[Voices of the dead, or voices in your head?]

One night I was listening to a cassette tape on my Walkman (old, crappy version back then) - of an album I must've played 100 times or more, so I knew it inside and out - and near the end of the tape I distinctly heard a woman's voice ask me a question. It scared the shit out of me

Beside the point, perhaps, but...what was the question?

[Voices of the dead, or voices in your head?]

Try this. It spooked me out real bad.

No WAY am I going to try that.

I don't doubt your experience at all - it sounds very intense. I just don't need to be spooked outside of a movie theater or the pages of a book.

[What's the big deal with the Conns?]

I guess the whole idea, if I'm not repeating anybody, that these were titles that might be harder to get and would have a more limited audience, hence the title of the series, whereas the RVGs would have a more limited audience. ...

Well, that certainly clears it up.

[What music did you buy today?]

My last $4.99 per disc order from yourmusic.com:

The Human League - Greatest Hits

Thompson Twins - Greatest Hits

Chris Botti - Midnight Without You

Chris Botti - Night Sessions

Sam Rivers - Fuschia Swing Song (Remastered)

Chris Botti - When I Fall In Love

Sam Rivers - Contours

Clifford Brown - The Complete Blue Note & Pacific Jazz Recordings

Antonio Carlos - Jobim The Man From Ipanema

Ella Fitzgerald - The Complete Ella Fitzgerald Song Books

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Creedence Clearwater Revival (Box Set)

Jimmy Smith - Retrospective

Various Artists - The Complete Norman Granz Jam Sessions

Standard Miles Davis & John Coltrane - The Complete Columbia Recordings

Led Zeppelin - Boxed Set

The Guess Who - Running Back Thru Canada

Grant Green - Retrospective 1961-1966

Stevie Ray Vaughan - The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble

DAMN...

[Elvis Costello]

I just got Delivery Man yesterday and I've listened to it a lot already. Very good, would have been better if he had left the intolerable Lucinda Williams off of it. I can't understand the appeal of her voice. She sounds like she is trying to sing around a mouthful of marbles. Just annoying. But the band is fantastic on this record. Maybe Almost Blue should be next purchase?

Almost Blue is nice, but you'd better like Elvis's take on cry-in-your-beer country.

Given what you've really enjoyed, it sounds like you want Imperial Bedroom or Trust - though I'll put in one more strong advisement in favor of Get Happy.

[Elvis Costello]

I'd advise Get Happy! and Imperial Bedroom

[Shelly Manne: Live at the Black Hawk]

Now playing...

Shelly Manne and His Men - At the Blackhawk, Volume 2 (Contamporary/OJC, 1959)

I have all five volumes of the Blackhawk set, and also really like the two-volume 1961 set from Shelly's Manne Hole:

[What music did you buy today?]

On the way from yourmusic.com...

Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers - Free for All (Bluenote, 1964)

and...

Miles Davis - Seven Steps: The Complete Columbia Recordings 1963-1964 (Sony)

[How you converse when you don't want]

"Mommy and Daddy want to go snuggle. Watch your Wiggles DVD!!"

Oh, man. That's just wrong on so many levels.

it's a joke, of course

Oh, understood, Greg - just one of those that makes me go instead of

[How you converse when you don't want]

"Mommy and Daddy want to go snuggle. Watch your Wiggles DVD!!"

Oh, man. That's just wrong on so many levels.

[W.E.L.C.O.M.E. B.A.C.K.!!!!]

Thank god (and Jim).

Now I can stop listening to all this damn jazz music.

[Pianoless Jazz]

Some favorite piano-less (or chording-instrument-less) dates off the top of my head...

Sonny Rollins - Way Out West

Sonny Rollins - The Freedom Suite

Sonny Rollins - A Night at the Village Vanguard

Fred Anderson Trio - Live at the Velvet Lounge

Fred Anderson and Robert Barry - Duets 2001: Live at the Empty Bottle

Fred Anderson and Hamid Drake - Back Together Again

Branford Marsalis - Trio Jeepy

Branford Marsalis - The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born

Branford Marsalis - The Dark Keys

Joe Lovano - Trio Fascination (w/Dave Holland and Elvin Jones)

Joe Lovano - Flights of Fancy: Trio Fascination, Volume 2 (w/Dave Holland and Elvin Jones)

Joe Lovano - Quartets Live at the Village Vanguard (disc 1 is a piano-less quartet with Tom Harrell on trumpet & flugelhorn)

[Bela Fleck Trio!]

Sounds even more different than the Metheny Group.

Different...from what?

Bela's okay. Ponty's had some great moments. Clarke is Clarke.

I predict a wankathon.

[Yourmusic.com corner]

The customer service folks replied to my query/complaint about the queues with the news that they were experiencing "technical problems," and hoped to have it fixed soon.

Yup, and they did.

[Yourmusic.com corner]

Yes, I'm having problems, too. I had 3-4 items in my queue, now all gone except for the one about to ship. I just tried adding the missing items again; the process seems to work (I get a message that the item has been added to the queue), but my queue remains empty.

Edit: I just emailed a report on the problem to yourmusic's customer service.

[AAJ down]

The notice I saw (from Michael Ricci) said the AAJ site would be down "for about an hour" beginning at 6 p.m. EST for server maintenance.

Seems to be taking longer than he thought. As most things often will.

[AOW past and present]

Maybe we need another update on the AOTW Past and Present List?

[Impressions Theme]

I'm guessing here, not having seen the program, but could it be "Impressions," by John Coltrane?

[The GENDER GENIE! Analyzes Your Writing]

In honor of the impending Bloomsday, I entered a piece of Molly Bloom's soliloquy...

It guessed male.

Beautiful.

[The GENDER GENIE! Analyzes Your Writing]

My results:

Words: 768

(NOTE: The genie works best on texts of more than 500 words.)

Female Score: 802

Male Score: 1563

The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: male!

It seems to have been correct with us guys (so far), but it's apparently not all that amazing:

The Gender Genie knows all.

According to Koppel and Argamon, the algorithm should predict the gender of the author approximately 80% of the time.

Accuracy Results

Am I right?

yes  159762 (59.38%) 

no  109309 (40.62%)

269071 total responses since September 13, 2003

Now, people could be reporting that the genie has guessed incorrectly just out of spite, but according to these numbers, the algorithm sucks.

[Yourmusic.com corner]

It might be the only copy in Chattanooga! If that's the way it's spelled.

A distinct possibility.

[Yourmusic.com corner]

Well, I went ahead and ordered Seven Steps from yourmusic. $41.93 total (free shipping).

A great deal, for sure.

But it better have the goddamn metal spine!!

[Yourmusic.com corner]

There's no doubt that Seven Steps was released with a metal spine; I just wondered whether that packaging was what yourmusic had in stock. Wasn't sure if Sony had gone to the longbox yet for this set, or if yourmusic had some alternate cheapo packaging, or what.

Thanks for the assurances, folks.

[Yourmusic.com corner]

All are metal spines still, including from yourmusic.

Usually they dont change the spines for a year or so after release.

Thanks - that's what I wanted to hear. And yes, Jsangry, 'tis a fetish I share. I have a couple of other metal spine sets from that series of releases, and like the consistency as well as the packaging.

[Yourmusic.com corner]

Okay, I just succumbed and signed up. Anyone know if yourmusic is still shipping the metal spine edition of Miles's Seven Steps box? (That's the edition I'd much prefer to have).