ejp626

I really meant to have the list complete by now, but I'll just list a few things and add more tonight (have to work actually ). Shipping to Canada will be $4 for 1-3 items, $6 for 4-8. Shipping to the US will be $6 for 1-3 items and $10 up to 10. Beyond that, I'll have to get a quote. I'll need to get a quote on shipping to Europe. (There is a good chance I will be in Seattle in late July and could mail from there, which would reduce shipping. Indicate if you want to consider this in your PM.) 15 Integrale Louis Armstrong vol 6 3CDs (Fremeaux) Also, have a very clean copy of The Birth of the Third Stream (Schuller, Lewis, Giuffre, et al.) available. Not a cut out. Hard to know how to price it, so let me know if interested and we can discuss. Thanks for looking. More tonight.

The Outland volume is available for preorder on Amazon, and looks to be coming out next month: Outland I also noticed that the 2nd and 3rd Bloom County volumes appear to already be out of print with ridiculous asking prices, despite only having been published a couple of years ago. Too bad I didn't get them when I had the chance, but for anyone that's interested, Edward R. Hamilton has remaindered copies of the first volume for $11.95 - quite a good deal: Hamilton link Looking forward to the final Krazy & Ignatz volume, I have the first two and they are magnificent. Wow -- that is wild. I tried to get one of the signed editions but they kept cancelling it on me. I do have vol. 1-5 and have pre-ordered Outland, so I guess I'm set. Bloom County was one of my favorite cartoons and much of it still holds up. If nothing else it reminds me of some of the general craziness (and crassness) of the 1980s that I sometimes overlook when thinking about the past (through rose colored glasses). If anyone is interested in the earlier volumes of Bloom County, it appears they have reprinted them and the prices are back down to normal levels. The Collected Outland is shipping now. Ideally this would have included the full set of Opus strips, but it will probably be one last trip to well. Curiously, I have been scanning (and finally discarding) all kinds of things from my yooth, and I came across 36 Opus strips I clipped from the papers. I actually did get the Sunday Chicago Tribune simply for the cartoons for 9 months. I can't remember now if the Trib dropped the strip, or if this was when I moved to England. Edit: Well, I didn't realize Opus ran nearly as long as it did (2003-2008), which is about the same length of time as Outland, so it clearly will need a separate volume. It also means that there are somewhere north of 200 Breathed strips I've never read, so something to look forward to. There isn't a firm date on the Opus book, but I'm guessing some time in 2013.

I have a couple of parties I intend to throw when a few notables kick off, though this not being the political forum, I won't name names...

Probably a lot closer to Chuck on this. I hold grudges for a long, long time, and I do use them to spur me on to prove those others wrong. Of course, most of my grudges are strictly work-related.

A few weeks back I was in Austin, TX and while I couldn't quite synch up with some exhibit opening at the Blanton (the U Texas-Austin museum), I saw a fair bit of the core collection of 20th Century American art. I didn't realize an awful lot of it was donated by James Michener (yes, the writer). It's a fairly impressive collection for a university museum, and I liked most of what was on display. That would really be something if some day Michener is know more for his art philanthropy than for his writing. You certainly used to see his books everywhere in the 70s and 80s. I don't even see them that much at thrift shops nowadays.

Decided to go ahead and watch Under African Skies -- the documentary that is about Paul Simon's Graceland album. It's really interesting, including the somewhat strained meeting that Paul has (25 years on) with one of the key figures of the cultural boycott. To their credit, they do give him a fair bit of speaking time and don't cut him off, but overall the documentary is so heavily skewed in Paul's favor... (He even gets Oprah Winfrey to come on and say that Graceland is her favorite record of all time, just edging out Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life.) No question when the focus shifts to the music itself and the many African musicians on the record/tour (both 25 years ago and now), it is so much more entertaining. The only thing I find odd is that they actually have a fair bit of archival tape of the original recording sessions in South Africa. I'm puzzling this over a bit, given that Paul was kind of flying under the radar, though obviously his US label (and the S.A. studio they had some connections with) knew what he was up to. I think the most jarring thing is looking at Paul absolutely in his prime in 1985-87 and then the current footage. Makes me feel really old. Anyway, I've been compulsively listening to the album all this week, and it's acting like a monster mega-earworm (but a beautiful one). I'll have to find something else to replace it, so that I stop humming the Graceland songs all day (but maybe I'll wait just another day...)

Agreed -- personally I think Matisse should have stopped about midway through (don't care for the final face), but it is cool to see the progression. There is a somewhat shorter set of images of one of his early Bathers paintings (I think this is held by the Art Institute of Chicago) where it is absolutely clear that he completely reworks the painting in response to what Picasso has been up to. And of course, Picasso often documented the stages of his work, and it is pretty easy to find the stages of Guernica for instance.

Smart girl. Anyway, I saw some mini-blockbuster shows. One on Mark Rothko at the Portland Museum of Art (kind of disappointing to be honest since it was so focused on his early career) and Gauguin at the Seattle Art Museum (well laid out but a little light on the most famous paintings). There is a nice exhibit at the moment at the Vancouver Art Gallery called Collecting Matisse, which is about the collection put together by the Cone Sisters (and apparently mostly donated to the Baltimore Museum of Art). These two women had been able to buy up quite a number of works from Parisian painters, and in particular struck up a relationship with Matisse and bought 500 or so of his works. They are even immortalized by Gertrude Stein in a piece called "Two Women." Obviously, part of the interest is the fact that (esp. at that time) so few women were art collectors. I thought that some of the Matisse paintings they picked up were quite good (thought they didn't anything like 500 Matisse items on display), and I particularly liked a photo display of 20 or so versions of this painting of a reclining woman (unfortunately this sequence isn't in the catalogue or I would have snatched it up (I might get the catalogue anyway). Edit: I just found a webpage that covers this, though it doesn't look like I can link to the images themselves: Matisse in progress Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion. This (unbelievably long) screed comes from someone who apparently thinks the VAG can do no right (ever): counter-point

So I saw Get the Blessing at the Vancouver Jazz Fest. They were quite good. However, this is the second venue at the Jazz Fest that I really disliked to the point I won't go back. Get the Blessing is very much in the jazz-rock vein, like Led Bib, and they had the show at a regular rock club, not a jazz club. Almost no seating (and the upstairs which did have some extra seating was closed off). It was super dark, even before the show began, and during the show, crazy spotlights kept moving around and shining in my eyes. There was even a disco ball (though they didn't lower it). Maybe I'm just not having much luck, but I am so unimpressed with the way they've organized this festival. I also wasn't thrilled that they decided Get the Blessing needed an opening act, like a real rock group. I guess it was some local guitar-oriented group. Their music didn't do anything for me, though they had some chops. But they decided that their approach required them to crank the speakers past 11 to 12. A lot of tender jazz fans put their fingers in their ears for the whole set. I was sitting round the corner, out of direct line of the speakers, but I could still feel the waves of sound going through my body. Frankly, this level of sound is uncalled for and it just made them come across as dicks in my book. It took me a while to recover my equilibrium, but I did enjoy Get the Blessing when they finally took the stage. They generally kept their songs short - 3-4 minutes mostly. The last few songs of the set they stretched out a bit more. The line-up is tenor sax, trumpet (both of whom occasionally used looping effects but not all the time), electric bass and drums. Note: they do not actually dress up with bags on their head or whatever as in the videos. They were good. Still, I wish they had started at 9 without an opening act and in a real jazz club. I would have enjoyed the evening a lot more.

Ok, my copy finally showed up. I am digging the alternative version of Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes. Basically, it strips out the horns (and the Ladysmith chorus at the front, though they come in at the end, which in a way works well since it is so surprising -- well, in the alternate universe where this version was the released one). Perhaps most different is that Paul adds this weird vocal flourish (like "Toleo-day") throughout the song. I think the official release is a bit better, but it's really interesting to hear this version. I'm a bit annoyed that there seems to be a bit of damage to the DVD, though it might clean up. (The package was shrink-wrapped but this DVD sure looks used.) This is a case where I feel justified in ripping since the resulting version will probably play better than the original. If I had bought this in town, I would definitely be returning it, but I'm not going to ship it back across the Atlantic. However, the CD itself is fine (and does look new). The You Can Call Me Al video is as lame as ever. I don't recall ever seeing the Diamonds video on MTV, though I suppose I probably did. The SNL performance of Diamonds looks quite good and Paul sounds great. I actually had a chance to see Paul Simon play Chicago just a year or two ago in a smallish club, and now I am kicking myself that I didn't go. Ah well.

Came across this the other day at Amazon: Orango Apparently, this unfinished work fits between Shostakovich's The Bolt and his 4th Symphony. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted the work with a staging by Peter Sellars. Sounds like a pretty wild time: Orango review

I'm not entirely sure where I fall here. No question that talent and good coaching will typically overcome "will" alone. Yet strong enough will power will cause a good player to work hard and become an elite one (probably). However, I do wonder how evenly mental toughness is spread through the elite teams. I would imagine on the top teams, there are one or two players with intense will-power/heart/what have you and the rest of the team are along for the ride. Mediocre teams don't have anyone with that drive. Anyone looking at the Bulls for instance senses that Boozer, in particular, is just along for the ride. And he is far from the worst if you look across the NBA. Anyway, by the time you get to the Finals, then there should be several players on each side that want it just as badly, and thus Cuban's conditions apply.

That sounds almost the same as the early show in Vancouver: Capra Black, Peacemaker, Priestess and Sweet Rita Suite. I left in the middle of Sweet Rita Suite, so I don't know what came next. I want to start by saying what absolute troupers David and the gang were. I imagine he'll come on and explain the story. But from what I gather, their plane landed quite late, they got lost on the way to the venue to do the sound check. They then went to the hotel to change. And someone pulled the fire alarm, so they had no choice but to walk down 21 stories to get to the club!!! And indeed, the show started 30 minutes late. I know my performance would be affected by that... That doesn't change the fact I had a pretty lousy time. Mostly because I hated the venue and will not go back (bad sight lines, not great sound (for me anyway) and absolutely no food to order, only drinks). And while it is understandable given what they went through, the band wasn't tight and was having a lot of trouble getting the energy levels up. I liked Priestess the most but was ready to go by the time Craig broke out the flute on Sweet Rita Suite. Maybe next year (if they play in a different venue).

That's pretty cool. Anyway, absolutely true. That was why I thought I would take a flyer here. I'll get Pete the details over the weekend. There were a few from Local that I thought were quite good, but only one that I was going to go out of my way to track down. Maybe if I thought there was a chance for a couple of the others, I'd see about including them as well. I still wish there was a better way to deal with these works (and I really wish the copyright hadn't been extended on orphan works), but that's a different discussion for another day.

I know we've kicked this around on some of the copyright threads, but this has come up in a more tangible way for me. I am pulling together a poetry anthology and would like to include a poem from a completely obscure anthology called Local, published in 1977 by a small outfit in Brooklyn called Zonepress. They certainly seem defunct (nothing out since about 1979). I've done some preliminary searches for the editor (Jay Heller) and the author of the piece and keep coming up blank. If I were Google (or if I were doing a blog-based anthology), I'd probably just throw it up there until someone told me to take it down. That doesn't seem to fly in the print-based world. I suspect I will put it in there with a note to the publishing house that if the rights just become impossible to secure, then it will have to be pulled. Are there actual solutions to these problems of orphan works where the rights holders simply cannot be traced? My impression is that under US law, the answer is no. Which I think is crazy, by the way. Anyway thoughts or suggestions welcome.

That's a pretty insanely low price. I have much of the repetoire already (though by different artists -- with exception of Tokyo String Quartet doing Beethoven quartets) but there are certainly quite a number of composers that would be new to me (Kuhnau, Sammartini, Stamitz, Tartini, Pergolesi), so it seems worth the 18 or so pounds to ship it cross the pond. It just arrived. I cannot believe how fast it made it here. Another bonus was I didn't have to deal with any customs charges and what have you. I guess the only time I've really been hit was with the Toscanini box, though I suspect I would if I have a Mosaic box sent up this way... It is a very nice looking box, though it is a bit odd that there is a spacer inside, since the box was designed to fit 45 or so CDs.

I'm not trying to be overly confrontational either, and I have a ticket for the show tomorrow and in fact am looking forward to it a lot. But I really don't think it's cool to jump down someone's throat when they depart from conventional wisdom and/or the Up with People line. I thought we all looked down on the Millenials and their need for constant self-affirmation and inability to handle criticism. We can't handle even second-hand criticism?

Seriously, no one gets to post a negative review anymore? Or is it just because David posts here? I'm just waiting for the response, well, if it's so easy, why don't you get up on stage... Most bands have one shot to win over an audience. Is it his fault he came on a bad night? When the band may have been tired... For the record, I'm not going to let one negative review keep me from going to see the Cookers, but if I don't enjoy the show, I'm going to post about it.

Most people still expect to judge players by what they see on the court. (They say similar things about Scalabrine's hidden value (not so much about him being ferocious). To which I respond, it sure seems hidden to me.) Be that as it may, even if JH gets a ring (as it seems pretty likely he will), it won't change the general view of the Fab 5 as flashy underachievers.

It wouldn't change mine (and I'm a UM alum). As you say, he contributed essentially nothing to this series. He's basically just along for the ride.

They (and especially their lawyers) may have felt it was so explosive that it would have jeapordized the trial. Can you imagine how much more flak they would have taken if they aired it, and this was at the heart of a successful appeal? And frankly how much more trial by media do we need?

I keep hearing this -- that the source is mp3. I just wonder how definitive this really is, esp. when there wasn't a clear source (as JSngry says). If it was a needle-drop, why on earth would they convert it to mp3? And even beyond this, there is a world of difference between a 192, 256 and 320 bit rate mp3s. I'd definitely need to know more before I dismiss these sets completely out of hand (not that I am presuming at all that they are quality products, I'd just like to know more).

Well, the primary excuse is that it would taint the deliberations and preclude Sandusky from a fair trial. It could then be aired later. Granted, the US is very different from the UK and Europe in terms of what can be published prior to a trial. (In at least some countries, notably Germany, privacy laws might preclude much from being published after the trial -- I don't hold much truck with Germany's privacy laws, but that's a different topic.) Given that the interview is out there floating around, if Sandusky takes the stand, one would certainly hope that the prosecutor would ask him to explain those quotes, so they do become part of the trial record. As it is now, they might be considered hearsay (in a legal sense).

Molloy is possibly my favorite novel, and relatively accessible, then they get progressively more difficult. IIRC, The Unnameable may be one long paragraph. Sounds a bit like Garcia Marquez's Autumn of the Patriach. Starts out fairly simple, but by the end, an entire chapter is made up of a single sentence! Actually I did like this quite a bit and do hope to reread one of these days...

I think I read Portrait (the first time) and Dubliners at the "right time" in life, i.e. as a precocious teenager. At that time, I was more willing to dig in a bit deeper and work at the novel (as the modernists intended) and that leaves me more willing to go back to those works. In contrast, I have been trying without success to read Nicholas Mosley's Hopeful Monsters. I suspect I would have gotten through it when I was younger, but I just find its modernist leanings/trappings are too much for me now (with my vastly reduced leisure time), and I can't be bothered. It's also very possible the payoff is not as high as for T.S. Eliot or Joyce. Similarly, I wonder how I would react to Djuna Barnes' Nightwood if I read it now (must have read it in college). It's short enough that I could certainly tackle it again. However, I never did get around to reading Anais Nin's Cities of the Interior and the window may have closed on when I would have appreciated that work the most. Again, hard to say... However, I do like Beckett quite a bit and have seen most of his plays (live, not only on those BBC DVDs). Oddly, I have never gotten around to reading his trilogy, but I surely intend to...