ghost of miles

Revisiting a seminal moment from my early encounters with Ellington after a friend recommended this then-recent release:

Oh man, I loved Dr. Katz when it was on back in the mid/late 1990s, and the revolving cast of patients/stand-up comics was fantastic. Ray Romano was one of my favorites in that capacity. Classic scene: Jon Lovitz's The Critic is another good show from that same era.

I went to the archived game to watch the whole sequence of events unfold in real time, and he was definitely in discomfort afterwards.

I didn't get around to watching The Wire and The Sopranos until ten years or so after each show had ended its run. Loved them both and just recently began re-watching The Wire. Mad Men I did see while it was airing, and I'll be re-watching that one at some point as well. My best friend has been pressing me to watch Breaking Bad for a long time, and I've checked out some clips on YouTube, but it hasn't pulled me in yet. I'll likely watch it at some point, though, as it's so often grouped with the three shows I just mentioned as the Fantastic Four of cable TV's "golden age" period in the 2000s.

My first Basie set, purchased in 1992. It was a great introduction! Still have it. Right now:

Whoa... ... and hard disagree with the rule that umps used to judge this a base hit. If the ball had fallen out of Gilbert's shirt and hit the ground, OK, but he retained control, weird as the circumstances may have been. How is this different from a ball hitting a fielder in the chest or elsewhere, and then he still catches it in his glove or hand? And if it's ruled a hit, why, with runners on first and third, did the umps advance the runner on first but kept the runner on third where he was? According to the article below, a ball that gets caught in a player's or coach's uniform is considered "out of play." So then how does this turn into a single? Why Gilbert's shirt catch was ruled a hit Obviously not a situation MLB is likely to encounter again any time soon, if ever, but still seems like a wrong outcome to me, and it did affect the game--A's went on to score two runs that innning, though Mariners ultimately prevailed in a 5-4 walkoff.

Listening to a newly-acquired copy of the BGO double CD that brings together three of Tom Scott’s mid-1970s albums, including the two with L.A. Express. I think I have about 15-20 of these BGO twofers (threefers?), and the annotations and sound are consistently good. What are some of your faves from this label, jazz or otherwise?

Looking forward to it whenever it appears! I still have it on pre-order.

A snippet of "Satellite" has been posted as a short on YouTube. ... listening to it on old laptop speakers via a YT upload obviously not the best set of circumstances for noting the audio quality, but it's pretty much what I expected, based on the Showboat recordings that have circulated for many years now. Also wondering--strange as it may seem--if it ends up being a larger-than-expected and cheaper-than-expected set, or if we get a more distilled/curated four+ disc collection. Buying it day one, whatever form it takes.

I've seen a couple of comments elsewhere online, but has anybody on this forum heard the two released RSD tracks yet? Curious as to how much Verve was able to clean up the sound. I'm in for it all, though, even if the audio quality's still pretty rough.

Only a few cuts in, but damn does this sound good so far. Mid-1960s is one of my favorite eras for live Ellington.

Robert Johnson as you’ve never heard him before

While I was thoroughly delighted to see Giancarlo Stanton, of all people, manufacture a small-ball run last night, this undoubtedly was the highlight of yesterday’s MLB games: Adell robs 3 HRs in one game

I bought it at Landlocked here in Bloomington a couple of weeks ago but have not dug into it yet.

Of course I'm lovin' ASB for the sake of Aaron Judge alone--Yankee fans have long been anticipating its implementation, given his usually MLB-leading status for most balls-called-strikes pretty much since his full-time debut in 2017. Crazy that that first challenge of his was only 1/10 of an inch below the zone, but it changed the nature of the at-bat to his advantage, and he went on to homer in a 3-2 count. But I'm also enjoying checking out the clips of ASB in action around all of MLB, and it seems the fans at the games are generally enthusiastic about it? It does add a few more moments of replay drama and uncertainty to the game, and it's much quicker than a play challenge. And I'm not going to miss Aaron Boone and other managers screaming as much at the umps over blown calls or multiple blown calls, though it's pretty hilarious that we've already had a manager thrown out over an ASB challenge... but he was objecting on the grounds that the batter had not tapped his helmet quickly enough. *There* lay the potential for future manager/umpire dust-ups over ball-and-strike calls, if that is one's thing. I'll also be interested to see, as the season develops, whether the outcomes of ASB challenges end up statistically favoring pitchers or hitters, or if the outcomes are roughly equal.

MLB.com’s power rankings for Opening Day. The Dodgers unsurprisingly clock in at #1, while four of the other top ten teams are from the AL East.

Here's a Night Lights show I did a few years back: Late Art: Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in the 1980s