So, it’s time to revisit some of my old Newman movies. I sort of realized he was near to the end judging by various news stories in the last couple of months - I even came across an obituary draft somewhere on the web a few weeks ago. But it’s sad nonetheless. I enjoyed a lot of his movies growing up - The Color of Money, Absence of Malice, The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Exodus are some of my favorites among his performances… oh, and I really enjoyed him in The Verdict. I even have quite fond memories of him in The Towering Inferno.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Movie legend Paul Newman dies, 83

Hollywood legend Paul Newman has died at the age of 83, his spokeswoman has confirmed.

I love the “Rothko Room” at Tate Modern. Here are 15 of his Seagram murals reunited in London until February 2009. Maybe I’ll skip New York and just go to London instead. A lot cheaper, to be sure.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Rothko’s murals reunited at Tate

Some of artist Mark Rothko’s most famous paintings have been reunited for an exhibition at London’s Tate Modern.

Looks like I’m going to New York in November. I must remember to bring my wallet this time:

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Munch’s Vampire to be auctioned

Edvard Munch’s 1894 masterpiece Vampire is to be sold after more than 70 years in the hands of a private collector.

My music player has been connected on and off to last.fm for a couple of years now, and I recently discovered this cool feature on the site. It’s my personal radio station, only playing tracks that I have previously played on my computer. I’ve played almost 20,000 tracks while being connected to last.fm, so it’s a pretty extensive library.

It’s a great way for me to listen to my favorite music if I’m travelling - and a great way for you to get an impression of my listening habits. Ha. So if you dare, pay a visit to my music library - prepare to be… softened:

mainsection’s Library – Last.fm

My, my. What has the world come to? I love liner notes and life just wouldn’t be the same without them.

Music - For Shoutouts to Mom and God, Check Online - NYTimes.com

MUSIC geeks flipping through the CD booklet for Teddy Thompson’s “A Piece of What You Need,” released last month by Verve Forecast, may be in for a shock. Instead of the names of the musicians and technicians who worked on the album, or any thank-you’s to friends, they’ll find a photo of a beach, followed by a blank panel. A sentence in small type directs listeners to Mr. Thompson’s Web site for “full album credits and more details.”

Oh, yes! If you’re using Firefox and like to use keyboard shortcuts, this is a great add-on:

Mouseless Browsing :: Firefox Add-ons

Mouseless Browsing (MLB) enables you to browse the web entirely with the keyboard. The basic principle is to add small boxes with unique ids behind every link and/or form element. You just have to type in the id and press enter (there is also an automatice mode available) to trigger the corresponding action i.e. following a link, pressing a button or selecting a textfield…

Update: Turns out it wasn´t so great after all. It completely messed up my Google Reader page, and I spend the better part of my day on it, so I had to disable this add-on pretty quickly.

I downloaded Al Kooper’s live album “Soul of a Man” (1995) from eMusic today. Listening to it right now for the first time, I’m blown away - what a great live album. Sitting here reading old posts on Kooper’s site. This is an interesting segment from 2004 about music publishers. Greedy bastards.

AL’S UPDATES

Second off, the 5.1 SACD Surround Sound versions of SUPER SESSION and CHILD IS FATHER TO THE MAN are completed and ready for release. There are many difficulties in the world of Surround nowadays. The latest is thus:

SONY wants to release a hybrid disc with a:
1) two track remastered stereo version plus a
2) two track remastered SACD stereo version plus
3) a 5.1 SACD Surround Sound version.

Music publishers are balking about this and demanding to be paid three times the normal royalties because of the three “versions” This has put our babies on hold until all this greediness gets sorted out. Its COMPLETELY out of my hands when these masters will be released. When I know for sure, I will post that info up here ASAP. Soooo, no need to ask about that anymore, okay ?

Social Iciness Is Found to Alter Perception of Temperature - NYTimes.com

For every congenial character who can warm a room, there’s another who can bring a draft from the north, a whiff of dead winter. And even if the thermometer doesn’t register the difference, people do: social iciness feels so cold to those on the receiving end that they will crave a hot drink, a new study has found.

So I guess that explains my coffee addiction. Norwegians are notoriously icy.

Pink Floyd keyboard player and founder member Richard Wright has died aged 65 from cancer.

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Floyd founder Wright dies at 65

So many famous people dying at the moment.

I guess it feels like it, because I’m approaching a certain age (in my late 30s), and a lot of the artists who influenced me growing up are getting old - approaching their 60s and 70s.

When I was young, only old vaudeville entertainers and pre-war Hollywood stars died. How the times have changed.

High prose skills over on allmusic:

allmusic ((( Brother Where You Bound > Overview )))
Lyrically, it can be interpreted as Davies’ feelings of betrayal at Hodgson’s departure, but the piano, percussion and horns are superb.

Well, I suppose as long as the piano, percussion and horns are superb, anything goes.