BruceH

Those and his work with the Duke Ellington band were the first things that came to my mind on hearing the news. RIP

I always thought it was "Filly-us"---first part rhymes with "silly" the second with "US" and in "rust" or "must." But that's just me, and I'm usually wrong about such things.

Also, shouldn't the title of this thread be, "The day the MUZAK died"?

I don't understand how they got loaded down with so much debt! What, did they start a sideline in subprime mortgages or morgage-backed securities?

Circuit City was crappy. It was a relief when it died around here in the early 2000's.

I never shopped there much.

I started reading Francis at least 3 or 4 years before I started listening to his future wife! So, yes, it did cross my mind.

When the person is deceased, isn't it called an "anniversary of birth" rather than "birthday"? In any case, Happy 200th Anniversary, guys!

The theremins I've heard sound a bit bright to have no harmonics. That's why they sound bright - the harmonics. I don't need to go to a Physics lab, I can just turn on a synthesizer to hear a sine tone. To me the theremin has always sounded like a weird blending of the mechanical and the vocal. (BTW, anyone who, like me, thrilled to repeats of the original The Day the Earth Stood Still on TV at the age of six, will always have a soft spot for the theremin.)

Rollin' With Leo (Leo Parker) Amazing that they're still able to put something out on RVG that I want. This one's nice.

I've long toyed with the notion of buying that album, but since I stopped being a teenager in 1981, it's been barred from me ever after.

I've got both of those, and they're both very good.

Yes, the whole family watched it.

Yes, while I wouldn't go so far as to use the word schadenfreude because one doesn't like to see all these businesses that people depended on for their livelihood go under, it's still a strange thing to contemplate all these dead or dying malls. It was the shopping mall that killed off so many main street and downtown shopping districts across the country in the 50's, 60's, and 70s. Then droves of the malls are suddenly killed off by the "big-box store" phenomenon, and now (after, what, barely 10 or 15 years?) the big-box chains are being killed by online shopping and the ailing economy. It's enough to make your head swim.

Are you re-visiting the science fiction of your youth, or just getting into it for the first time? That's not meant to be a snarky question as I myself have been revisiting the sf of my youth, off and on, for the last decade or more. I first read these in the seventies, when I was in my thirties. Does that count as "youth"? Maybe, maybe... I'd say anything that's 30 years or more ago probably does. I noticed that you recently read some classic Poul Anderson and James Blish (Cities In Flight) and I couldn't keep silent any longer. Back in the seventies, did you ever check out The Science Fiction Hall of Fame short story collection, or the giant Science Fiction Argosy anthology edited by Damon Knight? I hadn't heard of either of those, but have just bought a used copy of Science Fiction Hall of Fame on Amazon. Thanks for the tip! American publications have always been far less evident here than British ones, and that goes for SF authors, too. In my "real" youth, i.e. teenage years, I read Wells, Wyndham and some Clarke, and later Ballard when he came along. I didn't read any American SF until my thirties. I didn't get on to PKD until a few years ago and have read several of his recently, as well as lots of other American writing from the "classic era", as you have noticed! Funny, the British authors you mention were all available here in the States when I was growing up, and I read them all, especially Clarke. I liked his non-fiction too.

I think that may be the crucial difference right there. With a really good sitcom you take a an episode from the third or fourth season (as long as the writers are still running on all cylinders) and everyone in the cast is really in the groove, in the right wavelength, whatever you want to call it, and it's just chemistry, it COOKS. OTOH, early in the first season, everyone's liable to be still feeling their way into their roles and how they interact with their fellow performers, their director, their crew, etc. That doesn't mean that things can't click pretty fast sometimes, but later on you're more likely to get that magical feedback effect.

Best of luck, Shawn!

Are you re-visiting the science fiction of your youth, or just getting into it for the first time? That's not meant to be a snarky question as I myself have been revisiting the sf of my youth, off and on, for the last decade or more. I first read these in the seventies, when I was in my thirties. Does that count as "youth"? Maybe, maybe... I'd say anything that's 30 years or more ago probably does. I noticed that you recently read some classic Poul Anderson and James Blish (Cities In Flight) and I couldn't keep silent any longer. Back in the seventies, did you ever check out The Science Fiction Hall of Fame short story collection, or the giant Science Fiction Argosy anthology edited by Damon Knight?

Thanks for that! A fascinating site. The article on the Methuen Mall in Massachusetts really took me back because I grew up on that place. I was raised in Andover, right next door to Methuen, and for years that mall was the almost the only one in the whole area. The old Shopper's World in Framingham, MA was an interesting old place, only the second suburban mall built in the United States. I'm now glad that my wife and I checked it out several times in the late 80's when it still had the dome-topped Jordan Marsh at one end. All gone now.

I'm not an O.P. fan, but I agree with you there. Oscar doesn't get in the way of Ben on this record. Beautiful playing all around. Many s. I tend to agree, and find it amusing that Peterson seems to get accolades simply for "not getting in the way" of the soloist. I've often said such things myself when I happened to like an Oscar Peterson sideman appearance.

Are you re-visiting the science fiction of your youth, or just getting into it for the first time? That's not meant to be a snarky question as I myself have been revisiting the sf of my youth, off and on, for the last decade or more.

I've long had them together on a domestic disc.

The former.

OMG!

A very readable and informative book.