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I wrapped up Platonov's The Foundation Pit. It's short but still a pretty challenging text. I expect to read it again (some day). I will say that I admired it on an intellectual level than really liked it or engaged with it on an emotional level. Just starting Rezzori's An Ermine in Czernopol. So far so good. It's supposed to be an irony-laden work where the main character is a bit of a Don Quixote type, defending his sister-in-law's honor, when in fact this is a hopeless task. After this, Devoted Ladies by Molly Keane.

I think it depends on the situation. While critics have said that the legend of Kafka wanting everything destroyed and left unpublished is somewhat overblown, most people think that Max Brod did the right thing and didn't carry out Kafka's wishes. Lately there has been a huge kerfuffle over the Barnes Foundation and the eventual complete overturning of the provisions of his will. I take a different view and that is people that expect others to follow their instructions -- for decades afterwards -- are unrealistic control freaks, trying to exercise control from beyond the grave. Clearly, having something burnt is a lot easier than setting up some perpetual estate, but quite frankly, if you want it done that badly, burn the stuff yourself before you die. Don't burden your heirs with this stuff and your demands. Let them deal with it as they see fit.

Not a hoax exactly, but the worst blizzard since 1882? Hardly. I well recall the previous time it was going to be Snow-maggedon in NYC and they got 3 or 4 inches, if that.

I definitely shouldn't get this, but I might. It does look far closer to my taste than the original overall Decca box, which I rarely dip into.

This could be something right up my alley. I often enjoy novels about theatre if they aren't too inside baseball. (That's probably one reason I liked Birdman so much, as I have some experience with oddball actors.) For another theatre novel, there is also Bulgakov's Black Snow.

Coming in to this extremely late, I was doing a quick scan of the papers and it doesn't look like there is any place in Toronto that hosts several day sets by out-of-towners (like Chicago's Jazz Showcase). That's definitely a shame. I see a couple of upcoming shows at The Rex of some interest, but these are just one night affairs. They're also quite a bit later than I really prefer to be out, so we'll just see. Pretty much everything else I see is just local jazz for color (or colour) where the music drowned out by patrons eating and drinking. Well, fortunately I didn't move here for the jazz, but it's still a shame. If there is a venue I am missing, please do let me know.

I don't have either set, but I did see in the comments a lot of back and forth about how fast is too fast. According to the reviews, Nielsen takes things on the fast side, with roughly the same timings as Hyman. So if that is not to your taste, you probably won't like this either. I have to say I am somewhat intrigued by this set, though I would definitely prefer checking it out from the library were that an option. The library does have this 3 CD set by William Albright, which looks promising. I think I'll put a copy on hold. http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Rags-Marches-Waltzes-Joplin/dp/B002VPTXDW/ref=sr_1_8?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1422178434&sr=1-8&keywords=joplin+albright

I snuck in Elizabeth Bowen's The Hotel, as it was short. It was ok, nothing amazing. In a few weeks I'll be tackling The House in Paris -- and some day The Little Girls and few of the others. I've just launched into Platonov's The Foundation Pit. I think it will be a bit challenging, but looking forward to it. This will officially wrap up my 6 or so month foray into Russian authors. Definitely time for a change. But I perhaps will end up easing myself into European and American fiction by way of Mittel-Europa. Gregor Von Rezzori and probably some Kafka. Maybe even some Stephan Zweig. We'll see... Quite excited about An Ermine in Czernopol, but I'm going to hold off a bit longer on Rezzori's other novels.

Oddly disc 6 of the Farlow is the only disc of any Mosaic that wouldn't rip for me. I tried two MacBooks and two disc drives and ended up ripping the Elite instead. I've never noticed the distortion. Well, now I am curious/nervous. I'm almost certain I ripped the set shortly after purchasing, and I can't remember any problems, but I guess I should go check it out...

In terms of jazz instrumental standards (as opposed to vocal standards), I would probably also count "There's a boat dat's leaving soon." But maybe that's just me. There are so many great Gershwin standards, though I think my favorite of all is "Someone to Watch Over Me," though that's from Oh Kay! which has relatively few other hits (and arguably just that one). So I was checking something else on my hard drive and found the oddest Gershwin medley: Someone to Watch Over Me sandwiched between Summertime and Porgy. How odd. This is on Dorothy Ashby's Concierto de Aranjuez.

I like the Farmer-Golson Jazztet box, but haven't pulled it out in forever. I really ought to soon. Congrats to whomever got one on this go-around.

Porgy and Bess?

I saw the Swingle Singers in 1988 or 1989. I really can't recall too much of the program, but I think it was far more traditional vocal jazz (Lullaby of Birdland, etc.) than anything pulled from the Bach playbook. But it was a long time ago... Wow - my memory is totally shot. I actually turned up the program on-line - it was Dec. 1987 and there were two short Bach pieces on the program. But rather than being primarily jazz, it was primarily a Christmas themed concert. If interested, it is here: http://media.aadl.org/documents/pdf/ums/programs_19871210e.pdf

Brad, that was exactly the outlook of Mickey Mantle. I believe that all of the men in his family died before they reached 50. Mantle assumed that he would die young too, so he didn't take care of himself. I gather that he was very surprised to turn 50. I knew someone in grad school where almost no one in her family had made it out of their mid 40s! So she definitely had a party-hard, die-young mentality. Wonder where she is now? She'd be about 43... Most of the folks in my family made it to 80 and a few to 90, so we'll see.

I remember vague rumors, but they certainly didn't put those front and center as the reason for their opposition. Back then, private lives were far more off-limits to the press (indeed, it really did seem to be Gary Hart and then Clinton that kind of brought down the walls). Reagan claimed to be opposing it since he didn't want one more federal holiday (to save the tax-payers) and didn't think it was reasonable to downgrade Washington's and/or Lincoln's birthdays in favor of MLK. That's how I remember it.

Apparently, Scotland (and Canada) still get Victoria Day off. Plus, every time the Royals get hitched they can call a bank holiday in the UK. Must be nice.

It's combined in different ways from the original books. It starts with Fritz Kocher's Essays but there is a separate story called "A Schoolboy's Diary" and it ends with "Hans". I enjoyed Hello Moscow, though I don't think it is for everyone, as it is pretty bleak. I'm about 1/3 through Carter's Nights at the Circus. It's entertaining, and it is starting to get just a bit Felliniesque as this reporter goes undercover as a clown to join a touring circus and see if the main attraction (a winged woman) is a fraud or genuine.

I think I've seen him [Mabern] in the last year or two, and it was a bit of a surprise, but maybe I am just misremembering. I do know that I somewhat foolishly passed up a chance to see him in Vancouver last summer. A few days from now (Thurs actually) I plan on seeing Camper van Beethoven play in Toronto. I haven't seen them live in some time, probably at least 5 or 6 years. I've always enjoyed their gigs, though I have started feeling old after the shows...

RIP. I have to admit I've known of Stone for a long time but never read anything by him. I even moved a copy of Outerbridge Reach several times without ever reading it. I may still get to it one of these days, but I suspect that A Hall of Mirrors (his first) is likely to be the novel that works best for me.

That was not there either but it is pretty incredible. I think I'll add it to my blog post. I saw it in Paris in my youth. They used to have impressionists and post-impressionists in the Jeu de Paume. Don't know where they are now. It was very controversial with the art students to whom I taught art history and who were being taught to draw "correctly" :-) If I recall a very small handful of French impressionists or really proto-impressionists are at the Louvre. Almost everything impressionist to say 1930s or early 40s is in Musee d'Orsay (which is where red onions is now) and then after that moves to the Pompidieu Centre with some exceptions. I believe cubists are mostly grouped with the contemporary art. And of course there are a bunch of other museums that break up this flow -- Ongeries, Museum of the city of Paris, etc. Never enough time when visiting Paris...

That was not there either but it is pretty incredible. I think I'll add it to my blog post. It was a nice show, though if I am being honest only 5 of the 19 blew me away (the later ones), but absolutely worth checking out, since I am figuratively down the street.

I saw a compact but quite nice exhibit of 19 still lifes by Cezanne at the Art Gallery of Hamilton (Ontario). It was on display in Philadelphia at the Barnes Foundation last year. There are three weeks left. It's probably worth trying to see if you are in Toronto, Buffalo or Detroit. Not sure how much beyond that I'd travel to see it. I have blogged about the exhibit and have images of a few of the pieces and some that probably should have been in the show (had insurance and such not been prohibitive): http://erics-hangout.blogspot.ca/2015/01/cezanne-in-hamilton.html

Some Bowen novels are more avant garde than others. My wife and I were both defeated by the complexity of The House in Paris, but very taken by The Heat of the Day and The Death of the Heart. Bowen's "The Little Girls" is terrific, IMO. I'll try to get to it, one of these days. The Toronto Public Library's copy doesn't circulate (the number of novels they have locked up is kind of mind-blowing) but I can get one out of Robarts. I just finished Platonov's Happy Moscow. While parts of it are bleak and the plot itself is pretty thin, I liked it quite a bit. For me, it works better than Soul, which I found a bit tedious. I'll see how it measures up against The Foundation Pit in another week or so. I'm following it with Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus to which it is tangentially related through the figure of a woman entertainer flying through the air. I've been planning to read this novel for years now, and it is time. I'm also working through Walser's A Schoolboy's Diary, which is another interesting NYRB offering.

I have to admit that I found Elizabeth Bowen's To the North a bit unfulfilling. I expect I will like The Hotel (her first) and The Heat of the Day more. Jury is definitely still out on The House in Paris and The Death of the Heart. I did enjoy Krzhizhanovsky's Autobiography of a Corpse (NYRB) quite a bit. He is sometimes compared to Kafka, and I think that is generally a fair comparison. I'm just starting Platonov's Happy Moscow (NYRB) now. It looks promising, but it is an unfinished novel, so there is always some disappointment that he didn't see it through.