Big Al

PM me your street adress and your wish is my command! Hey Mike, save yer postage and I'll get it to him, since he's on this side of the pond. Plus, I already have his address.

Good Lord, where did this month go? I need to post answers!!!

Gary McFarland "I Know the Meaning" from Soft Samba Strings. If only "easy listening" were always this beautiful. The chords start the song make this sound like vintage Jobim/Ogerman.

Sorry about not posting earlier. The idea of a greeeeeazy BFT caused me to drool on my keyboard, thereby shorting it out. I'll try to control myself. And oh yeah.... SIGN ME UP!!!!

Blog entry about a Buddy Montgomery LP I've always enjoyed. RIP Buddy. Hope the family reunion's a groovy one.

Even M*A*S*H was retired with more dignity than this....

as much as I hate them but the Rangers might benefit from a dome in the summer. That would require brains and foresight that this team has never had. Damn near every other team in the south has a dome; not the Rangers. Never understood that. The only pitching staff that has ever withered in this heat is.... the Rangers!!! And they weren't all that good when it WASN'T blazing hot! Eh, they could. Maybe. Tell you what: if they're still doing this good next month, I'll start to think about getting excited. When July rolls around and they're still rolling along, I might jump on the bandwagon. When August shows up and if the Rangers are still riding high, I might be convinced. When September shows up and the Rangers make it to the playoffs, I'll be pleased. And when the Rangers get bounced out of the first round, my heart will be broken all over again and I'll go back to wondering how I could've fell for it AGAIN this year. In other words, I'll believe it when I see it and not a second sooner.

Ah yes, the month of May, when the Rangers get red hot, take over first place for a while, get fans hopes up once again..... unfortunately, June, July and August are just around the corner. Ah well, just like last year, gonna enjoy it while it lasts!

Yes it is! Solid from start to finish. Nothing earth-shattering, just the very definition of Blue Note jazz in the 50's, IMHO.

You have no excuse for that one. Just as I have no excuse for not getting the Eldridge set.

Amen to that, and I'm not sorry if it offends, it was just "Friends" set in a hospital. You're not far off. They even admitted as much in a roundabout way in one episode when either the janitor or Dr. Cox was giving JD & Elliot grief about them being like Ross & Rachel. "From Friends?" "No, Ross the doctor and Rachel the nurse. Now THAT'S a cute couple." (Going from memory here) I mentioned earlier about Zach Braff not having much range, and at this point, the same can also be said of Sarah Chalke. Shame, too, because her character was cute without being cloying, alluring without being slutty, and just the right bit of nuttiness to become endearing. Unfortunately, her character ended up being cloying, slutty, and anything BUT endearing. Okay, so the writers ruined her character; that's not an indication of anything else, right? Not to those of us who watch "How I Met Your Mother" and saw Chalke basically reprise her Elliott character as one of Ted's love interests. (And she worked in the medical field on THIS show as well! Talk about type-casting!) Imagine our shock when she came back for the last two episodes of this season. Hopefully, it's just a two-episode deal. But it looks as though she's only capable of playing whiny, sex-obsessed neurotics. Either that or she needs to get a better agent who can get her better parts, because I think she's still quite attractive.

Drat, I must not've been paying attention the first time these were listed, otherwise I'da tried to scoop up some of those Sweets and the Basie-ites.

A buddy of mine is a huge Cavs fan, and I'm happy for him! I'm glad the Mavs won tonight, guarateeing them a little dignity from this series. I mean, it's over Wednesday night, but so far the Mavs have played their asses off this series, so cheers for them!

Not my first, but definitely my favorite. Today, anyway! PS: Love the signature, BTW! :lol

I like Scrubs, but can't stand Cecil Taylor's playing.

Are we sure it's over for good? The last I heard was Zach Braff was leaving but that the show was continuing. Frankly, Matthew, I hope you're right. This was easily the worst season ever. It should've ended a few seasons ago, but at least the subsequent seasons had their bright spots. This season introduced annoying characters, Eliot Reid became even more insufferably annoying than ever before, and the Janitor's character was so poorly written he became a charicature. I don't completely agree with Cliff about Zach Braff, but I will say this: I have yet to see him in a film where he didn't play an extension of his JD character from Scrubs. You'd think with as much press this guy gets he'd have a bit more range.

I'm too pissed to look it up, but I believe it was Sangrey who said that as long as Dirk Nowitzki was a Mav, the Mavs would never go all the way. At the time, I pooh-poohed that, because I believed (and still believe) that hardly anyone puts their ass out on the line like Dirk does. Unfortunately, he is also DUMB AS A FUCKING STUMP! The Mavs are up 105-103 with 21 seconds to go, 17 seconds on the shot-clock. Even someone as dense as me lets the shot-clock run out. Not Dirk. He airs a clunker with SIX seconds to go. That's right, Dirk: give the Nuggets more time to beat you. You took that into consideration before airing that shot, right? RIGHT???? As soon as that shot missed the bucket, I said out loud "That shot just cost the Mavs the game. Thanks, Dirk." Sure enough, with that extra two seconds, Carmelo Anthony drops a beautiful three-pointer (and don't even get me started on the Mavs pathetic attempt to try and foul Anthony before he made that shot. I don't blame the refs for not being stupid) to seal the fate of the Mavs. Nellie-ball rears its ugly head and bites the Mavs in the ass once again. Y'know, you'd think the Mavs would've figured out by now there's a reason why Nellie's team isn't in the playoffs this year! Look, I knew coming in the Mavs were going to lose this series. The sad part is they've been playing some of the toughest basketball they've ever played. But their collective brains have been in another galaxy entirely, and THAT has been the single-most frustrating aspect of this series. OH well, one more game and this season comes to a merciful end. Hopefully, priority number one will be getting rid of Dirk. I don't care how good he is, he is not mentally tough enough to put the nail in the coffin. Not that anyone else is challenging him for that crown, but the expectation with Dirk is so much higher. And then get rid of Jason Kidd. And then we sit back and wait another 20 years for the Mavs to get good enough again.

Man, I wish I could hear what it is that you guys like so much about Soul Box. I tried to listen to it again and once again couldn't make it past the the third track. It's not boring; it just rubs me the wrong way for some reason.

Me too! Even the cover is greeeazy!

Spike Lee was sitting by himself with a ton of empty seats around him ....I thought it was because no one liked him. You might still be correct....

Man, the Mavs are clawing and scratching and playing harder than I've ever seen 'em play, but I don't think it's gonna be enough, especially since Josh Howard is out.

The Crusaders disc is from 1978. Take that for whatever it's worth. Not heard the Washington, but I kinda agree with CJ in that it's probably not as good as Soul Box; but then, I'm not a big fan of that sound to begin with, so YMMV.

Thanks for posting your comments, Al, but I have to ask, WTF? How do you equate a piano trio (on an original titled "The Way Gene Would Groove It") to a "Doc Severinsen outfit"? I HAFC™!!! I'm listening to it right now and wondering just how out-of-it I was when I typed this up??? That comment was meant for track 2, but somewhere along the way of listening to track 2, the Red Garland thought popped into my head. But how I ended up moving that comment back to track 1 is one I'll never figure out!

Posted after the answers were posted, which I haven't read. Not that it would make any difference. I actually started these a few weeks ago before life got insane, finished 'em up this morning. Happy reading! Track 1: no clue. Nice groove, sounds kinda like a Doc Severinson outfit? Track 2: Red Garland with a big band? Really dig these charts! Is it “I Get a Kick out of You?” Track 3: Sounds of recent vintage. ARRRGGH!!! I should know the name of this gospel tune. Oh, this is shameful! Maybe Gene Harris on one of his gospel records? If so, may have to seek that out! Track 4 sounds like it was a fun place to be that night! If I hadn’t already guessed Gene Harris on the last track.... ah well, this is Dan after all, so I’ll guess Gene Harris on this, too! Track 5: Why do I want to guess Barry Harris on this? I don’t know either! Track 6: Sonny Rollins & Bob Cranshaw doing Jobim’s “Meditation?” Sounds like it wouldn’t be out of place on the Sonny RCA box. Track 7 is definitely “Sidewinder,” no clue who it is, though. Guitarist reminds me of Grant Green. Track 8 is definitely “Autumn Leaves,” (hey, I like it that I can finally identify standards!), no clue on any of the players. This tenor player sounds like Sonny, if it ain’t him to begin with. Track 9: If it wasn’t for that electric bass, I was gonna guess Bobby Timmons. Track 10: No clue, no interest sorry to say. Solo sax (or any wind instrument for that matter) NMCOT™. Track 11: Mmmmmm nice! The theme makes me wanna guess a Tony Williams quintet from the 80’s, although the sound doesn’t suggest it was recorded then. That and the fact that the drummer is clearly NOT Tony Williams! Nice way to finish your final BFT, Dan. Sad that it is your final BFT, too.

Well, it looks like I REALLY messed up!!! This was supposed to be for track 15! I wonder if, while listening, 13 & 14 segued into each other and I just missed it? Don't know, but FWIW, the above comment actually applies to track 15!