Aggie87

Not poutine related, but on the topic of different things you'll find in Canada vs the U.S. I was in Vancouver in 2022, and found Crystal Pepsi on the shelf of a convenience store. I blinked about 3 times to make sure I was seeing correctly. I remember it from the 1990's, but hadn't seen it since. It tasted exactly as I remember it, lol.

Had the pleasure of meeting board member Noj last night for dinner. Had a great time, chatted about the old days when we all used to Live Chat here on Friday nights and insult each other while listening to the same jazz record. As a result or our get together, I may now be the only person with a copy of Organissimo's "This Is the Place" signed by all three band members AND the guy who did the artwork.

I read somewhere that Philadelphia should remove the William Penn statue from atop City Hall, and replace it with a drunk,shirtless Jason Kelce statue. He represents the city more these days.

That's a great album! If you haven't seen Fripp's appearance on Daryl's House, it's well worth watching.

My hike this morning, Cave Creek AZ

Leo Kottke - 6 and 12 String Guitar

I remember liking "Salt in my Tears" from this album back in the day. Only later did I notice that Pat Mastelotto of King Crimson was the drummer on this album. He was also the drummer in Mister Mister, and also was on XTC's "Oranges and Lemons" album and the annoying "I'll Be There For You" song from the Rembrandts ( the Friends theme song). I like his work with Crimson best.

I like that Albert Bouchard is on this recording! It is a good album for sure - plus there are two more to come, covering nights 2 and 3 from the residency.

Devil's Bridge, near Sedona AZ - 28 Dec 2023

This is a compilation of 2 previous compilations - Retrospective I & II, that cover their albums from '74 to '87. Retrospective III is a good addition to those for Rush material from '89 to '08.

Jimmie Dale Gilmore - s/t

Dallas, 16 Dec 2023

I picked up the Songs from the Wood ($39) and Aqualung ($30) boxes from Movie Mars, and they arrived on Friday in great shape. They don't even seem to be available there anymore, and starting to disappear from other retailers. I missed the SFTW box years ago and wasn't willing to buy it at crazy prices on the secondary market, so glad I got it finally. It's probably my favorite overall Tull album.

Don't get me wrong - I'm in agreement with you. FSU should be in. Bama shouldn't. My comments were an explanation of how this stupid group gets to decide who they want in, based on effectively any criteria they want to use, which changes based on the team they're considering. For some decisions, records matter. For some decisions, who they "think" is the best team currently is what they choose. And the committee has the luxury to pick which criteria they want to use at any point in time. And not be consistent with their justifications.

It seems they can pick teams based on two different sets of criteria: 1. The top ranked teams with the best records. Under this scenario FSU deserved to be in the final four, over both Bama and Texas. 2. The current "best" teams. This is subjective, and appears to be what they used to justify not picking FSU. I believe they felt that as of Sunday, Bama was a better team at the present time than FSU. It's not really provable, other than FSU being on their 3rd string QB, and therefore not a dominant team. One thing in Bama's favor (I guess) is that their strength of schedule was ranked 5th, while FSU's was ranked 55th. The problem is that they can pick when they want to use the first criteria or the second criteria, and don't have to justify anything.

Sounds about right. Go ahead and send the cd now though, if you don't mind.

That's mighty tempting! One can never have too many Biermann cds. Even if they're duplicates of the ones you already have. I'll get back to you some year.

Tchaikovsky's not bad, but he's no Wolf Biermann.

In front of my neighbor's yard, 4 Nov 23

Oh yeah! I've got the original numbered DVD release of this, but never picked up the cd version. I'll have to remedy that. I really don't watch too many DVDs/Blu Rays anymore.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/38782354/game-1-least-watched-world-series-game-recorded-history

I can't answer how long it will take to get from one place to another without knowing the locations you're asking about, lol. Things are very spread out in the whole Phoenix/Scottsdale area, so it will take some time to get from place to place. Google maps can help you determine how long it will take from one address to another, if that helps you. Phoenix (and all of it's adjacent cities like Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa, Glendale, etc) isn't like a European city with a proper city center and good public transport to all of the suburbs. You will need a vehicle to get around. You may be better off financially if you rent a car, instead of Ubering from A to B to C, back to A, etc. As a side note, it is still very hot in Phoenix. Today's high temperature will be 102F (about 39C). The city is in a desert climate. It may be pleasant when you visit, or it may be hot, depending on which month it is.

Phoenix and Scottsdale sort of blend together, running parallel to each other north and south. They are sort of the same city, though Scottsdale is generally more affluent than Phoenix. Phoenix has a more diverse population. Everything here is kind of spread out, so you'll travel some distance between places.. Traffic in central Phoenix and on the 101 Loop can get pretty busy during rush hours, but it's mostly pretty easy to get around. For Zia locations, they just relocated their main store to 6135 N 35th Ave (corner of Bethany Home Rd). That might be their best location, though I go to the one on Thunderbird Road more often (it's closer to me), and I think it's just as good. I like Zia because I like the mix of new and used music that they have, in all genres. It is sort of like Waterloo in Austin or Princeton Record Exchange in NJ, if you've familiar with those.

I moved to a town just north of Scottsdale earlier this year. Like less than 2 miles to the northern Scottsdale border. The boundaries for Scottsdale/Phoenix are blurry to me, so I don't know how much it matters to you whether a shop is in Phx or Scottsdale. There's a used chain here called Zia Records with 5 locations around the Valley (which includes Phoenix, Mesa, Chandler, Tempe, Scottsdale, Glendale, and other Phoenix area suburbs). They've also got branches in Tucson and Las Vegas. They're a little bit of everything - new, used, vinyl, cds, some books, dvds, etc. But I can usually find some interesting vinyl and cd purchases every time I visit one of them. https://www.ziarecords.com/ I've also visited the Vinyl Record Dude and found some interesting things there. https://vinylrecorddude.com/ And I've been to Stinkweeds, which seems to be a successful place, but I didn't find much of interest in my one visit there. https://www.stinkweeds.com/ Seems like there are other Phx area board members, maybe they'll chime in.