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ghost of miles

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Everything posted by ghost of miles

  1. Great opening day win for the Yankees, defeating Houston 5-4 on the road after falling behind 4-0 in the first two innings. Juan Soto drove in NY’s first run with a single, walked twice, and made the play of the game with an outfield assist in the bottom of the 9th. Yankees looked simultaneously more relentless and more patient at the plate. Still dubious about our rotation, esp with Cole on the shelf for two months and possibly longer, but a thrilling and satisfying start to the season!
  2. I'm content with the big red 1999 RCA box and the 2003 Never No Lament set, but always happy to see this music getting any kind of fresh circulation.
  3. This is from the ESPN timeline story that I posted above: 8:30 p.m. ET Monday (9:30 a.m. Tuesday in Seoul): The spokesman for the first time says Ohtani paid the debts on behalf of Mizuhara. He says Balelo, the agent, went to Mizuhara, who "finally came clean to him and said that was the truth," and that Ohtani told Balelo he had covered Mizuhara's debts in $500,000 increments. It's not clear whether the spokesman is saying Ohtani communicated with Balelo through Mizuhara. The spokesman quotes Ohtani as saying: "'Yeah, I sent several large payments. That's the maximum amount I could send.'" The ESPN reporter, knowing the spokesman worked for Ohtani, wants to hear it from Mizuhara. The spokesman says he will work on arranging that.
  4. He’s going to be here in Bloomington on Eclipse Day. (We’re right smack in the middle of the path of totality.)
  5. ESPN timeline of Ohtani story “Stinks to high heaven” is the phrase that comes to mind.
  6. The “Say it ain’t so, Sho” and “Shoeless Sho” quips have been proliferating online since this story broke. Tawdry as this emerging scandal is, I appreciate baseball fans’ ability to invoke century-old historical references for new memes in 2024. Let me take a seat beside you!
  7. … I mean, c’mon. So the new narrative is that Ohtani knew nothing about any of this, that Ippei concocted a whole story that implicated Ohtani in making illegal wire transfer payments on his behalf, then went on ESPN and told his b.s. story with the world’s most popular athlete at the center, and figured poor innocent, completely-in-the-dark Ohtani wouldn’t care once he “learned” the supposedly b.s. story his best friend and interpreter had just told to the media universe? Ffs. Whatever the outcome here, I’m already soured on Ohtani. Like most everybody else I’ve loved watching him as a player, but unless he steps up and gives an honest accounting of what went down and takes full accountability for whatever his role was in it (about as likely as the end of all global warfare and famine), I’ll be taking no pleasure in any of his accomplishments on the field.
  8. From ESPN’s latest story—doubling down on insulting b.s. as they back the bus up over the interpreter: >>Mizuhara on Tuesday evening told ESPN the same and laid out his story in great detail, including saying that Ohtani had sat with him, and the two transferred the money in $500,000 increments in several different settings. But as ESPN prepared to publish a story Wednesday, the spokesman disavowed Mizuhara's account. In a subsequent interview with Mizuhara, he told ESPN he had not been truthful -- that Ohtani had no knowledge of his gambling activities, debts or efforts to repay him. On Thursday, a source close to Ohtani gave an explanation for the changing storylines: As Ohtani's handlers tried to determine what had happened, they initially relied solely on Mizuhara, who continued to translate for Ohtani.<<
  9. Former pitcher Dallas Braden’s tweet sums it up pretty well: A rough timeline: - Ohtani rep goes on record W/ESPN stating Ohtani transferred $4.5MM himself to bookmaker on behalf of Ippei. - Spokesperson for Ohtani delivers Ippei to ESPN for statement. Ippei says Ohtani NEVER bet & felt bad for him & paid off his debt so he’d never do it again. -Spokesperson for Ohtani says Ippei is lying after he gives his 90 minute statement to ESPN. -Ohtani’s lawyers claim “massive theft”. -Ippei then says Ohtani had zero knowledge of his debt or his gambling habit in general. That about right?
  10. A big whiff of b.s. about the changing “story” here, via ESPN: >>Initially, a spokesman for Ohtani told ESPN the slugger had transferred the funds to cover Mizuhara's gambling debt. The spokesman presented Mizuhara to ESPN for a 90-minute interview Tuesday night, during which Mizuhara laid out his account in great detail. However, as ESPN prepared to publish the story Wednesday, the spokesman disavowed Mizuhara's account and said Ohtani's lawyers would issue a statement. "In the course of responding to recent media inquiries, we discovered that Shohei has been the victim of a massive theft, and we are turning the matter over to the authorities," read the statement from Berk Brettler LLP.<< I strongly suspect that the first account was accurate—it came from Ohtani’s spokesperson, and they then put the interpreter on ESPN to elaborate on it… then realized that that narrative was going to be problematic for Ohtani in some legal and/or PR way. But changing the story looks even worse, IMO. In any event, I’m sure the Dodgers and MLB will do anything they can to protect Ohtani’s image, given his enormous fan appeal. Ohtani interpreter fired
  11. I’d imagine that’s because once upon a time (1990s/2000s) Capitol fell under the EMI umbrella, which also owned Blue Note, and Mosaic presumably was able to license Capitol recordings with ease. (In fact, didn’t EMI at one point have a direct financial share in Mosaic?) I’ve lost track of who owns what these days when it comes to label catalogues, though. Is it down to just the Universal and Sony behemoths? Anyway, I’d definitely be in for any kind of 1960s Cannonball Capitol set for sure.
  12. Great document of the 1943 band. I wish the the rest of the material from that run at the Hurricane would get an official release (though I think some of it showed up as bonus tracks on Storyville’s CD-reissue of the Treasury broadcasts series).
  13. I like the idea of a Musicraft Mosaic that would focus on the label’s 1940s jazz releases. A wealth of artists and material to draw on, including Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, and Teddy Wilson.
  14. Great set—picked up at my local record store a few years back. Right now:
  15. Indiana writer Dan Wakefield, author of the best-selling 1970 novel Going All the Way, as well as the cultural history New York In the Fifties and the spiritual memoir Returning, passed away Wednesday at 91. I was fortunate to cross paths with Dan a few times in the past 25 years or so, and he was a guest on my Night Lights show about the Five Spot. (Dan was a habitue in its late-1950s/early 60s heyday.) I’ve posted a remembrance of him on the Night Lights site: Wakefield’s Way: Dan Wakefield, 1932-2024
  16. I sent a link to this thread to Bill’s daughter (whom Kate and I also met in 2016) and asked her to share it with her mother. They are all such lovely people.
  17. With a young J.J. Johnson in the band! Thanks for the heads-up on this... I'm in.
  18. 😂 Fortunately it was a very casual, friendly blindfold test and breakfast was served regardless! He was a joy to hang out with and certainly enhanced my appreciation of British jazz history, among other things. I wish Kate and I had been able to pay a return visit. I also noticed that his last post was on January 19, just three days before he passed away. He died of lung cancer (apparently from exposure to asbestos at some point, according to Angela--he had never been a smoker) and must have known that he didn't have much time left. Not surprised that he didn't mention anything about his illness on the board... but I think he did know that he was much appreciated here.
  19. Kate and I stayed with Bill and his wife Angela for three days in Manchester. Each morning he gave me a quick saxophonist blindfold test when we came downstairs for breakfast. I guessed Tubby Hayes and Sonny Rollins correctly, but bombed the other one. I *think* that’s what we were up to in this particular photo:
  20. BillF and me at the train station in Manchester, June 2016:
  21. I just spoke with Bill’s wife Angela—my girlfriend and I stayed with them in Manchester during our 2016 Ireland/UK trip. She says that Bill passed away on January 22 at the age of 84. At his request, music of Charlie Parker and Bill Evans was played at his funeral. “He had a full and lovely life, with all sorts of passionate interests,” Angela said. I told her that Kate and I still reminisce about what a wonderful time we had with their family, and we couldn’t have asked for a better host and city guide. (He gave us a tour of Manchester’s city center that was a history lesson for the ages.) I also told her that Bill was much-loved on this board and will be deeply missed.
  22. I saw Oppenheimer twice (the second time on the full-size iMax screen at the Indiana State Museum) and loved it. So happy to see it have a big night at the Oscars. In fairness, the only other best-picture nominee I saw was Barbie, so I can’t weigh in on the merits of the others, but Oppenheimer definitely seemed Oscar-worthy to me (including Cillian Murphy’s performance for the ages in the title role). Plus I love that a three-hour dialogue-driven historical film about a scientist could be a box-office blockbuster in 2023. The only other Nolan films I’ve seen are his Batman trilogy, which I thoroughly enjoyed, especially The Dark Knight, which I’d rank among the best movies of the 2000s.
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