Matthew

For some reason, I've have this desire to read a lot of Faulkner, so I'm starting with The Sound and the Fury. The April Seventh, 1928 chapter is amazing.

Chocolate milk, and it's very good.

Bobby Cox is still alive!!!??? Who knew?

Gosh, I really hate the uniforms the Red Sox are wearing tonight! Second game in a row, I thought they were dead yesterday going into the ninth.

You know, I hate to even mention this out loud, but the Mariner ownership digs Japanese players, and has some pitchers/players it's willing to give up, so maybe....

Yeah, he's getting ripped pretty good, Braves just scored run #5. Matzu is just weak right now.

With all the talk of the upcoming Artie Shaw Mosaic, I broke out the Artie Shaw: Begin the Beguine box set; listening to cd five, Alone Together. This is a very good box set for Shaw, ten cds at a cheap price and the sound is very good (most of the time), and I happen to like to vocals also! (hear that Mosaic?)

For an introduction, I would suggest you buy the ten cd collection Artie Shaw: Begin The Beguine, it's way cheaper than the Mosaic, probably contains a lot of what's on the Mosaic also -- though a word of warning: I find the first cd unlistenable due to sound issues, but the others sound good. Then, if you like what you hear, go for the Mosaic. Which is a long way of saying: I would buy the Lester Young first.

The Complete CBS Recordings of Eddie Condon and His All Stars. I haven't listened to this in a long time, so I forgot how much I enjoyed it. Mighty fine stuff.

Watched the Cub game this afternoon, a very nice come from behind win after being down 5-1 going into the ninth. Chuck must be a happy camper tonight.

Finished the last of Thomas Merton's Journals. Have very mixed emotions about Merton's life after reading all seven volumes, they do not paint Merton is the best of lights, and in fact, showed Merton's failure as a religious. It is very obvious by the journals that Merton was a conflicted person; striving to find God, live as a hermit, but his emotional make-up did not allow him to do that. One of the tragedies of the whole thing is Merton's inability to pull his life together, in fact, in volume five you witness his disintegration over his falling in love with a student nurse -- he was in very bad shape during that time. By the time he gets to his trip to the Far East, even he knows that his time is up at the monastery in Kentucky, and he will wind up somewhere else. Even so, he dies on that trip, and the casket is flown to his monastery, where he is buried. A very difficult life to understand, where he kept on proclaiming how he wanted to be left alone, and yet, he was unable to accomplish what he wanted his life to be. Truthfully, his last couple of years were a mess. Closed the last journal with a tremendous sense of sadness...

Nothing. Some of their other sets (the Beiderbecke/Trumbauer/Teagarden set, for instance) have lots of vocals. Why don't you ask them why they're leaving out the vocals on this one? The reasoning on the Goodman set was that almost all of the vocal material had been issued separately by Collectors' Choice or other labels. I haven't really checked on how much of the Helen Forrest etc. from Shaw's band is available elsewhere...but I'm guessing that including the vocals would make either the Shaw or Goodman boxes 12-13 CDs, which might be a bit unwieldy for cost/price/economic purposes in the present climate. In a way, I can understand leaving the vocals out, but still, I think doing so creates a distorted picture of the Shaw band, and the era. iIwould say that the vocals tracks are essential to a valid understanding of any of the big bands, and to leave them out goes against the very reason Mosaic was created, as quoted from their website: We want Mosaic Records Box Sets to be as important, and as complete as we can make them. Our sets include every significant track that falls within the scope of a given project, presented in an organized, chronological manner. We go into the vaults of as many record labels as necessary to examine all the original session tapes. In addition to all previously issued material, Mosaic box sets are usually rich with unreleased tracks and valid alternate takes. It's no accident we're considered the label for fans and collectors "who want it all". It's nice that this set is being created, but I feel that this continuing trend, in terms of traditional big bands, weakens the historical and artistic viability of what Mosaic is doing. I don't want to go on rant, but still, I think Mosaic can do better. Still, in these financial times, this is way better than nothing.

From Ghost's article on the Night Lights site (see his first post): "The Shaw should be a fascinating set–covering the late-1930s "Begin the Beguine" period, the early-1940s big-band-with-strings (including sides such as "Evensong" and "Suite #8″ that seem to anticipate the Third Stream) and the clarinetist's exciting, underrated 1944-45 orchestra." The Shaw big band I'm thinking of is the 1936-1937 version, the one he formed after the all-star big band concert at the Imperial Theatre in May 1936. I have a crummy comp of that band, I guess it would be his "anticipating-the-anticipating-the-thrid-stream-band of 1944-45," and I'd like to hear everything by the 36-37 band. That's the Decca material and won't be included. For that I'd advise seeking out the Hep CDs IN THE BEGINNING and THE CHANT. Curses, foiled again! Thanks for the reply Ghosty.

From Ghost's article on the Night Lights site (see his first post): "The Shaw should be a fascinating set–covering the late-1930s "Begin the Beguine" period, the early-1940s big-band-with-strings (including sides such as "Evensong" and "Suite #8″ that seem to anticipate the Third Stream) and the clarinetist's exciting, underrated 1944-45 orchestra." The Shaw big band I'm thinking of is the 1936-1937 version, the one he formed after the all-star big band concert at the Imperial Theatre in May 1936. I have a crummy comp of that band, I guess it would be his "anticipating-the-anticipating-the-thrid-stream-band of 1944-45," and I'd like to hear everything by the 36-37 band.

I'm trying to think of this in a positive light, You know, the glass half full, but it would have been nice to get everything that Shaw did, remastered, great booklet, etc. I would pay whatever they wanted for that. Still, the instrumentals are gorgeous, and I hope the sound will be as good as the lp series, The Complete Artie Shaw, that Blue Bird put out. I assume (I'm on the road, so I can't look this up) that Shaw's first big band will be included, the one with the strings?

I must be out in left field on this one, but it's not high on my list of Bill Evans favs. It feels too rushed to me, maybe too many ideas but not enough execution (plus, I skip Nardis most of the time ). That's not to say it's not at a high level musically, but it just doesn't hit me, and I find that I rarely listen to this, my least favorite Evans box set.

My all-time favorite Dan Blast! Short, but full of the f-bombs! We dig ya Dan...

Maybe it's a sign that I'm just getting old, but when I watch something like this, or read a book pre-1960, it just seems as if large chunks of American culture have disappeared.

Speaking of Steinbeck: I'm reading In Dubious Battle. They really, really, really, don't write books like this anymore -- which is a great loss for America. You've got me interested in that one Matthew. The book could only have been written in the 1930s, and you don't see books like this now, where the story: 1. Is about someone joining the communist party, and that's seen as a good thing. 2. The book in utterly sincere about the poor and labor. 3. No "winking" at the reader. 4. Historical forces are more important than the characters. In some ways, it's a more amazing book that The Grapes of Wrath.

Well, she does "like to exercise on the couch!"

Speaking of Steinbeck: I'm reading In Dubious Battle. They really, really, really, don't write books like this anymore -- which is a great loss for America.

Great first quarter: 15 to 15. that's about as bad as it gets.

The Los Angeles Version

I forgot to add this snarky comment: I haven't watched the Red Sox a lot this year, I follow a much more interesting team -- the Seattle Mariners.

If you watch them at all, they do that a lot. He just left three seconds early. And this fucking game is infuriating me - Matzuzaka can never pitch for this squad again and I'll be much happier/three outs made at second base/the bases loaded and one out and nobody scores all adding up to a fucking lost series to the utterly unimpressive Rangers (I'm trying to be nice here, Al) at home (where the fucking Rangers haven't won in twelve years or something. What made the attempted steal sick to my mind is that even if Ortiz stole it, a single still would not drive him in...