Patrick

Hmmm.... which Cleveland area used CD shop might this be?....

I believe Tony was posting here as DrJ, but nothing since summer 2006.

Happy Birthday, CT !!!

I think the Melford trio discs I mentioned above are fairly mainstream (moreso than most of her work I'll admit), as are the Anthony Ortega discs. If you like sax/piano duos, the Liebman/Copland 2-fer is quite accessible as well. I took a first plunge on Hat items at a previous sale. Thus far, I've only dug into the Ortega Scattered Clouds date and agree that it is fairly mainstream, and quite enjoyable!

Happy Birthday js and NoF!!!

I don't know the exact details, but I lived pretty close to a small used store that was bought up by Djangos, so it put a computer terminal in the store. That was pretty nice. Then a year later it went under. Two years after that, 3 more used CD stores in the neighborhood went under. All Second Hand Tunes outlets closed (most outlets were sold to other folks who changed names, etc.) - EXCEPT for one, in Evanston. It is a great store. The owner is a personal friend of mine and it continues to thrive. Yes, there are indie stores that still exist and are weathering the storm, but we are lucky in Chicago. Is that the one on/near Dempster? I spent a few scarce bucks there while in grad school...

from relatives, Quebec The Complete Blue Note 45 Sessions, Jarrett My Foolish Heart, a jazz album cover art calendar from Concord Music Group, and an Indestructible t-shirt from myself, Grappelli/Solal Happy Reunion, Henderson The State of the Tenor, Pepper, The Complete Vanguard Sessions, and an iTouch

I hadn't realized that the locations were all commonly owned. I thought that it might have been some type of joint venture in which local shops could join forces for a website that would have deeper inventory. Certainly the prices varied from location to location. Too bad. Hadn't purchased much there recently, but when they first started it was perhaps the best in terms of prices, and pretty good on selection.

Don't know if this list is comprehensive, but it must be close. Look at the 1700, 1800, and 1900 series. http://www.jazzdisco.org/fantasy/

I recently ordered the doubletime version of this from Amazon as a gift to myself ($13). Placed on the 15th, hasn't yet shipped, advertised to arrive by the 24th. We shall see if it materializes on time...

Confirmation of the existence of R.O.U.S.'s* ?? *Rodents of unusual size. See Princess Bride

The games you get over broadcast are determined by the market you are in. Despite a pair of AFC games with serious playoff implications (Pittsburgh/Jax and Cleveland/Buffalo) as well as the pursuit of perfection/soap opera of New England hosting NYJ, DC folks were treated to Ravens/Dolphins and Packers/Rams early. This, even though the local Redskins were the night game. Why? Baltimore is a different market and their team is lousy this year--that game should have only been shown in two places (Baltimore--not DC!) and Miami (if it even sold out down there). Turned into an interesting game as Miami took the lead late, lost the lead, and prevailed for their first win of the season in overtime. Still, a terrible game to watch--Boller, Lemon, coaches in short sleeves in December? Similarly, Packers are a good team and Favre passed Marino for career passing yardage, but that game, played indoors somewhere (like a bunch of wussy baseball players ) was not that compelling. Meanwhile, the Cle/Buf and Pit/Jax games were close (and played outside).

Interesting deal for Haren. One rumor had the Indians pursuing Haren. I thought this was just a weird idea to fill up the baseball rumor vacuum (at least in Cleveland), but supposedly there were talks. Tribe also rumored to be considering trading for Bedard. Supposedly the idea is to counter the stacked Tiger lineup with what would arguably be the best rotation in the league (Sabathia, Carmona, Haren/Bedard, Westbrook, Byrd). Ultimately, I think Mark Shapiro is just shopping for bargains after talks for Jason Bay and Scott Rolen ended without a deal.

Haven't studied the report or much of the commentary. Baseball is a great game, and cheating with chemicals is a problem, but do I really need to invest the time into this imperfect report? Right now, I don't think so. What I will say is that it is really pathetic that so many ballplayers pay for this crap with checks. Come on. Kind of like the superstar athlete (was it Michael Jordan?) that paid his gambling debts with checks. You cheat with drugs, you gamble, you settle up with cash baby!! To me, this is one of the more damning bits of evidence about the "steroid/hgh culture" in baseball.

Happy Birthday Jim. Have a good one with your good people. Hadn't realized this was a revived thread from way back when. Where is DrJ??

Perhaps not free enough to some, but how 'bout Roland Kirk, We Free Kings?

Could be worse, Al, you could be a Brewers fan watching them sign Eric Gagne to a one year $10M (plus incentives) deal. ...A bit rich for a guy with recent performance issues, I'd say.

Dan, Agree with everything in your post. My comment about data sets is getting at the question of how easy would it be for someone to create (and then test against historic data) some new stat, perhaps where one takes a weighted average of other stats. I imagine the SABR-heads have game info collected in a massive dataset somewhere that they can filter/sort and then calculate accordingly. Just curious how accessible (including cost) that is. My view is that a new-fangled stat (that is hard to calculate given widely available data) needs to demonstrate that it is significantly better to be worth the effort (for us non-professionals--obviously the pros have the incentive/ability to crunch all sorts of numbers trying to make better personnel decisions). Totally agree that wins is a pretty lousy way to measure starting pitchers, yet listening to ESPN blowhards (like that former Dodger/Indian/Giant/pitching coach/when does he run for office or start an accounting firm? Orel Hershiser) talk about how the Cy Young has to go to someone with 20 wins if someone won that many. The reasoning being something like "Cy Young won 500+ games, the award is about the wins...". Whatever.

Happy Birthday, David. ...maybe a moderator job as a gift??...

Quincy, Thanks for the leads. I guess what would be of most interest to me are articles that explain a stat, and then demonstrate why it is significantly better than something old-fashioned (like, for example, on base percentage). I too don't have much time for this. Too bad the internet didn't arrive when I was still in elementary school. If one wanted to do some baseball research, are datasets available that include the play by play of every game? Perhaps requires some $$ and a secret SABR handshake. I have mild amounts of interest, but absolutely no time...

And whatever you say about such statistical analysis - nonsense, fool's gold, or sheer brilliance - Baseball Prospectus "PECOTA" projection last year for the White Sox roster as a whole was 72-92 - exactly what their W-L record was. In other words, these new-fangled way of looking at things can't be dismissed out of hand. You may be right about the usefulness of various new fangled stats, but let's be clear about one thing. Demonstrating that one PECOTA projection was exactly correct should not be taken as compelling evidence of anything. This just shows that the prediction was exactly correct once. Someone guessing records, or throwing darts at a dartboard, or spinning the wheel of fortune, or letting their dog choose which tree to approach will get lucky and be correct from time to time. I'm not arguing that these stats are BS. I don't know if they are or not--occaisionally I have the inclination, but never the time, to read some of this stuff. You obviously spend more time with it. What website material (that doesn't require $ or a secret handshake) would you recommend for reading about some of this stuff?

Jim, Is there any way--without spending a ton of your own valuable time or hiring an accountant--to determine how much of your own $$ you've sunk into this operation in 2007? Perhaps some portion of the current surplus, or some of the still incoming end of the year donations (...maybe that are specified to apply to 2007), could be used to pay you back for (at least some of) your past dollar investments. When 2009 approaches, we can have another shout out for shekels. I echo Lazaro's point that running a BBS should not be taking $ away from pursuing your art. That's tough enough already.

...or in life

JohnJ has full custody of that avatar--no joint ownership involved. And I'm not offended...

GoodSpeak, I believe Dan when he says he has you on his Ignore list. Thus only the rest of us get to read your posts complaining about his avatar. These posts are a bit of a drag to many of the rest of us, and due to Dan's use of Ignore, are unlikely to work the way you want them to. What is more likely to happen is that some of the rest of us will stop reading such threads (...see the various baseball threads). Please consider putting him on your ignore list--you'll become blissfully ignorant of his avatar, grammar, use of emoticons, etc. And with such a truce (or detente), we can all return to discussing music, pets, recipes, sports, sex in space, etc. in a civil way. And smile about it. ...Just a gentle request/suggestion.