Matthew

29 year ago today, John Henry Bonham passed away, and thus, Led Zeppelin came to an end. My favorite image of Bonzo is the start of the Royal Albert Hall concert on the DVD, where he just rips into We're Gonna Groove, that was one bad ass groove he laid down --it just demands your full attention! RIP Bonzo, I'll be playing the mighty Zep today in your honor!

Look at it this way...each loss puts your team in position to get an even better pick in the draft! as usual...the sports media has ignored the Braves in the wildcard hunt. ESPN still talking about the Giants who are 4 back after last night's loss...Braves are 3.5 back, just 3 in the loss column! I have now jinxed them! As someone said on a braves forum..... And while we have 7 with the Nats wrapped around 3 with the Fish, the Rox have 3 at home with St. Louie, 3 at home with Milwaukee, and finish with 3 at LA. Do you know how easily they could go 4-5 over their last 9???? So the race that looked to be over, ain't! At least not yet.... I'm sure that the announcement that Bobby "Dead in the Dugout" Cox is retiring next year will inspire the Braves to... something????

It's live online at ESPN360, which is how I watch a lot of my sports now.

Drive 250 miles to the North, Matthew. At 10PM it'll still be 90 degrees. Our low is 71. The beach isn't that far away from your house and the afternoon sea breezes take care of the rest. Count your blessings. I actually live some miles east of L.A., in the dullest town in all of California -- heck, we look upon Norco & City of Industry as glamorous cities!

I see where the Red Sox are going to start Jon Lester in the first game of the ALDS. Good choice, Beckett is so inconsistant, that you don't know what you're going to get out of him.

2:43 a.m., and trying to get tired again. Been answering emails for the past fifteen minutes.

Another win for Felix Hernandez tonight, makes for 17-5. That makes for 80 wins for the Mariners so far --outstanding year by this team.

I'm getting to this point also. I have every legit cd release by GD, plus concerts I've downloaded -- heck, I have well over 500 hours of the Dead. Not only that, I have XM Radio, so I can get the Dead 24/7 if I want. I think I've reached my limit. I might ask this box set as a birthday present, but after this one, I'm going to be very choosy about the Dead, if it's after Keith Godchaux left, I pass.

Goodness, what a month for releases. Too bad I spent all my extra on the Beatles mono box, because I love these shows, especially 6/9/77, which is quite the rockin' concert. I'll probably wait to order this one and stay with the recording I have. I wonder what tape source they are using because every tape I've heard of all three days has problems.

Please explain. The fiasco that was The Complete Fillmore West 1969, that was released a couple of years ago. Sold out quickly, people make a killing off it on ebay, record company "forget the customer, we won't print any more." so everyone buys up a ton of the sets to sell on ebay. Why is Apple going down this road anyway? Just print all the mono boxes that people want, why this limited run stuff to begin with?

I think as long as you have it on pre-order you'll be okay, since the seller can place definite orders. I sure would not wait to pick it up in store because I'm sure there are jerk ebay sellers who are ordering one hundred at a pop so they can clean up, with a result that the second run will be gone by the end of October. We can blame the Grateful Dead for all this.

Sounds ideal for me then, I totally dig the first five albums, though I hear that the stereo version of Help! the way to go (bought that yesterday). I'm becoming very excited about getting that mono box.

I'm sending Peter Grant and John Bindon over to your house so they can kick the crap out of you, it'll be like the Oakland show all over again!

All this mono talk is just making wish that my mono box will truly ship in early October, should be fascinating.

Double A-freakin'-men & Double Damm straight & Double The Beatles of my youth.

By-and-large the reaction has been positive, though there are of course people of the contary opinion. Still, the discussion have been very good there on the Beatles; it's where I go for Beatles information.

I hate to say this but the Yankees are going to hard to beat in the playoffs, especially at home -- though they can't seem to nail down that fourth starter, which will hurt. Angeles have a chance, but I'm not overly optimistic about them.

It's interesting that in Hoffmanville (to give that board it's due, they know the Beatles inside out), there's this asumption that the Beatle catalog not only was remastered, but remixes were done also, and will be released at a future date. Humm, not sure I'm too excited about that possibility.

Yeah, it's not good to have a weak bullpen, especially at Citizens Bank Park, where you need someone to overpower the hitter to make sure of no home runs.

It really is a beautiful set! I think it's funny that they packaged each of the extra ITTOD covers in separate plastic sleeves, as well as the alternate LZ1 cover. I now have a few duplicate CDs that will end up in the sale/trade pile, but it seemed like the best way to get everything, at a good price. re: ITTOD, I am almost curious enough to dab a wet cloth across the inner sleeve of this one, to see if the colors show up, like they did on the original LP sleeve. Not gonna do it though. I'm wondering if this set sounds markedly better than the Led Zeppelin 10-disc box set put out in 1993 (remastered by Jimmy Page, I believe). Have you heard those for a comparison? I had the 1993 box set, which I enjoyed a lot, and had very good sound. The new box set is better sound wise, but as Lon said, it's not a "new Beatles" kind of improvement. I'm a Led Zeppelin sicko, so I had to get this for the whole package it presents: Improved sound, great graphic reproduction, the extra album covers, all that. * Sigh* I love Led Zeppelin, watching the DVD last night reminded me what a monster Page was on the guitar. Great power riffs flowed out of his guitar effortlessly.

Ditto on everything! Come back and post! Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Led Zeppelin. Disk one. There are so many things about this DVD I ab-sol-lutely love, it's not funny. I love the Danish TV session, where after a blazing rendition of Communication Breakdown, the first song, the audience, which look like they emptied out the local high school (about fifty teen-agers sitting crossed legged), just sits there stunned, and by the looks on their faces are saying to themselves: "WTF is this???". I love that even in Denmark, Page is in full blown Guitar God Mode. I love the Royal Albert Hall Concert, where Zep is already the coolest band on earth, and the coolest guitar player in that band is wearing a sweater vest!!!! I love that Bonzo is stone-cold crazy on the drums from day one. And I'm not even talking about what I love in disk two.

Listened to Abbey Road this afternoon, and it is a great remastering job on this one, music is much more alive then on the old cd. Allen calls the feel to this album as "soft focus," and I can hear his point. Maxwell's Silver Hammerand Octopus's Garden are not heavyweights by any measure, plus the lyrics to She Came In Through The Bathroom Window sound lame to me -- Oh look out / She came in through the bathroom window, / Protected by a silver spoon / But now she sucks her thumb and wonders / By the banks of her own lagoon? Given all that, it's still a great record. Ringo's playing really adds a lot of oomph! to the songs; Harrison's two songs are great, the best guitar playing on any Beatle album, and side two is a wonder. Good way to bow out.

For those of you in Los Angeles, I saw some of the OOP selects in the jazz section at Amoeba going for $51.99. Worth a call if you're desperate. 323-245-6400

At 5:05 p.m. -- 102