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Way cool--now if somebody would just stock them on this side of the water!!!!! greg mo Dusty claims they will have them in soon, and I put them on a wish list. In addition, Amazon is allowing us to pre-order (didn't check CD Universe). I'll probably go this route. No idea why the Nearness of You seems so impossible to get, other than they are still pushing the Grappelli box set.

I'm finally listening to the Akiyoshi Select. On the second track from the Kogun album there is a spoken word bit. It sounds very distorted. I'm assuming that is intentional, but if anyone else thinks it sounds off, let me/us know. Thanks.

All I can add is Damn. Born at the wrong time. Now it is basically an event to go out and see jazz (a few exceptions such as the organ trios that have a weekly spot at the Green Mill for example). I don't even care that much about the inflated ticket prices, but the fact that today's musicians don't gig on a regular basis. I've been poking around on Greg Osby's and Vijay Iyer's websites, and they seem to average 2 or 3 shows a month over the whole year. I imagine they are doing other things and practicing, but really is there anyone that could doubt that without the intense gigging of yesteryear, today's musicians are just not going to be as good? Certainly the bands as units are not going to be as good. This seems to be precisely why jazz is basically on life support.

Interesting, though would we say the same about Krazy Kat (that it doesn't go anywhere)? There are occasional short narrative arcs, but ultimately everything comes back to a kat, a mouse, a brick, a dog and a jail. It is almost a meditation on the endless repetitiveness of life, as well as the perversity of love and desire or the many faces of crime and punishment. But it is also awfully repetitive. I really do like Ben Katchor's older work (hard to find his new work now) but it is all very much of one tone -- a lament on the passing of Brooklyn of the 1950s. The characters sort of walk through this half-remembered, half-invented city having adventures nearly as momentous as Leopold Bloom's, but do they "go anywhere?" I had some other examples in mind, but I have forgotten them. That said, I tend to find reading Chris Ware's panels fairly exhausting and the reward for going through everything isn't usually worth it, since the punchline is that you grow old and die alone. The ones I do like are the ones in the apartment building with the young woman with the artificial leg. They hold my interest a bit better.

Might have been some confusion with the Ornette Coleman CD. As well as the Soul Note CD by Fred Houn & the Afro-Asian Music Ensemble - Tomorrow Is Now! Anyway, whatever the name, what a great CD!

They might feel that all the hard-core fans that would buy such a Select already have the material. For instance, I have all that material (or had as I finally sold the Wilkerson). Hmm. For some reason I thought Steppin' Out was out as RVG but perhaps not. My copy turns out to be TOCJ. I believe I suggested a Bernard Pfeiffer Select (it might have been some other semi-obscure artist in the Jazz in Paris series), and they said it was an interesting idea. That's the last I heard. I still think Pfeiffer would go along well with their general Select line (I do detect a bit of a bias towards piano-led combos) but equally I'd like to see something that pulled together Barney Wilen's CDs, some of which are almost impossible to find in the States.

Oh, god...another icon fucked with? Well, not like there haven't been dozens of films, tv series, etc. Young Sherlock Holmes sticks out as a particularly non-canonical one. But reading this again, Jude Law makes sense as Holmes, but Watson???

I agree as well. I was very disappointed. I actually worked on this a bit when the project was set up at Universal (before it went to Paramount and ultimately to Warners, in between which it almost came back to Uni) and the last draft that I read was quite good - better, imo, than what ended up on screen. Zack was indeed much too slavish to the book, which is a fine objective - to a point - but not when it gets in the way of telling the story as a film. I also think it would have been better - and ultimately more profitable - with a PG-13 rather than an R-rating. Rather than add to the edginess of the material, I found much of the violence to be gratuitous. I really don't enjoy violence (or specifically killing) on-screen unless it is purposely unrealistic (maybe some of the Hellboy scenes). So while I would no doubt be disappointed by the film, I would probably go watch it anyway, except these reports of how so much of the violence has been moved off-panel to on-screen. Frankly, it is as if the director treats the audience as if they are idiots, compared to the relative restraint of the book. It's not enough that the whole gesalt screams this is a nihilistic, dog-eat-dog world, we've got to see the blood and have our noses rubbed in it. What a waste. A few people have suggested that Jude Law could have pulled off Ozymandias (and certainly would have been more age-appropriate). I know he isn't as charasmatic as Ledger, but he could have done the aloof genius thing pretty well.

I am about 1/3 of the way through Bolano's The Savage Detectives. He's losing me in the middle section where it is a bunch of interviews, presumably conducted by a detective trying to track the past activities/movements of the poet Ulisses Lima, following him from Mexico to Paris to Spain to Israel. It's not that the interviews are not interesting, but this novel in the form of interview has been done before. It's hardly as revolutionary as some of Bolano's fans make it out to be (not at all sure Bolano ever made such claims about the work). For instance, this is almost precisely the set-up of Jack Fuller's The Best of Jackson Payne (which we've discussed a bit on the board). Honestly, I found Fuller's book a bit more engaging. I'm also reading through the works of Ivan Vladislavic, a South African writer (this is partly for entertainment and partly for a project looking at the history and literature of Johannesburg). My local research library has almost all his works: Missing Persons The Folly Propaganda by Monuments The Restless Supermarket and Portrait with Keys with the exception of The Exploded View, which they don't have. (Just trying to make MG jealous.) I know it's a bit early to tell, but I think The Restless Supermarket is truly a masterpiece, but a nearly completely unknown one. I'll write more about it later after I am far enough in. What I did realize early on is that this was a book I wanted to own, but it is very hard to come by in the States (some of his other works are a bit easier and Portrait with Keys is going to get a Stateside publisher so it will be easy). After significant digging, I came across kalahari.net where you can buy directly from South Africa (shipping the first item is a beast, but if you order 3 or more items, it isn't so bad). Assuming the books actually get to me, I'll post more thoughts -- and let MG know if I would recommend ordering through them.

Whoa - what a bummer. Hackers break into spotify: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/...-spotify-hacked

Good call. I actually went so far as to drop HighNote an email asking them to put this on eMusic, but never heard back. I waited for quite a while and gave up and ordered a used copy. Since they seem to be adding a lot of Sterns, then hopefully fairly soon they will add Authenticite.

I personally think Ghana Soundz 1 & 2 are great. I've gotten most of these compilations like Nigeria 70 etc. Anyway, it's nice to see that Sterns is putting many of their offerings on eMusic. I've picked up Bembeya Jazz and Balla et Ses Balladins (both collections called The Syliphone Years). I have a 2 CD collection of early Franco on deck, and something else I've forgetten. What they don't seem to have at eMusic is this: Authenticite I went ahead and bought this, but haven't had time to listen to it. I also managed to snag an all-but-brand new copy of Darkest Light - The Best of Lafayette Afro Rock Band from Reckless at a good price. As I am going through the liner, it says these guys recorded an album with Mal Waldron called "Candy Girl," which never was officially released. Anyone happen to hear it? Is it one of those things that make you curse stupid record label execs, or is it not all that? Finally, while trying to find Afro Super Feelings, I found an interesting podcast (well two, but Jumping the Gap seems sort of off-line)-- Radio Freetown: http://wfmu.org/playlists/RF It looks like it is just getting off the ground as a podcast, so there are only 3 to download at the moment, but you can listen to a bunch of the old shows here. I'm going to subscribe to the podcast for a while and see how it goes.

There was a whole column cracking on what a silly title this is. My favorite: A soupçon of stupidity.

They may have amended this since you saw it. Now they say, Duke is the first African-American to appear alone on a circulating, as opposed to a commemorative, coin. That claim may be accurate. In any case, I just ran across a Hawaii quarter, so I figure it will be a few weeks before I see this, but I will keep my eyes open.

It's a tough call, but the more of the old timers on the scene that can't really cut it, the fewer opportunities for the Young Lions (themselves long in the tooth) or true new-comers. Virtually everyone of the headliners at the Jazz Showcase could be drawing Social Security. For myself, I will usually go see a "senior" saxophone player (and indeed Benny Golson still plays very well), but I do draw the line at trumpet players. The decline is just too painful to watch. In many ways, I think jazz is mostly dead, trapped in amber since the fans won't let it progress beyond the 1950/60s. That's still what many of us prefer, even if we don't view ourselves as dogmatic as Mr. Marsalis for example.

Well, I very, very rarely write to politicians or NGOs, but I am pretty worked up about the Olympics, and I will do what I can (legally of course) to undermine Chicago's bid. It will be a disaster of epic proportions here, specifically because so much of the cost will fall to the city and state unlike other places where the cost overruns are nationalized. So here's the info if anyone is interested: You asked: Is there a centralized address for submitting comments on the selection of the Host City 2016? Answer: You may send your comments to the following postal address: International Olympic Committee (IOC) Candidate Cities Relations Case postale 356 Château de Vidy 1001 Lausanne Switzerland

Interesting. They did have some of these in a used section, but I guess they are phasing them out (maybe they finally got a cease and desist letter that worried them). But I have to say that I have had a couple of issues with them in terms of customer service recently, so I am basically on the road to being an ex-customer of theirs -- and moving in this direction makes it even less likely I will stop in again.

Definitely a big goof, but as reported in the Guardian, after this became public, they decided it wasn't worth the bad PR and have "forgiven" the overpayments. Of course, the former employees had better not forget to report this to the IRS.

Now why didn't I think of that? And here I was all pleased with myself for working out a weekend trip to New York and Philly.

FWIW, it still shows up in my wish list (as Out of Stock). I wrote to them today asking about it. If I don't get a satisfactory answer, I think it will be time to pool resources and get 2-5 people together to put in an order from Amazon.fr (actually FNAC has it but shipping was even worse if I recall). I'll let you know. Eric

Yeah, I guess we are spoiled in Chicago. We still get the RVGs in many of the stores. Plus I was able to get a bunch of those ultra cheap ECM reissues at 20% off because they were in stock at one location or another. Not a patch on the Towers we used to have of course, but better than nothing.

Enjoy them while you can. I would say that given the rumors about their financial health, Borders won't be around 5 years from now, or only in a very small handful of cities. Or they will be basically a cafe with a few rows of books and CDs to choose from. I know many people like to rag on chains, but there were fairly crappy chain bookstores in the malls long before Borders (Waldenbooks). Someone pointed out that after Borders and Barnes & Noble, thousands of small cities had far better bookstores than before with the small local bookstore. From my perspective, it wasn't Borders that killed the local bookstore, but Amazon. Anyway, I did manage to use my 40% off coupon on a book on the Chicago El.

I enjoyed eBay for 2-3 years, roughly 2000-2002. After that I found that the sniping and the higher fees etc. had taken all the enjoyment out of it. Also, since I am not interested in "collectibles," but rather a used CD or book, Amazon used and Z shops and half.com were much better, lower stress option for me. (Yeah, plenty of small changes on half.com I don't like, but the experience is still so much better than eBay. I basically use it every 6 months to sell things that can't be priced accurately on half.com.) Interestingly I was reading Amazon A-to-Z guarantee, and I believe it says you can only file 5 lifetime claims. This seems like something new they snuck in. It definitely discouraged me from filing a claim for $5 that's for sure.

I picked up a really unusual CD called Africa to Appalachia, which is banjo and cora, plus additional African musicians. It is pretty gimicky, and the first time through I wasn't that impressed, but I listened on headphones and it grabbed me considerably more the second time. Of course, I actually got it for my dad who is into banjo, but I wanted to test drive it. In addition, I got a used copy of Leo Wright's Soul Talk. It's probably been mentioned already, but this is a Water release from 2005.

Managed to pick up Rollin' with Leo (Parker) at Reckless Records. Looks like the previous owner listened/ripped it once and sold it, so it is essentially brand new. Plus I traded a few CDs in, so they actually owed me $0.30. (Trying very hard to balance my intake and outtake lately.) Made a quick pass through Dusty Groove but only picked up a used copy of Cannonball's Phenix and Louis Hayes/Yusef Lateef/Nat Adderley on VeeJay. (Looks like there are a couple of alternatives on the RVG of Let Me Tell You 'Bout It after all, so I guess I had better pick that up before the price jumps now that it is going OOP. It is a shame that his early work is so hard to come by or at least OOP now. Looks like another job for the European labels.)