papsrus

A fella on our local radio station today commented that King was probably one of the top five people who had the greatest impact on what the United States has become today. Hard to disagree with that. The others mentioned, of course, were Lincoln and Washington (that's as far as he got). I'd venture FDR might warrant inclusion in that group. But I'd also include someone like Henry Ford, or Edison maybe. King's speech remains one of the most stirring calls for social justice in American history, IMO.

KC just swept Detroit

Yeah, think it might have been the ESPN dudes. Maybe radio. Can't be sure, honestly. Last few days (weeks) have been a bit of a whirlwind. The general point was that he's getting older and not adjusting. And his continuing injuries might bear this out. Doesn't seem like too crazy of an idea. ... Was it a fastball that he injured himself on?

Re Pedro: Someone was talking about how Pedro still thinks he can pitch like he did 3-4-5 years ago, and so he refuses to adjust his pitching style (ie: learn some junk pitches). In addition, he generally doesn't take conditioning that seriously, apparently. His injury(ies) may be the result of him still trying to pitch the way he has in the past, rather than change as he ages. If this is the case, in all likelihood he'll be susceptible to injury again, whenever he returns. ... Hey, it sucks getting old sometimes. The Mets might be wise to plan on Pedro not being around much this season, or beyond. Late-inning loss for the Rays last night smelled awfully familiar. ... Damn.

typic Nate Chinen bullshit & nonsense-- typin' loud & saying NOTHING. tickets were way too expensive for edc-- at least Marty gives us freebies, too bad it was for the Stones. (better than Nate Chinen but what the fuck ain't?) I dunno. I'm neither here nor there on Chinen, but I thought it was a pretty descriptive sentence. The ticket prices, I'm with you there.

Forces in Motion is very readable.

Or how about, who will lose the most late-inning leads? Your starter gives you 7 solid innings, you're up by one or two (or more) runs, then .... SPLAT.

Did anyone catch the Mets-Marlins game? It wasn't broadcast in the sarasota area. How bad did Pedro's injury look? Mets say they don't know when he'll be back. And how about Andino with a walkoff HR in the bottom of the 10th!

OK, with all purchases on hold for now, another item for the wish list.

It has always baffled me that the Latinos in Miami do not support a baseball team. The Rays' new ownership is pretty good about trying to put a quality product on the field and generating enthusiasm for the team, including doing the little things (like free parking!) that will attract fans. One of the likely sticking points with this new stadium is that the Rays say they will need to sell the Tropicana Field property to a developer as a condition for the new stadium project. As WB3 pointed out, the real estate market ain't so hot right now, but Florida has something of a cushion there, perhaps. The chamber of commerce should love this though, as well as politicos well up the food chain. ... Here's hoping! EDIT: This is also good news for the Rays -- ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Carl Crawford's $8.25 million option for 2009 was exercised Tuesday by the Tampa Bay Rays, who declined Rocco Baldelli's $6 million option and agreed to a $10.5 million, three-year deal with reliever Dan Wheeler.

It was proposed just recently. Lots of details to be worked out, but I think state and local movers and shakers will make this happen one way or the other. Gov. Crist has already expressed concerne about the state losing clubs to Arizona during spring training. I believe the Marlins have a new downtown stadium proposal as well. Not sure what's going on with that.

The new park will happen, and can't come soon enough. Nice. The Devil part, not going to happen.

Nice! ... They gave up some good, young talent in the offseason but appear to be better both offensively and defensively (on paper, at least). It looks like Navarro may be a much better hitter this year, and Bartlett and Hinske should be great additions. Crawford looked a little shaky in left at Baltimore on Monday. As long as Kazmir doesn't develop some nagging arm injury, the starting rotation should be able to keep their offense in games. And the pen is definitely improved, but how could it not be. Tough division though. To finish third either the Yankees or Jays will have to go in the tank. ...

... on a related note, man I'm glad baseball is back!!

Point of clarification: It's my understanding that a person throwing out the ceremonial first pitch should NOT step on the pitcher's mound. They should throw from directly in front of the mound. Pitchers can be fussy and superstitious about such things. And out of respect, if you're not pitching the game you shouldn't be the first one to step on the mound. That's my understanding from purists who have actually thrown out a ball or two in spring training. Is this widely known? Or am I off-base (pun intended) on this? I know Joe Morgan mentioned several times during Sunday night's opener in D.C. about how Bush went up on the mound and brought some high heat, but of course he didn't say Bush shouldn't have stepped on the mound. The president probably gets an exception to this "rule." And many dignitaries do in fact throw from the mound. But should they? Do others know about this baseball pre-game etiquette?

Bev, I work with several under 35 years that are highly motivated and creative also. I was referring to a suburban privileged class of overly coddled and medicated youth that won't have the skill set to rebound from any type of failure. I am pretty sure its more of a specific american issue. Maybe I am jealous because I can't bounce back from hangovers anymore but there seems to be a higher degree of loutishness with younger people than I remember. But again that could be age talking. Well, at my place of business it's the young folks who are the motivated go-getters, and the old cranks are the ones who are set in their ways and more or less playing out the string ... (think I got enough cliches in there to expose which camp I'm in?).

No comments on this? I'm not qualified to do so, but I'm sure someone here must be. I assumed he meant Moody is much better on tenor than alto, which I'm not familiar enough to know if Moody played alto, but ... that's how I took the comment.

I recall you suggesting these two discs earlier and I'd forgotten about them. Thank you. Crispell plays beautifully. Her earlier stuff is very much out of the Cecil Taylor school, I think. But as you describe, her later music is lyrical and more introspective. Adventurous, to be sure, but lovely. Aside from her energetic playing with the Braxton quartet, the much more subdued 'Storyteller' is the album that really opened my eyes (ears) to her playing.

This thread's a gold mine! That Gonzalez Soothsayer's Tongue is an excellent disc. His Idle Wild is also super nice. And the Braxton Iridium instantly grabbed me. Brilliant. I haven't had time to read through this thread completely, but I'll probably skim through as much of it as I can as time premits. My tastes have generally tilted toward this sort of free-ish yet structured music for some time. There's something very "essential" about a lot of it. It taps some very inner places, I think. Lately, I tend to bounce back and forth between early swing and bebop to this sort of stuff. The contrast is interesting, but there is something in common there as well. Can't quite put my finger on it, but it's there. Anyways, glad to have stumbled upon this thread.

:excited: :excited:

Forgot all about this thread until now ... which is ... ah, ... shit

Very nice. I read "Forces in Motion" while soaking in the recordings from the 85 tour and it really opened up Braxton's music for me. Still scratching the surface in many ways, of course, but have been lucky enough to gather together a fistful of his most notable efforts (not the Nessa-supervised session, however), including Dortmund, Montreux/Berlin, For Alto, the great Iridium box and an additional smattering of GTM stuff. Braxton almost never disappoints -- (the standards stuff I quite enjoy, even though it suffers from criticisms that Braxton can't manage it. I'm not convinced that's a correct judgment in any event.) ... The Crispell, Hemingway, Dresser tour remains a favorite.

For a second there I felt like I was riding shotgun with my (ex)wife on a run to the mall. ...

Had the pleasure or hearing him play a few weeks ago with Terence Blanchard. He played beautifully with that big old tenor hangin' down around his knees, and commanded the stage when he chose to. He had an instant rapport with the audience. Cracked a few corny jokes. It was great.

... 50 ... and not counting. ... Now, where's the dad-gum calendar?!