ghost of miles

All the best as always, WL--it was great catching up with you recently. Here's hoping for an excellent birthday gift of sleep!

Hot Ptah, thanks for the rec--I might check that one out first before SUNRISE, as I'm interested in the Arkestra's recordings of swing standards. (And I'll keep an ear & eye out for those live late 70s/early 80s dates as well.) Jsngry, maybe not a full-blown "tribute," but "Yeah Man," "Queer Notions," "King Porter Stomp," and "Limehouse Blues" were all part of the Henderson book.

Attention Bosox fans: Doubront called up Say, any informed comment on Texas' remarkable run of late? They've cooled off somewhat over the past week and a half, but their record is right up there with the top teams in the AL and NL.

Just a heads-up: Sun Ra SUNRISE IN DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS ...one I've long wanted to hear. Also of interest: Art Ensemble of Chicago, Salutes the Chicago Blues Tradition

Listening to INTRODUCING KENNY COX, going back over notes I jotted down while reading Harvey Cohen's DUKE ELLINGTON'S AMERICA, and very much enjoying the prospect of sleeping in tomorrow morning. It ees all a part of life's rich pageant... Ha ha... a friend of mine who used to live here in Bloomington worked in a video store and rented that film to R.E.M. while they were here in town recording the album that would subsequently bear that title.

You left out a Goldberg--the most important one, too!

Yes, but there's nowhere to go from there but down! In any case, I think Dan really does have cause to be concerned--there's no denying that Boston's been hit with a slew of injuries, and it's amazing that they've been able to stay almost neck-and-neck with NY and Tampa Bay. With NY, it's more a case of, "Wow, the team looks so great on paper...on the field, maybe not so much." Heartening to see them pull it out today, though, after the rare blown save by Mo. What a weird game, all the way around--Gardner's inside-the-parker (brought on by Toronto's second misplayed ball in the sun in as many days), three Yankees getting thrown out attempting to move forward on fly balls, Mo's blown save, our break in the 10th when Encarnacion didn't run right away on his popped-up bunt (and A-Rod turned it into a double play), and Thames returning from the DL with a walkoff single. Dan's observations about Phil Hughes continue to hold--he is decidedly not pitching like a dominant starter anymore, much more like a .500 pitcher with a 4.50 ERA. Tex is finally starting to hit, at least. Tough road trip ahead before the All-Star break, what with the games against Lee and Hernandez, though. Speaking of Cliff Lee and the Yankees--everything I've read indicates that they have no interest in trading for him right now, and much possible interest in signing him during the off-season (assuming Minnesota, the Mets, or whichever team he ends up on doesn't sign him to a long-term contract first). NY's starters are pretty much set for this year, but I think it's quite likely that we won't have either Pettitte or Javy come 2011.

Been listening to this one today--a big-band setting for Bags, with nice arrangements by Wilkins and Dameron:

Thanks. But what were "the 3 56/62 lps not on cd"? Would ALL AMERICAN and MIDNIGHT IN PARIS be two of the three?

Wow--NY finally broke out of its hitting slump.

Tex and A-Rod just left Jeter stranded on second in the bottom of the 1st. No big deal, it's baseball, happens all the time, right? Except that NY is now 0-23 in its last 23 RISP situations... a stunningly bad run by any team's standards.

A tribute to Boston's grit and NY's lack thereof.

A bit of previous discussion.

Hard to say what's more pitiful--the Yankees' continuing lackluster offense, or Joba Chamberlain (he of the 5.40 ERA) racking up the bullpen's ninth blown save of the year today. We need to be steaming ahead right now, building up a solid lead over the Bosox and Rays (esp. while the Bosox are riddled with injuries) and instead among those three it's nearly anybody's division day-by-day. From the write-up at Pinstripe Alley:

There's a great version by Van Morrison. I didn't know about Pops' version. I'll have to look for it. It's in the show, about 24:50 in: It's All in the Game: Louis Armstrong, 1947-57. I took it from the CD SATCHMO IN STYLE.

This weekend's Night Lights Louis Armstrong program is up, featuring lots of music from Armstrong's 1947-57 period (including the bebopper parody of "The Whiffenpoof Song") and interviews with jazz writer Dan Morgenstern and historian Michael McGerr: It's All in the Game: Louis Armstrong, 1947-57 The program page also includes about half a dozen outtakes from my interviews with Dan and Michael, as well as a segment on Louis and Jack Teagarden that had to be removed from the final version of the program, and a slide show featuring several William Gottlieb photographs of Armstrong (as well as a revelation about the cover of the AMBASSADOR SATCH album ). A happy Fourth of July holiday weekend to all.

Nice profile of Mo Rivera in this coming Sunday's NY Times. I watched the MLB film of the '96 WS tonight--strange and rather moving to see Jeter, Pettitte, and Rivera all at the start of their careers on that year's team, to think how key all three players were to last year's championship, and to realize again that this may be the last season they all play together. Lots of shots, too, of Girardi as the catcher. I also forgot that Joe Torre's brother finally got his heart transplant the day before their Game 6 win, and that the team did a lap around the field at Yankee Stadium afterwards, waving thanks and goodbye to the fans. That whole year was ridiculously storybook. Speaking of storybook and such, I'll admit to being a bit primed to see Ken Burns' THE TENTH INNING this September. Some main themes will be the steroid era, the emergence of another Yankees dynasty, and the Red Sox' incredible run in 2004. (Isn't Burns a Bosox fan? I thought I read somewhere that he said he probably wouldn't have made this sequel if the Bosox hadn't won in '04 and '07. )

Today's New York Yankees victory brought to you courtesy of: Alex the Centaur

I haven't completely written off their chances for winning it again this year--but going forward, yes, I think it's going to be a long time. Pettitte probably retires after this year no matter what happens in the postseason. Jeter and A-Rod are now past their prime and may start declining quickly. Mo probably has a couple of good years left; Posada, maybe one or two as well, but primarily as a DH (a spot that will need to be utilized increasingly by Jeter and A-Rod, too). Cano, Swisher and Tex are all still in their peak years, but the dissipation of the Core 4 nucleus is going to be an immense challenge to NY. I can't comment with much knowledge about the farm system right now--Jesus Montero is considered to be a very promising prospect as a hitter, less so as a catcher. (Austin Romine's another young catcher with some buzz about him.)

Here's another one from MAD MEN's season 1 (episode 13, the season finale): The Carousel ...some context: the man who gets up and walks out at the end has been exiled from his home by his wife after having a one-night stand with a secretary. And part of what makes the scene so moving is the dissonance between the genuine beauty Don finds in his slideshow vision of his family and the messy, screwed-up, complex reality of his situation. It's a very Fitzgerald/Gatsby kind of note that Matthew Weiner strikes (and I think GATSBY is one of the touchstones for the series in general).

Found myself thinking again this morning about the fifth episode of MAD MEN's Season 1--"5G," the show in which Don Draper's brother finds him. I was in a daze after watching it for the first time... it hit me quite hard. (For anybody who's a fan of the show, the director's commentary on this particular episode is very good.) Just curious to hear what particular episodes of TV shows have stayed or lingered with other posters here.

Thanks, Marcel, I'll check this out--I like the roll call of piano players, too (Dodo, Arnold Ross, and Jimmy Rowles).

But you could easily say the same thing regarding the slew of injuries that have hit the Bosox and yet they're only 1 game behind NY. Sure, Tex is having a very bad year, though his power/RBI production isn't down quite as much as his BA...and we've had a few injury situations ourselves, but nothing to really rival what you're going through. (And I was definitely being sarcastic about Nick Johnson--outside of the Human Walk Machine factor, his contribution to the offense was negligible. So I don't see his being on the DL as any great loss, especially since it allows us to put Cervelli behind the plate and Posada at DH.) A-Rod and Jeter are certainly having subpar years by their standards, and at their ages it's no guarantee that they'll have a huge improvement in the second half...but again, I don't think any potential gains from improved performances by them will be as significant as the Bosox getting Ellsbury, Beckett et al back again. OTOH, Dave Eiland thinks he may have already figured out the source of A.J.'s woes. We'll see--I sure hope so, since Phil Hughes does indeed seem to be declining as the season goes on. Unrelated, but kind of cool--the New York Times video breaking down Mo's cutter.

Well, Dan, you should at least take solace from how pitiful the Yanks have looked the last two nights at home against the Mariners. Scoring 4 runs off Lee wasn't even as decent as it sounds, given that two of them came in the bottom of the 9th, and the other two were Nick Swisher solo homers...and as excellent as Felix Hernandez is, it's still a pretty miserable performance to nick only two hits off him over 9 innings. What's more troubling, though, is the pitching. Surrendering all of those runs to one of the lightest-hitting batting orders in the AL is not a good sign. Last year NY had an incredible post-All Star Game run. This year I'd say it's your team that's better-positioned to make such a run, once everybody's back from the DL. NY? We're only awaiting Nick Johnson's return. *Well, OK, it would help to get Aceves back... NY has its own bullpen implosion problems. Park is terrible after 1 IP and every 8th-inning appearance from Joba is fraught with drama--and I don't mean that in a good way. Robertson seems to be slowly regaining his 2009 form, so I guess that's a small ray of hope. And sure, Mo is still a very reliable closer--it's just that the bridge to him looks a bit like this: The bridge to Mo

Great news--can't wait for the holidays! Tranemonk, one set I can think of right away that is most likely replicated by the forthcoming Mosaic is the old 2-CD BRAGGIN' IN BRASS collection. Even then, I'd hold onto everything until you actually have the Mosaic in hand and can compare. (I sometimes hold onto my old single or double-disc compilations anyway, especially if they have decent liner notes... but I do end up trading in some for credit at the local record store or else give them away to friends.)