DTMX

This isn't part of the Mosaic Select 19: The Bay City Rollers release, is it?

They already have concerts where symphony orchestras play music from video games like Final Fantasy. The whole story here.

And the frog would probably play something more than pentatonics.

Ditto.

Don't know - but I'm sure playing a frog couldn't be any more annoying than what he plays on the soprano sax. Plus, the frog would probably be better at staying in tune. Last night I went to Churchill Grounds to see a jam session hosted by Russell Gunn; mostly electric Miles stuff. When the trumpet player has more effects pedals than the guitarist, you know you ain't hearing no bebop. Wonder if they make a Giant Steps ringtone?

Off topic, but gotta vent. The Atlanta Jazz Festival is wrapping up today - today's artists playing in the rain: Benny Golson, Sonny Fortune, David 'Fathead' Newman. Friday night's Jazz Festival headliner: Kenny G. Atlanta is going straight to shit: courthouse shootings, bug-eyed runaway brides, and Kenny G. /Rant off. Back to your regularly-scheduled ringtone Top of the Pops discussion...

Behind the times, yes. But so far ahead of the rest of the world in coconut technology.

If the hairnet don't fit, you must acquit!

Happy birthday, Jim. And many thanks for all of the hard work you put into this place.

Howard Morris, aka Ernest T. Bass from the Andy Griffith Show, died over the weekend. By far my favorite character on a show that had so many, I laughed myself sick when he tuned a gasoline can (by tightening the cap) before serenading Charlene Darling during his first appearence on the Andy Griffith Show. Of course he ended up married to Barney - saw that coming a mile away. And the dialogue on that show - comedy gold... Briscoe Darling is waiting for Andy & Barney when they come into the courthouse. Briscoe: Well, there's this fella up home: Ernest T. Bass. He just don‘t take to Dud and Charlene bein' married. Andy: Well, it's all legal and everything. I give you a copy of the marriage certificate and kept a copy here for my files. Briscoe: I know that. But that doesn't signify with Ernest T. Bass. He keeps botherin' Charlene... yellin' in the night... throwin' rocks through the windows. Andy: Well, can't you and your boys handle it? Briscoe: Well, we thought about killin' him – kinda hated to go that far.

Looks like Sam Rivers' website has been redesigned. Rivbea.com

There was a problem with flocks of crows attacking people in Tokyo a few years back. I had forgotten about it, and was wandering around Akihabara at about 8AM on a Saturday morning. The shops were closed and I had the street to myself. And there were a lot of crows around - shades of The Birds. They didn't bother me, but if I'd been snacking on something, I think I might have gotten jacked for my food.

Wal*Mart's worst nightmare. Includes the track, All Fucked Up.

Great Guitars by Charlie Byrd, Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis. Not sure why I bought it, but coming from a rock background I must have thought three guitarists would be tearing it up in a live set. Might have been a review in Guitar Player magazine. Who knows? I never was exposed to jazz growing up so I had little appreciation or familiarity with it. But when I heard Charlie's Blues (essentially the same song as Byrd's Blues for Night People) I couldn't let it go. I must have played that track twenty times before I flipped the record over to listen to side two. Then I heard Herb Ellis' solo on Benny's Bugle and I was hooked. I played these tracks for all my guitarist, bassist and drummer friends - some got it, most didn't. So I left them to their Molly Hatchet and Blackfoot and struck out on my own - never looked back.

I know my brain, such that it is, tries to make order out of chaos. On my first trip to Japan, I was working in a small town where almost no one spoke conversational English. Drawings, grunts, and pantomime were how we communicated (we were engineers - conversational skills weren't our strong suit anyway). I could not pick up any English language programs on the television or radio so I went for about five weeks without hearing a complete sentence in conversational English. Eventually, I just tuned out the background chatter - with 50 people working in the same room there always seemed to be at least 20 conversations going on at the same time, none of them involving me. Then one day I thought I heard someone say a sentence in English, but it was a string of nonsense, something like "blue potato with the oil filter" or "they called him bird because his reed squeaked." I think that I really wanted to hear someone speaking the English language - or the American one - so my brain was trying to turn the static in the office background chatter into something I could recognize, even if it made no sense. Sounds stupid but it really freaked me out. The funny thing was, around that same time I was eating lunch at my desk and some guy walked up to me and said "blah, blah, blah". I didn't even look up. He did it a couple of more times, and then I realized he was speaking English - and speaking to me (nobody really spoke to me - alone in a crowd, I was). So I looked up and he spoke slowly like he was talking to someone of very limited intelligence, "I said, 'Do you speak English?'". And I completely drew a blank as to what to answer so I just nodded enthusiastically. I think I eventually managed to get out an "uh". Limited intelligence, indeed. Anyhoo, back to your regularly scheduled programming...

Jesus loves you, but He's not in love with you.

Maybe it's that Shine guy. Shiny McShine, or whatever his name is.

Stan Getz' version of Blue Skies.

Little Miss Muffet, Sat on a tuffet, Eating her curds and whey. When along came a spider, And performed oral sex on her... Don't eat sushi without a condom, according to this Japanese AIDS poster:

Why does he need a driver's license? He's already driving the lane...

No, I'm going with the orginal question. The last recording I would listen to before the big dirtnap would be G Force, by Kenny G. Death would be a blessing.

One of the first recordings I ever bought on the interweb was a compilation called Untouchable Outcaste Beats, after I was blown away hearing the track Mathar by Dave Pike that leads off the recording. Most of the material is drum'n'bass stuff with sitars and tablas, but I still like it. Sounds good in the car on long trips. And the Ananda Shankar recording, Walking On, recorded with drum'n'bass guy State of Bengal (not his real name) is perfect for someone who likes sitars and tablas, but isn't ready to sit still through a whole raga. Very groovy stuff.

I agree. I've seen a lot of movies where people go to Mars and things always go badly for them. Wait for Mars to come to us!

I don't remember Ornette doing a second encore in Minneapolis. His last song was Lonely Woman. But during the song he seemed to be having problems with one of the keys on his sax - possibly the G# key spring popped loose or broke (happened to Tim Berne in Atlanta, and me at a recital). He (Ornette) worked around it, but when he walked off I remember thinking, "unless he's going to play the next song on trumpet or violin, this is the end of the show". Then the lights came up.

Corn flakes, corn snakes - it's all good.