RDK

It was mentioned on the Hoffman forum that the "first run" of the first two titles (Blakey's Big Beat and a Horace Parlan) have sold out already. That's 1000 copies so far of a potentially 2500 copy edition. Haven't heard these yet, but I gotta say they sold much quicker than i expected them to.

January 17, 2008 Four Paparazzi Arrested After Chasing Britney Spears By REUTERS Filed at 1:16 p.m. ET LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Four photographers were arrested for reckless driving after a late night car chase of pop star Britney Spears on the outskirts of Los Angeles, police said on Thursday. Los Angeles police spokeswoman Sara Faden said the four were among a group of paparazzi seen driving at high speed in the Mission Hills area of the city around 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday on the trail of the troubled singer. "Britney Spears was part of the group, but was not driving recklessly," Faden said. She said four men were booked for reckless driving and each ordered to put up $5,000 bail. According to the celebrity Web site TMZ.com, Spears told police that one of the cars, which she could not identify, may have tried to run her off the road. Spears, 26, has been trailed by paparazzi day and night for several months as her personal and professional life has fallen apart following her divorce from Kevin Federline and bitter battles over the custody of her two children. Yeah, but you left out the last part (or Reuters didn't report it)... However, Spears' constant sidekick Sam Lutfi told E! News' Ryan Seacrest Thursday morning that the singer, who has a well-documented affinity for certain members of the paparazzi, did not want to see the four photographers carted away. Lutfi said that while speaking with cops, Spears tried to prevent the paparazzi from getting arrested, though the officers didn't take to the celebrity intervention. But while the night was over for four of Spears' shutterbugs, it was still young for the "Gimme More" warbler herself. Spears and Lutfi continued on with their late-night excursion, making a pit stop at a Studio City grocery store, which she left at roughly 1 a.m. with a cartful of bagged goods. After switching rides from the Benz to a black Escalade, sources tell E! News that at roughly 2 a.m. (a timeline since disputed by Lutfi), the duo headed over to the trendy Beverly Hills boutique Kitson. The store, which closed hours earlier, opened solely for Spears and her burgeoning entourage: Lutfi, security man Mark Chinapen, who orchestrated the late-night logistics, new hanger-on Chad Hardcastle and Danish fashion executive Claus Hjemblak, who owns the Scandinavian Style Mansion where Spears celebrated her birthday last month. Curiously absent from the mix was paparazzo pal Adnan Ghalib.

In short: DDL is terrific in this. An Oscar nom (at least!) is in the bag. PTA remains, imo, a better filmmaker than storyteller. For the most part, PTA leaves his pretentious filmmaking nature by the door, but he returns it for the climax, which not so coincidentally is my least favorite part of the film. I found DDL's character incredible interesting from a psychological level, though I readily admit to not fully understanding him. Paul Dano's character(s) makes for some provocative discussion afterwards. Overall I found the film quite compelling - possibly PTA's "best" - but I also found it overhyped and not as good as several others this year.

Notes on the restoration Charlie Parker's three studio sessions with strings came at a time of great ongoing improvements in recording quality, with the innovations of both tape recording and the commercial vinyl record both being contemporary developments. Hence the first six tracks here were cut directly to disc, in the traditional manner, and with the traditional problems for a restorater to contend with! By contrast I'm pretty certain that both the 1950 and 1952 sessions were taped. This was a time where recordings were being issued on both the 78rpm shellac and new 33/45rpm vinyl microgroove formats. Each of these performances is timed to fit a single 78rpm side, though the first ten-inch LP, consisting of tracks 1-14, was released in the USA as early as 1950. The four tracks which complete this release found their initial vinyl issue on a 7" 45rpm EP. So why go back and remaster these recordings, when there's a perfectly well-loved Verve CD on the market? Well personally I've never been 100% happy with the sound - and I've always felt that it's one of those recordings which is tantalisingly close to sounding so much better. Therefore I was fascinated to find out how it would respond to my continuing experimentation in widening the application of XR remastering beyond the realm of classical music. The effect of the remastering for the listener is to remove what is at times quite a heavy veil over the music, as well as greatly improving on what was at times a pretty poor tonal balance. What the remastering revealed to me, especially with the earlier cuts, was in some instances some really quite flawed originals, which then required a considerable degree of pretty advanced further restoration. Some of damage this is still just about audible in Summertime - you may just notice a slight 'waa-waa' effect in the upper treble at times, a problem previously buried under the murk and one that's particularly time-consuming and tricky to correct. Elsewhere, on I Didn't Know What Time It Was, a small amount of occasional disc-surface noise may be apparent if you're listening closely for it. Those earliest tracks were also the most unruly with regard to the overall sound balance, with the strings tending to get quite shrieky if given too much free rein in the upper treble registers. I think I've managed to contain them effectively, and it's been a real delight to hear these recordings as if for the first time. I hope you'll enjoy listening to them as much as I've enjoyed working on them! Call me crazy, but I believe that's a long way of saying noise-reduction, EQ-shaping, and general digital futzing. And I'd suspect that he does the work from the official CDs rather than the master tapes or original parts.

Does she play the harpsichord?

A few years ago, Tom was shooting a movie here on the lot (forget which one) and one day had a Scientology info booth set up outside the stage, offreing free coffee, donuts, and info.

Well now we know where to go if/when Organissimo ever goes down again.

I sympathize with most of the celebs that have to deal with paparazzi bullshit each and every day, but I've been in Hollywood long enough to know that Brit brings most of this on herself. I'm not sure if she's enabling the press or vice versa, but telling the court that she's afraid to show up because of the paps is ludicrous. The chick hits Starbucks, supermarkets, and gas stations far more than any "common" person I know, leading the paps around like a pack of trained dogs. She may be unstable, bipolar, whatever - but she also knows what she's doing. If I thought she was smart enough, I'd almost believe she was pulling some brilliant Andy Kaufman/Tony Clifton punk on all of us. But no, she's just once-successful poor white trash putting on a show as she burns out in public. Sad, yes, but funny too, and I can't blame anyone for watching/enjoying this particular crash-and-burn.

Who names their kid "Latrina?"

Saw Randy's trio last year and it was one of the best live shows of the year for me.

Very interesting. I'll have to ponder this one for a while...

Saw part of the east coast feed at work, but now I'm looking forward to watching it with the family. Just over a half hour to go!

I guess I can understand the conflict. It is a potentially hairy issue.

Does this count?

Ask Aric, maybe he knows...

They just added some Uptown discs and it looks like Ayler is back as well. Digging the new Hamid Drake/Wm. Parker/Anders Gahnold album now. And though not "new," I'm loving Charles Tyler's "Eastern Man Alone." Don't know how I missed it before.

Yeah, let's get back to making fun of the Britney trainwreck!

And she holds her flute better than Herbie Mann...

She should just get a(nother) dog. If I was ever threatened with having my kids taken away from me I'd be camping out at the courthouse so as not to be late for a hearing or depo.

What's the best year for pop music? Thirteen.

Agreed. +1 (as the kids seem wont to do)

Ikea. Seriously.

Not bad. I was in the Chess Club in high school and, well, if some of these gals had been in that same club then I probably wouldn't now think it so pathetic to have once been in a high school chess club.

My wife forwarded this on to me. It's shockingly accurate. How Many Forum Members Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb? • 1 to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed • 14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently • 7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs • 1 to move it to the Lighting section • 2 to argue then move it to the Electricals section • 7 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs • 5 to flame the spell checkers • 3 to correct spelling/grammar flames • 6 to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb" ... another 6 to condemn those 6 as stupid • 2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is "lamp" • 15 know-it-alls who claim they were in the industry, and that "light bulb" is perfectly correct • 19 to post that this forum is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a lightbulb forum • 11 to defend the posting to this forum saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant to this forum • 36 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this technique and what brands are faulty • 7 to post URL's where one can see examples of different light bulbs • 4 to post that the URL's were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URL's • 3 to post about links they found from the URL's that are relevant to this group which makes light bulbs relevant to this group • 13 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all headers and signatures, and add "Me too" • 5 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy • 4 to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago?" • 13 to say "do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs" • 1 forum lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again.

Good luck, Mark!