Stefan Wood

Beijing My only regret with this one is that you can see a flaw in the lens -- oh well.

Added a new book, the second from my honeymoon in China. This is a sampling of the insanity that is Shanghai, during the World Expo. It was here I learned to push young kids and knee old ladies aside and get public approval for this. White Ghost has learned the proper social etiquette! Not a great city (looks like it was put together by someone using Sim City) but the old international quarter on the river is stunning. Shanghai

It's all film for the past few months. The China pics -- and there will be much more-- are digital.

Make sure you have Adobe Flash player or it will not work.

A personal note, especially for those who have been on this board from the beginning. For the past twenty years I have worked hard on my paintings; it has allowed me to stay creative. But I could never maintain a satisfying balance between that and having a nine to five job. And then life happens -- I bought my own place, years later get married, and moved out to the 'burbs. Commuting has killed any spare time during the day to squeeze in an hour or two of painting, and I have grown tired of reworking a canvas for months on end. So rather than beating my head against the wall in frustration, I have decided to put the brushes a side for the moment. I was looking at a book of photographs by Gerhard Richter, a prominent German painter and an artist I admire -- surprisingly a decent photographer! He said he could take 1000 pictures and be lucky to have one that would become a painting, but the process of looking was what was important. So I decided that this could work for me as well. I did get a Voigtlander (a Bessa L with a 25mm wide angle lens), and several others to experiment and started shooting. I have done this all summer and have found it liberating. For the first time in a long while, I feel good about what I am doing. I'm no camera genius, but it feels good to actively think about light and dark, color and composition again. I want to share these with you, and here is the link: http://www.adoramapix.com/kinggab/ Click the "Photo Books" tab and 4 books will come up.

Sun is out. In my area, it is as if nothing happened.

haven't seen skins yet in 2011- who is your qb????? Still don't know -- Grossman or Beck, but they have both looked efficient in the preseason. That's all one can hope for.

Go Skins. Will definitely improve over last year; I'm hoping for .500 this season.

Was in the basement at the National Gallery when the whole damn place started to shake. Bailed out onto the Mall, where a bunch of other people from other museums did the same thing. Frightening.

I have a bunch of his discs - one can order directly from him. Excellent player.

Persistence pays off! Congratulations!!

I've had both, and the first one is an excellent jazz prog album. "The early 70s green and purple Capitol label encapsulates so much of what I love about the 70s; The logo is sleek and minimalist, suggesting the post-Woodstock oil embargo aesthetic of solar energy and a future of free love within the sterile andromeda-strain environment of outer space. And the best music that came with this logo - notably David Axelrod or Axelrod-produced/arranged sessions for Cannonball Adderley - beautifully combines introspective psychotronic funk grooves with Planet-of-the-Apes mutant monk Godspell choirs, as filtered through a Cronenbergesque vision of a faux-benevolent pharmaceutical corporatocracy." TK, you are either in the running for Dusty Groove reviewer or an art critic. Both wax poetic but not a lot of substance.

Recently listened to both volumes of the double lp sets of Ladies Sing the Blues, on Savoy. Parts 5 and 12 of the great "Roots of Rock and Roll" series they did. Worth searching for in the record stores.

I'm big on twofers myself. The Fantasy stuff in particular, but also the Columbias, Impulses, MCAs, etc. Almost all in great sound, but you won't hear audiophiles trumpeting these, 'cause they were done in the 70's. Whatever.

Wow. Desperate times, desperate measures.

There will always be those who answer Kinks. Not me, though, although I empathize with the sentiment. And the rare one who would say The Pretty Things.

Ahh, that made me laugh. Thanks for pointing that listing out!

I watch football while listening to jazz. Have my cake and eat it too!

Agreed. Agreed.

Sounds like Harris with the speed just not right on the playback and/or recording.

What's this one? VIZJ 12 Weather Report/The German Concerts(Berlin '75,Offenbach '78,Cologne '83)6CD+DVD 6000

Delivery confirmation and the new international forms have kept the buyers honest, at least in my experience.

About time.

I am also partial to the Roulette lps.

Yeah, that's pretty amazing!