Matthew

Goodness! And I thought that Chronicles was Dylan's biggest practical joke, but this takes the cake....

Please in the name of all that is good, tell me this is a joke! please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, PLEASE!!!!

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. That also happened to me in college, but I spilled beer on it though.... Schlitz will do that, ya know?

Put me down for Revolution In The Head, sounds interesting. What's a good overall book about the Beatles, I have the Anthology in mothballs, do I need to get that out and actually read the words? I just got it for the pictures.... Brad: I think it's the book people a talking about, and Purple Chick are bootlegs of the Beatles catalog that were better than the "official" cds that were out at the time. Dr. Ebbetts is another famous boot series of the Beatles.

Hey, good pick up Erik! I really like this box set, and now you have all six covers for ITTOD -- your life is complete.

A very interesting book can be written about the bands who have been influence by Please Please Me vs. Revolution/Rubber Soul. This is where there seems to be a divide on opinions as to the musical importance of The Beatles. Just to take two of my favorite rock bands: The Flamin' Groovies come down very much on the PPM side of this divide, while XTC is very much under the influence of the later albums. Do I even need to mention Oasis in this context? I know that this is over simplification in a lot of ways, but those two strands of influence are there, and very pronounced in different bands.

And there you have it. That's why everyone who can afford it has jumped all over the mono box. The first two albums are only of historical interest to me. HDN, BFS and H are hugely enjoyable but... It's Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt P (with reservations), the White Album and Abbey Road + the singles album that are the big atraction for me (I've not heard 'Let It Be' as an album ever!...should be remedied in the next couple of weeks). Mono, stereo, cylinder disc, download...doesn't enter into the equation for these ears. Ah! now here is where tastes differ! Please Please Me to my ears is one of the greatest power pop records of all time, I love it! I always return to PPM when I need a jolt of rock 'n roll.

The game last night will hopefully get some Cy Young talk going about Hernandez, he's been great this year.

I'm late to the party (as ususal) but I've spent the morning listening to the stereo versions of Revolver, Rubber Soul, & The White Album, and I really like these remasters; Macca's bass comes through loud and clear on these cds. The sound is much clearer, cleaner, and more powerful then the old cds. I broke down and ordered the mono box today, I must admit that I think I enjoy the earlier albums more then the later ones, and to have them in the original mono mix is a plus in my book. The first five cds seem to have a sense of fun to them that got lost in some of the later albums, where the weight of the expectations, at times, made the Beatles later work strike me as strained. That's not to take anything from their greatness however...

Been traveling so much the past two weeks, I only had time to come to the Org and wish Dan happy birthday (your welcome). Anyway, the Mariners get closer to their magic number -- .500, with a great win last night, Felix was on and they come up with two runs in the bottom of the ninth of Rivera. The only down side was that I was stuck in the Portland airport last night for three hours waiting for my plane, and what does Gustav's have on tv the whole time? A STUPID COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAME! Now that sucks, big time! The Black Bear Stout though, was really good.

Happy birthday bro, hope you're listening to some Gene Harris tonight.

It really is a sticky situation in Kampala right now. When I was there last September, an Indian was involved in a traffic accident that either seriously injured or killed an Ugandan, and the crowd beat him to death. A lot of trouble between people from India and Ugandans. I've been to Uganda three times this year, and mainly deal with people from the Buganda tribe, who are very touchy over any perceived slight. The cities I frequent are Kyengeza (which is in the middle of the Buganda area) and Jinja (source of the Nile), sometimes Kampala, but I try to get out of there as fast as possible! It is the craziest place I've ever been to. You're right though, the people are great, and it's been an eye-opening experience to live with no electricity, no hot water, and every meal involves matoke. Now,the tribes from the north are a whole different story, kind of infamous as they make up the vast majority of the private security forces that everyone hires.

Sure wish Mosaic would do a 60s follow-up to that one with all the Verve sessions (and maybe the RCA ones with Davis thrown in). Lots of great music there on the Verves which has never been reissued on cd. greg mo I'd love, and pay, to hear all of that.

The Complete Verve Johnny Hodges Small Group Sessions 1956-61.

That was a very nice win for the Giants, and also the Mariners took two of three from the Angels (you're welcome Big Al). It looks like Seattle will be over .500 for the season, which is a great rebound from last year.

Ricky Rubio is staying in Spain until 2011 and not going to the Timberwolves. I don't think that's too bad of a set up for Minnesota, Rubio can work on his game for two years, get stronger and a better outside shot, then come and play in the NBA. T-Wolves not too bad off with Jonny Flynn at the point, he seems like a good draft pick.

Scrubs: Season eight. The season is actually very good, I just wished they would have ended the series with the final episode here, and not gone on to a season nine. I have a feeling that it will be a disaster.

Oscar Peterson: London House Sessions. This box set seems to fly under the radar, not too much comment on it, but it is a great one, and one that I dearly love.

Left over Sicilian Thin Crust Pizza from California Pizza Kitchen. Yum

I've been grooving to this version of for about two weeks now.

The most recent Anti-Penny rant that I've seen comes from Bruce Jenkins, who is usually right on about baseball things: One thing for sure: Penny is a pill. He doesn't give one damn about teammates or anything but himself. He left the Dodgers on acrimonious terms, and that's not easy on a team managed by Joe Torre. Manny Ramirez has fit in well in that clubhouse, at least so far. The Dodgers even took a chance on Vicente Padilla, who undoubtedly will act nice over the next five weeks with his career on the line. But Penny couldn't cut it there. "There were a few people I didn't get along with on the coaching staff that don't respect people," Penny said this week. "I mean, me and Joe got along fine. I just feel like nobody had my back there. You're in the clubhouse and you have players coming up to you saying coaches are saying this to them about you." Responded third-base coach Larry Bowa (a known hothead, especially in his playing days): "You mean the same guy who was never on time, out of shape and has one complete game? He has more stuff to worry about than me. He has to worry about getting people out. He was never on time, never helped the kids out. You go right down the line, everybody who was on the DL watched the games. But not him. He was out of there. Put that on the f---ing dot-com." Thrust upon the Giants' clubhouse, Penny would probably play it cool, not make waves. They'd be interested in getting him under contract by August 31, thus making him eligible for the postseason, and letting him go whenever their season ends. It's telling that Penny couldn't cut it in Boston, and everyone knows that his fastball has very little movement. He's a big-time risk, but I think Bay Area fans could understand the Giants giving him short-term consideration. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/threed...8#ixzz0Po1magPY

Supposedly Brad Penny is going to become a Giant. Not too sure if I'm on board with that, the Giants have good chemistry as a team (though that's overrated at times), and I always hear bad things about Penny as a team mate. I hate messing with the winning formula the Giants have right now.

RIP. sad news indeed. A lot of great music came from that O'Day, Christy, Conner group, that is for sure.

Very nice sweep by the Giants of the Rockies by winning today 9-5. I kind of thought the Giants were in a good position for a sweep, with their three main pitchers going. Wilson got the save again, and was dealing 98-100 mph the whole time. Off to play the WFC's next.

Another nice win for the Giants tonight, 5-3. Zito looked great, bullpen shaky in the ninth, but all's well that ends well. Brian Wilson came in for his second save of the series (for some reason, I called Wilson, Lewis last night). If the Giants had lost, I would have pulled out a Goodspeak Grrrr™.