J Larsen

Agreed. I have a long winded diatribe abouut this in the politics forum from sometime last year. It is telling that no shuttle experiment has ever produced a peer-reviewed paper (unless maybe you count an article or two on the "misguideness" of the crystal growth experiments they used to do up there...).

A Caddy for Daddy? http://www.cnn.com/2005/AUTOS/07/26/cadillac_bikes/

You may have been entitled to get some cash back. The day that a new product is released, Apple slashes the prices on the predecessor product. They also have a (little-advertised) price protection program - it's good for something like 30 days. The caveat is that I'm not certain that the price protection program covers discontinued products - my gut tells me it probably doesn't - but if you find yourself in this situation again, it would be worth looking into. BTW, you can bank on a PowerBook update very soon. I wouldn't count on anything earth-shattering, but you'll probably be able to get a marginally better machine for a couple hundred bucks less within the next month.

BTW, given that Apple is saying that they will have converted their entire line to pentium processors by the end of 2007, buy knowing that Apple is likely to have some backwards compatibility issues in a couple of years. From what I've read about the Rosetta stone solution, it sounds like it will be annoyingly slow.

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

I like Sunday Monrnin' and Solid. To be perfectly honest, Green Street isn't a favorite of mine.

Happy bee-lated b-day, J Larsen! I coulda swore I went to high school witcha. ← Which high school?

I've been way into Bean for a long time. (Aside: does Bloomberg remind anyone else of Mr. Bean?) Lately I've been *really* into Secret Agent/Danger Man, though. The hour-long episodes especially. That has to have been one of the greatest series of all time.

Hair of the Dog - Adam Hair of the Dog - Fred Salvator (made by Paulaner)

Haven't seen it in a very, very long time, but I recall the original being okay except for the overly pedantic parts about parenting and child behaviour. Also, I recall some of the child actors being absolutely unbearable. I'll pass on the remake. *Maybe* on dvd, if someone else rents it.

Happy birthday! You and I share the dubious distinction of having been born on the same day (but not year - in my case anyway) that John Coltrane and Billie Holiday died.

Avengers Megaset Secret Agent Megaset Danger Man - Complete Monte Python Megaset South Park Seasons 1-5 Office Seasons 1,2 and holiday special Mr. Bean - Complete Twin Peaks Season 1 Original Star Trek - All three seasons Twilight Zone Season 1 (the only one of these that I regret)

Thanks! I had a great 30th. My Australian cousin/very close friend flew in for the party (we did it last night so people could take today to recover). My pals and I took up the entire back garden of my local pub and had a blast yesterday afternoon, then went on a mad barhopping tour of the E. Village and Lower East Side. Today I took my cousin walking around the city. He just hopped in a cab to head back to the airport. About as good of a birthday weekend as I could hope for.

My grandmother had that exact unit in her basement until recently. I never really noticed that it was made by Silvertone, though. I assume that's the same company that made all those cheap (but cool, IMO) guitars and guitar amps in the 50s and 60s?

This has bothered me for a long time (since the day of 9/11, actually). It would be so easy to permanently shut down the transportation systems in any of these cities, and once that's been done, their economies would be destroyed. It is totally impracticable to inspect each of the millions of people who use these systems every day to get to work, and it is equally unpracticable for millions of people to rely on private transportation in these cities. A series of incidents like those of this morning, and it could be all over.

What about the wilder parts of "A Saucerful of Secrets"? Guy ← Listened to it again this morning. The song "Saucerful of Secrets" is pretty wild, but still feels very composed; it reminds me a little of Varese (I'm sure someone on the board more knowledgable about avant-composition can come up with a better touchstone).

I'll have to listen to that one again tomorrrow, but I recall it still sounding like jamming on a theme rather than truly spontaneous music. There are some rock groups, like Can, that at times come across as being spontaneous, but even then I don't know how you'd draw a line directly to AMM rather than "any old" spontaneous recording. Amongst makers of spontaneous music, AMM definately had their own unique sound, but I really don't connect it with rock at all. It reminds me a lot of the sound of Xenakis' tape experiments, but more chaotic, with more droning, and with a richer variety of sounds. To tell you the truth, I find it pretty rough to listen to for more than, oh, 30 seconds at a time. It has a very disorganizing effect on me. One aritst that has, at times, reminded me of AMM is Nurse With Wound, but only a few specific records (the ones that sound most influenced by musique concrete).

Based on the two AMM records I own, I can't see a direct connection at all. AMM made unstructured, purely improvised music (some would call it "sound art"). Even in the early Floyd stuff, which has more of a jam feel (to my ears, anyway), is very structured. Here's one indirect connection you might be able to make: I think AMM and Pink Floyd probably had some mutual influences. I think AMM's goal was to make a spontaneous version of musique concrete. I think they heard Xenakis' tape experiments on Electro-Acoustic Music and said "How can we make improvised music on acoustic instruments that sounds like this?" At the same time, I think Pink Floyd may have gotten the idea for the brief tape experiments layered into some of their albums from the same or similar sources.

For $300 I think the agreement has too last for life!

Oh, and I'm usually pretty mellow about my musical dislikes (live and let live, etc.) That song just REALLY hits a raw nerve.

In my opinion, The Girl from Ipanema is one of the lamest songs ever written and there has never been a less-than-repulsive version of it. I have fantisized about destroying every copy of every recording of it and burning every copy of the sheet music ever printed, and, if necessary, imprisoning every fan of the song for the rest of their lives lest they try to revive it. Worst of all, it seems that I hear this song everywhere I go. For instance, eveytime I wind up at some "jazz brunch" on the weekend, the band inevitably plays this song. It always just makes me want to leave. Would it be rude to offer to pay them to NOT play it, at least until I leave?

I'm going to be heading up to Newport in August for the festival, and have found that the local hotels are (predictably) price gouging for the weekend - most places I've seen are in the $300-$400/night range. That's one thing for Paris, but another just to see Richard Thompson. Any ideas for more reasonable alternatives? After seeing the prices in Newport, I'm leaning towards staying in Boston, but if anyone here has better ideas I'd love to hear them... Thanks.

One of the biggest let-downs for me is that they seem to have gotten rid of the "formal connections" feature. I used to find that very useful.

I definately come down on the NY-style side of the NY vs. Chicago debate, but they're really aren't that many good NY-style pizza places in NYC anymore. I live around the corner from Lombardi's, and while it is good, it has definately slipped in the last year or so since they expanded (tip: the pies they deliver are generally much better than those they serve in the restaurant these days). Beyond Lombardi's, Grimaldi's is great. John's is very good. Lil' Frankies is pretty good. Joe's is great. Other than that, I really can't think of many pizza places I like to go to in the city.

How was your order shipped? Was it a single package or 20 individual mailings? In light of the recent news of a price increase I was thinking of placing a large order. However, I don't really want to do that if it means I will have a pile of boxes on my porch. (Actually, I would like that. I wouldn't like having to explain it to what would soon be my ex though). I finally got the cds about a week and a half ago, all in one huge box. It was quite an ordeal. I ordered over twenty cds on the initial order. They supposedly all shipped on the same day. Within a week I had the first, and most expensive item from the order, but four weeks later I still didn't have any of the other items. At this point I contacted them to let them know that the order was lost, but they didn't agree and asked that I wait another "couple of weeks". After some back and forth bickering, they finally agreed to ship the missing items. Again, I received only the first (and again, most expensive) item from the order almost immediately, while the others didn't show up. After some more back and forth, they overnighted a huge box with everything else. It's all small orders from here on out.