANCE ON VINYL CLEARANCE SALE Unfortunately TheBestVinylShop.Com will shut done on January 31. With the exception of our Mosaic Records titles and the used LPs in Scott's Bargain Basement which are already nicely priced, we have put our entire inventory of LPs on sale. We have only one or two copies of many of these titles so it's first come, first serve.

Wow! Pinewood Derby. Brings back some great memories. My father, brother and I would spend a lot of time working on our cars. We always got our asses kicked, but no matter what place you finished back then, I can tell that right now - the memories are priceless. Thanks for that.

I should have mentioned that this is my local station. I remember back in the day - that WBFO had jazz on from 9AM-5PM daily and all kinds of jazz and blues stuff on the weekends. Jazz programming does still continue all night. We were lucky enough in Buffalo - during my formative years - to have a second station doing jazz - every evening and night from 8PM - 6AM. That station (WEBR)switched away from jazz at some point in the early 90s, I think. It was very nice to have that variety. I remember the host of the overnight jazz show on WEBR - Prez Freeland -"Your communicator and navigator" played some excellent stuff.

The last bastion of jazz programming in Buffalo - WBFO 88.7 - is dropping a huge chunk of jazz programming and replacing it with more NPR programs. 6 hours of additional NPR programming will force the daily 10AM-2PM jazz show off the air and push evening jazz to 10PM (from 8PM). On the weekends, 3 hours of blues programming is being replaced by NPR shows. Sign of the times, I suppose . Bummer.

Well I've seen this post hang out there all day and no one has touched it. So I'll ask.... I know, Reinier, that you're closer to what's going on at Mosaic than most here on the board. We also know that CD sales are dropping, that jazz CD sales are dropping even faster (or might have fallen into total irrelevance), that jazz in general is a very hard sell, that the jazz fan population is getting older, that the recession has really taken a dent out of disposable income, that major labels are closing down their jazz production, that it is more costly than ever to lease the material, and the the European copyright laws make it easy for certain labels to put out material at a bargain price. All that said, is your remark about Mosaic surviving the year based on fact? speculation? inside information? an educated guess? hear-say? an assumption based on all or some of the aforementioned factors?

Hmmm. That's something I'll definitely have to consider. Do you have any suggestions for beer?

Thanks all for the comments and keep 'em coming if there's anything to add. One of the things I'm trying to balance is touring the whole island vs spending more time in each place and proceeding at a more leisurely pace. I've actually got an alternate itinerary mapped out that eliminates the north and concentrates on the west, south and Dublin. I posted the one with more traveling because I wanted to gauge reaction as to whether I was biting off too much in a short period. Based on comments made thus far, it seems that might be the case. The comments thus far have been very helpful. Thanks

It looks like my wife and I will be heading to Ireland in late May or early June. We'll be doing a self drive tour. I'm looking for some recommendations or comments regarding the itinerary that seems to be shaping up, as well well as some stops along the route. Here's how it's looking so far: Day 1 - Fly into Dublin and spend all day night 1 there. Day 2 - drive to Belfast for night 2. Day 3 - Head to Derry by way of the Antrim Coast. Day 4,5 - Drive to Galway and spend a couple of nights there. Day 6 - over to Ballyvaughan in the heart of the Burren area Day 7,8,9 on to Killarney - we'll tour the ring of Kerry, Dingle Peninsula, and Killarney Park. Day 10 - On to Kinsale or Cobh in County Cork Day 11 - back to Dublin for our last night Day 12 - fly home I'm using the internet and tourbooks to help me locate some interesting stops along the way, but if any of you have ever been to Ireland and know some must see places that may or may not be in the tour books, any comments would be appreciated. Our evenings will be hopefully be spent enjoying some Irish pubs. But any jazz recommendations for Belfast or Dublin would be appreciated. We'll probably spend our days meandering through the countryside, stopping for lunch and to see a few sites along the way to our next destination. We'd like to catch some of the natural beauty - hence the extended stay in Galway and Killarney. We'd also like to see some of the historic site along the way - monasteries, Celtic sites, castles, etc. Any recommendations or comments appreciated.

So sorry to hear the news. I've read all of the responses and so many ring true. The feelings can be overwhelming. It's so easy to utter the "hang tough" mantra, but living it is quite another story. As someone who has walked the walk, I know very well the depths of depression to which one can sink. I also know the heights which one can attain with the passage of time, with time for the healing process to take place, and for life after divorce. As Jazzmoose mentioned, every divorce is different. Ideally, it should be civil and the kids should be impacted as little as possible. I learned the hard way that life and divorce can't always be ideal - so just try to make the best of every situation. And try to minimize the impact on the kids in whatever way you can. If you can remain on good terms with your ex - then by all means do so. If you can't, conduct yourself in a way that minimizes the tension between you in the eyes of the kids. I strive to do that every day - some days better than others. Try to maintain as much contact with your kids as possible. Like Aggie, I've got them every other week. But I know that's not always possible, but whatever time you have with them - make and/or keep it positive. You don't have to be Superdad. You have to be loving dad. You have to rise above however you may be feeling at the time. They know who you are. They'll know when you're trying too hard, or when you're not yourself. Sometimes loving dad means hanging out and watching movies or sports at home or just letting them be themselves, by themselves. Sometimes it's making sure that their homework is done. Other times it's doing stuff like movie theatres, shopping, sports event....whatever. They'll know when you're trying too hard... or trying to compete. So just be yourself. I can also speak with great enthusiasm to how nicely things can work out once you've re-started your life. People said the same thing to me and I basically wanted to tell them to f-off. But I can attest to how things can work out better than you'd have ever imagined. Life's a journey. You're on a very shitty part of it right now. Things will turn around. I'm living proof. Edit for spelling

Hard to tell. There's 2 piano players and they alternate songs. Couldn't hear the other one either. Excellent Brad. You probably know how I feel, especially given my son's professed dislike of jazz. I think he really enjoyed himself.

First Jazz Orchestra concert last night. The orchestra played very well - better than I expected. Most of the time, the piano (my son's instrument) was barely audible as there's quite a robust horn section - but it didn't matter. It was nice to see him up there. I was impressed to see a baritone sax, slide trombone, and vibes in the band. Nice percussion section too. The thing that really impressed me though - and this is a father thing - is how much of a young man he looked like. I'm very proud of him.

I was having this trouble at both home and work. I resolved it at home by switching to Firefox - which I like a lot. At work, all of our computers are locked down insofar as downloading is concerned - so I did not have that option. We're using Internet Explorer 7 and I get the posts with the huge blank spaces, forum freezing and all the words of a post aligned vertically along the left of the screen. Today, I noticed the little box in the lower left corner that says IP.Board. It's a drop-down box and gives the option to switch to IP.Board Lo-Fi. I tried that - and the board definitely takes on a Lo-Fi appearance - but all of those aforementioned posting abnormalities disappeared.

Thanks for the tip, Matthew. This might go down as my personal best deal ever - $7.99 plus 2.98 shipping. Unbelievable!

Having the same problem. What's the secret?

Bing