A Lark Ascending

I bought 22 inch last week (my existing set stopped working) - I use it so rarely I can't justify anything bigger. Sound is tinny - but, as on my old set, I connect it through the headphone socket to my aufio amplifier. Sounds fine. I have a set of second speakers connected in the kitchen to the amp. So if my cooking preparation doesn't quite complete in time for the start of a programme I can always hear it. I do like the slimeline nature of these new TVs. The last one was like a tank even though it was 22 inch.

I only worked that one out last week! Very useful. Quite - alot of these things have so many options that you can't work them out intuitively...well, not until you've been pointed to certain basics. If you find iTunes bewildering, don't go near Photoshop or Adobe Dreamweaver! I only started to work out the former in the summer - I had to be shown one-to-one. Dreamweaver still bewilders me.

I knew A but not I. Useful.

When you put in a CD and the window comes up asking 'Do you want to import the CD' click 'No'. Then uncheck the tracks you don't want. Then click the bottom right 'Import CD' button. It will only import checked tracks. Don't try and change anything until it is in your library. I initially got confused trying to rename the CD itself! You don't have to change every track individually. Highlight all common tracks - then if you right click over them anything you chance in the main box will change on all highlighted. It does not show the bar for track title if you highlight multiple tracks so there is no danger of relabelling everything 'So What?'

I disable auto-synching too. Advised, MG. I think you'll be better off doing this. Gives you more control. Quite a few of these left hand links only appear when connected to the iPod. When trying to re-label are you right clicking on the track/tracks? If you do this and click 'Get info' you get a window with several tabs. If you highlight several tracks the one you need jumps up instantly; if you click a single track you get one saying 'Summary' - go to the second ('Info'). You can change what you like in the bars below. If you've uploaded a track you've copied off a tape or LP the bars should be empty.

We celebrate it here in North Notts too. Lots of excessive drinking, jollity, sex etc. A bunch of the Pilgrim Fathers came from just up the road. So we celebrate the Puritans buggering off to annoy the New World.

Thanksgiving?

I usually kick off with 'The Messiah' (even though only about 1/3 of it is Xmas related). After that it's anything from Bach to The Roches to Kenny Burrell to Britten to The Watersons to...

You can edit the information in your iTunes library; or you can edit in iTunes on the iPod itself. When you link up the iPod you get an icon on the left telling you the iPod is connected. When you click music you get a window identical to the iTunes library which can be edited the same way. So if you mis-edit something and only discover it on the iPod itself you can always go back and change. Moving stuff from iTunes library to the iPod is dead simple. Highlight the tracks, drag and drop. I had an earlier mp3 player where this was all a nighmare. Tracks got stored in the most bizarre places. iTunes does it very sensibly. One thing to watch is those artist names. Sometimes the automatic system gives different names. Five tracks named Grant Green and three named Joe Henderson for example. This is why I always make sure the artist/album artist/composer titles are identical for an album. I think the system was set up with compilations in mind where artists might change from track to track.

MG, There are probably loads of ways of doing this. Here's what I do: 1. Give the album a genre title at the bottom of the tab - Jazz, Jazz Nordic, Jazz Soul etc. I find it easier to use my own labels - Classical English, Classical Germanic etc. 2. I always change Artist, Album Artist and Composer to the same name e.g. Grant Green or Bach. I'm not likely to care who the composer of each track is when using the iPod - can be found out later. I do both of these by highlighting all the tracks on the album and then they all get the same data. You only need to go wrong once - an e on the end of Green or even a space afterwards and it gets stored separately. This is why its best to change the genre/artist data all in one go. Lots quicker too! 3. I change the album name to something simple - Kind of Blue rather than Miles Davis: Kind of Blue (you get some oddities provided by the automatic system). Doing this all falls on the iPod logically. I tend to go to find things by going to Genre first, then look for the artist. I've had no problem with this in the last 15 months. *********** If you are assembling things into a new order you need to change the track number (and sometimes disc number). The only time I do this is if I assemble an album from several sources e.g. I built up some later Grant Green albums from three compilations and then added the missing tracks from iTunes. Obviously the compilation tracks had different numbers so a bit of editing was needed. But usually, this is unnecessary.

Two fantastic records - got them of e-music a few years back. Marvellous antidote to Slade and Wizzard.

24th December here ! I'll make an exception for Duke Pearson though.. I love Xmas music! I need a good month to get through some of Xmas CDs on the shelf. There's not much wonderful Xmas jazz but lots of magical classical stuff and the folky world does some very nice variations on the usual fare.

Just downloading this as I type - heard a bit of it on a BBC programme earlier in the Autumn. To he honest I've not heard a lot ot 'genuine inspiration' in her music for some time now - the angular, Weill-esque beauties of her 60s/70s music seemeed to have been smoothed over and replaced by a more generic big band sound (and things like the gutbucket trombone that sounded so fresh on those earlier records just seem to have become part of the house style). To be expected - we all drop into our comfort zones as we get on. I'm not expecting the tart, Central Europeanisms of the old days - but with keyboard, bass and brass quartet I'm hoping for something heartfelt but a little quirky. Won't get to listen until the end of next week as I have a ban on Xmas music before 25th November.

I recall seeing him c. 1975 with Carla Bley and Jack Bruce in a band that lasted a very short time.

Nice to read a well supported argument rather than the usual blanket assertions.

Interesting comment from a (clearly irritated) Bill Bruford on his blog: http://www.billbruford.com/blog.asp?DoActi...amp;EntryID=164

Hmm! Great records, all. But I'd describe them as 'more Americanised than usual' (which is not a criticism) rather than 'better than usual'.

Just the thing for this stormy recessionary weekend ! Quite! Despite the limited technology/budget of the time, there are some very evocative winter scenes in the first two episodes - the initial infatuation takes place whilst skating on a frozen Northamptonshire pond. Interesting to see a very young Jeremy Irons and Peter Davidson in supporting roles here, a bit before they found fame in 'Brideshead Revisited' and other things. Being set in the 1920s there's a nice popular jazz sountrack in places too - though, unlike most modern films, no filling of every moment with soundtrack.

Think it was earlier - I recall the Beidebecke from the early/mid-80s. I like that slow pace. I have no time for the rapid paced stuff. I recall watching 'Spooks' for a while but gave up because I found so much was telescoped into one episode that could have been more effectively handled over three. Same with things like the TV versions of Wallander and the Ian Rankin books - 90 minutes to cover a book that would take you a couple of weeks (at my term-time pace). This sort of series almost seems to happen in real time - the scenes in the drab Victorian living room of the big house with two elder aunts and a scrounging uncle really do evoke the endless tedium of a wet winter afternoon. That clinches it ! Well thank you, thank you for that award I've been seeking all my life. I'd just like to also express my gratitude to my parents, my hair stylist, God....

Forever seeking the award for the most unhip person on this board: Haven't seen this since about 1966 (when I saw it three times!). Seem to know it off by heart - we only had 2 LPs at the time so played the soundtrack endlessly (the other was 'Mary Poppins'). Enjoyed it thoroughly. I'm not good with TV or films...I get restless after 30 minutes but this kept me absorbed for its full run. Another bit of nostalgia: BBC TV serialisation from 1977 of an H.E. Bates novel. I recall watching during an Autumn of unemployment while I was seeking my first teaching job. I remember being besotted by Mel Martin in the title role as a femme fatale. I was off on interview the evening of the last episode so never saw it. Holds up well, even with the rather indoor BBC production values of the time. So far episodes 1-3. Waiting for the DVD rental people to send me disc 2.

Don't ever recall seeing these on CD. I look forward to the set as I've never heard them. The Weber box is made up of three wonderful albums - shimmery, minimalist-influenced (though not dominated) music that takes the route from In a Silent Way that Miles didn't. The two Old and New Dreams were my introduction to Ornette Coleman in the late 70s/early 80s. Kenny Wheeler's 'The Widow in the Window' is one of his best two - contemporary with 'Music for Large and Small Ensembles.' Lots of other great records there too, if you're attune to the ECM approach. Could Lookout Farm be somewhere down the line?

Great to hear, papsrus. I'll happily suggest the music for the jig!

The same could be said for quite a few of our record collections! I've gone for the larger option because with the 80gb I was already thinking of deleting things to fit on others. I'd also found myself, especially when out walking, wanting to listen to something that I would not have considered at the top of my listening list. I can now comfortably have all the Shostakovich symphonies, string quartets and concertos (for example) and it hardly makes an impression on the memory. Which gives me access to these when out. A luxury, yes. It would be cheaper to just remember to bring specific recordings on a CD-walkperson. But I just like having it there. ********* MG, as others have said, just do it. Itunes takes a bit of getting used to but is actually very easy to use. You don't strike me as the sort to get over-worried by the technicalities that are important to some. You'll love it. [i also don't use the automatic synch - I want to control what goes on the ipod.]

I think a lot can depend on just how sensitive you are to sound quality. I'm pretty tolerant (as long as things aren't going going out of tune or distorting) and can't claim to be aware of any great difference in sound quality. I appreciate that others care about that issue far more than I do. Re: the shuffle. I never use the total shuffle facility - Shostakovich next to Art Blakey followed by the Moody Blues doesn't really work. But I have set up some albums of favourite tracks - 60s/70s pop/rock, jazz, vocal jazz, country folk - which I just add to every time I'm playing an album on the CD player and a track jumps out at me. Putting that on individual album shuffle whilst travelling can be great fun. I don't know if you drive, MG, but you can get a gizmo to connect to your car radio. You synch it in with an empty radio frequency and it plays on the radio. Sound quality there is noticeably poorer and it can be a problem on long distance drives if you move into an area the frequency is being used in. But I spent a couple of weeks whizzing round Cornwall in the summer using it happily. Certainly beats carting a batch of CDs with you.

Thanks Bev. What's the best store to buy one in over here? MG I got mine through Amazon. Paid for the next day delivery and it came bang on time. The 160 gb is not cheap - £175 - but you'll wonder how you lived without it. A godsend when you're sat in places twiddling your thumbs waiting. Look for the iPod Classic - I wouldn't go below 80 gb - anything less and someone with a collection like yours will fill up very quickly (I had a 20 gb mp3 about three years back and soom found it was full).