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I'm fairly sure (but not 100%) that I read Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. I actually own all of his novels now in LOA editions, but haven't read that many, and it will take a while to remedy that, just because I have so much else I am trying to get through. I just borrowed this graphic novel adaptation from the library and thought it was pretty successful. In addition to slowly making my way through Don Quixote, I am currently reading books by Quebec authors from QC Fiction (https://qcfiction.com/), including Tatouine and The Electric Baths.

Will probably follow up with The Heliocentrics & Melvin Van Peebles ‎– The Last Transmission Just in that kind of mood...

Gil Scott-Heron Winter in America

Maybe Childish Gambino's This is America? But more seriously, I have so soured on America falling so short of its promise that I don't feel even the slightest twinge of patriotism any longer. Even a landslide by the Dems tonight won't really change my underlying feelings. Feel free to delete, mods...

From Russia with Love - This was a much stronger outing in my view, clearly the budget had been increased, and we have the appearance of the first spy-rigged suitcase. While all Bond villains talk too much, this one actually appeared ready to kill Bond and was only tripped up a bit by his greed.

Watched Dr. No last night (for obvious reasons). I don't believe I had seen this one before, which is odd, as I thought I had seen all the Connery and Moore Bonds but only a handful of the others. (I'm essentially taking the position that the Daniel Craig ones don't even exist...) At the risk of being heretical, it's kind of creaky and not particularly thrilling (all the plot twists are visible a mile away) -- and with a complete absence of interesting spy gadgets. It's actually a bit surprising that they built the franchise from such a beginning. I found myself more interested in what had been lifted directly from this movie for Austin Powers.

Very late to this discussion, but haven't seen this mentioned in the thread. On iTunes (and possibly a physical release), there is Straighten Up and Fly Right (Best of Hittin' the Ramp) and Plays the Best of Hollywood, Broadway and the Great American Songbook which is also drawn from Hittin' the Ramp.

RIP - I imagine there will be a lot of people settling in for a Bond marathon this weekend.

Gyms throughout most of GTHA were all shut down by the Province. Previously, I was going about twice a week. The employees gently reminded people to wear masks and there was a moderate social pressure. Generally people were pretty good about wearing masks when not hydrating. It was about 50/50 in terms of people wearing masks while actually exercising. So it wasn't too bad overall. I only was uncomfortable a few times, though I probably wouldn't have joined a spinning class.

I probably didn't phrase that well. I'm not truly that surprised by the folks in the first movie did sign releases. Mostly it points to the fact that people don't read or understand most of what they are signing. Though it does surprise me a bit that footage perhaps taken from hidden cameras and certainly taken in what I would consider a fraudulent manner can be covered by such a release. Maybe this is in the article. It is a surprise that Giuliani signed such a release -- or did he?

Borat - the Sequel. I don't care for the Borat movies (too much like shooting fish in a barrel), but my question is how does he get the people he puts in these films to sign releases? I know that in a lot of cases people will sign the release and never see the final edit, but for instance, there is this scene with Rudy Giuliani in the sequel. Given what we know about this scene, how could he ever have gotten a signed release? Or is he relying on some sort of "public figure" exemption? I wouldn't think that would apply in this case. Just daring Rudy to sue him? I don't get it.

That's true (I forgot), but I am sure he had found a way to present concerts somewhere in Vancouver (pre-COVID) and not just at the Shadbolt Centre.

It appears that Vancouver is still allowing some live performances, whereas these have been completely shut down in Toronto (not that there was ever that much live jazz beyond some local acts playing at The Rex, at least in the last 10 years). However, Cory Weeds is offering a livestream (generally for $10) of the various upcoming shows he is presenting. It appears that they are being presented at the Shadbolt Centre in Burnaby rather than in his club, The Cellar. Details here - https://coryweeds.com/shows/ I'll try to catch the show on Nov. 15 which is actually a big band project led by Cory.

RIP. I will definitely be picking up the 1994 Velvet Lounge show and probably a couple of the Die Like a Dog recordings on the next Bandcamp Friday. I'm currently streaming music with very different vibe - Realm 2 Parallax with Kondo and Barton Rage.

My father's collection was much deeper on the classical side. He had Brubeck's Time Out and a few other jazz LPs, though I am having a lot of trouble remember what they might have been. He also had Sgt. Pepper's and a couple of Simon and Garfunkel albums, but not much else on the pop/rock side. As he grew older, he gravitated away from classical guitar (he had been a very talented guitarist and actually later on a luthier) and more towards bluegrass and "old timey" music. He and my mother listened to NPR all the time, including the jazz programming, though as I said, they didn't have that many jazz LPs in the house. My parents certainly encouraged me to listen to mainstream jazz, getting me the Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz (on cassette!) and a Columbia sampler (one of my first CDs). And oh so many books in the basement. I have a lot of books (probably three thousand if you count the ones stashed away everywhere), but he must have had 2 or 3 times that many!

- That's a good sign. We actually have relatively few signs up around Toronto, as most folks are pretty good about wearing masks indoors or on transit (and it isn't anywhere near as big a flash point). That doesn't mean far too many people have their noses uncovered, and we definitely do have a loud (but pretty small) minority of anti-maskers here. I believe the anti-maskers have a bigger presence in Quebec actually, but probably still much less relevant than in the red states. But as I said, we are in the midst of a second wave here, and new restrictions were announced. (The masks help for sure, but it's still not a magic bullet...) I'm guessing there will be no more indoor dining or drinking at all in Toronto until the vaccine, and the restaurant owners and bars will just have to hang on as best they can. I'm going to order take out sometime this week, which we haven't done for a while.

Ontario hit an all time high last week (still better than Quebec though). Toronto and the Region of Peel (and Ottawa) are moving back to a modified Stage 2 - no indoor eating or drinking, no gyms or indoor exercise, no movie theatres or performing arts, most (but technically not all) museums are closed, teams can train without any contact but all games are cancelled. This will last for 28 days but will likely be extended if the trends aren't coming back down. I'm basically expecting the end of indoor eating and bars until a vaccine is ready, and most restaurants will simply go under. Probably the independent gyms as well.

If this holds true elsewhere (that 80% of people infected with COVID in the UK had no core symptoms), then this virus truly will be impossible to beat because we are just not set up to do very widespread testing of entire populations (and probably having to do this repeatedly for a while). https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/08/more-than-80-positive-cases-in-covid-study-had-no-core-symptoms The main difference with SARS and MERS and some others is that you basically were only contagious at the same time you were clearly exhibiting major symptoms. I don't think I've ever heard of a disease with such a wide variety of outcomes with large numbers experiencing essentially no symptoms to rapid onset of death. The hidden killer indeed.

Making very, very slow progress through Don Quixote. It's not that it's not good, I'm just extremely busy and it's too thick to take to the gym and read there... In terms of "gym books" I was deeply disappointed in Kiran Desai's Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard and abandoned that quickly. The Betrayers by David Bezmozgis looks more promising, but it's early days still.

Next Tuesday, Rudresh Mahanthappa is doing two separate live-streamed concerts to promote his new album, Hero Trio. I believe tickets are $10. I'll see if I can tune in to the evening concert. Details here: https://www.crowdcast.io/rudreshm

While sampling can usually be determined fairly precisely using the right technological tools, the question of infringing copyright in a distinct composition seems much more subjective and even error-prone particularly when left in the hands of a jury. All kinds of songs sound like other songs for the untrained ear, though experts usually say there are critical differences (or often say that chord sequences in and of themselves cannot be under copyright). In my view, the Blurred Lines case was wrongly decided (and then upheld on appeal, unless I am mistaken). I personally don't see how music can evolve when a small number of musicians aggressively pursue copyright cases, often trying to shake down the big fish.

The really interesting follow-up will be whether Biden caught it from all that yelling Trump was doing on stage. And beyond that, Trump met in person (and maskless) with Pence, McConnell and even Barrett over these past few days. So quite a few people are likely to have caught this thing from the Superspreader-in-Chief. Not that I am wishing anyone any ill of course...

Agreed. His contributions were always welcome. One interesting finding on iTunes, there are actually two versions of "Singles Collection" by Leonard Dembo and Barura Express. One is sort of a continuous mix where the tracks are clipped short and butt up against each other (fairly choppily in the sense they aren't actually mixed together), and the other has more traditional breaks between the tracks (and is 7 minutes longer!). I personally prefer the latter, but I can see how one might want to throw the continuous mix on for a party.

Apparently there have been so many, many complaints about the quality of the streaming at the Village Vanguard that they are suspending the program indefinitely. In the end, I didn't catch either night of Kenny Barron. Maybe it is just as well...

Digging a bit deeper into what is available on iTunes. Not everything, but sometimes it feels close. There are at least 7 albums (and 2 best of compilations) by the Devera Ngwena Jazz Band and 20+ albums by Thomas Mapfumo, as well as 20+ albums by Leonard Dembo and Barura Express. I am just working my way through these albums and can't really make any clear recommendations right now but am digging them. It appears all these artists are from Zimbabwe, which is why they all sort of clustered in the recommendations. I was aware of Mapfumo before, but not the other two groups.