Guy Berger

I'm not a huge fan of the Clark-Green quartets, but that's probably more idiosyncratic personal tastes re: the instrumentation, musicians and style. "It Ain't Necessarily So" is awesome, though. Guy

I've wondered about the abrupt ending as well. Guy

Probably not as bad as in some other places, but it's muggy as f*ck out here. Guy

Disagree. The first season that he got a good supporting cast for KG, they made the conference finals. The second season was more about certain players' egos than about his coaching. Guy

It doesn't bother me that the article was anonymous. It bothers me that it was stupid. Guy

Saunders is a very good coach -- maybe not as good as a well-motivated LB, but definitely better than a bored LB. Guy

Kirk is really great on The Jaki Byard Experience. Guy

Congrats! You are like every 80 year old in the world. ←

OK, here goes: I guess the first thing that's interesting to me is that if you were to tell someone who hadn't heard this CD that it was an avant-garde session from August 1965 with two tenor saxophonists, they'd probably imagine something quite different from what appears on this album. Six weeks prior to this session, Coltrane recorded Ascension, and Pharoah would join his live band about six weeks later. But this music is almost the opposite of Trane's ecstatic, spiritually-oriented 1965 recordings -- it's an extremely introverted and cerebral date. And it's also different from another a-g prototype -- the more "folky" (for lack of a better term) sound of Ornette's group with Dewey Redman. You have two of the most "brainy" tenors of the era matching wits, slithering and snaking past each other. The second thing that's interesting to me is that it's one of 5 albums recorded by Miles Davis's sidemen for BN between E.S.P. and the Plugged Nickel engagement -- the others are Maiden Voyage and 3 Shorter albums. Personally it's my favorite or 2nd favorite, depending on how I feel about Et Cetera on any given day. But it's quite different mood-wise than most of those other albums or the two Davis recordings I mention. The third thing is that Sam was Wayne's immediate predecessor in Miles's band. Each has a very distinct sound and identity, but in listening to this album I'm struck by their similarities as well. That very thoughtful, dry sound. On a few of the tracks they have a very hypnotic synergy -- like those haunting trills that open up "From Before". I have a flight to catch tomorrow morning but I'll write more thoughts on the individual tracks later in the week. Guy

Jim, you rock Guy

I just saw it. It wasn't bad. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I was 11. Two things worth mentioning: as good as Depp is, I think Mike Myers would have been PERFECT for the role of Willy Wonka. Second, the movie included one of the funniest nods to Kubrick that I've ever seen.

I have Return of the Candyman, which I remember is pretty good but haven't heard in at least a few years. I'll get back to this thread if I listen to it again. Guy

5 drummers who I really like: Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette, Elvin Jones, Paul Motian, Ed Blackwell

Aren't the Knicks still loaded with huge, bloated contracts? Granted, James's contract isn't the most egregious in the league, but he's not worth $6M/year. I'll be money that his numbers will be closer to his career averages than to his fluke performance against the Kings. The Knicks still stand a good chance of missing the playoffs in the flimsy Eastern Conference. Guy

report: Knicks sign center Jerome James

Not a bad compilation, I agree. Guy

I have to agree with the Hot Rats recommendation as the most obvious place to start if you are interested. We're Only In It for the Money is overall a better album (surprisingly nobody's mentioned it yet) musically than Freak Out though probably not as innovative. Guy

Brown is going to be an underachiever for the rest of his career, but it's not like you guys are giving up a whole lot (or even half a lot) for him. Caron Butler, Chucky Atkins and Devean George are all expendable mediocrities. Guy

I hope his health gets better -- it looks like a very serious illness... Guy

1. Extras 2. Echoes 3. From Before 4. Love Song 5. Tee Tony Williams: drums Sam Rivers: tenor saxophone (1, 3-5) Wayne Shorter: tenor saxophone (1, 3, 5) Herbie Hancock: piano (3-5) Gary Peacock: bass (1, 3-5)

Woohoo -- I listened to the 90 minute The Man & The Journey suites today for the 1st time. Very cool! Guy

That might just be because his voice is completely gone at this stage.

I agree -- this would be an outrage. Guy

Can't listen to the Wall anymore (which is OK, because between the ages of 14 and 18 I heard it hundreds of times). Waters's whining voice just bugs the crap out of me, and even some of the better music just doesn't need to be heard anymore. Stuff I still like almost enough to listen to again: "Mother" (best tune on disc 1), "Goodbye Blue Sky", "Nobody Home", "Is There Anybody Out There", "Comfortably Numb" (though this one I can fast forward through mentally ). Side 2 (after GBBS) is pretty bad, and side 4 (after RLH) is awful. "The Trial" is just plain embarrassing. Even when I was 14, I knew it was terrible. Guy

I don't remember the book that well -- read it in high school, I think. But it stayed pretty faithful to the book. (Though how did the aliens arrive on earth in the book -- was it similar to the movie?) Anyway, for some reason I didn't find the movie itself engaging. Not sure why (maybe because I knew how it would end?). HOWEVER, they definitely managed to convey the complete and unrelenting terror/horror of the situation. There weren't any bullshit heroics (with the possible example of the cage scene), just people doing what they need to survive. I dug that. The cabin scene was excellent, though it looked like Ripley would have done better than Tom Cruise's character. I agree about the ending being a little over the top -- that's when they did dip into the Independence Day bag (with the soldiers doing their thing), and it wasn't that necessary. They should have stuck more faithfully to Wells's ending. The one thing that bugged me in terms of consistency was that some electrical devices worked and others didn't. How the hell did people have functioning digital cameras and camcorders at the crash site? Guy