GA Russell

The Stampeders cut Marc Boerigter today. My guess is that his knee injury has ended his career. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Cal...4448260-cp.html

Buddy DeFranco, disc 2.

I saw him lead an ensemble at the 1990 New Orleans Jazzfest, and really enjoyed him. I went out and bought his Blue Note album Color, which by coincidence I just listened to the other day. Thumbs up!

I missed all six numbers! http://usamega.com/ "The Saturday, August 25, 2007 Powerball drawing has taken place, and the results are 2-8-23-29-35, and the Powerball is 19."

Week 9 results: Winnipeg Blue Bombers 15....Toronto Argonauts 13 http://sports.canada.com/default.asp?c=can.../AJN4098761.htm I tuned in for the last 1:07, so I got to hear the final drive and the FG that won the game. It was nice that Milt Stegall had a good game on his Night. Montreal Alouettes 27....Hamilton Tiger-Cats 9 http://sports.canada.com/default.asp?c=can.../AJN4098892.htm I heard the second half of this one. Not much happened. Damon Duval kicked an 82-yard punt for a single near the end. The Als let backup QB Marcus Brady play a little bit, and then for the last drive put in third stringer Brad Banks. The Ticats have lost their momentum after their big win against Winnipeg. They're not improving anymore. They play their next two games against the Argos. That matchup is looking like a battle between the two teams that won't make the playoffs.

Thanks for posting that aloc. I wish the same thing would happen with high end stereo systems, but it will never happen.

Thanks brownie!

I usually am not interested in the cause of death of a musician. My curiosity doesn't run in that direction. But I see in his Rifftides blog today that Doug Ramsey says, "Mingus wrote the blues "So Long Eric" to wish Dolphy godspeed. Dolphy was to leave the group following the European tour. He and the others could not have known that in three months their astonishingly gifted colleague would be dead at thirty-six of a heart attack brought on by diabetes." I've read countless times that Dolphy died of a brain tumor. But I trust Ramsey more than any other jazz writer, and I doubt that he would be mistaken. Has anyone read before about a heart attack? Surely you have seen references to a brain tumor like I have.

Week 9 previews (only two games again this week): http://sports.canada.com/default.asp?c=can.../AJN4098616.htm ***** Remember Ben Sankey? I haven't thought about him in years. Now we know that he has been playing minor league indoor football. BC signed him today to be the fourth or fifth string QB! http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home

I don't know the facts of this game, but how can you say that a starter pitched well when he is taken out with a huge lead?

Aggie, I'm waiting till January for Your Music to get it. Don't you think they will?

That sums up well how I feel about all jazz. I have a few free jazz records I enjoy, most notably Sam Rivers' Sizzle from the mid-70s on Impulse!. But basically, I'm a lover of melodies. That's why I wasn't crazy about Miles' lost quintet, which I saw twice while I was in college. I had the opportunity to see Miles' group perform The Cellar Door sessions, but I didn't know that it would be a radically different group and sound; and I had had about enough of Miles from what I had seen twice. Oh, how I wish now that I had gone!

Clifford, I see now that Solo in Mondsee was recorded in April of 2001. That doesn't affect my opinion of the music. It just means that Bley progressed over 29 years since I last heard his work rather than 35. But since you have so many of his albums, the date may mean something to you. Do you have any from 2001 that you have an opinion of?

TTK, how is that one?

That picture makes Coltrane look like Kevin Eubanks!

The CFL now has its own channel on YouTube! I think this is important enough to reprint the article and not just the link: http://blog.canoe.ca/remotecontrol CFL Joins YouTube World The CFL has been working hard the past few years cultivating the image of being a younger, 'hipper' league. Another step in that direction: Today's announcement that the league has launched a new YouTube channel. CFLtv, as it's called, is designed to offer “football fans with 24/7 access to unique, high-quality CFL video.” And yes, you can even catch the highlights you missed on Saturday, when someone at CBC decided most of the country didn't really need to see the final 13 minutes of the Edmonton-Saskatchewan game in Regina. In typical YouTube fashion, fans can also contribute their own videos and post comments about anything they see there. Another smart move, it says here, from a league that truly seems to have grasped the changing media landscape out there. PS - Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/cfl It talks about subscribing. I don't know what that's all about, but it sounds like it might cost money. I have only dial-up here, so I can't check it out.

Best wishes, Mark.

Yesterday our local paper published a lengthy obituary of Gardner from the New York Times. I guess better late than never. It said that he wrote a total of eight Boysie Oakes books. I'll have to see if I can find any of the others I haven't read.

medjuck, Universal is the distributor of ECM and I think Concord. So maybe whatever Universal does they will do too.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070821/mtv_mobile_...rvice.html?.v=1 MTV, RealNetworks Challenge Apple Music Tuesday August 21, 4:47 pm ET By Jessica Mintz, AP Technology Writer MTV Networks, RealNetworks, Verizon Announce New Music Service SEATTLE (AP) -- Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks and digital media company RealNetworks announced Tuesday a digital music joint venture that will compete with Apple's dominant trinity of the iTunes store, iPod player and iPhone. MTV will merge its Urge music service into the Rhapsody offering from RealNetworks Inc., forming a new company called Rhapsody America. The new service will be accessible on computers and music players and integrated with Verizon Wireless's VCast multimedia service for cell phones. MTV will heavily market the Rhapsody America service starting in September and will provide music playlists and other programming. The companies did not say how much the new service will cost. Rhapsody currently charges subscribers $12.99 a month for unlimited listening and sells individual tracks for 99 cents, with a discount for subscribers. Executives from the three companies said in a conference call that RealNetworks owns a majority of the new venture, though MTV's stake is "substantial." The relationship with Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC of Britain, is exclusive and long-term, the companies said. Further financial details were not provided. Michael Bloom, previously the general manager of Urge, will head up the new company. In an interview, he said Urge's existing customers will be migrated to Rhapsody America over time, but would not give further details. For now, Urge customers can use their accounts on Rhapsody and enjoy access to both services. So far, no other company has come close to rivaling Apple Inc.'s successful combination of music store and music player. Microsoft Corp. worked with MTV to build Urge into its Windows Media Player software, but after Urge launched last year the software maker shifted focus to its own Zune music player and store. So far, the Zune has captured only a tiny sliver of the digital music market. Early wireless music programs were hindered by the relatively tiny amount of storage space available for music on cell phones. John Stratton, Verizon Wireless' chief marketing officer, said in Tuesday's conference call that phones with 8 gigabytes of storage -- comparable to the biggest iPhone -- would be available by the end of this year. Stratton also said that phones with 16 GB of storage should be ready by mid-2008, and he hinted that the service will include over-the-air downloads of songs straight to cell phones. RealNetworks also began testing the sale of songs from Universal Music Group's catalog without copy-protection restrictions Tuesday, joining several other retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. That would allow such songs to play on the market-leading iPod. Rob Glaser, RealNetworks' chief executive officer, said music free of such restrictions should go mainstream in 2008. That fits with the companies' un-Apple-like strategy of running a music store that can connect with any number of different devices. Apple's copy-protection technology generally limits songs bought on iTunes to its own iPods and iPhones. "This is a close collaboration of partners that believes in the idea of openness," Glaser said. "Consumers should get to pick what mobile phone they want and get great music on it." And in that vein, the executives said in an interview that they're not planning to launch an "iPhone killer." "This is not somehow about how we collectively compete with the iPhone," said Verizon Wireless' Stratton. "I think that's a very limiting definition." Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff said Rhapsody America was a clear challenge to Apple. "It is an attempt to create a powerhouse that's going to be able to compete with iTunes," Bernoff said. "It's going to be very tough to compete that way. Many other companies have tried to do that and failed, including the limited success that MTV and Rhapsody have had separately."

Yes, it's an ECM release. I rank this in the middle of my seven Bley albums, although that is not quite fair because it is so different from the others. My first two were recorded in concert at Copenhagen and Haarlem in 1965 and 1966, and I think those are really special. I would next rank an ECM album called Ballads. I like this more than his Open, to love solo album, which I've noticed is very popular on AAJ and maybe here too. I rank last his two Milestone albums with synthesizer, which are good but not as great as the others I have. So I can't say that any of his albums have left me cold the way you feel, but as I say 1972 was a long time ago, and I have been out of touch with what he has been doing for 35 years.

Paul Bley has a new album out, Solo in Mondsee. Mondsee is a city in Austria where a Bösendorfer Imperial Grand piano is located. As the title says, this is a solo piano album. There are ten tracks, entitled Mondsee Variations I-X, totalling 55 minutes. I may be wrong, but I don't think a lot of forethought went into the music. I think this was a case of a master sitting down at the piano and improvising for an hour. Spontaneous jazz! This is my seventh Bley album, but the other six were recorded between 1965 and 1972. I would expect an artist to change his style over the course of 35 years, and Bley has. The songs here are not as dry as the playing I associate with him. The chords and sound are not uniquely his. This reminds me a little bit of two Warren Bernhardt solo piano albums from the 70s that I have. All the music is pleasant to listen to, and you can pay attention to it and be rewarded or else just keep it in the background. CD Universe says: List Price $16.97; Their Price $15.45. 4 stars

I was told that this is a federal matter because Bad Newz Kennels organized the fights in Tennessee and elsewhere (Georgia?) in addition to Virginia.

And the second of the two games: Saskatchewan Roughriders 39....Edmonton Eskimos 32 http://sports.canada.com/default.asp?c=can.../AJN4097692.htm This game started at ten o'clock eastern time, so I listened to some of the Riders network pre-game show and the first three quarters before going to bed with Edmonton leading 32-27. It is just as well that I turned it off when I did because the game was delayed for an hour at the start of the fourth due to lightning. Here's an article about the CBC discontinuing its broadcast of the game due to the delay. I guess it's no wonder why the league chose to sign an exclusive deal with TSN starting next season. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home It rained for much of the game, and kick receivers were having big trouble holding onto the ball. Ricky Ray completed his first eleven passes. Val St. Germaine played for the Riders at left tackle, so he is back in the league. An announcer commented that Kerry Joseph is healthy this year, explaining his much-improved play. He said that last year Joseph was bothered by a leg injury. The halftime show discussed the history of the Roughriders dinner. The story of Allan Sherman's getting booed off the stage by the very drunk crowd after he showed up late was pretty amusing. I saw Sherman in New Orleans about 1967 and really enjoyed him. We had all of his albums when I was growing up. "Hello young lovers, you're under arrest!" ***** The Als released Robert Edwards today, and the Argos signed him hours later. Walter Payton's son Jarrett has looked terrific running for the Als, so I guess they figured they didn't need his contract. As I recall, all contracts extant after Labor Day are guaranteed for the remainder of the season. Edwards' brother Terrence left the Als for the Bombers in a huff over the off-season. He was a free agent, and I think he felt that GM/Coach Jim Popp did not sufficiently value his worth. He may have been right, considering how well he has played for the Bombers. Anyway, I wonder if the problems with Terrence carried over to the relationship between Popp and Robert. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Tor...4430294-cp.html ***** The Ticats traded Corey Holmes back to Sask today for Jason Armstead. this comes as a surprise to me. Holmes has not enjoyed the success with the Ticats that he did those years with the Riders, but I still rate Holmes better than Armstead. The Ottawa people loved Armstead, but I always felt he was a little overrated. Still, with Jesse Lumsden having a good year I guess the Cats don't really need another runner like Homes. The Ticats also gave up a prospect named Chris Getzlaf from the Univ. of Regina. http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/R...tsFootball/home

Week 8 previews: http://sports.canada.com/default.asp?c=can.../AJN4097349.htm ***** Week 8 first result: Calgary Stampeders 45....British Columbia Lions 45 http://sports.canada.com/default.asp?c=can.../AJN4097540.htm