Now that I've received invitations to join "LinkedIn" by several mailing lists (I almost said "people" but it's their email lists which really issue the invitation) it's cause to meditate on that thing I'm terrible at: networking.

I define it here as a concentrated activity geared solely toward increasing your connections. Some people do this naturally, others have to work at it. In some recently published audio interviews, Kurt Vonnegut called it "making friends." And, I really think he intended no irony.

Connections are important to people, and important connections are even more important. Growing up Catholic, one became aware of the Ascension of Christ, as he was drawn up into heaven when His post-Resurrection networking days were over. Needless to say, fortunes have been built and wars have been fought over this one proto-important networking event.

Then there are the fringe exploitations of connections, tied into the pathologies of relationships. Crime which occurs in immediate families. Stalking famous people. Being drawn to absolute strangers. Celebrity sightings.

The student-run newspaper of the University of New Hampshire reports a celebrity visitor to the UNH vs. Boston College hockey game on Nov. 10. "Game-goers who saw McCain reported that he was seated on the side of the Whittemore Arena and up in the box seats, high above the stands. 'He was right over there on the side. I saw him. It was pretty cool,' said Allyson Bergendahl, a UNH pep band sousaphone player."

Pretty cool, seeing a political opportunist from a distance. For more on this type of phenomenon, read Verlyn Klingenborg's column in the Nov. 28 New York Times.

There used to be (and probably still is) a fringe network of people who think they are related to Elvis, Jesus, or Robert E. Lee. Is Obama a distant relation of Cheney? Are there six degrees of separation between everyone, or just between you and Kevin Bacon?

Other than relationships with family, people attach a high value to the structured connections of work. Business is a predominant force in any society because it regulates the economic life of that society. Business can also be full of bad relationships. In forming relationships for material purposes (networking?), it's easy to make that a surrogate for a relationship with mankind in general ("I love mankind, it's people I can't stand"), loving one another and trying to bring goodness into the world (most religions), helping to maintain the essential goodness of nature. It's no wonder we often feel unloved in the process of business networking and conducting business. Your value is based on enterprise.

Much of our work is demeaned by the rule of authority, by stripping individuals of power to affect their destiny. To preserve the general populace when relationships go awry, we have the rule of law, which kicks in when relationships break down. In my rental business, I tell tenants when they sign the lease that if things go well, we will never again have to look at this lease.

It's little wonder then, that law and authority produce alienation in the process of trying to alleviate its bad affects. So we seek more connections hoping against hope the next one will be the ticket to something. What looked like a global village from a distance becomes a chance to feel alone in the universe.

In the Landesmuseum in Trier, Germany, I saw an interesting 1545 painting by Peter van Alst, called "Ascension of Christ." The bottom of the painting shows people reaching their arms into the sky. The top half of the painting shows two feet and the hem of a robe sticking out of the clouds. In the middle is open sky. It reminded me of the scene in Wizard of Oz where the balloon heads back to Kansas with Dorothy in it. "I can't stop, I can't stop," yells the Wizard as the munchkins wave their arms in the air.

As I look back at this verbal ramble, I am struck by the number of visual images that come to mind when discussing networking. Relationships are defined by the space between them and America is a big country. If you sleep with 20 other people in the same room or even on the same floor, I doubt that the issue of networking comes up. But without this basic human desire, would there be a YouTube?

It's never really happened before-- here at moneyblows books & music, Christmas music stampeding out the door to customers all over the world. In recognition of the season, here are links to some of the items we still have left...!

• With Perry Como on the cover, the sheet music of "There is no Christmas like a Home Christmas."
• The sheet music of "White Christmas" arranged for organ by Rudolph Schramm.
• The rare Bobby Darin 45 rpm single, "Christmas Auld Lang Syne", from 1960.
• 45 rpm single of Charles Brown, the definitive "Merry Christmas Baby" from 1962.
• From 1977, with the original sleeve, The Kinks' 45 rpm single "Father Christmas." It contains the immortal refrain, "Father Christmas, give us some money."
• The little known 45 rpm Christmas classic "Barnyard Christmas" by Spike Jones and his City Slickers featuring the Bell Sisters.
• Again from 1977, The Vibra Corporation doing "Snow White Rock Christmas" on stereo 45 rpm. Perfect deejay item.
• I may be in the minority, but to me, the 4 Seasons Christmas Album is one of the best ever.
• Well, the Beach Boys Christmas album isn't bad either.
• This 1980 album from the Chipmunks-- whose first hit was a Christmas novelty-- is called "The Twelve Days of Christmas."
• We have several of Elvis Presley's Christmas albums, but this one is the prize.
• This extremely rare Christmas album from Venezuela features Freddy Leon, Angel Chirinos, Jose Quintero and others. It's called Navidad Venezolana.
• The Jackson 5 Christmas album from 1970 is a little hard to find now.
• Leon Redbone even got in the act with this 1988 album Christmas Island. And, it wouldn't be a country Christmas without Tammy Wynette or Willie Nelson.

We also have plenty of delightful, collectible Christmas-related gift books, so stop by Moneyblows Books & Music for a look.

Beauty may be in the eyes of the beholder, but it is definitely a two-way street. There was a prominent plastic surgeon on the West Coast who only worked on actors and other professionals, and spent the rest of his time on burn victims. His ex-wife Bea told me he had to guarantee anonymity to his actor patients, so not even she would know who he worked on in the image factory part of his life. But, they talked about the burn victims.
While he was working on a famous burn case, he was sleeping at the hospital while doing 22 reconstructive surgeries on a woman's face. His wife told him, "this case is ruining our marriage, can't you finish it or pass it along to someone else?"
Her husband replied, "why don't you go down to the hospital and have a look at her? Just make sure you don't change your expression when you first see her."
So the woman went down to the hospital and saw the victim, who looked horrifying. She went up to her bed and said,
"Mrs. Durbin, my husband was absolutely right. He said when I saw you I would be looking at two of the most enormous and beautiful blue eyes that the earth has ever seen."
The burn victim's eyes widened even more.
"You mean the doctor said that about me?"
The next time Bea saw Mrs. Durbin she was even more stunning than her eyes had suggested. It was at a glamorous party and there was no sign of the woman's horrible burn accident, on her skin anyway.
The plastic surgeon had more than just a knife to work with. He had the eyes of beholders.

Many people have firmly developed tastes in music, matured over a long time listening. But there's something else getting lots of listening time and it's an evolving medium where the standards are anything but set. They're called audio books-- they can be just one person reading a book on a set of CDs-- such as President Bill Clinton's autobiographical memoir a few years back-- or they can be elaborate fictional productions such as the Pigalle Soundwalk, or entertaining seminars such as A History of The English Language by Michael D.C. Drout. Once you enter the world of audiobooks, you'll find everything from totally amateurish, boorish productions to amazing sound tricks wonderful enough to make a blind person see. (Reading for the blind was undoubtedly an early influence on this medium).
As a judge of the Audies competitions-- the national industry awards for audiobooks-- I've always been impressed by the criteria for excellence, well thought out and designed to bring out the best in this medium's producers. I will list some of these criteria, which are easy to apply when you are doing critical listening. I should also mention that audiobooks are easy to obtain through our moneyblows.net audio book store.

1. Suitability-- if it was an adaptation, such as a printed book, now produced to be listened to rather than read-- was the original suitable for adapting? Some books are better to skim or read out of order and audiobooks are clumsier for this purpose than a print version.
2. Performance-- there are all kinds of voices doing audiobooks, and as many tastes for listening. Still, you will know when you hear professionalism at work. Beyond sounding professional, a narrator can enhance the listener's experience by being appropriately chosen for the work; by using their vocal tools as a musician might use their instrument, varying pitch, timbre, tempo, rhythm, dialect, tone and inflection; and conveying the human touch we call emotion, inspiration, or passion.
3. Direction-- Like a movie, audiobooks are directed and one can often hear the results of the director's silent work. Is the pacing holding your attention? Is the use of music and sound effects appropriate, entertaining, and do they enhance the setting? Habitual audiobook listeners also want an easy transition among chapters, or sequence of CDs, etc.
4. Script--Many audiobooks are not based on previously structured productions such as printed books. More and more, production are being designed as original audiobooks. If so, issues of length, narrative flow, content and expression come into play. The palette of tools available to the audio producer can easily become a distraction to the story being told.
5. Engineering-- The audiobook has evolved very quickly as a full fledged member of the pop culture industry, the education industry, and the information industry. Nevertheless, there are still quality issues in engineering such as consistency, signal levels, relative sound mixing between words and music/effects, and overall mix. Some publishers are better than others at ensuring consistent audio mixes from product to product.
6. Listenability-- Finally, an audiobook should compel you to listen. If you don't like what you are hearing, don't blame all audiobooks. They are different as night and day. The flawless, complete integration of voice, direction, sound design and script is still a holy grail for producers and publishers, always sought and often falling short. Nevertheless, there's nothing like a good story well told.

Got leftovers? Us too.

From 1976: Locking Horns, a reissue of late 1950s sideman dates with John Coltrane, Ray Draper, Joe Newman and others. A two-record set, Roulette RE 128.

From 1960: Sketches of Spain, Miles Davis, Gil Evans. A near-mint Columbia CS 8271-- beautiful original.

From 1974: Genesis Live, building their long career started in 1967, on Charisma 1666.

From 1968: The Brazilian legend Luiz Gonzaga, on RCA Camden with Os Grandes Sucessos De Luiz Gonzaga, a collection reissued during a period of huge musical ferment in Brazil.

From 1995: The Grand Ole Opry History of Country Music. This first printing is from the collection of Governor Jimmie Davis, with a gift inscription to Governor Davis from a friend. Of course the book includes the "Singing Governor."

From 1983, the rare UK Krazy Kat recording by Archibald, Ballin' with Archie. A seminal and underappreciated artist from the New Orleans scene, with music circa 1950-1952.

From 1985: live at the San Franciso Blues Festival, Clifton Chenier with his red hot Louisiana Band, an as-new Arhoolie issue.

We didn't just cook up these leftovers yesterday. They are all (except for the book) vinyl records, accidents of the music distribution industry, which forgot to make a disposable product and has since learned to make their product "self destruct" with the commencement of its digital license. When they were pressing this stuff from vinyl, nobody but collectors thought it would still be around today. Since it's Thanksgiving, here's a big thank you to record collectors who make the leftovers even better in the next century. Marinate on!

On May 30, 1984, I was standing with three students on the floor of a training rig at Lafayette, Louisiana. They were vocational education students, learning how to engage the kelly and do whatever is done on oil rigs, most of it dangerous. They were the sons and grandsons of career roughnecks and knew a little about unemployment. At the time, it was synonymous with being in the oil business.
Practicing to drill a hole in the ground, everybody was occupied with something else on this day. One of the students popped the lens out of a welder's safety helmet he had brought from the shop. He held it up to the sun and looked through it. He passed it around among the small group on the training rig. Each student took a turn looking through the glass. The sun and the moon were lining up for an event that only happens every 24 years. It's noontime but twilight comes quick, a cataclysmic astronomical event that's briefer than a coffee break. A total eclipse of the sun.
Are we due for another total eclipse next year? It might come and go real fast, but the oil business takes its sweet old cyclical time. Almost a quarter century after the roughnecks were training for jobs that might never come, fuel oil is in another phase of its demand. As in, almost $100 per barrel of crude. Stocks in offshore drilling companies are soaring, along with the price of automobile fuel and heating oil.
Back then in Mississippi, a petroleum geologist was working on his back-up career-- writing. Another career that rises and falls. Now he is known as a writer and we have Oil Notes by Rick Bass in our store, a scarce copy autographed by its author.

Moneyblows Books and Music has customers all over the world because of the value placed on used books and records that come from America. After 9/11 one of our customers wrote from Greece, "I'm very sorry for the death of so many of your citizens. I'm also sorry that the hit was before my sending your payment. I hope it won't take ages to reach you. This is the payment for the second lot. Take care and don't let vengeance blind you or hurt your democracy." As exporters of vintage vinyl, we appreciate the establishment of the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. It acknowledges that physical specimens of historic recordings do not last forever. Follow this link to our music category page, where we list many of the items in the registry. From this same page you can browse our search our collection of vintage vinyl recordings, books, magazines, record needles and other interesting artifacts.