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Recovering data is another issue. If it is truly a mechanical failure with the hard drive, it is possible that nothing can be recovered. This happened to me only two months ago. The technician couldn't even get the hard drive to access the data; it was complete scrap. If it is more of a formatting problem (a crucial read sector got wiped for example), then you might get some or all of your data back.

You wouldn't believe some of the crap I save. I have some stuff from when I was a math teacher 10 years ago! I keep thinking that I will use it as background for the novel I want to write (don't laugh). I actually have started this novel, and if I quit my job next month as planed, I will work on that at least. (No, I am not so deluded to think I can live off an advance. I just need some time away from the many idiots I deal with. Yeah, you got me Catesta.) But I do get around to using a lot of what I have saved, including the 3000 or so non-fiction books I own. Still, if I only knew now what I would use in the future, I might actually get somewhere.

I work in transportation planning, and we deal with lots of different computer programs. I'll walk someone through the steps once, wait for them to forget and come back. If they can't get it after the second time around, I think they probably need to be in a different line of business. That doesn't mean I won't try to solve their problem, but I just don't think well of them after that, and that probably shines through. I am difficult to live with, and I am amazed that my wife sticks with me. Whenever I think about that, I bring her home flowers. (At least, I've never needed to bring her home flowers, let alone jewelry, for bad behavior.)

I do have a temper. I hate to lose. I hate it when my causes lose out. I don't have much patience. I am willing to explain techniques and protocols to people twice. After that if they still don't get it, I write them off as idiots. I carry grudges too far. I can't keep my office straightened up. I have thousands of pages of reports I won't read, but I can't throw them out.

I see that Ebay has a copy of Black Christ for a very low starting bid (not my auction). It does have surface scratches, but this could be a low-cost way to investigate the music. I ordered a different copy through half.com, since I don't have as much patience for Ebay these days. Anyway, I am looking forward to hearing it.

Only one major trauma. Was running around in a mall and ran smack into a marble pillar for a bank. Split my forehead open. Still a small scar.

Here are the details: Wednesday 27 Don Byron's Ivey-Divey Trio with Jason Moran and Billy Hart 8:00pm $20 in Advance, $20 at the door, (21 & Over) It is a great place to see music. I certainly hope to make it to this show, but sometimes stuff happens. It is usually not necessary to book ahead, though the tribute to Malachi Favors was packed. Anyway, while browsing the site, I saw this FAQ, which might be of interest. How does my band get booked at HotHouse? If you are interested in booking your band at HotHouse, please send a promotional package with contact information, music sample, biography, press reviews and photographs to: HotHouse Tim Bisig 31 East Balbo Chicago, IL 60605

I didn't want to jinx it until the box arrived, but UPS said today, and it did show up today (15 minutes ago)! It is quite an astonishing box, especially all the detail that went into the supplementary material. Of course it isn't more important than the music, but it is still fun. I decided to start with the core of the box -- discs 6 and 7. Then I can return to the CDs in order. This could be the last major CD purchase for a while, since I am very seriously considering leaving my job, though my goal is to move down the street to a rival company. If that happens, there won't be a major disruption in cash flow. I might leave even without a job waiting. Regardless of the future state of my bank account, I'm glad I picked up Holy Ghost. It's a good set to dwell on, and I probably will appreciate it more if I don't buy a lot of music in the meantime (though I will have to get Hill's Dance with Death, since I only ever had a burn of that).

Well, I just moved, so my music collection is in total shambles, but I am trying something new. My box sets were on the bottom shelf of a bookcase and not that convenient. In the new place, I opened up the study by taking the door off the closet, and I am going to put the box sets up on the closet shelf. Now the box sets will be roughly eye level and a bit easier to access, so I do suspect I will play them more.

I know we really appreciate the effort you are putting in here. I'll definitely take a look as well. Have you ever considered buying scanning software with OCR? When I really get cooking, I can usually scan a page a minute, which is faster than I could type. The programs vary in quality (mostly in terms of error checking), but I have OmniPage Pro9 and for most applications it works great. Now it won't work well on the busy magazine pages where there are graphics floating under the text or different color text, but for basic black or dark blue text on white or neutral background it works great. Most scanners are around $100 now, and most would come with basic OCR software.

New might be a problem, but there should be a number of used copies floating about. These are from amazon.fr: Amazon.fr search

Definitely not a fan of BP. They are coming to town (Chicago), and I might even have a ticket as part of a subscription series but I wouldn't go. I was very underwhelmed by the first album, and in fact I actively disliked it, thinking I would never bother to listen a third time (trying to give it one more chance). Then I really got turned off by the massive hype.

Oh no, not another CD to add to my get list... But I have also been following Vijay Iyer. I've got Memorophilia, Blood Sutra and In What Language? Language is kind of a concept album about airports. Blood Sutra is the better album in terms of musicianship. Anyway, this is off topic, sorry...

Sorry - let me repost from New albums. One of these days, I am going to work on an article on "last works," i.e the last thing an artist accomplished before death. I think there would be two general categories -- one where the artist was pretty sure this would be their final work (either due to old age or extreme sickness) or where death was sudden and more unexpected. The article will probably focus on fiction and painting/sculpture, so I thought I might throw open the topic for music here. The kinds of issues that interest me are the commonalities, especially in the first category. Are there a lot of songs that seem to sum up life? Are the songs angry or resigned? Were the albums completely finished, or did someone finish them up? Not really trying to be morbid, but just thinking about the last creative acts of artists. The three recent CDs that come to mind where the artists probably knew it was their last work: Ray Charles, George Harrison and Warren Zevon. I think we have heard plenty of testimony that with the Zevon album in particular, working on that actually provided Zevon with a purpose and he seems to have lived on longer than expected. I am much less familiar with how this plays in jazz. Perhaps more frequently death was unanticipated (Dolphy, Booker Little, Lee Morgan, Clifford Brown, etc.). Perhaps Dexter Gordon's work in and for Round Midnight comes close to fitting the bill. And His Mother Called Him Bill is something quite different -- a magnificent tribute but not directly created by the artist himself. Anyway, just thought I would throw it out there.

One question would be that there does appear to be a huge push behind this album. Would the marketing have been about the same or slightly less if this hadn't been Charles' last album. Perhaps you could ask if there were any duets that didn't work out for whatever reason (scheduling conflict or creative differences). As a side note, this doesn't seem to be a bad album to go out on, compared with Sinatra's stunningly bad Duets and Duets II.

I've seen some Gumby but not a complete edition. BTW, I believe Rocky and Bullwinkle season 2 just hits stores. I saw it in Target yesterday, though I might have been hallucinating from jetlag.

Another shout out to the Critic. I was able to rent the whole series on Netflix. I had forgotten that Marty's son went to the UN High School. There are some classic laughs related to this, including the son falling in love with Castro's grand-daughter.

It looks like this album is getting massive exposure. There's some licensing deal, so it will be playing in Starbucks all over the country. I still haven't heard the whole thing, but I did hear three or four tracks while listening to the jazz station in the airplane. For once, the pilot did not have "sounds from the cockpit on" instead of the jazz channel. Has anyone else noticed this? I am wondering if it is one of the few benefits stemming from the general paranoia these days, i.e. we can't eavesdrop on the pilots anymore so we get the jazz channel back. Of what I heard, the Bonnie Raitt duet was the best. You did notice that Ray's voice was pretty weak on the Elton John duet, but what bothered me was that it was overproduced with strings slapped on (possibly as a way of compensation). It kind of reminded me of the extensive postproduction work done on George Harrison's last record. Anyway, I am more interested in buying the record now, but I'll still probably wait a few more months.

PM on Sclavis

I've heard of Invader Zim, but haven't watched it. It's good, huh? Maybe I'll grab it for when my kid is a little older (at least that's what I'd tell the wife). CN only shows reruns of Futurama. New episodes of Futurama are kind of up in the air but unlikely. The team would definitely like to do more, CN would like to order new ones, but it cost so much money, they simply can't afford it, even if Fox relinquished the rights (which they probably would not do). Barring a change in Fox programming, there probably will not be more Futurama. There is some chance that Groening could pull off a Futurama movie. Anyway, I've done my bit by signing the petition (to bring it back) and buying whatever merchandise I could to show support. I've even got Futurama beer coasters! And Futurama Xmas ornaments! And a wind-up walking robot! Well, you got the picture ...

This looks good indeed, especially What's Opera Doc!! This will be a pre-order for sure.

Far and away my favorite set is the Futurama set. I actually do prefer this to the Simpsons (particularly current Simpsons as opposed to Seasons 3-7 Simpons). Anyway, I was going to ramble on about more sets, but I think I will just post some news about upcoming sets. Apparently, Tripping the Rift (a vulgar but funny spoof of sci fi shows airing on Sci Fi channel) is coming to DVD. I taped a bunch of these, then just couldn't keep up. Sci Fi also renewed it for another season. Stuff from Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. I don't know if anyone watches this. I am kind of disappointed that all the classic cartoons have gone to Boomerang, instead of airing on CN. I don't get Boomerang. Now it happens that I don't like a lot of the new CN cartoons, but I am heartened that there is finally a new batch of cartoons that isn't entirely about selling merchandize. There have always been commercial tie-ins from the early days of Disney to today's Powerpuff Girls. But in my mind, from the mid 1980s through the mid 1990s, Saturday cartoons were only about toys -- GI Joe, Transformers, then Pokemon and today's Yu-Gi-Oh (which CN does show). I think there are finally some decent alternatives for kids where there is some merchandizing but that isn't the raison d'etre of the show. But I don't watch most or any of these cartoons (though the one with the guy whose hot rod got fused with a battle robot is hysterical). I do occasionally watch Adult Swim (mostly because they show Futurama and Family Guy). If I am traveling, I might watch the rest of the schedule (Sea Lab 2021, Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Brak Show). I don't even like most of them, but I am fascinated by them. I think they are the cartoon equivalent of crack. What I appreciate about them the most, is that they are truly surreal mash-ups of mediocre Hanna Barbera cartoons (well not Aqua Teen). Where else are you going to see them blow up Sea Lab at the end of each episode? I find it refreshing that a network would show such cracked cartoons. That said, curiously the only show I actually like of the bunch is Harvey Birdman, which is about the least popular of all of them. Nonetheless, it is coming to DVD in Spring 2005, along with the Brak show and Space Ghost season 3. Sealab 2021 should be coming out sooner than that (probably late fall 2004).

Hard to say if this will work out or not. History says it won't be so great. What is your favorite form of HHGG? I like the books best, then the radio shows (yes, I know they were first), then the DVD of the shows. I also have the computer game floating around somewhere, but I just never got far enough into it to enjoy it. Anyway, what about Red Dwarf? Any fans here? I thought the last season or two wasn't that good, but I am still looking forward to the movie, which is (was) shooting in Australia. At least they do have the original cast and many of the original writers/producers. If it does well, they might consider another season or two of Red Dwarf.

I was at Dusty Groove today and decided to spring for the 12 inchers they were featuring on their website a while back. If you heard David Murray and Pharoah Sanders on Gwotet (a great CD and perhaps on vinyl), they took the title track and remixed it and put both on a the 12 incher. Also, there is a Japanese group called Sleepwalker that released a 12 inches with Pharoah sitting on one the track on one side and Bembe Segue on the other side. As far as I can tell, both of these are vinyl only. I haven't actually played them yet, since I need to get a different turntable that actually plays at the correct speed!

WalMerlot ? WalMart Wines: When you simply can't get the very best