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But if part of the attraction of these sets in the first place is that they are limited editions, I would think that Mosaic would, and should, do everything they can to ensure that they remain so. Otherwise they'll have to change their sales pitch to, kind of limited. Well, part of the attraction to some group of fans -- and of more importance to speculators. The limited edition aspect of Mosaic is of no interest to me at all. However, I understand/accept that they would not have been given the rights to the vast majority of their sets if there wasn't some kind of a limit.

Correct. I get the impression that posters here forget that. That's different from whether they could sell FLACs going forward. Furthermore, EMI (or at least the pressing plant it subcontracted to) clearly violated Mosaic's agreement with regards to the Selects and big boxes by destroying the masters to sets that were still under license. I find it fairly incredible that Mosaic had such a weak contract that they apparently get no compensation from this or at the very least cannot force the pressing plant to create new masters. Under those circumstances, I would certainly have my lawyers approach EMI and say that one way to make Mosaic whole would be to allow FLAC sales of this material during the remainder of the license period. In fact, the longer they take to attempt such a thing, the more likely that the holier-than-thou jazz blogs will start offering the stuff for free on the basis that there is no legal way to purchase the material anyway.

I'm leaning towards getting the Mono Box and then some of the individual Stereo remasters: the Beatles (possibly) Abbey Road Let it Be (possibly) Past Masters (possibly) I'm not interested enough in Yellow Submarine to bother with it, and probably won't bother with Past Masters since the mono material is in the Mono box. Is The Beatles best heard in mono or stereo? I've heard that the stereo mix is the one that the Beatles spent more time on. Edit: From one of the earlier posts, yes it is clear that anything I'd want from the Past Masters set is in the Mono Box and even the important Yellow Submarine songs are there too. The interesting thing is that if you go to Amazon and buy during this initial frenzy the cost of the CDs are lower than the typical retail price of the old CDs. I guess the only remaining question is whether I go ahead and get The Beatles double album remastered in stereo.

As of right now, DG has at least one copy of the Curtis Amy, so if you think Mosaic will run out -- or you were going to put in a big DG order, you might try that route.

Well, this may end up in its own thread, but really WTF!?! As it happens, I do have nearly all these Selects, and certainly all the ones that interested me, but this on top of the whole back-order fiasco makes me really wonder how much longer Mosaic can go on.

Well, what a huge disappointment. I don't have particularly strong sports allegiances, and mostly pull a bit for Chicago teams, except when it comes to hockey where the 'Wings are my team. I realize they won it recently, but I really thought they would pull it off again. I guess they just didn't have enough gas in the tank at the end there. It just seems like one more kick in the shins for Michigan.

In an interview, Mr. Scott said he'd never taken the subway except maybe once or twice when he was so drunk he didn't know what he was doing. An exaggeration, perhaps. However, shooting the subway for a film, mostly in one station and then CGI'ing most of the rest, is not the same as riding the subway and having any understanding of what that feels like and entails. The city is cleaner for better and worse, but that still doesn't mean the film needs to treat the city as no more than a video game background. I certainly have no intention of watching this version.

I would think so. Unless you count Lassie's ever changing owners. Collies must live well into their 40s. Whoops -- could this be... Anyway, there are certainly longer revamps or retreads, sort of like the Lassie. I was thinking Battlestar Gallactica, Gallactica 80 and Battlestar Gallactica. (Or Star Trek for that matter.) But this seems more like Family Guy, where it was cancelled, then brought back with essentially all the original producer/writers/voice talent, so it is the same show and not a remake. And I do think the layoff for Futurama was longer than for FG. I figure it might take a little while to hit their stride (the DVDs were quite good but not amazingly good) but with 26 episodes they can really get back into the swing of it.* *Please don't suck, please don't suck, please don't suck.

Like most things, there are young reviewers and old fart reviewers, and I side with the old farts on most things. Here's Ebert's review: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.d...VIEWS/906109994 If you like video games, you'll probably like the new movie. If you like cities and film as film, you will prefer the original. Slate perhaps had a review where they talked about how Tony Scott has never taken the subway in his life, and it shows. There is one semi-clever twist from the original, but otherwise it just seems a completely pointless remake from a guy who doesn't understand or care about cities. Frankly, they might as well have shot it on the new LA rail system, and then at least you would have had more above-ground shots of trying to get the train up to Speed-like speeds.

So my wife told me this, and I was skeptical, as it sounded like a dream, but apparently Futurama is coming back (with an order for 26 new episodes!): http://www.gotfuturama.com/ This is mostly because the new DVDs sold so well (so I told her it was all worth pre-ordering every one). Most likely they will appear first on Comedy Central, but if Fox looks at them at likes them, they could actually air on Fox. (Given how Fox kept pre-empting it, frankly Comedy Central is probably better. There just doesn't seem to be the same stigma of being on a smaller channel anymore.) Anyway, very very excited. Is this be the longest layover for a cancelled show to come back from?

I guess one question is whether we expect other people to play these "tunes," and for the most part I wouldn't expect it with the originals from Osby and Moran, though they can be very nice pieces. Now is that because they are too personal, too tied to the performer? Is it because everyone needs their own originals and if they cover anything it will be a "true" standard? Is it because recording opportunities to say nothing of gigs are so much harder to come by? Anyway, in the same group as Osby and Moran, I would put Stefon Harris, Vijay Iyer and Rudresh Mahanthappa. Really interesting pieces but not music that I would expect to become a jazz standard in the traditional sense.

Well, true. Though it looks like a lot of recent sales have been for the going price of the real estate owned by the paper: http://www.slate.com/id/2220223/ Going rate for Boston Globe's real estate - about $80-85 million. The value of the good will (as alluded to in the Slate piece) trending towards $0. One real question is whether in a sale situation can the new owner void all the contracts and tell the union to fuck off.* That would certainly make it appealing to a guy like Zell (not that he is in the mood to buy more papers himself). But assume you spun off the Globe and immediately the new owners forced it into bankruptcy, I imagine you could get away with a lot. * I'm not inherently anti-union, but I am anti-stupidity and to vote down this contract when your paper is the main drag on the NY Times was the height of stupidity.

Saw it once at Manhattan's Film Forum. Enjoyed it. Should probably Netflix it soon -- before the database gets all screwed up and sends the wrong one when you want the original. Not too interested in the remake, but if reviews are good, I might, might rent it one day.

Weird. It is back up, but I had never had such a widespread problem. It was like their whole inventory was unavailable. Anyway, I'll take the topic down tonight.

I think Amazon must be going through incredibly fits right now. Either a failed upgrade or maybe even a coordinated service attack. Anyway, virtually all of the CDs and DVDs I've been looking at say currently unavailable, including a bunch of ECMs that I know are still in print. And my basket is completely unavailable. Anyone else having similar probs? I noticed that Amazon.co.uk seemed fine. I imagine it will only last half a day at most, then I will delete the thread. I'm mostly curious if it is across the country, or just if come to Amazon from specific IPs.

Good point, Ken. I've considered Al Cohn Memorial Collection, but haven't put it in the will as of yet. Well, knock wood that should be 30-40 years off. I have a lot of trouble believing that CDs will be salable items at that point, even the Mosaics, and I don't have enough vinyl to be worth much. But I have given thought to the will and whether it is worth the hassle of setting up a trust for my kids.

This is actually a sad story, though perhaps there will be a better resolution. Words to the wise: just leave my damn stuff alone! http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/1...ess-thrown-away

Well, it looks like the ugliness over at the Boston Globe is about to get worse, as the Times is getting ready to sell: http://www.suntimes.com/business/1615795,w...-061009.article

wish i'd know where i've put my books of lovecraft short stories... Well, you can replace it with this: http://www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=223 I have to say I find it amusingly perverse that LoA would publish this. On the other hand, this looks like one of their skimpier collections. Most of their volumes are complete writings or short stories or nearly so, but some are really disappointing in that they are just random collections or "best ofs". That appears to be the case here, where there are several collections from other publishers even longer than this version.

I'm not that happy with the way the Mosaic website is handling back-orders. There is some language on the main page about sets being back-ordered, but you can still add them to your shopping cart without any warnings. Anyway, I did call and they say that Chu Berry, which is the only set of interest to me right now, is back-ordered until the last quarter of 2009! Definitely seems way too long for catching impulse buyers.

Depends on the year when it was bought and the amount spent, but actually the Mosaic may be a bargain. Inflation calculator True, though I just picked one up on eBay for about $30. For a little while I thought I might get it for less than $15, but apparently someone else was paying attention!

PM sent on: Dexter Gordon - Our Man in Paris (Blue Note RVG) $3 light marks Paul Motian/Bill Evans/Bill Frisell/Joe Lovano/Marc Johnson (JMT) $6

Well, it is certainly not true about National Archives, where you can go in (to the Maryland outpost) and make copies of the videos and films, provided they are in the public domain. I did this once for a history software project. Don't know the story about LOC.

Are you going to go early and see Toumani Diabate as well? I was sorely tempted, though domestic duties call. I did manage to see Diabate at Millenium Park last summer.

If you find it cool; I'm not suggesting you just made this up. We're just curious. And indeed if eMusic is losing money, well paying more is sometimes a necessary evil. It will still be slightly better than iTunes for a lot of what I listen to, but not so much better that I won't cancel after I get through my backlog, particularly the rest of the Black & Blue catalogue. I actually found there are roughly 80 albums on my main wish list, and maybe 35 of them are no longer worth it to me at the new price point (yet 5 or 10 are now better deals if I can actually get them for 12 dls). Then about 75 from Black & Blue. So I might stick around 6-9 months longer. I think what bothers me the most is that they have this ridiculous PR campaign that is trying to make me feel GREAT about getting considerably less than I currently do for the same price. I absolutely hate it when companies treat their customers like idiots.