Gonna take a blogging sabbatical ...

...for a while as me and the Mrs. (as they would say in a V.S. Pritchett story) toodle off to Puerto Rico where we hope it won’t be raining as much as the forecast predicts. In the meantime I leave you with a list of some of my favorite digital haunts in the hope that one or two might strike your fancy. Then you too can join the growing ranks of virtual slackers and web loiterers who can be found at such places as….

www.aldaily.com
My default homepage for many years. Commentary, articles, essays, reviews and lots more from all over the world…taking you directly to the source. Column on the left is your link to …you name it. Pretty much can get anywhere from here.



http://thebrowser.com/
lots of stuff to read







http://www.edge.org/
Thinkers thinking about all kinds of stuff including thinking --and lots of other such nonsense including The World Question Center. (I use nonsense in the best sense of the word)




http://www.manybooks.net Free downloadable books. Offshoot of Gutenberg Project I assume. From classics to dime-store pulp from the roaring 20s. If the copyright has expired or for some reason it’s available, you’ll probably find it here. Search and ye shall find. This is how I read Moby Dick….I printed out 50 pages a day and read on the train.


http://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/
Rex Parker is the NY Times Puzzle savant and his blog is fun reading as he deconstructs nearly every clue and tosses in clips and comments about his other enthusiams…I used to visit when the puzzle was more challenging and wanted to see what he had to say, but the puzzle has become too easy of late.


http://www.dailygames.com/
Games. Online. There must be a million just like this, but this is the one I go to when the urge strikes. Not a bad selection of puzzle games.


http://www.55bar.com/
My favorite place to hear music in NYC. Small (and cramped) run-down dive bar with no food (not even pretzels—but they don’t care if you bring your own) about 6 small tables that seat three un-comfortably, about 15 stools at the bar, a few wooden booths in the back and a cover charge that rarely exceeds 10 bucks—and that’s only if they remember to collect it.
But the best musicians in the world play here…and it’s like having them playing in your living room—assuming your living room resembles a beat-up rundown dive bar. Mike Stern is a regular and Richard Bona is fast becoming one. If you see them together (as in photo above) you won’t soon forget it.

My friend and master musician David Shapiro turned me on to Matt Munisteri. http://mattmunisteri.com/index.html
If you like John Pizzarelli but think he can get just a bit too cute and corny –then you’ll like Matt. Old school jazz with genuine craft and enthusiasm. What my son used to call “smile” music.



To make up for this thinner than usual post, I offer you the following from Sidney Bechet, who was to the Sax (and earlier, the clarinet) what Louis Armstrong was to the trumpet. Like Armstrong, Bechet was a huge influence on everyone who followed. In France, he was treated like a god. He was a complicated and difficult character and had a rough and tumble life, but he sure could blow. This clip was from a film shot a year before he died. The tune is his own composition Premier Bal.