Big Wheel

Oh yeah, forgot to note that Gillette is currently on my shit list. My electric Oral-B toothbrush got recalled, I didn't find out about it until maybe a year later, sent in my toothbrush three or four months ago, and still haven't received a replacement. I haven't yet called to follow up, though, so there's still some chance of redemption. (and maybe it was a fuckup on my end...never sure with these things.) After working at Avis Car Rental for a summer, I learned enough about the company to never want to rent a car from them. I doubt I'll ever buy another computer from Dell again, given their complete mishandling of customer service. The next computer I own may be home-built. Not a company, but as I mentioned in another thread, I'll never watch another Bruce Willis flick after seeing Armageddon. What a jingoistic, intelligence-insulting piece of shit. I'm so repelled by Quentin Tarantino's personality that I've avoided seeing most of his movies, too. I'll only go to the Blue Note in NYC if I think it's the LAST chance I have to see the artist. A terrible club, IMO.

Wal-mart, for the same reasons others have. There are a few restaurants that, while not on my "permanently banned" list, I would never go to of my own volition. (If friends are making the plans, I'll suck it up and go.) They include: Chili's (wildly overrated by some) The Cheesecake Factory (awful atmosphere and a ridiculous "no reservations" policy that ensures you're going to be sitting on your ass in a mall for 45 minutes just so the restaurant can give the impression that the place is really popular by always having 25 people standing outside the door) Bartley's Burgers down the street in Harvard Square (cramped seating, loud, somewhat overrated burgers, definitely not worth the long lines on weekends) After a bad experience with some rancid chicken at Burger King, I swore off both BK and McDonald's until this year, but broke down because BK was the only place to eat in the airport and we were starving.

Sweet! Not all that far from my new apartment, either!

Whole red snapper, baked, with white rice and stir-fried napa cabbage with oyster mushrooms. Not great, and not helped by the fact that I'm not very good at getting all the scales off snapper. Think I'll stick to more local fish from now on. I somehow managed to screw up the rice this time too--didn't use enough water and had to throw away about the top third of what was in the rice cooker, as it was rock hard. The vegetables were pretty good, though. I'm moving in a week and have to finish off all the crap I've got in the freezer.

Here's one thing that confuses me about the site: Where did the early emails come from? I mean, it's not like the characters of Strong Bad and Homestar Runner were particularly well known until after quite a bunch of SB emails had piled up, right? So how did anyone know about the whole backstory of Strong Bad hating Homestar and whatnot to ask about it in an email? Or am I just being dumb and unaware that none of the emails are real questions from the public?

To these two I would add Homsar. Every line he utters is bizarrely funny, and they use him sparingly, so it doesn't get old. Also, I thought the evolution of Homsar was pretty hilarious--someone misspelled "Homestar" in a SB email and rather than point that out, they just created a new character that was a weird-ass version of Homestar.

Wow - I'm psyched about the Turrentine date, which has been impossible to find for years, but Reach Out?? I'm also pretty shocked that the Leo Parker made the RVG series and isn't a limited edition. What's the date of that Jimmy Smith session? (Edit: never mind, checked out the discography myself. I would never have figured that the Mosaic material would be coming out already, not to mention receiving the RVG treatment before Back at the Chicken Shack and Midnight Special...)

You know, that reminds me of one of my pet movie peeves. I'm just not into your basic action movies, with the sound cranked up to max and, as you say, the flashing lights inside the hellbox. I go to movies like (just to pull a favorite of the past few years out) In the Bedroom. So what previews do they show? Exactly the kind of shit I purposely avoid. So when the movie I want to see starts, blood is already pouring out of both ears and I can't hear a damned thing. ← May well be smart marketing on the part of the studios--I bet they figure that a fair chunk of the guys in these movies are only there because they're dragged by their significant others, and will want to go to an action flick when it's "their" turn to pick the movie. I like action movies when they don't take themselves too seriously (I must be the only male my age who hasn't seen Rush Hour, but I bet I'd love it.) Armageddon, on the other hand, was the loudest, shittiest movie I've ever seen. It's because of that movie that I have resolved to never, ever see another Bruce Willis flick.

I played this for a couple of friends about a month ago, one of them a badass guitar player with really eclectic tastes. They were both impressed but sorta lost interest after a few tunes..."yeah, it's Ray Charles, of course the band is tight and the playing really soulful..." I showed them the tenor battle on "Birth of a Band," then we started chatting over the video and not paying close attention. You should have seen them both suddenly transfixed and gaping once Ray started soloing on alto...

Interesting that I'm just now noticing FFA's comments on Giant Steps vis-a-vis Countdown, Moment's notice, etc. I too have always been much more attracted to those other tunes (though I don't feel comfortable yet playing any of them...)

Great story, although I wish there had been more discussion of the game instead of background.

A quick google reveals biwa to be the same as or at least similar to loquats. We have a tree of them back at my mom's house in Miami. However, they appear to be a bit smaller than in the pic you've posted here--and you have to catch them right at the very peak of ripeness, which isn't long at all. Otherwise they're incredibly sour, or else they get overripe, fall, and rot (or get eaten by squirrels).

Probably because they know most leader dates from Freddie Roach don't sell, and they don't feel like spending the dough on big labels that say "featuring JOE HENDERSON".

I think Judgment was one of the very early Connoisseur titles which were transferred by Larry Walsh, rather than Ron McMaster. Most have a low opinion of Walsh's transfers--in fact, Walsh probably has the worst reputation out of the BN engineers in the modern era (Addey, McMaster, Van Gelder). I only have one Walsh title--Basra--which supposedly pales in comparison to the JRVG.

Speaking as a pianist, the problem with that interval isn't the stretch, but the interior fingering! I can come close to hitting that minor tenth, but with the fingers in between equally spaced a fourth apart? Forget it! I meant that the bass note would be played on the lower BUT the same hand would also be playing the lowest note of the voicing (the E) on the upper manual. Then the right hand would just have to play a McCoy-style fourth voicing (the A, D, G).

Not being an organ player, I don't know the lay of the instrument well, but is it possible that he played the E on the upper manual while playing the bass note with the same hand on the lower manual?

IIRC some of them had the "Doubletime" logo on the shrink wrap, but not printed on the cover booklet itself. This left the cover unspoiled when you opened the CD.

Eureka! I'm so glad we've found a job for Dr. Rice that's she's competent to do.

The Ken McIntyre UAs also were released on 2cds, though I'm not 100% sure they were part of the Doubletime "series."

Orgy in Rhythm was a Connoisseur, and both LPs fit on one CD. I've never spotted copies of the Elvin Lighthouse dates, but it looks like this is also true of the Grant Green sessions. Edit: I think the Green/Sonny Clark sessions were released as doubletimes, though possibly in a different batch from those mentioned.

That's funny, I don't recall seeing either of the Lighthouse records as 2fers. Other doubletimes I do remember include Blakey at the Jazz Corner of the World (NOT Meet You at the Jazz Corner of the World), and KB's Blue Lights. Did the KD Bohemia records originally come out as a Doubletime?

Even the small chains up here are terrible in this regard. I hate going to Newbury Comics--at least the Harvard Square location--because they're always playing punk at ear-splitting volumes.

I missed out too, but never felt like I really had to have this one, so I'm not too disappointed. I'm betting at least half of this will come out as individual CDs in the next 2-3 years (Herbie Hancock is always a draw).

Very sad. Mel Brooks is the uncle of a family friend. I hope they are doing well during this tough time.

Ouch.