Big Wheel

Yep. While Kobe had an excellent day today (especially in the first quarter), in the previous Heat/Lakers game he looked horrible. Unlike today with Chris Bosh out, the Lakers didn't have such a size advantage inside in January, and Kobe was trying to make up for Gasol/Bynum's difficulties himself. Shane Battier harassed him the entire game and forced him to take unwise shots.

All joking aside, Baldwin makes some excellent instruments. I've played plenty of Steinways with action I hated, whereas every Baldwin I've had the chance to try feels consistently good.

What Larry said Ben said. What that guy said. As for Lebron, look, the guy didn't show the greatest amount of maturity and good judgment with the whole "Decision" thing. But you can't say he's selfish on the basketball court - that's total BS. If anything he is TOO unselfish and looks for opportunities to pass even when that's not the right decision. As for the idea that "all you need to know" about Lebron is his personal faults...I guess you're not a fan of the work of Stan Getz or Bird or Trane or Miles Davis either. And yeah, when Westbrook and Durant are firing on all cylinders they are truly amazing. A Miami-OKC Finals should be massively entertaining - both these teams play defense on a higher plane that's capable of shutting down isolation scorers like Carmelo or Kobe.

It's totally hipster, but the games are one of the reason I think Fat Cat is actually one of NYC's most entertaining music venues. Nice to have a place that explicitly sanctions having fun rather than sitting everyone down for a night of "serious music."

Same here. I was given a cheap Epson from a friend and did not feel like plunking down the money to replace all 4 cartridges (yes, they do magenta/cyan/yellow/black all in separate cartridges ) so I bought a knockoff black cartridge in Chinatown from a shop that looked not-completely-dodgy. Unfortunately one or both of the following happened: -I bought an inferior cartridge and it sucks at printing cleanly -Epson actually takes steps to recognize and may even deliberately sabotage non-manufacturer cartridges. Most of the time now the printer software gives me a "this is not a proper cartridge" error and refuses to print. The cartridges contain some kind of circuitry that identifies them as legit to the printer/printer software, and I'm kind of surprised that the Chinese factory that made/smuggled out the knockoff hasn't yet figured out how to circumvent it yet.

Maybe Japanese/European issues differ, but I believe only 3 of the records have been recently reissued on CD in the US: The one (Live at the Village Vanguard), Central Park North, and Consummation. If Presenting... and Monday Night have been reissued I am not familiar with those. And the vocal albums with Joe Williams and Ruth Brown weren't on the box. The version of The Second Race on Monday Night is my favorite, more intense than the earlier record.

This guy is arguably not even the most legendary repair dude in Berkeley - that would be the oboe guy at Forrests Music further down University. That guy...well, let's just say I know some extremely talented double reed players who have had run-ins with him. My sense is that the more, uh...fastidious top technicians almost enjoy being a pain in the ass to the knowledgeable musicians who need their services. To them the instrument is the most important thing and it's just temporarily allowing itself to be associated with its flawed "owner."

Yeah! Remember the good old days, when treating your kids like worthless dirt came with no costs whatsoever? Oh, right, me neither.

Based on the little bit I've learned about the way Evans worked that's a good assumption. Harmonic signposts not necessarily meant to be played as wrote. He never really rehearsed his groups, so a brief explanation or impromptu "chart" to convey the general plan for a recording, with plenty of room for improvision within that context, was probably more often that not all he ever offered up. Perhaps skeith could be more specific in what he means by "more complicated"? There is not much harmonic substitution that I can hear in the versions of the tune I am familiar with. However, there are a lot of extensions in the changes Evans is comping, which is standard practice among piano players after the late 1950s. If by "more complicated" you mean that you are hearing 9ths and so forth where none are notated, you may want to find a jazz theory book to familiarize yourself with typical chord/scale theory and notation.

Who the heck was Delmar "Mighty Mouth" Evans and why didn't he do much with anyone besides Otis?

True. Shuggie's kid is both wilson's and johnny otis's grandson.

Correct. The sole source of salvation is the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and only He decides who gets to visit the sacred beer volcanoes and stripper factory. One small correction: everyone knows that pirates are treated as saints and virtually guaranteed admission to heaven, so I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that "good deeds/intentions" don't matter.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002BSHXJA/ref=redir_mdp_mobile?tag=camels-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&SubscriptionId=AKIAJ7T5BOVUVRD2EFYQ&creativeASIN=B002BSHXJA Beatles mono box - $89.62 at newbury comics. This is both the lowest price I have seen it go for and the first reputable seller to offer it for under $100. I suspect at least some of the other sellers were selling fakes.

Good catch. I checked quickly and it sounds like most if not all of the minor chords that have the slash are actually min(maj7) chords, i.e., corresponding to the melodic minor scale and not the dorian mode. I guess the slash means min(maj7), whereas no slash means dorian? You can pretty clearly hear Evans changing the F# (the major 7th of G minor) in bar 3 to an F in bar 4 here at 3:45: Not sure if the slash has any significance to Evans on non-minor chords, but the more I think about it the more I suspect it does. I can't check the rest right now because I'd wake everyone up here but I think the way it works is: C7 (with slash) = C major 7 C7 (no slash) = C dominant 7 So the second chord "C7#5" (with slash) actually isn't an altered dominant at all but most likely a major 7 #5 chord - in other words, corresponding to the 3rd mode of melodic minor. And the Db7(b5) in the last bar (again, with slash), isn't a dominant chord either but a major 7 #11 chord. Makes sense to me - if these chords were dominant chords the tune would sound much less ethereal than it does.

Sad. One of the few really rich people who seemed to get it. Hardly Strictly is the only music festival that I have enjoyed almost every minute of. Coming out of the park after the first night of the festival this year, I was walking down Irving and virtually every single restaurant was packed. Even the middling to not-so-good ones. This street is usually fairly quiet; it gets a little busy during weekend dinner hours but nothing like this. All I could think was "damn, these Sunset business owners must really love Warren Hellman. This is a residential neighborhood that gets few tourists and yet they have the best real estate in town for capitalizing on hungry people at HSB." At least for 3 days every year, they were assured of a Hellman mini-bonanza.

A truly great arranger who modern composers owe a gigantic debt to. IMO he was one of the main founders of that New York sound that came to define a whole school of guys like Jim McNeely, while also passing the Gil Evans torch to Maria Schneider and others.

Eh. The whole Orwell obsession aside, I thought he was a dick mostly for the sake of being a dick. Let's not forget that the guy was at the vanguard of people who said "if you don't think Baghdad should have the living shit bombed out of it, it's because you're pro-Baathist dictatorship and pro-Salafist terrorism". I get that he was strong in his convictions, but this ultimately meant that he had so little respect for those who disagreed with him that it's hard for me to find a reason not to reciprocate.

Ha! Yes I know that, that's why haven't taken that route - yet. No use unless I'm really prepared to follow through. However it remains a possibility given: a. My finacial situation is grim; and b. Much as we love our pay TV, truth is after six or so years it could actually be areally good thing for my son and I to get rid of it and create something new and meaningful from the vacuum. And for me, well, there are about six major hotel chains and I think they all play the game. At some point, everyone will "Like" them andthe playing field will re-level. Not bloody likely. The idea is simply to have your information, which is worth money to them. To have it exclusively concerns them much less. And I believe having everyone's information is what's known in the business world as "a nice problem to have." Look at other loyalty programs. Just because everyone is a Frequent Flier with 3 different airlines, or has a loyalty card for 5 different supermarkets, isn't getting anyone to stop offering related deals. Maybe the discounts will taper off a bit once enough people start to redeem them, but I doubt the stuff like contests (which cost virtually nothing) will. More likely is that you'll see the deals just get more and more complicated to try and lure people instead of simply giving them better prices. We already see this with airlines - "sign up with our frequent flier dining/florist/housewares partner program and earn more miles." The airline already has lots of your information, but there's still money to be made by tracking even more of your shopping habits.

Demanding the same rates and concessions from management would likely be successful. Or at least worth a try. This is kind of like asking "why does my company pay so much to the airlines for business travel when it's some grandmother who only flies once every five years who gets by far the lowest fares?" Well, your company pays this much for airfare largely because your company is willing to be a sucker. It's not worth their while to bargain hard with the airlines, the money is still small potatoes compared to their overall profits, and they need the flexibility anyway, so they're willing to pay a lot more. That's how market segmentation works: firms frequently work hardest to acquire the most frugal customers, if they think it's worth it. The more loyal customers are already in the bag and don't need much "maintenance" because lots of them simply don't really care that they're overpaying. (That's what "loyalty" is, isn't it? Being on the margin willing to put up with less competitive behavior because you value your overall experience with the seller more than others do.) Yes, I am in the same position with Australian pay TV. New deals are being offered to members of AFL clubs that are significantly lower than what I, a long-term ("loyal") customer, am paying. I've had them on about it but was only offered discounts on upgrades, which I don't want or need. I have been told by friends, however, that if I push harder - i.e. threaten to pull the plug altogether - I will then be put through to people who will match the cheaper deals. Better to have a customer paying $50 a month instead of $60 when the alternative is $0. Yes. The magic words these days are, "hello, I would like to cancel my account." (It helps to have a backup plan in case they are willing to actually let you cancel your account without making concessions, though.)

Demanding the same rates and concessions from management would likely be successful. Or at least worth a try. This is kind of like asking "why does my company pay so much to the airlines for business travel when it's some grandmother who only flies once every five years who gets by far the lowest fares?" Well, your company pays this much for airfare largely because your company is willing to be a sucker. It's not worth their while to bargain hard with the airlines, the money is still small potatoes compared to their overall profits, and they need the flexibility anyway, so they're willing to pay a lot more. That's how market segmentation works: firms frequently work hardest to acquire the most frugal customers, if they think it's worth it. The more loyal customers are already in the bag and don't need much "maintenance" because lots of them simply don't really care that they're overpaying. (That's what "loyalty" is, isn't it? Being on the margin willing to put up with less competitive behavior because you value your overall experience with the seller more than others do.)

I recall reading that Montgomery was Martino's idol and they used to get together and jam when Martino was young. Another story a guitarist friend told me: apparently when George Benson came to New York intent on making it as a jazz instrumentalist (without the singing part), he went around to the clubs to check out the competition. Time after time he heard guitar players of whom he thought, "OK, he's doing some stuff I don't - but I can cop that. No problem." He was feeling confident. Then he heard Martino, and that's when he got scared. This story is true:

Thought this was a very entertaining story on David Bronstein from Yasser Seirawan:

Weds 14 Dec: San Francisco CA 8pm Beth Custer & BC Records 3227 Folsom Street San Francisco, CA 94110 Reservations: bethcuster@bethcuster.com Is this gig in someone's house?! I would definitely check this out except I'm leaving town that afternoon...

Yes, in the US DSL is also sold as broadband internet. Cable is available in virtually all cities, though I'm not sure what things look like in more rural areas. But it's expensive. Even DSL is a ripoff unless you agree to the telecom companies' bullshit bundling deals (often with stuff you don't want or need). I am currently looking into calling AT&T and threatening to switch to a cable Internet company if they don't reverse their rate hike on my shitty 6 Mbps DSL. Not surprised to hear that people hate broadband companies in the UK. At its heart the UK is a much more capitalist country than even the US.

Aspirin. Tylenol. No kidding about Tylenol. I've bumped into a "regional Acetaminophen overdose by geography" report that was gated and didn't take time to see if my library has it, but I've long been curious if the Pacific NW has more overdoses due to the medication's warning being described in number of drinks. There's a huge difference between 3 12 oz. bottles of Budweiser and 3 pints of hopped up higher alcohol microbrew. One night when I had a miserable sinus ailment of some sort and couldn't fall asleep, I had the brilliant idea of popping a couple of Tylenol and chasing it down with the only booze I could find in the house, a small shot of Southern Comfort. I woke up the next day with unbelievable pain in the back of my torso. It seriously felt like someone had kicked me directly in the liver. Maybe the two weren't connected, but I'm never, ever trying that again.