Dan Gould

The fact that Reggie Bush is already at the center of a major scandal regarding illegal compensation says all I need to know about this situation. Its about time USC pay the consequences.

Anna Nicole: stripper bimbo of no discernable talent, "famous for being famous", lived a sad, pathetic life. Was a punchline long before she came to a sad end. Barbaro: Champion, might have been historically great, suffered hideous accident yet gallantly held on until medical science could do no more. Aside from the fact that one is a horse and one is a human, I'd say the reactions are fairly normal.

Found a third batch - I wonder how many of these existed? Maybe not the best batch, but there you go. Hopefully there are a few more.

A-rod is downright cheap to the Yanks: $16 million is what I have heard. I believe that Texas pays in every year of the contract he signed. If he opts out, the contract is void, Texas is off the hook, and whoever signs him pays it all.

and he has an opt-out clause at the end of the 2007 season. That's what everyone is talking about. I am sure that regardless of what happens on the field, Boras will press hard for A-Rod to opt out and enter free agency at 32 instead of three years from now at 35. He may get a little less average annual value, but he'll get more years, and its certainly a better idea to enter free agency at 32 than at 35. A-Rod either leaves, or parlays a strong season into an extention with the Yanks.

I guess the saddest part is that her baby girl won't have a mother. Then again, looking at the choices Anna Nicole made, that might be for the better. Be interesting to find out the cause - was there still pending litigation on her inheritance from her second husband? I always felt she got a raw deal there, but it hardly matters now.

Give it a day or two and I'm sure there are plenty who will come to its defense. but now you know where I stand.

That "other" one is a snoozer, Noj. Be sure and get the KD first.

I was fortunate to snap this up when it was a regular reissue in the late 80s, and I've always loved it. I think every session Kenny Drew did on the label is a keeper.

Um, yeah ... Knowing the true background, all makes sense now.

I have a hard time believing that any town in Texas could be named 'Humble'.

How does one change their user name? PM Jim.

Too bad it has to be female. Giacomo Gates is my favorite current jazz singer.

(Hope its OK that I've posted his "demonic guitar phallus" on a family board) Now that I've seen the picture, the silly-quotient is even higher. I mean, first of all, compare that to Jimmy Connors shoving his racket between his legs and stroking it.

I saw this report, but having no use for Prince (and rapidly losing interest in the outcome of the game) I did not watch the half-time festivities. Any pictures of this so-called "phallic" shadow?

Well, ya' know, some people's choices make other people uncomfortable because daring to dream, much less acting on the dream, scares the shit out of them... Jim, That may be true for some, but I find it to be a gross overgeneralization. I can only speak for myself, but it has nothing to do with being scared. Any musician certainly has the right to go in any direction that they choose. However, my concern is for the music to speak to me. If it does, I am pleased and continue to give it my listening time. If the music is not to my taste, then it will no longer get much, if any, attention from me. I don't begrudge Joe the right to go in a direction different from what I like. But I so very much enjoyed some of his playing with Cannonball and Ben Webster that I had hoped to hear much more of that playing I dug so much. It was disappointing to me that he never made a swinging trio album with perhaps the Cannonball rhythm section. However once Zawinul moved in a different direction I gave my attention to others that were far more to my personal taste. The only reason this diverse commentary has taken place is because it looked as if Joe was being disrespectful to Barry Harris (One of my alltime favorites) as well as to others who played in a style he no longer chose to pursue. A number of posts came to Joe's defense by, in a number of cases, suggesting that Joe was a marvelous innovator who made important contributions to the music. I don't happen to see him in that light, but hey, different strokes...

Thanks for the offer, Marla, but I'm in south Florida. My friend is coming through for me and will stick the VHS tape in the mail by the end of the week.

Programming no longer works on it. My best option is to shoot a message to a buddy who has Tivo, and try to watch it the next time I visit.

Well, add it up Matthew: An extremely prickly, completely self-centered personality who plays the race card whenever he can who undoubtedly cheated to attain famous records the more interesting question is why he has any fans at all. Are people in San Francisco blind to the evidence that he cheated (and laundered money and cheated the IRS, etc. etc)? Do they just love the guy to go against the rest of the world? Is it just because he plays for the local nine? In a better world, he'd have been booed out of the game years ago.

Well I am f-ing pissed. My local PBS station is running this at 3 AM Wednesday and 4 AM a week from Sunday.

I think this is cruel. She drove all night, was picked up by the cops around 4 AM and questioned until 5 pm, and then this picture was taken. How much of this is stress of the previous 24 hours vs some sort of break down?

I just heard on CNN that there are new pending charges of attempted murder in the first degree. Did she do something that hasn't been reported beyond using the pepper spray? I don't see how you get to first degree attempted murder otherwise.

I can hardly tolerate Billy Joel these days, and had no idea that he was singing the national anthem, but it doesn't surprise me they'd try to fix his voice. What I've seen of him in the last few years, its obvious he's lost more than a little vocally.

Bud Selig must be quaking in his boots: Bonds wants to play in 2008 and quite possibly beyond When I heard his agent say something about 1000 home runs, I laughed, but apparently Bonds won't be satisfied with limping past Aaron. In fact, he initially asked for an easily attainable vesting option for 2008. Thank God the Giants didn't give in on that. But it looks like the only thing that will save us from Bonds is an indictment, or (and this may be more likely) no one offering him a job for 2008 (certainly the Giants seem totally committed to severing ties after this season - but who knows if somehow he doesn't break the record this year?)

Fortunately for you, there are literally hundreds of people who stayed in the same line that Zawinul deviated from 30 years ago still recording records that sound like stuff from 1950. Unfortunately for those who enjoy where Zawinul went, there are precious few people who followed him and even less that have branched off from there (if any). Perhaps that says something about where Zawinul (and others) went.