BruceH

Right on.

Hey, how about Matsui getting Series MVP?! Nice!

Maureen Sickler? RVG's assistant "The Sickler Series"? Doesn't have a great ring to it, somehow. Come to think of it, I got the Monk/Trane, Mingus, and Silver discs, so I guess I'm keeping up. Have yet to get the Hubbard, though.

Yeah, not for the first time, it occurs to me that his name is another way of saying Claude Denim-Waltz.

For the same reason that "Anything Goes" is a Cole Porter song, but "I've Got You Under My Skin" is a Frank Sinatra song. That's just how it works. Also, he had so very many different collaborators...scores. The documentary touched on this. I'm a big fan of Mercer, so I loved seeing this. Thought there were times when it could have gone into more detail, but you can't expect miracles. On the whole I'd say it was a great intro to him.

Definitely one of those figures that I vaguely assumed to have passed away some time ago (no disrespect intended.) So he was healthy and in his right mind up through his 100th birthday? We should all be so lucky. RIP

Damn, Allen...hope you get completely better real soon.

I never heard his last name pronounced - only saw it printed. The Times obit confirmed what I thought was the correct pronounciation. Same here, with one difference: As usual, I've been pronouncing it incorrectly for the last 20 years. Oh, well. We can all be glad he lived such a long life. RIP

I should have mentioned, that's one of the few Chestnut albums I don't have, though I'll probably get it someday, just for the hell of it.

Just watched disc #2 of The Wire, Season Three.

Boy, whoever was doing the subtitles on this one did a pretty godawful translation. As for the new movie, I wonder how many explosions it will have?

I do tend to prefer her earlier work.

Get it.

Yeah. In this case, it's much like when one of those French New Wave directors used a non-actor for a supporting role in a film. The movie still works, but it would probably have been a bit better with an actor. Strongly disagree w/ the French New Wave analogy. They actually did replace her temporarily only to have disastrous results. Have you ever heard the VU album,"Live at Max's Kansas City"?? Mo was replaced for the weekend run of shows(she was in labor w/ her first child) by Billy Yule. Now Billy was a pretty straight ahead, balls to the wall rock drummer and he just ruins that album. Every song. He's a very flashy drummer and overplays everything. No subtly whatsoever. Yes, she was an amateur but the VU wouldn't have been the same w/out her as evidenced on Max's. Except for Cale, the rest of the members in the VU were amateur musicians too. What saved them were Reed's songwriting ability and their sonic experiments of which her drumming played a significant part. She also had that one dance groove that she used over and over again in songs like,"What Goes On," "I Can't Stand It," "Rock & Roll," et al., that was very influential upon Klaus Dinger's "motorik" sound. So if you're going to judge her solely on her technical ability you're missing the point. I think a better analogy would be that her drumming played the same role in the VU's overall sound as Ringo's did in the Beatles. Like Ringo there are better drummers(Hell Ringo wasn't even the best drummer in the Beatles - that was Paul) but despite their technical limitations they both were able to coax a sound from their drums that was very complimentary to their respective band's overall sound. Haters. Oh, fer godsake..... When I say they could have used, from the beginning, someone who could keep time little better, I certainly do NOT mean they should have used someone who was "flashy and overplays everything." Not in a million years. In fact, I wouldn't recommend that to any rock'n'roll band, particularly a garage/proto-punk/Nuggets-type band like the Velvet Underground. Now clearly, Reed and Cale worked her limitations into the framework of the group's sound and everything worked out fine. Sit back and take a chill pill.

Well, I for one don't like the idea of having to get up when it's pitch black out.

Ouch! And they say Reservoir Dogs is too violent...

The clocks went back last week in Europe, not in America. I believe they use the Julian calendar too. No, the trusty Gregorian. But Bush had to go and screw up DST like he screwed up so much else. For 40-odd years the time change occurred on the same days of the year, then in 2006 they had to move them two or three weeks. Now I have to reset my VCR FOUR times a year (because it used to change automatically on the correct day in the Spring and Fall, but that became the incorrect day....pisses me off!)

I just like the way she sings.

"...that's why I'm daffy 'bout 'Sugar'" Thanks Larry.

"Fascinating."

Watching season 3 of The Wire, via Netflix.

I'm talking about live Beach Boys, not the studio version. There's no comparison between the two. Not only did Hal Blaine and Jim Gordon play drums with them on a regular basis in the studio, but the band has also included at one time or another, among scores of others, Glen Campbell, Billy Hinsche from Dino, Desi & Billy, John Cowsill from the Cowsills and Daryl Dragon from the Captain & Tenille. Brian had so little faith in his cohorts ability to play his music the way he envisioned it that he hired studio musicians to put down instrumental tracks while the band was on the road. They added the vocals later, when they were available. Speaking of Clarks, I love the Dave Clark Five, but Dave Clark himself, while effective, was not very sound. Up over and out. Ah, that explains why the drumming on their studio songs sounds just fine. I remember getting a used Dave Clark Five album in Boston, just after college, and I was giving it a spin...suddenly my roommate came in and said, "Jesus, that drumming's a joke." Or some close approximation of that.

Mr. Weir: "Neil Peart couldn't drum his way out of a paper bag."

Yeah, it kinda was. Like I said, it certainly didn't seem to hurt them. But I remember how startled I was when a more musically inclined friend told me in college that he was sure I could drum better than Maureen Tucker. So I listened closely to the drum parts and had to admit he was probably right.

Yeah. In this case, it's much like when one of those French New Wave directors used a non-actor for a supporting role in a film. The movie still works, but it would probably have been a bit better with an actor.