Uncle Skid

Wow! Sorry I'm late to the t-shirt party -- looks like some great ideas are floating around. I really like couw's first design. Very clean and eye-catching. But, I agree with Rainy and Bill. JAZZ needs to be on there somewhere. How about something real simple, like just adding "Jazz Forum" to the center of the circle? Just a thought...

Maybe you should put on The Wizard of Oz while listening to Dark Side? I heard that's supposed to be cool -- but I never understood that one. I always liked Animals and Wish You Were Here more than Dark Side, but all of them are interesting. My buddy Upright Bill loaned me a copy of Cedar Walton/Hank Mobley Quintet "Breakthrough!", which I'm hearing for the first time today. I'm a big Cedar Walton fan, and it's interesting to hear him playing electric on a few tracks. The electric piano seems to "date" this music to the early seventies (to my ears, anyway), and it reminds me vaguely of some tracks on Marsh's "All Music". But, like the Marsh CD, I'm really enjoying it. Great stuff!

Wow, talk about putting things in perspective!! Nice post!

The Complete Mercury Recordings of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart, 1974-1997.

Yeah, I didn't either. He's also on Sweet's 100% Fun, which is sounding really good now. Pop music with a punk edge -- Sweet is a good songwriter, and the guitar work on both albums keeps things interesting. Lloyd Cole and Richard Lloyd also play on Girlfriend; Quine is on 10 out of the 15 tracks.

ghost -- if I remember correctly, all of the concerts in the evening (at the university) are free. Bill, please correct me if I'm wrong about that. This year (during the week we are there, July 4-9), David Liebman is playing. I believe there are concerts every night (sunday-thursday) during both weeks. The wednesday night concert is sponsored by the Louisville Jazz Society at Mattson's restaurant (nice atmosphere, but truly awful food), and they charge a nominal fee for non-workshop students. Let us know if you can make it to any of these!

Just finished listening to Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend. I had forgotten what a great disc this was, and how much I loved Robert's guitar playing on it.

Lots of good advice here, from everyone. I've been self-employed for over 10 years now, and in my experience, conn is absolutely right – if at all possible, aim to become self-insured. If you decide to investigate that option, check in to something called an HSA (Health Savings Account). It used to be called an MSA (Medical Savings Account), but the rules have changed recently, for the better. Essentially, it allows you to contribute pre-tax money, up to 100% of your annual deductible, in to an account that you can draw from as needed. Any contributions you make carry over every year, so there's no "use it or lose it" issues as with some employers medical savings plans. My coverage has a $3,500 deductible (this year), and I'm planning on putting as much money as possible into the HSA, and then raising the deductible next year. Once I have around 2X the deductible, I'll probably slow down or stop contributing. The beauty of this plan: my previous coverage premiums were rapidly approaching $900 per month. The high-deductible coverage is less than $250 a month, and the (optional) HSA contribution is about $290 a month. The downside is that we pay for essentially everything until we hit that deductible, which of course I hope never happens. Another thing to be aware of -- my family and I had to go through a pretty thorough application process to get this coverage. I have to assume (as conn pointed out) that insurance companies do a fair amount of "cherry-picking", and they probably make it extremely difficult and expensive for anyone with pre-existing health problems to get coverage. Dmitry’s advice regarding disability insurance is also worth considering. Policies become much more affordable as you increase the “elimination period”.

Good Luck, AB! I always enjoyed your posts, and hope you can find time to occasionally drop by! This place just won't be the same without all those cats popping up everywhere. Every time my son sees me on this board, he asks if the "cat guy" has a new avatar. -- Mark

Happy Birthday, Ray!

no problem, trane_fanatic. It seems like there's been a lot of activity on the board lately -- and that one just recently fell off page one. btw, welcome to the board!

When Snoop's done playing Sam Rivers, maybe he'll do Hank Crawford next?

Fo shizzle: Snoop Dogg as Miles

Thanks, Sundog. It's kind of funny - I had just put down the guitar after working on Galbraith's arrangement of "Darn that Dream" when I first saw this thread. The site says that "these arrangements have been unavailable at any price", but this book has many of the same solos. I took a quick look at "Darn that Dream", and it looks very similar to the one in the book. But, there are a whole bunch of other songs on that site that aren't in the book. Thanks! I love Galbraith's books -- Volumes 1 and 2 of this series has helped me tremendously.

Has anyone tried this type of CD Sleeve? Not a 3-ring binder deal, and the inserts and tray cards remain with the discs. Looks like a good way to save some space, but it seems like it might make things harder to find.

I have just one question for you -- What jazz CDs did you get at Best Buy???

Uhhh... the J.J. Johnson box? Maybe? Man, I sure hope not!! Maybe the Mobley set is next?

MD202 #1891 just arrived. "A strange mixture of happiness, pride and guilt" describes it perfectly. On second thought, my strange mixture also includes regret -- I didn't order MD205. Probably not a bad thing, as I was meeting with a HVAC salesman when it arrived. I could buy a whole bunch of Mosaics for the cost of a new furnace and air conditioner.

That's a cool site... It's nice to see (for the first time on some) the covers of OOP Mosiacs. But what's up with the Tina Brooks cover? It looks like he has some sort of devil tail or something!

This is just stupid. As b3-er and others have pointed out before, if you can hear it, it can be copied. Many mp3 players now have line-in jacks that can directly encode any audio signal to MP3. These schemes don't stop the pirates, and it irritates legitimate consumers.

It REALLY sucks. I'm actually pissed off that I bought it! (Feel better?) Yes, because now I know you'll sell it to me, CHEAP!!!

If I had to pick only ONE out of print Mosaic that I wish I could get easily, that one would be it. Now listening to Blue Mitchell, Disc 3.

Dang it, guys, cut it out!!! It's OK to keep singing the praises of the Morgan/Shorter, but I'd really like to hear how AWFUL the Kelly/Chambers set is, and how disappointed you were with that set! (guess which one I DIDN'T order!)

Mine has its origins in a tale of two brothers-in-law. A few years ago, one of them discovered Photoshop, and all the wonderful things that you can do with that software. Well, this was one of his first efforts: Needless to say, I have been “Skid Mark” ever since. I guess that's better than being Vanilla Ice or something like that? (maybe not!!) Another brother-in-law (who also now has a new “rapper” identity, and his face immortalized on a slightly modified cover of Vibe magazine) rechristened me “Uncle Skid” when his twin daughters were born two years ago. Yes, Virginia, there is a real Uncle Skid. "Ya better check yourself, 'cause Skid Mark's in da house!" -- Mark