Guy Berger

There's a nice free jazz sequence in Rosemary's Baby performed by (I assume) K. Komeda's group w/Tomasz Stanko. Guy

I'd be up for a free, or low buy-in (no more than $5) tournament. Guy

The Jones book is excellent, though it's only aimed at low-limit ring games and is of limited use for those interested in playing tourneys or no-limit. As a plus, it's well-written -- something that I wouldn't say for some other poker books I've read or leafed through. I also have Sklansky and Malmuth's "Advanced Hold'em" book. Lots of interesting stuff in there, but not that applicable for the kinds of low-limit tables the beginning player should be looking for. If I had to pick 5 recommendations for the beginning low-limit ring game player who is too lazy to actually read a book, I'd say (in descending order of importance): 1. Be able to quickly identify the nuts from the board. 2. Play very tightly before the flop. (You shouldn't play overly tight, but I'll go on a limb and say that few beginnings err on the side of caution.) Corollary: unless you're on one of the blinds, NEVER play an unsuited ace-rag -- in this game, these hands are worse than garbage like 7-2 and 9-3. 3. Play very aggressively when you think you have the best hand. 4. Understand odds (and implied odds) for various draws. 5. After the flop, if your hand isn't the best hand and isn't likely to improve, fold it ASAP. Guy

If any CDs that ever I purchase are un-iPodable, then they go straight back to the record store and it's open season on pirating them as far as I'm concerned. Guy

I thought that was pretty ridiculous, though must admit that I wouldn't complain if more movies used "Spanish Key" in the soundtrack. I really dig the Preservation Hall Band on Woody Allen's Sleeper. Kind of incongruous considering the topic of the film, but fits it perfectly.

Chicago, no question. No knock on Boston though. ← I guess that's why you haven't issued the long-lost Art Ensemble of Boston tapes yet... Guy

Is The Willow really deserving of the 5 star rating it gets from AMG (relative to, say, a 4.5 or 4 star rating)? Usually those kinds of ratings are an almost surefire indicator that an album is worth picking up ASAP, and I've been considering it. Guy

On Monday I went to Smoke (NYC) for the first time. (I was in the city to watch Hitchcock's "Suspicion" at Bryant Park. It was 90 degrees at 9 PM, terrible.) Great club, though the "no cover" thing is a little misleading. I caught the end of the set with Richard Wyands, bassist, Jimmy Cobb and a female Japanese alto saxophonist. Then hung around for a bit of the jam session. Great venue! Guy

I went to Foxwoods yesterday. A frustrating day... went up big early, then down big later, then built a medium size gain ($76) and decided to call it a night. Not bad for 6 hrs at 4/8... The crazy thing is that I got quads TWICE within an hour. (Not sure if I'd ever gotten a hand that good in a casino before.) Once I had pocket tens, flopped a set and then rivered the 4th (beat a lady who had a straight). The second time was much crazier, because I was in the small blind with 64 out-of-suit (a very maginal call, but probably o.k. for half a small bet). I flopped trips and then hit quads on the river. Guy

Shouldn't this be changed to "they had people with sensitivities like Dan Gould's in mind"? I've butted heads with Clem on this board, but these kinds of behind-the-back insults are lame. Guy ← Does anyone remember when Dan went ballistic last August when I posted a picture of a woman in a two piece swimsuit in the babe's thread? He called it pornographic! Good times, good times... ← Don't want this to be an "insult Dan" thread any more than I want it to be an "insult Clem" thread... Guy

Shouldn't this be changed to "they had people with sensitivities like Dan Gould's in mind"? I've butted heads with Clem on this board, but these kinds of behind-the-back insults are lame. Guy

Amen... has anyone been in touch with him? Guy

previous discussion here

Mingus, Changes Two (still haven't been able to establish whether this is in print, but amazon has it in stock)

Ear of the behearer for sure..! I just hear his sound as pretty mainstream...However much he played around with harmony, however adventurous from that point of view, it just sounds a bit safe to me... Less so in his earlier stuff, for sure - e.g. Gee Baby... from the Messengers album on Impulse. Hmm, I don't know...maybe I should have another concerted go at Shorter - I guess the thing is, the less keen you are on someone's playing, the less time you spend with it, and the less likely you are to 'get' it...Oh well! I'm with Rosco on this -- I find your comment to be a real head-scratcher. And if anything, I think Wayne became less conventional as the 60s wore on. Sorry about hijacking the thread! Guy

Thanks for all the great bass playing, Al. Guy

As I pointed out above, in 2005 they were 36-20 through 56 games. Afterward they went 18-8. Not a huge difference between the two seasons. FWIW, I used to think Larry Brown was overrated as well until last year's finals. Guy

I'd heard of the recordings you mention -- for some reason I thought they were unofficial. Have you heard them, Mike? Guy

link This is about a year before Keith's first official recordings (w/Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers). His playing isn't as strikingly individual as it would be a year later and he's in a much more orthodox "hard bop" mode. Interesting! (His solo after the bass solo is definitely quite Jarrettish, though.)

D.D. posted a link to these on rmb, here it is.

Your memory is playing tricks on you in this case: Record before Rasheed Wallace came in (2004): 34-22 Record through 56 games in 2005: 36-20 Guy

This is arguable, of course, but Popovich's teams have been much better talent-wise than Brown's, with two of the most dominant big men of the past 20 years and strong supporting casts. Brown took the Clippers above 500 (as md pointed out) and won 56 games with the 76ers in 2001. I will agree that Pop is probably the most underrated coach in the league, probably because he hasn't changed teams in a long time. Guy

Is it possible to drive to the Mosaic "facility" and pick these things up in person instead of having them shipped? Guy

I'll admit upfront that my knowledge of this group (in both phases) is pretty low, but given what I've read about them and heard, it's not obvious to me that they "compromised artistically" in the early 70s -- unless you're going to call their entire career up to that point one long artistic compromise. They made groove-based, earthy jazz in the 60s and continued to do so in the early-mid 70s. I think Jim made this point more articulately upthread. Guy

My brother got me 4 SNL best-ofs for my birthday: Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Mike Myers and Will Ferrell. I've seen most of the Ferrell before, but last night I watched the Carvey one and part of the Hartman. The Carvey was excellent. I wish they'd included more Perot and Bush impersonations, but other than that... I didn't remember how versatile the guy was -- he did a lot of great stuff besides his stock characters. I'd never seen the Church Lady drum solo -- that was awesome. And one the John McLaughlin Group skit (how many of these did they do) was genius. WRONG!!!! I didn't get to watch the entire Hartman, just skipped around. I'd forgotten about the Anal Retentive Chef, which was easily the funniest skit I saw on either DVD -- I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Guy