Dave James

Just saw a piece on CNN having to do with historical lack of forthrightness with respect to full disclosure on the part of TEPCO. It cited two different and reasonably recent occurrences where they underplayed the severity of a particular incident. One would hope that would not be the case in a catastrophe of this magnitude, but they don't exactly have what I'd call a spotless track record when it comes to candor.

Not the first time I've noticed editorial oversights in Mosaic press releases. Even basic proof reading should catch things like this. Fortunately, they pay way more attention to the music than they do to the clarity of their communication.

I'm pretty sure I'll be the first one on my block to have the Lunceford. That's gonna be fun. Love that style of music.

Gottfried is and always has been a creep of the highest order. Good riddance, you P.O.S.

Not looking good. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/world/asia/15nuclear.html?hp

The real fear is that if one of the three or four reactors that are having cooling problems begins to melt down, it will release so much radiation that the management of the other ones that are still under some kind of control will not be possible. If that happens, then this disaster, which is already way more than you can get your arms around, becomes exponentially worse.

Yep. I stand corrected with respect to Love's involvement. The fact that I was taken in by the JOKE is indicative of the fact that I've gone out of my way to ignore any and all things pertaining to this recording. I'd rather be locked in a room with The Best of The Archies on a tape loop than to ever have to listen to Smile again. I will, however, stand by my assertion that no one ever mistook Love for a musical genius. Just listen to him try to give Willie Nelson advice on his phrasing when Willie recorded The Warmth Of The Sun:

If someone wants to walk me through Smile song by song and tell me why they are either great individually or taken as a whole, I'd love to saddle up for that ride. Certainly Heroes and Villains is fine as is Good Vibrations, but the rest of it including the much ballyhooed Surf's Up simply isn't very good. What? Vega-Tables? Cabin Essence? Wind Chimes? Do You Like Worms? Mrs. O'Leary's Cow for cryin' out loud? Don't think so. Many of my other posts on this board speak to the fact that there's no bigger Beach Boy fan than yours truly, but Brian was right on the mark when he first decided to leave Smile in the can. For me, Grimace would be a much more appropriate title.

Smile sounded like a Beach Boy parody. I'm with Brian on his assessment of the material. Why am I not surprised that Cousin Mike continued to push him to finish it. No one I'm aware of ever mistook Love for a musical genius.

I know there's a fine line between too much information and not enough, but I hope the Japanese government will choose to be completely forthright with respect to what's happening at their nuclear facilities. I know no one wants to cause a panic, but people have a right to know exactly what's going on. I have a sense right now that the whole story is not being told.

Music Millenium is the creme de la creme of Portland record stores. At this point, it's become fairly iconic. Their store on 23rd was too big and never matched the cache or the intimate ambiance of the original on Burnside. There used to be a used store called Bird's Suite across form the library downtown but it moved over to the east side on Hawthorne several years ago. I looked around on Google but I don't think it's still in business. It was the only jazz centric retail outlet I'm aware of. The most interesting place might be Craig Moerer - Records By Mail at 2541 NW 30th Ave. I think you can visit them, but you might want to call ahead to make sure. Here's a list of other retail outlets in town along with a brief description. http://www.altportland.com/consume/records.shtml

They might as well re-title this The Warmth of the Buck. What's next? The Beach Boys Play For Lovers? Nice to hear that the whole band is on board. If you'd like, you may substitute "Mike Love" for the phrase "the whole band." Personally, I think Smile is vastly overrated. I bought the release that came out a couple of years back, listened to it a couple of times, wondered what the buzz was all about, and filed it away.

Not much more needs to be said. A modicum of taste and restraint. IMO, one of the very best. R.I.P., Joe

Speaking of Michael Young, did anyone see the video of the three year old boy who idolizes Michael Young finding out from his Mom that Young might be traded away? Seems a bit early for the wagon of love to break under the baggage of life, but kids grow up faster these days. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6-ks_UP988

I never had much time for the "troubadour" element of '70's rock. Maybe if Elton John had stopped after Tumbleweed Connection, he might have been more palatable, but, obviously, he didn't. Come Down In Time is the only song of his that I ever warmed to at all. To use a golf analogy, if you drive for show and putt for dough, John is the greatest driver in history. So far over the top, he was and is laughable. Pretty much no time for Billy Joel either, although to his credit, he never showed up in giant sunglasses and hi-heeled shoes. I'm OK with Mellancamp...there's something that resonates when I hear songs like Cherry Bomb or Pink Houses. He just seems more grounded and genuine than many of his contemporaries. I never even came close to "getting" Springsteen. I thought he was nothing more than ginned up; mostly created by the press and a gullible public that was looking for the new Dylan. Lastly, and this may be a shock to some, I've never even heard an Elvis Costello song. But, then again, I've never seen an episode of Bonanza.

The Richter Scale is logarithmic, an 8.9 quake releases roughly 32 times the energy of a 7.9 and is 10 times stronger. The highest level ever recorded was in 1960 during the quake that occurred in Valdivia, Chile. It measured 9.5. Regardless of the numbers, this is devastating in every sense of the word. Watching the videos is scary enough. Actually being there...I don't even want to think about. Good to hear that a couple of board members are O.K.

One of my favorite scenes. Total Keystone Cops.

I don't know much about console stereos, but I would guess that anything from that era with an 8-track tape player probably fits this description.

Never heard of this gal until today. The video speaks for itself. Looks and talent. A nice combination.

7'1" relief pitcher? http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/jon_heyman/03/05/vanmil.insider/index.html?eref=sihp

Perhaps this will shed some light on what is a very complex issue. As a personal aside, I'm particularly taken with the two gals on the left and the guy on the right with the brutal porn stash.

That's why this poll really doesn't make sense. Dinner Jazz is a specific thing. It was a term coined by radio programmers in an attempt to to offer less challenging music geared to the more sophisticated listener wishing to unwind after a hard day at the office. When I was a jock on KMHD, we had a dinner jazz show Monday thru Friday between 6:00 - 7:00 P.M. We were asked to present the softer side of good jazz during that hour. Being the big fan of jazz balladry that I am, I never had a problem with it. Some did.

Here is a story that will probably be of interest only to the baseball purists among us. Up until I read this today, I had no idea about the controversy surrounding the voting for the National League's MVP in 1955. http://joeposnanski.si.com/2011/03/02/1955-mvp-a-detective-story/?eref=sihp

I voted for the Penguin Guide although I have multiple copies of both in my library. The one thing I always found off-putting about AMG was the fact that their ratings are based on the individual albums of a given artist as compared to their overall catalog instead of a more broad based set of criteria. That's why you see three and four star ratings for albums from hacks like Kenny G. I'll never forget stumbling onto my first Penguin Guide while shopping for CD's at a now-defunct store in Vancouver, B.C. called A&B Sound. I was up all night paging through the reviews. It was a kick to read what someone else thought about music you either liked or didn't like. If I recall correctly, one of the two guys who originally authored the Penguins, RIchard Cook and Brian Morton, passed away several years ago. The "post-partum" editions seemed to lack some of the spark of the earlier ones. i really enjoyed their style of insouciant British humor. I think the biggest difference between the two, at least for me, can be boiled down to this. Do you like your women to just be good looking or would you also like them to have a personality?