Jim Alfredson

Good luck. Been looking for it for years.

No, I have not seen a dermatologist. I can't afford that right now. I did see a good friend's doctor last year (for free, because the doc was cool) and he agreed that it is an allergic reaction. It was really bad last December; my hair line was all puffed up and red, my ears were cracking... nasty. He gave me a prescription for a heavy anti-histamine and also a shot. I have a prescription grade hydrocortisone cream that I got from my brother-in-law. I use that on my eyes and ears when it gets really bad and it helps. My goal is to try to remove all dyes from my diet and personal care products and see if that helps. I read last night that in the 1960s the FDA made manufacturers test their dyes for safety (up until that point, they could just use whatever). Of the 200 dyes in use at the time, only 35 passed. Kinda scary. (Damn big government!)

So I've been dealing with an allergic reaction to something unknown. It started around this time last year, maybe a bit before. It's affecting my scalp, which is dry and flakey. At first I thought it was just dandruff but every anti-dandruff shampoo I've tried just makes it worse... way worse. It also affects my eyes sometimes; they will get extremely puffy and red and itchy and painful. And there are a couple of spots on my neck and forehead that get red and itchy and flakey as well. I think I've finally tracked down the culprit to dyes, specifically red and/or yellow. I've been trying to avoid all of them for the last few days; of course once you start reading labels you realize that they are in just about everything. The pomade I use in my hair, for instance, has yellow dye in it. The shampoo we use has yellow dye in it. These "all natural" frozen fruit pops have red, yellow, and blue. Juices. Crackers. Even cheese. Right now I'm fighting a nasty head cold and I can't even take any ibuprofen because it has red dye in it. So does the cold medicine. My sister is allergic to red dye 40. If she has anything with that in it she gets a really painful rash under her arms that stays for weeks. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with this.

Are these companies selling a product? If so, what's wrong with marketing?

Thank you, everyone. I have to admit, I wanted a son. But Scarlett is so sweet and already very different from her sisters. I can't wait to see how her personality develops and blooms. I have five sisters (and one brother). My wife has two sisters (and no brothers). Lots of women in the family and that's a good thing. Scarlett would be my father's sixth grandchild and they are all girls. It's all good!

Thanks everyone! We picked a name. Scarlett Eve Alfredson. Check out her doo.

Yes, my beautiful wife gave birth to a lovely little baby girl this morning at about 6:45am. She came out kicking and screaming like a banshee! She's the cutest little thing in the world. That makes three daughters for me. I am a blessed man. Zora is so excited she could hardly contain herself this morning (she really wanted another sister). Stella doesn't quite know what's going on (she's just 18 months old). Here's a picture of the new peanut. She's a sweetheart!

http://www.gilmorekeyboardfestival.org/artist/detail/132/

Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. I can't really put too much money into it, though I really feel the need to make a physical product. Perhaps I'll print up 100 copies. It will definitely be on iTunes, but if I print up copies the artwork is going to be worth it.

I think we're done.

From wikipedia: "In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion." The guy revealed his true colors in the last thread. Again, I trust that everyone is here in good faith. With his last postings he illustrated without a doubt in my mind that he was here as a troll, that his arguments were disingenuous, and that he was playing a game. It's like trying to have a conversation with someone about a topic you care deeply about only to realize the guy actually doesn't respect you at all and is only engaging you because he thinks its funny. You're being played for a fool. I'm not going to play that game. As I said before, it's disingenuous, disrespectful, and dishonest. And frankly, it pissed me off. This is supposed to be a community. Many of us have a long history together going back to the BNBB. The last thing I want to see is this place being overrun with trolls like the Branford forum, which was a really cool place in the beginning. Bixie was the brother to Che, just on the other side. Their purpose here was solely to disrupt. I'm been waiting for someone to label me as a hypocrite. I guess you could do that, though I give everyone the benefit of the doubt. I do have more patience for certain posters here, like Johnny E and Allen (only pointing you guys out because your names have already been brought up). I guess I have more patience with musicians in general because I am one and I know first-hand their idiosyncrasies. Allen will be the first to tell you, though, that I've gone after him in PM on certain matters. I'd like this place to attract more musicians, actually. And if that happens, we'll see some real characters around here!

Then you should be suspicious of Johnny E, too. Wrong. Johnny has a long history going back to the old BNBB, where he used to post a lot more about music. He's also a jazz musician, putting it out there and trying to make a living and rightfully trying to promote his own band. He and Bixie are completely incomparable.

I make the assumption that everyone is here in good faith. His tactics were disingenuous, dishonest, and disrespectful of the intelligence of the community and I got tired of putting up with it.

I'm actually finishing up an electronic album of tunes dedicated to my father (who was into ambient music and got me into it as a young kid). Mine is kinda old school sounding; influenced by Vangelis and the like more than the more modern guys.

Or maybe we could have posters create a complicated formula to police themselves so that they don't feel the need to post each and every though that enters their head??? Hey sounds great! Let's start with you!

Good thing we have to forum police to judge each and every post for its worth based on a complicated formulae of whether or not they like the poster.

That was pretty funny.

Back before video killed the radio star.

I bought my Stage 73 back in the late 90s for $400. It was always hard to play until I did a modification on it that has really changed the action. I plays beautifully now and sounds great. I wish I could use it more often. I've been using it now and again with Greg Nagy's band to differentiate myself from my role in Root Doctor. But it's a bitch to haul around (and this coming from a guy who hauled a real B3 for 10 years!!!)

How much are these things going to run?

See and that's the thing; rather than make a new rule and spend time enforcing or worrying about it, just asking the person nicely in a PM to change the avatar usually works just fine.

Like life, the course of the and board ebbs and flows. My main concern is that everyone act civil to each other. I'm not terribly concerned with enforcing a strict set of rules. I'm definitely not concerned with making sure nobody is ever offended. I just want people to act with decency towards each other. We should all know what that means on a fundamental level. Regarding the Getz thread (some things never die), I probably would've let it go on, as uncomfortable as it was, had not his own daughter came by and said "Hey, this is really hurtful". I think that trumps any free speech righteousness. As soon as she popped in it became obvious that we're not just talking about some guy that used to play the saxophone, we're talking about someone's father. I know I wouldn't want people spreading rumors about my dad, who is dead and can't defend himself. Would you? That's not too hard to understand. A blanket set of hard rules, enforced with an iron fist is nice in theory but doesn't work in practice, imo. I like flexibility. (Waiting for sexy album cover depicting flexibility). I guess you can call me a hypocrite, but I just don't think absolutes are the way to go in this situation.

Be allowed to keep it? You said yourself that aloc changed his own avatar; nobody forced him to. Likewise, Berigan could choose to change his (which he has done from one that some people considered really offensive (why the Joker is offensive is beyond me) to this one, which is just childish but also somewhat funny.) I guess I just have a thick skin. I don't get upset by people who I know completely disagree with me politically using a silly picture as their avatar. Is it a political statement outside the political forum? I guess so. Are we going to be that strict with the rules? In that case, I know of some aliases that should be deleted, post-haste. A couple people should probably be banned right now, too. Then we can institute a massive crack down and everybody can tip-toe around trying not to offend each other and the moderators can have fun censoring the crap out of everything. Let's get rid of all material that could be deemed sexist or sexual in nature. Any avatar that is suggestive at all or any pictures in a signature. Might offend someone. In fact, let's just do away with the ability to post pictures. Too risky. Let's get rid of all material that could be offensive to a certain religion or belief structure. I'm sure that would make the Catholic contigient here very happy. In fact, let's not talk about religion at all. Too much of a slippery slope. Politics, too. Let's get rid of it. Let's get rid of all material of opinionated nature that might upset those who don't share that opinion, be it about art or music or literature or movies or TV or sports or what have you. Want to say you think Wynton sucks? Sorry, can't do it. Might offend somebody. In fact, let's just not talk about art at all. It's too subjective. "Boy, the Browns really stunk up the joint yesterday, didn't they?" Deleted. Sorry, might offend someone. No talking about sports. Too much emotion. Won't this place be splendid then? Gosh, I'd visit every day just to see a couple people talking about... nothing. I'm being a bit mean-spirited, but I just get tired with the notion that somehow people think they have a right not to be offended by something. Yes, it's bending the rules a little bit to have an avatar that is political in nature. Same with a signature quoting a political figure (what constitutes a political figure? Could Bono be considered a political figure or is he simply an artist?) But c'mon people. TURN OFF THE COMPUTER. It's not that big of a deal.

Awesome, Bruce! Thank you for the update and I'm really happy to know you're doing so well! Paps, you're doing the right thing; stay strong and you'll be fine! We need you around here to knock some sense into our resident righties!