chris

No, no! I have to stay far away from chess, which was an obsession of mine for a few years. Argh, I can't believe I am being tempted here too In fact, I keep contemplating giving away my chess library just so I won't get sucked back in!

Does this mean "the war of northern aggression" will soon be settled? How about the normans and anglo-saxons?

IQ tests are funny. The only thing they are really good for is opening the doors into extended/gifted programs for your kids-- teach them how to test well and suddenly they will be "gifted" and finally challenged even though their work showed that they needed more all along... At least that's how it has worked for my kids. On the other hand, if I go by the IQ test then both my kids are smarter than I was at their age, which I am very careful not to tell them

I'm on a low carb regiment right now myself, but when I'm not I love to cook Thai and Indian food. The best Thai cookbook I have found is The Best of Vietnamese and Thai Cooking. Amma's Cookbook is good for Indian, though the best cookbooks use ingredients I can almost never get my hands on

Man, if that doesn't turn out to be enough to drive someone insane, nothing will

No way. Screw the old BNBB. Blue Note goes all Verve on their Bulletin Boards, gets all pissy and then expects us to come back? I'll still check it out, I am sure, but this is the new hangout as far as I am concerned. Now that Jazz Corner has decent software, it is much better, and AAJ is ok too, but this place has the best spirit of all of 'em!

My wife dropped a couple of CDs on me for Father's day: Robert Wagner Trio "Walkng, Crying, Laughing, Running" and Bonerama "Live at the Old Point" -- anyone heard of either? Know anything about them? She picked up the CDs while she was visiting New Orleans...

"All it means is that it will take a bit longer depending on the decible level listened to but in the end the same result. The majority of people can't tell the difference between 80db and 100db. Also, ears adjust to the level of sound. Those that use headphones tend to perceives a gradual drop in loudness even though the volume setting hasn't changed. This is why people will turn up the volume after listening for awhile." Untrue. The same can be said of any consistent listening environment. As compared to listening to cheap headphones, one does not need to turn the music up as loud, therefore it can't be as damaging to the ears. Further, with headphones one can listen at a lower level than external speakers. Headphone listening is not dangerous to hearing provided one takes the same precautions as necessary for any listening experience. Who says this? My otolaryngologist, that's who. "It's not like Townsend was using cheap equipment either or it happened quickly." False logic. Decibels damage the hearing. Poor equipment makes it more likely that one will listen at a decibel level that causes damage. Pete Townshend (and the Who in general) were well known for ear-splitting audio levels. It has nothing to do with quality of their equipment. As for the exercise and headphones myth, it is commonly bandied about. Someone's been spending too much time at Headwize and other forums which perpetrate this "knowledge" with a bunch of circular references. Actual medical research indicates that this problem is relatively minimal, chances of damage are not twice as much, but on the order of a few percentage points, subject to the same caveats as above-- that good listening habits are required. Is it easier to damage one's ears with headphones than with speakers? Of course. But that isn' the question. The question is, does cheap equipment make it more likely (yes) and is damage from headphones unavoidable (no). I think I'll stick with the MDs on this one.

The Mosaic set, of course...

The beauty of quality headphones and amp is to AVOID damaging your hearing. better clarity means you don't have to turn it up to hear details, and the sound is much better on your ears.

Just came across But Beautiful: A Book About Jazz by Geoff Dyer -- any thoughts? Any good? Should I move it up on the "to read" list?

Living Colour was great-- Vernon Reid rocked my world with his solo on "Cult of Personality". Blind Melon was also good for the ears. Sublime had some moments too. A lot of stupid drug deaths there. Same with Alice in Chains, which I already mentioned.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I like the Barenaked Ladies -- "Brian Wilson" and "Good Boy" are beautiful songs, and I love many of their lyrics. Ben Folds is great, with and without the five. Aimee Mann continues to give me shivers. I have a sentimental attachment to the first two Counting Crows albums, and I think they are a good group of guys to boot. Radiohead of course. Coldplay. John Mayer has some surprisingly good songs. Smashing Pumpkins (RIP) Cake. Weezer. I miss the Verve. I also miss Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and Nirvana. Audioslave is great. Crash Test Dummies. Nappy Roots (thanks to my daughter). Godsmack and Staind thanks to my son. Color Theory. It's amazing I have any time for jazz...

Well, I chose Chris because it is so unique. You never hear of anyone named Chris, do you? My real name is Skeletor.

I bought this CD a while back. My daughter likes to listen to it once in a while, and I enjoy it occasionally. It's pop, not Jazz, and I have many guilty little pleasures I listen to once in a while when a peculiar mood strikes me...

I'm not sure about Mobley-- I've got a number of his albums but really need to do more listening. But with someone like Knopfler-- well, with almost any good guitar player-- it isn't about the people imitating them. I have seen a LOT of amateur guitar players that can play incredibly fast and technical music note-for-note, whether Malmsteen or Van Halen or Eric Johnson or Jeff Beck. I wish I could But it is the fact that Knopfler et al are doing it first and have made the music their own. As a guitar wannabe I learned to appreciate a lot of musicians I don't really care much for in other ways... I imagine it will be the same way in jazz eventually.

In no particular order and without skimming even this thread to see if they are or not, I know some voices I enjoyed at the old board were: jsngry, hardbop, amirbagachelles (sp), chris albertson, lon, birdstheword, yertle, funkjazz, tony jerant -- there were a lot of others, but I hadn't been to the boards since I lost my job and had to avoid all temptation on the offering/selling board

I'm cool with a new board, it was just that BNBB had some history and it always takes time to get things rolling again as people migrate over, and some are always lost. And it was nice that Blue Note had some balls and let the forum rollick-- but I guess in the end they were no better than the pissers and moaners at the Verve site. And to think how many people bought so much BlueNote and Mosaic material because of that board. Pretty lame.

Does anyone on "the inside" know what happened to the Blue Note Bulletin Board? I leave for a few months and whammo, it's completely gone! What's the deal there? chris aka fncll