Scott Dolan

Right. Onward and upward.

I didn't disparage you in any way, but now you call me dishonest? And I'll have to take your word on erwbol since I cannot see his posts.

I am sure that you, like most people, are just thrilled when you are talking to someone in person who interrupts you and abruptly changes the subject. I am sure that you immediately accept that what you were going on about was really not important and that a subject change is just what is called for. Not an apt analogy, sorry. Steve made a general point, and almost everyone participating in the thread responded, and the conversation continued on naturally. Even the person who started this thread said he had no problem with it. You're the only one complaining.

I got to see him perform at the Port Charlotte Cultural Center maybe 15 years ago. He had complete command over all of his horns, and his band was smoking. Wonderful musician.

I think Beijing set the bar so high for opening ceremonies that everything that comes after it will seem rather silly.

Much appreciated, gents. Both KEF and B&W keep entering my realm time and time again. They may not be in the mix today, but tomorrow is another day. Truth be told, both have been in the fold MANY times during my research period. And there's no reason to think they won't be again. As I said, my speaker buying process is quite fluid. And sometimes for a long period of time. I want the best bang for the buck. BTW, J.A.W., those KEF speakers you linked to are anything but ugly. I think they're quite attractive.

Though you and I seem to be at odds more often than not ( and perhaps accidentally), we definitely agree here.

So, I'm still hemming and hawing over my new speaker purchase. Which I knew would happen because I'm well-known to take more than a year researching speakers before I finally pull the trigger. Does anyone have any recommendations? I want to stay under $1,500. So far I've somewhat narrowed it down to PSB Speakers Imagine B (mostly because their headphones are simply mind-blowing), Dynaudio X14, and I've recently started falling in love with the Zu Omen Bookshelf. The full-size Zu Omen is a slight consideration, but with my Velodyne sub I really want to go with stand mounts. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I kinda figured.

I thought it was a great discussion. Well, aside from the cat ranting against Hamid.

You must have studied some really bizarre math, because the comment from Steve that somewhat derailed the Miles Davis discussion happen in post #153. And 152 is not 20% of 209.

Yep, that pretty much sums up my feelings as well. I actually enjoy conversations that branch and evolve. It keeps things interesting. I generally dislike linear, one-dimensional conversations.

I've always wondered if those who gripe about multiple subject changes in a thread berate people in person whenever they change the subject.

Painter's Spring. YES! Good catch. Not sure whether I typed that, or was auto-corrected.

Absolutely not. He's a competent, demi- 'eclectic' drummer-- big deal. But he's got the look so oooo, he must be 'awesome.' Hardly, or rather, hardly exceptional or exceptionally interesting. Revere Chauncey Morehouse, Vernell Fournier and Osie Johnson and on down the line and by the time you get to Hank or Hamid Drake... why would anyone bother, except somebody's gotta make the gig. Sorry, I find your assertions incredibly foolish. If you don't like him, that's fine. But you sound like someone ranting that Miles Davis is overrated while tossing out a bunch of more obscure trumpeters who you think are better. Highly regarded Jazz artists are such because they earned it. Not because they have a more powerful PR team.

So Drake doesn't deserve the accolades and reverence he receives? Who do you blame? The mainstream media? I can't even comprehend how somebody in one of the more largely ignored music genre's, listened to almost exclusively by the hardcore, can somehow be over-rated or "over-revered".

Agreed on Parker and Schlippenbach, xybert. European Improv does absolutely nothing for me. It's cold, mechanical, and uninteresting. It is exactly the opposite of American Jazz. I can get behind cats like David Murray, Joe Lovano, Branford Marsalis, William Parker, Ellery Eskelin, Hamid Drake, Daniel Carter, Cooper-Moore, David S. Ware, Kenny Garrett, etc... All modern day players. So I agree with Steve in principle. There are still many great players out there to listen to and celebrate. Just this past year I really got into Fredrik Kronkvist quite a bit. A wonderful young "inside" player. I've never seen someone play so effortlessly. I suppose his 20ft wingspan helps, but he's really amazing just to watch play. Super nice cat to chat with as well.

Two quick notes here. I'd say that essentially letting Manning call the entire game from the LOS, and allowing him to audible at will, is most definitely a textbook example of "loosening the reins". I have absolutely no idea how you can argue otherwise. He's as close to being a player coach that we've ever seen in the NFL. Secondly, there is no way to know how McKown would have fared against a defense like Seattle's. Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffrey are two mammoth WRs who would have posed all kinds of match up problems for that Seattle secondary. And the fans were correct that the Bears should have dumped Cutler and drafted a QB this year while having McKown as a rock solid insurance policy. Or hell, even do it like they did back in the old days and develop the youngster for a year while McKown holds down the fort.

The Texas Rangers thank you for noticing that Texas is now a city, one bigass giant city with some, but not all, areas waiting to be populated by people, places, and/or things. Rick Perry, Mayor of Texas! I should have said city or state. Thanks for being a douche.

Nor would I. There is some excellent playing across all of those discs. And remixing everything back down to mono greatly improves the sound quality over the original Pablo CDs.

Agreed. I got to see Hamid play at Viz back in 2007. And I watched him from the balcony above looking straight down on his kit. His economy of movement is even more startling from that angle. And naturally, he tore the shit out of the joint. I still think his playing on Parker's Painted Spring (with one of my all time faves, Daniel Carter) is some of the best drumming I've ever heard. No era barred. Oh, and there is nothing great about Gary Sisco. He is quite possibly the most miserable human being to have ever lived. And his street corner ranting becomes less and less impressive the more you study it.

I simply can't let politics cloud my appreciation of the accomplishments of the Olympic athletes. They have worked their asses off to get there. Ugly history aside, they deserve their moment.

I wasn't even aware the board had a clock. Or are you just referring to time stamps on posts?

You don't think Dungy or Fox "loosened the reins" when it came to Manning? It just manifests itself in a different way. As I said, perhaps we need to reconsider what "system" really means. And you have to include Young's days with Tampa Bay (the only professional sports franchise not named after a city, BTW). And when you do, it really damns him as a "system" QB, going by the standards you and I have set here. Just as Montana was mediocre in KC. The only problem I have with it is that the mobile QB was in prototype mode back in the days Young was in Tampa Bay. Just as Marino himself said recently, he would most likely throw for 6,000 yds with today's rules. And therein lies the problem with everything we're discussing. Different era's. Manning is somewhat the last of his kind when you really get down to it. The concrete-footed pocket passer is quickly becoming extinct.

Larry, here's what I'm not understanding about your point (which is otherwise sound, mind you). You make it seem as though less mobile QB's are simply system QB's. As though the more athletically gifted QB's play in a less stringent/complex/whathaveyou system. That simply isn't true. Seemingly you're saying Denver's system playbook is Moby Dick, while Green Bay's is a pamphlet that reads, "run like hell when you're first option is covered". That just doesn't make any sense. It kind of relates to Bum's famous "his'n and your'n" statement he made about Coach Shula many moons ago. Bill Walsh had the ultimate plug-n-play system. Belichick has one now. But at the end of the day, let's be perfectly honest here. Dan Marino didn't re-write the record book because he wasn't athletically gifted. And he did it with no running game to speak of. The Dolphins under Marino hardly ever saw a 7 man box, let alone 8. Manning didn't re-write Marino's re-written record book because he's not athletically gifted. Neither were mobile, but it hardly mattered. They had such incredible minds, and such quick releases that they never had to worry about getting flushed out of the pocket very much. Hell, if nothing else you could say they were far superior to these other cats because they made the plays that were drawn up, work! As for Young being better than Montana? You won't find many that will agree with you there. As I've been getting at with this post, they simply got things done in different ways. And even though Young was quite mobile, he didn't play the game as Cunningham/Favre/Vick/etc. did. I guess perhaps we need to reconsider what the term "system" actually means. Though, I suppose we could at least both agree Barry Sanders was NOT a "system" running back. And I would like to apologize for my minor "outburst" yesterday. Truth be told, I'm rather enjoying our conversation.