Brad

I don't believe these are all going OOP. If so, why would some of the new RVGs be on there? The only reason I can see these recent cds on there is that when Concord acquired Fantasy, these projects were too far advanced to stop.

It's a great sale but I just can't justify it right now. I have most of the stuff on the Evans box, which is what I would get and I just don't see getting around to listening to all that's on the Coltrane box. I'm sort of down on the box concept right now.

Don't we all do that?

All of the Bill Evans. Monks Plays Ellington is great. I guess I'm not an idiot, I have Monk's Music

Ehh! Nothing special.

I'm sure my son looks askance at my jazz tastes. Who knows? Maybe by osmosis he'll get it. My parents like to listen to a lot of classical but also a lot of show tunes, stuff that forms the basis for a lot of standards so by osmosis I got it.

A very odd question. Why wouldn't you keep the booklets with the boxes. Now, where you keept the boxes is not such an odd question.

I thought about buying this but passed. Just too many alternate takes to make me want to plunk down $17. There is, unfortunately I have to say this, nothing that I haven't heard there before. I may change my mind in the future but those are my feelings right now.

It couldn't happen to a nicer guy. I sincerely hope that this doesn't end the roids scandal and I don't think it will.

Some of those individuals banned got stiff sentences: 4 to 5 years. I assume for the teams demoted, the teams previously relegated get to stay up.

...and we can turn our attention to the various Euro 2008 qualifying groups, including the one with France AND Italy... Perhaps then it will be the time to start a new thread for football generally.

I dig 'em both, especially Bill.

That's too bad. I really love the Dinah stuff and actually have it in a couple of different forms. She had a fanatastic voice. As far as Desmond/Hall, that was my first Mosaic and words cannot describe the beauty of this music.

Just recovered about 500 posts.

This is a rather well thought out article by Rob Hughes, who writes for the International Herald Tribune, Hughes on Zidane.

Probably getting tiresome, but here's an interesting little article from the BBC, Zidane: Victim or Villain?

Based on Zidane's comments, FIFA have now opened an investigation on Materazzi. The saga continues. I'd be surprised if he doesn't get handed a couple of games suspension.

I think I lost about a 1000 or so.

Maybe he's thinking that's a bad way to end a career and he'll keep in shape for a possible Euro 2008 farewell. Of course, he'd probably have to serve a ban of probably four matches.

From the BBC, here is a translation of the statement given by Zidane: Interviewer: You know the Italian players well because you played in Italy for five years. Did you have any problem with any of them beforehand? Zinedine Zidane: Not at all. You always have friction with certain players...that is the game, it has always been like that. But I never had any clashes with anyone. Interviewer: Nor Materazzi? Zinedine Zidane: No, never. There was nothing beforehand and nothing in the match until he started pulling my jersey. He grabbed my shirt and I told him to stop. I told him if he wanted I'd swap it with him at the end of the match. That is when he said some very hard words, which were harder than gestures. He repeated them several times. It all happened very quickly and he spoke about things which hurt me deep down. Interviewer: Everyone wants to know exactly what he said... Zinedine Zidane: They were very serious things, very personal things. Interviewer: About your mother and your sister? Zinedine Zidane: Yes. They were very hard words. You hear them once and you try to move away. But then you hear them twice, and then a third time... I am a man and some words are harder to hear than actions. I would rather have taken a blow to the face than hear that. Interviewer: He said these things about your mother and sister two or three times? Zinedine Zidane: Yes. I reacted and of course it is not a gesture you should do. I must say that strongly. It was seen by two or three billion people watching on television and millions and millions of children. It was an inexcusable gesture and to them, and the people in education whose job it is to show children what they should and shouldn't do, I want to apologise. Interviewer: You apologise to them but do you really regret having done it? Zinedine Zidane: I can't regret it because if I do it would be like admitting that he was right to say all that. And above all, it was not right. We always talk about the reaction, and inevitably it must be punished. But if there is no provocation, there is no reaction. First of all you have to say there is provocation, and the guilty one is the one who does the provoking. The response is to always punish the reaction, but if I react, something has happened. Do you imagine that in a World Cup final like that, with just 10 minutes to go to the end of my career, I am going to do something like that because it gives me pleasure? Interviewer: No of course not. But at the moment you exploded... Zinedine Zidane: There was provocation, and it was very serious, that is all. My action was inexcusable but you have to punish the real culprit, and the real culprit is the one who provoked it. Voila

As a result, the whole World Cup tournament will have to be replayed .... and maybe the Dutch won't make it to the second round!! Probably not, with manager Marco van Basten's attitude; he's convinced he did very well... As long as they don't have that card happy referee, they should make it to the quarters!

Well, he hasn't explained his position much beyond what we already knew through his agent the morning after the incident. And before that television worldwide had shows that obviously Materazzi had said something to upset him. The only new part now is that he apologises to Materazzi. As I understand it all, he was first very ashamed and denied to go out for the medal ceremony as he felt undeserving of a medal. Then I gather he went home and visited his mother in the hospital. Yesterday evening the statement came that he would talk on the telly today, so why do it earlier. He certainly is not proud of what he did and I can very well imagine he is not eager to talk about it. So he chose his own venue instead of a horde of screaming journalists. There really is not much to say to make up for what he did. He did not apologise to Materazzi. He apologised to all the children who watched the game and people educating these children as 'this is not something to do'. But he said that he did not regret what he did to him. He said that regreting his gesture would mean that Materazzi was right to do what he did and to say what he said. He also said that Materazzi had been extremely rude to his mother and sister and that he would rather have been punched in the face than hearing these words. Materazzi has reacted to the statement by denying that he said anything about his mother because he lost his when he was 15, BBC Story

From the BBC: Zidane makes apology for headbutt Zidane reacted to Materazzi's insult by headbutting the defender. Zinedine Zidane has apologised for the headbutt on Italy's Marco Materazzi which earned him a red card in Sunday's World Cup final penalty shoot-out loss. But the France legend did not reveal what Materazzi said, only confirming that it was "very personal and concerned his mother and his sister". In a French TV interview, Zidane, 34, said: "I want to ask for forgiveness from all the children who watched that. "There was no excuse for it. I want to be open and honest about it." Zidane was sent-off for the headbutt to Materazzi's chest in the second period of extra-time in Sunday's final in Berlin. His words contradict Materazzi's take on the incident, in which the Italian admitted making an insulting remark to the midfielder, but denied he made reference to Zidane's mother. Fifa is to investigate Zidane's sending off and the organisation's president Sepp Blatter has hinted that the France star could be stripped of his World Cup best player award. More to follow.

Interesting column: Zizou's legacy snuffed out in 7 seconds

According to the BBC, Blatter has hinted that FIFA may take away the Golden Ball award from Zidane, depending on the results of the investigation.