Randy Twizzle

It was 90 minutes. Here's what you missed: Strayhorn heroically rescues Ellington by largely doing all the work on "Anatomy of a Murder" and "Paris Blues" Then Strayhorn heroically helps lead the civil rights movement with Lena Horne. Then he gets sicks, heroically fights his illness, visits Paris for the last time, writes "Blood Count" and then dies (heroically).

It could be that somebody spiked the Tang.

Here's Wilson's 12/31/1964 review of Archie Shepp And for those nostalgic for the 60s here's an excerpt from a Feb 1965 article about a panel discussion held at the Village Vanguard involving Shepp.

Thank you Scott. It could just be that I have more masturbatory experience than you.

I don't where else to post this. I don't want to start one of those embarrassing threads read by 24 people, half of whom are myself checking for typos. I was coming out of the Railhead Bar in the Hoboken NJ train station tonight when I saw a guy walking by carrying Ira Gitler's "From Swing to Bebop" In the spirit of jazz fans all over the world I tapped him on the shoulder and said "That's a great fucking book" I was hoping he would react by saying something like "Yeah man,lots of great contributions from guys like Budd Johnson and Howard McGhee" or something like that. Instead the gentleman looked at me like I was crazy and even seemed a little scared of me. I'm not a scary looking guy even when I've had a few (see below). If that guy is reading this I'd just like to say "I'm sorry for scaring you"

I think Pee Wee Russell brought out the best in Balliet:

I liked that poem. (I'm not a poetry connoisseur.) Randy, do you mind posting some more? Guy I'm no judge of poetry myself, but in consultation with the executor of Mr Balliet's literary estate, some dude named clementine, I've chosen these poems"

Balliet's first published piece in the New Yorker was in the Jan. 26, 1952 issue. It was was a poem entitled 8 A.M. He published 10 more poems and some "Talk of the Town" pieces before his first jazz article appeared in the May 25, 1957 issue. It was a favorable review of the Jimmy Giuffre 3 album on Atlantic. Here's the first poem. [thanks to the Complete New Yorker Hard Drive]

CHICAGO (AP) -- Sunday's Super Bowl has triggered questions that haven't been asked here in years. Like, if the Chicago Bears were 14 inches tall would they still win? And would a big bus loaded with Bears cross the finish line first in the Indianapolis 500? If you know the answers -- yes and yes -- you probably remember Bill Swerski's Super Fans on ''Saturday Night Live'' in the early 1990s. Knocking back beers, they took turns extolling the virtues of ''a certain team from a certain Midwestern town that starts with a C, ends with an O and in the middle is HICAG.'' But even those who don't recall the beefy guys -- made so by a diet of beer, ribs and Polish sausage -- can't escape their rallying cry of ''Da Bears.'' In Chicago and around the country, ''Da Bears'' are everywhere. Radio hosts can't stop talking about ''Da Bears.'' The words ''Da Bears'' are irresistible to newspaper and Web site headline writers from all over the United States and even the frozen north of Canada. And on YouTube, one of the sketches has been watched more than 53,000 times in the last three months. The phrase, repeated in the sketch by the men as they hoisted a beer to their favorite team, has become synonymous with the city, shorthand for its love affair with its favorite sports team. ''It really tells you a lot about the city -- Bears and food -- that is what Chicago is all about,'' said Mike North, a Chicago radio host who sounds enough like the guys in the sketch that he was accused of imitating them when he was hired. Actor Joe Mantegna, a Chicago native, has been hearing calls of ''Da Bears'' ever since he appeared in the first Super Fans sketch on ''Saturday Night Live'' in 1991. ''It's not Hollywood, it's not New York, it's not Broadway, it's Da Bears,'' said Mantegna, trying to explain the appeal of ''Da Bears'' both in and outside the city. ''It's fans, it's sports fans.'' The way Mantegna sees it, had Carl Sandburg written his famous poem about the city in the late 1900s when ''Saturday Night Live'' writer Robert Smigel came up with the idea instead of the early 1900s, it might have included something about ''Da Bears.'' ''He could have fit it right in there somewhere, stacker of wheat, city of big shoulders, home of Da Bears,'' he said. For his part, Smigel said Chicagoans took to the sketch because it was ''grounded in some truth.'' True, he said, Chicagoans don't have as many heart attacks as the Super Fans did and they don't know how to give themselves CPR. ''And at the hospitals they don't have barbecue sauce in their IVs,'' he said. But they do see themselves -- or more specifically their neighbors. ''People from Chicago would come up to me and sound exactly like the characters and say, 'I know a guy just like that,''' he said. Smigel said the sketch, in which the characters predict the Bears and other Chicago teams will win by outrageous scores -- the late Chris Farley's character once predicted a Bulls ''402 to zip'' win -- also tapped into something that had nothing to do with Chicago. ''People just enjoyed the arrogance and overwhelming pride in their own city,'' he said. The sketch stemmed from what Smigel saw when he came to Chicago from New York in the early 1980s: man after man who looked like the characters he would ultimately create with fellow ''Saturday Night Live'' writer Bob Odenkirk. He also listened to the way they talked about their teams and no matter how bad they played, these men with their walrus mustaches and aviator sunglasses projected what he called a ''kind of hilarious arrogance'' about them. ''I just thought to myself, 'Da Bears, oh yeah, that's money in the bank, my friend,''' he said in the voice straight from Super Fans sketches that he appeared in with Mike Myers, Farley and either Mantegna or George Wendt. Smigel and Odenkirk wrote the sketch for a stage show in Chicago in the late 1980s. ''We didn't think the bit would fly on 'Saturday Night Live,''' he said. But when Mantegna hosted the show in 1991 they gave it a try. ''All of a sudden the next day we heard how it just took off,'' Mantegna said. Nowhere was that more true than in Chicago. ''That's ours,'' North said. ''It's Chicago.'' The question now is whether the Super Fans will make a return to ''Saturday Night Live'' the night before the Super Bowl. All but one of the sketches were performed in the early 1990s. The lone exception came in 2003 when the Cubs, with the help of fan Steve Bartman, made Chicago-style sports history and collapsed in the playoffs just five outs from making it to the World Series. Now, though, a publicist with the show won't comment on any upcoming sketches. Smigel said this week he hasn't planned to do anything with the Super Fans and hasn't been approached. Whether they return, Smigel knows they wouldn't agree with him that for the Bears to win they must run the ball well, thus keeping the ball out of Colts quarterback Peyton Manning's hands for big chunks of time. Instead, he said, they'd say Da Bears 300 to negative 20 for the Colts. ''Or maybe more like 70 to negative 284.''

Thank you Niko. That solved the problem. I don't remember changing that setting but somehow it was changed.

For some reason since yesterday on my home computer all the response posts in any given thread now appear in my Firefox browser as hypertext listings instead of being complete posts. In order to read them I now have to click on the links. Why has this happened and how can I go back to the old way of having the complete post appearing. Below is an small example of the kind of thing I now see after each thread starter: Posts in this topic Lazaro Vega Blue Lake's Jazz Datebook Jan 17 2007, 02:27 AM Lazaro Vega January 25, 2007 The Jazz Datebook: Mondays from... Jan 25 2007, 02:35 AM

Sometimes the news media just can't win. When they cover tragic stories involving unknown people they're often accused of being vultures who are exploiting personal tragedy. Then when they devote space and time to story about a dead thoroughbred horse they're accused of ignoring real tragedies involving poor unknown people. The horse won the most famous race in the U.S. last year. His early death is very newsworthy, and I find nothing wrong with the attention it's getting. Reading about Barbaro's death doesn't mean that I've forgotten about the suffering of humans, how the hell could that be possible?

The forgotten Americans: African Americans in Mayberry For example:

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- A Statehouse scandal in which a lawmaker is accused of fondling a page has transfixed South Dakota, with many people following the case on TV and the Web as if it were a Hollywood reality show. Sen. Dan Sutton, 36, is accused of groping the young man last year while the two shared a motel room at the start of the youth's weeklong stint in the Legislature. The young man was 18 at the time. The South Dakota attorney general and other law enforcement agents investigated the allegations and made no arrests. But a Senate committee accused Sutton of sexual misconduct and planned to wrap up investigative hearings Thursday. Austin Wiese, now 19, testified that Sutton, a longtime personal and family friend, touched his genitals through his shorts as the two slept in a king-size bed last February. "He laid his hand on my stomach for 30 seconds and I was just shaking. He moved his hand down," said Wiese, now a college student. He said he jumped out of bed, pretended to have a cell phone call and fled the room. While it is The Associated Press' policy not to identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault, Wiese's name was used in the public hearing, which was carried live on the Internet, and has been circulated by other media in the state. Sutton has denied fondling the young man but acknowledged that he might have shifted in the bed and inadvertently touched him. "I didn't do what Austin is claiming that I did," Sutton testified. "I loved Austin like a son, a son that I never had. The nine members of the panel will make a recommendation next week to the full Senate, which will decide what, if any, action to take. Lawmakers could censure, discipline or expel Sutton. Nearly every TV station in the state has covered the hearings, and South Dakota Public Broadcasting has offered live audio on its Web site. The state's largest newspaper, the Argus Leader of Sioux Falls, posted frequent online updates from the hearing room. Sioux Falls TV station KELO has run live video from the hearings on its Web site. News Director Mark Millage said 750 viewers can log on at any one time, and people have complained because the link is maxed out. "It's a soap opera. There's no question about that," Millage said. David J. Law of radio station KWAT in Watertown said his call-in show Thursday drew many comments on the Sutton hearings. And callers seemed to know a lot of details, indicating they are listening live or reading news accounts, he said. In a state with a population of only 750,000 people, the story is a tangled web involving people with political, business and family connections stretching back for decades. The Sutton and Wiese families have been friends for years. Asked why the young man might have made up the allegations, the senator suggested that they might be tied to the page's father, Dennis Wiese, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for governor last year. Sutton, also a Democrat, said the elder Wiese might have wanted to get make sure he did not enter the race. Or, he said, the allegations might be connected to a troubled business venture in which a development corporation led by Sutton lent money to the business led by Wiese.

Foxy_Lady2578.... no I'm sorry that was my first AOL screen name.

I don't watch "24" myself, but I do watch "Idol" with my wife. It's a bonding experience.

So that's what you think this is all about? Not "offending" the Japanese? This film shows heroism on the Japanese side. No American film (that I know of) has showed such a thing before. And this is just a sop to Politcal Correctness? Is that what you think? Terribly sorry Saint Alexander, I was just adding my little bit of misplaced whimsy to your monumental discovery that during wartime we tend to dehumanize the enemy. I realize that you must have left the theatre after Eastwood's latest masterpiece feeling the need to proclaim this important truth to us enfeebled yahoos. I understand how important the message is and how we all need to run (not walk) to the theatre to become as noble as you undoubtedly are. BTW "Tora Tora Tora" in 1970 was also partly told from the Japanese perspective, but of course it offered no great universal truths for deep thinkers and didn't really send anyone out of the theatre feeling the need to preach how like really gross war tends to be. So, because you disagree with my take on the film, that gives you license to be a complete dick? What seems very interesting to me is that the standard by which greatness in cinema is measured this year is whether or not the film reveals great "Truth" with a capital "T". If the film fails to present some original insight into human nature or our national character, we deem the film a failure (and, of course, anybody who actually likes the film and is interested in what it does have to say is silly, since the film has told us nothing we didn't already know). "Borat" is a good example. I liked "Borat," myself, but a lot of people (on this very board, in fact) responded thus: "Oh, dear. Baron Cohen has revealed that some Americans are ignorant, xenophobic, racist, sexist, anti-semitic boobs. Tell us something we DON'T know! Yawn." Apparently, Baron Cohen's mission in "Borat" was not to be funny, but to come down from the mountain top (a la Moses) with a great truth that would make his film worth viewing. But since his insight is so...so unoriginal...well, how can anybody stomach such a common observation? So it is, too, with "Iwo Jima." War is hell. Where have we heard that one before? Call me up when something INTERESTING happens. I didn't like the film because it revealed something to me that I'd never seen before. I liked it because it presented a perspective not often seen in American films. And because it was well-acted and well-filmed. Did it teach me that war is hell? No more than "Hotel Rwanda" taught me that genocide is bad. Did I already know that? Yes, but I still thought it was a great film. And, yes, I did enjoy the fact that Allmighty America was revealed in its socks and underwear, so to speak. I'm of the opinion that America needs to see it's faults and foibles writ large from time to time. That's how we learn. In "Iwo Jima" we see how America is perceived by an enemy at war, and frankly it's not a pretty picture. I don't want to live in the country with the biggest dick in the world, do you? Like I said you're a noble truth teller. Though I'm not quite what dicks have to do with anything, but I'm not on your level. I guess I should go to move movies. What's a "move movie?" Must be a DICK thing... Sorry Reverend it should have read "more" movies. And if you're calling me a DICK, it really doesn't bother me. Anything that gets your mind off of deep thoughts is really fine with me.

Hey I saw that on a fortune cookie last week.

So that's what you think this is all about? Not "offending" the Japanese? This film shows heroism on the Japanese side. No American film (that I know of) has showed such a thing before. And this is just a sop to Politcal Correctness? Is that what you think? Terribly sorry Saint Alexander, I was just adding my little bit of misplaced whimsy to your monumental discovery that during wartime we tend to dehumanize the enemy. I realize that you must have left the theatre after Eastwood's latest masterpiece feeling the need to proclaim this important truth to us enfeebled yahoos. I understand how important the message is and how we all need to run (not walk) to the theatre to become as noble as you undoubtedly are. BTW "Tora Tora Tora" in 1970 was also partly told from the Japanese perspective, but of course it offered no great universal truths for deep thinkers and didn't really send anyone out of the theatre feeling the need to preach how like really gross war tends to be. So, because you disagree with my take on the film, that gives you license to be a complete dick? What seems very interesting to me is that the standard by which greatness in cinema is measured this year is whether or not the film reveals great "Truth" with a capital "T". If the film fails to present some original insight into human nature or our national character, we deem the film a failure (and, of course, anybody who actually likes the film and is interested in what it does have to say is silly, since the film has told us nothing we didn't already know). "Borat" is a good example. I liked "Borat," myself, but a lot of people (on this very board, in fact) responded thus: "Oh, dear. Baron Cohen has revealed that some Americans are ignorant, xenophobic, racist, sexist, anti-semitic boobs. Tell us something we DON'T know! Yawn." Apparently, Baron Cohen's mission in "Borat" was not to be funny, but to come down from the mountain top (a la Moses) with a great truth that would make his film worth viewing. But since his insight is so...so unoriginal...well, how can anybody stomach such a common observation? So it is, too, with "Iwo Jima." War is hell. Where have we heard that one before? Call me up when something INTERESTING happens. I didn't like the film because it revealed something to me that I'd never seen before. I liked it because it presented a perspective not often seen in American films. And because it was well-acted and well-filmed. Did it teach me that war is hell? No more than "Hotel Rwanda" taught me that genocide is bad. Did I already know that? Yes, but I still thought it was a great film. And, yes, I did enjoy the fact that Allmighty America was revealed in its socks and underwear, so to speak. I'm of the opinion that America needs to see it's faults and foibles writ large from time to time. That's how we learn. In "Iwo Jima" we see how America is perceived by an enemy at war, and frankly it's not a pretty picture. I don't want to live in the country with the biggest dick in the world, do you? Like I said you're a noble truth teller. Though I'm not quite what dicks have to do with anything, but I'm not on your level. I guess I should go to move movies.

So that's what you think this is all about? Not "offending" the Japanese? This film shows heroism on the Japanese side. No American film (that I know of) has showed such a thing before. And this is just a sop to Politcal Correctness? Is that what you think? Terribly sorry Saint Alexander, I was just adding my little bit of misplaced whimsy to your monumental discovery that during wartime we tend to dehumanize the enemy. I realize that you must have left the theatre after Eastwood's latest masterpiece feeling the need to proclaim this important truth to us enfeebled yahoos. I understand how important the message is and how we all need to run (not walk) to the theatre to become as noble as you undoubtedly are. BTW "Tora Tora Tora" in 1970 was also partly told from the Japanese perspective, but of course it offered no great universal truths for deep thinkers and didn't really send anyone out of the theatre feeling the need to preach how like really gross war tends to be.

Let's not forget the stirring words of FDR on 12/8/1941 Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us,( though let's not forget that the Japanese soldiers also have families that love them.) No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, (let's do so in caring and gentle manner) the American people in their righteous might, (righteous but also forgiving, for aren't we all god's creatures), will win through to absolute victory (but in a manner that doesn't offend the Japanese.)

It was those organissimo.org TV ads that ran during the 2004 Super Bowl that first attracted me to this forum. I was greatly amused by the sight of those tap dancing chimps typing away at their little keyboards to "Alley Cat"

I hope Peyton Manning's performance helps him get some much needed attention from Madison Ave.

I get it. So 60 yrs later we're supposed to be ashamed over a victory over a military force representing an evil murderous regime. These battles didn't take place in a vacuum. They were part of a glorious ongoing struggle over fascism and the culture of death and destruction. Sorry it wasn't aesthetically pleasing enough for you to celebrate.