patricia

Any particular version really stand out for you? Really hard to choose a favourite, since they are so different from each other. I've always loved Jones' take, but Laine/Belefonte was surprisingly alive and vibrant. Louis and Fitzgerald are brilliant. Miles Davis' version was the very first P&B I had in my collection, so it holds a special place. His is passionate and amazingly innovative as I consider all his work, no matter the period in his career. He did lose me for a few years, during his fusion explorations, but the sheer total work over decades stands as a giant now, crossing genres and evolving magnificently.

"Porgy and Bess" Hank Jones "Porgy and Bess" Cleo Laine and Harry Belefonte [amazingly good!] followed by "Porgy and Bess" Miles Davis "Porgy and Bess" Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald

OK guys. I admit it. I saw and purchased "Blue Christmas", by Elvis Presley. It set me back $1 for a mint copy. I had this when it was first released and it is still a very good album for Christmas listening, I think.

The soundtrack from "Crossroads", which features Ry Cooder compositions and performances. Hokey film, [yet another variation of Faust ], great soundtrack for those who like Delta Blues. Before that, one of my favourite Dixieland clarinet-players, the fabulous Pee Wee Russell on the two record set, "Pee Wee Russell and His Dixieland All Stars" You haven't heard "Birth of the Blues", til you've heard Pee Wee's take on it. This collection also features George Wettling on drums, as well as Buster Bailey, Vic Dickenson, Milt Hinton, Marty Napoleon and Rex Stewart. Fine collection!!

Harold, you're lucky that my father didn't see you do that. Stacking records on the spindle was [i think, never tested the law] a hanging offence in our house when I was growing up. I still remember Dad's answer when, having seen other people stacking many records on the spindle, thus avoiding having to get off the sofa to put another, I asked him why we never did that? He said that the records would be damaged when the next record dropped on them. [He might have added that "All the records might fall onto the playing tonearm, MASHING it into the record.................", but he didn't have the actual experience of that happening, as you clearly did.] My condolances on the near-demise of your "Blues Is King" album. So sad.

I actually didn't trash this album, but I've been looking for a replacement ever since. It was an early Little Richard LP, with straight rhythm and blues and gospel on it. The title of the album escapes me, but I remember that it was black with diagnol turquoise on the cover and this is what happened. Foolishly I lent it to my older brother who took it, and some of his albums to a party. He chucked them all in the back window of his '56 Ford and forgot about them. The next day was hotter than the hubs of Hell and MY record was on top of the pile. It got warped to the point that it looked like one of those scallopy sea-creatures. To this day I look at him with a pronounced gimlet eye.

I found a really interesting record the other day [pressed in 1959 on Sparton]. It's unusual in that it, apparently, was created in order to test the excellence of people's stereo systems. The record is called "Persuasive Percussion". It has a tracklist of familiar stuff, [Misirlou, I Surrender Dear, My Heart Belongs To Daddy, Japanese Sandman etc.] but each track is designed to use some aspect of your sound system, to test it. This was back when everybody was wowed by how stereo could make sound jump from one set of speakers to the other. Each track tells you, on the detailed fold-out cover what quality you should be checking. As the album's title suggests, there are lots of different percussion instruments, from regular drums, to congas, to a pretty impressive xylophone, as well as an organ and a guitar and chimes [they sound like wind-chimes]. It's really fun to listen to and the personel were: Tony Mottola, Willie Rodriguez, Dick Hyman, Jack Lesberg, Teddy Sommer, Artie Marotti, Stanley Webb and Dominic Cortese.

My two favourites: "Manhatten Murder Mystery" "Small Time Crooks" Least favourite: "Celebrity" [usually I like Kenneth Branaugh, but he's no Woody]

OR, [a hanging offence IMO], people who pick up the tonearm while the music is playing and carelessly drag it across the surface of the record, causing a scratch, which can't be repaired. When I was little, my dad let no one touch his records, but him. He kept them in a locked cabinet, which at the time struck me as obsessive. He would carefully take the record out of it's sleeve, by it's edges and carefully place it on the turntable to play it. If you treat your vinyl right, it's almost indestructable. That "nick" you mentioned concerns me, not because of the record, although that's permanent and annoying, but whether the slight scratch will damage your needle.

My father's collection of jazz from the thirties and forties, lovingly taken care of through the years, plays as well, or better, because of the better needles and turntables, now as it did when it was new. He ALWAYS put each record back in it's paper sleeve, then into it's cover, after each use, storing them on their edges. This keeps the dust, dirt and scratches at bay. Much more damage is done, IMO, by people who stack their records on a spindle to play them, or, worse, chuck them on the floor, in piles, waiting until they are finished playing records to finally put them away. I wouldn't hesitate to play my vinyl, even if it was being gradually worn away during the process. It will last, with luck, long beyond my children's old age.

I [looking down, overcome with shame, kicking the sand] hereby resolve to cease and desist using this one as I have been guilty of doing. Why have I done it?? Some diabolical force compelled me to do it, for which I am truly sorry.

I love this album! I have to admit my copy is cd. Shame, shame, shame on me! I forgive you. It was only chance that mine is vinyl. I am always amazed at what people give to the Salvation Army and to Goodwill. We don't have such a charitable organizations for vinyl lovers! Even yard sales and second-hand stores quite often have old vinyl, discarded by misguided philostines, I've found. If you can shelve your discomfort at sifting through old lamps and rejected clothing, it's possible to score some great stuff for as little as fifty cents a disc. I must confess though that I prefer to go to a vintage vinyl place in the barred-window section of town for old records, even though I have to pay up to twenty dollars for some two-record sets. The average price there is around eight dollars. It was months before I realized that they kept their JazzTones in a separate section, although they were in the eight to ten dollar range. In short, a goldmine!! Also, it wouldn't hurt to do what a dear friend of mine does. He checks the obituaries and waits for yardsales in old sections of town by the wife of the deceased. I frowned when he told me this, but it makes sense. On that note, I was, as I think I mentioned earlier, gifted with a new turntable by a friend in his early twenties, who had never listened to a record and didn't know what a "45" was. It is a marvelous turntable, although, unlike the one I had previously, it has no "78" speed. We who love vinyl are a dying breed, it seems. My children are just a little embarrassed that I still listen to records, although I do, of course have CD's as well as audio-tapes, though no 8-tracks. [i would be, oddly, embarrassed to still have those.] Funny story. I know a man who made a little T-shaped side table from old 8-tracks and tons of duct-tape. He seemed surprised that his lovely wife refused to have the table in their living room. ............................... Back on topic, spinning right now, "Lena Horne At The Astoria". [mint. yard-sale. One dollar.]

I love this album! I have to admit my copy is cd. Shame, shame, shame on me! I forgive you. It was only chance that mine is vinyl. I am always amazed at what people give to the Salvation Army and to Goodwill.

"Great Scott!! Ragtime, Minus You" Scott Joplin collection which came with a music book with sheet music for all the tracks on the record. For the longest time I wondered why the album cover still felt weighty, even after the record was on the turntable. DUH! Previously, "Woody Herman, 40th Anniversary Concert at Carnegie Hall" and Johnny Clegg & Savuka "Shadow Man".

OK. I'm not a big or frequent drinker, but there was one incident that my friends still remember. I was leaving a job where I had been for several years, to move to CA. My office-mates took me to a nearby pub, right after work, to say goodbye to me. I had not eaten at all, all day so it didn't take long for me to feel the effects of the six glasses of wine and one annesette I had imbibed. I looked fine, apparently, but I was seriously wasted. The conversation turned to what my friends should have done to mark my departure. Somebody suggested that we should have had a get together at somebody's house and hired a buff stripper, in honour of my leaving. Just then, one of my friends' husbands appeared on the scene and heard the suggestion which had been made. He said that, should the occasion arise in which we would require a stripper, he would be happy to fill that role, gratis. He was a very unattractive, ninety-eight pound mechanic, still in his work clothes, dirty baseball cap on his head, atop very greasy-looking hair. In short, yuchh. So, I turned to him and said, in a very dignified voice, "Lorne, who among us has not imagined you, naked??" I thought my boss was going to choke on her drink.

Throw this into the mix. Standards of beauty change, from generation to generation. To prove that to yourself, find a copy of an old newpaper, from around a hundred years ago and take a look at the women who were considered great beauties. Heck, you don't even have to go that far back. Check out the ladies of the fifties, then the sixties and contrast them with the ladies of today. Bust, to waist to hip ratio is not always constant. One thing that has changed drastically is the fat to lean ratio of women who are considered beautiful, or even attractive. Finding a fat woman attractive is considered almost perverse, even though in times past, they would be considered maternal, therefore desirable.

Me too. BUT I save my real affection for the hapless Eyore. Every time I visit my daughter, I am tempted to pack my grandson's stuffed, four-foot tall Eyore in my suitcase, even if it means I can't pack my clothes. I got taller, but I never really grew up, when it comes to Eyore.

Thank you so much. So, it's already too late?? I kind of like the idea of being eccentric. I pray that I don't end up destitute and therefore re-classified as crazy. The young man who gave me my new turntable asked me if I wanted a "record table". I expected to have folding currency change hands but he thanked me for taking it off his hands. Sometimes, when you least expect it, stuff just drops into your lap. This was one of those times.

Thank you DoubleM. That's what I thought too, but I'm known for my "charming eccentricity" and thought I might be tempting fate in doing that. My family and friends are used to it though, so, that's what I'll do. On to the finds: Today, at my $1 a record source: Things Can Only Get Better - Howard Jones [brand new. I have never heard of this guy. No liner notes, so, we'll see.] The Academy Award Songs - two record set- Henry Mancini The Ray Coniff album with the vocal version of The Godfather theme. This is Henry Mancini - 2 record set - ALL his TV and movie themes. The Readers Digest complete [mint] set, Great Stars Great Moments. [i blush because I realize that I think I already have this, but minus one disc] Louis Armstrong and Al Hirt play Dixieland Trumpet - 4 record set BEAT - The Big Bands [liner notes in German] Johannes Fehring Und Sein Orchester. Readers Digest - Down Memory Lane - 65 years of song hits. 10 discs - original packaging, mint condition. Again, I may have some of this, but not the whole set, so if I do, I'll replace it with this new one, as well as check on the other one I mentioned and do the same.

I have a wonderful dilemma. I was GIVEN a turntable the other day, brand-new condition, much newer than the one I have been using up until now. The new one has much nicer tone and balance, although the old one was perfectly fine. The problem is that it has only two speeds, 45 and 33 1/3. My old one also has 78 and I have several records that are 78. If I retire the old turntable, I won't be able to play the 78's. So, if it were you, would you set up both turntables, in order to be able to play the 78's, risking ridicule and persecution from members of your family? I can set up both, connected to the same sound system, sided by side, but apart from the 78 speed on the old turntable, the new one has rendered it redundant. What to do??

Just finished Molly Ivins' "Who Let The Dogs In?" I don't always agree with her politically, but she has the present administration pegged. Recommended. About to start the latest Patricia Cornwell offering, featuring her character, Kay Scarpetta in "Blow Fly". Cornwell took some time, a couple of years ago, to write a non-fiction account of the results of her research into the Jack The Ripper case, "Portrait of a Killer". It was very convincing and worth checking out. Facinating to apply today's forensic methods to that, as yet, unsolved case.

My wife loves that one too. Especially when we go to Costco. Carts all over the place. Chaining up the carts and charging you a refundable quarter was supposed to alieviate that by the incentive of getting your quarter back when you returned the cart to the corral. The only think that I can think, when I see carts all over the parking lot is that this is some people's way of saying that they are so rich that they don't need the quarter. That's as impressive as telling a convenience store clerk to "keep the change", when the change is eight cents. Wow!!

YES. It may take a few years, but I had a back moler extracted about ten years ago and my bottom-front teeth shifted. The alternative was to repair the molar with a crown, which would have cost tons and I rationalized that nobody sees your back teeth. So, unless the tooth is totally ratched, try to save it.

Salvation Army Thrift Shops and yard sales are great sources. The former at $1 per disc in my neighbourhood. It doesn't matter whether they are just Mitch Miller or original Pee Wee Russell or Lee Morgan or....................... Straight one-price policy. The only rule is first come, first served. Yard sales are a crap-shoot, but you have to be patient. Just cruise all the ones you can. Even the ones that don't say they have vinyl, sometimes do. Time is the only barrier and I know that I just don't have enough time to go to every possible place. Vintage vinyl stores are good sources, but they know what they can get for various sides and are quite often too rich for my personal exchequor. However, the records are usually in excellent condition. I've found though, that old jazz, particularly original Dixieland tends to have belonged to people who look after their records and are in surprisingly good shape, especially at yard sales and second hand stores. So don't scoff, just because you have to forage through a bunch of household items to find them. Well worth it, I think.

Yes, to the bear question. Hadn't heard the others, but they made me smile. So, Dan, IS the Pope Catholic??