vibes

Seriously? You're the only person I've ever seen/heard comment that they didn't like Cheesecake Factory cheesecake. I love the stuff, and have had at least 10 of their flavors. What kind did you have?

Nate, I think you might be able to get it from Tower Records. It's a great album. I'm not familiar with any of Billy Bauer's other work, but I love "Plectrist."

Yes, but MP3 player software only allows to edit tags file by file, while dedicated tagging software is much more comfortable because it allows to edit all the common tag fields of many files at once. ← This is true. You can edit many fields at once in XP, too, as long as all your files are in the same folder.

Chris, are you going to mention the greed of other companies, like Google and Yahoo, that also comply with Chinese laws on freedom of speech, or lack thereof? You do business in another country, you obey its laws. I don't think this has much to do with greed.

ID3 tags may be edited in Windows XP by right-clicking on the file, going to "properties," and then the advanced summary view. You can also edit them in many music programs, such as Winamp.

This stuff rocks: I think it's overpriced, but I still buy it every once in a while.

Al, does your player look like this? If so, you've got the same player as me. What you need to do is make individual folders for your albums, then make sure that you have the filenames and ID3 tags correctly numbered. You can make these folders and file edits on your PC and then copy them over to the player, or you can make them right on the player, since it acts as an external hard drive when connected to your PC.

George Shearing, "Rare Form" session.

Gerald Wilson, "Everywhere" session

An obvious one:

There are many, many CDs in this series that are not to be missed. When I stopped to think about it, I realized that I probably listen to at least one LPR per day. I've learned about a lot of great music through this series that I otherwise wouldn't be aware of. Some favorites: Dave Brubeck/Paul Desmond - 1975: The Duets Archie Shepp - Attica Blues Tony Scott - Tony Scott John Klemmer - Involvement Dave Pike - Manhattan Latin Machito - Vacation at the Concord Billy Mitchell - This is Billy Mitchell Al Grey - Snap Your Fingers Gabor Szabo - High Contrast I haven't seen too many positive reviews for it out there, but I've also been listening to "Cugi's Cocktails" a lot lately. Yeah, it's lounge music, but it's laid back and catchy. The wife likes it too, which is always a plus.

Knocking your socks off ain't the only thing the food will do to you, if you're not used to it. I recommend taking a generous supply of this:

Claypone, Being in Suzhou will give you the opportunity to travel to many other places, if you have time. Suzhou itself has lots of stuff to see, as it was the capital of the Wu kingdom for hundreds of years. Suzhou is very well known for its gardens. Anyway, some recommendations for things close to Suzhou: - Shanghai (of course) - If you want live jazz, I have a friend that recommends the Cotton Club, but I've never been there. Shanghai is also the only place near Suzhou where you might find recorded jazz, but I would keep your expectations low. You won't get much of historical value in Shanghai, but check out the Shanghai Museum, which is probably the best museum in China. Go to the top of one of the tall buildings ini the Pudong area of town for some views of the skyline. Walk the Bund (Dongtan) at night. I can't remember the name of the area, but if you ask around, you'll be able to get some of the best dumplings in China in Shanghai. - Nanjing - Lots of historical stuff to see here, including the tomb of Sun Yat-Sen (Zhongshan Ling) and the Ming tombs (Mingxiao Ling). Fuzi miao is an interesting place to walk around at night and shop. Nanjing also has the best potstickers (guotie) in China, in my opinion. - Hangzhou - There are a couple interesting Buddhist monasteries here, but the main attraction is the West Lake. It's very beautiful. Hangzhou is also considered by many people to have the prettiest girls in China (and I don't disagree), if that sort of thing interests you. - Huangshan (The Yellow Mountain) - This will be a bit of a hike from Suzhou, but if you have a few days to do it, it's highly recommended. It's probably about 7-10 hours east of Suzhou by train. It's one of the prettiest places I've ever been. I recommend taking the tram up the mountain, not walking up and down. It's overpriced, but your knees will hurt really bad if you walk it. If you can, book a room at one of the hotels at the top and wake up early for the sunrise. You'll be glad you did. - Luoyang - Even farther from Suzhou than Huangshan, but you might be able to pull it off if you take overnight trains. Interesting things in the area include Long Men Shi Ku (thousands of Buddhas carved into grottoes) and the Shao Lin monastery (fighting Buddhist monks). I used a Lonely Planet book to get around, and it served me quite well. Yes, it will be very hot and humid in the summer, but I wouldn't bother with a surgical mask, as I never saw anyone else with one (I studied in Nanjing for a term). Buy bottled water, and don't even think about drinking anything out of the tap. Most of all, keep an open mind and have fun. Don't stick to the touristy places--walk around the cities you're in, get lost a bit, and try interacting with the locals. If you learn a little Chinese, it will be a lot more fun for you. Good luck!

The only movie I can remember walking out of is Ready to Wear, which remains one of the worst movies I've ever seen. If I remember correctly, the movie was only loosely scripted, which was part of the reason I hated it so much.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. The guy should be happy just to be getting a gift from you.

They've got the George Russell and Billy Bauer Verve Elites, if anyone's looking for those.

I can access naxosusa.com with any difficulty, but many of the links on that site are for the main site, so I'm still out of luck, basically.

OK, this is really weird. I just got on my company's network via VPN, and I can access naxos.com without any difficulty. For whatever reason, I can't access it via any of my computers at home. Anyone have any ideas on what the problem could be?

That doesn't work for me either. Can you tell me what the IP address is?

Is anyone able to access naxos.com? I've tried a few times over the last month, and I always get the "site could not be found" error. I've tried both Firefox and IE, so I know the problem isn't my browser. I can connect to naxosusa.com, but most of the content on that site is linked to naxos.com, unfortunately.

"Swingin' on the Town," if you can find it.

I had no idea such things even existed. I guess I'm too young. Thanks for sharing, Chris.

Have played "Plugs In" and "Soul Burst" today, and will play more.

It seems like I remember reading that Wayne Shorter's "Dance Cadaverous" was inspired by Sibelius' "Valse Triste," which also appeared later on a different Wayne Shorter album. I don't have either available to confirm right now, but maybe someone else does.

Whatever my mother listened to, that's what I heard first. The things I can remember the best are: ABBA Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture (loved those cannons when I was a kid!) Air Supply ABBA and Air Supply don't bother me these days because I grew up with them. I probably wouldn't touch them otherwise. I'm glad my mother introduced me to classical music, because I've always enjoyed it and have searched out many new composers as a result of that introduction. And, I find that most people my age and younger (I'm 28) don't appreciate it, and I think they're really missing out.