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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.

Been listening to a lot of Reich and Glass lately.

Finally managed to see Roma, and in the theatre (70mm print no less). Perhaps I'm wrong, but I thought I saw a few flashes of Tati here and there, particularly in the way the sound functioned and then the way that Cleo and her boss end up photobombing some wedding shots, which then turns into a dance.

Pretty chilly right now: 24F (-4 C). It's suppose to dip even more tomorrow and most of next week. Doesn't look like we get any of this massive blizzard hitting parts of the US. It might snow on Friday.

Thanks. I'll give it a look. I only realized yesterday that Rolfe Humphries translated Virgil's Aeneid (in addition to Ovid's Metamorphoses), so I'll be on the hunt for a copy of that as well.

Finished Rabbit at Rest and the novella Rabbit Remembered. I'm reading Homer's The Iliad, alternating between Lattimore and Fitzgerald translations (read Fagles ages ago). Lattimore is the one I would return to. I may pull the same stunt with The Odyssey, but I haven't completely decided.

Finally made my way through the last of the Updike Rabbit novels. Yea. Rabbit is Rich is still my fave, though there were some interesting sections in Rabbit at Rest as well. In a day or two, I'll get to the novella Rabbit Remembered from Licks of Love. Today and perhaps tomorrow, I'll be reading The Letter Killers Club (NYRB). The next several weeks will mostly be the classic classics - Homer, Virgil's The Aeneid, Ovid's Metamorphoses, probably some Horace.

In the battle of the bootlegs, Lonehill already released Blue Hodges, which combines Blue Hodge, Blue Rabbit and about half of Blue Notes.

Interestingly, Hodges also plays Blue Velvet on Sandy's Gone (Verve), which looks like another easy listening experience. The reviews are generally pretty harsh for this LP, despite an all-star line-up (Hodges, Kenny Burrell, Wild Bill Davis and/or Hank Jones, Joe Newman and/or Joe Wilder. I found a few partial clips on-line, and what I heard does not inspire me to go looking for the rest of the album. I'm not really in the market for the Hodges-Welk LP, but that looks like it succeeds on its own terms, while this one doesn't appear to.

About halfway into Rabbit is Rich. I do like this one a bit better than the first two (esp. Rabbit Redux), but I can't imagine going through this series a second time. I've been slowly making my way through McCarthy's Birds of America. My goal is to wrap this up by Boxing Day. Next non-Updike book will be Krzhizhanovsky's The Letter Killers Club.

Definitely more laid back now. But it is practically the last club standing. Sad. Several clubs have closed down, including a few recently. Jazz Bistro is still around but isn't really my thing. It's hard to fathom, but, in my view, Vancouver has a more active and interesting jazz club scene than Toronto.

Interesting. Someone was telling me it was once quite a dive -- and the easiest place to get in for underage drinking! Under different management, of course.

Saw this group (without Mabern) at the Rex on Thurs. They were quite good. If it had started a bit earlier, I would have stayed for the 2nd set, but growing old... I did remember to bring 49th Parallel to me, completely flooring Neil Swainson, but he was nice about it and signed it (a great album by the way). I didn't actually buy Generations (the CD they were promoting), since i had downloaded it, but I picked up an earlier one called Symmetry by Kirk MacDonald with Tom Harrell and also Neil Swainson. I don't go to the Rex all that often, but it can be a nice place to go and listen to up and coming artists and get some writing done, especially since they very rarely charge a cover for the first and sometimes even second set of the night. Jan 9 Kirk MacDonald is teaming up with drummer Jacek Kochan. The rest of the line-up isn't listed, but there's a good chance Neil Swainson will be on the bandstand, and I think I'll probably go.

Just finished Updike's Rabbit Redux. Quite a few issues with this book, since it can't quite determine if it wants to be symbolic or realistic (I mean no way does Skeeter just camp out for weeks given he is a wanted man...). I kept thinking that this was basically a literary version of Apocalypse Now (not necessarily a good thing). In any event, I've come this far and would like to complete the Rabbit series, so I launch into Rabbit is Rich next. Very soon I'll get to Krzhizhanovsky's The Letter Killers Club (NYRB), which I expect I'll enjoy a bit more.

Not tonight, but next week Kirk MacDonald is having a CD release party at the Rex Hotel in Toronto (Wed. and Thurs). I believe this is for Generations, a recording of a quintet with MacDonald on saxophone, his daughter, Virginia, on clarinet, Harold Mabern on piano, Andre White on drums and Neil Swainson on bass. Sadly, Mabern isn't making the gig (or I'd go both nights), but Swainson is. I'm going primarily to see him (and perhaps get him to sign a copy of 49th Parallel).

Nearly done with Adam Langer's Crossing California, which tells the story of 3 families in West Rogers Park, Chicago from 1979-Jan 81 (somewhat portentously/pretentiously the same period US hostages were held in Iran). It's pretty interesting stuff, particularly for someone who lived through the 70s as a child (though I'm a few years younger than these characters). Probably will leave it at that, but maybe some day I will read The Washington Story, which picks up and continues the stories of the various characters as they (or some of them) move out of Chicago.

Updike's Rabbit, Run. I expect to get through the whole Rabbit series over the next few weeks. First time really exploring Updike's fiction.

I've found that quite a few novels don't interest me as much on second reading, but, so far, DeLillo's White Noise is just as interesting/amusing on the second read. (A bit of a relief, actually...)

Apologies if already listed, but 5 Grant Green Blue Note albums for just over $10. https://www.amazon.com/5-Original-Albums-CD/dp/B07C8FD4VD/ref=pd_rhf_dp_s_cp_1_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07C8FD4VD&pd_rd_r=dcd3fbef-89c7-441b-ac3f-3fba96b4255e&pd_rd_w=xkwem&pd_rd_wg=HgKhV&psc=1&refRID=KCJRWNKSX3BT35Q6QF0V Same basic deal for Horace Silver, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan and Jackie McLean (the latter is notable as it includes the, once upon a time, hard to get Demon Dance): https://www.amazon.com/5-Original-Albums-CD/dp/B07BLJ8MYK/ref=pd_rhf_dp_s_cp_1_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07BLJ8MYK&pd_rd_r=cbab0cac-4143-4662-9dbe-40ce74df4d45&pd_rd_w=MGa1O&pd_rd_wg=27wbc&psc=1&refRID=VHK230E4G81NDNC2H1VK

I'll be sadly disappointed if there isn't some codger in a rocking chair going on about how amazing eBay was before those PayPal b@st@rds ruined the place.

Probably going next weekend with the daughter.

Calgary 75

Skipping around a bit in Pessoa's The Book of Disquiet, which seems to be the best way to experience it. About halfway through T.C. Boyle's The Road to Wellville. After this, I'll start in on White Noise.

Agreed on Motherless Brooklyn - really different in a good way. Haven't read Fortress of Solitude, but it's on my list. I did enjoy Chronic City a fair bit.