Deal or No Deal Bozo

I just have to post an entry here and say that the lady who was on tonight's Deal or No Deal (CNBC) was very likely the most annoying, obnoxious, retarded person they've ever had on. Man, was I hoping she'd lose big time, but she took a deal of a little over $150,000 and made out better than anyone expected.
I've only recently begun watching the show with any degree of regularity and they've had a few hyperactive, crazed bozos as contestants, but this dingbat took the cake.

A Meaningless List and a Funny Photo (Not in that order...)

Nuns with guns...I find that concept to be quite humorous, don't you?

Nothing to do and no inspiration to write I thought I'd up my post count by presenting this meaningless list of all the books that currently occupy the top level of the bookshelf that stands next to my computer desk.

~~~"Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials" by Douglas Wayne Barlowe
~~~"Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy" by Douglas Wayne Barlowe
~~~"Video Hound's Golden Movie Retriever, 1997" (10 years old now, I should dispose of it, as outdated as it is...alas, it takes up space)
~~~"Selected Poetry" by John Keats
~~~"A Basic Guide to the Prado" by Jose Rogelio Buendia
~~~"Kitsch: The World of Bad Taste" by Gillo Dorfles
~~~"The Norton Scores, Volumes 1 & 2" edited by Roger Kamien
~~~"The Wordsworth Dictionary of Musical Quotations" compiled by Derek Watson
~~~"Springsteen: Point Blank" by Christopher Sandford
~~~"From Metal to Mozart: The Rock and Roll Guide to Classical Music" by Craig Heller
~~~"Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties" by Ian MacDonald
~~~"Alternative Rock" by Dave Thompson
~~~"The Enjoyment of Music" by Joseph Machlis
~~~"The World of Twentieth Century Music" by David Ewen
~~~"Music Hound: Rock (the Essential Album Guide" edited by Gary Graff (this one's as outdated as the Video Hound guide...why do I KEEP these???)
~~~"Milton Cross' Encyclopedia of the Great Composers and Their Music Volume 2" by Milton Cross and David Ewen (No, I do not own volume 1...:(...)
~~~"Music of the Twentieth Century" by William R. Martin and Julius Drossin
~~~"Backstreets...Springsteen: The Man and His Music" by Charles R. Cross
~~~"The Waiting Father: Sermons on the Parables of Jesus" by Helmut Thielicke
~~~"City on the Palm of Silence" by S. D. Carpenter (a collection of poems by a friend of mine that he had published)

And remember, it's KILLING time, NOT wasting it.
:)

The Year's Over, Here's My Plan

I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking that I'd given up blogging...the last few entries have been short and very infrequent. This is the only post I've made all month, which might as well be over, as close to the end as it is.
The main reason I have for it is that I've been recuperating from the events of last June...in case you missed it (and who could blame you for missing, as it was only hinted at in a meme) I had some "mental problems" last June that knocked me off course on a lot of things. I'm still not at 100% and since I decided (this time) to go ahead and initiate medication, I don't know when (or if) that 100% will ever be realized.
I suffer from depression that makes me question the point of blogging. The part of me that's NOT depressed tells me there doesn't have to be a "point" to blogging, it's just a fun way to kill time. And that's how I should usually look at it...but the depression tells me I don't have anything worthwhile to say, that my opinions are rarely grounded in anything more than what I do and don't enjoy. At any rate, why would anyone want to read them?
So, it's all about beating down the depression demon.
I have hope that the new year will find me victorious over depression, that I will find enjoyment in blogging (maybe even find the time to do some work on the template), all in all to make 07 a very good year (easy enough to say "a better year", cuz that wouldn't take much).
Something else I may do is start a new blog under an "anonymous" pseudonym so that I can be completely, 100% free to speak my mind, to say what I wouldn't say here (or anywhere else for that matter)...I think I should do this as an experiment in discovering "who I am", the good and the bad.
That's probably going to happen and hopefully it won't take too much from what I've been doing here, which has always been more or less about the things in life that entertain and enlighten me (mainly music).
Now I'm going to enlighten myself and when it's all over I can only hope that something like what happened last June will never occur again.
Thanks for checking me out here, and I hope you will return soon.

Merry Christmas, one and all, and a Happy New Year!
JACkory

XM MEMORY LIST

It's been a long time since I've done one of these, but here's the premise: Whenever I hear a song that I really like, something that I may have bever heard before, I press the Memory button on my XM and save the title, to be compiled on these 10 song wish lists. Easy enough.
I have no idea when I began this particular list, and there were a few that got bumped off by the time I compiled it, but here are the last ten that made the cut,

1. Thomas O'Hearn - "A Quiet Moment"
2. Hello Damascus - "Randy"
3. Death Cab For Cutie - "Transatlanticism"
4. Nickel Creek - "Seven Wonders"
5. Lamb of God - "What I've Become"
6. Ulu - "EMB"
7. Fort Minor - "Where'd You Go"
8. Oppenheimer - "Nine Words"
9. Michael Stearns - "Microtonal Vibrations"
10. The Blood Lines - "Modern Science"

Stones Outtakes

Check out a whole slew of outtakes from the Rolling Stones seminal album Exile on Main Street plus a whole lotta other cool stuff at An Aquarium Drunkard.
It's like digging up buried treasure!

The Taco Jockey Returns...sort of...

One of the best blogs that I stumbled across in making this one was a hilarious offering by a young man who called himself the Taco Jockey. He worked for Taco Bell and the blog was an insightful and funny look at the daily ups and downs of that particular line of work.
The writer is no longer employed by Taco Bell and with the loss of that job came the demise of the Taco Jockey.
I just recieved an e-mail from the Taco Jockey's author and was pleased to find out that he's employed again (this time at a press) and, more importantly, is blogging about it. Check out PRESSMAN PRESS and together we'll see if this job will bring out the laughs like Taco Bell did.

As for me, as you've already noticed, I haven't been blogging much.
Don't know when that will change. It's indicitive of just how little is going on in my life right now.
I will, however, KEEP IT GANGSTA!

What I Like About Jazz

For me, it's all about the interplay/rapport between players when it comes to jazz. Love to hear a soloist work off of what the piano player is laying beneath and vice versa. The best drummers of 'em all (with the possible exception of Danny Carey) are jazz drummers. They get to do so much more than just lay down a backbeat. You can listen to practically any jazz tune, concentrate on JUST the drums, and walk away entertained.
I prefer at least one horn in any small ensemble jazz set. There are a few piano/bass/drums set-ups that I've heard that are decent (I've got 'em by Bob James & Duke Jordan, but then that Jordan set is blessed with the presence of Roy Haynes, one of jazz's finest drummers so it's bound to be worthy). Tenor sax is my preferred "4th Instrument" but if we're talkin' Miles Davis I'd just as soon change my vote to trumpet. Quintet is even better with tenor and trumpet.
Then again, there's nothing like the massive ensemble that Miles put together for the recording of Bitches Brew. I shan't go into a rant, as I have often proclaimed my love for this album. But there's something aboout the bizarre entrance of a bass clarinet into the, until then, traditional jazz instrumentation. But once it's in the mix it's incredible, making the funkiest lines ever composed on bass clarinet.
Bitches Brew is not your typical jazz album, not even your traditional fusion jazz album, as it is composed of edited sequences that have been re-pasted into different orders by the artist...but nevertheless deserves the accolades it has recieved throughout the years as the birth of fusion.
Speaking of which...when it comes to fusion, make no bones about it, it rarely gets much better than WEATHER REPORT. Consistantly they have impressed me from the days before Jaco Pastorius joined on bass, to the glory days, when his playing raised the bar for bassists everywhere, up until now, in the post-Pastorius days. Just pick something of theirs and you're guaranteed to love it.

Counting Crows Recoverring the Satellites Track by Track

Counting Crows Recovering the Satellites...Track by Track

1. "Catapult"...Lots of synthesized flutes that conjure up the glory days of the mellotron. At times it puts me in mind of "Strawberry Fields Forever", but that's about the only thing it shares in common with that Beatles classic. Mid-tempo, guitar saturated rocker ensues. Duritz stays in control for the most part, even if his list of "I wanna"s is too long. I've never thought this was a good opener, but it's not a bad song.
2. "Angels of the Silences"...This was the first single from the album and I remember hearing it on the radio before the LP came out. It is quite different fare than anything on the first album. More of an edge, rocks just a little harder. If you can get past that you'll probably enjoy the song and really the album as a whole. Excellent melodies from Duritz, whose passionate delivery is tailor made for a song like this. Great song.
3. "Daylight Fading"...Hands down, my favorite song from this album. I want to say that it brings back fond memories of what REM used to sound like, for some reason I have always associated it with that band, but when I hear it now I can't figure out why I ever made that connection. It sounds richer than any of that old REM fare. Duritz once again nails it. Just listen to those guitars pouring out notes that fall like raindrops...such a beautiful sound.
4. "I'm Not Sleeping"...Lots of tension building and release make up the bulk of this track. Lyrically quite erotic and Duritz sings 'em like he means 'em. The bridge is a bit too heavy and sounds like an excuse to utilyze the orchestra that has already made it's mark quite well in the chorus. There are aspects of "I'm Not Sleeping" that I thoroughly enjoy but they are ruined by the bridge and especially the completely unneccesary (nursery rhyme-esque) rant at the close.
5. "Goodnight Elizabeth"...Here we have the first song on the album that sounds like it might be an outtake from August and Everything After. Even so, there are all these shimmering quitar parts that show up in the background which differentiate the song from the more stark, spare debut. Duritz rain obsession finds an outlet in some of these lyrics. Decent song, though.
6. "Children In Bloom"...This is one of the heaviest songs I think the band has done. The production here kind of tones down the rawness, but it's there and you don't have to listen too hard to hear it. Duritz' falsetto misses a couple of times and the ad-libbing of the last several bars is unnecessary, but on the other hand he does some incredible singing earlier on in the song.
7. "Have You Seen Me Lately"...Nice chord changes and what do you know, Duritz is breaking up with someone! And in no uncertain terms, either, as he opens with "Get away from me...This isn't going to be easy but I don't need you, believe me"... Ouch! More rain obsession. The thing about this song is that it's all really quite good EXCEPT the chorus, and we all know how important the chorus is. It still manages to be one of the better songs here.
8. "Miller's Angels"...Actually quite a beautiful song if you can ignore the bridge and the "Hey, Romeo" chorus end tags. Another one that could have been on the debut. The good thing about this one is all the backing music, the stuff behind the piano and vocals. It really helps push the song into another realm. The end piece is nice, too.
9. "Another Horsedreamer's Blues"...I have to be honest, I have never liked this song at all. Part of it is the orchestra that seems superfluous. The lyrics do nothing for me and Duritz verges on the histrionics here that have been know to ruin the band's live performances.
10. "Recovering the Satellites"...After the last track it's good to hear the band come back to the more experimental fare of the records first half. The melodies merge with the music perfectly and finally a bridge that works. Just as I've always disliked the last song, this one has long been a favorite.
11. "Monkey"...Monkey? Huh? My recollection is that I've never cared for this song, but even though it's got a lot of faults ("...got Ben Folds on my radio now...") it doesn't sound quite as bad as I remember. A throwaway that might have made a nice B-side.
12. "Mercury"...An apparant attempt to strip down all the loud instruments and get back to basics...unfortunately, it's also probably the most boring song of the lot.
13. "A Long December"...Were it not for this song I would have suggested that the whole album be limited to the first 10 songs...This is the second single from the album and it's a song that, unlike the first single, sounds exactly like what you'd expect from the band that put out August and Everything After. It's half power ballad and half anthem, all drenched in melancholy and the hope that "maybe this year will be better than the last". Just a stellar track, IMO.
14. "Walkaways"...Sounds like a decent demo, may well be just that. But anything is going to have a hard time following the last track.