Dave James

The very best at what she did. Enough said. Up over and out.

Coltrane's Dear Lord. Up over and out.

JM, You mentioned Canada. Canadian brew is beer at a whole different level. First of all, you can't buy it at the store, only at a liquor outlet. Makes stocking up for the weekend a necessity, not a luxury. More importantly though, is the alcohol content. It's not the watered down copy you get here in the states. Beer north of the border has half again the alcohol content of it's U.S. cousinry topped out by O'Keefe's Old Style Malt Liquor at mind numbing 7%. That stuff will get you where you're going in about half the time. Good stuff...hugely recommended. Up over and out.

I'm from out here in Orygone, so I know a little about beer. Let me tell you, I've been down every craft beer track you can imagine. Everything from Widemere Hefeweizen to Terminator Stout. Probably 20 years or so worth of experimentation. What do I drink now? Budweiser. These days, I just want something to quench my thirst. I no longer care about hoppiness, density, finish, cloudiness, Summer ale, Winter ale or anything else. Make mine a Bud. Up over and out.

While I don't always agree with Mr. Will, he is a wonderfully gifted writer. This is his most recent column for the Washington Post: Perhaps, like many sensible citizens, you read Investor's Business Daily for its sturdy common sense in defending free markets and other rational arrangements. If so, you too may have been startled recently by an astonishing statement on that newspaper's front page. It was in a report on the intention of the world's second-largest brewer, Belgium's InBev, to buy control of the third-largest, Anheuser-Busch, for $46.3 billion. The story asserted: "The [alcoholic beverage] industry's continued growth, however slight, has been a surprise to those who figured that when the economy turned south, consumers would cut back on nonessential items like beer." "Non wh at"? Do not try to peddle that proposition in the bleachers or at the beaches in July. It is closer to the truth to say: No beer, no civilization. The development of civilization depended on urbanization, which depended on beer. To understand why, consult Steven Johnson's marvelous 2006 book, "The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic -- and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World." It is a great scientific detective story about how a horrific cholera outbreak was traced to a particular neighborhood pump for drinking water. And Johnson begins a mind-opening excursion into a related topic this way: "The search for unpolluted drinking water is as old as civilization itself. As soon as there were mass human settlements, waterborne diseases like dysentery became a crucial population bottleneck. For much of human history, the solution to this chronic public-health issue was not purifying the water supply. The solution was to drink alcohol." Often the most pure fluid available was alcohol -- in beer and, later, wine -- which has antibacterial properties. Sure, alcohol has its hazards, but as Johnson breezily observes, "Dying of cirrhosis of the liver in your forties was better than dying of dysentery in your twenties." Besides, alcohol, although it is a poison, and an addictive one, became, especially in beer, a driver of a species-strengthening selection process. Johnson notes that historians interested in genetics believe that the roughly simultaneous emergence of urban living and the manufacturing of alcohol set the stage for a survival-of-the-fittest sorting-out among the people who abandoned the hunter-gatherer lifestyle and, literally and figuratively speaking, went to town. To avoid dangerous water, people had to drink large quantities of, say, beer. But to digest that beer, individuals needed a genetic advantage that not everyone had -- what Johnson describes as the body's ability to respond to the intake of alcohol by increasing the production of particular enzymes called alcohol dehydrogenases. This ability is controlled by certain genes on chromosome four in human DNA, genes not evenly distributed to everyone. Those who lacked this trait could not, as the saying goes, "hold their liquor." So, many died early and childless, either of alcohol's toxicity or from waterborne diseases. The gene pools of human settlements became progressively dominated by the survivors -- by those genetically disposed to, well, drink beer. "Most of the world's population today," Johnson writes, "is made up of descendants of those early beer drinkers, and we have largely inherited their genetic tolerance for alcohol." Johnson suggests, not unreasonably, that this explains why certain of the world's population groups, such as Native Americans and Australian Aborigines, have had disproportionately high levels of alcoholism: These groups never endured the cruel culling of the genetically unfortunate that town dwellers endured. If so, the high alcoholism rates among Native Americans are not, or at least not entirely, ascribable to the humiliations and deprivations of the reservation system. Rather, the explanation is that not enough of their ancestors lived in towns. But that is a potential stew of racial or ethnic sensitivities that we need not stir in this correction of Investor's Business Daily. Suffice it to say that the good news is really good: Beer is a health food. And you do not need to buy it from those wan, unhealthy-looking people who, peering disapprovingly at you through rimless Trotsky-style spectacles, seem to run all the health food stores. So let there be no more loose talk -- especially not now, with summer arriving -- about beer not being essential. Benjamin Franklin was, as usual, on to something when he said, "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." Or, less judgmentally, and for secular people who favor a wall of separation between church and tavern, beer is evidence that nature wants us to be. georgewill@washpost.com Up over and out.

If you look at this too closely on the pie chart, it almost looks like one of the seven words you can't say in public. As to pie, mark me down for strawberry rhubard. It's the best. Up over and out.

Dan, Hope this helps you work through whatever problems you're confronting. I know what it would take for me to put my Mosaics on the market. Good luck. Up over and out.

My first recommendation would be to get that gal's phone number. As to Jimmy Spheeris, yes I know of him. I think I have a tune of his called "The Nest" on my iPod and I'm sure I have an LP of his out in the garage. One of a number of like minded performers who kind of laid between electric folk and rock. If you're familiar with Shawn Phillips, you'd be getting close. As much as a fair number of people seem to dislike the idea of allowing others to make up their minds for them, I'd recommend All Music Guide. I can't tell you much more than that. Up over and out.

Tickle Toe is available from CD Universe. I just ordered it. Up over and out.

Earlier tonight I was watching a video on youtube of Frank Sinatra with the Hi-Lo's when I stumbled onto this. I must say I was quite surprised and pleasantly so. From 1968. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsmeiAoXSeA Up over and out.

Check this out. Music by Shorty Rogers. Vocals by Stan Freberg. According to Wikipedia, contributing musicians include Art Pepper, Pete Jolly, Adam Rosen and Shelly Manne. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTSOjbp0Hs0 Up over and out.

Agree 100%. Has anyone with access to Michael Cuscuna ever popped the question? Up over and out.

I've never smoked and never had any desire to do so. First of all, it would have gotten in the way of sports which was my number one concern growing up. The other reason is probably the most important. When we were five years old, my Dad, who was a smoker, made my twin brother and I split a cigarette. Outside of the fact that it about killed us, it certainly reduced the idea od smoking to nothing more than an afterthought. Maybe the best this my Dad ever did for me. Up over and out.

12 of 20. If that was a PayDay, I'm turning in my candy credentials. Up over and out.

The Trio, Volumes 1-3 featuring Cedar Walton are now available. Obviously, I never paid Walton the attention he was due. These are all rock solid. Up over and out.

I have the 90 downloads a month package, so I like to take some chances. Sometimes they work out, sometimes, they don't. One that did is by trumpeter Anders Bergcrantz called About Time. Up over and out.

Seinfeld, Bill Maher and Lewis Black on George Carlin George Carlin was "the total package of what a comedian's skills could be," Jerry Seinfeld said Monday in a "Larry King Live" tribute to the comedian. "He was a brilliant writer, a brilliant performer," Seinfeld told CNN's Larry King. "He literally could train his eye on something very kind of mundane and regular -- he could talk about a couch pillow or he could take on, you know, abortion or politics or religion. "So there was no subject that his mind was not able to dissect and make fun. ... He had an amazing breadth of subject matter," Seinfeld added, calling Carlin "one of the Mount Rushmore guys in our profession." He also fearlessly used profanity, scatology and irreverence in making his points about the absurdities of human life. His "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" routine prompted a landmark indecency case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. "He really didn't care, you know, if it was going to rub anybody the wrong way," observed Seinfeld, who credited Carlin as a huge influence. "I used to love this routine he would do about how whenever the UFO people come on television, everyone in this studio audience laughs at them. But when they talk about religion and the man in the sky with the white beard and the robe, everyone is very reverent and which one is really more absurd? And, you know, obviously, that's going to get religious people upset." Bill Maher, who as the host of "Politically Incorrect" and HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher" has raised hackles himself from time to time, noted that Carlin probably would have dismissed much of the praise he was receiving in death. "I bet you if he was here now, what he would be saying is, 'Why do people say nice things when you die? That's the stupidest thing to do. They can't hear you, you know?' " Maher said. But Maher added that, for him, "there's nobody higher" in the comedy pantheon. "Look, there's many ways to get a laugh. To me, this is the highest way. It's also saying something," Maher said. "If you took the jokes out of his act, it would still be a very interesting speech that made you think." Carlin may have seemed angry and indignant onstage -- and there was that side of him, the comedians agreed -- but he was personally a kind, gracious man, said "The Daily Show" contributor Lewis Black. When Black was a struggling performer, he recalled getting a call from Carlin, a man he'd never met, out of the blue. "He said, 'Listen, Lewis, this is George Carlin. First, let me tell you, there's nothing I can do for your career.' And then he went on to say he'd heard my stuff, and he really liked it and I made him laugh," Black said. "If I had any things to send it to him, because he had friends who liked to laugh. That was what he could do. That alone really was for me, it was huge, absolutely huge. "It shut my mother up," he added. Seinfeld said he had talked with Carlin a few days ago, not long after the death of "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert. "We were actually joking about death," he said. "We were kidding about how, you know, they kind of come in groups. It was like Bo Diddley and Tim Russert. And he was saying how I feel safe now for a little while because, you know, there should be a lull before they come after the next person." Seinfeld marveled at Carlin's output. "This guy did 14 HBO specials -- 14. I've done two. And, you know, very few comedians do more than three or four -- I mean, plus the books," he said. "I don't think we'll ever see someone who, in their lifetime, creates as much comedy as this man did." Up over and out.

Lon, Thanks. Hope things are going well for you. Up over and out.

These five CD's were on the most recent list of reissues from Hiroshi Tanno. I'm not familiar with them. Can someone shed some light? For a Baker fan, are they must haves? GQCP 59034(SHM CD) Baker,Chet(tp) Chet Baker & Ndr Big Band: The Legacy: Vol.1 2800 GQCP 59035(SHM CD) Baker,Chet(tp) I Remember You: The Legacy: Vol. 2 2800 GQCP 59036(SHM CD) Baker,Chet(tp) Why Shouldn't You Cry: The Legacy: Vol.3 2800 GQCP 59037(SHM CD) Baker,Chet(tp) Oh! You Crazy Moon: The Legacy: Vol.4 2800 GQCP 59033(SHM CD) Baker,Chet(tp) Live In Chicago: The Legacy: Vol. 5 2800 Up over and out.

Lenny Bruce died when he was 41. Do you think that had anything to do with it? No. Besides, Carlin IMO stopped being funny long before he himself was 41. Larry, With all due respect, I guess it depends on how you define the word "funny". To my way of thinking, "funny" can run the gamut from a pie in the face to what Carlin was during the second phase of his career. I don't think his rant on religion was funny in the classic sense of the term, but it was humorous in its point of view and, to some, insightful. I like The Stooges because they don't make me think. I like Carlin because he does. Both can be amusing in their own way. Up over and out.

Carlin may have begun his career as a comedian, but he ended it as a social commentator. In either of his two "lives", he was brilliant. He had a knack for identifying the absurdity in everyday life and he found humor in the obvious, making you more aware of the things that tend to slide by almost unnoticed. I saw him once here in Portland and walked away feeling entertained in a way I wasn't by other comedians. Not only did he make you laugh, but he made you think. Most comics tell stories that, while amusing, essentially go in one ear and out the other. Not Carlin. The video Chris posted is a great example. There's a companion piece on the Ten Commandments that's also worth watching. Not too many people have the guts to take on some of the issues he did. To be able to do so and do so in a humorous way was a gift. I did not find him to be bitter or angry. Just frustrated. He'll be missed. Up over and out.

Oh yeah...I definitely remember this one. My brother and I used to watch this when we were kids. I never thought too much back then about how tacky it was, it was just something to pass the time during the Summer. There were lots of game shows from that era that I recall fondly. We especially liked Treasure Hunt with Jan Murray. Kind of the '50's equivalent of Deal or No Deal. Up over and out.

I didn't go through this whole thread, so if Ana Carolina has been mentioned before, I apologize for the redundancy. I saw some snippets of her on, of all things, The News Hour on PBS last night, and liked what I heard. As is usually the case when this happens, resistance if futile, so I ended up buying not one, not two but three of her CD's on eBay. She has a really interesting and very unique contralto voice, somewhat political lyrically, but she only sings in Portuguese, so who's going to be able to tell? Up over and out.

I'm a genuine sucker for Ice Road Truckers, Deadliest Catch and my own personal favorites, Ghost Hunters and Paranormal State. I was surprised when IRT showed up again for a second season. You'll notice that the guys you're most used to seeing (Hugh and Alex) are working for another outfit. There's a reason for this. The company they were with last year, Tli Cho Transportation, banned filming from inside the cabs. That pretty much trashed the drama that developed during the drives. I'm guessing the TV guys persuaded Hugh and Alex to go to work for a different company that had no such restrictions. They just replaced some of the other familiar, but B-level guys like T.J. Tilcox with new drivers. I did find it almost laughable when the new guys treated Hugh like some kind of wet-behind-the-ears rookie. Up over and out.

Here are a couple of questions I'd be asking myself before I jumped into this. Is there a genre of jazz you particularly enjoy? If so, you might be better served by going after music that, for you, represents familiar territory. How experimental a listener are you? There's a fair amount of distance between what Lon (jazzbo) is recommending and someone like Dolphy or Larry Young and for sure, Cecil and Don Cherry. If you're not familiar with some of the more outside players, I'd recommend steering clear of them for awhile. Let the bop and post-bop lead you to these guys, but only when you're ready. There is no value in buying something that you won't listen to just for the sake of having a particular label better represented in your collection. My apologies if I'm underestimating your listening experience, but when someone asks for advice, especially when it comes to the classic Blue Note repertoire, I tend to assume that the person who's asking may not be as immersed in jazz as a lot of us are on this board. BTW, and for what it's worth, I'd add Cannonball's "Something Else" to your list. It's prime Adderley, but at it's heart, it's really Miles as much as anything else with a pronounced "Kind of Blue" feel to it even though the pianist (Hank Jones) the bass (Sam Jones) and the drummer (Art Blakey) replace Coltrane, Kelly/Evans, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb. Up over and out.