vibes

Best wishes for you and your family, Tom. Steve

I wonder what our non-American friends think of this stuff. Do you find it accurate? I'd love to hear some opinions. I read some information similar to this about Chinese people before going to China, and found much of it to be inaccurate.

I really like these: Greg Osby - Inner Circle Jason Moran - Black Stars

I'm pretty sure the beginning of "Ginza Samba" from the Stan Getz with Cal Tjader CD is played in a Nike/Finish Line commercial I saw yesterday.

NJStar Chinese input system, Big5 code. I'm surprised that it even works here. I can't read your site, unfortunately. The code's all messed up when I try to view it.

I find this CD a bit underwhelming. For me, nothing too exciting happens. It's an OK session, but I can think of at least 10 other Grant Green sessions I'd rather listen to.

When my wife gave me this set for my birthday last year, I'd never even heard Johnny Hodges' music before. It's well worth the purchase, especially if you're into swing. The mastering is very good and there's a lot of great music in the box. Like others, I can't help but wonder how much longer it will be out there, considering the recent situation with the Stuff Smith set. Get the Hodges while you can.

I watch MTV2 when I work out in the mornings sometimes, and I've found some of this stuff catchy too. Jet and the White Stripes, in particular, have a couple of pretty decent songs out there. I don't know that they're catchy enough to make me want to buy their CD's, but I'd considering downloading a song or two from iTunes or whatever.

I paid a little bit more than that when I bought it on eBay about a year ago or so. The CD's were sealed and I've probably listened to this set more than the other 30 or so Mosaic sets that I have, so I've never regretted the purchase.

歡迎﹗

Marine, I believe it's these five: Desmond Blue Take Ten Bossa Antigua Easy Living Glad to be Unhappy This is a fantastic set. You won't be disappointed. Paul Desmond and Jim Hall made a great team.

Guy, I haven't heard it, but you can get the SACD hybrid for $13.99 from CD Universe, which seems like a fairly reasonable price to me. Out There

China, in fact, has a massive gender imbalance due to the one-child policy -- I read somewhere that there is a surplus of about 50 million males. This could lead to massive social unrest! Guy p.s. I wonder if it will get to the point where China starts importing brides from the rest of the world. Or exporting husbands, for that matter. Guy, you are correct. I wasn't referring to China, but rather to the population of a country in general (although, I can see how I could have written that in a less ambiguous fashion). The early years of the one-child policy were a disaster in terms of balancing the population in China, simply because Chinese society has always placed a higher value on males than females - people frequently killed female babies or abandoned them just so they could have another chance at having a son. Fortunately, the one-child policy isn't as stricly enforced in rural areas now, where the problem was most serious. On my last visit there, I actually saw signs promoting larger families in a few small towns. China's a long way off from importing brides, if you ask me. Most Chinese couldn't afford to do so, and most people don't want to live in China anyway.

I find a very strong King Crimson influence in this album, most noticeably in the drums and some of the guitar tones I've heard a lot of these references to King Crimson. I guess I should go check them out, since I've never heard any of their music before.

I should also say that the idea sounds appealing to me simply because I like the idea of having a daughter (I don't have any children yet), but based on my heritage, it seems less likely that I'll have one. There are four boys and one girl in my family. There were two boys and one girl in my father's family. There were seven boys and 3 girls in my grandfather's family. Knowing this, being able to select the gender of my child sounds somewhat appealing.

Pricey, so it doesn't look like it will be widespread any time soon. Regardless, I don't have a problem with the idea. When I first heard about this, the first thing that came to mind was the implications from widespread use of this technology, especially in places like China, where one gender is favored over another. Upsetting the natural gender balance in the population could have disastrous effects down the road.

Claude, you bastard... It's a good thing I'm running XP. My machine is very stable, and I was able to just close all the windows at once using the task manager.

I have the CD but am too lazy to go to the trouble of playing with it to see if it works. Regardless of whether or not it does work, "Lateralus" is an excellent album. Tool's music can be challenging to listen to at first, but repeated listens are extremely rewarding. I've listened to this CD dozens of times in the last few months. Definitely one of the best rock releases in the last decade.

I use IE 6.0, and while I saw the picture, my CD-ROM was not opened. Perhaps I have my security set up differently...

It pays to scroll down...

Can anyone verify that that list is correct? I have "Jazz Guitar" and "New Bottle, Old Wine," but they don't look like the few WCC releases I have, such as "Bud Shank and Bill Perkins" or the Brookmeyer. The Shank/Perkins is probably my favorite of the few I have. I have the Curtis Amy Select and was listening to "Katanga" for the first time yesterday, and that's a good album too. I never was a huge fan of the instrument, but Amy's soprano is some of the most bearable I've ever heard.

What happened to RonF, anyway?

Geoff, overall, I like what you've written. I think it takes a lot of guts to share your thoughts with this crowd, especially considering that you're relatively new to the board. One small piece of advice - proofreading is very important. I believe there's one instance where you refer to "Some Other Stuff" as "Some Other Time." Watch the punctuation, especially the commas. Also, be sure to be consistent with capitalization. For example, if you're going to capitalize the name of an instrument in one place, it's probably best to be consistent and capitalize all instrument names in your article (although, I can't recall seeing this done in any publication I've read). Again, overall, I like what you've written. Keep the reviews coming!

A good pair of gloves is a must. I find my hands get cold faster than any other part of my body. Sometimes I leave my gloves in the car and getting into a cold car and having to touch a freezing cold steering wheel is not the most pleasant thing in the world.

Philly, is your site using Big5 code? My Chinese OS is having trouble decoding whatever you're using on your site, so it all comes out as 亂碼。 I frequently have this problem with Chinese boards. I've love to be able to browse your site.