RDK

What a great excuse to work out the, uh, kinks.

From the "Only in Hollywood" beat... http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/more...om-malibu-fire/ My favorite is... At 6 am Sunday, ex-Warner Bros co-chairman Bob Daly made like Noah's Ark and evacuated a menagerie of more than 200 birds and animals to safety from his 25-acre ranch on the Malibu-Calabasas border. Three hours later, the critters -- 50 chickens, 10 ducks, 150 pigeons, 10 sheep, 10 goats, plus another one who just had two babies, two donkeys and one miniature horse -- were safely encamped at Daly's 5-acre mansion in Bel-Air across the street from the country club. He used a fenced-off sports practive area at the back of his property as a petting zoo. The neighborhood kids were thrilled, including four grandchildren of ex-Universal Studios CEO Frank Biondi Jr. On Wednesday Daly brought the barnyard back to Malibu.

Shocking fact: area burned so far is 3/4 the size of Rhode Island.

Hey David - wish I could make it, but I'll be in San Diego for a wedding. That, and I'm 3000 miles away! But it was great hearing you guys at the Bakery last week... and a pleasure chatting with you afterward.

Damn. You're a bad bad man, Chuck. I have the Mingus, Chaloff, and I think one or two others, but any "must haves" before I send you all my money?

Lot of Mother Nature's involvement too. Two years ago, So Cal had a lot of rain, which led to much "greening." But last winter we had record low rainfall, which led to all that extra green drying up and dying. A rare coldsnap didn't help, killing more flora. The end result is an above average amount of fuel in the hills, all ready to go up when the conditions are just... right. Yeah, and copycat arsonists don't help matters either.

Shangri-la? Nah, overpopulation - nobody's dying. And if they ain't having sex, then it ain't Shangri-La.

"racist?"

It's weird by my house today (just east of Hollywood): the sky directly above me is blue, but in every other direction is some of the darkest smoke and haze I've ever seen here. Beautiful sunset though. -_-

While it's hard to deny that it's currently a "tinderbox," I'm not sure if that's an accurate assessment in general. Yes, California is in the midst of a severe drought (blame global warming?), and combined with worse-than-usual Santa Ana winds it makes the fire danger high, but it's not like these fires are occuring in remote regions were people shouldn't be living. Some of the areas are mountainous, but these are towns/cities that are in danger, not some antisocial hermit who's living on the edge of civilization. Many of the areas could be considered fairly high-density suburbs, bounded by interstate highways. Is it any better to live near lakes, rivers, and oceans because they may occassionally flood and/or be in the path of hurricanes and tornados?

I'm not affected by it, though I can see the smoke in just about every direction I look. But down in San Diego, my sister was evacuated yesterday morning, my parents are under voluntary evac orders but refuse to leave yet - - and just this morning another fire broke out off the same road my other sister lives on in Temecula - though fortunately it's a damn long road and the wind's blowing away from her. Meanwhile, my brother-in-law's been evacuated from his home in Orange County, while a coworker has been evacuated from his place in the hills above Malibu. I have several friends in the fire zones whom I haven't been able to reach via e-mail so I assume that they've moved out as well. To top it all off, my sister (who's already been evacuated) is getting married down in San Diego on Saturday, which means I'll be there on Friday as will various relatives, all converging from various points around the country. Now aren't you sorry you asked?

FYI... if anyone's interested in hearing how these 45 rpm LPs might sound, someone on the Hoffman forum has posted a couple of sample needledrops he's made from the OJC series. The download links are available here... http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=129731

I'd just hum along... very loudly.

Woah! I saw her turning counter-clockwise and couldn't imagine how anyone saw different... but then I looked again and she was moving clockwise. Really trippy!

Dancer? I see a vase.

And in related news, it's just been announced that George Bailey - the star of It's a Wonderful Life - once cheated on his wife.

Saw Big Black a few weeks ago and he was selling "homemade" CDRs, including a 2-disc recording he did with Randy Weston.

If all goes as planned, James Spaulding, David Weiss, and some combination of Cookers tonight in Culver City.

While I can certainly understand the offensiveness of Watson's comments, and while I would like to think that he's wrong, of course, the furor (and specifically this quote) strikes me more as politically correct backpeddling than a scientific refutation of his claims. So everyone agrees that there may be a genetic basis for intelligence - I dunno, the nerd gene seems plausible to me - but not in such a way that may be offensive to some? Personally I don't buy it, but what if Watson is, technically, correct? It's always interesting when scientific facts clash with the things some of us want (or don't want) to believe. Like evolution. Or the intellectual superiority of liberals.

In L.A.? Jon, it's only a million bucks.

Bump to annnounce that Dylan has begun (well, a few weeks now) season two of his Theme Time Radio Hour shows. Great stuff! Just listened to him play Eric Dolphy followed by Howlin' Wolf followed by George Jones.

So the restored version is 3' shorter?

Happy anniversary, Chris! Thanks for sharing a great story.

Thank goodness - I was worried this might be a new Mosaic box!

Glad to hear it, David. Looking forward to catching you guys either Thursday or Friday night.