ejp626

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.)

Well, I would go for Philly-as but that's just my midwestern accent. Since Fogg is supposed to be a British character, I would think that all syllables are pronounced, so not File-as. One thought would be to take a look at the movie version (with David Niven) or even the crappy remake, and see how it pronounced there.

Well, this is really about 2016 (again) but I think it fits. The 2012 is really shaping up to be a fiasco for London. I have seen first-hand how even the faint hope of getting 2016 for Chicago has completely distorted all kinds of political decisions. I've never hated Mayor Daley as much as I have now. He's actually firing commissioners who aren't 100% on board with this fool's crusade. But as badly as he wants it, he refused to put into the bid the only thing that would actually benefit the city and its residents (inproved transit infrastructure). I've actually taken the step of requesting the addresses of the IOC to write to them to explain my opposition and to show how badly the Games will go with the existing transportation system. If they actually respond and anyone else wants in on the letter-writing campaign, let me know. Eric

I don't think anyone was that interested. I was hawking a copy here for a month or two and gave up and sold it to Reckless.

The tag end of one of these is Nation's Pretentious Mourn Unknown Novelist, which is pretty funny though I hope it wasn't in response to Updike's passing. He was hardly an obscure/difficult writer, esp. with Witches of Eastwick.

Guess I haven't done a very good job updating this. I have been buying a handful of poetry books, mostly books that I was a bit on the fence about when I was younger, but were now super cheap on amazon or half.com. For instance, I picked up Thom Gunn's The Man with Night Sweats and A.R. Ammons' Garbage for close to $5 (w/ shipping). Wow, Gunn's book really was a flashback to the height of the AIDS epidemic in the US, but I think this book does stand the test of time (not as sure about his other work). Anyway, there are sufficient ties between Thom Gunn and August Kleinzahler that his name kept cropping up as I made these purchases. Now I had never heard of Kleinzahler but he has quite an impressive ouvre, including a recent book with a totally kick-ass title: The Strange Hours Travellers Keep. So in a very short period of time I've become a bit of a fan and picked up 4 of his books and have pre-ordered his newest collection (it's out in hardback but the paperback is a bit cheaper). It didn't hurt that he is another case where they must have over-printed and you can get most of his books for a couple of bucks. His mature work tends to be in the style of the urban vignette, fairly accessible with perhaps some surreal touchs (not nearly as much as Simic though). So I think this was a pretty good find and am happily exploring his work. I was also surprised to see that Adrienne Rich has a new collection out called Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth. I've been a fan of her work for a long time, but this is not a particularly strong collection. For me the highlight was the title poem and not much else, but I will wait and reread at a time when I am not so pressed for time. I might be a bit more enthusiastic then or at least more forgiving. Edit: I see that way up in the thread Paul mentioned Kleinzahler, but I didn't pick up on it. We seem to have a constellation of favorite poets in common, so I guess I'll check out some of the others. I'd also echo the praise for Neruda, and I have a fair bit of his work, but like Gluck I find each collection can be completely different from the last.

I don't know how tough these guys are if they're going to cover the Stone Roses.

Don't recall the name of it, but Newhart has a fairly recent autobiography where he talks at some length about his friendship with Don Rickles ... and the first time his wife saw Rickles doing his act (180 from the man in private). I was starting to meander a bit and just deleted the last bit, but I would agree with Larry, the DVD Show had some of the purest physical comedy and was one of the great expressions of the sitcom (maybe precisely because it was so early in the history of the medium). If only more TV had lived up to the legacy of I Love Lucy, DVD Show and MTM Show. Not to say there hasn't been good to great tv afterwards, but the hit to miss ratio is often pretty low.

I know it's still a sore spot, but this was easy to pick up when I was in the UK (and they were the ones with the troops in Basra itself), though at that time I only could get the copy-control version.

Well, couldn't get one of the Newberry copies, but Wherehouse has generally been ok by me, so I bought one of those and it showed up today. I've just read through Laurie Pepper's notes. Wow, just wow. I've had the previously issued material but am really interested in seeing how it flows together with the shows reconstituted as organic wholes. Might not be able to start until tomorrow though. This sounds like it was one of the last things that Les Koenig recorded. Anyone know of any sessions he (Koenig) recorded later? Would this be a reasonable last project for his legacy, or was the whole thing too uneven and too chemically-enhanced? I should know what I think about it in about a week or so.

Doesn't strike me as that complicated (if it were Walmart, well maybe a different story). Either you decide you like the Handy and pay for it, or you contact them and ship it back to them (and ask for the return postage as credit to your account).

I think this may be the oddest re-issue fad yet. This label (plustapes) is now re-issuing unusual recordings on cassette, limited to 100 copies. The offerings either seem to be metal or Asian-related. I picked up this one, based on the reckless records review: http://plustapes.com/?p=104 It is not bad, and already OOP. I would definitely pick up more by this group (The Travellers), so I'll keep my eyes open.

I would say of all them Quadromania/Membran and JSP have the best sound quality. Proper generally has the best value for overview sets. Definitive and Lonehill are pretty average in terms of sound quality, though that hasn't stopped me when they have had some interesting item that would never be reissued in the States.

Eric, I happened to get both of these books using a Borders gift card given to me a couple months back. Haven't read either one, but heard lots of positive things about both. Please let us know what you think of them. I just finished The White Tiger. It is a real page-turner! I didn't quite read it in one sitting, but maybe three. It's really interesting, has lots of local color (the detail this writer goes into about the lives of the poor servant class in India!), and is written with a kind of sardonic wit. It is also kind of Bizarro-world version of Crime and Punishment, which is made apparent about 15-20 pages in, but I don't want to go into detail here. At the same time, I don't think I would read it more than once. It's got one thing to say, says it brightly/sharply, and then slinks off. Maybe it would benefit from repeated readings, but I don't think so. It is more of a surface-type book. The Bolano looks like one you might want to read more than once (if anyone had the time of course). Far more consciously literary, has more depth, etc. I will be able to start this one more seriously later next week.

The other thing about the Dead is that they were mellow in the extreme about where their audience was -- some being fully committed to the music, some only interested in the recreational aspects of following the Dead around, most somewhere in between with a bit more emphasis on the music. They didn't insist on everyone experiencing the magic the same way as the artist, which is part of Jarrett's problem IMO. I guess the reason Keith gets under my skin so much is that he is following in the footsteps of Glenn Gould but hasn't a 10th of the talent, again IMO. Glenn ultimately had the courage of his convinctions and stopped doing live concerts, since the interaction with the audience was so distracting to him. If Keith feels that strongly that the auditorium should be like a recording studio (he has now taken to berating the audience for coughing according to the BBC), then he should stop performing live. I for one am more than willing to help him on his way by no longer buying tickets to see him perform.

PM sent on Buck Clayton

Agreed that it is good hearing about future Mosaic plans. I'll probably get these two though they are not at the top of my list. But I would be all over a Select with live Handy/Hutcherson! Here's hoping.

Unfortunately, the copy of Bolano's The Savage Detectives I was going to start was missing the first 100 pages! Grrr! So I went back on the wait list at the library for that one. In the meantime, I got to the top of the list for Adiga's The White Tiger, which is the recent Booker winner. It is a fairly dark novel about a self-made entrepeneur from a village in India who gets his big break as a driver for a rich family. Reviews are generally positive, though there are some who feel he really wades into the muck too much and overdoes the backwardness of rural India. I'm enjoying it so far.

So I saw Benny Golson at CSO celebrating his 80th Birthday. He has put together a sextet that includes Eddie Henderson on trumpet and Buster Williams on bass! Not that familiar with the others. Well, the show more or less doubled as a CD release party for his brand spanking new CD New Time, New 'Tet. They played Grove's Groove, Epistrophy, L'Adieu (adapted from Chopin), Gypsy Jingle-Jangle, Verdi's Voice (based on a short theme from Verdi) and Uptown Afterburn. So 6 of the 10 tracks. This would have been a great show by itself, but they came back for one encore and did a killer version of Killer Joe. Benny still errs a bit on the side of talking more than playing, but this was only really notable in the introductions. And indeed, I was interested in some of the stories where he got his inspiration, particularly the Gypsy Jingle-Jangle and Verdi's Voice. I would say everything was good with the possible exception of L'Adieu which didn't really grab me. My favorite performances were Verdi's Voice, Killer Joe, Epistrophy. Uptown Afterburn and Gypsy Jingle-Jangle in roughly that order. He's definitely locked into that mid-tempo groove, which in my understanding is actually one of the hardest tempos to play in. I expect I'll be picking up his new CD soon (I was pretty wiped out or I could have bought it there for him to autograph). Mulgrew Miller was the opening act and he was leading a new trio. They mostly played Golson compositions including I Remember Clifford (though they transformed it to the point I didn't recognize it) and ended with a blistering Relaxing at Camarillo. Definitely a good night out, though it's still colder than a witch's bottom here in Chi town.

He who lives by the hype, dies by the hype. What does this article do other than feed Keith's meglomania? Personally I have so little respect for Jarrett the person (and esp. his view of himself vis a vis "the audience") that I am boycotting everything he touches. Don't see anything that would make me change my mind.