J Larsen

I follow you. Thanks.

Just to comment on the original post, I think it has been acknowledged for some time that coffee is really good for you in some ways and really bad in others. It is a great antioxidant, powerful antihistimine and has been shown to promote good prostate health in men. On the other hand, it is extremely corrosive to your stomach lining and esophogus; it is the first thing the doc tells you to cut out if you develop an ulcer. So like most things, it has its plusses and minuses.

I think your control variable would be the percentage of the time that a golfer gets on the green on the first stroke on a par 3 hole. Getting on the green in one stroke on a par three is skill, and the hole in one is something that happens every now and then as a consequence.

True story: the very first time I went golfing I came within about four inches of a hole-in-one on the second-to-last hole. (Of course, I think I also hit a few balls onto the wrong fairway.) I've only been about 5 times and don't plan on going again.

That's probably my favorite Ayler.

I had a coffee snob over today and got him hooked on Duy Dung. He couldn't believe it came out of such a cheap-looking box. I'm telling you, this stuff is the real deal.

In all seriousness, I find this very depressing on many levels, and the possibility of a honey free world doesn't rate very high on the list.

That's pretty much it. But remember - you can get the same note out of different fundamentals. Now you are talking about chords (ie from a physics persective, superpositions of standing waves), right?

should be. The music was hit and miss, but Ben Monder was un-effing-believable on guitar. Consider my mind blown.

Me too. Frisell's guitar tone is unreal. I may have to bite the sleep deprivation bullet and get tix for Thursday night - that makes six shows in one week for me.

Their rep tried to tell me that they don't price match on items that qualify for free shipping (which is a policy not stated on their website). Her supervisor sure sang a different tune when I asked to speak with him. I know it goes w/o saying, but these people are beyond shady. I feel a little dirty.

TV Partyt was a cool song, but it was also a sarcastic joke...

I'll be sure to be on the lookout for walk-in closets.

Got it. From a physics perspective, you blow into the horn the right way and generate a standing wave - that produces a note equal to the key of the trumpet. You have keys to fill out the next 6 half steps. To go seven half steps above hte fundamental, you blow in such a way as to create 1.5 wavelenghts of a standing wave. To hit the next harmonic, you blow (harder and with tighter lips?) to create to full wavelengths of a standing wave - this wave has half the wavelength and hence twice the frequency as your fundamental, so it is the first overtone/harmonic. Thanks.

There's supposed to be a big box set of the complete series coming out later this year, which will contain both seasons, the pilot, and presumably a bunch of extras. I believe the rights to the series have changed hands since the first season was released and subsequently went out of print, but rather than releasing a complete series box straight away, the new rightsholders instead decided to go with a separate second season release aimed at those who'd already purchased the first season set. I've heard that rumor, too. I already have it all and don't think I will be too tempted to re-buy everything if/when the complete set comes out. The only real upside would be a good transfer of the pilot (which was previously released on a sepearte DVD with very bad video and audio), but the pilot isn't one of the series highlights for me anyway. It will be a good deal for people who didn't buy season 1 in the first place, though.

Similar personal backgrounds can lead to very different reactions to exactly the same thing - that's what makes us human. Anyway, I'm half-regretting bringing this up, but it's kind of impossible for me to talk about my feelings about a lot of music in all but the shallowest sense if I don't address the place I'm approaching the music from. (Also, I was sort of under the impression that it wasn't that odd to associate the Beach Boys with middle class white suburbia, regardless of their actual backgrounds.)

Aha - it was the embrochure part that I was missing. That sounds really tricky! Just going by memory, it seems to me that Dizzy Gillespie covered more than one octave in a lot of his playing. Was he just getting his embrochure REALLY tight?

I have too - plenty of times.

My understanding is that one key on a trumpet raises the pitch by a half step, another by a whole step, and the third raises it by 3/2 steps. That gives a total of six half steps that can be played. But to fill out the chromatic scale, you need 12 half steps. What am I missing?

There seems to be an implication that anyone said otherwise, which is not true.

I'm with you on that, JL. I never watch TV. I have a few DVDs of mysteries like Peter Gunn, Mr. & Mrs. North and Dragnet. I spent an evening watching them not long ago. One day when the credit cards are paid off I'll get the Danger Mans. I'm jealous! If you watch Amazon, I think you'll find that the prices of the A&E DVDs are very volatile (at least that used to be the case). I remember taking advantage of a downward price swing and picking these both up for around $150.

Fred Frith is playing there seven times in May, if you're into him. I've seen him at The Stone a few times and he was consistently great. You ain't kiddin, I've heard him many times, but it's been a while. I'll worry about it when I get to May. I'd like to hear John Abercrombie at Birdland next week at least once or twice and/or Frisell's trio at the Vanguard. I'm trying to work out how to get to one of those Frisell gigs next week. It's tough with Brotzmann, the last Tonic show, Jandek and Roky Erikson all happening at the same time. I may try to make it on Thursday. I like his small group work, but I'm not at all a fan of the larger groups with strings, such as the one playing the following week.

Well, if you're not convinced by the stuff with John Cale, you're unlikely to be won over by the records that came after him. I don't think I've fully worked out how I feel about VU. I do like the first two records, but "how much" has varied a lot at different points in my life. Regardless of that, it is hard not to respect their influence.

Twin Peaks Season 2 arrived this week. With the exception of the log lady intros, the sound and video quality is very good. The set is light on the special features, but it was quality transfers of the episodes I was after, anyway.

This is sort of an interesting explanation of the catgut manufacturing process. Oops - forgot the link: http://www.labella.com/company/catgut.asp