GA Russell

For racing fans...I'm listening to the stream of the Rolex 24 GrandAm race. The season has begun! http://www.grand-am.com/

The editorial cartoon of this morning's paper had Jack Lalanne in heaven having the angels do pushups!

I don't normally mention when a player re-ups with his team. I don't think it's normally news. But today Anthony Calvillo announced that he has signed a new two-year contract, despite the recent removal of his thyroid gland and Ben Cahoon's retirement. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=351449 ***** The Lions have released Sherko Haji-Rasouli. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=351477

RIP. I remember seeing him once on Ed Sullivan, and he had Igor the hunchback singing "Straighten Up and Fly Right"!

This week I read The Highly Effective Detective by Richard Yancey. Very light reading with a lot of laughs. I had never heard of it before two months ago, but The Mystery Guild and its sister clubs are offering an anthology of two of the novels, and I figured that they were probably pretty good for them to do that. So I took a flyer, and I'm glad I did. Tonight I start a similar Mystery Guild anthology I was unfamiliar with, Double Negative by David Carkeet.

Ben Cahoon made it official today. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=351078

In the photo of The Singers Unlimited that Jim has posted, second from the left is Len. I read in his obituary that he was the bass who sang "Ho, Ho, Ho" in the Jolly Green Giant jingle. Unfortunately, he was only paid once for that!

Joe Lovano has a lot of dates lined up for the next few months. Jan. 27 – Schwab Auditorium – Park, PA (John Scofield-Joe Lovano Quartet) Jan. 28 – Music Center at Strathmore – North Bethesda, MD (John Scofield-Joe Lovano Quartet) Jan. 29 – Grand Opera House – Wilmington, DE (John Scofield-Joe Lovano Quartet) Jan. 30 – Swyer Theater – Albany, NY (John Scofield-Joe Lovano Quartet) Feb. 18-19 – Tanna Shulich Hall – Montreal, Quebec (solo) Feb. 22 – Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola – New York, NY (Playing Our Parts Benefit) Mar. 4 – Impart Arts Center – Wroclaw, Poland (Us Five) Mar. 11 – Blue Note – Milan, Italy (Us Five) Mar. 12 – Sala Concerti Del Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi – Torino, Italy (Us Five) Mar. 13 – Club Kiff – Aarau, Switzerland (Us Five) Mar. 14 – Moods – Zurich, Switzerland Moods (Us Five) Mar. 24 – Wackerhalle – Burghausen, Germany (Us Five) Mar. 25 – Ronnie Scott's – London, UK (Us Five) Apr. 2 – Folly Theater – Kansas City, MO (Us Five) Apr. 4-5 – Dakota Jazz Club – Minneapolis, MN (Us Five) Apr. 7-10 – Jazz Showcase – Chicago, IL (Us Five) Apr. 21-22 – Rialto Theater – Atlanta, GA (solo) Apr. 28-May 1 – Jazz Alley – Seattle, WA (Us Five) May 2 – Kuumbwa Jazz Center – Santa Cruz, CA (Us Five) May 3 – Yoshi's – Oakland, CA (Us Five) May 5 – Tribeca Performing Arts Center – New York, NY May 20 – Philadelphia Museum of Art – Philadelphia, PA

Best wishes, Jack!

Herb Gray has died. I had his bubble gum card in 1964. In 1993 he was voted the league's best all-time defensive end. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=350904 ***** Ryan Thelwell has retired. I had no idea that he was 37. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=350995 ***** The Hamilton City Council voted 10-6 to approve renovating Ivor Wynne to allow the Ticats to remain in the city. But they capped their obligation at $45 million, which still leaves $55 million to be found. The deadline is Feb. 1. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=350966 ***** TSN is reporting that Ben Cahoon will retire this week. This year he set the career record as the league's leading receiver and he won the Grey Cup, so he's going out on top. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=351078

I listened to everything lala had of Johnny Smith. I've also found a couple of albums at grooveshark.

The one Mosaic box currently available from them that I want most of all is the Johnny Smith. Next would be the Ahmad Jamal.

I always enjoyed their interviews. I think my favorite was Eddie Burt.

Terrific! Congrats Chuck!

I think the decline in great pop music occurred because of the popularity of the singer-songwriter, which I guess for the most part started with The Beatles. As a general rule, I think that singer-songwriters sing pretty well for composers, and write pretty well for singers. I have no difficulty believing that a good singer can perform a song better than its composer.

JETman, I don't know about evolved, but some of us think that TTK is indeed unique and cool!

Happy Birthday freeform83!

Thanks Dmitry!

My mom would watch him when I was a pre-schooler in the 50s. I remember once she sent away for one of his exercise gadgets, which was a rubber strap that attached to a doorknob. RIP! PS - The LA Times obit mentions the Glamour Stretcher, and I think that was what my mom got!

BeBop, part of the appeal is that Amazon is offering the service with no minimum. It already offers groceries in the UK and Germany.

I have only one Singers Unlimited album, A Capela, which includes Michelle and Here, There and Everywhere; and for those two songs I would have to agree!

Amazon has a pilot program in Seattle delivering groceries with no delivery charge on a weekly basis. FT says that they will soon expand nationwide. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bb320f30-2715-11e0-80d7-00144feab49a.html#axzz1BuLsh6Iu

That was my first prog rock album, summer of '71! I liked it a lot, but their immediately previous album called If I Could Do It All Over Again I liked even more.

Isn't that funny! As I was reading the OP, Julie is Her Name was my first thought as well.

Here's a nice remembrance of the days of Cookie Gilchrist and the Big 4. http://www.tsn.ca/columnists/alex_walling/?id=349445 ***** Emmanuel Arceneaux has tweeted that he intends to sign with Minnesota. http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=350561