GA Russell

The Als named their coaching staff this morning. I had no idea some CFL teams have so many coaches. http://en.montrealalouettes.com/page/coaching-staff

Some may remember game show host Geoff Edwards from the '70s. RIP. http://www.latimes.com/obituaries/la-me-geoff-edwards-20140306,0,3793049.story#axzz2urQh0jAn

Herb Zurkowski tweets that Jim Popp has retained labor lawyer Gary Rosen. ***** Buffalo has announced that it will not play in Toronto this year. Remember when all of the reporters said that the Bills playing in Buffalo would put the Argos out of business? http://www.tsn.ca/nfl/story/?id=445309

TJ Hill signed today with the Redblacks. http://cfl.ca/article/hill-williams-among-three-inked-by-redblacks

Sonny today tweeted a confirmation of the May 6 release day.

Here's an article that says that the Ticats will pay $30 million rent for their 20-year lease at their new ballpark. I don't know what the other teams with new stadiums are paying. Anybody know? http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/cfls_tiger_cats_sign_lease_for_tim_hortons_field1/

The teeth of an elephant are very hard to extract, except in Alabama where the Tuscaloosa. (When told by a contestant on You Bet Your Life that he had six children...) I like my cigar, but I take it out every once in a while. (Again, from You Bet Your Life...) "And what do you do for a living?" "Groucho, I'm a Fuller Brush salesman." "You're Fuller WHAT?"

Mike, yes. The CFL draft is held a few days after the NFL draft. The CFL's concern is the best Canadian players. Nowadays, almost all of them play their college ball in the US. The NFL pays 20 times what the CFL pays. The average NFL salary is $2 million, while the average CFL salary is $100,000. So 100% of the players drafted by the NFL sign with the NFL. Typically, the very best Canadian players spend their entire pro career in the NFL, and never sign with the CFL. So the CFL doesn't want to waste a high draft pick on someone drafted by the NFL. They will waste a low draft pick on him, however, in case the NFL lets him go. In regard to American players, the CFL has many scouts who attend not only the usual college games, but also things like the Senior Bowl where they make their presence known. The CFL has a lot of contacts with college coaches. For example, in the CFL's eyes, there are a thousand American running backs available, so rookies at that position are not offered much money.

Buck Pierce announced his retirement today. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=445196 http://cfl.ca/article/over-and-out-pierce-announces-retirement http://cfl.ca/roster/show/id/3653 http://www.cjob.com/2014/03/04/buck-pierce-decides-to-retire/ ***** Glen Suitor tweets that Rick Worman will be the new Alouettes offensive coordinator. ***** The Ticats traded QB Brian Brohm to the Bombers for a conditional draft pick. Brohm was Green Bay's second round pick in 2008, but spent all of last season injured. The Bombers also released Justin Goltz. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=445142 http://www.cjob.com/2014/03/03/bombers-acquire-quarterback-brohm-from-hamilton/ ***** The Riders have signed six-year NFL veteran receiver Chaz Schilens. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=445258

Thanks Head Man!

I would be interested in adding Maynard's Roulette material to my wishlist. Is there anything available besides Letter from Birdland and this Maynard '61? http://www.amazon.com/Maynard-Straightaway-Themes-Bonus-Tracks/dp/B00BZV12QE/ref=pd_sim_m_7?ie=UTF8&refRID=03V3M15DDA3T3ZYEPYW6

Parks and Recreation Season One - $11.99 http://www.amazon.com/Parks-Recreation-Season-Amy-Poehler/dp/B002DPPH6W/ref=pd_cp_mov_0 Season Two - $11.99 http://www.amazon.com/Parks-Recreation-Season-Amy-Poehler/dp/B002N5N5PM/ref=pd_bxgy_mov_text_y Season Three - $12.99 http://www.amazon.com/Parks-Recreation-Season-Amy-Poehler/dp/B003L77GE2/ref=pd_bxgy_mov_text_z

Happy Birthday Johnny!

Happy Birthday Al!

Happy Birthday 2014 Garth!

I think they called them 'prairie oysters' in Alberta. I kept well away.. Having said that, looking at a picture of these things they look suspiciously like an annonymous pub appetizer dish I used to enjoy with a beer. I thought it was savoury meatballs.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0ljF2hmz9s These guys performed at the '96 Grey Cup festivities. I met the one second from the right in a hotel lobby. He asked me who I liked, and I told him Tommy Flanagan.

This one is now up on Spotify. I enjoy it. It's quite melancholy, not what I expected from someone associated with Parliament/Funkadelic.

Here's an interesting article about an actress that all the studios wanted in their movies because she was tall and brought her own wardrobe - Bess Flowers. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/20-feet-movie-stardom-overlooked-682162

Widener University in Pennsylvania has hired Mike Kelly to be its head football coach. http://www.widenerpride.com/news/2014/2/28/FB_0228145405.aspx

Here's an interesting article about Shirley Temple working with Bill Bojangles Robinson which includes a number of videos of him dancing. http://the-toast.net/2014/02/27/remembering-hollywoods-first-interracial-pairing/

Happy Birthday 2014, wesbed!

The Ticats have signed a 20-year lease with the new Tim Hortons Field. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=444789 http://cfl.ca/article/ticats-reach-20-year-agreement-with-city-of-hamilton ***** The Riders have signed six-year NFL veteran receiver Brett Swain. http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=sportsnetwork&page=cfl/news/news.aspx?id=4671668 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brett_Swain_%28American_football%29 ***** David Naylor has been tweeting the past two days that he doesn't expect Tom Higgins' situation at Montreal to work out well. During Super bowl Week, Jim Popp told Naylor that he was still negotiating with Bob Wettenhall for the head coaching job. Apparently Wettenhall decided to hire Higgins without input from Popp. Popp was not present for the news conference introducing Higgins. You will recall that Popp hired the assistant coaches for this year, so Higgins will have to live with Popp's selections.

Has anyone here ever met Zan Stewart? Tenor Saxophonist/Composer Zan Stewart Debuts on CD with "The Street Is Making Music," To Be Released by His Mobo Dog Records March 25 The Former Longtime Jazz Critic Is Supported on the New CD by Pianist Keith Saunders, Bassist Adam Gay, Drummer Ron Marabuto February 27, 2014 In the course of his prolific career as a jazz journalist, writing for the Los Angeles Times, the Newark Star-Ledger, and Down Beat magazine, among many other publications, Zan Stewart established himself as one of the best in the business. He won a prestigious ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for his notes to an Eric Dolphy boxed set, and kept up a busy pace over a span of 35 years profiling major jazz musicians and annotating over two hundred albums. On the side, however, Stewart pursued his own musical muse, playing tenor saxophone in jam session situations and as the leader of his own groups. By 2011 he had relocated from New Jersey to the Bay Area with the intention of becoming a full-time jazz musician. The release on March 25 of his first CD, The Street Is Making Music, is the culmination of that goal, and it happens to coincide with Stewart's 70th birthday. "I had done my part as a jazz advocate, and I really didn't want to write about other people anymore," explains Stewart, who is now based in Richmond, near Berkeley. "So I decided to leave journalism, which can be so demanding. You can't really think about anything else while you're doing that. I enjoyed it, but after a while I just wanted to find out who I was as a musician." Featuring Stewart (right) with his working band (l. to r.) of pianist Keith Saunders, bassist Adam Gay, and drummer Ron Marabuto, the album contains uncompromising performances of three popular standards, one tune by Bud Powell, two by Charlie Parker, and five of Stewart's own, including two different takes of his "Gals 'Round the 'Hood." The whimsical CD title comes courtesy of a young former neighbor of Stewart's in West Orange, New Jersey, for whom Zan's practice sessions sounded like "the street is making music." Stewart's impressive "Daddy's Blue Song," "Zansky," and "Mobes' Symphony" -- in honor of his Boxer, namesake of his Mobo Dog label -- take their place alongside "Love Letters," "Polka Dots and Moonbeams," and Charlie Parker's "Laird Baird" on the new disc. "I feel very grateful to be able to put tunes together that I like and other people like as well," the saxophonist says of his compelling originals. "It's a gift I didn't really know I had until the last few years." Born in Los Angeles in 1944, Alexander "Zan" Stewart studied classical clarinet between the ages of 6 and 10 with Ola Ebinger, who had once been Eric Dolphy's teacher. Stewart took up alto saxophone after seeing Count Basie's orchestra in 1960 and switched to tenor six years later while hanging out with musicians like Mike Morris, Steve Wolfe, and Tom Harrell in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. In 1975, a year after graduating from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a B.A. in Film Studies, he began writing about jazz for the Santa Barbara News & Review and moved to the L.A. Weekly four years later. His work at the Weekly attracted the attention of veteran Los Angeles Times jazz critic Leonard Feather, who persuaded the paper to employ his talents in 1980. After two decades at the Times, Stewart moved East to work as the staff jazz writer at the Newark Star-Ledger. He continued to play his horn, participating in jam sessions and leading his own groups in New Jersey and occasionally in New York City, including two appearances at Smalls Jazz Club. He also studied formally with altoist Jim Snidero and informally with trumpeter Joe Magnarelli and saxophonist Grant Stewart. In 2010, he decided to devote his energies to music rather than writing, and planned his move back to his native California. The saxophonist, jazz critic Andrew Gilbert wrote on the Berkeleyside web site, "possesses a fat, rounded tone that owes more to Don Byas and Coleman Hawkins than latter day tenor icons like John Coltrane and Michael Brecker." Stewart himself cites Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker, Hank Mobley, Clifford Jordan, Noel Jewkes, Yusef Lateef, Harold Land, David "Fathead" Newman, and early Coltrane as primary influences. With The Street Is Making Music, Zan Stewart offers a document of his improbable and inspiring musical journey to date. "It is indeed gratifying to have finally fulfilled a longtime dream by recording this album, and revealing who I am as a musician," he says. "And I am very excited to discover where this action leads and what comes next." Photo of Zan Stewart: Teresa Tam Web Site: www.zanstewart.com Like: Follow: