ghost of miles

I'm surprised that the Scientologists never got to him.

Jim, I don't remember, but I'll check when I go home tonight. They probably did, as they discussed evangelism at great length. In some ways that's how modern-day media evangelism got its start, through border radio. It's also why the Mexican government eventually shut it down, by passing laws in the mid-1980s that required most or all programs to be broadcast in Spanish. (I think they felt that the carpetbagging evangelicals had worn out their welcome, and that Mexican radio should be targeting a Mexican audience rather than an American one.)

For more on radio craziness--particularly Tex-Mex south-of-the-border shenanigans--check out the following book, which was OOP for awhile before resurfacing in a new edition last year: This book covers everybody from the Carter Family to Wolfman Jack--great for anybody interested in vintage country, as a number of country musicians got national exposure via border radio. The infamous "Goat Doctor" John R. Brinkley is a key player as well: he purchased the Mexican station XERA to broadcast ads for his, uh, "practice," which consisted of transplanting goat gonads into men as a means of re-invigorating their libidos. (The Viagra of its time!) XERA got up to 500,000 watts and then eventually 1,000,000; it used to overpower NBC's signal as far north as Chicago. Birds that flew too close to its tower were "cooked," to put it lightly. A far cry from Clear Channel, this history.

And tell 'em SANGREY SENT YA!! I love this CD. They basically edited a number of Dewey's broadcasts into a pretty seamless-sounding show. There's more background on Phillips in Peter Guralnick's two-volume Elvis Presley biography as well. Phillips actually had a TV show as well, but he got fired after one of his sidekicks humped a cardboard figure of a woman on-camera. I think it was an on-air blunder that ended his radio career as well; Dewey (who had developed some pretty bad substance-abuse habits) said, "Hold on, Phillips, that's not the right request... I got a morphine shot in me and I can't see too well." "It's Friday, tomorrow's pay day and bath day, that's a good deal." It sure is!

I'm no fan of McDonough either. His observations here do seem to play into very old-school (as in 1930s) jazz critic tendencies. The box OTOH is indeed great. Just picked up a couple of Grammy nominations, too, including one for Loren Schoenberg's liner notes (which are illuminating, as usual).

We're jes' plain, simple, ordinary DJ folk around here (southern Indiana) for the most part. The community radio station has a few--the Kentucky Kid, Travis T., a duo called Gus and the Old Professor... I sometimes fantasize about broadcasting a late-night jazz show from some remote Olympic Mountains station as "The West Coast Ghost," but right now I just go by my own name. When a friend of mine & I did a vintage show together a few years back I invented a character named "Hawtooth," a backwoods fellow who delivered addled commentary on current events... It was sort of a parody of infamous sidekick characters.

Clem's right on target re: Bear Family. As much as I dig Mosaic, Bear Family's production definitely ups the ante... A couple of friends of mine have all of the ones Clem lists above and swear by 'em. These are the ones I have so far: Carter Family King Curtis Louis Jordan Julia Lee Nellie Lutcher Songs for Political Action (various) Tennesse Jive (various) and a big rec for this one: Nashville Jumps (great collection of Nashville R & B indie labels from 1945-55, with people like Phineas Newborn and John Coltrane popping up on some tracks) Ones I'd like to get include Piano Red and Songs of the Depression... fantastic label without a doubt.

Up for a reminder... out soon!

Speaking of Argo (I think), is Sonny Stitt's BURNIN' anywhere to be found these days?

I talked to my wife about this not long ago (I just turned 38 but hope to stick around for, oh, 40 or 50 more years! Maybe longer if more advances are made in vital longevity, and if the, er, uh, excesses of my youth don't come back to haunt me... ) I suggested that she e-bay as many as she wanted to and donate the rest to the Indiana University School of Music. Same with my general collection... I'd want her to get extra fiscal security out of it, but I'd also like to leave some things that jazz students & scholars could use for free.

Now that I've gotten your attention... nope, that's the actual story! Man, don't the narcs have, um, more pressing matters to attend to?

Mine showed up yesterday. I've listened only to Disc 1 so far, and yeah, the breathless German radio announcer is extremely intrusive, but you still get a good, raw sense of the live music. Wish there had been more of that actual performance, but the stuff they chose to fill out Disc 1 is good & interesting. Haven't listened to Disc 2 yet, which is almost all Ellington broadcasts from the club in 1938. Hopefully tonight! The book is great; I read the first 35 pages last night and hope to finish it this evening, but lots of great pix and interesting stories/biographies. At $47, definitely not disappointed...

I'm not a devotee of astrology, but wow, lotsa Sagitarians popping out of the woodwork here. Hey, couw, make a great one! Best birthday wishes.

I just noticed that reports now say it's in all 50 states. We've had a couple of people at work go down already... looks like I picked a bad year to miss my flu shot.

Or, as Rahsaan Roland Kirk might put it:

Er, ah, I mean happy birthday, o Great Father, ah, your Excellency, um, I sacrifice my blood & soul for you, etc.

Happy birthday, Mayor! Your posts are always eloquent, thoughtful, down-to-earth, and completely fertilizer-free! We're lucky to have you here. Hope you & your loved ones make a great day of it. Think I'll go spin Coltrane's "Welcome."

Thanks for all the feedback & advice, fellow Organissimos. I'm leaning towards doing it... And Rachel, didn't realize there was another Indy native on the board besides sheldonm! I grew up on the east side, in the Irvington area. My best wishes during your continuing recovery.

Unbelievably, I just got notice from Deep Discount that this shipped today at the $47 price. I truly didn't expect them to come through with it! Yee ha... (And yes, it's supposed to come with a hardcover book--frankly, $47 ain't a bad price for a 2-CD Bear box these days.)

My faves for the politics forum: and Of course, this one is sometimes appropriate too:

He supposedly recorded about 30 songs for FROM A BASEMENT ON THE HILL. I'd like to hear them all, of course, but his family may decide to put out only the most finished tracks. (But word is that most of them are indeed "finished.") Plus there were a number of tracks & B-sides that he recorded for labels like Kill Rock Stars that are quite good and deserve to be more widely circulated (songs like "Angel in the Snow," which is an outtake from the ELLIOTT SMITH CD, or "The Enemy Is You," a very good B-side). I imagine that most of this material will be made more readily available, for reasons both good & bad. (Bad in that dead musicians with cult followings always get their vaults emptied... again, I'm grateful in a perverse way, because I really want to hear all of this stuff--but some may view it purely as an unseemly practice.) Here's a picture of the memorial at Sound Solutions (a stereo shop in L.A.'s Silverlake Neighborhood, used on the front of the FIGURE 8 cover): photo

Gotta be the Four Freshmen. I don't dislike it, per se... just rarely play it.

To quote a great Yankee of the past (and still much with us): It's deja vu all over again.

The album has been turned over to the family by Dreamworks. Supposedly it will come out in 2004, either as a single or double-disc. Whenever news comes, I'll definitely post it here. Sounds like you & I went through the exact same sort of phase. I was an extremely passionate indie-rock fan for years, and then fell in love with jazz & didn't look back much, although I continued to listen to a few things that came out. Elliott Smith, in fact, was the first & only indie obsession I ever had after getting into jazz. (Well, Nick Drake, too--I discovered them around the same time.) I'd say my jazz-to-other-music listening ratio has gone back down to about 80% jazz, 20% other, after being about 95% jazz for awhile (I'm not kidding!). There were times when Elliott Smith took up all of that 20 percent. I'm hesitant to post the rumors/speculation because that's what it still is at this point. One thing's for sure: in his unreleased song "King's Crossing" there's a line, "Give me one good reason not to do it." At his shows this year his girlfriend would call out something in response to him. After he died she wrote it on the memorial wall at Sound Solutions in L.A.: "Because I love you."

My two younger brothers are talking about running in an Indianapolis mini-marathon come next May and have invited me to join them. I run sporadically, about 3-4 times a week, generally two miles a day. Is 5 months enough time to get in shape for a 13-mile marathon? Just curious to know if anybody else here runs & what their advice might be regarding training, etc.