Guy Berger

I was listening to the Warner Brothers set over the past few days, and came to the conclusion that Priester's "Wandering Spirit Song" is this group's crowning achievement in the studio. (I haven't heard any of the live stuff.) Some incredible stuff going on there. Guy

I think this is all amazing music -- my favorite period from this group. A Love Supreme probably belongs on this list stylistically (rather than with the earlier stuff) but I thought including it would distort the poll results. I also didn't include some of the unofficial recordings from the Half Note (coming out soon, I hope!) or Europe -- these are great, you can vote for them on "other" if you prefer. (Yeah, I know "Nature Boy" (on Quartet Plays) is a quintet.) Anyway, my favorite is Sun Ship. The most focused and intense -- this is where it all came together, a blueprint for a certain kind of playing, a group that went about as far as it could go and it was pretty damn far. It's hard for me to put some of the May and June stuff without thinking that I should be listening to this instead. I'll post more thoughts later if they come to me. Guy

Tribute arrived in the mail today. I'm itching to put it on but will try to hold off until Friday... Guy

Jesus, that's pretty good for just one viewing Mark. Were you using a cheat sheet? Guy

I had something similar happen to me a few months ago -- I somehow hurt my back and then stupidly aggravated it. Fortunately it was nothing serious but I'm more careful now... Or so I like to tell myself. Guy

By the way, putting Bowen on Billups near the end of the game was genius. I wish the Warrios had a perimeter defender like that... Guy

Slate ran the following article last week (which, to be fair, actually makes an excellent point): Sideshow Bob Also, Bill Simmons writes another Bob Horry tribute. Guy

I think that's what Ben calls the "Shaq Attaq". ← I think Duncan was watching Ben Wallace free throw shooting tapes during halftime. Guy

Prince of darkness (R Horry) rips the Pistons' hearts out... That guy is pure evil. I figure Spurs ice this thing in game 6, but it's not over until it's over. Guy

Bill Walton is such a fool Guy

I usually don't read this subforum, so maybe someone's brought it up already, but... On some of the older threads, the older posts are all screwed up -- the text is gone, the formatting is screwed up, sometimes the text even appears in the wrong post. I assume this kind of thing is inevitable when you're dealing with a huge database?

I'm listening to a bootleg of this group from Oslo in the spring of 1966 -- Charles's playing on this tune (and others) is phenomenal. Focused, aggressive. I wonder why it was so lackluster on the "famous" version? Guy

Tell them to memorize the path and close both eyes. You can never be too safe Guy

Shouldn't this be June 21st? You should wait until the previous AOTW is finished... Guy

You probably know that WW was around long before he started appearing on TV. ← I did not know that until I read the wikipedia article, actually. Guy

When did the cartoon Woody Woodpecker start running on TV? I'm asking because it sounds like Freddie is quoting Woody on the master take of"One Finger Snap" from Empyrean Isles (around 0:40-0:45). I noticed it yesterday and keep cracking up every time I hear it. ed: You can read all about Woody Woodpecker here. I didn't realize there was a "Woody Woodpecker Song" -- is that what Freddie's quoting? (Is the song the same thing as the crazy laugh? I only remember the laugh.) Guy

Jumpin' In arrived in the mail yesterday. Wow -- Steve Coleman is such a great saxophonist! (Nice quote of "Surrey with the Fringe on Top" on the title tune.) Time to dig out Extensions. I'll need to pick up more albums by this lineup, as well as other S Coleman albums.

lineup: I haven't heard this, but the lineup is extremely intriguing. Worth picking up? What does the orchestra sound like?

also nobody has mentioned it yet, but Kix is pretty good. do they still make that stuff? Guy

I mentioned it upthread -- his solo on the "Brain" is brilliant, and the Shorter '69 comparison is on the mark. (Though oddly, on McCoy's Tender Moments, he reminds me of Joe H.) That said, I don't think he could have replicated Wayne's brilliance or creativity in that setting on a regular basis. Maybe I'm wrong. Guy

Definitely an underrated player, both on tenor and bass clarinet. Bitches Brew wouldn't be the same without him. I also really like him on Chick Corea's Complete Is Sessions -- his solo on "The Brain" smokes! And of course, his work with Herbie (Mwandishi and the Headhunters) is classic. Guy

I guess I'm not sure what the proper course of action is for Microsoft. Censorship is fucked up, but my understanding is that Microsoft is merely complying with Chinese law. (If they were designing special software in order to facilitate Chinese censorship, that'd be a completely different kettle of fish.) I imagine other companies have to do the same. So it comes down to whether Microsoft should say, "Either you change the law or we're leaving." I'm not sure what the proper decision is -- we're talking about (easily evaded) government censorship, not about more horrific human rights violations. Blogs with partially effective gov't censorship are better than no blogs at all -- what would happen if western companies running blogs withdrew in protest? I think this is interesting, by the way, because it illustrates what living under a garden-variety dictatorship is like. Guy

As far as breakfast cereals I like the slightly sweet plain stuff - corn flakes, special k (or whatever the hell it's called). I've never been into the really sweet stuff -- if I want candy, I'll eat candy. Also (and this makes me really weird) I don't like milk in my cereal. I like my milk without floating chunks in it, and my cereal crunchy. Guy

I can't believe I forgot barley! Man cannot live on hefeweizen alone

somebody just upped an Ohio show by this group from a few weeks ago onto DaD. Guy