This will be my last response to you regardless of whether you reply. I'm bored and annoyed and I have no time for people who feel the need, on a Phish website, to say things like 'I'm currently producing a feature film that you will be hearing about in the coming months.'

And, what do you mean by "chromatic understanding" with regard to Hornsby? Do you know what chromatic means? Are you sure you didn't mean "harmonic" understanding?

I did mean 'harmonic.' Apparently my baby son has decided to steal my vocabulary as well as my sleep.

Be careful in future: when you praise someone's facility with words, then say things like 'Do you know what chromatic means,' it makes you seem unserious and juvenile. Which is a darn shame, because you've otherwise given not even a single instant's evidence of being either of those things.

***

I've written several drafts of this comment and can't settle on the right way to go about it.

I realize that it's futile going back and forth with someone who isn't interested in learning about music through discussion - who just wants to win a fight. I dislike that aspect of my own character and it's nauseating to recognize it in your comments here. So my desire to talk about the music (Weir's China > Rider solo (5/3/72, right?) being built out of exciting rhythm patterns, he's a fine rhythm player as I said, but otherwise not leaping out of the headphones for me; Lesh's very very simple/repetitious bass figures on that Dark Star, and his (willfully perverse?) objection to root/downbeat bass playing sometimes undercutting climactic moments in jams; Keith's work on the Truckin' jam (5/26/72?) being really good indeed, and my opinion of Keith being coloured by his withdrawn playing during his/Donna's later time with the band; and Anastasio's own rhythm work with Phil'n'Friends in '99 being a nice illustration of the musical/intuitive flexibility that pure mechanical facility can provide) is lessened. My own compulsion to explain, again and again and fucking again, why the Dead's total inability to play music like Phish's is not a mark against them, just a boring fact about their training and playing style...well, it's outweighed by other desires.

So since you're fond of ad hominems, let's take a beat for those instead. You're projecting your own insecurities on me: talking about 'self-serving opinions' while feeling compelled to mention your job, your music school, your 'experience'; castigating me for vagueness when most of your comments are flat assertions of the Dead's miraculous blah blah; namedropping in order to make a point about the lame predictability of namedropping (and misspelling Debussy, for colour!); harping endlessly on the difference between our respective definitions of chops while falsely claiming I haven't explained mine; and of course building up in your Grand Finale to this...

But, the question is, do you even know what that means or have the slightest idea how to explain it, or do you simply rely on a composite of opinions from friends you think know what they're talking about to support your emotional need to view and promote Phish in the manner that you do?

...which is evidence that you didn't understand my post and aren't actually interested in exchanging ideas about music. You want to be the Big Swinging Dick. That's why you didn't ask about my own musical training, you just (1) presumed and (2) started talking about yours.

OK, by all means, have it: you can be the Dick if that's what you want.

You can reply if you want @robw911, but I don't expect to revisit this thread anytime soon, and I'm not really making any arguments here either - there's probably no percentage for you in replying. Best to just enjoy the weather, the next thing.

I apologize to everyone else for letting this thread get burdened with personal nonsense and namecalling. Apparently I'm a magnet for that kind of thing - which I say in self-criticism, not self-defense!