jazzbo

Many many happy happy returns!

Shawn has offered excellent advice. .. I'd try that ASAP.

I took an 8 day 3500 mile trip two weeks ago, got back nine days ago. Went to Ohio from here (take a pretty direct route though I did decide to go off my northern path and just drive east across Kentucky from Nashville, and anyone who has ever done so on a bike knows why I did). Stayed with my parents in Bay Village a few days and visited with my brothers and their families. Then I went to Arlington, Virginia to visit with my late wife's parents an afternoon, and then down to Richmond to spend the night with my sister and her family. From there I went home. LOVED every day of it. The bike was like a hot rod for six days on the highways. Yeah, maybe there's a more comfortable bike for this trip, but my Fat Bob handled like a dream (even in the frequent rain, wow I've never had a bike that handled in the rain like this one), pulling up the mountains with ease, gliding down the mountains as if it had wings. I mostly encountered other Harleys on the road, dreseers. There were a lot of Japanese V-Twins too. Any biker that talked to me was astonished that I was making this trip without a windshield or fairing. I just have never had one, and it feels like wimping out to consider one. Anyway, I was not unhappy, spent at least two days with 12 hours or more in the saddle. The Corbin seat really proved itself to be excellent, comfortable and placing me in just the right position for twisting along the highways. I confess I went too fast. It just felt so good. The last day was the only day it did not rain on me two or more times, and it didn't rain at all. So I drove 830 miles from this side of Nashville to here. Awesome, hot and clear and not a lot of traffic. Almost seems as if I had taken a trip in a time machine, as I've made a trip to Ohio and back on two wheels six times in my first decade in Texas, and during most of that decade I lived without central air and heat. Well, the day after I returned my AC went out, first it destroyed the breaker in the panel, and when that was repaired the compressor proved to be shot. So I've spent a week without AC. . . not my favorite week of the year! Anyway, this trip proved to me that the Fat Bob was everything that I wanted it to be. I NEVER had a better vehicle for these trips, and I really don't lust for any other bike. Fat Bob has 12,000 miles on now, and not one problem. None. A lot of things people believe about Harleys just aren't true any longer.

Damn, I'm going to have to learn how not to look at beautiful women when I'm driving. As for the question at hand. . . format doesn't matter to me, I've dedicated myself to cds BECAUSE of the insane availability of titles over hte last two decades and more. I have way too many recordings and won't apologize for it. It makes me happy, I learn a lot and enjoy. It is what it is. As for bragging rights? I don't brag about my collection. I don't apologize for it. A handful of people KNOW about it really, have seen it in person. I'm not sure exactly how they look at me because of it. I think they'd probably tell YOU I'm a little crazy. Me, they might say "Cool!"

"Damnation" is a beautiful album, I really love it. Shawn got me started on Opeth with a viewing of "Lamentations" DVD and I went on to first assimilate "Damnation" and "Deliverance" and then collected the other albums. I still am learning this music, and each play is a discovery. I'm still "learning" the earliest and the latest albums; I know the middle albums best. I think they're amazing. I love the interplay between clean and dirty, light and dark, soft and smashing. A band to study and enjoy for years.

This and its sequel are pretty intersting:

I agree, if you're actively seeking to buy music and buy and sell to add and enrich your holdings, you're a collector. If you're a completist. . . you're a collector who's a completist! Hi, my name is Lon Armstrong, and I collect music.

Been on a Jerry Garcia kick this week. The 28 minute long "Don't Let Go" on disc 2 of "Pure Jerry: Theatre 1839 - July 29-30, 1977"just knocked me out this week. It's just a great jam that builds and has some spontaneously invented instrumental passages that make me want to go out and play in a rock and roll band. This particular Jerry Garcia band with Keith Godchaux, John Kahn and Ron Tutt was a tight and "listening" quartet. Even Donna Godchaux sings better on these nights, I'm sure she can hear herself in a way she can't with the Dead. Fun stuff, grooving easily along.

I've come to love some of the country stuff, and some of the country treatments of songs that are sometimes flat out rockin' tunes later. I guess I've come to love how they touch parts of almost all American music, and their addressing these different styles enriches all they do. What a band they are. Today I'll probably get the new Road Trips delivered.

I agree, those early McMasters are not as bad as some people say they are. Yeah. But I personally prefer RVGs to most 20 and 24 bit McMasters. Those just are thin and brittle sounding to me. Anyway, teh glory days of lots of these titles "in print" seem to have ended. Sigh.

Many many happy happy returns Scott!

Many many happy happy returns!

Many many happy happy returns!

Well. . . what did you expect?

I really like all the Steve Wilson produced Opeth. . . I'd recommend starting with the DVD "Lamentations" which was my intro to the band. SEEING them really helped. This is material from the Wilson albums. KILLER. Also a long documentary featurette of the band and Wilson in the studio. "Damnation" is probably my favorite album of Opeth's, but I'm liking all of them more and more.

Guy. . . . I still see the familiar pensive John with Miles in the background. . ..

Plenty of music in that session, 'tain't just banging. Nor is it hard bop or limp bop or any bop.

From the way the description is worded I'd wager this is a Jazz Beat or Jazz Track cd.

x2 Opeth is an astonishingly good band.

I had started this and then set it aside as it seemed to heavy in several senses to take with me on my 3500 cycle trip. . . . I have resumed readking this and must say tis pretty fascinating and well done. Temple is a really good historian, this is no "Chariots of the Gods" stuff. . . .

Those are all good selections. I have all but the Cole, which I have in another form.

I feel that way as well.

I was just informed that I have a ticket to this concert coming to me as an early Christmas present!

? Sorry -- I was thinking of the modal-ness of the title track on "Milestones," Definitely that composition evokes So What. Also, the most Ellingtonian-Clark Terrian Miles composition and arrangement perhaps. . . .