JSngry

I'm not in MLB, and I am definitely laughing my ass off at the whole thing. "Stealing signs has always been a part of the game, but...." "But" my ass!!!! I guess it was a wink-wink kind of ok, but now it's not? Why? That's a stupid argument, not so much an argument as it is a clueless whine. Either stealing signs is wrong, period, or else it's not. Look, you're the one who always thinks (correctly, imo) that sports should not avoid "social issues". Well let's look at the biggest "social issue" of our time. No, not "cheating" (which is only defined in terms of rules that can be changed at any time by anybody who gets the power), and for DAMN sure let's not put a "Trump" spin on it (talk about the lowest hanging of fruits). Let's look instead at what digital technology and the resulting capability/capacity for seemingly endless data collection and analytics thereof is doing to the fabric of everybody's life. That's how the Astros cheated. Not with paying people off to throw a game, or hiring hit-men or some thug shit like that. No - they Facebooked this shit, simple as that. And MLB is so not ready to deal with the implications of this, that oh yeah, data and analytics are REALLY COOL when we use it to program damn near every element of the game, from scouting to salary structure to in-game strategies, but UH-OH, who would have EVER thought that it could be used to cheat, to hack the code of the pitching (talk about being a good gamer, LOL!!!)? Well, the Astros did, and they were right. And the Nationals, god bless 'em, were smart enough to figure out how to beat the cheat. Because data and analytics is all about logging trialing indicators. The Nationals figured that out. The Nationals were smart. The Yankees, otoh, weren't. Poor Yankees!

I'm not reading anything to indicate a "disaster" as much as I am that everybody said exactly what you'd expect them to say, which is essentially "we leveraged the same tools that everybody else has at their disposal, only in a way that was both super effective and outside the currently-allowed guidelines." A choice example: Asked whether the Astros cheated when they used video to steal signs in 2017, Crane replied: "We broke the rules. You can phrase that any way you want." That's some funny shit!

Big Leg says he has no problem with you, it's that other guy, the one that thinks he's funny, that he's looking at.

I'd like it even better if they put one player from each team in a pit with a feral hog. Last one left alive wins, and if it's the feral hog, neither team goes to the playoffs. American Carnage, FTW!!!

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/when-you-get-a-stitch-in-your-side-what-s-really-going-on?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Big Leg is asking if you're making trouble here, and no, he's not glad to see you, that's not what that is.

Yeah, same way of saying about the same thing. and it really came to the fore in Ellington's music once the "mainstays" began to peel away/drop out/off/etc which also coincided with the rise of the Black Power movement, which was very much at the heart of Shepp's total esthetic (and of course, Shepp was totally into Ellington, I mean, anybody who wasn't....). So it's not so much that I hear a conscious influence either way, just that it seems that there was a road leading that way, and they were both on it. Another thing to consider - as ragged as those last Ellington bands could sometimes (often) be, I gotta think that Duke could have instructed Mercer to get this raggedy shit outta here and hire some people who know how to play in a section. But he didn't. If anything, it seemed that he embraced that sound, wrote in ways that accentuated it. So...I just think that those last Ellington bands, there's a lot going on in that music that makes it a lot more "contemporary" to its chronology than the Jazz Conventional Wisdom has picked up on over the years, Duke not just as the Original Afro-Futurist or some such, but also one whose never veered off that path, ever, much less just established its place and then just sat there while everybody else paid tribute as they passed him. Nobody passed Duke Ellington.

I have it. Worth having, but not coveting.

https://www.discogs.com/Hannibal-Marvin-Peterson-Naima/release/1355521 I found this one for some yet-revealed divinely mysterious reason in a used shop in Roanoke, VA cica 1985. Excellent. And it plays at 45 RPM!

No points, but you get to skip a round! You're playing like a pro, very much enjoying it!

Do you have somebody taking drink orders, running a blender, and ringing a cash register? Perhaps most importantly - does your bathroom smell like a toilet? If you can answer yes to all of these questions, you go to the bonus round. 100 points for every hooker and dealer you have at the bar. 150 points for every one of them you know by name. Sounds like you might be getting close to winning, so don't stop now!

In a room by yourself?

A thought about late/last Ellington - I've always found it interesting that the band in its last few years took on a sonic resemblance to an Archie Shepp type of ensemble - ragged, rugged, in your face and not really giving a damn. I realize that some of that was just a function of the personnel situation growing a little, uh..."unpredictable" as the years passed and Mercer having a challenge on his hands in getting steady players to play that kind of a schedule for that type of money. But, still, Duke always wrote for the sounds of the players he had, and it seems like the raggedier the band got, the more he embraced it. Those last bands are all about the primacy of voice, and it's a voice that is as rugged as the most harsh blues singer/band. And in that, he reminds me of Shepp. In both cases, the primacy of "the blues feeling" is always there. Everything else happens from there. There's a video of Shepp sitting in with Ellington, and it's pretty weak, Shepp was not yet developed enough in "traditional" harmonic improvisation to really dig in, but his tone and the tone of the last Ellington bands...I will posit that they are making some of the same conclusions after coming from some very different places. And Afro-Eurasian Eclipse seems to be daring us to hear otherwise. Here, take this out of the temporal real and into the ether. Tell me that there are not some melding of vibrations of both timbre and intent, Shepp's and Ellington's, going on here: To me, the most glorious aspect of Ellington's music is the raw sound of it, the shapes and colors and textures. It never stopped, no matter how "ragged" the band got. Never.

Jeff Parker & The New Breed ‎– Suite For Max Brown This might have been an interesting record 10-15 years ago. Now....except for the last three cuts it sounds old-fashioned. Those last three cuts are really good, though.

Hey, keep coming. We usually go. Would love to see y'all there and chat before and/or after. But not during, of course. Unless it's in the chart. (cf Eddie Lawrence)

did you go see them last night? We had tickets but got cold and tired too early to muster the gumption to leave the house. I felt badly about doing that, but not badly enough to counteract, I guess.

My ceiling fans have me convinced that every record ever made was recorded through a Leslie.

I also think it's interesting to compare it to Focus & Mickey One, which up until then were Getz' most "challenging" settings. He kinda coasts over those (and I don't mean that in a bad way), but with the Boland charts, he really confronts the challenges, digs in emotionally as well as musically. That's some hard shit! I do think that he had something triggered in him as the late-60s/early 70s unfolded. Not unlike Miles, he responded to the aggressive changes in music/society by engaging them, not avoiding or skirting them. Maybe he pulled back a little after he got it, but the records from the very last year or two of his life, when he knew he was dying....strong stuff by any standard.

The one with Francy Boland charts is the one that really shocked me. Getz was a marvelous coaster, but he always had that extra gear to go to when forced to, and those charts definitely forced him to!

It was for me too, but it's kinda faded as the years have passed. Same thing with Sweet Rain, which for the longest time was THE Getz record for me. Not so with Captain Marvel, though. I think it's a Tony Williams thing. Still tyring to figure out why the release of that one was delayed for so long.

The Joe Chambers side is woefully/too often overlooked. wonderful music, and the compositional element of Chamber's musical persona has seldom been better spotlighted, imo. Afro-Eurasian Eclipse is essential for me. Mention must/should be made of the opening monologue to Chinoiserie, imo one of the most concise, prescient, and relevant anthropological/sociological observations of the 20th Century. Combined with the cover art (not his, of course, but...), this is one of Ellington's most profound statements, and some of his most developed post-Strayhorn music.

"Disco" is a misnomer. He made one album produced by Norman Connors that was R&B Pop. Not his best record by a long shot, but there was this single, with vocal by Phyllis Hyman, that sounded REALLY good on the radio back in the day. I mean, if you don't like it, you don't like it. But I myself do like it very much. Either way, that's not in the least bit Disco, nor is the rest of the record. At least not Disco a I would call it.

And it will be in July.