I'm mostly not a "be a part of the crowd" kind of guy to begin with. (Shocking, I know.) But yeah, the increasing emphasis on so-called entertainment really takes away from the basketball from my perspective. The best basketball I've ever watched from a pure watching experience perspective is probably summer league at Target Center back when they hosted a small contingent of franchises (late 00s?). I remember sitting front row back when the Knicks had rookies David Lee and Nate Robinson, and Ron Artest was, I think, coming back from his suspension and playing summer league, obviously dominating everyone. You could hear everything every coach said, and 2/3 of what players said. Barely any fans. A good time!

Actually there was one unbelievable moment in one of those summer games. I recall Nate Robinson dunking over about 4-5 people--I mean that literally, he rose up over these people, literally atop them--and dunked. David Lee went nuts, walking along the first row talking to people (including me and a friend). "Did you see that? I've never seen anything like that in my life," he kept saying. It was a pretty spectacular dunk!

Never. I enjoy the occasional game but for the most part I'd rather watch sports in relative peace and quiet.

Nice change. Not only to abolish the conference differential, but hopefully (by picking players and playing for charities) picking up the level of play somewhat. I get that nobody is going to go all-out during an exhibition in the middle of the regular season and risk injury, but it has truly turned into a joke in the past 10-15 years. At least back in the 80s it was accepted that you'd come out flashy for the fans, but once you got deeper into the game, the players were trying to win. Sometimes they even played--GASP!--defense!

Some great, great stuff there!

After Williams they still have 16 fully guaranteed contracts, so someone else still has to go.

I’m guessing Jefferson.

Reportedly 90% of Catalonian voters chose independence, but that was from only 50% of eligible voters casting ballots. It seems they are unilaterally going forward toward independence. It will be an interesting near future.

Priority and contractual obligations might be two different things. I have no idea but it’s entirely possible that doing Zombies shows when they overlap is because of business obligations, not loyalty.

Oh, I think the government recognizes that it isn't in reality a fringe movement, and that the vote will be in favor of independence or at least close enough to show a legitimate movement. But the messaging is easier for them if they can remotely credibly say it is actually just a fringe movement. It's not their actual assessment or the reality that matters, but just the better messaging for them as they see it.

But you're absolutely right that once they take to extreme measures to suppress the counter-messaging/reality, it ends up making them look far, far worse.

I would guess--focus on "guess"--that the reason the Spanish government wants to shut it down is that, valid or not, the results of a referendum would lend credence to the secession movement. It's one thing to say "yes, some people talk about secession, but it's just a fringe movement making a lot of noise." Conversely, imagine if Catalonia can point to a vote where 70%, 80% of the population support secession. (Iraqi Kurdistan's vote was something north of 90% for independence, presumably because many non-Kurds boycotted.) Even if the vote is called illegitimate, those kinds of numbers do force the state to alter its messaging.

I've got a friend who, while American, lives in Barcelona and said it has been absolutely insane there. Both sides, he claims, are getting heated and making irrational arguments for the most part. And now, I hear on NPR that they're cutting power, cutting phone lines, and otherwise trying to block communications of the pro-vote movement. It's really out of hand, from what I can tell.

While I think there's plenty of good material for a solo setlist, there's probably approximately zero percent chance that ever happens. I'd bet he never even does 50% solo material. (Even in the full-album shows, there was a full set plus encore of BBs songs, so he probably never quite hit half.) And let's be serious, most people go see Brian mostly because of his Beach Boys music.

Did they waive anyone yet to make room for Wade? They already had too many players under contract and were likely to waive Edy Tavares and Kay Felder. Now I'd guess somebody else has to go. Richard Jefferson?

I think they should have been forced to stay together despite not getting along. That makes more sense.

Right?!?!

If he's going to be in a traveling oldies act, he may as well stay where he is, where at least he's featured throughout the shows rather than 2-3 songs.

Getting back on the topic of Al Jardine material. 

If Al decides to do another solo album one day, (I think I posted in another thread) I'd like to see him work with Jeff Lynne.  They could do some originals together.  No BB covers.  And it would be a nice album. 

I'd love to see Al work with Jeff Lynne. But I don't think Al could afford him, and no indie label that signs Al would pay for Lynne.

Yeah, if anything it would have to be a passion project for Jeff.  But, since ELO seems to be slowly becoming an active band again, its probably all a pipe dream.  

Or for Al, because certainly he does have the funds to hire Jeff ... it's just whether he'd be comfortable putting his own money into something that wouldn't be profitable.

Getting back on the topic of Al Jardine material. 

If Al decides to do another solo album one day, (I think I posted in another thread) I'd like to see him work with Jeff Lynne.  They could do some originals together.  No BB covers.  And it would be a nice album. 

While I'm not much of a Jeff Lynne fan, I do think he'd need somebody who could provide material and a sense of production urgency. Realistically, Al doesn't write a whole lot, and he tinkers too long.

Ideally I'd like that collaborator (or one of those collaborators) to be Brian, because he's given Al so much fantastic content over the years. But he's not exactly overly productive these days, either.

I really liked that version Al did with Richard Barone of "If I Had a Hammer." I don't know much of anything about Barone, but I wonder if he or someone else could spur Al's interest in folk music and do harmony-heavy stuff in that vein, which might also keep Al from the production tinkering by keeping things simpler.

Totally agree with that. Frankly I'm not even that big a fan of the song to begin with. I mean, it's fine. I don't hate it. But I could have done without any of them. I get the idea of getting together to kick the tires and see where things stood, but you don't have to release it. (Though yes, obviously the song subject matter and title made it an obvious marketing hook.)

Do It Again (pick any of the three recent ones).

No, thank you: I'd rather pretend some didn't exist.

I'm less curious about Waves of Love, just because I don't think it's that good a song. Maybe if they'd rewritten it, keeping the obvious benefits of Carl's vocals wherever they could, but come up with a stronger song overall. Sadly I just don't think the part Carl sang was that good a part, or that excitingly sung.

Agree 100% about the remakes. It's one thing to rerecord and release songs that may have been booted but weren't ever on real releases, as Brian has done on occasion over the years (or I guess as Al did with Wave of Love). But things like Rhonda or California Saga are just entirely unnecessary to me.

To their credit, there *are" some fans who ignore all of the personal/political stuff and give everybody and everything related to the band ten thumbs up, and also stay *consistent* about that. And I do appreciate that. It doesn't make for much interesting discussion in my personal opinion, but I appreciate and respect the optimism and consistency.

I don't even know that it would be optimism. More just area of interest.

I don't count myself in that camp, anyway. I am interested in the goings-on. I just tend to be more detached about it. Keeps the blood pressure in a healthy range. 

You're not wrong, HeyJude.

But I think it's important to remember that it isn't better to be a student of the band, or a journalist digging into the band, or an amateur psychologist of the band, or a tabloid dramatist of the band, than it is to be a fan whose only interest is listening to music. They're different activities, different roles, unrelated to one another. Historians might hate the music; listeners might hate the details of the history. It's when people start belittling the other approaches that I think things get out of hand. The more academic approach may well lead to virtually incontrovertible evidence that somebody involved is an asshole, a criminal, even (for a fictional example). But that doesn't require the purely music fan to care in the slightest if all he wants to do is put sound into his ears.

Not much sympathy coming Pitino's way these days.

I'm REALLY interested in what happens with te NCAA situation.

Yeah. I'm guessing fans are cool with that era ending. (I'm so, so interested in this 76ers team.)

Don't tell me how to live my life.