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I'm sure there will be a handful of rare items that might still go for a fair price, but honestly after the Boomers go and maybe half of Gen X., will there be a critical mass of people willing to still "pay" for these items? I really doubt it. At the moment, (some) vinyl is holding its value, but CDs really are not. I just don't see it getting any better after a few more decades. Most likely real estate market will really adjust downwards by this time as well (though this depends a little bit on immigration policies as well).

I used to worry a bit more about this, but the sad truth is that when I pass on (most likely 30 years from now), CDs won't have any value. Most of my books won't have value either. I'll just instruct my heirs to donate to any library willing to cart it off. I mean it is rare to find any store willing to pay more than $2/CD and 30 years from now, I just don't believe there will be a viable market in used CDs. If I find it too tedious and bothersome to try to extract a bit more value by going the eBay route, I certainly can't expect my heirs to do so. If I am really lucky, they will like the music (and books) enough to keep it for themselves.

Interesting, though the guy doesn't sound quite like a Mitchum-type, who would be far more threatening and get his way with the lower-level thugs without sounding a bit ridiculous. The relationship in the book doesn't sound completely dissimilar to that between the Alan Ladd & Paul Donlevy characters in The Glass Key, which I just watched a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, just 100 pages more to go in Anna Karenina, which I hope to wrap up tonight. It's definitely an ok story and doesn't drag that much, but I think contemporary readers, such as myself, just are not that interested in Levin and his doings/musings, which do pad the book to some extent. After this, I need to finish reading Things Fall Apart. I'm about 25% into it. While I know it's a stone-cold classic of African literature, I don't care that much for the main character and his deeply misognistic worldview, so I don't think I'll be reading this again. Fortunately, I've found it to be a fairly fast read.

Pretty sure it was mine as well. It is an amazing set. I would have been in the market for the Andrew Hill but it had sold out (or did it time out?) right before I became aware of Mosaic. Over the years, I did have a chance now and then to get this set (and the McLean) but by that point I had gotten some of the individual releases and eventually got all of them as they were reissued. I am not sorry to have the music that way. In fact, it is fairly likely that I do listen to it more on individual CDs than I would in a big box set.

Well, amazingly it's still in print, so this isn't a case where the grasshoppers are that much worse off than the ants (other than not listening to the music in the interim of course).

There seems to be enough magical thinking in the world already. I can't really get behind an effort (on Kickstarter no less) to actively trick people and build up a fake urban legend. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

So I saw one ticketed show last weekend (Vijay Iyer) at the Vancouver International Jazz Fest and a few free things (most of Soweto Kinch's show and now the first set by The Unsupervised). Don't know too much about The Unsupervised, aside from the fact they are a 5-piece of mostly (entirely?) Canadian musicians. They seem to be clearly inspired by Atomic. I liked most of their set except the final song, which took fast, slow(quiet), fast to parodic extremes. I was a little bummed to see it on their independently produced CD, but decided to pick it up anyway. Had I been on my own, I probably would have stuck it out for a second set (added kind of at the last minute apparently). But my son was getting a bit weary of all the free jazz. As far as Vijay's set, I found it a bit of a let-down. I've seen him in action 5 or so times (including twice with Rudresh Mahanthappa) and this was by far the least satisfying. I only really enjoyed a single piece they did -- MJ's Human Nature, oddly enough. I know he's trying to do some interesting things with time, but there were two songs where the bassist and the drummer kept intentionally screwing around with the beat and I just couldn't go along with that. There was another piece that was quite good but really dragged down by a loooong bass solo. And I just don't like the drummer -- Tyshawn Sorey. I know he's got all kinds of cred. (In fact I was pretty sure I had seen him two years ago at the Jazz Fest -- and indeed he was in a group with Ingrid Laubrock called Paradoxical Frog.) But I just don't like his approach -- in general he seems to call way more attention to himself than is necessary -- and his unconventional approach to time-keeping. And I doubt I'll ever go see a group again if I know he will be participating (not that drummers are usually listed on the marquis). I'm sure it's my loss, but I just didn't enjoy either time I saw him and he was the largest contributor to that both times.

Just hit the halfway mark in Anna Karenina. It's a pretty good read, some interesting philosophizing (even if I disagree with Tolstoy's conclusions) mixed in with a good handle on human nature. But I really have to wonder at the pacing. Levin and Kitty's story is at a reasonable denouement and Karenin has decided to divorce Anna. I'd really prefer that the pace accelerates and this gets wrapped up in 100-150 pages, not another 400. (If for no other reason that 250+ pages on the theme of the ruined woman will be a bit tedious.) But I guess things happened slower then... I'm reminded of the case of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce that has been going on for years and drags on through almost the entirety of Dickens' Bleak House, but most of the action in the novel is quite separate from the legal proceedings.

Inspired by the Woody Shaw thread(s)

I was no Larry King fan, but I categorically refuse to watch Piers Morgan. Frankly, given his disgraceful role in UK newspaper investigative "practices," he ought to be in prison.

Disagree. The mid-sized paper I work for won a Pulitzer for investigative journalism recently. And continues to do similar work. LINK Often, the local daily doing the routine work of chronicling the unglamorous business of government will, through routine work, end up uncovering malfeasance, corruption, etc. Whether or not people find any value in that sort of thing is another question. But perhaps "prevailing wisdom" on this sort of thing shouldn't be greeted so readily with nodding heads. It would be nice to be wrong on this, but I've read local papers from MI and NC (where I still have family) and I don't recognize anything that resembles investigative reporting, certainly compared to 10 years ago. And I do think it will continue to get worse. I simply don't see enough people willing to pay to support newspapers down the road.

Though I think it may be just as likely that they proclaim they have an artistic or intellectual reason for doing something, and in fact that is just as likely that at root it is based in personal relations or animus towards someone else. They may not even want to admit this to themselves. I've seen this dozens of times at academic conferences where what appears to be a theoretical disagreement is really driven by personal dislike.

Pretty astonishing end to that game. Thought for sure it was headed to overtime. 2 goals 20 seconds apart!? And unless I am mistaken, the first Blackhawks goal was a short-handed one. What a series...

Also there's a paradox in much of European journalism: while the questions themselves are much more aggressive, the actual process of investigative journalism is much more limited (or so I've read). There's a heavier reliance on official sources for any story, which usually is going to mean much less shoe-leather reporting - aside from notable cases like, uh, hacking people's phones in an attempt to just smear them. So it seems like European journalism is better at figuring out when public figures are lying, but worse at filling out the details to find out what the true story really is. BTW am I the only one who's noticed the BBC (on the web, anyway) getting much schlockier and "CNN-like" in the last 12-24 months in an attempt to jack up their pageviews? Well, certainly the CNN site has gotten unbelievably shlocky (the other day they were featuring a video of a woman tossing her rival off a cliff! -- way to stay classy, CNN). Basically everything is just going to hell in a handbag. I also think that investigative reporting (and reporters) as we know them are a dying breed. The stuff doesn't "pay" at all in the eyes of newspaper owners. So this great investigative reporting probably doesn't exist outside the top 10-15 U.S. cities. And it probably won't exist outside the top 5 cities in another 10-15 years. It will just be reporting by press release...

Not sure I would agree with all the premises. What I think is more central to the UK press is that, aside from the BBC, there is no pretense whatsoever about neutrality. Stories are routinely spun one way or the other without worrying about the other side (so you don't have reporters desperately making false equivalencies). That is a bit refreshing but also has led to a heightened echo chamber impact. In the US, it's basically everybody else vs. Fox, whereas things are totally fractured in the U: you read the Daily Mail (or the Sun) or the Guardian or the Telegraph. Very little overlap in readership. The other thing that is a bit surprising, given the UK's libel laws, is that reporters there really latch onto scandals (and try to create them) even more than happens here (or at least outside Beltway reporting, which is mostly about fake scandals cooked up by both parties). At least that's my take on it.

Some interesting releases in the works from Criterion. Early Fassbinder (though I have these all in an R2 set). For me the most exciting is that Criterion is finally getting into Satyajit Ray. They did The Music Room last year and now are getting ready to release The Big City and Charulata. Probably won't pre-order either, but expect I will pick both up eventually.

Not tonight, but tomorrow I am going to see Vijay Iyer as part of the Vancouver International Jazz Fest. I am taking it fairly easy this year for various reasons, including budget constraints. I do hope to see Soweto Kinch playing a free show on Sat. and then just take in some of the other free acts while I am downtown.

I think they are slowly making progress on flops. Hope that continues next season. But traveling? They might as well change the rules. LeBron routinely gets 2.5 steps as do most of the other stars.

I didn't watch, but I heard it (non-foul strip) was pretty flagrant. What's particularly unfortunate is that it gives people even more ammunition to claim that the games are rigged. My wife goes on and on about how Stern wants Miami to win it again. Frankly, if she really believes this, I wonder why she bothers to watch, but it is hard to really get inside the head of a committed sports fan.

Oh, this is not going to sit well with the Spurs. Had they not missed a couple of free throws in the 4th Q, they would be Champs. And I realize this is heresy, but Pops made some very bad coaching decisions (or rather gambles) down the stretch, mostly pulling Duncan out in favor of smaller guys to guard the perimeter but then the Spurs had no rebounding. Twice they needed absolutely critical stops, and they didn't get them either time. Much more likely to get those stops with Duncan in than out. I have to say, a lot of this rests with the coach.

I'm not nearly as big a supporter of the auteur perspective. I think of musicians as entertainers first and artists second. Anyway, I think artists do have a responsibility to not mislead their fans. If they had been known for doing this -- or were clearly an avante-garde group -- then fine. But if this was the first time they pulled such a stunt, and normally had played traditional shows with, you know, songs off a setlist, then I think the fans do have a right to be upset. I certainly would have been.

I can certainly see this going 7. Pretty good series so far. Helps that I am not emotionally invested (unlike my wife ).

Good to know.

I guess this more for the CD-R thread, but apparently quite a few of these old series (Gildersleeve and the old mysteries, Philo Vance, Nick Carter, etc.) are badly burned DVD-Rs that Amazon is producing themselves. So buyer beware... I've bought two series from amazon that were on DVD-R (Crash Season 2 and The Killing Season 2) and they were expertly burned and I have no complaints as far as that goes. Most people don't have terrible trouble with them, but some do. I definitely pause a bit at paying DVD prices for a DVD-R (a bit more ok with it at bargain prices). No question there are plenty of people on this board who don't want anything to do with CD-Rs, so I just thought I would mention it is something they should check on if it matters to them.

They put it up when there are problems between the union and management leading to a lock-out. Seems to be particularly prevalent in front of hotels. Not sure it has the desired impact anymore.