Tom Storer

I looked at your links on Adria and he doesn't seem to be doing chemistry-lab stuff at all, merely preparing ingredients in novel ways and combinations. Even "molecular gastronomy" is not mad-scientist stuff. It's just about understanding the physics of cooking in order to cook better. Adria and co. are just cooking unusual dishes--my impression is that it's more about saying, "this ingredient is the last thing you'd think of in a dessert, but if we prepare it a certain way and surround it with certain other things, it not only surprises the palate, but it works as a dessert," or "let's take this neutral ingredient, cook it and flavor/color it with some exotic fruit or vegetable, then cut it into long strips, dry it out, and serve it as a little crunchy starter snack. No one will even guess what it is!" (Entirely invented examples, but I think that's the approach.) But I do see your point that the general theme of surprising the palate is what Adria and co. share with miracle berry salesmen...

Nah, I respectfully disagree. On the one hand you have cooks who are artists, working with feverish inspiration to come up with surprising refinements, and on the other a berry that changes sour into sweet in your mouth, period. Which would you rather do, eat at this guy's restaurant or eat some goat's cheese and have it taste like a marshmallow?

I guess the attraction here is the weirdness of having your palate not work the way it usually does. Otherwise, what's the attraction of making cheese, Brussels sprouts or beer taste sugary?

Call me a reactionary, but I can't get with multimedia stuff. With rare exceptions, I prefer my arts one at a time. He's "only" seventy. What happened? I think he must have had some sort of health problems. A few years ago, it seems, he suddenly lost a lot of weight. Here's a photo from ten years ago (not flattering, but you can see that he was a beefy kind of guy): And here's the photo from his latest album: That album, by the way, is very nice indeed, with Lovano, McBride, and Watts. Lovano plays beautifully on it.

Salut, Guy!

50% Yankee. That kind of makes sense. I spent all of the US part of my life in the Northeast, but both my parents were from Kansas and I have some words and pronunciations I inherited from them.

Years ago, I had a pet. I named him Miles because he was a mean little black cat. Miles seemed to be lonely, so we got another cat to keep him company. It was a female cat, so naturally we named her Juliette Greco. The vet thought this was very strange, even after I explained. However, it didn't work out. Juliette Greco used to beat Miles up. We gave her to the Arab grocer across the street and she had a happy life as a mouser.

If you mean "ever had a relationship that was a big mistake," yes, in a way, in that we proved to be incompatible. On the other hand, we were young, and one's first "big" relationship is often a mistake, but a crucial one in that, if you're smart or lucky or both, you learn enough about yourself and others to know better the next time around. Some mistakes you need to make.

My condolences, Larry. I find that I have a similar reaction to recorded music when I'm depressed for whatever reason. As a matter of fact that's often how I realize I'm depressed--it's the signal that I've reached a certain low point. Luckily it doesn't happen too often. I'm not sure I have the same intepretation of it that you do, i.e. that it's the recorded-ness of it that is a problem. For me, in any case, I think it has more to do with a kind of refusal of pleasure, the kind of pleasure that is sensual, imaginative, creative. When I'm in that kind of a period I don't want to go out much, either. They say depression is rage turned inward. Denying oneself, not consciously but effectively, a happy pleasure that normally takes one out of oneself might be part of that dynamic. BWTFDIK? In general, though, I listen to much less music than I once used to. When I had to give up my iPod to save my hearing, that took away my commute-time listening, which was most of my listening time. I've never really been able to find a substitute for it. Surprisingly, it doesn't bother me that much, either. But when music sounds empty and unattractive to me because I'm depressed, I hate the feeling.

If you're not interested in gut-level anti-Americanism coupled with starry-eyed idealization of America, all at the same time, you wouldn't like it.

Come to Paris and wing it. It would never work out and you'd end up going back, but you would always have Paris.

It's a good one, all right. Now available from eMusic, incidentally!

Chris, do I understand correctly that you are impugning the man's veracity?

Listen to all of Miles's legit releases back to back? Not even in France do we have that much time off. But seriously, I don't know if I could do it. Miles's music is very beautiful and very intense but that much intensity demands relief. I'd need to take regular breaks to listen to something a little more light-hearted.

Deepest sympathies, Jim. It sounds like you loved each other and he knew it--a good way to part. Hang in there.

I particularly like his duo with Dave McKenna, playing music from "My Fair Lady," and another duo with Roger Kellaway.

Terry is game, good for him. But Shorter... wow!

R.I.P. to a real original.

I'm 50 and, listening without headphones, I can hear them up to the "39 and younger" category (15 kHz). The higher frequencies I don't hear. Even the 14 and 15 kHz I only hear when I turn it up loud. But it's true that I have damaged my hearing--not from rock concerts but from decades of portable audio devices. I had to give up my iPod last year. No more headphones for me.

So, Jim, tell me--what language does time speak in the men's room?

Now she's the one who's skeptical about time speaking English in the men's facilities, right?

A high school avant-garde ensemble--you gotta love the idea. Who is the guy organizing all this? Ben who?

Thanks, that's an interesting article. Of course, from the jazz fan's point of view--mine, anyway--reverence to the composer's intention seems like only one option and not necessarily the most interesting one. I guess that's one of the real dividing lines between classical music and most other music.

Joyeuse anniversaire! Damn, it's like you have one of these things every year!