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I think before I get all riled up over this, I want more context. It is certainly possible that when the discussion about the passports being necessary to travel to Canada, the take-up rate was only 10-15%, but as it became more apparent that this was actually going to happen, people (grudgingly) got them and now it is 40-50% for states bordering Canada. So I would be more convinced with some time-series data.

I think I mentioned I was going to read Tony Judt. He is most famous for Postwar*, which is an overview of East and West Europe after WWII. I am going to order that, but doubt I'll read it anytime soon. Instead, I checked out The Memory Chalet, which is a series of short meditations on his childhood and his thoughts on the state of higher education in the UK, the US and France. He composed these pieces towards the end of his life when he was suffering terribly from ALS. He's actually a more slippery character than I was led to believe (again a good argument for actually going to the original sources rather than relying on second-hand info). He strikes me a bit like Christopher Hitchens. He (Judt) broke from an early fascination with Marxism (and Zionism) but still viewed himself as on the left (maybe about where George Orwell found himself) and has many nasty things to say about New Labour, particularly when it supported the war in Iraq. At the same time, he is unabashedly an elitist when it comes to education. And he loathes the rise of identity studies as a legitimate academic enterprise, since it is at its heart narcissistic. He sounds a bit like a professor I had early in my college career. I find myself agreeing with many of his asides, particularly a piece where he says that careers are largely accidental and contingent. Furthermore, his generation (the Boomers) did have an easier time finding interesting and meaningful work, then filled the slots and pulled up the ladders. Anyway, it was a short read. I also checked out the second volume of Mencken's Prejudices (series 4-6). This looks far more interesting overall than series 1-3 in the first volume. I could see reading this mostly straight through, so I may even see if I can buy this volume as a stand-alone. * Well, that and calling for a one-state solution for Israel and Palestine.

There's something wrong with this idea. That film should be left alone - no sequel or prequel, especially 30 yrs after the fact. Nah, I welcome a prequel and sequel. That's just me I guess, but I bet there are others. The weird thing is that the world of the movie is so very different from the actual book that you would be hard pressed to draw from it for either a prequel or sequel. A direct sequel would be the very worst. The only thing people care about are whether the girl is going to die within a year or two or not. And you'd also have to be far more clear about Dekker and his lifespan. No one would want to see anyone other than Ford playing Dekker in a sequel, and I doubt Ford is interested. Even if he were, you'd have your answer right away (I guess they could Tronify him like they did to Bridges). A prequel might be more interesting, but really, it's hard to see what needs to be explored to get us to that dystopia, unless they wanted to focus on the company that made the replicants. This exchange was kind of funny: I threw up in my mouth a little when I read that, but it is probably the best case scenario, given how bad most Hollywood movies are now. Seeing Bieber emerge from the replicant nutrient pool and being force-fed a ton of memories (maybe in a Dark City-style montage) would explain a lot.

Well, I don't think it is nearly as good as Call It Sleep, but I did make it through 4 volumes of this (pretty sure I read all of it). As you probably know, some of it is disturbing indeed, since it is so biographical. One urban novel I almost never seen discussed now is Sol Yurick's The Bag. I thought this was really very interesting. Gave up on the rest of Nabokov, but am reading Lolita, which at least holds my attention.

The just released The Adjustment Bureau is an adaptation of one of PKD's stories. No idea how faithful it is. From what I've seen, it looks like it borrows more from the ideas behind Dark City, though not the look or feel of that film. Of course, Dark City may well have originally been inspired by PKD, though I don't think it was a pure adaptation.

Except for this youngster, who will become Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2012: http://en.wikipedia....zet-S%C3%A9guin He sounds incredible, but hardly a "name" conductor. I've certainly never heard of him, and I read a fair bit about orchestras around the globe. He may well grow into that distinction. Of course, given the general lack of interest in classical music now, there may not be any more conductors known to the general public or even to the subset of music lovers.

While hardly a surprise, this does leave quite a vacancy to fill. The Times has a story here: NYT link The Chicago Symphony is cautiously optimistic that the doctors have finally found out what is wrong with Muti who actually collapsed during rehearsals a few weeks back. The typical nay-sayers are saying Chicago got him when he was old and broken-down, but I am hoping for the best for him. I was supposed to see him conduct, but then he had this accident and had to pull out of a number of concerts (he actually broke his jaw in the fall and it is wired shut at the moment!). I think he'll make it through next season at least, and I should have a chance to watch him conduct. Best wishes, Muti, as well as to Levine, who apparently is going to continue to conduct opera at the NY Met and possibly guest conduct in the future. There really aren't that many youngish "name" conductors active in the US. The ones I can think of are mostly with European orchestras. I was going to say Michael Tilson Thomas, but he's 65. Simon Rattle is more like 55, but he is primarily associated with Berlin. Definitely some big shoes to fill in a number of orchestras.

There are individual tracks that I really play the heck out of - like Don't Do Nothing Til You Hear From Me off Red Hot + Indigo (yeah, crazy when I could be listening to the original). I do go back to Dialogue - Hutcherson/Hill quite a bit and also Coltrane's The Complete Africa Brass. But when I just long for comfort music, it is usually pop like Bruce Cockburn or Suzanne Vega.

On Sunday, I saw the Pacifica Quartet wrap up their Shostakovich string quartet cycle. I was able to make every one. Some magnificent playing, and there is no question I picked up more on the textures from seeing them live than just on CD. The ending of the 13th is one that gains certainly. Supposedly the live concerts will be broadcast on the radio later in the year, and I'll try to provide details as they come out. They will be repeating this cycle in 2011-12 in New York and London, and I would recommend it. Last night, I saw the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin here in Chicago. This is a subgroup of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra that specializes in chamber music, particularly Beethoven's Septet and Schumann's Octet. But they play other pieces as well. This was a pretty neat concert where they ended with Beethoven's Septet (though I was fading a bit at the end), but prior to that, they combined forces with some of the members of the CSO for Mendelssohn's Octet. What a stunning piece that was. They did not play Schumann's Octet, but they were selling that in the lobby and signing copies, so I picked one up. It does not appear they have recorded Beethoven's Septet yet. They may have a few more concerts around the US, but the next one seems to be in LA (at UCLA) this Wed. where they will be playing both Beethoven's Septet and Schumann's Octet: UCLA. If you like classical chamber pieces and happen to be in town, I would recommend this concert. Edit - so sorry, the UCLA concert is Thurs, and apparently they are playing this Friday in Orange Country. Possibly more stops on the tour, but I'm not too sure about that.

I basically got into jazz through cassettes - Miles Davis In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew (yes, not on BN). I think the first BNs I bought were Genius of Monk on 2 cassettes with a different ordering from the later CD reissues. I don't think I still have those. I do have Mobley's Far Away Lands on cassette still and most of One Note with Blue Note (originally 4 cassettes). Probably a handful of others, but I don't have a working cassette deck at the moment, so they're just laying in a box in the closet.

So I guess Steve Coleman is doing something tonight at The Jazz Gallery in lower Manhattan: Then in a month, he is doing a show at the Chicago Cultural Center: Mon 3/28 6:30pm Chicago Cultural Center - New Music: Steve Coleman and Five Elements I should be at that show, work and weather permitting.

I did catch one section I found amusing, and that was when they took the Auto-tune the News technique (mastered by the Gregory Brothers) and made the top film contenders into musicals. It really sounded like the Gregory Brothers work, even their voices, so I am waiting confirmation if it was actually their handiwork (they have been kind of silent lately, though apparently working on a project for Comedy Central).

For that matter, Nolan's work on Inception was far more notable. Yeah, King's Speech what a totally forgettable, blah piece of Oscar bait. British accents + uplift = Oscar I also think it is unseemingly predictable how the over-the-top performances get the Oscars (Portman, Bale). I personally think there is less "acting" in those kinds of performances than just showing off. Granted, Colin Firth did win, but he had the British accent thing. Hard to beat. Maybe if they had changed the storyline up a bit and the therapist had been a slightly lower class Brit rather than an Aussie, Rush would have had a better chance. He has won before though, so it probably would have gone to Bale in any event.

I think there are 3 Ronin CDs on ECM. I prefer the 1st and the 3rd, but all are pretty interesting.

Well, the answer is there is some stereo - they aren't using a fold-down or anything as on the LP -- but it's pretty narrow compared to the later recordings in the series. If you are looking for the later Munch recording there appears to be a Japanese CD of that, but I don't know anything more about that.

As a follow-up, the Daphnis and Chloe in the box (and presumably the same version as the single CD on Amazon) is in stereo, though much of the music sounds about the same on both channels. Stereo is most apparent in the winds and brass parts. How this compares to the LP, I can't say. According to the reviews, this was recorded on only two tracks to begin with, but they've done a pretty good job in remastering it. I'm satisfied with it.

Well, that's very interesting. The classical reviewers were fairly adamant about the later version of Romeo being better. Maybe I will pick up the earlier Romeo (which is fairly cheap on CD and comes paired with a very good version of Nuits d'Ete) and keep my eyes peeled for the later version on LP. Anyway, it has been a very interesting march through the Living Stereo box, as well as some of the individual CDs I picked up to complement the box. There's no question I sort of pooh-poohed Fiedler, mostly because I don't like what contemporary pops orchestras do, but he recorded some excellent material, including Rimsky-Korsakov's Le Coq d'or, Offenbach's Gaite parisienne and Tales of Hoffman and Prokofiev's Love of Three Oranges (who knew?). Now I skipped some of the marches and the Christmas Party CD, but I might even get them some day.

Well, the one in the box is a remastered version of this one Daphnis. I will listen again to see how it sounds. Some reviewers have commented that there is a better, later stereo recording, but I am not sure this is out on CD. To recap, this does seem to be the Living Stereo version, but it was recorded in 1955 and there may have been another stereo version from 1960-61. Interestingly, one of the harder things to track down is Munch's 2nd version of Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet. The one on CD is the earlier version and apparently not nearly as good as the later version. Again, the earlier one was the version on the 8 CD Conducts Berlioz set from 1996. It is only in the 10 CD Berlioz set from 2004 that you get both versions. There is so much duplication with what I already have with this 10 CD set, so I am not entirely sure what to do. (Maybe it will be offered as a stand-alone CD but I'm not holding my breath and because there are so many short tracks it would cost $25 for all the downloads - and of course you don't have any physical product.) Most of the stereo LP versions of the later Romeo go for $20+, though in Dec. (slightly before I started searching for it) one went on eBay.uk for 1 pound. Oh well.

So there was a bit of a discussion on the box set bargain thread about the 60 CD Living Stereo series: box at Amazon I believe I found it slightly less through a different seller, but even $150 is an excellent price for this set. We were trying to track down what was not in the box and still in print, and I have some further notes on this, which I will share shortly. But then I came across this discography, which put my efforts to shame:Discography I don't think the author of this is actively maintaining this website, but this is a very neat resource. My general finding is that nearly all the LS Reiner and Munch made it into the box, but they were very stingy on the poppier conductors like Fiedler and Morton Gould. They also included many of the 2-CD operas and vocal works, but drew the line at the 3-CD sets, like Beecham's Messiah and Leinsdorf's Barber of Seville. Here is a good resource on the Living Presence series: Discography I guess I would have to say being a completist is within the realm of possibility for the Living Stereo series, but it probably so far out of my range for Living Presence that I don't want to start. I did pick up some of the Dorati and Hanson CD sets and some individual Janos Starker CDs.

Exactly what Moose said. I somewhat foolishly congratulated Sen. Mark Kirk on his vote to end Don't Ask Don't Tell and urged him to act like a moderate Republican (no dice so far). Anyway, I now get emails from his office, including a poll that said something like Should we be cutting the budget more than President Obama called for in his recent proposal? Yes, No or Don't Know. My real answer would be something "yes, but not in the ways you want to cut," but that was way too nuanced, so I just said Don't Know, which is sort of akin to No Opinion.

I buy relatively little fiction, which is pretty much the only thing you can count on being in stock. I've found that of the academic books I do buy (which would have to be special ordered in any case), Borders either doesn't carry them at all or only the hardcover version whereas Amazon would have the paperback version. I don't know how they got locked out of this admittedly narrow market, but time after time I would see if Borders could come even close to the Amazon price and they never could. Chicagoland is losing half of its Borders stores, but as far as the ones I went to, I think they are all gone except the downtown one on Michigan Ave. and maybe the one across from the Apple store at North & Clyborne. Still, this doesn't hurt as badly as when all the Tower Stores in Chicago closed.

I've been worried about that for a while. I have two $20 cards, and I have been trying desperately to find them for a couple of weeks, but to no avail.

I basically agree with Larry. I don't particularly like Spalding's recordings and I thought she was awful in performance. Same as I don't like Norah Jones. Why should I celebrate the fact that they won, when in fact I think this actually makes jazz even more irrelevant, pushing major labels into releasing more smooth jazz and boring cross-over artists?

I really did not enjoy Spalding's performance the last time I saw here. In fact, I found it excruiciating. But I'd still rather she get an award than Bieber. While the Biebster was thrust into this situation through no (or little) fault of his own, he is quickly becoming quite a twerp in his own right. (And his fans are even worse -- they've gone and vandalized Spalding's wiki page -- that'll show her!) I think my biggest question is how does one qualify to be a new artist? She's had three albums as leader, starting from 2006. I guess the industry finally got the promo copies in the mail... One of these days, the Onion should do a piece on James Taylor or an equivalent being nominated for best new artist.

Well, in the end I didn't care too much for The Financial Expert. Essentially none of the characters felt worth investing any emotional energy in. While that isn't the only criterion for a good novel, if you have no sympathy for any of the characters, it can be really slow going. Ironically, that is also at least part of my problem with Nabokov. Most of his characters are either cyphers or complete shits. Most of the way through Invitation to a Beheading, which is perhaps the most Kafkaesque and least Nabokovian of his novels, and I still can't get into it. He just leaves me completely cold. I think I will just read Lolita, since I am this far in -- and then sell off the Library of America set, since I just don't care at all for his work. Anyway, I was able to borrow the newish Library of America set of H.L. Mencken's Prejudices. He has some sharp writing no doubt, but probably at least 3/4s of the essays are devoted to completely obscure literary and cultural figures of the day. I'm not going to spend the time to find out about them in order to "get" his jibes at them. So I can't really see investing in buying this set or doing much more than skimming it actually. But it's nice it is back in print at least.