Big Wheel

You're too late. There already are KFCs in just about every major Asian city and some of the minor ones.

I've never seen the Middle East crowd get particularly rowdy, but yeah, this does NOT sound like their cup of tea. (To those unfamiliar with the Middle East: picture a dark, seatless drunk tank with copious amounts of beer being spilled.)

When I went to Southeast Asia a couple of months ago, I was determined to eat whatever they had to offer, no matter how offensive it might be to a Westerner's palate. Since I didn't speak the language I'm sure I missed out on all the really good stuff (I've heard they eat all manner of things like bats and grubs in Cambodia at least). Probably the most bizarre thing I had was fish-stomach soup at a little Chinese-style joint in Bangkok. My traveling buddy (a vegetarian) was sort of revolted but it was actually pretty good. My hunch is that Americanized "hot and sour" soup is basically the same thing, although they either take out or don't tell you about the fish stomach part when they serve it here. Oh yeah, durian's not for everybody either. I thought it was ok but couldn't bring myself to shovel down more thana few bites.

Yeah, that's one thing that's easy to forget--many women get their hair cut a lot less frequently than men, so much so that the costs can sometimes even up. My girlfriend trusts very few people to cut her hair and the result is that she hasn't cut it in at least a year. I think the only place in the States she'll get it cut is some shop in NYC where it costs around $200.

Ask and ye shall receive a link...

Unlike, of course, the good old U.S. of A....not while there's missile shields to build and other countries that haven't been invaded! Edit--in fairness to both USAid and UN, it seems that both are roughly at the same place in the humanitarian process- people are still flying in to figure out what needs to be done.

I paid a visit to my old school today and one of the sax players I know gave me a little blindfold test. He pops a CDR in and says, "Guess who this is." This sick solo version of Caravan comes on. The guy has more technique than just about anyone I've heard...especially that left hand...holy shit!! If it hadn't been for the recording quality and the modern harmony and rhythm I would have guessed the Steve Allen overdub joke record, the one where they bill it as the forgotten three-handed pianist. It was almost too perfect, so I guess "Arturo Sandoval playing piano." "Keep guessing." It's clearly not Chick, not Brad, not Keith...he would never articulate like that...then they go into this montuno section, which is ALMOST authentic, but not quite..."he's not Cuban." "Just guess." I had been listening to Michel Camilo on the radio a few hours before, and this guy had even more technique than that but the articulation was somewhat similar, so in spite of my earlier assertion I take a wild guess at Camilo. It was Eldar! I'd never heard him before. Turned out the sax player had played with him at the Brubeck Jazz Workshop. Goddamn...a little real life experience under his belt and that kid is gonna have it all put together pretty soon. I got the CDR to take home with me, but I dunno how much I'm gonna be playing it anytime soon--listening to stuff like that just makes me want to cry and never play again when I hear how much kids like that can get out of the piano.

What was Kenny Burrell's first record?

Nobody's mentioned Herbie's Takin' Off yet? Dex, Higgins, and Freddie don't hurt... Joe Henderson's Page One is pretty high up there too with McCoy and Elvin.

Yeah, you can hear it on some of the records. It's all over Conrad Herwig's Latin Side of John Coltrane, for example.

Except WISH wasn't a debut album either. Joshua had at least the self-titled album out on WB before it.

Almost certainly a scam. Are you sure the link you click sends you to an ebay web page, or is it a subtly different URL?

Off topic, but I just heard the Syndicate playing live at the Cork Jazz Festival on the radio...seriously badass.

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