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>>Next will be Eric DuPont's Songs for the Cold of Heart. (Which is much better known as The American Fiancée.) I'm mostly done with this. I'm liking the second half (in modern era) more than the parts set in Quebec in the 50s and 60s (pre-Quiet Revolution). I decided to take something different on a trip out to Edmonton. I got almost all the way through Oliver Twist (never tackled it before) and read a bit into Manu Joseph's Serious Men.

I saw The Shining for the very first time last week. This must be one of the most spoiled movies of all time, as I knew all the main plot points. That was fine. I'm not a fan of scary/eerie movies, though I obviously made an exception here, and it helped not wondering when the next scary scene would be.

An awful lot of the stores I went to are gone (Dr Wax and Rose Records - sigh) but Reckless Records is still around. It carries both CDs and vinyl. It doesn't specialize in jazz like Dusty Groove, but the one in Wicker Park (in Milwaukee just off the Blue Line) has a fair selection of everything. https://www.reckless.com/

Wrapping up Dawn Powell's The Golden Spur. I believe this is the last of her "New York" novels. Quite droll. Next will be Eric DuPont's Songs for the Cold of Heart. (Which is much better known as The American Fiancée.)

Just saw Dave Young in a quintet at The Rex with Reg Schwager on guitar and Brian Dickinson on piano. The first set they played quite a few of Young's originals. The second set was mostly standards, like Blue in Green, some Cedar Walton tunes and then Gershwin's "I Loves You, Porgy." I left a bit early as they were digging into another Cedar Walton tune, Shaky Jake.

Caught Beetlejuice Beetlejuice today. The parts with Catherine O'Hara and Winona Ryder are not nearly as interesting as those involving Jenna Ortega, at least until we are dropped back into the underworld. Overall, quite entertaining though perhaps more fake gore than I was expecting...

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I'm not sure when this happened, but Patton's Soul Connection hit Bandcamp. https://bigjohnpatton.bandcamp.com/album/soul-connection I guess it was still vinyl only, which is sold out, but the DL is still available, which is close enough for my purposes.

PM sent on Akiyoshi and one of the Wilens (More from Barney)

I gave up on The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers as I was nearing the halfway mark. I'm really enjoying The Quick and the Dead by Joy Williams, and incidentally am also near the halfway mark.

Just saw a film called DiDi, which is about an Asian-American boy growing up in the early years of the internet (2008). It felt a lot like Boyhood at times. Parts were certainly tough to watch, even a bit triggering for somewhat who was extremely socially awkward in middle school and high school. Here's a pretty good review: https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/jul/30/didi-movie-coming-age-internet Fun fact, Didi's mother is played by Joan Chen, who also played the mother in Saving Face (2004).

RIP. So fortunate for me, I was actually able to see him on a couple of different times he was passing through Chicago and playing at the Jazz Showcase.

He came kind of near me (Richmond Hill, ONT) and I seriously considered it, but, not having a car, it is a huge drag to get there from where I am, and I was definitely worried about being stranded after the transit system stopped. I probably should have just figured it out (or maybe even Ubered it). I would have done so the following year(s), but I think the closest he has come lately is Albany. ☹️ Anyway, I just saw Pat LaBarbera with Neil Swainson and Terry Clarke at the Rex. It was a sold out show. Which is terrific! This is their annual John Coltrane birthday celebration. This time around they did Giant Steps, Blue Trane and part of A Love Supreme, in addition to other material that Trane played. Very good show. I also managed to get Neil's latest CD from him, and he signed it for me. 👍

Fair, though I don't know that this is actually an misunderstood masterpiece. Still debating but I may end up seeing it in the end. Curiously, I have been reading up a bit on Altman's Quintet which had very poor reviews at the time, but a small number of critics are viewing it more positively these days. But I think that is still a minority view...

There is a 4K restoration of North by Northwest making the rounds. I wouldn't say it was advertised well here in Toronto. I found out about it completely by happenstance and saw it last night. It looks fantastic! I think there were only about 20 people in the theatre. Had this been playing over at TIFF as part of their regular showings, it would have sold out. I am hoping to see Cronenberg's The Shrouds soon when it gets a general release. I didn't attempt to watch it as part of the TIFF Festival. Has anyone seen Coppola's Megalopolis? It sounds like a complete mess, but maybe worth watching (once) as a fascinating trainwreck?

Just stumbled across this while looking up something else: https://shop.bluenote.com/products/blue-spirits-85-years-of-blue-note-records-2cd Looks like it is out Sept 20, though it may already be available for pre-order. It's a little more adventurous than a typical compilation, particularly Disc 2 (though this does contain one Norah Jones track...). I would have liked to see if they could have squeezed Andrew Hill and/or Bobby Hutcherson onto Disc 1 (and 'Ghetto Lights' from Dialogue might have been just the ticket)... I'm relatively unlikely to pick this up, but I will follow up on some of the music on CD2 that I am not as familiar with.

I don't think there is a separate thread for live rock shows, so I'll just stick this here. Squeeze has been actively touring North America, and they just played Massey Hall. The English Beat (or rather the original lead singer from The English Beat and a good supporting cast) opened. Squeeze are ridiculously tight, playing all the hits you would expect but actually taking them in (slightly) new directions and doing extended jams on about half of them. Probably the best rock concert I've seen this year. I'm very glad this rose well above the level of a Golden Oldies tour, at least in my view.

Kind of kicking myself that I went ahead and ordered a few things yesterday, thinking it was Bandcamp Friday. D'ohh! Oh well... Rob Mazurek's Skull Sessions https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/skull-sessions and A Night Walking Through Mirrors by Chicago / London Underground which features Rob Mazurek and Alexander Hawkins (not sure he still is lurking on the site but he formerly was a regular...) https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-night-walking-through-mirrors

I've seen this claim (that Here for a While is his third recording) but I think people are not counting Red Shift and probably not Tranquility where Neil is co-leader with Don Thompson (but still gets first billing). I've been streaming a lot of Zorn lately, but I just ordered Tomeka Reid's Old New off of Bandcamp, so I'm listening to that right now.

Looks like this came out yesterday! I should see if I can get in touch with Neil and have him bring a few along when he plays The Rex with Pat LaBarbera in mid Sept.

It still was saying Maintenance this evening, which does seem like an exceptionally long time to be down... This link does seem to work, however: https://www.tzadik.com/home_frame.php It does recommend ordering all these sets through DMG. At one point, there was very limited material from Tzadik on the various streaming services. It looks like quite a lot has been added about a year ago, including a nearly complete run of Book of Angels, but the Masada material is a bit spotty. It is possible to stream Masada Guitars (which is actually Masada Anniversary Vol 1.) and then Masada Anniversary Vols 2-5. Also, the New Masada Quartet is available, but quite a bit from the box set is left out. As far as I can tell, the individual volumes in these Bagatelle box sets is not available. No idea if it might be added at some later date. I'm tempted by some of the sets, but I think first I really should try to absorb all the other music on Tzadik which became available a while back.

I'm almost done with James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain, his first novel. I should finish it tonight. After this, I'll alternate Cela's The Hive (NYRB), in a relatively new translation, and Ashby's Glass Houses, which is some sort of suspense-SF novel involving AI and a remote island. It sounds like it might have ripped off some plot points from Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. If I'm enjoying it, I'll stick it out, but I'm getting more quick to drop books these days, so we shall see.

I just watched this (in a theatre, no less!) for the first time since 1987. It wasn't until roughly 45 minutes in that we realized they were running it without subtitles, and it was too late at that point to fix it. There are probably only 3 or 4 scenes where they really were required, but it was still a bit annoying. On the one hand, it gets a little old watching his French pal go searching for him after Dex goes on one bender after another. On the other hand, seeing so many jazz legends captured at or near their prime was amazing. (I knew that Bobby Hutcherson was in the cast and enjoyed his performance in the club, but didn't realize he was also Ace, who always had a pot of something in his hand.) Dan Ackroyd said something along the same lines, that even if Blues Brothers didn't succeed as a movie (and I think it certainly did!) they managed to put an awful lot of great musicians on film.

I don't believe I ever heard of Call of the Gators before. Listening on iTunes now. 👍

I believe I have read 15 (though I can't recall if I actually read or only skimmed the Didion). One on the list I finished but regretted bothering with, and one I dropped with prejudice after only a chapter. There aren't that many left on the list that really feel like "must reads" to me other than Judt's Postwar.