SillyDog701

[richard mitnick]

O.K., here is what I am working on.

I ran across a classical music critic named Greg Sandow. An RSS feed had sixteen chapters of his book, "The Future of Classical Music?" He put up the chapters as blog entries at www.artsjournal.com. After each chapter, he invited comments and responses. But, the sixteen chapters was all there was. So, I got his email address and asked about the rest of the book.

I also told him that I had found his web site with links to his complete Wall Street Journal archive of music criticism, and his work for New Music Box. I told him I was going to put everything together in a book, complete with tables of Contents and pagination. I said that I was going to use the compilation as a study guide for buying music. I aid that since it was all going to be one file, it would be searchable.

Greg said that he was delighted, and could he have a copy. Well, of course.

The book is built and paginated in three sections (cover page, Tables of Contents, Text) and printed out at 804 pages (402 sheets 8-1/2" x 11"). I did two files, a Word 97-2003 file, and a .pdf file.

So, as soon as I finish with Alex Ross' "The Rest Is Noise", I can get into Greg's work. I chose Greg because he had a good body of criticism available and because he champions New Music, as do I.

>>RSM

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[Don_HH2K]

I read Steven Levitt's Freakonomics over the winter break. I was stuck in a hospital waiting room for a couple of hours, so I had a great chance to read it uninterrupted from start to finish. That combined with [sdp=92984]The Undercover Economist[/sdp] earlier this year really gave me a new outlook on how the sorts of things going on in the world really work.

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[iJohnE]

Hmm, a recent trip to a thrift shop landed me with these:



These will be good reads for my extreme interest in Web and Graphic design.

Amazing what a dollar and fifty cents will land you isn't it?

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[Antony]

In [sdp=94379]November last year[/sdp] I posted following,

I ordered Stephen Kochan's Programming in Objective-C 2.0 (2nd Edition) on Amazon on 6 June 2008. Back then, I knew the book was not published yet, and was scheduled to be published in late October.

Today I received an email from Amazon that requires my approval for the delay. The new estimated arrival date is late January 2009.

And yesterday, I finally received the book.


The total time waiting for the book counting from the date I ordered (in 6th June 2008) is 6 months and 2 weeks.

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[iJohnE]

In [sdp=94379]November last year[/sdp] I posted following,

I ordered Stephen Kochan's Programming in Objective-C 2.0 (2nd Edition) on Amazon on 6 June 2008. Back then, I knew the book was not published yet, and was scheduled to be published in late October.

Today I received an email from Amazon that requires my approval for the delay. The new estimated arrival date is late January 2009.

And yesterday, I finally received the book.


The total time waiting for the book counting from the date I ordered (in 6th June 2008) is 6 months and 2 weeks.

Wow, that's a bit of a wait. Hope it's a good read anyways.

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[Don_HH2K]

I just finished George Orwell's 1984. Now there's a novel I can really relate to.

I've actually had a lot of surprised responses from people, assuming that I'd read it a long time ago and taken it to heart.

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[richard mitnick]

So glad that I got this notice, serves as a reminder.

I finished Alex Ross' "The Rest Is Noise" some time ago. It was definitely worth reading this book about serious music- Classical and Jazz- in the twentieth century. Ross, who writes for The New Yorker, is probably the preeminent music critic in the US today.

So, now on to Gary Giddings' "The Weather Bird", collected Jazz criticism written for the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, and others. I really did not know who Giddings was when I bought the book. My wife and I visit a bookshop open Christmas Eve every year in New Hope, PA, USA. It's the best bookshop I have ever been in. It is Farley's Book Shop. Anyway, I bought this for myself, and a book on Chamber music for my friend. Both very heavy stuff.

Later, I remembered that I know of Giddings from the radio documentaries on John Coltrane and Miles Davis produced by Steve Rowland ( http://www.artistowned.com ) and also from Ken Burns' ten part Jazz series for US PBS. Not only all of that, but now about a quarter into the book, I can say the guy not only know Jazz, but also, man, can he write.

I have ahead of me, if I am brave, an 800 page compendium that I built out of the meanderings of Greg Sandow, a current New York City music critic. I emailed Greg and told him that I was putting all of his material which is on thr internet, so public, 16 chapters of a book on the future of Classical Music, and about twenty five years of critical articles for the Wall Street Journal, plus all of the blog entries at artsjournal.com and newmusicbox.com , all into one file, which I would then build into chapters, paginate and print. When Greg heard it would all be one file, and, thus, highly searchable, has asked me for a copy and told me I was a treasure.

So, there!!

Hey!! BTW, I just started a blog! It is on Public Radio and serious music, Classical and Jazz. It is at http://richardmitnick.wordpress.com . Take a look, leave me some comments, tell me what you think.

>>RSM

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[iJohnE]

I just finished reading "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky.


I must say, it is a very fast read, and has a very catching storyline.

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[Antony]

Unlike many others, I don't usually read novels. (to Don: you don't expect a non-English speaker to be able to read novels)

Here's the latest book I bought:

The Complete Guide to Light & Lighting in Digital Photography by Michael Freeman

I first read some of the pages in the library, and I decided that I need to get a copy for myself.

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[Antony]

I picked up those two books few days ago:

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[richard mitnick]

My Latest was "Ripped - How The Wired Generation Revolutionized Music" by Greg Kott (New York, Scribners, 2009)



((Egad!! I did it. I figured out how to do an image. Except, this is not the image, this is a link to the URL of the image at Amazon, which is how I do it for my weblog.))

Mr. Kot had the opportunity to address the whole phenomenon of the movement of music, at least in the USA, from terrestrial radio and purchased CD's, to web streaming and .mp3 (pacem Antony) downloads. Instead he addressed only popular music and specific bands. My review is available at Amazon.

>>RSM
NJ Weather: storm clouds gathering

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[James]

Just finished the first in a series of light-reading by Gail Fraser: Lumby Lines. I'm now on her second: Stealing Lumby and have her third in the wings. Really enjoy her writing (light, humorous, some mystery, some love interests, character development). Good stuff.

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[Antony]

Well, you guys have to excuse Antony for not speaking English. I just started reading Winnie the Pooh for the first time. And my first eBook on iPad.



It is very comfortable to read on the iPad in my opinion. Much easier and more comfortable than using a laptop.
Sorry, I don't own an Amazon Kindle, and I don't know what it is like on a Kindle.

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[richard mitnick]

Antony-

I am 69 yrs. Not too long ago, I read "Charlotte's Web" for the first time. I cried at the end. You might try it next.

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[James]

Yes, I've read books meant for younger people (and quite enjoyed them). Right now, I'm on my third of Jan Karon's "Mitford" series.

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