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This afternoon I noticed Blue John from last summer is also on '2 to 4 weeks.' I only know the original Blue John through YouTube, but the album does not click for me. Dull. The kind of organ date that doesn't appeal to me. Perhaps the much talked about bonus tracks are better. The Prestige 7000 series SHMs are also slowly disappearing.

The Spanish Solar release copies the sound of the Mosaic and adds a track or two to disc two. Their Cecil Taylor release does not copy the Mosaic sound. I've heard some Candid CDs are now CD-Rs.

I'll add them to the list on page one with links as soon as CD Japan lists them. A very desirable batch this time.

A large double wall glass of Darjeeling first flush preceded by bread with cheese and a cup of milk.

Would the Wounded Bird releases be any good sonically? No original sources perhaps? Both the Sony '77 & '81 are still available as blu-spec2s from CD Japan, and with the dollar currently on a high... link 1 link 2

350 pages into William Gibson's The Peripheral, I'm not convinced by the last 200+ pages, but I'll reserve judgement for now. I doubt this one ends up having a high re-readability factor. Ordered this last week.

BBC The High Art of the Low Countries. Last year, I watched this on BBC World Service, now on 1080p HD download. Now I love the BBC, but BBC 1 & 2 television are a load of rubbish. My cable subscription gives me access to both in HD, but the programming is awful. How many antiques shows can you schedule on a single afternoon/evening? The BBC is or used to be held in such high esteem, but I get the feeling that the most interesting programs are being broadcast on BBC 3 & 4. An upgrade in my subscription could get me BBC 3 & 4 HD as well, but I'm used to watching downloads as I please. Was this originally broadcast on BBC 3 or 4 in the UK? I'd like to think it was.

I heard a good needle drop of the Music Matters Point of Departure 45RPM and nice as the BN Works and Mosaic Box were they are clearly outclassed in detail by even that needle drop. That's welcome news!

What's still missing is early Andrew Hill: Black Fire, Smoke Stack, Point of Departure, Andrew!!!. Cecil Taylor's Unit Structures and Conquistador! would also be welcome. I've yet to hear the new HD Tracks releases of the last two.

Pretty much from the beginning of the opening track and throughout the album. The 1988 McMaster also had it. RVGs can make such distortion problems worse. The McMaster of Hank Mobley's Another Workout was bearable, but the RVG pumped up the sound and consequently the distortion.

The HD Tracks also has the distortion (on the trumpet I believe?) and that is based on the same Bernie Grundman transfer as the new SHM. It's in the recording.

At the Hoffman board, the Larry Walsh Connoisseurs are considered the greatest digital Blue Note prior to the release of the Gray/Hoffman SACDs and Yoshida Audio Wave XRCD24s. Personally, I think the Walsh Connoisseur of Smoke Stack is a piece of shit.

I was afraid the series would be discontinued. Great news.

24/30. Some guesswork, but having read two books on America's first two centuries in the past decade helped.

This forum specializes in running low, yet has a pretty high opinion of itself.

I promised myself to get a new amp and speakers by June. Any Mosaics that are on my list going last chance before then could spoil that party. I guess I'll take Lon's advice and find a way to preview some of the music. I do love Billy Holiday on Columbia, but my collection really begins with Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker in the forties.

I'll admit to being ignorant and having largely ignored Ellington's own recordings until now (I currently only have the underwhelming Impulse album with Coltrane). Will I regret not getting this later on? I generally prefer quartets/quintets over big bands and orchestras.

The 50th Anniversary CD seems currently unavailable at amazon.com. Probably to do with the sped up Vibrations? Probably best to eventually order through the label's site itself then.

Surface Detail is not considered a good starting point by most. Usually one of the first three novels is recommended for people new to the Culture. I disagree. With the first three (Consider Phlebas, Player of Games, and Use of Weapons) his mature prose style was not yet formed. Neither had the Culture been completely sketched out. That only happened with the fourth novel, Excession, the greatest of them all. Consider Phlebas is overrated in my opinion and not told from a Culture perspective. Player of Games begins to sketch out the human and drone (only a relatively modest degree smarter than humans) side of the Culture. Use of Weapons is more a (human) psychological novel with an unusual structure. Both POG and UOW focus on the Culture's Contact arm intervening in foreign civilizations for the greater good. Later novels feature the ship and orbital Minds (incredibly advanced and godlike AIs) as major characters with psychological depth. Minds are what make the Culture tick. Excession is the Mind novel and therefore you'd benefit from some prior introduction to the Culture beyond what a web article (see below) could provide you. Good first Culture novels are Player of Games (keeping in mind it is an early work), Look to Windward, and, after an introduction provided by some web articles, also Surface Detail. The Hydrogen Sonata is his sublime last Culture novel published shortly before Banks discovered he had only months to live. Ironically it deals with death and immortality. Ignore Inversions and Matter for the time being. In 1994 Banks wrote an essay called A Few Notes On the Culture which was posted on a newsgroup by Ken MacLeod. An io9 introduction to the Culture can be found here.

I've got a gemeentelijke identiteitskaart for this reason (municipal ID card, let's you travel around the EU). I don't have a driver's license and don't feel like carrying a passport around. I suppose when it becomes time for me to own a passport again I am in trouble, since you're allowed to own only one or the other.

Aw, come on; you can't post that and not comment! I had just come back from the bookstore! I used to read William Gibson and other US science fiction authors in high school. The last Gibson I read was Virtual Light in 1995. I only started reading science fiction again in 2010 when I discovered Iain M. Bank's Culture novels through io9.com. My first Banks was Surface Detail. Last year I reread Neuromancer. It was still very good and a much easier read now that my English has vastly improved.

See, that's the thing...I'm not that knowledgeable in any field, but I can take tests with the best of them. It was a useful talent in school, but now it's only called on when threads like this are posted... I'm horrible with spelling and rote learning in general. I do enjoy grammar and reading well-written prose.

Now I'm confused. Is it randy?