It has to be said, parts of Cesar Franck's Prelude Chorale et Fugue sound like they were written by Philip Glass. Specifically mid-way through the fugue, when the fugue subject has been worked through several times and he starts to pull in the themes from the other movements, when the chorale theme is recapitulated in the broken arpeggio style of the prelude, the chord progression and the arpeggios sound just like Philip Glass. I played this piece at my first recital when I was a sophomore in high school, and of course didn't know anything about Philip Glass then (who at that point had just made his first splash with Einstein on the Beach), so I couldn't appreciate it then. I've been listening to Rubinstein's recording lately, and played it through myself a couple of times, and it just struck me. It's as close as you'll get to hearing Rubinstein play something modern.



Won a few more Doc Savage auctions through eBay over the weekend, bringing the total well into the 80's. I had won several auctions from the same person a couple of weeks ago, but it wasn't until after I received the books and was logging them on the spreadsheet that I noticed one was missing. I e-mailed this woman who was the seller, waited a few days to hear back, she was very apologetic, but only offered to credit it (a whopping $1.49) towards something else, although she didn't elaborate on whether she meant another auction or buying something outright. When I e-mailed back to ask, I got no response. And she doesn't have anything up for bid at the moment, either, although there were quite a few Doc Savage and even the Ballantine Tarzan books in her last batch, so it wouldn't be difficult to find something. But what am I supposed to do for feedback to this person, since the transaction isn't over yet, she claims to be willing to make good, but then stops responding. I hate to trash anyone unnecessarily, mistakes happen and all, and it is only $1.49 (and I since won the book from someone else on Sunday), but it's the principle of the thing.



Reminds me of my "favorite" pulp dealer, Ray Bowman, from whom I bought sf paperbacks and digest magazines for several years back in the '90's. My last purchase from him, probably like three or four years ago now, was of eight or nine sf magazines of varying ages, I think containing Algis Budrys stories mostly. The trick with this guy was that he was cheap, but you had to wait, sometimes almost six months for him to get around to shipping the books, because it was only a hobby and if things got busy in his real job then everyone else suffered. This time the turnaround wasn't too long, but he sent me two copies of one magazine and left out one of the others. I sent the duplicate back with a nice letter pointing out his mistake and asking for the other magazine, since I'd already paid for it (like $6 or $7). No response. Months later, I sent a follow-up, again asking for either the magazine or my money back, still no response. So I stopped buying from him. I would've spent a few hundred dollars more on his stuff by now, but screw him, I don't care how busy he is. His catalog would feature letters from readers that particularly annoyed him, most rightly so, people asking to be sent pulps on spec, etc., but I think a little bit of customer service wouldn't have hurt in this case. He even has a website, but doesn't e-mail people. When you deal in sf magazines and pulps, these are the kind of people you sometimes encounter. Most of the more agreeable, accesible ones weren't as cheap, or else you go to eBay and bid $3.50 on a Doc Savage paperback that is neither a first edition nor in mint condition, only to have two other people bid against each other and run it up to $10.50, which is ridiculous, since I ended up buying the exact same one at a later auction for $2.50.



It's a common rant. I don't have any place to put more sf magazines at the moment anyway, but one of these days, hopefully soon, I'll get together some shelving for them all, and it will be quite a formidable collection, and then the gaps will be very obvious, and I will begin to seek out those missing issues. But Ray "Always Leave 'em Hanging" Bowman will not have my custom.