JSngry

Full details here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0603131/ I wonder why The Rodriguez Brothers weren't included in this medley. "Being For The Benefit Of Mister Kite" would've been perfect!

Dick Shawn? Wow... That's better than Jack Cassidy, although for entirely different reasons.

Lyndon Johnson John Lydon Don Johnson

Forget Manson watching it, I'll bet Robert Stigwood was watching it, like Eric Burdon watched Otis Redding on Ready, Staeady, Go! Is it just me, or did Bing always sound good even when he sounded awful? Good to see Bobbie Gentry's talent being squandered. Story of her life, I guess. But she did have a voice! Was that Phyllis Newman or Ruta Lee or just who was that? She says "no', but her body language says "yes". But I say no. I couldn't afford the hospital bills. The only thing better than Robert Preston doing "A Little Help..." would have been Jack Cassidy doing it. But America was not ready for the genius of Jack Cassidy. That has always been America's fatal flaw, and America will fall from grace because of that. And that alone. And check out Englebert's eyes during "Yesterday". The eyes are the window to the soul, you know. Variety shows, why did they ever extincticize themselves? I cry tears of regret because they did.

My old inner-sleeves need reprinting. Apparently the best jazz is played without Verve!

The Shadows of Knight Gloria Van Morrison

Deadeye Dick Tricky Dick Shaft, the black private dick who's a sex machine to all the chicks

More than twice the target number. Does this mean an increase in occurance or in participants? Either way, win-win!

in-DEED!

No, but in true Internet fashion, my penis size has increased dramatically, and my erections are now firmer and longer-lasting than ever. Thanks, Organissimo!

It is, but the post above it...

The White Rock Nymph The Lady Of The Lake Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow

Perhaps "the mistake" was, but the inability to restore to a more current backup isn't yours at all. I would, however, consider switching dentists....

http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/9938/archive/arch120.html

Burt Baskin Irv Robbins Tom Carvel

Looking forward to the inevitable Bolton/Debbie Boone duet album and tour!

I concur. Give me something to believe in. Yet, "positivity" in lyrics (and elsewhere) is too often denouced as naive, "hippy-ish", or some other dismissive. Well, maybe sometimes it is. But sometimes it's nothing more than an attempt to express hope, positivism, a refusal to succumb to darkness. And I'll have me some of that, thank you, because I've lived in darkness and I've lived in light. The choice is obvious, at least for me. A world where hope is looked at as foolish and cynicism as "realistic" is a world that has surrendered. Period. Our attitude is something over which most of us have a choice, and if I feel good, dammit, I'm going to be happy about it. Maybe even try to spread it around, just because. And if I don't feel good, it's not because this is a dark world. It's a dark world no matter how I feel, dig? Shit is what it is, and a lot of it ain't cool. That's a given. I make as much right as I can, knowing full well that it's ain't never gonna be enough. But I ain't gonna let the bastards get me too down for too long, because what they can do entirely on their own is limited. Anything else requires some personal acquiesence on my part, and that ain't gonna happen, not on an ongoing basis. "The world" may well be beyond our control, but what we let it do to our minds and spirits isn't. Not if we know we have options. Those who know have an obligation to pass it around, becasue it ain't exactly common knowledge these days.

and on the way.

Did they process the order for weekly backups to the point that you've been being charged for it? God, I hope not...

Damn Yankees Gwen Verdon Bill Virdon

Toot Monk Steve Blow Cokie Roberts

I suspect it's an evolution of the way Miles' groups did it.

Between Reganism and digitality, the word has changed in a fundamental way over the last quarter-century. Things ain't what they used to be. No value judgements in that statement either, at least not here. But - if one of the yearnings of "nostalgia" is to restore things to how "they used to be", all I can say is that, although that's never really been possible, it's become even more impossible. Returning to an analog reality just ain't gonna happen unless all digital technology is destroyed and its residual memories and effects erased from the collective memory. The triumphs of the jazz past should be kept alive and celebrated as the triumphs of the human spirit that they truly were. But they were triumphs over a set of challenges that (generally) no longer exist in the form they existed then. The challenges still exist, definitely, but the specific social circumstances (positive and negative alike) that produced the music of jazz' "golden age" (and as far as I'm concerned, that age goes well into the 1970s, probably even into the early 1980s) no longer exist for the most part. Yet the challenges remain the same. We still have racism, we still have poverty, we still have rampant, for lack of a better term, "spiritual ?neanderthalism", we still have to struggle to identify ourselves rather than accepting identies created for us (identities which inevitably involve being somebody's involuntary servant in some way). We still got all that stuff going on, and probably more now than ever. But the degree to which we have these challenges is not the same as the way in which they are manifested. Shit's a whole lot more subtle and subliminal these days. Getting to the source of the problems is a much more difficult proposition these days, because it's become "decentralized". Back in the day, "evil" had faces, unmistakable faces that you could take direct aim at. Not so these days. Shit's become more decentralized than ever, and fighting something you can't really see is quite the daunting proposition. That, I think, is a key element in nostalgia in general, and jazz nostalgia in particular, the perhaps subconscious realization that "the enemy" can no longer "be gotten to", and a subsequent yearning for a time when punches could be taken and often landed with fatal fury. A time will come when we get back to being able to get a handle on what it is we yearn to triumph over. But that triumph will come in a different form than it once did. The spirit behind the triumph will be the same, and so will that which is being trriumphed over. These are the eternal truths, no? But in order to triumph over something, you gotta locate it first. And if you keep looking for it where it used to be, you ain't never gonna find it. It ain't there no more. A good backbeat will always feel good. It'll always get your ass to moving. But if it's a 3D backbeat, it's gonna get your ass moving into a 3D world. And the 3D world is rapidly becoming a theme park, a scaled down replica of a perfect world where you can always get what you want because the forces that keep you from getting it don't live there anymore (if anything, they own the theme park ). But at the end of the day, the park's gotta close, and you gotta leave. And where you gonna go when you leave? Sleeping in the parking lot until the park opens again seems to be a popular option...

HEY KIDS!!!! Free (full-length) streaming audio clips of Routes (as well as per-song mp3 purchase options, full lyrics/production/recording/personnel data, and a nice, basic bio) available here: http://iacmusic.com/artist.aspx?ID=23232 The stylistic labels this site gives each song crack me up, but then again, if that's how the core of the existing audience relates to these things, then that's how you target them. They call "Touch The Sky" "nu-fusion". I call it "a dazzling blend of Weather Report harmonies, house beats filtered through Africa (or vice-versa), and Carl Wilson-produced-era Beach Boys layered vocals carried into infinity". Same thing, I suppose, and "nu-fusion" is a helluva lot easier to remember. A lot of musical ground/styles covered here, and the only songs that I myself can't get too excited over are "Be Who You Are", "Remember" & "Dig Deep" (they don't suck by any means, but they're less to my liking than the rest). "The Right Time" I've already discussed above, but "Don't" is another impressive work in the arc that it takes from beginning to end. Another excellent Sipiagin horn arrangement here as well - one that goes from Gil Evans to Woody Shaw/M-Base without as much as a blink. But then again, I think they're all "above and beyond" contemporary pop music artifacts. Songwriting, arranging, production, everything. There is no better pop music being made today, imo. And when pop is this good, yes - it matters! Check it out - an indie artist (outside of Japan, where apparently she's still a BIG star and is still contracted to some arm of Universal) with a global following offering free streams of the complete album (American version), online per-song mp3 purchases, and full album credits online. Surely this is the future of the record business! Now, Ron Goldstein (allegedly) had the chance to get her stuff out in America and took a pass. Routes probably could have been released in America on Verve (much to the cries of "jazz purists", but ain't nuthin I can do 'bout that). Tell me again why this guy's not an idiot?