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Someone on Discogs is selling one for $11.30. I don't think it is really particularly rare. I used to own a copy, but probably sold it on the board way back when.

There's always the chance that they'll shoot off real cannons at the end. That's always a thrill...

Strange. Looking at the original cover, I am certain I owned this at one point, but I can't find any record of it on the shelves. I do like the new cover much better...

Yeah, they make a bit of a big deal about not silently correcting issues like the name. Kind of silly. Anyway, there are also 17 Pat Hobby stories.

It is pretty hard to tell about translations, which is most faithful vs. which is most personally appealing. I did compare 3 translations of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita and ultimately liked Pevear/Volokhonsky the best. I believe I now have all the major novels by Dostoevsky translated by them, as well as Anna Karenina and War and Peace.

Definitely a classic! I try to reread this every 10 years or so... Squeezing in Hoban's Turtle Diary (NYRB) during breaks from the 2nd vol. of Musil's The Man Without Qualities. I'd say Turtle Diary is a bit of an unknown gem, but I'm only about 1/3 through so far.

Obit from Guardian here - https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/mar/29/agnes-varda-obituary Quite a long, productive career. I really ought to try to watch Cleo this weekend if I can dig out the DVD...

I just finished and found it a total waste of time. Very sorry I started it. (I'm supposed to be getting better at dropping unrewarding books...) At any rate, I am now launching into vol. 2 of Musil's The Man Without Qualities. My goal is to be done by mid-April, though I suspect other things (particularly taxes) will be too much of a distraction.

About halfway through Mohammed Hanif's Red Birds. Have to admit I don't like it very much for several reasons, but the primary one is that you rotate inside the heads of three characters, including a dog(!), but they all have the same narrative voice. Different perspectives and concerns to be sure, but basically identical vocabularies and pretty similar phrasing. If you're going to do this, do it right...

I like the Ann Arbor connection and may eventually order this, though I must say the linked review is not particularly encouraging...

I don't think I've read Rebellion, though I've read several other of his novels and reportage. My favorite is the fairly early novel, Hotel Savoy.

Tracks 1-60 all appear to be on Bechet Tresors (though hard to tell if the same master takes) with the exception of 4 tracks (18-21), which make up half of Rendez-Vous, which sadly is not included at all on Tresors. Not at all clear what 61-80 are, though these may be recordings by the Feetwarmers, though not necessarily recorded in France...

I've been listening to this on iTunes. I've also been looking around for any kind of session info, but this seems to be totally lacking on-line. The only thing I have found is " Originally recorded between 1932 and 1953, France," which is not entirely helpful. If there is more detailed info floating around, please point me in that direction. Thanks!

I'd largely argee. I found the book to be fairly disappointing. If I recall, Lem felt the (original) movie was too sensationalized or that it made its points too clearly or something. He was going for something a bit more "alienating." If Tarkovsky had just cut down on the endless shots of rain on the grass bookending the film, I would probably lean toward his epic version. (On the other hand, if watching at home, I can just fast-forward through them...) You might like Roadside Picnic, which has humans trying to deal with alien artifacts left behind after a visit (but a visit where the aliens never bothered to make contact). One of the scientists hypothesizes that the artifacts are the equivalent of trash left behind after a picnic. It still has that vibe of humans being pointless to alien beings, but there is a bit more narrative drive in the novel.

Just saw this on the newsfeed last night. https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2019/02/22/pioneering-toronto-transgender-singer-jackie-shane-dead-at-78.html Jackie Shane was a singer with strong connections to Toronto. She sang mostly soul and r & b and had an electrifying stage presence. Then she vanished from the scene in 1971, returning to the States, primarily to care for her mother. A few years back, Numero Group managed to get in touch in touch with her and released an authorized anthology, including a live gig at the Sapphire Tavern. http://www.numerogroup.com/products/jackie-shane-any-other-way I was far too young to catch her back in her heyday. There were rumors that she was pondering a return to the stage (of course in Toronto) but sadly it wasn't to be...

It does seem to be a bit of a commitment...

There is a nicely curated Impressionist exhibit at the AGO - https://ago.ca/exhibitions/impressionism-age-industry-monet-pissarro-and-more I was pleasantly surprised that they had a major Caillebotte on view and some other of his paintings, along with the usual suspects - Monet, Pissarro, Degas, etc. I've been once and will probably go back several times, since I can bring up to 2 guests, and I promised some folks at work I would get them into the exhibit.

Decided to take the plunge and start in on Musil's The Man Without Qualities. So far I am enjoying it (much more than Proust at any rate), though I can see there might be a point where I lose momentum, particularly in the 2nd volume which has 600+ pages of unfinished material...

Definitely unappealing.

I would have sworn up and down that I owned Dippin', but I certainly can't find it on the shelves right now. Not really in the market for this set, as I should have all the other sessions, but I do hope it sells well. (In the meantime, I'll have to see if I stumble across Dippin'.)

Wrapped up The Aeneid and Atwood's Penelopiad. Now for something significantly different Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. This is a fairly new translation (2012) that restores all the edits they were forced to make under Soviet censorship. The original inspired Tarkovsky's Stalker.

I think it depends on context. If the email is about something related to work, and it actually requires a response on my part (not just a FYI), then I will answer it, and virtually always the same day. If it is a completely unsolicited fishing expedition (and I'm getting more and more of these through Linked In, though I didn't think they were supposed to release direct contact info unless you had accepted a connection), then I ignore them. I've gotten some odd requests for career advice or to set up a meeting to talk about GIS solutions or whatever. If the person persists (and few do), then I write back and say I don't respond to unsolicited emails. Maybe if I was in "business" or "sales" then I would take a different approach, but I am not.

Finally finished up The Iliad and The Odyssey. Taking a bit of a breather before diving into The Aeneid. I was about to launch into Hideo Furukawa's Slow Boat, but then he revealed it was a bit of a riff off of a Murakami short story "A Slow Boat to China." I decided to detour and read The Elephant Vanishes first (it contains that story), then Slow Boat and then The Aeneid. Maybe by then Atwood's The Penelopiad will be in at the library...

I'm going to be honest, I didn't think it was worth it. It isn't particularly challenging, but takes far too long to get where it is going and the payoff is pretty modest.

It took me forever, but I finally broke open the Savory Collection. So I started naturally enough with Disc 1. (I am kind of saving the Count Basie CDs for last...) Some tracks were quite fine, though some were rather distorted.