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It was more of a general comment. Faulkner struggles with race in a way that I think will make him still relevant in 50 or 100 years. Arguably Fitzgerald has interesting things to say about social climbing, elite society and "looking in" that will matter more and more as the class divide deepens in North America. I personally don't think what Hemingway has to say about being a man are that interesting. Obviously that is a gross simplification of what he was up to, but I think with today's trends he will be seen as less relevant, but he will still speak to some. I'm not calling for banning him, by any means.

Mostly reading poetry for a larger project, but I have read some shorter works. Am midway through Hemingway's To Have and Have Not. I don't have too many issues with the hard-bitten anti-hero. (I don't believe I've ever seen the movie version with Bogart, but I can imagine him in the role.) But almost every page, Hemingway tosses around the n-word plus Chinese slurs, etc. (It's something like 5 chapters in when the reader is even told the name of the Black crew member. Sheesh.) It really detracts so much from the experience. I don't think time will be very kind with Hemingway, as so many of his characters embody toxic masculinity.

Have by now gone through all the Monty Python episodes in order. And the two German episodes (out of order). I had assumed I had seen them all over the years, but there were 2 I absolutely had never seen before and 2-3 more that I don't recall seeing but it may just be brain fog. So in its own way that was rewarding. Currently working through Blackadder, at pretty much the same pace. We aim for 1 per night M-Th, but sometimes things come up and we have to skip. I have not decided if the next set will be Father Ted or Fawlty Towers. Maybe leaning a bit towards Fawlty Towers. Anyway, my favorite remains Season 2 of Blackadder, but Season 1 is a bit slier and better overall than I remembered, with some quite amusing asides that are a bit hard to catch on first viewing. I completely forgot that Peter Cook was in Season 1, Episode 1!

Thanks. I'll investigate.

Did this one get caught up in a rights issue and yanked? It seems to be completely unavailable from Amazon.com and Amazon.ca. There may be a copy or two in some European stores, but this is looking quite rare now. Drat.

I picked up Reminiscing yesterday during Bandcamp Friday. I basically was rushing (left it to the last minute) and didn't get Baltimore Jazz Loft. I may hold off until April or just order it sooner. This may depend on how quickly I listen to everything else I bought yesterday...

Pat Thomas Obiaa! https://patthomasstrut.bandcamp.com/album/obiaa

I didn't do that, but there was a good deal where you could get the full digital discography (20 releases including 3 pre-releases scheduled over next couple of months) for £58. Now in a year or two, I might wish I had gone the subscription route. It depends on how many subscriber exclusives there are. However, I'm not that interested in getting tipped off on physical releases, so this seemed to make more sense for me.

Trying to make up for lost time/major gaps in my film education. Last week was Satyajit Ray's Mahapurush (The Holy Man), which I find quite droll and focused (it runs just over an hour). Tonight was Nayak (The Hero) This is a film very much in conversation with Fellini's 8 1/2 (which I happened to see for the first time recently), but to be honest I felt The Hero flowed a bit better. I liked it quite a bit, though The Holy Man is probably better when you are just looking for a comedy.

AZ has just been approved by Canada, so if the Germans and French and Dutch are still wary of AZ, start sending it to us. Much appreciated.

Larry, how do you rate Live in London (I or II) among these late recordings? https://chetbaker.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-london I thought they were solid, but I am not an expert on Chet Baker by any means.

I definitely owned Insight at one point, though it doesn't appear I hung onto it. I suspect I did pick it up at Dusty Groove on some visit, though maybe for more than the current low, low price of $6.99.

I realize it hasn't actually been approved by Canada or the US, but it should be almost any day now. Please ship it over to Canada, as I am quite sure people here will take it.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/25/acceptance-problem-as-most-oxford-covid-jabs-delivered-to-eu-not-yet-used "Four out of five of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine doses delivered to EU countries are yet to be used on a patient, a Guardian investigation has found" This is completely unacceptable.

That happened a couple of times to me, where obviously the seller hadn't bothered to keep up with postage and was totally surprised when they went to post office. Once was on discogs and once was on some book site (not Amazon, which I think really does lock you into whatever postal rates the seller has selected). I followed through, as the alternatives weren't any better -- and they still weren't asking for $20 shipping -- but I was extremely aggravated.

If TikTok can make sea shanties entertaining, I can't believe it can't "save" jazz for at least another media cycle or two... Somebody should get on that.

I was checking with this small indie press. They took two chapbooks to the USPS, where they wanted over $20 to mail to Canada! So I said, sorry but no. Sometimes you can slip stuff into a thin envelope and get a lower rate, but it is just getting harder and harder to escape these ridiculous rates. Fortunately, I have built up a big enough collection of everything that I can basically just accept that I won't be getting anything from the States from here on out. And my kids are basically of the mind that they aren't interested if it isn't digital.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/lawrence-ferlinghetti-beat-poet-dies-1.5924790 He died at 101! Hell of a run. RIP. He must have been the last of the original Beats. I've been to the City Lights bookshop on several trips to SF over the years, though never when he was in the shop, as least as far as I know.

My favorite was when I had an UK company that was shipping a couple of DVDs and a book marked on the invoice that the shipment was complete (when only the DVDs had arrived). I wrote them and said are you sure about that? They said, yes everything is shipped. I waited quite a while and finally wrote back and said I'd like a refund. At that point, they went back and said that I was in luck, they could send as a replacement the exact book that hadn't arrived. Sure. This did eventually turn up, so it was a happy ending, but was it that hard to confirm (or admit) that they just hadn't shipped the item in the first place?

A fair number of these (mostly the saxophone players) have been compiled into "episodes" of two or three interviews and added to iTunes (maybe Spotify as well). I'm listening to the Bobby McFerrin/Ken Nordine episode, which is most excellent, as Sidran convinced Nordine to create a short Word Jazz piece during the interview. Not sure if all the pianist and trumpeter interviews will eventually be added or not.

The LP cover (with Romare Bearden collage) is amazing. The CD reissue cover is truly horrible. Not even going to link to it.

It beats busking in the subway... I mean if I could convince someone to pay $5000 to watch me work on spreadsheets for an hour, I wouldn't turn that down.

Indeed, Eno did speak out from Brexit from the very beginning (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/20/brian-eno-vote-remain-brexit-eu-referendum ), but then saw Trump/Brexit as a sort of wake up call for the left: https://pitchfork.com/news/71097-brian-eno-pleased-about-trump-and-brexit-because-it-gives-us-a-kick-up-the-arse/ But yeah, I think, all in all, we could have done without that particular "learning moment."

I did a reasonable amount of shopping at Sam's in 93-94 on my first stint in Toronto, though on a student budget! Then hit it for the last time in '97 or '98 on a visit. If my memory hasn't completely failed me, Sam's was one of the merchants that pushed for liberalized Sunday shopping rules.

Agreed. No question a lot of mistakes have been made by "the authorities" and the science has continued to evolve (along with the virus, to our detriment). I get that. It's frustrating, and I don't agree with some particular restrictions. But then there is just coming across as an arrogant guy who is so much smarter and in the know than the scientific community. He may not personally be an anti-vaccer but he sounds just like one. And we all decide what is a line too far to support or even listen to for a particular artist, and this, for me, is going too far during a dangerous time. So he is off my listening list forever.