Big Wheel

My guess is that Dan's power is out. Even some parts of Dade County have no power, and farther north it's even more widespread.

All clear down south, though it's been raining heavily on and off. We never really lost power except, strangely, the day before (maybe FPL was overloaded or something?) Even the little saplings I planted two weeks ago seem to have done all right!

Every now and again I hear some rumor that it's been found that CDs only last some X number of years before they deteriorate in some way. Is there any truth whatsoever to this?

Bummer. I didn't have the cash for it this time. Maybe I can pray that Verve gets bought by some jazz-loving billionaire, who then pledges to reissue everything, damn the losses...(sigh)

Conditions are actually considerably worse at the moment, but I darted outside about 15 minutes ago and snapped a few pictures.... link (I'd link to them directly, but apparently the blog host doesn't allow it.)

Yeah, about 30 mph winds here in southern Miami-Dade, I would guess. I'll try and take a picture if there's a break in the rain.

Before and after: (link)

Larry Young/Joe Chambers -- Double Exposure (note--Young sometimes plays organ and Chambers sometimes plays drums on this record, I think) Hank Jones/George Shearing --Spirit of 176 Note--I've heard neither of these two records, but given the participants they can't be worse than good.

Don't think I haven't contemplated skipping town to avoid having to put up the shutters. I moved some of them into position tonight and even that sucked. As for the trip, pictures are all up here...

Or Sabu Martinez (though he also played bongos). I heard Cardona, Candido, and Patato together last year--great show.

I'm already thinking of where to put the Mosaic boxes. My guess is they'll fare best triple-bagged in one of those big garbage bags. About 2/3 of the others are already in binders, so I'm less concerned about them. Boarding up the house is going to be the biggest pain in the ass.

Would that be the first or second theme song here? http://www.melaman2.com/cartoons/singles/bullwinkle.html

Done!

I've got 3 extra invites...if you want one, respond to this thread and I'll send it to you. (For info see http://www.gmail.com )

I think it's more than just flash. To me, Oscar's playing is just TOO "perfect" much of the time, and being "perfect" just didn't interest Miles (and if there's anyone in jazz who REALLY didn't give a shit about perfection in the conventional sense, it was Monk). When I listen to Oscar as a learning musician, my goal is to try and take away how smoothly he makes the transition from one chord to the next, how all the notes are just "right" for the phrase, and how he manages to finger everything so cleanly. If you want to learn the rules, you listen to Oscar. If you want to learn how to start breaking them, you listen to Monk. Working on both is essential to me. That said, I do enjoy much of Oscar's playing, especially his trio arrangements. The emotional connection you get on a Sketches of Spain isn't there, but occasionally he can approach that level.

Amen to that. I was in Indonesia about a month ago and the drivers there are, by American standards, completely insane. It's perfectly normal to pass people with oncoming traffic at distances that would freak out an American. (Almost every road is two-lane, by the way.) But since everyone knows that people are passing with impunity, if it turns out there's not enough room to pass, the passing driver KNOWS that someone will let him back in to his own lane so that he isn't turned into a puddle of goo on the road by an oncoming 18-wheeler. In the States the driver behind a passing vehicle might be much more hesitant to change his own speed to accomodate him in case the pass needs to be aborted--or not be paying attention at all to the passing driver.

Good record. I didn't know what to expect when I pressed play but this holds my attention in a way not many of its type do.

I really like Tonic too. I only have that, Combustication, and the remix EP. The summer I bought Combustication it did not leave the car CD player. For me some of Tonic falls flat, like on Buster Rides Again. But the heights they reach on Rise Up and Thaw more than make up for it.

Pouring liquid on a laptop keyboard is about the worst thing you can do to it. When PC Computing magazine used to do their annual laptop torture tests, they froze, baked, and dropped the computers from a few feet off the ground. Most showed no ill effects. When they got to the spill test (an ounce or two of hot coffee right between the G and H keys), at least half of them were screwed for good. Good luck.

Oops, I did forget the last D should have had an apostrophe. The Real Book has that A where I thought there was a D, though knowing the Real Book...it's possible they made a mistake, too. The funny thing is that I WAS hearing this in the original key of G flat, not G--but I changed it to G so that it would be easier to write and read on the board. The only version I really remember hearing of this tune was on Blakey's Free For All--I only have an mp3 of it, which explains why I couldn't find it in my collection.

I'm not sure, but I think that may have been it. It was a live set (I could hear applause after it ended). Edit: Now I don't think that was it. Whatever I heard had a drummer.

I dunno what that was they just played, but it RAWKED!

I think they're playing Jack Johnson right now. Nice!

D'oh! It was Clare Fischer's "Pensativa." I guess I was hearing Freddie in my head, not Lee.

The apostrophe mark was meant to distinguish between octaves--so D' is an octave above D. And there's a D held for about 4 beats before going to that first F# (I tried to break it up by phrases).