Big Wheel

I'd add to Dave Garrett's suggestions: Bongo's Fury, Zappa in New York, The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life, Make a Jazz Noise Here, BUT ABOVE ALL Roxy & Elsewhere You deserve it and you'll love it. I have had this record in heavy rotation lately. FZ seems to have been at his best with drummers that grooved hard, and Thompson and Humphrey fit the bill IMO much more than Bozzio, Colaiuta, Wackerman et al. The depth of that pocket on More Trouble Every Day and the bridge to Village of the Sun is just awesome. Plus, George Duke is just a badass.

Ugh, so if this subject wasn't complicated enough, what do I come across today but a blog post from some other Zappa fanatics who link to yet another YT video of this tune. This sounds a lot to me like the one I figured was the 1984 CD...but the uploader is claiming that this is the original vinyl. Does the vinyl version really sound like this?

Most likely will be dining with the production folks and almost all locals and of course the band mates.. Plan to wander a little by myself.. What's the crime situation there? Pick pockets and scammers a problem? The Lonely Planet guide did say that there have been some muggings of tourists in the Albaicin and also the Sacromonte neighborhood near the edge of town. I didn't really feel unsafe, but those narrow streets probably get a little spooky at night. I would keep an eye on your wallet as a general rule...my cousin once caught a pickpocket red-handed in Spain, but that was in Barcelona.

A couple words of caution on the paella. Paella is eaten in southern Spain, but it is more of an eastern Spain (Valencia) thing. If you do see paella offered, ask if it is being made to order. A lot of places will just reheat old paella. The rule I heard is that if it takes less than 30-45 minutes for your paella to come, they aren't making it fresh. To be honest I think many of the more informal eating places cut some corners on the cooked food - I made the mistake of ordering octopus in a bar with my glass of wine, and then watched the waiter pull it out of the microwave behind the bar 5 minutes later. It helps to have an idea beforehand of which places have good reputations.

Sorry for any confusion I may have caused. I didn't mean to imply that the traditional Spanish tapas bars are bad in Granada - I love those kinds of places (I still fantasize about moving down the street from Almeria's Casa Puga, possibly the best tapas bar on Earth). All I meant was: relative to most of the rest of Andalucia, Granada is an especially cosmopolitan place and there is a whole lot of experimentation going on in tapas there, much of which manages to be very tasty. So if you're going to Granada for two weeks, after you've taken a few days to familiarize yourself with the basic Spanish tapas, you really owe it to yourself to try some of the funkier stuff too to see how various people are putting a more modern twist on things.

Comparing it to the clip on Amazon, yes it is! But on this YT clip: claims to be the CD version, and these versions differ significantly! Plus this site http://www.lukpac.org/~handmade/patio/misc/way_beyond.html does not mention how radically different they are, which means nothing in and of itself, but they're so anal about noting every minute difference, how could they miss a major difference like this? So what, are there three different versions off Ruben now? the LP, the radically differnt CD, and one which is not so radically different? This was never a favorite Mothers album of mine, so I've not bothered, but still... So, I don't claim to be an expert on this subject, but here is my best guess: In addition to the now-widely-available Ryko issues that were done in the mid-90s, Zappa also re-released most of his catalog on CD in the mid-1980s, very early in the CD era. One reason these issues were notable was that Ruben and We're Only In it for the Money had those notorious re-records done on them. My assumption is that he monkeyed with Ruben yet again when preparing it for its eventual reissue in 1995. The new bass and drums by Barrow and Wackerman were carried over for the most part from the '80s CD version...but then other changes were done as well. So that second YT clip, with its much more "explosive"-sounding snare drum, is likely from the '80s CD. As for why the lukpac guys didn't catch it...it appears that they did not listen to that first generation CD in the case of Ruben. On their overview page they say: Thus this appears to be erroneous. They guessed that the earlier CD version must sound the same as the 1995 version, but it actually doesn't.

It sounds identical to my mid-90s Ryko CD of Cruisin' with Ruben and the Jets (and the track length is the same, both clocking in at 3:34). This is the most widely available current version of Cruisin' with Ruben and the Jets...I think this one is the much-maligned version where Zappa re-recorded the bass and drums in the '80s.

I was there last April. The city is a hell of a lot of fun but gets absurdly crowded with tourists. You may be lucky and have to deal with fewer crowds in winter. Weather: I doubt it will be especially warm in February (looks like typical highs are in the upper 50s with lows around freezing). The highest mountains in Spain are on Granada's doorstep and so it can get colder than the coastal cities to the south. Food: Hit as many tapas bars as you can. Granada is a city with a tradition of one free tapa plate with each drink you order. The tapas in Granada is often non-traditional. There is this Japanese-themed tapas bar as well as a good tapas bar with Brazilian dishes (run by an expat) and a North African one nearby. Granada is a big college town and you'll see a younger crowd at a lot of these places. Beer and wine are really cheap by US standards. Eating in a sit-down restaurant is more expensive. Sights: everyone goes to the Alhambra. Walking around the Albaicin and Realejo neighborhoods is really pleasant. If you aren't getting free lodging and need somewhere decent and inexpensive to stay, try the Pension Rodri. It was new last year and an incredible value. I also liked Malaga and Almeria, which are not too far away, but I don't know how much time you'll have to roam around in Spain.

Sorry to hear about this. Coincidentally, my great-grandmother (who lived to be 107) emigrated from Tolchin, Ukraine to Halifax via London around the time you describe, before eventually settling in Chicago by the time of my grandfather's birth in 1919. I wonder what the chances are of their having crossed paths...

And one more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxX15ziypzs&fmt=18

Been thinking a lot about some of these players lately. Don't feel I have much of interest to say about the subject yet, but here are three youtube videos I've been enjoying:

I a) haven't heard much Larry Ochs and b) have no desire to get into the debate of what jazz is for the 10000th time, but I heard Ochs's bandmate Steve Adams recently and that cat can DEFINITELY play bop backwards and forwards. Even though his band was comprised of a laptop plinking out all kinds of weird stuff instead of a drummer and bassist, you could tell that he had mastered the language.

Just because it's a test pressing doesn't mean that Mosaic is the seller. I took a closer look at the page for the seller of that Miles test pressing and they are also selling Harry Potter figurines. Perhaps one of our recently joined members would care to elaborate more on these listings.

Less unintentional but no less funny:

Swan is excellent and an institution BUT I would avoid it on the weekends. You'll have to wait, standing outside, about an hour to get a seat. If you don't care about the experience and just want good seafood there are plenty of other good places in the city for that. Weekdays are likely a safer bet, or you can try getting there early to beat the crowds on a Saturday. I can recommend a bunch of restaurants in the area (especially SF itself but also some around the Bay) if you give some more details on what cuisines you are a fan of.

Most of what has been written on Afro-Cuban music by English-speaking writers has been complete bullshit, but Roberts's The Latin Tinge struck me as exceptionally good and I used it heavily as a source for a college paper. One of these days I should check it out again.

Maybe...I was surprised to hear that Queen wasn't mad that Wayne's World used the song for the movie and an accompanying video that spliced in the original music video with cuts of Wayne and Garth. In any case I thought it was a fun tribute on the 18th anniversary of the man's death.

Roland's repair department's advice: don't heat it, that'll make it stickier. They suggest using one of those electronic freeze sprays (some kind of hydrocarbon) to make the goo cold and brittle, then chisel it off with a screwdriver. Yuck...

It appears that this is related to an imminent reissuing of much of the Zappa catalog. Most of these 1995 CDs are now discounted at Amazon and DeepDiscount.com if they are still available. Has anyone heard these new versions yet? I can't seem to find a ton of info on release dates and am trying to decide whether it's worthwhile to just pick up the old versions. My main goal is to avoid the albums that FZ butchered with redone drums and so forth (I know some of the 1995 series suffered from this). Imminent reissues? I very much doubt it. ZFT can barely handle issuing a couple of titles per year, them reissuing the whole FZ catalog of 70+ titles in unthinkable. Just two recent ZFT releases can conditionally qualify as reissues: MOFO (which contains the original mono mix of Freak Out!), and Lumpy / Money containing mono mix of "We're Only in it for the Money" and an a few rare versions of "Lumpy Gravy". Many FZ titles desperately need a new reissue treatment, "Hot Rats", "Uncle Meat" and "Sheik Yerbouti" in particular. My main source for the "imminent reissues" was this thread on a Zappa usenet list, but after doing some more digging I'm inclined to think your view is closer to reality. There are a small handful of titles at CDUniverse listing a November 17 release date, but I'm thinking I should grab what I can at the lower prices and not hold out for Gail.

It appears that this is related to an imminent reissuing of much of the Zappa catalog. Most of these 1995 CDs are now discounted at Amazon and DeepDiscount.com if they are still available. Has anyone heard these new versions yet? I can't seem to find a ton of info on release dates and am trying to decide whether it's worthwhile to just pick up the old versions. My main goal is to avoid the albums that FZ butchered with redone drums and so forth (I know some of the 1995 series suffered from this).

Hey all - I have a Roland XP-80 that dates back to 1997. The synth was affected by the "melting pink glue" problem that's affected a lot of Roland instruments of that vintage. Basically the epoxy that fixed the keys in place broke down or melted and leaked all over the thing while it sat in my old room at my mom's house in Florida, sometime between September 2000 and 2008. I didn't notice the problem until late 2008 when I finally decided to start playing the instrument again. The good news: Roland replaced the whole key assembly for free and the unit seems to work fine. The bad news: they didn't go all out in cleaning up the unit and there is still some goop on the exterior, especially on the power cord but also some under the keys and on the top. (Probably didn't help that I stupidly have been storing the keyboard in the old goop-soiled gig bag until I can buy a new one.) How do I get this crap off? The general consensus on the web seems to be that using a hair dryer will help heat the glue till you can more easily wipe it off the metal. This seems to be working a little...but it's going to take a lot of time with the hair dryer I've got. Any ideas if anything will work better? Also, is it safe to heat the power cord or do I need to try a different approach for that? Goo Gone seems to be useless in this case, plus it's not recommended for use on rubber.

I took the list from Wiki, and I have to agree with you, Henry Sugar (and even The Vicar) definitely ride the line and are not entirely "kids' books." I probably would read some of the stories to my kids but not all. I'm currently skimming his description of going to English public school. What a sea change. It is astounding how in a relatively short period, collectively most Western nations decided that corporal punishment, particularly by teachers, was unacceptable. I'm certainly not sorry I missed out on beatings at school (even if it would have made me a better writer). Still, Boy is in the box set, and Henry Sugar could have been included as well. It would have fit thematically anyway. I did read The Vicar of Nibbleswicke. It is one of the last things he wrote -- a fable of sorts that was to benefit a charity working with people with dyslexia. It's fine but very slight. Unfortunately because some of the reversed words are kind of obscene, I'm going to hold off on reading it to my kids for now. So I would probably have put it into the adult column. (And I would generally recommend just borrowing it from the library.) Thanks for the summary of Nibbleswicke. To be honest I think you could probably read most of the stories in Henry Sugar to a kid. The main Henry Sugar story is relatively tame and a good adventure, and The Boy Who Talked With Animals and The Hitchhiker have kind of fun endings IIRC. The main exceptions are: -The Mildenhall Treasure: Some kids may find it boring. -The Swan: This is the one I would definitely NOT read to kids under 11 or so. The ending is pretty nightmarish. I suspect this may be why Henry Sugar was left out of this collection - while most of the other stories on there (like The Witches, Danny the Champion of the World, or Great Glass Elevator) have their intense, even horrible moments, everything tends to end up just fine in the end. Not so in The Swan.

Meant to reply to this last week but got caught up. The Henry Sugar book is well worth it - more adult-oriented than most of his other work. I remember being especially fond of the non-fiction stories at the end...kind of an interesting companion to the autobiographical "Boy.". Haven't read any of the other non-included ones, though The Vicar of Nibbleswicke always sounded intriguing.

I feel much more sympathy for Nnamdi Asomugha, the best cornerback in the league. By most accounts he's one of the best human beings in the league too, and he may finish his career with zero rings if he can't get dealt to another team.

Tons of people have been parroting some variation on this theme but if anything, I agree with those who say that this has it exactly backwards. It means that Belichick has MORE respect for his defense, not less, because he's willing to bet that they can hold their opponent to zero points not just when they have to drive 70 yards, but also when they have to go only 30 yards.