Claude

AFAIK, the Thalys between Brussels and Amsterdam goes at normal speed (until the new, faster railtrack will be ready), so it's almost 3 hours.

I would rather avoid the restaurants in the narrow streets behind the Grande Place, because most of them rip off tourists. Belgians never go there. There are better deals to be found around the Bourse. You must try the many belgian specialty beers! As far as day-trips go, there is Antwerp or Bruges, and even Paris (because of the fast train connection). As you already know Paris, Amsterdam would be most worth visiting, but the slow train ride takes 3 hours. You better plan a weekend stay. For CD shopping in Brussels, I'd recommend the FNAC (in the shopping center City 2 in the rue Neuve). There is also a good vinyl store next to the Bourse, but it mainly sells US pressings (new and used). The best jazz store I know in the Benelux is Jazz Center in The Hague, but the city itself is not really worth a trip, compared to Amsterdam. Here's a list of Jazz clubs in the area, not sure if it's up-to-date: http://www.jazz-clubs-worldwide.com/docs/belgium.htm

Juventus, Lazio and Fiorentina Demoted: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6071400985.html So let's now wait for the result of the FIFA Zidane/Materazzi inquiry, and then this thread can die peacefully ...

I'd say it's the Sony player which is the reason for the playability problem. Have you tried the SACD layer on another player? On the Audio Asylum there are frequent reports of SACD users which experience problems with Sony players, mainly with hybrid discs. These problems start after a couple of years. I have a 3 year old Sony SCD-XA777ES, and two of my 200+ SACDs started having problems in the past weeks. They played fine before on the Sony, and still play on my Philips DVD963SA. http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/hirez/bbs.html

Who's next? That's not a fake cover, check ... http://www.kennedyjazz.com http://www.nigelkennedy.com

I was going through the same buying frenzy during the recent OJC/ZYX sales in Germany (I only bought the non-remastered titles). It's sad though to see this great music discounted for next to nothing and then probably not come back, except for the most popular titles, or as MP3 downloads.

This one? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060501405/ http://www.newyorkmetro.com/arts/books/rev...7563/index.html (I googled for 9/11 AND divorce)

I don't post this in the political forum, because I don't know if Couw reads it. Anyway, it isn't meant to be a political thread. I've read incredible articles about the security measures in the german city of Stralsund for George Bush's visit today. Maybe John - who lives in Stralsund if I'm correct - can give a first hand account. Germans locked down for Bush visit Allan Hall, Berlin July 13, 2006 EAST Germany is sealed off again with barbed wire, tanks, warships and fighter planes. It is not the return of communism but the arrival of President George Bush that is giving Germany a taste of the Iron Curtain once more. The security concerns surrounding the World Cup pale compared with the ring of steel and firepower thrown up to protect Mr Bush in a country where 84 per cent of the population loathe him. Mr Bush is visiting Mecklenburg-Vorpommern where Chancellor Angela Merkel has her constituency. Relations between Washington and Berlin were plunged into the diplomatic deep freeze over the war in Iraq. They thawed after socialist leader Gerhard Schroeder was ousted by the conservative Dr Merkel in November. Mr Bush is visiting Dr Merkel on the way to the G8 summit in Russia. But nothing is ever simple when the most powerful individual in the world also ranks among the most reviled. Security operation costs have already soared from a budgeted £8 million ($A19.7 million) to £16 million, and they continue to rise. A planeload of Secret Service agents arrived last week to co-ordinate Operation Ironclad — the codename of the operation to protect Mr Bush. Stralsund, the Baltic coastal town known for its herrings and biting cold winters, resembles the armed camp it was during 40 years of the Cold War. About 40 tonnes of barbed wire have been erected around the hotel in nearby Heiligendamm where Mr Bush is staying. Welders have sealed 400 drain covers in case bombers plant explosive devices in them. Another 1200 manhole covers in a 16-kilometre radius from his hotel have been treated similarly. During the Cold War the Baltic Sea was a no-go zone dominated by security forces determined to stop people fleeing to the West. Until tomorrow night it is out of bounds inside a radius of about 80 kilometres. Boats risk being gunned out of the water by 11 naval speedboats, 15 patrol boats and 28 high-speed inflatables. Fishing boats and pleasure craft have been ordered to stay at anchor. In the middle of the old town of Stralsund, where Mr Bush will dine with Dr Merkel today, all residents have had to move their cars to a special area 11 kilometres from their homes. The police are running a special bus service for residents to and from their cars. But when they are in their homes from midday they are prisoners until nightfall. They are forbidden to open windows, walk outside or receive visitors. About 12,000 police are on duty — four times more than were at the 64 World Cup games. Several hundred of them are SEK marksmen trained by Britain's SAS and sited on rooftops and other strategic points. Social democrats in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, whose national party rules in coalition with Dr Merkel's conservatives, have declared Mr Bush an unwanted visitor. They have organised anti-Bush demonstrations for his visit, but they will get nowhere near the man they hate. http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/german...2637740850.html

I think the idea is rubbish. You can't merge two mono recordings (made with two different mono microphones placed independently from each other and recorded with two different tape machines) into realistic stereo. The end result doesn't sound bad, but it doesn't have a natural soundstage, just a weird spacey effect, with intruments often floating around. They should have stuck to plain mono. Nevertheless, despite the strange concept, the sound is ok, and the added music is essential.

Strangely, the "terrorist theory" comes from Zidane's cousin in Algeria, who has watched the match on TV and hasn't talked to Zinedine after the match.

Is that the late 80's jewel case reissue? On the current (1996) digipak reissue the credits are correct, and easily readable.

So does the TOCJ24, which made me to believe it was the same remastering. I've heard other discs from the series which sounded ok, but not better than the McMaster or RVG CDs. So they are only worth considering for titles that are no longer available domestically, but not as a sonic upgrade.

Does anyone if these CDs use the JRVG remastering? The CDs don't have any english mastering credits. I can imagine that they woudn't like to remaster them again for this budget series, but don't want to use the RVG "trademark". I bought Jackie McLean's "Demon's Dance" (TOCJ-6502) and was quite dissappointed by the sound, especially after comparing it to an old McMaster reissue I found later. The new TOCJ adds some reverb (WTF?!) and has compressed dynamics, just like some JRVGs I have heard. It is not the dreaded "AM sound" of the worst JRVGs, but goes in the same direction.

This has occasionally been done, for example on the "John Coltrane with Johnny Hartman" SACD reissue or on a John Lewis Orchestra USA CD on one of those spanish labels. On the Coltrane/Hartman disc the mono tracks come first, because Rudy Van Gelder considers them as the "master mix". Given that the session is only 33 minutes long, it was possible to accomodate both recordings on a CD. Because in the early 60's most people were listening in mono, some engineers took more care in the mono mix than in the stereo mix. Therfore some sessions sound better in the mono version. That also justifies releasing the mono mix even when there are no flaws on the stereo tapes.

The RVG sound is controversial but quite consistent. You like it or not, but you usually know what you get. But the JRVG series some has some real stinkers, CDs that sound like AM radio, while other sound great. It's much more unreliable than the domestic RVG series.

- OJC = Original Jazz Classics, a reissue series started by Fantasy Records in the 1980's, from the vast catalogues of the Riverside, Prestige, Contemporary, Pablo, Milestone labels. Fantasy was recently taken over by Concord Records - K2 = a remastering technology created by JVC, used on many japanese reissues as well as the K2 reissue series by Fantasy. The Fantasy K2 series has been discontinued and the CDs are going OOP. - TOCJ (Toshiba Company Japan?) = a japanese Blue Note CD reissue series started in the early 90's, and now discontinued. The CDs had the original Blue Note album numbers, and no bonus tracks. Although the TOCJ accronym is also used on the later JRVG series (with different numbers), collectors use the term TOCJ to designate that early reissue series.

Kim Ubu? "You're not very tall are you? - Well, I, uh, I try to be"

That's a sad state of the gaming industry if the main marketing argument is about the colour of the game console.

Congratulations !

Blue Note does in fact have much less little known titles than Fantasy/Concord. But it's not that they only reissue warhorses as RVGs. We'll have to see how the Concord series develops. At the beginning, Blue Note reissued mostly very popular titles as RVGs, and only later the less obvious ones. I just wish Concord wouldn't RVG the same titles they reissued on K2 CD or SACD less than 5 years ago.

How many Mosaic sets with non-US musicians have there been so far? Petrucciani is a top seller in Europe, but probably not in the US. Mosaic could do a Select with 3 of the best and OOP albums. Like they did with Don Pullen or the upcoming Tony Williams set.

Make sure the cat is not locked in somewhere in the house, in an unused room. Once my parents' cat had dissappeared for three days. It had climbed up the ladder to the attic while that rarely used ladder was down for a couple of minutes. The cat didn't make a single sound during those three days, although it was completely dehydrated and hungry. I discovered it by chance. Good luck!

Check this bear-chasing cat at 0:55 of the vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWej4ZbrbbM

I think applauding the opponent during the game is limited to a few "gentlemen sports", like tennis or golf and even there it is quite rare. The german media were very fair today and acknowledged that Italy played better in the end. No one blamed FIFA for their controversial decision to exclude Frings from the team. I haven't checked BILD (the main tabloid) though, and I won't.