Fuel: By Josh Tickell

11 April 2011

I just watched the film "Fuel," on DVD, by my fellow New College of Florida alum, Josh Tickell.

This is basically the story of Josh's life's work. He has had an interesting life, and tells his story well. He happens to be a gifted environmental activist, plus a talented film maker.....

Josh majored in sustainable living at New College of Florida (yes, you can do that - that is, you are allowed to invent your own major, and this is what Josh did).

Basically, this film is about biodiesel. Biodiesel is not good. Biodiesel is revolutionary.

Biodiesel is NOT corn-based ethanol. It is not food-to-fuel. It returns the energy input 3:1 or better. It is safe and even edible. It pollutes less than so-called fossil-based diesel fuel. There are many ways to produce it, and more and better ways of doing it are being found all the time.

As an aside, the US can produce all the biodiesel it needs, and never has to import oil from anyplace again, if it chooses this path.

As Josh says, "War is not required."

Willie Nelson, Neil Young and Richard Branson are among biodiesel's better-known advocates.

Oh, and this film isn't only about biodiesel. It is also about how to live, how to conserve energy, the history of our present fossil fuel-based energy system, other ways to produce energy besides fossil fuels, the life story of Rudolph Diesel, a lot of Josh's own life story, interviews with scientists and business people, finance, educational graphics, statistical analysis, etc., etc. I hope you're getting the idea. My impression is that there are investible ideas here too, and why not?

Anyway, (1) you have to watch this to learn more, (2) you need to figure out how to get biodiesel and related sustainable technologies into your home, your life and your communities, and (3) you need to tell other people about this.

Again, this has nothing to do with corn-based ethanol, which is not a particularly good idea at all, at least, not much better than fossil fuels. This is entirely different. You can make this stuff from trees that grow to maturity in 3 years, from algae (thank Jimmy Carter for getting this started), from sewage sludge, etc., etc.

Again, the US does not need to import oil. Neither does any other country that wants to do this. This is good, very good.

Watch.
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It's a "Duh" Market

7 April 2011

These comments are from a letter to a friend.

Hopefully they will stand on their own, in light of my frequent statements about the sure tendency of gold and silver miners to sell off (or "go nowhere") when gold and silver reach new record highs:

I'm just standing back and looking at all the post-breakout selling that is going on.

I am calling this a "duh" market. There is almost nothing you can invest in, in this sector, that will not be moving higher, yet sellers predominate over buyers.

Obviously the prevailing belief in the broad market is that each time gold and silver reach record high prices, it is an "apex," following which prices will drift back down again in future. However, gold (followed only a little later by silver) has been forging new highs since 2001. For me, ten years is long enough to be convinced that there is a secular (long-term) trend at work, and that the future will continue to hold higher prices for gold and silver, not lower ones.

"Duh."

Yeah. It's a good time to watch movies, read books, go for walks, spend time with family members.

Time is ONLY on our side. There is no downside from here. We're in gold/silver stock investors' heaven (even though it doesn't necessarily feel like it).

There is huge action beneath the surface, and it will keep erupting, moving prices higher from here. It is obvious to any objective thinker.

You can only lose if you think too much about it!

Oh yeah. Sometimes the seismic activity is not "volcanic."

It bubbles up like mudpots.

But it is very hot beneath the surface.
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Is TV Signaling a Top in Gold?

10 December 2010

I recently had some fun reading this article on Seeking Alpha (Is TV Signaling a Top in Gold? ) and every comment on it... I guess I did this intentionally for something different to do, as my working holiday is soon drawing to a close!

So if you're at all curious about my present thinking, I have salted and peppered comments throughout the discussion section following this particular article. Alternatively, you can find all of my comments on the Seeking Alpha site here, though they are out of context on the summary page.

In brief, the author of this article, Yoni Jacobs, has some fun with the idea that a recent gold prospecting reality TV show ("Gold Rush Alaska") might be signalling a top in the gold market, just as house flipping shows accurately signalled a top in the US real estate market perhaps 5 years ago. However, I found both the article and the discussion on the site to be so gold bullish that I actually added to my (short-term) positions in both gold and silver mining companies while in the midst of the discussion with other participants.

I made quite a few comments, and I won't repeat them all here. Perhaps the most fun idea was this one...

" OK, try this. Let's say one of the prospectors on this show runs into a motherlode and becomes a billionaire. Will we then see more imitative shows? For sure.

"However, how long does it take to develop a mine? Maybe a decade - not unlike developing new medicines. It is very slow and difficult, even if you have millions of ounces (look at Novagold for example, even with Paulson and Soros onside). So about the time he (or she) actually is a billionaire, we probably really will be in bubble territory in gold! So perhaps this is a predictor after all - with a ten-year time lag."

I also offered some thoughts in reply to CLH, who made this statement: "These comments answer my question--Is gold going up or down? 99% of the comments say up. For this reason I say down."

My reply:

"CLH... you are not conversing with a crowd of shoeshine boys here. (Comment: It is said that Joseph Kennedy sold all his stocks prior to the onset of the great depression when his shoeshine boy offered him a stock tip.)

However, the QUALITY of the arguments against gold is what triggered me to add to my Goldcorp and Pan American Silver positions today. That is, those who are arguing here against the gold bull are dissuaded from investing by quite minor concerns, indicating that there is not yet a clear view of what the gold bull is and the actual dynamics driving it. When the arguments against gold are based on substantial factors, then I will think twice about my long positions.

"For example, if the anti-gold camp were arguing that Ron Paul stands a substantial chance of forcing the Fed to reverse course, I would sit up and take notice. (Comment: Mr. Paul was recently appointed chairman of the Domestic Monetary Policy Subcommittee of the US House of Representatives. He is the most vocal critic of the Federal Reserve in congress.) I hope you understand me. That would be a substantial development. However, Ron Paul doesn't have anywhere near the kind of following he would require - even in Texas - to turn this juggernaut around.

"Or if you could tell me that interest rates aren't going to rise (and increase interest payments on US federal debt to above the $1 trillion level), then I might think again. In fact, to digress to the interest rate issue - certainly rising interest rates will compete with gold for the attention of investors. but again, you have to have an analysis. If interest rates are rising because it is the end game for fiscal imprudence and its inevitable consequences ("Squanderville"), then that will not in fact draw investors out of gold. Do you see what I mean? Actually, I don't think I have seen a single argument here that militates against gold in terms of the fundamental reasons why it is rising. Thus my emboldened status as a gold investor, even to buy more today for the first time in several weeks."

One participant (TW) made this reply to one of my statements: " There are two sides to your argument, are there not? One is the side that you have presented. The other would be that the miners have not tracked with gold because the valuations on gold are unrealistic or unreasonable. One could postulate that the HUI:GOLD ratio will return to the mean through a price correction in GOLD."

I replied to TW as follows (my last comment):

"Todd. If gold is not in a bull market, then you are correct. My analysis and action all follow from that basic assumption, which we have discussed elsewhere.

"As to my investment philosophy, my strategy is to find a bull market and stick with it long-term. So far, the gold market has cooperated with that assumption, and the miners have given still equivocal affirmation! (I started buying in this sector in 2003, and wish I'd been there in 2001!)

"I will certainly begin to question my assumptions if at some point in the fairly near future the miners can't get onside in a more definite way! (I think they started this fall, by breaking out and up, as I have noted elsewhere.) However, bull markets have been widely documented to be volatile and frustrating. Investing is not gambling, because everybody can win. But that doesn't mean everybody WILL win in every sector at any given time. So yes, I'm trying to find the right place to be, and the signals are never 100% clear."

For more of this stuff, and for the ideas of many other contributors as well - many (perhaps not all) of them quite intelligent - click here.
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Mingus - Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting

17 May 2010

Life is short. Or maybe not. It depends in fact on your perspective and personal take on the question. But life does not continue forever.

What must we do?

Certainly every day we must do something we love.

What did Charles Mingus love? Well, I'm not aware of the entire scope of his passions, but the man certainly loved making music.

Throughout my life, I've often heard Mingus' music mentioned by others, most notably, perhaps, because Joni Mitchell referred to him as "mellow, fantastic," and recorded an album with him. As it happens, I didn't listen to that particular album by Joni Mitchell. Nor did I listen to Mingus' music until recently.

What have I learned?

We have to stretch and try new things to discover the the further reaches of our individual and collective souls.

After all these years, I have just discovered Mingus' Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting, recorded on his Warner Jazz (Atlantic) album, Blues and Roots. (As I listen more, I am inclined to recommend the "alternate take," into which Mingus and his companions invested just a little more swing....)

Wow!

Now I understand why Mingus' music has interested people over all these years. Using the complex and multi-perspectived tools of tone, timing and rhythm, Mingus calls to mind an old-time prayer meeting while at the same time exploring the boundaries of what it is possible to do with improvisation and experimentation in music. It works - dramatically well.

At this moment in time, I cannot listen to Mingus' Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting without being entranced - captured by Mingus' musical erudition and bravado. What a masterwork! What pleasure for those who are open to Mingus' tonal experimentation!

Mingus has opened a new world to me - one that is just a little bit broader and more majestic than the world I previously inhabited. That is entirely satisfactory - for now.

In order to stay open, of course, I must continue to explore and experiment, as did Mr. Mingus himself.

But for this week, I can only counsel the reader. Listen to Mingus. Open your ears. Widen your mind. Expand your world.

You will not be disappointed.

Aaron Cohen's critical review follows:

"Bassist Charles Mingus was always ready for a good fight. In the liner notes to this disc, Mingus says he wanted to respond to critics who said he didn't swing enough. And reply he did. Mingus gave whoever these absurd quibblers were some of the most ecstatic blues ("Moanin'" and "Cryin Blues"), gospel ("Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting") and Dixieland ("My Jelly Roll Soul") the jazz world has ever heard. Along with his striking original compositions, the instrumental combination in Mingus's nonet remains unconventional: the frontline included four saxophonists and two trombonists without the counterweight of a trumpeter. The leader's sliding octave bass lines and percussive slaps are totally rollicking, and the wild abandon in the group's playing is irrepressible."
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Meditations on April Fool's Day from Doug Casey

1 April 2010

A few thoughts on April Fool's Day, taken from Doug Casey's daily newsletter. Sign up here.

Mr. Casey was wondering about the origins of April Fool's Day after friends rearranged the keys on his computer keyboard. He writes today:

The most plausible explanation I could find was that in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII ordered a new calendar (the Gregorian calendar) to replace the old Julian calendar. The new calendar called for New Year’s Day to be celebrated January 1. That year, France adopted the reformed calendar and shifted New Year’s Day to January 1. According to a popular explanation, many people either refused to accept the new date, or did not learn about it, and continued to celebrate New Year’s Day on April 1. Others began to make fun of these traditionalists, sending them on “fool’s errands” or trying to trick them into believing something false. Eventually, the practice spread throughout Europe.

According to an article I found on www.infoplease.com, however, there are at least two difficulties with this explanation. The first is that it doesn’t fully account for the spread of April Fools’ Day to other European countries. The Gregorian calendar was not adopted by England until 1752, for example, but April Fools’ Day was already well established there by that point. The second is that we have no direct historical evidence for this explanation, only conjecture, and that conjecture appears to have been made more recently.

So, maybe we’ll never know the day’s true origins. I’d still like to share a few famous April Fools’ pranks from around the world before we move on. (Note: These pranks were pulled from The Museum of Hoaxes website.)

The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest, 1957: The respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied, "Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."

Planetary Alignment Decreases Gravity, 1976: The British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2 that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event was going to occur that listeners could experience in their very own homes. The planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would counteract and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment that this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange floating sensation. When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC2 began to receive hundreds of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room.

Sidd Finch, 1985: Sports Illustrated published a story about a new rookie pitcher who planned to play for the Mets. His name was Sidd Finch, and he could reportedly throw a baseball at 168 mph with pinpoint accuracy. This was 65 mph faster than the previous record. Surprisingly, Sidd Finch had never even played the game before. Instead, he had mastered the "art of the pitch" in a Tibetan monastery under the guidance of the "great poet-saint Lama Milaraspa." Mets fans celebrated their teams' amazing luck at having found such a gifted player, and Sports Illustrated was flooded with requests for more information. In reality this legendary player only existed in the imagination of the author of the article, George Plimpton.

Hotheaded Naked Ice Borers, 1995: Discover Magazine reported that the highly respected wildlife biologist Dr. Aprile Pazzo had found a new species in Antarctica: the hotheaded naked ice borer. These fascinating creatures had bony plates on their heads that, fed by numerous blood vessels, could become burning hot, allowing the animals to bore through ice at high speeds. They used this ability to hunt penguins, melting the ice beneath the penguins and causing them to sink downwards into the resulting slush where the hotheads consumed them. After much research, Dr. Pazzo theorized that the hotheads might have been responsible for the mysterious disappearance of noted Antarctic explorer Philippe Poisson in 1837. "To the ice borers, he would have looked like a penguin," the article quoted her as saying. Discover received more mail in response to this article than they had received for any other article in their history.

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Why Canada Works Better Than the United States

29 March 2010

This is a topic that needs to be addressed.

While Canada lags the US in many metrics, including the wealth of its citizens, Canada obviously leaves the US far behind in the sphere of what we might wish to refer to as social capital.

Given the recent health care debate in the US, it seems worth mentioning, "Hey, we have a health care system here in Canada that has worked well now for several generations! What are you arguing about down there?"

Why can relatively poor Canada outperform the relatively wealthy United States in providing health care and social services generally to its citizens?

I've been thinking about this lately, and I think the answer is fairly simple.

Canada has a broad centrist political consensus, whereas the United States is polarized, with ugly and accusatory disputes characterizing the extreme positions on the right and the left (with the right arguing more or less for corporate welfare if you will, while the left argues for benefits for the disenfranchised and for special interest groups).

While the Americans have been arguing, the Canadians have forged a system that more or less works.

Lesson?

If you cooperate, it doesn't matter that much HOW you do it - what matters is that you get it done.

My message to the US?

"Hey America, stop arguing and start cooperating! Begin with health care for everybody. And don't forget responsibility and accountability for everybody too. Cooperation works. Get off your soapbox. Do more listening and less shouting. Help each other. Work together!"

There, I've said it. Enough for now....

Canada works. Think about it.
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Mad Hedge Fund Trader

8 October 2009

I haven't yet quite figured out who he is, but the mad hedge fund trader is brilliant, iconoclastic, nonaligned and witty (as well as occasionally blunt and/or rude).

He also knows the markets inside and out.

He's smart enough to recommend gold and silver.

But he has several hundred other very good ideas also.

And he will make you laugh all the way through - often at your own expense!

Check out his daily diary entry for starters.

There is a recent well-done interview here.

And this has been my favourite so far of his statements of his philosophy of life:

"My goal in life was always to get in the way of history, and let it run me over. It’s been an amazing life. I wouldn’t trade it for anything."

This fellow also lurks at Seeking Alpha. He tosses the current posts from his website into the ring on a daily basis, and they are most all enlightening reading. Click here for every comment he has entered on the site's "instablog."

(My own comments on Seeking Alpha are here, by the way.)

Or you can go directly to his blog, located here.

Just for fun, here is his recent post on the gold price. Note that he and his partners are open and accessible by e-mail (he's promoting his business, of course, which is fine with me):

"Of course you knew it was going to happen like this. After churning around just below the old high, and sucking in as many profit takers and short sellers as possible, gold blasted through to a new high for the year of $1,038. Never mind that the triggering event is complete balderdash, a story in Britain’s Independent newspaper asserting that the Middle East is holding secret global talks to price crude in the yellow metal or other currencies (click here ). It didn’t hurt that Australia cut its interest rates by 0.25%, the first G-20 country to do so. There probably isn’t enough gold in the world to finance more than a few weeks of global oil production. Total gold holdings would only fill two Olympic sized swimming pools. But never let the truth get in the way of a good trade. The confirming moves couldn’t be more ubiquitous, with the Canadian, New Zealand, and Australian dollars all up big, commodities strong, and silver also going ballistic. Regular readers will all recognize these as old friends of mine, core longs that I have been strongly recommending since the beginning of the year. I have been trying to get investors into gold since it was at $800. If you aren’t in gold by now, I can only tear my own clothes and flagellate myself for my abject failure to convince you of gold’s merits. US government debt is exploding, and with foreigners holding a large part of our paper, the only way to get out of this mess is to devalue the dollar. It’s like Obama invited China’s president Hu Jintao to dinner at an expensive Upper East Side restaurant, fakes a sudden case of food poisoning, leaving him with a big fat bill. Next stop $1,200, then $1,500, then the old inflation adjusted high of $2,400. If you want me to help you get set up to trade futures in any of this stuff, please email me at madhedgefundtrader@yahoo.com."

I was also taken with the underlying honesty and insight of his frank and inarguably insulting comments on Michael Moore's latest bit of fantasized exploitative cinema, as follows (I have cleaned this up in one place where his rudeness was gratuitous and tangential to his main point):

"Let me tell you why I turned down lunch with Michael Moore last week, and why I am reviewing a movie that I will never see. (He was in) San Francisco promoting his latest fiction masquerading as documentary, Capitalism, A Love Story. Michael has a problem with facts. He has a tendency to bend, twist, or alter real facts to fit into whatever story line, political viewpoint, or bias he is peddling at the moment. In Roger and Me (1989), he made the case that GM’s problems sprang from paying its workers too little, not too much. In Bowling for Columbine (2002) he equated violence in the streets with our missile defense shield. I find this approach an affront because I have spent a large part of my career bending over backwards to make sure my stories are accurate and true. Michael obviously harks back to an earlier age of reporting, when “You never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” In the trailers it appears that much of the movie involves humiliating security guards attempting to prevent his entry into firms like AIG (AIG) and Goldman Sachs (GS), ostensibly some of the same working stiffs he is trying to defend. I find this neither informative, nor entertaining. In fact, Michael Moore’s principal business is to dress up as a working class hero so he can make hundreds of millions of dollars selling questionable cheap shots to the uninformed. He is an embarrassment to the causes he claims he is advancing. I have never walked out on a film, but I’m such a tightwad that I hate wasting two hours of my life and $7 on my senior citizen ticket. Better just not to go."

Then there is his invitation to Mr. Obama's San Francisco dinner party (I suggested an 18% tip. He proposed making payment in silver dollars. I countered by advising that he take the occasion to unload his US currency as quickly as possible):

"If you wonder where I am on the evening of Thursday, October 15, I will be having dinner with Barrack Obama, President of the United States. I received the invitation to San Francisco’s exclusive Saint Francis Hotel to meet the Commander-in-Chief with 250 of the city’s “A-listers,” which I have reproduced below. Of course $30,400 for two is a bargain to sit down with the most powerful man in the world, but that doesn’t include another $10,000 for my date’s dress. I have been asked to arrive two hours early to provide for security screening. With my opinions plastered all over the Internet, that will no doubt involve a full proctologic exam. But hey, anything for some overcooked chicken. Times are hard, and we all have to do our bit to stimulate the economy. Maybe I should go for a table of ten for only $150,000? Until then I shall be boning up on subjects I know are dear to the President’s heart to make chit chat, like playoffs for college football, or how he got stiffed in his Chicago Olympic bid. He could have made such a killing renting out his Hyde Park house that I visited last December (click here for story ), which would have been walking distance from many of the events! How much do you think I should leave for a tip?"

OK, if none of this intrigues you, the MHFT can also be found in the USO scene in Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Yes, he happened to be trekking the Philippines at the time Coppola was filming.

Happy hedging... and gold investing!
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Seeking Alpha: My Comments

13 September 2009

Recently, I've begun to read "Seeking Alpha" for more timely coverage of news and opinion regarding the broad markets.

This site's strength seems to be in its ability to bring together in a single forum individuals with very diverse viewpoints on the investment markets. There are enough timely articles and sufficient intelligent commentary there to keep me interested. Therefore, I have been adding my comments as well.

If you'd like to keep up with some of my ongoing thoughts on market developments, click here.

And if you enjoy Seeking Alpha, you might wish to sign on yourself, as it's quite a simple and painless process.

Enjoy!

P.S. If you're wondering why I haven't had much to say (in detail) about the gold market recently - well, I think I've said all that I have to say. This is a bull market, and it's going up in the intermediate and the long term. October 2008 was rough, and the crash in precious metal miners and explorers was unexpected on my part. But I'm glad to be positioned where I am, long gold and silver explorers and miners, right here, right now.

Buying and holding has worked even in the ugliest downturn in this market in 3 decades!

If you'd like more detail, look at Adam Hamilton's recent piece on the gold miners. He is using the same words that I am: "Gold Stocks Still Cheap."

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Background Music

20 August 2009

I play background music all day when I'm at my office. I do so as well on the rarer occasions when I have a little time to relax at home in the evenings.

The secret of background music is that it has to be interesting and agreeable, but unobtrusive. Thus, heavily orchestrated arrangements don't work well.

Here are a few examples of CDs that I have found to constitute enjoyable background listening:

My present favourite is Sol Gabetta's Il Progetto Vivaldi, gorgeous, rich, complex, unobtrusive and in fact perfect cello. I am so entranced by Gabetta's graceful performances that I literally can't stop playing this particular CD.

Alexander Paley's refined and subtle interpretation of Bach's Goldberg Variations are a delight to the ear.

I am also enjoying the Ornette Coleman Trio, "At the 'Golden Circle' Stockholm."

Consider as well Newsound's two-disc Charlie Parker collection (image unavailable).

For those of you who have listened only to R. Carlos Nakai, try Kyle Councillor's "Livin the Good Life" for traditional North American Aboriginal flute music, one of my great favourites.

John Coltrane's Giant Steps is one of the greatest of all jazz classics, and unobtrusive enough to serve as auditory context for a mellow day.

And Blue Trane is also a great backgrounder.

On a classical note, try the Orford String Quartet's "Mozart String Quartets."

For classical Spanish guitar, "The Legendary Segovia" cannot be faulted.

Julian Bream's "Music of Spain" provides perfect melodies and rhythms when used to add context to almost any worthy activity.

From the classic jazz page, consider Brubeck's milestone recording, "Time Out" for some adventures in time - that is, adventures with variable time signatures.... "Take Five" was the first jazz instrumental to sell a million copies. ("Time Further Out" is also worth taking a look at.)

One of my perennial favourites, and one of the first albums I ever owned, is Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain. It's easy to listen to, and I particularly like this one late at night.

Now I'm going to get into some picks that may or may not work for you as background music, depending on the circumstances. But I consider all of these too interesting not to mention. Only this summer, we visited the Big Jonathan Centre of the Selkirk (Northern Tutchone) Nation in the Yukon, where Jerry Alfred is an elder. His recordings are featured at Big Jonathan House. I've been listening to Mr. Alfred's music for years - a combination of traditional and contemporary elements. It is haunting and hypnotic. Try Etsi Shon (Grandfather Songs) as an introduction.

While we're talking about old favourites, try Skeleton Woman, inspired by the writings of Clarissa Pinkola Estes.

Another of Susan's and my great favourites, usually played during the Christmas season, is James Galway's "Winter's Crossing," telling the tale in music of the men and women who crossed by sea from Northern Ireland to North America. Caution, these compositions are haunting, magical and spiritually dense.

And while we're talking dense, magical and complex, consider Oliver Schroer's brilliant, dissonant violin renderings recorded in Spanish cathedrals during the artist's pilgrimage through Spain.

And as we wander further afield, please direct your attention to Robert Johnson's original 1936 and 1937 recordings, completed shortly before his untimely death. Johnson is arguably the most important of all Delta blues musicians and composers. His music is raw, intricate, haunting, at times disturbing, and ultimately deeply engaging. Note that there were no "studios" at the time these classic compositions were committed to wax. This music works best for me after the sun has set.

My final pick will serve as background music only in certain circumstances. The disc features considerable variation in dynamic range, style, taste and genre. But combined, these selections are magical. Literally intended for Valentine celebrations, this two-disc set is from Deutsche Grammophon: "Be My Valentine: Music for Two."

Let me re-emphasize that the earlier picks are suitable for background listening in many situations. Obviously many more in this genre could have been selected.

The later picks are for various reasons more specialized or idiosyncratic. What all of the above have in common is that they have proven themselves to be enduring favourites in my music library.

And for those who need to know, I do not own an MP3 player. These are CDs!
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