ghost of miles

Happy birthday to songwriter Jimmy Webb, who turns 65 today. Last week's Afterglow program was devoted to his music: The Jimmy Webb Songbook Special thanks to Jsngry.

I'm digging this as well and featured it on Just You and Me this past Monday; also spun "Mama Told Me Not To Come" on today's show. Full disclosure: I'm friends with Sara Caswell, the violinist who plays on the CD and who contributed some of the arrangements, but far more objective observers than I have heaped praise upon her playing. (Caswell's also been touring with Esperanza Spalding for much of the past year.)

I bought a Charly Sun Blues box here at a record store in town years ago and later learned that there had been some legal flare-up over its release. It's a great set, and while I haven't listened to it in a long time, I recall the sound as being pretty good. I'm definitely interested in this new set from Hip-O.

Fantastic news, Allen, and much-deserved. And hey, while you're at it, write 'em a new, Allen-Lowe-style state anthem! Proud state of Maine

Thanks for listening, Bill. Robin was incredibly generous with his time--he did two interviews with me over two days that totaled about three hours, and this on the heels of doing a long interview with Terry Gross for Fresh Air. I'm hoping to interview him again for another Night Lights show when his next book comes out.

Boy, Mo's cutter is just not cutting (or cutting it) lately--only the 8th time in his career that he's given up a run in three straight appearances, according to a poster at Pinstripe Alley. NY was lucky to still pick up the win. On a lighter note, somebody posted this doctored photo of the Angels' rally monkey after Cano's 7th-inning grand-slam:

Hard to find words while I thought about this thread's news off and on throughout the day. Aloc's earlier, pre-link comment now seems strangely prescient; our idea of a poster liked and respected by many in this and other online jazz communities has died, or at the very least been supplanted by something deeply troubling. Like Chuck said, there's no easy way for dealing with something like this; "our Bill" was an amiable online reflection of a human being, and for those who sustained any kind of friendship with him, it's not unnatural to simultaneously feel absolute revulsion and disgust, and at the same time feel pain that such a person might have ultimately done so much harm to him or herself as well as inflicting such terrible harm upon the vulnerable children exploited by this network. People will proceed at emotional paces determined by their own life experiences--I don't think that you can prescribe a right way and a wrong way to react to this kind of revelation. There's a thread about this at JazzCorner right now as well, with some thoughtful comments and related stories from posters there.

Ancient Night Lights program and a bit of discussion.

Best birthday wishes to you, Mark, and hope to catch up with you the next time you visit Bloomington.

We re-aired Thelonious Monk, Part 1: From Man To Myth this past week on Night Lights, and it remains archived for online listening.

Huge RISP fail and huge bullpen fail by Mo and Phil Hughes tonight--that was pathetic. What a way to lose the game and lose the series... nice way to throw away a good start by Garcia and excellent relief work from the rest of the Yankees' pen, too.

I'll second Cali's recommendation for this record--listening to it right now, as I'm working on a Night Lights show about Hamilton's early/mid-1960s period, covering many of the Impulses and this Columbia release. Didn't realize how much Charles Lloyd had written for this group.

Well, we swiped one from Lester last night, but man oh man, does Boston ever seem to have CC's number--not good at all if we end up facing them in an ALCS showdown. Advantage for the series definitely Boston, what with Beckett going up tomorrow against Garcia... at least we've managed to avoid getting swept again. Plus Boston is almost certain to win the series for the year; they're now 9-2 against the Yanks, with seven games remaining between the two teams, which means NY needs to win every single one in order just to tie. In other words, Boston's all but a lock to win a division tiebreaker if they and NY end up with identical season W-L records.

Why? Because we started the season with a rotation of CC and the Misfits, and then quickly lost Hughes, who was supposed to be the second-best starter we had. Colon and Garcia have performed far beyond expectations, and Nova has really begun to come into his own as a starter. AJ's been about what I expected.. but still, the starting pitching overall has been much better than what I thought it would be, which is why I'm surprised to see us tied at this point. As for A-Rod returning, NY almost seems to be hitting better without him in the lineup!

Uh, its your team that has trimmed the lead by two games to the slim margin that now separates the teams, with Boston facing Masterson behind Bedard while the Yankees go for the sweep. I'd say there are better than even chances the Yankees arrive in Boston as co-division leaders. Well, I won't deny that I'm happy that your speculation proved to be true; I never would have guessed that NY would be tied with Boston 2/3 of the way through the season. But NY's bound to cool off, and there's an excellent chance it will happen this weekend against the Red Sox. I'd be ecstatic just to see the Yanks take two of three from them, but that's a steep hill to climb in Fenway. BTW, if, by any chance, Boston and NY end the season tied for first, Boston's got a huge head start on the tiebreaker--what are they, 8-1 against NY so far? Even if NY somehow managed to catch up there, Boston's got a far better record against AL East teams as well. Interesting stat cited over at Pinstripe Alley in the postgame thread: Have to say I'll be depressed to see Nova get demoted again (or sent to the bullpen) on the basis of one excellent start from Hughes, but at least it's good to know we have a good starter in reserve if Colon or Garcia gets injured, or if A.J. disintegrates into an ongoing implosion again.

I've e-mailed him as well, but I think the address I have may be out of date/inactive.

Thanks for the update. I just looked at that DEMS link again and was happy to see that they're including 8 tracks from the 1943 Hurricane broadcasts. I have a tree of much of the '43 Hurricane material but would love to see an official release of all of it at some point. There is a Storyville release (I guess that's official) of 3 Hurricane broadcasts from '43 including one "Pastel Period" broadcast. "At the Hurricane" Storyville 101 8359. Yes, that's the "official" one that I have--I think there's some overlap with the tree I have as well. Not sure how much more is out there, but I really would love to see a multiple-disc box of those '43 Hurricane broadcasts.

Excellent CD! Will have to dig it out and listen to it again. And thanks for the heads-up, LV, sounds like a great show... I'll try to tune in for some of it.

A-Rod's contract is indeed a bit of an albatross for NY, but the whole "gambling/illegal poker" story may be somewhat overblown.

Up for Mr. Armstrong's birthday: It's All In The Game: Louis Armstrong, 1947-57

Yes, Boston can start losing, like, any time now. But I'm not counting on it; their winning percentage since the first two weeks of the season must be hovering in the neighborhood of .700. And yes, pathetic performance from Burnett tonight, who somehow has managed to let the Chisox make a game of it. A PA poster claimed in A.J.'s defense that it's the first time he hasn't gone 5 innings this season, and only the third time that he's given up more than 4 runs... so I won't throw in the towel on him at this point. He remains an extremely up-and-down .500 pitcher, who's still doing somewhat better than he did last year.

Just thought I'd ask--hopefully he's simply taking a sabbatical from online activity, as he seems to have also deactivated his Facebook account.

I sure hope Eric Chavez can stay healthy for the rest of the year.

Anybody care to weigh in on the Jered Weaver/Magglio Ordonez/Carlos Guillen brouhaha? After reading up on it and watching clips from the game, it seems to me that (a) Weaver grossly overreacted to Ordonez' alleged "showboating," i.e. standing at the plate watching his third-inning home run, which was hit deep enough that it was clearly leaving the field of play, but not clear at all whether it would stay fair or foul (b) yes, Guillen then overreacted to Weaver's earlier overreaction with his stop/stare/turn-sideways-towards-Weaver post-home run gestures © none of that justifies Jered Weaver's throwing at the next batter's head. Then you have the Aybar bunt in the 8th, with Verlander throwing a no-hitter at that point, touching off another imbroglio about "unwritten rules." Get over it! The Angels were getting nowhere against Verlander by swinging away. Yeah, I suppose if it was 9-0 and Aybar laid down a bunt that the Tigers might have cause to be irked... nevertheless, a batter's going to try to get on however he can, and bunting's a fair way to do it, no matter what the situation. And the game was 3-0 at the time, hardly out of reach for the Angels. (Aybar did indeed reach safely, but as a result of a throwing error.)

The return of early-2010 Phil Hughes? From Pinstripe Alley on last night's game: One excellent outing is still only one outing, but it's far more heartening than yet another terrible outing; hopefully Hughes has finally turned the corner.