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This may have already been discussed, but eMusic (and I guess iTunes) are available up in Canada, but not Amazon mp3 service. There are a fairly small number of albums I wanted from Amazon but can no longer get, so I am thinking of signing up again for eMusic for maybe a month or two. What concerns me is how prevalent is it that certain CDs are only available in the US but not for Canadian subscribers. I don't think there is any way to know unless I actually do subscribe, and it would be a total drag for these CDs to be "off limits." Is this mostly an issue with rock/pop, or is it fairly common problem for jazz as well?

Sure we lose on each penny, but we make it up on volume. One of my favourite jokes (told about the car salesmen). I try to use it with some frequency. I had a collorary -- sure they're not very talented at their jobs but they make up for it by not working very hard either.

All I know is that I was at a store yesterday and the bill was $4.01 and I didn't have any change (just a fiver) and the clerk insisted on giving me 99 cents back instead of rounding down and giving me a Loonie. If that happens in May (after the pennies are no longer minted), I guess I'll have to stick the feds on them. I am in favor of dropping the penny, but I would say it appears that the implementation is going to be pretty half-assed up here, at least for the first six months.

Was hoping to see Von Freeman and Ed Peterson do one of their tenor battles at the Green Mill in Dec. Weather was threatening, so I called the club. Oh sure, of course, they'll be on tonight. (Acted like I was stupid for asking. It's Chicago, dumb-ass, what's a bit of bad weather.) We had a huge-ass blizzard. Obviously, the show was canceled. I think I actually did drag myself to the club only to find no one was there (didn't have a cell phone at the time), but maybe that is a false memory and I am just making it overly dramatic. What year? Well, I think it was actually the (Jan) 1999 blizzard, so maybe I called them Dec. 31 or even Jan. 1. It was a while ago.

Was hoping to see Von Freeman and Ed Peterson do one of their tenor battles at the Green Mill in Dec. Weather was threatening, so I called the club. Oh sure, of course, they'll be on tonight. (Acted like I was stupid for asking. It's Chicago, dumb-ass, what's a bit of bad weather.) We had a huge-ass blizzard. Obviously, the show was canceled. I think I actually did drag myself to the club only to find no one was there (didn't have a cell phone at the time), but maybe that is a false memory and I am just making it overly dramatic.

The details have slipped my mind, but I believe David Newman was going to play the Jazz Showcase in Dec. 2008, as I was thinking of bringing my father in law (who was a Fathead fan). Of course, David had major health problems and died within a few weeks (followed so closely by Hank Crawford). On a more positive note, I saw Johnny Griffin on one of his last concerts in Chicago (and did bring my FIL). Never expected to see Griffin play live, given that he had relocated to France.

Oops. Wrong thread -- let me fix. Skimmed some popular non-fiction books to try to get more books out of the house. James Gleick Faster -- basically a look at how accelerated our lives have become. Not nearly as interesting as it could have been -- or maybe I simply didn't learn that much that felt new. Anyway, appropriately enough I did skim this one and only read closely a few of the chapters. Much better is Po Bronson's The Nudist on the Late Shift, which is an examination of different aspects of Silicon Valley in the mid to late 1990s. Some of Po's pronoucements haven't held up as well, but some of the sketches are pretty interesting. I feel I work in a field that is kitty-korner to programming and I definitely recognize some of the strategies that keep people motivatived (given that huge stock options aren't available in my field ).

Certainly possible, and it definitely would be good if the govt. would issue some hard rules. However, the rounding is "supposed" to be done at the very end of the transaction after tax, so it would be harder to game the system. Also, people paying with debit/credit (which is probably around 75% of transactions) will be unaffected by the rounding. I guess we'll see. The Canadian public doesn't seem fazed so far...

So this caught my attention: No more Canadian pennies They will remain legal tender but will no longer be minted. The rules seem a bit convoluted. If I understand it, debit/credit card transactions and on-line transactions can be to the penny, but shops will have to round up or down to the nearest nickle when a customer pays with cash. I know this has been discussed off and on in the US (and I thought there was a thread on it or at least a few posts, but couldn't find anything). While there are surely a few wrinkles to be ironed out, it's probably for the best. It's a relatively sensible solution -- and thus won't be adopted in the US for another 20-30 years...

Well, not the world's greatest bargain, but perhaps of some interest: Greenaway box This is a Peter Greenaway box of his early shorts and his first full-length film The Falls. I'd probably rather just rent it myself (I used to live near a DVD shop that definitely would have stocked this (Facets) -- a lot less likely now and NetFlix still won't ship DVDs in Canada -- it's streaming only ).

Well, I liked the Barney Kessel material (El Tigre) and some other material. I suppose it is true there is a fair bit of material that would never have been reissued except in the context of a complete set.

Not sure -- probably a bit over 100 but almost certainly not 200. It does depend a bit if all the different sets of the Detroit or Chicago Jazz Fest get added up.

maybe something like this: kjfgh Ok, it looks like indent might work. Thanks.

So apparently, you can't get tabs to show up in the posts, and if you type a whole bunch of spaces, it gets condensed to 1 space. This is not ideal for the poetry forum, where sometimes you would like to move words over so they line up properly. I saw something like     &nbsp from another forum that would move text over (with non-breaking spaces), but can't figure out how to implement it here (bracket)code(bracket)    &nbsp(bracket)/code(bracket) doesn't work. Any suggestions or a different workaround would be appreciated. Thanks. Eric

Just learned that Adrienne Rich has passed away: obit Kind of sinking in, and I'm getting a bit bummed out. She was my favorite of the feminist poets that came to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s, although I also liked much of the work of Audre Lorde. I went to hear Rich at a reading in the early, early 1990s and had her sign a copy of The Fact of a Doorframe. This was in a bookbag that was stolen and was probably the most upsetting thing to have lost of the various things that were stolen. I suppose I could have gotten another autographed copy at some point, but it wouldn't have had the same connection. I should say that I am more than a casual fan, as I have 12 of her collections, including all of them since The Fact of a Doorframe, with the exception of the very, very latest (and presumably last): Tonight No Poetry Will Serve. I probably should try to snag a copy of that in the next week or so. Edit to add: So I pre-ordered a paperback copy of Tonight No Poetry Will Serve and even found an inexpensive signed copy of Dark Fields of the Republic (have a copy but it was a bit beat up -- so I can justify it ). Time will tell if the dealer will honor this order or jack up the price because of her passing. Here's a poem that tries to draw connections between the literary and the personal/political, forcing (perhaps) a re-evaluation of War and Peace when viewed through the lens of women's experience. The Novel (from Time's Power) All winter you went to bed early, drugging yourself on War and Peace Prince Andrei’s cold eyes taking in the sky from the battlefield were your eyes, you went walking wrapped in his wound like a padded coat against the winds from the two rivers You went walking in the streets as if you were ordinary as if you hadn’t been pulling with your raw mittened hand on the slight strand that held your tattered mind blown like an old stocking from a wire on the wind between two rivers. All winter you asked nothing of that book though it lay heavy on your knees you asked only for a shed skin, many skins in which to walk you were old woman, child, commander you watched Natasha grow into a neutered thing you felt your heart go still while your eyes swept the pages you felt the pages thickening to the left and on the right- hand growing few, you knew the end was coming you knew beyond the ending lay your own, unwritten life. (1986) A more comprehensive examination of the poem may be here: Yawp and Peace

I believe Wall Street Journal has been subscription-only since they went online. Much more regional example - Chicago Sun-Times is about 20 per month. I found I don't really miss going there, though I used to read many of the articles. Their loss I guess. I don't know whether Robert Ebert's reviews count toward the 20 or not. It probably depends on how you try to access them.

I'd be surprised if I could identify even 10% of my tracks -- first, most CDs only get a listen or two and second, I have a terrible audible memory (or whatever you call it). I've gotten fairly good at identifying visual artists (painters) but even after all these years, I am hopeless at hearing musician's voices or what have you. Decided to opt out of BFTs since they just weren't any fun for me, and basically the shuffle idea doesn't hold any appeal either, since I would always be having to stop and look to see what piece was playing.

I decided I ought to track down some of the best of the CD reissues of the Everest catalogue before they disappear. I found this super cheap from a UK seller: I'm trying to source the cheapest Orchestral Music of Eric Satie, but in the meantime, I found a bargain on Roge's Satie's Piano Music, so I snatched this up as well:

Robert Kroetsch The Puppeteer. This is a sequel to Alibi and is even more explicitly "pomo," which certainly explains why this book wasn't that well received. Definitely not his strongest novel. I'm also working my way through Martin Murray's City of Extremes, which is an examination of Johannesburg. I have a few more weeks left before the book review is due!

You might be the target audience in fact, i.e. people of a literary bent with limited practical knowledge of baseball. Many reviewers who are versed in the sport are quite offended by some of the contrivances, like people in the dugout who simply wouldn't be there during a game and so on. I think it is a genuinely difficult question about how "accurate" one must be in fiction. I suppose one can do whatever one pleases (it is fiction after all), but then be prepared for blowback from those who say X or Y simply couldn't happen because everybody knows about rule Z which prohibits this action. I like my fiction to be fairly plausible but it doesn't have to be nigglingly accurate. My basic impression is that this book wouldn't make it up to my standards. However, I won't read this because I don't read books about sports, full stop.

Just as I predicted. On the release date (today), Amazon's price is $123.85 but they're out of stock. However, Marketplace reseller "Germany" (which I believe is actually Membran) has it for $39.30. I bit, even though, if history's any indication, the price just might drop further than that going forward. Amazon resellers Same here. Thanks for pointing this out. It might go a bit lower, but it's hard to imagine a 30 CD set going for much below $30. Shipping is a bit higher for me, but still a good deal considering the alternatives.

I'll try to check this out. You might be interested in this disc Rattle-Bream that is a bit more guitar-focused but includes Takemitsu's To the End of Dream. Rattle is conducting with Julian Bream soloing. I'm going to have to admit that I ordered this disc but simply haven't had a chance to listen to it properly. Maybe I can dig it out and listen tonight.

Looks interesting. Does Rattle play entire pieces or just segments? As an aside, I do enjoy BBC Radio 3's Discovering Music where they break down segments of the piece at length, but then do play the entire piece straight through. I've learned quite a bit when I've had the time to listen to the entire program (not as often as I would like).

I think "Rolling in the Deep" is quite good, but this is one of my favorite parodies. Even my wife, who is an Adele fan, thinks it is hilarious.

because i know you're a man of good taste, you really need to give Esperanza more of a chance, especially when it comes to her bass-playing. just cannot believe that you wouldn't appreciate her talent as a musician. I have heard her live and on disc and am completely unimpressed. Can't imagine anything that would make me a convert, but I suppose stranger things have happened.