GA Russell

I'd be happy to complain, but my service is just fine.

Happy Birthday Evan!

The Fox broadcast network recently lost a lawsuit (to be appealled, of course) against Barry Diller's Aereo, which retransmits broadcast channels (if I understand correctly, and maybe I don't), and enables customers to watch TV on their iPads and smartphones. This is in New York City, so maybe some of you New Yorkers can tell us more about this. So a senior Fox executive says that the company will have to consider becoming a cable channel if its appeal of the lawsuit fails. http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/04/09/exec-threatens-to-make-fox-pay-tv-only-channel-if-aereo-goes-on/?intcmp=features

Just got this press release in... Early press reaction to The Magic of 2: "High on the list [of unexpected and inspired shows at Keystone Korner] you'd have to put the February 1982 pairing of Tommy Flanagan and Jaki Byard, two great pianists with very different styles. Playing opposite each other at grand pianos on the small Keystone stage. They set the place spinning with their propulsive swing, interplay and invention. The joy of those performances and the exuberant vibe of that place come across wonderfully on The Magic of 2: Live at Keystone Korner." --Jesse Hamlin, San Francisco Chronicle "On a new duet recording with Tommy Flanagan, The Magic of 2: Live at Keystone Korner, [Jaki Byard] sounds better than ever." --Chris Barton, Los Angeles Times "This release keeps memory of these departed masters alive by the care and attention to details the producers exhibit. Their music making continues to give joy and pleasure, and Resonance once more have made a big contribution to curating jazz from yesteryear." --Stephen Graham, Marlbank.net "The latest jazz gem to be unearthed by the folks at Resonance Records... is an instant classic. . . . The entire program is played with give-and-take, laughter and love. The album itself was crafted with the same kind of care. . . . This is one of those recordings that's easy to love -- again and again." --Frank Alkyer, Down Beat Editor's Pick "The Magic of 2 clearly speaks to the skills of two dearly departed, high profile ivory ticklers, and the importance of the club that hosted them, but it also speaks to the vision of a label. In just a few years' time, Resonance Records has become one of the leading lights in historical jazz recordings. . . . It's safe to say that the jazz community is waiting with bated breath to see what they'll unearth next." --Dan Bilawsky, AllAboutJazz.com "On The Magic of 2, two exemplary piano modernists, Tommy Flanagan & Jaki Byard, are captured in duo performance at San Francisco's famed Keystone Korner back in the winter of 1982. While it may not be the performing situation you might think of for either man, they sound really happy to be swapping licks from either end of the stage, and the spirit of the music reflects that enthusiasm. . . . Utterly recommended." --Stuart Kremsky, Mr. Stu's Record Room The Magic of 2 on iTunes Web Site: www.resonancerecords.org Follow Resonance Records:

The Argos have traded the rights to former Indianapolis o-lineman Don Federkeil (who has been retired for three years) to the Stampeders for linebacker Akwasi Antwi. Both are non-imports, and both are from their new teams' areas. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=420237

I like this! Shapiro is my age, and she sings like an adult rather than someone who is trying to stay young and hip. Nevertheless, there is an eternal youthfulness in her voice. Unlike Karen Carpenter, whose low notes were rich but whose higher notes were more thin; Shapiro's voice is somewhat thin in her lower register, but is full and rich in her higher notes. The album is vocalist with piano duo, as the CD's title would suggest. This is up on Spotify for you to hear.

This might be of interest to some here... TWO FORMIDABLE FIGURES GO Berserk! ON FIRST MUSICAL COLLABORATION LORENZO FELICIATI & LORENZO ESPOSITO FORNASARI JOIN FORCES ON NEW RARE NOISE RELEASE AVAILABLE IN STORES AND ONLINE MAY 6TH, 2013 AND THROUGH RARE NOISE RECORDS ON CD, VINYL AND HI-RES DIGITAL DOWNLOAD ABOUT THE LABEL - Rare Noise Records was founded in late 2008 by two Italians, guitarist/arranger/producer Eraldo Bernocchi and all-round music nut Giacomo Bruzzo. Located in London, the label was created to present a platform to musicians and listeners alike who think beyond musical boundaries of genre. For further information please go to www.rarenoiserecords.com berserk |ber'zerk; -?'serk| - adjective frenzied, raving, wild, out of control, amok, on the rampage, frantic, crazy, raging, insane, out of one's mind, hysterical, mad, crazed, maniacal, manic; informal--bananas, bonkers, nuts, loco. New York, March 25, 2013 - The first-ever collaboration between Italian bassist-composer Lorenzo Feliciati and Italian vocalist-multi-instrumentalist-sonic provocateur Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari (aka LEF) defies easy categorization as it awakens the senses. At times darker than the Grim Reaper and heavier than the soundtrack for the Apocalypse, it can turn on a dime and swing insistently, or wail mournfully, or float mysteriously. Is it rock? Is it jazz? Is it ambient, avant garde, opera or something else? Regardless of tags, the music that Feliciati and Fornasari make together as Berserk! on their self-titled debut stands an imposing manifesto. It is an iron fist upside the head of complacency. Says Fornasari, "I have never been able to listen to the same style of music all the time so what I prefer is being free to play different things, going back and forth from opera to rock or jazz. That kind of insanity is probably the glue that put me and Feliciati together and actually makes Berserk! possible. And we should also thank Rare Noise Records, which has become a place where a pack of wild fellows, professionals from all over, can meet and do creative things together." "We exchanged mutual admiration for our music through email," says Feliciati in explaining how the two formidable figures behind Berserk! finally hooked up, "and from there the next step was to get together and play. For me, it is natural to shout, 'Let's do some music together!' when you discover an artist that hits you so powerfully with his talent. And when we finally decided to collaborate, we liked the idea of giving the band a name that immediately gives a sense of power and dedication and brutal resolution." With the two Lorenzos at the core of this formidable collective, they brought in such potent and provocative voices as guitarist Eivind Aarset, trombonist Gianluca Petrella, alto saxophonist Sandro Satta, keyboardist Jamie Saft, and drummers Cristiano Calcagnile and Pat Mastelotto (Feliciati's bandmate in Naked Truth) to enhance the proceedings. Fornasari, also a member of the bands Owls and Obake, described their unconventional method of music-making: "We defined some generic guidelines, though not necessarily in musical terms. The jumping off point for a particular track could have been a color or a landscape or even a word. The resulting product, then, sounds more like a soundtrack CD than a jazz or rock LP." At the very first stage of recording, Feliciati made a demo of a song with bass guitar and keyboards, then sent it to Fornasari. "I recorded vocals and some orchestration," LEF explains, 'then handed it over to Pat who added drums. Then I sent Feliciati a couple of new tunes. We went on like this, producing a great amount of rough songs as a duo for the first six months of the 2012. Saft, Aarset, Puglisi, Satta and Cavina came in later. We thought something was missing though, thus we planned a 2/3 days of studio session with Petrella and Calcagnile in the fall, just a month before the mixing stage." "Composing together for us means that we work in constant contact, sharing files and ideas and sending various versions of the song," adds Feliciati. "It must be a very well organized process but I believe it is a way of having a lot of freedom and responsibility on both sides of the creative process." Berserk! opens with Feliciati's funky bass line fueling "Macabre Dance," which also introduces Fornasari's eerie, haunting vocals. Aarset contributes some jarring shriekback guitar work while Petrella offers some expressive electronic trombone work. Touches of funeral organ, subtle brushwork on the kit by Mastelotto and some allusions to composer Nino Rota in Fornasari's slyly whistled phrases add to the majesty of this mysterious opener. "Fetal Claustrophobia" opens with some ambient piano by Saft before settling into a spooky movie soundtrack vibe. Former King Crimson drummer Mastelotto then triggers a barrage of jungle beats matched by Petrella's elephantine blasts on trombone. Feliciati's grooving electric bass lines and Aarset's grinding fretboard flurries blend with Mastelotto's pounding Burundi beats to create a thunderous, kinetic undercurrent. And Petrella's electric trombone elevates the hybrid proceedings. This is provocative rock with a sprinkling of jazz on top. "First" opens with a gentle piano into with little ambient ear cookies floating in and out of the mix. A sparse, melancholy, spacious ballad, it features some of Fornasari's most expressive singing juxtaposed by Aarset's thrashing power chords and wailing distortion-laced soloing. "Latent Prints" is a showcase for Sandro Satta's urgent alto sax work. This John Zorn-ish avantgarde free-for-all features some intense six-string eruptions by Aarset and an extended bass solo by Feliciati. Fornasari's fierce vocals are positively Satanic here, followed by more ironic whistling at the tag. "Dream Made of Water," fueled by Aarset's sonic six-string onslaught, is highlighted by Fornasari's intensely dramatic vocals which simultaneously border on heavy metal and opera. A fresh-sounding reprise of "Macabre Dance" is followed by "Clairvoyance," a free jazz vehicle powered by Calcagnile's creative rubato playing on the kit. Feliciati anchors this piece with a bold ostinato on upright bass, recalling the memorizing mantra from John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. Petrella is showcased on some powerful harmonizer blowing on trombone and Calcagnile unleashes at the tag of this potent piece. "Dream Made of Wind," a peaceful meditation for trombone and electronics, recalls some of Brian Eno's ambient works. Petrella loops long tones and blows echo-laden statements on this electronic showcase. "Blow" is dark, conversational encounter between upright bass and alto sax while "Not Dead" is a slow grooving vehicle underscored by Feliciati's upright bass groove and featuring Fornasari's enigmatic vocals. The collection closes with the mysterious, ambient "Dream Made of Water," which culminates in a screaming crescendo of dark catharsis that showcases Fornasari's operatic vocals. "I never worked with a voice like LEF's before," says Feliciati of his Berserk! partner. "I have done a lot of great pop albums with great singers, but LEF's voice is unique and we treated it more like an instrument in the creative process. So the musical territory we discovered with Berserk! Is something totally different and new." For Fornasari, the music on Berserk! is "the right soundtrack for a night trip through a psychedelic city." While the dictionary definition of 'berserk' carries a whole string of negative connotations (listed at the top of this page) Feliciati is hoping that his band's self-titled debut will bring a new meaning to the term. "I'd like to think that Berserk! also means a very creative, powerful confusion that at the end becomes creative and powerful music without confusion." Fornasari had something else in mind. "I think the cover of this first album is pretty much self explanatory," he says. "We had that picture in mind when we named the band -- a double-headed monster in act of violently puking rage." LISTEN HERE: BERSERK! WATCH HERE: RARE NOISE VIDEO CHANNEL

Strangely, Amazon says that the album will be shipped in 11 to 12 days, but the Marketplace Sellers have it for $11.83. http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Two-Tommy-Flanagan/dp/B00BG4CTPS/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1365527584&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Magic+of+2

Today only: Looney Tunes, Golden Collection, Vol. 1-6 - $64.99 http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/ref=pe_341930_28916250_pe_00_head

Happy Birthday 2013 save!

First the Bombers release Joey Elliott, and now they have released Alex Brink. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=420202

Here's an interesting article about American households that do not have a television. The networks and advertisers want to reach them through their iPads, but I suspect that many don't want to watch what the networks are offering. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ZERO_TV?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-04-07-19-15-26

I got for Christmas a DVD box set of all of the Frankie and Annette movies. I'm glad that she got to know, in a very small way, that she still had a fan! RIP http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/04/08/report-annette-funicello-dead-at-age-70/?intcmp=features http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000PMFRXS/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Guys, after thinking about it for over a year, I got my region-free player from Bombay Electronics (in Chicago) in November for my birthday. Most of my Christmas money was spent on Region 2 DVDs purchased from Amazon UK. Bombay also sells region-free Blu-Ray players. Mine is not Blu-Ray. It is an inexpensive Pioneer that cost I think $48. Money well spent! Last night I watched the premier episode of The Saint, which featured Shirley Eaton!

Maybe I should ask how many North Americans here have region-free DVD players!

That obit makes me want to see some!

Happy Birthday 2013 Allison!

Jim, were you listening to CC and Lew Kirby on WNOE?

I have often been told by friends that big-time college athletics, particularly football and basketball, pay the bills for the entire athletic department, with money left over going to pay for research, etc.; and that the teams lead to significantly greater sums of alumni contributions (as well as increased freshman applications). Here is an interesting new Reason Magazine article which cites a number of studies which show that that just isn't true. Big-time college athletics are a financial drain on the student body and (regarding state schools) the taxpayers. http://reason.com/archives/2013/04/03/forget-rutgers-coach-mike-rice-college-s

Region 2: James Bond: 22 Film Collection - 49.00 GBP http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0093XXFZM/ref=pe_155291_35411421_pe_epc__1p_1_ti

Happy Birthday Allen!

Robert was the brother who founded Sabian cymbals. http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-robert-zildjian-20130405,0,6376622.story

Chris Williams wants to pursue NFL opportunities. He signed a two-year plus an option deal last year. The CBA requires each team to offer rookies a one-year plus option deal. So Williams is claiming that the Ticats never made the one-year offer, and that his contract should be voided. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=419896

Here's his LA Times obit: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-roger-ebert-20130405,0,5349930,full.story