RainyDay

When I see famous people I don't approach them. I figure they don't want to be bothered and I don't need to be publicly insulted by someone I have the misfortune of admiring. B) The exception is after a Yoshi's set when one of the band is lurking outside the stage door and I have to walk past him/her to get to the garage, I will pause long enough to tell them I enjoyed the set. If they say anything then I might stop for a quick exchange and then get on to my car. One last edit, most musicians I have met have been gracious to a fault.

Joe Zawinul. The year I co-produced the UC Jazz Festival, I was very proud of how I didn't bother the "talent" except when they needed something and I didn't go out of my way to engage folks in conversation unless it was clear they wanted to chat with me. Perfect example, Mingus. After his set he sort of lurked in the wings in the shadows and he never talked to anyone. The man never cracked a smile. I always nodded to him and sort of kept going. But I was mad for Weather Report and was hoping to say hello to Zawinul. What a mistake that was. WR hadn't showed up for their sound check and midafternoon a huge van had dropped off more electronic gear than I'd ever seen in my life. When WR finally showed up, I went backstage where Zawinul was tinkering with a keyboard. I walked up to him and introduced myself and told him how much I enjoyed his work. He never said a word to me but gave me the iciest stare. It was not pleasant. I excused myself and went down front. Next thing I knew, all of the UC staff had been kicked out from backstage except the techies. Real diva bullshit. I had hoped to say hello to Wayne Shorter who had been kind enough to return a phone call to me when a mutual friend had put me in touch with him about the gig. So we all watched the show from the audience. It was a fine performance but a lot of silly drama. Except for Shorter who was truly very nice to me in the telephone conversatin we'd had earlier. And due to their being late, we had over an hour gap between acts. They had a mountain of gear to set up and they were late. Fortunately, Jon Hendricks had brought his own trio that opened the festival all three nights. Jon went on and played while the divas got their act together. Saved our bacon because when there were long breaks between sets, the crowd would start throwing stuff.

Her music is smooth but I enjoy what I've heard on the radio. Haven't heard her recent stuff. I saw her in Portland a few summers ago with a bunch of smoothies and I enjoyed her performance.

Well, there you are. It really does get down to personal taste. I dig Fantasia like crazy. I just responded to an article about vocalists sent by a friend who is a musician and said the same thing to him. While you can get technical about why one singer is better than another, it ultimately gets down to personal taste. Billie Holiday didn't have the best vocal chops but she could make your heart bleed and that's what counted. I'm sure there are people out there (all three of them?) who don't care for her but she touches a lot of people with her style. By the way, I listened to talk radio this morning, and the theme was whether or not what happened on Idol was an example of racism. Interestingly, a lot of folks thought it was. One lady who called said she thought it was because the black women had too much attitude. I should point out that this a fairly mainstream talk radio show with pretensions of being left leaning. I don't think it is racism. I'm still going for the drunk college frat boy angle.

The three divas are so different. I'm not fond of Jennifer because she is still very gospelly. She can sing but it feels very churchy to me, and not pop. Plus, Jennifer has a tendency to shout. She doesn't know how to layer her performance with softness. Latoya has a lovely voice but not a lot of warmth. Fantasia is the stuff. They sound very different to me. I'm disappointed that there isn't a stronger male contender this year. You are probably right but a conspiracy makes it more interesting. B)

This has been all over the news today. Some folks think it's racism. That's certainly possible but I wonder if this is some kind of college prank to vote for the worst singer, which would clearly be the Red Headed Kid (who, by the way, looked horrified when Jennifer got the boot). It would actually be a more cruel thing to do to him than to the talented young ladies. I think this is why we used to have the draft. To give bored young men with too much time on their hands something to do. My prediction: Someone is going to discover that some computer auto dialer was used to stack the voting in favor of somebody or other. BWTHDIK?

I once dated a Nigerian I'd like to send to the moon.

A dig made with much affection! In the end it doesn't matter too much how anyone sees this site. It strikes me as pretty self-sustaining. And welcoming to those who stumble in here! The affection was duly noted, which is why it made me smile.

By the way, Bev's dig made me chuckle. You KNOW how we are over here! The Divas of the West.

First time I've been back since the thread took a left turn. But the reason I like it here is that people are generally more civil than what I've found at other places. If someone asks a question, they don't get pounced on. And there aren't a lot of screaming matches about what people like or not. I haven't visited the smooth thread, however, so that would be a good litmus test. B) I like some smooth and I get sick of how all of it gets thrown out with the bath water so I avoid those kinds of threads now. That's the thing, you don't have to go to a thread if someone who annoys you started it, or if the topic annoys you. You don't have to go there. Demanding the end of politics on the board because other points of view make you crazy is like demanding Howard Stern be removed from the airways because he offends you. You don't have to go there. There was a discussion on another board that was not very productive (I'm being kind) and I made a couple of posts and left it alone. I'm not going to change anyone's mind or their value system and I don't really have the time to try. Lately, I've used the political threads to do mostly venting about things I am very distressed about and feeling powerless to influence.

You don't see folks on the train playing around here, except their MP3 at ear splitting levels. We do have our share of dud musicians, to be sure. Did anyone see the film "Subway Stories?" One of the stories was a lovely thing about a Jewish cantor and an alto sax player across the platform who plays with him, strangers to one another. The alto player was Kenny Garrett. Nice story.

This is good news. However, if a SF club crashes and burns, a long lease won't save them in Oakland (my glass half empty point of view ). I also think this may have been a negotiating strategy for a favorable lease as much as a desire to expand to SF. http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,14...2100584,00.html

This morning I hit the trifecta. A guy playing traditional Chinese (?) music on a stringed instrument at the Oakland BART just outside the station and at the top of the escalator, a guy doing a pleasant job playing "Walking My Baby Back Home" on tenor. Then in downtown SF, a a guy playing what I think was traditional Japanese music on a recorder. All three are semi regulars but never caught all three on the same morning. Should be an okay day. But, yeah, there are guys who are just awful. One guy who sings "Lean On Me" totally out of tune, actually, the way he sings it, it has no melody. He's less high than he used to be and his eyes less bloodshot. Always has his cup. One night the do woppers were singing something hot and he was off to the side singing along with them with his cup, bobbing and weaving.

There are an assortment of musicians that play in BART stations. My favorites are folks who appeared once or twice then disappeared. One morning a nicely dressed young blind woman was playing her cello. At first I thought she was playing classical but then she drifted seamlessly into something very much like a jazz riff. Hadn't heard anything like it. I stopped to listen for a bit and was very moved by her playing. Haven't seen her since. One afternoon, I popped down to the station to ruan an errand and this scruffy looking man was playing the theme from the Godfather on trumpet. He was good. Good control, nice golden tone. I saw him again the next day playing somethihng else, can't remember what, also very good. He was fighting his demons and I had to encourage him to play more. Man he was good. Not seen him since. Do you give money? I don't give money to panhandlers but I will give change or a bill to a musician if the music moves me. There's a do-wop gospel group that just rock. They show up once or twice a week and they just make me smile. When I hear something I dig first thing in the morning it sets a nice tone for the day.

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I may be a Grammar God but I still can't figure out how to cut and paste.

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Three words: Diet Vanilla Coke.

I dozed off and on on this one. I took me half the show to realize it was Polly Bergen and not Nannette Fabray. The best part was the theme from the old Jackie Gleason Show that played over the closing credits. Lovely piece of music that has such a strong sense of time and place for me. Gleason had one very classy television show. BET on Jazz shows jazz clips from the Gleason show. Good stuff.

I was glad to see Richard Jeni on the list and participating in the discussion. He used to make me laugh so hard I would hurt.

You are a very lucky man. Glad you were not hurt. Be sure to file a claim with the bus company. If possible, find out if the police keep hard copies of contact records. It may have info on it that will help you with a claim against the bus company. In Oakland, they keep little computer key punch sized cards with the time, date, and brief description of the incident. Can't believe they didn't do a report for you. Find out who the policy board is for your bus company, like a regional transportation agency or the City of Austin. Send a copy of your claim to whoever your representative is on that board. Good luck.

Wow, that sounds great.

My co-worker and I used to be avid fans. he quit watching but I have to see how all these unrelated plot devices come together or not. This show has jumped a school of sharks in my opinion. What hotel manager is going to act like this one does? He is the most obedient person I've ever seen. And agreeing to kill Chappelle? And what about the husband Cheryl helped to kill? What was that all about? And the President's girlfriend, what happened to her? What was the purpose of her and her ex husgand? Tony nearly dies from a gunshot wound and is back to work the same day? What about the stolen baby at CTU HQ? I'm surprised they haven't inlcuded a subplot about constipation. I haven't a clue what is going on anymore and I haven't missed an episode. I missed Sopranos for 24.

I paid the kid next door to wash my car earlier today and it started to rain while I was backing out of the driveway.

You're right. Klein is held in very high regard by other comics but I just never got him. One very funny guy not on the list is Barry Diamond. I caught him on various comedy shows and saw him one night at the Comedy Store and laughed so hard I nearly gave myself a hernia. He was on Seinfeld once and was amusing as an annoying comic (not Banya).