sal

I just found out that I might have to go out to Long Island next Wednesday/Thursday and was thinking about spending the weekend in New York City. I found a hotel that seems decently priced around 17th St. and Seventh Avenue, just a few blocks north of the west village. Is this a decent neighborhood to stay in (think its called Chelsea)? I don't plan on spending much time at the hotel, as I've never been to NYC before, so I was looking for a place in a convenient location. Or should I be looking somewhere else? It looked like a good spot since its fairly close to the bottom part of the island, as well as being accessible to the Midtown area. If anyone has any feedback, I'd really appreciate it! Also, I was thinking about checking out Bill Frisell at the VV on Friday night. If anyone else was planning on being there, shoot me a PM....it would be cool to meet other people from the board!

Another fine episode last night. As the story unravels, its really turning out to be one of the best seasons so far. The possibilities of what could happen seem more intense than ever before. By the way, Bobby Bakala shooting the rapper in the ass was one of the funniest things I've ever seen on television.

This is so terribly sad. He is one of the greatest musicians ever. Thank you so much for all you gave us, Jackie. RIP.

ditto

Hey, did anyone notice a strange scene in the hospital elevator near the end? There was a kind of a dark silhouette of a guy standing in the background when two of the guys in the crew got on? I think it was Carmela who noticed it. I can't remember who was getting on the elevator....just got off a 12 hour workday and my mind is not functioning right. Anyways, I didn't understand what that scene was.

No Coleman Hawkins or Lester Young as leaders.

The first disc was really cool.

SPOILERS BELOW I also think that the film was just so oversaturated with these intense moments of supposed drama that it just rendered itself ineffective. I mean, when you first see the cop feeling up Terrance Howard's wife, you get shocked. But the movie just continues to shove the "shocking" dramatic moments down your throat at such a breakneck pace without ever giving you a chance to breathe. The shooting, the car wreck, arguing....by the time Ryan Phillipe shoots Larenz Tate at the end, I found it difficult to give a damn. I found the pacing in that sense to be quite amateurish. Perhaps it would have worked better as a TV series. The film seemed to try to strike a cord in the viewer in a similar way "Do The Right Thing" did 17 years ago, while trying to appeal to the "artsy" crowd by mimicking a Robert Altman-esque multicharacter mosaic. Didn't work for me on either front.

Aside from Terrance Howard's performance, who I think is a fantastic actor, I absolutely despised this film. It didn't sit well with me at all from the opening shot, but the funny thing was that I had a really hard time putting into words why I felt this. It was very frustrating because it seems like everyone and their mothers likes this movie, and I got (and still get) alot of shit for not liking it. But then I came across this article, and after reading it, I feel like the author and I are kindred spirits. Its like he pulled the thoughts out of my head that I had such a hard time verbalizing, and gave them life. Enjoy! Oscar misfire: 'Crash' and burn Easy lessons for average people By Erik Lundegaard MSNBC contributor March 6, 2006 Talk about ruining a perfect evening. Jon Stewart was funny, George Clooney was sharp, Salma Hayek looked to-freakin'-die-for, Philip Seymour Hoffman won in humble-but-lovable fashion and Ang Lee, the director of one of the best movies of the year, became the first non-Caucasian to win the Academy Award for best director. Then Jack Nicholson, presenting the best picture winner, ruined everything. He didn't say "Brokeback Mountain"; he actually said..."Crash." No, he didn't. Did he? He did. My god. This is the worst best picture winner since "The Greatest Show on Earth" in 1952. It may be worse than that. "Greatest Show" was a dull, bloated romance set against the backdrop of a three-ring circus but at least it didn't pretend to be important. "Crash" thinks it's important. "Crash" thinks it's saying something bold about racism in America. But what is it saying? That we all bear some form of racism. That we all "stereotype" other races. That, when pressured, racist sentiments spill out of us as easily as escaped air. Here's my take. Yes, we all bear some form of racism - that's obvious. Yes, we all "stereotype" other races in some fashion - that's obvious. (Particularly obvious in the Los Angeles of "Crash," where so many characters are stereotypes.) But, no, we don't easily give voice to our racist sentiments. And that's why "Crash" rings so false. Last month I wrote an article on the best picture nominees (called "Anything But 'Crash'") in which I talked about how the most potent form of racism in this country is no longer overt but covert. Once upon a time, yes yes yes, it was overt, which is another reason why "Crash" sucks. It's doing what simple-minded generals do: It's fighting the last war. The "Crash" quiz Here, let's take a little quiz. Say you're an Asian woman who has just rear-ended the car in front of you. What do you do? Do you... Wait in your car until a police officer arrives Exchange licenses with the driver of the other car Notice that the driver of the other car is someone who looks like Jennifer Esposito, immediately assume she's Mexican-American (as opposed to, say, Italian-American), and then tell the African-American police officer that "Mexicans no know how to drive." How about this one? You're talking to a bureaucrat on the phone about getting extra care for your father who is having trouble urinating, and she is not helpful. You ask for her name and she tells you: Shaniqua Johnson. You still need her help. What do you say? "Shaniqua. That's a beautiful name." "Shaniqua. You could do a better job of helping my father, who is in pain. "Shaniqua. Big f---ing surprise that is." One last one. You've just been told by your hot, hot girlfriend, with whom you're lucky to be sleeping in the first place, that she is not Mexican as you presumed; that her mother is from Puerto Rico and her father is from El Salvador. What do you say? "I'm sorry, honey. I'm surprised I didn't know that. Now come back to bed." "Really? How did they meet?" "Who took [all Latinos] and taught them to park their cars on their lawns?" And on and on and on. Every scene. Put a little pressure on somebody and they blurt simplistic racist sentiments. Right in the face of someone of that race. Worse, none of it feels like sentiments these characters would actually say. It feels like sentiments writer/director Paul Haggis imposed upon them to make his grand, dull point about racism, when a more telling point about racism might have emerged if he'd just let them be. "Crash" is like a Creative Writing 101 demonstration of what not to do as a writer. To the Academy this meant two things: Best screenplay and best picture. The Sandra Bullock/Ludacris scene A few readers objected to my column last month - and will no doubt object to this one. They felt "Crash" taught them something important about race. More's the pity. They said they learned that even good people do bad things, and even bad people have moments of compassion. Sorry they didn't already know this. They felt like "Crash" was a movie the average person could support. "Average," I guess, is the key word here. Some agreed with me that the most potent form of racism today is covert rather than overt; but they added that this was a movie, after all, not a book, and in a movie you can't show characters thinking. Ah, but you can. Paul Haggis even did it in "Crash" - in the scene where Sandra Bullock's character grabs her husband's arm as two black men approach. Her move toward her husband is silent and instinctive, and Ludacris' character suspects she does what she does because he's black, and she's scared of him, but he has no evidence. We only get the evidence later, from her, when she argues with her husband about the Latino locksmith. And even this scene is handled ineptly. She should have argued with her husband upstairs, away from the help. But Haggis wanted her to complain about the Latino locksmith within earshot of the Latino locksmith - because apparently that's how we all do it. Lord knows if I don't trust someone because of their race and/or class I raise my objection within earshot of them. Doesn't everyone? The main point is that you can dramatize our more covert forms of racism. But here's how bad "Crash" is. Even though the Bullock/Ludacris scene is one of the more realistic scenes in the movie, it is still monumentally simplistic. I have a white female friend who lives close to the downtown area of her city. Usually she walks home from downtown. If she does this after dark, and two men are walking towards her, she'll cross to the other side of the street to avoid them. But if the two men are black? She won't do this, because she's afraid of appearing racist. That's how much of a conundrum race is in this country. "Crash" didn't begin to scratch that surface. Losing Jim So why did it win? There are rumors that older Academy members shied away from even viewing "Brokeback Mountain" for the usual homophobic reasons. Lionsgate also pushed "Crash" on Academy voters; it handed out a record number of DVDs and advertised heavily. I don't know which explanation bothers me more. All I know is I feel sick. It feels like the '72 Olympic basketball finals, when the Russians cheated and won; it feels like the '85 World Series when a blown call in game six tilted the balance towards the Royals. It feels like the good guys wuz robbed. My friend Jim is more interested in the Academy than anyone I know who isn't involved in the industry. (He's a chauffeur in Seattle.) By early summer he's already talking up possible nominees. The discussion reaches a fever pitch in November and December when the prestige pictures are rolled out and critics make their "best of" announcements. He goes to see these films. He talks about them. He actually cares. Not anymore. "Crash's" win did him in. The Academy, he said afterwards, "is not a serious body of voters who vote rationally. If they're influenced by a DVD sales pitch, they're not worth my time." Are they worth anyone's time? Once again, they showed themselves susceptible to something other than a legitimate search for "the best." Once again, marketing appears to have won. The Academy is 78 years old and acting every bit of it, and last night they took another doddering step towards irrelevancy.

I was just thinking the same thing.

Anyone get the new Larry Goldings disc? This is really a nice one. I've listened to it about three times now and it just gets better each time. It has a really diverse program of music. Larry plays alot of piano here and sounds great doing so, and he gets excellent support from Ben Allison and Matt Wilson. The fourth member of the quartet is a trumpet player named John Sneider, who I was unfamiliar with before this recording. He does a great job here. Almost every track here is strong. Madeline Peyroux even comes out singing on one track ("Hesitation Blues"). A fine gem of an album.

Thinking about it in that context, I can see/hear why you thought that. God, I hope that's not the case....

Cosmos - Carl Sagan Just finished "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince". A wonderful and sad book.

A very difficult decision....like choosing a favorite limb. If forced, I'm going with "Black Fire".

What shocks me is that it's already getting deleted (it's only been around for a few years...). Wasn't "Friendly Fire", the one he did with Joe Lovano, deleted after only a couple of years as well? What the hell is going on?

The Osby disc is particularly good, as is the Solal. Moran's disc is nice, but not as good as his subsequent stuff IMO.

Two of the best American movies of 2005 are out on DVD today. A History of Violence Good Night, and Good Luck

This is a wonderful disc. Not quite on par with "Dusk", which I consider to be a masterpiece, but still an amazing collection of music. Andrew's music is so advanced and complex and weird....I just love it.

I'm guessing Paulie will be one of the ones to go this season.

Thanks Kalo!

I don't think that the lack of jambands at Bonnaroo signals the end of jambands per se. Bonnaroo has been an incredible success since it began. For such a large festival, they have had an incredibly successful record of safety. With the exception of the regular drug offenses, there have been hardly any injuries, or acts of violence or theft at any of the festivals. I will guess that this is because Bonnaroo has typically been a "jamband" festival, and for the most part that audience is not particularly criminal minded or violent. They are just looking to go out, sit in the sun, party, and hear some music. This track record has caught the eye of many who are viewing Bonnaroo as now being the premier music festival in the country, especially when compared to the disasters of other past music festivals. As the word now gets around, groups of many diverse backgrounds are seeing this as an opportunity to showcase their music to an audience who is actually interested in the music, and where the probability of riots, fights, or burning shit down is very low. In summary, its become an attractive place for musicians of all genres to play to an attentive audience, while at the same providing a low risk of association with destructive behavior. I was at the first Bonnaroo in 2002, and aside from the logistical nightmares that most festivals encounter during their premier events, I remember it as an incredibly positive and fun experience. Will the festival always be this way? Who knows....probably not is my guess. Its bound to start attracting the "trolls" sooner or later in greater numbers, but for now, I say more power to Bonnaroo. This year's lineup looks excellent.

I saw Berkman last year at the Green Mill with Dick Oatts, Ugonna Okegwo, and Gerald Cleaver. It was a fantastic show. Was looking forward to seeing him this weekend, but I've come down with a nasty cold and the Green Mill is one of the smokiest places in chi town.

Welcome! I've yet to explore the ECM-New Series, but as for ECM, I've been a big fan ever since I've gotten into jazz. The one getting the most play lately has been Marc Johnson's "Shades of Jade".

Me too, along with SONGBOOK. I think Garrett had a great run in the mid-1990s... for some reason, I haven't liked what he's done since quite as much. I defintiely agree that "Simply Said" and "Happy People" are sub par, especially when compared to "Triology", "Persuance" and "Songbook". However, I really liked "Standard of Language". Thought it was in the same league as the latter 3 albums.

Has anyone heard Jaleel Shaw before, either live or on record? I heard that the kid can play. I think he has a CD on Fresh Sound New Talent. Any comments?