Tom Storer

Richard Sudhalter wrote a book called "Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz, 1915-1945." It was controversial, as you might expect. I never read the book but I bought the companion double-CD, which you can get separately, and it's packed with excellent early jazz--all by white musicians, but what the hell, if it's good, it's good. I recommend the CDs heartily.

Yes, "prince meet"/"mincemeat" is something, all right. One of my favorites along the same lines is from Yip Harburg's "What Is There To Say": My heart's in a deadlock I'd even face wedlock With you

Then there's always this immortal couplet from "These Foolish Things": "A tinkling piano in the next apartment, Those stumbling words that told you what my heart meant" Of course, when Billie Holiday sings it, all is forgiven.

A lexicographer friend of mine notes that "stuffing" is Northern and "dressing" is Southern. My question for you is: does this include the verb? Would you say, "I have dressed the turkey?"

*CLASP*

This is a book for young people? I always find it awkward when authors attempt to make easily digestible pedagogical talking points out of messy, blurred, exception-ridden realities. It reminds me of PowerPoint presentations. "Just have a look at these few bullet points, then you'll have learned something." Not always.

Here in France, where TG is naturally not a holiday, Americans typically pick an adjacent weekend to celebrate. Every year for decades we've been invited to a festive Thanksgiving weekend by a foodie friend who now lives in Chartres. So I don't control the menu, but typically it consists of roast stuffed turkey and a variety of side dishes. I make the sweet potato pie--the pumpkins here in France aren't quite the same variety, so it's hard to find pumpkin that will set properly. I prefer to use fresh sweet potato rather than overpriced canned pumpkin from some American specialty shop in Paris. Our friend does a thing where she soaks Stilton cheese overnight in vintage port. It makes a sinfully rich confection, half cheese and half dessert. I'd like to weigh in on the stuffing question. I am philosophically and aesthetically opposed to stuffing outside the bird. The whole point is to have it compact and moist, permeated with cooking juices from the bird. Otherwise, I'm sorry, it's not stuffing. It's faux stuffing and its proponents should be banned from the kitchen for life. That is all. Long live tolerance!

My copy came yesterday. What great jazz. What a player, what a sound. I remember buying those Steeplechase quartet albums back in the day and listening to them over and over, just floored at the combination of jazz essence and real originality. This brought me right back--how wonderful that he's still serving the Cause! Thanks, Chuck, for getting this out there!

A good read, all right. I laughed when I read that Art Taylor used to say his whole career was based on Philly Joe not showing up. And when Jimmy Garrison begged off a gig after Coltrane's death, saying that after seven years of playing vamps he had forgotten all the tunes!

I just learned of the existence of Muphry's law: "if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written." This seems like the just thread to bring it up! See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law.

This sounds very much like you are blaming faults in the music on the musicians' sartorial attitudes. They pay a lot of attention to their wardrobe and "as a consequence" you don't like their music? You're being argumentative. I said precisely what I mean. There are musicians whose music lacks the spark I seek as a listener. Many of them are the well dressed variety I see on the glossy, highly produced record covers. I'm not suggesting their wardrobe influences my ears, you are. I'm not concerned if you agree, I'm merely stating the way I see it. You're welcome to your own opinion, but don't put words in my mouth. I just want to defend myself against the charge of putting words in your mouth. You said: in your estimation, some musicians worry as much about their wardrobe as their music. Then you said, "As a consequence," you don't like their music. Maybe you didn't mean to say that you don't like their music because you think they're too concerned with their dress, but that is what you said. Taken literally. I will allow that I may have been guilty of nitpicking. And with that I will say no more on that particular subject.

Sad news. She had a wonderful sound.

Look at it this way: if some Wynton fan were to go to a concert of free improv played by musicians wearing dirty jeans and T-shirts, and then came away saying "That music was terrible! Look at how those musicians dress! So sloppy! No respect!", I submit that many free improv fans would say "That person doesn't understand that music has nothing to do with wardrobe! He is hung up on bourgeois pretensions and superficial appearance!" And then they would go to a Wynton concert and say "That music was terrible! Look at those expensive suits! All pretense and conformism!" The fact that the audience does look at the musicians, and does speculate (and I emphasize "speculate," because that's all it is) about what their dress implies about their music, puts the lie to the notion that dress has no effect on the music listening experience.

This sounds very much like you are blaming faults in the music on the musicians' sartorial attitudes. They pay a lot of attention to their wardrobe and "as a consequence" you don't like their music?

A friend of mine died from swine flu on Tuesday. He came down with it a week earlier and had been in intensive care since last Thursday with grave respiratory difficulties. He was 36 years old and in good health. He had three kids. Wash your hands frequently.

Anyone who says this: "the 'famous' bleu and roquefort - ewww", cannot be taken seriously in any discussion of cheese.

I would definitely agree with your guess of Ray Brown. No idea who the pianist is, though.

One nice bit of irony is that I have heard people sneer with condescension about neoboppers wearing suits, and then insist that how a musician dresses has no importance whatsoever.

Typos are the least of it. Here's a good one: I once talked to someone at a French subsidiary of an American company. They produced their own documentation, written in English by native English-speakers, but were required to have it all looked over by editors in the States, who were anxious to prove their worth by finding as many problems as possible, even imaginary ones. The person showed me an example: the US editor had circled "45°" and queried in angry red pen in the margin: "Fahrenheit or Centigrade??" It was an angle.

As an editor (of corporate technical documentation--not the same material being discussed here, but still), I can tell you that a thread where editors discuss howlers in the original copy would also fill many pages. My wife works in publishing and I often get to see manuscripts prior to editing. There are certainly expert authors out there who barely need any editing at all, but believe me, in many cases editors are to be faulted not for being clueless but for being excessively gentle...

Do you use http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4r4U-y5WJs? But seriously. I don't want to take the focus away from your specific problem, but this is what people in most Western countries see as outrageous. ANYONE SHOULD BE ABLE TO AFFORD TO SEE A DERMATOLOGIST--even a jazz musician! To me this trumps any specious arguments against the public option. Sorry for the political aside.

It doesn't affect my appreciation of the music, and I don't care if musicians aren't dressed to kill or all with a similar look, but I do appreciate it if it looks as if they are trying to look presentable. The other night I saw a quintet featuring Walter Smith III, tenor sax; Ambrose Akinmusire, trumpet; Gerald Clayton, piano; Harish Raghavan, bass; and Justin Brown, drums. They each had their own look, some funkier than others, some less casual, but none of them looked like they just didn't give a damn what they happened to be wearing. Then they called Steve Coleman out of the audience to come up and jam. Now Steve Coleman can't be accused of not caring what he wears, for he's had the same look forever: jeans, T-shirt or hooded sweatshirt, backwards baseball cap. But compared to the others he didn't look good. It's like, "This is my uniform: anonymous schlub. I will never, ever try to demonstrate any imagination or style in my dress." Who cares, really, but it's kind of a shame. I feel much the same way about Pat Metheny, who for decades wore jeans and T-shirts and had exactly the same haircut. I think he finally changed a little, though.

This is interesting, I'd never noticed the different possibilities in the properties right-click menu. I'm also on XP. I tested it for a folder containing MP3 files. I right-clicked the folder, then clicked Properties. In the Properties box that popped up, I went to the Customize tab. Under "what kind of folder do you want?" I have these choices: Documents (for any file type) Pictures (best for many files) Photo album (best for fewer files) Music (best for audio files and playlists) Music artist (best for works by one artist) Music album (best for tracks from one album) Videos From what I can see, however, making a choice here simply corresponds to making a choice in the View menu, as follows: Documents => Tiles (alt v; s) Pictures => Thumbnails (alt v; h) Photo album => Filmstrip (alt v; p) Music => Tiles (alt v; s) Music artist => Thumbnails (alt v; h) Music album => Tiles (alt v; s) Videos => Thumbnails (alt v; h) Personally, I always view everything in Details view. I want to see a list of filenames, with other details in columns I can read. And that doesn't correspond to any of the "kind of folder" choices.

The one who survives the longest without being robbed, raped, murdered, infected with a horrible disease or starving to death wins!

Kids--run away from home before it's too late!