ejp626

Well, an upset for the Bears. My wife was so happy about this one. I was fairly surprised, but perhaps the Giants weren't as good as their record indicated and their luck ran out on them. The Bears defense is pretty good, and they are starting to get better on the offensive side. Still don't think the Bears' QB is that great but he is making big improvements. Most likely he will improve just enough to make the coach's life hell when he has to decide between this guy and Grossman (the young QB who went down early in the season). Neither are truly going to be great QBs. But of course, I could be wrong, and I am sure my wife hopes I am.

Right, it's one thing if it is a few minutes during my break, but when that adds up as it has over the last month, ultimately it is stealing from the company. And even though I am pretty tired of this company, I don't need that on my conscience. I wouldn't do it if there were other jazz fans at the company though.

Well, this is just my personal story. I really have not been enjoying my job much, and I tend to have more free time than is good. And I have been so depressed about the election that I took some comfort in the political forum (yet still better grounded in reality by far than dailyKos). It got to the point I was checking the board every 15 minutes just to see what had been said and if there was any active topic anywhere. Well, that's just going too far. While I probably would come back to some kind of equilibrium myself, I am going to sort of turn myself in and ask our company IT person to block the site. (I am the only member at my company which is pretty small.) It's clearly my own lack of will-power but I just can't afford the temptation anymore, and I need to focus on my job again. I'll still be on in the evenings for sure.

My wife watches way, way too much, and usually if I drift in to talk to her, I stay and watch some stupid cold case file. She's also a sports junkie and watches pretty much all the Cubs, Sox, Bulls and Bears games. I actually didn't own a tv until we hooked up. For me one of the main advantages of the dumbing down of TV is that I watch very little of my own accord. In terms of the shows I set out to watch, I think I am just down to Simpsons (which is usually just so-so) and Arrested Development. I've got a whole shelf of DVDs I only rarely watch. I guess I make up for it on internet surfing though.

Just picked up the Looney Tunes Golden Collection vol 2. Great, great stuff. Many of the favorites that didn't make vol. 1 are here, including One Froggy Evening, What's Opera Doc, The Great Piggy Bank Caper and The Three Little Bops (well, one of my favorites). Still missing the Daffy/Porky feature where they are Robin Hood and his Merry Men, but that will hopefully be on vol. 3 One thing worthy of note is that the one where Daffy blows himself up by drinking nitroglycerine and uranium (Show Biz Bugs) is uncut for the first time in a long time. That is great news for adult fans of the cartoons, but you might want to skip over that if you have young impressionable children -- and a lot of uranium about the house. Eric

I actually was on an escalator in a store, when it broke down. Somebody did yell (jokingly), oh no we're stuck. I was in the hot tub in a health club in Manhattan, and a guy got in that looked very much like Steven Wright. I doubt if it was him, but that would certainly be my closest celebrity sighting. Trying to think of a joke here, but that only proves why I am not a comic. I think my favorite Wright joke is the map one, cited above. Oddly enough a recent episode of Joey (my wife was watching and I just happened to be in the room!), ripped this off. Joey had made reservations all over Southern California, then when told this, he said, "Darn it, it looked so much closer on the map. Why don't they make maps full size" or something like that. And what is up with the long person on the streets segments in Leno's show and extended monologue and schtick? I think a few times now there have been two commercial breaks before the celebrity interview. Either this is Jay's passive aggressive way of commenting on the quality of that night's star or he is just getting bored with the interview format in general.

The recently issued Counterpoints is supposed to be from the same tour of Japan. If it does well, perhaps Passion Dance will be released on CD.

Well, I don't have that much interaction with my supervisor anymore (probably for the best), but he was into jazz. Not as deep as me, but he often had the new Keith Jarrett albums, he really liked Desmond's Glad to be Unhappy, and for Xmas one year, he got me the Miles Davis Columbia 4 CD sampler. The guy I work with the most, however, is a real jazz nut. If he had the money, he would have even more music than I do. A huge Andrew Hill fan. Talking to him, mostly over the phone now since I relocated, has been very rewarding.

Joe McPhee Trio Wed 11/10, 7 PM, Claudia Cassidy Theater, Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington. 312-744-6630. So this looks kind of interesting, and I will try to make it. I see that Brotzman is doing some strange performance piece revolving around Kenneth Patchen. Don't know the price, but I think $10 or so. Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet is joined by Welsh performer Mike Pearson for a performance of Be Music, Night, combining poetry by Kenneth Patchen and musical improvisation; part of the Chicago Humanities Festival. See the Treatment. Sun 11/7, 8 PM, Thorne Auditorium, Northwestern University School of Law, 375 E. Chicago. 312-494-9509. And as a follow-up, I actually emailed Stefon Harris about the Jazz Showcase gig. He didn't go into any details but said that he was looking to come to Chicago in the near future (and possibly at the Showcase), so I will keep people posted.

Years ago I recall reading a long (2-3 page) poem, where the ending went like this: JESUS SAVES JESUS SAVES JESUS SAVES GREEN STAMPS Then there might have been a coda like, Yes he does. The rest of the poem was kind of rambling, I think it had urban overtones. Almost certainly written in the 1960s or early 1970s. The two most likely candidates are early Amiri Baraka (back when he was still LeRoi Jones) or Paul Blackburn. But I have gone through my collections of their works and can't find it (doesn't mean that I didn't just miss it). Baraka does have a pretty interesting poem featuring the Green Hornet, but that's not what I am thinking of. It's probably not Frank O'Hara, whose poems generally weren't so overtly political. I have done a variety of google searches, but haven't turned up a true hit so far. Let me know if this sounds familiar. Thanks for any leads. By the way, I think both O'Hara's and Blackburn's poetry is worth checking out. Paul Blackburn can be sampled a couple of ways, in a Selected Poems or in The Cities. He was an observer of cities and writes rambling poems about what he sees in 1960s and 1970s Manhattan. He has a whole series of quite interesting subway poems. I actually selected a few for an anthology of subway poems I was working on. I finished this and sent it around, got some interest from a small publisher, then finally decided that getting (and paying for) the permissions would sink the project. Eric

Or did Rollins decide he didn't like sharing the spotlight? I certainly like some of his later work (This is What I Do has some very fine moments, though it probably never made it to vinyl), but I really, really wish he would have occasionally hooked up with A-level players who should have helped kick his playing up a notch.

Johnny Hartman & the Andrew Hill Trio 1961 Live" (VGM 11) I think there is some disagreement whether this should be considered a boot. Hartman sings four very short songs, and Hill stretches out on two much longer numbers. Going to have to listen to this again soon.

You are right. Classic stuff that needs to stay in print. What I was actually thinking of was Eddy Louiss Bohemia After Dark which is part of Jazz in Paris set, disk 35. Kenny Clarke is again the drummer. However, this is not the Savoy material. It was recorded in 1972. I didn't remember that part.

Yes, absolutely.

Last photo for now.

Oops, I guess I'll post them separately. My fingers are in this photo where he was about a month old.

Thanks a lot, man. Yes, jazz lovers have beautiful children. I think Kendall is the perfect combination of our attributes. What I haven't said on this board yet is that I am in an inter-racial marriage, and, to this day, I can't figure out how Kendall ended up with my color rather than more of a blend. I'm not saying it matters, I am just curious about the genetics behind it. I was worried about how he was going to fit in as a biracial child, and now it is more that no one in the Black community is going to believe he is Black. A few more of the best photos (he rarely takes a bad photo). My fingers are in the first photo.

Here is a non-political picture of my son, Kendall. He is just five months old.

And why didn't they? More cowbell, baby!

How was Steve Martin in Novacaine? I caught about 5 minutes before I had to leave, and I'm wondering if it is worth renting. Bill Murray in Lost in Translation was great, though it did seem a bit like cheating, since he was sort of playing his off-screen self. Some people have suggested the movie plays a lot better on the big screen (where I saw it) than on tv. Any comments? I've yet to watch it all again on DVD.

Well, I wish I had rolled out of bed earlier. My polling place is in the lobby of my building (a really big apartment building). I got there at 8, and it took 45 minutes to get through. Normally it takes about 15 minutes, so unfortunately I didn't bring anything to read, but the people standing in line were pretty cool and we talked about work and other things. One student was prepping for the GRE and got some encouragement from us. This being Chicago, tempers were fairly cool, since everyone knew that 85-90% of the people in line were for Kerry and especially for Obama. Even the two Republicans behind us just made jokes about being the minority for once and that was it. The election judges were pretty surprised at the turnout, which was about 4-5 times higher than normal. (Actually, I do wonder where they come up with enough Republican election judges.) Chicago still uses punch cards which you punch out behind a rickety election lecturn. Then you run it through a scanner which checks for overvotes and undervotes, which does seem to cut down somewhat on mistakes. The main problem is trying to decide on judicial retention, when there are around 75 judges "running."

I took a gamble and grabbed the Jazz Studio and Jazz Lab CDs from Lonehill once Dusty Groove stocked them. I am favorably impressed. I particularly like the varied instrumentation on the Jazz Studio albums. It seems like there was quite a demand for jazz French horn players in the 1950s. Who knew? In addition to John Graas and Julius Watkins playing the field around this time, a third jazz French horn player shows up on Jazz Studio 4. But no cowbell!!

I think, but would have to double check, that this material was released as part of the Jazz in Paris box, but another a different musician's name. I know it's surfaced somewhere recently. But yes, a good date.

It does seem particularly sad after a lot of recent activity reissuing MPS albums and getting them into the US. I picked up Jazz Works (a sampler), Jazz Re-Works (the remix obviously), and a more serious issue Clarke/Boland Big Band All Smiles from Dusty Groove recently. All Smiles is over in the sexiest covers list, but more importantly it's a great line up. Johnny Griffin, Ronnie Scott and Tony Coe all on tenor! (though it is too bad that Griffin only solos on one track). I hope that they can continue to issue this kind of work.

I think I am largely in agreement with jazzshrink. Corporal punishment is generally not effective and there are better alternatives. That said, I do not like the trend I see, in Europe particularly, of criminalizing even minor instances of corporal punishment. Maybe I just feel the pendulum has swung too far towards permissiveness, and many of today's parents do not assert control and raise spoiled brats. While these are slightly separate issues, they both have a root a feeling/sense that parents don't have the right to assert authority (that's so patriarchal). Not all children can simply be reasoned with. I was a miserable failure as a teacher when I tried to be reasonable and fair to students. They interpreted that as weakness, and walked all over me. I would have been much better off as a tyrant -- though I would never have dreamed of touching any of them.