JSngry

I just checked a tracking # of a recent order, and the item was "Accepted at USPS Origin Sort Facility" in Shepherdsville, KY (south of Louisville, it looks to be) @ 5:56 PM yesterday, and then "Processed at USPS Origin Sort Facility" in Des Moines @ 7:22 PM that same evening. How you get from south of Louisville to Des Moines in under an hour and a half unless you get it on the plane JUST in time is beyond me. So this might be some sort of virtual processing? Nothing inherently wrong or troublesome about that, that's just a fact of life in today's marketplace. Minimized & centralized physical inventory is what the current model seems to dictate. But it does explain why/how things can go wrong. Like I said, when everything goes right with them, it goes really right. But it hasn't always gone right for me.

An old-school housewarming party!

Keye Luke One Tin Soldier Britt Woodman

Best. Fan. Ever.

Winner Winner Sweet Sue Just Us

They've never out-and-out screwed me, but have been "iffy" almost as much as they have been great. I've talked to their customer service on phone, a few times. Very friendly, very helpful, but they answer the phone as a different business altogether, and when you ask for "Import CDs", they say, "oh, that's us!". All the data is at hand, and all issues get resolved. I get the impression that, "image" and/or "net presence" to the contrary, it's probably a really small business doing the best they can with what they got, which is why I've never raised hell as a default response. If you're in America and/or have free long-distance/international calling and/or the money/rage to pay for the call no matter what, I would definitely recommend phone over email.

Can you - or anybody - confirm this by experience/ownership? This one I can find with no (apparent) uncertainty, but I do want to make sure that the Losin site is getting it right, that this issue does in fact have the extra music at the end. sambrasa, thanks for providing that information. Yes, thanks indeed! Hope to soon get a shipping notice from CD Japan for this one, and copped an OBI-less Mastersound Pangea for a not at all unreasonable eBay price, so, bring the noise, Japan, bring the noise!

Lonnie Smith was top notch, in outstanding form. The concert was a single set of about an hour and forty five minutes. It was the trio from The Healer, substituting Johnathan Blake on drums for Jamire Williams. Basically, it was a thrilling concert, well worth the trip. The Carver Center is a nice facility, though the surrounding environment was not looking so great. There were a couple of friendly policemen stopping traffic and watching over the parking lot. The auditorium holds about 600; it wasn't full, I would guess there were 300-400 people there. The sound was good. There was a nice reception with free food and drinks beforehand, and Lonnie Smith was meeting people and signing his CDs afterwards. It was first class all the way. The woman who booked the concert spoke beforehand and said she goes to New York once a year to look for artists to bring to the Carver Center, and that she had seen Lonnie Smith at his home base there, Jazz Standard. As long as everybody involved is getting their financial expectations met, that sounds like a reasonably sustainable venture...just hope that that % of occupancy covers upfront expenses (especially venue rental, it's like, ok, I can screw the band just enough to get them out of town, but THESE mfs I gotta live in the same town with It's happened!)...how much were tickets?

How was The Turbinator, btw? And how well-done was the presentation? Did the promoters seem to know what they were doing?

You mean love it or lease it, right?

Airto, too. All kinds of manic frenzy-ness going on in that band. Musically focused, sometimes, but compelling as a human study of These Men At This Work, always. Absolutely. If that's one of your things, a way of approaching appreciation of music (or anything, really), then buy with absolute confidence.

Saw Bradford once, a while back, at the DMA with a local group (which included James Clay) opening for Billy Harper. The experience was dandy, but the repertoire was mostly familiar, so I'm contemplating Austin on a Sunday in hopes of hearing a more original-centric program, just to get the more fully-balanced Bobby Bradford experience, even if it is a decade or so in construction. There's work on Monday, but there's always work on Monday, and I don't handle Mondays well, no matter what, just on general principles, so might as well up the ante with some specific reason this time! Also looking at the Lloyd duet gig in San Antonio...hey Brenda, wanna go to San Antonio for a weekend, get a room and all that? Yeah? Cool, here's the deal...I think that might work.

eupeptic

Don't want to hear another version of "Scrapple From The Apple", never, never, never, but do want to hear more Charlie Parker, always, always, always. Bird trumps Scrapple. Bird trumps all. So, Blahblaphony, no thanks, Horenstein, yes. That's how I look at it.

That Columbia University group plays the shit out of Echoi!

The audiophile satire is based in stereotypicals (or should that be atypical stereos). Old jokes are still jokes, and I'd rather live in a world with bad jokes than one with bad jokers. But...........................let's again ask a reality-based question - does anybody get paid off of this? Lennon's people for "Nutopian International Anthem", Sly for "There's A Riot Going On"? etc.I'm pretty sure that copyright was filed on each of these before being published/released on a recording. It seems bizarre they they would, but it seems equally bizarre that they wouldn't. Ant that cover...somebody had to pay for that, or will be made to pay. I mean, if the Kind Of Bloop guy got busted...

http://www.dustygroove.com/item/685227 So...if this has been done legally (HA!), I assume that fees were paid to use the song titles, even if they are are just silence "tracks", But if not done legally, is there a lawsuit here? You stole my silence? If a sucker is born every minute and nobody is there to fleece them, does it still make a record? And yes, I do remember The Best Of Marcel Marceau..

The Internet is your friend, but not all websites are. Some, but not all. I always look forward to having a choice, though. If the phone rep is gonna be a waste, oh well, gotta go, CLICK! And then, CLICK! But often enough, you get really interesting, amusing conversational twists when speaking to a live person in real time. Then, it's fun. And discounts, hey, icing!

Carpe diem on that sucker, yes.

Chrisotpher Guest!

If Bud Hobgood could've produced instead of Creed Taylor, we might well be looking at another Soul On Top mini-masterpiece. Instead we're looking at a frustratingly clipped collection of brilliant moments whose wings get clipped just when they're ready to really take off and soar. But those moments...they are here. Oliver Nelson WTF? moments, Charlie Mariano solo moment(s?), Irene Reid hitting it just right moments, they're all here.

Yeah, I got into it and figured I'd have more fun ordering by phone. I was right, and now I have. What I didn't figure on was getting $15 tickets for $10 because I was a "senior" (a.k.a over 55). For a split second after she asked "are you a senior", my response was instinctively gonna be "hell no, I graduated in 1979", but then I realized she was referring to age,. OOPS! But once the door of discount gets opened...I asked if being an alumni could get that $10 down to $5, and of course, no. But that was good for a mutual laugh, as was when she told me that the MPAC would be easy to spot from the interstate, that it looked like an armadillo, and then I asked her shouldn't it be in the middle of the road then? So yeah, if anybody's still looking to get tickets, call the box office instead. (but only between 1-5 PM!). Good, possibly even delightful, people will go about getting you all hooked up.

Now we need Springsteen to do a Budweiser commercial saying let Japan build you cars. We....will brew your beer!!! That would be some funny shit. How many Anheuser-Busch-related commercials are their on an average Super Bowl these days, anyway? Like there's any chance in hell that America will ever stop drinking their stuff.

I'm sure he did. But there's always bigger/broader contexts with everything this guy does, and I'm pretty sure he knows it. That's where all the "interpretation" comes in. On a case by case basis, it seems like he'll either ignore it, play to it, or mock it. Excellent career strategy, that is (and I mean that as a compliment - although by no means a Dylan "fanatic", he still interest me, and probably always will). In this case, yeah, no doubt he was giving a shoutout to the American laborer. On the other hand, I have to believe he knows that America will never again be what it was, not like that. It's like "We...will build your cars", it's a boast and a surrender and a plea, all at the same time. I feel the pride, I feel the resignation, and I feel the pain, believe me, I do. But at face value, hell, he had me ready to go out tomorrow and look at a new Chrysler, checkbook in hand and Honda Accord (with only 130K miles on it, just getting broken in) at the ready as a trade-in. As it happens, though, that Honda is working just fine, and will for a good while longer. However,I already enjoy Chobani, and will have some for breakfast tomorrow so that's one thing that really will happen.

Donald Lamb Sally, Who Was Hoped To Lay Down The Plowshares Eight