Jim Alfredson

either this or small focused labels Mike... I'm buying a bigger and bigger percentage of all CD's from those labels within this and last year ! Cheers, Tjobbe ← The days of super-high overhead are gone. CD duplication is so ridiculously cheap, studios (real studios) are fairly inexpensive (they've had to lower their price to compete with the home recording market) and anyone can design covers with a computer and Photoshop. And with CDBaby, anyone can sell that music to the world with very little expense. It's a good thing!!! It makes places like this (the forums) even more valuable since anybody and everybody can release a CD. We have to rely on each other to filter the good from the bad or the good from the great!

The symptoms have not eased in the slightest. They are just masked by the Topomax. You would think that the eye would be a clue, as well as the fact that when she got a carotid(sp?) artery scan, the pressure from the tool the nurse was using on her neck was so painful that my wife had to ask her to stop. That and reading through this thread again I was reminded of the test that the chiropracter did with Alison turning her head back over her left shoulder. We did the test last night and she had the same reaction... dizziness, increased pain, etc. The neuro-opthamologist did mention something about carotid dini(sp?), which is an inflamation of the carotid artery.

Up, because I just bought another bag of these, having weened myself from them last Christmas. Oh man... I should not have bought that bag. It's like starting smoking again. So wrong, yet so right.

John, with all due respect... I think Sco's decision to get into the jamband scene was because his collaboration with MMW on "A Go Go" was the biggest selling album in his career. Pretty simple, really.

Thanks, Mike!

Wow. Frankly I'm surprised all four articles came out. I was expecting that they had just switched writers for two of them. But we got a full CD review in the paper today as well as another article about the Creole show and our little mini-tour. There's even a nice mention about the forums. CD Review CD Release Party at The Creole Gallery Wordage!

Yep.

Open up your Control Panel and click on Sounds. Make sure that your soundcard is set to the default playback device. If that doesn't work, try re-installing the drivers. Soundcards don't really go bad. It is probably just an issue with Windows not talking to it.

Well, after having a small lead appear in my wife's problems, we're back to square one. She had been complaining to our PCP about her left eye, which has given her problems from day one (remember that the very first symptom of all this happening back in November of 2004 was waking up with a bloodshot left eye). Recently she had experienced more fatigue in that eye and blurring, along with a strange halo effect and even pain. So the PCP finally sent her to an opthamologist. He gave her a Humphrey Visual Field Test, which the right eye completed in less than 5 minutes. Her left eye, however, took 17 minutes to complete. So they did it again a few days later. Same results. This led the doctor to think that maybe something is affecting her left optic nerve, so he sent her back to MSU's neurology department to see a neuro-opthamologist. He performed the visual field test again, getting the same results. He then scheduled an optic nerve MRI that also included her upper C-spine and her left shoulder, since the numbness/tingling/pain goes down into her arm and into her left hand. We had a follow-up with him today where they performed yet another visual field test (twice!) and went over the MRIs. Basically, he said he has no idea what is going on. My heart broke. I was really hoping this would lead somewhere. So here it is, almost a year since these symptoms first showed up and we still have no idea what the cause is. At least the Topomax is helping, but Alison is losing a lot of weight (one of the side effects). I'm trying to get her to start drinking some weight lifter shakes for breakfast or something. Something with a lot of calories in it, since her appetite is basically gone. She admitted that while I was on tour, she barely ate dinner, since I wasn't here to goad her into eating it. But all things considered, we're doing well. I guess we just have to continue to wait and see what happens. The neuro-opthamologist did say that the cause might be viral and such things sometimes attack very specific parts of the brain and cause wacky symptoms like these. I asked if it eventually goes away and he said sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. Not very reassuring. Anyway... just thought I'd give everyone an update.

Ok, David Stern's proposed dress code for NBA players is ridiculous, but this statement is even MORE ridiculous than that: $45 million contract and you need a stipend? Get real!

You love ABBA?

Chris, with all respect, why bring this over here?

So Joe, you took Blakey's statement and made it your own. That's the jazzy thing to do!

If I paypal you a $100, will you play it for me? I'll give you $1,000,000.

Of course not. I was aiming my sentiment at people that spend more time and money amassing recordings than going to shows. This is not true of pop musicians, but it is definitely true of jazz musicians and it has been stated on this thread already... and that is: Jazz musicians make their money by playing LIVE. When you don't come to see them when they are in your town and instead spend that $20 on CDs by them, they don't earn as much (if any) money from that. If you like their music, go see them play live. Support live music.

"Fuck ownership of ideas." Hey man, that's my fucking idea!!!! In all seriousness, it is the artist's choice and people should respect that. If a fan gets mad at an artist because he/she doesn't allow taping, then the fan can go to hell, as far as I'm concerned. Make your own music if you don't like how I "control" mine. That said, I don't really lose any sleep over it. I doubt anyone is taping organissimo shows and I did have someone ask me once. I said no, but he wanted to take a board feed. I think I like Sco's position: No board feeds. You wanna tape it? Bring your own gear and mics. I don't worry too much about CD copying either. It's going to happen and there's nothing I can do about it. As long as people come to the shows and buy tickets, I don't care. So to summarize, fuck people who don't come to live shows. Music is about being IN THE MOMENT, not revisiting it post-event.

Pistons looked really good last night! Darko is playing much better and their offense had some zip. I'm really looking forward to this season! Sheed is 20lbs lighter. He's hungry for some mo' bling!!!

Oh yeah, I remember that. Joe: "Like I always say, "Music wipes the dust off peoples feet." Art Blakely tried to say he said that, but that shit is MINE!"

We had dishwashers growing up: THE KIDS! Me and my siblings all took turns being the dishwashers. Except the younger ones... they got babied and my mom usually did the dishes. I actually like doing dishes by hand. The biggest problem for me recently has been our horrible kitchen sink(s). We're remodeling our kitchen right now. Thank God! The old one was so horrible... one of the worst parts was a kitchen faucet that was so low you couldn't even get a moderately sized pan under it to rinse it. Whoever installed that faucet was a complete moron. Right now we're using the kitchen upstairs, since this house used to be a two-family home (we're slowly converting it back to one). That sink is even worse... extremely shallow sink and another faucet that is too low. But right now we have no dishwasher, so whaddya gonna do? We are buying one for the new kitchen, however.

Two new articles came out this week in Lansing's alternative papers, the City Pulse and NOISE. NOISE article City Pulse The City Pulse one looks like its not totally up on the website yet. I'll have to go pick up a real copy and see if that's really where it ends.

Alexander, it was great to meet you! The Van Dyck is an amazing sounding room. Too bad the load-in was a total back-breaker!!! I'm still recovering from that one!

Thank you everyone for your comments! We had a great trip all around. Pittsburgh was fun and I think we played well, but we were pretty blown from the lack of sleep (I only got four hours before heading on the road) and driving for 7+ hours. I don't think we played as well in Pittsburgh, but we still had a great time. The NYC was definitely the high-light of the trip for me. Hanging with friends, meeting board members, being in the big city. It was a total blast. I'm hoping we can get back to the Big Apple soon, but hopefully this time in a club that already has a B3 in it, so I don't have to navigate and park a big cargo van around the city! We did take pics and I'll post them soon. I'm hanging out with Zora, who I missed more than I thought humanly possible. Much love to our NYC crew! And a very big thank you to 7/4 for the hang!

I agree. I love you, Porgy is one of my all time favorites. My prefered version being Nina Simone's, but the lyrics, no matter who sings them, bring tears to my eyes. It's heart wrenching. (okay, this will probably be my last post on Jim's account. He will be back tomorrow from the tour with the trio...maybe I will see about having him give me my own) Alison the wife of B3er

We had a great time in NYC. We're leaving very soon to head to Pittsburgh. A very heartfelt thank you to 7/4, maren, catesta (and his lovely girlfriend) for dinner and for coming out to the show! Thanks to Christiern for having coffee with us yesterday and to Kenny's for having us! It was a blast! One mo' stop and we'll be back home and I can see my little pumpkin pie again!

Hey, cool! That's great news that you'll be there, Larry! It will be nice to meet you in person. This is going to be a fun time!