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I'm sure he'd be happy to give private lessons to someone who seemed interested in learning from him. I'd love to take a few lessons from him. Hes an awesome drummer.

Lester Bowie's "The Great Pretender" might be my favorite one that I've purchased so far. What an album! Really enjoying this series overall.

I'd call all of the music on this set, minus the Bout Soul tracks, essential. One of my absolute favorites.

I can see this thread getting moved to the politics/religion forum in no time

I think it's his best since the mid-90s. I'd rank it up there just below his classics, actually. It's a great album. No Hidden Path, the other long song on it, is one of his trademark minor-key guitar epics, something like Change Your Mind Funny, I bought Chrome Dreams II when it came out last year, but have been listening to it again over the last week. I don't care much for it, but I must say that "Boxcar" and "No Hidden Path" are two absolute classic songs.

Opus 95 for Two Pianos is a piece I keep returning to. I've listened to it probably 4 times since getting the box, and last night I think I came close to having a religious experience about 25 minutes in. It was very odd.

T.D. - He's been being selected for the England squad for every match they've had in recent months, and its my understanding that he hopes to finish his international career with England at the 2010 World Cup. As the MLS has a fairly long off season (that doesn't coincide with other world leagues, by the way), he needs to continue to play in order to remain in contention for England. Aggie - whether he's worth the $ is open to debate. As a purely financial investment, per the LA Galaxy, he's returned on their investiment, and yes, he has raised attendance considerably.

nope, just a 2 month loan with Milan til the MLS season starts again.

I think it should be interesting to see. Hes doing it so that he can remain in contention for a spot on the England squad, which is understandable. Whether he can crack into Milan's starting team remains to be seen. They already have alot of good midfielders.

Conception Vessel

You're entering a world of great reading, ubu! I'm currently reading "Welcome to the Monkey House", a collection of his shorter works, in between chapters of "The Great War for Civilization". That book is just too long and intense to read straight through....so the Vonnegut stories are working wonderfuly as intermissions.

I hope I'm not offending anybody by creating this thread. I just thought that while the other thread had alot of useful information, there wasn't a whole lot of discussion about the music around. Hope this thread will serve that purpose! I'm halfway through the third disc and am really, really enjoying this one. As a Braxton fan who had never heard any of this material before, its turning out to be even better than I expected. What do you all think? I'd also be very interested in hearing from those of you who normally wouldn't be buying Braxton's music, but who are taking a chance on this one, especially since its out on Mosiac, and we all know the great quality of stuff they put out. I'm finding alot of this music to be surprisingly much more accessible than I thought it would be. I guess it wouldn't surprise me to hear about this set opening alot of folks' ears to the wonderful world of this incredible artist. Anyways, post your thoughts here!

I immediately thought of this one.

The USA just lost to Trinidad and Tobago in a World Cup qualifying match. USA is on to the next round, but still not a good thing to see. I see England won too. Capello seems to be doing a decent job, no?

Another disappointing Bears loss. Not that they deserved to win this one (first game all season they didn't deserve to win), but I just don't understand the play calling. The decision to kick that last punt short blew the whole game for them. Not to mention the shitty playing by the secondary. I could cry.

This is a terrific release. Been listening all weekend.

My dad is arriving for a visit on that Thursday evening. I know that he would really enjoy your guys' music as well! However, he's become somewhat lazy since retiring and moving to South Carolina, and doesn't really enjoy activities anymore that involve him leaving the house, so I'm going to try and convince him to come to the Friday show. I hope to make it.

I'll be picking this up tomorrow.

Don't forget da Bears!!! Even in the two games they blew in the end, they outplayed their opponents pretty much the whole game. Kyle Orton is looking better and better each week (almost 400 years Sunday!), and the defense is dominating without Tommie Harris and Nathan Vasher in there. Granted the Lions aren't the best competition, but even last week against Philly, the Bears are showing signs that they can contend this year.

What did you think of "Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao", jlhoots?

I'm listening to this for the first time right now, and so far I'm actually really enjoying the Mark Ribot tracks (which start off the recording). This music is very interesting.

I don't remember when he died, as I had just begun high school and didn't know the first thing about jazz at that time. But right now, I can safely say that Miles Davis has been the most influential musician on my life, and thus remains (and will probably always remain) my favorite.

How's this? It's been getting good reviews, and I'm looking around for a good used copy here in Chicago. I read this and thought it was just OK. He's a good writer, I just didn't really like the way he presented the story. Too often I felt like I was reading a book on the history of the DR rather than a work of fiction.

Count me as another fan of Roscoes. Whenever I'm in LA, eating there is a priority.