Chalupa

Today's forecast for Philly is 70 degrees w/ possible thunderstorms tonight.

And leave Hawaii in February? I can't remember all of my gossip, but does he have a problem with Phil (too)? Rumor has it that Billy is forming a band w/ one of the guys from Phish and the lead guitarist of Max Creek. Apparently they spent a few weeks down in Costa Rica in early January rehearsing.

Marion Brown - Afternoon of a Georgia Faun (ECM) Wow. Not what I expected based on my previous ECM listening experiences. I like it.

Rodney didn't take any steroids. He took HGH to help an injury heal. It is a banned substance, but it is not a steroid. It is not used to build muscle mass. Get your facts right before you pile more ignorant hate on a team. Sheesh! Whatever.

I seem to remember this happening 2 or 3 years ago. I think all of the titles in my list were restored within a week.

Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.

Man, this one keeps eluding my clutches on ebay. One copy went for $68 last week.

Well yeah, law of averages says you gotta lose at least once during the season. Better to lose one in the front 16 than later on, eh? I will say this, though - if there's any franchise in American professional sports that can eventually pull it off, it's the Patriots. I dunno...despite all the talent, and the brain trust, I have the feeling that the NEP "dynasty" has now jumped the shark. Needless to say, I could be completely wrong. I'm thinking the same thing. They will make the playoffs next year but only because they play in the weakest division in the NFL. However, the defense, especially the linebackers, needs some upgrading. Vrabel will be 33 next season, Bruschi will be 35, Thomas & Colvin will be 31, and Junior Seau will be 40! While they can still defend the run pretty well they can't keep up on the little slant routes across the middle. The Eagles exposed this during their game earlier this season. The Gmen exploited it well in both of their match ups this season. Rodney Harrison(turns 36 next season) has lost a step or 3. He wasn't quite the same player this year minus the steroids. On the O side Faulk is turning 32. Stallworth and Moss are FA's. They will re-sign Moss but it's gonna cost them big time against the cap which will limit the other personnel moves they need to make. The once impenetrable O Line looked very porous last night. Also I wondering how this "Spygate" thing is going to play out. Kind of hard to make adjustments when you can't steal the other teams signals

If NE had won, it would have been Wes Welker, MVP. Moss was invisible for most of the game. Agree it probably would have been Welker if NE had won. I'm just using Moss as an example here.

Eli pulled a douchebaggy move there no doubt about it. However, would you rather have Randy Moss as the Super Bowl MVP?? Edit: I mean did you see Moss after he scored that TD?? He started parading around the end zone like a fucking peacock.

What a game. Though as an Eagles fan it pains me to say it - congrats to the NY Giants and their fans. The best team won.

Cheaters never prosper.

So happy New England lost. Edit: Actually not so happy that they lost. I am happy that they didn't win.

YES!!!!!!

Von Freeman - Have No Fear (Nessa)

Just got this in an email.... >FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: > >DEADHEADS FOR OBAMA AT THE WARFIELD JUST ANNOUNCED! > >DEADHEADS FOR OBAMA >featuring >BOB WEIR, MICKEY HART, PHIL LESH & FRIENDS >The Warfield Theatre >Monday, February 4, Doors 6:00 PM/ Show 7:30PM >Tickets are $35.00 general admission (main floor) and >$35.00 reserved seating (balcony) plus applicable service >charges...all ages >Two-ticket limit per person. >Tickets will be available through Ticketmaster.com ONLY >Will Call only event > >Deadheads for Obama > >Grateful Dead Members to Reunite for Barack Obama > >(San Francisco) Members of the Grateful Dead will host a get out the >vote concert in support of Democratic Presidential candidate Barack >Obama on Monday, February 4th at The Warfield Theatre in San >Francisco. > >Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh, and Bob Weir, joined by Jackie Greene, John >Molo, and Steve Molitz, will play a show together in support of >Barack Obama. > >The video website Iclips will be producing a live simulcast streamed >via the Internet on www.iclips.net at approximately 7:30pm PST. > >This will mark the first time that the members of the legendary band >have performed together since 2004. They have agreed to reunite for >this one-time-only event in order to lend support to Senator Obama >leading into the crucial "Super- Tuesday" series of primaries held >on Tuesday, February 5th. > >PLEASE NOTE: Tickets will be available through Ticketmaster.com >ONLY. Tickets will NOT be available at the box offices, >charge-by-phone or Ticketmaster outlets. Two-ticket limit per >person. Tickets are non-transferable. No refunds or exchanges. A >service charge is added to each ticket price. In the spirit of fair >access to tickets for fans, this is a "WILL CALL ONLY" event. UPS >and Ticketfast will not be available as delivery choices. You must >bring your government issued photo ID and your credit card used to >purchase the tickets to the box office window on the day of the show >to retrieve these tickets. You and your guest must enter the venue >directly upon picking up your order. **Will Call tickets are not >transferable and must be picked up by card holder. Alternate names >for will call are not allowed. No will call drop-offs permitted.** >*** TICKETMASTER, AT ITS DISCRETION, WILL CANCEL ANY AND ALL ORDERS >THAT EXCEED THE TICKET LIMIT WITHOUT NOTICE. THIS INCLUDES DUPLICATE >ORDERS HAVING THE SAME NAME, BILLING ADDRESS OR CREDIT CARD. *** >

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/01/m...s-_n_84456.html NSFW

Santana agrees to $150.75M, seven-year deal with Mets http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3226412

Related story.... Feb 1, 8:02 PM EST Commissioner Defends Destroying Tapes By BARRY WILNER PHOENIX (AP) -- Spygate won't go away. Roger Goodell defended his decision to destroy notes and videotapes linked to the New England Patriots' cheating scandal Friday, a day after Sen. Arlen Specter asked why the NFL commissioner trashed the evidence. "The action that we took was decisive and it was unprecedented," Goodell said during his State of the NFL address, an annual news conference at the Super Bowl. "I believe it was helpful in making sure our instructions were followed closely by not only the Patriots, but also by every other team. I think it was the appropriate thing to do. Our discipline sent a loud message ..." Specter, R-Pa., said Goodell's explanation, "didn't make any sense at all." "If they are under lock and key at the NFL headquarters, they aren't going to be available at all," he said in Philadelphia. But Goodell said a copy of one of six tapes made either in 2006 or during the 2007 preseason had, indeed, made its way to the media before all the tapes were destroyed. "They may have collected it within the rules, but we couldn't determine that. So we felt that it should be destroyed," he said. Goodell fined coach Bill Belichick $500,000 and docked the team $250,000 and a first-round draft pick. It was the biggest fine ever for a coach and the first time in NFL history a first-round draft pick has figured in a penalty. Specter also wondered just how much information the Patriots were collecting on those tapes. "They talked about defensive signals and don't say if there was any taping or stealing of offensive signals," he said. "The fine was for the totality of the circumstances, not just the taping. Well, wait a minute, what else is involved here?" Spygate has touched a nerve with nearly everyone who follows the NFL and easily was the most prominent topic during Goodell's address two days before the undefeated Patriots meet the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. He was asked about it a half-dozen times, from the first question until the last. "The actual effectiveness of taping and taking of signals from opponents - it is something done widely in many sports. I think it probably had limited, if any effect, on the outcome of games," he said. "That doesn't change my perspective on violating rules and the need to be punished." NFL security confiscated a video camera and tape from a Patriots employee during New England's 38-14 victory over the New York Jets in the season opener. The employee was accused of aiming his camera at the Jets' defensive coaches as they signaled to players on the field. Congress is interested because, according to Specter, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the issue could put the league's antitrust exemption at risk. "I do believe that it is a matter of importance," Specter said. "It's not going to displace the stimulus package or the Iraq war, but I think the integrity of football is very important, and I think the National Football League has a special duty to the American people - and further the Congress - because they have an antitrust exemption." Though Spygate was the main topic, Goodell also said: -The New Orleans Saints will host the San Diego Chargers at Wembley Stadium in London on Oct. 26 in the latest international game, part of a three-year commitment to play at least one game in the United Kingdom. He noted that many franchises were interested in playing in this year's game. "Maybe part of it was because the Giants went last year and now they're in the Super Bowl, so maybe they think there's a connection," Goodell said, prompting laughter. -The league approved the Buffalo Bills' plan to play a regular-season game in Toronto in each of the next five seasons, plus a preseason game in Canada every other year. -For the first time in years, the league is considering revamping seedings in the playoffs to assure that more late-season games are meaningful. That could lead to a wild-card team actually hosting a first-round game if it has a better record than the division winner it is meeting. Goodell admitted concern that some teams had virtually nothing to play for toward the end of the schedule. "The incentive should be for every team to win as many games as possible," he said. "We are going to look into the potential of seeding our teams differently after they qualify for the playoffs, so that you could potentially make more of the regular-season games have significance for the postseason." -There is no timetable for testing of human growth hormone in the NFL. The league has given anti-doping researcher Don Catlin $500,000 to look into an HGH urine test, and also invested $3 million with the USOC to be used for anti-doping research. "It's not at a point where there's a valid test that is widely distributed that we can use, that we can be comfortable with," Goodell said. "I don't think there's a significant amount of HGH use, but I have no factual basis for saying that." -He was confident owners and the NFL Players Association can make progress toward extending or revamping the collective bargaining agreement, which runs through 2010. Both sides can opt out of the deal in November, which would lead to no salary cap for the 2010 season. -Violations of the player conduct policy decreased by 20 percent, including a large reduction among rookies. He also emphasized that the league, in the wake of the death of Sean Taylor and three other 24-year-old players, is doing "everything we can to educate players on simple things they can do to protect themselves and their families. They are celebrities." ---

Sen. Specter Demands Answers from the NFL About Patriots' Signal-Stealing Scandal by KYW's Andrew Colton US senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) is calling on the NFL to tell him what happened to videotapes made by the New England Patriots -- tapes that were at the center of a controversy indicating that the Patriots were stealing sideline signals of the Philadelphia Eagles and others. With the Patriots playing in the Super Bowl this weekend, Sen. Specter says he's tired of non-answers he's received from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell (see related story). Specter says it started when he asked questions about the Patriots videotaping the Eagles' signals during the 2005 Super Bowl. He got no answer, he says, so he asked again after hearing that the Patriots were caught doing similar videotaping this season against the New York Jets. Then, Specter says, he learned that all the tapes were destroyed: "We've had a lot of history where it's not the underlying transaction that was so bad, but it was the coverup. Was there a coverup here? I don't know. But it's certainly a suspicious situation to destroy the tapes." Specter points out that the NFL has an antitrust exemption, and he says that means the league should be more forthcoming when asked questions by the leader of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sources: Mets likely won't reach deal with Santana until Friday, if at all http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3224116

One post in and you've already managed to do your part to stimulate the economy… OK, I was going to buy the Horseshoe set anyway but you did manage to further whet my appetite. I seem to recall seeing somewhere that Transparency's CD-R sets were done in collaboration with Marshall Allen but maybe I'm thinking of the Art Yard re-issues instead. As for the Lost Reel series I really am just curious. If royalties are being paid to the El Saturn folks then I'll advise the trading site that has approved their distribution as boots that they need to remove them. If not, then let the downloaders eat cake. Either way it isn't likely to impact my decision to purchase any of these releases in the future. FWIW..... According to this site Transparency is NOT a bootleg outfit..... http://video.aol.com/video-detail/sun-ra-o...1987/4180997442 (Scroll down to the bottom) IMPORTANT NOTE: TRANSPARENCY works directly with the Arkestra's management, so a percentage from their DVD sales ACTUALLY GOES TO THE SUN-RA ARKESTRA, unlike many of the DVD providers of their material!

Here's a review of an incredible show I saw on Tuesday night.... The call of Russia's steppes heard in Tuva's folk music By David R. Stampone For The Inquirer Otherworldly is an apt word to describe Tuvan throat-singing. On Tuesday at the Rotunda, as the three members of Tuva's Alash gave deep voice to the first of a dozen numbers, listeners having their first live encounter with the Central Asian folk genre could be identified by their startled looks. Developed over centuries among the semi-nomadic herdsmen of Tuva, where they could sing to each other over long distances, the eerie vocalizations have long been a national passion in the land bordering southern Siberia. The singers use the larynx to simultaneously produce multiple tones. As exotic as they are, however, the sounds and songs soon yielded familiar points of reference. The ultra-low quaking tones that first emerged from the singers suggested cartoon voices, like Popeye chanting in measured phrases. The subsequent higher tones sounded like a synthesizer or pleasantly modulating electric device. And then there were the nature sounds, melodic representations of bird tweets, baying wolves, winds sweeping across the steppes and, above all, horses - key in Tuva's equine culture. Sean Quirk, the young Chicagoan who manages and interprets for Alash, introduced a solo vocal from drummer Ayan Shirizhik (on a goatskin-covered kengirge), in borbangnadyr style - literally "to cause something to make itself round" - and asked the 200-plus listeners to imagine a cyclically burbling stream. Easily done. Quirk also introduced the important "Lament of the Igil" selection, which relates the folk tale of a beloved horse's ghost instructing the grieving owner to make and play an igil, a bowed, two-stringed, horse-head fiddle. (Nice synchronicity at the anniversary of Barbaro's passing.) Bady-Dorzhu Ondar, 23, began on the instrument (he can be seen on YouTube making his American TV debut at age 9 with Alash artistic director Kongar-ool Ondar, the master vocalist who was featured in the award-winning 1999 documentary Genghis Blues). Philadelphia's eight-piece Extra (Special) Terrestrial (Guests) - half of the band coming from the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra, the first American jazz band to play in Tuva, in 2004 - later did a rousing set of free jazz improv. Their performance featured worldly groove assistance from South African percussionist Mogauwane Mahloele, and renowned local musician Elliot Levin, matching eruptive sax chops with octogenarian Arkestra leader Marshall Allen. The show closed with Alash coming out to lead a sublime group jam on the Tuvan standard "The Caravan-Driver Song."

Oh shit.

TO owes the Eagles $769K http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/200801...s__769_120.html