Dan Gould

I'll be interested to learn more about the Jess Willard title defense in Havana. My understanding has been that Johnson wanted to see his dying mother and therefore agreed to throw the fight to Willard so he could return to the US without the title, where he'd be less threatening to the prevailing order of the day. The evidence that the fight was thrown was pretty compelling to me: After being hit by a right cross, Johnson went down, but as he was counted out, he raised his arm to block the brutal Havana sun from his eyes, suggesting that he was in fact in full charge of his faculties and not knocked senseless. My father has a boxing book I used to look through, I guess it was a biography of Johnson. What I remember most is, in the photo section, there's a shot of a scowling Johnson, in his 50s or 60s, about to fight a very young opponent, late teens or early 20s. The caption said that Johnson won the decision!

Since the guy used "Buy it Now" that isn't really a measure of current value. You know the psychology-get it while you can before it gets bid up. I'd be curious if there have been any recently completed auctions to give a better view of the value.

So when do we start the discussion? I got four nailed already without working up a sweat! B-)

For a single session, I could do the transfer, Marty.

Yeah, I forgot to ask if I deserved credit for inspiring that bit of audio tomfoolery. Just think if anyone had real audio editing capability-with multiple track capability, you could take Armstrong's original "wonderful World" and add some Gee-Whiz noodling on top, really confuse people!

Yes, so unless you drove straight through and concentrated your jazz dial search to the evenings and overnights, I'd say its a good chance you'd miss some decent jazz programming. And for anyone attempting this in the future, remember that since jazz tends to get programmed on public stations and college radio, you can restrict yourself to the low end of the FM dial, and avoid that span that is apparently 50% country.

As far as I'm concerned, if Fathead didn't think it was "too soon" then there ain't nothin' "less than tasteless" about it.

Well I didn't get it yet and I'm only 7 miles away from you. Then again, you got the original from Serbia more than a week before I got it.

Am I the first guy in the States to get it? Just shuffled through the tunes, and I can't wait for the discussion to start, as I know I am going to set a personal mark for tracks identified! B-)

To be clear, I am not saying that stripping is never a last resort to homelessness. But to imply that every, or even a majority, of strippers are doing it due to extreme poverty is ridiculous. So, Alex, care to give us the Marxist interpretation of women who are adult film performers? I'm sure the marxist interpretion is fascinating. But you have to admit, its a unique industry, considering that women get paid thousands of dollars per week (or scene) but the poor men only get a few hundred dollars per money shot. Talk about being exploited! Those "stunt cocks" have to perform through multiple camera set-ups, with dozens of people watching, hot lights all around, and maintain their, shall we say, self-control, all for a few hundred dollars.

That's really weak and a crock of shit, Alexander. And really, I had no idea that Marx and Engels gave marxist interpretation of erotic dance. But the most ridiculous statement you've made is this: This is such a crock its a joke. There are so many middle class women stripping ... do you think anyone believes its a "last resort before homelessness?" Give me a f-ing break.

Thanks for the update. The Eric Alexander looks like a winner, and I have the first Philadelphians disc and its quite nice; a Volume 2 is a welcome sight!

On the negative side, this BFT surely set a record for me for tracks from albums I own, and I only definitively ID'd one, the Jack Wilson track. But I own #6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14 and 16 and 17 and have no excuse for missing Sweets. On the positive side, I did say "A James Moody Argo" so I'm counting that! So while I might have gotten 8 out of 17, at least I still set a personal mark with two correct. B-) Thanks again, Big Al.

Johnny Lyttle: The Soulful Vibes of Swingin' The Gate Gloria Lynn: Miss Gloria Lynn Harold Mabern: Rakin and Scrapin' The Leading Man Mabern's Grooveyard (the one to get!) A Few Miles From Memphis Joe Magnarelli: Always There Mr. Mags Kevin Mahogany: You Got What it Takes Double Rainbow Gildo Mahones: Soulful Piano of The Great Gildo Mike Mainieri: Blues on the Other Side Russell Malone: Look Who's Here Junior Mance: Blue Mance Truckin' and Trackin' Here 'Tis The Soulful Piano Of JR's Blues Big chief! and his Swingin' Piano Live at the 1995 Floating Jazz Festival Mance Groovin' Blues At Town Hall Volume II Manhattan Jazz Quintet: Funky Strut Shelly Manne: At the Blackhawk, Vol. 1 Perk Up Boss Sounds Lawrence Marable: Tenorman Dodo Marmarosa: Chicago Sessions Hank Marr: Sounds from the Marrk-Ket Place Live at Club 502

Funny, I thought your sense of speed came from that round guage below the dashboard. I'd suggest the real reason is that the vast majority of dingbats on the road haven't the common sense to recognize when conditions do not allow them to drive as fast as they normally do, so you have idiots going 75 in fog-bound conditions, and then you get 200 car pileups.

Well, I myself have the Ben & Sweets and Cat Meets Chick and the Burrell Euphoria CD but that doesn't in the least stop me from putting this at the top of my Mosaic wish list, with the Braff, Buck Clayton, et. al. in the set.

I didn't post on that one yet either--put me down on the "Before Easter" schedule too. Put me down on the "before Christmas 2005" list. That's the next time I plan to pull out all of the other jazz Christmas discs. B-)

I don't know if this isn't just a human response that combines modern technology and recent disasters. Look at the hoax photograph of the tourist on top of the WTC with the plane right behind him. That one was as ridiculous as this photograph (seriously, with the cars that close to the ocean and everyone's driving in a straight line, la di da, who could possibly believe that was real??) with the guy wearing a down coat on a warm September day.

Sorry that its not up to the standards of Nessa Records. Personally, of all the artists who might do Ray Charles tributes in the future, I can't think of anyone I'd rather hear than Fathead. So, Chuck, were you offended by Houston Person's tribute to Etta Jones?

A resounding NO. I have the opposite problem, but that's just cuz I'm a Virgo.

About 15 years ago, the Black Lion stuff - both Ben and Dex - really made me stand up and take notice of Kenny Drew, so it was great all around!

You're getting cause and effect mixed up, Scott. The taunting, etc., that you are applauding kids for happens only because its what they see their "heroes" do.

Funny you should ask ... ever since Sunday when I started working on another commemorative Red Sox flash movie, their victory song, "Tessie" by the Dropkick Murphys will not leave my head ... not even when I sleep. In case you're wondering, that's both a good and a bad thing.

I'm with Noj - respect the game and respect your opponents. Terrell Owens is world class in one thing-being a jackass. As far as Moss goes, he was, is, and always will be a punk and I hope his comeuppance comes very soon.

GoM, I believe recently there was an NYT article that reported this fraud and also went deeper into the whole issue of greater and greater fraud in the antiquities market, with special attention to this man.