any word on Caetano? We're sitting in the front row of the balcony, all the way to the left, and there are seats available right behind us.....

In most cases, I think the UK Beatles albums are superior to the US releases, except for Meet the Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour, and Rubber Soul. The US Rubber Soul has better song selection, better flow, and is a more cohesive presentation of their '65 folk-rock sound.

About "Might as Well": have you ever seen the Pixar shorts series, Mater's Tall Tales? There's an episode called "Heavy Metal Mater," where Mater starts a country-rock band that morphs into a heavy metal superstar act; whenever I listen to a show with "Might as Well" in it, I hear Mater singing his "Dad-Gum, Dad-Gum" song in my mind. "Might as Well" was written about the Dead's "Festival Express" 1970 train tour across Canada w/ Janis Joplin, The Band, and Delaney & Bonnie. I'm sure they had the time of their lives, but the song to memorialize the trip seems tossed off.

Thanks for the AMT recommendation. If I can find it available for free, I'll check it out.

Se, I really like Hitchcock and I think he's made many fine films. That being said, I think he's the most overrated director here at RYM (besides Tarantino) and most of his movies are overrated here as well.

But The Birds. Oh, The Birds. What a steaming pile of shit!

As for Can: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aJnsV8F2oY

And what's funny about The Birds is I saw it when I was a kid and thought it stupid and not scary at all. Now I'm a huge birder who always tries to get CLOSER to the birdies.

A jazzbo friend of mine once told me that he thought Dizzy was underrated, or had been eclipsed by the next wave of jazz giants, because he never came up with his own masterwork LP like Kind of Blue or A Love Supreme. Although I think Have Trumpet, Will Excite! might be more famed if it just had a title like Dizzy Blue w/ a moody cover photo, perhaps that is true. Still, he did make a lot of excellent, entertaining albums, and perhaps his real crime is that he was too much fun--while of course Art is supposed to be Serious Business. I think he doesn't get enough credit for his consistent efforts to stretch himself, too. You know, Miles was the restless spirit, while Dizzy was just a bebop pioneer and bon vivant showman--but this wasn't really true. Diz didn't like to stand still any more than Miles did; he was always looking for new sounds, too.

Besides the bebop, big band, Afro-Cuban, calypso, and jazz-funk records I mentioned, he had a go at bossa nova (The New Wave, Dizzy on the French Riviera), orchestral jazz (Perceptions, The New Continent), a collaboration with a jazz choir (Dizzy & the Double Six of Paris), the music of Duke Ellington (A Portrait of Duke Ellington), film scoring (Soundtrack to The Cool World), and who knows what else. That's one thing I like about him; he can't be summed up by just one or two great records. Hopefully, you might find some you like, too. Glad if I could be of any help.

I think we still have one of the originals on VHS around here somewhere, maybe more. I swear, I threw up a little in my mouth when I saw Hate'em Christiansen in the end scene instead of the real Annakin Skywalker. Which begs to ask:

If Annakin was disfigured when he was that young how does the "ghost" Annakin look like a normal dude in his FIFTIES?

...and if RYM is to be believed, that's John Abercrombie on guitar.~!! This is awesome!