Photos of my little niece, Laura

Laura Ottobre 2006

Cina - Nascita di un impero

Sono appena stato a vedere la mostra alle Scuderie del Quirinale, "Cina, Nascita di un Impero", ed è meravigliosa. Consiglio a tutti di andarla a vedere!

 

Oscar Peterson - The Final Concerts

 

The Final Concerts Oscar Peterson Featuring: Oscar Peterson (p), Ray Brown (b), Ed Thigpen (dr) REFERENCE: 69208 BAR CODE: 8436028692088 PRICE:  12.45 € The May 29, 1965 concert marks the final performance of the finest piano trio in jazz history, featuring pianist Oscar Peterson, bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen. The quartet performed eight outstanding tracks, which included five modern jazz standards and three original Peterson compositions - "The Smudge", "Lovers Promenade" and "Children's Tune". This edition also includes the outstanding London, October 1, 1964 concert featuring the trio in full swing on five modern jazz standards and four more Peterson compositions including: "Hallelujah Time", "Place St. Henri", "Nightingale" and "Reunion Blues". Tracklisting : 1. Younger Than Spring Time 2. Misty 3. Django 4. Smudge 5. Autumn Leaves 6. Moanin' 7. Lovers Promenade 8. Children's Tune 9. Hallelujah Time 10. Con Alma 11. Waltz for Debby 12. Cubano Chant 13. Yours Is My Heart Alone 14. Place St. Henri 15. My One and Only Love 16. Nightingale 17. Reunion Blues

Ike Turner - Risin' with the Blues

Zoho Roots Is Pleases To Announce Their Second Zoho Roots Release:

Ike Turner
Risin' with the Blues
Zoho Roots 200611
Street Date: September 14, 2006

There is no denying Ike Turner’s place in musical history. While the general public may know about his heyday with the Ike & Tina Turner Revue during the ‘60s (a meteroic rise to fame that peaked with their early ‘70 hits “Proud Mary” and “Nutbush City Limits”), only hardcore Ike fans and jump blues enthusiasts are aware of him spearheading the formative years of rock ‘n’ roll with the 1951 hit “Rocket 88”(cut in Memphis by his Kings of Rhythm but issued on Chicago’s Chess Records label under the name Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats). Few know of Turner’s role as a kind of super talent scout of the South during the 1950s for both the Chess brothers of Chicago’s Chess Records or the Bihari brothers of Los Angeles’ Modern/RPM Records. Fewer still know of Ike’s participation on several early ‘50s RPM recordings by B.B. King (including his piano accompaniment on King’s 1951 hit “Three O’Clock Blues” and his 1952 followup “You Know I Love You”), his playing second guitar on classic 1958 Cobra sessions for Buddy Guy and Otis Rush (including Rush’s signature pieces “Double Trouble” and “All Your Love (I Miss Loving)”), or hammering the 88s behind the likes of Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Little Walter, and Willie Dixon during the 1950s.

While playing as a house pianist in West Memphis "blacks only" blues clubs, Ike often snuck in a young white truck driver to sit next to the piano to study Ike's boogie style and dance moves: that kid was Elvis Presley.

In the 1960's, Ike's influence on several of the most recognized names in Rock continued: Janis Joplin sought Turner for vocal coaching, and a young Jimi Hendrix played in Ike's Kings of Rhythm for a time. As a teenager, Bonnie Bramlett was briefly a member of the Ikettes, prior to starting her own rise to stardom a few years later.

In retrospect, Ike’s early innovations seem to have been overshadowed by his notoriety in later years. Following the breakup of Ike & Tina in 1976, Turner entered a dark period of self-imposed exile marked by his heavy cocaine addiction. “I just went into a 15-year party,” is how he put it. The ‘90s were further marred by his incarceration for cocaine possession at the outset of the decade and the public besmirching of his name by the 1993 movie What’s Love Got To Do With It?, which portrays Tina’s take on their tumultuous 18-year relationship. But like the mythical phoenix, Ike would eventually rise from the ashes of his fallen career and begin life anew.

With 2001’s triumphant Here and Now, one thing was eminently clear: the swagger was back in Ike Turner’s stride. That comeback album took critics by surprise,
proving that, at age 70, he still had plenty of fire left to give. The album received a GRAMMY nomination for "Best Traditional Blues album" in 2001, and a 2002 W.C. Handy Blues Award in 2002.

On Risin' with the Blues, the R&B icon and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer takes the intensity level up a notch or two with typically slashing-stinging guitar work, rollicking boogie woogie piano flourishes and some of the nastiest, rawest, most potent vocals he’s ever summoned up in a fabled career that dates back more than 50 years.

“All my life I was afraid to come out front and sing,” says the longtime bandleader who throughout his career stood behind a dynamic front person, whether it was Jackie Brenston, Billy Gayles or Clayton Love in the early years or Tina Turner during the ‘60s and ‘70s. “I don’t know whether I was too bashful to sing it myself on stage, I just liked it better in the background.”

Ike is in the background no more. Throughout Risin'with the Blues, he wails with ferocious authority as the vocal front man while wielding a wicked ax and pumping the piano keys with the energy of a man half his age. On an ultra-funky update of Hound Dog Taylor’s “Gimme Back My Wig,” he snarls his way through the humorous lyrics while on a powerful horn-fueled reading of Eddie Boyd’s “Five Long Years” (retitled here as “Eighteen Long Years” to commemorate the span of Ike’s marriage to Tina), he screams with cathartic abandon. On the infectious shuffle blues “Tease Me,” Ike gets downright menacing, then turns around and delivers the country flavored ballad “A Love Like Yours” with rare poignancy and emotional depth.

Turner cuts a wide stylistic swath on this powerhouse outing. There are bits of jazz extrapolation here in his instrumental “Mix It Up/Jazzy Fuzzy” and also on a faithful reading of Horace Silver’s “Senor Blues.” The urgent “I Don’t Want Nobody” is a dance floor number coming directly out of the Zapp-Bootsy Collins playbook while the (country blues) gospel flavored “Jesus Loves Me” has Turner testifying with evangelistic zeal. As he says of that confessional offering, “Behind all the crap that they said I been through, it’s like, ‘You can call me a bad boy, but when you get to calling me a bad boy, Jesus loves me anyway.’ And that’s the truth.”

On a rousing rendition of Louis Jordan’s 1946 hit “Caldonia” (cut when Ike was an impressionable 15-year-old growing up in Clarksdale, Mississippi), he pays tribute to a jump blues hero of his youth. “That’s my favorite guy, Louis Jordan,” he says. “I grew up with his music -- all those tunes I heard on the jukebox like ‘Caldonia,’ “Let The Good Times Roll’ and “Choo Choo Cha Boogie.’ That was a golden era, man! I was born in 1931 so I came up with all those great tunes by cats like Joe Liggins (1945’s “The Honeydripper”) and Jimmy Liggins (1947’s “Cadillac Boogie”), Roy Brown (1947’s “Good Rockin’ Tonight”), T-Bone Walker (1947’s “Stormy Monday Blues”) and Amos Milburn (1948’s “Chicken Shack Boogie”). That was my music, man! And when I finally formed the Kings of Rhythm, we were doing our own versions of all that stuff, just trying to put our own twist on it.”
Elsewhere on Risin' with the Blues, Turner’s guitar stings with a vengeance on “Rockin’ Blues,” he belts out vocals in robust style on “Goin’ Home Tomorrow” (a New Orleans flavored stroll reminiscent of Earl King’s “Those Lonely, Lonely Nights”) and digs into some downhome fingerstyle blues guitar work on the humorous “Big Fat Mama.” The funky instrumental “Bi Polar” showcases both Ike’s guitar and piano prowess while the organ-fueled closer, “After Hours,” is an Erskine Hawkins slow blues that highlights Ike’s soulful restraint on the ivories.
“Everything you hear on this record comes directly from the heart, man,” maintains the man who has been firmly rooted in the real-deal for over 50 years. “This whole album is about feeling.”
Amen to that. -- Bill Milkowski

Bill Milkowski is a regular contributor to Jazz Times and Jazziz magazines. He is also the author of “JACO: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius” (Backbeat Books) and “Swing It! An Annotated History of Jive” (Billboard Books)


Label Website: www.iketurner.com/

ZOHO™ is distributed by Allegro

Zoho Media contact:
Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 /

E-Mail: jazzpromo@earthlink.net

Jazz News: Monterey Jazz Festival Announces 2006 MJF County High School All-Star Band

Jazz News: Monterey Jazz Festival Announces 2006 MJF County High School All-Star Band: "Monterey Jazz Festival Announces 2006 MJF County High School All-Star Band
Posted: 2006-07-20


MONTEREY JAZZ FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2006 MJF COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL ALL-STAR BAND
EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOPS, CULTURAL EXCHANGES AND PERFORMANCES HIGHLIGHT TWO-WEEK TOUR OF JAPAN, JULY 25 - AUGUST 7

TOUR STARTS WITH PERFORMANCE AT THE NATIONAL STEINBECK CENTER IN SALINAS, JULY 24


Monterey, California; Since its inception in 1958, the Monterey Jazz Festival has invested its proceeds in education, providing a series of innovative music programs for young people. Over $500,000 is invested annually in the MJF's year-round jazz education programs, funded through a combination of Festival ticket revenue, grants, corporate sponsorship and individual contributions. The MJF investment in jazz education has paid off handsomely--recognizing, rewarding and nurturing the best and brightest young jazz musicians in the country.


In addition to the Monterey Jazz Festival's Next Generation Jazz Orchestra (which performed at the Jazz Standard in New York City, the International Music Festival in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy from July 9-16, and will appear at the 49th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival) the Monterey Jazz Festival has announced the members of the 2006 MJF County High School All-Star Band, the best and brightest student musicians from the Festival's home county.


Directed by renowned saxophonist and flautist Mr. Paul Contos, the 21-member MJF County High School All-Star Band features the finest young jazz musicians from high schools throughout Monterey County. Participants in the 2006 MJF County High School All-Star Band hail from the Monterey, Gonzales, Carmel, Everett Alvarez, Pacific Grove, Salinas, Palma/Notre Dame, Santa Catalina, and York High Schools, representing the cities of Monterey, Carmel, Salinas, Pacific Grove and Gonzalez. The students provide a glimpse into the future of jazz, and will partake in the festival's unique and exciting educational programs.


Since its creation, the MJF County High School All-Star Band has participated in a series of international concerts and cultural exchange programs, and will return to Monterey's sister city of Nanao, Japan from July 25 to August 7, 2006. Seven public concerts and workshops with Japanese high school students are scheduled at schools in Nanao, Senzoku University in Yokohama, the Tomisato Jazz Festival, and the Monterey Jazz Festival in Noto.

“This tour is an amazing experience for the students of Monterey County to participate in a unique cross-cultural program,” said Dr. Rob Klevan, Education Director for the Monterey Jazz Festival. “The exchange of knowledge and the experience of the tour will have a life- long impact on the students, not only broadening their musical horizons, but also expanding their knowledge and understanding of different cultures. Music is a universal language, and the tour will stay with the kids forever.”


Prior to their departure on the tour of Japan, the MJF County High School All Stars will perform on Sunday, July 23 at 7 PM at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas. Tickets are $10, and advance purchase is recommended. Please call (831) 775-4721 for more information.


With educational programs such as the MJF County High School Honor Band, the MJF County Middle School Honor Band, and the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, the Monterey Jazz Festival continues to change lives through jazz education and spread America's original art-form, jazz, from Monterey to the world.


The Monterey Jazz Festival's Jazz Education Programs are made possible in part through the generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Monterey Jazz Festival Commissioned Artist Program, the Monterey Jazz Festival Artist-in-Residence Program, the NEA/Jazz Masters on Tour Program, Verizon in partnership with Arts Midwest, and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation through a grant to Chamber Music America. The Monterey Jazz Festival is also proud to thank the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and many other generous grantors and individuals who support MJF's year-round youth jazz education programs.


The 2006 MJF County High School All-Star Band


Director
Mr. Paul Contos

Saxophones
Corey Watkins - alto, Monterey High School
Chris Lopez - alto, Gonzales High School
Emily Neff - tenor, Monterey High School
Kevin Call - tenor, Carmel High School
Kyle Murchison - baritone, Carmel High School

Trombones
Dakota Bell, Monterey High School
Davis Giedt, York School
Zachary McDaniel, Salinas High School
Kristen Rosa, Everett Alvarez High School
Justin Widmar (bass), Carmel High School

Trumpets
Daniel Bean, York School
Karl Gramespacher, Monterey High School
Conor Jones, Carmel High School
Kari McLaughlin, Palma/Notre Dame High School
Andrew Shepherd, Salinas High School

Rhythm
Emily Intersimone - piano, Santa Catalina School
Zach Parkes - bass, Carmel High School
Brice Albert - guitar, Monterey High School
Patrick Daniel - drums, Pacific Grove High School
Ross McCafferty - drums, Carmel High School
Sam Skemp - vocals, Monterey High School

Star Trek: Animated - Official Announcement, EXTRAS!!! & Package Art (WAAAY DIFFERENT Than Early Art!)

Star Trek: Animated - Official Announcement, EXTRAS!!! & Package Art (WAAAY DIFFERENT Than Early Art!)



The other day we had the official announcement that Paramount would release Star Trek: The Animated Series - All 22 Episodes of the Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek. This 4-DVD set arrives on November 21st, in a spiffy package (see below) for just $35 SRP. We've already listed the confirmed extras that you can be sure to find on this release, but here they are again:

• "Drawn to the Final Frontier - The Making of Star Trek: The Animated Series"
  
• "What's the Star Trek Connection?"
  
• Photo Gallery
  
• Show History
  
• Wallpaper
  
• AIM Icons
  
• Text Commentaries by Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda ("Yesteryear," "The Eye of the Beholder," "The Counter-Clock Incident")

Notice, though, that the announcement said "confirmed extras". Not necessarily the complete list, then? Right you are! Because we've gotten word from folks in-the-know that more bonus material is on the way, and some of it's just been recorded, or about to be recorded!



TVShowsOnDVD has learned that Interviews and Commentary Tracks with the people behind the scenes of these animated adventures are being produced! Filmation's Lou Scheimer is part of this, and so is Director Hal Sutherland. Associate Producer/Story Editor/"Yesteryear" Writer D.C. Fontana is also supposed to be involved, we hear.



And YOU willl hear from Russell Bates and David Wise, the Peabody Award-winning Co-Writers of the episode "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth". Writer David Gerrold is also going to be found on these DVDs, talking about his episodes "BEM" and the Cyrano Jones sequel, "More Tribbles, More Troubles". We've also heard that Judith and Garfield Reese-Stevens (Enterprise Writers/Co-Producers, and also Co-Authors of The Art of Star Trek) may also be on hand, to discuss their perspective on the show's place in Trek history. It's also possible that Walter Koenig himself (who did NOT voice act in The Animated Series, but rather was the Writer of the episode "The Infinite Vulcan") might make the scene.



Anything we sound unsure of, treat it as a rumor. There's only a few of those names that we're absolutely sure about. The rest are "maybes". If we get a definite list, we'll be back to provide it to you.



Scheimer and Gerrold also did some misc. voice acting on a few of these episodes, so keep a sharp ear out for them! Also, don't forget that the second-season episode "The Practical Joker" was the very first time we saw the "recreation room", which was the first ancestor of what became TNG's "holodeck". In case you don't remember, McCoy and Sulu and Uhura got trapped in there, in a number of changing dangerous conditions, including a blizzard! It's all part of the complete Animated Series DVDs! Here's another look at the packaging:

14. Rendere accessibile tutto il sapere - I Barbari - Repubblica.it

14. Rendere accessibile tutto il sapere - I Barbari - Repubblica.it: "14. Rendere accessibile tutto il sapere

di Alessandro Baricco


O almeno non è tutto il sapere. Per quanto derivata, spesso, da una certa incapacità a usare Google, è un'obbiezione sensata: ma non illudetevi troppo. Pensate che non sia stato lo stesso per la stampa e Gutenberg? Avete in mente le tonnellate di cultura orale, irrazionale, esoterica che nessun libro stampato ha mai potuto contenere? Ci pensate a tutto quello che è andato perso perché non entrava nei libri? O a tutto quello che ha dovuto semplificarsi e addirittura svilirsi per riuscire a diventare scrittura, e testo, e libro? Eppure, non ci abbiamo pianto troppo sopra, e ci siamo assuefatti a questo principio: la stampa, come la rete, non è un innocente contenitore che ospita il sapere, ma una forma che modifica il sapere a propria immagine. E' un imbuto dove passano i liquidi, e tanti saluti, che so, a una palla da tennis, a una pesca o a un cappello. Che piaccia o no, è già successo con Gutenberg, risuccederà con Page e Brin.

Dico questo per spiegare che se qui parliamo di Google non stiamo parlando di una robetta curiosa o di una esperienza come un'altra, tipo il vino o il calcio. Google non ha nemmeno dieci anni di vita, ed è già nel cuore della nostra civiltà: se tu lo spii non stai visitando un villaggio saccheggiato dai barbari: sei nel loro accampamento, nella loro capitale, nel palazzo imperiale. Mi spiego? È da 'ste parti che, se c'è un segreto, tu puoi trovarlo.

Così diventa importante capire cosa, esattamente, fecero quei due che nessuno prima aveva immaginato. La risposta giusta sarebbe: molte cose. Ma è una, in particolare, quella che, per q"

Rare Concerts Bring 'Jazz Icons' To Life

Rare Concerts Bring 'Jazz Icons' To Life: "Rare Concerts Bring 'Jazz Icons' To Life
Louis Armstrong

July 18, 2006, 2:15 PM ET

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
Rare concerts from jazz legends Thelonious Monk, Count Basie, Art Blakey, Chet Baker, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Buddy Rich and Louis Armstrong will be released for the first time on DVD Sept. 26 via Reeling in the Years Productions and TDK Recording Media Europe S.A.



The shows were filmed in Europe between 1957-1978 both in TV studios and traditional concert venues, and in many cases, have never been broadcast, even in excerpts. They are being issued under the heading 'Jazz Icons,' with distribution by Naxos of America.

Among the highlights of the first batch of titles are a 1958 show with Blakey and a lineup of his Jazz Messengers that only played together for six months, Fitzgerald concerts from 1957 in Belgium and 1963 in Sweden, Monk shows in Norway and Denmark from 1966 and two Jones concerts from 1960, featuring an 18-piece band.

Baker is featured in a 1964 performance for Belgian television and a 1979 performance in Norway, while the 1959 Armstrong show is one of his only known complete filmed performances from this era."

"From an educational standpoint this series is a gift to our culture," Jones says. "I'm honored to be a featured part of it, but I'm more thrilled just to sit down and watch it with my grandkids."

Comedian Dave Jory's favourite gadget is his Sony MZ-810 MiniDisc recorder.

A lot of comedians, especially when they are starting out, like to record their gigs to listen to them later. I bought mine about three years ago.

It cost me $700. A lot of comics were using old micro-cassette recorders, so I thought a MiniDisc was cutting edge.

Unfortunately, they were like Laser Discs (remember them?). No one uses MiniDisc. Even the Amish consider MiniDisc technology "quaint".

But it cost me so much and the sound quality is great, so I'm sticking with it until it decides to stop working. Unless Antiques Roadshow offers to buy it from me first.

Is your MiniDisc like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 3 - obsolete?

Arnie's problem in Terminator 3 wasn't that he was obsolete. It was that nobody wants to see a 60-year-old muscleman walking around with no clothes on.

Where does old technology go to die? There must be somewhere all those old Commodore 64s and Ataris ended up?

They might just be landfill. But it's more likely that they're somewhere plotting to destroy mankind and take over the planet. That will be the real rise of the machines.

Describe your weirdest gig.

I was hired as the comedian for this girl's 30th birthday. It was a very small party, only about 10 guests, in a little flat. I remember the TV was on in the background. There was no stage and no microphone, so I just stood next to the couch and everyone stared at me while I did my act for 20 minutes. There was a smattering of applause, the birthday girl paid me and I left.

Julie Hardy at Cornelia Street Cafe, Tuesday, July 11th

On Tuesday, July 11th, sets at 8:30 & 10:00pm, Brooklyn-based vocalist and composer, Julie Hardy brings her quintet to Cornelia Street Cafe as a part of the Gnu Vox Music Festival. Hardy is preparing to record her second CD with the recording label Fresh Sound New Talent out of Barcelona, Spain and is currently the only American singer on this label. This evening she will present new pieces including original music and covers of old standards and pop songs. The vocalist will be accompanied by a band of up and coming New York jazz artists; Sam Sadigursky, tenor and soprano saxophone; Randy Ingram on piano, Matt Clohesy on bass and Kendrick Scott on drums.



As the only American vocalist currently signed to Fresh Sound New Talent records, Julie Hardy is well on her way to becoming one of the most important voices of the modern jazz scene. Hardy's debut CD, "A Moment's Glance" was released in April 2005 to critical acclaim. This innovative record combines fresh interpretations of standards and pop classics with sophisticated original compositions, and showcases Hardy's diverse talents as an improviser and an interpreter of lyrics. She is joined by Rob Stillman, tenor saxophone and Randy Ingram, piano. Ben Street, bass, and Adam Cruz, drums (of the Danilo Perez trio) round out the ensemble.

Last year Hardy released "A Moment's Glance" to a full house at the Jazz Standard in New York City. She was also selected to perform at the Diet Coke Women in Jazz Festival at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Hardy grew up in Fremont, New Hampshire and holds a Masters degree in Jazz Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music. In 2002 Hardy was one of two vocalists in the nation invited to participate in the Jazz Academy Snowmass in Aspen, CO directed by Christian McBride. The following year Hardy was chosen to attend the Betty carter Jazz ahead program where she performed her original composition at the Kennedy center in Washington, D.C.

This year Hardy has been acknowledged for her talent as a composer by receiving the 2006 ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award for her composition "No Turning Back" which is featured on her recent Fresh Sound release.

Cake...

La nuova frontiera del femmini­smo passa per il diritto delle donne ad avere un orgasmo». È la convinzione di Emily Scarlet Krarner e Melinda Gallagher, rispettiva­mente 28 anni (laureata in Studi fem­minili alla Columbia) e 38 (master alla New York University in Salute pubblica e sessualità), amiche d'infanzia. fondatrici di un movimento che, partito dalla Grande Mela, si sta espandendo, da San Francisco a Londra. La loro associazione si chiama Cake, "torta", che nello slang newyorchese è sinonimo di vagina. «Tutto è comincia­to nell'estate del 2000». racconta Melinda. «lo ed Emily, sedute su una pan­china, stavamo discutendo di sesso e della mancanza di spazi, nella società, che consentissero alle donne di parlare dei loro desideri, di confrontarsi, impa­rare, convincersi, per esempio, che un rapporto sessuale non finisce quando lui raggiunge l'orgasmo, ma quando viene anche lei. Cosi, abbiamo deciso di fare qualcosa. All'epoca Internet sta­va esplodendo, e abbiamo cominciato creando un sito (www.cakenyc.com) e organizzando incontri (di recente Kra­rner e Gallagher hanno anche pubbli­cato un libro, A piece of Cake. Atria books, Simon & Schuster, ndr). Poi ci è venuta l'idea dei party: va bene ritro­varsi intorno a un tavolo, ma se si fa qualcosa di divertente si attirano di si­curo più persone».
Così è stato: dalle venti simpatizzanti che si aspettavano alle porte della di­scoteca affittata per l'occasione, Emily e Melinda si son ritrovate circondate da oltre duecento donne. Tutte entusiaste. Da allora. Cake organizza workshop, le­zioni di sesso, incontri di vario genere e un party al mese. In cui si parla di tut­to. E si mette anche in pratica qualco­sa: si guardano film porno per far sco­prire alle donne che la stimolazione vi­siva può essere eccitante anche per loro, si esaminano i vari sex toys sul mer­cato e chi vuole li può testare; si parla di depilazione intima; si spiega che co­s'è l'eiaculazione femminile e si assiste a una dimostrazione pratica. Insomma, si mette da parte ogni pu­dore: «Tutte devono sentirsi a proprio agio, in un ambiente accogliente, che non le giudica», spiega Emily. «La vita delle donne, nella quotidianità, è fatta per lo più di accettazione. Forse la no­stra generazione sta davvero facendo scoprire al mondo l'esistenza di una sessualità precisa, che deve emergere, e di cui dobbiamo essere libere di par­lare. Quando ci riuniamo, ci sono così tante cose di cui le donne vogliono di­scutere! Orgasmi, partner, percezione del proprio corpo, fantasie sessuali (e le donne ne hanno tantissime)... Non c'è mai un attimo di silenzio». Ma è durante le feste che si assiste a quella che le fondatrici di Cake defini­scono una vera e propria liberazione della femminilità. «Ogni evento ha un tema diverso», spiega Melinda, «ma l'obiettivo di tutte le serate è celebrare la sessualità femminile in modo interat­tivo. Non si fa sesso in pubblico, asso­lutamente, e i nostri party non hanno niente a che vedere con gli scambi di coppie. Diamo alle donne la possibilità di esplorare diversi aspetti del sesso at­traverso un argomento specifico, che può essere lo striptease, la lap dance, la stimolazione visiva, l'esibizionismo... Il nostro motto è: vieni in discoteca, di­vertiti, eccitati e il resto fallo a casa. Non sono sex party, ma sexy party». I maschi sono ammessi solo se accom­pagnati da una donna che garantisca per loro e che faccia parte dell'associa­zione. Cento dollari per l'iscrizione an­nua. Ma per essere ammesse, bisogna anche scrivere qualcosa di sé che ab­bia a che vedere col sesso. Le socie sono 500. 25 mila le iscritte alla newsletter. «Cerchiamo», spiega Melinda, «di portare nel gruppo uomini illumina­ti e intelligenti. Alcuni sono l'intratteni­mento stesso della serata: spogliarellisti, ballerini, ragazzi assoldati per esse­re l'oggetto sessuale delle donne in sa­la. Poi ci sono i mariti o i conoscenti. Qualcuno incoraggia le amiche timide, altri vengono per divertirsi, imparare, ballare con le mogli e spogliarsi con lo­ro sul palco (mai completamente, però, sia chiaro: niente nudo ai Cake party). Non si può celebrare la sessualità fem­minile ignorando gli uomini». Aggiunge Emily: «Poi c'è la comunità gay, che ha una vita notturna attivissima e alternati­va, molto esplorativa nei confronti del sesso. Che non pensa, però, alle esi­genze delle donne etera». Le ragazze che frequentano i party so­no entusiaste. Erica, 20 anni, fotografa e studentessa universitaria, lo confer­ma: «Non me ne perderei uno per niente al mondo. Il clima è di diverti­mento e provocazione, si respira aper­tura mentale, c'è intrattenimento. Si percepisce davvero uno spirito comu­nitario. Di solito, alle feste nei club, ti senti un po' osservato. Tutti sono trop­po preoccupati di essere fichi, di fare le mosse giuste, di essere vestiti alla moda. Non c'è dialogo, nessuno parla realmente con nessuno, trovi gente che si ubriaca da sola in un angolo...
Ai party di Cake questo non succede. Ci sono tante altre donne, spiritose e attente, con cui chiacchierare, e poi i ballerini e le ballerine, e a volte perfor­mance impreviste, per esempio spo­gliarelli, scenette bondage... Una ra­gazza una volta era immersa in una pi­scina di plastica, e giocava con le bolle di sapone insieme al pubblico. La cosa più folle che ho fatto? Coccole di grup­po con 4 persone allo stesso tempo. Ma niente di sconvolgente. Anche per­ché la filosofia non è la trasgressione, ma il gioco alla scoperta di se stesse».
Dominique, di origini italiane, ha 29 anni, lavora per un'or­ganizzazione no profit e alle feste va con il marito: «Ho scoperto il mio lato esibizioni­sta, e sono diventata una bal­lerina fissa per Cake. Compro i costumi, invento coreogra­fie, do sfogo alla creatività fa­cendo cose sempre diverse. Gelosia tra me e lui? Nessu­na, siamo una coppia aperta, lo sono bisessuale, e a volte frequento altre donne; la stessa cosa la fa mio marito. Quella di ballare, essere sexy e intratte­nere gli altri con la fantasia, e senza mai essere volgare o esagerare, è una sfida che mi piace. Sì, lo so, molte donne hanno problemi con la sessualità, o addirittura non hanno mai avuto un orgasmo. Sono donne che non san­no esplorare, che non sono abituate a dire al partner cosa vogliono. Cake ti incoraggia a entrare in contatto con i tuoi desideri e il tuo corpo, a parlarne con il tuo uomo, ad ascoltare altre don­ne e imparare da loro». Tutte felici? Non proprio. Le femmini­ste sono furiose: tanto per cominciare, sostengono che non si debbano guar­dare i film porno, perché sviliscono la donna. Poi, che le ragazze, esibendosi ai Cake party, si trasformano in oggetti sessuali. Infine accusano Emily e Melinda di essere novelle Hugh Hefner, il fondatore di Playboy, e di sfruttare il lo­ro genere per fare soldi. Le due non si scompongono: il porno esiste e non lo si può negare. Cake cerca di fare in modo che l'industria dell'hard rispetti le attrici e prenda in considerazione i desideri del pubblico femminile. «Le accuse sulle donne oggetto sono anacronistiche, non tengono conto del­le fantasie delle ragazze di oggi (età media delle Cake-girls: 20-39 anni, ndr)», osserva Melinda. «Tanto per co­minciare, conduciamo noi il gioco, de­cidiamo che cosa succede, cosa ci piace e cosa no. Molte amano salire sul palco, esprimere la sessualità attraverso uno show, perché negarglielo?». «Le battaglie delle femministe», con­clude Emily, «non si possono fermare agli stupri e alle quote rosa. Ci dev'es­sere parità nel piacere. Poi va tenuta in considerazione l'evoluzione della ses­sualità femminile. Al di là dell'esibizio­nismo, per esempio, c'è un trend deci­samente crescente: quelle che, pur non essendo gay né bisex, vogliono provare a fare sesso con un'altra don­na. Per il gusto di sperimentare. Sotto l'etichetta di etero c'è molto di più, ignorarlo fa male alle donne, le reprime invece di liberarle».
E i maschi, che dicono? Osservano e si costruiscono un bagaglio culturale da condividere con altre compagne, perché un mondo di sesso migliore è possibile. «E poi», osserva uno. «è sempre meglio che stare a casa a guardare la tv».

NOW PLAYING... Walter Wanderley "Batucada"

Track Listings
1. O Barquinho
2. On The South Side Of Chicago
3. Batucada
4. It Hurts To Say Goodbye
5. Os Grilos
6. Minha Saudade
7. E Preciso Cantar
8. So, What's New?
9. Wave
10. Ainda Mais Lindo
11. Ela E Carioca
12. Jeqibau

Now Playing...John Klemmer - Involvement

Track list:

1. Passion Food
2. How Deep Is the Ocean?
3. Will 'n' Jug
4. Stand in the Sun
5. My Blues
6. You Don't Know What Love Is
7. Later With Them Woes

Recorded when he was just 21 and virtually unknown outside Chicago, these sessions served notice that John Klemmer was a saxophonist to be reckoned with -- a young man with, as Down Beat put it, "the mature musician's disdain for the empty gesture" whose music was "direct, intense, and together."

Recorded June 1967 at Ter-Mar Studios, Chicago

Original recordings produced by Esmond Edwards


Personell:
John Klemmer Tenor Saxophone
Jodie Christian Piano
Sam Thomas Guitar
Melvin Jackson Bass
Wilbur Campbell Drums

Verve Release Program

Verve Release Program



Verve has had much success in bringing back titles that either had been deleted from its catalog or were never-before-available and making these titles available as digital-only tracks and albums. Verve and Rhapsody are making this exclusive content available in response to consumer interest.

"Today's consumer lives an on-demand lifestyle and The Verve MusicGroup is thrilled to have Rhapsody embrace the delivery of out-of-print music to meet the consumer demand for it, " says Ron Goldstein, President and CEO of The Verve Music Group. "Verve can now achieve the full potential of its amazing catalog by re-releasing these classic recordings in the digital space."

The program will launch with 28 titles. These titles, which arecurrently unavailable for purchase anywhere in America, will be released to Rhapsody beginning on May 23rd and will be available exclusively through the service for three months. Consumers will be able to stream, download, or purchase these classic recordings via the Rhapsody service as well as transfer them to compatible portable devices. Rhapsody and Verve will support this exclusive relationship with a variety of album features and promotions as well as outreach to core music audiences. "We're very excited to be adding nearly 30 out-of-print titles from Verve Records to Rhapsody, " said Tim Quirk, GM of Music Content and Programming. "Rhapsody's infinite shelf space means there's always room for more great music from influential Verve artists such as Art Blakey, Ella Fitzgerald, and Oscar Peterson."

Verve titles coming to Rhapsody through the program include: Albert Mangelsdorff, Jaco Pastorius, and Alphonse Mouzon "Trilogue" (Live), Alphonse Mouzon "By All Means", Anita O'Day "Anita", Art Blakey "The Complete Art Blakey on EmArcy", Art Tatum "I Got Rhythm Vol. 3 (1935-44)", Baden Powell "Estudos", Ben Sidran "I Lead A Life", Ben Sidran "Puttin' In Time On Planet Earth", Ben Sidran "The Cat In The Hat", Ben Webster and Don Byas "Ben Webster Meets Don Byas", Bill Evans "Symbiosis", Clark Terry "Clark After Dark", Dexter Gordon and Slide Hampton "A Day in Copenhagen", Don "Sugar Cane" Harris "Fiddler On The Rock", Don Ellis "Soaring", Duke Ellington "Collages", Ella Fitzgerald "Songs In A Mellow Mood", Freddie Hubbard "The Hub Of Hubbard", George Duke "I Love The Blues, She Heard Me Cry", Helen Merrill and Ron Carter "Duets", Jean-Luc Ponty "Sunday Walk", Joe Henderson "Mirror Mirror", Marlena Shaw "Out Of Different Bags", Monty Alexander "The Duke Ellington Songbook", Oscar Peterson "Bursting Out With The All-Star Big Band", Stephane Grappelli and the Diz Disley Trio "Violinspiration", The Eddie Davis-Johnny Griffin Quintet "Tough Tenors - Again N Again", The Jan Hammer Trio "Maliny Maliny".

Google unveils calendar service

By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY

Hoping to beef up the underperforming online calendar market, Internet search giant Google late Wednesday introduced a calendar service notable for easy-access sharing among friends and family.
Unlike popular online calendars from AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN, Google's calendar allows multiple people to layer information, so that Mom, Dad and the kids can all see their combined events on one page.

With AOL, Yahoo and MSN calendars, information can be e-mailed to family and friends, or posted online at a Web address, but not easily combined. Microsoft's Outlook, hugely popular with businesses, offers shared calendars, but companies must pay hefty server fees for the feature.

Google product manager Carl Sjogreen says the company added calendars to its arsenal of consumer services because Google users "wanted to see a new approach to calendars. Our mission is to organize the world's information, and one piece of information people care about a lot is what they're doing every day."

Google's calendar is ad-free, but the company hopes to profit by having users spend more time with Google, where they will see ads on other pages.

MSN and Yahoo calendars also are ad-free, while AOL's is ad-supported.

Allen Weiner, an analyst at research firm Gartner, says Google Calendar is "the first major calendar innovation in years. Google has created a very simple platform that allows a lot of user collaboration."

According to market tracker Nielsen/NetRatings, none of the three big free calendar Web programs have extremely high usage. AOL is first, with 2.9 million users in March, to Yahoo's 2.4 million and MSN's 1.3 million.

JupiterResearch analyst David Card says the online calendar programs don't get more traction because, "They're too hard to use. There are too many steps and clicks to make."

Google's challenge is "teaching consumers how to use the program and show them why their calendar is easy," he says.

Google's calendar is free and open to anyone with Internet Explorer or Firefox Web browser. Users need to sign up for a free Google account if they don't already have one.

People who have a Google Gmail e-mail account get an extra feature not normally found in calendar programs. If an e-mail suggests "meeting Wednesday at 9," or something similar, the information can be added to the calendar with one click from the e-mail program.

Gmail is still technically in "beta" test mode, but anyone can sign up by providing their cellphone number to Google.

New calendar events can be created with fewer steps than competing programs, and they can be dragged and dropped to new spots on the calendar.

While Google puts a new face on calendar programs, it lags behind Yahoo and AOL in allowing users to sync information to portable devices such as cellphones and personal digital assistants.

Google says it will add sync functionality in the coming months.

Now playing...

Joe Pass, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen - CHOPS




1. Have You Met Miss Jones
2. Oleo
3. Lover Man
4. 5 Pound Blues
5. Come Rain Or Come Shine
6. Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars
7. Tricrotism
8. Old Folks
9. Yardbird Ste
10. In Your Own Sweet Way

At last, movies to keep arrive on Net

By Saul Hansell
The New York Times

Published: April 2, 2006, 8:50 PM PDT



Six major studios on Monday plan to begin selling movies over the Internet that buyers can download and keep for watching at any time.

Until now, the only downloads the studios have offered have been online rentals, which can be watched only for a 24-hour period--an idea that has not caught on with consumers. But the high prices and technological limits of the new permanent downloads suggest that they may not be an instant hit.

New movies will cost about $20 to $30 to download; older titles will cost as little as $10. The downloads will be available on the same day that the DVD is released--quicker than rentals, which are put online about 45 days later and cost $2 to $5.

The studios hope that more people will want to own digital copies of movies, just as more people pay to download songs than sign up for online music subscription services that require a monthly fee. Download sales have been discussed for several years in Hollywood, but the studios have been spurred to action by the success of television programs sold through Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store.

"The Internet has really come of age now, and it is a viable method of distributing our content," said Rick Finkelstein, the president of Universal Pictures, a unit of NBC Universal, who noted that the studio's sales through iTunes have been much greater than he expected. Moreover, Universal's research showed that the majority of those downloads were watched on computer screens, not video iPods, indicating that people are willing to watch video on their PCs.

Starting Monday, nearly 300 films will go on sale through Movielink, which until now has been largely an online rental site. Movielink (owned by Warner Brothers, a unit of Time Warner; Sony Pictures; Universal; MGM; and Paramount, a unit of Viacom) will offer films from all of its owners and from 20th Century Fox, owned by the News Corp.

Another movie site, CinemaNow, will start selling downloadable versions of about 75 movies from Sony, MGM and Lions Gate, which owns a large stake in CinemaNow. Curt Marvis, the chief executive of CinemaNow, said he was talking to other studios about selling downloads.

Apple, Amazon.com and other online retailers are also busily trying to cut deals with Hollywood to sell downloads, according to several studio executives. In general, the studios want to make downloads available on largely the same terms, in as many places as possible.

"We are talking to a lot of people, and hopefully our movies will be on many other sites shortly," Finkelstein said.

For now, these movie downloads are a bit cumbersome, and the studios have limited the way they can be watched. A movie will need about 1 gigabyte of hard-drive space and will take an hour or two to download using a high-speed Internet connection. CinemaNow will allow the movies to be played only on a single computer. Movielink will allow the movie to be copied onto a DVD, from which the movie can be downloaded to two other computers, but it cannot be played on a conventional DVD player.

Nor can the movies be copied to Apple's video iPod or the much less popular handheld video players that use software from Microsoft. The studios expect to permit downloads to portable devices later this year.

For now, it is difficult but not impossible to watch the downloaded movies on a television. Some computers, like those using Microsoft's Windows Media Center, are designed to be connected to a television in the living room.

When Movielink's customers rent movies, only about 15 percent watch them on a television, said Jim Ramo, Movielink's chief executive. A third use a laptop computer, and the rest use a desktop computer.

"Fixing the 'last 10 foot' problem of getting the TV set connected to the Internet is starting to happen this year," Ramo said, referring to the resolution of technical hurdles.

The downloads do not include the bonus features, like deleted scenes and filmmaker interviews, that often accompany DVDs.

Industry executives say these limitations will dampen the appeal of downloads, particularly because the services must compete with chain stores and Web retailers that often discount DVD's to below their wholesale cost to attract shoppers. Such low-priced items are known among retailers as "loss leaders."

For example, "Memoirs of a Geisha," from Sony, will cost $19.99 to download from CinemaNow and $25.99 from Movielink. As a DVD, by contrast, it is priced at $16.87 at Wal-Mart. "King Kong," from Universal, which will cost $19.99 from both download services, is being sold on DVD for $14.96 by Amazon.com and $13.99 by Circuit City.

"They are giving the consumer less and charging more for it," said Warren N. Lieberfarb, the former president of Warner Home Video and now an entertainment technology consultant. "To me this really stacks the deck against mass consumer adoption."

One major advantage of sales over rentals online is that the studios would be free to sell a much greater proportion of their film library because there would be less conflict with the exhibition contracts between the studios and the TV networks. Online rentals are limited to the period when movies are on cable pay-per-view services, which is generally for a few months starting 45 days after the DVD is released.

Some studios, including Warner and Universal, plan to withdraw some movies from online sales in the period that they are appearing on pay TV networks like HBO.

Marvis of CinemaNow said he believed the studios had set their price for downloads too high.

"Customers expect prices to be cheaper online than in a retail environment, whether that is for diamonds or cars or airplane tickets," he said. He predicted that the studios would quickly improve the features and lower prices to appeal to consumers.

Why Sony Should've Put Its Weight Behind Hi-MD

By Thom Holwerda

Currently, .mp3 players are all the hype. Everyone has one, and if you don't, you're old-fashioned. I do not have an .mp3 player. I tried to have one, but for various reasons it did not please me. I'm a MiniDisc guy. I've always been. MiniDisc has some serious advantages over .mp3 players, whether they be flash or HDD based. Note: Sunday Eve Column.



First of all, MiniDisc players are much more sturdy than HDD players. You have to treat HDD players with a lot of care, because dropping one kills the harddrive easily. MiniDisc players, on the other hand, can be dropped down stairs, or while riding your bike, and they still work mighty fine (I know this out of experience). They will even survive a bath of Coca Cola (don't ask, but I have experience with that as well). Try bathing your EUR 330 iPod in some Coca Cola.

This durability of course extends to the discs themselves. They are completely enclosed in a hard, extremely durable plastic cover. They are also quite small, measuring only 5x72x68mm. You can play tennis with them, throw them around, yes, even run a bike over them: they'll survive.

Secondly, MiniDisc offers unlimited storage space. The new Hi-MD format offers 1GB per disc (which can add up to 45 hours of music on one disc)-- and a disc only costs a few Euros. This in essence gives you unlimited storage space, but of course it does come at a certain cost, because you have to carry those MDs around. But seeing many just use their music players to commute or during some running through the park, 1GB should be enough. Now, compare that to say, flash players which have limited storage space, and storage space you need to update every time you want to listen to different music. And even though HDD-based players offer a lot more space, this space is, in the end, limited too. And as mentioned above, they are much more fragile.

An interesting plus to Sony's new Hi-MD format is that it's completely backwards compatible with the previous MD standards (MD, MDLP, and NetMD). In fact-- formatting an ordinary MD using the Hi-MD filesystem actually doubles its original capacity from 170MB to 305 MB!

Another huge advantage over .mp3 players is MD's recording capability. Portable MD recorders aren't called recorders for nothing: you can record at any time, any place, any way you wish. Digitally via optic cables or USB, or analog via a microphone (whether built-in or external) or analog cables connected to i.e. an old tape deck. This is a major advantage, and one of the reasons why MD is often associated with field recording.

Lastly, portable recorders have an extremely good battery life. My lower-end recorder, for instance, plays back for 30 hours using only one AA battery.

Now, a common and valid complaint about MiniDisc was that they were tied to Sony in that you were forced to use Sony's ATRAC format and SonicStage software. And I am putting it mildly when I say that SonicStage is a complete pile of steaming crap. But, an update to Sony's Hi-MD line-up last year added .mp3 support for Hi-MD: 2nd and 3rd generation Hi-MD recorders you buy have support for .mp3 files. However, a major malfunction remains: SonicStage. Even though each Hi-MD player can be used as a mass storage device under windows, Linux, OSX, and even BeOS, you cannot just drag/drop .mp3s onto it. You are forced to use SonicStage. Apple may force one to use iTunes to transfer songs to iPod, but at least iTunes is not a steaming pile of crap. And of course SonicStage is only available on Windows, not on OSX or Linux (Sony did announce Mac support for its upcoming high-end Hi-MD recorder, I can't wait for prices on that thing).

Another complaint that often reared its head was MD's lack of capabilities for storing non-music data. Besides the utterly failed MD-Data experiment Sony conducted in the '90s, MDs could never store data, like flash/HDD .mp3 players could. This has been fixed too: Hi-MD allows you to store any type of data on both Hi-MD discs as well as old MDs (with the mentioned storage capacities). As said, Hi-MD recorders act as ordinary mass storage devices, so any OS with drivers for that will work fine with Hi-MD recorders.

And now the ever important aspect of price. Before the .mp3 player revolution, MDs only competitors were CDs and before that, tapes. Technologically, they both do not stand a chance. However, they of course were much more popular because they were a hell of a lot cheaper: my first portable MD recorder cost a staggering Fl. 499,-, which is EUR 225. Portable CD players at that time only cost about Fl. 100,- to Fl. 200,- so you can understand how expensive MD recorders were.

Today, this has changed. My Hi-MD recorder (the MZ-NH600 model, so with the input jacks) only cost me EUR 150,-, which is not a lot of money when compared to higher-quality .mp3 players (yes, MiniDisc has always been and always will be a high-quality device. MD users expect that quality).

Given the above advantages, it is a complete mystery why Sony is not putting its full weight behind the MiniDisc format. No, instead of just using an existing, proven technology to power its highly successful PSP, they created a whole new standard altogether, which probably cost them a serious amount of research and thus money. Using Hi-MD in the PSP would have meant a serious push for MD. Sony has even made digital cameras which use the Hi-MD format, but none were ever released to the public. Recently they did release a portable Hi-MD recorder with an integrated 1.3MP camera, but I've never ever seen one in the wild (I'd kill for one).

My take on Sony's refusal to market Hi-MD properly is that Sony somehow seems to think it needs to create a HDD-based .mp3 player to compete with Apple's iPod. Now, I think that that is a pointless battle: you won't beat Apple in its current winning mood. Forget it. It ain't gonna happen. And, Sony's success with this competition kind of supports that claim. If you can't win from Apple on Apple's turf-- then try to beat them on your own turf.

So, what should Sony have done? They shouldn't have made any attempts at making flash or HDD based .mp3 players. They have a very strong technology with Hi-MD and they should've been using it whenever they could. They should've made the lower-end Hi-MD recorders a bit more stylish (historically, only the high-end MD recorders look sleek), should've created a good marketing campaign emphasizing MD's strong points, and they should have increased availability, and most of all: they should've ditched SonicStage, and they should've allowed people to just drag/drop songs onto their recorders.

Now, it's all too late. I'm afraid MiniDisc will slowly but surely die out-- and that will leave me and all of MD's die-hard fans who supported the platform since day one without portable music.

--Thom Holwerda

Japan Launches Free Digital TV Broadcasts for Mobile Phones

TOKYO Apr 1, 2006 (AP)



Digital TV broadcasts for mobile phones equipped with special receivers began in Japan's major urban areas Saturday, following several months of test broadcasts.

But finding new phones in stores proved hard as eager consumers have already snapped up the limited number of handsets on the market. Japan's major mobile carriers say sales are good, but have not disclosed numbers.

Japan's mobile TV service is not the world's first South Korea, Britain and several other nations offer a similar service, although with different technologies. Mobile users in some parts of the United States can also tap into digital broadcasts.

But the new service in Japan, which is free, will potentially reach the broadest market yet through the country's terrestrial digital broadcast system, which relays images through the air via TV towers, not satellites.

It also uses broadcasting air waves, rather than an Internet connection, to relay streaming video.

Japan's 90 million mobile phone users already play video games, download music files, exchange e-mail, read news, trade stocks, store digital photos and surf the Web all on tiny handset screens half the size of a business card.

Toshiba began selling the first players using the next-generation HD DVD video

TOKYO Mar 31, 2006 (AP)



Toshiba began selling the first players using the next-generation HD DVD video format Friday, beating the rival Blu-ray disc format to market in a high-stakes competition to deliver theater-quality movies to living rooms.

Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp. said its HD-XA1, priced at about 110,000 yen ($936) is the world's first commercially available HD DVD player. The product, which has no recording function, is being promised for the United States in April at about $799.

The HD DVD format, also backed by NEC Corp. of Japan, competes against the Blu-ray disc format, supported by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic brand products, and Sony Corp.

Both can deliver dazzling high-definition video and can store much more data than today's DVDs, but are incompatible.

Sony has said it will start selling Blu-ray disc DVD players in the United States in the summer but has not announced a date for Japan sales.

Sony recently postponed until November the sale of its PlayStation 3 video game console, which runs Blu-ray discs and was initially promised for spring. Prices have not been announced.

Matsushita has said its first Blu-ray disc player will be available in the United States in September but has not given a date for when it will sell in Japan. The Osaka-based manufacturer said the price was undecided but will be under $1,500.

HD DVD movies are expected to gradually go on sale starting in April in Japan, including "Finding Neverland," Toshiba said, but the selection is initially even more limited than the titles now being promised for the United States. Films available on next-generation video are expected to grow.

HD DVD is backed by Universal Studios and Warner Bros. as well as Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. Blu-ray disc is backed by Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Apple Computer Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc.

Experts say loyalty to either technology among Hollywood studios is likely to be thin, and studios are expected to come out with content for whichever format proves popular.