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I didn't realise there was a book. It was/is a very good exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery where I obviously didn't visit the shop on the way out That does sound interesting, though I don't think I'll make the exhibit There are a bunch of decent books on the Group of 7, but this book is quite interesting for a much later, lesser-known Canadian group, the Painters 11. (I tend to gravitate towards abstract art, so I was glad to read up on this group.)

Sometimes it is worth asking if you increase the donation a bit will they at least ship the CD internationally. (That's what happened for me with the Harrison Bankhead.) I might look into this.

After some consideration, I decided to go for the Paavo Berglund set. No question some reviewers are unhappy that it is not a complete Bournemouth set (missing essentially all of the Sibelius symphonies -- available in a different box that then has a lot of overlap with CDs 12/13 here -- and Shostakovich's chamber music). However, I thought that having the Shostakovich symphonies as well as some slightly off-the-beaten track repetoire (CDs 7 & 9-11) made it worth it for me. I found an Amazon reseller offering it at a pretty good price. Should have it next week. Actually, the overlap with this set of the symphonies (http://www.amazon.ca/Sibelius-Symphonies-Paavo-Berglund/dp/B0091JQH2Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1380213268&sr=1-1&keywords=berglund+sibelius) is confined to CD12 (of this set). Kullervo is included in this EMI set, but not the Sibelius symphony set. That actually makes it a bit easier to swallow. If I like what I hear, I probably will get the Sibelius symphony set next.

F. I completely disagree with the notion of ranking jazz musicians... nonetheless this is a scandal and Ω was robbed. (Omega has way more cred than Z.)

Imo, Roscoe Mitchell has more music ahead of him - no matter how much longer he lives - than Vijay Iyer ever will. So I don't think that the "investment in the future" concept is valid. You don't but others don't see it that way. I am not very interested in Roscoe Mitchell's work and generally am intrigued by what Iyer is up to. Certainly, the odds are that Vijay will be creating a lot longer than Roscoe at this point. It comes down to taste, and there is no point in getting too steamed over it.

You can agree or not but the current steering committee certainly seems to be looking at this as an investment in the future, i.e. giving money to much younger artists who presumably are at an earlier point in their careers, rather than going to established artists and validating a career that is mostly behind them, a la the Nobel prizes.

It sounds interesting, but I'm uncertain... See I'm afraid that I would order it, and it would sit there in the box from Amazon. I wouldn't know whether I had already read it or not until I opened the --- Ok, I'll stop there. On a recent trip to Chicago, I read Jedediah Berry's The Manual of Detection. It starts with a lot of promise, but then by the end basically devolves into Inception-lite (even though it came out a year or so ahead of that movie). More than anything it reminds me of a mash-up of Dark City, Borges and Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday. Not a bad book, but just beware that you will probably feel a bit let down by the end.

I wasn't really in the market for this set in the first place, and I can guarantee you I am not interested in it now. Mosaic has to hope more people are in that other camp of those who buy Mosaics mostly because they buy all Mosaics to support Mosaic...

It looks like Harold Mabern is in town in Vancouver for a 3 or 4 day residency. I've seen him before (usually with Eric Alexander) and he's always been great, so I'll try to make it to one of the shows, perhaps on Friday. Oh, as Gilda Radner/Emily Litella would say "Never mind." Too bad. The club where they are playing has only one option for standard tickets -- a $60 cover including a two-course meal (which, as a vegetarian, I'm quite sure I would find not worth it). Just not going to pay that kind of money and be forced into a situation where I will be resentful all evening...

Saw Miguel Zenon at the Jazz Showcase in a quartet with bass, drums and percussion (no piano). It was a good set, drawing a fair bit from his recent live album, Oye. He's got several more shows for those in Chicagoland.

It all comes down to taste, but I'm confident I would not have preferred Alabama Concerto with Coleman/Cherry.

It's on Spotify - listening now - it's...ok so far... AFAIK, Spotify is still not available in Canada. This particular CD is on eMusic, however, and I downloaded a few representative tracks. I suspect I'll get the whole thing, sans the last track which breaks off very abruptly--

This intrigues me, but I might as well hold off a year or two and get it at a bargain price. (That's what I did with Wallace's The Pale King...) I have at least 24 months of books in my TBR pile.

I love Ben but even ten years ago I am not sure I'd put this at the top of my list to buy. Today, I'm perfectly happy with all of the other live recordings I have of Ben in Europe playing these exact same tunes. True, but if it hits eMusic, I would probably give it a go...

Pure speculation, but I would imagine that they wouldn't duplicate any of the Tolliver that already came out on Mosaic. That would cover at least Music Inc. and Impact. I have Glass Bead Games and In the World, so I would have to find out what else is actually on there, but I might be part of the target market for this set.

Slowly, oh so slowly, getting into Proust. I recall having trouble for the first couple hundred pages getting into the pacing of Trollope, and this is even more extreme. It actually takes 50 pages for him to get to the madeline cookie that sets off the whole series. I am going to have to find a way to spend more time with this, as at my current rate I won't finish until Dec.! It has some subtle payoffs, but I simply cannot imagine ever reading this a second time. On the side, I am nearly done with Heller's Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man. It has fallen further in my estimation. It simply is not a good book at all (what a shame), though it is short, so I will finish reading it.

One of the best of the Singles IMO - and they did a very good job with the sound. Essential.. Ordered this and the Mingus (finally). Waiting patiently...

I had almost given up railing against this one. You give an old man hope. (and Hope is none too pleased) The kids in the school I work in have been using it for some time. In the last year I noticed its use by younger members of staff! I do my fogeyish bit with them. I blame American High School movies (interesting the way that British kids have picked up on a lot of that argot but use it in a highly ironic American accent). On the topic of awesome, the Book of Mormon is awesome! I guess it just made it over to London's West End. I would recommend seeing it, though perhaps not at those prices... Anyway, the reason I bring it up is that many of the songs include the word "awesome" used much as an American teenager would use it. Indeed, the first two use it this way. Here are the first few lines of "Hello" (the opening number):

If anyone's seen Avenue Q, the song "Mix Tape" is a good reminder of what it was all about.

Action; Solid; Midnight Special; Look Out! (followed by Breaking Point) Ready for Freddie The Jody Grind(?) But for so many of us jazz fans, Idle Moments/The Waiting Game...

He's busy making a mix tape...

According to Guardian, the poet Seamus Heaney has died. http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/30/seamus-heaney-dies-74-poet Of his various collections, District and Circle is my favourite.

We've talked a bit about it in the Classical Music Bargains thread. I'm a little on the fence. I have a lot of the best material already. But if the price came down a bit, I might go for it.

Yes, common in business circles. There are several more eggregious nouns-to-verbs, but I'm blanking on them now.

Midway through Faulkner's Light in August. Parts I find pretty interesting, but the bits about Joe Christmas and his awful childhood (shudder). There are a lot of hard men in this book (sort of Cormac McCarthy hard -- based on the Robin Thicke thread should we be shaming Mr. McCarthy into paying the Faulkner estate?). Joe Christmas and especially his adoptive father are almost parodies of the silent, cruel men who resort to violence since they are so out of touch with any other mode of social intercourse. His father has the added distinction of being absolutely sure he is morally in the right and that his Presbyterian god commanded him to beat the child until he returned to the path of righteousness. A real piece of work. (Just had a flashback that growing up there was one father on the street who matched this profile -- and who was gradually shunned. Nowadays it would be considered to have crossed the line from excessive corporal punishment to child abuse... Would the police have been brought it? Perhaps.) The other characters are more interesting (and like Sutpen or some of the Snopes are more morally ambiguous). Still, given how much of the novel is given over to Joe Christmas (at least so far), I can't see reading this a second time. (I am sort of chuckling at how Rev. Hightower's congregation must have felt when they first heard his jumbled rantings from the pulpit. Very hard to imagine how he got through Divinity School in the first place.) Am also reading Joseph Heller's A Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man. His final novel. Basically a post-modern pastiche (about how hard it is for old authors to still get it up (the pen that is)). Not that good unfortunately, unless one is just deeply into Heller (which I am not).