ejp626

Perhaps, but I think they'd rather have enough food. Here's an update: Well, it probably would be "better" if it did turn out to be a pesticide or something in a GM crop that could be more or less contained. If it is more directly human-related, like cell phones, industry lobbyists will delay and cause confusion and drag their feet and nothing will be done, and Americans will import their food from somewhere else. It will be the same story as global warming, where we have shown ourselves absolutely incapable of making the hard decisions that might solve the problem.

The Stone Roses broke while I was in college, and it was one of the few times I found out about a band before it had become super popular. In fact, I turned a number of people onto them. It was great, being on the inside for once. Sadly it didn't last (either the Roses or my insider status).

Thanks for the link! It looks like I might order this next week. I also like this quote from the ad: "3. I'm introducing Art to people who thought they knew what jazz was (Kenny G) and didn't like it. If you like Kenny G, just go away. There's nothing for you here."

Agreed. We really have to thank MC for all the Andrew Hill material released recently, esp. Passing Ships and the unreleased material on the Selects. I am also very sad about the news, but am glad that he was able to touch so many of us. I only managed to see him twice (once going out of my way to catch him in Amsterdam) but I'm glad I made the effort. I am starting to dread the day when the last of my jazz heroes (mostly but not exclusively those on BN titles from the 1960s) passes on.

I've wanted the Dizzy for a while, so will order it. 10% isn't great, but it's better than nothing. Unfortunately, there is some small problem with mailing. My home address is definitely not safe for a package such as this, and my office is switching location next week! So I've tried to avoid ordering anything until after the dust settles from the move. (Yeah, I'm sure someone will offer to hold the goodies for me in the meantime. ) I'll probably order on the 27th (assuming internet service is back on!).

Sorry to dig up an old diversion to this thread, but it just occurred to me that those numbers have to be way, way high for Zorn. I've seen Masada, both the brass and string groups, several times in the past 10 years, both in and out of NYC, and only paid more than $25 or (at most) $30 once (wouldn't be willing to pay more since I'm not the biggest fan) - and that one exception was when they were opening for Cecil at J@LC, which is always expensive. Zorn (in one context or another) plays on average about twice a month in NYC, I'd say, and $20 is the usual ticket price (it is always the price for his monthly jam session at The Stone, which only seats 90). The Masada string group is playing three shows in the city over the next couple weeks and I'm pretty sure they are all $20/set. All that being said, I don't really care what musicians charge - that is their business, and it's up to me whether to go see them play or not. In the interests of being completely redundant with what has been said above, however, one can't charge $75 to $100 a ticket, which of course limits the number of people who can go see them play and hence their opportunities to play, and then reasonably complain about the resulting obscurity. Maybe it was his way of saying he didn't want to go. Or maybe the fee included travel and hotel for the group. Obviously they can charge less for a show in NYC when the members just hop on the subway for the gig. I hired a string quartet of UC students once, and they cut their normal fee in half because the gig was in Hyde Park.

which reminds me of Actually I picked up a used copy of this largely for the cover. On a side note, it's too bad the reissued New York New York by George Russell didn't use the original cover.

Same facade used again here : EDIT : You also might want to check out my current avatar ( right click , view image ) . Is this the World Trade Center? It certainly reminds me of one section of it.

My wife said that it had shown up today (from BestBuy), so I will check it out soon. I was starting to think they had figured out a way to cancel orders still in the mail. Sorry it didn't work out for more of us.

While I agree with much of what Soul Stream is saying, particularly this being a subtle way of saying their lives are more important than yours, I still believe there are many things out of people's control. I routinely stay 20-30 minutes longer than I want to/expect at work because of things that get dropped on my lap late in the day (when supervisors say their priorities are greater than yours, you don't have much choice but to accept it). I'm also working on a project with European team members, so I am waking up at 5 am to be able to interact with them (and I'm about to sign off to handle some new crisis). For me, it really is trying to fit the 10 lbs of work into a 5 lb bag of life, and it does mean that things get shuffled all the time and I am late more than I would like to be. I think that is just the way it is for most corporate drones in downsized USA.

And yet life is full of random stuff that prevent schedules from running like clockwork. Sure, it sounds like your acquaintences are always running late and that is a major headache, but at the same time I've learned lately that expecting a tight schedule to work is unrealistic and if I'm going to get that bent out of shape over it, I need to drop something.

No idea if it is true, but saw a small blurb that some researchers think that pervasive signals from wireless technology (towers for cell phones) is playing a role. That would suck, since if given a choice between bees and cell phones, Americans would choose to keep their cell phones.

I used to be very, very good about being on time, but I have definitely slipped this year, though still I am rarely more than 10 minutes late. I think it is a combination of trying to do a few too many things and still trying to adjust to the CTA, which is definitely worse service than it used to be. I figure I should be re-adjusted by May or June.

Ok, I need this one. It sounds amazing.

Well, it is sad when important figures leave us, but I think we can also celebrate the impact they had on our lives through creating great works. In Vonnegut's case, I think he had sufficient time to say much of what he wanted to say, and that is also something to be glad about. I'll definitely revisit a few of his novels in the next few months. I often wonder if I will be able to complete even a fraction of the projects I would like to get through, and it seems unlikely. As of right now, my "legacy" is a handful of co-written articles for work that I am reasonably proud of -- and a few poems published in very obscure poetry magazines. It just doesn't seem to be enough, and yet even this is more than many people achieve. I will make more of an effort to do some creative writing, but I am fooling myself if I think I can complete anything major in the next few years. My children are very young and it is far more important to me that I spend time with them now than to lock myself away and write. But I will see if I can cut down on some of the procrastination...

This is so fucking sad and disturbing. The newest accounts suggest that this kid did in fact make a number of bomb threats. More important is that he bought one gun, waited thirty days to buy a second one (legally) and then went on a rampage. So this was pre-meditated at pretty much every level. It is so hard to know what goes through people's minds, but you have to be totally sick and basically devoid of normal human emotions to be able to plan to murder dozens of people.

I'm pretty sure that as long as you pay 100% of last year's tax, even if you have a very good year the next (which has happened to me for at least the past 2) you won't get hit with penalites. For my state taxes I have to fill out 1/2 of their underpayment form (the easy parts), before hitting the magic line that says I owe no penalities or interest. Why I have to do this in a dozen lines when 1 saying "did you pay 100% of last year's owed" would do the trick is beyond me, but that's tax authors for ya! I then up the estimated for this year's to 100% of last. Only in bad years do I get a refund. You just never know. When you have capital gains, you are supposed to be setting some aside or paying estimated taxes all along the way, but unless I paid an enormous amount of attention, I really wouldn't know until the end of the year, when I get the final statement from the broker, by which point it is pretty late. This year is particularly strange as I am filing F1116 and F2555 and am including and excluding foreign income, so it certainly looks fishy.

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.

Almost all white collar employees have to sign statements that they will not use racial slurs or sexist language, discriminate and generally they will behave themselves. Violating this policy is grounds for dismissal, particularly on 2nd or 3rd offense. That's how I view this, not as free speech issue, but an employer deciding to cut his losses.

Context always matters, but I think you are vastly overestimating the communities even within the Black community where you could get away with this kind of language (even nappy-headed). In my wife's circles, if you say this to someone, you are looking for a real fight. Sure there are ignorant rappers who bring everyone down to their own level, and that is tragic in its own way. But someone in the media as long as Imus has to know the codes and chooses to ignore them, and is now playing dumb.

While Richards rant was incredibly ugly and indefensible, at least it is in the context of being heckled. Out of nowhere Imus and his producer start calling the Rutgers players ho's. There is no call for that, and despite the fact that Imus is pretty out of it, who really doesn't know that even in rap that term isn't just thrown around but is applied to "no good women" who aren't doing anything to get out of the ghetto. In any case, Imus was going on about how he can be trusted to keep his word and clean up his act, and Clarence Page brings up this pledge that Imus agreed to YEARS AGO that he would stop making racial slurs on the air. So he has already had plenty of chances.

I guess he does want to focus on the US homefront, but I didn't really think we needed any more WWII documentaries after the World at War (just starting to get into this set).