Scott Dolan

??? You don't put salt on water melons or cantaloupes? What is this madness?!

My wife swears Five Guys burgers are really good. I've never eaten there. I am a huge In & Out fan, but only get to eat them when we vacation out west. I think they're the best fast food burger.

My son works at one of our local Sonics. The dogs are...eh. I'll get their foot long chili cheese Coney if I'm feeling too lazy to make my own. If you keep your expectations at an appropriately low level, they're not all that bad. Avoid their onions like the plague, though. And speaking of salty beef, the last time I ate a McDonalds burger was four years ago. I swear they cured that fucking thing in salt! Never again...

I completely agree. Even my wife remarked on how skinny they are last night. But, like I said...slaw dogs...

It's a fair enough trade off, I suppose. But Nathan's aren't the better of the two, IMO. They are quite good, though.

We actually made some Nathan's last night, but it's because we made slaw dogs. Those can get rather dicey with the much fatter Hebrew Nationals. We love handmade natural casing dogs, but nobody has them around here.

They're the best mass-produced hot dog on the market, IMO.

Oh, of course. I don't think any physical formats that were long time industry standards like LP and CD once were will ever completely disappear. It's really akin to Classical and Jazz as music genres. They'll never completely disappear, but they'll never be anywhere near as popular as they were in days gone by.

Well, actually everyone should know. The CD boom era was over more than a decade ago. Currently, CD sales are next to nonexistent.

"Current professionals"and actual Tour players are two completely different things, Paul. I'm not sure if you're making that very important distinction.

Sorry, that's just ludicrous.

Funniest typo of all time: "Japan currently has one active record manufacturer that makes limited qualities of new releases,"

I had no idea James Blake had retired from the men's tour... There's someone who, unfortunately, never realized his potential, IMO.

I certainly wouldn't minimize someone a few years shy of 60 beating 30-somethings at tennis.

Pardon my ignorance of the term, but what is an "installation"?

Same here, HP. Not say that Beefy hasn't seen younger audience members, but I'm not sure Snarky Puppy, as awesome S they are, are Jazz. Nor do I think they'd lead very many TO explore Jazz. I could be completely wrong, and would he quite happy to be, in this case. But like HP, I've seen no evidence that points to Jazz becoming more popular to younger generations.

Commodification? Seriously?! If what the "young lions" are doing is meant strictly to sell units, I'd call that a failed endeavor. Jazz ain't exactly flying off the shelves. I haven't looked at the numbers, but I'd think it's safe to say "Smooth" Jazz still has the best sales these days. And even that has to barely be paying the bills.

So Johnny Mac is talking out his ass? This is a shocking development!

So they own Swing? BeBop? Post-Bop? Isn't that akin to saying tribute bands own the music of the group they're paying tribute to? I guess I'm not following what you're saying very well.

??? The Neo Con movement, as you call it, is all about lionizing the exact same styles of Jazz that is discussed here 99% of the time. Does that make us members of said movement?

That's been my experience as well. I've not met anyone with an appreciation for Jazz since we've moved to Missouri. Funny story: When we lived in Florida, the Charlotte County Jazz Society used to have an open jam session every Sunday afternoon at a local club. They essentially rented the place out for a few hours, and it was only Jazz fans, and members of the Society, that attended. Well, once I found out about it, my wife and I decided we were going! So, we walk inside and it's blue hair city. We were the youngest people there by multiple decades almost across the board. We stood out like a sore thumb. As we're sitting at the bar waiting for the session to start, this elderly black cat strolled over, shook our hands, and introduced himself. He had this look on his face of, "I hate to be the bearer of bad news", and then explained that this wasn't the usual scene and that it was a jam session for the Jazz Society. I said, "oh, yeah! That's exactly what we came for!" He looked stunned. He profusely apologized and said, "we just never get people here your age!" Come to find out, he was actually the President of the Society. Became good friends with both he and his wife, while attending MANY jam sessions throughout the rest of the time we lived there. Unfortunately, I'm in the camp that doesn't believe for one second that older Jazz fans are being replaced with younger Jazz fans. Or at least the gain/loss ratio is HEAVILY skewed in the loss category. Hell, think about it. I'm 47, and likely one of the youngest posters here!

But it's hard to walk away from a passion project. All I'm saying is that they've earned the right to say as much. Not that they have/want/need to. There's also denial. And they've earned the right to that as well.

Excellent post, Lon. I think if any company has earned the right to say, "our work here is done", it's Mosaic.

So they shouldn't bother reaching out to their customers at all?