J Larsen

Crater Lake is incredible. Like J Larsen says, there are so many nice spots in Oregon...and throughout that region in general. My dream is to own a home from where I can see Mt. Hood. A few years ago it was cheap - you could get a nice house there for a few hundred thousand. Now there are $1 million + condos in Portland. My grandparents used to have an incredible house on Lake Oswego with a full (base to peak) view of Mt. Hood from their dock - they would have sold it for about 15 times as much if they had held on to it for another 10 years or so... unfortunately the high property tax in Oregon rendered that impossible for them. With no sales tax and minimal income tax, propety tax is a crucial component of the state's income. Back on the thread topic, the south is my most under-explored region of the country. I've only been to Georgia.

In that case, where do I get my membership card for the white nerd club?

Yeah, Oregon is a very underrated travel spot. Great wine country (all-in-all a better experience than the California wine country, since it isn't overrun with tourists and their children), and great restaurants and brew-pubs in Portland (and even a couple great cd shops!). Plus the eco-tourism there is great; the Columbia gorge, Willamette valley, the coastline and the desert in the eastern portion of the state are all incredible.

I get where you're coming from clem, and I think you thought I was making a stronger case than I really was. I certainly agree that you don't need glass, reich, et al. to have the history of hip hop as we know it; I was originally only questioning the assumption that no one in hip hop was even aware of that movement back in the day. That's just more than I'm willing to assume. That's all.

Really? That's great! Did you have the same problem?

I can easily believe that. I'd guess that the guys who are really making $$$ buy up their records much faster than they can really process them.

Hmm, I guess I'm just the lucky winner. I got the limited edition self-destructing version.

Fair enough, but there were guys like Basquiat who sort of bridged the gap between those two communities, and I wouldn't be so quick to assume what Kurtis Blow was following 30 years ago. In any event, I'm sure that Reich and Glass were well aware of the sensation Kurtis Blow and Bambaataa were causing back in the 70s.

I'm not so sure about that. I've known a couple producers/djs, and the breadth of knowledge of these particular individuals is staggering... from Ayler to Subotnick to Mark E Smith to crazy obscure delta blues, these guys talk knowledgably. (I ran into one of these guys about a year or two ago on my way to a Mission of Burma reunion shows; when I told him where I was going he scrunched up his face and asked "Man, you still on that 80s shit?"). These guys comb *every* corner of record stores looking for ideas and samples that haven't been used before .

Not too long ago, I pulled my Christian set out for the first time in a while. I found that the portion of the discs that had been stuck in the styrofoam had drastically changed color, and that all four discs were unreadable. Has this happened to anyone else? Do you think I have a shot at getting a replacement from the manufacturer? I probably tossed the receipt about two years ago.

If somebody is kind enough and has the time, could they post the titles of the albums that make up this set? I'm curious to know what I'm missing. Thanks.

Really, the 4th and BWay store would have to go to 50% off to compete with a normal J&R sale. Every now and then they sell Universal (incl. Impulse) and BN discs for $6.99. The only thing about that Tower for me was the convenience factor (want to grab a disc, don't want to walk down to City Hall).

Discs 3 and 4 in the Jones set smoke. Haven't listened to all the Lighthouse stuff yet, but what I've heard has been great.

The Klipsch set looks interesting. I'm worried that a system with a subwoofer would shoot the bass straight through the wall into my co-worker's office, which would be a bad thing. Do you think this concern is justified? We don't have the thickest walls where I work.

Got it today - I really like most of discs 1 and 2... The "lighter" tunes don't work so well for me, but aren't bad.

My favorite hands down is Cracklin' Oat Bran. I think milk is disgusting, so I eat it dry.

I'm still surprised by it and I've lived here for seven years now. A big part of the problem is the location of Laguardia, which was extremely poor urban planning, IMO.

I didn't see any on the Cambridge Audio site - did you mean Cambridge SoundWorks?

That's a great idea. I'll never sell cds or dvds again. Seriously. (OK, maybe if it's some really rare item and I need the $, but otherwise, it goes to the library.)

I have to admit that I'm surprised to see Bose recommended, but coming from you, Lon, I take the advice seriously. Those Altec Lansings look pretty cool too.

I'd like to upgrade the computer speakers in my office. People gush about the Swan M200s, but they have the practical disadvantage of being huge. Anyone know of decent-sounding, normal-sized computer speakers?

Front center Saturday night.

I've always wanted to get into Lateef, but it just hasn't happened. I have the OJC's, the Golden Flute, Live at Pep's, and Blue Lateef; it all sounds like stuff I should like (hence the multiple purchases), but it just hasn't clicked with me yet. Out of all of them, Live at Pep's and the Golden Flute are probably my favorites. Maybe someday...

Verve used to have their own download site for a small selection of OOP albums - did they take it off line? I can't find it now.

I'm not familiar with the terms of this particular deal, but very often in acquisitions like this the buyer purchases the assets, not the liabilities. I'd be very surprised if Google didn't insert some kind of language in the deal to limit their exposure, or if they hadn't already started working out agreements with the major copyright holders (as the YouTube founders had). EDIT: Just realized I was being a little stupid... Google is obviously on the hook for any copyrighted material that gets posted to the site as of the time they took ownership. Yeah, this is going to be a challenge for them.