ejp626

A few weeks back I managed to get to several museums in NYC and DC. Picasso in Black and White was the main exhibit at the Guggenheim -- it was sort of bifurcated -- a lot of early work and a lot of late work, which was slightly less familiar. I spent just under 2 hours at the Guggenheim and 4+ at the Met. The Met had quite a nice exhibit on George Bellows, as well as a Matisse highlight exhibit. This is also the first time I've been back since they reopened the Islamic art area (it was shut down for close to 10 years), and I think they enlarged and rearranged the paintings in the American wing. On the down side, it was impossible to reach most of the European masters because of some reconstruction. The Vermeers and Rembrandts were reachable but not the Titians and El Grecos. Still, a very good visit all in all. (The Bellows exhibit will be in London at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, March 16–June 9, 2013. I don't think the others are traveling, but I could be wrong.) I tried to get into DC fairly early on Sunday, since there was an exhibit at the National Gallery of Art that was coming down on Monday -- Roy Lichtenstein. It was quite crowded, since a lot of people had decided to come for the last look. I have to admit, I was about halfway through when I suddenly recalled that this was the same exhibit that I had seen in Chicago at the Art Institute. It is really interesting how the shape of a gallery and the staging/presentation really affects your perception. Honestly, the show was more effective in Chicago, though I was glad to see (again) some of the larger pieces where he was riffing on modern art. I spent another 4 hours checking out the other parts of the gallery, mostly in the building with the older art. I obviously had a lot of conference going the other days, but I did manage to sneak away and saw some of the other parts of the Smithsonian. Probably the most memorable was at the Hirshhorn where they had a massive retrospective on Ai Weiwei. Some of his art is really amazing, and some you just go -- hmmm (esp. the covering up of Han Dynasty vases with house paint). He would be a low-level provocateur in the west, and there is no question his stature is magnified because of his dissident status in China. That doesn't take away from his bravery, but it does make me wonder if the quality of the art suffers because everything he does now automatically gains admiration from Western art critics. I was kind of surprised to learn that he had lived in New York for a while. I wonder occasionally if China considers exiling him back to New York. I probably would in their shoes. Curiously, I was at the Tate Modern the very first weekend his exhibit opened there -- it was something like 1 million porcelain sunflower seeds. You had to take off your shoes to wander through. A number of people had taken a few, and I was very tempted to steal one or two. Had I known that a week later they more or less shut down the exhibit for "health and safety reasons" (supposedly the dust from the seeds being disturbed was aggravating the asthma of some of the guards!) I definitely would have taken them. No sunflower seeds at this retrospective, but there was a huge pile of clay crabs and some other mass produced art objects. Anyway, one of the more droll aspects was that Ai Weiwei apparently insisted on a low cost ($5) mass-produced catalog magazine in addition to the fancier hard cover edition, and for $5 I was definitely willing to spring for one. The Weiwei exhibit will be traveling on -- Indianapolis, Toronto, Miami and ending in Brooklyn (spring-summer of 2014).

RIP. Listening to Byrd in Flight right now (Byrd and Mobley and Pearson -- nice). Will listen to a few other CDs tonight and over the weekend.

PM sent on the Mingus.

Finally wrapped up Midnight's Children. Just didn't do that much for me this time around -- too many digressions and simply too long. I doubt I'll read it a third time. I am somewhat curious how the movie turned out (that was at least part of the reason for tackling this again). I have been struggling through Amado's The War of the Saints. Finally made it to the halfway mark and he is introducing even more plot complications. But I find that I am completely uninterested in any of the characters and their problems. Time to bail on this. I really don't understand as I liked most of his other novels, but this was a very late novel and perhaps he was trying to hard to do something "literary." But I did enjoy Greene's Travels with my Aunt. The narrator, Henry, is the straightest of straight men observing the madcap adventures of his 75-year old aunt. Ripped through this in 3-4 days (just so glad to be back to something fun). About to tackle Atwood's Lady Oracle. Certainly not expecting it to be as fun as the Greene but hopefully not as dire as some of the other books I have read recently. It too appears to be a bit too long for its own good.

Well, sure enough Sony is reissuing some Perlman recordings, and it appears to be his earlier recordings (as Ubu reported above). I can't find any details at the moment, but I am hoping that at least some of the classic recordings from the Original Jacket Collection are included, since I never picked that up. Edit: Some information here, but a bit confusing at the moment. It appears that the Prokofiev Sonatas are on here, which was one of my main considerations (as I did pre-order). A fair bit of overlap with the OJC set but some reprogramming of pieces onto different CDs. I can't tell at the moment if anything was dropped from that set or indeed if there is anything new. But clearly if you have the Perlman OJC set, you won't need this. Perhaps a bit disappointing is that the kitchy film score recordings with John Williams are in the box as the last CD. I could have lived without that, esp. if it left room for something better. I have been eyeing the complete Van Cliburn and complete Byron Janis sets, but there is so much overlap with what I already have that I just couldn't justify either one.

I can empathize with Branford. I cannot hear any performer's personal style, tho' perhaps if music was my living I would pay more attention. Can't tell any of them apart, and I no longer really aspire to. It definitely makes me wonder why I bother listening to the music at all (and I am 75% serious when I say this). In contrast, I can identify probably well over 100 different painters by style, color selection, etc. I guess the difference is I can have music playing at work, and I can't have a slideshow of my favorite paintings running in the background, as it would be too distracting. But I am definitely starting to re-evaluate my life and how much attention I pay to music (and the balance between jazz, classical, African/world music, rock/pop, etc.) -- and certainly how much I spend on it. It has probably been too much, given how my mind works -- and how little I care for where contemporary jazz scene is going.

I guess you never know, but this looks like one of those spoof things that people send to the newspaper to see if they will run it. Given all the problems they have with tablets and handwriting recognition, a pen that can tell the difference between a cursive c and e for example. And will let you know as you are writing that you are spelling something wrong? In real time? I highly doubt it.

So this is what Amazon.jp (and Google translate) has to say about the Yo-Yo Ma set: Disc1 Vivaldi: Concerto in G minor for Cello RV531 two Vivaldi: Largo from Winter 2nd movement Four Seasons Violin Concertos No. 4 Vivaldi: RV423 Cello Concerto in B flat major Vivaldi: (from the opera chaste nymph RV714) Staring at my eyes thus Vivaldi: RV540 Concerto for viola d'amore and lute Vivaldi: my glory through the blood (from the opera Giustino RV717) Vivaldi: RV401 Cello Concerto in C minor Vivaldi: You Just Can not Smile It Away (from Yudita of winning oratorio) not be yearning Oh Vivaldi: Do not praise Onmi (from the Gloria RV589) Vivaldi: noble woman than how much (from the oratorio Yudita of victory) Vivaldi: Oh, (more chaste nymph RV714 opera) send said Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra Ton Koopman (conductor) Disc2 · BOCCHERINI: Cello Concerto in B flat major Pinchas Zukerman, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (conductor) Haydn: Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major Haydn: Cello Concerto No. 2 in D major Jose Luis Garcia English Chamber Orchestra (conductor) Disc3 Schumann: Op.129 Cello Concerto in A minor Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Colin Davis (conductor) Dvořák: Op.104 Cello Concerto in B minor Dvořák: Op.68-5 Silent Woods Dvořák: Rondo in G minor Op.94 for Cello and Orchestra Lorin Maazel Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (conductor) Disc4 Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor - Lalo: Cello Concerto No. 1 in D minor Lorin Maazel Orchestre National de France (conductor) Walton: Cello Concerto Andre Previn London Symphony Orchestra (conductor) Disc5 Elgar: Op.85 Cello Concerto in E minor Andre Previn London Symphony Orchestra (conductor) Shostakovich: Op.107 Cello Concerto No. 1 in E flat major Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations on a Theme in A major Op.33 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Lorin Maazel (conductor) Disc6 Bach: Cello Suite No. 1 (recorded in 1982) Bach: Cello Suite No. 3 (recorded in 1982) Bach: Cello Suite No. 5 (recorded in 1982) Disc7 Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 1 Beethoven: Cello Sonata No. 3 · WoO.46 Variations on a Theme by men to know the love of "The Magic Flute" Mozart · Op.66 Variations on a Theme by either lover or wife of "The Magic Flute" Mozart Emanuel Ax (P) Disc8 Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 1 Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 2 Schumann: Adagio and Allegro in A major Op.70 change Schumann: Op.73 Pieces fantastic collection Emanuel Ax (P) Yo-Yo Ma (Vc) Years 1981-2004. Generally, an interesting selection. I do find it somewhat strange that we would get 3 of 6 Bach Cello suites. I would guess anyone that really wanted them would already have them, but then for those relatively few that have some interest but haven't rushed out to get them, they would want all 6. Maybe I am off-base though. This doesn't look like it overlaps very much with my collection, so that's good at any rate.

I imagine it was something like that. Basically up to that point, bookstores could hold onto all this stock but either claim it as a deadweight loss or simply keep it off the books (not sure which), but this change in the tax code assumed that all of it would be sold (obviously or why have it) and then forwarded the profits to present day (without even discounting for the portion of future sales that are over a year in the future). Definitely thought up by someone who knows economic theory but not the realities of retail sales. The inevitable consequence was smaller inventories and a move closer to just-in-time inventory control. Maybe not terrible from a societal perspective, but not at all good for people who like fringe-ier items in the long tail. Frankly, it is somewhat amazing that Amazon is willing to keep some of this stock around to serve the long tail when it doesn't help them from an accounting perspective. Well, IS it the case that Amazon in the US is keeping this inventory? Over here, I've noticed a lot of the things I buy from Amazon itself (not sellers) are actually supplied by a European branch of Amazon, perhaps because our accounting is done like that in the US (I don't know) or maybe for some other reason. But the fact that you buy smething from Amazon doesn't necessarily mean you're getting it from Amazon. If you're dealing on the web, you can put physical stock where you want; where it serves your tax strategy best. Indeed, Amazon may not pay taxes in America at all. MG Mostly it does come from US-based warehouses. They have located the warehouses in states with lower local taxes (and 0% state sales tax if they can manage that), but that shouldn't matter as far as their federal taxes. The cost of international shipping would pretty quickly eat up any tax benefits from offshoring their inventory, esp. as they are moving more and more to 2-day delivery for Amazon Prime. Definitely can't guarantee that from the U.S. Virgin Islands or wherever. Indeed, Amazon has finally thrown in the towel and is urging for "uniform" statewide sales tax, in part so that they can open up smaller warehouses in more states and lower their delivery times further and increase reliability. It is going to be another blow to brick and mortars once they have this ironed out (and are no longer competing just on sales tax avoidance). But Amazon is just about the only retailer that can have such a huge inventory and use "creative" accounting to offset the inventory tax.

I imagine it was something like that. Basically up to that point, bookstores could hold onto all this stock but either claim it as a deadweight loss or simply keep it off the books (not sure which), but this change in the tax code assumed that all of it would be sold (obviously or why have it) and then forwarded the profits to present day (without even discounting for the portion of future sales that are over a year in the future). Definitely thought up by someone who knows economic theory but not the realities of retail sales. The inevitable consequence was smaller inventories and a move closer to just-in-time inventory control. Maybe not terrible from a societal perspective, but not at all good for people who like fringe-ier items in the long tail. Frankly, it is somewhat amazing that Amazon is willing to keep some of this stock around to serve the long tail when it doesn't help them from an accounting perspective.

Same here. Please elaborate, ejp626. Sorry, I had checked out of this thread. This may be more specific to bookstores than record stores, and in both cases, it is US-specific, though other countries might have followed suit. A short thread on the topic here, and I'll extract just a bit below. Prior to the change, bookstores (and presumably record stores) could hold into low-selling inventory for longer periods of time and not worry as much about best sellers and churning through inventory.

Thanks for the input. I do like the Early Recordings box that EMI just put out. In addition to standard fare like Mozart and Beethoven, you get some unusual works like Tippett's Piano Concerto (with John Ogdon) and Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex!

Thanks. Hard to keep up. Of course, some things that have gone out of print are unaccountably still OOP (quite a bit of Perlman actually and I wonder if some of his early recordings are ready for one of these slimline boxes). I don't really need any of these, but I might go for the Yo-Yo Ma and possibly the Stern-Mozart box. I think I have enough Sibelius that I will pass on the Colin Davis-Sibelius set unless it gets incredible raves and I can get it incredibly cheaply.

This clock is up here in Vancouver in Gastown.

A few nights ago I saw Vicky Chow (pianist with Bang on a Can) do a solo version of Reich's Piano Counterpoint. It was pretty mesmerizing. She also did a solo piano version of The Rite of Spring (I guess the Push Festival director requested this, but it seemed like a dumb idea to me and wasn't all that successful). There was supposed to be a piece by Andriessen, but this was scrapped for some reason. Piano Counterpoint did make the evening worthwhile. Then today I saw the Emerson Quartet. Apparently, the cellist is hanging up his spurs after this season (end of May). He's been in the quartet since 1979! His replacement is Paul Watkins, which will hopefully be a good fit. I managed to see this line-up twice, and I will certaily see if I can see them with Watkins at some point down the road. They did Mozart Hoffmeister Quartet (K.499), Alban Berg's Lyric Suite, and Antonin Dvorak, Quartet in D minor, Opus 34. I enjoyed the Mozart and thought the Dvorak was outstanding. The Berg didn't do much for me, though I can tell they played it well. Anyway, a nice diversion from the Superbowl...

Well, one could argue that in terms of saving NYC from bankruptcy, Abe Beame truly made/accepted the hard decisions and took the political hit and Koch benefitted from that.

I've had this for about a year -- some really great stuff. I also like the Sir John Barbirolli set, though it costs a bit more per disc. Amazon UK or Amazon.com (some good reseller prices, however).

Yes, I saw that. Tempting, though interesting it is already available as MP3 download at Amazon and iTunes. It is probably also on eMusic, but can't check that until tonight. (In my case, I also have to find out if eMusic in Canada has the rights, as it isn't always the same .) They do have it on eMusic, which is a nice surprise. I'll see if I can dig out my copy of Moshi to refamiliarize myself with the material.

Ed Koch RIP Seems no one has posted this. Obit from the Washington Post. Was only a New Yorker a brief time, and Koch was no longer mayor by that point, so no really strong feelings about him. Probably too wedded to the real estate interests, but that is the case for most New York mayors. Saw him once at a screening of Pelham 1-2-3 at Film Forum, where he introduced the film and talked about how the mayor in that film had a (coincidental) resemblance to himself.

Agreed (to Noj's poster -- too long to quote). How running around trying to get someone else banned can be thought of as mature behaviour is beyond me. The ignore member/user function is a beautiful thing. More people here should practice it, for their own piece of mind really. I wish more places where you can comment (like the Guardian newspaper Comment is Free* area) would embrace it. * Recent changes have made the Guardian's little playpen space even worse, but I guess that's good in the sense I spend less time there now.

How is this? It seems most of the reviews are positive, but always nice to have another opinion. I am on the home stretch of Rushdie's Midnight's Children. It definitely has its moments, but it feels over-written to me now (on rereading), much too aware of being a "literary" novel, largely in the tradition of John Barth (whom I no longer enjoy either). Looking forward to rereading Greene's Travels with My Aunt, which I thought was great when younger. Hope that isn't another book that doesn't satisfy as much now that I am somewhat grizzled...

Probably going to pass on this, but here is more info on the set: Vivarte. Looks like it ships in March, and probably prices will stabilize around then.

I read about this as well, and how the main attraction is that DNA isn't going to degrade in 500 years like paper or certainly our mountains of CD-Rs. But I still don't understand where this DNA could be stored where it wouldn't degrade. And how you would still be able to find a decoder that would work if we are talking about centuries in the future (or know the encoding process to decode the information). We basically can't find digital readers for the floppy diskettes from 10 years ago, so I think they are fooling themselves thinking this is going to be a viable storage medium. But it still is a cool idea.

I think it was referenced (in a joking way) on another thread. Don't have any interest personally. Never been moved much by the piece and this seems like ridiculous overkill.

I actually had forgotten I pulled the trigger on this set. It's gone up an additional $5 on Amazon.ca but is holding steady at $30 on Amazon.com. (Edit, now $35 on Amazon. ) It is indeed 15 CDs. Set list is very heavy on Russian composers (Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Rimsky-Korsokov), a smidgin of Brahms (Hungarian Dances), Dvorak Symphonies 7-9 (two versions of the 9th!) and a couple of CDs with a bit more of a French flavor: Berlioz, Saint-Saens and Paul Dukas. Mostly everything in the standard repertoire, though some of the Russian symphonies are less known. Still, it looks like a really promising set that steers away from the Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms emphasis of so many of the other EMI sets. Not that there is anything wrong with that, just that I have enough Beethoven sets to last me the rest of my life...