Dan Gould

I don't think its any surprise that the Indians are throwing in the towel at this point, with three clearly better teams ahead of them. But this is good news for our friend Conrad. The only problem will be if Atlanta uses Wickman so much, his arm actually falls off.

My point is that is of no consequence to me.

"The Monsters are DUE on Maple Street." Good call, Jazz Kat, and the correct title really sums it up properly.

The bottom line for me, Red, is that any "criticism" based on the record company vis a vis Parker's strings album is totally worthless as it will never tell me anything about the music contained therein. Call me crazy or old fashioned but I read music criticism to learn about the music, usually with an eye toward whether or not I am interested in the album. Anything else is an intellectual circle jerk.

That warning is not strong enough!!! ooof ... Theisman... nice that LT was on top of the call for the medic. If you haven't seen it, as bad as Theisman is, Big Sid's is a hundred times worse.

That warning is not strong enough!!!

Hearing from Mike Weil that his August holiday plans would necessitate an early shipment of BFT discs leads me to suspect that there may be others in a similar situation. So if its OK, I'd like to open up this signup thread for those who plan to be out of town for some portion of August and would still like to participate in my BFT. Since I offered to switch places and take over the August slot it dawned on me that August is pretty much the slowest month around the 'O' so I'd like to ensure maximum participation in this BFT. I just completed the selections and sequencing and I am rather pleased with the resulting flow of tunes across the two discs. So, anyone who is interested in early BFT 39 service, please email dangould@hotmail.com with your particulars. If you are interested in using yousendit.com as delivery service for MP3s, please indicate. I haven't uploaded anything yet but if there is interest I certainly will use it. Apologies to Matt for starting in on this early, thanks for your consideration, and of course the discussion threads will not be started until the appropriate time. UPDATE: Current signups (snail mail) (italics signifies early shipment): Bright Moments dutchmanx mikeweil Magnificent Goldberg Stereo Jack Stefan Wood Durium Jim R. Jim S. Current signups (yousendit download division): Tooter King Ubu Steven marcoliv couw Sidewinder md6553221

Funny Rat forum I can see, since this seems to be the single thread that attracts all of the out or semi-out (or maybe I should just say "diametrically opposed to the Wynton-Crouch vision of jazz) music that obviously has a following. Book Club I don't see, threads about favorite books can be created separately and don't really need their own forum.

It was the day before. Padilla, maybe?

Great episode and one of my favs. too. Lot of autobiographical commentary on "Stop at Willoughby" Serling was overworked and stressed. I saw a few TZs last night. I really enjoyed "Dead Man's Shoes." A body is dumped in an alley. A homeless guy takes off the snazzy pair of shoes from the body, puts them on, and becomes transformed in such a way that he takes on characteristics of the dead man. He then goes out to avenge the murder. In the end, after taking out one of the gangmembers, he too is shot. With dying breath he says, "I'm gonna be back. I'm gonna keep coming back. I'm coming back till I get you, Johnny!" The body is dumped in the alley and another homeless person takes the shoes. I thought I'd seen them all but that one sounds like a classic I've never seen.

Stanley's Latest

That's the beauty of this game, ain't it? Your team may play so bad over a stretch you think they couldn't beat their AAA team, then they go and beat up everyone in sight. You never know what will happen next. Yeah but that was before the news came out following yesterday's win: Wakefield - stress fractured rib - out 3-4 weeks. The row to hoe just got a lot tougher. I only hope that Theo can ignore the pressure to do something just for the sake of it. Wells isn't far away now, and maybe Clement can return in early August too. Its going to be tough with big question marks in the four and five slots but they don't need to sell off the farm for a short-term solution. I am not sure what to think about Beckett being extended for three years, plus an option year. On the plus side there's no doubt that he signed cheap. Beckett at three years for 28 mill plus a 2 mill signing bonus (if the option is picked up its 4 years, 40 mil) makes 5/55 for AJ Burnett look incredibly stupid. On the other hand, I really figured they would at minimum see if he can pitch effectively for a full year with no shoulder or blister problems before they'd commit. I think a big part of that decision was the knowledge that there would be alot of money chasing the free agent pitchers this off season, so they save alot of money by getting it done now. I'm also uncertain about his overall effectiveness in the AL. The record is excellent, the ERA not so much. I know that the ERA is largely a function of five or so really awful starts. When he's bad, he's really bad. I'd accept it more though if it would look as though he were learning from the experience. In the NL, he could rely on the heat and blow people away. In the AL, he seems to be too damn stubborn to learn how to mix his pitches. I absolutely hated it when he said a while back "I'm a feel pitcher" as in, if I'm feeling my fastball and not my curve, I'm just gonna throw that fastball all day long. Yeah, and the Yankees kept reversing that fastball and sending it over the wall. The guy's a thrower, not a pitcher. Pitching is the art of throwing the right pitch at the right time to the right place. Its not pounding fastballs in, pitch after pitch. He's got a lot to learn to fully live up to his potential, but overall, I'm glad that the Sox locked him up at a cheap rate. You can bet that there are pitchers and agents who are mighty pissed off at Josh for taking this salary, when he could have gotten more in the off-season, and much more if he'd waited until his free agency. And meanwhile the Yanks are facing the Blue Jays at just the right time: Hillenbrand has talked his way off the roster, and they've got injuries that have already depleted their offense. I can just see the Yanks taking three of four, but by the time we play Toronto, the offense will be back and they'll smack us around some more.

And how precisely does that relate to music criticism? You think its informative to use the music industry to criticize a particular work or particular album???

Very sorry to hear of your loss, Kevin.

Finally the Yankee streak is over, and the Sox make it back-to-back 1-0 victories. And according to the Globe there were smiles all around after Wells pitched his simulated game this morning. The lead is only a scant 1 1/2 but we've got Schill going tomorrow at home while the Yanks have to face the Blue Jays in Toronto, Halladay tomorrow and Burnett on Friday. I kinda like our chances to hang on to first through the wekend - and that's how I'm taking it now, day by day, week by week.

Thanks. I presumed the link was to the article. Didn't realize it was to the website, which has now been properly bookmarked. Hope these come out early in September, I'd love to get a few for my b-day.

You didn't ask me but I don't think this carries any importance. Looks like an internal restructuring that happens to use the "Blue Note" name because of its cachet. Now if they shuffled off some of the marginal to non-jazz acts to a new label Lifestyle Music For Lifestyle Folks, that would be good news.

I presume this would be the Golson-Morgan-Timmons-Merritt Messengers, right? Mike Fitzgerald's Blakey chronology isn't entirely clear.

I'm afraid to ask how Marxism informs his music criticism. But that's only because our friends Alex and the Red Menace have managed to keep their politics from their music commentary.

Hey Big Al What do you think should be done with that pitcher of yours for getting a bases loaded comebacker and not even glancing at home (or his catcher yelling for the ball) but just calmly turning to first for the "sure out"? What a maroon. Should I take the easy out and give up a run or get the force at home and maybe a double play? Whatever happened to what I was taught in little league: Before every pitch, think to yourself what you're going to do if the ball is hit to you?

Oohhh Man, how was the sound check!? Used sound technique on the check. Introduced him firmly to the (sound) board and like any good engineer, made sure that the band didn't want to go anywhere near the board again.

Although the Braves won't admit it, I don't think they're trying to win the Division, Brad. They'll be plenty happy to make the playoffs the other way. Heck, maybe it will even change their post-season luck to be the wildcard! In the meantime, you Met fans have to hope and pray that you can pull of a deal for a starter or two, and that Pedro comes back strong and manages to stay strong through October. And the beat goes on in the Bronx, thanks to an unbelievable and stunningly bad call in the ninth. I hope that MF of an ump spent that rain delay looking at the tape, knowing that if he had called it right, as any a-hole with eyes would have, Damon's sac fly would have been out number three, and everyone's heading out for a late dinner instead of waiting for the rain to stop. What, the Yankees aren't playing well enough, they get the *&#$ umps help too?

You completely missed the campaign to have him included in the special negro league HoF group? I am afraid you are going to have to turn in your baseball fan membership card at once.

Don't think I mentioned him by name but youngster Jon Lester may have "arrived" today. He goes to 5-0 with eight innings of one hit, shutout ball, and did it while nursing a one run lead for the last three innings. About the only thing you can criticize is that he walked 4 -and maybe that it happened against the Royals. The only thing keeping him from being more impressive has been his overall command - he gets batters out but seems to throw a lot of pitches to do it. That's what was so impressive about tonite, the fact that he went a career high eight innings in 99 pitches. I honestly was hoping Francona would let him try to finish it out and have Papelbon come in if he allowed a baserunner, but with that slim a lead, it was the smart thing to go to Paps. So the kid is now 5-0 with an ERA of just 2.38. No, he's not Liriano, but its still exciting to see him pitch like this! Dave, I don't know if the Yanks will pull it out but you can't say that Ponson pitched himself out of a job.

PM incoming!