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I just got this mini-review from DMG, and it certainly sounds promising. I didn't realize Iyer had a second project going, in addition to his work with Mahathappa (which I really like, particularly Reimagining). Has anyone heard either this new disk or the previous one? Any thoughts or comparisons to his other CDs?

I finally listened to my copy. Great, great stuff. I concur with other poster who hope that the Garner material is ultimately released. I know that Uptown did it's best to get this out there, and it looks like we need to wait for the estate to change hands. What a shame. It is so weird to read contemporary reviewers say that Dizzy and co. played too fast, since many of the swing bands played tunes just as fast, though maybe not with such complicated changes.

Not even close -- I would choose Shakira over Celine Dion any day of the week.

Just a comment that tomorrow is the last day to get the discount on the 2005 SF Jazz set, which features Coltrane compositions, as well as new compositions by Hutcherson, Rosnes, Redman, etc. As mentioned above, they do ship outside the US, though it is best to drop them an email and explain the situation, especially if billing is going to be tricky. Basically, they told me to put the foreign address in the comments section of the order form. SF Jazz Store

While most people don't think this will hurt his career (this new outspokeness about Scientology, etc.) I think the jury is still out. I expect War of Worlds won't be affected, but some of his smaller, more romantic movies will take a big hit. My wife says in no uncertain terms she will never watch another Tom Cruise movie, including WoWs (which I was planning on seeing) because of his ignorant comments about pharmaceuticals and somewhat indirect cruelty towards post-partum depression sufferers.

I have no idea what you can download at Walmart.com, but I would certainly look for some Public Enemy and Tribe Called Quest. As far as what the (smarter) kids are listening to today, you might try Interpol, Tool, A Perfect Circle or Dredg (the last is probably not at Walmart either). Weird trippy stuff that I like: early Brian Eno, Robyn Hitchcock, Magnetic Fields, Flaming Lips. One of my favorite bands of the mid 1990s was Everclear -- they've kind of dropped off the map...

What was the one set in New Orleans - Frank's Cafe? I didn't watch that but would probably enjoy it. I hope they put Days and Nights of Molly Dodd out, it sort of covered the same territory as Ally McBeal but much, much better.

That may be true, though according to Travolta, he gained fame after joining Scientology, including his Vinny role, so he certainly would not have been in a position to opt out at that point. Don't know about the other celebs. Has anyone seen Bowfinger -- the Steve Martin/Eddie Murphy flick? It's actually pretty funny (even funnier now that Chappelle has clued us in that Murphy does have a brother) and it has a major slam of some Hollywood cult that is obviously Scientology.

I actually missed a couple I've got, including The Young Ones and Fawlty Towers. Father Ted is great, but if you have thin skin regarding shows that poke fun at priests you wouldn't like it. Definitely akin to Fawlty Towers in spirit. The set up is three priests are assigned to this awful little island (Craggy Island) off the coast of Ireland. It's where the Church sends their no-hope priests. One is old, alcoholic "dirty old man" priest who often has daydreams of what he got up to as a younger priest. The youngest is impossibly thick. The middle one, Father Ted, seems the most normal, but he has some strong quirks himself, including a bit of a gambling problem. He's the only one who is self-aware enough to understand the crazy situations they get up to. There's also a strong willed housekeeper who is classic. If you're not sure you would like it, try to rent the DVD with "Kicking Bishop Brennan Up the Arse" - a two-parter which is howlingly funny.

Re: the Knitting Factory. I could never hate a place where I got to read my own poetry (in the Red Room of the old Knitting Factory) or saw a great, great, great reunion gig - Camper Van Beethoven in 2003 (I think). But to each his or her own. On the locally banned list, there is a Wendy's in the Chicago Loop that I never go in any more. There was an extremely aggressive panhandler in there who threatened me when I refused (twice) to give him any money. The management and staff did nothing to try to clear the guy out. Ironically, being a vegetarian I really do avoid fast food restaurants, and Wendy's is about the only one I ever go in, since you can get a real salad or potato.

Domino's pizza Mostly because it is bad, but also because of it's past owner Tom Monaghan. Stupid I know, but you get stuck in a rut. And it's just not good enough to break a long habit.

Futurama - all 4 seasons (looks like a very good chance they will be making some direct to DVD Futurama movies -- that would be so awesome) Simpsons s 1/2 Firefly The Tick Married with Children s 1 Northern Exposure s 1/2/3 Twilight Zone s 1/2/3 Star Trek Original Series s 1 Seinfeld s 1/2 Red Dwarf s 1-6 Invader Zim (all) Are You Being Served (all) Monty Python (all) As Time Goes By s 1-6 Father Ted (all) Some of these are my wife's! But there is a real split between British comedy and science fiction

I doubt many people saw it, but here in the UK, some BBC talk show had Serena Williams on. A lot of the talk was on the salicious side and showing photos of her in tight, tight outfits, but she kept saying she was too young to talk about relationships, etc. It was entertaining and she came across pretty well -- not as a complete airhead.

I missed out on the great Beethoven deal over at BBC Radio 3 by a couple of days. They were offering Symphonies 1-5 as downloadable mp3s. Beethoven downloads So my question is whether anyone here snagged them (or has a friend of a friend ...) and might be persuaded to share. (It seems hundreds of people had trouble on the last day, so maybe the BBC will relent and repost them, but I am not counting on it. Alternatively, they might be on one of those BitTorrent sites, but I haven't seen them so far.) The second purpose of the post is to notify people that next week they will be making Symphonies 6-9 available. I will definitely grab them when they go on-line. It has been a very popular experiment at any rate. Eric

I was reading some interview about Ackroyd, and how he practically had to drag the director through the paces, saying he knew exactly how inane the plot was but that it was worth it to get the music on film. I suppose there is some merit to that, but it is so far beneath the first one plotwise ...

A couple of posts on the board have talked about this upcoming album, but I can't believe there isn't a post in the new releases section, unless I completely missed it. Anyway, a very good album -- often sonically dense but with a nice flow. I particularly like track 3, which was even a bit better live -- simply because they were really on when I saw them at the Green Mill. Vijay Iyer is paired again with Rudresh Mahanthappa. Bassist Stephan Crumb and drummer Marcus Gilmore round out the ensemble. I'll add more later, but this is a CD worth checking out. It's probably Iyer's best (so far) and he himself said that he and his band weren't quite ready to record some of the material (such as Cardio) until now, indicating that he felt they had really grown as a unit in the last year. Tracks 1. Revolutions 2. Inertia 3. Song for Midwood 4. Infogee's Cakewalk 5. The Big Almost 6. Cardio 7. Experience 8. Composites 9. Phalanx 10. Imagine (John Lennon)

OK, here is a little bit more information I found elsewhere. It does seem likely that the US version will be in 4:3 not 16:9 format, since the UK version was in the fake widescreen but the German and other European versions were not. So that's a good sign, but too bad for the Brits. I'd still like more confirmation before I pre-order, however. It looks like disc 5 has a lot of documentary material, which is usually watched precisely once.

Heads up. The Pink Panther cartoons are coming to the US at the end of July. This will be a 5 DVD box set of 124 cartoons -- much better than the short compilation DVD called Jet Pink or something like that. I just saw a 4 DVD set here in the UK, which has been out for months, and apparently has the same basic content. There is a lot of moaning about the quality, since the UK cartoons have fake 1:69 format rather than the original 1:33 format. Apparently, they added black bands to top and bottom -- over the original content -- so sometimes the Panther's head is clipped, etc. I'm thinking/hoping that the forthcoming region 1 set will correct this, but I think I will wait to read reviews.

I think Paris will get it, but I voted for Madrid since it is much further away from where I am now (the UK!!!). I hadn't heard that Silver vetoed the stadium plan. Really glad to hear that, since NY needs the Olympics (or the stadium) like a hole in the head. On a semi-political level, I've been traveling a lot and noticed that the US has added even more barriers to foreigners traveling to the US (most of them are stupid and only serve to humiliate travelers). Why anyone in the US honestly thinks they have a snowball's chance of getting the Olympics is beyond me. It's not just that the world hates us, though that is certainly enough, but that US officials seem determined to make life miserable for people trying to travel (to say nothing of study or work) in the US.

I am feeling more and more torn over this series. I should be pulling for the Pistons, but I just can't stand Sheed and his antics. I didn't like it when he was in Portland, and I thought he had calmed down and matured a bit last year, but clearly I was wrong. I so dislike these spoiled bballers who throw tantrums. Maybe it gets to the heart of everything I dislike about sports in general and how ridiculously overblown and overprioritized it is in society, but at least play with dignity and not act like a child. Blah. I'm actually pretty glad I won't be able to watch game 7 and will just catch the score after it's over.

Pretty soon they will be releasing another 3 CD set from this year's concerts, which were a mix of Coltrane compositions and original tunes. Sal, sheldonm and I caught them in Chicago, and they were great, so I will be pre-ordering this. It partly made up for missing Bobby at the Jazz Showcase due to my extensive traveling.

I didn't watch all of game 4 or 5, but caught bits and pieces of both. One thing I did notice was that in game 4 Detroit was making all kinds of freak outside shots where the ball would bounce high above the rim before going in. I was thinking that if they had missed 5 or 6 of them, and the Heat had rebounded (the second being a strong assumption) then the game would have been completely different. Lo and behold, they didn't make those shots in game 5 (shooting percentage under 40% vs. 52% in game 4) and that was the difference. Game 6 should be intense. One thing that bodes well for the Heat is that the role players are playing with a lot more confidence. Also, Sheed looks like he is heading for a meltdown, rolling around on the court when the call doesn't go his way. The next set of refs may not be afraid to T him up.

I thought the last few minutes of the Suns-Spurs game got awfully physical, largely to the benefit of the Suns. Well, the Suns didn't get swept, but I don't see them taking game 5. Let's see if the Pistons can snap out of their funk and win tomorrow.

One time was sort of inadvertent, since my date and I didn't get coordinated, so I paid to go into Blues Brothers 2000, and left when I didn't see her (it was her idea -- really -- but I suppose I was saved). That's really the only time I can remember. I don't go to the movies that often, and only go see things that need to be seen on the big screen (sf mostly). I do recall one experimental movie I really wanted to leave, but the director and all the actors were in the audience, and I felt trapped.

I am aware of one sealed box set in a Chicago Borders, but I think they jacked up the price higher than $400, so you would need a mighty coupon for it.