Alexander

Wait a minute! I thought we know everything because we secretly rule the world! Damn! You pay your dues to the International Jewish Conspiracy, and they don't tell you a damn thing... I expect stuff like that to be in the newsletter!

What sorts of problems have you had with direct drives?

I've never owned a belt drive that didn't have terrible "wowing" problems. No matter how often I adjusted it, it was only a matter of days before I started having problems again. My direct drive hasn't given me a bit of trouble since the day I bought it (used) over a year and a half ago.

Furthest west I've ever travelled is Las Vegas. Someday, I'd like to visit California.

Speaking as someone born in Buffalo, I can tell you that we used to go to Cleveland when WE got depressed...

Check the used record stores in your area. Such stores sometimes sell record players. You can get a decent machine that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, and you can have the benefit of checkng it out before you buy. If you can't find a store that sells used, Best Buy does sell turntables. You'd have to price them, however, since I'm not sure how much a good one retails for. Avoid buying a belt drive turntable. Get a direct drive. If your stereo doesn't have a "phono" jack, you'll probably have to buy a preamp. Some turntables have the preamp built-in, but older ones do not.

When I heard about this, all I could think was: "Boy, I wish *I* had thought up YouTube!" It's such a simple idea! And it's literally a BILLION DOLLAR idea! I wish I could come up with one...

I love most of the tunes mentioned here, and feel that it's largely a matter of interpretation. I've heard great versions and lame versions of all of these tunes. That said, I've rarely heard a version of "Blue Skies" that I've liked. Ditto "My Blue Heaven."

Alexander, Sambo was a very intelligent Indian boy who outsmarted the tiger. Mowgli. MG You're thinking of "The Jungle Book." "Little Black Sambo" is a children's classic from waaaay back.

This image comes from the 1899 edition of "The Story of Little Black Sambo." Notice that his hair is more in keeping with an Indian child, but that his features are in the minstrel tradition.

Alexander, Sambo was a very intelligent Indian boy who outsmarted the tiger. Boskin has much to say about "Little Black Sambo" and the fact that it cut against the "Sambo" image. Sambo was, in the 19th century, a generic name for a black person, much like "Uncle Tom" or "Jim Crow." In the Minstrel shows, Sambo and Tambo were usually the "end men" (the actors who stood at the ends of the line-up of minstrels and swapped jokes and insults). Another common Minstrel name was "Bones," as in "Mistah Bones" or "Brudder Bones." So yes, the boy in "Little Black Sambo" is meant to be Indian (my mother-in-law owns a copy of it and has read it to my daughter on many occasions). And he's meant to be clever. And in some editions (more modern editions) Sambo is drawn as an Indian child. But when the book was first published, Sambo and his parents (Mumbo and Jumbo) were drawn in the manner of the old black stereotype. An example is this image: This image (below) is the edition my in-laws have: So yes, you are right, but Sambo has connotations that go well beyond the children's book.

I thought the same thing when I watched "Taxi Driver" at a midnight movie last weekend! I kept thinking that if someone remade "Taxi Driver" (a serious mistake, in my opinion) Toby Maguire would HAVE to play Travis... No one could replace Jodi Foster, though...

I picked up Sleepy Brown's debut album, "Mr. Brown," on Tuesday. Anyone who has enjoyed his turns with OutKast and as a member of Organized Noize will definitely enjoy this album. On the last track ("I Can't Wait," which was actually released on the "Barbershop 2" soundtrack) OutKast takes over. During his rap, Andre Benjamin namecheck's McCoy Tyner. Here's the lyric: "You got me open, you're playin wit me, darlin I'm not a toy As if I need a baker bring's the joy, you're a kiner, the Tyner meanin the real McCoy I can't wait.." Andre just keeps getting cooler all the time...

The odd thing to me about Nicholson is that the crappier the movie, the better he is. The complete lack of subtlety just doesn't work in a "real" movie. I'd say Five Easy Pieces and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest were his peak, unfortunately. His best appearances since then have been on the Laker's sidelines... He was really good in About Schmidt. Yes, "About Schmidt" was Nicholson's best latter day role. Normally he doesn't even act. He just plays the crazy Nicholson character we've all come to expect.

Boskin actually credits Anderson with helping to destroy the "Sambo" image, precisely because he and Benny so often reversed roles (with the black man outsmarting the white man).

In "Sambo," Boskin quotes Lincoln Perry (aka Stepin Fetchit) as being bewildered at the sudden backlash directed at him when his brand of humor became unfashionable in the 60s. He said: "I was only playing a character...Just because Charlie Chaplin played a tramp doesn't make tramps out of all Englishmen, and because Dean Martin drinks, that doesn't make drunks out of all Italians."

It's difficult to find a celebrity interview that isn't "fawning" these days. Ever watch "Inside the Actor's Studio?" That guy does everything but lick the actor's boots! He could be interviewing Pauly Shore and he'd use the word "genius" at least ten times. I always like the scene in "Don't Look Back" where Dylan is having a very confrontational interview with a Time Magazine reporter. I wish there was more of that nowadays...

Why not? I abandoned any concept of "authenticity" a long time ago. I don't see this as being less valid than, for example, Bill Laswell's remix of Miles Davis or the Grateful Dead "Grayfolded" album.

I don't know if it's still in print, but I direct your attention to a wonderful book on this very subject called "Sambo: The Rise and Decline of an American Jester" by Joseph Boskin (one of my professors at old B.U.). "Sambo" traces the origins of the "comic darkie" from the colonial period up through the age of radio and television. He discusses "Amos n' Andy," while profiling performers like Stepin Fetchit and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. As Clem and others have noted, this is a complex history that involves BOTH blacks and whites in America. It is not something merely DONE to blacks, but something that blacks actively participated in (there were black minstrels who performed in blackface). The minstrel shows were, in fact, America's pop culture (they were America's first real MASS culture). Many of the jokes we tell today ("Why did the chicken cross the road?") have their origins in minstrel shows. Countless songs ("The Camptown Races," "My Old Kentucky Home") come from the minstrel shows. And yes, Jim Crow and Zip Coon live on in the images of many black musicans and comedians. But this is more about the deep and complex history that black and white Americans share than about simple racisim.

Also, FWIW---probably next to nothing---the scene where they're racing through Harlem to meet the train at Penn Sta. uses an early an primitive form of whatever projection technique that is where it appears that a car is moving and it's actually stationary. It may be the first or one of the first times that was used (I'm speculating here). This technique is still in common use in SNL sketches. What's it called? Someone help me out here. The technique is called "rear projection."

Well, I own every Beatles release, so the completist in me won't let me NOT pick this up. I'm interested in what Martin does with this. Could be very cool.

I don't care if it's unethical. Concord owns the tapes. They can do whatever the hell they want with them, so long as they pay Ray's estate.

I knew about it in advance and I bought it today for the simple reason that it's an unreleased Ray Charles vocal circa 1973 (I believe). I listened to the tracks on iTunes last week (they had for sale a week ago) and I thought it sounded good enough to pick up. Am I a little pissed about the marketing scam? Not really. I knew ahead of time that it wasn't the real thing, so I don't feel duped.

Honestly, you're better off not knowing...

John Alden Carpenter wrote a jazz ballet based on George Herriman's "Krazy Kat" comic strip in 1921...