JSngry

emo = excessively "emotional", originally used to indicate "angst-y", but now used to describe anything "gushy" beyond normal (whatever that is, but if you have to ask, etc.). Anything where emotion masquerades as reason, more or less. My daughter's 20, still lives with us, and has friends over all the time. I hear it quite a bit these days, and have come to appreciate the concept.

I've already spent more time thinking about this than I should, but isn't the normal reaction when a child falls into a pool to call 911 and see if there is any chance the child can be revived? This would be like the Wardell Grey of child deaths...or some other kind of junkie lunacy...

Alternate juror supports verdict in Anthony trial http://news.yahoo.com/casey-anthony-found-not-guilty-daughters-murder-011307290.html

You wanna go find him and kick his ass for that? Just let me know if you do.

Ultimately, I'd rather it not have been done at all. The audience remains "largely indifferent", in no small part because they've had it presented to them as something that's already happened and is over with, and they've "got" it, just like any other story with a beginning, middle, end, and neatly tied-up moral. They're pretty much right (that it's over), but not like (or why) they think they are. I'm all for death with dignity. Mummification and necrophiliac pimping...not so much. Net gain for jazz from Jazz? Pretty much zero, at best. Probably a net loss, actually. Net gain for "the jazz industry"? Who knows, who cares? But - are sales up? Are there more venues now? More gigs? More people clamoring to hear them some jazz, any kind of jazz, anywhere, be it live or recorded? How many people can anybody here name whose interest in jazz was stoked by Burns and had it become a major part of their cultural palette? Outside of this board, how many non-musicians can most of us name who are really into jazz anyway who come to it from a completely "civilian" standpoint (and how many of those people are likely to be dead - even if of natural causes - within the next 25 years?)? All I see is that some/a (very) few "jazz names" have been added to the "collective consciousness", names that people have heard, but really know little, if anything, about. Louis Armstrong = Babe Ruth = Abraham Lincoln = Paul Bunyan = Any Other American Myth You Can Think Of (based on real life or otherwise). If that's all a gain, then I'd hate to see a loss.

Those are both at once "what you'd expect" & "better than you might think".

I've always thought that "Non-Sequitur" would be a great name for a drink, kinda like "Onion Sour". In both cases, though, any actual drink that would truly fit the name would probably not be a particularly pleasant product. Mixologists, any ideas?

Here's the deal - this chick (is the mom Casey, or was that the baby?) definitely looks like she'd be crazy-mad psycho in the sack, and that could be a big lot of fun until she starts showing that baby killer side, so....I think I'd leave that stuff alone, especially if she broke out a roll of Duck Tape and wanted to role play. No happy endings there! Other than that, I have no impressions of the trial or the individuals involved, or what impressions I do have are that if this is the lasting impression I have (and bottom line, it pretty much is), then neither defense nor prosecution handled their business in a manner befitting the seriousness the case merited. In a not-too-symbolic way, it's a metaphor for America in general these days - hype the show, but don't invest in talent. Emotion over reason. And I really didn't enjoy having the case in my face every morning when I woke up to the news, but there it was anyway. PS - didn't Nancy Grace come to HNN from Fox?

Let me add that he does what he does very well, technically impeccable with a strong, unambiguous POV cleanly and clearly expressed. It's just that I don't trust him but to not use his skills to tell the unvarnished truth and let it speak for itself rather than to manipulate heartstrings and brainwaves (and of course, pocketbooks) with enough "truth" to make questioning his work come off as curmudgeonly. Oh well about that. Curmudgeons are a necessary and useful part of the food chain. Tyhe jazz series was the first time that one of his major works had drawn serious scrutiny & criticism from the community which it portrayed, and it was interesting to watch how he kinda weaseled every which way on that one. But that whole process pulled the curtain back on his whole process, and...things haven't been the same since, at least not for me. Apparently, his vaunted Civil War doc had been receiving some of the same criticisms, but the emo factor there was so high that nobody paid attention. And the baseball thing, well, yeah, I watched it & I loved it, but subsequent viewings leave a stickier taste in my mouth than I'd like. Again, too emo. The facts are strong enough to stand on their own, and he did do a damn good job of putting them out there. But geez, enough with the "sentiment", ok? Whatever heartstrings I have left to pull, I don't want Ken Burns pulling them.

Without my glasses, it looks like a tenor, with that curved neck and all.

After his jazz series, the luster went away for me. His tricks became obvious, and his formula became transparent. I'm no longer a fan, to put it mildly, and I think he's part of the problem instead of the solution. Too emo, too softy and creamy. And that haircut of his...I mean, still? Really? That shit just ain't right.

Mega-seconded.

This is how it should be done.

Sounds good enough!

What's the deal here?

Also Sinatra w/Basie. I think the original was Fred Astaire in some movie. How's that for irony?

Better that than an icepick...

From May of 2008 :

Which discs did you use to put in our bicycle spokes?

Trane had a nice crib.

Track 11 is mighty fine AFAIC, Sounds like Horace w/Junior (but not Blue?) I'm just allowing for differences in taste. I can see some kind of people not really getting into it, but actually finding it unpleasant is not a thing I would allow for.

Jennifer Tilly Tiger Lilly Puffin' Billy

Freshly showered, with post-Anniversary Day (28!) bliss intact & post-Ranger-gutless-implosion rage subsiding (or at least staring to, maybe, kinda, sorta, uh....no, not really...), all the while wondering whatever happened to Stanley Myron Handleman and/or Gary Muledeer, the usual thanks and disclaimers are firmly placed in place in order that accordingly we may proceed, to wit: TRACK ONE - A little too on top of the beat for my taste, but that's personal preference only. Is that Bobby Durham on drums? Alto player is pretty breathless, again a little too much for my taste. Richie Cole? TRACK TWO - Interesting phrasing on the head, most people play the repeated notes long, these guys do 'em short. Nice tenor playing! Good control of the alternate fingerings, really good. Gotta be Hamp on vibes, I hear him making those noises, and I hear his playing voice as well. Fullest possible props for Lionel Hampton, always. Sweets? That's a guy who has a patented "sound" that he used to great effect career-wise but didn't just do that. Some love for Sweets here. No real idea otherwise, but this be swingin'! TRACK THREE - What's new? The sound of that guitar chording for one thing...almost like a dobro or something. Not sure if I grasp what the bass player is doing, or more to the point why he/she is doing it, but..we all make choices, right? That trombonist almost had a big disaster on the opening phrase but did some serious pro moves to avert. Skills on display! That guitar player is off into some kind of a thing that I don't know if I get, but they seem confident in the veracity of their statements, and they were there at the time, so...benefit of the doubt. All in all, a performance that sounds like it's got a story to it, even if it's a mystery to me. TRACK FOUR - Oh lord, I don't want to like this...bad lab band flashbacks aplenty await,,,,but I do like it, just becuase it's so damn well-played...I'm hearing a strong Cannonball voice in one of the altoists. And that band is roaring, even if the chart makes them play too much (the lab band walking wounded called it HIGHERFASTERLOUDER and if this is not that, it certainly indicates a propensity to not walk away should the opportunity be offered). bottom line - these cats got it going on, so, yeah, do it. I can feel the brotherhood of players playing together with nuanced, neon though it may be at times, and you hear that less and less in big bands, and that's a shame. Big bands can be so damn cool, but too seldom are these days. Besides, that's a pretty cool tune. TRACK FIVE - Scott Hamilton? Nice playing, very mature, well-paced. Tenor gets kind of Zoot-y after the guitar solo (and is that one or two guitarists?), but not wholesale. I like it, it's a good song well-played. TRACK SIX - Clark Terry, immediately evident, even it the ensemble (unless, of course, it's not, in which case...it's not?) A pretty damn frisky Clark Terry at that! Damn, there's that Sweets lick again, so maybe it's Sweets (in which case, see above re:the versatility of Sweets beyond his signature licks) & CT. Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. No problem with that! TRACK SEVEN - I like that tune, "Lover Come Back To Me", nice bridge. Sure sounds like Ben to me. I love Ben. If it's not Ben, somebody has no shame. But that's gotta be Ben. And Sweets again? Really, really digging the bass playing on this one. The time starts to go astray at the beginning of the piano solo, but he keeps it right there & pretty soon everything falls back into place. Again, skills. Jo Jones on drums? Oh yeah, Ben on them fours, GO BEN! Ladies & Gentlemen, Ben Webster, ALL-TIME MOTHERFUCKER!!! Slam Stewart, no wonder! That's some real-deal shazzit right there, ALL of it!!! Forces of nature. TRACK EIGHT - Tone sounds like Burrell, a little louder than I'm used to from him, but the tone is there. This is the Burrell that was so big in the hood back in the day, before he hooked up with The Helen Keane Machine, not that there's anything wrong with that. Susw aounds a little high or something, very atypical to his "image". Don't know if it's a jam or his regular working group, interesting drum solo, but no matter. Real life in action! TRACK NINE - Nice trombone solo, good pacing, takes his time, and uses some obvious harmonic devices to lead off into some personal lines, not just rote change playing. Full scale piano playing too, skills on display, kinda Hines-Meets-Wilson-and-they-decide-to-go-into-business-together. Not a "great" cut, but pretty damn nice. TRACK TEN - Not sure if that tune benefits from being played that fast...and then faster...and then still faster...is that an electric bass? Not really feeling this one, sorry. They're trying too hard. To do what, only they can say. TRACK ELEVEN - I'm not sure I could do business with a person who found this unpleasant, much less welcome them into my life. TRACK TWELVE - Some kind of Mulligan/ CJB thing, not "Bluport", but...something. Yeah, something, that's what it is! When Mulligan was in his zone he really understood what he needed to do in order to do what he wanted to get done, and that's not something that happens as often as you might think. That's why there's businesspeople involved, not that there's anything wrong with that either. We got Mulligan, Brookmeyer, Zoot, all bumping it up a notch or two, Bill Crow(?) and maybe it is "Bluport" after all? Recording sounds like it's at Newport...I only know the Vanguard version, but maybe this predates that, which would explain the title coming into the Vanguard...Mel Lewis was such a fine big band drummer, even if it's not him on this cut...no idea who that trumpeter is, pretty sure it's not Mel Lewis, though. There's some music being made here! The BFT theme, it seems to me, is live recordings of an..."unofficial" nature, none of which have Mel Leis on trumpet. I'm a fan, and I do thank you for sharing!

Not a bad point, not at all, but...I have a very hard time holding any type of enthusiasm or optimism about a team with a bullpen that shows a lack of basic character and skill on anything other than a fleeting basis. Especially when it starts to infect the team in little ways that betray a basic lack of focus. At some point the "organization", be it the clubhouse leaders, the managerial staff, and/or the front office needs to disallow that type of bullshit by any means necessary. Otherwise you're playing me for a chump, and I'll not allow it. Give me a team that loses honestly, hey, I'm good. Give me a team that has the occasional lapse or slump but bounces back, I'm good there, too. Give me a team that has needs but makes honest attempts to meet them, no problem. I don't expect to "always" win, I just expect to see an honest effort executed that exhibits professional and personal pride & self-respect. But I will not invest in a team that continues to perform like the Rangers of tonight and far too many other games this season. This Loyal Doyle stuff is for people who have needs that I do not have (meaning only that everybody has their own needs, nothing more). Like most people, I get paid to tolerate unaddressed & ongoing incompetency, and to pretend to support those who "expect" thing to happen without understanding what it takes to actually make them happen. What I don't get paid to do is watch baseball games and emotionally invest in a team. Like I said, I don't need that in my life. I love it when it's there, but can get along quite well without it. Spent the first decade of this century doing it, and have totally disavowed the Mavericks & Cowboys, so it's not like I don't know how... Now, having finished that little vent/rant. let me add that C.J. Wilson is exempt from all of this, his post-game comments and demeanor after the most vile, bitter, wholly unnecessary and uncalled-for loss of the season being that of a person of true character. He may be a total jerk in his personal life, I don't know, and that's none of my business one way or the other. But as far as professional character, everything I've seen out of him, hey, he's a worthy human being. The rest of these jokers I'm not sure about. At least not at this particular moment.

I try, but I suck.