Chrome

Judge Suspected of Masturbating in Court Thu Jun 24, 2004 02:32 PM ET OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Oklahoma's attorney general wants a state judge removed on suspicion he frequently masturbated and used a device for enhancing erections while his court was in session, a spokesman for the office said on Thursday. Attorney General Drew Edmondson filed a petition on Wednesday with state judicial authorities seeking the removal of Sapulpa District Judge Donald Thompson, 57, for "conduct constituting an offense involving moral turpitude in violation of the Oklahoma Constitution." Thompson was not immediately available for comment. The judge, elected to the bench in the state's nonpartisan judicial elections, is based about 80 miles northeast of Oklahoma City. In the petition, the attorney general charged Thompson used a penis pump, a device billed as providing sexual pleasure and promising better erections and larger penis size, during trials and exposed himself to a court reporter several times while masturbating on the bench. "On one occasion, Ms. (Lisa) Foster (Thompson's court reporter for 15 years), saw Judge Thompson holding his penis up and shaving underneath it with a disposable razor while on the bench," the petition reads. Several witnesses, including jurors in Thompson's court and police officers called to testify in trials, said in the petition they heard the "swooshing" sound of a penis pump during trials and saw the judge slumped in his chair, with his elbows on his knees, working the device. The witnesses said the pump sounded like a blood pressure cuff being pumped up. According to the petition, Thompson admitted he had a penis pump under the bench during a murder trial but he told investigators it was a gag gift from a friend. The petition also charges Thompson with firing his former court reporter after she cooperated with investigators.

What's up w/Percy Heath's shirt? Has it been colorized?

An all-star CD starring William Shatner? Ben Folds puts own album on hold for actor's work Thursday, June 24, 2004 Posted: 9:16 AM EDT (1316 GMT) CLEVELAND, Ohio (Billboard) -- Ben Folds is pushing back the release date of his next solo album to early 2005 in order to give "Star Trek" veteran William Shatner's upcoming collection, "Has Been," his full attention. The set is being targeted for a September release by Shout! Factory. "It is a great record and it is really worth going out and doing some shows in major cities," Folds told Billboard.com. "(Shatner) is not a musician at all -- he's not rapping or singing -- but he is still part of the music. I've never heard a record quite like it." Shatner previously guested on Folds'1998 solo album "Fear of Pop, Vol.1" Shatner's album was produced and written mostly by Folds and includes cameos by Henry Rollins, Aimee Mann and Joe Jackson, who duets with Shatner on Pulp's "Common People." Author Nick Hornby ("High Fidelity") also co-wrote a song with Folds for the project.

Doctorate for Bob Dylan Wednesday, June 23, 2004 Posted: 12:07 PM EDT (1607 GMT) St. ANDREWS, Scotland (AP) -- Bob Dylan accepted an honorary doctor of music degree Wednesday from Scotland's oldest university. He was speechless, but a professor at the University of St. Andrews sang his praises. "Many members of my generation can't separate a sense of our own identity from his music and lyrics," said professor of English Neil Corcoran in an awe-struck address. Dylan's fusion of folk, blues, country, rock and poetry, Corcoran said, "moved everything on to a place it never expected to go and left the deepest imprint on human consciousness." "His magnificent songs will last as long as song itself does," he added. Founded in 1413, St. Andrews, northeast of Edinburgh, is Britain's third-oldest university and one of its most prestigious. Its current students include Prince William, second in line to the throne. The university also awarded honorary degrees to Harvard philosopher Hilary Putnam and Cheryll Tickle, one of Britain's leading biologists, along with degrees for 180 graduating students. Dylan has accepted only one other honorary degree, from Princeton University in 1970. ---------------------------------- Dylan speechless? Or just unintelligible?

I got the new BMG mailing recently, and I'm looking for some input on what to buy. I'm on a very strict budget, so right now I can only pick three of the following: Jimmy Smith - Prayer Meetin' Jimmy Smith - Rockin' the Boat Stanley Turrentine - Never Let Me Go Horace Silver - Cape Verdean Blues Freddie Hubbard - Ready for Freddie Jackie McLean - Right Now! Duke Pearson - Sweet Honey Bee Sonny Rollins - Newk's Time Any thoughts?

I thought this was going to be a Kenny G thread ...

Royals fans too. We had a heydey collecting his cards back then. I can't help but wonder ... was he ever in the KC lineup with Pete LaCock?

... as long as were on the topic, Detroit Tiger fans will long remember Rusty Kuntz, a member of the 1984 World Champs!

Please please please please please, etc.

This from www.theinquirer.net, via the Disinfo site, and I can't vouch for this guy at all. That being said, it wouldn't suprise me ... Recording industry has fresh bash at digital radio RIAA causes turbulence in airwaves By Nick Farrell: Monday 14 June 2004, 07:26 AFTER YEARS of targeting old ladies, children, teens, file sharing companies and the odd pirate the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is now gunning for the fledgling digital radio industry. Apparently it has just woken up to the fact that radio stations broadcast digital quality music over the airwaves which can be downloaded and distributed. The RIAA says it wants radio stations to put in safeguards that will make sure the music will not be copied. It says that the FCC should ensure that the broadcast format limits such copying so radio stations don't turn the airwaves into a giant file-sharing network. The problem for the RIAA is that digital radio is capable of recording tracks and replaying them. A person recording FM stations has to sit by the recorder and hit the stop button to prevent one track bleeding into another. The RIAA, is OK with listeners recording digital broadcasts for later playback but in a stonking lack of knowledge about digital technology wants it made impossible to divide that broadcast up into individual songs. Clearly it has never heard of the fact that most music software enables people to hack up digital content in anyway they like. About 300 stations now broadcast digital signals or are in the process of setting them up. µ

The parade is going by my window right now ... I can hear the crowd and I'm 16 floors up in my hermetically sealed office building. Pretty amazing ... As for this comment "The Pistons also had some luck through all this playing teams hurt with injuries, Kidd, Jermaine O'Neal and then worst of all Malone" ... quit yer crying already!

I thought she meant personally ... talk dirty to me baby!

Vibraphonist "blacking out definition of what jazz is" By Bret Saunders Special to The Denver Post Stefon Harris, who at the age of 30 already has established himself as one of the most skilled vibraphonists to raise a pair of mallets, is succinct when asked to describe the music he's making with his new group, Blackout. "It's a hybrid," said Harris, who will perform with Blackout at Golden's Mount Vernon Country Club on Thursday. The band, under Harris' leadership, utilizes a combination of styles ranging from subdued funk to harmonically sophisticated mainstream jazz with bright splashes of electronics and the muscular alto sax of Casey Benjamin. The result is one of the standout current acts. The group is similar to pianist Jason Moran and trio The Bad Plus in its ability to make improvised music equally accessible and risky. The sounds created by Harris and his group are as likely to mine the improvisational possibilities of the current pop of Sting as they are in the strains of classic Gershwin. "The goal is to move forward with jazz as an art form," Harris said. "We're blacking out the definition of what jazz is." And that, according to Harris, is why the band is using Blackout as its name. The New York-born Harris has been surpassing expectations since graduating from the Manhattan School of Music and releasing his first solo disc, "A Cloud of Red Dust," in 1998. With an enthusiastic and individual approach to the vibes, he recalls Bobby Hutcherson, who recorded a striking collection of forward-thinking dates for the Blue Note label in the 1960s and '70s. As his playing and compositional acumen has evolved, Harris (who also records for Blue Note) racked up three Grammy nominations while releasing unpredictable music, including last year's ambitious and beguiling "The Grand Unification Theory," which provided him a wider sonic palette from which to create. The recently available "Evolution" disc, with Blackout, gives Harris a consistent group of players for trading riffs and ideas. It's a more focused and potentially more commercially palatable effort. "It was a very natural evolution," Harris said of the groups' coming together. "I decided that I wanted to experiment with sound, and I purchased a MalletKAT, an electronic keyboard you play with a mallet. I like the groove you can get from electronic instruments. "After a while, it started to evolve into an all-electric band. But it lacked dynamics. With acoustic instruments, we have both the drive and the subtlety, so Blackout ended up being all acoustic, with the exception of the keyboards." While putting Blackout together, Harris drafted Marc Cary, an underrated pianist who has surfaced as a promising soloist in recent years. Cary's keyboards serve as an engaging foil to Harris' vibes, their statements pleasantly intertwining without intruding upon each other. "He (Cary) has a lot of imagination. He can play anything and tie ideas together. He's a perfect fit," said Harris. Nearly all of the pieces that make up "Evolution" seem to fit as well as the Harris-Cary partnership, no matter how disparate. The funkish, electric piano permeating "Nothing Personal" coexists with the romantic vibe flutters of "For Him, for Her." African rhythms grace "King Tut's Strut," and the disc closes with an affectionate remake of Harris vibraphone godfather Hutcherson's "Montara." And Harris' own pleasant compositions continue to develop as solid foundations for improvisational flight. "I didn't change my style of writing (for 'Evolution')," said Harris. "And I made sure that I didn't compromise the intensity of the improvisations. It's definitely not 'smooth jazz."' Overall, Harris seems not only enthusiastic about the Blackout project, but about the current trend toward combining the many styles of popular and more esoteric music in the service of creating a fresher kind of jazz. "My generation is finally taking ownership of the music," said Harris. "It's a great time in the art form. Some of us are going to hit it, and some are going to do things that don't work."

Reality Show to Yield New INXS Singer By Barry A. Jeckell NEW YORK (Billboard) - Australian rock band INXS, which lost its singer, Michael Hutchence, to suicide in 1997, will be at the center of a new reality show called "Rock Star." The latest show from Mark Burnett, the creator of such reality hits as "Survivor" and "The Apprentice," will see a new lead singer chosen for the veteran combo. "I am a long-time fan of INXS and feel very fortunate that INXS approached us with this idea and have entrusted us with their future," Burnett said in a statement posted Monday on the band's official Web site (http://inxs.com/). "I feel there's room on TV for more than one great music-based show, and I feel that rock music has been totally left out of that mix." Since Hutchence's death, surviving band members Andrew Farriss, Tim Farriss, Jon Farriss, Kirk Pengilly and Garry Beers have occasionally performed with fellow Australian Jon Stevens on vocals. That lineup played during the closing ceremonies of the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney and toured North America in 2002 with Simple Minds. "After Michael died, we wanted to search the world for a new singer but didn't know how we could effectively do that," Tim Farriss said. "By having Mark and everyone at MBP (Mark Burnett Prods.) embrace the concept, we've now found a fantastic way to make that happen." "Rock Star" auditions will be held on five continents. The winner and INXS will record a studio album, the band's first since 1997's "Elegantly Wasted" (Mercury), and then head out on a world tour. Unlike other music reality shows such as "American Idol" and "Nashville Star," the viewing audience will not be the sole arbiter of the show's outcome. Band members will also assess contestants in tandem with leading entertainment industry specialists.

Interesting ... reminds me of the "Global Network of Dreams" site at www.gnod.net, which also does movies and books, in addition to music.

From Slate: It's a Shame About Ray The passing of an American musical icon. By Stanley Crouch Posted Friday, June 11, 2004, at 3:35 PM PT Ray Charles The true giants of American music are going fast these days, and the loss of Ray Charles is the latest example. We cannot stay in any previous period, artistic or historical. We can be bitter about the inevitable or we can recognize that this is a fact, as real as the fact of cold death. One of my favorite Ray Charles moments occurred during an interview with Dick Cavett, about 35 years ago. On that particular evening, I and everyone watching saw something special. The two men sat in their chairs and spoke in that measured tone that can soon become boring in television unless something happens to lend an extra dimension to the conversation. Cavett, with all of his liberal certainty, was consistently shocked by Charles' answers to his questions. As the interview went on, one could see Cavett realize he had made some miscalculations. He'd assumed that because Charles was both black and blind, the interview would be given over to whining and crying about how hard it was for a Negro with a handicap in a country that was as racist as it was disdainful of the crippled, the blind, and the deaf. But Charles surprised us all, black or white. He spoke of his self-determination, his independence, and how he had been well prepared to live his life as a sightless Negro by his mother. Charles told Cavett that his mother had never allowed him to escape any household duties or chores because of his blindness. His mother, he said, made sure that he made up his bed, cleaned up his room, washed dishes, and did whatever the other children were required to do. Her son was going to be prepared to live in the world, and she had no time for debilitating self-pity. She told him that there were always at least two ways things could be done: the way everyone else did them, and the way he would have to discover for himself. Charles continued, telling Cavett how much he enjoyed riding on motorcycles and how much pleasure he drew from flying. Cavett, by then, had become cautious; he realized that he was in the presence of a black man who did not fit any of the clichés of the day and who had decided not to play a part that would make everyone happy by arousing their pity—always the problem of the handicapped genius. Charles said to him that if he were in a plane and something happened to the pilot, he had no doubt that he could safely land the plane in if he had a good ground crew guiding him. He might get banged up, but he would not be killed, Charles said with absolute confidence. It was that kind of confidence that gave a charismatic clarity to Ray Charles' music and that allowed him to last much longer than any of the trends that brought him to public attention. Charles maintained his position in our pantheon of the rightly honored because his importance did not depend on audience whims. While he may have benefited from a couple of trends in his long career, his talent allowed him to transcend the high tide of momentary public fixation that dooms so many careers in popular entertainment. He was one of the invincibles—there were always plenty of people in America, and the world over, who wanted to hear his distinct sound. His sound was his own, even though he had begun as a Nat Cole imitator. (It is always stunning to realize that an original artist had to build his or her own style along the way.) Charles could raise the heat on the bandstand and in the audience by the nature of his beat and by his extreme tempo control, which he made clear with his version of "Drown in My Own Tears," so slow that every drop of skill in his fellow musicians had to be brought forward to keep from either dragging it down or rushing it out of frustration. In his classic "Baby, It's Cold Outside," with the incomparable Betty Carter, he created one of the finest examples of romantic give-and-take between man and woman that we have in American music. Then there were his versions of Tin Pan Alley standards that always simmered with his special kind of soul. He conquered country-and-western music, and he sang "America the Beautiful" as it had never been sung before, with power and irony. We don't even need to talk about rhythm and blues or the blues or his love of jazz. He had a full house of talent. But perhaps what Ray Charles did with all of his authority was help make the country and the world as blind as he was. Charles was one of those special few who expands the democratic experience by proving that neither color nor a handicap mean that one is less a man or less a woman. We couldn't ask more of a person in 73 years. He used every second. ----------------------------------------------------- Admittedly, I never saw the original Cavett/Charles interview, and know nothing about Cavett's views on race, etc., but I can't help but wonder if Cavett was surprised that any blind person, black or white, was talking about flying airplanes and riding motorcycles.

Kimmel show pulled for comments Host makes fun of Detroit, later apologizes Friday, June 11, 2004 Posted: 9:07 AM EDT (1307 GMT) DETROIT, Michigan (AP) -- Jimmy Kimmel's late-night talk show was pulled off the air for a night following a joke the comedian made about Detroit during the NBA Finals. Kimmel was talking to ABC sportscaster Mike Tirico during halftime of Tuesday's game when he said, "They're going to burn the city of Detroit down if the Pistons win, and it's not worth it." Tirico, an Ann Arbor resident, immediately objected, telling him to be careful about making fun of Detroit. ABC made the decision to pull Wednesday night's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" from affiliates nationwide shortly after the program was taped that night in California. Grace Gilchrist, general manager of Detroit ABC affiliate WXYZ, said the taped show featured more disparaging remarks about the city. "Frankly, we were shocked. We thought it was uncalled for," Andrea Parquet-Taylor, WXYZ's news director, said of Kimmel's remarks. Kimmel issued a written statement to address his comments about Detroit, whose Pistons are playing the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals. "What I said about Pistons fans during halftime was a joke, nothing more. If I offended anyone, I'm sorry," he said. "Clearly, over the past 10 years, we in L.A. have taken a commanding lead in post-game riots. If the Lakers win, I plan to overturn my own car." ABC publicity manager Jennifer De La Rosa issued another apology from the comedian Thursday: "It was never my intention to cause anyone pain. I was trying to make a joke and I'm sorry it resulted in anything other than laughter."

Even Darko played last night!

Ray Charles, master of music who combined blues, gospel, country, dies at 73 Thursday, June 10, 2004 ASSOCIATED PRESS BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Ray Charles, the Grammy-winning crooner who blended gospel and blues in such crowd-pleasers as ``What'd I Say'' and heartfelt ballads like ``Georgia on My Mind,'' died Thursday, a spokesman said. He was 73. Charles died at his Beverly Hills home surrounded by family and friends, said spokesman Jerry Digney. Charles last public appearance was alongside Clint Eastwood on April 30, when the city of Los Angeles designated the singer's studios, built 40 years ago in central Los Angeles, as a historic landmark. Blind by age 7 and an orphan at 15, Charles spent his life shattering any notion of musical boundaries and defying easy definition. A gifted pianist and saxophonist, he dabbled in country, jazz, big band and blues, and put his stamp on it all with a deep, warm voice roughened by heartbreak from a hardscrabble childhood in the segregated South. ``His sound was stunning - it was the blues, it was R&B, it was gospel, it was swing - it was all the stuff I was listening to before that but rolled into one amazing, soulful thing,'' singer Van Morrison told Rolling Stone magazine in April. Charles won nine of his 12 Grammy Awards between 1960 and 1966, including the best R&B recording three consecutive years (``Hit the Road Jack,'' ``I Can't Stop Loving You'' and ``Busted''). His versions of other songs are also well known, including ``Makin' Whoopee'' and a stirring ``America the Beautiful.'' Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell wrote ``Georgia on My Mind'' in 1931 but it didn't become Georgia's official state song until 1979, long after Charles turned it into an American standard. Also, as I was surfing around trying to verify, and I came across this tidbit. Apparently there will be a major movie on his life opening this fall with the following cast: Cast: Jamie Foxx (Ray Charles), Regina King (Margie Hendrix), Kerry Washington (Della Charles), Curtis Armstrong (Ahmet Ertegun), Patrick Bauchau (Dr. Hacker), Warwick Davis (Oberon), Aunjanue Ellis (Ruth Brown), Rick Gomez (Tom Dowd), Terrence Howard (Guitar Slim), David Krumholtz (Milt), Harry J. Lennix, Usher Raymond (Jackie Wilson), C.J. Sanders (Young Ray), Richard Schiff (Gerald "Jerry" Wexler), Larenz Tate (Quincy Jones), Ralph E. Tresvant (Sam Cooke), Robert Wisdom (Jack Lauderdale), Denise Y. Dowse (Marlene Andres), Chris Thomas King (Lowell Fulsom), Afemo Omilami (Mr. Johnson), Elizabeth Omilami (Mrs. Johnson) It will be called "Unchain my Heart" and be distributed by Universal.

Admittedly, I didn't actually read the poll post, but the concept certainly seemed appropriate ... rioting after sports championships is pretty much part of the experience nowadays.

As depressing as it sounds, I can't even afford that right now.

Thanks, guys.

I'm listening to this right now, and I've just noticed that the CD cover indicates "Vol. 2" ... is there a volume 1 to this?

This might actually be "confession" fodder, but I recently viewed the three-disc set of the first season of "Son of the Beach." Anyone else into this stuff? Timothy Stack is an absolute riot and Jaime Pressley, well, I wonder what that would be like ...