random thoughts and thoroughbred selections

Tuesday, January 20, 2004

Just some things�

I�ve watched a lot of stand-up comedy in my day, and have been listening to the stand-up station on XM a lot too. The one thing I�ve really noticed about female comediennes is that they are largely taking a real bitter tone to their stand-up. You have your exceptions, like Rita Rudner or the absurdities of Laura Kightlinger, but if you dip into that whole second tier of comediennes beyond the big names, you get a lot of �men are dumb, aren�t they girls? And here�s a hundred reasons why,� sort of thing. I bet there�s some sort of calculation in choosing that persona, as it �flips convention on its ear,� putting a woman in the dominant and aggressive role. Well, �flipping convention� doesn�t work right if that�s what everyone is doing. Maybe that�s why Rita Rudner works so well.

I got to watch the Indy/NE game this weekend, but didn�t get to see one minute of the Philly/Carolina game. I think Indy made a big, big mistake not trying to cram Edgerrin James down New England�s throat. It was painfully obvious that the Patriot game plan was built almost entirely around cutting off the short and intermediate passing game, and any Colt coach worth his salt should have seen that coming. They should have (and didn�t I write this?) kept running James up the gut, pulled Harrison into the box, and taken shots when they had obvious man coverage circumstances.

Isn�t it about time to acknowledge that while New England may not have a glamorous, star-studded defense, they are certainly one of the best coached, most prepared defenses to play any sort of offense in any sort of situation the NFL has seen in years. They�ve got hybrid linebackers who are as adept playing from the three point stance as they are backpedaling into the secondary. They�ve got a defensive line that is somewhere in the neighborhood of seven deep, all of them guys with high motors. And even though their secondary starts two rookies, they play a tight and disciplined game.

And while I think New England is the obvious favorite in this game, the seven point spread is a sucker bet. This Super Bowl has the potential to be one of the most exciting 10-7 games that you�ll ever see. While Carolina may be less talented, they know how to hold a team close. And New England generally doesn�t run away with victories.

I tried watching some of that BBC �mockumentary� series �The Office.� Maybe I got bored too quick, but ten minutes in to disc one (of two, of six hours plus), I had to turn it off. I don�t like British guys, but I don�t think that was the problem. Just boring, that�s all.

The further I dig, though, into �Curb Your Enthusiasm,� the more I begin to realize that there�s nothing else currently on TV that approaches genius quite like this does. I put this right up there with �Larry Sanders,� although I don�t think anything was ever as consistently great as that show.

Worst name for a local pizza joint here in town: �Pizza Reaction.�

�What�s that?�
�That�s just my Pizza Reaction.�

One of the biggest genius additions to shopping I�ve seen in the past year or so are these �sample any CD� stations that some music stores have. You scan the bar code, and you can hear thirty seconds off of any song on the whole disc.

I actually scrolled through an entire 5CD box set, and got a great sample of what it was I was considering buying.

I didn�t get the set though. And I should have. It�s the Miles Davis �Complete Jack Johnson Sessions.� Five discs worth of alternate takes of different jams. I was drooling over it pretty hard. Then again, only a completist like myself would generally want a $70 CD set where you get one whole disc that features six takes of one song, four of another, and three of yet another. Almost every disc is just like that. I don�t care though. Some of those jams I could just put on repeat and listen to all day anyway.

Electric Miles = Acoustic Miles

Miles Davis� catalog (for variety and quality) > Any other musician�s catalog (for variety and quality)

And I�ll include the Beatles in that list. To me:

Miles Davis > the Beatles.

I own at least something, if not nearly everything, from every band he led from the late 40s to the mid 70s. There�s not a single album (out of over 100 I own) where I�d say, �that�s total crap, don�t buy it.� Granted, some are better than others, and there are songs (�Red China Blues� off of �Get Up With It�) that are really pretty bad. But for the most part, there isn�t another musician or band that can touch Miles in a couple of areas:

- Quantity of quality work
- Variety of styles
- Top of their class, big name musicians as side men
- Was the vanguard stylistically of jazz music as it grew and changed multiple times
- Has at least one �desert island� album to his name (�Kind of Blue�)

If jazz music had retained its popularity it earned in the 50s and 60s, you could probably have made a case for Miles as a more influential musician than the Beatles. He was more talented though, at bare minimum.

[>>]posted at 6:12 PM by BG - click to email
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