Matthew

Adam Dunn?????!!!!!????? I can now use this smiley...

Dude - if you're serious about checking out Bunny Briggs, you GOT to get this: You also get Sandman Simms & the GREAT Chuck Green. I'm serious as a heat attack here, dawg - this is a priceless piece of work here. Carpe diem. Speaking of tap dancing...

Well, he broke the record, and I must admit, I find no joy in this event either. What I found interesting is the players reaction to Bonds. When Aaron broke the record, you saw the Dodgers being happy for him, Lopes, Russell, Cey, all the Dodgers (well, maybe not Downing) you could tell they were thrilled for Aaron. The Washington players kept their distance, I saw no joy from them in the least. Maybe they wanted to be loyal to Frank Robinson, who supposedly has great disdain for Bonds. I also had to laugh about Bonds telling the fans how wonderful they are, etc., yeah, right, that's why he lives in L.A., because he loves the Bay Area so much.

Not sure if I'm too excited with the EP since I have yet to get on board about FOABP -- just not doing it for me. Of course, I'll buy it though. Aggie: If PT makes it to the Northwest, I'll be there somehow.

The Complete Anita O'Day Verve/Clef Sessions. Disk one.

I know you don't seriously believe that the Mariner Moose is "innocent", do you Matthew? That man came within inches of seriously injuring or even potentially killing a player because he is racing around the stadium on an ATV, and its the player's fault for not watching out for him?? The idiot is lucky he wasn't pulled from the vehicle and pummeled, which he surely would have been if Coco had been hit. Well, yeah, I can laugh at it now, but it would have been terrible if Coco got injured. Reminded me of Vince Coleman getting hit by the tarp in the World Series. If I had my way there would be no mascots, music, or any of the "entertainment" crap that you get at the stadiums now. The drawback of being an old geezer of 48 is that I remember when you went to a game without all the extras you have now. I miss those days...

You have to love the Moose. Coco Crash!

Andrea Centazzo - The Mitteleuropa Orchestra: The Complete Recording Box Set. Interesting stuff.

The Complete H.R.S. Sessions. Disk one.

Anyone besides me a member of Residents of a Blank Planet, the pay-for-membership site? Kind of lame right now, I hope they do something with it, maybe exclusive releases, etc. That would be cool. Aggie: You going when PT hits Texas?

If you like Robinson, you might want to check out the new release The Soul In The Mist on Ictus Records. I think very highly of this cd, it's not a "barn burner" by any means, but this cd grows on me with each listen.

Complete Poems of Robert Duncan. A nice book that has all of Francis Bacon's art works.

Did you ever finish your A-Z thing? Nope. I, for one, really enjoyed that Dan, but I can understand why you stopped.

For me, it's the Complete Verve Johnny Hodges Small Group Sessions . Hodges plays beautifully here, never misses a note, creative playing, and his sidemen are outstanding. It's my all-time favorite Mosaic. The J.J. Johnson is a close second.

Decided to try the Tower Records on-line store to see if their service has improved: Quartet (Dortmund) 1976: Anthony Braxton Quintet (Basel) 1977: Anthony Braxton This was the only place I could find that had these two cds. We'll see what happens.

Does he have Ruth hit, or pitch??? A good lefty starter is hard to find. Perhaps he Dh's the days he doesn't pitch..... Reminds me of the old story that Joe MacCarthy use to tell: The Devil challenged St. Peter to a baseball game, and St. Peter says: "Why? we have all the great players up here, Ruth, Williams, Honus Wagner, Cy Young, all the great players. You don't have a chance!" The Devil replies: "You're right about the players but you forgot: We have all the umps!"

Just a heads-up if someone in the Bay Area is looking for this one: Ameoba Records in Berkeley have a used copy on sale for $119.00. Might want to call to make sure it's still there if you're interested.

One last shopping trip to Berkeley before I leave: Liebman/Eskelin/Marino/Black: Different But The Same Lee Konitz: Thingin Steve Lacy: Morning Joy Max Negal: Big Four Live Manuel Mengis Gruppe 6: Into The Barn Anthony Ortega: Afternoon In Paris Lee Konitz: Motion 3cd version (This was a great buy at $19.00)

Just finished Philip Dick's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch , and maybe it's just me, but I thought it was a very weak novel, and the ideas were a mess. Sorry, but I'm very underwhelmed by the book.

Stern looked terrible during his press conference this morning, just zero life to him. It's obvious that this blindsided him, and has taken a lot out of him. It'll be interesting to see what happens to Stern if this whole thing gets messier than it is now. I can see him resigning if it does. Then again, the NBA really has no one to blame but themselves. Stern made the decision to squeeze out all those veteran officials way-back-when because he thought they had too much personality, and wanted to replace them with these faceless nobodies, who wouldn't "take the focus away from the players," so the new one are the kind who can't get any respect from players. To mix a metaphor: Stern made this bed, now the chickens are sleeping in the roost with him now.

I'm staying at my parents house, and unfortunately, they don't have a cd player, so I'll have to wait for a couple of weeks to get to my home to listen to anything.

Continued my vacation shopping in Berkeley today (great city, ah, student memories). Jimmy Lyons: The Box Set. Had this one before, but lost it (long story), absolutely wonderful music. Paul Motian: Tethered Moon -- Plays Kurt Weill. Paul Motian: On Broadway Vol. 4 Mal Waldron: The Quest David Liebman & Marc Copland Duo: Bookends Wiesendanger/Weber/Ulrich: We Concentrate Berkeley was a wonderful place to be today.

No surprise that he worked game three on the Suns vs. Spurs series, that game was officiated so bad, and it looks worse now that this has come out. Bill Simmons has a nice column on this game. This might go deeper than we realize, like, maybe he reached out to other ref's?

I had this, got rid of it, never missed it.

I see two Texas shows but none in the Northwest. There better be a Seattle show...