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Pretty definite that I will end up ordering this set. Pre-ordering? Not necessarily. It may make more sense to wait for a discount on shipping, since it can definitely add up. And maybe I can hold off until the exchange rate is a bit better. Right now it is brutal, but it may not get better for quite some time...

Hugh thought that Polanski would be dropping by...

Back in the good old days when there were multiple used CD stores in Lakeview (Chicago), there were 2 sets behind the counter. One was used and discounted a bit (maybe a review copy?). I held off for a few days... When I went back the used copy was gone, so I waited no longer and bought the new copy (maybe the better option anyway). I honestly can't remember now if it had gone OOP or not. If so, it had just done so, since the store hadn't jacked up the price.

They tell us that they can recycle the clear plastic but not black plastic! Not sure about dark brown but probably not. Not sure I really want to take the effort to separate everything another time. In the past, I donated a lot of them to a used CD store.

Ok, that's a relief. I'll take a more serious look when the full details come out, though I probably do have almost all this material already.

I'm quite confused how this relates to the 4-CD Basie-Young set. If a substantial amount of that material is repeated, then I will be more than a little disappointed. Aside from the superior sound, I imagine I do have essentially all this material already and am just not sure I am in the market for this. As great as it surely is.

I finished Vladislavic's The Exploded View, which was good but not quite as impressive as The Restless Supermarket, which is really something else. I'm reading Bruno Schulz now - The Street of Crocodiles and The Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, both of which are quite short.

Just 3 chapters into Cossery's Proud Beggars. It's a strong start. It reminds me of Mahfouz, particularly The Thief and the Dogs or perhaps The Cairo Trilogy, mixed with Camus's The Stranger. Hopefully, he can keep it up. I thought The Colors of Infamy petered out just a bit at the end.

So I guess this belongs here, and not its own topic, but Bloom County is coming back. It looks like it will be in the daily format, which may work better than the Sunday-only format of Outland or Opus (I did think Opus got better towards the end). Unfortunately, it seems you need to read them on Facebook, so I may have to hijack my wife's account, since I am not about to sign up... Anyway, some details here: http://www.wired.com/2015/07/bloom-county-is-back/ Let's hope that 3rd time around is the charm and that he remembers what made the original strip so great.

I agree it is a fine thing that "the State" cannot deprive Bill of his liberty without being found guilty in a court of law. That doesn't mean that the rest of us in the public have to slink around the matter and pretend that he is innocent until he is actually brought up on charges. That is an impossible standard, particularly as the statutes of limitations have passed on all but one or two of these cases. As long as we remember to say that Cosby is only an alleged rapist and that dozens of women have come forward with stories that accuse him of non-consensual sex, but that none of these have been proven 100% I really don't see what the problem is. We can boycott him to our heart's content. It is the same distinction between the State suppressing free speech and a corporation muzzling its employees. If Bill really wants to clear his name, he has options to offer up his sworn testimony on his side of the story. I'm expecting he will have plenty of opportunity in various upcoming civil cases. I guess we'll see how he responds.

In the end, I found Molly Keane's Good Behaviour frustrating. I can see why a number of people would find the turn-around satisfying, though I certainly didn't, mostly because I found it improbable. I can't go into details as it would spoil too much. Just starting Cossery's Proud Beggars. I'm probably going to tackle some Robert Coover next. I haven't read anything by him in quite a while.

Back on Molly Keane after a long break (mostly reading Russians). I'm starting Good Behaviour, which maybe believe to be her best novel of all. After that (assuming it has turned up) it will be Proud Beggars by Albert Cossery.

But if an entire generation grows up without ever being inside a CD store or even having more than a handful of actual CDs (and thinking that the ones in their parents' collection is just old fashioned), then why would they migrate back to CD? I just don't see it at all. Generation Z or whatever they will be called certainly won't be buying CDs.

That's great news. Please let us know when anything concrete can be posted/shared.

I was actually recommended to go here from Chuck's link. The 20th Century Masterpieces box is a bit more to my own taste, and I only have a few of these specific performances. http://www.amazon.com/20th-Century-Masterpieces-16-CDs/dp/B001DCQJUY/ref=sr_1_6?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1435601598&sr=1-6&keywords=warner+twentieth+century There are a few Amazon re-sellers offering this for around $25,which seems like a pretty good deal.

Agreed. There is quite a bit still to be collected, but this is a nice set.

So sorry to hear this. RIP

I've been there! I made a trip to Manchester more or less solely so that I could then make a side trip to Salford to see that museum.

I have wrapped up The Restless Supermarket. It is quite an interesting achievement. I would definitely recommend it for fans of word play. It doesn't quite rise to the level of Nabokov or Joyce, but not too far off. However, it is somewhat difficult to stomach the main character (a retired proof-reader of all things) who is a very conservative stick-in-the-mud, who is fairly racist as well. Curiously, the novel I've just started is Gabrielle Roy's The Cashier, which stars a man in his late middle ages, who largely disapproves of society and modernity in particular. It's like they are both contenders in the get-off-my-lawn derby. Nonetheless, it is a useful corrective, as I have been a bit crankier than usual of late (moving will do that to you!) and this is a reminder that it is not a characteristic that is particularly appealing to others.

I wandered into the HMV tent at the Toronto Jazz Fest. They had a fair number of CDs for a fiver. Reminded me of the good times at Fopp in Cambridge. There was a pairing on Gene Ammons's The Soulful Moods with Nice an' Cool. But the real surprise was George Russell's Stratusphunk paired with The Stratus Seekers for $5! Curiously, this is just as cheap at Amazon.ca (http://www.amazon.ca/Jazzplus-Stratusphunk-The-Stratus-Seekers/dp/B0090UH6TO), though quite pricey on Amazon.com. This is in the Jazzplus reissue series from Universal. Probably limited to the EU and Canada. The booklet contains the full art of both albums (though obviously shrunk) and the back cover of each LP is also reproduced. A nice touch. It reminds me a bit of the Mosaic Selects, though I don't think they ever provided a reproduction of the LP back. I'm trying not to add much more to my collection, but I might pick up one or two more of these.

I love a good long browse too but browse less these days because of the temptation to actually buy books and read them at home. Re the Guardian article, I've been to 3 of those stores: Strand (I'll go back when I'm in NY next month), Shakespeare & Co. (a purportedly American literary bookstore that [shock!] didn't have WC Williams' Collected Poems) (it has been said that there's a superior English-language bookstore elsewhere in Paris), and City Lights, a disappointment, a tourist trap. As compensation, not far away, there's a very good second-hand bookstore in mid-Berkeley, don't recall the name. New Yorkers - are any bookstores that specialize in poetry trucked away somewhere in some of the boroughs? How about second-hand bookstores that have a lot of good old noir / hard-boiled / golden-age sf paperbacks? I wonder if the Berkeley book store was Moe's or Pegasus. To be honest, I usually only go into Half Price Books, which is right near the campus, but I can browse for a long time when in the mood. It looks like Mercer St. Books is still there in Greenwich Village (206 Mercer), but I haven't been in there in ages, so I don't know if it still holds up. It used to be my 2nd favorite bookstore in New York after the Strand.

I'm kind of bummed about this, as I had purchased the set at a rock-bottom price ages ago, but the seller didn't have it in stock after all. After waiting for a long time, I bought a different copy. It was still a good deal, but somewhat more than this price from Amazon.co.uk. Sometimes timing is everything.

Ivan Vladislavic The Restless Supermarket I've been meaning to read this for ages. It's about a man in Johannesburg who has retired from proof-reading telephone directories. He spends a fair bit of time in and around Hillbrow. He is sort of struggling with all the changes that happened to South Africa over that period. I'd say he reminds me a bit of some of Nadine Gordimer's characters (the ones that were less politically active naturally). There seems to be a bit of wordplay, but I've just started. Anyway, so far so good.

It was tempting to go for the Carter/Bradford Select, but I know I won't listen to it enough. Instead, I ordered the Bud Freeman Chicago/Austin HS single and the new live Louis Armstrong box. (I also cleaned up my addresses with them. I had 3 or 4 old addresses on file!)

Speaking of mixing politics and literature, I am generally sidelining the PEN authors who felt it was in bad taste to give the Charlie Hebdoe staff an award for courage. I will make a few exceptions on a case by case basis, but generally only if the book was still in my queue at the library or something similar. One of these authors is Teju Cole, and sure enough the library told me last week that I had Open City waiting for me. I hadn't really been that gripped by Every Day is for the Thief, though it turns out he actually wrote this before Open City (but Open City was published first). Open City has become quite the novel of ideas, and I find myself drawn in more and more. It's pretty good actually.