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Selling like hotcakes on CDBaby. Great news! Anyway, mine showed up over the last couple of days (I was away and it greeted me when I stepped in the door -- priceless). I do like what I heard but will be spinning again shortly to let it sink in. My only comment is that on the customs form, you put in a dollar value of $0. Surely, you must value it more highly than that. (If not, maybe we should all ask for refunds. Or credit towards your third release.)

As far as cereal goes there is now a chain with three locations, including Chicago, where you eat nothing but cereal. However, lest you get the idea of emulating this idea, the owners have made in clear in several interviews they will try to sue you pants off. One more way that the legal system is ensuring that America goes to the dogs. This subrant belongs in politics, but the day the Patent office agreed to patent business practices (as well as living organisms) was a sad one.

I did own it. I couldn't believe I was actually able to sell it back to a record store! It's quite bad, with all the tracks credited to some producer rather than anything written by McLean.

Probably Monk's The Genius of Modern Music vols. 1 and 2. And Mingus Ah-Um I was started down the road to loving jazz music by my parents' copy of Take Five, but these records, which I bought in college, really took it to a higher level.

Regarding Jazz Showcase at the last minute, I've never been turned away, though I suppose some shows do sell out. Generally, getting in is not a problem but you may not get an ideal seat.

I have some fond memories of the song, since an after-school athletic team I worked with used it as part of their warm up routine. They say it is incredible he survived. Hopefully, there won't be significant lasting damage.

There is lots of great theatre in Chicago, but it's hard to know what to see or what your tastes are. I find Steppenwolf a bit hit or miss, and I would give the current main stage production a miss. Overall, I like Victory Gardens the best for being challenging but not too challenging. It's probably too hard to get tickets to the Goodman (or Steppenwolf for that matter). Maybe the best option is to check the Chicago Reader on line right before you go and see what catches your fancy. I think the theatre reviews are pretty reasonable (unlike the film reviews which are skewed towards favorable reviews for agitprop films). You can also check out TICKTS to see what the discounted shows are. There are of course some long-running shows like Wicked, but I usually avoid those. Before my son was born, I went to theatre at least once a month, sometimes more. I definitely miss that about Chicago. Book stores -- most of the independent bookstores have vanished. Perhaps the best bet is Powells with three locations - Hyde Park, Lakeview and South Loop. They have new and used books. There are a couple of used bookstores in Lincoln Park -- one on Clark and Wellington and one on Broadway near Wellington. There are two bookstores that sort of focus on architectural books -- one is on Wabash about two blocks north of the S. Loop Powells and the other is on Dearborn near Polk.

I happened to be browsing at emusic and found that while they don't have Black Orchid, they do have two CDs he was involved with called Jazz on the Latin Side Allstars vols. 1 and 2. I'm going to download and give them a listen tonight.

Hey, maybe we can force Herbie and Sonnie to play on some trio recordings, since the consensus seems to be that their recent recorded oeuvre is lacking compared to their live work. Just a thought.

Maybe we also need a list of the most gratuitous use of jazz in a film, not that I would generally complain, but there are plenty of times it is just for atmosphere. For instance, in Dark City -- a fairly enjoyable SF picture -- the female lead is a lounge singer, I suppose for the sole purpose of allowing us to go into the club and watch her sing (well, lip synch) a couple of songs. Now the songs are well done -- The Night Has a Thousand Eyes and something else -- but it's more to tie in with the ambience of noir film than anything plot driven. And I guess that's fine -- a lot of the film noirs are made bearable by the anti-hero stepping into a jazz club (this goes double for French film noir films where often the score is the only thing bearable about them). I assume that Collateral was on the same vibe, trying to tap into the spirit of film noir.

He seems like a pretty cool guy that has been burned a lot by the Powers that Be. He's on many of the cast commentaries for the Futurama episodes and is always hilarious. He goes on and on, about how if he was Fry, he would stick with dating Amy, etc. In fact, the best are the commentaries with both West and DiMaggio (the voice of Bender) since they start doing each other's voices and cracking up.

I hear you on the cacti, though I have found several programs that rip them to MP3 (or wav for that matter) with no problem. Then it is no sweat to load onto iPod or other MP3 player. This goes along with my general rant about pointless security. CC will maybe stop the casual user from burning a CD for his or her friend, but it won't stop the determined pirate, who are the ones causing the most trouble for the music industry. It certainly doesn't seem worth it to me, once you factor in loss of customer satisfaction.

The drum solo in Phantom Lady? Could be best or worst depending on your taste. Doesn't do it for me -- way over the top. Yes, I know that was intentional.

With the power of Starbuck$ behind it, I suspect the album will do pretty well. You come in half asleep, the music is playing constantly, it's this subliminal pressure to buy the CD. Honestly, I do wonder how Starbuck$ became such a cult -- it's only coffee, people, not a lifestyle. On the same subject, I wonder if Verve has started to give away its samplers to retail stores and coffee shops, cause I've heard Remixed 3 playing in a few places now. I guess I can't comment until I actually hear the Hancock album, but for my taste, I would prefer the Verve Unmixed or even Remixed to all those duets.

I agree with you. The Simpsons was great, but honestly it is a shadow of its former self. 4 true seasons is pretty respectable in the TV business, but I think Futurama had about 7 seasons in it, and it was really getting good in seasons 3 and 4. Sigh. I actually do think the movie will happen, but am not optimistic that Futurama will return to TV. The episodes were actually quite expensive to produce.

I guess I am jumping the gun a tiny bit, but there have been rumors for months now that Fox has greenlit a direct to DVD movie of Futurama, with the possibility of a couple more. Futurama movie Apparently both Billy West, the main voice talent, and Matt Groening have been saying it will happen, though the executive producer David X. Cohen is apparently saying not all the contract details have been worked out. Nonetheless, I am incredibly pleased and hope this does come to fruition. Futurama is in my top 5 tv shows of all time, and not just top 5 cartoon tv shows. I can't even completely explain why it clicked so much for me, but it just did. It's a very focused obsession, and considerably cheaper than a Simpsons' obsession, since there is only 1/100th of merchandise to buy. Anyway, if the movie comes out and sells well, just as the DVDs have done quite well, there would always be the chance that Futurama could even return to Fox, like Family Guy did (it definitely helps that there is a new programming chief at Fox). Though that would probably be good, so much time will have elapsed, it definitely won't feel the same. It's such a shame that Fox cancelled it in the first place, since it had a serious following that has kind of dissipated with time. I'll post more news here as appropriate.

It actually happened to me in real life -- getting humiliated at a jazz jam session in Ann Arbor. I brought a flute, but the only fake books they had on the stand were for Bb and Eb instruments, so I had to try to look over the pianist's shoulders at the score, which meant being turned away from the audience. In addition, I followed a saxophonist from the Count Basie orchestra -- why he was slumming there I don't know. Needless to say, I packed up and slunk away quickly. So in short, I don't need to dream about it, since I lived it. I also haven't played in front of an audience since then (clarinet and saxophone were my "real" instruments but I really wasn't that good even though I did play in a small jazz band in high school). I did have a crazy dream once where I got roped into playing a key part in The Pirates of Penzance, even though I didn't know the lines.

Yes, it was called Black Orchid. I was debating whether to bring it along or put it in storage. Now I am doubly glad I brought it with me. A sad day.

I'd probably side with Jerry in that I usually get a middle of the road hybrid, so I am not completely distraught when it gets damaged or, knock wood, stolen. I do, however, like my current bike enough to have it disassembled and shipped to England, which was probably stupid. But I do most of my riding in town where speed is not an issue, and you need a really absorbent frame and wheels to deal with potholes. If you really are planning to be riding around in the countryside where you can really stretch out, then a nice road bike could be the ticket. In any case, enjoy!

I am very sorry to hear of your loss. It is clear you cared very much for your mother, and will continue to want to make her proud of you. It is always hard to let people go, but when they are suffering as much as your mother was, you know there is a time to go. Hopefully you can get some closure from the time you spent with her. My mom died very suddenly, but at least I didn't have any outstanding "issues" with her that I regret not resolving. It sounds like you didn't either, and that will help you as you move through grieving. Even though I am not religious, I found that rituals and traditions do help. I wore all black for about six months after my mother died as a way of mourning and paying respect (it helped that I was a student at the time). But we all have to find our own way of dealing with loss. Again, my thoughts go out to you and your father.

I've seen Ferrell and Hartman. Both great. More cowbell! I've heard Ferrell 2 isn't very good, but don't know. Another interesting extra in the form of an audition is from Confessions of a Dangerous Mind where we see the lead actor auditioning. If I remember correctly, we also see him with prosthetic teeth, which were generally not used in the film itself.

Only one GS. I think two KOB when the remasted edition came out. Love Supreme twice, again when the remastered version came out. Seven Steps on CD and now the box set. Brubeck's Time Out a few times. I have bought some rare BN LPs, and then bought the RVG later on, mostly Mobley and probably Hutcherson, depending on what is on the Select.

Miserable, miserable, miserable. It's been in the high 80s or 90s for about two weeks now with no rain. Quite a drought going on here.

Hard to judge until we get the official listing, but I think I have half the material in here, since I grabbed some recent Tolliver Strata East re-issues that showed up at Dusty Groove. That makes it hard to justify buying a Select (for me), but the missing pieces may be particularly rare.

Very unusual game - basically a knot-unraveling problem. Planarity