Guy Berger

Do we really need to insure our citizens against stupidity? I said "ensure", not "insure" -- two totally different words. It's pretty clear that many people have trouble understanding financial contracts and that at least in some cases, homebuyers ended up being misled or poorly informed by lenders. I agree with you that once reasonable disclosure of risks has been made, our government shouldn't be in the business of protecting people from their own idiocy. Guy

Beyond ensuring that people who take out mortgages aren't bamboozled by the details of their loans, I'm not sure what can really be done. Guy

Bill Poole is the President of the St. Louis Fed and a notable inflation hawks. Guy

Just saw the DS9 episode "Trials and Tribble-ations". A very, very well-executed tribute to the original series. Guy

Well, this guy is generally known as a lunatic but this was exceptional even by his standards. As far as I can tell, the current anxiety in credit markets (which he is blowing out of proportion) has not had much spillover into the real economy. Guy

Fuck... it's supposed to be in the neighborhood of 100 for most of this week. Fortunately I spend most of the day in air-conditioned spaces. I walk to work at 6:45 AM, so normally the walk isn't bad, but it could get nasty this week. SS1, how the hell do you survive summers in Arizona? Still, I'm glad that there isn't much of that nasty NE humidity down here. At least so far. Guy

Joe, I screwed up the boldface marker on my response to Bev (now fixed). Bruford is the one denying jazz's influence on prog rock, a stance with which Bev disagreed later in the thread. Guy

I don't buy Bruford's argument. Wakeman and Anderson were clearly pretty far removed from jazz (and African-American music in general), but you can clearly hear a jazz influence in Steve Howe's playing. What about that guitar solo in "Perpetual Change"? Do you not buy Bruford's argument, or Bev's argument? Bruford's. Guy

Not that there's anything wrong with that. I think I'm somewhere between you and Chewy on this. Obviously these albums came from the same band, and after Close to the Edge they realized that there was an audience for this kind of format. But on these albums they are CREATING, not RE-creating. TFtO is a natural extension/expansions of the ideas of CttE; Relayer strikes me as exploring a bunch of new avenues not on the earlier albums. (I think that by the time of GFtO and "Awaken", you can argue that they were trying to re-create old glories.) FWIW, as someone who enjoys Yes quite a bit (biased toward the early 70s period), I find the extreme hostility and contempt they still seem to arouse in some quarters to be mystifying. I guess the original reaction is "understandable" in the context of the times, if quite silly in retrospect. But that someone would listen to Close to the Edge or The Yes Album, or even Tales from Topographic Oceans, and call it venomous epithets seems very alien to me. Guy

Mr. Dip, It could be just a difference of opinion but "To Be Over" (the last tune on Relayer) is absolutely amazing, IMHO. One of the best tunes they ever recorded. Guy

I don't buy Bruford's argument. Wakeman and Anderson were clearly pretty far removed from jazz (and African-American music in general), but you can clearly hear a jazz influence in Steve Howe's playing. What about that guitar solo in "Perpetual Change"? Guy

Happy birthday! Guy

I have a Walmart about 10 min from here...I wonder what the dif is. Supercenters have a full supermarket (meat, seafood, produce, etc) inside the store, unlike regular Walmarts. Not sure if there are other differences. Guy

I just made my first ever visit to a Walmart Supercenter. Goddamn, it's a big store. Guy

Happy birthday, Lon! Guy

It's very weird to me that people get agitated about genetically-modified plants, given that we've been genetically modifying plants for hundreds or even thousands of years. Guy

Preface: I don't have the time to read the article until the weekend, so I don't know what it says. I'll try to comment once I read it. What Moose is saying is largely true for the US. (The conventional wisdom is that ethanol subsidies have held up to a large degree because of the importance of the Iowa Caucuses in securing either party's nomination.) However, AFAIK, Brazilian ethanol (made from sugar) is much cheaper than corn ethanol. We have very high tariffs on sugar ethanol so it isn't imported. Guy edit: One additional comment. (Perhaps this is a point mentioned in the article.) We frequently hear that ethanol is necessary to create "energy independence". In one sense of the term, this is feasible -- in an extreme emergency where there is a real worldwide shortage of energy (and we are willing to strictly enforce restrictions on exports/smuggling), having a homegrown source of energy will give us "independence". However, in all other scenarios, we will never achieve independence -- energy from fossil fuels and energy from ethanol are substitutes, so an increase in the price of one will drive up the price of the other. (Thus, even if we entirely stop importing petroleum, events in the Middle East will still affect US energy prices. In fact, AFAIK only a small fraction of currently imported gasoline (US) comes from the ME.) Guy

I don't think the Celts are a lock to make the conference finals, but if their big three stay healthy it won't be that hard in a conference where the two best teams are Cleveland and Detroit. Guy Reading a Q+A on ESPN this morning, the majority of their "experts" pick Chicago as the best team in the east. Not a crazy pick, but I'll believe it when I see it. Have they made any major changes to their lineup during their offseason? Guy

He was in Paul Motian's quintet with Joe Lovano, Bill Frisell and Ed Schuller, appearing on one album (Psalm, ECM) and a few live recordings. Guy

I don't think the Celts are a lock to make the conference finals, but if their big three stay healthy it won't be that hard in a conference where the two best teams are Cleveland and Detroit. Guy

I dug out the Blind Faith album this weekend. I stopped it before the jam, but those first five songs are GREAT. It seems like Winwood couldn't do wrong in those days. Guy

I finally got through the British version. Excellent stuff. I found the Special to be somewhat disappointing, though it was necessary to tie some loose ends. Next up: the American version. Probably not as good as the UK one, but very funny nonetheless. "Diversity Day"! Guy ps I can't believe they managed to record this scene without bursting into laughter.