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Noj

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Posts posted by Noj

  1. Hey Guys,

    BFrank hipped me to this, thought I would check in. Thanks for the thread, TTK!

    The last five years have been very eventful for me. I met a girl, fell in love, got married, and now I am a father of two beautiful little girls.

    When my second child was on her way I was laid off from my job and couldn’t make the rent so we were forced to move into a 400 square foot converted garage. My music collection went into storage while I worked to get my professional life back together and my family into a decent living space.

    I have been clawing my way up in a special effects company which is very demanding of my time. The rest of my time goes to my wife and munchkins. I’m glad to report I have managed to put a nice roof over our heads.

    Collecting music and discussing it and researching it has been put way on the back burner for me—but I sure miss this place and all the great music knowledge that’s here!

    I’ll be back on when time permits.

    Cheers,

    Jon

  2. Haven't seen it yet, ejp. But it seems most folks agree with your assessment.

    One that I need to revisit is the original Total Recall. In the last few years I've read some rather glowing reassessments of it. I just don't recall it being a very good movie. I suppose the latest version is great eye candy, but I still can't bring myself to watch it.

    Definitely need to check out A Scanner Darkly, though. Thanks for the reminder.

    BTW, in going back to check xybert's exact quote on Bladerunner, I saw this. Which obviously got lost in the mix while I was forming a quick rebuttal:

    Stand By Me / The Body.

    TWO HUGE thumbs up! This and Shawshank Redemption are the only two Stephen King stories that ever amounted to shit on the big screen, while staying completely faithful to the original text. Interestingly enough, they were both short stories.

    I liked The Green Mile, too.

  3. I laugh at Atomic records in Burbank and their $30 price tags on most plates. The price gouging turned me away from vinyl collecting a long time ago. My bargain spots, where I'd dig through crate after crate of junk and find $3 gems, have long since closed up shop. I've splurged on some vinyl reissues here and there, but at reasonable rates. My cap is at $20 now, and that better be for something special.

    $750? That record better come with a stereo system.

  4. With all the morons out there claiming the US is a "Christian" nation and that religious freedom involves the right to push one's religious agenda on others, US History testing should involve a whole lot of basic concepts of the Bill Of Rights, the Enlightenment, and the separation of church and state.

    I only got 25/30 on this test--but if I had been tested in 1993 I would have aced it for certain. I got a five out of a possible five on the Advanced Placement US History exam.

  5. Thanks for the perspective, Allen. The article read as self-deprecating to me, and didn't come across as making Mr. Motian look like anything other than a musician with his mind on other things. I always figure famous folks are just exhausted by the attention so like Hot Ptah I leave them be.

    I did make an ass of myself fawning over Marcus Allen (NFL running back) once. I won't repeat that lameness.

  6. I use a program called iPod Access to download from my iPods. Costs about $20.

    However, if the files are Apple "purchased AAC" or even worse "protected AAC" files he'll need his friend's password to play them on iTunes, and that will only work if his friend hasn't maxed out the number of computers authorized to play the tracks. He'll want to make sure his iTunes is set to manually add tracks to iPod and NOT to autosync the iTunes library.

  7. Musicians tend to have more peaks than valleys. Even an album at a time. They tend to have songs that are much more inspired and more compelling than other songs. They can have whole albums that don't do a thing for me, despite other (usually previous) albums that were entirely enthralling.

    There's usually a white-hot peak, where the musician catches lightning in a bottle for a spell, and then it fades out. The truly great ones are able to capture that lightning more often than others. It seems to emanate from them and electrify everyone around them, too.

    Some here wanted Sonny Rollins to keep catching exciting new types of lightning. Sonny, he just likes tinkering with the one he caught the first time.

    It makes me think of how some musicians have described feeling as though the music already exists somewhere in the universe, and they're able to tap into it, channel it through their instrument, and the music plays itself. A beautiful muse, she waits for the musician who can hear and interpret her for everyone's ears.

  8. I think it would have been a more interesting BFT for everyone else had the compiler selected music that Sonny Rollins might have listened to when he was developing as an artist. He probably would have known his predecessors and been able to dive into anecdotes about interacting with them, or by luck a piece might have been something that really meant something to him... Playing him kids younger than him, who were likely influenced by Mr. Rollins himself, I don't see why he would be expected to recognize them.

  9. I'm doing photography now. Painting hasn't been rewarding, as I can't put in the physical labor and time into it that I would like.

    I am showing here, at the Black Box Gallery in Portland, Oregon

    http://blackboxgallery.com/Poetics%20of%20Light%20EP.html

    Last month, I had a piece in the same gallery, different show:

    http://blackboxgallery.com/Color%20Space-EP.html

    Those are cool, Stefan! The one at Niagara Falls is really surreal feeling, with that nebulous rainbow-laden background. How large are they printed?

    I love photography but I've yet to invest the time or money to approach it artistically. Someday...

    Here's some of my newest paintings. A restaurant is hanging them to sell, and the owner even bought a couple.

    64276_10205512208872635_2394720676479084

    BB King

    10407368_10205391971266770_7712654784664Frank Sinatra

    10370895_10205322729615772_5442857308324Miles Davis

    All are acrylic on canvas.

  10. I just thought if any game was one no one would pick, it would be that one and I could make up a spot on the leader. The Raiders were coming off their first win, maybe they'd found a new identity and guys knew their roles...no, not even close.

    Something I meant to mention--I get the "Set Picks Reminder" email after the Thursday game has already started. Is there a way to send that thing on Wednesday?

  11. Thank you for all your thoughtful responses, Hot Ptah! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

    You guys all have such sharp ears, I'm always blown away by the ability to pick someone out of a blind listen. I can do it with some obvious guys who I have really saturated my brain with (Coltrane, or say Stan Turrentine, a few others), but to be able to say oh that might be Grady Tate but the snare's too sharp or to just immediately know Houston Person like it's the most obvious sound in the world impresses me to no end. That I come from this sample-hunting background might be interesting, but I can't help but feel my ears are little less knowledgable than a lot of our jazz experts here. There's a sensitivity you guys have, a consideration for the individual players, that I might not ever develop. Often I read the responses to the BFT's even if I didn't participate, just so I can be amazed by how a lot of the participants will so adeptly ID players.

  12. Felser, the compilation with D.B. Shrier "East" is called Gilles Peterson Digs America which I believe is fairly easy to obtain. Not sure about the original album (I'd love to hear it too!).

    I'm loving your BFT#129, by the way. I think I've heard maybe two songs but I couldn't think of names. Incredibly consistent mood across it! It flows like an album.

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