J Larsen

I did not know that. In fact, someone only told me it was the restaurant under the apt in Red after the fact. I ended up there purely by chance. I wish there was a place like that in NYC - there are some excellent formal French restaurants here (Chanterelle, Jean Georges, Daniel, etc), but I haven't found a truly great French bistro.

I stayed there last year. It was a beautiful part of town. In my experience (Brownie will likely disagree, because he's probably spoiled ), it's really hard to get bad food in Paris - my $30 meals were great, and my $300 meal was great. That being said, since you're going to be in the right part of town anyway, I think it's worth having dinner at Chez Paul. (It happens to be the restaurant under the woman's apartment in the movie Red.) It isn't considered one of Paris' elite restaurants, and I can clearly see why a place like Alain Ducasse for instance is considered "better", but regardless of all that I think my favorite meal in Paris was at Chez Paul. PS: For me, Paris = food first and foremost.

To my ears Rotel's equipment has always been rather harsh and clinical sounding (of course that's just my opinion). I can see an argument being made for "clinical" depending on how you define it, but not with harsh. My system is very pleasing to my ears and those of even my most brutally honest guests - though that could have to do with its interactions with my speakers (B&W 704) and cd player (NAD C542). Never heard an Outlaw system, but I have heard good things. I just have a hard time buying without auditioning.

I auditioned much more expensive amps, but am perfectly happy with my Rotel 1062. It is something like $700 or $800. It also has a phono stage. Good speakers for under $1K is more of a challenge, in my experience.

Their customer service told me that they could not ship the Miles Davis Blackhawk set that I ordered because it is no longer available, and that they couldn't offer me a refund because of "a problem with their system".

FWIW, not much worked out for me in high school at all, yet my life now is far better than I could have imagined back then. Let yourself be a little bummed out; that is normal and you really have to feel that way every now and then to have a complete and honest life. But also remember that it's just one audition that didn't go well and that sometimes judges make mistakes. Just keep working hard and good things will come.

Anything by either of these guys makes me want to puke. I've felt that way since I was a young boy in the late 70s/early 80s.

If I were spending two grand on a cd player, I'd expect it to be better than decent.

Not too familiar with the situation in Bombay or Shanghai, but I know that it's a similar story in Hong Kong or Tokyo. However, I hadn't recently seen a news story on the selling of sub-100 square foot storage spaces for large multiples of a normal annual salary in either of those cities and hence did not mention them.

Heavy Weather.

There was an article in the NY Times recently about how co-ops have been able to install something like 50 square foot storage rooms in their basements and get well into the six figures for them. The thing with NY and London is that this kind of stuff has been going on for such a long time that you almost have to wonder if it really is sustainable after all. Virtually every very rich person in the world has/wants to have an apartment in at least one of those two cities, plus you have a fairly large population of seven-figure a year bankers in both towns. I know plenty of people here making enviable salaries and living in tenements.

I don't have an antenna and do not subscribe to cable. Just DVDs for me.

Billie Holiday Complete Columbia 33-44 Disc 1!

Either something is goofy with this test or my audiologist. She told me they only test through 12 kHz because it is normal to lose hearing above that mark relatively early in adulthood anyway. So either she is wrong, the test is goofy, the people responding to the thread are a non-representative sample, or you are, in fact, a bunch of bats.

I saw an audiologist recently when I was dealing with extremely loud tinnitus. She gave me a hearing test, and to my astonishment I scored perfectly through the entire frequency range tested (I think up to 12kHz). Turns out the tinnitus had to do with allergies (I had never been told I was allergic to anything and had never heard that allergies could cause tinnitus). She gave me some pills and it went away. I wanted to marry her.

Just added to my collection: Sopranos Seasons 1 and 2 CYE seasons 1,2,4 and 5 (they were out of 3) Seriously tempted to go for the 6FU complete series box - with that and the Muppets, I think I'd be done with TV DVDs.

He means "Last Chance." You know, I think that eye roll thing is pretty rude and unneccesary. I obviously made a small, easy to parse out error in the course of taking a couple minutes out of an extremely busy day at work to post what I thought might be valuable information to a couple people around here. right back at you. I'll see your and raise you one . Sorry, didn't mean to be rude--just trying to make a correction with a smile. I guess I picked the wrong one. I just wanted to make sure that people who still want this set are aware that it has moved from "running low" to "last chance" so they don't miss the chance to get it. time for a group hug!

He means "Last Chance." You know, I think that eye roll thing is pretty rude and unneccesary. I obviously made a small, easy to parse out error in the course of taking a couple minutes out of an extremely busy day at work to post what I thought might be valuable information to a couple people around here. right back at you. I'll see your and raise you one . Sorry, didn't mean to be rude--just trying to make a correction with a smile. I guess I picked the wrong one. I just wanted to make sure that people who still want this set are aware that it has moved from "running low" to "last chance" so they don't miss the chance to get it.

He means "Last Chance." You know, I think that eye roll thing is pretty rude and unneccesary. I obviously made a small, easy to parse out error in the course of taking a couple minutes out of an extremely busy day at work to post what I thought might be valuable information to a couple people around here. right back at you.

The Condon Mob box is now running low. FWIW, I find it to be a mixed bag. I like discs 3 and 4, disc 5 is fine, some of the others aren't really my thing at all (especially the vocal tracks).

I still throw on Reasonable Doubt every now and then. I never liked anything that followed. Not too interested in what the Nation has to say about hip hop.

I was just thinking that that wasn't a very flattering portrait of Trane.

Ever been to the paper-mill heavy town of Tacoma, WA? They don't talk about the "Aroma of Tacoma" for nothing....

Jack London Square is far, far from "scary". There are around 6 million people in the Bay Area. If that isn't enough to support a second Yoshi's, we have bigger problems than we thought.