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I wouldn't be so sure about that. Guy I could elaborate a bit. I'd probably say it is 60-40 that the Pistons will win. But if the Piston's don't take one from Chicago in Chicago and the series does go 6 or 7 games, then the Bulls look a lot fresher than most other teams, and that gives them a bit of an edge but may not be the deciding factor. I stand by my statement that this should be a good series. I'm glad to see this become a respectable rivalry again after some really terrible Bulls teams. I actually grew up in Michigan so I have somewhat torn loyalties, and both teams seem to play great team basketball (and defense) without any huge supersize egos running roughshod over the rest of the team. That said, I have to root for the Bulls or my wife would kill me. (And I don't like Rasheed Wallace -- never have -- so that would also sway my opinion.)

Well, I've met and corresponded with an awful lot of people in urban sociology/urban studies that I think are noteworthy, but none of them are really famous or celebrities. The most famous was Herbert Gans (The Urban Villagers and The Levittowners). Back when there was such a thing as the public intellectual, he was reasonably well known. I stopped by his office in Columbia and discussed whether I should go there to do a sociology PhD. Unfortunately, I just had such a poor rapport with him I decided to go elsewhere. He is an occasional commentator on an urban sociology listserv, and his responses remind me a great deal of Chuck Nessa's now that I think about it. (Psychic twins or separated at birth?)

I'm almost certain that I saw the members of Dee-Light (the female singer and the DJ) coming out of an apartment in SoHo. It was across Broadway and I couldn't get a closer look (and it would have been so not-NYC to stare). My wife was working at Court TV and talked to Regis Philbin when he called up for some reason.

The one thing the Bulls have going for them is youth and energy. Plus, Noce was out for 28 games or something, but is looking like he is well rested and back in shape. If a Pistons-Bulls series goes long, then the Bulls definitely have the edge.

I try to avoid the conspiracy theory thing, but the refs gave Miami Heat an awful lot of breaks in the last 5 minutes (esp. not calling some flagrant fouls prior to the last one). What was absolutely amazing is that the Heat resorted to Hack-a-Ben (on Ben Wallace), after all the nonsense that Shaq has put up with. As far as I can tell, the Bulls and maybe the Pistons are the two teams that played Shaq honest and refused to employ that strategy (if you can call it that). I hate it. It's a lame desparation cheap tactic, and teams that resort to intentional fouling in the backcourt deserve to lose. All of them. If I was Stern, I would change the rules to make it too painful to resort to it. But anyway, the Heat know they are going on vacation soon. I think they will probably win game 4, but that will be the last hurrah for the season. Now Pistons-Bulls looks like it should be a pretty good series.

That is definitely a shame. He was scheduled to conduct in Chicago next season. I thought it unlikely he would make it given his health problems, but I definitely would have gone had he made it. Brilliant Classics has an excellent box set of recordings he made while in the USSR.

I got this years ago as a "boxless" box set from Jazz Record Mart actually. They had the jewel cases and the booklet, but not the box itself. I think I got it for 50% off, or something nearly as good. Haven't played it in a while, but will probably do so soon.

Konono #1 was in Chicago yesterday (Tues). I wanted to go see them, but a 10 pm show on Tuesday! It doesn't help that the place they were playing is not the greatest neighborhood and the buses stop running around midnight, so I decided to skip it.

too bad... and the slipcase? is it worth it buy the box instead of all the cd's apart? cause the I see them in stores here everywhere, for 7 ot 8 euro's, and I should be looking for the box... JB The box is nothing special. If you can get the individual CDs for roughly the same price, go for it.

I think it's very unlikely that Miami will get swept -- about even money that they win the next two games. Guy My prediction is that they split the series in Miami, then wrap it up in Chicago. The Heat just look tired -- and Wade can't turn it on anymore, which is the critical difference. Also, the Bulls have gotten into the Miami players' heads.

Perhaps, but I think they'd rather have enough food. Here's an update: Well, it probably would be "better" if it did turn out to be a pesticide or something in a GM crop that could be more or less contained. If it is more directly human-related, like cell phones, industry lobbyists will delay and cause confusion and drag their feet and nothing will be done, and Americans will import their food from somewhere else. It will be the same story as global warming, where we have shown ourselves absolutely incapable of making the hard decisions that might solve the problem.

Thanks for the link! It looks like I might order this next week. I also like this quote from the ad: "3. I'm introducing Art to people who thought they knew what jazz was (Kenny G) and didn't like it. If you like Kenny G, just go away. There's nothing for you here."

Agreed. We really have to thank MC for all the Andrew Hill material released recently, esp. Passing Ships and the unreleased material on the Selects. I am also very sad about the news, but am glad that he was able to touch so many of us. I only managed to see him twice (once going out of my way to catch him in Amsterdam) but I'm glad I made the effort. I am starting to dread the day when the last of my jazz heroes (mostly but not exclusively those on BN titles from the 1960s) passes on.

I've wanted the Dizzy for a while, so will order it. 10% isn't great, but it's better than nothing. Unfortunately, there is some small problem with mailing. My home address is definitely not safe for a package such as this, and my office is switching location next week! So I've tried to avoid ordering anything until after the dust settles from the move. (Yeah, I'm sure someone will offer to hold the goodies for me in the meantime. ) I'll probably order on the 27th (assuming internet service is back on!).

Sorry to dig up an old diversion to this thread, but it just occurred to me that those numbers have to be way, way high for Zorn. I've seen Masada, both the brass and string groups, several times in the past 10 years, both in and out of NYC, and only paid more than $25 or (at most) $30 once (wouldn't be willing to pay more since I'm not the biggest fan) - and that one exception was when they were opening for Cecil at J@LC, which is always expensive. Zorn (in one context or another) plays on average about twice a month in NYC, I'd say, and $20 is the usual ticket price (it is always the price for his monthly jam session at The Stone, which only seats 90). The Masada string group is playing three shows in the city over the next couple weeks and I'm pretty sure they are all $20/set. All that being said, I don't really care what musicians charge - that is their business, and it's up to me whether to go see them play or not. In the interests of being completely redundant with what has been said above, however, one can't charge $75 to $100 a ticket, which of course limits the number of people who can go see them play and hence their opportunities to play, and then reasonably complain about the resulting obscurity. Maybe it was his way of saying he didn't want to go. Or maybe the fee included travel and hotel for the group. Obviously they can charge less for a show in NYC when the members just hop on the subway for the gig. I hired a string quartet of UC students once, and they cut their normal fee in half because the gig was in Hyde Park.

which reminds me of Actually I picked up a used copy of this largely for the cover. On a side note, it's too bad the reissued New York New York by George Russell didn't use the original cover.

Same facade used again here : EDIT : You also might want to check out my current avatar ( right click , view image ) . Is this the World Trade Center? It certainly reminds me of one section of it.

My wife said that it had shown up today (from BestBuy), so I will check it out soon. I was starting to think they had figured out a way to cancel orders still in the mail. Sorry it didn't work out for more of us.

While I agree with much of what Soul Stream is saying, particularly this being a subtle way of saying their lives are more important than yours, I still believe there are many things out of people's control. I routinely stay 20-30 minutes longer than I want to/expect at work because of things that get dropped on my lap late in the day (when supervisors say their priorities are greater than yours, you don't have much choice but to accept it). I'm also working on a project with European team members, so I am waking up at 5 am to be able to interact with them (and I'm about to sign off to handle some new crisis). For me, it really is trying to fit the 10 lbs of work into a 5 lb bag of life, and it does mean that things get shuffled all the time and I am late more than I would like to be. I think that is just the way it is for most corporate drones in downsized USA.

And yet life is full of random stuff that prevent schedules from running like clockwork. Sure, it sounds like your acquaintences are always running late and that is a major headache, but at the same time I've learned lately that expecting a tight schedule to work is unrealistic and if I'm going to get that bent out of shape over it, I need to drop something.

No idea if it is true, but saw a small blurb that some researchers think that pervasive signals from wireless technology (towers for cell phones) is playing a role. That would suck, since if given a choice between bees and cell phones, Americans would choose to keep their cell phones.

I used to be very, very good about being on time, but I have definitely slipped this year, though still I am rarely more than 10 minutes late. I think it is a combination of trying to do a few too many things and still trying to adjust to the CTA, which is definitely worse service than it used to be. I figure I should be re-adjusted by May or June.

Ok, I need this one. It sounds amazing.

Well, it is sad when important figures leave us, but I think we can also celebrate the impact they had on our lives through creating great works. In Vonnegut's case, I think he had sufficient time to say much of what he wanted to say, and that is also something to be glad about. I'll definitely revisit a few of his novels in the next few months. I often wonder if I will be able to complete even a fraction of the projects I would like to get through, and it seems unlikely. As of right now, my "legacy" is a handful of co-written articles for work that I am reasonably proud of -- and a few poems published in very obscure poetry magazines. It just doesn't seem to be enough, and yet even this is more than many people achieve. I will make more of an effort to do some creative writing, but I am fooling myself if I think I can complete anything major in the next few years. My children are very young and it is far more important to me that I spend time with them now than to lock myself away and write. But I will see if I can cut down on some of the procrastination...