DTMX

Sad. I was a big fan of his work.

I bought a CD from Amazon a few years ago and they sent me a Vinny Golia CD by mistake. I returned the Golia and got the one I ordered. Then I got into Golia and ended up re-ordering the CD that I had returned. Gotta lotta Golia now. Out of 600+ purchases from Amazon, that's the only wrong shipment that I've ever received.

The Antheil on Naxos is the way to go. There's a recording of his 4th and 6th symphonies; they're okay but there were better symphonies being written during that period. George Antheil was also an author and inventor. As reported here, Antheil and Hedy Lamarr invented a radio frequency-hopping torpedo control system. Although rejected by the US Navy the idea was later taken up by the cellular telephone industry. As cellphones move from place to place they are assigned new, unoccupied frequencies to jump to - called a "hand-off" (I worked in cellular for 10 years). Here's an excerpt from the previously mentioned website: Antheil knew practically everybody in Paris's literary, artistic and musical circles, but in 1933 he returned permanently to the United States. He became a film composer in Hollywood and a writer for Esquire magazine, producing a syndicated advice-to-the-lovelorn column and articles about romance and endocrinology. He even published a book titled Every Man His Own Detective: A Study of Glandular Endocrinology. In 1939 he set an article to Esquire about the future of Europe that proved impressively accurate: It predicted that the war would start with Germany invading Poland, that Germany would later attack Russia, and then the United States would be drawn into the conflict. He met Hedy Lamar in the summer of 1940, when they were neighbors in Hollywood and she approached him witha question about glands: She wanted to know how she could enlarge her breasts . In time the conversation came around to weapons, and Lamarr told Antheil that she was contemplating quitting MGM and moving to Washington, D.C., to offer her services to the newly established National Inventors Council. They began talking about radio control for torpedoes. The idea itself was not new, but her concept of "frequency hopping" was. Lamarr brought up the idea of radio control. Antheil's contribution was to suggest the device by which synchronization could be achieved. He proposed that rapid changes in radio frequencies could be coordinated the way he had coordinated the sixteen synchronized player pianos in his Ballet Méanique. The analogy was complete in his mind: By the time the two applied for a patent on a "Secret Communication System," on June 10, 1941, the invention used slotted paper rolls similar to player-piano rolls to synchronize the frequency changes in transmitter and receiver, and it even called for exactly eighty-eight frequencies, the number of keys on a piano. Lamarr and Antheil worked on the idea for several months and then, in December 1940, sent a description of it to the National Inventors Council, which had been launched with much fanfare earlier in the year as a gatherer of novel ideas and inventions from the general public. Its chairman was Charles F. Kettering, the research director of General Motors. Over its lifetime, which lasted until 1974, the council collected more than 625,000 suggestions, few of which ever reached the patent stage. But according to Antheil, Kettering himself suggested that he and Lamarr develop their idea to the point of being patentable. With the help of an electrical engineering professor from the California Institute of Technology they ironed out its bugs, and the patent was granted on August 11, 1942. It specified that a high-altitude observiation plane could steer the torpedo from above. Despite Antheil's lobbying, the Navy turned its back on the invention, concluding that the mechanism would have been too bulky to fit into a torpedo. Antheil disagreed; he insisted that it could be made small enough to squeeze into a watch. And he thought he knew why the Navy was so negative: "In our patent Hedy and I attempted to better elucidate our mechanism by explaining that certain parts of it worked like the fundamental mechanism of a player piano. Here, undoubted, we made our mistake. The reverend and brass-headed gentlemen in Washington who examined our invention read no further than the words 'player piano. 'My god,' I can see them saying, 'we shall put a player piano in a torpedo.'" History kicks ass. So does Hedy Lamarr.

After driving through Tropical Storm Frances at 5AM to get to work for a meeting that I'm not even being paid to attend this is just what I need to cheer me up. No need to save this one for special days - every day at Organissimo is a special day. Avatar updated and greatly appreciated. Thanks, Doug

Particularly at street-level.

I just ordered this one from Amazon - DON'T TELL ME HOW IT ENDS!

Ned Beatty was unavailable for comment.

The only decent commercial radio station in Atlanta, the legendary Z93, dropped all of its on-air talent last month and changed over to a alternative/classic rock format that consists mostly of a buttload of Dave Matthews songs. The new station name - I shit you not - is DAVE FM. There's still no on-air talent. Just songs, commercials, and traffic reports. At least there's college radio and NPR.

Black Water is amazing. Haven't heard anything else by him (but want to).

One of the greatest episodes ever.

The In Sound From Way Out is great. First rap recording I ever bought - one without words. Paul's Boutique - best rap recording ever that's not named Fear of a Black Planet.

If the supermarket is in Midtown Atlanta it's probably a gay pride thing.

I just hired a personal trainer/diet consultant yesterday. After reviewing my normal diet he said "Don't you eat ANYTHING healthy?". I said, "I had an apple a couple of weeks ago. That's healthy." He looked horrified. Hopefully this will keep me from putting on the pounds at the rate I've been doing for the past five years. If I keep up my current pace the only thing I'll fit into in a few years will be a tarp.

It's Bobby Militello. In Atlanta a few years ago the Quartet opened with "Broadway Bossa Nova" on which Militello normally plays alto sax (and really gets down-n-dirty on it) but for this performance he played flute. And tore it up. He used to be in Maynard Ferguson band and that's what he kind of reminds me of - a woodwind Maynard Ferguson.

Keiko Matsui - like Yanni without the mustache. Go see Brubeck - he's still got it. Matsui never had it.

They need to make sumo wrestling an Olympic sport so that some of us portly athletes can take home a few medals (as long as it doesn't involve a lot of walking).

It's funny because it's true.

Olympic Salad Tossing...

I found two Braxton CDs (Willisau) under the passenger's seat in the car two years after I had taken them with me on a trip to Florida. Never knew they were missing. And they were covered in dried carpet shampoo from the time I'd had the car detailed the year before.

"There's no justice like angry-mob justice." - Seymour Skinner

He's probably ducking me because he forgot to send me those Zagreb Saxophone Quartet CDs I asked him for... Seriously Sasa - what's up with the big hole?

A friend of mine moved to Croatia three months ago and I haven't heard from him since. Maybe he fell in.

Good luck Charlie, but if I had to put money on the last Stone standing, it'd be this guy:

Of course no place on Earth is like Hell. Rick James is their problem now.

They're suppose to be touring to support this release. Brecker's chair will be filled by Peter Brotzmann.