T.D.

Think the Pats will be able to afford Moss after this year? I don't know enough about their cap situation to say one way or the other, but it seems questionable, especially if the club wins the Super Bowl. [Disclaimer: I don't know for sure that Moss signed a one-year contract, but have been under that impression.]

Great game. I haven't carefully watched much football this year, but last night's was a lot of fun to watch. Patriots did a good job of locking on to some weird/bad Jint pass coverage. Example 1: In the first half (iirc), LB Wilkinson (a fast guy, as evidenced by his stuffing of a running play in the Pat backfield, but c'mon...) was covering Moss (!) in the end zone. Fortunately for the Jints, the ball ticked off his helmet as he was attempting to face-guard Moss, and the pass fell incomplete. But later in the game, the Pats were able to provoke the exact same coverage (?!) with the predictable TD result. Example 2: In the second half, Moss was open on a long route toward the right sideline, but Brady threw a dying quail and Moss couldn't make a shoestring "Willie Mays" catch. Either on the very next play, or within the same series (I forget), Brady hit a wide-open Moss on a bomb down the right sideline for a sensational long TD. The NFL Network dynamic was also interesting. I thought their coverage was pretty good. Publicity-wise, the NFLN seemed like they were able to make chicken salad out of chicken s**t. They were almost forced to open the game up to free TV, because too few cable networks (OK, a pretty greedy crowd themselves) anted up for the NFLN surcharge. But the telecast wound up as very effective advertising for the NFLN. Personally, I can't see forking over 12 months of fees for a full-time pro gridiron network, but then I don't even have cable/dish...

Yes, I already read the Gann item some days ago. RIP. The only music of Otte's I've ever heard was The Book of Sounds, but I have the recording and enjoy it.

His opera Die Tote Stadt is pretty good. There's a decent recording, probably long oop. I think New York City Opera staged it in the early '90s.

I dug out my copy of the Nonesuch De Staat CD, and the liner notes have the Basie/Kenton allusion. From a 1990 Andriessen interview during the recording session: "It is written for musicians who are free to choose what they want to play. The Schoenberg Ensemble is made up of such players...In fact, De Staat requires a different approach to playing and a different sort of musician than the standard orchestra offers. For instance, the first non-Dutch performance of De Staat was in Warsaw in 1977, and that was done mostly with standard orchestra musicians. I had to sing every note for them because they articulated the piece like Bruckner and Mahler. And it should be articulated like Count Basie and Stan Kenton!" Seems to me like the influence may not be clearly evident from the score.

I've heard a bit more (though not that much) of his music, and it's pretty diverse. Also not sure re. the big band ref., but then I don't much trust Wiki... I also like De Staat, which I have on an old Nonesuch CD. Hoketus for percussion (iirc) is loud and fairly similar, but very simple. De Tijd is very different: really static (almost like the way Gann describes the music of John Luther Adams, with whom I'm not familiar) and lush-sounding, but quite beautiful. What sort of turned me off was M is for Man, Music, Mozart, which I found affected and quite lame, although there could be some big band influences iirc (no longer have the CD). Haven't really pursued Andriessen since, and didn't go into NY some years ago to see his Rosa (?) opera @ Lincoln Center Festival. Wouldn't mind hearing that, but never went so far as to spend $ on the CDs, either.

I asked for and received one CD, Japanese import of Al Haig Blue Manhattan. As a Christmas gift to myself, I placed a Concord order including (split the order with another person to get 10-CD discount): Bobby Timmons This Here is Sonny Criss Portrait of Gigi Gryce and the Jazz Lab Quintet Mal Waldron, Mal-1 John Hicks, Live at Maybeck Hall Roland Kirk, Kirk's Work Lockjaw Davis and Johnny Griffin, Live at Minton's

Chip Hilton Mari Holden Ed Ott

That happened to me (I ordered 10 and one was unavailable)--they still gave me one free. I had a similar experience during the "Summer Blow Out": some items were unavailable, but Concord still applied the whole volume-based discount.

Damn. I made (my first) 10-CD order last night (had to do Xmas shopping first), whereupon the posts re. disappearing stock promptly appeared! Hope I get a decent fill...

Happy Birthday! :party:

I got a copy of Ronan Bennett's Zugzwang (via interlibrary loan), and it's really good. Serious chess themes, as indicated in Chessbase's interview and event coverage. Nevertheless, I might not have ordered it had I known more of Mr. Bennett's bio (see the latter link above). He's from Belfast, and seems to have been deeply involved with the IRA, although he was acquitted of two serious charges. [i'm of Irish Catholic descent, but by no means down with the IRA...] That said, I strongly recommend the book to chess/fiction enthusiasts.

Well, at least he's not calling the QB gay, a la Garcia...

I once read a George Soros quote (unfortunately, I've never been able to find the exact source) about the importance of "riding the false premise as long as possible"...

Tony Hrkac Kent Hrbek Hristo Stoichkov

It blows my mind that shameless corrupt shill Henry Blodget actually has a column on Slate. Does anyone read that shite? [i couldn't bring myself to; skipped over the HB passages in above post.]

Good porn title. Exactly what I was going to say, but my PC antenna suppressed the post...

I hope you didn't lay the 26 points, or whatever the spread was. Re. the Miami victory, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy than Brian Billick.

Arnold Ziffel Lester Piggott The Empress of Blandings

Yeah, great stuff! Outstanding band, with Land, Perkins (little-recorded, one of my favorites), Butler and Sheldon. I rcommend Carl's Blues. I also have Sonority, which isn't as memorable but has three tunes with Gerald Wilson and Elmo Hope (another favorite).

Cool! Buffalo is the default TV team for me. Have had a power outage for a few hours (heavy wind as part of nor'easter), but it just came back on , thankfully. Will check out the game.

Very little surprise. As a long-time (once; don't really follow it any more) fan of "athletics" (track and field), which has no end of doping scandals, two very clear predictors of doping are (i) dramatic late-career (say, mid-30s) improvement and (ii) drastic physique change. (In US women's athletics, for instance, think Regina Jacobs for (i) and Flo-Jo for (ii)). Roger exhibits both. For (i), you can find lots of stories about his renascence after leaving the Red Sox to Duquette's comments that his skills had declined. For (ii), look at early vs. late career photos. There's plenty of illustration in media stories the past couple of days. One thing that really puzzles me is why multimillionaire ballplayers had personal trainers and clubhouse boys, who seem far from the brightest guys, supply and administer their drugs. Surely there are plenty of "Doctor Feelgoods" out there...When Outside Magazine ran their famous 2003 "Drug Test" article in which an amateur cyclist juiced up, the author was able to find a physician to administer the whole cocktail of doping products. I strongly recommend the linked article, btw!

Seems to me that the debate about anabolics, HGH, etc. is to some extent pissing in the wind. Within a generation or so, I think that "genetic doping" will be possible and widespread. That will totally change sports as we have known them, and big-time sports will be played by medically created cyborgs. I've been paying less attention to spectator sports, and focusing on my own personal fitness/participation.

I'm inclined to agree with you. But I don't think the Earl Weaver recipe of "pitching, defense and three-run homers" is that bad. The steroid age seems to really neglect defense. This could be a result of youngsters' lack of attention to fundamentals, or of roided-up players being too heavy and inflexible to play good D. Funny thing: Apparently, when modern "bulked-up" players look at video from the '70s and '80s, they laugh at the oldsters' physiques and refer to them as "stick men"...

Megan Marshack Mars Blackmon Shaka Zulu