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Not as far as I thought/hoped with Naipaul's The Enigma of Arrival. The first section is incredibly dull, just about like reading about paint drying. The next section is a bit better but still not nearly as good as the sea voyage sections of Ondaatje'e The Cat's Table, for example. I guess I'll persist though. On the other hand, I did finish the section on the special theory of relativity and am heading into the general theory. It does help to read other books about the subject though, since Einstein is a bit too terse for a lay audience to grasp the implications of what he is writing about. Martin Gardner's Relativity Simply Explained is one of the better primers.

So they finally released more of the schedule for the Toronto Jazz Fest here: http://torontojazz.com/ I guess it is more jazz than not, but still not a whole lot that is of interest (for me). I probably would have gone to see Chick Corea, but the cheapest ticket was $75, which is out of my price range. Sorry, Chick. I probably will go see Avishai Cohen (the bass player) on June 30. Not sure about anything else right now. I'll probably mostly just see about what is on for free at Nathan Phillips Square.

I decided not to go, in large part because I just don't think the jazz-stylings of Michael Jackson are that interesting. But also, I just attended a concert at Massey Hall and didn't enjoy the overall experience.

This is going to get very confusing, since there is also an Avishai Cohen who plays bass. As it happens, the trumpet player just came through town but there was no promotion and I didn't hear about it and didn't go. I'm probably see the bass player when he hits town for the Toronto Jazz Fest.

At least in my experience, problems are on the rise. I am having some items shipped to my mother-in-law's house, which is not just in Chicago, but the south side of Chicago where mail service is definitely spottier. In contrast to a poster above, I'm looking at 3-4 items/year going missing (not 3 or so over a lifetime), and often I don't find out in time to request a refund. (Of course, this is all in response to the frankly extortionate rates that USPS is charging to ship anything to Canada...) So I would say I am only a marginally satisfied customer.

I've decided that I need to take a bit of a breather from fiction and even from urban studies, which is what I typically read when reading non-fiction, and I will focus on science and anthropology for a while. I'm starting with this: Or rather I'm actually rereading it, but then I will read Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle, which I started several times but never finished. I will this time around.

Damn 2016 -- now you're just getting greedy. Prince just played Toronto, and while I wasn't able to go, I was thinking I might check out his new material if he came back through in a more conventional tour. I am basically a casual fan, but a lot of his music was pretty integral to my formative years. RIP

I am not enjoying this at all. In the opening section, Molly Keane managed to portray the mother as a monster, yet again. She basically hated her own mother and takes it out on mothers again and again and again. Then we shift to the young girl as a young woman, who is the most boring milquetoast character I've endured in a very long time. I understand there is some dark comic twist at the end of the novel, but I can't see it making up for the middle section. Well, I should wrap it up tonight. I'm astounded that a few people (relatively few) consider this her best novel. I much preferred the novels from the first part of her career, as I didn't like Good Behaviour that much either (which far more people consider her best).

I haven't seen this one, though I've seen a lot of Stoppard. I actually traveled to Montreal to catch Travesties, which I enjoyed greatly. For me, my favorite is Arcadia, which is a simply incredible play. Just starting Keane's Queen Lear. The opening scene is this young girl running all around her parents' estate, checking up on what all the servants are doing. It kind of reminds me a bit of Peake's Gormenghast actually.

I was wondering about that and basically was leaning against going. It also appears that the concert here is in Massey Hall. While this may be a historical building, it is pretty miserable as a concert venue, particularly in the cheap seats, so I have one more reason to pass. However, it was worth suffering through the poor seating to see an 80th birthday celebration for Steve Reich. He actually came out and did "Clapping" with either Bob Becker or Russell Hartenberger. (Both were part of the concert but they dressed the same and looked quite similar, so I couldn't tell them apart from my seat.) The other pieces were Tehillim and Music for 18 Musicians. Reich didn't take part in either of these performances. Both were quite fascinating in their own way, but I think in honor of Steve, they did an extra long version of Music for 18 Musicians! (The base running time is 55 minutes.) That could have been cut 10-15 minutes shorter. But it's certainly not something you get to see every day...

I just wrapped up Highsmith's The Price of Salt. I enjoyed it, though I do agree that it certainly doesn't succeed as a thriller. I'm somewhat surprised that they turned it into a movie, and I wonder if they amped up the action during the road trip or not. I just started Morley Callaghan's Such is My Beloved, which is about a young priest trying to reform two prostitutes. After that, Molly Keane's final novel Queen Lear (now more commonly titled Loving and Giving).

Where I get annoyed with Faulkner is that it seems at times he is being deliberately obscure and going on for several sentences with just "he" or occasionally "she" and it is sometimes impossible to unpick which characters are being referred to, particularly when he also jumps around in time in the middle of the paragraph. There is some moment in Intruder in the Dust where this uncle knows that his sister-in-law is going to be mad at him and then this triggers a bit where he is probably thinking about his own mother being disappointed in him and then coming around. So I can sort of see how he is trying to link things up, stream-of-consciousness-wise, but I honestly don't think the book would have been less enjoyable if he had been just a bit clearer about what is actually going on. The plot of Intruder in the Dust is quite interesting, but yes it is pretty challenging to read. My favorite Faulkner is perhaps not surprisingly one of his last novels and it is written in a much clearer style -- it is The Reivers.

I really did not like the main plot points of this book as they unfolded. A few characters were amusing, particularly this ancient Major who turns up at a dinner party (not one of the main 5 characters), but on the whole After Julius is a book to avoid. Starting Intruder in the Dust tonight. The library has just come through with Achebe's No Longer at Ease and Highsmith's The Price of Salt (I expected this would take another couple of weeks), so those will be next.

I'm supposed to be reading Faulkner's Intruder in the Dust, but I am putting that back a week. Instead I am reading Elizabeth Jane Howard's After Julius. The writing is quite good, though I am having trouble relating to many of the characters. There are 5 main characters who all converge on a country house for a weekend, and each chapter is written from a different character's perspective. It all feels a bit contrived.

I just saw the Van Gogh's Bedrooms show in Chicago: http://www.artic.edu/exhibition/van-goghs-bedrooms It's a very focused though worthwhile show, though there are maybe 30 Van Gogh paintings aside from the 3 bedroom scenes. The crowds are the heaviest in the morning (since they are telling everyone to show up early!) and then they thin out a bit, then get heavier in the afternoon. It will probably be crazy in mid May right before it closes, so my advice would be to go in April if possible. In addition, there is that AirBnB room that looks just like Van Gogh's room. I'm sorry I didn't have a chance to check that out. There is so much amazing art to see at the Art Institute that it is always worth the trip.

I'm just about done with Ginger Coffey. I have mixed feelings. The writing is quite good and there are some good comic moments as well as a number of situations where you sort of cringe with embarrassment along with Coffey. He's a decent enough bloke, but (and this is a fairly significant but) SPOILERS he has let his wife down far too many times and she decides she wants out of the marriage. He goes back and forth on this, but ultimately decides that he knows what is best and that if his luck turns one more time she'll come back to him. I just can't get behind this story line. It's a lot like those movies where we're supposed to root for someone who is only one step above a stalker.

RIP -- I am so done with 2016 and all the celebrity deaths already. Enough, ok?

I've been sidetracked by Roderick Random and Emmanuel Bove's A Man Who Knows. (A Man Who Knows is a very weak and boring book. If it was the first Bove I read, I wouldn't bother exploring the rest of his work, so I would certainly advise skipping it.) I've finally started Moore's The Luck of Ginger Coffey. I'll have a better feel for the book tomorrow.

It's been a whirlwind week at NYC and Boston museums. I made a trip to the Met, and enjoyed it very much, though this is one of the first times that the special exhibits didn't grab me, and I stayed almost entirely in the main galleries. I guess you could call the exhibit on Modernism in the 20th C Galleries a special exhibit. There is a room with a newly rediscovered mural by Thomas Hart Benton: http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2014/thomas-hart-benton Unfortunately, most of my photos didn't turn out that well. Also, I did not see that Bulletin in the gift shop. I'll almost certainly be coming back to NY this summer (for the Stuart Davis show at the Whitney) and while the Benton mural will be gone, I should be able to grab the Bulletin. I'm going to be honest and say I was horribly disappointed with the Brooklyn Museum. The special exhibit on Coney Island was ok, but the entire American collection was off-view and 90% of the European paintings. What a complete waste of time. The MoMA was entertaining as always, and the special exhibit on Jackson Pollack was pretty good. I was a bit disappointed that the Max Beckmann triptych was off-view, though they did have Rosenquist's F-111 on-view, which is not displayed that often. Last night I was at the Boston MFA and enjoyed seeing the art there, along with the special exhibit on Lawren Harris. We'll probably see the Harvard Museums of Art today and end with the Isabella Gardner Museum tonight with its evening hours.

I find Roderick is a bit too hot-headed for my tastes. I tend to think he deserves much of what happens to him, though it is his companion Strap who keeps getting drenched in urine. It's a missed opportunity that Mayall and Edmondson never did a version of Smollett (here I am thinking of Steve Coogan tackling Sterne). Anyway, I'll probably skim Peregrine Pickle, though most reviewers say it falls off sharply after the first 50 pages, and then later in the year, I'll read Humphrey Clinker. That should be enough Smollett for me.

I'm mixing my reading list up just a bit, since we will be traveling, and I wanted a longer book. I'm going to tackle Smollet's Roderick Random. Then back to the Brian Moore book. Also, I need to fit in Emmanuel Bove's A Man Who Knows, since it is due at the end of the month and cannot be renewed (but it is quite short).

Isn't that basically Recollections of the Big Band Era/Will the Big Bands Ever Come Back? I believe there was a CD issue of this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002JJV?qid=1457311507&ref_=tmm_acd_swatch_0&sr=8-8 (along with some PD versions, but this was legit, I think). There is also an Original Album Series of Reprise albums but it only includes Will the Big Bands Ever Come Back? http://www.amazon.com/Original-Album-Ellingtons-Ellington-2010-03-01/dp/B014I7DR8C/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1457311630&sr=8-4&keywords=duke+big+bands+come+back

I've been listening to Duke Ellington Reprise Studio Sessions, mostly Afro-Bossa.

I think at best they may have made a breakthrough for one kind of cancer, not all cancers. But any improved treatments are a good thing.

This is a wild book. It feels to me like Ishmael Reed refracted through Tristram Shandy. I mean that as a compliment. There is a philosophical component as the main character is supposed to be arriving at a kind of zen Buddhist enlightenment by the end, but I believe the path is the one with koan-like riddles. Kind of sorry I didn't discover this in college.