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I like it quite a bit, but my favorite track is Do Nothin' Till You Hear From Me by Mary J. Blige. It does sound a bit like something these punk remixers would do, but she is quite soulful actually.

Have a great time! I lived there for a year and still miss it terribly. Might even move there again if I can swing it. Anyway, between AGO and ROM, I'd go to AGO, but it depends how much is closed or under construction. If you have the time, I would recommend a walk starting from the University of Toronto (quite a gorgeous place), down University Ave. At Dundas you can choose to go west to the AGO, or south another block to Nathan Philips Square (this is the new city hall and winter ice rink). Across the street is the elegant old city hall. Then you are only two short blocks away from Adelaide/Queen St. W which is one of the hipper parts of town. Lots of coffee shops and trendy stores. It's great for people watching. Don't forget to scarf down a donut or two at a Tim Horton's!

Pm sent on Holiday for Skins. Eric

so you won't get scolded? To a certain extent, but also I've had problems with packages delivered when I am not home. As much as I would like to sit around all day waiting for jazz in the mail, it isn't possible. What about the fact that the work address doesn't have any numbers, just two names? Stick it all onto the street name line?

I have two related questions (to ordering on the 2001 website). Is it possible to have different shipping and billing address? Second, can you use one of these "English" addresses, i.e. Somerset House, Milton Rd., where there are two phrases and no numbers in the address? It certainly didn't look like the form could handle that, so I've had my previous order sent to my home address, but I would prefer it sent to work. Thanks. Eric

I think the US should have won 2-1. Waving off that second goal was totally unjustified in my view.

Excellent news! I have the UK version, but this one is based off the 65 mm print and should be much, much better. They claim it is coming in Sept. Oct. is a bit more likely, and I'll probably ask for it for Xmas.

It sounds like you've got the makings of your next Night Lights - the cool jazz stylings of Barry Manilow and Rod Stewart. The phone lines will be jumping.

Brockmeier's A Brief History of the Dead. I enjoyed this, but the reviews are mixed. The main set-up is that there is a city in which the newly dead reside, until everyone who knew them is dead, at which point they pass onto another, even more mysterious location. The next major plot point is that terrorists have released a virus that gets so completely out of hand that it decimates the entire global population, except for a handful of researchers at the South Pole. The chapters then alternate between the city of the dead and the South Pole. Some people wanted more of one setting rather than the other. I found the city of the dead chapters a lot more interesting and somewhat agree that aspects of it aren't really fleshed out or thought all the way through. My favorite bit from an Amazon reviewer is about how the dead eat burgers, so does that mean there is a small army of newly dead cattle kept for the sole purpose of being eaten a second time. But it was certainly an entertaining read. For a slightly more coherent metaphysical headtrip, take a look at James Morrow's Towing Jehovah about a captain who is given the task of towing God's dead body to the equator to atone for his past mistakes, most notably rupturing an oil tanker and spilling crude oil all over the Alaskan shore.

I'm going to be mighty tempted by some of the new Conns this summer, especially Holiday for Skins. Generally, I have been pretty good (i.e. saving not spending money), though last week I bought Marvin Gaye's I Want You. Today I just splurged on a box set of Messiaen's recordings called Messiaen Edition, which is 18 CDs covering most of his output. Apparently this has Messiaen himself playing the definitive version of some organ works and his wife playing many of his solo piano pieces. Can't wait for it to arrive. I'd say that Messiaen and Shostakovich are my two favorite 20th C. composers (not counting Ellington or other jazz composers), and with this set I will be very well covered for both of them.

This strategy is one of the things that disgusts me about the modern NBA. If the best you can do is just go in and blatantly foul your opponent, then frankly you deserve to lose the game. When this started becoming common, you saw players sort of hanging their heads when following coach's orders, but now it's just part of the game. It drags things out and makes it an ugly game. I would definitely support a rule change to eliminate this -- probably giving the ball back to the fouled team in the last thirty seconds of a game when the foul is clearly intentional and not done in the course of defending a shot.

This story just gets worse and worse -- assuming it is true. All you can really say is that the apple didn't fall far from the tree and they all deserve long prison sentences. From CNN:

One of my favorite Greene novels. I also particularly liked Monsignor Quixote. i am half way through. i read our man in havana last year. any recommendations for my next greene? In addition to MQ, I would recommend The Third Man (if you haven't seen the film), The Quiet American and maybe Doctor Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party (a late novel). (I don't remember too much about Doctor Fischer other than it seemed inspired by and perhaps a bit overwhelmed by Dr. Strangelove.)

One of my favorite Greene novels. I also particularly liked Monsignor Quixote.

With the b-side "Fans are Deaf"?

I saw American Painters in Paris at the UK National Gallery. Before that I saw an interesting show called Melancholy curated by Jean Clair in Berlin. I really wanted to make the Cezanne show, but it wasn't in the cards.

I got a CD player in 1987 as I was heading off to college. It came with a Columbia jazz sampler. The first CD I bought was probably The Beatles' Help. First jazz CD was probably Mingus Ah Um and Brubeck's Take Five a bit after that. I was still buying tapes in those days, which is why I didn't get Monk's Genius of Modern Music 1 & 2 and Miles' Sketches of Spain earlier (before Mingus and Brubeck at any rate).

Managed to get to Amsterdam to see Andrew Hill at the Bimhuis this Friday. Originally was billed with Greg Tardy and Charles Tolliver, but Byron Wallen and Jason Yarde substituted for them. The line-up ANDREW HILL NEW QUINTET Byron Wallen-trumpet, Jason Yarde-tenor saxophone, clarinet, Andrew Hill-piano, John Hebert-bass, Eric McPherson-drums It was good angular music. I think mostly from Time Lines, though I am not certain about that. Generally, Andrew doesn't play that much and lets the horns dominate. There was one pretty good bowed solo by the bass player. I thought Andrew looked about the same as when I saw him three years back in Chicago. I managed to snap a shot or two on my cell phone, and if I can ever figure how to unload that, I will post it here. I had a great seat about three rows back. I made it through the first set and most of the second when I had to run to catch my train. I think he'll be back through England and Europe a little later in the summer.

The weirdness is over for another year. This was the first year I watched Eurovision, and it definitely lived up to and down to all my preconceptions. Half the songs are in English to get cross-over votes and the other half are defiantly native (with a bit of Riverdance or Abba thrown in as part of the routine). Most of my previous knowledge of Eurovision comes from the TV show Father Ted where he is chosen to go to Eurovision, since Ireland is sick of winning and paying to host the competition (apparently there is a bit of truth behind this joke, though this year they put forth a serious contender who was solid but not flashy enough). France was really dire, and came pretty close to scoring nil points (6 total maybe). And they were still ahead of Malta who scored 1. The UK entry was some dreadful hip-hoppy thing by a 40-year-old. The joke just didn't translate at all. But really, given the UK's unpopularity in Europe right now, there isn't much point in putting too much effort in. Eurovision is not a serious musical contest in any sense, but is decided mostly by the smaller countries voting in blocs. One of the best entries musically was a country song by the German group, but it didn't even finish in the top 10. Nonetheless, the runaway winner was definitely interesting - a heavy metal group from Finland that dresses up sort of like Gwar. Expect even more gimmicks next year. It really is weirdly compelling. Anyone else watch and have any thoughts?

I imagine many people have this material already, but BBC Radio 3 will be airing a recording of Miles in Rotterdam on May 26 11:30 PM (GMT). I didn't get the full details, but the group includes Wayne Shorter, Jack DeJohnette and Chick Corea. Unlike most of the Jazz on 3 shows, this is not going to be available for 7 days after airing. You have to listen to it live. Fortunately, it will be available for internet streaming on the day, and probably will be available to listeners outside the UK. Eric

Finished Soldier's Art book 8 of Powell's Dance to the Music of Time. Overall it is a really interesting read, though occasionally Powell is a bit too proud of the structure/plotting of the books. This comes up in book 8 when two people are killed in the London Blitz. One who went to a party and one who stayed home. It is just a bit too much like the joke about the man who bumps into death in Bagdad and tries to outrun death, only to have death catch up with him in Samarra. The overplotting is even stronger in The Kindly Ones where one section ends with Nick's childhood figuratively coming to an end with the announcement of WWI, and the book ending with the beginning of WWI and Nick's decision to become a soldier at a relatively advanced age. Still, I like the series as a whole and should wrap it up in another couple of months. I just started a really interesting novel about life in Occupied France called Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. It's quite a work of art, somewhat overshadowed by the back-story that only 2 parts were completed before the author was taken away to the Nazi internment camps where she died. The book was saved by her young daughter who thought it was simply a diary and didn't have the heart to read it until 10 years or so ago.

Like most game shows of the 1990s/2000s, this has been imported from the UK. I saw it once in a hotel in Dublin. I thought it was dumb. Can't imagine the US version is any better.

That's very good news. I wonder if there is any push to get a US distributor, since as was pointed out last year, most of these are very good CDs and some are by quite well known musicians.

I wish I had realized that Collier was available, since I recently paid a bit more than I wanted for Deep Dark Blue Centre, which fairly recently went OOP. Inspired by your post, I went looking for it, and it is on emusic (under Graham Collier Septet). (It's a nice album and only 6 tracks. Also, Day of the Dead looks really promising.) It turns out that most if not all of the whatmusic catalogue has been added. But I don't feel too, too bad, since it was added in late Jan. Anyway, there are some excellent CDs from this label, some very hard to come by, and I will try to download the ones I am missing over the next few months.

HubTones just maybe, but would you really hang Somethin' Else on the wall? The cover is so plain.