RainyDay

A friend at brunch summed it up for me: Martha Stewart was demonized in the media for whatever she did or didn't do. She seemed to be on trial as much for what she was accused of as well as who she is--meaning successful business woman (read ball busting bitch) based on an industry a lot of people like to sneer at. Men don't get closely scrutinized about the clothes they wear to trial or the value of their briefcase. A lot of the coverage of Stewart was pure bullshit. When some of the charges were dropped, it was "Well, she still did it anyway but they couldn't prove it because those charges are hard to prove." Meaning, if you are charged with a crime, you are guilty of it whether you did it or not. Martha Stewart was guilty in the court of public opinion. Man, in this backward country it is still a crime to be a woman who doesn't take crap from anyone, for not being humble enough, and for not staying in your place. Why should she be contrite? She's going to prison. I don't remember John Gotti being contrite and he's a bloody folk hero in this country. And Gotti is responsible for the deaths of a few people. Whatver.

This is my first CD by Krall. I've enjoyed her work for the most part but not enough to buy anything. Also, she gets enough airtime on the radio that I can hear her frequently. Last year, Krall did two sets of gigs at Yoshi's. She was trying out the material that would end up on Girl in the Other Room and wanted to give it the acid test in front of an audience. I'd seen her once before when I went to see Tony Bennett a few years ago. It was an outdoor concert, intimate enough, but the wind and picnickers were a distraction. I wanted to see her in a small venue so I went to see her both times at Yoshi’s. The first set of gigs was in May and she appeared with Christian McBride among others. They were new to the material and to each other. It was interesting because there were a few gaffes and lots of giggling when they made mistakes. The second set of gigs was in June and she appeared with her regular band. The music was tighter and there was that smoothness that comes from familiarity among musicians that know each other’s playing style well. I dug her to death and honestly hadn’t expected to. I’ve always enjoyed her singing. She doesn’t have much range but she can do a lot with what she has and interprets a song beautifully. She isn’t Dee Dee Bridgewater whose chops can blow most right off the stage. But Krall is really very good. Anyway, I loved the new material she played on both nights I saw her and figured I would purchase the record when it came out. So today, the Wherehouse actually had a record that I wanted AND it was on sale. So I’m playing Girl in the Other Room and enjoying it very much, thank you. It has more pop orientation than her other work but the jazz influence is still right there. I think the reason I like Krall is that I believe her. The experience she sings about rings true to me. The pain sounds real, whether it is or not. But I believe her. The songs she chose are really beautiful and the original material works for me also. “Black Crow” by Joni Mitchell just makes your heart ache. “Almost Blue” by Elvis Costello is simply lovely. I don’t expect to get much, if any, response to this thread. Not sure where I could post this and get some positive response. I feel lucky that I got to see her perform this material live. The recording is wonderful.

Yes there is. No one gives a damn.

He isn't going to press charges unless Crouch threatens him again? Obviously there's a story here. Somebody walks up and "smacks" me in the face in public is going to jail. What's a "smack"? Did Crouch hit him or plant a big wet juicy one on the guy?

As much as I want to say Kind of Blue, I have to say one of Freddie Hubbard's CTI recordings. Red Clay is wonderful because Joe Henderson, Herbie, and Ron Carter were with him on that record. But First Light is one of my favorite Freddie songs. Don't know why, I just love that song. Would have liked to have seen those guys working together on Red Clay but I would have loved to have watched Freddie record First Light. Just talking about it makes me have to play it. And I will play the thing at least three times. Sigh. Now this is heaven.

Must not have hit him hard. I don't see any bruises. Any reason why no one besides this guy's roommate is reporting this?

Well, I've heard and read a lot about this case and apparently a lot of folks who know this stuff a lot better than I do believe she got screwed. If anyone really thought she got away with insider trading because of lack of evidence, it's hard to believe that she would have only gotten five months in prison. I know how the criminal justice works. It's not about justice, it's about winning.

The insider trading charges were dropped. If she had been convicted of insider trading, she would have received more than five months, and she would have deserved it.

Martha got a royal screwing. And I'm not one of her fans either. She is serving time for lying about a crime she didn't commit. Disgusting. Who was the woman who served time for not lying to Ken Starr about Whitewater? This sounds more like the Soviet Union than the US.

Prawns with glazed walnuts. Yum. The wedding was lovely. The mayor married them. Third time for her, at least second for him. I think this one's a keeper.

I don't know what I'm having today. I'm going to a wedding at City Hall at noon and I'll probably pick up something on my way back to work. Prawns with glazed walnuts?

A typewriter sandwich?

Did she and what's his face do an Old Navy ad a couple years ago? A pistol to the end. RIP.

That's pretty good.

Every year Cost Plus puts out Xmas stuff earlier each year. This year, I saw a shelf filled with stuff left over from last year's holiday season over the July 4 weekend. It wasn't the overtly Xmasy stuff, just mostly red and green colored stuff that had that Xmas "look." In past years, Cost Plus put out their sale stuff over Labor Day weekend. Last year, it came out the week before Labor Day. As soon as Cost Plus puts out their sale Xmas stuff, I know the race to the holidays is on. So, HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON TO ALL!!

Jon Carroll in the SF Chronicle does annual Mondegreens column about the mishearing of song lyrics. Funny stuff. But reading something wrong is something else again. I've been doing it since I was young. I am nearsighted-blind-as-a-bat, maybe that has something to do with it. But I see fine with corrective lenses, according to my eye doctor. I know that I can't hear well without my glasses either. If someone starts to talk to me and I'm not wearing contacts or glasses, I have to grab my glasses to "see" what they are saying.

And I'm not joking...I'll read AP on line only to find out the the story is nothing like the headline I thought I saw. Oooops, sorry. Didn't mean to make fun. But you should know that headlines are often unrelated to the story. Some adult writes the story and some kid with a sick sense of humor writes the headlines.

Well, B3-er, you can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, well, you might find, you get what you need. And don't scare us again. Jeez, Louise.

Someone started a thread that said something about President Bush playing into Osama Bin Laden's hands and I thought it read [see thread title]. Just now I saw a headline on my homepage that read "Some in Illinois Want Ditka for Senate" and of course I read "Ditka" as the inappropriate label (for straights, anyway) for lesbians. Does this sort of thing happen to others? It happens to me all the time. I'll be on the train in the morning and misread a headline and fall over laughing when I realize the mistake. Is this dyslexia or evidence of someone who needs to slow down and pay better attention?

In recent years, it's been used here to announce severe weather information. Yeah, I know. How severe can the weather get here? Believe it or not, a few years ago, there was a brief tornado watch in Eastern Contra Costa County, which is a few miles from Oakland. But mostly the warnings are about heavy rain and flooding in the nine-country area during the rainy season.

Egg and milk, then roll or shake in flour. My cousin fries it with whole garlic cloves in the oil. Make sure the oil is hot or you'll have a soggy greasy mess.

(...glad you are back)

RDK: I may be the only person who owns a television that doesn't have a DVD player. I bet there are people without teevees that have DVD players. One day when it's slow around here, I'll tell my long boring story about how I came to own a CD player. It starts with the Tower of Power's "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride".

It just took a while to post something on another thread. Guess I'll get to catch another movie. B)