Patrick

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.

Sitting around the hot stove here, it can get a bit drafty--warm and cozy one minute, a bit chilly the next. My sense right now is that Santana is still going to end up at Fenway (eventually).

Obviously, there is an inverse relationship between frequency of pledge drives and the amount that would need to be raised/donated on a given drive: more frequent fundraisers, less required per drive. While participants may face different financial challenges at different times of the year, my preference would be for a single, annual fundraiser. My sense is that the "annual subscription" amount shouldn't be too burdensome for most folks to deliver all at once, especially if they could plan ahead a bit (take those last few CDs out of your shopping cart--come back to them later). Maybe make the collection of funds at the beginning of the year--New Year's resolution, starting the year off right, investing a little capital into a project that produces high returns (in terms of enjoyment etc). Maybe that timing would not be good for people that get a bit overextended purchasing holiday gifts, but your contribution here would be another gift, a gift to yourself and this community of jazzheads. Since it would be voluntary, those folks that needed to spread payments over a period of time could do so. But with a once-a-year setup, we wouldn't all receive frequent prompting for additional cash. [Maybe there is a way to use PMs for folks that need to "finance" their donation over a period of time.] As noted, more frequent requests would be easy to tune out. A major defect of PBS, in my opinion, is the (what seems) constant begging for bucks, and the turn to self-help nonsense that they don't show any other time of year. While it is necessary to pay the bills, asking for donations distracts from why we really congregate here [...insert your own punchline about astronaut sex, or ...]. In addition to having one fundraising period, I think it would be good to have a well written paragraph or two explaining to a newcomer what the deal here is (how this place is run/funded, what makes it special), and placed, if possible, where it would be seen by guests or newly registered participants, and not get too much in the way (maybe pinned somewhere?). It would encourage donating in the intervening period. Plenty of good writers (...maybe fewer good typists) around here, so it should be possible to craft something that is reasonably effective without sounding too much like begging, guilt tripping, self-congratulatory etc. Twelve months may be a long time, so in addition, perhaps an occaisional nudge (if the current balances are not high enough) from someone on Jim's Board of Directors, aimed in part at folks that became active after the most recent organized collection of funds. Maybe a broadcast PM to all of us directing folks to a new thread in the forums discussion area which would be passing the hat. Naive paypal question: If I donate without using a credit card (I use funds from a balance held at PayPal), doesn't the recipient (maybe if it's not itself a business) get the full amount? That's how I read the Paypal fees. So if you don't have a bank account linked to Paypal, sell a few CDs on eBay, insist on Paypal payments without CC, and donate the proceeds here!

Let me join the large chorus thanking Jim for all of the time, effort, and resources he spent creating and maintaining this jazz board. As the good ship BNBB was taking on water, I wondered how successful anyone would be at transforming that situation (great collection of knowledgeable and friendly participants, flawed corporate ownership/oversight) into a new venture. Jim really delivered!! Deep gratitude and respect for all of the non-music effort being expended by a guy with a young family trying to make it as a professional musician. [Repeat that last sentence again!] Perhaps the source of that energy was all of that clean living in Michigan . Like a few others that posted earlier in this thread, my time spent here largely was as a lurker [‘cept maybe when a thread’s focus turned to a couple of small market sports teams stationed along the north coast, or the next great CD fire sale]. Way too many items from this board to be thankful for, but just a few representative items that spring to mind as I type now (in no particular order): getting hipped to Frank Hewitt, Maria Schneider, Mingus’ East Coasting, Jazz in Paris, the Nessa AEC box; news of the bigtime Concord/OJC firesale, Night Lights, CD shop recommendations in various towns and online (esp StereoJack’s and Dusty Groove), getting hipped early to forthcoming BN reissues, reading eyewitness stories about jazz greats from yesterday and today. Besides all of Jim’s hard work, the key ingredient here is the community of individuals willing to share their knowledge, stories, passion for the music, etc. Thanks again Jim for fostering this in such a tremendous way. Like others, I am willing to pay an annual fee for the privilege, but I suspect that it is more than $$ here. [Repeat that sentence above one more time!] At the very least, let us know how we can keep up with the activities of that great jazz organ trio Organissimmo! Gotta catch you live again when you next past through DC, and maybe even introduce myself to some of the connoisseurs from my neck of the woods--folks with monikers like Bertrand, Stefan, mr jazz, weizen, … And what about the next big O recording project?

Just happened to be listening to Randy Weston's With These Hands... when I clicked on this thread. RIP brother Cecil.

I took too long to place an order--the Steve Lacy Monk tribute and the Koglmann/Konitz Duke tribute have stocked out. Maybe I got the last Shepp, I Know About the Life?

Mentally?

That's interesting. I just assumed the computer automatically sorted things out as far as what was eligible for the discount. I don't think the computer does it. Awhile ago I used a similar Borders coupon to purchase Zawinul's Brown Street (which is two discs in a slim case). Coupon claimed to be for single disc items, but the worker applied it to Zawinul (as well as some single RVGs). The original price on Brown Street wasn't that high, so that may have contributed to my ability to use the coupon. ...Just don't try to use it on the complete Ella songbooks box (or something similarly huge).