ghost of miles

I think most if not all of this material came out before on MusicMasters. Somehow I've never seen that DKE Chicago '46 concert, though--would love to hear it, esp. the live performance of the "Deep South Suite."

Does anybody have the 1941 recording of Monk doing "Nice Work If You Can Get It" at Minton's? There's an excerpt on Allen Lowe's DEVILIN' TUNE V. 3, but I'm hoping to find the entire track; it seems to have most recently appeared on this CD: Thelonious Monk: After Hours at Minton's

Weren't most (all?) of Wallington's vintage trio recordings done for Prestige? The solo albums he did for a Japanese label late in his career are marvelous. The OJC edition of Wallington's Prestige trios has gone out of print, but Newbury's selling 'em for $5.99 a pop: George Wallington Trios

David, thanks for posting this. I have to confess that this is the first Salinger I've ever read. I thought it was terrific. Quirky, off plumb, whatever. The sort of piece where you can lose track of the narrative in deference to style and nuance. More than once, I laughed out loud, just like I used to when I'd read David Sedaris in the New Yorker. On the basis of this limited exposure, I must make it a point to do Catcher, and soon. Dave, glad you liked it--it's from the beginning of what many consider to be Salinger's classic period (1948-1955), but he chose not to include in NINE STORIES when that book came out in 1953. There's another story with a rather harrowing ending, "A Girl I Knew," that he also published in 1948 and didn't include either...it's floating around on the Internet, as are nearly all of his uncollected stories. The pre-1948 stuff generally doesn't hold up to his later work, but if you're a Salinger buff it's well worth checking out, especially some of the Gladwaller/Vincent Caulfield stories like "This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise." (Salinger was experimenting with the Caulfield characters throughout the 1940s in various stories...Vincent is a forerunner of D.B.)

President Obama sitting in with Clark Kellogg and Verne Lundquist for a few minutes today at the Duke-Georgetown game.

Welcome to the metascam scam! With an "Obama's Foundation"/UN twist...

I finally got to see it last night and thought it was a blast--a very entertaining steampunk update of Holmes. As somebody else noted, it's quite clear that Downey and Law brought a lot of enthusiasm to their performances. On a minor note, what a great end-titles sequence! Holmes credits Looking forward to the sequel, which supposedly has been fast-tracked now for production and will start shooting early this summer.

All glove, no bat. I don't know if I'd agree with that. In his five most recent years with the Giants he hit .290 with 51 home runs, 262 RBI's and 73 stolen bases. I'd say mostly glove, some bat. That would be the average, Dave. Take a look at his year by year stats. Last year he could barely hit his hat size. He was Mr. Rally Killer. .262 is nothing to shout about. Only two years above .300 with the Giants. Sure he got on base on occasion, but produced few runs; 65 last year with 51 RBIs in only 149 games. And he's 35. Good luck with that. He'll probably be batting 9th, so I think we can live with it. I'd rather have Damon, but given all of the offense that NY already has, acquiring Winn is not an utter disaster or anything.

I can also recommend Simon Goddard's latest book, Mozipedia: The Encyclopaedia of Morrissey and the Smiths. Obsessively detailed, engagingly written and great for browsing. Morrissey's tastes as explored here will introduce you to a lot of great books, records and films. Thanks for the tip--I'll check that one out as well.

Craig Ferguson devoted most of his monologue last night to Salinger.

I've read that in his later years Salinger was not particularly a jazz fan. But here's an uncollected story from 1948 that holds some interest--it was originally titled "Needle On a Scratchy Phonograph Record," until the editors at Cosmopolitan (much to Salinger's chagrin) changed it to "Blue Melody": Needle on a Scratchy Phonograph Record

Not unexpected, given that he was 91, but still leaves me feeling sad--I loved his fiction and continue to revisit it to this day (especially the Glass family novellas). There's a very good biography coming out in several months that will provide a lot of interesting background on his war years, the work he put into his early stories, etc.

Amen. Double amen. I've managed to run down just about all of the series via CDs or vinyl, but I'd buy a Mosaic Select the first week of release.

What will happen to the rest of the economy when the Getz box-set bubble collapses?

But how do you really feel, Matthew? I don't think there's any chance that we'll be seeing Damon in pinstripes come Opening Day. What I wonder is if they'll end up trading for him in the middle of the summer if, say, Nick Johnson ends up on the DL (all too likely) or if anything happens to Swisher, Granderson, Gardner or Winn. I just hate to see NY let two clutch, proven players like Damon and Matsui walk away. And reportedly other Yanks like Tex and A-Rod really wanted to see Johnny come back as well. He was another player who brought something special to the team and clubhouse, something that IMO goes beyond his good offensive stats. I think NY's staff has a good shot at actually being better this year than last...but much depends on how Vasquez does and whether or not Hughes or Joba can step up and become a reliable fifth starter. Pettitte will probably decline a bit in what I'm sure will be his last season, and Burnett is still Burnett...but overall I think they'll be somewhat improved over 2009, barring injuries. Boston's put together a helluva staff and the NY-Bosox series this year will be even hotter than the standard barnburners of the past. Not to mention the killer duo you've got out there in Seattle, which will be hell to face in a best-of-7 series. Say, is it Opening Day yet?

According to the NY Times, Damon talked on Monday with Hal Steinbrenner and evidently was told that NY was serious about spending only $2 million more. Ridiculous IMO to hold the budget at an arbitrary number...while I certainly blame Boras and Damon for overvaluing Johnny's worth on the current market and rejecting the 2-yr/$14 million deal, I also think it's foolish of Steinbrenner to suddenly get fiscal religion in this situation and not extend, say, a 1-yr/$6 million with some incentives, or some such, to Damon. Frankly, at this point I'm not sure this team is as good as the team we fielded last year. Some of the key players are a year older, we've lost our #2 and #5 hitters (Damon and Matsui, who each IMO brought more than just their talents to the team), and we don't seem to have much of a bench. Still an excellent team, but it'll be interesting to see if it can gell the way last year's team did. EDIT: New York Post says one top Yankee official told Damon that they could probably persuade Hal Steinbrenner to accept a 1-yr/$6 million with $3 million deferred deal, but Damon rejected it. If true, bad move on Damon's part IMO (although the article states other Yankee officials don't think Steinbrenner would've gone for such a deal either, ultimately). So what if Damon manages to get $7 million with Oakland (unlikely IMO)? The Yankees will almost certainly make the playoffs again and possibly the World Series, even if Boston and Seattle are going to be tough competition this year. Not so sure about the A's--it's sure not Boston or NY (where Damon played for the last 8 years) and it's a park where his offensive stats will almost certainly drop, compared to the new Yankee Stadium. I agree w/the Post article--bad outcome for both parties, though I think the Yanks will get on better without Damon than Damon will without them.

All glove, no bat. I don't know if I'd agree with that. In his five most recent years with the Giants he hit .290 with 51 home runs, 262 RBI's and 73 stolen bases. I'd say mostly glove, some bat. Not knowing much about Winn, my initial reaction is to say I would've much rather retained Damon. I guess Hal Steinbrenner was serious about wanting to spend only $2 million more...but I think the Yanks will miss Damon in more ways than one. Very sorry to see him go.

Damon market shrinks even more--Sheets to the A's, Nady to the Cubs.

I just found a $3 vinyl copy of HEAVY EXPOSURE in a shop here last week--looking forward to giving it a spin, per your endorsement here & elsewhere, Jim.

Yeah--same thing was happening to me with Newbury Comics Saturday night! I placed the order the next day on my computer at work (which hasn't received the latest Firefox update yet) and it went through fine.

Anybody else been having problems with their computers since the Firefox 3.5.7 update?

Just saw it today at Bloomington's Landlocked Music: Joe Maneri PEACE CONCERT A duo performance with drummer Peter Dolger--also includes an interview with Maneri by Stu Vandermark. It's part of Atavistic's Unheard Music series.

Karen Chilton, HAZEL SCOTT: THE PIONEERING JOURNEY OF A JAZZ PIANIST FROM CAFE SOCIETY TO HOLLYWOOD TO HUAC.

Big missed opportunity for the Vikes there at the end of the first half.

Oh, right. Sorry I blew up. I use Firefox and never have had any problems. Maybe it's on their end. Well, I'm giving up for tonight--think I'll try to call the order in tomorrow. Not sure why it all went bonkers on me the first time around (I was pretty close to checking out the order), but I can't seem to get the site to even save my shipping info at this point.