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If you haven't read Stuart Dybek then you will want to take a look at his short story collections. I personally prefer The Coast of Chicago but I Sailed with Magellan also has some strong stories.

Haven't read this piece yet. I will say that the Toronto Symphony Orchestra has pivoted to very, very tiny on-line offerings - usually a 5-10 minute duet. I find it far too depressing to bother with. Of course, given the strict lockdown Toronto is under at the moment, it is not possible for larger ensembles to perform with or without an audience. Up until recently, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra was performing slightly shorter evenings (60-75 minute performances) with a slightly scaled back orchestra (in an empty hall) and then putting these on line. Given that BC is ramping up its restrictions, this may be coming to a halt as well. At any rate, I am subscribing to the VSO on-line season whereas the TSO just is not worth it at the moment.

Sorry I missed it. I listened to the Friday concert and it was good but didn't exactly blow me away (and I was fairly busy on Sat, so I didn't follow up with the rebroadcast of the 2nd set.). I've seen the Bandwagon in a concert hall (Chicago Symphony Center), which isn't really the ideal setting. I believe I also saw them at Jazz Showcase (wondering whether they would do something somewhat rap-inspired after Joe Segal's introduction ), but it has been an extremely long time and my memory is fuzzy.

This may just go down as an unfortunate historical accident, but it seems a bit late in the day to try to get people to mentally switch over if the labelling on the Changes CDs is incorrect (and no one is seriously talking about repressing these with new titles...). At any rate, I was just listening, and "Free Cell Block F" matches the first song on Changes Two, which is also titled (apparently incorrectly) "Free Cell Block F."

Maybe too much of a stretch but "All The Gin Is Gone" by Jimmy Forrest. Buddy Rich "Bloody Mary" on The Driver. And "Vodka" on Cattin' With Coltrane And Quinichette

I have had a few where there was clearly some problem with the mastering of the last track (crazy digital artifacts and skipping). Fairly common particularly with PD labels releasing CDs with 75+ minutes of music. Astonishingly enough, once in a while these problems persist even when streaming on iTunes, so did they actually just rip their own CDs to create the version stored on iTunes? Completely baffling.

Make sure you are one of first 200 in line. Price goes up after that...

About halfway through dusk sets in but you have a solid hour of music in the sun. Thanks for pointing us in the right direction in the first place.

Listened to most of the Turkish jazz set. Quite interesting and I was definitely jealous of the weather (the performances were all shot outdoors on the Istanbul waterfront).

I listened to the Tom Harrell Friday evening set at the Village Vanguard. I'm still debating whether I will listen on Sat. (tonight). It looks like it is Jason Moran and Bandwagon next weekend, and I'll probably tune in on one of those sets.

It might not have made much difference in the end, but certainly some people are arguing that Ontario really started spiralling back out of control a week or two after Canadian Thanksgiving (because so many people couldn't resist going off and meeting relatives and mingling with people outside their bubbles). I can only imagine what will happen in the States. At any rate, it looks like Toronto (and Peel and York) are heading towards a pretty strict lockdown this weekend. I'm glad I ran off to the hardware store and got some extra supplies, as we may be back to on-line shopping for a while. On a slightly cheerier note, I think it's pretty cool that Dolly Parton's donation helped kickstart one of the successful (so far) vaccines. I imagine at some level her involvement may sway at least some of the vaccine-shy to get the shot when available. At this point, anything will help...

Watched Life of Brian over the weekend. It holds up quite well. I was reading that there was a huge fuss at the time, which of course made the film profitably almost immediately. I think there was an interview a while back with one or more of the Pythons, indicating that it would be all but impossible to release the film in today's climate.

Aside from my very slow march through Don Quixote (and Nabokov's lectures on same), I'm mostly reading Canadian literature. I thought The Betrayers by David Bezmozgis had its moments, but I thought the situations were a bit too pat (like a play in many cases) and it certainly isn't as good as The Free World. I thought the claustrophobic rural community depicted in Fortier's The Unknown Huntsman was certainly creepy but it was a literary affectation that bore no resemblance to anything in real life (maybe drawing on his memories of watching The Wicker Man or the like). I'm glad it was fairly short as I was getting ready to bail. I'm starting in on Atwood's The Edible Woman (which I read many, many years ago), and I expect this will hold up better than these other two.

Totally off-topic (or is it?) but I watched Goldfinger for the first time in ages last night. As Bond tries to outrun some goons at a checkpoint for Goldfinger's Swiss operations, this sweet old lady hauls out a machine gun and fires away at Bond's car!

I'm fairly sure (but not 100%) that I read Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. I actually own all of his novels now in LOA editions, but haven't read that many, and it will take a while to remedy that, just because I have so much else I am trying to get through. I just borrowed this graphic novel adaptation from the library and thought it was pretty successful. In addition to slowly making my way through Don Quixote, I am currently reading books by Quebec authors from QC Fiction (https://qcfiction.com/), including Tatouine and The Electric Baths.

Will probably follow up with The Heliocentrics & Melvin Van Peebles ‎– The Last Transmission Just in that kind of mood...

Gil Scott-Heron Winter in America

Maybe Childish Gambino's This is America? But more seriously, I have so soured on America falling so short of its promise that I don't feel even the slightest twinge of patriotism any longer. Even a landslide by the Dems tonight won't really change my underlying feelings. Feel free to delete, mods...

From Russia with Love - This was a much stronger outing in my view, clearly the budget had been increased, and we have the appearance of the first spy-rigged suitcase. While all Bond villains talk too much, this one actually appeared ready to kill Bond and was only tripped up a bit by his greed.

Watched Dr. No last night (for obvious reasons). I don't believe I had seen this one before, which is odd, as I thought I had seen all the Connery and Moore Bonds but only a handful of the others. (I'm essentially taking the position that the Daniel Craig ones don't even exist...) At the risk of being heretical, it's kind of creaky and not particularly thrilling (all the plot twists are visible a mile away) -- and with a complete absence of interesting spy gadgets. It's actually a bit surprising that they built the franchise from such a beginning. I found myself more interested in what had been lifted directly from this movie for Austin Powers.

Very late to this discussion, but haven't seen this mentioned in the thread. On iTunes (and possibly a physical release), there is Straighten Up and Fly Right (Best of Hittin' the Ramp) and Plays the Best of Hollywood, Broadway and the Great American Songbook which is also drawn from Hittin' the Ramp.

RIP - I imagine there will be a lot of people settling in for a Bond marathon this weekend.

Gyms throughout most of GTHA were all shut down by the Province. Previously, I was going about twice a week. The employees gently reminded people to wear masks and there was a moderate social pressure. Generally people were pretty good about wearing masks when not hydrating. It was about 50/50 in terms of people wearing masks while actually exercising. So it wasn't too bad overall. I only was uncomfortable a few times, though I probably wouldn't have joined a spinning class.

I probably didn't phrase that well. I'm not truly that surprised by the folks in the first movie did sign releases. Mostly it points to the fact that people don't read or understand most of what they are signing. Though it does surprise me a bit that footage perhaps taken from hidden cameras and certainly taken in what I would consider a fraudulent manner can be covered by such a release. Maybe this is in the article. It is a surprise that Giuliani signed such a release -- or did he?

Borat - the Sequel. I don't care for the Borat movies (too much like shooting fish in a barrel), but my question is how does he get the people he puts in these films to sign releases? I know that in a lot of cases people will sign the release and never see the final edit, but for instance, there is this scene with Rudy Giuliani in the sequel. Given what we know about this scene, how could he ever have gotten a signed release? Or is he relying on some sort of "public figure" exemption? I wouldn't think that would apply in this case. Just daring Rudy to sue him? I don't get it.