ghost of miles

He was one of the first jazz artists I heard--a fellow indie-rock fan and good friend of mine mentioned that he'd been listening to some Ellington, and about a week later I picked up a DKE cassette on a whim at a local bookstore. Not long after that I went out to D.C. to visit an ex-girlfriend, and the whole week I was there we listened to the cassette quite a lot in the car (along with Nirvana's NEVERMIND, which had just come out...quite an audio pairing!). I figured out later on that the music was drawn from Ellington's 1946-47 transcriptions, and ended up asking for (and receiving) the whole box-set as a birthday present: The music on the cassette is replicated on this single CD: Something in the music that hit me hard as profound and beautiful--19 years later I've got a lot more of it, and a strong sentimental attachment to the 1946-47 transcriptions, since that's where I first encountered him.

My initial reaction the same as yours, TTK--I liked it so much that I ended up watching most of the encore presentation as well. Very interesting season so far.

Tony DeSare and Jose James are two that come to mind.

LeBron getting feisty on Twitter:

In other words, you've decided to take your talents to Fort Lauderdale! Congratulations, Dan--sounds like a great gig for you, and a very smart move on the agency's part to give you this opportunity.

Medjuck, see John Howland's book ELLINGTON UPTOWN: DUKE ELLINGTON, JAMES P. JOHNSON AND THE BIRTH OF CONCERT JAZZ. Pgs. 90-99 deal with the Vitaphone film short.

Unfortunately, I have to agree. Me three--MartyJazz nailed it (and good to see you again in this thread, MJ!). Although I might argue that Granderson has contributed more than his statistics might seem to indicate. He gives us more speed, power and fielding than Melky did in center last year. The bullpen has finally shaped up, now that Robertson's pitching effectively (and even Joba's improved since being dropped as the 8th-inning guy), but now the starting rotation is questionable after C.C. (Javy and Hughes not pitching consistently well, Good/Bad A.J. in full effect, and Pettitte still not back yet from his injury.) And the offense, for all of the runs it's capable of generating, has a nasty habit of going stone-cold dead for two or three games in a row. Some substantiation from tonight's NY Times of the bullpen's perceived improvement: If the bullpen can stay on track, that's a huge reversal of a big vulnerability that plagued us in the early/mid-season. On the offensive side Jeter's picking up (.308 since the All-Star break, .353 in August) and A-Rod's obviously coming around as well. Maybe we're better off than we thought we were. I still worry about the starting pitching, though--Pettitte's not due back now till early September, and even that's not a given...he's run into some problems the past few days with his recovery schedule/program. And while we run up our record against sub-.500 teams like the Royals and Indians, I don't think there's any way we romp through the AL postseason like we did last year...it's all we can do to play .500 ball against Tampa Bay, Boston, Texas etc. this year, so far, anyway. So we're nearly halfway through August, and after tonight Boston remains just 4 back of the Rays and the Rays just two back of the Yanks. That September schedule is looking more and more intense all the time.

Oh man, A-Rod just hit NUMBER THREE of the night!

One of my faves too, Patrick, with a great autumnal turn by Stan Getz as well.

Via the NY Times baseball twitter box, Justin Sablich notes: EDIT: well, they're hitting something--4 HR so far tonight, two from A-Rod and one apiece from Posada and Granderson.

I meant to post this in the radio forum last week and never got around to it--posting it now, sadly, as a memorial tribute: Abbey Lincoln, Over the Years

Crap. A life most certainly not wasted indeed, but I still hate to see her go.

Emmy Mad Men spoof ads pulled till voting ends I enjoyed the one they linked to in the article.

Bill sounds mighty fine on the Keynote SMALL HERDS dates as well.

I was just reading an article about Mad Men on the New York Review of Books blog, in which the author made reference to "wristwatch-with-toga" bloopers in Biblical epics. Intrigued by the reference, I Googled around, and the reference is apparently to goofs made in Spartacus. Any favorite such moments from the film and TV lovers here?

Did you see Willie McCovey play as both a Giant and a Padre? (He was with San Diego for what, two seasons or so in the early/mid 1970s?)

Just about jinxed him, didn't I? But he did manage to nail the final out and NY beat KC 4-3 tonight. Dave James and MartyJazz, here's Mo's save from last night. I saw some incredible stat afterwards--with a runner on 3rd and nobody out, hitters are 0-14 with 0 RBI against Mo lifetime. Or something crazy like that. Couple of interesting articles from the NY Times: Keeping Score: Running the Races Through the Computer San Diego Padres: Under the Radar, On Top of the NL

Unfortunately, I have to agree. Me three--MartyJazz nailed it (and good to see you again in this thread, MJ!). Although I might argue that Granderson has contributed more than his statistics might seem to indicate. He gives us more speed, power and fielding than Melky did in center last year. The bullpen has finally shaped up, now that Robertson's pitching effectively (and even Joba's improved since being dropped as the 8th-inning guy), but now the starting rotation is questionable after C.C. (Javy and Hughes not pitching consistently well, Good/Bad A.J. in full effect, and Pettitte still not back yet from his injury.) And the offense, for all of the runs it's capable of generating, has a nasty habit of going stone-cold dead for two or three games in a row.

A reliever should try to prevent hits, not deliver them: Mets' K-Rod arrested for assaulting family member

Aw, now you jinxed him! I didn't know that stat, but after that lead-off triple, I thought we were looking at extra innings or worse. Nice plays by Kearns and A-Rod to help Mo get out of that inning with the save. Also glad to see us tap the Texas bullpen for several runs, in addition to breaking through a bit against Lee.

Dave James, how many times will we see NY down 6-1 to Cliff Lee in the 6th inning and then come back to win it? Even though we whiffed 17 times overall tonight (good Lord!), I'll take the 8 hits and 4 ER off Lee in 6 IP and the come-from-behind win... every time I feel prepared to write this team off, they seem to pull some big win out of their hats. And Tex will be back for the KC series (he took two games off to be with his wife & new baby). Another mediocre performance from Javy tonight, though. Still, a great victory that stops the bleeding and puts us 1.5 ahead of Tampa again (with the Red Sox continuing to steam on down the tracks... Dan, no insult to your Bosox, but they're beginning to seem like the monster in some horror movie that can't be killed!)

Best birthday wishes to a fellow Bloomingtonian and one of the best jazz critics around!

We re-aired Lee Konitz: The Verve Years this past week; it remains archived for online listening.

NY's left 10 runners on base through 8, including bases loaded with no outs in the 7th (Granderson, Jeter and Swisher then all promptly K'd). Great pitching today by Boston and epic fail by NY with RISP. EDIT: well, Dan, Boston's still in the hunt, afaic. You guys came away with a split at Yankee Stadium and are still just 6 games back--I know that seems like a lot at this point in the season, but with all of the NY/Tampa/Boston games coming up in September, I think you have plenty of opportunity to at least slide into the wildcard, esp. if either NY or Tampa goes into a late-season dive. Hats off to the Boston pitchers, who kept us from scoring outside of Tex's homer... I was listening off and on, but I think Swisher struck out three times with RISP. And if Sterling's stat was right, Swisher and Tex remain hitless in their lifetimes against Papelbon.

Beckett was not aided at all by Cash's errant throw to third in an attempt to pick off Cano--an error that ultimately cost the Bosox three runs--but Pete Abraham tweets that the Yanks seem to have JB's number this year in general so far: I was aware of his struggles against NY in earlier starts, but he's been so good since coming off the DL that I thought he'd probably turn in a more dominating performance tonight. Nice turn by Moseley for the Yanks.