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Living Stereo #2 just showed up. I have to say I have slightly mixed feelings about it, leaning a bit towards disappointment. Whereas Vol 1 had quite a few bonus tracks added to the various CDs, Vol. 2 takes a much purer original release approach (though no back cover notes on the sleeves like a true OJC release). There is some shuffling around of Reiner conducting Beethoven Symphony 1 & 9 to put #9 on one CD but then Symphony #1 is all by itself (at about 23 minutes). Frankly this is ridiculous, since this isn't an OJC release. I think the average CD length across the 60 CDs is probably 45 minutes. What bugs me in particular is a few of the Fiedler releases where there was an actual CD release with sensible pairings of bonus material and none of this was included in this set. It just seems like a missed opportunity and I am now not sure what to do about these Living Stereo CDs with material not in the #2 set, since I was really hoping to be able to de-accession them, but now I don't think I can.

Yes. For me, I had known it was a good museum with plenty of Goyas and Velazquez's but I didn't really expect to see all those Boschs. I do hope to get back some day. (Maybe instead of the Hermitage. It may be a good 15-20 years before I feel right about touring Russia. And perhaps never...)

So I had most of a day in D.C. I didn't realize that basically the entire East Building of the National Gallery was shut down. That was disappointing. They moved the 20th C. exhibits to the ground floor of the West Building. They had the Gary Winograd exhibit that had previously been in San Francisco. It is good, if a bit overwhelming, but I had seen it in S.F. They also had German expressionist prints, focusing on Kirchner, with a few other artists mixed in. And while they don't seem to be publicizing it on the website, you can watch James Nares' Street, which is a pretty fascinating video project. He shot 2.5 minutes of typical Manhattan street scenes with a special camera designed to capture bullets in flight and so on. This was then slowed down to 60 minutes, so you have a lot of people looking like they are standing still and a few others moving in slow motion. It is interesting for sure. I only had time to watch 5-10 minutes, but I'd watch the full thing, assuming I could find the time. Unfortunately, I just missed the opening of a bunch of exhibits, both at the National Gallery and various places at the Smithsonian. Many open this weekend. Probably the one that I would have liked the most is called Whistler and the Thames (at the Sackler). However, I really did like the woodblock prints on display in Kiyochika: Master of the Night. That might be the best thing I saw during this trip. Here is some more info about it: http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/current/kiyochika/

They'll accept it if you can get it there, but they don't always pick up. It's a different world now. Hard to even give stuff away... I think in Chicago, you can sometimes get Brown Elephant to pick up, and possibly Salvation Army.

I think you're right to put your finger on the real issue with Bellow: his obsession with women, often negative, but even when positive somewhat distasteful (his fondness sometimes worse than his enmity). I think this patriarchal attitude has cost him his place in academe. The only Bellow taught in my grad program was "Seize the Day," which I still think is one of his most emotionally powerful. Occasionally, "Herzog" will pop up on a reading list. But "Herzog" and "Mr. Sammler's Planet," also raise the spectre of Bellow's race attitudes, which one could occasionally find at least racially insensitive, if not outright racist. I'm sounding rather PC here, but I just want to point out that if you are not taught at the academic level, your reputation as a writer is likely to decay,even if you do hold a Nobel Prize (no one really cares about that). A lot of the women in my grad program, who are now faculty members, loathed Bellow. I remember reading (twice) when it came out, "Ravelstein," Bellow's fictional account of his friend and philosopher, Allan Bloom (a rather suspect character himself). Maybe the elegiac tone managed to soften Bellow's usual bitterness. I enjoyed this one. I have to admit, Ravelstein came out after I finished my Bellow-of-the-month "club." I still have yet to read that one. Maybe some day, perhaps after I reread The Dean's December.

This is what it says on Amazon.com, so it is a bit of a compromise: "The 34 CD are presented in deluxe packaging, with a 20-page printed booklet; this is complemented by 200 pages of online documentation, including a commentary on each of the sonatas (along with the musical notation of its opening bars)." While this is interesting and appeals to the collector in me, I think I'll just have to pretend it doesn't exist. I now have probably 20 or 30 classical CDs to work through, to say nothing of the hundreds of CDs I've only listened to once. So 34 more CDs is a steep mountain to climb!

I'm not going to change my mind about the Colter. As far as Bellow, I do think he wrote 10 or so books when 3 or 4 would have served just as well. He seemed to be working out the same issues with women (particularly those he was married to) and his family, particularly his uncle. While I read them all, the only two Bellow books that I hung onto are Augie March and The Dean's December. I just finished Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry. It's a ghost story. While it is written in a high literary style, it doesn't change the fact that a ghost story probably ought to be scary or at least eerie. I don't think it really succeeded on those terms. It also was very clear what the overall ending was going to be about 75 pages from the end. However, I did like one of the secondary characters/plots about a character with severe OCD who struggles to leave his apartment.

I just read Barbara Comyns' Mr. Fox. It was ok, mostly interesting for the various scenes of London during the Blitz. Apparently she really did live through it. It's nice to have a slightly different take from Anthony Powell's. I will say that I liked A Touch of Mistletoe a bit better, which covered more or less the same territory. She does tend to return over and over to the same general tropes (feckless mothers, the impossibility of making a living as an artist in Britain, women pairing up with men only out of economic necessity, and so on). Of course, this is how I feel about Saul Bellow, who was also a great recycler. Apparently, her The Juniper Tree is one of the most different books from all these others, but I won't be reading that until the fall. I took a peek at Cyrus Colter's City of Light (Thunder Mouth Press). Just terrible. Don't bother. I should be able to finish up The General in His Labyrinth this weekend. It's definitely worth a look.

I just wrapped up Teju Cole's Every Day is for the Thief. This reads exactly like a memoir of a Nigerian living in the U.S. who comes back to visit Lagos, and is largely very disappointed by what he sees. This is apparently entirely fictional (Cole doesn't have a white mother and apparently never studied to be a psychologist), but it certainly seems informed by trips he would have made back to his home town (Cole was actually born in the U.S. but grew up in Nigeria). So I can't separate the fictional from the autobiographical. It certainly paints a fairly bleak picture of Lagos. I'll try to get around to Open City one of these days. I've started Garcia Marquez's The General in His Labyrinth. An interesting fictional biography of Simon Bolivar's final months. After this, Barbara Comyns' Mr. Fox. And then another sustained push on Proust. I'm currently about halfway through The Captive. Not quite in the home stretch but getting there.

As many had feared when he went into the hospital, Gabriel Garcia Marquez passed away at the age of 87. My understanding is that his health had been poor for some time. I'm certainly a big fan of his work, though I will admit he inspired a lot of really lousy followers who used magic realism indiscriminately. Of his major works, I like them in roughly this order: The Autumn of the Patriarch No One Writes to the Colonel Collected Short Stories One Hundred Years of Solitude Chronicle of a Death Foretold Love in the Time of Cholera In Evil Hour I've actually never read The General in His Labyrinth (and some of his later story collections), and I'm going to start The General this weekend.

My cheapo stereo with cassette decks didn't survive all my moves. Just a while ago I bought a super-cheap cassette player with USB output, so that these old cassettes can be digitized. Generally the results are ok. However, I am not hanging onto the cassettes after they have been digitized. For a short while, I tried giving them away, but no takers...

This sounds like a survey with a completely unreliable sampling strategy. Maybe just asking people that participated in Record Store Day perhaps. Anyway, the fact that over half the people buying an LP and 23% buying a cassette have no intention of listening to the darn thing makes this pretty suspect. These are not music fans in any meaningful sense. This behavior (and Record Store Day more generally) truly is a silly fad, propping up a moribund industry.

I would also opt for Pacifica, though if money (and storage) is not an issue, one could certainly get both.

I'm glad a few people got to see it. I tuned into a live-feed from somewhere else (AZ?) but it wasn't that exciting not seeing it in my backyard. In six months or so, it happens again. I'll be in Toronto where the skies are more likely to be clear, but it is going to be a lot later local-time...

Just wrapped up Two Days in Aragon. It was good, though a touch melodramatic in places. It really read like a screenplay, and I'm a little surprised it has never been optioned. In her heyday, I could see Meryl Streep playing the part of Nan, the tough governess who basically runs Aragon, the large estate in Ireland, owned by the Foxes. However, the actual ending of the book would probably have to be shot as an alternate ending (for the DVD), as I don't know that it would be considered acceptable by studio heads. Now reading a number of short books, which can be nice. I'm just starting Barbara Comyns' A Touch of Mistletoe, and then after that is Teju Cole's Every Day is for the Thief. This is actually his first novel, but it wasn't translated until the success of Open City. Comyns has such a distinctive voice. It's one that I find a bit grating at times, but it is definitely distinctive.

So frustrating. Crystal clear skies last night, and cloudy tonight. I can't even tell where the moon is supposed to be! I guess this is the case over much of the U.S. and Canada. Well, next time perhaps...

Miles at the Fillmore (Bootleg Vol. 3). Nearly made it through the whole thing over a couple of days. I'll wrap up disc 4 tomorrow.

I gave at least 50 cases to a used record store. I normally do keep cases unless I am doing a big mail out to cut down on shipping costs.

Apparently there will be a lunar eclipse which should be visible from much of North America tonight. And there may be as many as 4 visible this year. It occurs quite late in the Eastern and Central time zones, but it will start around 11 pm and run until 1 am tonight for those in Pacific Time, so not so bad. The main question is whether the skies will be clear (they were unusually clear last night). I probably won't get the kids up unless it is just super-impressive. Sadly it appears it may be overcast. Here are the details for the Pacific Northwest: http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/canada/vancouver

I saw a very nice version of Schubert's Octet played by a contingent of the VSO. This may be the first time I've seen it live.

Didn't AS get better ratings than... Letterman? (And pretty much everyone except Leno/Fallon.) Personally I'm less interested in these stupid "late night wars" and much more interested in who Comedy Central picks for the "blowhard parody" slot to replace Colbert. Limbaugh and O'Reilly would be excellent candidates. I really think Colbert Report will go away after Colbert departs, though he might be allowed to do a few special events here and there, particularly around election time. My guess is that John Oliver gets some show crafted around his persona.

So far Two Days in Aragon is pretty good. I think Keane's strength is in her slightly wicked dialogue, as well as her insight into the English landed gentry in Ireland. She has some trouble moving on once the Troubles arrive. Also, some novels feature far too much "telling" not "showing" from the omniscient narrator. So far Two Days is avoiding these problems. The intro claims that this was the first time she took Sinn Fein very seriously, so I don't know how well she navigates that later in the book. I'm reading quite a bit of Canadian poetry as well, mostly Michael Crummey but also Carmelita McGrath.

I don't know if this recent ICON set was mentioned: http://www.amazon.com/ICON-Malcolm-Sargent-Great-Recordings/dp/B00I3LJRCA/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1397225145&sr=1-2&keywords=icon It's an 18 CD set of Malcolm Sargent. While I am sure there are some classic recordings here, I think I am going to pass.

Hmm, looks interesting, though probably not for this year. I just saw Stoppard's Coast of Utopia (brilliant stuff and I may post on it later). It inspired me to read Turgenev's A Month in the Country, which I saw several years ago, but didn't remember very clearly. You might well not have gotten Chekhov's The Seagull or Uncle Vanya without A Month in the Country. I don't know when I will fit it in, but I'll try to reread Fathers and Sons by the fall. This was a book I read in my teens and I was quite affected by it. I wonder how I will react as a middle-aged man... I should be starting Molly Keane's Two Days in Aragon tonight. I haven't been completely sold on the last couple of her books, so I hope this is a return to form. I have 3 more to go until I get to Good Behaviour, which is generally considered her greatest novel.

I guess this was two nights ago, but I saw the Vogler (String) Quartet and Ian Parker do Shostakovich's Piano Quintet. I'm fairly sure this is the first time I've seen it live. It was very well done, most enjoyable.