sal

Muir Woods. Just across the Golden Gate Bridge, and it has one of the most beautiful groves of redwood trees on the planet. Some not-too-difficult hiking trails are there, including some harder ones if you have the time and energy. Well worth it.

"The Search for Modern China" by Jonathan Spence

"Genesis" by Bernard Beckett

as he usually does during the Classicos. Victor Valdes is having an excellent run of form as well.

Speaking of "super groups", Jack White's project from earlier this year called The Dead Weather put out a nice album that remains one of my favs from this year.

I've listened to Them Crooked Vultures once through. I'm not a huge Queens of the Stone Age fan and this album kind of sounds like one of their albums. I'll give it a few more listens though before ultimately making up my mind.

WOW......my deepest condolences go out to the Irish of the world. Absolutely no offense to the French team and their supporters, but that Henry hand ball was about as blatant as you can get. How the line official missed that one, I have no idea. I've always been against the use of video replay, but when something like this happens in a match of such magnitude, it gets you thinking.

Really great music! I hope that if there's some folks on the board who haven't listened to Von that much, or at all, that they check this one out.

Good to see those Old and New Dreams CDs back. They were hard to find here in the States for a decent price.

I agree with Harold Z...just get an ipod and dive in. They're easy to use, fun, and afterwards, you'll wonder how you ever did without.

Philly Joe is a top 3 or 4 of all time for me.

Ruby My Dear is probably my favorite ballad. There's a nice version on the Jazztet Mosaic.

How are his novels? I have a copy of "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" but haven't read it yet. A friend also recommended "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" to me recently.

I've been telling myself "no more music until next year", but I love Von and the glowing reviews here forced me to succumb. Can't wait to hear it!

"Walden" is a true classic. A great and important book. I read it 2 or 3 years ago and it changed the way I look at my life and my role in the natural world. I don't think time has nullified its messages in any way. I'm about to start reading Haruki Murakami's "Dance Dance Dance".

That Dizzy Reece set is excellent all around. Don't miss it.

His substitution philosophy has been quite unusual recently. Surely there's alot of behind the scenes problems going on over there, but I'm sticking to my original theory that a major reason Liverpool is unraveling on the pitch is because they lost Xabi Alonso. There just doesn't seem to be anybody running their midfield anymore. They used to be so organized, and they just don't seem that way anymore.

Three military guys going on a shooting rampage together? Well, this may or may not explain it.... 12 Soldiers Killed and 31 Wounded in Fort Hood ShootingSuspected Gunman Is Identified by ABC News as Major Malik Nadal Hasan i don't mean to offend, but after a comment like this, this thread should get moved to Politics & Religion.

I mentioned this one briefly in another thread, but it deserves its own. This is without a doubt my favorite new release of the year. Matt leads a piano-less quartet with Chris Lightcap on bass and two horn plyers, and they really kill it. I've always loved the open, freer sound of piano-less combos, particularly two-horn quartets like this one. I hadn't previously heard of the two horn players, Andrew D'Angelo and Jeff Lederer, but both of them sound very inspired here. Its a fun, hot session that reminds me of alot of the hard-blowing sessions that I have on recordings from the late 60's and early 70's, yet still sounds fresh and modern. I hope Matt keeps this band together for more recording & touring.

They're now equal in points to Aston Villa, and they've played one more game. Never thought that would be the case, but I ain't complaining.

I think Phil Collins is a good drummer. In fact, some of his most creative, most subtle drumming comes from his work with the post-Peter Gabriel, 1980's "pop" version of Genesis.

I can't think of too many bad rock drummers. Pretty much all of the well known ones, even Mo Tucker, we're good in their settings and served the sound of their bands well. I would say that my least favorite was Ginger Baker, because of his overlong, not-so-good solos. But as a timekeeper, and for decorating the sound of Jack and Eric, he was fine. Jazz drumming is much easier to find fault in.

I love cheese

Has anyone read "The Lost Symbol"?

a double helping I've no doubt, but BA is cool in my book LOL...I felt the same way. Ben's music is consistently creative and of a high quality. And he's a very cool and humble guy as well who has taken time to talk to me on two separate occasions when I've seen him perform (he even pulled out his cel phone and called Palmetto when I told him that I was still waiting for them to ship me one of his new CD's at the time!). So call me biased, but this spam doesn't bug me very much. :rsmile: