From CNN:
US home prices rose in August for the seventh straight month
US home prices continued to rise in August, hitting a new record high and marking the seventh consecutive month of increases. Even as mortgage rates topped 7% in August, historically low inventory continued to push up the price of a home.
Prices rose 0.9% in August from the month before, according to seasonally adjusted data from the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller US National Home Price Index released Tuesday.
Compared to a year ago, the national composite index also rose, with prices up 2.6% from August 2022, according to Case-Shiller data.
“One measure of the strength of the housing market is the relationship of current prices to their historical levels,” said Craig Lazzara, managing director at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
August saw record-high price levels, he said. The National Composite, the 10-City Composite, and seven individual cities (Atlanta; Boston; Charlotte, North Carolina; Chicago; Detroit; Miami and New York) were at all-time highs in August.
“Observing the breadth of price changes provides insight into another dimension of market health,” Lazzara said.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, prices increased in 19 of 20 cities in August — and Cleveland only missed by a hair.
…
While 12 of the 20 cities reported higher prices in the year ending August 2023 versus the year ending July 2023, seven of 20 cities reported lower prices.
Chicago led the way for the fourth consecutive month, with prices up 5% from a year ago; followed by New York, with prices up 4.98% from a year ago; and Detroit, with prices up 4.8%.
Prices fell most in the West: Home prices in Las Vegas were down by 4.9% and Phoenix were down by 3.9%.
The Midwest, where prices are up 3.9% from a year ago, continues to be the nation’s strongest region. It is followed by the Northeast, where prices are up 3.8%.
In the West and Southwest prices were down 0.9% and 0.8% respectively.
first
Rats foiled again.LOL
All eyes on the job numbers this morning.
Blowout to the upside? Party Time?
150,000. Weak. Striker impact
Some revisions weaker.
Ten 457
Jobs disappoint, UE ticks up.
Uh oh, dark stool Brandon needs all spin personnel to report for duty!
Fabius Maximus says:
November 2, 2023 at 11:09 pm
“Fun day in court today…”
Actually, a very bad day for the Dems in and around the courts yesterday…First Joe sends a shot across the bow of the complaining Dem mayors by having the FBI raid Adams’ top fund raiser, then in Bridgeport, CN the election is overturned when a Dem councilmember is caught on video stuffing ballots, and then late in the day Sam Bankman-Fraud, Joe’s largest donor (of other people’s money, as we now know), goes down. 3…2…1 until the stooges show up with the excuses…
Recession cometh? Bonds and jobs report says so.
Stock market will have its last rally before it gets body slammed in first qt 2024? Hard to tell with how fast these algos work these days, but that’s what it looks like.
Speaking of jobs and WFH. Buddy of mine is on a “sales call” for a new Tech gig, the customer and him went mountain biking in the mountains out west. He did not know what he was in for 27 miles of back woods riding lol. He is 48 years old, and probably not going to be able to move today from the breathing he put himself thru yesterday!.
Did he win the deal?
I did not ask we were chatting last night about my new gig. He was busy looking for a hot tub lol!
No reaction to the SBF verdict?
Speaking of Bicycles.
My son wanted a new bike for his birthday, he had definitely outgrown his old one his shoe size is now 11 and he will be taller than me soon. I was able to find the bike he wanted a bit cheaper from a bike shop out west. All the same drop shipping anyway.
Reminds me of the Diamond Back and GT Performer bikes we coveted as kids, for trick riding.
This is what the kids want today to do wheelies and the even crazier kids sometimes into oncoming traffic….
https://www.sebikes.com/products/big-ripper-29-21?variant=40482693480546
Ed – Jury went out had dinner and came back unanimous very quickly. That must have been some dinner.. If anything he should have not taken the stand SBF said “I Don’t recall” around 140 times during the cross examination from the Prosecutor. Also did not help that they setup a chat group in Slack called “Wire Fraud” and all of his lieutenants took a deal and testified against him.
He should have went for whatever deal there was to be had to avoid a trial. He may never see the outside of parison for 40 years or more if he lives that long for going to a Jury Trial no Judge is going to be sympathetic to all of the lies he told on the stand.
Some kids like to ride bikes, some boomers like to use taxpayer money to ride kids:
North Dakota GOP state senator who is accused of having sex with a minor in the Czech Republic had some flights paid for by the TAXPAYER
State Sen. Ray Holmberg, 79, was arrested Monday and released after pleading not guilty to the charges
Holmberg used state funds to pay for at least three trips to that city and to other destinations in Europe
The trips were arranged through the Germany-based Global Bridges teacher exchange program
Seems Mayor Adams took about $70,000 from FAKE straw donors in Brooklyn. When interviewed the donors said they did not give Mayor Adams money.
“Sertac Varol, a Queens resident whose name appears in campaign records, told THE CITY that he did not recall donating to the Eric Adams campaign, and that he doesn’t believe he has ever donated to a political campaign in his life.”
https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/11/02/adams-donations-fbi-turkey-straw-donors/
Juice, I had the GT performer. The gyro on it to twist the handlebars was awesome. I remember we always would transport each other on the pegs around town.
34 year old son stabs his parents to death in Barnegat. A lot of angry unstable people out there.
A house goes on the market. There will still be 100 offers by next week.
3b says:
November 3, 2023 at 10:04 am
34 year old son stabs his parents to death in Barnegat. A lot of angry unstable people out there.
How many shoplifting visits at CVS does it take to make that kind of money?
Seems Mayor Adams took about $70,000 from FAKE straw donors in Brooklyn. When interviewed the donors said they did not give Mayor Adams money.
“New” Beatles song sucks.
Some things are just meant to die. Or stay buried. Or get lost.
Horny young teachers, not happy with the men they marry. What exactly is feminism teaching?
Newlywed Iowa teacher, 24, is accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old student and sending nudes to two other kids on Snapchat
Cassidy Kraus, 24, resigned from her job with IKM-Manning Schools on August 25, just three days before her husband filed for divorce
At the time, the school board announced that they were investigating alleged conduct by Kraus after a parent reported her for sending illicit materials
Last week, Kraus was arrested and charged with lascivious acts with a child, dissemination of obscene material to a minor and third-degree sexual abuse
If Pumps starts sending me AI enhanced dick picks…
UBS exits the municipal bond negotiated underwriting business for a second time. They exited back in 2008, re entered the business in Fall of 2017, and now 5 years later they are out again.
Not too long ago there was a case where two brothers stabbed five family members; mom, dad, a third brother and two sisters. Home schooled Oklahoma family IIRC. Between 20-30 stab wounds to each deceased. Cool as a cucumber during the interrogation, just calmly and methodically explaining they did it for notoriety and fame. Their plan was to just keep killing people they met on the road until they reached a body count of fifty. They said it would look good on Wikipedia rankings.
The killings in the house proved more difficult than they thought – planned to use a crossbow but used knives for everything – and one surviving member called 911 so they never got to go on the killing spree on the road.
Def a brain wiring thing, but it is interesting that in this case they both went ahead with it, makes the brain wiring case harder here.
Yup.
https://youtu.be/48AOOynnmqU?t=42
Adams is getting a little taste of weaponized government. Welcome to the banana republic where you can’t challenge the status quo or the establishment will destroy you. He allowed his own city to be ruined to conform to party orthodoxy. What a moron.
10:28 it’s forgettable but that’s not the point.
It’s a lovely little gift from Sir Paul. And Ringo!
Love those guys.
11:46 tHeY wEapOniZed the gubmint when I broke the lawsZ
Yup….probably going to make money on NHMD. LMAO…rather be lucky than good. 8k comes out on Monday. Let’s go!!
No, they weaponized the law when my outspokenness threatens their plans. The irs shows up at taibi’s house on the day he testifies about censorship. They’ve used terrorist teaching tools against school board parents. They selectively prosecute even you are from man for the establishment plans. They’ve shattered the constitution in every possible way to protect their power. This is a banana republic.
they weaponized the law when my outspokenness threatens their plans.
They weaponized the law when they kneeled on a man’s neck for a “possible” fake twenty.
Anyone is a potential criminal. All it takes is an allegation and some heroes, and it’s off to the races.
America is triggered. Sometimes by stupidity, sometimes on purpose.
If you are clean you have nothing to worry about, right Adams?
Right Trump?
Right Dementia Joe?
Right Menendez?
Right Giuliani?
Right Hunter Biden?
They are only supposed to go after someone shoplifts from Target. You know, the proletariat.
Phoenix, LAX, and other OrangeLovers…
That was my thing. They weaponized the government against me because I was challenging the dollar. Don’t believe what they said about me. I’m very honest. My mistake is using Max Bialystock like promotional material and I followed the accounting style as per Leo Bloom’s accounting book.
BTW, I saw a lot of OrangeHeads buying those accounting books. So come 2025 if OrangeTraitor gets in again my so called “corruption” is going to be considered “boy scout” stuff.
While hanging around I had a talk with another innocent elected official gentlemen that happens to be from NJ and he was talking about the possibilities if Orange gets in and goes full steam ahead against the weaponizers – think about it – No FBI and only non-weaponizing US Attorneys.
He was talking about setting up offshore structures to get “campaign donations”, he said never called them bribes. He can fanthom his underlings making a killing – think want a “passport” or Social Security claim -well send in a fully loaded gift card with application.
Just like this https://youtu.be/x-_17t-v9dA
Traitor,
Go look up Joe McCarthy and tell us about weaponized govt. I guess that was ok bc it imprisoned hollyweirdos, right? Oh no, it only existed when an Orange idiot told us about it…deep state..ahhh.
BREAKING!
A New York judge has rejected Ivanka Trump’s legal maneuver to try to avoid taking the stand in her father’s $250 million fraud trial next week.
The mother-of-three argued testifying would place ‘undue hardship’ on her – and noted the scheduled testimony next week comes in the middle of a school week.
BBF,
1) What
Phoenix,
Yeah I thought ‘Free As A Bird’ was very well done. They should have stopped at that one. Even the music video was good with the clips of the Beatles, etc. This new song doesn’t do anything for me.
LAX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLXh6IY9bCw
Agree Chad. I liked Free As a Bird as it had enough substance and at least three of members contributed. Watching Now and Then video, it feels like what Pat Metheny called ‘muscial necrophilia’, similar to what Kenny G did to Louis Armstrong’s Wonderful World (though not nearly as bad.)
* BofA Warns
‘Fear Just as Costly as Greed,’
Says Buy US Stocks
Still the best musical takedown of all time..
Pat Metheny on Kenny G
Question:
Pat, could you tell us your opinion about Kenny G – it appears you were quoted as being less than enthusiastic about him and his music. I would say that most of the serious music listeners in the world would not find your opinion surprising or unlikely – but you were vocal about it for the first time. You are generally supportive of other musicians it seems.
Pat’s Answer:
Kenny G is not a musician I really had much of an opinion about at all until recently. There was not much about the way he played that interested me one way or the other either live or on records.
I first heard him a number of years ago playing as a sideman with Jeff Lorber when they opened a concert for my band. My impression was that he was someone who had spent a fair amount of time listening to the more pop oriented sax players of that time, like Grover Washington or David Sanborn, but was not really an advanced player, even in that style. He had major rhythmic problems and his harmonic and melodic vocabulary was extremely limited, mostly to pentatonic based and blues-lick derived patterns, and he basically exhibited only a rudimentary understanding of how to function as a professional soloist in an ensemble – Lorber was basically playing him off the bandstand in terms of actual music.
But he did show a knack for connecting to the basest impulses of the large crowd by deploying his two or three most effective licks (holding long notes and playing fast runs – never mind that there were lots of harmonic clams in them) at the key moments to elicit a powerful crowd reaction (over and over again). The other main thing I noticed was that he also, as he does to this day, played horribly out of tune – consistently sharp.
Of course, I am aware of what he has played since, the success it has had, and the controversy that has surrounded him among musicians and serious listeners. This controversy seems to be largely fueled by the fact that he sells an enormous amount of records while not being anywhere near a really great player in relation to the standards that have been set on his instrument over the past sixty or seventy years. And honestly, there is no small amount of envy involved from musicians who see one of their fellow players doing so well financially, especially when so many of them who are far superior as improvisors and musicians in general have trouble just making a living. There must be hundreds, if not thousands of sax players around the world who are simply better improvising musicians than Kenny G on his chosen instruments. It would really surprise me if even he disagreed with that statement.
Having said that, it has gotten me to thinking lately why so many jazz musicians (myself included, given the right “bait” of a question, as I will explain later) and audiences have gone so far as to say that what he is playing is not even jazz at all. Stepping back for a minute, if we examine the way he plays, especially if one can remove the actual improvising from the often mundane background environment that it is delivered in, we see that his saxophone style is in fact clearly in the tradition of the kind of playing that most reasonably objective listeners WOULD normally quantify as being jazz. It’s just that as jazz or even as music in a general sense, with these standards in mind, it is simply not up to the level of playing that we historically associate with professional improvising musicians. So, lately I have been advocating that we go ahead and just include it under the word jazz – since pretty much of the rest of the world OUTSIDE of the jazz community does anyway – and let the chips fall where they may.
And after all, why he should be judged by any other standard, why he should be exempt from that that all other serious musicians on his instrument are judged by if they attempt to use their abilities in an improvisational context playing with a rhythm section as he does? He SHOULD be compared to John Coltrane or Wayne Shorter, for instance, on his abilities (or lack thereof) to play the soprano saxophone and his success (or lack thereof) at finding a way to deploy that instrument in an ensemble in order to accurately gauge his abilities and put them in the context of his instrument’s legacy and potential.
As a composer of even eighth note based music, he SHOULD be compared to Herbie Hancock, Horace Silver or even Grover Washington. Suffice it to say, on all above counts, at this point in his development, he wouldn’t fare well.
But, like I said at the top, this relatively benign view was all “until recently”.
Not long ago, Kenny G put out a recording where he overdubbed himself on top of a 30+ year old Louis Armstrong record, the track “What a Wonderful World”. With this single move, Kenny G became one of the few people on earth I can say that I really can’t use at all – as a man, for his incredible arrogance to even consider such a thing, and as a musician, for presuming to share the stage with the single most important figure in our music.
This type of musical necrophilia – the technique of overdubbing on the preexisting tracks of already dead performers – was weird when Natalie Cole did it with her dad on “Unforgettable” a few years ago, but it was her dad. When Tony Bennett did it with Billie Holiday it was bizarre, but we are talking about two of the greatest singers of the 20th century who were on roughly the same level of artistic accomplishment. When Larry Coryell presumed to overdub himself on top of a Wes Montgomery track, I lost a lot of the respect that I ever had for him – and I have to seriously question the fact that I did have respect for someone who could turn out to have such unbelievably bad taste and be that disrespectful to one of my personal heroes.
But when Kenny G decided that it was appropriate for him to defile the music of the man who is probably the greatest jazz musician that has ever lived by spewing his lame-ass, jive, pseudo bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, fucked up playing all over one of the great Louis’s tracks (even one of his lesser ones), he did something that I would not have imagined possible. He, in one move, through his unbelievably pretentious and calloused musical decision to embark on this most cynical of musical paths, shit all over the graves of all the musicians past and present who have risked their lives by going out there on the road for years and years developing their own music inspired by the standards of grace that Louis Armstrong brought to every single note he played over an amazing lifetime as a musician. By disrespecting Louis, his legacy and by default, everyone who has ever tried to do something positive with improvised music and what it can be, Kenny G has created a new low point in modern culture – something that we all should be totally embarrassed about – and afraid of. We ignore this, “let it slide”, at our own peril.
His callous disregard for the larger issues of what this crass gesture implies is exacerbated by the fact that the only reason he possibly have for doing something this inherently wrong (on both human and musical terms) was for the record sales and the money it would bring.
Since that record came out – in protest, as insignificant as it may be, I encourage everyone to boycott Kenny G recordings, concerts and anything he is associated with. If asked about Kenny G, I will diss him and his music with the same passion that is in evidence in this little essay.
Normally, I feel that musicians all have a hard enough time, regardless of their level, just trying to play good and don’t really benefit from public criticism, particularly from their fellow players. but, this is different.
There ARE some things that are sacred – and amongst any musician that has ever attempted to address jazz at even the most basic of levels, Louis Armstrong and his music is hallowed ground. To ignore this trespass is to agree that NOTHING any musician has attempted to do with their life in music has any intrinsic value – and I refuse to do that. (I am also amazed that there HASN’T already been an outcry against this among music critics – where ARE they on this?????!?!?!?!, magazines, etc.). Everything I said here is exactly the same as what I would say to Gorelick if I ever saw him in person. and if I ever DO see him anywhere, at any function – he WILL get a piece of my mind and (maybe a guitar wrapped around his head.)
This type of musical necrophilia – the technique of overdubbing on the preexisting tracks of already dead performers – was weird when Natalie Cole did it with her dad on “Unforgettable” a few years ago, but it was her dad. When Tony Bennett did it with Billie Holiday it was bizarre, but we are talking about two of the greatest singers of the 20th century who were on roughly the same level of artistic accomplishment. When Larry Coryell presumed to overdub himself on top of a Wes Montgomery track, I lost a lot of the respect that I ever had for him – and I have to seriously question the fact that I did have respect for someone who could turn out to have such unbelievably bad taste and be that disrespectful to one of my personal heroes.
But when Kenny G decided that it was appropriate for him to defile the music of the man who is probably the greatest jazz musician that has ever lived by spewing his lame-ass, jive, pseudo bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, fucked up playing all over one of the great Louis’s tracks (even one of his lesser ones), he did something that I would not have imagined possible. He, in one move, through his unbelievably pretentious and calloused musical decision to embark on this most cynical of musical paths, shit all over the graves of all the musicians past and present who have risked their lives by going out there on the road for years and years developing their own music inspired by the standards of grace that Louis Armstrong brought to every single note he played over an amazing lifetime as a musician. By disrespecting Louis, his legacy and by default, everyone who has ever tried to do something positive with improvised music and what it can be, Kenny G has created a new low point in modern culture – something that we all should be totally embarrassed about – and afraid of. We ignore this, “let it slide”, at our own peril.
Bystander,
I feel the same way every time I hear a group of drunks who feel obliged to sing along with Neil Diamond “Sweeeeeet Caroliiiine bah baah baaah”. Except Neil Diamond isn’t some great talent being disrespected and isn’t even dead yet.
I can do without Metheny or Kenny G. But you gotta admit Kenny G knows how to market his product.
Still the best musical takedown of all time..
That was epic! LOL.
What drives me absolutely insane is when a game show type crowd claps in eighth note staccato rhythm which sounds like a bunch of fucking m0rons. I have no problem with someone who dances with two left feet but muppets with zero aptitude for musical cadence makes me want to dig my nails into my own flesh.
Joyce, where are you??
No One,
Well, to be fair, even Pat’s recognized that he knows how to market..well in his own way
“This controversy seems to be largely fueled by the fact that he sells an enormous amount of records while not being anywhere near a really great player in relation to the standards that have been set on his instrument over the past sixty or seventy years.”
I am making it a Jaco Friday. I know Pat respected the hell out of him. Have a good one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgntkGc5iBo
No One,
Got to know your trivia. Movie is “The Producers” .
FTX’s sales material came out of Max Bialystock -aka the crooked producer (Zero Mostel).
FTX’s bookeeping and accounting was done like Leo Bloom-aka the accountant (Gene Wilder) would do or was done by Orange Traitor’s top accountant
Allen Weiselberg.
No One,
Want a good laugh? They let this crap go on for years, then ban a song. Muppets. Guess they don’t play this in the Catholic Church either. Nor the Boy Scouts.
In a ridiculous move, Penn State officials have decided to remove the Neil Diamond classic, “Sweet Caroline”, from the music rotation at Beaver Stadium. The Altoona Mirror reported that officials felt the line “touching you touching me” would be inappropriate for people to sing in the aftermath of the Sandusky scandal.
Lou Marini>Kenny G
If you like this music, this is a pretty good example of a great cover band.
https://youtu.be/9_torOTK5qc
More dirty democrat tricks in the NJ elecitons.
https://www.nj.com/politics/2023/11/nj-judge-freezes-bank-account-of-dark-money-group-behind-phantom-candidates.html
Poor Neil Diamond.
Gets cancelled because of another man’s misdeeds.
There is no justice in America.
The King..
“So Stan Druckenmiller put on a leveraged 2yr position in October and literally nailed the top. They’re down like 40 bps in 2 weeks. He’s been doing this consistently for decades now. In my opinion he’s the greatest investor of all time.”
left: battle tomorrow for 1st place; am I too early? :)
https://ecachockey.com/standings.aspx?path=mhockey
I love when these bank failures are announced on a Friday night.
Btw, I knew these job numbers were bs when I started having problems with my tenants. Way better barometer.
No idea why the hate for such a beautiful song. Grateful for another Beatles song.
That band was amazing…watching the growth through their music, album after album. That’s what i feel about this latest song. Same with new blink song…really powerful songs showing the growth of the bands.
No hate here, the song just doesn’t do anything for me. You have to ask yourself, if this song wasn’t released by “The Beatles” would anyone be interested in it?