Errors-To: owner-ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu Reply-To: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu Sender: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu From: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu To: ecto-request@ns1.rutgers.edu Bcc: ecto-digest-outbound@ns1.rutgers.edu Subject: ecto #288 ecto, Number 288 Friday, 10 July 1992 Today's Topics: *-----------------* Philology imitates life? Re: The uses of DIWIWYL and other picture postcards What if? (was: Just an unusually off-the-wall thought) Bel Canto Re: ecto #287 shoe sizes braindance info strange angels Re: Fuzzy and aged Re: ecto #287 babbling when i should be asleep Today's your birthday friend ... ======================================================================== Date: 9 July 1992 14:45:17 CDT From: Subject: Philology imitates life? Kudos to Angelos for his report on the Greek etymolology of "ecdysiast" (exotic dancer or stripper, to the lay public). What he may or may not have picked up on, but I just did in any event, is that the translation of the "dys" syllable as "dive" may be unwittingly appropriate, since much of this art form is, in fact, practiced in dives (as contrasted with more upmarket kinds of per- formance venues). The undoing of my line of reasoning, of course, is that the "ec" syllable--as Angelos points out--literally translates as "out," so that one who dances/undresses in dives probably should more appropriately be called an endysiast. :-) Then again, I could fall back on the other common use of "dys-" as a prefix in English--meaning bad or poor, by contrast with "eu-," or good. Since many purists in the area of artistic dance are likely to posit that exotic dancers dance badly, by their standards, maybe the connection is salvageable after all. Once again, this mailing list demonstrates its relevance to liberal education. Mitch ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 9 Jul 92 16:10:52 -0400 From: gb10@gte.com (Gregory Bossert) Subject: Re: The uses of DIWIWYL and other picture postcards Angelos extrapolates: >Mitch writes: >>They had what might be conceptualized as an "Ecdysiasts are people too" >>segment ^^^^^^^^^^ >Funny how hellenicisms are used in english where the same word isn't >used in modern greek! one would, i believe, develop an overly optimistic impression of the modern american vocabulary if one were to infer the standard vernacular from Mitch's eloquent, mondo-syllabic posts ;) as far as what cyberpunk is, well, alas, it is largely not very good :) the promise is there, but the execution has been uneven at best... William Gibson's "Neuromancer" brought the concept to mainstream attention and is probably the highlight of the genre so far. i highly recommend George Alec Effinger's trilogy "When Gravity Fails", "A Fire in the Sun", and "The Exile's Kiss" as a entertaining twist on the style -- the books are set in north africa and are steeped in arabic tradition -- mint tea and microchips :) several local clubs (all near MIT, by a non-coincidence) advertise "techno-cyber-raves". there is a close tie between cyberpunk and the industrial/rave music culture -- ironically, Gibson and other cyberauthors seem quite conservative in their musical taste... and in their use of technology -- it is an oft-quoted fact (in alt.cyberpunk circles, anyway ;) that Gibson wrote "Neuromancer" on a manual typewriter :) lessee, a Happy connection?? think think... um... er, well, unless she has started stripping to computer-generated remixes of a Einsturzende Neubaten cover of Box H.A.P.... no? ah well... ;) 0x66 0x6F 0x6F 0x74 0x61 0x68 0x21 -greg -- gb10@gte.com -- bang bump screech grind -- :) ======================================================================== Date: 9 July 1992 15:40:23 CDT From: Subject: What if? (was: Just an unusually off-the-wall thought) I have just reread the interview vignette "Sophie on Sexuality," and notice she never directly addresses the issue of what her actual sexual orientation might be--meaning that if she's indeed gay, she chooses not to make a big thing of it, as is her unalienable right. Were she to be outed involuntarily, might Weird Al Yankovic be inspired to record "Damn, I Wish You'd Kept My Cover?" :-) Mitch ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 9 Jul 92 16:59:35 EDT From: justin@crim.ca (Justin Bur) Subject: Bel Canto welcome back Alan! the new Bel Canto record has a strong effect on people... when I brought it back from Belgium in May and lent it to a friend in Toronto for a day, he didn't want to give it back, and called me cruel for tantalizing him with such music when it wasn't available in North America. Shimmering, warm and bright is a beautiful album (visually, too!); more in the style of Birds of passage than White-out conditions, melancholy, colorful, varied. As has been previously mentioned, they have songs in German and French on this album. The album and the CD-single (which I didn't get! sigh) are all over the place in France and Belgium and Alan mentioned Germany and England and Nettwerk has released their two previous albums in Canada so where is this one? Not here!!! augh. (and also, Bel Canto toured in Europe in April I think... there was a sticker on the CD in France giving dates, all of which were already past by the time I was there. snif.) ah, but Le Rayon Laser in Montreal probably has imported copies! I will check this evening. justin ======================================================================== Subject: Re: ecto #287 Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1992 16:59:20 +0100 From: lisd!breit@ns1.rutgers.edu (Tim Breitkreutz) Hi everybody! I have got to stop lurking... so here goes: S. Alan Ezust says: > I spent last week in London, and I was pleasantly surprised, when as I was > paging through the City Limits magazine, I saw at the Hammersmith Odeon, > a triple bill of Canadian Artists for the American Music Festival (go figure). I believe Most Europeans use the word ``American'' in its more generic sense, meaning a resident of the Americas. This gets lots of hostile reactions from Canadians who don't know better and are insecure about their national identity (myself included sometimes, when I feel particularly overwhelmed). I believe that many persons from South and Central America use the term in the same way. Michael G Peskura says: > Vickie, your kind words mean a lot to me: I hold you responsible for my > interest in r.m.gaffa (with those fascinating playlists!!) and my soaring > interest in music created by women everywhere; I hold you responsible for > this great mailing list (you will ALWAYS be the EctoMa!) and the friends > i'm making because of it (hi, Merow; hi, Neile (thanx for the great > tapes!)); and I trust you will always fight the good fight. You're > pretty wonderful, yerself, Ms Mapes! Which reminds me of my overdue ``how I found Happy'' story--fairly simple actually--I am a long-time fan of Kate Bush and had been reading gaffa for ages. When Vickie posted those playlists I started taking notice and checking for some of the artists at the local college station where I was doing a show, and most of the stuff that I found from her playlists was pretty interesting. That is what prompted me to order Warpaint shortly after it came out, with a fellow Kate-fan at school. It took me a while to appreciate it, but it has become one of my favourite CD's over time. (The other guy decided it was ``too depressing'' :-) So I was away from the net for a while, and when I got back I saw news of the first four being released on CD, so I ordered the two that Vickie recommended, V1 and Ecto. I have grown to appreciate them quite a lot (although I agree on the thumbs down for "To Be E. Mortal"--but the good songs are way more than enough to make up for it!), so now I am patiently awaiting the arrival of the final two cds to complete my collection. So, a big thanks to Vickie for introducing me to Happy Rhodes! > and Dirk writes: > > > And my shoe size is 43 or 9 1/2. > > HolyMoly ... my age and my shoe size (at least in Europe) are now the > same! Strange, my Canadian shoe size is 10.5 and my european (Birkenstock, anyway) size is 43. Maybe that's Dirk's British shoe size? Michael, you may have already missed your age/shoe size convergence :-( On another tangent, I saw Sarah McLachlan on Canada Day (July 1st), in a concert just down the block from where I live. Our community was having a Street Dance, and Sarah was playing for it! It sounded like it might be the kickoff for some more touring because she said they hadn't played for about a month. They sure didn't sound rusty! I am curious as to how popular Sarah is elsewhere. In Edmonton here she gets played on Top40 radio (I think, I don't listen to the stuff myself) and there was quite a huge turnout last week. BTW, the concert was great and there was so much positive energy, it was very therapeutic for me! At first I was afraid the performance would sound too much by the album, but after the first few songs they started getting a bit more interesting. Finally, the last two songs (before the encores), Black, and Steaming were both amazing! Really rocky. I can't wait to see her again some time... Well, that's it for now. Have a round of warm blue fuzzys on me. Tim (tim@cs.ualberta.ca or tim@lisd.UUCP) Suspended in Ecto! ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 9 Jul 92 19:30:18 EDT From: justin@crim.ca (Justin Bur) Subject: shoe sizes Tim writes: > Strange, my Canadian shoe size is 10.5 and my european (Birkenstock, > anyway) size is 43. And my Canadian shoe size is 9.5 and my Birkenstock size 42... which has puzzled me before since size-conversion charts tend to suggest 43 for 9.5. Perhaps Birkenstocks don't need to be as long since they've got lots of room in the other directions? with deep irrelevancy, justin p.s. 15 years till age/size convergence. hmm. ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 9 Jul 92 20:45:52 EDT From: jessica Subject: braindance info Hello.. All you boston people, here's something: Braindance will be playing at the Paradise next wednesday. (july 15). If you go, and you meet lizzit, tell her jessica sent you :) jessica || jessica || It is this that || Don't try to tell me there's no reason for || || lawrence || brings us || any moment in time, every memory of mine. || || koeppel || together. || Those years are lines of color on my face, || || dembski || --Kate || the past is warpaint. --Happy Rhodes || ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 9 Jul 92 23:07:13 EDT From: jessica@maurolycus.rutgers.edu Subject: strange angels I had never heard any laurie anderson though i'd heard lots and lots about her from many people. Finally a few weeks ago I heard a song "strange angels" in a movie. I knew she had an album by that name, and i really liked the song, so i watched at the end and saw that indeed that was laurie anderson. So then just the other day I happened to find strange angels in a used bin for only $6.99! It's one of the best deals i've had, cd-wise, in a while! i really love the entire album! Now i need to hear more laurie anderson.. suggestions as to what to listen to next? jessica ======================================================================== Date: Thu, 9 Jul 92 23:49:10 EDT From: Vickie Mapes Subject: Re: Fuzzy and aged Hey Michael, were Meryl Streep and Anne Archer born in the same hospital as you? How cool! I didn't know thay were from Seattle (?) Thanks for *your* kind words. Doug? Doug's back? Hey Doug, HI! Tell us about your vacation. I *LOVE* To Be E. Mortal! It's not a song, it's an experience. The right place, the right time, the right mood... yea-he-ho Box H.A.P-nope, still can't handle it after all these years. I *do* like Happy's voice and the lyrics/message, I just can't handle the synth I Have A Heart-theme song city. This song, to me, is perfect. If you take all the lyrics of all the songs on the 1st 4 and combine them, this song is what you'd get. (Ok, well, not the ones where she's singing to/for/about Kevin) It wraps everything up into one package. The depression, the sucidal feelings, the "there is hope, gotta hang on" theme, the demons, the vulnerability, the insecurity, the self-loathing, despair, the "have to soothe myself because no one can do it for me" thoughts, and more. Over and above the lyrics, the song is simply beautiful, gorgeous, shimmering. I would love this song even if she were singing in Swahili, because it's so beautiful. Even if I couldn't understand the lyrics, the sadness of the guitar and the tone of her voice would clue me in to the fact that this is more than just a simple love song. There's a whole Psychology course going on in this song. Simple, subtle, sad, complex and beautiful. Oh, and disturbing too. Is that the problem? Suicide Song-It would take pages and pages of really boring in-depth personal psychoanalysis to explain why I like this song so much. Suffice it to say that I wish this had been on one of the 1st 4 to begin with. It's not my favorite of the bonus tracks (that's got to be "Look For the Child") but I'm so glad Happy let us hear it after it's been sitting in a box for all these many years. Speaking of Look...I really hate the first few seconds of the song. Once she starts singing though, all my disgust melts away and is forgotten. That song has been going through my mind over and over again. I'll catch myself mind-humming it at the strangest times. It's a wonderful thing. Vickie ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 10 Jul 92 0:14:46 EDT From: Vickie Mapes Subject: Re: strange angels Anything would be fine, but be warned that nothing else sounds like Strange Angels. It was a big departure for her, because she actually sings for the first time, and the songs are actual "songs" with a melody and everything. I actually disliked Strange Angels when it came out, because it was so different. I did get used to it though, and now I like it. I like all her earlier albums (except that I don't have United States I-IV yet) so I don't know which one to recommend. If you can find the film _Home of the Brave_ it's a must to see. It is on video. 'Cause when love is gone, there's always justice And when justice is gone, there's always force And when force is gone, there's always Mom. Hi Mom! So hold me, Mom, in your long arms. In your automatic arms, In your petrochemical arms Your military arms In your electronic arms .................................O Superman I met this guy--and he looked like he might have been a hat check clerk at an ice rink. Which, in fact, he turned out to be. And I said Oh boy, right again .................................Let X=X My favorite: Well I dreamed there was an island That rose up from the sea And everybody on the island Was somebody from TV. And there was a beautiful view But nobody could see 'Cause everybody on the island Was saying "Look at me! Look at me!" Paradise is exactly where you are right now, only much much better... ..........................................Language Is A Virus Vickie ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 10 Jul 92 0:23:27 EDT From: Vickie Mapes Subject: Re: ecto #287 Hey Tim, thanks for the story. Glad to help! Vickie ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 10 Jul 92 01:30:03 EDT From: woj@remus.rutgers.edu Subject: babbling when i should be asleep just got back from a friend's house where i viewed the two tori videos to date for the first time. i think i liked the one for "silent all these years" better. it's a bit more arty. the "crucify" video seems to focus more on tori than the song's content implies (imho). but hey, *i* wasn't directing it. i was taken aback by the remix of "crucify" though, which i did not know about before hand. those of you who have met me know that look of utter confusion that i sometimes get on my face - i had a serious case of it when the mandolin kicked in a couple of chords into the song. not sure that i like the full version that much though. i think it's musc more effective when the music is stripped bare to the piano, voice and bass. Vickie Mapes sez: >WELCOME BACK WOJ!! Tell us all about Spain, did you get to go to the Expo? no...i had a couple chances, but i decided to pass it up - i'm not all that fond of huge crowds and exorbiant prices ($40 admission fee, not to mention food and entertainment tickets). i did spend three days in seville though - it's a truly marvelous city. the gardens of the alcazar are wonderful to wander in, as is maria luisa park. and the cathedral there is magnificent. if i knew spanish, i would certainly consider moving to seville someday (but i don't, oh well). i also got to cadiz and faro in portugal for a day each. we also drove down to gibraltar, but due to excessive fog, we couldn't see the rock at all! seeing to the end of the piers in algecires (a city across the bay from the rock) was a chore enough! but i can say that i was there (even if i didn't spot it). it was a great trip, even considering that i was working long hours and nights at the end of it. still, i'm glad to be home... gb10@gte.com (Gregory Bossert) sez: >they had the complete Happy Rhodes for sale!!!!! all five CDs were >in their own "Rhodes, Happy" slot in the import section (i didn't >realize Albany was so far away ;) actually, many american independant records get filed as imports. i believe the reason has to do with buy-backs: record stores sell the unsold stock back to the labels after a certain time period. since a record store has to take a greater risk on the less commercially viable indie stuff, they usually price the stock higher. that does not make much sense of course, but little that record stores do now, does it? sae@cmpsci.suffolk.edu (S. Alan Ezust) sez: >The main group was this folk-duet called Kate and Anna McGarrigle... i saw them last year at the newport folk festival. pretty good show, but i like their studio stuff better. perhaps if it had been a small club instead of an outdoor stage i might have liked their performance better. they've been around a *long* time and are well worth looking into. >The other group was a boyz-with-guitarz group called Blue Rodeo. canada loves this group. don't ask me why. they win junos though. however, even though a juno means more to me than a grammy, i'm still not impressed. >However, the insignificant little opening act, and the reason I was at the >legendary Hammersmith in the first place, was provided by this obscure >canadian irish folk musician with the unlikely name of Loreena McKennitt!! i saw a performance of hers on a portugese television show called area reservado. she played three songs, but they were all performed live (you could tell since she muffed a few things here and there). fantastic. i wish i was going to winnipeg for the folk festival going on there now. she's there, as is richard thompson and lots of others. sigh. sez: >Last week, somebody was wondering what cyberpunk fiction was. As fate would >have it, last weekend I happened to pick up _Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk >Anthology_, ed. Bruce Sterling (Ace paperback, $4.50). urgh. sterling may be a good writer, but he assumes to much when he tries to define a movement in science fiction that was finished before the critics realized that it had started. far as i'm concerned, gibson was the only writer who really is worth reading in this type of stuff. everyone else (including sterling to a degree) either ripped gibson off or is doing splatterpunk action adventures, which are nice if you want fluff, but not my cup'o'tea. >The introduction tries to explain the cyberpunk movement; if you gotta give it a definition, the best one that i've heard is an evaluation of the effects of high technolgy's rapid development on the social fabric of humanity. but enough of my high horse. to bed with me! woj ======================================================================== Subject: Today's your birthday friend ... From: klaus@inphobos.w.open.de (Cosmic Vagabond) Date: Thu, 09 Jul 92 21:05:30 GMT i*i*i*i*i*i i*i*i*i*i*i *************** *************** ***HAPPY******* ***HAPPY******* ********BIRTHDAY*** ********BIRTHDAY*** ******************* ******************* *** Courtney Dallas *** *** Michael Peskura *** *********************** *********************** -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- i*i*i*i*i*i *************** ***HAPPY******* ********BIRTHDAY*** ******************* ******* Shelly ******** *********************** -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Thanks to Mitch, we now know our chinese zodiac signs ("Year of the ..."). Interesting what you can learn when you're dining at a chinese restaurant. :) * New or changes made since last post Year of the ... Marvin Camras Sat January 1 1916 Dragon * Jeanne Schreiter Tue January 3 1967 Sheep Greg Bossert Tue January 9 1962 Tiger Chris Sampson Wed January 15 1964 Dragon Ken Taylor Tue January 21 1969 Cock Terry Partis Sun January 22 1933 Cock Sean Casey Thu January 25 1962 Tiger Tim Devine Tue February 3 1970 Dog Stephen Thomas Fri February 4 1966 Horse Gene Sady Tue February 7 1956 Monkey Doug Burks Tue February 14 1956 Monkey Christine Waite Fri February 25 1972 Rat Christine Kennel Sat March 2 1963 Rabbit kIrI Hargie Fri March 13 1970 Dog Alan Sodoma Thu March 18 1965 Snake Barry Wong Thu March 19 1970 Dog Geoff Carre Sat March 20 1954 Horse Bob Brown Thu March 22 1951 Rabbit John Baker Tue March 24 1964 Dragon Valerie Nozick Thu March 25 1971 Pig Warpaint Mon April 1 1991 Sheep Klaus Kluge Sun April 10 1960 Rat Steve VanDevender Sun April 10 1966 Horse Art Liestman Fri April 10 1953 Snake Stephen Golden Sat April 10 1971 Pig Harry Foster Sat April 21 1956 Monkey Angelos Kyrlidis Fri April 22 1966 Horse Jeff Burka Thu April 24 1969 Cock Geoff Parks Sun April 30 1961 Ox Gray Abbott Tue May 3 1955 Sheep Mark Semich Thu May 6 1965 Snake Joe Dembski Wed May 7 1952 Dragon Brian Gregory Thu May 9 1963 Rabbit Steve Fagg Tue May 13 1958 Dog Beth Perry Tue May 21 1957 Cock Perttu Yli-Krekola Thu June 2 1966 Horse Albert Philipsen Mon June 17 1968 Monkey Ecto-The Mailing ListTue June 18 1991 Sheep Tracy Barber June 18 David Lubkin Fri June 20 1958 Dog Ken Kindler Mon June 23 1969 Cock John M. Wheeler Sun June 23 1968 Monkey Dave Torok Mon June 24 1968 Monkey Courtney Dallas Fri July 9 1971 Pig Michael Peskura Sat July 9 1949 Ox Shelly Sun July 10 1966 Horse * Mitch Pravatiner Mon July 14 1952 Dragon Cathy Guetzlaff Mon July 18 1955 Sheep David Koehler July 25 Tom Johnson Mon July 25 1966 Horse Rob Woiccak (woj) Sun July 28 1968 Monkey John Relph Sat July 28 1962 Tiger Bob Kollmeyer Wed July 28 1971 Pig Mark Carroll Fri July 29 1966 Horse Kate Bush Wed July 30 1958 Dog Happy Rhodes Mon August 9 1965 Snake Ron Hill Tue August 11 1964 Dragon Vickie Mapes Wed August 15 1956 Monkey Martin Dougiamas Wed August 20 1969 Cock Dan Segel Tue August 31 1965 Snake Jorn Barger August 32 1953 Snake Meredith Tarr Wed September 1 1971 Pig David Blank-Edelman Sat September 9 1967 Sheep Chris Williams Tue September 20 1960 Rat Tim Breitkreutz Wed October 7 1964 Dragon Dan Riley Sun October 8 1961 Ox Brian Bloom Tue October 14 1969 Cock Dave Steiner Sat October 24 1959 Pig Jessica Dembski Wed October 29 1969 Cock Katie Dougiamas Sat November 2 1974 Tiger Jens Brage Sun November 8 1964 Dragon Ken Latta Sun November 11 1951 Rabbit * Elizabeth W. Warwick Sun November 15 1964 Dragon Kevin Bartlett Fri November 21 1952 Dragon Alan Ezust Fri November 21 1969 Cock Claudia Spix Wed November 23 1960 Rat Justin Bur Fri November 27 1964 Dragon Chip Lueck Thu December 5 1968 Monkey Henry Kilmer Wed December 11 1968 Monkey Laura Clifford Tue December 17 1957 Cock Dirk Kastens Tue December 17 1963 Rabbit * Karl Dotzek Sat December 30 1961 Ox -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- If anyone wants to be added to this list, or change their "sign" just e-mail me with the information...if you don't know what day you were born on, I can figure it out if you give the year of birth. Thanks! _____ Klaus Kluge * klaus@inphobos.w.open.de * I'll be here, I'll be (in) Ecto! ======================================================================== The ecto archives are on hardees.rutgers.edu in ~ftp/pub/hr. There is a README file explaining what is where. Feel free to send me (or leave in the incoming directory, just let me know) things you'd like to have added. -- jessica (jessica@ns1.rutgers.edu)