connoisseur series500

Oh, NINJA! I got it now! You don't have to hit me over the head with a two-by-four! Well now THAT makes sense. Here's a use for the crying roboticon: Rooster and I went to Borders and the had all the Conns EXCEPT for the Hill! Ohhhhhhh, is that the robot crying? I thought it was a robot with a moustache!

I'm on a budge too, AB, but I ordered mine from CD Universe a couple of weeks ago, BEFORE my budget got tight!! There are times when you have to strategically tighten and loosen your budget.

Like several others, I have to wait till my CD Universe preorder arrives in the mail. At least I know that I've got all six Conns and that they were mailed on Monday. Good enough for me.

I honestly cannot remember. I don't think I can remember the first Conn I bought either.

:rsmile:

Browns kicked butt and the Steelers suddenly have all kinds of problems: no pass defense; no running game; no good quarterback. Well at least Cowher got the special teams fixed. B) I did think that the Browns would win last night and I am not surprised by the victory. Brownies needed it more, and I imagine the Steelers had a hard time getting up for the game. New England took a big game from the Titans. Score was closer than it should have been as well. Some questionably penalties, including one which erased a Troy Brown touchdown scamper; two Vinatieri missed field goals from less than 40 yards out; a fumble on a punt return...lots of mistakes; but in the end, the better team won. KC won the heavyweight matchup. Tonight's game should be good.

I've got "Destiny is Yours" available for sale or trade if anyone is interested.

Took me a few seconds, but then I started rolling on the floor!

I tend to agree. The organ stuff is just fine however, I prefer Grant In A Ballad/Standards mode. Different strokes... Hard to explain my love affair with Grant Green. The guy had so much soul. Every solo tells a story. He was full of creative ideas in his prime. Didn't appear to be school-taught, but had this natural talent. His solos would build and develop like storytelling. (er, I think I already said that!) I'm not a musician, so it is difficult for me to describe, but Grant is something special to me. He had this thing that was different from the other guitarists. That solo on "Blues in Maude's Flat" on "Grantstand" is incredible. Full of ideas. I remember that that was the first time I had ever heard Grant play, and I was blown away. Who is this guy? His solo stayed in my ears for hours afterwards. Waht a player!

Happy b-day Brad.

Thanks everyone and I guess I'm not surprised. I can think of no other example of a jazz musician who went downhill as rapidly as Grant Green did in his later years. Though suffering from health problems, Woody Shaw still made great music. Grant came back into recording after a decade or so and was a shadow. So sad.

hehe, good points, Simon. Democracy is a kind of religion in this country.

The first Russian revolution hits in 1905 and catches Lenin and his coherts offguard. Trotsky plays an important role as he doesn't quite buy Lenin's approach that the coming revolution must be a "bourgeois revolution." The "bourgeoisie, he says, "will never carry their fight from the banquet hall into the streets where revolutions are fought and won." So Trotsky joins the action and makes a name for himself amongst the workers. He is the man of action and neglects the slow and torturous exercise of party building and control that was more representative of Lenin and Stalin. (Hope this isn't boring people.) The 1905 spontaneous "Bloody Sunday" revolution is brutally stopped, and the Bolsheviks are exiled either voluntarily or otherwise; and they plan out the next revolution.

Doesn't sound bad to me, Moose. I continue to read here and am reminded that the social strikes which led to revolutions in 1905 and 1914 in Russia were actually driven by the industrial proletariat, and that Russia at that time actually had a quickly growning and "the most highly concentrated working class in Europe." Not from this book, but I remember reading long ago that it was the industrial proletariat in the cities which won the Civil War for the Bolsheviks. The country peasants often fought on the side of the Whites.

I'm a political moron, Ghost, so I am not equipped to discuss in any depth your points. I am now leafing through my copy of Bertram Wolfe, "Three Who Made a Revolution," and have come across something interesting. Marx and Engels had written, "The emancipation of the working class is the work of the working class itself." Lenin saw in the Russian proletariat and peasants (Narodniks) only the capacity to form trade unions, without being any real threat to Tsarist rule. Lenin wanted revolution not reform. The drive for worker reform was to be harnessed and formed into a revolutionary force capable of toppling the Tsarist regime. He felt that there had to be some kind of party dictatorship over the proletariat itself. Quoting Lenin: "The Working class exclusively by its own efforts, is able to develop only trade-union consciousness..." "The beareres of science are not the proletariat but the bourgeois intelligentsia. It is out of the heads of members of this stratum (Marx and Engels--and Lenin might have added himself and Plekhanov) that modern socialism originated. Strikes and unions were to be subordinated to the struggle against Tsarism; and thus was laid the groundwork for a small minority of intelligentsia to rule over the peasant workers. This dictatorship lasted all the way up to Gorbachev, of course. But here we see the origins for it. Interesting....

Excellent topic starter, Ghost. Trotsky has always fascinated me. I'm going by memory here, so my facts may not be completely accurate. He didn't attend all the early Socialist conventions as did Lenin. He was more a man of action, in many ways. His fiery speeches impassioned the workers in 1907, at St. Petersburg. He was a brilliant man; wrote prolifically. He was an artist. Famous for his concept of the "permanent revolution," I think he got bored once the Bolsheviks grabbed power; and he dithered and played the role of the thinker and artist while Stalin developed his implacable political machine. He was no match for Stalin once the battle lines were drawn. He was exiled, and Stalin's assassins followed him out to Turkey and all over the world. They caught up with him in Mexico City and killed him. Stalin had to do him in (or at least he thought so.) Trotsky was too charismatic. And Stalin was inward looking. Didn't trust the West; didn't like the idea of permanent revolution and the contact with the West which was implied in the term. The Marxist artist, Diego Rivera played a role in finding a Mexico City home/fortress for Stalin. He pleaded with (was it Obregon?) to grant Trotsky the rights to staying in Mexico. Marxists from all over the world would make their pilgrammage to the new home of this very charismatic political thinker. Rumors had it that Rivera's wife, Frieda Kahlo had an affair with Trotsky. I read a book about his assassination. It was sad. He was no real threat to Stalin at that time, but Joseph saw enemies everywhere.

"Easy" has recently been reissued. It's one of Green's later releases. Personally, although I have tried several of Green's later sessions, I haven't liked anything released past "Carryin On." Has anyone heard "Easy?" And if so, what do you think of it. Worth picking up?

Doesn't necessarily have to do with American history. We can deal with European, Asian, African, or Russian history. Whatever.

Let's discuss historical issues in this thread. We propose a topic and then add our two cents worth. I'll start by nominating Ghost of Miles to bring up the first topic (he reads a bunch and has a good memory!) Okay, Ghostie, what do we start off with?

Damn, Moose, 61 posts so far today and a whopping 50% in politics! Wheewwweeeee! Notice how I bring this up OUTSIDE of politics????

Yeah, I can see why Blue Note had to pass on that otherwise very tempting title.

Translation: you start off calm and cool; then you get hot, and hotter, and hotter, and hotter; then friggin HOT!!!

Congrats, Ayers...what's it about? I was told that question drives authors nuts.

And the bigger the company, folks, the worse is their attitude towards customers. You are cynically handed off to call centers and the like. I believe that the only true customer service is to be found in the small shops and family run places (except the one Underground visited).

Man, Mule...that Sicilian temper of yours....