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Bulgakov -- what a joy, and this one is a favorite. 20 or so years ago Harvey Pekar's review of "The Master and Margarita" in the Chicago Tribune book section, edited by Larry Kart, was what introduced me to Bulgakov. Big fan of Bulgakov. At one point I read the 2 newish translations of Master and Margarita, back to back, one chapter at a time. In the end, I decided both were good but that Pevear-Volokhonsky was the better of the two. (What a great team! I am really looking forward to reading some of their translations of Dostoevsky.) I just wrapped up Murdoch's Under the Net and enjoyed that. I am midway through Zachary Mason's The Lost Books of the Odyssey, which is an awful lot like Einstein's Dreams but applied to Homer. Actually quite interesting and even thought provoking in a few sections. After that it will be Dickner's Apocalypse for Beginners.

I have had only very brief interactions with Joshua Redman, Eric Alexander, Rudresh Mahanthappa and Vijay Iyer but they were all quite pleasant. Redman was just getting started in his career, (though I haven't heard that he has gotten a huge swollen head or anything) and he answered some really dopey questions about his soprano sax playing. Actually, the very last time I talked to Viyay, it felt a lot more awkward, but I didn't present myself as well as I would have liked either.

Yes, but the kicker is that it is only if hundreds if not thousands of other people share our shopping choices will the shops survive. I find it is really hard to convince Americans that their individual will is only a relatively small part of the story -- that it is collective decisions that matter. And there, the trends are not good.

It might be better to start with shorter Murakami. I think the short story collection After the Quake is quite good. I also liked the moody atmosphere of After Dark (and there is a trombone-playing character) but the ending was a bit unsatisfying. I can't (yet) personally vouch for the stories in The Elephant Vanishes, but I imagine they are fine.

I would have to strongly disagree with the last statement. People very quickly rationalize what it is that they are doing (essentially a cash grab) as something artistic. Maybe not the first album of pop hits, but certainly by number 4, 5 or 6. (I'm looking at you, Bud Shank.) I think there is no question that jazz musicians are put in this terrible bind. If they do covers that end up being cheesy (which is no means all of them), they are accused of selling out. If they refuse to play standards, then they are stuck up and helping to kill off an art form. Most of us want something right between these two poles, but we all have different view where that middle path should be. And of course, a relatively small minority really do want the avant stuff. I would generally agree with Bev, that if you are in New York, London or Chicago (the Empty Bottle), you can find a mixed audience enthusiastic about even the most out music, but this really is not the case elsewhere where the crowds are older, white and musically quite conservative. Over time, I've joined this crowd and developed a real distaste for out music (and seeing this played live has not helped matters at all!). I certainly see contemporary jazz musicians as chasing the fringe of the fringe of the fringe, and I don't think the long term prospects are particularly good, either financially or musically.

The Dinesen tales go beyond short story, they almost reach the novella. The first one in the book, "The Deluge at Norderney," is the long and most challenging I think, or maybe just its position as first tale forces the reader to acclimate to the word of the tales. It might be worth starting with the last, "The Poet". There is some interconnectedness but it is not crucial or requiring a particular order. ... I like the pairing of Martin and Kingsley, probably done for reasons of profit and to give both books' sales a nudge, but it makes good literary sense too. I'll keep that in mind and perhaps go back to front... Anyway, I suspect a more apt pairing would have been Lucky Jim and Malcolm Bradbury's The History Man, but yes, I'm sure this had more commercial possibilities (not that this kept it in print...).

I have to admit I've had a couple of Dinesen's Tales books practically forever, and I keep meaning to read them... Given that I am reading other short story collections periodically, I can perhaps read one at a time (as you suggest) and mix them up with the rest of my reading. Anyway, I finished Molly Keane's Loving Without Tears and didn't care much for it, for all kinds of reasons. I somehow came across Michal Ajvaz's The Other City and The Golden Age (probably recommended by Amazon) and deeply disliked them. There are no internal rules in The Other City. Literally anything can happen (even more surreal than Alice in Wonderland but without the underlying logic that Carroll developed) and thus there is no real interest on my part. But I am enjoying Under the Net so far. The main character's voice reminds me just a bit of Donleavy's The Ginger Man, but without being such a complete shitheel. (I'm pretty sure a year or so back I said that I gave up on The Ginger Man after some appalling scenes of the main character berating and even beating his wife.) I've also enjoyed the opening sections of Martin Amis' Other People so far. On the topic of literary Amises, I seem to recall there was a two-fer published pairing Lucky Jim with something else. (My Google-fu was on the blink, but I seem to have found it -- Lucky Jim and The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis.) Has anyone seen this? It's no longer in print, but there seem to be at least a few copies floating about.

Douglas Coupland has a solo exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery. The second half is heavily inspired by Pop Art, particularly Warhol and Lichtenstein. It was definitely better than I thought it would be, i.e. it wasn't just a smart-alecky takedown of the art world. I plan to make a second trip towards the end of June, ideally taking the kids. I'll probably write a full-blown blog post on it this weekend, and if there is interest, I can provide the link.

I haven't seen a post on the upcoming Vancouver Jazz Fest. Full details here: http://www.coastaljazz.ca/ There are some big names coming through, like MMW & Scofield, Charles Lloyd and Cassandra Wilson. Generally, the prices are a bit too high or the times don't work for me. (I also have to finish packing up my house by the end of June, so late evenings are a challenge!) There's a small chance that I will see Cassandra Wilson on June 29. But this does look like a particularly good year for the festival, so I encourage anyone in the Pacific Northwest to come out. I will make a major efforts to see is Rudresh Mahanthappa on June 22. Note that And Alexander Hawkins is all over this festival with 3 or 4 performances and workhops. Awesome! I am aiming to see him on Canada Day at Granville Island.

I'm putting my money on a hologram of Graham Chapman... I don't begrudge them this tour -- I actually saw Eric Idle doing the best of his bits in a solo show -- but it does feel very much like they have actually dozed off in their laurels.

Lot of fluky stuff going on in that game, with Chicago getting two more bad bounces than the Kings. Definitely a disappointing outcome, but really both teams deserved to move on. I guess Game 2 is the one that Chicago really did give away, and had they won that one, we would have been looking at a totally different story. On paper, I would say either the Blackhawks or the Kings should be able to handle the Rangers fairly easily, but both teams looked completely drained by the third period, and I don't know how fast the Kings can bounce back.

I know we are all trying to declutter our lives , but I bought a cheap DVD player that could be made multi-region (well, you also have to make sure it will play PAL). It was a good investment, in addition to any "good" DVD player I had. For that matter, you can pick up a cheap laptop and change the settings to R2 (can only be changed a few times, but if you just leave it R2, there's no problem) and watch DVDs on that. There have been some amazing deals on box sets from Amazon.co.uk over the years, and I wasn't going to let them get away...

I found a few solid Region 2 bargains (well, to me pretty decent bargains if VAT is removed) 10 DVD 18 film set of Werner Herzog -- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Werner-Herzog-Collecton-10-Disc-DVD/dp/B00I7SZZZW/ref=sr_1_4?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1401520994&sr=1-4&keywords=herzog (Blu-ray set is more but probably worth it for you BR fans: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Werner-Herzog-Collection-8-Disc-Blu-ray/dp/B00I7TXG7U/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1401520994&sr=1-1&keywords=herzog ) This covers all 5 of the feature films from the Herzog Kinski box set (which incidentally is basically OOP in region 1 but still available in region 2) but not the documentary My Best Fiend. Luis Bunuel box: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DYWIBSY/ref=s9_simh_co_p74_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=left-1&pf_rd_r=1Y9CV4046AMQ4Y10BE1M&pf_rd_t=3201&pf_rd_p=486082727&pf_rd_i=typ01 (This is tempting, but I'll hold off for now.) For the kids, I thought this was a good deal -- 6 Muppets films including the fairly recent one with Jason Segal for 14 pounds: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Muppets-Film-Collection-DVD/dp/B0081NA5H6/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1401521236&sr=1-2&keywords=muppets What it does not have is Muppets Take Manhattan, but that can be found in another box set for the absurd price of 3 pounds: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Film-Box-Set-Muppets-Manhattan/dp/B006GELMQA/ref=pd_bxgy_d_h__img_y So I know what I'll be watching for the next few weekends...

Hi, I'm Barfarkel, a new member. I was unable to post the links to these five tracks myself cause I hadn't been authorized yet, so Rooster_Ties kindly posted them here for me yesterday. I got the authorization this morning, so I'll start a new thread and post the direct links so people here won't have to link thru the Steve Hoffman site, but can go directly from here to the five unidentified tracks. Glad to be here! Cheers, Barfarkel I think you can post the links here, but it would be better to keep it inside the existing thread. (I won't be any help identifying the tracks though. I am terrible at this sort of thing.)

I suspect this is a case where the film version is an acceptable substitute for the book, though some people struggled with Time Regained, a 1999 film directed by Raoul Ruiz. John Malkovitch was cast as Baron de Palmus, in what strikes me as a bit of ludicrous miscasting. I can understand some people really going for Proust, but most people will not, and I really do find the people who praise him (by no means everyone in the literary establishment but a large number) to go far over the top.

Wanted to followup on the Proust. Have you made your way through all 7 volumes? Or "only" Volume 1, "Swann's Way"? I still have a self-commitment to read Proust (have only gotten to "Swann's Way") but haven't buckled down to it. It may be one of those works that defeats my attempts. Sounds like it wasn't much fun for you. Maybe you could give us a better idea of the difficulties in reading Proust, or at least what to avoid. Bravo for getting through. PS: I think you'll like the Murdoch. Yes, this will be all 7 volumes. Had I stopped with Swann's Way, I don't think I would have bothered posting on it. Not to belabor this too much, but I have been blogging about Proust, and here are a few representative posts: http://erics-hangout.blogspot.ca/2014/04/proustian-disappointments.html and http://erics-hangout.blogspot.ca/2014/04/proustian-contradictions.html You can actually do a keyword search to find out everything that I have said about the man and the work. (Perhaps of more interest is a challenge where I am giving away a copy of Robert Kroetsch's The Studhorse Man. -- http://erics-hangout.blogspot.ca/2014/05/the-studhorse-man-challenge-closes-june.html ) I think if this had been boiled down to its essence -- 400 to 500 pages on memory, the shifting sands of people's status in social circles and some thoughts on "art" it would have been brilliant. I find it totally overstays its welcome at 3000+ pages. But mostly I find the length completely wasted on a group of parasites who are quite loathsome -- it seems almost 1/3 of the book is the Narrator frittering away his time at parties where one person is snubbing another. I found them all interchangeable and thus couldn't tell you much of anything about these party scenes. (While I tend to feel the same way about the nobles in Tolstoy -- a useless parasitical class -- they still tended to be better drawn portraits.) And the Narrator goes from spoiled brat to a fairly monstrous young adult who keeps his mistress virtually locked up for an entire volume (The Captive). And why does he do this -- because he has decided to save her from herself and not let her indulge in her bisexual tendencies. That's right -- close to a third of Proust is completely driven by discussions about homosexuality (which he almost always called inversion) and how terrible it is, particularly in men (and how widespread in high society). There is just so much self-loathing going on here (Proust was gay). I have come to think about this as the epic literary monument to "the closet." So if a lot of high-minded self-loathing bothers you, you probably are not going to like Proust and you should skip the last 3 volumes. Had I known going in what this would have been like, I would never have started it, but it was a book that I thought (as a former English lit. major) I really ought to read... It is one I will never return to.

Must be nice. My facial hair is thick and grows like crazy. Ideally I should shave in the afternoon, but I don't. I can just make each cartridge last a week, but it is totally shot if I do have to shave over the weekend...

I've been at a few concerts that they claimed were being recorded but then I've never seen the output. One was at the Montreal Jazz Fest in 1994 with Milton Nascimento, Paco de Lucia and John McLaughlin. I'm sure there are boots of this, but I've never seen a legit edition. And a few other NYC concerts that never saw the light of day.

And the Good Housekeeping Stamp of Approval no less... I am within striking distance of wrapping up Proust (300 more pages). It has been a dreary slog that I should have pulled the plug on months ago. But I was determined to finish it. Next up in rough order: Molly Keane's Laughter without Tears, Martin Amis's Other People, Iris Murdoch's Under the Net, Hugh MacLennan's Two Solitudes.

I definitely wish we didn't always run to lawyers to resolve our problems, for sure. But then having legislatures keep inventing more and more "rights" will inevitably come to clash -- my right to practice my religion will clash with your right not to be discriminated against. There are a large number of people who basically insist that this is not a zero-sum game, but I see it as one. The more rights that are created, the more inevitable conflicts. In any case, somehow they managed not to seal the coffee lid properly, and it spilled on this poor woman. And even taking small sips wouldn't have helped at McDonalds. The execs admitted that they served it at a temperature that would have given 2nd degree burns to the tongue. (I do wonder about places that sell scalding hot drinks. I experienced this will hot chocolate sold at Stanley Park at a ridiculously hot temperature. It really did ruin the moment having to wait nearly 10 minutes before it was cool enough to drink.)

Some knob from Quebec managed to successfully sue Air Canada for getting a Sprite instead of 7-Up. http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/07/14/air-canada-ordered-to-pay-12k-to-man-who-couldnt-order-7up-in-french/ Anyway, while the coffee thing always sounds like a joke, it really was scaling hot, much hotter than coffee should ever be served to someone about to drink it. (Indeed 40 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than other restaurants serve it. McDonalds started dropping its temperature across its franchises after this lawsuit to something that could be more safely consumed immediately.) She had third-degree burns over part of her body and it is strongly suggested that she died prematurely because of the burns. So really not all that frivolous. http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm And if you are really interested, an entire documentary about the whole affair: http://www.hotcoffeethemovie.com/Default.asp

I'm not enjoying Falling, but I have only about 100 pages left, so I think I'll plow through. It is curious that the author thought this her best book. I suspect she means it was the one that she was the most emotionally involved with and that felt the most urgent or "true" or something. (Though sometimes authors are not the best judge of their own work...) Anyway, I will say it makes me a lot less interested the Cazalet books, though maybe I will give the first one a chance down the line. A similar thing happened to me with Hillary Mantel's Beyond Black, which I really didn't like. It has kept me from reading Wolf Hall, though it is written in a different style and set in a completely different period.

Mercy, I'm getting the vapors just contemplating perusing this book...

I've just started Elizabeth Jane Howard's Falling, which is inspired by the true story of how a con man worked his way into her affections and nearly married her (apparently just to get his hands on her house/money). The book alternates chapters between Henry (the con man, told in first person perspective) and Daisy (his victim, told in third person perspective). While it is interesting and fairly dark, my feeling about 20% in is that it is just too long. It would have been better served by cutting a lot of the flashbacks and making it a leaner book.

So I've been working through this set. For the most part, it is quite nice. I'm not crazy about the mastering on the Bernstein Symphony #2, however. I actually had the chance to see this live yesterday, so wanted to listen to a recording. I find the CD from the Entremont box to be mixed really low, and the version on the Bernstein Symphony box to better on my system.