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This sounds like a good bet then. Same thing, I have a decent starter flute for $100 that my daughter is learning on. If she ever gets serious, then we can upgrade. (I should add it was bought used for $100 in 1986 (for me) -- no idea what it would run today.)

I think I started on a Bundy clarinet. It is a good starter instrument. Eventually I upgraded (in my mind at any rate) to a Selmer.

I'm reading Sketches from a Hunter's Notebook at home (epub file from Gutenberg.org -- these are pretty sweet) and Fathers and Sons on the train. Both are quite good. In particular, coming back to Fathers and Sons is so rewarding now that I am more in line with Turgenev's balanced world view. In my youth, I sympathized too one-sidedly with Bazarov.

I debated weighing in a day or two ago, but your comments on Bend Sinister really struck a chord. I've disliked every book I've read by Nabokov, including Lolita, some quite strongly indeed. I think you've pointed out several good points about Nabokov -- it's always about how smart he is and he can hardly be bothered to write an interesting plot, let alone meaningful characters. I feel he wants to rub it in our faces how he is writing from Mt. Olympus and we should be grateful that he ever took the time. I suppose this is more than a little ironic, as I often am camped out in the "high art" bleachers, but Nabokov really takes it to extremes. I may eventually get around to reading the rest of his novels, but life is short and I have about 300 novels that are higher in the queue... The truth is I'm no longer very good at reading something when it just feels like an obligation.

Now this is some great news. I have Starfingers on LP, but otherwise don't have or have even listened to the rest of the catalog. Some great looking sessions. I haven't been doing a lot of pre-ordering from Mosaic lately, but this might be an exception.

Just back from the Stevie Wonder Songs in the Key of Life show in Toronto (only Canadian stop on the tour). Pretty amazing band -- two of almost everything -- backup keyboards, guitarists, drummers, percussionists. 6 back-up singers, including his daugher (the one that Isn't She Lovely is dedicated to). On some stops, Indie Arie is the opening act and then joins the show. Here she just joined in on 5 or so songs -- 4 costume changes (off-stage). Great concert, though I wish he had started more or less on time -- it was 45 minutes late. Thus, we had to split as he was getting ready to do an encore. Really wanted to hear that (on some stops it has been Superstition), but it was past our bedtime (and more to the point the baby-sitter meter was ticking...).

I really think most of us overvalue our collections. I just see a complete collapse in resale value aside from a handful of things like the Mosaic box sets (and even there most of those don't have the same value they had 5 years ago). Unless you have an extremely unique collection, you are putting a huge burden on your friends and family in expecting them to extract a great value from the collection. I've already come to terms with the fact that all the books in my collection are going to be donated to interested family members and then to a library. It was bad enough when I went around with boxes of books only to have 3 or 4 taken by a bookseller; I don't want friends or family to face up to the same. It's too depressing and too much work. I'm giving myself another 15 years, and then I need to start paring down for good.

I've been thinking about this lately, and I would COMPLETELY go the other direction. My wife is going to be in no condition to deal with grief and then posting a list of 1000s of CDs onto a listserv or even worse eBay and then haggling with folks. It's a huge effort and not worth the stress. It's generally not even worth posting CDs here because there is so little I have that is intriguing enough for others to bother bidding on. It was generally not worth it 4 or 5 years ago, and with the rise of postage costs, forget about it. It's all going to the consignment shop, if I don't start getting rid of it myself first.

See the thing was it was supposed to be Anthony Blackman, but some producer got nervous, and they changed the script on me. {Joking.} It's more bizarre when you think it could have been written in a way to only use a first name, n'est pas?

It is really hard for me to understand the whole Drabble vs. Byatt feud. What would be unbelievably droll is if they cooked it up to help stir up sales when things were slow. Maybe there will be some grand reconciliation towards the end (like Dostoevsky and Turgenev...). Anyway, I am wrapping up Herzen's My Past and Thoughts tonight and will be immediately launching into Turgenev's Sketches from a Hunter's Album, which I've never read. Then Fathers and Sons for the first time in 20+ years. It's been a long fall with the Russians, but quite rewarding.

I suspect that a high percentage of respondents were copping out by saying the Bible or Shakespeare, so they decided to take those off the table to make it more interesting. I guess it really depends how long you think you'd survive on a desert island, even one with abundant coconuts. Not too long in my case, surely. But if that weren't an issue, I could see how boredom would set in and you'd be desperate to read anything. I wouldn't turn my nose up to the Bible, if it were the King James Version. I find it all but impossible to decide on a single book that would keep me occupied for the rest of my stay. I have five books in the running Tolstoy - War and Peace Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov Joyce - Ulysses Tom Stoppard - Plays 5 (Arcadia, The Real Thing, Night and Day, Hopwood and Indian Ink) The Histories of Herodotus Every time I think about it, I would choose a different one (or try to sneak in another one like Perec's Life: A User's Manual). Anyway, today, it would be Herodotus.

Calgary - 45

I'm just back from seeing Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Mutter Virtuosi (sort of a youth ensemble that she is training). They did Mendelssohn's Octet and Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Both very well done, and there are relatively few performances of the Octet, so I was really glad to see this pairing. Two encores. Quite a night. Apparently some nights on the tour she does Previn's Violin Concerto #2, but on this night it was more of a curiosity to round out the bill -- Sebastian Currier's Ringtone Variations, which sounded pretty much like you would expect a piece of music inspired by ringtones to sound. I'm assuming, though don't know for sure, that they alternate the Previn and the Mendelssohn. If that's the case, I am glad they selected the Octet for tonight's performance.

Well, Alice Munro just got it, so I suspect North America will be passed over for a couple more years, just like the World Cup...

Really only heard a few of these programs, but one favorite (favourite) was Andy Kershaw's. He did his own program the same week with another 15-20 songs that he couldn't squeeze in. Really too bad he went off the rails.

There are quite a few jazz musicians it might be interesting to meet, but I've never once had any interest in hanging out with Miles... Give me Coltrane or Eric Dolphy any day.

And no bad teeth. Like one young lady told me when relating her rejection of a family-proposed suitor (she came from a culture where such things still are fairly common), "I'm not making a baby that's gonna maybe have a jacked-up grill". I like a good snaggle tooth.

Yes, I am hoping he is not suffering too much. I had the pleasure of seeing him at least twice, and possibly three times (can't remember if he was still in the SF Jazz Ensemble line up on the later tour, though most likely not).

I'm maybe 20% into the second part of Herzen's My Past and Thoughts (Ends and Beginnings from Oxford Press). It's good but I think Isaiah Berlin blew it up just a bit much (putting it on the same level as War and Peace ). Herzen himself thought of his memoirs as comparable to David Copperfield. I would be enjoying it a bit more if my expectations hadn't been raised quite so high...

Grabbed a couple of books for an upcoming plane ride. One of which is Jonathan Levi's A Guide for the Perplexed. It really comes across as wanting to be a mix of Umberto Eco and Calvino's Invisible Cities, though in truth I find it a more Baroque version of Jan Morris's Last Letters from Hav. I'm trying to be fair, but it just seems a bit labored, as if Levi was trying way too hard to turn out a hit. I'll probably give it about 100 pages and then drop it if I still don't care about any of the characters. Edit: Not surprisingly, I didn't like it and skipped almost all of it and skimmed the last 35 pages. Overly convoluted and quite pretentious.

Mine turned up too. Was expecting it next week. Not sure what to start with, as it is so massive.

I didn't realize until just recently that Criterion now has the rights to La Dolce Vita, and has put out a Blu-Ray. That may finally drag me (kicking and screaming) over to the technology, but I'm only getting something that plays Regions A and B, which means I have to do a bit more shopping. Anyway, I am so totally torn over the Tati Collection: http://www.criterion.com/boxsets/1069-the-complete-jacques-tati I have all the feature films, even Parade, and most of the shorts. The last short Tati directed sounds kind of dull -- Forza Bastia (1978) -- is roughly 25 minutes of him pointing his camera at the fans in the stands. Dégustation maison (1978) isn't by Tati at all, but by his daughter, where she sort of revisits the seaside town where M. Hulot's Holiday was shot. It is more properly considered one of the many bonus features on this set, and those are fairly generous. I think it's obvious this isn't something I need, but it may ultimately be something I want badly enough to get, especially given the upgrade to Blu-Ray is supposedly pretty fantastic.

I like the Secret Museum cover. Is that a real place or Photo-shopped together?

Definitely. Of those I've posted here to this thread, I agree, Into Somethin' and Goin' Up (which I presume is what you meant by "Up Up Up") -- are the two best. And I agree that cityscapes, much as I love them, are going to be of less interest. Yes, that is what I meant. Perhaps too soon, but this is another possibility. Here's someone with the same idea: http://architizer.com/blog/kickoff-sxsw-20-architectural-album-covers/ Of this set, the Streets LP might be worth considering.

If you are soliciting opinion, then don't let your love of the album distract you. Of the ones up so far, I think architects would only dig Into Somethin', Up Up Up and possibly Symphony for Improvisers. I definitely think focusing on a single building rather than a cityscape (like the Hancock) is going to work better. In terms of iconic building covers, it's hard to forget this one: