Jim R

Good lord, Jim. I always imagined you as somewhat older than me (based on your breadth of knowledge and even-handed judgment). ..."Breadth of knowledge"? ..."even-handed judgement"? No no, Bev. You're thinking of Jim Sangrey.

To the best of my recollection, my first concert was probably Arthur Fiedler & the Boston Pops. I'd guess I was 8 or 9, so probably around '64 or '65. I think my first jazz concert was The Crusaders, in '73, at the "Jungle Theater" at Marine World (Africa/USA). Saw them again a couple of years later at the Circle Star Theater Around the same time, I saw the Sons Of Champlin at a local high school gym. There were probably only 50 or 60 people there, all of us standing right in front of the stage. Intimate almost to the point of being weird, but what a big, impressive sound they put out. Champlin played keyboards, guitar, and alto sax, and his voice was perhaps at its peak.

Thanks, guys. Apparently this got cleaned up during the night. I guess I should learn to trust my instincts a bit more... I just can't get over how rampant all the fraud has become. BW- no, I'm not sure it was a legit page (I'm doubting it even more now). Is there even a legit form of that procedure ("linking your account" to a "turbo lister")? Anyway, I'll look into a password change.

There are dozens of threads here related to ebay, but the vast majority are posted by sellers (in the offering and looking for forum), and those that aren't tend to deal with questions and complaints related to specific deals gone bad; feedback issues; crazy prices, etc. I couldn't find one with an ongoing discussion about some of the strange (to me, at least), sometimes blatantly fraudulent, and sometimes confusing things that occur at ebay in general (fraud tactics, rule changes, etc etc), and the way the site has evolved and become more complex over the years. So, I'm starting this as a catch-all thread to discuss things... like this, for example: Earlier today, roughly 12 hours ago, I was doing part of my routine series of searches (in this case, related to vintage Gibson guitars). I had done a couple of searches already, and everything was proceeding as normal. Then I went to the third search in my bookmarked list, and the results that came up were unlike anything I'd ever seen before. One particular seller had put up multiple new listings, but some of the items were listed 60 or 70 times. So, on page 1 of the results of my search, there were 46 separate (but identical) listings for one particular guitar that caught my eye (there were roughly 20 more for the same item on page 2). A couple of things entered my mind. First, I thought this might have been some sort of glitch, caused by a problem with ebay's system. Alternatively, I thought it could be some kind of a hack or a spam job that had eluded ebay's ability to control. Either way, I thought that it would likely be cleaned up fairly quickly (within a few hours). Well, like I said, that was about 12 hours ago, and the situation hasn't changed. I've seen this before, actually, but on a much smaller scale. Regardless, I still find it odd that ebay hasn't evolved to the point that they can control this sort of thing more effectively. But my confusion goes beyond this. When I clicked on one of those 46 listings, I encountered a few things that I found odd. Before I explain, I'll go ahead and provide a link to the item in question: 1959 Gibson ES330 The seller has 1581 transactions; and a 99.9 feedback rating. Location: "Free Shipping, United States" (Never heard of that town. Minor pet peeve... I think sellers should have to list their actual location, but maybe that's an idealistic and outdated sentiment). The seller specializes in militaria, and when I viewed their feedback, it looked like 99% of the items were militaria-related items. I clicked on "see other items", and discovered that they had over 52,000 active items listed! Bicycles, stoves, cameras, saxophones, printers... everything under the sun. I assumed that the number was probably that large only due to multiple/identical listings of the same items, but I didn't bother to investigate that. FYI, this particular 1959 Gibson has a market value of about $5000. The top of the page showed: "starting bid: $99"; and no "buy it now" option in the usual place. Then I scrolled down to see if there were any photos (there were none at the top of the page in the usual place), and I saw the following: "BUY IT NOW PRICE: $1700. Instead of "ask seller a question" form, contact me at my personal email. I will not sell through bidding, only buy it now. The transaction will be made through ebay." Okay... then below this, there is a link that says "To view product availability ---Click here for more details". I'm just curious as to whether somebody has already snatched up this guitar, so I go ahead and follow the link. A legit-looking ebay page, with a box for "enter ebay user ID" (there's no request for my password, so I enter my ID and click continue). Next page, again, legit-looking ebay heading: "Sign in to eBay to use the service provided by eBay Turbo Lister... Sign in with your eBay user ID and password to link your account to eBay Turbo Lister". "Link my account" ?? This was completely new and foreign to me, so I stopped and returned to the item listing. There are indeed photos of the guitar down the page, but the last photo doesn't belong (not the same guitar). A little odd and suspicious, but not necessarily a huge red flag. Then, I go back to the search page, and I see another guitar with multiple listings (same seller) which I recognize as something I've seen before. The photos of the guitar are all taken with an attractive blond holding it in various poses. I've seen these photos before, but used by a different seller. I've seen this phenomenon (bogus listings using other sellers' photos) at ebay before, of course, but typically by "0" sellers located someplace in Asia. Big red flag there, but again, the seller's details look somewhat legit. So, that's about it. If not for the seller's 1581 transactions and 99.9% feedback, I probably would have just ignored the whole thing as rather reckless fraud, but I don't understand how to really tell if this particular item could be legit or not (I'm not interested in buying the item, I'm just trying to make sense of this). Also, I'm hoping somebody can shed some light on the whole "turbo" seller thing, and why these multiple identical listings can get so out of control.

That was a great game. Too bad somebody had to lose... especially the lower seed ...and the team with a coach who doesn't constantly act like a jackass. No offense to any KSU fans (and they're a very good team), but some of these coaches really rub me the wrong way.

Sorry for the delay, MG. We've had internet connection problems. The search function on the ipod brings up everything (artist name, album titles, song titles) simultaneously. For example, when I do a search for "johnny", I get all artists, album titles, and song titles that include that name. If you want to find a specific album, don't bother typing in the artist's name first, just the album title. Same if you're searching for a particular song. Press the |<< button to erase one letter at a time; |>> for a space between search words; and hold |<< to erase all the letters at once. Cheers, JR

I'm not aware of any that do. "Search" is one of the menus listed under the "Music" menu on an ipod. If you don't see it listed on yours, you need to go into "Settings"->"Music Menu"->and make sure that "Search" has a check mark next to it (you may want to review all of your settings, as long as you're at it). Once you've activated the search function, just select it, then scroll and click to select sequential letters. As I say, it's more tedious than doing a search in itunes, but it might come in handy while you're on the go. Okay, what I'm trying to convey to you is that you can label (and/or re-label) everything that's already on your ipod, so that the ipod will function more efficiently for you. There's no need to put up with "SOUL JAZZ" as well as "soul jazz" labels on the ipod, regardless of how the music is labeled on your computer (as long as you're syncing manually, which I strongly suggest to anyone who's reading this). So, to fix this, simply sync your ipod, and open the ipod music files list. In the search box, type in "soul jazz" to bring up only those files in that genre [note: any other files outside that genre which may have both "soul" and "jazz" as part of their tags will also come up, so you will want to sort all the found files by genre]. Select all the files which you want to edit (for example, all the files labeled as "SOUL JAZZ" under genre), select "get info", and in the genre box, type in "soul jazz". Don't make changes to any other category (such as artist, album title, etc). Hopefully that makes sense. If not, let me know. Okay, gotcha. Wow, you must have a lot of genre categories, if it's really that hard to scroll down to the "W's". Hopefully unifying all the ones that are separated due to case sensitivity will help cut down on the amount of scrolling you're currently required to do.

I don't understand that, perhaps (as I said above) because I'm on a Mac and operate differently. Still, that last sentence ("Otherwise the ipod is still going to see the record as part of the old genre") puzzles me. If the bottom line is having it correct on the ipod, why can't you simply: sync your ipod; select all the tracks on that album; get info (Command-I); change the name of the genre? Maybe I'm oversimplifying it...

MG, let me begin by saying that I'm only trying to help you with your problems, if possible, and not necessarily get you to change anything. Everyone has their own preferences (and unique needs) when it comes to using ipods, itunes, etc, but it's fairly clear to me that not everyone understands how to optimize the capabilities that the software provides. itunes is pretty sophisticated, so it's no wonder that some folks struggle to learn how to use it, and/or get frustrated with it and write it off as a terrible program. For some, maybe it really is, but for others, I suspect that learning more can make a world of difference in their outlook. I've been using it for years, and I feel like I'm still learning (thanks in part to tips from other members here), so none of this is very surprising to me. So, if I hear you voice a frustration, and I think I have a helpful tip, I'm offering it not only to try to help you, but also with the knowledge that I might learn something too. With the search function (both on the ipod and in itunes), I've never had a problem finding anything that had been misfiled due to a data entry error. Are you using the search function in itunes and/or on the ipod? (if you wish to search for something on the ipod, I would recommend doing it while it's synced, so that you can use the much simpler and faster search box in itunes). Sorry, I can't see the point of searching for something on the ipod when it's connected to the PC. I use the ipod when I'm out and about, not when it's connected to the pc. Here's the point. You said you sometimes "lose something" on your ipod. In order to find that something, it would seem natural to do a search. The ipod has a search function, wherein you enter a letter at a time. It's a good feature, and it can prove handy when you're out and about, but it is relatively tedious when compared to the search function that's available when your ipod is synced with itunes. So, consider searching for your lost file after you get home. Not only that, but once you've found the lost file, you can easily edit that file (so that you'll be able to find it the next time you're out and about) while the ipod is synced. You can also edit groups of files very easily, and that's one of the great things about the itunes search function, whether you're editing the files on your ipod or the files in your itunes library. Just so I'm clear... do you wish to have separate "SOUL JAZZ" and "soul jazz" genre labels on your ipod? Also, just out of curiosity, under what category/heading do you place Wassoulou-Fouta? (This is a region of Africa, correct?). Or, do you have Wassoulou and Fouta under different headings? I'm just wondering if there might be a shortcut to finding something like that on the ipod...

It seems to me that this is easily fixed. For example, bring up artist A and artist a together in a search, select all, and enter your preferred text (change only the text in the "Artist" box). This will unify these files as it pertains to the artist's name. Once you've learned this, you can avoid it happening further by using the same approach (capitalizing or not) when entering new data. With the search function (both on the ipod and in itunes), I've never had a problem finding anything that had been misfiled due to a data entry error. Are you using the search function in itunes and/or on the ipod? (if you wish to search for something on the ipod, I would recommend doing it while it's synced, so that you can use the much simpler and faster search box in itunes). I'm not sure I follow you here, MG. When you say "something new", are you referring to some new bit of discographical data? If that's the case, why not just open itunes, find that recording, and enter the new data? The same can be done for the files that are on your ipod while it's synced. For some reason, I'm also not sure what you mean by "change something in the directory where you keep the real copy". I'm on a Mac, which may operate differently from a PC in this respect, but I see no way to edit any sort of data (except artist name/album title/song title) in the actual music file folders on the hard disc on my Mac.

Charlie Shavers Rich Raezer Barbara McNair

Uhhhh... you want the honest truth? Couldn't this damage a perfectly good saw?

Looked like Kansas probably waited a little too long to go to their full-court press. I love a good upset, and seeing the excited faces of the underdogs as they get to advance. On the other side, it was sad to watch that one Kansas player who was so inconsolable that he wouldn't get up off the floor. Ah, the drama of the Big Dance.

Thanks. I found another one (on ebay, but in a "store", so maybe it will be around for awhile). Let's see if this works...

Patty Duke Duke Kahanamoku Bennett Cerf

Upper right brother reminds me of Jimmy Dean; lower left looks a lot like... Gary Shandling.

I'm curious... can anybody see the Leroy Holmes LP cover in my previous (Tecno P40 Lounge) post? It doesn't show up (not even a "?" symbol) when I open this thread now.

There's probably no room for any others.

Who will answer? OK, I will. The Ames Brothers were MOR regulars before the show. Ed (the "handsome one") had a later solo career. His acting followed. I remember a couple of Ed Ames' recordings from radio airplay and variety show appearances. For awhile there ('67?) we got runneth over by "My Cup Runneth Over". He also did a fair version of "Try To Remember", as I recall. The Ames Brothers were more off my radar.

For anybody who doesn't... Youtube to the rescue

I've had my experience stretched significantly by... Bill Fenohr - Jack Wilson, The Mastersounds Pete Bainbridge (Pete B, aka Woodymaggie) - Lou Levy, The Lighthouse All-Stars Phil Grenadier - Urbie Green Stefan Wood - Frank Stozier Shawn - Junior Mance, Jerome Richardson Joe Carter - Sambalanço Trio, Tamba Trio, Zimbo Trio... Big Al - Herbie Hancock, Cal Tjader Jazzbo / Lon - Where do I start... Carmen McRae, Joe Williams, Eddie Costa, Barney Wilen, numerous piano players, and a great number of pre-bop jazz artists... seriously, too many to list. Indirectly, this also led me to go back and explore Ragtime, which has been rewarding. Dan Gould - Al Grey, The Three Sounds, and perhaps most importantly, the music from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

This was a famous 1955 chair by Italian designer Osvaldo Borsani. It was called the "Tecno P40 Lounge", and with an adjustable seat, back, headrest and footrest, could be adjusted into 762 different positions. The armrests can even be raised or lowered.

My favorite was his Roulette album from 1964, "Music To Stop Smoking By", which I've never seen on CD... Also issued as "Stop Smoking Or Else Blues"...

Okay, but brownie (and I don't mean to pick on brownie, because this is a pretty complex issue) said he wasn't going to buy an iPad because of the problems, which still doesn't quite add up for me (an iPad is not even close to being just a music player; my entire music collection will fit on my two 160GB ipods, which I can take along with and iPad and not even use the iPad as a music device; and, I don't see brownie with his head in "the cloud" anyway ).

... To put this another way, why would anybody avoid buying an iPad (which goes SO far beyond being a music-playing device) because music files have to be synched with a cable as with an iPod (which is... such a bother? so obsolete a procedure?)? In addition, are these wireless services even going to provide all the obscure music that so many of us listen to? If I'm not making any sense here, somebody please set me straight.