GA Russell

paps, Balladyna is one of the Touchstones that was recently re-released, so I imagine that is why you're hearing it.

I forgot to say that the first 50 songs in your locker are free, so that's a five dollar savings to get started. I found two Cal Tjader albums I've wanted for a long time: Latin + Jazz = Cal Tjader and Monterey Concert. I plan to add those and probably one of Buddy Rich's PJ albums, and maybe a new Georgie Fame.

Calgary Stampeders 28....Hamilton Tiger-Cats 17 http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform...aspx?id=4187102 http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home The Stampeders never trailed, although it wasn't until early in the second quarter that they scored their first TD. With the victory, the Stamps have clinched first place in the West. Only two Stampeders have ever caught 100 passes in a season - Dave Sapunjis and Allen Pitts. Ken-Yon Rambo now has 97 with one game to go. Ticat rookie QB Adam Tafralis came into the game at the end, his first CFL game, and led the team down the field for a TD. ***** This is the first season in Roughrider history that they have sold out every game. They almost didn't last week, but the walk-ups after the kickoff took care of it. I suppose that winning the Grey Cup last year had a lot to do with it. http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/new...87-185c8f9f0ba7 ***** Eric Blount of the Bombers ran back kicks for 1,695 yards in 1998, the league record. BC's Ian Smart has 1,601 with two games to go. http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/spo...2d-4a5c1bc4a1ce

Fred Williams Week 18 preview http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform...aspx?id=4186960 The Edmonton-Saskatchewan game is one I won't want to miss.

When lala.com got started over two years ago there were two threads about it: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...=lala\.com http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php...amp;hl=lala.com But I saw in the paper the day before yesterday that they have started a new website with the same name, so to speak. This is an online streaming and downloading with no DRM service with the support of the four majors and many indies. They have 6 million songs in their inventory. You can listen once to any (and all) of the six million songs for free. If you want to hear it a second time, you pay ten cents and put the song in your "locker". Once you have paid your dime, you can listen to the song as often as you want forever (or until lala goes broke!). If you want to, you can upload your own CDs into your locker for free. If you want to download the song, you pay 79 cents in addition to the original 10 cents. Because there is no DRM, you are not limited as to how you make your copy of the song. This is something that I expect I will be interested in. There are a number of albums I wouldn't object to paying a buck for, to listen on the computer whenever I want. And the fact that you can check out an entire album for free (one time) sounds good too. The article in the paper quoted the lala guy as saying that the profitability of the site will depend on downloading. So if nobody wants to download, the site will go belly up.

Thanks for that link, paps! I'll order Extensions this week.

You guys have talked me into ordering this Touchstone this week!

They've been getting a lot of Stan Getz in. I hope the next one is Sweet Rain. That is one of the few LPs that I would buy a CD of.

David Naylor Week 18 preview http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home

I saw Dick Dale in Atlanta about 1995, so maybe it was the same tour you saw him on in Cleveland. I came prepared with ear plugs for both me and my date, so I don't recall it being loud. I have a vague recollection of seeing a rock band in college that I thought was too loud to enjoy, but I don't remember who it was. I do recall that Soft Machine played at the Newport Jazz Festival in I think 1970, and the Downbeat reviewer just dismissed them as being too loud.

OK, I've decided not to wait till the 28th unless there is something from that batch that you guys recommend. I've decided to get the Norma Winstone in addition to Gnu High and Gateway. Is there another non-ethereal one you guys recommend before I place my order? Last call!

Happy Birthday Matthew!

Valerie, yes, Rhonda Hamilton said on Sirius today that today is Dizzy's birthday as well. Chris, our paper has a list every day of celebrities' birthdays, and most of the list every day are people I've never heard of! I'm pretty sure that they are people I don't want to have heard of either!

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.