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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.

Well, you could eat a sandwich from a truck stop rest room. (Futurama in-joke. Sorry.)

Reminds me a lot of the Fear Monger Shop ads that Garrison Keillor used to run on his show. Might as well keep people in a perpetual state of unease. Indeed, some studies show that going too heavy on the hand sanitizer is a real no-no and is just going to result in more super-bugs. You just can't win... It's taken some time, but my wife is more comfortable having the kids exposed to germs, which is generally better for them -- and her mental health.

Had a go at it in my youth. Regret to say I never got to the end. I was on Team Fyodor in my youth, even managing to get through The Brothers Karamazov in a bit over a week (ah, when I had time!) though I never got around to The Devils, The Gambler, or The Idiot back then (almost all the other novels and stories, however). So now I am making a major effort to tackle the Russian classics I missed at the time, which means reading a lot more Tolstoy. (I did get through The Idiot just a week or so ago, but wasn't that into it actually.)

Just begun Anna Karenina. Looks fairly promising, but very long. I hope I can maintain sufficient focus throughout.

As I said, don't really have a dog in this fight, but it looks like it will be a classic series. Always a good thing.

Fun fact, there is a bit of a jerk right-wing anti-gay politician in Canada named Teows (maybe slightly related to the player) and Dan Savage was beginning a campaign to "Santorumize" him, when Chicago sports fans basically begged him to call it off. I can't remember why he agreed to call it off...

The winning shot was absolutely amazing. It is fired from pretty far out and two Blackhawks get a piece of it and deflect it just a bit left and right and totally baffle the goalie. I guess the last Blackhawk was still far enough from the goalie that he wasn't called for interference (wasn't in the crease at any rate). They'll probably be replaying that all day tomorrow (in Chicago at any rate). Not really a Hawks fan (was really pulling for the Red Wings, but maybe next year...). I guess all things considered I'd rather have the Hawks win than Boston. At least my wife wouldn't be moping about the house if they lose after tonight's performance.

Don't know if any of it's any good or not. On the whole I am not too interested in the line-up so far, but I do think Vijay Iyer is going to be there, and I'll try to make that. Also not really jazz, but worth checking out, is Vieux Farka Toure. I may be able to make one of his shows. David Murray is going to be there, but he is featuring Macy Gray, and that just doesn't strike me as something I want to see. Actually, Herbie Hancock will be there as well, but the tickets are very high, and his latest concert outings have been pretty underwhelming, so I think I'll pass. So on the whole, I'll mostly be giving this a miss.

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...

So strange, several of the Amazon reviews are clearly referencing Kirk's Work (aka Funk Underneath) with RRK and Jack McDuff rather than the self-titled T.J. Kirk album. Both sound worth a listen. Looks like eMusic has Talking Only Makes it Worse, so I'll probably check it out that way next month.

Good points about how much of the core repetitoire does one need. I have definitely cut back on sets that are basically just Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak and perhaps Mahler. I am a bit more willing to get sets where there are particularly strong soloists in the concertos (why I ultimately got the Steinberg EMI box) and I still go for sets with lesser-known conductors (so the Russian Conductors sets are generally good as was the Silvestri EMI box). Definitely on the fence regarding the Reiner and will need more details. As far as the Heifetz, I have a fair bit of him in other formats, though I did get the Heifetz-Piatigorsky Concerts box, which seemed like a good compromise. There is some excellent music there!

Well, I probably don't need this, as I have an awful lot of it in the Living Stereo Box, but I may get weak and go for it. It depends on just how low it goes, I guess.

Those albums have not aged well for me - and I liked them (and him) back in the day. Always have found "Enigmatic Ocean", with strong guitar by Allen Holdsworth and Darryl Stuermer, to be the best of the bunch, I find myself now going to his older stuff if I am going to listen to him. I think I'll pass on these. I am somewhat more interested in the similar Al Di Meola set, esp. from some of the secondary sellers: http://www.amazon.com/Original-Album-Classics-Al-Meola/dp/B003ZBX83M/ref=pd_sim_m_2 Not sure I will actually bite though as I have no extra shelf space at all!

I picked up Dusk and Other Stories recently. I haven't cracked it yet, and probably won't for some time, but I have certainly heard good things about it. (It was actually lost/stolen at my local library, and assuming I finish it in any reasonable time frame, I will donate it as a replacement (probably).)

I read and "enjoyed" the Idiot as a young adult, also Karamazof and Crime and Punishment (twice). I wonder now if I was making allowances to bolster how clever I thought I was being. I'm currently reading The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson. Laugh-out-loud funny and very educational. I probably will reread Crime and Punishment in the next couple of years. I suspect that one will still grip me, but hard to say. All of Dostoevsky's novels are basically concerned with interior thoughts, so he spends scads of time telling you things that aren't apparent from the surface of conversations. (This is what I am reacting badly to.) I think, but can't entirely recall, that The Idiot is the most extreme in this regard. Speaking of Jacobson, I never "got" Kalooki Nights at all. I'm also fairly sure I wouldn't like The Finkler Question, but his very latest (Zoo Time) looks interesting enough that I might give it a go.

On the final stretch of Dostoevsky's The Idiot (last 100 or so pages). I'm really not feeling it for a lot of reasons, mostly that everybody just sits around and has all these misunderstandings but Prince Myshkin is such a super guy (based on little more than his good nature, since he isn't called upon to actually, you know, do much of anything) that he tries to set things right. I am just finding it very, very boring. What worries me slightly is that I really enjoyed Notes from the Underground and Crime and Punishment as a young adult, and it would pain me to find that I didn't care much for his (very talky) style as an older (apparently grumpy) adult. Also dipping into Pu-239 by Ken Kalfus. The title story is fairly brilliant. Not as interested in the other stories, and in fact I completely skipped over one after a few pages where I found the main character so terribly (and unbelievably) obnoxious that I didn't want to spend any more time in his company (even to see if he got his comeupance). I think I'll mostly end up skimming and discarding this one...

Did anyone actually get this? There are a lot of very unhappy customers in the UK who are complaining that Amazon wouldn't honour their purchase, saying it was mispriced. However, some folks did get the set shipped at that price.

Definitely will be something at Jazz Showcase in the South Loop. Probably some other events elsewhere -- Green Mill perhaps?

Very solid -- quite a few ensembles I would turn out for, but I just can't make it this year. Tatsu Aoki and Eigen drumming is pretty good -- saw them years ago.

The British Library is only going to try to gather UK content, but that includes lots of blogs and maybe Facebook pages and probably your emails (esp. if on Gmail!): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/9973160/British-Library-to-begin-web-harvest.html I believe I read that Google does harvest the web periodically but they keep mum about it given all the copyright issues involved.

Lois has stated that none of it will be archived, so as of July 1 every last word there goes bye bye forever. Well, it's captured somewhere (apparently the British Library among other places that takes a snapshot of the entire web), but it might be really a drag to try to retrieve it. I guess folks over there will have to decide what they want to do.

I think merging the two boards would be well beyond this board's capacity. But some key posts from the most critical threads could be reposted here (if the members move over here) and seed threads here. That was really all I meant.

Maybe the best of it can be migrated over.