Big Al

I wish Ron Washington was like Ozzie Guillen. Hell, I wish Guillen was managing the Rangers!

Mick Jagger: to teach me how to walk Billy Ray Cyrus: even though I was there to watch the chicken cross the road, had I known the chicken crossing the road would've caused this much controversy, I would never have allowed the chicken to cross the road. In fact, the chicken should've known better than to cross the road. Dan Gould: things look good for the chicken because the road's been good to him. Granted, his stats don't look good while he's home which makes the road look that much more appealing, but with a road average of .289 compared to his home avg. of .211, I can understand why he'd want to cross the road. Of course, this assumes that Theo doesn't bench him first. I'm sure Dan will have a good one for me regarding my hapless baseball team!

If there is anyone sitting on the fence about the Wilson, if you are a lover of piano-trio jazz, it doesn't get much sweeter than this. Some would say that it's five CDs of the same thing; I would say it's five CDs of pure piano bliss by one who set the bar very high, IMO.

Vroom!!!

Wow, that's exactly what happened to me! Junior & senior years of high school. Then I stopped listening to them almost completely. Oddly enough, thanks to this thread, I'm going through that old phase all over again! I forgot how much fun it was listening for those differences. And "Tomorrow Never Knows" in mono ROCKS!!!!

Would be nice to have 2 disc deluxe editions of their core catalog! With singles, related tracks, mono/stereo, etc. No kidding. Have it done like Pink Floyd's PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN set.

Nothing on the Beatles site about this. This almost certainly has to be illegal. Having said that, I hope this wakes up EMI/Capitol to get their rears in gear and get the product out there in some legal form.

Six Flats Unfurnished - Benny Goodman

Wasn't "Rockit" immediately following his "Feets Don't Fail Me Now" phase? No wonder they were walking out: they thought they'd accidentally walked into a disco! I give Herbie Hancock a lot of slack, though: few musicians' music moves me the way Hancock's does, and AFAIC if the only thing he'd done was Maiden Voyage, that would be enough for me to consider him legendary.

Well, they weren't thinking; they were reacting to Herbie's Grammy win, which got tons of attention and suddenly thrust him back into the the center of popular culture, at least for 15 minutes. Collectively, the folks who put together a list like this don't really know anything about music, art, theater, literature, etc., so it becomes a barometer of which creative people have managed to sneak onto the radar of the mainstream, and it becomes an outlet for the list makers to prove how "hip" they are. Except they're not. But that's why I think this kind of stuff (Herbie's Grammy win; Time magazine, etc.) is good for jazz; it gets the music into the discussion. Not that any single moment will change the world. In the end, it may well end up being meaningless, but if enough little moments can coalesce, it might make a difference. Maybe. Reminds me of the marketing strategy that says any single radio ad, billboard, TV commercial, newspaper ad or whatever is unlikely to move somebody into the "buy" column. But the aggregate has an effect on people. Suddenly, the product "clicks" with consumers and lodges in their mind -- it's the 10th contact that does it, not the first. That's another reflection of the shame of jazz disappearing from TV, radio, general interest magazines, newspapers, etc. Out of sight, out of mind. Another interesting thing about the list by the way, is that Wynton Marsalis is not on it (unless I missed him). Ten years ago, if a jazz musician would have made the list, it would have been him. I completely agree.

I wouldn't call it a "nice" win, I'd call it lucky, stolen, were the beneficiaries of a horrid performance by the closer. Exciting works, too. But it ain't nice. Nice is 8 innings of excellent pitching, a few clutch hits, 3-1, over and done. That's what the Cubs had, until Wood gave it to you on silver platter: 1st pitch, hit batsman second batter, double to left over Soriano's head, any other outfielder on the roster catches it for the first out. unintentional walk strikeout line drive that just clears Fukodome's mitt, then clears the bases. The last hit was the only well-hit ball. Not nice. Lucky. If you're a Brewers fan, it's still nice! Getting rid of Soriano was one of the smartest things the Rangers ever did. Unfortunately, he was picked up by my other favorite team. Kerry Wood has to be one of the saddest stories in baseball, and a case-lesson for any kid thinking they can go straight to the majors out of college. He should've been one of the game's greatest pitchers, but either he or his handlers didn't give him the time to properly develop. Now he's floundering as the Cubs closer. It didn't have to be this way.

I hope this experience doesn't lead to an ever-dwindling interest in ice cream, Al! STFU FFA!!! :D

The definition of injustice is the fact that we live in a world where Avery Johnson can lead the Mavericks to four straight playoff appearances (including one appearance in the Finals), have the winningest record of any Mavericks coach, and still get fired; yet Ron Washington can be a consistent loser with a loser attitude ("Everything's just fine, folks!") who can't motivate his players to play above Little League level; and then to top it off, he leaves his best pitcher, Kevin Millwood who's pitching well with a huge lead, to pitch 114 pitches to allow KC to get back in the game, and everyone in Rangers (mis)management says that Wash is doing a heckuva job. Un...fucking....believable.

Sonic Youth is always good for some wild song titles: "Mariah Carey and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream" (original title of "Kim Gordon and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream") "Radical Adults Lick Godhead Style"

What, did you get an invitation to the party?

We went to two different B-R's tonight without getting any ice cream. Both had lines, but they weren't very long. Problem was those lines were moving unbelievably SLOW! One poor guy had been waiting an hour and he wasn't even inside yet! We figured that there were people asking for multiple samples, descriptions of each flavor, asking for substitutions, etc etc etc. It just seemed like management didn't have this too well-planned. What they should've done was put up a sign: NO SAMPLES. You're paying THIRTY-ONE CENTS for an ice cream cone, fercryinoutloud! Get three cones for less than a dollar! Anything to keep the line moving!

Al! Say it ain't so! To quote Dr Johnson: "A man who is tired of jazz is tired of life".

D'Antoni's reportedly out in Phoenix as well. I think they'll both land on their feet elsewhere though. Both stupid firings, imo. Two great coaches who didn't have the personnel to win. Amen! Avery deserved better than the gutless schmucks who quit on him AGAIN.

"May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose"

I noticed last week in my Borders store that they had just done a big reorgnization of the CD area and that the jazz section now takes up about half the space it used to. Looks like the beginning of the end. ....happened to the store a few miles from my home this week....sad~ I was in there the other day to buy a book (imagine that!). The CD section is literally cut in half now. You can see where the bins used to be by the marks in the carpet. That space is now taken up by comfy chairs ("Not the comfy chair!!!") and endtables. I don't know how that generates more revenue, but I guess that's why I'm not in charge of Borders. I print these coupons out of habit, but I hardly ever use them anymore. But that may have as much to do with my ever-dwindling interest in jazz as much as anything else.

The Mavs season is officially over. What's really sad about this last game is that they FINALLY showed some guts in the last three minutes of the game. A win was still in reach until Stackhouse had to commit that stupid technical which got his stupid loud-mouthed ass ejected. Any trade value Stack had vaporized with that foul tonight. Gonna be an interesting off-season.

Happy birthday, my friend!!! :party:

That's one I'd like to get sometime. Add it to the eternally-growing wish list.

Not for me! Every time I listen to that CD set, I laugh as hard as the first time I listened to it. The compilers really got it right on this one, because of all the tracks that were left off, none of them are missed terribly. My favorites are "Introducing Tobacco to Civilization," "Defusing a Bomb," and "The Mrs. Grace L. Ferguson Airline and Storm Door Company." And, of course, "Driving Instructor!" BTW, the compilation is called Something Like This: The Best of Bob Newhart. I don't know that I'd call Bob Newhart a stand-up comedian. His style seems more like "sit-down" comedy.