A couple of comments about the Hemophiliac CD: My understanding is that its high price owes to three things: it's a limited edition (2,500 copies), it's autographed by all three artists, and--the most important aspect of this project--it served as a fund-raiser for Tzadik. According to an interview with Zorn, accessible by a link at the bottom of Tzadik's homepage, Tzadik routinely loses $20,000 a year (if I remember correctly), a loss that is mostly made up by the willingness of some of Tzadik's artists to forego royalty payments. For those of you on this list whose appetite has been whetted to buy a copy of Hemophiliac, be forewarned that it now costs $60 (US). The Tzadik website no longer lists it. When I queried them about it, they told me they were out of stock. Mike Patton's website--the second of the three outlets that sold Hemophiliac--doesn't list it. That leaves the Downtown Music Gallery. Great service. Just remember to choke back the bile when ordering at the higher price! More generally speaking, I've read in the past few weeks some grumblings about the quality of Tzadik's releases, specifically about the lack of material that surprises and swathes out new musical ground. Well, that's as may be. I love the label because, of the purchases I've made, the music has been consistently good and interesting, which I think is more important than "newness." We've had people on this list praising the 40-CD set of Ellington material. The last time the Duke broke new ground was the day he was buried. And, as Ellington is supposed to have said, there's only two types of music: good and bad. (How those terms are defined is, of course, another (contentious!) matter.) I'm willing to take at face value the sincere interest of a particular performer or composer to play or write good music, be s/he playing free jazz or surf. What I try to evaluate as a listener, then, is not to wonder if a performer is trying to scam me with shit music s/he hopes I'm too stupid or gullible to see for the shit it is, but to figure out if a piece of music has succeeded in communicating at some level that has meaning for me. Just as there are few things easier in the world to do than to write a bad poem, so it goes with writing or performing a bad song. And few things harder to do than writing or performing *well.* All right. I'll dismount my soapbox for the day. --Tom