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Death of natural causes, not COVID-related: https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/obit-brian-dennehy-1.5534605 He always loved the stage more than TV or the movies, and he returned to the stage, more or less for good by the late 90s. I was lucky enough to see him in Krapp's Last Tape in Chicago and Waiting for Godot at Stratford. I was supposed to see him in the 3+ hour epic version of The Iceman Cometh, but I got sick as a dog and had to cancel my trip out to New York. RIP

This is a bit out of my wheelhouse, as it is relatively rare I read graphic novels, but it is definitely well put-together. It's basically a retrospective of a relatively unsung cartoonist who covers a lot of the history of Singapore using a wide variety of techniques and genres. At one point, he has robot step in and save student protesters from the police, later he writes a strip deeply indebted to Pogo, but going on about local politics, then there is a superhero called Roach Man, who has basically the same back story as Spiderman etc. The most interesting is when the cartoonist comes to SF, meets a bunch of cartoonists there but still doesn't get a big break. But what he does pick up is a copy of PKD's The Man in the High Castle. So he writes a cartoon about a parallel world where a different political party dominates Singapore's government. There are detailed notes at the end for people, like me, who know little to nothing about Singapore's and Malaysia's history. (There's yet another twist, so I would wait to read the Wikipedia page until after you read the book, if it seems something that would appeal to you.)

Wow! The stores up here are nothing like that (now). The lines to get in are pretty long, but shelves looks pretty much back to normal. I think in Toronto people have calmed down and aren't hoarding any longer. Ironically there could be some significant food shortages down the road, since Canada does import a lot of food, and also relies largely on temporary workers (most of whom won't be getting across the border) for harvesting the domestic crops. And where there is harvesting (by hand) it has to be done much slower as people need to space out. I've read the UK could also be in significant trouble later on. Hopefully not, as growers adjust, but food prices this fall will almost certainly be higher.

It looks like those two LPs are on Amazon Music as downloads, about half the tracks are available on Spotify but not on iTunes as far as I can tell. I haven't seen the sessions on CD (so far).

It looks like the tp scare is over for now, and I'm also seeing the return of pasta, rice and canned goods to the shelves. This weekend there was a bit of a run on flour and other baking supplies, though you could still get milk and eggs. In Canada and US, the supply chain issues (and the fact that schools aren't purchasing milk) is leading to quite a bit of milk being thrown out and poured into the sewers. Very sad and wasteful. I've read, though can't vouch for it, that hair dye and trimmers and such are the latest craze, as people are starting to try going the home 'do route.

While it is quite good, I have stalled a bit on Camus's The Plague, but I'll likely finish it this week. In other thematic reading, I have been dipping into Xavier de Maistre's Voyage Around My Room and A Nocturnal Expedition 'Round My Room. My library doesn't have these, but the original translations are out of copyright and can be easily found on the internet. After all this, it will be Kundera's The Incredible Lightness of Being, which I've never actually read (or seen the movie for that matter).

I'll be wrapping this up today (as it is when the e-book goes back to the library!). I sort of see what's she's going for here (a bit of an inversion of the Odyssey but about a man who had no intention of returning home except for the bond with his sister), so I assume that as soon as he gets home the quest is over. I do think her Korean war scenes are a bit over-the-top, and most of the characterizations are wafer-thin. For sure not her best work...

There is an unbelievable amount of Motown available now. The complete Motown Singles sets that came out on Hip-O Select and the Unreleased Motown series (that was basically digital only) are all on iTunes and presumably Spotify and elsewhere. I'm currently listening to Unreleased Motown 1963. Believe it or not, this contains the track "Respectable Distance Away" by R. Dean Taylor. There's over an hour of unreleased Marvin Gaye from 1965, so I'll be listening to that next.

I actually filed 2 UK returns. In one case, they made me send in the balance owing of roughly 10 pence! (No rounding back then, maybe it's changed.) And I think they wanted it by cheque, though I may be misremembering that part. I do remember being outraged at the waste of effort. For those that haven't seen them yet, the 2019 tax forms are much closer to 2017 forms (only 3 extra schedules compared to 6 in 2018!).

I realize this can get political very quickly, but I am wondering who is going to file their taxes next week, despite the filing extension (in the US and Canada and likely elsewhere). I buckled down and did my US taxes (and about half my Canadian taxes) this evening. I'm supposed to get a bit of a return, so I'll definitely be mailing that off on Tuesday. (Due to their complexity, I unfortunately cannot file electronically. ) No question that next year's taxes will be completely bonkers, particularly if we are in a bit of a lull and the governments are trying to figure out how to pay for the shutdown and its aftermath (and yet not trigger another recession). But that's another story for another day...

I do feel like a total Grinch saying this, but continuing to pay the salaries of their employees and then expecting the general public to fund them through GoFundMe is not the best strategy and is maybe a little pig-headed. This is exactly the situation for having those employees go on unemployment (since they have paid into the system). I am far more concerned about finding ways to support gig workers and particularly musicians and actors and other artists who have no entry into the benefits system at all, not in Canada and particularly not in the U.S. Any donations I make are going in that direction instead.

Apologies if listed already but Jazz (1963) by the Johnny Griffith Trio: I found out about this through a roundabout way. I was looking at the Motown Unreleased series and they have two CDs worth of jazz material from 1962 that was unreleased. There is basically an album's worth of material from the Johnny Griffith Trio on the second volume, and sounds pretty good to me. I see that Giffith's later album The Geneva Connection (1974) is on iTunes, but this earlier one seems to not have been reissued in any format. Unfortunate, as I would like to hear it at least once. Currently, the LP prices (on Discogs) are a bit high, and shipping to Canada is pretty much curtailed anyway, but I'll see if it comes out in another format at some point. Do let me know if you've heard it and it is worth seeking out. Thanks.

I'm not going to swear to it, but according to the liner notes, Feldman plays vibes only on Victor Feldman Modern Jazz Quartet (on an Avid 2-fer). On the same CD set, he mostly plays vibes on Victor Feldman in London Vol. 2 Big Band, though he actually plays drums on 2 tracks!

I won't have any separation anxiety. I wouldn't mind society in general moving more to teleworking (as there are positive benefits in terms of reducing congestion), but I do generally prefer more separation between home life and work life.

That is true. However, the question of whether cats can get it in the first place was raised because some household cats had come down with the virus, and then there was a different experiment I read about where cats in different cages were passed the coronavirus. And certainly no one deliberately infected the tiger, so the bottom line is that felines as a general species can catch and probably spread the coronavirus.

I thought we already discussed this, but perhaps not. Cats can apparently get the virus from humans and spread it to other cats. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cats-can-get-coronavirus-study-suggests-but-pet-owners-need-not-panic/ The expert consensus at the moment is that they can't spread it back to humans, though given how much we don't know about this virus and how quickly the state of knowledge changes, I wouldn't bet on this being viewed as true 3-6 months from now. I certainly hope cats can't spread back to humans, but I don't see any real reason why they wouldn't be a vector of transmission.

I could be wrong, but I would assume that they meant there were 50 prizes given out of 1 LP each.

Canada Boy Vinyl closed in 2017 and, more significantly, Rainbo Records closed in late 2019. And then there was a fire back in Feb. at the plant that was the "world's largest supplier of lacquer" for records. https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending/blaze-california-plant-jeopardizes-global-vinyl-record-supply/VSRIJ2O5ZZF3JLKQ4SFXCCRCWU/ So tough times right now, all the way around.

It's a good piece. Zoom claims that as of Thurs, they are disabling one of the data mining features. Zoom plays fast and loose with security settings and is more concerned about growth than privacy. That said, when an app looks cool and fairly useful but is free or near free, then there's a good chance that the app developer is going to be reselling your data one way or another. I'll probably continue to use Zoom in my personal life for low-stakes things and at work, they are moving to get us all into Microsoft Teams, though there is a bit more of a learning curve. (And I imagine the data harvesting is a bit more discrete...) I have already witnessed some of the Zoom-bombing, though it was contained to silly and then somewhat vulgar comments in the chat, which the host was able to turn off completely. So it wasn't nearly as disruptive as it could have been.

Very interesting news. It isn't clear if there will be a CD release of this material, or it is vinyl only. And would there eventually be a release to iTunes, Spotify, etc.? I'm just feeling a bit pessimistic about the ability to get physical product, particularly vinyl (when a few pressing plants have already gone under) and then having it actually shipped in the next many, many months. Thanks.

I had one order cancelled recently, and then trying to place another order for a replacement (from Amazon.co.uk actually), a note popped up and said that this wasn't important and that they weren't shipping to Canada for the time being (paraphrasing only slightly). I can't honestly disagree, but I would have preferred they place a hold on that item (a Picasso monograph with only 3 left in stock) and ship it much, much later. I may place a domestic order for something not strictly essential; I won't mind too much if it is moved to back of the queue.

Only 52! Shit! https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/apr/01/adam-schlesinger-fountains-of-wayne-dead-coronavirus Not particularly aware of this group (aside from "Stacey's Mom"), but Adam seemed very talented in the pop world. Such a loss, along with all the others we are losing too soon.

Very surprised that this has already turned up on iTunes (and Spotify?), but this does give you an opportunity to sample if you are still on the fence.

My step-brother is a pastor, and he goes to his empty church and preaches. I assume it's live-streamed but don't have all the details at my finger tips. It's not a perfect solution, but it's one that keeps the community safe.

I just voted on 3 and it appears to have shown up.