Big Al

Hopefully, the voters are desperately trying to recall their ballots. Anybody know where I can get a nice fresh heaping bowl of crow to eat? I understand Sangrey, in addition to being a monster tenor player, could whip up a mean batch if I asked him nicely!

I'm better now. I've slept. These west coast games are killers! Jim R, the only way I'm going to be able to watch game 5 without going completely apeshit is if I turn down the TV volume and listen to TERRA BRASILIS.

Irony of ironies: if you go to the Mavs playoff website, the background music is The Who's "Eminence Front," which, IIRC, has as its chorus: "Eminence front, it's a put-on." Indeed! So much for coming to the party dressed to kill!

On a true OCD moment, I stopped by the Hulen (FW) store to see how many Bad Company records I could score (I know, I know.....). I found a BC record in the regular $3.98 rack, but in the $1.98 rack I found a beautiful copy of Cal Tjader's WARM WAVE. What a world! Oh yeah, also picked up RAPPIN' RODNEY (Dangerfield) for $1.98. After this Mavs series, I need something to laugh at!

As much as this is disgusting me, it would be a terrific irony for Don Nelson to win this series on his former home-court, a big F U to Mark Cuban for basically forcing him out. What would make this circle complete is for Nash and the Suns to win it all. That would be THE single consolation in this whole mess. Don't mind my rambling/whining.... just venting....

In other surprising news, the moon is out tonight. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!! Y'know, even though I knew this was going to be an upset, even though I knew the 67 wins were a fluke, it's still painful to watch so much potential go to waste.

Amen to that. Somebody give these guys a dictionary and tell 'em to look up the words FAST BREAK!!!

Just curious: why is that? I hold them in equally high regard, and believe this would've made a fantastic double-album!

HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!!! Did anyone just see that half-court buzzer-beater by Baron Davis to tie the score at the half?????? So much for the Mavs dominating first quarter. They got owned the second quarter. Yeesh, I can't take much more of this panic-button playing by the Mavs. The only thing worse are these stupid-ass Sonic commercials. How have these POS commercials stayed on the air for so long?

Do you remember the ranting I did after the finals last year about how the Mavs have a fundamental mental/character flaw? I'm still standing by that. Actually, I would take a perverse pleasure, after hearing this "Dirk for MVP/Dirk's one of the all time geats/I'd take Dirk over Larry Bird" bullshit that's been in the local media-ai all season, if the Mavs would get eliminated in the fiorst round and then Dirk does get the MVP. The guy's a great plater, sure. But if youy're looking for him to be any sort of a "spiritual leader" or anything like that, you're going to be screwed. That's not who he is, that's not what he wants to be, and that's not something that he has the intenrnal character to be. Anybody who's paid attention for the last 5 years or so should have figured that out by now. And yet, here we are, replaying the finals in the opening round. Although to be fair, GS is a heckuva lot tougher matchup than the heat were last year. But that's no excuse. This is a team that was supposed to me on a "mission", remember? A team that was going to atone for the world-class choke job of last year. They're not. They're still a team that doesn't have a clue what a dagger is, much less how to use one, even less how to do it with a sense of cool nonchalance. Everything I said last year, I'm waiting to be proven wrong about. I'm with you all the way. Remember what I've been predicting all season. But it was still disgusting to watch. Stick a fork in 'em: they're dead.

That was the point of the whole Sylvester Stewart/"Sly Stone" dichotomy - Sylvester Stewart (who got all the writing credits at least up to Fresh, after that, I don't remember) was the idealist, Sly Stone was his "in the life" alter-ego.. Eventually, Sly "killed" Sylvester & then went about the business of almost literally killing Sly. If the liners for the box/reissues don't at least touch on this, they're not doing their job. They do. Not much, but they do touch on it.

Damn, could the Mavs play any worse than they are tonight? Golden State is handing the Mavs their asses on a platter. This is fucking embarrassing!

Cool! Great post, BTW. I'll listen to it again with this in mind.

19 strikeouts. NINETEEN FREAKIN' STRIKEOUTS!!!! Can this season get any worse?

Gotta admit that using the names of the three men thrown into the fire in the story of Daniel & Nebuchadnezzer (sp?), "Shadrach, Meschach, Abednego," is one of the FUNKIEST chants I ever heard!

I just listened to it this morning and found it depressing as hell. I was about to post a question of "Was there any reason to include this album in the box? Other than to show how far Sly had fallen since Stand?" IMO, it's not any good as an album, much less as a Sly album. Fresh, OTOH, now THAT is one funky-ass album! Got it groovin' right now!

I had the game on mute while talking on the phone with a buddy of mine when all that happened. Wonder what that was all about? Well, I'm glad the Mavs won. Nice to see them going back to the game plan that won them 67 games this season. Time will tell if they continue that ride that plan. I hope Avery's learned his lesson.

I rented it, and it was just as much fun as I'd hoped it would be. What a roller-coater ride!

Especially the coda!

Dude..... GET THE MFing BOX!!!! You must hear FRESH before you die.

Don't ever underestimate Big Don's psychological genius (or his ability to be completely full of shit!). His team has nothing to lose, while the Mavs have everything to lose. He knows how to get inside the Mavs' heads. I've said it all along: when the Mavs panic (which is what they do), they start playing Nellie-ball. And losing. I predict a four-game sweep/upset here, and the Mavs will go down in history as basketball's answer to the '98 Mariners. (I know I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it until I'm proven wrong)

-On the whole Open Sesame is just OK thing--Hubbard didn't have the most consistent run as a leader on Blue Note (one or two near-classics sprinkled in--Breaking Point, I think--with some very classic sideman appearances), and set next to some of the more (inexplicably) celebrated sides, like Hub-Tones (which, IMO, gets pretty boring after the first couple of tracks), it's really great. And, for what this music is, that band really is killer. I gotta respectfully disagree with you on a number of points: 1) I think Hubbard's albums as a leader showed remarkable consistency in that he never stayed in one place for very long. Just about every album has a different instrumental lineup; 2) I think Breaking Point is Hubbard's most unlistenable album 3) I love Hub-Tones from beginning to end HOWEVER, I completely agree that this is/was a killer band! Pity his wandering muse didn't allow him to record more with Brooks.

Yeah, but in Texas????

Hub's Nub. Love humming along with the head on that one!

Coming from you, point well taken.