scottb

Hindsight is 20/20. If the government was spending millions on a levee project and terrorists were slamming planes into the city it would look pretty stupid.

You know another side to this tragedy are the effects on other cities. Besides having some issues of its own like power outages and wind damage, suddenly Baton Rouge is a refugee camp. I haven't seen any numbers but there must be tens of thousands (at least) of New Orleaneans in Baton Rouge right now. Schools are closed because they are being used as shelters. Doctors offices are closed because the doctors are clearing the hospitals for transfers from N.O. then accepting those transfers. There is a gas shortage and people are stealing gas from cars in hotel parking lots. I have no idea what happens to 1 million homeless people for the weeks to months it takes to even reopen New Orleans, much less rebuild it.

Well how about your next choice RT? Yourmusic only has Art of the Trio 1 and 4, Places, Largo, Live in Tokyo and Anything Goes

The bad part of all this is that even if the Middle East is peaceful and the warloads and tribes and clans and factions all make peace and the gulf rigs resume production at twice the previous rate and new methods of getting oil from the Canadian soil proves lucrative beyond our wildest dreams gas will never be below $2.00 again. We will be so happy to see $2.25 by the time all this pans out and the oil companies will be more than happy to sell it for this price at huge profits.

I'll pass.

That's what I've been saying as well. New Orleans is TOTALLED! Take the insurance money and rebuild up the river. I'm being serious. I would think the insurance companies and taxpayers would be serious too. Why recover a whole city at the expense of $20 billioin+ (hell we could fight another war for that much)only to have it happen again. It will happen again, just as it was inevitable this time. A city on the gulf coast, below sea level WILL have catastrophic floods. Rebuild Biloxi, rebuild Gulf Port but think hard before rebuilding New Orleans. And this from a native of Louisiana who understands what New Orleans means to the region economically.

Jazzkat, take your Ritalin and try to actually read the post before you reply.

I'm queing up my Yourmusic selections and I have 3 or 4 Brad Mehldau titles on the list and I thinking of pushing one to the top for next month. Which would you choose? By the way, I would probably prefer an ensemble rather than solo effort.

Two months have passed (well close enogh) so last night I started the final wet sanding of the clear coat on the gold Cort. Everythings going great. I figure I'm about half through the final process with a couple grades of sand paper to go. This morning I take a quick glance at my handiwork while getting ready for work and if you know me at all or have been following this thread at all you can probably guess what happened. The finished cracked in several places overnight! In the words of my 3 1/2 yr old daughter, "This is crazy man!" (move over Bart Simpson cause Sophie's in the house) I'll post some pics tonight, although they may be too horrific to view. The thing that worries me the most is that I still have my flame guitar in my closet which will be ready for sanding / cracking in a month.

I found this guy selling some basses and he says he can have a lefty made for $125 more. HERE is the site. I bet your best bet would be to have a luthier convert a right handed model for you.

Couldn't you just stand on the other side? Welcome to the board! Hope that was helpful.

Also, the US news media is stupid enough to put reporters up and down the coast to bring us all the great footage. It reminds me of a scene in WAR OF THE WORLDS where the world is under attack and everyone are just trying to survive then here comes a news truck heading into the battle and disappointed that Cruise's character was not on board a plane that crashed because that would've been a great story.

"I need more reverb!" "I got a fever and the cure is reverb!" "What do you mean the reverb doesn't go to 11!"

Thanks for the input, I think if she sticks with it, I will get the Yamaha P60.

What model is it? Even to a nonplayer like myself, the quality of the higher end Yamahas was obvious. Actually, today I bought a relatively cheap keyboard to hold us until I find a piano or digital piano if the kid sticks with it.

I really can't decide about this piano. I got to tinker with a Yamaha P60 at the music store and I think it would be great for our needs. This Williams sounds very similar in features and is only $399. Reviews online are 10 big "yes"s and 3 big "no"s. No in betweens, people either loved it or hated it.

Where did you start exploring jazz? KOB?, BB?, John Coltrane leading you to the first quintet?, Herbie Hancock leading you to the second Quintet?, Easy Mo B leading you to Doo Bop? To the general public Miles IS jazz. And you know what, they are right in my opinion. He invented a couple styles of jazz, pioneered others and mastered the rest. He's one of the few jazz artists the public even hears about. When I first started listening to jazz, I would go to the store and just wander through the jazz section not knowing what I might like, every puchase a gamble, don't bother asking the staff (got a Herb Alpert disc once when I played a latin style bop solo for a worker once. Hello, ever hear of Dizzy or Lee? A Night In Tunisia?) My strategy became shop by label, Blue Note, Prestige mostly, why?, because that's what Miles was on. Where would you go? Jazziz? Down Beat? I eventually found my way to the Blue Note Board after buying the RVG of Midnight Blue and haven't looked back since.

OK, forget the keyboard. I'm having a tough time finding a used piano worth the cost of having it delivered. What do you guys think about a digital piano? I've seen some with pretty realistic action (guitar term that I'm not sure applies) and dynamics that sound pretty good to me. It would be easier to transport (even room to room in the house), wouldn't require tuning or maintanence (sorry Jim's dad), could be used with headphones and it's MIDI compatible. How about the Yamaha P60 stage piano for $750 at Musicians Friend or perhaps the Williams ETUDE Console Piano which is on sale for $399.

I think if my daughter was 10 and showing interest in piano, it would be easy to get the piano. She's only 6 however and I don't know whether she'll likeit or not. Maybe something cheap now which I can toy with as well later and in 6 months or so if she is still interested, get the piano.

My daughter's school offers private piano lessons after school and since my daughter will be there anyway, what the heck! My wife said the first thing teacher said was "Get a piano, a keyboard is a different instrument." Follwed by, "Think of it as an investment in your child's musical development." My daughter turns 6 in October. There is no way I'm springing for a piano yet! (A B3 maybe, but not a piano) Any suggestions? I would like to get something for a couple hundred bucks but not a toy or total junk. Anything like that out there?

No arguments here.

I would bring Freddy along to the WC just in case there's a chance to get him some of that experience. Put him in if the games locked up or if US loses a couple with no way to advance to the knockout round, I'd put him in. I think there's a big problem with he and his coach at DC United. I think he would be starting for most teams in the league. Eddie Gavin is a star for his team in MLS and when they play together on the under 19 national team, Freddy is the man not Eddie. I hope things work out for him soon and his talent isn't wasted away on the bench of an MLS team.

I think Pope is still good if he's healthy and I like Bocanegra, Hudjuk(sp?) can run all day! Clint Mathis has never impressed me at any level. And Josh Wolf is speedster with little ability. He wouldn't even travel with my squad! The other guy which I've seen less of lately, which is more than fine by me, is Conner Casey. That guy has ZERO touch. He's certainly no replacement for McBride any time soon! Mc Bride gets a lot of credit for his strength in the air and his work rate, but he's a great passer too. At Fulham he creates a lot of chances for the others with some nice touches around the box. He has also scored some long shots from 20 yds or so that I didn't know he had in him. I've heard a lot of people dish on Convey but though he's not a scorer (scored two this weekend for Reading however) he's a great crosser of the ball and is versatile. I really like him as a left back making overlapping runs and sending dangerous balls into the box. As far as Adu not being ready, I'm on the fence on this one. He's not the player he's going to be but even now he's a nice playmaker and is excellent on corners and free kicks.

Other young talent to watch in the next few years although not all will be ready to make an impact in 2006. Bobby Convey, Eddie Gavin, Freddy Adu and Pat Noonan, and Clint Dempsey. Changing topics a little to the old school exiting. Like Agoos fizzled in 2002 and had to be replaced a couple games in, I think a couple of the older guys could be eased out even before Germany. McBride is trying to hold on for one more World Cup and in my opinion should make it barring injury. If he continues to score goal in the EPL, I don't think you can keep him off the field in light of his experience. Claudio Reyna is another story. He has never really impressed me at the national level. This week was a prime example. He was horrible in what I saw of him against T&T on Wednesday, yet he was great in the Man City match today. Until I started watching the EPL, I never was convinced he was all that good. Even as captain he has never really shined for the US when it mattered.