kenny weir

Nope, didn't know who he was. Do now! Man, that's some hot stuff. True or no?

I dunno about "worst", but ... Michael Clarke? "Journeyman" or "servicable'' would constitute high praise.

I think, like many and after so many years, I'm more able to roll with the flow about such things these days. Something along the lines of the Marx dictum (hastily paraphrased): "No way I wanna belong to a club that'll have me as a member!" And speaking, bemusedly, of variously cranky/dictatorial/justplainweird moderation of sites, I'm sure many of you have had a look at the crazy but faskinating forum attached to a Bix site. At work, so don't have time to track it down ...

I have certain impressions of the guy you're talking about - consequently, I wouldn't let it phase me. I, too, had my problems with AAJ. Not banned, but pretty much as good as. When I look in these days - about twice a year - my reaction is: "Yech!" BTW, Allen, thanks for your recent PM. I tried - and failed - to reply a couple of times, but my messaging seems to need massaging.

Fair enough point. But it's just that for myself I much prefer colourful, even if sometimes wayward, characters to continual nicey nice.

Steve, the post of Allen's used to demonstrate what a nasty prick he is was posted in direct, subsequent response to this post of yours: Now, I know you don't think this is snotty, but maybe that's because, well ... forest, trees, that sort of thing. But no matter - I enjoy your posts AND those of Mr Lowe. And as with him, a chunk of, um, feistiness goes with the enthusiasm and opinionatedness. Hey - I think I just invented a word! Well maybe, but it depends on how you define crap. I'm semi-regularly crapped on by another member but I no longer react. For him, it's just a sort of facial tick.

You're quite welcome to my ambiguity and/or ambivalance.

Haha - watched the lot. Best was the shock of the Japanese reporter at the pigs doing it. Doing it, I might add, with some human assistance. Kangaroo self-abuse:

No fair: That post was deliberately crafted as a response to the equally snotty post of Steve Reynolds - who may be a relative newcomer here but who is well-known for his equally snotty AND passionate posting history spanning many years elsewhere. And speaking of snotty/passionate, count me as one who enjoys the contributions of the Allens and Steves of our little world. Much more fun than, well, whatever ... Which is presumably why the former, despite a little acerbic cut and thrust, didn't seem to have any real problem with the latter. Nor do I. No shit. Here's an example:

Non-availability of bonus disc should not be a deal breaker with this set. Further reflections: *The vocals are very good - with only a tiny amount of waywardness. And Garcia sounds, well, great! *Keith's piano is heard throughout to fine advantage in all sorts situations, moods and styles. This is one of the rare DD sets where I'm actually aware on a conscious level of the keyboard solos. Against that (but again no deal breaker): *IIRC, there are no vocals in the first minute or so of three tracks. This sucks. I'm not saying they should "invent" vocals where obviously none exist. But it's not a good look in tersm of pricing. This is top dollar for what should be a top set. The oft-quoted DP 29, by contrast, has no vocal dropouts that I can recall and is six discs for $35 or something.

Thanks for the heads up on this. I've been on a '60s kick for a while, and this kind of plug helps sort the wheat from chaff! After a quick look around my regular price comparison outlets, the best I've found is $27.33 from cdconnection.

WTF? We have to change our name? The Wisconsin Tourism Federation has changed its name due to an unfortunate acronym. The Wisconsin Tourism Federation in the US has decided to change its name after realising its acronym matched a crude form of internet slang. The WTF is now the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin (TFW). "WTF" is an acronym widely used on the internet standing for "What the f---?" The tourism organisation was reportedly unaware of the associations of its acronym until it became the butt of jokes on blogs and websites. Lead lobbyist for the federation, Chet Gerlach, said yesterday it made the change after the meaning of the common text-message lingo was brought to its attention. The organisation has had the same name since it was founded in 1979, a time when it could never have predicted it would one day become crude internet slang. Google is yet to catch up on the name change, with search results still displaying the problematic name.

This is what I just emailed to my Melbourne GD buddies: Yes, this a corker - I've been through it once total over the previous two nights. The sound is brilliant and better than the version of the middle night you made for me, Tony, though I'll keep that as a memento, don't you know! BTW, isn't Bertha the first track on the 2nd disc of the middle night? Whatever. I love the guitar sound and the ease with which you can clearly hear BOTH drummers, their interactions with each other and with their colleagues. I agree with a few comments I have read (Steve Hoffman Forum) that this stuff is the highpoint of the '70s two-drummer schtick. A few years down the road, it gets a bit on the plodding side for me. Stadium rock. Heresy, Kenny; wash yo' mouth out! And as I said when you folks gathered at our joint, this may be a closing of some sort of my GD purchases. Having said that, I do like the way key/critical points in the band's history have been summarised by these sorts of sets - Soundtrack, Fillmore '69, Winterland 73 and Winterland 77. What else could be in line for this sort of treatment?

Hey hey got my box - sweet! Great sound, with that nice silvery shimmer on Garcia's guitar.

I meant it in anegative sense. But, yeah, I gues it does work both ways, eh? My soft spot for fine '60s/'70s pop has never ever gone away, no matter how passionate any particular latter day interest might have been. So it's been a pleasure these past few years to luxuriate in buying so may oldies from my past, my respect and appreciation for the skill and often genius involved enhanced by so much listening in the intervening years. As well as being gobsmacked by so much "sunshine pop" stuff that is a natural fit but which I never heard as a teenager in NZ.

I watched most of the second half in the editorial office of the Geelong Advertiser. My colleagues were pretty tense! On the main drag outside, the local youths are already starting to let loose - climbing on cars, general yahoohing, plenty of bum-crack flashing and so on. It's gonna be along night for the local cops. I reckon they'd prolly preferred for the Sainst to win.

Yes, Live Bullet is a goodie - and I remember the non-response to Turn The Page. Oddly enough, that tune is well known in Oz/NZ as a hit vehicle for a local belter named Jon English, these days a fixture in musical theatre and pantomime, Gilbert & Sullivan and so on! I recall, too, the comparisons at the time to Stringbean. The single best early album, IIRC, is Seven A listener's background and baggage can certainly colour their opinions. I've just groaned through three Oz rock fossils doing their token bit at our football final. John Farnham with bagpipes. Yech. And right now ... that showboating clown Jame Morrison doing When The Saints with disco drums (St Kilda is one of the competeing teams). Tackeeeee! Same for the Pure Prairie League as Seger. A gazillion hearings of Amie has done for them is the US. But I reckon their first albums are the two most complete and beautiful country rock records ever made - and the only person who agrees with (as far as I know) is a Pom! (Hi Tony!)

It'd sure be interesting to know what kind of sammich he favours.

Bob rocks! But my interest in him pretty much ended with Night Moves, as good as it is. Dan, are you familiar with the earlier stuff? Patchy, sure, but some classics, too. Whatever the merits or otherwise of his later stuff - and I reckon it became tiresome about the time he started hanging out with the Eagles - he's a true blue American rock 'n' roll master whose standing has sadly been forever clouded and besmirched by a gazillion screening of that clip with Tom Cruise in it. Yech!

Even though I proclaim indifference to the AFL, it's impossible not to get caught up in the excitement of the Grand Final - even if I'll spend the first half of this afternoon's game driving to work. When I first moved to Melbourne, one could easily buy finals tickets so I ended up going to a succession of Grand Finals. Those days are long gone. Come game time, the streets will be very quiet, but the focus is spread these days - to homes and parties and barbecues and so on. Sure, there'll 100,00 people at the game, but only 25,000 of those are guaranteed to be fans of the two competing sides. The rest go to the other clubs and a big whack to high-priced corporate packages and so on. Subsequently, the atmosphere lacks of the fevered fan involvement of the home-and-away season and the finals that lead up to the big game. Man, it's an icy blast of a day here - seems bound to be rain and even hail during the game. Great comment to the Herald Sun's frozen footy weather story:

One of the big things for me in recent years has been old stuff. I mean REALLY old stuff. A couple of my DeadHead buddies - when they think of old jazz, they think of their Coltrane and Miles box sets! For the past six months I have joyfully pursued a whole bunch of pre-rock star San Francisco - the Charlatans, Mystery Trend, We Five, Moby Grape, Blackburn & Snow, the Mojo Men, HP Lovecraft, Frumious Bandersnatch and so on. Too much fun! The Armstrong Mosaic remains on glorious high rotation. And about one week a month I go a GD bender - and, yes, I've ordered the new box. But then this week, it was like throwing a switch. I placed an order for six CDs from Archeophone. And I've been playing the first half dozen or discs from That Devilin Tune and the Timeless From Ragtime To Jazz series, as well as the Joe Oliver sort-of-new 2cd. The Charley Patton box'll probably get an airing tomorrow, and this morning me and Bennie had breakfast to the strains of the Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra. There's a thrill beyond compare to hearing all this old stuff - especially as when often these days it is packaged and researched in a way that enhances the experience. Frankly, I simply can't understand why most (? that's how it seems to me) music nuts simply have insufficient curiosity to "consider the source" of the stuff they love. How can folks be that uninterested? Then again, as Allen says in the Devilin Tune, there's gazillions for whom anything before 1945 is simply a no-go area. One of my GD buddies will happily check out all sorts of alt-country stuff, but admitted to me a few months back that he simply wouldn't listen to Merle Travis coz "that's not what I do". Not that Travis is THAT crusty, but you get my drift ...

Currently "available" (if you can find it) on a CD on an extremely tiny and no-doubt dodgy English label called Cactus. I can get you one, if you want. I don't know what the sound's like. Or try ebay - that's where I found this pic.

The two best teams made the Grand Final. Geelong is favourite, but only by a Cat's whisker. Questions remain about the Saints' ability to handle the pressure of such a long drought. Sadly, I will miss tonight's National Rugby League preliminary final between the mighty Melbourne Storm and the Brisbane Broncos. My current employer, the Geelong Advertiser, doesn't normally publish on Sundays, but they're putting out a special Sunday GF edition, so I will be hacking away till about 11pm I guess. It's cold and wintry - spring's gone away for a while, I guess. If it gets raining - it's predicted - the nature of the game will definitely change.

I, too, have one of the show but can't wait to get my hands on this. I'm sure it'll sound spectacular. Meanwhile, I'm dropping by the GD forum every day just to watch the sadly predictable train wreck that is GD merchandising trundling along in its usual inept - nay, fucking disgraceful - fashion.

New box up for pre-order! Including the only show I ever saw/heard ... http://www.dead.net/features/dead-world-ro...lete-recordings One of my Melbourne DH mates and I both had problems with logins/passwords, as did a French poster on the set's forum thread. And the post/pack rates are haywire. Why can't they get this stuff right?