Dmitry

A formerly prolific poster here, Cali, lived in Altadena. I've been trying to get a hold of him, without success. He had a lovely mid-century home, which I hope is still there.

My unbalanced take on the OJC cd is that some songs just weren’t right for her, like the St.Louis Woman or the hapless Trout song. Sounds like She was at her best in a more personal, despondent setting. I think she was excellent in a torch song genre, perhaps Broadway. Alternatively, That she was with the major swing to bop orchestras, Woody Herman’s and Charlie Ventura’s (any recordings extant?) indicates that she was more multi-faceted than I am giving her credit for.

A follow-up: Lavazza decaf was very good, yet not always available locally, so I replaced it with the ol’ Bustelo decaf. Surprisingly fragrant, Suits me well on early mornings, and doesn’t make me jumpy.

Listening to her OJC Limited Edition Series cd, backed by two all-star bands, lead by George Russell and Gil Evan’s. She was pitch-perfect. She could’ve made it big. Anything known of her after this 1957 recording? Did she just fall out of the scene, like so many others, or did she continue to sing locally? I think she was Chicago-based.

Just ordered this Lavazza Dek Filtro, medium roast. The Amazon bots love it.

A heretic question: what decaf coffee do you recommend? I would use it in the Bialetti. We really don't need that nice coffee/espresso maker; just for the two of us the Bialetti does well. We also take it camping. Those light to medium roast Lavazza beans that we brew in the Bialetti are just too powerful for me: I get jumpy and freak out. Would like to try a decaf that tastes like coffee. It's not as much about the energy for me, as for the experience and taste.

Don't forget that this price includes a full night of bar-hopping with Van, and if you get lucky, perhaps even a drunken fight at the local VFW! ...Charcuterie board is extra.

Jimmy's living large!

I was thinking more like a chair yoga flyer from a community center.

What a sad, unimaginative cover art…

In Paris, where else?!

That’s actually a not so bad interpretation of an old Soviet “anecdote” (what you call “a joke” in English). Except I think you could cut it drastically, and make it funnier. I would do it like this: A scene in a Soviet art museum. Painting of a haystack, with two sets of feet sticking out of it. The museum docent says to the group of workers:”Here we see comrade Stalin and comrade Krupskaya in Siberian exile, discussing the works of Lenin. It’s titled “Lenin in Paris”. An inquisitive proletarian opines:”But I don’t see comrade Lenin.” The docent replies, patiently:”Lenin is in Paris.”

I had a caffeine rush yesterday night, so I bought my first Dunkin Donuts macchiato. It cost $4.10. I had to dissolve the sugar with a plastic straw (no stirrers there), and more importantly, it tasted like stronzo.

A brilliant record.

One other observation about Italy and coffee: very few encounters with people drinking the beverage on the street from plastic or paper cups; the only instances were in Florence, a major city. One could spot an American from afar: men AND women wearing shorts; tasteless tattoos, baseball hats, worn even inside restaurants. And Oakley sunglasses.

When I was 20 or 21, I saw him at the JFK airport. I was amazed how tall he was; purpusefully, I came close enough to see that the top of my head wasn’t even at his armpit height. I was 6’ then.

My wife and in-laws are French press drinkers. We must’ve had to buy three or 4 of them over time; the glass is very thin and it’s only a matter of time when it cracks. porcy62, as you undoubtedly remember, Greeks and Romans wouldn’t drink undiluted wine. I recently read Euripides’s Alcestis, and one of the characters complains that Heracles was a boor: he drank undiluted wine, the savage! I imagine what we call wine and what they drank was probably quite different. I can’t imagine liking coffee without sugar, but I know a few people that do just that. Love espresso or macchiato with a nice lump of cane sugar!

We picked on up at REI for our daughter who was going off to college. We’ve also used it when camping. Does the job, and is built well.

I had to look that up. Speaking of water, when we were in Bologna, when we would order an espresso, it would be served along with a tiny glass, filled to about 1/3 with mineral water. What is that about? Thanks for the tips on the Bialetti! I’ve got the six cup version. Heating slowly appears to be the most important step; too high a temperature may burn the product. I had to look up the definition of Moka. Interesting.

That’s what I’ve been using for at least fifteen years. I think it’s made in Japan.

Are you considering dumping your Miles Davis material?

Buongiorno, tutti! I just returned from two weeks in Toscana, and probably will never look at the American coffee aesthetic with respect again...well, maybe iced coffee, but that's all. Wherever we've been bussed with our tour group, in the most provincial medieval town or village the smallest "hole in the wall" trattoria had a "bells and whistles steam locomotive" coffee/espresso machine. And coffee is cheap there, like 1 Euro - 1.50 for a proper caffe macchiato. We are being hosed here in America by the likes of Dunkin Donuts, not just pricewise, but quality, or the complete lack of it. Now that I'm home and addicted to caffeine, I was thinking of getting an espresso machine. I brew in the Bialetti moka pot and use a milk frother, a combo which is like the equivalent of a manual transmission car vs. the automatic for a chrome-clad machine some of you have. What am I missing, other than the convenience? How much upkeep does a very good machine require?

Just read The Music of Chance. The film was better than the novel it was based on. Usually this isn't the case, in my experience.

There is a jazz connection...he wrote and directed (a pretty crappy, as I remember it) jazz-themed film, Lulu on the Bridge, with Harvey Keitel, Willem Dafoe and Mira Sorvino, plus a bunch of cameos by the Likes of Lou Reed. Blue Note released the soundtrack. My first interaction with his work was from his script for a truly brilliant film, The Music of Chance. I also read one of his books, about a really fat man and his son, the title escapes me now. Looks like he lived an interesting life.

I wonder how much these negatives (and the rights) went for. This archive of Wolff's lifework is nothing short of a national treasure.