LATEST ADDITIONS

I don't want a symphony orchestra in my room: That's crazy. I want their <I>music</I>, played with enough realism that I can hear how it's done.

I want to start this year's gift recommendations by briefly revisiting the results of my Musical Cultural Literacy for Americans write-in competition, which ran in the April issue. All 12 winning entries of 12 selections each are <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/thefifthelement/407fifth/index3.html">posted online</A> (footnote 1).

Now that Christmas has come and gone, and my need to hear Bobby Helms' "Jingle Bells Rock" has subsided &mdash; I'm not sure but I think it has something to do with those electric guitar flourishes&#151, it's seems an appropriate time to say something about the continuing and astonishing turmoil in the record business which according to most sources experienced a nearly 20 percent decline in sales of physical product compared with last Christmas.

For a cat who only drinks water, Huckleberry certainly does a passable imitation of a drunken stupor.

It occurs to me that in the three years I've been posting Friday cat blogging, I have never photographed Bagheera asleep. That wary look of hers is as close to complacent as she gets.

Now <I>Rolling Stone</I> has noticed the <A HREF="http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17777619/the_death_of_high_fidel… wars</A>.

Well, if you're tired of being jolly, you <I>could</I> go see <I>No Country For Old Men</I>, which will counteract any amount of Whooville saccharine. John Patterson has a <A HREF="http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,2230352,00.html"… time</A> with the Coen brothers.

To see the big picture, go to <A HREF="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071225.html">Astronomy Picture of the Day</A>.

John Atkinson and I spent some time today admiring <a href="http://www.myspace.com/talwilkenfeld">Tal Wilkenfeld</a>'s bass playing. Sheesh. The girl is only 21 years old. Beyond her sheer skill, which is stunning, Wilkenfeld seems to just <i>know how to play</i>. I first caught her on PBS one night while flipping through channels. It was Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival, and she was performing with Jeff Beck. I was surprised to see such a young musician on stage with one of rock's living legends, but I soon discovered that Wilkenfeld was right where she belonged. Seems she <i>always</i> knew. Story goes that Wilkenfeld dropped out of her Sydney, Australia high school when she was only 16. Packed her bags and moved to Los Angeles to become a musician. She's only been playing bass for five years.