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I thought this was a pretty good deal. Munch Berlioz L'Enfance du Christ on 2 LPs for under $10 (eBay). I was the only bidder. Seller claims it is still in shrink wrap. To be honest, I am not a huge fan of vocal classical music, but I have been gathering up a fair bit of Munch because of his heavy representation in the Living Stereo box set. Anyway, I just loved the cover, which looked like a page out of an illuminated manuscript (don't know how long the image will be kept up).

Jim, if the Super Bowl visitors were to have problems with the ice, etc., Dallas would be remembered in newspapers for decades as the city that clusterfucked the Super Bowl. Surely that bad reputation would hurt the economy worse than the business lost due to lack of productivity for a week, don't you think? Are you serious? There's no in between? The NFL/Super Bowl should be empowered to totally shut down the lives of millions of people lest we offend the Sports Pimps and get bitch-slapped for our self-respect? You're talking to the wrong person if you think that even begins to make sense to me! ... So yeah, absolutely - fuck Jerry Jones, and fuck the NFL. Sounds like anyone that ever lived near an Olympics or World Cup since about 1990. I'm done with the whole thing. Mega-sports events are an abomination on every level, and I'm just not interested.

More to the point, he could he possibly travel between all these cities to run marathons, let alone going to both European and American ones, as claimed, without missing a day? My impression is that there is not a marathon run every single day somewhere in the world. They take quite a bit of planning. Plus there are very, very few run in the middle of the week because of the impact on traffic. Now if he claims he runs 20+ miles a day, well maybe, i.e. he runs a marathon-equivalent. But frankly it sounds like BS to me.

Enjoyed Shamsie's Broken Verses quite a bit. Wasn't that taken with the last quarter or so of Narayan's Mr. Sampath. I found the first third of Narayan's The Financial Expert kind of hard going, but it has picked up midway. I think my favorite of his books so far is The Bachelor of Arts, but I also enjoyed The English Teacher. On deck - Shamsie Burnt Shadows Nabokov Invitation to a Beheading and finally Mahfouz Cairo Trilogy

Yeah, I would just contact them and see what they say. Depending on their response, say you'll follow up on 2/15.

My order was never shipped. They just didn't have what they listed. It took me badgering them to find that out. At least they've now taken it down from their site. I've had pretty good luck with BlowItOuttaHere, so I just placed another order with them. It helps that I am looking for easy to find stuff. I wouldn't particularly trust them or MovieMars with the really rare orders. I've noticed lots of Furtwangler boxes (too many to mention) and am waiting on a Membran box of his live recordings. I'll post back if it's any good. I am slowly working my way through the Living Stereo box (and ripping for back up). Oddly, the only one that seems to have serious production flaws (to the point I would try to get a replacement copy had I ordered through Amazon) is Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. As it so happens, this is one I ordered (as a stand-alone) a few years back. It would have been the only duplicate from the box with my other CDs (well, possibly also Heifetz Double Concertos). So I guess that means karma was watching out for me...

I just had perhaps the worst burrito I've ever eaten. In fact, I could only eat maybe 10-15% of it, when I had to stop. Now I am looking for something else to take away the taste. I've been to this taqueria once before and it was fine, so I decided, post-concert, to go back and not to the greasy late night Thai place when I often go after concerts (indeed it is literally called Late Night Thai). Anyway, the vegetable burrito had pico de gallo, which I'm not super fond of, but I let it ride. Somehow the proportions of everything were way off. There was little rice and essentially no beans that I could see, and I guess instead of chunks of avocado, they used watery guacamole. I'm not even sure there was any cheese, which might have helped a bit. Then the whole thing was overwhelmed by the pico de gallo and sour cream. When you looked inside it was mostly white! Yuck. Don't think I'll be back. There are a few other Mexican restaurants around, and I'll go to one of them next time I have that craving.

Or maybe package downloads with PDFs of the cover art and liner notes. It really does burn me up that I don't get any of that with eMusic and essentially never off Amazon downloads either. Small issue, but I think it would help at the margins.

I'm not even a particularly big fan of Bruuuce, but that is one amazing deal. Well, of course ignoring the fact that all of it is in the etherways already...

Yeah, I really like that gallery. Anyway, I saw the Jim Nutt exhibit that just opened at the MCA. Interesting approach is that half the 4th floor is given over to artists inspired by Nutt and the Hairy Who more generally. And that was ok. But the other half is all Nutt, all the time. Just not that impressed with his work overall and frankly bored with his recent work.

Sure, that would be terrific. Let me know. Merci beaucoup! Several Vogue/BMG CDs turned up recently but not 'Tilt'. I still have that album in mind and will grab it for you as soon as it shows up! Much appreciated. Have PMed you a couple of days ago but did not get an answer. I have on hold a copy of Tilt. Please let me know if you still want it. Very strange. I don't see anything in my messenger. Sorry. I will PM you and see if that works. Thanks! Eric

Thanks brownie, I'll consider it also. That looks very promising (according to one Amazon reviewer at least some of the music, including the Beethoven and Brahms symphonies have been remastered). This looks even more interesting (to me -- given my general lack of interest in opera): http://www.amazon.com/Great-Emi-Recordings-John-Barbirolli/dp/B0031IHBCS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1296238918&sr=8-1-spell

Really? I thought the highlight was the Isle of the Dead, which I am picking up paired with Symphony #2. What else must I not miss? Ok, Imma gonna have to stop, but it looks like there is one more that arguably would have fit and that is Rodgers: Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (actually a number of dance pieces, including some by de Falla, Shostakovich and Copland). This was done by Arthur Fielder and the Boston Pops. It actually looks like a lot of fun, so I think I'll spring for it too.

At least one more not present in the Living Stereo box: Rachmaninoff: Concertos Nos. 1 & 3 Pianist Byron Janis, conducted by Reiner and Munch. Looks like Janis was more frequently on Living Presence, but this was in the Living Stereo series. I suspect they left it out because they already had #3 performed by Van Cliburn. And Reiner conducting Beethoven's 5th and 7th Symphonies also seems to be missing.

Doesn't look like the original Living Stereo Beecham Messiah (distilled on 1 CD) is available, but there is a entire Messiah (on 3 CDs) presumably from the same recording session. I'll probably pick that up as well. I find it interesting/amusing that there is a spacer included in the 60 CD box, as if they knew they skipped a few and that completists would pick the missing ones up and try to stuff them in the box. I'll probably do that

No Spain is there but it has a weird listing. CD 55 - Alebeniz: Navarra ... Leotyne Price Popular Classics for Guitar is CD 54 Heifetz Double Concertos is CD 53 I don't see the Copland or the Handel Messiah, so I'll keep an eye out for those.

There appear to be at least 3 more that "ought" to be in there: Khachaturian: Masquerade Suite; Kabalevsky: The Comedians (conducted by Kondrashin) Khachaturian: Concerto for violin in Dm; Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky (conducted by Reiner) Reiner Sound - a quasi-sampler with Rachmaninoff's Isle of the Dead I could be wrong of course (that they are included in the box), and of course there could well be more missing CDs. Still an incredible, incredible deal. I can't believe I was hesitating (in general my interest in classical music is on the rise). I am leaning towards ordering the Mysterious Mountain and the first two, whereas there is a better RCA that pairs Isle of the Dead with Ormandy conducting Rachmaninoff's Symphony 2.

I believe I have a ticket for this; if not, I will get one, as I am a subscriber to the CSO. Also, it looks like Jason Moran is playing with Ken Vandermark (WTF?) in two weeks at the Green Mill. I will try to make that as well.

I don't know if any of you had the Russian Archives sets from Brilliant, but I had a number of them, including Rostropovich, Oistrakh: Violin Concertos, Viktor Tretiakov and Daniel Shafran. For the price, the sound was fine and the performances were generally great. Anyway, there is some set that gathers up 13 of the original sets for a total of 100 CDs of performances by Soviet/Russian performers: 100 CD set. Now I ordered one of the sets (supposedly on its way as we speak), and the seller claims to have more at $50. Caveat emptor and all that.

Finally got Venture Bros. Season 4 (part 1) on DVD. Crazy, crazy shit. Next thing in my queue is The Day the Universe Changed, which is another series by James Burke (the guy that did Connections) -- this time focusing more on paradigm shifts. I'll see if it interests my son, but I think he is a bit too young to get the idea. And this maybe could go into a WTF thread, though I can't find it now. Very sad story, but as soon as I read it, I thought - life imitating "Six Feet Under": http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/tortilla-factory-worker-killed-in-mixing-accident/?ref=nyregion

Well, this is more of a World Music radio announcement, but I was really excited to see Andy Kershaw seems to finally have straightened himself out and is back on BBC Radio 3. He's paired with Lucy Duran for an 8 part program called Music Planet. Roughly one more day to listen to the first program: Music Planet I do hope that he succeeds through this trial phase and maybe he will get to be one of the rotating DJs for World on 3. Since Charlie Gillett passed away, the remaining two DJs rotate through much faster and I end up hearing far more Irish music than I care to when Mary Ann Kennedy is in the booth. Just in general, I loved his show. I particularly remember when he did Desert Island Discs then did a follow up show where he pulled another 15 or 20 songs he couldn't get to on DID. Classic.

I would imagine minimum charge would be $50 -- and $100 or more is a lot more likely. Sad truth is that for most electronics, particularly computers, it isn't cost effective to repair them.

I folded and ordered this today. Good job! I have almost all of the SACDs and there are so many that I return to often. Sometimes I intend to play something that isn't a Living Stereo, get distracted and reach for one of these instead. They'll get played. The library has a fair number, so I'm somewhat familiar with the series. I was actually close to ordering the single disc of Spanish composers (just called Spain) conducted by Reiner. Then Amazon sneakily insisted I consider this instead, which does include that particular CD. On my system, I'll never be able to hear the difference between SACD and CD. Finding time to listen will be the hard part. I've gone through the massive Gould set one and a half times. I have been a bit better about going through some of the Sony Original Jacket boxes, particularly the Bernstein box and Szell's Beethoven cycle.

I folded and ordered this today.

Wrapped up Shamsie's Kartography. Quite interesting in the way somewhat muted-fairy tale elements are used throughout. Anya Ulinich's Petropolis. It starts off seeming it will be A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian written from the perspective of the mail-order bride (though she ends up in the US not the UK in this novel). But it has more layers than that and was overall a fairly fun romp. Just starting Narayan's Mr. Sampath: The Printer of Malgudi. Looks very promising. I've put my name in the library queue for some of Tony Judt's later essay collections, so I might be reading some non-fiction come Feb. That's probably about the same time I will be tackling Mahfouz's The Cairo Trilogy.