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Norman Granz' Jam Session #9 from the Jam Sessions box set. (Been a loooong time since I made my way through this set.)

So embarrassed that I didn't even remember I own a copy of Feeling Free... It looks tasty. Will listen to it tonight...

I'm just back from seeing Laurie Anderson in her new show The Art of Falling. While there is indeed improvised music by Anderson and the cellist Rubin Kodheli, this definitely feels secondary to the various stories she tells during the performance.

Launched into Mann's The Magic Mountain. I suspect this is a novel I will admire/respect more than really enjoy, if for no other reason than I don't like reading about illness and hospital settings (though in this case it is simply a sanatorium, though one that appears exceedingly difficult to check out from -- the main character, Hans, shows up for a 3 week visit that then stretches into months, then years...). Apparently, this almost happened to Mann himself. His wife was at one of these sanatoriums. He visited for 3 weeks, and by the end the director tried to convince him he was quite ill and should check in for a long-term stay.

Looks interesting. Thanks for pointing this out. I'll try to remember to look it up in March... Right now I am listening to the 2 CD set of The Poetry of Jazz by Boone. I don't really like poetry read over a jazz background (with a few exceptions - Langston Hughes' The Weary Blues was solid), but I really like the poet Philip Levine, so I will give it a listen and see where it works and where it doesn't.

In the end, I really didn't like His Only Son and skipped out partway through. However, the novella, Doña Berta, included in the NYRB volume, is worth a look. I did enjoy Rushdie's most recent novel, Quichotte. However, this is even more meta-textual than most of his novels (with "The Author" introducing himself a couple of chapters in), so if you are looking for a straight-forward novel, then I would avoid this. (At some point, maybe in the late spring, I really ought to read the Grossman translation of Don Quixote.) It looks like it will be Mann's Magic Mountain next and then probably Powell's The Happy Island.

I was listening to a few of his recordings over the past few days, including The Warm World of Jack Sheldon (Dot). Unless I am just not looking in the right places, The Cool World of Jack Sheldon is not available for streaming and generally only as a pricey CD import. It's not that hard to find it on LP, though given shipping prices these days... Does anyone have a view on The Cool World? Is it worth tracking down? How does it compare to his other sessions? Thanks!

I stumbled across the group Electric Six a while ago. The lyrics are often pretty droll (probably not that different from Jack Black's Tenacious D). I think the album that hangs together the best is I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me...

Saw Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead at TIFF Lightbox tonight. I don't think I've seen it since the original release in 1999. I enjoyed it, though there are plenty of over-the-top moments (and not all are attributed to Nicholas Cage). I did not realize until I saw the closing credits that the voice of one of the dispatchers was Scorese himself, while the one who banters with Ving Rhames was Queen Latifah!

I have not. I might give it a try, though it would be at the end of a long list... Despite my misgivings, I did order a copy of Alas's La Regenta (mostly because the library didn't have a circulating copy!), though I've heard the plot borrows heavily from Madame Bovary. I am still waiting on Mann's The Magic Mountain, as well as for the library copy of Dawn Powell's This Happy Island. I suspect the next book I actually tackle will be Rushdie's Quichotte. (Third time lucky? As I said, I've liked aspects of the other two I've just read, but wasn't completely satisfied with either.)

There were quite a few interesting aspects of Rushdie's The Golden House, but I ended up with a fairly strong dislike of the narrator, Rene, and his actions towards the end of the novel seemed both unbelievable and unforgivable, so it did spoil the novel to a significant extent. Working my way into His Only Son by Leopoldo Alas. I'm struggling with this one as it features a not terribly interesting character making terrible life choices. I'll probably give it another 50 pages, then bail.

Saw The Rise of Skywalker with my son today. Fewer outright howlers than in The Last Jedi. It was an acceptable end to the third trilogy.

Did they film this with 3 alternative endings, a la Clue?

Just getting into Rushdie's The Golden House. Interesting so far. After this His Only Son/Doña Berta by Leopoldo Alas (NYRB), then it will probably be back to William Maxwell and Dawn Powell. However, I do have a copy of Mann's The Magic Mountain in the newish translation by John Woods (supposed to be much better than other translations) wending its way to me, and I'll try to tackle that this winter.

It's on Bloor between Dufferin and Ossington. Here's some photos of the interior - https://www.blogto.com/film/2019/12/paradise-theatre-toronto/ It's definitely a bit pricey for a second-run theatre (basically full price tickets), but I'll try to go from time to time, since the owners deserve some major plaudits for bringing this place back from the dead.

Haven't seen many movies in a long time, but I just saw Almodovar's Pain and Glory at the newly refurbished Paradise Theatre in Toronto. It has some very strong moments. Banderas really inhabits his role well (esp. the scene when he reconnects with an old lover), though the most memorable scenes of the film are the childhood flashbacks. This review generally seems on target - https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/aug/25/pain-and-glory-review-pedro-almodovar-antonio-banderas-penelope-cruz Will probably see Rise of Skywalker over the weekend and then perhaps a showing of 2001 (with 70 mm print) at TIFF.

There's definitely a push among the critics to praise The Last Jedi and to run down The Rise of Skywalker, though the general audience seems to feel the reverse. (There were a few scenes (and dopey plot twists) in The Last Jedi that I thought were so awful that I am quite unlikely to watch it again.) Will probably check out Rise of Skywalker next week. Will be passing on Cats...

Waterland by Graham Swift A bit of a slow burner, but I'm enjoying it now that some of the (many) family secrets have been revealed.

Wrapping up Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Rushdie, which takes place in the intersection of the "real world" and fable with quite a few djinns crossing over and wreaking havoc. I found quite a few similarities to his children's book Haroun and the Sea of Stories. It's not top-notch Rushdie but it's entertaining. I do have higher hopes for The Golden House. I'm not entirely sure where I got the recommendation for Eugene Marten's Waste, but I just read it (it's barely over 100 pages) but I wish I hadn't. It's a morally bankrupt piece of fiction (right up there with Blaise Cendrars's Moravagine). I do wish I had read the rest of the reviews on Goodreads, instead of stopping after skimming the first few.

I was not aware of this box set, but I will be checking it out in a while. I would say Monster probably is my favorite REM album, though I didn't listen to them so much that I ever burned out on a single album. Speaking of slightly out-there box sets, there is a 6 CD box set covering Zappa's Hot Rats sessions. It's a little hard to imagine listening to everything in this set, esp. more than once, but I'm sure there are some Zappa fans who will be all over this.

Very nice. Good to see Facebook is good for something...

Oliver Sacks - An Anthropologist on Mars I've known about Oliver Sacks for practically forever, but this is the first time actually reading any of his works. Quite interesting cases, to be sure. Next up:

Thanks for running the contest again! I was fairly close on points, but picked the wrong team. Oh well, there's always next year...

Both Ken McIntyre and Wallace Roney have albums titled Home (each with a track titled "Home"). I'd give the nod to Roney, but I'll be streaming both albums this week...

That's interesting. Many Austen scholars consider it her finest work. I actually have not gotten around to it, but it is on my list. Despite its killer first line, I definitely preferred Sense and Sensibility over Pride and Prejudice.