RainyDay

Well, now that Luciano has retired from opera, maybe he can go back to rock.

Lord, deliver us from Goodspeak, for he knows not what he says...and he spells REALLY, REALLY, badly and tortures syntax until it screams in agony. How's it shaking, Goody? B)

Oh, yeah, there's a Borders further up Powell, near Sutter, I think. Usual Borders fare. The Rasputin's is kinda cool and funky. Rickety elevator up to the fourth floor. I'd start there.

Amoeba records in the Haight (and on Haight Street) is good. Didn't know they were dumping jazz. Not sure exactly where it is on Haight. Also, Rasputin's has a shop on Powell and Ellis, a block from the cable car turnaround. There's a Virgin on Stockton and Market (about two blocks from Rasputin's). Not cheap but sometimes they have good sales. If you belong to the SF Jazz Festival, you get a 10% discount. The weather is really great now. Have fun.

Report it to all three credit bureaus--although I think you only have to report to one now and it covers all three. What happens is that no one can open an account in your name for about three months without lots of ID. After that, do what I have failed to do, check your credit reports peridically to see what is on there that is bogus. Reporting it to the police is good. When it happened to me, I was extremely ill and it was the last thing I could deal with so I never got further than reporting it to credit bureaus. I received a couple of phone calls from businesses where this clown tried to buy stuff with my name. If you trust them, you can report it to the FBI online. I don't have the webiste but if you google on reporting consumer fraud, you should get something. I found the FBI through the state consumer fraud website here in California. I don't recall what it was, but I decided to take my chances with the criminals when I saw the FBI disclaimers attached to reporting incidents. I think it gave them access to all of your personal business. Good luck. It's an awful thing to happen. My co-worker had his checking account appropriated and he's been on the phone all week trying to clean up the mess. He caught it early.

What Martha did was equivilent to selling someone a used car at top dollar value, knowing full well that it is going to die within days. It is ignorant to say that her crime did not hurt anyone. Now you're going to say that she wasn't convicted of that crime - she was convicted of covering it up. That's true, and it is also not as unusual as you might think. Insider trading is notoriously difficult to prove, because it is a matter of proving intent, which is very, very difficult for prosecutors. It is much easier to prove that you impeded an investigation into an alleged crime, because that conviction relies on facts. It comes down to "did person A tell an investigator X when, beyond reasonable doubt, they knew Y to be true?" The reason that insider trading cases are rarely persued isn't *only* because the people most often guilty are well-connected. It is also just too difficult to prove. Martha knew that, so lying to the investigators appears to have been pretty dumb. I personally tend to believe it was more a matter of arrogance. Most folks around here know me as a scientist - I know a little about this subject because I briefly worked on Wall Street when I was early in grad school and desperate to make ends meet (which Wall Street does a damn good job of, I must say...) Then who did she hurt and how did she hurt them? I haven't read anything that ties her dumping the stock she owned to the decline in value of the stock. The stock declined in value because ImClone didn't get FDA approval for their, what was it, cancer drug? That had nothing to do with Martha Stewart. I've been listening to financial guys talk about this since last week. Even the folks who think she should get the gas chamber for lying admit that her stock sale had no effect on the stock's value.

Untrue. She had 5 counts she was being tried for. The first count, insider trading, was thrown out by the judge. She was tried and found guilty on the other 4 counts. What's untrue? She was not tried for insider trading. Was not tried for insider trading. She was convicted of lying about the insider trading she wasn't tried or convicted of. The insider trading charge was dropped. What part isn't true? Count 1: Conspiracy to obstruct justice, make false statements and commit perjury. Count 2 & 3: False statements Count 4: Obstruction of justice What did I get wrong?

I spent most of last night's show wondering when Tony or his goon was going to shoot the fish and game guy who was giving Tony's wife the eye. I like "Sopranos" but I don't love it and I don't know why. The show has great writing and acting, but there's something that just doesn't take it over the top for me. "Oz" was the show I watched with great anticipation. As much as I hate violence, that show reeled me in right away.

This issue as discussed here and elsewhere gives me some insight as to how perfectly innocent people (and I'm not saying that Stewart is perfectly innocent) wind up in jail for crimes they did not commit. It reminds me of people who honestly believe if police arrest a person, they must have done SOMETHING illegal or the police wouldn't have arrested them. Scary. I call it the "don't bore me with the facts" syndrome. She was not convicted of insider trading and yet eveyone keeps talking about her insider trading. Because she used to work as a broker, because she is wealthy, because she is successful, because she is a celebrity, because she knows famous people, because she has a reputation as a witch (this only works for women, however), she must be guilty of something. Let's just say that if this woman goes to jail for her "crimes," just imagine what the government can do to you.

Imclone stock didn't crash and burn because of Martha Stewart. If memory serves me well, a lot of stocks crashed and burned during the time period in question. How interesting that she was convicted for covering up a crime she wasn't convicted of committing.

This is very sad news. My condolences to friends and family. How very sad.

Martha Stewart was not convicted of insider trading. Those charges were thrown out by the judge. How many times does this little fact need to be restate?d. She was not convicted of insider trading. She was convicted of a crime that she was not ultimatly even tried for. Stewart should be slapped with a huge fine and given substantial community service. Based on the reporting I heard last night on NBC, it sounds to me like her smug attorney blew it. And for members of the jury to care one way or another about who showed up in court to support her is cause for concern. If OJ can get away with murder, surely Martha Stewart shouldn't go to prison for telling a lie that hurt NO ONE or NO INSTITUTION.

That's the one.

The one episode that sticks in my mind is the one about a power failure and a little boy who said he was from the third planet from the sun. Everyone was in a panic about an invasion from outer space and thought the kid was a space alien. This series aired during the cold war and civil right movement and it is filled with themes about fear of the "other." I was always the outsider everywhere I lived (there were never more than a couple of black kids in every public school I attended) so I really connected with what this show was about. Rod Serling was a brilliant writer and social critic.

It may have been a factor in regard to the jury's decison. Hartridge and the other 11 jurors -- four men and eight women -- deliberated over three days before reaching the verdict. Hartridge said the appearance at the trial of Stewart's celebrity pals like Rosie O'Donnell and Bill Cosby may have backfired. "If anything, we may have taken it a little as an insult," he said. "Is that supposed to sway our opinion?" Some of the testimony about the way she ran her business left the impression, at least on him, that she thought she was "above everyone." He also said her background as a stockbroker worked against her because the jury believed she should have known what she was doing was illegal. >full article< She wasn't prosecuted for insider trading so why was the jury even discussing her background in a brokerage firm? Is "being above eveyone" a federal crime? Jesus, someone better put Donald Trump (and 90% of the suits in Hollywood) in maximum security immediately! Too bad Mother Theresa is dead, they could have brought her into court to create more sympathy. Instead, she had a black guy and a lesbian stand up for her. Well, hell, she must be guilty!

What Rachel said. This morning I heard more than a few financial talking heads on the news state categorically that her sale of the stock did not hurt the stock value or anyone who had invested. Which makes sense since she wasn't prosecuted for any of those things. Isn't Kenny Lay still out walking around a free man? Hanging out in his "we lost everything" penthouse? Didn't he manage to manipulate energy prices, manipulate the value of his company, steal from his employees, and tank their jobs? Enron's collapse apparently had a significant impact on Houston from a business and philanthropic perspective. A lot of people were hurt and more than a few had their lives damn near destroyed. I guess Lay hasn't lied about anything, though, or he would be in BIG trouble with the government because the feds really won't tolerate liars. Who suffered because Stewart lied? Nadie. I guess it isn't really the lie that's the problem, it's who's telling the lie. We live in interesting times when I am defending Martha Stewart here and Howard Stern on another thread, two people I really can't stand. They may give Stewart the chair just for being a witch with a "b". Everybody knows it's a capital offense to be a ball busting woman. A ball busting man is considered a role model.

Happy Birthday 'O'! Thanks for creating a nice place to hang. Haven't had a chance to read the thread yet, work beckons. Somebody save me a piece of cake (this should be my motto--"someone save me a piece of cake!").

I haven't been on this thread since my last post because I don't find DEEP interesting enough to keep up with his every move. Now that I'm here, I realize I'd rather not be. By the way, "Maybe the dingo ate your baby" is from an episode of Seinfeld. It's a funny line that riffs on "A Cry In the Night" that I thought would make an amusing signature until I saw that DEEP had made a mess at the Blue Note Board and I haven't been back there either. Really folks, life is too short.

The AEC was at Yoshi's last fall and I had the good fortune to see them, mostly due to Dennis Gonzalez who strongly urged me to go. It was my first time seeing the band, and the only time I will ever see Favors. The face paint had a particularly celebratory effect since it was the week of Halloween. Saw more folks that I knew in the audience than is usual. This was the must-see band to check out. The band sounded GREAT and the crowd was adoringly responsive. I remember kicking myself for not ever having taken the time to see them before. Malachi Favors stood out. His playing stood out. He looked frail but he played strong. Apparently he was quite ill at this time. What a trooper. What a bass player. RIP.

I like this record. I struggle with avant garde, free, etc, (even the proper "label" to put on it) because I often can't find the blues hook in it for me. Dennis' music is rooted in the blues and so his music always pulls me in. Not only is he a very fine musician, he's also a very nice human being.

--Lenny Bruce Oh, no! I hate guilty laughter.

Did Miles become gay on this thread? Not there is anything wrong with it.

I guess you lost me when you ventured into penis land. It suggests that real women can't dig Miles, which I suspect you don't really mean. But the other points are well taken. No apology necessary. I thought maybe you'd had too much coffee, or too much of something in the coffee.

I think it jumped the shark with the, (ahem), phallic analogy.

So much for "Location: not given"... Yeah, now that I know youse guys better I can say that I live in Oakland. I am extremely spoiled (and supremely grateful and lucky) when it comes to live jazz.