Kevin Bresnahan

I was just thinking about something that might be happening here... If you're using Internet Explorer to browse the web, click on Tools->Internet Options. Click the Security tab. See if the security level got changed to something higher than "Medium" or maybe even Custom. If it did, it might have upped the protection levels to block sights with outdated security certificates. Some Windows Updates do this by default. Change it back to Medium and see if this works.

There's a pretty good chance that you're running out of memory. Because you only have 500 MB of system RAM, it is using quite a bit of your hard drive for running programs. Back in the days of your PC, I found that if you got down to less than 2 GB of hard drive space remaining, all kinds of problems start up. Find out how much space is left on your hard drive. To do this, click the right mouse button as you hover over the "Start" button. In the pop up menu, click "Explore". On the left side, there should be a little plus sign + next to "My Computer". Click it. You should see any number of hard drive partitions under "My Computer". I'm hoping there is just one and it's labeled C:. Hover over C: (it should turn blue) and click the right mouse button. Click Properties. Check how much space is left. Also click the Tools tab, and click "Defragment Now" to see how fragmented it is. Some things I would do... Go to www.download.com and download/install CCleaner. This tool will free up space where you might never think to look. I usually run this every few weeks. Hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete and bring up the Task Manager. Check the Processes tab and see how many processes are running. Remember that every one of those running processes are taking up precious memory. If there are a lot of them that you recognize as junk programs, you can stop them from running at Start-up, but it involves editing your registry, not for the faint at heart. Let me know if you need to do this. EDIT: Let us know what model PC you have. I may have some old RAM sticks laying around that might fit. Also, you need to know if you have any open memory slots.

http://store.acousticsounds.com/d/41134/Sam_Noto-Noto-Riety-Preowned_Vinyl_Record I've bought from Acoustic Sounds before and had no problems. Kevin

Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" has finally been reissued on vinyl. Over on the Steve Hoffman forums, they've been anticipating this reissue for several years after Hoffman described how difficult it was for him to find the best tape versions of each song. Apparently, there were a lot of pressing variations with different endings spliced onto "Gold Dust Woman" and changes in fade ups and downs. Hoffman said that when we heard this LP it would be revelatory. Anyway, I grabbed a 33 rpm (available 45 rpm too) copy on Record Store Day and I have to say, the hype was worth it. It sounds incredible... except for one thing. To my ears, the song "Dreams" sounds just a half beat faster than usual. I've probably listened to this album a couple hundred times by now. It's one of my wife's favorite albums. I have it on LP, CD and DVD-Audio. I compared the CD and DVD-A to the LP and the LP sounds better than ever, but the beat on "Dreams" is just a bit faster than usual. I thought I should ask the mastering engineer if he found out that the master tape was a bit fast. Maybe this was what we were supposed to hear? But I can't ask this over there. It seems that this cannot be discussed. I asked in this thread and Steve Hoffman's initial response (now scrubbed away) was "Stop being silly". I responded to this and that was scrubbed away too. This morning, someone else posted, "Yeah, I hear it too, but maybe the other editions had it slowed." That post has since been edited (with no indcation of an edit) to say, "Thanks Steve! I can't wait to hear it". So I guess if I want to discuss this, I have to do it here. Did anyone else buy this LP? If you did, do you hear "Dreams" being faster or am I crazy? BTW, "both" is a valid answer. Kevin

Unless you were a bass player. Then, all your recordings sounded like you were playing a loud bumblebee.

I saw him once and it was a great time. I never thought that it would be my one & only chance to see him. RIP Billy.

I've sold on CL but only bought on Audiogon. CL is free, Audiogon is not free. My worst experience was a purchase I made on eBay. The seller forgot to tell me that his cats had used the speaker grills as a scratching post. Be careful if you choose CL. There are so many scammers there that it's getting hard to tell them from the real buyers. They have gotten more & more sophisticated in their approach. You can't even trust a banker's check any more. They are making fake banker's checks. I think if I sold locally on CL, I'd insist on cash. BTW, you could offer them up here first. I have bought and sold several pieces of gear from the forums I visit. I just recently sold a DVD/SACD/DVD-A player here on Organissimo. Kevin

Last night, I caught a group of local masters led by tenor sax Arnie Krakowsky at a small club called The Sahara Jazz Club in Methuen, MA. It was a set of Al & Zoot tunes with guitarist John Wilkins playing the role of "Al". It was a great time. I do wonder how they make any money with a paltry $5 cover though.

According to http://thenewschronicle.com/threeyearold-boy-killed-falling-roller-coaster/0404012907/, the boy may have tried to climb out of his seat while the coaster was moving. BTW, it was a little kiddie roller coaster. My daughters used to love those things.

I wish somebody could get Jim Neumann to issue his great Bee Hive stuff on CD. If not, at least license some of it out.

I think my mother wears that blouse that the lead singer has on. Holy shit! It's Mr. Weasley!

Unless something changed, these Heavenly Sweetness LPs were produced from lacquers cut by Ron McMaster. Where they are pressed is another story, but the cutting should be the same as any other current Blue Note LP.

Regarding the Mobley vinyl set, I thought I read somewhere that the last 500 copies were bought by a Japanese dealer? The same dealer is supposed to have wiped out several Mosaic titles on vinyl. Horace Parlan & Grant Green maybe?

This topic is worthless without video.

On my main system, I use a Belkin PureAV PF30L (no longer available). I believe it has saved me a few times already. Just a few weeks ago, after a lot of research, I picked up a Tripp-Lite ISOBAR Ultra. So far, it's been fine.

I have to bite my tongue a bit here... are you looking for recommendations on a power strip for it's *protection* capabilities or for some other, shall I say "esoteric" reasons? I can offer my opinions on what I've found to be a good line conditioner but that's all that I could comment on. I have never liked the smell of snake oil.

I have a bunch of them. I was just listening to "The Rajah" two weeks ago. Do all of them have that short 3-tone "beep" right after the leader tape on side 1 and repeated after the last song on side 2? I always liked that, especially if the player didn't have auto-reverse.

Ha ha! No. You can't inquire over there. You ask a question like that and you'll just get gorted. If something even hints that Steve might have, maybe just a little, used a not-so-great master, that post gets deleted quicker than you can blink.

Well, I suppose I can post this here... other forums might not appreciate it. I have been told that the master tape for "Maiden Voyage" is in very rough shape. For a recent US LP reissue, Blue Note pulled the Japanese master from Japan to see if it sounded any better. If AP used the US master, I would think it might not be the audiophile masterpiece that some expect from these expensive SACDs.

I have two of the rock titles and though they sound good, they are far too expensive for that incremental improvement in sound. You can't get them for under $50 as far as I know.

I'm sitting here having a small bag of "Milk Chocolate" (no more "plain"? weird) M&M's and they taste different. Not the chocolate but the candy shell. I'm looking all over this bag and I can't see where they're made listed anywhere on the bag. Why did they remove this info? Did M&M/Mars move all their production to Mexico like Hershey or am I eating melamine infected M&M's from China? BTW, I seriously miss those ogre-sized M&M's. They even discontinued the "Mega M&M's" that came out a few years ago. BTW II, those new coconut-flavored M&M's are gross.

Thanks for this!! I just ordered 10 titles that I've been "on the fence" for many years. At $10 each, I couldn't pass up the chance. Kevin

I'd like to add here that if a title you're looking for is on a Reservoir CD, buy it now. I was told by Gary Smulyan at a gig of his last year that Reservoir is out of business.

I have a few of these titles on CD. Have you searched around Amazon for any of them before making up this list? As for that Schildkraut date, if it wasn't released back when it was supposed to, I imagine it's unlikely to get released now. Kevin

I got my CD in yesterday. I spun the first few tracks and even my wife (not normally a fan of Jazz organ dates) liked what she heard. I plan to give it another listen today. Thanks to everyone for making this available. Kevin