GA Russell

This morning's paper says that celebrating birthdays today are Manfred Mann (68), Steve Cropper (67) and Elvin Bishop (66). Also celebrating birthdays today are Chicago's Lee Loughnane (62) and The Go-Go's' Charlotte Caffrey (55). My first thought was that we're all getting older now because Manfred Mann is 68, but upon reflection what's really hard to believe is that one of The Go-Go's is 55!

Hey, what's up with all the gypsy jazz now, like I see at Birdland? First the Hot Club of Detroit made a splash. I heard some group doing it on Sirius ten days ago. In a couple of weeks the Hot Club of San Francisco is putting out a new album. Apparently there has been a revival-fad going on that I am just now finding out about. That might be your best bet, Aggie. It will give your friend something to talk about with her friends.

OK, I'm going to buy a few more of these Touchstones. I am not in the market today for more of the classic "ECM sound". So I'm sure to get Gnu High, which I gather is a straight ahead quartet date. Some years ago I got Gateway II, if memory serves. I remember enjoying it, but I haven't been able to put my hands on it for years. So I think I will get the original Gateway as well. Can you recommend any other albums that are not ethereal from the Touchstones list? PS - I will wait till October 28 when the next batch is available.

You've got me laughing out loud, Aggie! 1) On the one hand, I'm glad you linked to that thread. It didn't occur to me that there would already be a thread on the album. 2) On the other hand, that thread is an argument about everything under the sun, and never gets around to discussing the album! Well, here's a thread about the album in which the music can be discussed! I've just gone through the seven pages of the ECM Touchstones thread, just to refresh my recollection. As BMG gets more and more ECMs, it wouldn't surprise me if they carry these Touchstones too. But if CD Universe is selling them for only $8.99, why wait five months for BMG to get them in and sell them for only two dollars less?

I opened up an album today that I have enjoyed so much I played it through four straight times. It's an Enrico Rava album from 1975 called The Pilgrim and the Stars. This is a quartet with Rava on trumpet, John Abercrombie on guitar, Palle Danielsson on bass and Jon Christensen on drums. It was recorded in Ludwigsburg, a German city seven miles from Stuttgard. I spent most of the 70s listening to Canterbury prog rock. In the early 80s I found a mail order source for European fusion cutouts from the mid- to late-70s. I bought quite a number (or at least what seemed like a lot at the time! Compared to what some of us get today, maybe not so much!). Those were good times, listening to people I had never heard of before, and for the most part haven't heard of since. This Rava album is much like the albums I got then - more free than the jazz rock of Larry Coryell and Steve Marcus, and less funky than what Herbie Hancock was doing. It's easy to hear something from the 50s and 60s, and make a pretty good guess from the style as to when it was recorded. So I have the same feeling listening to this that it sounds like mid-70s European fusion because it sounds like the records I had so many years ago and have been packed away (and unheard) for years. For me, Jon Christensen on the drums makes the album. Rava has a beautiful tone, of course. Now whether I am enjoying this so much because of the music itself or because it reminds me of music from my younger days is hard to say. But I'm sure that this will be getting a lot of play in my house. By the way, this is one of the ECM Touchstone series. It is the only Touchstone that was not previously released in the US.

I forgot to mention last night that Nik Lewis became the first Stampeder in team history to record five consecutive 1,000 yards pass receiving seasons. ***** Saskatchewan Roughriders 30....Hamilton Tiger-Cats 29 http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform...aspx?id=4186130 What a game! See-saw battle throughout. Luca Congi kicked a 36 yard FG with 47 seconds left to take the lead. On the last play of the game, Nick Setta attempted a 54 yard FG to win it, but it went wide, and was run out to avoid the single point. For a team with the worst record in the league, the Ticats sure have played tough a lot of games this year. Darian Durant started for the Riders, but had 3 interceptions in the first half. So he was pulled for Steven Jyles at halftime, and Jyles had a good game. Durant played for UNC. In this morning's News & Observer, there was a nice article about him with a big photo of him in a Rider uniform, situated on page 2 of the Sports section next to the tv listings. Maybe that jinxed him!

Montreal Alouettes 43....Toronto Argonauts 34 http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform...aspx?id=4185884 http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home With the loss, the Argos were eliminated from the playoffs. That means that the Als have clinched first in the East, and the Bombers have clinched second. ***** Calgary Stampeders 37....Winnipeg Blue Bombers 16 http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Gam...7131966-cp.html With the Argos' loss, the Bombers had nothing to play for. Kevin Glenn was pretty bad, and he was lifted at the half for Ryan Dinwiddie, who wasn't much better. If the Stamps beat the Ticats next week, they will clinch first place in the West.

This is for all of you bodybuilders! From the International Herald Tribune and the AP: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/18/...-Ben-Weider.php <h1 class="headline">Bodybuilding icon Ben Weider dies</h1> The Associated Press Published: October 19, 2008 MONTREAL: Ben Weider, the Canadian who helped turn bodybuilding into a worldwide sport and who was instrumental in launching Arnold Schwarzenegger's career in the United States, has died. He was 85. Weider died Friday after being taken to a hospital in Montreal, family spokeswoman Charlotte Parker in Los Angeles said Saturday. The cause of his death wasn't immediately known. Parker said Weider hadn't been ill. "He did work out every day until his death," she said. Weider and his brother, Joe, turned their love of bodybuilding into a billion-dollar business that includes nutritional supplements, gyms and magazines such as "Muscle & Fitness." In 1946, Weider and his brother co-founded the International Brotherhood of Body Builders, which sanctions thousands of amateur and professional bodybuilding competitions around the world. Weider was president of the organization until he resigned in 2006. In 1968, the Weiders brought Schwarzenegger, a then-unknown Austrian bodybuilder, to California. "Without them having done that, I mean I wouldn't have known how to come over here. I sure didn't have the money. So that was a very important kind of stepping stone for me," Schwarzenegger told The Associated Press. Schwarzenegger, in Capitol Park in Sacramento, Calif., for the annual Firefighters' Memorial on Saturday, said that the two had been friends ever since, working together to build the sport of bodybuilding all over the world. "Ben's responsibility was always to run the federation and he built the federation from literally nothing to a federation that is literally now all over the world, where every country has organized bodybuilding championships. ... It's all because of his work and his brother's work," said Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger, who became a movie star and governor of California, also recalled Weider's preoccupation with Napoleon. "He was a fanatic about Napoleon," Schwarzenegger told the AP. "He was the number one expert on Napoleon, his history." Weider, a self-taught but noted Napoleonic scholar, co-wrote a 1982 book called "The Murder of Napoleon" that argued, on the basis of hair samples, that Napoleon was poisoned with arsenic. However, a recent Italian study found high arsenic levels in hair samples throughout Napoleon's life, suggesting he had picked it up from the environment. Other researchers have concluded that the original autopsy results were correct and Napoleon died of stomach cancer. "He wrote books on Napoleon, has written screenplays, he actually wanted Jack Nicholson at one point to play Napoleon in a movie. So he was a very interesting guy," Schwarzenegger said. Weider won the French Legion of Honor for his investigative work into Napoleon's death. He died less than a week before a new permanent gallery of his Napoleonic artifacts was set to open at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Happy Birthday Chris! This morning's paper says that you share your birthday with Wynton Marsalis! (Don't hit me! )

I take it back. I can see under the disc tray that both were "Mastered by Ellen Fitton at Universal Mastering Studios-East".

British Columbia Lions 43....Edmonton Eskimos 28 http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform...aspx?id=4185783 http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home Good see-saw battle for three quarters. Then the Lions came on strong and put the game away in the fourth. But it wasn't over. The Lions needed to win this game by 13 to win the season series with the Eskimos (I'm referring to the points differential tie-breaker.). So on the last play of the game, the Eskimos attempted a field goal which would have cut the lead to 12 and given the series to Edmonton. But the kick was blocked! ***** Jesse Lumsden is out for the rest of the year with another shoulder operation. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home

Thanks Al! I didn't realize there were so many. Are they remastered? The two that I have don't indicate that they are.

Fred Williams Week 17 preview http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform...aspx?id=4185660 ***** Michael Bishop was so bad for the Riders last week that Darian Durant will start for them this week. http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/new...66-21fccb629045 ***** The Roughriders team has a long history of involvement in the community. This week, five players had their heads shaved as part of a fundraiser for breast cancer research. http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/new...dd-217bc26d0630

RIP. I was not a fan of Motown, but I enjoyed very much Same Old Song, which was not as big a hit as its predecessor I Can't Help Myself, but which over the years has in my experience received much more airplay on the oldies stations than Help Myself has.

That's right! She was the pianist. I had no idea that she was a graduate of Julliard or an opera singer.

I don't remember Narz on Video Village. That must have come later. I remember Monty Hall as the host of Video Village. As I recall, I was home sick from school and watching Video Village when Walter Cronkite broke in to say that President Kennedy had been shot.

Could be! Particularly if it was for a one-season record. I don't think the K-R-S combination played together more than four years, so I think that the Tinkers combination would have been more likely for a career, but maybe not!

Dave, the principals in the harmonica incident were Phil Linz and Yogi Berra. I don't recall if Tresh had a role.

Thanks for that link, Dan. I had forgotten that she was in my favorite movie, Lover Come Back, and that she was at one time married to Pete Candoli.

Allen, I think that Pepitone was already at first base when Tresh came up in '62.

It's been a while since I ordered from BMG. Today I tried the code from Aggie's August 12 post but it was no longer valid. So then a tried a code from his September 19 post, and it went through. Thanks Ag!

I remember Jack Narz well. I liked him. I remember Dotto well too. They had a contestant who was a goon named Harvey Peck. As I recall, Peck was a big winner on the daytime show, and because he was such a goofball he was allowed to play the nighttime show when it was started up as well. As I recall, Peck was one of the contestants who was found to have been given answers. From the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...,0,765784.story Jack Narz dies at 85; host of one of first programs involved in quiz-show scandals Among the other shows Jack Narz hosted were "Video Village," "Seven Keys" and a version of "Beat the Clock." "He was the Dean Martin of game-show hosts . . . because he was so easygoing, so smooth," said friend and game-show expert Steve Beverly. By Valerie J. Nelson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer October 16, 2008 Jack Narz, the host on "Dotto" when it became one of the first television programs ensnared in the quiz-show scandals of the 1950s and who went on to emcee "Concentration" and other game shows, died Wednesday. He was 85. Narz, brother of veteran game show host Tom Kennedy, died of complications of a stroke at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, a family spokesman announced. While lined up to get tickets for a Broadway show on a Friday night in 1958, Narz was paged to the telephone. On the line was a spokesman for "Dotto" sponsor Colgate-Palmolive, who told him that CBS had determined the daytime show was rigged and that it would not air the next Monday. The version that aired nights on NBC also was pulled. Narz was as surprised as anybody by the show's sudden cancellation, Steve Beverly, a game-show expert and professor of broadcasting at Union University in Tennessee, told The Times on Wednesday. "Jack was called to give a deposition before the grand jury investigating. He passed the polygraph test and was completely exonerated," said Beverly, who became a close friend. Before he testified, Narz said he was "unaware" of the game-show cheating, Narz recalled in a 1990 interview with The Times. "While we were on the air, one of the future contestants on the show went through a woman's purse in the contestants' dressing room," he said. "While going through the purse, he discovered someone had given her some answers." Narz said he had never met the standby contestant who charged that another contestant received answers in advance. On the show, contestants won the right to connect the dots and try to identify a famous figure by answering questions correctly. The abrupt cancellation of "Dotto" in August 1958 helped trigger a widespread investigation of the game-show industry that revealed rigging to be rampant. Almost all prime-time quiz shows were taken off the air. Congress held full-scale hearings in 1959 and federal regulations of quiz shows were instituted. Game show hosts from that era -- including Narz -- were little more than hired guns who showed up about half an hour before the live broadcast and ran through the material, Beverly said. They were not tightly connected to the producers, many of whom fixed the game shows to heighten the drama. Although Narz would host several more game shows, he told Beverly on more than one occasion: "I always felt that I was a 'day late and dollar short' kind of guy. From that point on, that maybe there were some shows I didn't get because they said, 'He was on that show, maybe we shouldn't take a shot on him.' " Narz may have been best known for hosting the mid-1970s remake of "Concentration," which filmed 195 shows -- a season's worth -- in nine weeks. The schedule left plenty of time for him to golf, which he did at least three times a week, Beverly said. Among the other game shows Narz hosted were "Video Village," "Seven Keys" and a syndicated version of "Beat the Clock" that debuted in 1969. "He was the Dean Martin of game-show hosts. . . . because he was so easygoing, so smooth . . . when you saw him on the air, you felt he was a guest in your home," Beverly said. "He never overpowered his shows . . . . He was a textbook example of what an emcee ought to be." Narz and Kennedy were the only brothers to make their living primarily as game-show hosts, according to Beverly. Kennedy, who hosted "Name That Tune" in the 1970s, changed his name from Jim Narz to avoid being confused with his older brother, whom he followed into the business. Jack Narz was born Nov. 13, 1922, in Louisville, Ky. He served as a military pilot during World War II. After military service, he broke into radio at a station in El Centro, Calif., and worked for several stations before landing a job as an announcer on television's "Queen for a Day," which led to a spot on the popular 1950s children's science-fiction program "Space Patrol." "Narz is fondly remembered by many baby boomers as the announcer who got us to scarf down cereal that tasted like cardboard so we could get box-top premiums for '25 cents in coin,' " Jean-Noel Bassior, author of the 2005 book "Space Patrol: Missions of Daring in the Name of Early Television," told The Times in an e-mail.

Edie Adams has died. One of the things that impressed me about her was that she had the good sense to exit the limelight when she was still beautiful and people thought well of her. As I recall, Ernie Kovacs left her with a lot of debts to pay. After those were taken care of, she spent every penny she had to buy the videotapes of his work, which were being systematically destroyed by the networks out of some sense of frugality. This obit is clearly inadequate, and I'll post a better one if I find it. From the AP: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-...0,1526931.story Tony winner, Kovacs wife Edie Adams dies Email Picture Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times Edie Adams autographs photos of herself and late husband, comedian Ernie Kovacs, in 2007. From the Associated Press 9:31 AM PDT, October 16, 2008 Actress and singer Edie Adams, the blonde beauty who won a Tony Award for bringing Daisy Mae to life on Broadway and played television foil to husband Ernie Kovacs, has died. She was 81. Publicist Henri Bollinger says Adams died in Los Angeles Wednesday from cancer and pneumonia. Edie Adams for Muriel Cigars (1965) Adams was a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music and hoped to become an opera singer. Instead, she gained fame for her sketches with Kovacs and her pivotal roles in Broadway musicals. She also had a long stage and film career. Adams also was known as the sexy spokeswoman for Muriel cigars in the 1950s and 1960s. In TV ads, she famously purred: "Why don't you pick one up and smoke it sometime?"

Happy Birthday HG!

I suppose if he were not a Yankee, Tom Tresh would not be so well remembered. But he was good! From the AP: http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsBaseball/home VENICE, Fla. — Tom Tresh, the 1962 American League rookie of the year and part of three New York Yankees teams that reached the World Series, has died. He was 71. Tresh died Wednesday after a heart attack, according to the funeral home handling the arrangements. Tresh was an 1962 all-star as a shortstop and made the team again in 1963 as a centre-fielder. He later earned a Gold Glove in the outfield. "Tommy was a great teammate," Yankees great Yogi Berra said in a statement. "He did everything well as a ballplayer and was an easy guy to manage." The Yankees were nearing the end of their decades-long dominance in the AL when Tresh became a regular, taking over at shortstop when Tony Kubek went to serve in the U.S. Army. He hit .286 with 20 homers and a career-high 93 RBIs in 1962. Tresh joined a powerful lineup that already boasted the likes of Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris and helped the Yankees reach the World Series from 1962-64. The switch-hitting Tresh homered in the Game 5 victory over San Francisco in 1962, and made a running, backhanded catch on Willie Mays' drive to left field in the seventh inning in a 1-0 win in Game 7. Tresh homered off Sandy Koufax in the 1963 Series loss to Los Angeles and homered twice in the 1964 loss to St. Louis, including a shot off Bob Gibson. Overall, Tresh hit .245 overall with 153 home runs and 530 RBIs. He was traded by the Yankees to Detroit in 1969 and retired after that season. Tresh, who was born in Detroit, attended Central Michigan and later was an assistant coach at the school. "This hurts. He was my roommate for six years of my life, my hitting instructor and my best friend. He let me be me, but he was also the guy who kept me in at night," longtime teammate Joe Pepitone said. "Tommy was a constant in my life and a calming influence. He was always there for me and stuck up for me. He was like my brother. When I had personal issues, he was always the person on the team I would turn to. During some rain delays, he would take out his guitar and we'd sing and dance," he said.