Dave James

Does anyone know if Prez Conference was ever released anywhere on CD? There's no sound in jazz I love more than four or five saxes playing in unison with a good rhythm section. This is one I'd really like to have. Up over and out.

If you're a fan of the Yankees or the Red Sox, this next season is shaping up to be one of the most entertaining in recent memory. Both teams have reloaded and the intensity of the rivalry should be off the charts. I can only think of one thing that could have made this any better and that's if the Yanks had signed Manny. Is it February yet? Up over and out.

I'm with you guys. Bring it on. Up over and out.

My early Sunday morning ritual consists of Glenn Gould, the newspaper and a good pot of coffee. Agree with Shawn that a Prestige Moodsville or any ballad-centric recording fills the bill when it comes to just kicking back. Up over and out.

I think this is why so many U.S. companies are moving to P.T.O. (Paid Time Off) instead of separating sick leave from vacation. Under a P.T.O. arrangement, you have X amount of days usually determined by your years of service or standing within the company. Then, you use them as you choose. Once they're gone, they're gone. This eliminates the problems inherent in a sick leave program by putting the onus on the employee and not on the business. I just retired after 36 years with the same company and during that time, I made every effort to keep my sick leave utilization to an absolute minimum. I'm guessing I probably averaged maybe 2-3 days a year all things considered. I never saw sick leave as an entitlement, something to be used up every year regardless of whether I was sick or not. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't see it that way. Don't get me wrong, I have lots of issues with white collar corporate culture in general, but the idea of taking unfair advantage of a benefit like a sick leave program is just wrong. Up over and out.

I just hope that those who drop $600 on this have checked underneath their beds to make sure there's room for it amongst the dusty exercise equipment once the novelty wears off. I'd much rather have a hang drum. Up over and out.

Strikes me as Wynton making a run at Charlie Parker With Strings territory. Up over and out.

Article in yesterday's NYT. Not exactly sure of all the ramifications, but if it means paying less for downloading music, I'm all for it. SAN FRANCISCO — In moves that will help shape the online future of the music business, Apple said Tuesday that it would remove anticopying restrictions on all of the songs in its popular iTunes Store and allow record companies to set a range of prices for them. Beginning this week, three of the four major music labels — Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group — will begin selling music through iTunes without digital rights management software, or D.R.M., which controls the copying and use of digital files. The fourth, EMI, was already doing so. In return, Apple, whose dominance in online music sales gives it powerful leverage, agreed to a longstanding demand of the music labels and said it would move away from its insistence on pricing all individual song downloads on iTunes at 99 cents. Instead, the majority of songs will drop to 69 cents beginning in April, while the biggest hits and newest songs will go for $1.29. Others that are moderately popular will remain at 99 cents. The music companies are hoping that their eagerly awaited compromise with Apple will give a lift to digital downloads. They will be able to make more money on their best-selling songs and increase the appeal of older ones. And with the copying restrictions removed, people will be able to freely shift the songs they buy on iTunes among computers, phones and other digital devices. Technologically sophisticated fans of digital music complain that D.R.M. imposes unfair restrictions on what they can do with the tracks they have bought. For example, the protected files from iTunes do not work on portable players made by companies other than Apple. I think the writing was on the wall, both for Apple and the labels, that basically consumers were not going to put up with D.R.M. anymore,” said Tim Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies, a market research company. Music industry watchers widely applauded the move and said it could help digital music sales, which have shown signs of slowing down just five years after Apple introduced iTunes. In particular, lower prices for some songs could spur consumers “to buy deeper into the catalog, and expand their relationship with digital music,” said Russ Crupnick, an analyst with the NPD Group. The music industry could use a lift. Sales of CDs fell 20 percent last year from 2007. About 2.4 billion songs were bought on iTunes in the last year, aided by Apple’s expansion into international markets. But that was not nearly enough to make up for losses in traditional retail stores. Industry pundits have long pointed to D.R.M. as one culprit for the music companies’ woes, saying it alienated some customers while doing little to slow piracy on file-sharing networks. Apple has been campaigning against D.R.M. at least since February 2007, when the chief executive, Steven Jobs, wrote an open letter criticizing the software. Apple reached a deal with EMI that year to offer music without the copying restrictions. But it could never reach the same agreement with EMI’s larger rivals. Sony, Warner and Universal allowed other online music services, like Amazon’s MP3 Store, to sell unprotected music, but they withheld it from Apple. Their goal, industry analysts say, was to try to strengthen online rivals to iTunes, which they viewed as having a dangerous level of control over their business. “Apple definitely wanted to remove D.R.M. from music, but the record labels would not allow them to renegotiate their licensing agreements, because they wanted to help competitors succeed against Apple in the market,” said Bill Rosenblatt, president of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies, a consulting firm. Apple, for its part, appeared to resist variable pricing, fearing it would amount to a price increase for the most popular tracks on iTunes, which constitute the bulk of sales on the service. It has also said the consistent 99-cent price made things simpler for buyers. It is not clear what broke the impasse, but the deteriorating economy may have put pressure on music companies. “For the major labels, it was clearly time for them to accelerate becoming digital music companies in a macroeconomic environment that is downright frightening,” said Greg Scholl, chief executive of The Orchard, a digital distributor of music from independent labels. The compromise gives the recording industry new leverage over their online music sales, Mr. Scholl added. They can start to sell new tracks at the higher price, then gradually drop prices to keep sales moving. Labels could also experiment with bundled packages of songs and even special editions at higher prices. Harry Wang, director of mobile product research at the consulting company Parks Associates, said, “They aren’t going to get a huge amount of money from this new arrangement, but in an ailing music industry, anything that can provide more money will be better than the status quo.” Apple said customers would be able to pay a one-time fee to strip copying restrictions from music they have already bought on iTunes, at 30 cents a song or 30 percent of the album price. ITunes customers can achieve the same effect by burning all of their music to a CD and then reimporting the music into the iTunes software, although this reduces sound quality somewhat. The company also said that its popular iPhone would be able to download songs from iTunes over wireless data networks like AT&T’s. Previously, iPhone owners had to either attach the phone to a computer or connect to a local Wi-Fi network. Up over and out.

I'd sure like to know what goes on inside Greg Odens' head. One game he'll look like he's finally getting and the next, like he just fell off the turnip truck. Against the Lakers last night, he collects all of four rebounds in 35 minutes. How can a guy that big only have four boards? You'd think with that kind of size, 10 or so would just fall into his hands. I know rebounding is all about positioning and anticipation and that it takes awhile at this level to get your sea legs, but this is ridiculous. Oden is like manic depression...a frustrating mess. Up over and out.

The Tony Williams Mosaic Select. Up over and out.

I believe you may be correct. The month and year are right on. Nice to finally see who won after all these years. Up over and out.

They have made great strides over the last few years with plasma sets. Replacement is not anywhere near the issue it used to be. And, as RDK mentions, the cost is a lot less than you might imagine. Great strides in that area as well. I went with plasma because of sports. There tends to be less "bleeding" when there is motion involved. Plasmas recalibrate at some god awful level of quickness. Up over and out.

Leonard had the greatest nickname in the history of baseball. He was known as "Penitentiary Face". In the early '80's, I made the mistake of going to Candlestick (or Windlestick as they used to call it) for an afternoon game dressed in shorts and a T-shirt. Vida Blue was pitching for the Giants and Steve Carlton for the Phillies. Sounds like a great match-up, but it got so cold around the third inning, my brain shut down. I have no recollection of much of anything after that. Up over and out.

Chuck Knoblauch was the worst I can remember when it comes to stepping out to rearrange batting gloves. I don't know why MLB just doesn't pass a rule that says once your in the box, you stay in the box. That way, unless you call timeout, you're at the mercy of the pitcher. What a waste of time. Up over and out.

Welcome. One of the Board moderators will soon be forwarding you the Organissimo virtual frat paddle with which you must spank yourself the same number of times that corresponds with your membership sequence. In your case, that would be 11,568. This will complete the registration/initiation process. Thank you for choosing Organissimo. Up over and out.

I found that an assisted living center for low income people was delighted to get over 100 cassette tapes from me this year. The staff member literally had tears in her eyes as she said that they would set them out next to the boombox in their break room, which is the only source of music for their residents. Maybe something like that would work for VHS tapes. Hospitals too. Up over and out.

This is economic Darwinism. Those who have to ability to adapt will survive and those who don't, won't. In many ways, what's happening to the recording industry is the same thing that's happening to print media. The internet is so pervasive, and those in the most desirable consumptive demographic are so wired into it, that they simply don't consider alternatives. Bev makes an excellent point in that this may result in a return to the singles based approach that ruled the record industry before The Beatles turned that business model on its ear. Clearly, there's still money to be made. Just ask Apple. Up over and out.

James, I recently bought a 50-inch Samsung plasma, 1080 pi. I love this thing. Super clean picture and colors that knock your sox off. Like Matthew, I'm a big TV sports fan. I am really excited about seeing MLB on this big boy. At any rate, needless to say, I highly recommend Samsung. The best place I found to for big screens was Best Buy on line. A great source of unbiased reviews is www.cnet.com. I spent an awful lot of time on that website before I made my decision. You'll also find a lot of good reviews from buyers on Amazon. The most important piece of advice I can give you is to take your time. Good luck. Up over and out.

Don't forget the great used car deals from Friendly Chevrolet! Edit: to add a shout out to "Tough" Tony Borne and "Dutch" Savage! You must mean Joe "Come out and kick a tire or two" Cahan at "Friendly Chevrolet" in Lake Oswego. Yes to Tony Borne and yes to the Dutchman who, by the way, is now a preacher in Hazel Dell, Washington. Also, Lonnie Mayne, Shag Thomas, Stan Stasiuk, Haru Sasaki, Kurt Von Poppenheim and many, many others. Yup, those were the days. Up over and out.

If you are at all interested in hearing JR Monterose circa 1980, I would recommend looking into the website Nico pointed out earlier in this thread (www.croscrane.com). I ordered five of the six CD's they have availble. All are live recordings but issued in good to excellent sound, along the lines of In Action, Live with the Joe Abodeely Trio and incalculably better than Live at the Tender Trap. The ones I bought were Nightingale, Buzzy, Jazz On The Quarry, My Old Flame - Live at the Gemini Cafe and Just Friends Vol. 4 Live at the Gemini Cafe. I thought I had just about all the Monterose that was available, but these are very welcome additions to my collection. BTW, there are brief sound samples on the website. Up over and out.

My twin brother bought me a 13 DVD set of videos from televised Portland professional wrestling in the '70's. For those who have an appreciation of such things, the videos include appearances by "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Jimmy "Super Fly" Snuka and Jesse Ventura (yes, that Jesse Ventura) when they were just starting their careers in wrestling. None of those guys could have been more than about 25 years old. This is long, long before Vince McMahon had even thought of the WWF. The really freaky thing is at the end of one of the matches when they were showing close-ups of some of the people in the crowd, there was my ex-wife. Not only that but it had to be me standing next to her. A bunch of us used to go every now and then just for grins. Quite the coincidence. Up over and out.

I think I'm going to pass on these and when I need a buzz, I'll just lick the back of that big toad I keep in my back yard. Up over and out.

I hate to admit this, but about two years ago, I not only came across an outrageous price, I also paid it. It was for a Marty Balin CD called Balince. As I recall, it ran someplace in the neighborhood of $75.00. Gulp...what was I thinking? Up over and out.

I had something of a premonition last night that the Eagles would get into the playoffs. In spite of this, given all that had to happen, I still thought there was no way. Now that they're actually in, I couldn't be happier. And to think they made it by beating the Cowboys like a rented mule makes it that much sweeter. Frankly, I don't know how anyone can root for those guys with such a dickhead for an owner. It'll be interesting to see how long Jones holds onto his "our coaching staff is already set for next year" declaration in the face of today's organizational embarrassment. It must warm the hearts of Roger Goodell and the rest of the league to know that once Al Davis assumes room temperature, there's someone who is ready, willing and able to take his place. The Eagles draw Minnesota next weekend. If they're good enough to win there, they go to New York in two weeks. Who'd have thought? Up over and out.

PM coming your way with my mailing address. Up over and out.