JSngry

Most of the Piston they play on Pandora is from a CD by the Louisville Orchestra. Some symphonies and Serenata. Don't know but that I'd like to hear some different perspectives on the music. Also don't know if it would ultimately make that much of a difference.

Joe Mohner Joe Morello Toots Mondello

Bobby Caldwell Tupac Danny SkyHigh McClain

Paul Richards Wheaty Ash Billy Champion

It's not on youTube, but if you can spur up a listen to the original (not remix) of Monday Michiru's "The Right Time", there's a lengthy-ish McCaslin solo over this drum machine "ensemble" that is so freaky-fresh RIGHT that it'll drop your jaw...and it's pretty much the same "thing" he plays on the Bowie record, which, again, is pretty much the same thing that he plays on "jazz records". Along those lines, my favorite Chris Potter (and that's a damn short list, btw), bar none, is also on a Monday Michiru record, a cut from Moods called "Cut To The Chase", an odd-metered(?) "fusion"-y thing with strings coming in, totally outside of what Potter is known for, but he plays his freakin' ass of, for real. It's not on YouTube either. Anyway, jazz musicians making "modern sounding" pop records makes sense. I'd like more more of them to make "jazz records" that did the same. What I'm not crazy about is the liners for Blackstar. Black-on-black to the extreme. Ok, I know it's a deathbed record or some such, but still... Fine record anyway. Echoes of psychedelic Beatles, 70s Miles, later Marvin Gaye, all years Bowie, really as close to a bullshit-free record as could be made.

Yes, I am aware of those. I do get a grin out of how McCaslin plays the same "thing" on a Bowie record that he does on a Monday Michiru record that he does on a Ryan Truesdell/Gil Evans record that he does on any of his own records. Some might call that simply "plugging in" to whatever gig is at hand a la any session player, but some others might say that the guy brings his own voice to any situation, and its a voice with enough empathy to work in a lot of different settings. Perhaps what it lacks in depth it compensates for in breadth.

Another option is to just accept the insomnia, own it, and let it be what it is without worrying about it. Who knows, that might even lead to more regular sleep. Hi, my name is Joel, and I'm an Insomniac.

Does current home-burning software still provide the "overburn" function? That would allow you to push the burn past 80 minutes, although exactly how far, I couldn't tell you.

Mayim Bialik Lester, Jules, Saul and Joe Bihari Binali Yıldırım

Started on Blackstar this morning, going to spend at least the rest of the morning with it, perhaps the rest of the day. Definitely some deeply thoughtful and carefull crafted music, again, very much to my liking. Especially appreciating how this is not a "jazz meets rock" record. It's jazz musicians making a pop record, which should not be a surprise to anybody given how for decades that was the norm rather than the exception. But yeah, this is music. Not spectacle or product or identity/marketing code, music. Color me fan-ful!

Howard Hanson...that's a name I perhaps incorrectly associate more with band music than orchestral music, the whole Eastman/Mercury Records/Frederick Fennell thing. If you were in a serious (enough) band program during "a certain time", you know what I mean. The more of Piston's music I hear, though, the more it sounds like it would probably work for concert band (or wind bands/wind ensembles, I think they call them today?). It's got that "quality" to it, where conflicts are smiled at, not wrestled with. However, I am interested in checking out the string quartets that Larry mentions...seems that Piston has a capacity for controlled exploratory dissonances that would work quite well in that idiom, should he have so chosen.

I used to live on cat naps, seriously. But once I got my sleep apnea diagnosed and addressed, and then the insomnia, I find myself unable to take them any more, except for the occasional moment when I have to take them. Tell you what though, those little 5, 10, 15 minute intervals where you just go under all the way and then wake up fully energized, those are wonderful. I wonder if that's like what happens to you when you wake up from/out of a hypnotic trance?

I have slept inside a van down by the river. I trust this will be more pleasant?

Hey, I see you when you're sleeping. And I know when you're awake.

Who is that on shine rag?

That last parenthesis didn't link...does this get it? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Thompson_%28musician%29

Why sleep when there's this?

I'll not be the one to disabuse the coitus notion, as long as it's all legit and shit. Otherwise you'll have the vile sleazeball thing on you, and good luck getting to sleep while trying to live with that.

I set up a Walter Piston Pandora channel just because his name has always amused me, like he lived in Detroit and wrote proto-Industrial shit in praise of Henry Ford AND the UAW, but the pieces of his that they play invariably please, tonalities that are ambiguously precise, if that makes any sense. Since the Internet is my "school" now, I'm asking for donations of knowledge, especially of the "what went into it" and "what came after it" sort of musical trails that are always fun to explore. Also, what "great pieces" are there, or are there any? I also see that Leroy Anderson was student of his, so, like, did Piston ever write for typewriter? Just kidding.

Yeah, that Lulu with Petibon is one of the more amazing performances in any genre I've seen. I've played it for people who have no inclination to Berg or opera or anything like that, and they all either recoil in horror in the first 60 seconds or else get transfixed for the duration. Subtitles help so much, although the acting is so strong here I don't think it would be an absolute deal-breaker if absent. It's a dark, dirty, sordid story, and they do nothing to disguise that. Yet, very nice to have the specifics. Bottom line, the once "unsingable" opera proves to not only be singable, but goosebumpily singable, and actable. Just goes to show you what people can do when they accept a challenge on its own terms. I think I've learned to begin to hear the difference in voices that sound "forced" and those that sound more "unforced". It's still often pretty weird though, especially when English comes out sounding like Italian or some such...but a voice whose character sounds more like a stringed instrument being played with total relaxed control is one I can really lean into these days. So...progress. Or, at least, evolution.

Dude, as we've seen, the mere presence of birds in the stadium adds a certain unknown to the baseball equation!

"Vintage airshots of Wagner & contmporary DVDs of Janacek & Berg operas are what really stoked my curiosity about going live...Bev, I would love to have the opportunity to hear a complete Ring like that.

Dallas Opera has an upcoming presentation of Show Boat...is that opera now, or has it been adapted from one stage for use on another? I'm kinda curious, but not really inclined at the moment.

Seriously, other than Clooney and Vaughn (I like Connor's version, but more for the arrangement than the vocal), make mine Sonny Criss, the version on This Is Criss.

Pitchers bunting...ask yourself this - if it's a true bunting situation, wouldn't you call for a bunt anyway? Or is it a bunting situation simply because the pitcher is up and that's the best you can hope for out of him? If it's the latter, one could make the case that having a pitcher hit actually dilutes the purity of strategy by forcing the offense to "settle" rather than go forward with the best available option. Ron Washington loved the bunt with the Rangers, Elvis Andrus batting second would bunt if Wash even half looked his way, sometimes to move the runner, sometimes to get on. It's a weapon to be sure, but it shouldn't be limited to pitchers, and it shouldn't be a "well, that's all we can do with this guy" thing either. Now don't get me started on the decline of bunting skills in all players, that's a whole 'nother subject right there, and....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.