John Litweiler

Has anyone here heard that Helen Humes album? What is it like?

yes, the brand name was Goop.

Archie Veronica Vernoica Lake

Ever since boyhood and the 78 rpm Decca album, I've loved Todd Duncan's and Anne Brown's original (1935) cast recordings above all others. They were reissued on LP long ago.

Not now. PayPal in a few weeks, I hope.

No kidding! What kind of racket is this? It's probably a doomed racket. Right now the only places to buy "Sundidos" are from 57th Street Books, http://semcoop.indiebound.com57th-street-books, or from me at jblitw@att.net - $12 total (that includes Organissimo discount). (Remember to demand your Organissimo discount, though.) More sellers to come, surely. Russell wrote two versions of "Dreadful Sanctuary." The better, I think, is the one issued as a Lancer paperback: tight, punchy, with Chandlerish cracks, an unhappy ending. The longer version seems padded to me and has an implausible happy ending - no doubt this was the version that Campbell serialized in Astounding in 1948 (he demanded happy endings). Russell was a delight, he should be better appreciated today. "Sundidos" is of course different.

I don't believe Rudy recorded Lee Morgan at the Lighthouse, either. At least in the 1950s, the height of hard bop and west coast, almost nobody was doing much live concert or club recordings. Brubeck was an exception.

e-mail jblitw@att.net

"Sundidos" is a thriller novel with some downright serious elements. Why aren't we using solar energy, instead of continuing to trash our planet with internal combustion engines (obsolete since 1954) and nuclear power? The plot of "Sundidos" is a variation on an old Eric Frank Russell favorite, "Dreadful Sanctuary." The subject - the suppression of photovoltaic batteries - is real. "Sundidos" is another production of the Goodbait Books Publishing Empire. There are an excerpt and a description on the web page http://www.goodbaitbooks.com/sundidos__a_novel_by_john_litweiler_118979.htm

That's a thoughtful, illuminating review.

This is surely Ballard's wildest satire. Must have been written in the 1970s, since robot Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, etc. are among the characters (to use the word loosely) but not Reagan. The story is about an expedition from living Europe to dead America, a desert in the east and a jungle in the west, and the characters are all Ballardian obsessives - not quite archetypes, because they're all uniquely insane. Was Ballard just having fun here? Or does this foretell the anger to come in his later novels? He always seems to have envisioned America as a madhouse. Absolutely deadpan style, lots of explosions, never a smile in the story. Yet every few pages his razorblade-cuts leave me gasping or laughing. Re "Murder Me for Nickels," this is my favorite Rabe though he wrote some other goodies. Even in hackwork like "Mission for Vengeance," which he must have written before supper one day, his ongoing atmosphere of menace keeps the reader awake.

50 years already? Xlnto! Cheers to Ann and you.

Malachi Favors had a pure, unamplified sound on double bass with jazz groups and he played electric bass in church on Sundays.

Yes, fascinating for what it reveals of Laughlin (not enough - he must have been quite a character himself) and his experiences with all the amazing authors he published. Too bad he didn't write an autobiography and too bad someone else didn't write a long, detailed biography, full of footnotes, of Laughlin.

no electricity here on my south side block after the storm so i couldn't see the game. it must have been a perfect chicago conclusion: boston fans happy for 97% of the game and us happy for the est of the year.

I'm inclined to agree with most of the comments here. Larry, even the Sun-Times, despite its critical, indeed intensive-care, condition, still gets in some good hits now and then. What we don't see much of anywhere is the kind of extended investigations of the bastards that used to appear in U.S. newspapers now and then. Some web sites' debunking (think of Rick Perlstein for ex.) seems to be as close as we get - somebody please show me I'm wrong. What do our UK Organissimo members think of UK newspapers and TV? When I first went there in 1999 the big London papers were thick (Times, Telegraph, Independent, Grauniad [sorry], I think one other) looked thick and fat every day. The last time, 3 years ago, they looked thin and the Independent, which I'd once admired, had Brad Pitt-Angela Jolie on the front page. And what do our UK Organissimo members think of Private Eye and the BBC? (For 40-some years I've been impressed by what looks like a tough, dogged, expose-them attitude and appalled by recurrent racism in PE.)

The first half of The Diamond Bikini by Charles Williams is excellent and he wrote a couple of other enjoyable caper stories. Makes me want to find more of his novels in his manic mode. He wrote some depressive ones too - conventional more-or-less noir.

Thanks, Jim. I mailed you a check yesterday.

He played some rousing sax solos on some old free-jazz LPs from the SF Bay area - Smiley Etc. was one. It's good to see he stayed active since then. Thanks for passing along the bad news, Clifford.

something is scary about that album cover

Yes, the Showcase, Green Mill, and other clubs will be open. Umbrella and AACM musicians will surely be offering late sets, too. After the Velvet closed musicians were playing in a big space at Milwakee Ave. and Diversey, a few doors south of Elastic.

Yes, The first performances are from the 1970s, including one w/the Art Ensemble of Chicago on Atlantic. He's composed variations of Nonaah for lots of wind and string quartets and for an orchestra too. The Nessa CD with alto-sax quartet and solo is great.

Allen beat me to it. Haven't smoked anything for a year - 3 cigarettes last year - half a package the year before - started smoking 55 years ago and have been tapering off during the 21st century. I hope I've quit.

It's true I was impaired by lack of cash when I had to write a check in a supermarket line. Still, the vehemence I read here is startling.