Rooster_Ties

The latest from DC… https://www.npr.org/2021/12/28/1068417547/the-nations-capital-is-the-worst-place-for-covid-19-infections-right-now

Me too!!!

Me too; still on hold.

Anyone else feel like most solo Brad Mehldau recordings — at least all of the live ones I’ve ever heard — sound almost like an entirely different player and totally different concept, than Mehldau’s sublime trio work? — with its usually intricate and sympathetic interplay with the rest of his band. I like both, mind you — and I’ve heard both live too (in person). But it’s like two different worlds. I’m tempted to chalk it up to one HUGE difference, that being the liberal use of the sustain petal in Brad’s solo playing, almost building up walls of sound. It’s muddy as hell, but the effect can be sometimes almost trance inducing for the listener (maybe for Brad too? — I couldn’t say). Half of me thinks the solo Mehldau live is just brilliant, and miles above my head. But half of me occasionally wonders if the relentless ‘sustentation’ isn’t also a bit of a cheap parlor trick. Maybe a little of both? NOTE: I’m NOT talking about the more contrapuntal solo studio playing Brad does, like Elegiac Cycle and the like (some 20 years ago). But the more muddy sonic melange of some of his more recent solo live stuff (I seem to remember an 8 CD box I did a short deep dive on, from online streaming sources a couple years ago, iirc). All of Mehldau’s music — when I’m in the right mood for it (which isn’t always) — is just otherworldly, even as different as his solo live stuff is from his trio stuff.

This looks quite interesting. By chance, is there much or even any mention of Lennie Tristano and his compatriots?

So say we all. What a really great guy. Thanks for digging up his avatar too, Chuck. Fond memories.

Larry, did your account get hacked?

Just got a surprise ‘present’ in my mail from yesterday (just getting it today)… A jury summons!!

Funny, I’ve got my Tristano-Konitz-Marsh box on today too, probably in anticipation of the new Tristano box coming in the next week or so. This music is just divine, and the perfect mood for a laidback (solitary) Christmas Day. My wife’s visiting her folks back in Kansas City for a week, but I had to work around the holiday (except today) and I couldn’t shake loose to join her. I’m especially warming to Warne, who I took to the more slowly of the three when I first got this set about a year ago (thanks to a kind soul on the board who let me have it in a trade).

Merry, merry! Many, many of you have probably heard this David Sedaris annual 7-minute holiday favorite on NPR — for a quarter century, around Dec 23rd… https://www.npr.org/2021/12/23/1065187420/david-sedaris-santaland-diaries Well just yesterday I discovered there’s a greatly expanded half-hour version delivered by Sedaris himself, from This American Life… https://www.thisamericanlife.org/47/christmas-and-commerce/act-two-16 Also available here: I haven’t even had the chance to listen to it myself, but it’s on my docket for later today. Enjoy!

I stumbled on a $2 promo CD of Young at Heart in a bargain bin in the early 2000’s, and snapped it up for sure at that price. No liners, and a generic tray card — but the music is wonderful. Right or wrong, I’ve always filed it with my other Mulgrew leader-dates — being “just a” piano trio, after all.

Paul! How the hell are you?! It's been like 5 years. Good to have you back!

What's not transparent about trying to strongly-encourage, strongly-incentivize people getting fully vaccinated? Or providing disincentives to NOT getting vaccinated. Seems pretty transparent to me -- and from all I've seen and read, these measures save lives.

Btw, meant to ask, spam folder?

Hell, I almost wonder if this could ending up being THE(?) most historically significant Mosaic yet. Hard to tell, not having heard it yet — but on paper, it does seem to have that potential. Maybe? (Cart before horse? Check!)

Good point. Nobody has to pre-order. In fact, this is the very first Mosaic set I’ve ever preordered — because for years I normally would wait until something I wanted got on the “running low” list — at which point I would order every single thing they had that I wanted (then), in order to save a ton on shipping. So I’d only order anything at all from Mosaic about once every 4 years or so, but they were pretty big orders ($400-$500, once even more than that even, iirc) — for which my “per item” shipping costs were about $1-$2 per item. I just wanted to get in line quick as I could, because I’m pretty damn excited about this set — as much as any Mosaic ever, save for the Andrew Hill Blue Note Select (which is my all-time most anticipated Mosaic ever).

I don’t know what else to say. Real-world implementation of stuff doesn’t always result in an ideal system. And even decent systems might still not handle everything equally well. “Preorders” might by this system’s Achilles’ heel — and even then, maybe only in the language (boilerplate) communicated to users used to the cues generated by the former system. And resources (money and/or time, where time=money) aren’t always in enough abundance to test and or train for every circumstance. Also, there are often two or more ways within a system to handle the same function — but often with different pros and cons — and they may be trying a couple different ways to process “preorders”. Or a prior configuration decision made before go-live, may have had unintended consequences, and they might be needing to having to handle preorders differently now. Yes, yes, yes — a ton of conjecture on my part — guilty as charged. Back circa 1994-2003, I used to work doing software implementation for a company of several thousand (with a dozen factory and engineering locations throughout the country). I at least used to know a thing or two about this stuff.

The Museum I work for — and I’ve been working in the Museum Shop now since we reopened to the public back in April — just got a new point-of-sale system in October. And I can tell you that the training doesn’t cover everything, and the more “out of the box” the system is that you’ve bought into, the less “beta-testing” there’s probably going to be. You might have LIKED to have a lot more specific training, and user-acceptance testing — but it can be a lot more learn-as-you-go (and more than a bit of trial-an-error) that anyone would like. That’s the reality of how a lot of these things go.

I think the fact that it’s a pre-order is the difference. Plus this is the first time they’ve ever done a pre-order under this new system too, and Scott and Michael are kind of still learning some of the ropes (or at least the parts of the system that take orders without running the credit card, but still capturing the cc and shippjng info).

The email confirmation I got had what I imagine is boilerplate language from the software, for an order that hasn’t been charged yet… Thanks for your order. It’s on-hold until we confirm that payment has been received. In the meantime, here’s a reminder of what you ordered:

I’d bet their new web-store has a slightly different terminology for handling “pre-orders”. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they’re having to put these pre-orders into an “on hold” status for now, since they don’t want your credit card to be processed until right close to the actual shipment date. The software might have been configured a little better to handle pre-orders — but that just as easily could have required a software customization Mosaic (rightfully) didn’t want to pay for. My guess is the Tristano release is currently set to require manual approval on each order, and then “putting them on hold” is the best or easiest (or only) way they have to collect pre-orders (addresses, and credit-card info, etc) — even if the status language doesn’t entirely match our expectations. (Honestly, I wouldn’t worry too much about it.)

Ordered!!

Absent anything new to post in this thread (and still hoping someone will consider my prior post right above this one)… …here’s some ‘shredding’ on “Wow”

Which store in St. Louis?, and about when? (I grew up outside of St. Louis, but my jazz interest didn’t hit until late in my college years, ~1989) And where in KC? (but I didn’t live there until ~1994). But I’m assuming Music Exchange and Pennylane. Or maybe Recycled Sounds?

Nailed it.