Alexander

"Real crate diggers" are obscurantist snobs who try to out-do one another with rare "finds." According to such people, Erskine Tate is vastly superior to Duke Ellington because fewer people have heard of Tate. It's STUPID. Good is good, no matter who makes it, where it's made, or even why. Good music can be made simply in the name of profits. In fact, it happens more often than people would like to admit...

Yes. I've always been greatly in favour of music developed from the bottom up, by the audience. Anything else smacks to me of someone in authority - be it a genius like Coltrane or Parker, or an insufficiently anonymous A&R man like Mitch Miller or Norrie Paramor - telling me what I should be listening to; and I resent that. And that's what this stuff is, too. MG How do you figure that? Who is this "authority"? Daptone is an independent lable! Who is stuffing Sharon Jones down our throats? Who? Is this because the Dap Kings have become a cause-celebre thanks to Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse?

You're the world's biggest killjoy? Hey, you asked...

I've been putting this off for far too long. I'll send $70 for sets three and four. Paypal is at the ready!

About two or three years ago, my daughter (who is seven now) confronted me with the fact that she knew that Santa wasn't real. "Then who brings you the presents?" I asked. "You and mommy." she said. "You don't see any presents around the house before Christmas, do you?" "You and mommy hide them and put them out when I go to sleep." "But what about the notes? Every year you put out a note for Santa and ask him to sign it if he's real. If there's no Santa, then who signs those notes?" "Come on, daddy. I can tell that you sign it. And all the tags on the presents are in mommy's writing." "Ok. You got me. There's no Santa. Mommy and I are the ones who give you the gifts." "I knew it!" But then, less than a year later, she decided to hedge her bets and claimed to believe in Santa again. To this day, she insists that Santa is real (even though she found the "Santa" wrapping paper in the basement). I wonder...

My top three bad album covers (cited elsewhere, but I love showing them off) are as follows: Oooohhh yeah! J.T. the badass! Fire and rain, baby! What in the world is Neil doing with his hands here? He looks like he's channelling Jim Morrison... This one takes the prize as one of the worst album covers of all time. Who thought this was a good idea? Did someone really believe that making Kenny look like the King of the Fruitcakes was going to move records? All of this just goes to show: Wussy rock stars and live album covers DO NOT MIX!

This seems to be analagous to the very fake moans and groans heard in porn films (not that I would know first hand...ahem ).

The idea appeals to me!

That giant swamp rodent might be the wimpiest thing I've ever seen gunned down. It's a calm critter that munches plants and doesn't bother to run from a person ten feet away (I just watched footage of Jeff Corwin chilling with a capybara a few hours ago). Look at those proud hunters! I was trying to show the size of the capybara relative to the humans. Icing a capybara wouldn't be a proud achievement, considering that they mainly eat melons. "I swear! It was either the capybara or my cantaloupe!"

They're REAL big!

Ahhhh, that's nothing compared to a capybara! It's the world's largest rodent!

He will be missed. His genuine ethusiasm for the music made him an oddity in a music biz increasingly dominated by bean counters. Dorn understood that you could sell records and make great music at the same time. Plus, his liner notes were always a hoot!

I got into Counce because of Shelton. Great stuff!

You beat me to it. These all really nice albums!

In English we say "break a leg" or "break legs." Same priciple applies. You're not supposed to wish someone luck.

Frusciante. RIP Hillel Slovak. Quite right.

I started acting again this year, after a hiatus of over fifteen years. In back in February or March, I auditioned for a play on a whim and got a role. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and immediately auditioned for another play in May. To date, I've appeared in four productions. I'm currently in the middle of a five-week run in "It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play." It's a lot of work (I do five shows a week, plus a full-time teaching job) but I'm having a blast. I play thirteen different characters (including Clarence the Angel). I say go for it! My wife has been telling me this for years, but it's true: If you don't put yourself out there, it doesn't matter how good you are.

?uestlove of the Roots once quipped that "alternative hip hop" is a euphemisim for "black people won't touch your albums." "Alt country" seems to be a euphemisim for "country music that won't get played on country music radio."

I'm listening to "Back to Black" even as I write this. It's a real pity that's she's going to die so young. She's really quite talented.

I'm not sure that the instrumental backing to "Tears Dry" counts as a "sample." A sample is usually a part of an original recording. I don't think that Winehouse and Ronson are using the original Marvin Gaye/Tami Terell recording of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." I believe that the studio band (the Dap-Kings) are performing the music live, which counts as an interpolation of "Ain't No Mountain" rather than a true sample. This is also the case on the new Wu Tang album where RZA uses "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" as the backing to "As the Heart Gently Breaks." Here John Fruscente of the RHCP performs the tune with Dani Harrison rather than using the Beatles recording. Same principle, I think.

I often wished that instead of doing a Rod McKuen album that he'd done a Leonard Cohen album. Imagine Frank doing "Story of Isaac." Also, I wish Frank had done a version of "If You Go Away" by Jacques Brel... I think a Frank Sings Leonard Cohen album would have been sensational! Too bad we can't raise the dead...

Arabs are a semetic people. While Jews of Middle Eastern descent are also semites, I would say that the semetic has been bred out of most of us of European stock (myself included). Herbrew and Arabic are both semetic languages, however, and are closely related. The funny thing is that Muslims and Jews once got along quite well. When Muslims had Jews living in their nations, they did not require the Jews to convert nor did they even make them pay taxes (the Jews were self-governing). This is quite a contrast from the way Jews have been treated in Christian nations. I should also point out that the national news IS playing up the "Muslim helping Jews" angle.

Kill two birds with one stone and celebrate Frank's life by spinning his wonderful Jenkins arranged Christmas album!

What I think is sad is that to most people, Ike Turner is only remembered as the guy who knocked Tina around. I'm not defending or condoning spousal abuse, but there was certainly more to that man than that. My students today ONLY knew Ike as Tina's abuser. They had no idea that he did anything BUT abuse Tina Turner.

I don't know how sound an idea it is financially, but I would definitely buy a copy!