Rooster_Ties

Just found out about 2 hours ago that the retirement community where my Dad lives outside of St. Louis is closing their doors Oct 10th. Have to suddenly figure out a new place for him to live, repack him, get him moved again and resettled in the space of about 6-8 weeks — from 1,000 miles away. Good thing we already had tickets to go see him the week right before Labor Day — but I’m sure I’ll have to fly back twice more after that, before Oct 10. I guess 9 weeks warning is better than 4 — but I’m still freaking out more than just a little bit.

Biggest surprise, and biggest letdown too (at least for me).

I want a Dark Magus throw-pillow.

I ‘acquired’ this as probably a 3rd generation VHS dub back around 1992 or early ‘93. Even back then, I just thought it was “ok”. I mean, it’s still ok (and it really was ok) — but it was “just” ok, ok?

Ha!! That's what I get for double-checking the snail-mail address of Mosaic from the actual Mosaic website!!! -- and my cut-n-paste of the misspelling THERE!!! (And I didn't even notice the error until your pointed it out, Chuck.) Don't believe me?? Click, and look for yourself... https://www.mosaicrecords.com/contact/ Mailing address: 425 Fairfield Ave Suite 421 Stanford, CT 06902

Just stumbled on this in the SHF's general Mosaic thread (from a post dated March 30, 2021 -- by SHF member J.A.W.)... https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-mosaic-thread-news-and-opinions.667563/page-58#post-26511287 Anybody got any more info?? What timeframe is this likely to be from? Any other speculation? -- or does anyone have an inside scoop to share?

What about Chuck D?

10+ years ago my favorite secret chili ingredient was unsweetened cocoa powder — a couple heaping tablespoons full (sort of like Mole sauce has chocolate in it). But since we moved to DC, I often make chili with a spicy Ethiopian Berbere spice blend (instead of traditional chili powder) — berbere is sort of the Ethiopian or Eritrean version of curry (a spice blend, which varies from region to region). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berbere Washington DC is home to over a quarter of a million(!) Ethiopian immigrants (and their progeny) — and there are a few dozen Ethiopian restaurants in DC and certain inner-ring suburbs (esp. Silver spring MD) — and plenty of neighborhood corner markets with berbere. I’m on my 3rd or 4th small tub of the stuff since 2011 when we first moved here from KC. Berbere spice is also great sprinkled on scrambled eggs in the morning, served atop leftover Injera — which is the spongy pancake-like bread served in every Ethiopian restaurant (with every meal), which is as sour as the strongest sourdough bread you can imagine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injera TL;DR: Berbere is Ethiopian chili powder.

Speaking of “Summertime” — here’s just about THE hippest version I think I’ve ever heard.

I counted 21. Damn!

Mark Masters, w/ none other than Billy Harper! https://www.discogs.com/Mark-Masters-Ensemble-Porgy-And-Bess-Redefined/release/13497103

Chili’s gotta have beans in it. Otherwise it’s just loose meat.

Used copy at Dusty at this moment… https://www.dustygroove.com/item/505662

“Black Love” is the only Garnett Muse I have (like you, on a 90’s CD). Question: Do you have one or two favorites that stand out from among all five??

Definitely that, 100%!! I’ve always put practically all my music-related spending into buying more music, that’s for sure!!

Re: the topic in general — I’ll be perfectly honest in saying I’ve always felt SUPER self-conscious even just browsing around in stores dedicated to stereo equipment. I never knew (and still barely know) the first thing about amplifiers, or how to pair speakers with the rest of a system, or what pre-amp goes with what. Like next to nothing, I’m kind of ashamed to admit. I always felt (and still feel like) I haven’t the foggiest idea what sort of even remotely semi-intelligent questions to even ask, that wouldn’t reveal the depth of my vast lack of knowledge on the subject. It’s almost a neurosis of mine, if I’m being perfectly honest. Probably a big part of why I’m almost an anti-audiophile (in practice). You all wouldn’t believe the (mostly poor, I’m assuming) variety of stereo equipment I’ve had over the last 35 years. My last integrated bookshelf system bit the bullet (after 10 years of use) about 3 years ago. And my jury-rigged replacement — listening thru the barebones BluRay unit I have plugged into our 12-year old digital TV (and the TV’s built-in speakers) — sounded so much better, that I’ve been hard pressed to face my phobia about buying something else. We live in a small 630 sq ft 1BR apartment, and the TV fills the room with sound really well, so what can I say? Part of my fear is spending $1,000 (or more) for something really worth barely half that. And/or getting the wrong stuff that really doesn’t work together right, or over-spending on one component to the point where everything else in the overall system couldn’t possibly allow the one overpriced component to actually perform as designed. Yeah, those friendly sales people in the specialty shops are supposed to know how to get past all that — but the whole process always wigged me out — what can I say?

We’ve been doing more of that too, from a local-ish farm at our weekly farmers market. I think about 80% of the meat we’ve bought in the last 18 months has been from them. What motivated that (for us) was the reports of Covid spreading at processing plants all across the US. But the reasons you cite are good ones for our change too (even if that isn’t what finally pushed us make that change).

I read all these stories about should Pfizer and Moderna vaccine recipients get a 3rd booster shot?? — but absolutely NOTHING about us poor “one and done” Johnson & Johnson recipients. I’m not losing any sleep over it, because I’m in Washington DC where the spread has been and still is very low — but I would definitely like to know more about (for instance) how the J&J holds up against the Delta variant.

I try to never go anywhere without a mask. And I still mask-up close to 100% when I go in grocery and retail stores, and when I pick up food in restaurants (we’ve only eaten out “inside” a restaurant 3x since March 2020, and that’s just been in the last 2 months). And anytime I’m indoors and seeing more than half the people masked up, I will too — or if I’m getting on an elevator where I’m with (or likely to be with) someone who’s wearing a mask. I’ll skip the mask with all my (few) coworkers behind the scenes (who are all vaccinated), but we all mask up when dealing with the public, 100%.

BTW, what was the date of that DB interview? Might like to look it up in my collection. Gil was a pretty introspective guy, and I’ve always enjoyed what interviews of his I’ve seen/heard/read.

Masking is still relatively high in Washington DC proper, using “inside stores” as my observation-based gauge. Even now, inside the grocery store and Target very close to where I live, about 70% of people still mask — even though I’m fairly sure a good 70% of the people in our zip code have been vaccinated. Mask mandates were lifted, and the signage at these store simply say masks are strongly recommended for unvaccinated people. And yet, mask-usage is still pretty high. The situation in the suburbs here could be quite different — I really don’t know. My wife and I live about 3 miles north of the White House, in the most population-dense zip-code within the entire District. Most stores and museums require all their employees to still wear masks (as does the Museum I work for), so I’m masked up every day I’m at work. And about half our Museum patrons still wear masks.

Bump!

Those two Bobby Watson dates on Roulette — his very first leader-dates — are nice (especially the first one). And they’ve never been on CD, far as I know. The first one is particularly ambitious, considering he was all of 24 or 25 years old, and the band is chocked full of people… https://www.discogs.com/Robert-Watson-Estimated-Time-Of-Arrival/release/1160186

Woah, I don’t think I realized you were doing an 80’s jazz blog too. (I’ve been following the board less closely since I got to working again when the Museum I work for reopened at the beginning of May). Linky, linky??