It occurs to me that I am repeating certain phrases, with slight variations. I suppose it would pay for me to re-read the previous post before launching forth into my rant du jour. I will retire the locution "trigger-happy pseudo-cowboy" and the stock sentence that trails after it forthwith. I apologize for any tedium this may have caused.

On a different note, one day I noticed that they were advertising the Venuti & Lang Box Set up top here. I couldn't believe it--Eddie Lang is my all-time favorite guitarist, the WHOLE REASON I took up playing the guitar. (I actually SOUND like Eddie, too--on one of his bad days, and with much lighter gauge strings, when the lobster-claws I call hands are unswollen enough to permit such musical attempts.) Really--Eddie Lang is the BEST GUITARIST EVER. (I'll rhapsodize about ART TATUM and his influence on my piano playing another day.)