Chrome

... and for all us Detroit Tiger fans, the pizza man has coughed up the money to sign Fernando Vina! I can't believe 1984 was 20 years ago.

CDs and books are my weaknesses, too. For music I'm a strict listener, couldn't care less about collecting per se. For books, I do a little "accidental" collecting. I don't put out big money to buy old first editions or anything like that, but if I find something interesting while I'm haunting the used book sales, I'll pick it up even if I already have a copy. For instance, I recently found a 1st edition of Hemingway's "Across the River and into the Trees" at a library sale and bought it even though I already had a paperback and a different hardcover version. Part of the problem for me is mental I guess. I have a hard time thinking of CDs as something collectable.

Ghost: I'll definitely have to keep an eye for both versions of "Nightmare Alley." I still can picture that page in "City of Glass" that shows an empty space on the wall where a picture of the narrator's family used to be ... heart-wrenching. I've read all of Gaitskill's stuff and love it ... did you see the recent movie "Secretary" based on one of her short stories? I rented it based on the Gaitskill connection but was pretty disappointed. A.M. Homes, who I mentioned in a different post, has a similar kind of vibe.

BruceH: Safe to assume you've read "Dune"? "A Canticle for Leibowitz"? If not, I bet you would like these.

Mary Gaitskill! She's indeed an excellent writer. Regarding Paul Auster, have you ever read the "graphic novel" version of, crap, I can't remember the name of it now. It was one of his books from the "New York" trilogy ... "City of Glass" maybe. Anyway, it was pretty incredible, even if the title escapes.

Another for Daedalus! Regarding Neal Stephenson, he also wrote "Snow Crash," which is well worth checking out if you enjoy William Gibson-type sci-fi. I read a little bit of everything ... my library is even bigger than my CD collection. One of my favorite current authors is A.M. Homes, who writes some pretty far-out stories/books about modern suburban living. There was one about this teenager who begins lusting and starts a "relationship" with one of his sister's Barbie dolls. Not for everyone, but if you like, say, Chuck Palahniuk, you'll probably like Homes, too.

I appreciate the responses ... regarding the costs, I guess I just thought that that would be pretty low, because they wouldn't have to store CDs, just the digital files, which I'm sure they store even if a disc itself is out of print. The artwork stuff I would think would be a lesser problem in this sense: If people had a chance to get some disc they were just dying for, they would be happier getting the music and perhaps low-res art then not being able to have anything at all because it's out of print. It's the music that matters, right? That's why I think that listeners would pay a premium for these kind of CDs that would otherwise go OOP, to help a company still make a profit. Or maybe the art/liner notes are digital files, too, that people could download on their own? I hear what's been said though about how BN fits into some big corporate structure that would prevent innovation, etc. I keep repressing that kind of thing and imagining BN as an independent still! I guess I'm just pretty pissed that I got into jazz so "late" that stuff I want is already out of print.

I'm no tech expert, but once a company has done whatever they do to create a CD, in terms of "digitalizing" the music, don't they just have this data on a computer somewhere? Or on some kind of master disc? Considering how easy it is to burn a CD, I'm surprised the "larger" companies like BN won't just burn discs individually to fill individual orders. I would think they could easily get away with charging a premium high enough to cover the cost of burning but low enough to still get people to buy. After all, people certainly pay premiums now for discs that are OOP.

Street Singer, you must have waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more willpower than I do! (Of course, that's not saying much.)

Does anyone have any idea how BMG decides which re-issue jazz CDs to offer in the club? I've been in the situation a number of times where I've picked something up at a "real" store only to see it pop up much cheaper in the club a few months later. For example, I wonder how many of the 2004 RVGs will show up at BMG?

Ah yes, the Lingerie Bowl ... I wonder how that fits into the BCS?

I'm not a fan of stuff that's too far "out," but I've got a pair of Shepp CDs I love. One is called "Trouble in Mind" and it's just him and Horace Parlan doing a bunch of early blues-type stuff (St. James Infirmary, Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out, etc.). It's an ideal late-night/early morning chill-out disc, w/both players doing a fantastic job. I also have a disc called "On Green Dolphin Street" w/Shepp, Joe Chambers, Sam Jones and Walter Bishop Jr. Here, Shepp goes just the right distance "outside" for me, and it makes a great complement to the more straight-ahead approach of the others.

... and for those not in the huge nerd club: The second half of the book [Foundation by Isaac Asimov], titled The Mule, is all about the rise of a myserious man called the Mule. He is a man who has the ability to sense and manipulate the emotions of others. He uses this ability take over one of the sovereignties bordering the Foundation, and has them wage a war against the Foundation. While his sovereignty is waging the war, he then travels under the guise as refugee clown with Toran and Bayta Darrell to different worlds of the Foundation, using his abilities to undermine the Foundations' war effort by destroying morale. In the end, the Foundation falls without much of a fight. While still under the guise of refugee clown, he travels with Bayta and Toran, along with psychologist Ebling Mis to Great Library of Trantor. They seek to contact the Second Foundation to help get rid of the Mule. The Mule, on the other hand, wishes to know the location of the Second foundation so he can use the First foundation to destroy it. The Mule surreptitiously stimulates Ebling's mind, allowing him to make powerful insights while using the library as a resource. As Ebling lies dying, the insights having come at the cost of his health, he is just as he is about to reveal the location of the Second foundation when Bayta shoots him. She had shortly before realized the Mule had been traveling with them. She kills Ebling to prevent him from revealing the location. The Mule, defeated, leaves them to go reign over the Foundation. NOTE: I "liberated" this info from a science site somewhere.

Add me to the "huge nerd" team, because I think about the same thing every time I see "The Mule" here. I loved Asimov when I was younger, and I even read some of the later Foundation books done by other authors (not too bad, really). Maybe I'm just stretched too thin now attention-wise, but there aren't a lot of current sci fi writers that pique my interest. A couple of semi-recent books I recommend are "Happy Policeman" and "Brother Termite" by Patricia Anthony. Also, although I might be the only person to consider this science fiction, John Barth's "Giles Goat-boy" is an incredible read. Hey, and anyone ever notice how many jazz lovers, myself included, are (Philip K.) Dick-heads?

Wow! I've never heard of that before, but it sounds pretty amazing. Do you know if this lives up to its AMG review?

The great song writer/bass player Willie Dixon came up on another thread and that got me wondering... considering all the jazzers who play the blues, how come there isn't more crossover among the musicians? Going in both directions? Are there any jazz sets that feature players more well-known for their blues work? I've heard Buddy Guy do "Moanin'" and I'm thinking about that kind of thing. Or the other way, like Jimmy Smith's "Dot Com Blues"? ...and yes, it's a VERY slow day at work.

You know, I considered just "Googling" this, but thought I'd get a better response here ... and I did! Thanks!

Just one of those things I'm curious about ... is it just like a slide but with trumpety kinds of buttons to produce the different notes? Does it sound just like a slide trombone? Are/were there any notable jazz players? Does anyone have a pic of one?

One of us ... one of us ... Has anyone actually seen this movie (Freaks)? It's creeeeeeepy. But I guess that must be pretty obvious from this photo, huh?

Oh my god those early "video games" from Mattel! I had the original football and basketball games, still have the latter. It's funny, the game turned up in the basement one day and I showed it to my 10-year-old son/Gameboy addict, expecting him to start laughing. Instead he started playing it ... took me a couple hours to get the thing back from him.

Reminds me of the Stephen King story in which some drug dealer crashes on a desert island w/nothing but a big bag of coke. Well, I guess he must have had some sharp implements, too, 'cause when he started getting hungry, he'd use some "anesthetic" and cut off a piece of himself for dinner! You know, I once tried snorting coke once ... but I almost drowned.

Soylent Green is people!

Oh, you know those brainy jews ... probably part of their conspiracy to take over the world.

Another funny way to do this is just to make up your own "George-style," as in George Costanza from Seinfield. Anyone remember the episode where George went around telling people his porn star name? His was: "Buck Naked." Mine would be: "Dante Inferno." (I'm a writer, so ...)

I was trapped in East Lansing, Mich., for the early 80s and there wasn't exactly a happenin' music scene up there. I couldn't/can't stand most of the synth pop/skinny tie stuff ... so much of it sounded, I don't know, "soulless." I liked REM, X, the Blasters ... bands that played what I considered "real" music. I liked Elvis Costello a lot, but even his music (not the lyrics) sometimes sounded kind of empty to me. In fact, I was so desperate to hear people actually playing "real" instruments that I started exploring this weird stuff called "jazz." And the rest, as they say, is history.