Library

My wife is wonderful. She is cataloging my library for me so I can search and find what I'm looking for. There is no way I could do it because it is just way too tedious for me. So far she has done a little over 1500 books and I think she might be just about half way done but that's just a guess. A lot of the books were in boxes so I'm going to need to buy more book shelves. That's had a ripple effect as we are now looking at re-organizing the basement to accommodate them better.

She has thought about the possibility of turning it into a business. You'd need a lot of wealthy people willing to have their books cataloged in order to make it work and I'm just not sure you'd find that many. Some would say it is costing me a lot but I think I'm getting a bargain.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/datema

Beck

My birthday was several months ago but I was given some cash instead of a gift to go buy a book or some music. I knew what I wanted but it didn't get released until late March. The wait was hard but I am now the proud owner of "Jeff Beck: performing this week...Live at Ronnie Scott's" the DVD. It is 2 hours and 35 minutes of pure heaven.

It is basically the set he has been playing for a year or two now with a few guest appearances from Jos Stone, Imogen Heap, and Eric Clapton. Jeff, Vinnie, Tal, and Jason make a few changes to account for the small venue but I like it just as much as what I've heard in the past. All three guests compliment the rest of the set beautifully. In other words, you aren't watching and wondering what they are doing there, or thinking that they were just thrown in for the star appeal. (If you are after star appeal just watch the audience.) They combine with Jeff's style but take it somewhere it wouldn't go without their own unique talents.

Even Clapton does a great job with this. I'm all for watching Clapton and Beck play together but it would easy for that combination to be very predictable. But Clapton playing Little Brown Bird and You Need Love with Jeff messing around with the bottle neck is great.

Imogen is the most interesting of the three guests though. She brings her own unique style to Blanket and Rollin' and Tumblin' and sounds like a Stratocaster all by herself.

All in all I would say this is one of the best music purchases I've ever made. Time to sit back and enjoy some more.