9-Jan-92 17:04:53-GMT,20237;000000000001 Received: from athos.rutgers.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA17246; Thu, 9 Jan 92 11:51:26 EST Received: by athos.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA00259; Thu, 9 Jan 92 11:51:22 EST Date: Thu, 9 Jan 92 11:51:22 EST Message-Id: <9201091651.AA00259@athos.rutgers.edu> Errors-To: owner-ecto@athos.rutgers.edu Reply-To: ecto@athos.rutgers.edu Sender: ecto@athos.rutgers.edu From: ecto@athos.rutgers.edu To: ecto-request@athos.rutgers.edu Subject: ecto #104 ecto, Number 104 Thursday, 9 January 1992 Today's Topics: *-----------------* Find a vacuum and fill it, or: Fear and Loathing on West Farwell Loose ends from the solstice season's dialogs, _inter alia_ Today's your birthday friend....(& other stuff) Stuff (tm) ======================================================================== Date: 8 January 1992 11:41:33 CST From: Subject: Find a vacuum and fill it, or: Fear and Loathing on West Farwell Vickie's observation that nobody had posted anything about her party last Saturday, I take as an assertion that somebody ought to. In this spirit, I will attempt to do it. I was slowed up in getting there by the way that Chicago's faltering public transportation system actually works much of the time. I had been up much of the night trying to locate where I had filed the Paul Winter Consort tapes featuring Noreen N., as well as my Arson Garden tapes, one of which I had stumbled across only a couple of weeks before, and which Vickie had ex- pressed an interest in hearing. As a result, I was feeling a bit tired when the bus from my neighborhood arrived downtown, and didn't feel like walking all the way from the bus stop to the subway station; so I stayed put and wait- ed for the bus to the other end of the city. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise; I had meant to stop at the copy shop by the elevated station to xerox the inlay card from the one Arson Garden tape I was able to get my hands on (which was the other one than that which I had unearthed, then re-earthed, before), as well as a story on Voice of the Beehive that had appeared in the paper a couple of days later, and in which Vickie had also expressed an interest. I noticed a new copy shop a couple of blocks south of the L stop, disembarked, xeroxed, and walked up to the L, where I noticed that the old copy shop location had been completely superseded by the new one. I had inadvertently saved myself some superfluous walking. I entered the L station, noticed that the escalator was running down, and decided to take the elevator up to the platform. It was beginning to get cold, more due to wind than the actual temperature. In my recent experience, delays on the Howard L line have been quite commonplace, and at that moment it was deja vu all over again. The wait for a train to take me a single stop up the line seemed interminable. One finally arrived, and I was able to warm up a little before arriving at the station nearest to where Vickie lives. I walked the single block south to her street, and began to walk the 2.5 blocks west to her building when I heard another train rumble toward the station, and turned to see if it was headed north (as I had just been) or south. It was the former. Typical vehicle spacing on the CTA: excess waiting, followed by excess buses or trains. But enough of my problems; let's finally cut to the chase, as it were. When I arrived at Vickie's apartment, Kiri, Chip and possibly Chris were watching a laserdisc of various polygons changing shape, kaleidoscope-style, on the screen, to the musical accompaniment of the _Warpaint_ CD, as they munched on nachos and hot cheese dip. I naturally joined in these activities, as did Chris and Vickie's cats from time to time. Eventually, we switched to a laserdisc of animations by a German artist of the 1930's, whose name I've forgotten, with the disc's own audio track replaced by the HGP tape as it has taken shape thus far. I was very impressed; I'm sure all of you will also be. Vickie pointed out the noteworthy coincidence that two people had contributed songs by Thomas Dolby. I think that the original performances of songs that several people contributed were a really nice touch. I was especially delighted with how well my contribution, "A Happy Song" by Flanders and Swann, came through several generations of dubs, at least on the high-quality Katefans sound system. All of us seemed to find this selection amusing. I quipped that perhaps for some future H.*.P. compilation, we should consider doing our own cover version of the number. As far as I can recall, everyone present except the cats (who appeared noncommital) was also amused by this suggestion. As we listened to HGP-In-Progress, and to Noreen N. and some other parts of the winter solstice concert, Chris worked at the computer on possible designs for packaging the recording for Happy. Much of the experimentation centered on how to work a KT graphic into the design, and whether to do the same with a traditional happy-face. The latter, as I recall, was eventually decided against; but there was a modicum of experimentation with a net-style smiley, in commemoration of that which, with the possible exception of Kate, brought us together. (Would it be excessively self-serving to observe that the experimentation with the smiley, as opposed to the older perpendicular yellow version, was my idea? :-) ) Jorn eventually arrived, and the conversation again turned to new topics. With the exception of the films of Mike Leigh and the book on which _GoodFellas _ was based, I can't remember what any of them were. After a while, Chris dem- onstrated the new device on the computer, which allows faxes to be received directly on disk, rather than on paper. Chip eventually had to leave, but Vickie talked him into recording a few words of greeting for the HGP before he did. She then talked us all into recording a few words of collective greeting. Eventually the time drew near when I would have to leave, still haunted by the memory of Katemas night, when the often-feckless CTA took three hours or so to spirit me back home--much of which was spent on the L platform where I first boarded, waiting for trains which either didn't come, or came but didn't stop. With this in mind, Vickie put on a couple of Yma Sumac recordings. Yma's range is truly spellbinding; it is unfortunate that she's out of print on tape. We discussed several films in which she'd appeared over the years, and the old urban legend regarding whether she was really Yma Sumac from Peru or Amy Camus from New Jersey. (Actually, the version I first heard as a child asserted she was from Brooklyn.) Ultimately, my departure became a practical imperative, and I managed to pry myself loose from this pleasurable afternoon of fuzzy blueness and headed for the L station. As I turned the corner onto Morse Avenue, I saw a south- bound train pull out of the station; as a thought experiment, I noted the time so as to be able to gauge the interval between trains. As I walked eastward, I noticed the Record Exchange store, long since closed for the night; I had made a point of not passing by there on the trip up, for fear of coming out laden with tapes while my credit cards are still close to maxed out :-). Much later, the irony dawned on me of the only record chain in the area to carry all of Happy's recordings (in its Evanston store) having a branch so close to the epicenter of Ectophilia in metropolitan Chicago, without carrying them there as well. Happily (uncertain whether pun intended), their outlet on Dempster is also easily accessible by rapid transit--at least in principle; one of these days I'll tell you the story of my trip up there in search of the 1st4. I finally reached the station; as I approached the top of the stairs to the platform, I heard a train pull out; I was dismayed to see that it had been going my way, but reassured that it had only been five minutes since the one before. After another five minutes, I began to worry; but I relaxed when after only another minute or two, the next train finally arrived; I got back downtown in time to catch the express bus home before it knocked off for the night. So Ecto, the mailing list of record, now has its account of last Saturday's festivities. Arguably more banal reading than the spectacle of Ectoians from multiple states (and nations) spontaneously converging on downtown Manhattan for an evening of Chinese food and other amusements; but gratifying in its own right nonetheless. Mitch Pravatiner for the Ecto Griot Society (manufacturers of quality projective psychological tests) ======================================================================== Date: 8 January 1992 15:10:18 CST From: Subject: Loose ends from the solstice season's dialogs, _inter alia_ It was requested that people suggest songs for Happy's possible tour that they couldn't live without from the 1st4. At the gut level, nothing strikes me, personally, as a _sine qua non_; but if a simple suggestion for inclusion is acceptable, may I suggest "Project 499." Not that I find it more spellbinding than any other from a musical standpoint, but the title arouses some idiosyncratic (and mildly lugubrious) connotations for me, which I may go into some other time. I may have the ecto t-shirt thing, which was discussed in these pages not too long ago, figured out. The morning of Vickie's party, I was watching the oriental rug show on public television, on which it was pointed out that if you wash those things about three times a day, they eventually get fuzzy. T-shirts with album covers and other Happy-related pictures have already been produced. (I know this because Vickie was wearing one at the party.) All that needs to be done is to print the graphics on otherwise solid blue shirts, prewash them about three times a day, and--well, you get the idea. As far as imaginative textual sayings on the shirts goes, however, I have yet to think of any. I am also unable to think immediately of a cereal in whose boxes the Happy Rhodes Decoder, dealt with a week or two ago in these pages, could be distributed. Vickie suggested "Crystal Orbs" and "Box H.A.P.," but I've already used both of those for other products. Since we want to adhere to a certain standard of freshness for edible items, the notion of letting the stuff ferment into a Fuzzy Blue breakfast food seems impractical. One of the tougher nuts to crack, in the aggregate. Ironically, if we were putting out a Suzanne Vega cereal we'd be in like flint. With the right artificial coloring, it would be no big deal for SMALL BLUE THINGS to arrive on earth. A good salute to a good song on a good album. Our discussion of it awhile ago aroused a couple of mental images for me that nobody else seemed to mention. The first was environmental--the whole Space Ship Earth thing. The other was the blotting-out of Patricia Bowman by a blue blob during the TV coverage of William Smith's trial. One can almost envision a video essay on the case, with "Today I am a small blue thing" played over shots of the obscured complainant, as a metaphor for the plight of women in her situation. I inadvertently omitted _Raging Bull_ from my list of the best movies on TV during the holidays. New Year's Eve, after the networks and stations did their programs of music great (Bonnie Raitt et al. live from the Hard Rock Cafe) and not so great (Dick Clark's smorgasboard of performers for the adolescent mass market), one was able to relax and savor Robert DeNiro's tour de force performance as Jake LaMotta. Needless to say, I fell asleep on it; but that's neither here nor there. It was good to read the systematic description of _World Cafe_ in these pages last week. I think I will send a copy to my local public radio station, suggesting that they pick up the show. Knowing WBEZ, they would most likely schedule it with their 4 A.M. potpourri of jazz shows; but since I'm often awake at that hour anyway (albeit not usually by conscious design), that might not be such a bad deal after all. Mitch Pravatiner ________________________________________ Happy Birthday Elvis ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 9 Jan 92 02:02 CST From: vickie@chinet.chi.il.us (Vickie Ann Mapes) Subject: Today's your birthday friend....(& other stuff) i*i*i*i*i*i *************** ***HAPPY******* ********BIRTHDAY*** ******************* ******* Gregory ******* ****!footah to you!**** -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: * New or changes made since last post (lots of new names!) Jeanne Schreiter Tue January 3 1967 Capricorn Greg Bossert Tue January 9 1962 OfTheTimes Terry Partis Sun January 22 1933 Rocker * Stephen Thomas Fri February 4 1966 Aquarius Gene Sady Tue February 7 1956 Aquarius Doug Burks Tue February 14 1956 Blank kIrI Hargie Fri March 13 1970 Pisces Barry Wong Thu March 19 1970 Merlin Geoff Carre March 20 Pisces John Baker Tue March 24 1964 Berkeley Valerie Nozick March 25 1971 Aries * Klaus Kluge Sun April 10 1960 Widder Steve VanDevender Sun April 10 1966 Racer Art Liestman Fri April 10 1953 Repeat Harry Foster Sat April 21 1956 NiceGuy Angelos Kyrlidis Fri April 22 1966 Taurus Jeff Burka Thu April 24 1969 GoFlyAKite Gray Abbott May 3 Suprised * Mark Semich Thu May 6 1965 Yield Joe Dembski Wed May 7 1952 Rumple Brian Gregory Thu May 9 1963 Eclectic * Steve Fagg Tue May 13 1958 Taurus Michele Young Thu May 21 1970 Taurmini Perttu Yli-Krekola Thu June 2 1966 Kaksoset Albert Philipsen Mon June 17 1968 Gemini David Lubkin Fri June 20 1958 OurLady Steve Veeneman June 5 1951 GeminiGemini * Courtney Dallas Fri July 9 1971 Cancer Michael Peskura July 9 HallOfFamer * Mitch Pravatiner Mon July 14 1952 Cancer Cathy Guetzlaff July 18 1955 Cancer * David Koehler July 25 Leo Tom Johnson Mon July 25 1966 Leo Rob Woiccak (woj) Sun July 28 1968 Leo John Relph Sat July 28 1962 Leo Bob Kollmeyer Wed July 28 1971 Leo Mark Carroll Fri July 29 1966 Hacker Kate Bush Wed July 30 1958 God Happy Rhodes Mon August 9 1965 HolyGhost Vickie Mapes Wed August 15 1956 Giddy Martin Dougiamas Wed August 20 1969 Positive Dan Segel Tue August 31 1965 Virgo Jorn Barger Pez August 32 1953 Neon Meredith Tarr Wed September 1 1971 Virgo David Blank-Edelman Sat September 9 1967 Neon Chris Williams Tue September 20 1960 Neon 3-D Computer-generated Dan Riley Sun October 8 1961 Libra Brian Bloom Tue October 14 1969 Libra Dave Steiner Sat October 24 1959 Scorpio Jessica Dembski Wed October 29 1969 Scorpio Katie Dougiamas Mon November 4 1974 Scorpio Kevin Bartlett Fri November 21 1952 Scorpio Alan Ezust Fri November 21 1969 Homesick Claudia Spix Wed November 23 1960 Schuetze Justin Bur Fri November 27 1964 Sagittarius Chip Lueck Thu December 5 1968 Sagittarius Henry Kilmer Wed December 11 1968 CallMeHank * Laura Clifford Tue December 17 1957 Sagittarius -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Congrats to Michael Peskura & Courtney Dallas, who share a birthday! Geoff Carre, Gray Abbott, David Koehler & Michael Peskura, Klaus needs the year you were born to be able to figure what day of the week you were born. (We won't tell anyone how old you are...really :-) Remember, if anyone else wants to get on this list, just e-mail me. Michael, thanks for the warm & fuzzy nice things you said about me and my show. The check is in the^H^H^H^H:-) You're very sweet and it's so nice to have you here. Now Steve VanDevender won't have to hold up the entire Northwest all by himself. 2 Ectophiles in Ectopia, yay! Congratulations on the graduation Jeanne, it's good to hear from you! Yes, you could call here anytime. If you find a job in LA and move there, I do hope we can meet before you go west. I'm still getting "User Unknown" bounces from Brian Bloom. Has anyone heard from him lately? Tom, I don't think there will be more than one show that night, but he may be playing again somewhere within a month. I don't have any information yet though. If you and Jeanne can't make this show (and I really hope you can, since it's the first "public" performance of Blash Meth) I'll try and find out any other dates coming up. Vickie vickie@chinet.chi.il.us (seems to still be working fine, I think I trust it now) ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 9 Jan 92 09:13:41 MST From: dbx@olympic.atmos.colostate.edu (Doug Burks) Subject: Stuff (tm) Greetings, A warm fuzzy blue FOOTAH! to Greg on the (hmm, that old?!)th anniversary of his birth. Teach me to say "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow". It snowed. You may or may not have seen the news ("January snow in Colorado" is in the same category as "Dog bites man" as a headline), but Denver got the shit kicked out of it with one to two feet of wet snow. Stapleton airport was closed for a full day by 14" of snow with drifts to 42", stranding thousands of travelers about 500 of whom slept in the airport. One dead and many injured in traffic accidents on streets that were the worst that I've seen in four winters here. Fort Collins lucked out, as the storm moved too far south (as every storm has this winter), so we only saw 7", which compacted to 2" of pure ice on the the roads. The local schools were closed a half hour after school started, causing much cursing amid working parents. Throughout Colorado, it was the worst January snow storm in history, and I was there! (I've also been here for the worst March snow storm in history, but that's another story!) Doug Burks _O_ dbx@olympic.atmos.colostate.edu |< She really is!! Why do you love, weak little thing? You never could handle the hurting ======================================================================== To join ecto, please send electronic mail to the following address: ecto-request@athos.rutgers.edu To have your thoughts included in the next issue, send mail to: ecto@athos.rutgers.edu To subscribe to "Ecto", the printed fanzine, send $8 to: Ecto PO Box 11291 New Brunswick, NJ 08906 Ecto is issued 8 times/year, and will include photos and as much material from non-net members as we can get! Donations above the subscription cost are welcomed - all money goes to bringing you better issues! Your "humble pseudo-moderator" -- jessica (jessica@athos.rutgers.edu)