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Maybe it is just around the corner, but when I download mp3s I don't get liner notes or credits. That does piss me off and is probably the main reason I think mp3s are inferior (that and the fact you are pretty much screwed if your hard drive/ipod goes down). Maybe it is on the web but I don't want to have to be connected everytime I am trying to find out something about a particular recording. The music industry seems to be doing fuck-all to address this, and it does add to my residual resentment against an industry that treats all its customers as potential thieves.

I make about half my income from investments, but don't even know under Dec 31 what the total will be, esp. if the market dips in Dec. So I always owe quite a bit. I haven't been hit with any penalties yet, but it is only a matter of time. I'll go ahead and pay a bit more in estimated taxes for this year.

Depends on how much house you got.

Hate the 1999 version. Just find it painful to listen to. When I want to listen to the concert I pull out the 1985 version even if it means missing a few songs.

I've generally had pretty good luck. In Chicago I mostly go to Jazz Showcase (crossing fingers it will reopen soon), which has a strict no talking rule, and HotHouse where people are generally pretty cool. I haven't had too many problems at the Green Mill, though I don't go nearly as often. I guess it does depend on the venue and price. I try not to get too bent out of shape unless I have paid $20 or more. I was, however, at a Sarah McLaughlin concert in Toronto where one guy in our group was a little tipsy and sang along to most of the songs. We tried to quiet him down, then had to keep him from getting into a fight when someone else objected to him singing along. So that was embarassing and the last time I went out with him anywhere.

Perhaps all this activity will flag the higher ups and this will get corrected by Monday, so if you are at all interested, you probably should jump now. But definitely thanks for the heads up.

Sweet!! I went and looked at the Best Buy website, and they have a 30 day price guarantee: So I called and asked for the $30 rebate and they gave it to me. So if you have pre-ordered, go ahead and call the 888 number and you should also get the difference. I know Best Buy is generally evil, but they did ok by me today.

I'm torn. $39.99 was a good price, but now I feel I missed out on an even better deal. But it would be way too much of a headache to return the box (already on its way) and to order again. Plus, I can't imagine the price will last too long before they catch this.

What about Blues Brothers? The (car) body count is through the roof on that. Or maybe it doesn't matter if they're just cop cars?

Yep. I have Seasons 1-3, and will get the rest in the next few months. What will be particularly interesting is that I watched the first two seasons regularly, then moved to a place where I didn't have a TV. I really didn't miss it except for Northern Exposure and had a friend tape those. But inevitably I missed many of them, so the later seasons will be almost completely new to me. It should be kind of exciting. Anyway, I stayed away from TV for pretty close to 10 years throughout the 1990s, but then got into Futurama. I even started to arrange staying over at my girlfriend's place to watch that show. She did marry me, so I guess she didn't think that was too obsessive. There's usually just one show I really like, and I won't watch anything else, though for a little while I was splitting my loyalties between Arrested Development and My Name is Earl, but that has been resolved now.

Next Select will almost certainly be Hutcherson, though I might wait and get Cohn, Newman and Green as well. Not sure about the next big set -- I'm interested in the Ellington, Nelson and Gillespie -- and all should be around for a while.

Yes, whenever they are not having really good deals on cds that we want. I thought we were just supposed to boycott the stores themselves. I'm not setting foot inside of a Best Buy. Or maybe it was just buy the loss-leader CDs like this one, and then not buy anything else from them. Anyway, I'm not going to lose too much sleep over it.

Honestly if my wife knew what enablers you all were, she would figure out a way to block this website. But anyway, the Best Buy pre-order price for the box set is very good ($10 better than CD Universe) and so, of course, I went ahead and bought it. At least this is music that she will enjoy as well, though she probably wouldn't have bought all 7 CDs.

Just saw Cezanne to Picasso - Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avante-Garde. This is at the Art Institute of Chicago until May 12. It is about the collector Vollard who really made some of these artists famous and kept their careers going. If you are in the midwest and like this era of painting (generally my personal favorite), you will probably want to see the show. To be honest, the Picasso paintings are a bit disappointing, aside from a cubist portrait of Vollard. However, the Van Gogh, Cezanne, Derain and Gauguin selections are quite good. (Obviously Vollard didn't help out Van Gogh very much, and he also had a bad relationship with Gauguin, but he had a very good relationship with Renoir and Picasso and apparently Cezanne.) This makes the second time in my memory that "Starry Night over the Rhone" has been shown in Chicago (first was a Van Gogh - Gauguin show). That alone is probably a good enough reason to go see the show. It is pricey, however. Around $15 I think. I ended up getting a membership so I can go back to the show three or four times before it leaves town. There is also an upcoming Jeff Wall exhibit that I am looking forward to, so will use my membership for that as well.

Awesome! There's a guy in my office that keeps going back and forth to Indianapolis, and now I'm a little bit jealous. It's really great news, and maybe I will be able to make it out to see the Jazz Kitchen.

I guess I'll find out pretty soon what I think about this CD (Hated Music). I was inspired to dig around and found a on-line record store (weirdorecords.com) that seems to carry a fair number of the Funny Rat artists. They had a used copy of Hated Music for a very decent price, so I picked it up. By the way, a few of Flaherty & Corsano's newer releases are on emusic.

Maybe already mentioned but emusic has Who is this America and they have just added Security. I already had dl'ed one and will probably dl Security this month (long story but I forfeited last month's dls because of moving and getting swtiched to a lousy internet service and am still a bit steamed over it).

I thought that too until I had a 2-year old that liked to squirm out of my grip when we were walking. He hasn't yet tried to run into the street, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did happen. This is particularly a problem in places like Chicago with narrow sidewalks and heavy traffic. In my view, the leash is a compromise but it is better than strapping him into a stroller everywhere.

I picked up 110, 111 and 112 which were in stock at DG. I agree that some of these are pretty short, but it is a really nice series and I have essentially everything else, so I will probably fill in that last gap. I also saw some reissue called Sacha's Guitar Though I think I have almost all of this already.

I thought Stephenson's Snow Crash was good -- though basically a pretty typical cyberpunk novel. Diamond Age was ok but not that memorable to me. Personally I think he has gone off the rails since then, writing these 1000+ page books that seem more inspired by David Foster Wallace or Dave Eggers than in the SF tradition. Now if you like cyberpunk and Snow Crash specifically, then I like this trilogy a fair bit though it isn't really recent: George Alec Effinger When Gravity Fails (1987) A Fire in the Sun (1989) The Exile Kiss (1991) As an aside, in general, I do like Dan Simmons, though I wasn't particulary impressed by Phases of Gravity.

I am really torn. I went to U Michigan, so of course I hate Ohio State, though more on the football side than on the basketball side. But do I pull for the Big Ten or not? One thing I do like about Florida is that all the starters returned which never happens. I think it is unlikely Oden will return, or at most for one more year. But I hate the entire state of Florida just for being, in an existential sense. So I guess I have to hope for a double-disqualification and they don't crown an NCAA champ this year.

I suppose it partly depends on whether you want the future human society science fiction (Sterling and Gibson) or space opera with a bunch of alien races. I'd say one of the better space operas is Kevin Anderson's Saga of the Seven Suns. I also like Ian McDonald and Alastair Reynolds. I think Stephen Baxter also has a good reputation, but I haven't read his Manifold Trilogy yet.

I've read that Ben Wallace will be another NBA pro to endorse the Marbury shoe, which I think is classy. I don't know if he gets a piece of the action or not. Even Shaq's $40 shoe is a vast improvement over a $150 shoe. Someone said they thought the quality of Marbury's shoe was surprisingly good, so I assume it is made in China or somewhere equivalent. But I suppose almost all shoes are nowadays.

As if we needed more confirmation that some of these ballers are idiots. The game's not over until the buzzer sounds, guys. It's bad enough when the other team steals the ball and makes an impossible shot, but when you just turn it over to them ...

My impression from some comparison shopping, is that housing prices are at least 50% less than comparable costs in the UK and sometimes much less than that if you aren't in a hot property market. On the whole, I feel my costs of living got cut in half by moving back to the US (even in Chicago) and my salary went up by 25%. Go figure!