Support Jazz
8:39 PM EDT Thursday, April 3 2008
If you like Jazz, you should check out the In the Groove, Jazz and Beyond podcast. They are running a pledge drive right now, so donate a few bucks to help support Jazz.
Why do we give Apple a pass?
10:47 AM EDT Sunday, March 23 2008
I've been adding a few music podcasts to my iPod this morning, and I ran across a website that appears to be producing a pretty good podcast, but as far as I call tell they don't list their podcast in the iTunes directory. That seems odd, you would think they would want people to subscribe to their podcast via iTunes, but they do have an RSS feed. So I thought, ok, well maybe there's a way to subscribe to an RSS feed via iTunes, but there doesn't appear to be. It makes sense too, because Apple wants you to go through the iTunes store to subscribe to a podcast, so they can get you to buy music in the process. In order to maintain their monopoly, they'll never add that feature.
So I'm trying out YamiPod which appears to have that feature. But it got me to thinking, just as the first poster points out in a recent Slashdot article calling out Apple for unfairly bundling Safari with iTunes, why do we let Apple get away with all sorts of monopolistic things that we would absolutely kill Microsoft for? I think the obvious answer is that, in general, we like Apple and the software they make, but I think we've got to call them out on things like this.
Update: Whoops, my bad :). If you go to Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast in iTunes, you can subscribe to any random URL that is a valid feed.
It's Tournament Time
2:03 PM EDT Monday, March 17 2008
It's been way to long since I've had a sports post, and my non-programmer friends are getting restless with all this talk about Ruby. So here we go, a quick response to Gene Wojciechowski's NCAA tourney is the best, but it could be even better
1: Quit trying to fake us out with the so-called "opening round game"
It's not an opening round game; it's a play-in game. Not only that, but it's a play-in game in Dayton, Ohio. I mean, haven't the kids suffered enough?
Nothing against Dayton, but if the NCAA is going to treat the 65th and 64th teams in the tournament like nasal drip, then the least it can do is schedule the game somewhere below the Rust Belt. I hear Orlando, Fla., is nice.
Or better yet, do away with the humiliating play-in game altogether. Or if the NCAA insists on keeping it (and it will), expand the tournament field to 68 teams and have four play-in games, all on the same day. Turn it into an event, rather than a stigmatizing, oh-by-the-way prelude to the real thing -- which is what you get with one lonely, obligatory play-in.
I totally agree, make it 68, so we have 4 games on Play-in Tuesday. Make it a fun day about cinderella stories and their chance to get in the big dance. Could even lead to one team building up enough confidence to pull off the ultimate upset, a first-round #16 over a #1 seed.
2: Be more like Switzerland
Kevin Love and UCLA shouldn't get to stay so close to home. I'm all for rewarding No. 1 regional seeds with a tournament perk, such as giving them a slight geographic advantage. But the NCAA needs to be more sensitive about just how much of an edge it's giving these teams.
There's an advantage, and then there's a quasi-home-court advantage. If North Carolina is a No. 1, it could play in nearby Raleigh and then Charlotte. If UCLA is a No. 1, it could play just down the 5 in Anaheim (the Bruins have reached the Final Four the past two years without ever leaving the state of California for the regionals). Sorry, but that's tilting the court a little too much in favor of the No. 1s.
Neutrality good. De facto home games bad.
The regionals are planned in advance, I think the best they can do is not play on any team's home court, which I believe is what they do.
3: Mr. Brand, tear down that wall!
We have embedded journalists with U.S. forces in Iraq, but the closest we can get to the men's basketball selection committee is a lame-o "war room" cam?
I know the NCAA has tried, really tried, to open up and explain the selection process the past few years. And we appreciate it. But relatively speaking, the NCAA is giving us basic cable when we want the premium sports package.
Put a pool reporter or CBS' Clark Kellogg in the room during crunch time, come up with some reporting guidelines everyone can live with, then go at it. We're adults here. I think we can handle the horrifying truth of why and how some bubble teams get in while others are sent to swim with the at-large fishes. I'm sure Kentucky, Florida, Virginia Tech and, say, Arizona would appreciate an explanation, to say nothing of us watching on TV.
Then we would have the best of both worlds: more Selection Sunday transparency and Billy Packer, playing the role of Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., mercilessly grilling the selection committee chairman.
not gonna happen
4: Enough already with the "student-athlete" designation
Because some over-starched NCAA administrator thought it was the right thing to do, or maybe because it just sounded good, tournament news conference moderators always are instructed to refer to the players as "student-athletes." Like we don't know Indiana's Eric Gordon is one and done after his freshman season.
I love watching Gordon play, but the truth is he didn't choose IU because he planned on staying four, three or even two years at Bloomington. He's more athlete-student than student-athlete -- and I don't mean that in a negative way.
I'm just using Gordon as an example. But the whole insistence on calling the players "student-athletes" always has sounded forced. Not because they don't study, but because the NCAA feels the need to remind us that they are students. I mean, isn't that supposed to be a given?
So can we just refer to them as players or by their first names? It's not like they're members of parliament or they're all reading Chaucer during their downtime.
ok, you're nitpicking at this point, we live in a PC world, get over it
5: The .500 Rule
Arizona was all smiles on the bench in the Pac-10 tourney opener, but is a sub-.500 team NCAA worthy? If you don't have at least a .500 conference record or win your conference tournament, you're not eligible for the Big Dance. That's it, fellas. Take care, and drive home safely.
I don't care how difficult your league is, if you can't win at least half your conference games, you're not one of the most deserving 34 at-large teams. Instituting the .500 Rule would increase the value of the regular season and provide more opportunities for mid-major programs that sometimes get stiffed by the Rating Percentage Index. The RPI, which is used as a tool by the selection committee, isn't always the mid-majors' best friend.
agreed
6: There is no "I" in team
Officiating crews work as teams. But come tournament time, the NCAA starts with a pool of its 96 best officials and almost always advances them individually rather than as entire crews.
It might not seem like much, but, for continuity's sake, maybe it makes more sense to keep the best crews intact during the tournament.
"It's a legitimate point," says Hank Nichols, the NCAA's national coordinator of men's basketball officiating.
Nichols says the NCAA has the option of advancing entire crews and did so on a regular basis during the mid-1980s, but concerns about officiating neutrality crept in. For example, what if a crew included a Chapel Hill resident and had to ref a Carolina game? Or what if a crew that did lots of SEC games suddenly found itself officiating a Final Four game with, say, Tennessee in it?
Plus, Nichols says the NCAA does take into account how to mix and match the individual officials during the tournament.
Fair enough, but with so many officials doing regular-season games in multiple conferences, the neutrality issue seems less of a worry. So I say, when in doubt, advance the entire crew.
who cares
7: Trophy envy
Three really ugly things: the 2001 Pontiac Aztek, leech pudding, the standard NCAA championship trophy.
The country's best tournament deserves better than the forgettable plank of cherry wood with crystal and aluminum accents presented by the NCAA to the winning team. Seriously, the thing looks like it was bought at a garage sale or extracted with a mechanical claw from a Chuck E. Cheese gift cage.
Time to step up your postseason swag.
I've literally never seen that trophy until now
8: Monday Night Madness
Tip off for the title game isn't until 9:21 p.m. ET. By the time the game gets over, CBS' One Shining Moment crew will need one pillow and a wake-up call.
Not even the Super Bowl or the World Series starts that late. Or as ESPN colleague Pat "The Tree" Forde says: "My kids spend all winter watching college hoops, then they have to go to bed without seeing all of the title game? Bogus."
The NCAA has two words for you and your kids, Pat: Red Bull.
Move to the west coast
9: Profit sharing
The NCAA has a $6 billion contract with CBS for tournament broadcast rights. And according to a recent USA Today item, the research firm TNS Media Intelligence projects the tournament will generate $545 million in advertising dollars (only the NFL postseason does more business).
Meanwhile, the players get next to zilch, and their immediate families have to foot the travel bills to see the kids play.
How about freeing up some of that CBS money to help defray those travel costs? After all, it's those players who are leaving sweat on the court.
Agreed, travel costs should be covered, although that can get slippery. Next thing you know, rooms at the best hotels and dinners at Ruth Chris are considered "travel costs". Aren't the universities getting some of that $6B? Can they use that to cover travel costs?
But more importantly, why does CBS pay $6B for the coverage, if they are only generating $545M in advertising revenue? Is CBS really taking a $5.5B loss on this so they can advertise for other shows like Lost and Big Brother?
10: More flashbacks
Every CBS broadcast during the tournament must include at least one vintage clip of the late, great Al McGuire saying or doing something during or after a game. I'll take the 1996 McGuire Postgame Dance with Syracuse.
And wouldn't it be nice if the NCAA could bring back assorted championship teams from the old days? Give those guys some face time, and give us some basketball history lessons.
There's no shortage of flashbacks, every single year you see NC State '83, Villanova/Georgetown '85 and Duke/Kentucky '92, with plenty of other flashbacks
11: Re-seed
This is a longtime Packer initiative. It made sense then; it makes sense now.
It's simple: If needed, re-seed the Final Four teams. All you do is improve your chances of getting three better games. What's the downside?
Disagree, would make filling out brackets, which is the entire point of this tournament, a total nightmare.
12: Go small
It will never happen, but a Final Four in an actual arena, not a glorified airline hangar, would be an old-school change of pace. I'm not saying to do it every year, but maybe every six or seven years.
I understand the financial benefits of a huge venue (the selection committee has a mininum 40,000-seat standard for Final Fours), but going nondome every so often isn't going to bankrupt the NCAA. I nominate Rupp Arena, Conseco Fieldhouse, Staples Center, Hinkle Fieldhouse (too small, I know, but what the hell) and Madison Square Garden.
Rupp Area? So what happens if Kentucky makes it to the finals? (Long shot, I know)
13: More Kevin Harlan
You know when those little kids wipe up the sweat beads in the foul lane during TV timeouts? CBS' Harlan could make that sound exciting. The guy is a human amphetamine.
Two Words: GUS JOHNSON
14: Less coaches
Seriously, I don't need to see another close-up of Duke's Mike Krzyzewski on the sideline. I don't need to see another close-up of any coach on the sideline. If they begin weeping or start singing show tunes, then, yeah, feel free to aim the camera their way.
Otherwise, I prefer to watch the actual game. I can see Krzyzewski during a State Farm commercial.
Agreed
15: Don't forget the little people
The San Antonio Alamodome is configured for a Final Four seating capacity of 44,536. You know how many tickets were available to the general public through the ticket lottery system? About 4,600, according to the NCAA.com Web site.
Altogether, including the lottery, hospitality packages, etc., an NCAA spokesperson says there were about 10,000 tickets made available to the general public, with a "substantial" increase expected for next year at Detroit's Ford Field.
Bottom line: What's the point of having the Final Four in a dome if you're going to squeeze out Mr. and Mrs. Joe Hoops?
Agreed, especially when they are getting $6B in revenue from TV, you think they could open up a few more seats for the fans.
moe. - 02/02/2008 - Orpheum Theater, Boston, MA
7:52 PM EST Friday, February 8 2008
Last weekend Eileen and I headed up to Boston to visit Kevin and Jaime and see our favorite band, moe. Here's a little clip from the show I posted to YouTube:
I have seen moe. probably 20-30 times and I think this might be the best show I've been to, although I feel like every time I see moe., it's the best show ever. But this one really was great. For those of you who don't know moe., they are a Jamband, which is a sort of Rock-Fusion similar to Phish and many other bands. One of the great things about Jamband is that the continue the tradition initiated by the Grateful Dead of allowing and encouraging their fans to bring audio equipment to the shows and record and distribute audience recordings.
Typically these recording are not as high quality as a live album, which uses the feed from the soundboard mixed with some audience microphones. Audience recording just use a microphone, so the clarity isn't as good, but it does often better capture the feel of a live show as it collects the ambient noise of the crowd. This show is no exception and there is an excellent audience recording available from the Live Music Archive at http://www.archive.org/details/moe2008-02-02.flac or from the BitTorrent site that I originally downloaded it from.
Here's the setlist:
moe.
February 2, 2008
Orpheum Theater, Boston, MA
I: Also Sprach Zarathusa* > Crab Eyes, Queen of Everything, Understand,
All Roads Lead to Home > Waiting for the Punchline,
Brent Black > Bring You Down > Brent Black
II: Skrunk > Lazarus, Lost Along the Way > Brittle End,
Four > Yodelittle** > Rebubula
Encore: Raise a Glass, Captain America
* Not played by the band, recording played over PA while the band took stage
** Baby Elephant Walk tease
For me, the highlights of the show were the Brent Black > Bring You Down > Brent Black, which was something original that I've never heard on any recording, the 2001 theme right into Crab Eyes to start the show, the Skrunk > Lazarus 2nd set and the epic Four > Yodelittle > Rebebula to close the 2nd set.
Brad Mehldau - Largo
8:30 PM EST Friday, November 16 2007
It's been too long since I've had a music post, so here's one. If you like jazz, specifically piano jazz, the album Largo by Brad Mehldau is one you have to pick up. It has a mix of originals and covers, but the covers have a unique feel. The first track is "When it Rains", an aptly titled song that gets the album off to a somber mood, but builds energy throughout the track. The next track "You're Vibing Me" features extensive use of a vibraphone. It's not my favorite song the album, but it does fit within a common motif, a common sound that is throughout the album, which I like. I don't like albums that aren't cohesive and sound like a collection of songs, rather than one body of work.
So the next track "Dutsy McNugget" is one of my favorites. It has a catch lick and upbeat tempo. After that is the tune "Dropjes", which has kind of an odd, Avant-garde sound. The next track is a cover of Radiohead's "Paranoid Android". I think it's a fantastic rendition that has a dramatic feel. "Franklin Avenue" is nice, but doesn't particularly stand out. "Sabbath" breaks from the mood of the album a bit with a heavy, industrial, rock sound.
Up next is another cover, this time it's the Beatles "Dear Prudence", which much like "Paranoid Android" has a dramatic feel, giving a different sounds than the original. "Free Willy" starts of with some ambient sounds, then adds a frenetic bass line, and maintains a quirky style throughout the song. "Alvarado" has a tribal beat and a somber feel. The next track is titled "Wave / Mother Nature's Son". It is fast paced, features the vibraphone again and eventually transitions into another Beatles White Album cover "Mother Nature's Sun". The final track "I Do" is solo piano, in stark contrast to the drum and bass grooves present on every other track on the album. It's a great closer to a great album and you owe to yourself to check this album out.