Robert J

Toronto Star Nov. 16, 2006. 06:07 AM The National Hockey League has signed a deal with popular video-sharing website YouTube Inc. to market highlight clips in a bid to boost fan interest in some U.S. markets.. Trumpeted as the first of its kind between a professional North American sports league and YouTube, the agreement has wide-ranging implications both for the NHL and for the upstart California-based company. The NHL is hoping to widen its fan base through an Internet site that's proven popular with young potential viewers. Earlier, in an effort to develop a larger profile, the league changed its rules to make the game more interesting. For YouTube, which recently agreed to be acquired by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion (U.S.), the pact represents a chance to further legitimize itself, even as some major TV networks and sports leagues assail it for posting copyrighted content. Through YouTube, consumers view short videos more than 100 million times a day, ranging from clips of a cicada moulting and jugglers to vintage cartoons and sports highlights recorded from television feed. Users post more than 60,000 videos daily. Most videos are limited to about 10 minutes. The NHL said that the league would protect its copyrighted material and share in any revenue generated from advertising placed adjacent to its hockey video offerings. The videos would be posted at least a full day after a game's completion. Brad Pelletier, an executive with the Canadian unit of sports consultancy I.M.G., said the league was probably considering a move to offer "raw, uncut and behind-the-scenes footage" that may not have aired during conventional broadcasts. Even so, it's doubtful the NHL would generate significant revenue through the initiative, said several Internet marketing experts. "It's pure PR," said Steve Safran, a Boston-based Internet consultant. "It's encouraging people to share clips from hockey games, which is something they really don't do right now." For YouTube, said to be the largest video-sharing site on the Web, the NHL contract is noteworthy because it marks the first time a major sports league has embraced its technology. While users have already been able to access NHL highlights for months at the website — clips available at YouTube, before yesterday's deal was announced, included a 1999 brawl between the Maple Leafs and Philadelphia Flyers and a collection of goals scored by Washington's young forward Alexander Ovechkin — a formal agreement with the hockey league helps to legitimize the Internet site. "It's further validation for YouTube," said Jimmy Schaeffler, a former producer with ABC Sports who now works as the Carmel Group media consultancy in California. "It's kind of like when the government says something's illegal but doesn't do anything about it, and then they make it legal and, all of a sudden, people rush in and it becomes that much more popular." Still, Schaeffler said, "how the NHL monetizes this remains the big question." One looming obstacle that YouTube has been trying to navigate is the complaints raised by TV networks, sports leagues and others who have cried foul when copyrighted content has been posted to the Website. YouTube is often forced to take popular content off its site. National Football League spokesperson Brian McCarthy said in an interview that YouTube recently complied with a request to remove more than 3,000 clips featuring NFL game footage. Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association have raised similar complaints. Just this week, Google said it would set aside more than $200 million to deal with potential lawsuits and copyright settlements over the next 12 months that might arise in the wake of its acquisition of YouTube. "The only reason this deal was done was because the NHL was going to make YouTube remove all of the copyrighted NHL clips. So YouTube says, `Okay, we'll host whatever you want for free just so it's not negative press,'" said Dan Rayburn, executive vice-president with Internet consulting company Steaming Media. Rayburn said the deal was of minimal value to the NHL. "Why not host the clips on the NHL.com site and drive traffic there?" Rayburn asked. "Why give YouTube the traffic when the NHL will get no revenue in return? If the NHL was smart, they would take the same route that (baseball) has gone and actually make money from their content instead of giving away their videos and hoping they will see something in return from a share of advertising revenue." Coming off a year during which fans flocked back to the sport after a lockout led to a full season's cancellation, the NHL has failed to post similar gains this year. The Los Angeles Times reported this month that league attendance was down 2.1 per cent and that 16 of the league's 30 teams have posted declines in attendance. To be sure, the NHL isn't the first mainstream organization that's sought firmer ties to YouTube, the business started by two men in their 20s who worked out of a garage. In April, Weinstein Co., a movie company run by producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein, premiered the first few minutes of the film Lucky Number Slevin on YouTube and General Electric Co.'s NBC said it would create a channel on YouTube to offer promotional video clips for some of its popular shows such as The Office and Saturday Night Live. The deal is the second of its kind for the NHL in recent weeks. The league also signed an agreement with YouTube parent Google where fans can access full-length archived NHL games such as Game Six of the 1967 Stanley Cup finals between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens.

Me and my way better half.

I love the Net.

Lee Morgan / Jazz Messangers - I Remember Clifford great solos from young Lee

This smokes! James Gang - Walk Away (I made the Cobian comparison right away and so did most other commentators)

In 2003, the BBC had a series of perfomances and interviews on the cycle featuring pianist Artur Pizarro. The original online archives are gone, but the magic of the Wayback Machine still delivers - http://web.archive.org/web/20040720021107/...rro/index.shtml

Frat boys sue over 'Borat' role Nov. 10, 2006. 08:33 AM ASSOCIATED PRESS SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Two unsuspecting fraternity boys want to make lawsuit against "Borat" over their drunken appearance in the hit movie. The legal action filed Thursday on their behalf claims they were duped into appearing in the spoof documentary "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," in which they made racist and sexist comments on camera. The young men "engaged in behavior that they otherwise would not have engaged in," the lawsuit says. "Borat" follows the adventures of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's Kazakh journalist character in a blend of fiction and improvised comic encounters as he travels across the United States and mocks Americans. The plaintiffs were not named in the lawsuit "to protect themselves from any additional and unnecessary embarrassment.'' They were identified in the movie as fraternity members from a South Carolina university, and appeared drunk as they made insulting comments about women and minorities to Cohen's character. The lawsuit claims that in October 2005, a production crew took the students to a bar to drink and "loosen up" before participating in what they were told would be a documentary to be shown outside of the United States. "They were induced to agree to participate and were told the name of the fraternity and the name of their school wouldn't be used," said the plaintiffs' attorney, Olivier Taillieu. "They were put into an RV and were made to believe they were picking up Borat the hitchhiker.'' After a bout of heavy drinking, the plaintiffs signed a release form they were told "had something to do with reliability issues with being in the RV," Taillieu said. The film "made plaintiffs the object of ridicule, humiliation, mental anguish and emotional and physical distress, loss of reputation, goodwill and standing in the community," the lawsuit said. It names 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp., and three production companies as defendants. Studio spokesman Gregg Brilliant said the lawsuit "has no merit.'' The plaintiffs were seeking an injunction to stop the studio from displaying their image and likeness, along with unspecified monetary damages. "Borat" debuted as the top movie last weekend with $26.5 million.

Happy birthday Paul. Maybe I'll surprise and join the chat this weekend!

Here's a nice cut from the new one Adventure Rocket Ship

where you been son? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3105444.stm

I am going to see Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 this Friday in Toronto. Guitarist Peter Buck of REM is in the band. I know there's a few Syd Barrett fans here. I last saw Robyn in Detroit in 88 or 89 - the Globe of Frogs Tour ("Balloon Man"). Very interesting performer and composer. Here's the tour sked - 11/8 Metro-Chicago,IL 11/9 The Magic Bag-Ferndale,MI. 11/10 The Mod Club-Toronto,ON. 11/12 Beachland Tavern-Cleveland,OH 11/13- Rex Theater- Pittsburgh,Pa. 11/14 Sellersville Theater- Sellersville,Pa. 11/17 Hiro Ballroom- New York City,NY. 11/18 Maxwell’s-Hoboken,NJ. 11/19 Maxwells’s-Hoboken,NJ. 11/20 The Ottobar- Baltimore,MD 11/25 Crocodile Café-Seattle,Wa.

This one travels well

I don't think this helped either: ----------------------------------- DUBLIN, Ireland Oct. 26, 2006— Guinness, the dark Irish drink known as the "black stuff", could soon be turning red. Manufacturer Diageo plans to produce a version at its Irish brewery using lightly roasted barley, which will have a reddish colour, and give it a trial run across the Irish Sea in Britain. "If you held up a pint of Guinness to the light, the red would come through. It's a very deep red," a Diageo spokeswoman said. Diageo plans to test Guinness Red on drinkers in British pubs in the coming months but has no plans to launch it more widely, either at home in Ireland or in about 150 other countries where Guinness is sold. The beer, which like the traditional, darker Guinness will have a creamy white head and be poured in the two steps needed to let it settle, will have a strength of about 4.1 percent. Diageo already sells several versions of the brew — including Guinness Original, Guinness Draught and Guinness Foreign Extra Stout — to cater to different tastes around the world and has tested other limited-edition varieties in Ireland in the past year.

Newly added Bud Powell John Abbey Get Happy Blues in the Closet

Is that what y'all call Tim Horton's now? Many gas stations have a Tim's attached. I guessed 10,000. Believe it or not - it was to be a piano teacher at a music school! They hired me as a salesperson instead.

I was asked this one: "How many gas stations are there in Canada?"

Jimmy Smith - The Transcendental Dialectic! Jackie McLean - Newly Soiled Donald Byrd - Is worth two in the bush Andrew Hill - Carbon Emitter Lou Donaldson - They plump when you cook 'em

David - Let me know how it goes. They play Hamilton, Ontario in November, not far from me. I've never seen them play, but they get lots of mention in the press. They have a Massey Hall gig in December, at twice the price of Hamilton! No one's yet mentioned it's a Canadian group Montreal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yocu-pmnIO8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJN9e7um0BQ

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/guidelines/index.html

Lon, that calls for a bit of an explanation, if you feel like it , of course. I really dislike their guidelines for writing reviews, how impersonal they demand the writing to be, and I quit after two reviews. I did my last one in 2002, after 1/2 dozen and an article. Has the policy changed? I recall they wanted a touch of personality then (c.2000-2002) and more subjectivity, rather than listing personel, regurgitating artist/band history, etc. I see many of the current reviews do this way too often as filler. Or they rewrite press releases.

29 year old Ahmad Jamal tearing it up Excerpts from the blues Darn that dream

That's a nice site! Digging it now. And a great use of Flash for the home page. The samples sound very high quality as well.

That couldn't have been all bad! My contract stipulated that I was required to keep both hands on the piano at all times. (Though Hines' style octaves got me closer in the right hand).

Limited brushes with greatness as I don't gig much, but... Lee Iacocca in Detroit. I saw him at a Chrysler event in the ballroom I was performing at. He was in the buffet line about 10 feet away. Maybe not weird, but In Toronto, for the party after the premiere of the film the English Patient (Author Michael Ondaatje lives in Toronto). Ralph Fiennes couldn't make it, but directors Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg, Saul Zaents and EP actress Juliette Binoche did. At one point, Juliette even sat next to me on the piano bench of the Steinway I was playing.