papsrus

Just started listening now to the Matthews, Chris. Beautiful. Thank you. EDIT: ... and now the Lonnie Johnson-Elmer Snowden. This may actually get me to run down to Bestbuy and grab some speakers for my laptop. Great stuff.

Fire your oven up to high and open the oven door. That's basically what I'm dealing with. Later, the Gulf.

Watching the Jays-Tribe game and the Indians' broadcasters said the Yankees are about to seal a deal for Kerry Wood. Again, this via Buster Olney.

Well ... the staggering evidence from the '80s above suggests Letterman made a joke about something he apparently does not hate, might be indifferent to, or maybe even occasionally enjoys? Who the hell does he think he is, anyways?

Just another reason to root for it. Can anyone explain what's going on with the Rangers? Olney touched on it last night. The Rangers are essentially -- in Olney's words not mine -- living on baseball welfare. Yet they are one of, if not the most aggressive team in the trade market. This (according to Olney) has other teams calling MLB asking, WTF? He figures MLB is trying to make the team look as attractive as possible for a buyer (pssst, wanna buy a first-place team?). Yet from what I can tell, they already have their preferred "buyer" picked out. So what's going on? Why pump up a team with these trades when the back-room deal to sell them is essentially already done? Having said all that, I like the Rangers on the field this year. They lost a tough one last night. I watched the end of the Red Sox game (exciting) and then the Dodgers-Giants (zzzzzzz) after the Rays, so missed the fireworks in Anaheim.

Entertaining game. Nice win for the Rays. Bullpen looks pretty solid, right? And how about Joyce? A-Rod was starting to look pretty frustrated with each successive at-bat.

Funny. I just listened to the Vanguard and Waltz for Debby discs last night and this morning, and they were more magical to me, the music more beautiful, than ever. I can definitely relate to your "I have way too many CDs by _____" comment. I find that with some artists, less is more.

Maybe it's just his typically acerbic 'humor?'

The Rays have been playing pretty nice baseball since their June swoon. The bullpen -- a decided weak spot in years past -- is now one of their strongest assets. With Benoit (0.76 ERA) and Soriano, they essentially have two closers to run out there in the final two innings. They are a really solid defensive club to begin with, have speed to burn, the starting pitching has been generally pretty good, and the offense is beginning to percolate like it should. Pena's coming around at the plate, Crawford may be having his best all-around year, and Brignac -- who has found his power stroke lately -- and Rodriquez have been really nice additions this season. This Rays team is easily better than the one that went to the WS. Realizing of course that the Red Sox have been decimated by injuries and the Rays have been largely untouched, Boston may be able to catch 'em, but they'll have to play a lot better than what I've seen lately to get it done, particularly defensively.

Man, Cabrera is a phenomenal hitter. Just uncoiled at the Trop for his 25th HR of the season. The man has a .349 avg., 25 HR, and 89 RBI. Comparable to Pujols: .365, 23 HR, 70 RBI, or Hamilton: .358, 23HR, 74 RBI.

Side note: With no small dose of irony, the reviewer's main criticism that this or that track should not have been included because they aren't examples of the blues ignores what I understand to be the basic premise of your entire project Allen -- that the blues emerged from a fairly broad range of musics. There are tracks on Vol. 1 which are meant to show various musics that hint at the blues, various converging trends that later evolved into the blues, but these tracks are not meant to be examples of the blues per se in its latter form(s), obviously. She seems to miss this point entirely, which seems like kind of a big deal.

Reminds me of that scene in "When Harry Met Sally," when Billy Crystal, after finally ending up in bed with Meg Ryan, wonders, how long do you have to hold a woman after sex? Is a minute long enough? Five minutes? What's the acceptable time frame here, (as you gaze longingly toward your stereo system in the living room)?

It got to the point with my second wife that we were taking vacation time separately so I could go to New York or off to a festival somewhere, which she had zero interest in doing, and that's never a great sign. ---> "How was your trip honey?" "Great, what did you do while I was gone?" Uh-huh. On the plus side, I'm convinced I'm happier as a bachelor now partly because I can indulge in music to my heart's content. The woman I have been seeing for the past while is tolerant, not jealous of my semi-obsession, but she basically thinks of all of it as "everything you play is out of tune." She's teasing, but also being truthful. If we were to live together, I can see where it might become a big problem firing up Jelly Roll at 1 a.m.

I wonder if this is SOP at this outfit -- they do a drive-by critique, the subject of the review contacts them to correct the record or whatever, and the editor makes a peace offering involving an ad sale. If so, yeah, it sounds not just highly unethical, but illegal. The writer of the review might not be in the loop, but it still kicks the legs out from under anything he wrote.

That is terrible. Zero editorial integrity. The publication should be exposed. That's worse than the fucking national inquirer -- at least they make no bones about what they do.

Yes, congrats and good luck!

Verlander pitched a real nice game tonight in a losing effort. Shields had the curve ball going, but kept getting into trouble and barely wiggling his way out of it. And Soriano loaded 'em up in the 9th, but defense again saved the Ray's bacon. Verlander was dominant for the most part, though. If not for Pena's 2-run HR in the first, he probably would have been the winner. Interesting point in the game: Crawford was on third with two out in the top of the ninth, I think it was. Pena was at the plate and the Tigers' infield had the hard shift on for him. If he just bunts the ball down to third base it's an easy insurance run for the Rays. He's swinging all the way, though, and eventually strikes out.

Art Hodes -- "Hodes' Art" Henry Red Allen -- "World on a String"

Sounds like a great idea. Thanks for posting the link.

I buy high, sell low. Same strategy kept me in the game during the go-go, dot-com years.

Or Philly Joe with Williams? You're probably right.

Don't recall where I read it, but I do remember seeing somewhere that Tony Williams didn't like Mobley's playing at all, and that maybe that kind of threw a wet blanket over his approach while he was with Miles.

Does anyone really care what kind of milestones A-Rod puts up now that he has copped to using steroids??? I mean, really? Read a Newsday story today that basically says there has been little to no fanfare during his run-up to 600. Writer made the observation that the fans turned and left after his final at bat last night without really applauding him. Just filed out of the stadium. They want to see 600, but don't care that much that it's A-Rod doing it. Sad deal, really.

You're getting some very good feedback from folks who know. As a listener -- not a musician -- I just want to say that I really enjoyed listening to all three tracks. Thank you. And don't be a stranger 'round here.