JSngry

Scott Baio J-Lo T.O.

Bill Bailey Homeboy Hombre

A rose by any other band...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sWeL8fxgOM

I refuse to attempt a serious conversation with a clown. You, on the other hand, seem to have no such compunctions.

I buy into it as an option, a choice (and I don't buy into the "great artists DON'T HAVE A CHOICE!!!" idea either. Great artists might sometimes be compulsives & compulsives might sometimes be great artists, but only sometimes, and being one does not "prove" being the other) - but only one choice out of many. An overt expression of joy intended to uplift is just as valid a "purpose" as is an overt expression of alienation intended to piss people off. I also think that there's a circular logic at work if you want to say that art must or must not be this or that, so if it is this or that, then it cannot be art. To me, that's simply creating your world in your own image and then not allowing anything else into it. Ultimately, character of motive and quality of results don't have a whole lot to do with each other, an individual's needs and their subsequent definitions do, and people gonna be who and what they are before it's all over. I can believe in art without a whole lot of difficulty. Much less so Artists. Like Geniuses, they exist, but in far fewer number than anybody wants to believe. But in the end...fuck it. I either like it or I don't, for whatever reason(s), and I fully reserve the full right to change my mind about any and all of it whenever and whyever.

You talking about the Marichal interview w/Bob Costas on MLB TV? That was great.

Oh yeah, Greg Maddux, add him to the list. Would anybody for any game not want Greg Maddux on the mound?

I can see people ignoring The Beatles, just not Chick Corea, not for that long, not being around where he's been around. You'd think that if nothing else, him & Gary Burton would have had that talk at some time.

A new act is needed.

Yeah, the disc 5. I've heard plenty of the reconstructions/boots/etc. I prefer them for the parts, but still will take Brian's for the whole. Guess I'll pick this one up then...will start small and see how hungry I get from there. Honestly, I'm almost in the mood to move on, this might be the final bite.

Totally, totally unnecessary.

What I need to know is this - how different is this version from the version (not labeled as such) that came out on the Good Vibrations box a while back? I really can't imagine it being as organically finished as Brian's version unless they found some way to make some transitions that were never made...that's always been where the various homemade versions fell short for me, the transitions. But as a document, I suppose I should pick it up at some point. I know the parts are great, it's the whole that I'm having a hard time imagining.

That sounds like communication as an artistic goal to me!

Yeah, but there's a difference between "not paying attention" to and flat out ignoring, which is what I get the impression Corea did. It would be like if Scott Walker overheard somebody playing a Sinatra album in 2005 and came over and in all seriousness asked what that was.

Looking back, I think that's maybe why I've liked almost any and all of Chick's other work better than his fusion, even going back to the original electric RTF. You look at the "Big 4" of fusion back in the day...McLaughlin was certainly aware of popular trends, Zawinul lived on the Cannonball soul circuit and he himself helped define it with "Mercy...", Herbie was an innate populist from jump, but Chick...maybe you're right, Lon, maybe his own gifts were enough that he never bothered to be touched by more popular elements. That never hurt his other stuff, but I do think it hurt his fusion. So much of that stuff is just....nerdy! I mean, if you want to communicate, does it not behoove you to know what people are listening to and why? Or do you just call on Al DeMiola to bludgeon them into submission?

Gravitas is one thing, but... That's just a looooooonnnnngggggg time to go without even being curious...or even thinking about being curious. I can't think that Stanley Clarke hadn't checked out The Beatles and it never once came up in conversation. Or even Lenny White. Or Hubert Laws. Or Bobby McFerrin. Or Chakka Kahn. Or John Pattitucci. Or Steve Gadd. The list goes on. How do you not even once get a crack of light into that until just a few years ago? I suppose it can happen, but...how? And the thing about him & his wife had known George Martin for years and never ever connected him with The Beatles....like, ok, he doesn't mention it himself, but surely somebody somewhere brought it up... It just seems weird for somebody in that realm to have remained that ignorant (as in not knowing, not as in not liking or whatever) for that long. Just plain weird.

Man in suspenders!

True dat. And don't get me wrong, Marichal was one great pitcher. But when I go to the ballpark and walk by his statue, all those negative feelings come streaming back. I wish it wasn't so. Ah, think instead of that game where him and Spahn each pitched, what was it, 300 innings apiece? I mean, GEE-sus, who would even TRY to do that today, much less get it done, much less not miss their next turn?

Ok, this is not the one I read, but here's a variant of it, from earlier this year: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/03/chick-corea-gets-a-little-beatlemania.html Ok, not checking them out at the time because of other, more urgent priorities, that I can definitely understand. But once you choose to enter somewhat the same arena, don't you get just a little curious sooner than later? That's just weird...