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I saw her follow-up explanation on a morning show on NBC, and it was more of the same. It was her dad's idea, she was sick, she's never sang to a backing track before, it was still the drummer's fault. I find her inability to just shut up and accept some deserved criticism is what is so upsetting. It's hard to hold her personally responsible for a culture that celebrates talentless young women (and her benefitting from it by going on SNL), but she certainly is a symbol of what is wrong with the music/entertainment industry. So of course I am glad that she was shown to be a hack. It's one of those few moments when the curtain slips. It didn't take long for celebrities like Carson Daly to start circling the wagons around her, but it doesn't change the fact that we know she's a hack.

Definitely amazing, and not what I expected at all. One of the SI writers echoed a comment above, about how hard the Sox batters make pitchers work. Most of the Cards pitchers averaged over 18 pitches an inning. Most of today's batters swing for the fence on all kinds of terrible pitches.

I have to admit that the first time through, Black Water didn't grab me that much. I'm sure that is mostly because I have the volume fairly low. I did get Panoptic Modes and like that a lot. Best of all, I must have gotten a copy that was originally for a radio station. They suggest some cuts to play (9, 6 and 2), and then helpfully provided a pronunciation guide -- VID-jay EYE-yur.

I also recently purchased Easterly Winds, along with Now and Dance with Death. I certainly like the Wilson date, but I have to listen to it again. My comment has more to do with the first photo in the liner notes. Bob Cranshaw and Billy Higgins look completely stoned off their gourds. And perhaps that was the case, but perhaps a little cropping would have been in order.

Ok, I'll bite on the Tolliver. PM on its way.

Well, I didn't like the Gangsta name, but the pirate name was ok: Crafty Wallace Bellamy. Running that through the Gangsta generator, I got: No-pants Shrinky Nutz which I suppose is appropriate, it being late fall in Chicago and all.

Recovering data is another issue. If it is truly a mechanical failure with the hard drive, it is possible that nothing can be recovered. This happened to me only two months ago. The technician couldn't even get the hard drive to access the data; it was complete scrap. If it is more of a formatting problem (a crucial read sector got wiped for example), then you might get some or all of your data back.

You wouldn't believe some of the crap I save. I have some stuff from when I was a math teacher 10 years ago! I keep thinking that I will use it as background for the novel I want to write (don't laugh). I actually have started this novel, and if I quit my job next month as planed, I will work on that at least. (No, I am not so deluded to think I can live off an advance. I just need some time away from the many idiots I deal with. Yeah, you got me Catesta.) But I do get around to using a lot of what I have saved, including the 3000 or so non-fiction books I own. Still, if I only knew now what I would use in the future, I might actually get somewhere.

I work in transportation planning, and we deal with lots of different computer programs. I'll walk someone through the steps once, wait for them to forget and come back. If they can't get it after the second time around, I think they probably need to be in a different line of business. That doesn't mean I won't try to solve their problem, but I just don't think well of them after that, and that probably shines through. I am difficult to live with, and I am amazed that my wife sticks with me. Whenever I think about that, I bring her home flowers. (At least, I've never needed to bring her home flowers, let alone jewelry, for bad behavior.)

I do have a temper. I hate to lose. I hate it when my causes lose out. I don't have much patience. I am willing to explain techniques and protocols to people twice. After that if they still don't get it, I write them off as idiots. I carry grudges too far. I can't keep my office straightened up. I have thousands of pages of reports I won't read, but I can't throw them out.

I see that Ebay has a copy of Black Christ for a very low starting bid (not my auction). It does have surface scratches, but this could be a low-cost way to investigate the music. I ordered a different copy through half.com, since I don't have as much patience for Ebay these days. Anyway, I am looking forward to hearing it.

Only one major trauma. Was running around in a mall and ran smack into a marble pillar for a bank. Split my forehead open. Still a small scar.

Here are the details: Wednesday 27 Don Byron's Ivey-Divey Trio with Jason Moran and Billy Hart 8:00pm $20 in Advance, $20 at the door, (21 & Over) It is a great place to see music. I certainly hope to make it to this show, but sometimes stuff happens. It is usually not necessary to book ahead, though the tribute to Malachi Favors was packed. Anyway, while browsing the site, I saw this FAQ, which might be of interest. How does my band get booked at HotHouse? If you are interested in booking your band at HotHouse, please send a promotional package with contact information, music sample, biography, press reviews and photographs to: HotHouse Tim Bisig 31 East Balbo Chicago, IL 60605

I didn't want to jinx it until the box arrived, but UPS said today, and it did show up today (15 minutes ago)! It is quite an astonishing box, especially all the detail that went into the supplementary material. Of course it isn't more important than the music, but it is still fun. I decided to start with the core of the box -- discs 6 and 7. Then I can return to the CDs in order. This could be the last major CD purchase for a while, since I am very seriously considering leaving my job, though my goal is to move down the street to a rival company. If that happens, there won't be a major disruption in cash flow. I might leave even without a job waiting. Regardless of the future state of my bank account, I'm glad I picked up Holy Ghost. It's a good set to dwell on, and I probably will appreciate it more if I don't buy a lot of music in the meantime (though I will have to get Hill's Dance with Death, since I only ever had a burn of that).

Well, I just moved, so my music collection is in total shambles, but I am trying something new. My box sets were on the bottom shelf of a bookcase and not that convenient. In the new place, I opened up the study by taking the door off the closet, and I am going to put the box sets up on the closet shelf. Now the box sets will be roughly eye level and a bit easier to access, so I do suspect I will play them more.

I know we really appreciate the effort you are putting in here. I'll definitely take a look as well. Have you ever considered buying scanning software with OCR? When I really get cooking, I can usually scan a page a minute, which is faster than I could type. The programs vary in quality (mostly in terms of error checking), but I have OmniPage Pro9 and for most applications it works great. Now it won't work well on the busy magazine pages where there are graphics floating under the text or different color text, but for basic black or dark blue text on white or neutral background it works great. Most scanners are around $100 now, and most would come with basic OCR software.

New might be a problem, but there should be a number of used copies floating about. These are from amazon.fr: Amazon.fr search

Definitely not a fan of BP. They are coming to town (Chicago), and I might even have a ticket as part of a subscription series but I wouldn't go. I was very underwhelmed by the first album, and in fact I actively disliked it, thinking I would never bother to listen a third time (trying to give it one more chance). Then I really got turned off by the massive hype.

Oh no, not another CD to add to my get list... But I have also been following Vijay Iyer. I've got Memorophilia, Blood Sutra and In What Language? Language is kind of a concept album about airports. Blood Sutra is the better album in terms of musicianship. Anyway, this is off topic, sorry...

Sorry - let me repost from New albums. One of these days, I am going to work on an article on "last works," i.e the last thing an artist accomplished before death. I think there would be two general categories -- one where the artist was pretty sure this would be their final work (either due to old age or extreme sickness) or where death was sudden and more unexpected. The article will probably focus on fiction and painting/sculpture, so I thought I might throw open the topic for music here. The kinds of issues that interest me are the commonalities, especially in the first category. Are there a lot of songs that seem to sum up life? Are the songs angry or resigned? Were the albums completely finished, or did someone finish them up? Not really trying to be morbid, but just thinking about the last creative acts of artists. The three recent CDs that come to mind where the artists probably knew it was their last work: Ray Charles, George Harrison and Warren Zevon. I think we have heard plenty of testimony that with the Zevon album in particular, working on that actually provided Zevon with a purpose and he seems to have lived on longer than expected. I am much less familiar with how this plays in jazz. Perhaps more frequently death was unanticipated (Dolphy, Booker Little, Lee Morgan, Clifford Brown, etc.). Perhaps Dexter Gordon's work in and for Round Midnight comes close to fitting the bill. And His Mother Called Him Bill is something quite different -- a magnificent tribute but not directly created by the artist himself. Anyway, just thought I would throw it out there.

One question would be that there does appear to be a huge push behind this album. Would the marketing have been about the same or slightly less if this hadn't been Charles' last album. Perhaps you could ask if there were any duets that didn't work out for whatever reason (scheduling conflict or creative differences). As a side note, this doesn't seem to be a bad album to go out on, compared with Sinatra's stunningly bad Duets and Duets II.

I've seen some Gumby but not a complete edition. BTW, I believe Rocky and Bullwinkle season 2 just hits stores. I saw it in Target yesterday, though I might have been hallucinating from jetlag.

Another shout out to the Critic. I was able to rent the whole series on Netflix. I had forgotten that Marty's son went to the UN High School. There are some classic laughs related to this, including the son falling in love with Castro's grand-daughter.

It looks like this album is getting massive exposure. There's some licensing deal, so it will be playing in Starbucks all over the country. I still haven't heard the whole thing, but I did hear three or four tracks while listening to the jazz station in the airplane. For once, the pilot did not have "sounds from the cockpit on" instead of the jazz channel. Has anyone else noticed this? I am wondering if it is one of the few benefits stemming from the general paranoia these days, i.e. we can't eavesdrop on the pilots anymore so we get the jazz channel back. Of what I heard, the Bonnie Raitt duet was the best. You did notice that Ray's voice was pretty weak on the Elton John duet, but what bothered me was that it was overproduced with strings slapped on (possibly as a way of compensation). It kind of reminded me of the extensive postproduction work done on George Harrison's last record. Anyway, I am more interested in buying the record now, but I'll still probably wait a few more months.

PM on Sclavis