BruceH

A lot of people think the best jazz club around is Yoshi's, but that's in Oakland, not SF. It's near Jack London Square.

The Remains

Way back when I found a cheap German pressing of Aftermath, by the Stones. Yum.

Good point! $750K can allow you to buy your way out of a very deep hole. Personally, you'd find me in sunny New England, vacation capitol of the world!

I'd take the $750k, move to the Bay Area, and buy one-fourth of a house. Woopeee!

Moose, you know I love ya, but you be a friggin' idiot! C'mon, guys, Moose has GOT to be kidding! Obviously. ....Right, Moose?

I think Adventure is an underrated album (the only real problem is that side two isn't as good as side one). I, too, would have mentioned The Feelies and The Soft Boys (and Wire) but I felt the list was getting long as it was. I've since gotten CD copies of quite a few of the albums on my list, but for me there's nothing to compare with the experiance of buying an intriguing LP, getting it home, putting the needle in the groove, and having it blow your mind.

Best wishes!

Right now the Morgan/Shorter. I seem to come back to it the most. The Mobley's right up there, of course, as are about 10 others.

Welcome, Selim! What's some of your favorite jazz?

Good question. I have not, so I'm also curious. They've gotten a lot of attention, but I'm still not sure they're worth a go.

Eventually there'll be one international music company. (And everyone will hate it.)

Sad news. So many child actors seem to go that route. I heard that the guy who played Eddie Haskell eventually became a policeman. Imagine being pulled over by Eddie Haskell!!!!

Hell yeah, I read Dune and Canticle in high school. Never got on board for the rest of the Dune series, though. Chris, have you read Vinge's Peace War and Marooned In Realtime? They're lesser-known novels from the 1980's that deserve to be better known, IMHO. The latter, in particular, is a sort of minor classic. I believe they've recently been re-issued. (Finally.) Then there's the Real Names book, which gives him a claim to having anticipated the whole cyberpunk movement by several years.

Lately I've been reading Books Into Film (the Stuff that Dreams are Made of) by Robin H. Smiley. Each chapter is just two or three pages long; he writes about the book that a movie (or movies) is based on, then contrasts the film made from it: is it a good adaptation, are the changes justified, does it work well on its own terms, etc. There are famous examples like The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep, but plenty of obscure things too. Fascinating. The Hustler isn't here, oddly, and you'll probably find other omissions, but it's an almost endless subject really. This is a collection of a column he writes for "Firsts" a book-collector's magazine, which is why each chapter ends with info about the first edition of the book in question. Here's hoping he does a second volume. Chrome--I must have read that A.M. Holmes story collection! It was years ago, and the only story I have any memory of is the brother with the barbie-doll one. I'm not sure what that says about me...

Chris---I tried the Peter Hamilton mega-trilogy you mentioned, but got bogged down. Love the background though. Vinge! I'm a big fan. In a sense he's not a new writer, as he had a short story published in 1969. The important work is from the last 20 years though. I too tend to go for the "new" wide-screen Space Opera among recent stuff. Moose, no need to feel bad. Brown was probably one of the few Freds who spelled it "Fredric."

Christmas morning, always and forever! The trick is to have all the presents opened within 30 minutes (more likely 15).

Oh contraire! When Nick added it to the lineup (briefly) two or three years ago, I got into it all over again, dumb as it is. No doubt the nostalgic memories of watching it almost every night as a kid helped. There's something about that show that just hyp-no-tizes kids. My wife told me how she and her brother watched it like everyone else their age, but her parents couldn't understand because they thought it was the stupidest thing they'd ever seen in their lives. That reminds me---bring back Get Smart!

Is that like the "paperless office" we've also been hearing so much about for so long?

I will gladly volunteer to be a regional storage facility for old BN titles. My rates are very reasonable!

At least TVland still shows Leave It To Beaver. I wish someone would start showing Gilligan's Island again----my kids love that show!

Very, very good points, Al. Your entire post gives plenty of food for thought, but I particularly agree with the above quotes. I've long considered Open Sesame to be a kind of "extra" Tina Brooks album, his work on that is so outstanding! Perhaps that's one reason I've always sought out Brooks's sideman dates; that his work with the likes of Kenny Burrell and Jimmy Smith and Hubbard sounds so good because his lack of nervousness due to being out of the leader spotlight allowed him to be more totally himself. This makes one speculate what might have been had his recording career (and life) lasted much longer. Perhaps he would have eventually gained self-assurance and maturity as a leader... At this point, who can say?

Hell, I've been re-reading Brown lately! Getting in touch with my inner nerd, I got Nesfa Press's From These Ashes: The Complete Short Fiction of Fredric Brown, and it's companion Martians and Madness, which collects all his sf novels. As a kid I only read What Mad Universe among his novels. (Wonder if I should check out any of his mysteries.) Some of his short stories are among my all-time favorites, such as "Arena" and "Puppet Show." He was also a master of the short-short. I also forgot to mention William Tenn, Stanley G. Weibaum, James Schmitz, as well as others I'm sure. Like Ursula K. LeGuin, for instance...damn, once I start I can't stop. No more!

The Asimov/Foundation connection is the first thing I thought of when I first saw The Mule's handle as well. Nice to see that I'm not the only one. Growing up I was very much on the same reading track as jazzbo, particularly with respect to Pohl & Kornbluth, Niven, and Zelazny. Also Heinlein, Damon Knight, Kuttner & Moore, Sturgeon, Stapledon, Simak, Disch, Silverberg, Robert Sheckley, Gardner Dozois, Philip K. Dick, Leiber, Piper, and some guy named Sterling. I also branched out and kind of left sf behind, but now I read some occasionally. I must admit I felt a surprising twinge of grief when I heard the news of Damon Knight passing away recently. He was about the last of the old guard, other than Arthur C. Clark. Perhaps it was an uncomfortable reminder of the passage of time.

I think the Emerson version is the only one I have of these quartets, so I can't very well compare and contrast too much. Sounds good to me.