kenny weir

One commentator I heard last night put up a pretty good way of looking at the tournament - the early stages are really a rugby "festival"; the tournament starts with the quarters; these guys () minnows only rarely get a chance to match themselves against the ABs, Wallabies, Boks and so on; enjoy it befort the serious stuff starts. Actually, I've enjoyed some of the matches and been reasonably impressed with the ability and zeal of some of the minnows to make a go of it for at least a half against far superior opposition. And not just kicking the odd penalty either, but scoring tries. Go Canada, Samoa et al ... !!!!

I've just had a quick read of our Wallabies story for tomorrow's paper - the gist of it being that now NZ, Aust, SA and Franch can all end up on the same side of the draw for the next round.

Seldom if ever have my sports prognostications been so accurate. Blimey. I haven't studied the draw, but from what I've heard on the radio on the way to work this morning, France must now beat Ireland and then will face NZ in the quarters.

I still like Soulive's first album, Turn It Out, on Velour and before they gots to BN. Was playing it a couple of days ago, in fact. I'm tempted to slam their, ahem, progress since then - including their latest, which sounds like the stuff you heard them doing. But it would be pointless, coz it's not so much that I consider it rubbish, more that it's something that simply doesn't interest me.

As a Kiwi born and bred, who has followed the game all my life, I'm happy to admit that ... the rules go over my head, too!n It's very technical in regards to breakdown -play, scrums and so on. Still, it can be beautiful. My fear for the all Blacks is that they may have peaked too soon. They were playing out of their skins about a year and a half ago. I'll be cheering for them unless they're playing the Aussies. And cheering for anyone who plays the South Africans. And for the Welsh; in some ways I regard them as our blood brothers in rugby. And for the Wallabies. But - bottom line - I want the All Blacks to cream everyone they face. And I mean completely obliterate. And I like the fact that the Italians and Argentines seem on the cusp of major country status, which could make for some upsets. I'm suprised and glad the World Cup has finally rolled around. It seems to have been on the way in terms of speculation for years and years. A plus for us: Many of the broadcast times are quite Aussie friendly.

Our A-League season kicked off last night, with Central Coast Mariners downing Sydney United 1-0. My side, Melbourne Victory, take on league debutants the Wellington Phoenix in NZ tomorrow and I'm pumped. THIS is why I gots pay TV, baby! Even better, I have next week off so can go to the first home game - normally I'd be working on a Saturday night. Doing what you ask? Normally sub-editing the Melbourne Victory coverage for my rag. Go Victory! What with that all plus EPL and lotsa rugby league, I'm a happy camper/couch potato. Hell, I'm even open to turning my time and mind to MLS - but it'd be nice if we got some games THAT DIDN'T FEATURE THE MOTHER-FREAKING LA GALAXY. Sheesh. Like there's only one team in your league. Pukesville.

Ok here's another Oz beer ad: http://www.harvested.com.au/ (click on Ted TV for the full ad) It's been going around, but only spasmodically, for about a year. Not much comment, but some bafflement. I like it, coz it's so, um, silly I guess. And here's some cool ones (!) for Toohey's Blue: http://www.visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=30447 http://www.visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=18580 http://www.visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=25640

Yep. But personally I'd prefer Whipping Post.

Despite the fact i've lived here for 20 years, I'm actually a kiwi. A flightless bird. Story of my life.

Thanks guys - been on joyful scool holiday duty for a couple of weeks and watching the Socceroos fumble through the early stages of thge Asian Cup. Am just now grappling with a return to work in bleakest winter and getting to grips with the various scandals du jours here ("Jarrett like Hitler, says first Muslim in Congress" he he) and elsewhere. And ... maybe later today pulling the birthday trigger on Chu Berry.

(sorry haven't got time right now to clean this up) SOC: Henry move to Barcelona couldprompt transfer spinoff Soccer HenrySpin-off By Robert Millward LONDON, June 22 AP - Thierry Henry'sseemingly imminent move from Arsenal toBarcelona could prompt a spree oftransfers across Europe. With Henry in town to joinRonaldinho, Lionel Messi and SamuelEto'o in one of the greateststrikeforces ever assembled, Barca islikely to let some quality players go. If striker Eidur Gudjohnsen isreleased, he reportedly is keen on areturn to the English Premier League.Having had spells with Bolton andChelsea, the Icelandic forward wouldadjust quickly to the English leagueand clubs such as Liverpool, ManchesterUnited and Newcastle might beinterested. Argentina forward Javier Saviola isout of contract at Camp Nou andreportedly is unhappy that he doesn'tget many starts. He spent two seasonson loan at Monaco and Sevilla havingjoined Barca from River Plate in 2001.Henry's arrival would mean ever fewerchances of starting for Barca and hecould move to another Spanish club orreturn to his homeland. Despite beating Barcelona to theSpanish league title with a late surge,Real Madrid also might react to theHenry arrival into Spanish soccer byattracting some big stars. DavidBeckham is on his way to Major LeagueSoccer with the Los Angeles Galaxy andthe club has said farewell to other``galacticos'' - Ronaldo, ZinedineZidane, Luis Figo and Roberto Carlos. Henry's arrival at Barcelona willstrengthen the club's chances ofwinning back the Spanish league andEuropean Champions League titles andMadrid will need to respond. Madridpresident Ramon Calderon says he wantsto pry Brazil's Kaka from ChampionsLeague winner AC Milan. Calderon also told reporters onFriday that there could be sweepingchanges at the Bernabeu from coachFabio Capello down. If Capello doesn't stay, Calderonsays Madrid could go for Arsenal'sArsene Wenger, PSV Eindhoven's RonaldKoeman or former Denmark national teamregular Michael Laudrup as areplacement and that would mean bigchanges to the playing personnel. With a reported STG16 million($A37.74 million) to spend if the saleof Henry is completed, Wenger wouldhave funds to replace the Frenchman. The Gunners owners have thereputation of not spending big andrelying on young, homegrown playersinstead, and Wenger has a team ofemerging prospects who are the envy ofhis rivals. But Henry is considered irreplaceableand Wenger likely will spend some ofthe fee on recruiting a forward who cansatisfy Gunners fans who are unhappythat it finished fourth in the PremierLeague in the past two seasons andfailed to win a title last term. AP mw

Nope. Never.

The label's name was/is Black Patti, and they're 78s (as you say some of the time), not LPs (as you say the rest of the time!). Two sources of tall tales and true of collectors, lucking out and/or "door knocking" through the south in the '50s and '60s are in the booklet that comes with the Yazoo double CD The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of and various essays and footnotes in Revenant's Charley Patton behemouth.

No it won't. But that IS what I was quoted. After previous hassles with them, I'm well beyond trying to sort out what the price would be. Amazon is easier, cheaper and hassle-free. Which ain't a good look for the band.

Yup I got sucked in big time by the Bolton/Ellington review! Good job, Ken, although I reckon you were aided by the fact that Bolton doing such an album would hardly surprise.

Another query: In terms of the book, how broad will your defintion of R 'n' R be? Just rock 'n' roll? Or rock, country rock, garage rock, prog rock, pshychedelia and so on?

So I go to the Dead Store to pre-order the new Vault release, clicking through the various stages to ka-ching when up flashes the following shipping price to Australia: "UPS Worldwide Expedited - Shipping Cost: $78.20." Hello? Does the phrase "Get Fucked" mean anything to you? Given I had a heap of problems from them on my last order, I can only conclude that the Dead out-sourcing its merchandising is a debacle. Amazon here I come.

With only two more discs to go 'til I've worked my way through all 36 at least one, I have ... Another Question for Allen: I love the way certain tunes keep on popping up! Brilliant! Georgia On My Mind, Stardust, I've Found A New Baby, There'll Be Some Changes Made, Way Down Yonder In New Orleans, Alexander;s ragtime Band, Sweet Georgia Brown, Nice Work If You can get It and so on. Was it your intention to do that when you started compiling the project, based on those tunes? Or did it just of start happening and gain momentum?

He he. Maybe one of our resident Bastard mimickers can do the job for us.

You got it. I'm putting any disturbing side issues aside and going with the flow of all my current and forseeable future listening being music made by dead folks.

http://www.archeophone.com/product_info.ph...ts_id=90#Tracks Actionable Offenses: Indecent Phonograph Recordings from the 1890s [ARCH 1007] $16.99 $13.99 New York City, 1896. A man walks into a bar. He sits down, orders a beer, and laughs long and hard at the bartender's newest story. It's a good tale, though a bit too bawdy to repeat at home. The next day he goes into the same bar, gets his beer, and drops his change into a phonograph. He's listening through rubber tubes to a man telling a story similar to the bartender's. Without warning Anthony Comstock's defenders of decency charge into the bar, push him aside, destroy the record, and escort the bar's proprietor to jail for promoting indecency. Obscene Recordings from 110 Years Ago The commercial recordings on this CD are the only known copies that Comstock's men missed. They were preserved by long-time Edison Recording Manager Walter Miller and are now in the vault of the Edison National Historic Site. Scarcity and suppression have kept them silent for a century. They were stories told readily in the bar; yet they became legally actionable offenses when fixed in wax and played on a phonograph in that same bar. Brace yourself. Just because they are from the Victorian era does not mean they are tame by today's standards—far from it. Pioneer Recording Artist Goes to Jail They are so indecent that Russell Hunting was imprisoned in 1896 for making and selling them. Up to that point Hunting had been doing a brisk trade selling his bawdy cylinders to the exhibitors on Coney Island who had certain "discriminating" customers. Although he recorded under pseudonyms such as "Charley Smith" and "Willy Fathand," his voice was so well-known through his "Casey" routines that he was identified as the creator by aural evidence alone. Hunting's recording career never fully recovered, and he left the U.S. in 1898 to make a fresh start in England. Cal Stewart and James White Join in If you think you've heard every Cal Stewart routine, think again. In two unique recordings from early in his career, Cal Stewart assumes his familiar Punkin Centre dialect in "Learning a City Gal How to Milk" and performs with an Irish accent in "The Tapeworm Story." James White, who rose to prominence in the Edison organization as the director of many of its early films, performs the most bawdy routines in this collection. "Sim Hadley on a Racket" is a piece that White inherited from Hunting, and he surpasses his mentor in making it filthy. Uncut, Uncensored, and in the Proper Historical Context Recently retrieved from the vaults of the Edison National Historic Site, these extraordinarily scarce recordings are presented in their unexpurgated entirety. They allow us to hear uncut and uncensored what new technology made possible and the protectors of public morals made illegal: indecent performances driven out of town, out of business, off the public stage, and into the privacy of unmixed company in the home. Bawdy Home Recordings A second collection of cylinders heard on this CD was made at home by an amateur who delighted in reciting obscene jokes, limericks, songs, poems, and stories into the horn. What this tells us about late Victorian America may be shocking to some—these are extremely racy recordings and are not for the faint-hearted. But for historians and folklorists, these are primary documents of a poorly studied tradition. We've indexed the separate texts on these home recordings into different tracks to aid in research. And for all our audio samples below, we have judiciously selected non-obscene excerpts. A Special Critical Edition Phonograph historian Patrick Feaster and the Grammy-award winning team of co-author and co-producer David Giovannoni and co-producers Meagan Hennessey and Richard Martin tell the whole story for the first time anywhere. At 60 pages, the CD's oversized booklet stands alone as a work of its own merit. It features several full-length articles, complete transcripts of all the recorded material, selections from the 1893 convention of phonograph dealers, and extensive footnotes. Plus the usual attractive design and previously unpublished illustrations you expect from Archeophone. It may be indecent—but it sure is classy! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CD Details Catalogue number: ARCH 1007 UPC: 778632900509 Running length: 59:16 / 19 cylinders -- 43 tracks Booklet: 60 page larger format booklet Tracks recorded: ca. 1892 - 1900 Contains racially derogatory language Parental Advisory: Contains explicit language -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Track Listing 1. Learning a City Gal How to Milk—Cal Stewart (ca. 1897-98) 2. The Tapeworm Story—Cal Stewart (ca. 1897-98) 3. Gimlet's Soliloquy / The Rascal Detector—Unknown [2 indexed tracks] (ca. 1892) 4. The Whores' Union—Unknown (ca. 1892) 5. Boarding the Folsom / A Few Conundrums—Unknown [2 indexed tracks] (ca. 1892) 6. Out of Order—Russell Hunting (ca. 1895-96) 7. Did He Charge Too Much—Russell Hunting (ca. 1895-96) 8. Reilly as a Policeman—Russell Hunting (ca. 1895-96) 9. Sim Hadley on a Racket—Russell Hunting (ca. 1895-96) 10. Sim Hadley on a Racket—James White (ca. 1896-99) 11. Michael Casey Exhibiting His Panorama—James White (ca. 1896-99) 12. Dennis Reilly at Maggie Murphy's Home After Nine O'Clock—James White (ca. 1896-99) 13. Young Cylinder "A": Stroll on Capitol Hill / A Hard Head—Home Recording [2 indexed tracks] (ca. 1897-1900) 14. Young Cylinder "B": The Virtues of Raw Oysters—Home Recording (ca. 1897-1900) 15. Young Cylinder "C": Jokes, Riddles, Verses, a Limerick, and a Toast—Home Recording [8 indexed tracks] (ca. 1897-1900) 16. Young Cylinder "D": More Verses and Jokes—Home Recording [9 indexed tracks] (ca. 1897-1900) 17. Young Cylinder "E": The Lady's Friend / a Song / The Irishman's Prayer / a Joke—Home Recording [4 indexed tracks] (ca. 1897-1900) 18. Young Cylinder "F": Verses and Songs—Home Recording [4 indexed tracks] (ca. 1897-1900) 19. Young Cylinder "G": Poem: "I Sit Here Thinking, Will, of You"—Home Recording (ca. 1897-1900)

Ha ha - that's pretty funny. I like the country book - I dig the passion of it. I've always been less much impressed with others of his I've read.

Having read and mostly digested Allen's notes to That Devilin' Tune Vol 1, I've come to the conclusion that there are different perspectives going on here. I share with Allen irritation with Brothers' pontificating, but lapped up the info in his book nonetheless. Same goes for Richard Sudhalter's Lost Chords. Allen gives some kudos to Sudhalter, but also takes him to task for his approach to white/black jazz. My copy of Lost Chords is well thumbed; it had a profound effect on me. I'd revelled for years in Jelly Roll Morton and Johnny Dodds and so on, but never listened to the New Orleans Rhythm Kings or Tony Parenti or Bud Freeman. Another example is Scott DeVeaux's The Birth of Bebop, which like the Brothers tome is packed with the author's axe-grinding. Neverthless I found it an enriching experience. When I read such books, I seem to necessarily sign up holus bolus for the author's vision, only afterwards attaining some sort of distance. I embrace these books to broaden or illuminate my musical adventures. I'm a fan - one who lives a long way from the action in terms of US popular music. I've done a bit of first-hand research/interviewing in South Louisiana in the way of swamp pop, zydeco and R&B, but am a long way from the cutting edge and heady realms of the likes of Lowe, Kart and Albertson. Compared to the drought conditions of my early NZ teens, access to such in-depth information and listening seems simply heavenly, even if I am aware of baggage and agendas and so on. Allen, given the forthcoming release of your RnR book, what do you reckon of Nick Tosches' country book?

Allen: For the book, Paypal payment of $US30 sent to you. I generally try to avoid getting books from the US - CDs are much cheaper - but this'll be worth it I'm sure. Yeah that Monroe proto-bluegrass lineup rocks AND swings. I wonder about Sally Ann Forester. The travails of early blues and jazz artists, male and female, are relatively well known, but I am curoius about what it must have been like to be a woman in a country band in those days. Same goes for Johnnie Mae Smirle (Harry Choates' pianna player). Hey it's great to hear your RnR books is on track. Sounds like technology is offdering up alternatives to authors as well as musicians. Much kudos, too, for the packaging of the That Devilin' Tune boxes. Slim, stylish and very cool. Makes the jewel case-larded behemouths that take up so much space in my racks look pretty ugly, never mind the sheerly ludicrous like the Charlie Christian box. One artist I'll be pursuing in more depth is Knocky Parker. I've been hearing him on western swing discs for yonks and knew he went on to jazz stuff, so am intrigued by someone who connects the dots on some of my favourite sounds. Another question: In your writing on Vol 1, you mention Fess Manetta. I'd love to hear his album, but so far as I can tell it's only ever been released as a Jazzology LP. Does anyone know if it's ever been released as a CD?

I'm a bit late to this party but having a ball. I have played the first set three times through - every time I get to the end I start again. I have No.4, but am letting that sit while I await Nos.2 & 3. A couple of random thoughts: *I reckon these sets are simply amazing, despite the (minor) flaws, and will likey become a cornertstone of my collection and radio show. *Given there was no proofreading, the number of literals and so on is tiny. *In some ways I actually find the absence of full personnel details liberating, although if I had a computer at home I'd surely be Googling artist and track title every time. Maybe I'll do some of that at work in due course. *I've actually spent several years - and much money - buying records by quite a few of the more obscure artists on Vol.1, and have had many of the better known names (Morton, Oliver and so on) for many more years. But the richness and pleasure is in the stuff I haven't heard before. And in the way the whole thing flows from year to year like an extremely hip juke box. Or like those "R&B Hits of 1956"-type compilations done by the likes of Bear Family. This seems the best way to hear this stuff. It doesn't belittle the contributions of the "great men"; if anything it enhances them by putting them in the context of what all else was going on at the time. **** A couple of questions for Allen if he has the time: *Is the book still available? The type size on the booklets in pretty hard going for my poor, old eyes, and I think I'd really like to have an index to help me look up references to particular artists and tracks as I'm listening to them. *Can you give us any sort of breakdown of how the sales have gone? What percentage, for instance, have come through organissimo, radio, interviews, magazine reviews, online retailers and so on. Just curious. *How many sales have gone outside the US? How many to Australia/ NZ? I suspect this is the kind of project for which online activity of one sort or another has been crucial. *Given the inclusion of various western swingers, I'm wondering if you considered a wider representation of jazzyish countryish artsists - e.g. Jimmie Rodgers, Bill Monroe just before Flatt & Scruggs joined, Uncle Dave Macon and so on? And to complement the pianists, why not the likes of Jimmy Yancey or Little Brother Montgomery? *What has been the most surprising, unlikely or humourous response to the project? ***** Anyway, thanks fot these - I, too, can get jaded at times after decades of listening, but these have put a skip in my step for sure. Looking forward to the rock 'n' roll book.