Dan Gould

Why are you jizzing over an edited version of music you already have? Do you think this 45 will sound special? I can (sort of) understand if you want to find an original pressing of this album but why you're fascinated by 45s is beyond me. But hey, congratulations!

Well I know you're not comparing me to a Scientologist, and I specifically said that I am not the kind of person who wants to believe. I've considered a lot of possibilities and find it impossible to reject the paranormal one.

So what's one more? Isn't it true that an unused hard drive would be the most stable way to save these files? I don't understand why you'd entrust them to a media without an established history of stability and reliability - especially since you're the first person I've heard who wasn't happy with T-Y blanks. Now, if you want to question whether CD burners will exist in two years, OK ...

If you really want to be certain to be able to play things in 20 years, why worry about the media you burn to, and just get a backup hard drive (or two), copy to that, and unplug the damn thing and store it away? Then maybe by then "alien materials" will be the Taiyo Yuden of the day.

No changes in diet. I am prepared to accept that Gracie had a seizure - though I really wish we could afford a visit with the vet at least for a consult but since we found a very cheap way to take care of their rabies vaccinations and heartworm tests recently, that's not going to happen unless something else medical pops up. But I have a very hard time with the idea that Coltrane was reacting to something that took place five hours later, or that he did so without once looking at Gracie, checking Gracie out (which he does all the time because when he's giving her kisses and finds a skin blemish from her allergies, he's all over it) or having anything to do with Gracie when it happened. On top of that, it was a classic extreme submission reaction, from a dog who doesn't submit to anyone. As for the question of "nothing much happening" for so long before this started, you shouldn't necessarily be surprised. For instance, its common that activity starts or radically increases, when a house undergoes renovations. Something about spirits being disturbed when "their" home is changed. No, we haven't done any renovating but I have a better example of sudden appearance of activity. Patty has a co-worker who has been living in the same apartment for a couple of years. There were one or two "strange" things happening but now Patty is trying to help this lady out because, out of the blue, activity has really spiked, and their activity is much more aggressive than anything we've had (as in, boyfriend being attacked in bed, feelings of suffocation plus bed sheets that are pulled tight around him, other things). And ironically enough, in January, the woman was concerned that the spirit was following her because she told the same story I did - her pants were tugged while she was on a ladder at work. She came to the front of the store and asked if someone had done it because she thought someone was playing with her. But no one did. (And let me repeat that this happened in January, so it doesn't explain what happened to me in December).

My first "I gotta find everything he recorded" artist and also the first whose death really bummed me out. I'll be spinning some Dex and remembering when I first discovered him and all of it was new. I think I might go with One Flight Up because that one was rare in the CD age but I was lucky to get it a cheap Liberty pressing in 1988 at Vintage Vinyl. And Swiss Nights Volume 3 with Dex singing Jelly Jelly.

And an aesthetic that I could care less about. I regard that "old" form as eternal and its practitioners as not remotely old or complacent. I'm not going to say that the people you mention were corrupting or destroying the blues, or that their "new aesthetic" was some abomination. But I will ask, where that new aesthetic go? Can't you draw a fairly direct line from it to the masturbatory guitar gods and bad-hair heavy metal guys? Perhaps if I had lived through the musical era we're discussing (as you and Lon did) I'd derive more pleasure out of it, but I didn't, and I can't.

Any other weird things happening? By any chance does anyone in the house practice the Wiccan faith? I ask because I don't know if playful Fairies would be naturally hanging out at your house, but my wife says that they do tend to appear where witches live.

Allen, Your comment "Everything you need to know about the post-1960s blues is there" encapsulates my lack of interest in this sort of thing. Yeah you could call me the blues police, but we are talking about (in part) the way blues influenced rock and rock came back around and influenced blues, right? As skilled as it may be (and I'd never say he's a wanker or a poser or anything like that), its not all blues and of the genres you can add to the blues, rock is the last one I want to hear. Soul Blues (yeah, MG on Little Milton!) the Blue Jazz of Gene Harris is all stuff I love. But blues rock sucks and I hear that performance as an early influence toward the way that style went. And, finally, its really telling - as far as my reaction goes - that you say "Thank goodness I heard it before I finished editing my 1960s rock history." (My emphasis) Also have to second the comment by John about "in your face" vs letting the music breathe more.

I am going to get slammed, but my reaction is, is that blues or rock? Hits my ears as much more rock than blues, and more than that, he sounds to me like the father of all the worst masturbatory "guitar gods" that came afterward. I can't even listen to the whole thing. My two cents.

I'm going with "real and spectacular".

Thanks, Jeff. I've been thinking about that Black Tornado disc, I guess it should definitely be next.

Magic Slim & The Teardrops I'd heard one or two discs before and thought they were solid Chicago blues but at Christmas I picked up Rough Dried Woman on Wolf which turned out to be an outstanding disc and now I've used a Barnes & Noble coupon to get a great price on a another Wolf releease, 44 Blues. My brother calls him "journeyman" and "not distinctive" but I beg to differ.

Well we don't have a video camera but since I do have a home studio for recording voice-overs I've actually thought about setting up the microphone and seeing if I pick up any EVPs like Jason & Grant of Ghost Hunters fame. Which reminds me - the best part of that show is, hands down, the lovely and curvacious Kris Williams. Check out this video "investigation".

Number one, there are no water dishes in our backyard. But more importantly, water doesn't have any effect on the toxin, due to the fact that the toxin isn't ever-present on the skin of a bufo toad, but secreted through the skin when they are attacked, as detailed in the link I posted. The reality is that Bufo toxin is so effective that ever since they were introduced into Florida - unintentionally - there are no predators to control their population growth. And as to your claim about the fatality rate of ingesting the toxin, how about this: http://floridagardener.com/critters/BufoMarinus.htm

You do not understand what toad toxin does to a dog, which is surprising considering that you lived in south Florida: If exposed to toad toxin sufficiently to create a physical reaction, it is fatal without medical attention. You don't pick and choose the symptoms, getting one or the other at different times of exposure. And nowhere have I found any statement that any dog develops a "tolerance" for it. It starts with copious drooling and extremely red gums - that's the immediate reaction to the poison in the mouth. When the poison gets swallowed, it effects the entire body, starting with the appearance of the dog being drunk as it cannot walk normally or not even stand. Then it convulses or seizes, and then it dies. That's what happens when a dog swallows toad toxin. Small dogs are more likely to succumb to toad toxin because the toxin overwhelms their smaller system. Gracie's survival when she has swallowed enough toxin has has always come through medical intervention and is probably also a function of her size. Your theory is completely wrong. http://www.healthyhomesforkidsandpets.com/articles/bufo.html This event occurred at 4:30 in the afternoon. And you completely ignore the fact that I was outside, watching the dogs. When Gracie has gotten into trouble with toads, she has grabbed one and run around with it. There was never a toad in her mouth on this day. We are on the lookout for toads at all times. And on top of this, your theory is utterly ridiculous when it comes to Coltrane. He is not afraid of toads. You seriously know not of what you speak.

No, because I am coming around to the idea that what my wife and her friend did has made a difference and I don't want to change the status quo (I'd be happy though if fewer things disappear).

No. I wouldn't suggest it and I don't think they'd consider it.

Paps, Would a dog anticipate a seizure that took place almost five hours later? That seems to be a very long time frame. It also doesn't make sense to me that his reaction would be to run away from Gracie, and into the house, or have such a strong fear/submission response - to nothing at all - when Gracie was in the back of the property all the while. On top of that, he is very mothering toward her, very protective. I find your theory at least as unlikely as the one about the animal scent being left behind (he pisses on unexpected scents). The noise in the house - the two knocks after I made my challenge to fuck with me not the dogs - came in the living room and away from all internal structural things that make noises (the only vent in the room was behind me and opposite to where the noise came from). There are no vents, A/C units or refrigerators anywhere near where the noise came from. The noise at my parent's house - the noise while I was sleeping was directly over the bed, in the middle of the room. I wondered if the floor lamp could have hit something but there was nothing for it to hit. The noise when I was getting ready for bed Christmas night did happen alongside the furnace in that end of the house. The books I mentioned are lined up in a book case that is built into the wall, and there is also a ladder that fits snug against the wall and allows access to the loft above the bedrooms. I stood in the bathroom the next morning and waited for the furnace to kick on because it did occur to me that some sort of vibration could have caused what I heard. Nothing happened when the furnace turned on. The noise might have been a shifting of the ladder so I tested that also but when I tipped it sideways, it took longer to settle back into the lip that secures it at the top than the noise lasted the night before. And it takes a substantial physical force to move that ladder. I wondered if my mom had come downstairs to check the thermostat simultaneous to my closing the door. She had not. Finally, on the pant-tugging, I thought I was clear but maybe I wasn't. I was not sitting in the chair. I was standing behind it. There was nothing behind me but air, and nothing could have gotten caught or snagged. A muscle contraction might make sense if I was George Costanza and had to explain my arm moving backwards. Aside from that, I'm doubtful. BW, believe me, we are intensely aware of the danger of toads in this area. Gracie has scared us too many times because her hunter's instinct gives her the overwhelming urge to grab any toad she finds (one of the reasons why I love this part of the year - cold weather=hardly any toads). Only briefly has Coltrane ever had an interest in the toads he sees, and we feel that our extreme reaction when he has gone near a toad has taught him well to stay away from them. So Coltrane has had no bad experiences with toads so he could hardly be reacting - and moving away from - something that has never harmed him. Gracie has never learned and in the warm weather months, at least once a week we will use a wash cloth to wipe out her mouth. Furthermore, she has on two occasions grabbed a toad and kept it in her mouth such that the toxin was ingested for too long for the mouth-washing to protect her. We've seen her after being toad-poisoned, and aside from the superficial similarity of drooling, this was nothing like that. And only immediate medical attention saved her. Had this been a toad and I had not realized it, she'd be dead.

Dave, My wife definitely does not participate in anything like "black magic" - she is very disturbed at this sort of presumption and has strong beliefs about the proper application of her faith as well as its deep roots in history (and I guess pre-history). But always, always, everything is done for good. The Ouija board thing might be related to their being "sensitive" to these things. I've never asked if they felt presences before the Ouija board experience but if the door really wasn't closed, maybe this is manifesting in that both of them can sense their grandfather's cologne, or have a sense of a presence in the house. As to the dogs, when it happened we could not afford to get the dogs (especially Gracie) checked out. They weren't on any medications. We did do some internet research on seizures and I've kind of gone back and forth on whether this was simply a seizure or something else. In the absence of Coltrane's behavior, I'd definitely assume it was a seizure. And yet, it seems that seizures tend not to be one-offs but start to happen more frequently. We've had no such things happen again. And as I mentioned to TK, the research my wife has been able to do found nothing sinister in the history of the house or the land, but its not really exhaustive either. As to the CT thing - I don't know what to say about this but today I just learned from my Mother that they have had an object disappear, too. One of my father's slippers disappeared a week ago. Looked everywhere for it, under the bed, and its just gone. I told Mom she should ask for their return, and she was wondering whether she should ask or should Dad, since it was his slipper? One thing about the disappearances - according to the high priestess of her Circle, if objects are returned, they were taken by the Fairies. If not, that indicates that they were taken by something less, shall we say, friendly. Her wands were never returned.

Now that's a theory we haven't considered. Does this still constitute a "paranormal" explanation or is it another way of saying that human imagination is at work? What exactly are "projections of living people"?

We bought the house exactly six years ago. The prior owner was a Korean couple - given their lack of English skills there isn't much point in asking them about any strange events. They were original buyers in this development in 1984, so I'd guess that nothing really crazy was going on considering how long they lived here. My wife discovered that before the land was purchased for this development, this was a nursery. She never found any indication of, shall we say, any "foul play" happening here.

A Jimmy McGriff CD I've wanted for a long time, with Rusty Bryant, Fathead and Mel Brown, a live set on Stax by Little Milton, and a Bobby Bland/Junior Parker compilation of early Duke sides. Very much so, especially since the whole things-gone-missing thing has started. Actually that reminds me that I skipped something else I said aloud to no one. I need to add that to my story now.

I think the theory goes like this: First of all, life is energy, and energy cannot be destroyed, it only changes form, right? But existing in a different plane, without a body to act upon things, means that spirits cannot just go around and, as you want to see, write out a note to someone to let them know they are there. The ability to interact or effect things is therefore limited. Has anyone seen the show Celebrity Ghost Stories? Some pretty interesting stories told there, like Sammy Hagar's story about the day his father died, he appeared at Hagar's apartment four hundred miles away, drunk, loud, belligerent, and Hagar pushed him out the door. Minutes later the call came - his father had died several hundred miles away. Wild story, and he sure sounds convincing when he tells it.

I am being completely sincere and accurate in the essay I wrote. I do believe something paranormal is going on, and attempted to explain what happened and why I favor the paranormal explanation. Nothing is a put-on. As to the question of help, I realize now that there are other choices, and it appears I can edit the poll still. So I changed the first choice and added a new one. If you can suggest another change please do.