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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!

I saw the film in 1956 when I was kid - liked it at the time, of course. Interestingly, it was shown as recently as 1986. It seems to me that we were well into the modern PC sensitivity by then. Wouldn't there have been a VHS release at the time? I saw it when it was rereleased in 1980. I thought it was ok, nothing that special. Anyway, in 1986, there were still only a few rental stores and most of the studios were pricing VHS tapes extremely high so as to not undercut the rental market. I recall a number of tapes were $50 or more, with only a few under $25. That started to change of course, but not by 1986.

Actually, what I am reading right now is much lighter, though it does have some dark humor in it. It is Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris. It's very entertaining. Here are some reviews: Probably the most ironic thing is that I really wanted to see Ferris do a reading at a Borders in Chicago, but couldn't make it. Literally the day before the reading, Borders annouced that it was planning on closing that store.

I guess this fits into the will be reading fairly soon category. Oprah has picked a very dark, dystopian novel for her book club. I think this will be one that a lot of people have trouble with. But it has been getting excellent reviews, and I am a lot more likely to pick it up now that it is being rushed into paperback. There are many things that bug me about Oprah, but I think her book club is great. She has picked some amazing novels and brought them to a huge, huge audience. Here are just a few that caught my attention: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and Night by Elie Wiesel. Most of these are fairly well known (though I am sure Mistry benefitted from the additional exposure) but they are very challenging, and I think it is a good thing that her book club includes some true classics. The other thing is that she is truly passionate about these books that she has picked. You don't see that too much on tv at any rate. Too bad she never adopted a jazz musician or two. I also think the books in the One Chicago, One Book program are generally pretty good. So maybe there's some hope that we don't all just shuffle off into a post-literate world dominated by iPods and Playstations.

Bandwagon is my least favorite CD by Moran, though it still has its moments. I think the Harris is pretty good. If you like his other CDs, you'd probably like GUT.

This is basically my route as well. Of course, I am not usually looking for the really rare things, but I am so sick of eBay that I much prefer Amazon and Half.com. (Gemm.com is often a waste of time also with a lot of people listing "special order" items.) Recently I got fair prices for JR Monterose and Here Comes Louis Smith on Amazon Marketplace, which is about as rare as I go. When there is a problem, I've generally had better luck on the Amazon sales in getting it straightened out.

However, if you are sure you will eventually get the Mosaic set, Free (and the entire Take a Number from 1 to 10) is on the set. Once Free is gone, you can go this route:Golson Quartet This has Free and Turning Point, again both on the Mosaic. Farmer - Art and Perception And this is also on the Mosaic, which I realized too late. But it is quite nice anyway.

However, if you are sure you will eventually get the Mosaic set, Free (and the entire Take a Number from 1 to 10) is on the set.

I know it is much more recent Golson, but actually I like Terminal One quite a bit. Yes, there is some tie-in with the movie, but I think it's a good album that will probably outlast the movie in terms of importance.

I think it probably was the right thing to do to save the headache of 8000+ Ebay transactions. I'm still in the collecting phase and have around 30 years until retirement, though I am trying to slow down due to space limitations. On a related subject, I am contemplating a purge of some urban sociology books that I no longer use (and in fact have boxed up and not looked at in 2 years). But it will be extremely painful to contemplate getting rid of even 10% of them. In the past I dumped them off at a sociology department where I was pretty sure they would go to good homes. I don't think that is an option this time around.

Yeah, but nothing beats a flowbee. Apparently you can still buy them: Flowbee site I would think that the weight of the various warning stickers they would put on the thing (not to be used as a manicure tool, do not stand in a tub of water and operate a flowbee, do not operate after breaking up with husband) would weigh it down so much to be inoperable. Honestly, does anyone know anyone who has ever used one of these things?

Actually, Yourmusic.com has Sweets, so I have tried to order it that way. I'll post later if it actually shows up.

There are stores in the Boston area where the used prices are in the $7.99 - $9.99 range. Yeah, that's pretty much what used CDs go for in Chicago. I've been walking around my old neighborhoods and nearly all the used CD stores are gone. About the only ones left are Dr. Wax and Reckless Records and a couple of bins at Jazz Record Mart. Dusty Groove has used LPs but almost no used CDs.

This appears to have been reissued on Sunnyside recently: LOAT on Amazon. They document the reunion of the Giuffre Trio in 1989. Sorry if this is old news, but I hadn't seen it mentioned anywhere else. It isn't appearing on CD Universe. (Oops -- they are on CD Universe but listed under Paul Bley. LOAT on CD Universe) Anyone have opinions about these? There is a positive review of both CDs on allmusic (with Sunday getting a slightly better review). I probably won't run out and get them, but it looks like something I would pick up in the next few months, as I have several of the other trio records.

Currently The Swinger and Mr. Swing is going for a pretty high price (almost $50). I did discover that this is in the batch of Verve Vault releases that should be available thru iTunes, so I will probably go ahead and get it this way though I generally avoid iTunes where possible. Curiously, Sweets is also listed with OOP Verve recordings, though there are still plenty of copies floating about.

That's funny. That looks exactly like my next Amazon order!

I picked up Shirley Scott's For Members Only/Great Scott for a fair price, as well as Willie Bobo's Spanish Grease/Uno Dos Tres (love that cover) and East Coast West Coast Scene with Shorty Rogers and Al Cohn (playing separately). I really wanted to get Sweets by Sweets Edison, but the price wasn't right, so I will order it a bit later.

I guess it's all relative. Many have done quite well for long stretches. Of course, you want to find a no-load fund, and a no-load index fund is going to have the lowest annual fees. The question is whether you would do better with a broker and all the hassle associated with that. I've had pretty bad experiences with brokers and trying to pick my own stocks. Also, I find that with a mutual fund, I am a lot more likely just to leave the money invested and not trying to micro-manage and do market timing, where you almost always end up worse off.

Number 7 is curious. Of course other people know more about money than I do, particularly when it comes to tax treatment of income, etc. I can't believe he is calling for people to stop using investment professionals, which would include those running mutual funds if we took it to extremes. I guess the broader point of taking responsibility for your finances and knowing at least the basics is a good one.