Big Wheel

Just adding to the knowledge base on the board in case anyone else is having similar problems: Over the last three days, I had a bizarre problem getting into the board. Eventually, I discovered that not only would I get "400 Bad Request" errors when trying to post to any board powered by the Invision Power Board Software, but I also couldn't access my Yahoo mail Inbox. This also happened whenever I connected on my notebook PC from home, which never had any problems with the board before. After much googling I figured out that this problem is with the D-Link wireless router that's connected to my DSL modem on this machine. You basically have to go into the router software and slightly lower one setting (the Maximum Transmission Unit or MTU setting). Voila!

Yes, we are returning thrugh Bangkok--but right now we only have about a 9 hour layover in the city, so we most likely won't leave the airport area. However, I am mulling over the idea of staying an additional 16 days or so in Bangkok, then heading to Japan (maybe Kyoto or somewhere else in the Kansai area) for a week to visit my girlfriend, who's there again this summer. Changing the ticket may be expensive, though. Thanks for the info on the subway. The Skytrain was very nice, though a bit limited in scope, so with luck the subway will fill in the gaps. Also, thanks Phil--we're in Yogya right now and it looks like we will in fact have time to go to Parangtritis, as we just scuttled our original idea of moving on to Bali. I admit that I'm a bit spoiled by having a great beach on my doorstep (not literally) at home in Florida, but don't think I've ever seen a black sand beach before. I've taken about 200 pictures already and will see if I can't upload some of the good ones when I get back.

Checkin' in from Kota Kinabalu, Borneo now...the people out here are damned nice. The weather is hot, though, with only a little rain, and it's tough to stay hydrated. Internet cafes are cheap and all over the place, especially in Bangkok, so I've been connected to the outside world (and even lurking here a little). Think we're gonna head out to the night market in a bit...

Just wanted to thank everyone again for their great suggestions as I get ready to leave in a few hours. Will try to post pictures when I get back!

No, unfortunately I don't have the $$ or time right now to A/B the two. It does seem that the shrillness is more apparent on the first (5/24/54) session (the "Afro" suite) than on the later (6/3/54) session.

Oh, shit. While I'm hot and cold as far as Water Music goes, the Regattabar had better not turn into the Blue Note. Still, if all the Blue Note people do is determine which acts play there, it won't be so bad. My beef with the Blue Note is not usually the quality of the music, it's all the other crap--the high prices, stupid NYC drink minimums, extremely cramped seating, and jerky see-and-be-seen clientele--that spoil it for me.

I just picked up Diz's "Afro," and this version has a little "made in the UK" sticker on it. Otherwise it looks identical to the US version of the CD. The music is great, and while the sound is not bad overall, it is somewhat unpleasantly shrill in the louder passages, maybe distorting a bit. Does anyone know if these UK versions are substantially different from their US counterparts in this series?

Have you tried Priceline or a similar name-your-own-price deal? With them, you can sometimes get a better fare as the date of your flight approaches, the opposite of what happens with the airlines. I think the reason for this is that there are still empty seats that don't get bought when the airlines raise their published fares. If you are a student, it couldn't hurt to take a look at studentuniverse.com .

I started out playing 7-stud and Omaha but eventually shifted to Hold 'em. I will occasionally play (mainly 7-stud) in the local Indian casino when I go home to Miami but have generally stuck to home games lately as the rake is just too freakin' high there. Also the regular players there expect you to tip the dealer on EVERY hand you win, no matter how low the pot, so it's nearly impossible to really come out ahead. Still need to work on being disciplined and playing tight early, just getting a feel for the other players in the beginning. My shorthanded play is often way better than my game when there is a full table for this reason--also, at this point I'm still much more of an intuitive player rather than a human odds calculator. Won a little home tournament last December and took home $90; that's the extent of my big winnings at this point. It was pretty hilarious--my friend told us that his neighbor hosts a game every Saturday night or so, so we went to check it out. Turned out his neighbor is Russian and invites his Russian buddies over; there were 3 college kids, the dad of one of the college kids, and 5 Russian guys (all speaking Russian with one another)...you can kind of see the "Rounders" angle developing here. Everyone I knew got knocked out very early so it was me on one side of the table and the 5 Russians on the other. Took me a little while to figure out that about 3 of them were complete fish...

This may be simply because AFAIK it was on the Blue Note Board that the term "JRVG" was coined, so the term is not in wide use outside the jazz bulletin board community. The Japanese, of course, just refer to them as the TOCJ 9000-series, right?

Yeah, that version of Meditations on Integration is a killer. It's often hard for me to focus on the rest of the album after I hear it, though. The Far East Suite take is also very nice. One that hasn't been mentioned yet is NEVER GIVE UP, which I picked up cheap at Tower one day. Some of the tracks don't do it for me (there is a spoken word poem against the WWII internment that I don't find very interesting) but the version of A Night In Tunisia is very cool with Fred Ho on bari.

The Atlantic New Orleans Box, discs 1 and 2 so far. I can see why some might be turned off by the intonation problems on the outdoor recordings on disc 1, but damn, they are playing with so much spirit that I don't care. And those rhythm sections...! Wow. This is such great, raw stuff, and while it's probably not quite the ame as hearing these bands doing it in the 1920s, I can hear the connection to those groups for sure.

Will you have a car? Miami is not a particularly easy city to get around if you do not. There is a Holiday Inn right across US 1 from the university. There is also a Marriott about 3 miles to the south; it is right next to the Dadeland South Metrorail station, and you can take the train to the University stop. There are others that may be preferable to these, but if you don't have a car it could prove hard to get around. As for live jazz...there ain't much. There is a bar called Titanic right near the university on Ponce de Leon just north of Red Rd., but it used to have more jazz than it does now (they had weekly jam sessions but AFAIK those are no more). The best place in Miami is the Van Dyke Cafe on Miami Beach--sometimes they have "name" people, but not frequently. It looks like Mike Orta, a very good piano player who I took a couple of lessons from, is holding down Monday and Tuesday nights (see here-- http://donwilner.bizland.com/experiment.htm ). There is another club on Miami Beach called Jazid, but it mostly features acid jazz/electro-pop these days. There is also a place in Liberty City whose name I forget but is supposed to feature good local players. You may be better off trying Ft. Lauderdale...

PM me if interested. Greg Osby: Man-Talk for Moderns, vol. X, used, in decent condition: $7 including postage Also for sale: Blue Note label t-shirt (not the recent Ropeadope shirts--this is the older white one with the blue LP label on the front). Size L, never worn, tag from Blue Note still attached. $6 including postage. I also have a number of the recent Mosaic brochures (#51--two copies, #52, and #54) as well as the two most recent True Blue brochures. These are free with purchase of either of the above items; otherwise, whatever the postal costs turn out to be--probably about a buck if you just want one. Check or money order is fine by me, or cash if you're feeling brave.

Getting there. I'm on a CD buying moratorium right now but will start to pick these up as soon as I have, um, a job...

Two I forgot that may qualify as essential: Sabu Martinez: "Palo Congo" Art Blakey: "The African Beat"

Does Sonny Clark's "Leapin' and Lopin" count as obscure? Also a vote for the 1963 session with Tony Williams on Jackie's "Vertigo."

On the one hand, Kaufman's cause of death is pretty strange. Kaufman was a nonsmoker, yet he supposedly died of rare "large cell carcinoma," which seems to be caused primarily by smoking. But why are there no photos? You'd think if Kaufman was really back he'd make a huge splash instead of setting up a random blog without any pictures...

A quick "up," since I see our resident Thailand expert is on.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/nogas.asp

Curious, I did a quick search about Kiedis's experience and found this page. It sounds like Kiedis got a bad case of dengue along with the usual diarrhea and leeches, but that wasn't necessarily related to the roach or whatever it was crawling in his ear. They were in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, which is much further from civilization than we're gonna be. And they weren't using mosquito netting for some reason. Dengue is no picnic, though, and I'm more concerned about that than I am about malaria.

Fun! We actually will be on Borneo, with 3 days in Kota Kinabalu. With that kind of timetable, however, we won't be able to stray too far into the interior, so I'm not too terribly worried about tropical diseases. (Isn't the only malaria-carrying bug the mosquito?)

Ok, just about everything is booked now. We are flying into Bangkok June 21 and spending 4-5 days there, 2 in Chiang Mai, followed by about 10 days in Malaysia, 3 in Singapore, and 8-9 days on Java and maybe Bali. (We ended up scrapping the "special ticket" idea as it turned out to be ridiculously expensive). I figure it would take about a month to even begin to explore just Bangkok, but I'd welcome any suggestions anyone might have. Also, if anyone here has flown Air Asia before I'd be interested in hearing your opinions. We've already booked all our tickets (except the flight between the States and Thailand) with them but I wouldn't mind knowing what we're in for. With no ticket over $40 one way, they were kind of hard to turn down.

Up next I'm gonna buy that piece of $#@% Sharon Jones album mentioned over in Recommendations along with Diz's #$%#$%@ "AFRO" and maybe some of those @#%$ Connoisseur Larry Young titles. AAAAUGH! (Can you tell I'm on a self-imposed moratorium right now?)

I guess Mosaic changed their mind. Maybe they noticed they have too much inventory. So I can buy it cheaper $37.50 from CDUniverse, than Mosaic ($39.00). Oh, yeahhhhhhhhhhh. You save a big $1.50! Considering that CD Universe's shipping tops out at $7, you may save a bit more than that if you order other items along with the Select.