JSngry

Well good, then. Go for that if it works for you.

What if you "illegally" download something in-print to see if you like it (with eyes, of course, to buy it if you do), never burn it or otherwise create new copies, just keep it on your hard drive, play it a few days, decide you don't like it, and then delete it off your hard drive? That's like driving over to your buddy's house, picking up his copy, driving back home, borrowing it & listening to it for a few days, and then driving back to return it, only more eco-friendly. We keep trying to transfer analog ethics to digital media. I'm here to tell y'all that that's only gonna work up to a point, and frankly, I think it's a point long passed in the reality, if not yet in the perception. "Digital music" is indeed music, but it's digital media above and before it is anything else. That right there throws the old paradigms out the window, because wind is not water, if you know what I mean.

Make sure that you be packin' yer Mennonite Hole Digger!

Appears to be a bass trombone. Chuck Connors, perhaps?

Now correct me if I am wrong, but do Olympic runners (and swimmers) actually practice relays that often? For the most part, they don't train in the same facilities. The real focus has always been on individual events. They just kind of take the 4 best runners and swimmers and throw them together. I remember that in at least one Olympics there was a substitution at the last day (or last qualifying event, whichever) and that the entire team had never practiced together. Probably practicing hand-offs would matter a lot more for runners than swimmers. But I still suspect it isn't something these guys and gals have actively "practiced" since college. True enough, but I gotta think that their earlier training, going back to high school (or earlier), was in a team environment, and that these basic skills were instilled early on, and indelibly so. It's the type of thing that is so basic that, yeah, you might get a little rusty on it, but ultimately it's like riding a bicycle. But then again, look at how many NBA players are crap free throw shooters. Sign of the times, maybe... Either way, the buzz is that there's a shakedown coming with the whole track group, including management & coaching changes.

For pre-bop players, I'm a big Dickey Wells fan. That solo on "Taxi War Dance" (a.o.) shows that he had created a language every bit as personal and idiosyncratic as Prez.

Having first seen Watrous a few years ago (still sporting that haircut), I'm surprised to see that in his youth he bore a distinct resemblance to Manchester's enfant terrible, Liam Gallagher That's actually a very intriguing album. The material and the arrangements by Walter Raim are ostensibly "easy listening", but you don't have to have particularly "sophisticated" ears to hear that everything that can be jacked with is being jacked with. If a cut got played in an elevator, you'd definitely begin to wondder if somebody had slipped you something a few minutes earlier...Watrous himself, a player for whom I'm had more respect than love, plays superbly throughout, the restriction of 3:00 or so "pop" songs perhaps forcing a focus and mental economy on him that ultimately rewards rather than stifles. Call it the 78 Syndrome, maybe.

It's almost impossible to believe this could happen once, much less twice in the same day. And it wasn't just the U.S. The Brits, gold medalists four years ago, managed to pass the baton outside the legal exchange area in their 4x100 relay heat and got themselves DQ'ed. Maybe this is a lot harder than it looks and maybe the weather was a factor, but I can't believe that athletes at this level can't successfully execute a baton pass. Up over and out. I grew up in a time & place when you couldn't do school sports & school band at the same time, but I was recruited for track by the high school coaches (believe it or not, I used to be long, lanky, and sure of stride) & actually got a little (very little) track training in the process. Wjhat I learned about baton passing is simple to explain, but harder to do. Still, it's the fundamentals & I didn't see it last night. Pacing - you leave your spot in such a way that puts you in rhythm with the unner coming up on you. And from behind, you put yourself into a rhythm with the runner in front of you. Handoff - from behind, you stick it in the hand of the runner in front of you. You don't just "drop it off", you put it there. And when receiving, you don't make the runner behind you guess or otherwise have to work at finding you and your hand, You provide a target, and a target that is ready for the baton (the woman last night had the target, but her hand was flat - basic error right there...). And when you get it, you grip it and pull it (I know, this is getting kinda sexual and shit, but there's no other way to describe it). You let the runner behind you know that you've got it and that they can safely let go. The women, yeah, there was just not a proper target there, and the baton never got stuck. The men, hey, that was a big mess. The pacing was off, and the baton was dropped before ever being in the front runner's hand, probably a result of frustration at the screwed up pacing. Not a pretty sight... Maybe my training was ultra-rudimental and now old-fashioned (like pre-Fosbury high jumping), but still... I give spiritual props to Lauryn Williams, however, for going back to pick up the baton and finish the race. For some, that might be a meaningless gesture, but to me, it spoke to personal pride and self-respect in the face of an occurrence that could easily have wiped out same. The fact that she at least won that one is to her credit, I think, and speaks well as to her inner character.

I'm far less concerned by unquestionable performance by athletes of questionable age than I am questionable perfomance by athletes of unquestionable age, which is a nice way of saying this - what the fuck happened to our 400M relay teams?

And this, believe it or not, is one of my favorite trombone records: I kid you not.

To paraphrase Rev. Nessa - Start your own bulletin board!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Jonah-Jones-Trombone-C...1QQcmdZViewItem

Is that like the Hendrix song where he sings "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy"?

Is there a Bobby Bland card? One of Bobby's better early sides, I think. Could make for a card, although for what, I don't know.

Gladys is great, but this isn't one of her more memorable tunes. Respectfully disagree, although for entirely personal reasons. The lyrics resonate with me, and Gladys brings the right feeling to them for me. I never hear it without being moved (closer to my wife if she's anywhere near). Although, I work with a local singer named Kenny Hardin (who's Best-Kept Secret In Dallas #10,077...) who has brought me to tears more than once with his renditions of this song.

Is there a Bobby Bland card?