7/4

Same here! I'm planning on listening to a few this weekend and hopefully backing up a bunch and burning them this weekend.

No Soup Franchise for You! By GEORGE JAMES Published: June 26, 2005 MOVE to the left. Have your money ready. And by the way, don't mention ''Seinfeld'' or ''the N word.'' The Soup Man, immortalized in pop-culture lore by ''Seinfeld'' as ''The Soup Nazi'' -- is opening takeout shops in Princeton and Ridgewood in the next couple of months to kick off a national rollout of franchises. The company's logo features the unsmiling face of the Soup Man himself, Al Yeganeh, whose soup store on West 55th Street near Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, Soup Kitchen International, has attracted droves of customers since it opened in 1984. Unfortunately, as far as Mr. Yeganeh is concerned, one of those customers was Jerry Seinfeld, whose television comedy had an episode in 1995 that featured a cranky, demanding soup-store owner based on Mr. Yeganeh called -- to his continuing dismay -- ''The Soup Nazi.'' ''No soup for you,'' the character, played by Larry Thomas, would call out if a customer did not move or pay quickly enough. By all accounts, Mr. Yeganeh loathes the nickname, despite the fame it has granted him. He has been quoted as saying that he was famous before ''Seinfeld,'' and that the episode ruined his personal life. When the final ''Seinfeld'' was televised, he told David Letterman that he was glad ''this clown'' was going off the air. Yet, for all his protestations, Soup Kitchen International is doing something of a balancing act. Company officials say Mr. Yeganeh is sensitive to the Nazi reference; but the company mentions the ''Seinfeld'' connection in its literature and even on the packaging of its frozen-food line, which is scheduled to be sold in food markets in the next few months. ''We're very ginger about that whole thing,'' said John Bello, the chairman and chief executive officer of Soup Kitchen International, which will oversee the franchises, to be called ''The Original Soup Man.'' ''But the reality is, it was his soup and his store and the gestalt of the whole experience there that inspired the episode and, I think, drew a lot of attention to soup as a category and what Al was doing and took it to a new level.'' As Mr. Bello stood one recent day in the Rutgers Food Manufacturing Technology Facility here, the 31,000-square-foot building that has been serving as the company's temporary headquarters and production facility, he added, ''Would you be talking to us if that weren't out there?'' Mr. Yeganeh, who is in the process of writing a book, apparently finds such thoughts discomforting. In a rare interview for this article, primarily by e-mail messages with a brief follow-up phone call -- Mr. Yeganeh said that he had reprimanded a Toronto Globe and Mail reporter by e-mail for ''accusing'' Mr. Yeganeh in a news article of just such a thing: ''using Jerry Seinfeld to get publicity.'' Mr. Yeganeh has strict news media rules, which are in capital letters on the company's Web site, www.originalsoupman.com. Questions are to be sent by e-mail only. There are to be no follow-up questions and no mention of what he calls ''the N word.'' He has continued to avoid the news media even though he is starting a national business, letting Mr. Bello and other executives speak for the venture. For Mr. Yeganeh, it is the quality of his soup that matters most. He says that it will be made in only one facility, a plant in Indiana, under his supervision. ''Cleanliness for me is No.1,'' he said. Julie Ruth, an associate professor of marketing in the School of Business at Rutgers University's Camden campus, said that Mr. Yeganeh may have had some prominence because of the quality of his soup before ''Seinfeld,'' but that the show only enhanced it. And, she said, despite the negative connotation of ''Nazi'' and the TV character's brusqueness, the character had an endearing quality for viewers, which company officials are now trying to tap. ''There's something about this guy,'' she said. ''He's fallible in a way that troubles but also generates some warmth. It's nice to have things in life that aren't perfectly packaged. There's a certain authenticity.'' ''Given the number of people who watched 'Seinfeld,' and watch it now on repeats and on DVD's, it creates a continued buzz in the culture about that character,'' added Professor Ruth, an expert on how emotions play out in consumer behavior. For all of that, Mr. Bello said that in the end it is about the product, and he believes he has a premier one. Zagat, he notes, gave the New York store a 27 rating on a 30-point scale. Mr. Bello, an entrepreneur and a former president of NFL Properties, approached Mr. Yeganeh two years ago with an offer to create the soup franchises. So far the company has raised $5 million from investors, including the Hall of Fame baseball player Reggie Jackson, and projects $6 million to $10 million in sales this year. He expects to open 35 outlets by January with a goal of 1,000 in the United States and Canada within seven years. The first two, one on Chestnut Street in Ridgewood and another on Palmer Square in Princeton, are scheduled to open in September. The Soup Man store in Ridgewood will be in a former dress shop next to the Christian Science Reading Room. One of the merchants on the street, Bob Parlegreco, owner of the Chestnut Deli, says he is not worried about the competition. He sells two soups a day in spring and summer, and three to four in the winter: 12 ounces for $2.50 and 16 ounces for $3. ''I've been here 17 years and I sell a lot of soup,'' Mr. Parlegreco said. ''And I hear his soups are high-priced.'' By comparison, the price for 12 ounces of the Soup Man's offerings will range from $5 to $7 and higher for soups like lobster bisque, said Seb Rametta, the company's executive vice president. The soups will be sold mainly in kiosks in shopping malls, food courts, airports and other tourist destinations. New Jersey outlets, Mr. Bello said, will include Bridgewater Commons, Garden State Plaza in Paramus and the Willowbrook Mall in Wayne. ''You'll pick up your soup and get a piece of bread, your soda and a piece of chocolate in a way to replicate the experience you would have at Al's store in New York City,'' Mr. Bello added. Next!

A excuse to eat candy bars!

F*ck Dave's Birthday.....who's the blondie? I think she broke the cute meter... ...and...oh yeah, Happy Birthday David!

a likely story...

ah...the patch to the program takes over.

If someone doesn't know how to spell Shostakovich, they can just go to the forum and browse.

His solo lines are pretty strange and unique. I love Cloud About Mercury.

This is the web part of the interview, the magazine version is totally different (and more interesting).

I was at this.

Earlier in this thread, I posted the NY Times article about it. Ah, you just were programed to believe you did. -_- Give this a thought, eh? Wow.

Dmitri Shostakovich

...also open to discussion. All I have are the Emerson String Qts. and the Naxos & ECM Preludes and Fugues.

looking for recommendations on his symphonies.

You think that Forum didn't start out all nice and clean and neat? Its a slippery slope ... I don't think there were any votes over there, just the owner going wild.

Complete Mozart Piano Concertos, Anda or Brendel?...Beethoven Piano Sonatas...Recommended Classical Recordings Guide?

None of the people voting "yes" has even attempted to address this point by Dan. Would any care to try it? Guy ...there's that Terry Riley in the April 2007 Wire thread for starters...Concertos, Please Recommend ...

I'm sure it's in the archives. A play list would be real cool.

Memorable fests include the Jon Stevens and Sun Ra Memorials, plus Evan Parker, La Monte Young, Noise Festival, the Annual South Asian music festival...

There are the marathons (festivals) and then there are the annual birthday broadcasts.

Here's an example of a forum out of control. The Organissimo forum is in no danger of getting this bad.

I was at this service, if I think of anything to add, I will.

Ravi Coltrane on saxophone, with Jack DeJohnette on drums, paying tribute to Mr. Coltrane’s mother, Alice. May 19, 2007 Alice Coltrane Ascension Ceremony Recalling the Music and the Spirit of a ‘Mother of Many’ By NATE CHINEN The musical and the spiritual were inseparable during the Alice Coltrane Ascension Ceremony, a memorial held on Thursday night at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. In a lengthy but carefully organized program, a succession of musicians and speakers attested to a life of devotion. From a screen beside the altar, her projected image cast a beatific gaze. Ms. Coltrane, who died in January, was more than a jazz keyboardist and harpist and the widow of the saxophonist John Coltrane. After her husband’s death in 1967, she ventured deeper into spiritual study, adopting the name Swamini Turiyasangitananda and releasing albums with a forthright religious intent. In 1983 she founded the Sai Anantam Ashram in Agoura Hills, Calif., and it was there that she focused her energies for the rest of her life. This legacy set the tone on Thursday, as the saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, one of her two sons, acknowledged in his remarks. “She truly was the mother of many,” he said. Three years ago Ravi produced “Translinear Light” (Impulse), his mother’s first new album in 25 years. It placed Ms. Coltrane in the company of strong and sympathetic musicians, like the bassist Charlie Haden and the drummers Jack DeJohnette and Jeff (Tain) Watts. The ceremony included several songs that appear on that recording, in new renditions that filled the vaulting cathedral with a warm and enveloping sound. “Blue Nile,” which Ms. Coltrane originally recorded in 1970, received an especially meditative treatment. Rashied Ali, the drummer with whom she played in her husband’s late-period bands, cleared the air with a rasping snare-drum inquiry; the bassist Cecil McBee answered with a pizzicato solo. Then came Brandee Younger’s harp glissandi, and the melody, played in unison on two flutes by Steve Wilson and Gamiel Lyons. On the gospel-steeped ballad “Jagadishwar,” Mr. Coltrane played his tenor saxophone with Mr. Haden, Mr. Watts, the pianist Geri Allen and a modest string orchestra. “For Turiya,” a song Mr. Haden composed for Ms. Coltrane, was quieter and more effective. It began with Ms. Younger’s gently plucked strings in a music-box cadence, eased through a ruminative statement by Mr. Haden, and finally opened up to the sumptuous melancholy of the theme, which Ms. Allen played beautifully. Mr. Haden recalled that he had to beg Ms. Coltrane to record the song on harp in the mid-1970s. “I thought I had ascended into heaven, the way she played it,” he said. “It was so magnificent.” The other speakers in the ceremony were more literal about matters of the spirit. They included representatives from the cathedral, the ashram and the Integral Yoga Institute, which Ms. Coltrane also helped establish. J. J. Hurtak, a specialist in Hebrew mysticism, excitedly introduced a portion of the program featuring music from Ms. Coltrane’s forthcoming final album, “Sacred Language of Ascension.” (He left it to someone else to note that Thursday was Ascension Day, the occasion on the Christian calendar when Jesus Christ ascended to heaven.) “Mata” and “Universe,” the two pieces Mr. Hurtak introduced, were celestial and impressionistic. As performed by an orchestra and choir from the Sai Anantam Ashram, along with Mr. DeJohnette and the bassist Reggie Workman, the music nodded promisingly toward polyphony but ultimately faltered into vagueness. By contrast, the evening’s highlight was personal as well as spiritual in tone, and couldn’t have been clearer. It was “Translinear Light,” played by Mr. Coltrane on soprano saxophone, with Ms. Allen, Mr. Haden and Mr. DeJohnette. Every facet of their performance was gripping: the cascading piano arpeggios, the sophisticated shimmer of cymbals and drums. And in Mr. Coltrane’s searching improvisation, there was an extraordinary emotional tension, along with a spirit of surrender.

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...6&hl=rivers