Dan Gould

I was thinking that at that time, you could make a nice living as his valet - $100 a week buys a lot of 5 cent Snickers.

UP for the FINAL sale offer. Get them while they last. ALL CDs are now $5 each, shipped in the US without jewel boxes. Buy FOUR and choose ONE of the CDs previously listed at $5 at no additional cost, while they last. Jewel boxes still available for $1 each.

I hate to say it but that Jayson Stark article certainly suggested that despite how much time is left in the season, the odds are pretty long on making it to the playoffs after a start like that.

I find it interesting that Monk commanded pretty good money, pre-Time Magazine cover. But he couldn't gig in New York at the time and probably couldn't head to Philly regularly to make up the lost income because of the cabaret card situation. Stitt had a nice deal too. Even better if he didn't have to pay his pick-up rhythm section himself.

ROAD TRIP!

Not only is Jim S. correct in his description of that statement, its an obvious falsehood when you came here trying to get advice to help you decide between the LEGITIMATE Evidence reissues and the ILLEGITIMATE, ILLEGAL EVERYWHERE ON EARTH Andorran Pirate reissue. Or did you just want to bring this up so that people could rehash old arguments when you knew all along you'd buy the Lonehill? BTW, you seemed to use Andy Bleaden's post as a reason for purchasing from Lonehill when in point of fact, he said what does "the separates" mean? Lonehill is offering a single, complete package. Its Evidence that offers "separate" CDs.

Jayson Stark agrees. On a separate note, I now see that ESPN has truly taken the "pay for the good stuff" concept too far. Now, if you want to read USELESS INFO you have to PAY for it! WTF? Its "useless" but only available if you pay to be an "Insider". Ridiculous doesn't even come close.

Dave Bailey, still alive by the way, trying to pay the bills and making a living in the Jazz world, would probably thank you for buying it from the Lonehill pirates too. Don't go there, Kevin, or NoF will threaten to fit you for a halo, too.

Yeah, well that board member has an even smaller grasp of libel law than he does the first amendment.

Phil...I think he plays into all that "baby" stuff and "my wife" stuff, and it saves him every week. Notice, he mentions something about his family after EVERY performance.... He's no dummy. it has worked at least one week longer than Haley's "check out my legs" bit.

I got this for Christmas and spent an enjoyable afternoon reading her life story. I do recommend it, though I found her politics annoying, I wish she had spent more time talking about Alfred and the Blue Note years, and finally the book is short enough but feels padded with the list of the bookings at the Vanguard during the years she has run it, plus the list of live recordings. It would be far more interesting to see the list of bookings from the Max Gordon years, but at least the text does mention that Lorraine plans to publish that in an "appropriate" manner. I did find this statement toward the end of the book interesting: This seems quite high to me, unless it was for a larger than usual size band, and it leaves me wondering what she typically pays for a one week engagement, and just how profitable that club is.

Well you nearly got the right score and wrong winning pitcher. In all seriousness, did anyone else think that Hernandez was getting about four inches off the inside corner to lefthanded batters? It sure as hell looked that way. Having said that, its apparent to me that King Felix, if he stays healthy and doesn't get messed up in any stupid shit, ought to be everything that Dwight Gooden was supposed to be, and maybe more.

What I don't like is the way Aaron isn't coming out and saying that he doesn't believe its a legitimate breaking of his record. Everyone respects Hank and what he accomplished and maybe there are a few Barry fans who would actually take it to heart if Aaron said "I believe he used steroids, he should be banned from the game and his statistics erased from the books".

I'd say it certainly became clear a while back that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a case against any of the players.

Thanks to Allan for a wonderfully greasy compilation. I will go on record right now as saying that despite the paucity of guesses I am going to offer, I fully expect this BFT to set a record for inclusion of tunes I own yet can't recognize. Since one can only write "me likey" and "no name jumps to mind" so many times, I'll cut to the chase: 4) I believe this is Greg Hatza on organ, and I believe that makes it Paul Bollenback on guitar. 5) & 6) Clifford Scott, I believe. 10) This has a very strong early 70s Mainstream Records vibe. Pretty sure its Charles Williams, who put out three LPs on the label, some of which I really love, some get a little too time-bound for me (but I wouldn't get rid of 'em anyway). Allan, have you ever given us the scoop on how a Brit of a certain age became so deeply fond of African-American music, way back when? Were a lot of your mates the same way or were you alone in your deep passion for this style of music? Thanks again for the outstanding set of tunes. I'll try to give a listen to the bonus disc by the weekend.

And I have to say its beyond pathetic when Jennifer Lopez is advising singers on how to sing, considering that her voice sucks compared to most of the contestants.

At this point, I think it would be a crime if Melinda doesn't win. I think she's the very best pure singer they've ever had. Hopefully being the dreaded first position won't keep her fans from voting for her. I've never really felt that Haley's talents are nearly enough and I think that Simon has it right - she'd be well served to keep showing off her legs as much as possible. Sorry Lon, but I don't think she's necessarily gone just yet - I think the bald dude is. If anyone is good enough to take it from Melinda its Jordin, who has just blossomed into a poised performer. She's got a great future ahead of her, and might even be better suited to being the pop star that the winner is supposed to be than Melinda is. In a different era, Melinda would probably be a broadway star before she'd be a pop star. But I just love hearing her sing.

I don't get why I am not getting the $10 coupon but don't intend to get anything from them. I get along very well without them, doncha know.

I don't think they have serious interest in Ichiro. They need to be thinking about Andruw Jones as a replacement for Manny in the coming years; plus they've got Jacoby Ellsbury knocking on the door. Best hope may be that Coco has a real good year just to get his value back up, and then trade him next fall. There are a lot of excellent centerfielders who will be free agents, I am sure that there will be a market for Coco since his contract is on the cheap side (provided he goes back to punishing fastballs this year). As for Opening Day - I don't know what is nicer, seeing the bats come alive or Beckett being so good. I think at one point he'd thrown 60 pitches, 45 for strikes. That's just sick. As we've all said, its critical that he command his pitches better to get the most out of his fastball. Its way too early to tell (he started out pretty great last year, too) but it certainly looks good so far. I really want to see Drew's homer on ESPN - the radio call said that Ichiro took two steps in, which is really shocking on a ball that had to go 420 to clear the centerfield fence.

VCR ALERT: I hope everyone is ready to settle in Wednesday night at 7 pm ET on ESPN2, as Dice-K makes his Fenway debut against King Felix! I was under the impression that with the snow-outs, the King would make his scheduled start against Beckett this afternoon, but I can only guess that the Seattle manager (is that still Hargrove?) had a sense of the moment and is sending Jeff Weaver out today and King Felix on Wednesday. When was the last double no-hitter pitched? I recall a famous pitcher's duel where the losing pitcher had a no-hitter through 9 and the winning pitcher ended up with a perfect game, or something like that ...

My worst experience came in Tallahassee when Marcus Printup came to a club that doesn't even normally book jazz. It was a great night, and the group (they backed him on one of his BN albums) was certainly one of the better ones to show up in Tallahassee, but it was a Friday night at a club best known for hosting a lot of yuppies doing the mating dance. So the first two or three songs go by, people seem to be enjoying it, I surely am ... and then comes the first ballad of the evening. They're playing at about 1/4 of the volume of the previous songs, and the entire room erupted into conversation. They could finally say something to their companion so they damn well were going to start talking. Now, there was no cover, and few people were there specifically to hear the group, and I would bet that at least 80% hadn't ever attended a real, straightahead jazz concert in their lives. In short, I was seriously outnumbered and other than shooting death rays out of my eyes at every single individual near me, there was nothing I could do. But I tell you, I was pissed.

As usual, Lowe's post above is about as amusing as the one that got removed. A little early for the sauce, isn't it?

Yeah well our pathetic lineup made your sucky number four look like Cy Freaking Young today.

I watched the whole game Dice-K was VERY IMPRESSIVE !!! They might not be the toughest lineup he'll face (Sweeney and Grudzlienak got the day off) but Dice was indeed very impressive. So many weapons - and much better command, despite the temperatures, compared to his last two spring starts. Talk about drinking the Kool-Aid - I think I've downed a whole keg of the Dice-K flavor! Dan , did you see the post game show ? Eck was beaming , He couldn't get over the fact that Dice K pulled a Forkball out of his pocket ( those are his word's) late in the game . you can say it was only the Royals, but didn't they just beat Schilling. And the Royals starter was just as impressive pitched a heck of a game. No, I don't get NESN. I was only able to watch because DirecTV has their Extra Innings preview right now, and they only give you the home team broadcast. I wish money weren't tight at the moment, I'd plunk down for the Extra Innings package right now - Dice K starts are going to be like Pedro in 1999. Can't miss TV.