Larry Kart

Chuck -- I thought you'd mention this, but now I will: http://www.amazon.com/Tristan-Isolde-Act-Prelude-Liebestod/dp/B001JPNAYS It also can be found on Spotify, for those who have it, and can be listened to there complete.

Nah.

Szymon Goldberg/Radu Lupu, even though Goldberg is somewhat past his prime. An apt comment from a poster elsewhere: "I also like the Goldberg/Lupu recordings on Decca.... The violin tone is the tone of an old man, but has a special human quality, i can't describe."

Saturday. Funny, without remembering it was the day I was born, I've always had a good feeling about Saturdays.

Roscoe Mitchell/Mike Reed

If I didn't already know you were one of nature's noblemen, this post would prove it.

Modern poetry, perhaps, though my tastes are not all inclusive. General literature almost as much, though my tastes there also are not all inclusive, and besides there's too much for anyone (this side of Martin Seymour-Smith***) to claim expertise. But it's likely that I know something about a whole lot of stuff. I used to be well-versed in the history of old-time baseball and probably retain a lot of that information. The U.S. Navy in WWII (used to be able to diagram entire battles). Not quite expertise, but my head is full of a whole lot of general political/social/cultural history, dating back to Ancient Greece and the times of Abraham and Isaac. Pretty good on the history of the movies. I think that's about it. *** Seymour-Smith was a somewhat eccentric/contrarian English critic, poet, and biographer (of Robert Graves, Thomas Hardy and others) who wrote a massive guide to modern literature that speaks with would-be authority of a great many works in just about every language in which notable works of of modern lit have been written. The whole project seems impossible on the face of it, but mistakes/howlers are not to be found (as far as I can tell) and Seymour-Smith's literary judgment is damned shrewd for the most part. Can't begin to count the number of good things I've found because of him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Seymour-Smith Apparently his polyglot wife Janet Seymour-Smith did a good deal of the reading/spadework for "The Guide to Modern Literature." http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-janet-seymoursmith-1198422.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-famed-cso-trumpeter-adolph-herseth-dead-at-91-20130414,0,6672669.column http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/19480525-421/cso-trumpet-great-adolph-bud-herseth-dies.html Two of his favorites, so I once was told, were Louis Armstrong and Maynard Ferguson, both for the obvious right reasons.

Actually, a quick re-listen to the Schornsheim set left me not in a favorable mood; the playing is good but too many of the works are early and slight.

Should you want to branch out into HIP Haydn keyboard concerti (some played on fortepiano, some on harpsichord, some on organ), this Christine Schornsheim set of eight concerti is very good IMO and nicely priced at Amazon at two discs for $16.94: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ED6VL8/ref=wms_ohs_product_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It can be heard on Spotify.

Someone I tend to trust in the HIP realm (in part because he's heard almost everything that's available in that realm, in part because he has good taste in general) endorses the Apponyi. Their Op. 33 can be heard on Spotify, but that seems to be the only Haydn they've done.

Yes, it does -- on two tape cassettes.

Did an interview with him in about 1987 or '88 in his Palmer House hotel suite when he was promoting the strange short semi-autobographical book he wrote; he was really "on," very free form. The tape of that 90 minute or so interview, judiciously edited, might be the best Winters comedy album ever. Only problem might be that our photographer was so convulsed with laughter at times that he obscured some of what Winters was saying.

A post on the subject (or at least I think it is) from a postal worker: "Yup. Post Office is a private plan funded by agency and employee contributions and investments. The only money they get from the government (read: YOU) is what's required to cover the cost of federally mandated programs and subsidies. The rest comes in one stamp, one magazine, one package at a time. Where it gets confusing is, the plan is ADMINISTERED by the same federal agency that handles federal employee retirement plans. And the Post Office pays them to do it. "And yes, it IS a better plan than many in the private sector, but that's because they still have union representation. Even so, the average postal worker earns at best lower middle class wages, and are willing to settle for that due to the better benefits attached. "Just to set the record straight on Social Security -- the only time a postal employee under the old retirement system qualifies for that is if they've earned credit from other employment. Even then, there IS a matching offset against their postal pension, so it's a no gain situation more times than not. Under the new system, it's social security and their version of a 401K based on their contributions ... no different than most decent private sector jobs, and once again, no federal dollars spent."

I ask in genuine innocence/ignorance, how does these stories below jibe with the above?: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-22/u-s-postal-service-will-suspend-contributions-into-employee-pension-fund.html e.g. "The U.S. Postal Service, facing insolvency without approval to delay a $5.5 billion payment for worker health benefits, will suspend contributions to an employee retirement account to save $800 million this year." http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20110825/DEPARTMENTS02/108250303/USPS-health-retirement-plan-proposal-met-skepticism e.g. "The U.S. Postal Service's proposal to pull out of federal health care plans would shift the bulk of nearly a half-million retirees' health care coverage onto Medicare."

One of my favorite Konitz duo albums is "Speaking Lowly Vol. 1" (Philology) with Italian pianist Renato Sellani. It has a special air of tenderness, even stillness, if you will. Lee is in a mood to be very respectful of the melodies, and he leans far more than usual on timbral shadings, almost a la Johnny Hodges at times (e.g. on "Laura"). Here's "Polka Dots and Moonbeams": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-woRCZaBkC0

Like them both a lot.

Horenstein's recording has a rare elemental power: http://www.amazon.co...horenstein rite Yesterday I picked up for $1 at a resale shop the Maazel/Cleveland, which so far is full of novel to my ears detail and yet for all its precision also quite elemental (this to some degree thanks to much care having been taken to give the percussion instruments their full due): http://www.amazon.co...rds=maazel rite I also have Craft/Musicmasters, Stravinsky/Columbia and Monteux/RCA. P.S. I know that Maazel's reputation is that of a technically superb but emotionally empty conductor, but other encounters with his work in recent years (e.g. his Symphony of Psalms, a Debussy disc with La Mer, Jeux, and the Nocturnes, his Daphnis and Chloe) haven't borne that out for me.

He treats us all too well. The times I've eaten at Frontera Grill and Topolabambo, I thought I was in paradise. BTW, I just discovered that his older brother is the infamous Skip Bayless. You are really late to that game. You should have worked at a paper where Skip had a column. His colleagues when he was at the Trib despised him. Interesting that this situation would be echoed at the Sun-Times with Mariotti.

He treats us all too well. The times I've eaten at Frontera Grill and Topolabambo, I thought I was in paradise. BTW, I just discovered that his older brother is the infamous Skip Bayless.

Personally, I thought that thread got out of hand when Sangrey mentioned Rick Bayless.

He did a Raymond Scott album, too. Guess I was wrong. No, you were right.

He did a Raymond Scott album, too.

Hoberman was at the Village Voice for many years; they let him go a while back. Rosenbaum I don't care for either in general. The best film critic I know is Dave Kehr (he's also a friend of many years), but others may not agree on Dave's virtues.

You'll be happy to know that I couldn't stand Studs Terkel. Clearly, I'm the party with the problem here.