Alexander

Right. Couldn't remember which.

Perhaps he monitored on headphones only, and since all models sound different, it may have sounded fine on his, but not on others or speakers. If so, a newbie's error ..... Very possible. BTW, Lovano defended Lundvall in a recent letter to (I think) Downbeat. He said that he wouldn't have released something he felt was inferior.

Both Moran's "Bandwagon" and Lovano's "On This Day" were engineered by Kurt Lundvall, none other than the son of Blue Note President Bruce Lundvall. I have a feeling that anyone else would have been canned had they engineered two live discs (by high profile talent, to boot) that sounded this crappy. I listened to "Bandwagon" on headphones recently, and I found that it improved the listening experience. I picked up a lot more than I had on open speakers.

I've always thought that "Stompin' at the Savoy" was ripe for an organ trio version. I don't know if anyone else has done it. How about doing an organ version of "I'm Just a Gigalo/I Ain't Got Nobody?" That could be a lot of fun! Of course, you'd base it on Louis Prima and not David Lee Roth... Speaking of Louis Prima, "Sing, Sing, Sing" would be a groove on organ too.

It doesn't matter how common it is to see a title in stores (and I've seen all of the titles mentioned in stores myself). As long as the item is in print, it should be available through any store, anywhere. You just have to ask them to special order it for you.

Ray Charles Donates $1M to University NEW ORLEANS - Ray Charles has donated $1 million to Dillard University for the creation of a program about black culture, the school announced Monday. The donation will create an endowed faculty position and program devoted to the musical, culinary, artistic and linguistic contributions of black Americans, Dillard spokeswoman Maureen Larkins said. Charles received an honorary degree in May from Dillard, a private, predominantly black school associated with the United Methodist Church and the United Church of Christ. The 73-year-old singer donated the money in the name of the Robinson Foundation for Hearing Disorders, a laboratory he founded in 1987 for the treatment and research of hearing problems.

My favorite part of Veteran's Day is reading the "Peanuts" strips where Snoopy (in uniform) goes over to Bill Maudlin's house to drink root beers. Bill Maudlin was a great cartoonist who drew wonderful strips for "Stars and Stripes" during WWII, and was a personal friend of Charles Schulz. The majority of "Peanuts" readers probably didn't get the reference, but Schulz did it year after year. I can't think of a more touching tribute. Bet none of you saw that coming did you?

One of my favorite recordings of this song (aside from Evans' own, of course) is Johnny Hartman on "The Voice That Is." I sing this song to my daughter every night, by the way (her name is not Debbie, btw, but Samantha). When she asks for it, she asks for "Own Sweet World." Even though she's three and a half, she still wants me to hold her when I sing it. Imagine her shock when I was playing the Bill Evans/Tony Bennett album and that song started to play. She came running out of her room and cried, "He's singing "Own Sweet World!"" Like all kids, she probably assumed that I made that song up for her. It's so sweet!

I was not terribly impressed the first time I saw "The Matrix." I saw it again, shortly before "Matrix Reloaded" came out on DVD, and it clicked. I realized that it is live action Anime! I mean, Keanu Reeves is a horrible actor, but he makes a great Anime hero (he even looks like an Anime character. Kind of asian, but with western eyes). Once I had that realization, I really enjoyed it, and liked "Reloaded" even better. So I'm looking foward to seeing "Revolutions." I was supposed to go see it tonight, but my wife and daughter both have colds. It's a pity, since my daughter was supposed to go visit my mom for the weekend! We were gonna have a weekend to ourselves! Whaaaaaah! Even though my daughter feels better today, my mom still won't watch her because she doesn't want to catch anything.

I only recently got into Wilson. I had gotten a promo copy of "Belly of the Sun" about a year ago and didn't listen to it more that a couple of times. Recently I put it on, and I really liked it. I wound up picking up a copy of the Verve "Standards" compilation, which I enjoyed. That led me to checking out "Blue Light Til Dawn" and "New Moon Daughter." I liked both of those, so I got "Traveling Miles" (which is often unfairly miligned, in my opinion) and finally "Glamoured." So, after all that, what do I think of her new one? I like it, not as much as "Belly of the Sun," but I think it's quite good. To me, Cassandra's Blue Note albums are very much of a piece (of course, that may be a function of having gotten most of her BN albums within a week of each other). Each new album is like an installment in a continuing story. Her voice is wonderful, of course, and she has a wonderful rhythmic conception. Plus she's very attractive!

Man...this could become like baseball cards! "Hey, man, you got a Teddy Wilson? I'll trade you my Jimmy Rushing!" Seriously, very cool, Chris.

Those are two of my favorite albums! I wouldn't change a thing! I used to hate "jazz with strings," but I got into it after hearing these two albums. Now I have several. Some are better than others, but all of them are good for what they are. I really like "Desmond Blue" by Paul Desmond. That's a lovely "strings" album!

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I have the Mosaic Box, and I think that it's a pretty amazing collection. Lots of truely wonderful music. As far as a single disc collection goes, I have a nice one called "Souvenirs," which collects twenty of Django's Decca recordings. Again, amazing music, and no duplications with the Mosaic box. Django's version of "Honeysuckle Rose" was one of the first Django recordings I ever heard (it was playing in a Tower Records Jazz department in Boston) and it remains one of my all-time favorites.

I've tried it. I did start the CD at the third roar of the MGM Lion...and I don't think it worked. I didn't notice anything, to be honest. I think it only works when you're high...

I'd be careful around Art Blakey from now on. Apparently, he killed Charlie Parker.

A friend of mine did some checking on-line last night. Seems there's a lot of discussion of this site on other boards and in blogs. The general consensus is that the whole site is a fake. There's no such thing as "Fellowship University," for one thing. For another, the only reference anyone can find to this "Dr. Richard Paley" that anyone can find is in relation to this site! So the whole thing appears to be a very, very clever hoax. Check out this bit from the "kids" page! Spiritual Safety Tip What should you do if you find an Atheist? If you find an Atheist in your neighborhood, TELL A PARENT OR PASTOR RIGHT AWAY! You may be moved to try and witness to these poor lost souls yourself, however AVOID TALKING TO THEM! Atheists are often very grumpy and bitter and will lash out at children or they may even try to trick you into neglecting God's Word. Very advanced witnessing techniques are needed for these grouches. Let the adults handle them.

We had really happening Halloween this year. Lots of kids at our door (I set it up so that "Blood Money" by Tom Waits was playing outside when the kids approached. Created a very spooooky atmosphere). This was the first year my daughter (3 1/2) went trick or treating. She was dressed as Snow White and I wore a pair of bunny ears. We went around the neighborhood, and she kept saying things like "This is kinda scary, huh daddy? You're not supposed to walk around at night! You're supposed to sleep at night!" She loved getting candy, and every time we'd finish at one house, she'd race off to the next. At one point, as we were walking, I started making ghostly moaning sounds, all the while pretending I didn't know where they were coming from. Didn't fool her for a minute. She kept saying: "Stop it, daddy. I know that's you." Finally she said: "Daddy, you're being a real pain in the butt!" I completely lost it! It was so funny and cute! Great Halloween! Best ever!

Check out the rest of the site. They're for real. And they are crazy

Perhaps the non-Americans can chime in here, but a lot of stuff I've read suggests that pornography outside the US is often even more extreme. Guy I'm not saying it isn't. I'm saying that considering the amount of money we spend on porn (and I'm no different. I've certainly seen my fair share of dirty pictures), Americans seem to spend an awful lot of time talking about how WRONG porn is. How BAD and SINFUL. Now look at Denmark or the Netherlands. They have serious porn over there. In fact, they have live sex shows, gay bath houses, and legalized prostitution in addition to porn, and their society doesn't go around trying to shame people out of doing it. Americans buy a lot of porn, jack off to a lot of porn, and then turn around and say that porn is bad. Porn may be degrading to women, but what in American pop culture isn't? Have you looked at MTV lately?

Exactly. LP shelves were too deep for CDs. I guess retailers were unsure of how long CDs would last (I'm sure a lot of store owners got burned by 8-track in one way or another), and they didn't want to convert to CD-friendly shelving until they were sure they would be around awhile.

A three headed man with no arms and one leg decides to see the world. So be books a flight to England. Arriving at Heathrow airport, he goes outside to wait for a cab. After a few moments a cab pulls up, and the cabbie leans out the window saying: "'Ello, 'ello, 'ello. You look 'armless. 'Op in!" ******************************************************************** Did you hear the one about the two peanuts that went for a walk last night? One was assaulted. ******************************************************************** These two strings walk into a bar. They order up a round of drinks, but the bartender refuses to serve them. "We don't like your type around here," he says. Dejected, the strings leave. As they're headed out the door, they pass a third string on his way in. "Hey, buddy," one of the strings says, "You're wasting your time. This guy's a bigot. He doesn't serve strings." The third string says, "He'll serve me." And he proceeds to tie himself up and mess up his ends. Then he walks up to the bartender and orders a beer. "Wait a minute," the bartender says, "You ain't one of those strings, are you?" "No," says the string, "I'm a frayed knot." ******************************************************************** A blind man with a seeing-eye dog walks into a bar. Suddenly, he grabs the dog by the leash, and starts swinging it over his head. "My God!" says the bartender, "What are you doing?" The blind man says, "Just looking around." ******************************************************************** A man walks into a bar, sits down and orders a drink. A few minutes later, a kangaroo hops in, sits down right next to him, and orders himself a martini. The man calls the bartender over and says, "That's strangest thing I've ever seen." "Yeah," says the bartender, "Normally, he's a bourbon man." ******************************************************************* Guy walks into a bar. Sits down and orders a drink. He starts watching a game of darts at the other end of the bar. Bartender says to the man, "You a betting man?" "Sure," the guy says, "I can't pass up a friendly wager." "I'll bet you a hundred dollars that I can throw a dart from here and hit the bullseye all the way at the other end of the bar." The bartender says. The guy looks and sees the target is pretty far away. There's no way anyone could hit a bullseye from here. "Ok," the man says, "You're on." The bartender takes a dart, and throws it at the target, hitting it square in the middle. The man is aghast. "That'll be a hundred bucks." The bartender smiles. The next day, the man goes back to the bar. "You've got to give me a chance to win back that money." he says to the bartender. "Ok," the bartender says, "I'll bet you a thousand bucks that I can beat you at pool." The guy thinks to himself, I'm a pretty good pool player. I can easily win back my hundred, and get another nine hundred bucks besides. "Ok," the man says, "You're on." So they rack 'em up and start to play. The bartender breaks and proceeds to clear the table in minutes. "That'll be a thousand bucks." The bartender says. Now the man is desperate. He comes back the next day and says, "You've got to give me one more chance to win my money back. My wife is going to kill me." The bartender looks pensive and says, "Let me think about it." Then he walks down to the end of the bar and talks to a man seated there for a few minutes. Then he comes back and says, "Ok. I'll bet you ten thousand dollars that I can piss over your shoulder and into the glass on the table behind you." The man thinks for a moment. His wife is mad enough as it is. If he loses ten thousand dollars, she'll kill him. On the other hand, there's no way the bartender could really piss over his shoulder in to glass five feet away. He can win his money back, and make another nine grand while's at it. "Ok," the man says, "You're on." The bartender unzips his fly, whips out his dick, and proceeds to pee all over the man. He never gets one drop into the glass. The man is overjoyed. The bartender just smiles and gives the urine soaked man ten crisp thousand dollar bills. "You just lost ten grand!" The man says, "How can you just stand there and smile?" "Because," the bartender says, "I just bet that guy at the end of the bar a hundred grand that I could piss all over you and you wouldn't say a word." ********************************************************************

We live in a whacky society. On the one hand, Americans are still Puritans. We officially disapprove of pornography. On the other hand, we live in a Capitalist society in which everything is for sale, and porn makes money by the truckload. We don't approve of it, but we spend billions of dollars on it. Where else besides the U.S. does this happen?

I, too, remember the long-box, and recognized these as such. They were such stupid, wasteful things. I was very glad when the industry stopped using them. When I was in college, if a long-box had nice cover art, I would cut it out and use it as a wall decoration. I remember hanging the long-box cover of "Bone Machine" by Tom Waits on my apartment wall. I can't remember if I eventually threw those away or not. They may be lying around in a box in the basement!