Errors-To: ecto-owner@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 #835 ecto, Number 835 Monday, 1 November 1993 Today's Topics: *-----------------* Ectophiles guide to good books? Re: Music, SF, the usual stuff Re: Everything and nothing Dream 6 Re: I Hate To Be A Bitch...But I'm So Good At It bjork tour, TRS, patty larkin that reminds me... ectopics NonHappy UnHappy news Delaney and Ryman Re: present tense books Re: Mitch klauses again Variousness Re: ecto threads Polish CDs ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 30 Oct 93 12:34 MET From: uli@zoodle.robin.de (Ulrich Grepel) Subject: Ectophiles guide to good books? Hi, since Ecto lately seems to become a discussion forum about good books (nothing against it, just an observation), what about a guide to them? Speaking of guides, any news about the Ectophiles Guide To Good Music? Bye, Uli ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 30 Oct 93 15:05 MET From: uli@zoodle.robin.de (Ulrich Grepel) Subject: Re: Music, SF, the usual stuff > All this talk of mono (or "glandular fever"- I can't remember > what it's called in German...) reminds me of my own bout with it, That's (Pfeiffer'sches?) Druesenfieber. And: *HUG*! > (And don't forget that Terry Pratchett is an avowed Katefan! :) Hmmm... I suspected so too, after reading Eric, but Klaus told me that he isn't. Maybe we should ask him on alt.fan.pratchett, or directly via email. I never found any Kate Bush album behind sofas, radiators, kitchen sinks or whatever. Bye, Uli ======================================================================== From: p.cohen@genie.geis.com Date: Sun, 31 Oct 93 03:26:00 BST Subject: Re: Everything and nothing Re: > 10,000 M: > So how come Natalie has to split and find a new band. > What's wrong with the old band, eh? She's not finding a new band. She's going it alone. Kind of inevitable actually, when you read about how much of a loner she actually is. Maybe the remaining Maniacs could merge with John and Mary. ======================================================================== From: p.cohen@genie.geis.com Date: Sun, 31 Oct 93 03:26:00 BST Subject: Dream 6 > Oh, there are some Concrete fans here on Ecto. You've got to love a > band that has a female lead singer who is also the bassist. :) I too > really like the new album, especially "Rain" and "Mexican Moon". Did > you get the free CD of Dream 6, the "original" Concrete? It's stuff > from 1983 (I first saw them as Concrete in 86), and I like it too. John: What Dream 6 CD??????? When you said that, it rang a bell and I ran to my record collection. I bought that EP back in '83 and never made the connection with Concrete Blonde. Wow! It's a great EP too. ======================================================================== From: Mike Matthews Subject: Re: I Hate To Be A Bitch...But I'm So Good At It Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1993 09:44:06 -0500 (EST) Alan Ezust writes: > But I think the solution for all would be some kind of mailing-list split: > > ecto.music - for discussion of music only > ecto.tangents - for discussion of everything else. > > And then I can unsubscribe to ecto.tangents until I am not so busy. This is a technical solution to a social 'problem' and so it's bound to fail. Who decides when a tangent becomes a tangent, or when it starts to apply to non-tangential topics? What if a message has stuff that's about music (even then, which music is considered "core" to Ecto? Only Happy's stuff?), and also stuff about other things? Splitting Ecto wouldn't be a good idea, IMHO. Ecto's grown beyond a relatively private list for a few people; everyone's busy, and everyone has to deal with it in their own way. I always skim through everything, hoping my brain notices interesting tidbits. :-) (Well, I skim through them at work; the copy I get at home I usually read.) Since skimming takes a second or two per article, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. If something important is missed, then each individual has the option of asking about it anyway (after all, it *is* important). As an example, all the CD reviews are important, I think. (Heck, they've cost me enough money to be considered important by ME at least.) But if you don't have enough time to read all of them, just ask the list before you go buy things. Then someone can forward the article to you by Email, or whatever. My two cent's worth. Struggling to keep my word to myself to not buy any [more] CDs this month, ------ Mike Matthews, Mike_Matthews@sgate.com (NeXTmail accepted) ------ ======================================================================== Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1993 12:28:21 -0700 (MST) From: KELLY BAKER Subject: bjork tour, TRS, patty larkin > I got tix for Bjork($16.50), Mann ($12), and MacColl($7). bjork is touring??? has anyone posted the dates? if so, will someone forward them to me? meredith of the depressed dead can dance fans sez: > It just hit me that next Tuesday, just SIX DAYS from now, I'll be > walking into a record store on my lunch hour, much like I did > yesterday to pick up the 10,000 Maniacs Unplugged CD, and buying > the new album from Kate Bush. kate's coming out in november, kate's not coming out until february, kate's out in october in europe...i'm so confused! is the latest word that she *is* coming out in the states on nov 4 after all? or that you've ordered it on import? if so, from where? > One final note- I listened to Patty Larkin's new album, _Angels > Running_, and it's nice. The Story sing backup on four songs, > Mary-Chapin Carpenter on another, and a special treat at the > end is 25 seconds of Patty channeling Marlene Dietrich. :) I'm > glad I paid a sale price for it, but I'm not sorry I bought it. > It'll probably grow on me a bit more over time, too. we saw patty larkin in philly a couple weeks ago...she's a great performer, very personable. she performed the song at the mall, in which she channels not only marlene dietrich, but carmen miranda and ethel mreman as well. :) before video, she told a story about having to get sting's permission to quote a line from one of his lyrics, and then she and her back up guitarists, mike manring and john leventhal, all donned "when you cool, the sun shine on you twenty four hour a day" shades for the song. great show. sometimes i think they make macs *too* easy to turn on...has anyone else ever had a problem with cats accidentally treading on the startup key? kelly ======================================================================== Date: Sun, 31 Oct 93 16:12:34 EST From: woj@remus.rutgers.edu (dressed to ingest) Subject: that reminds me... KELLY BAKER sez: >we saw patty larkin in philly a couple weeks ago patty larkin, christine lavin and heidi berry will all be performing on national public radio's mountain stage program soon. the listed date is november 7th, but the actual broadcast date will vary from station to station. american ectophiles, check your public radio station's listings for more information! +woj ======================================================================== Date: Sun, 31 Oct 93 16:53:30 EST From: woj@remus.rutgers.edu (dressed to ingest) Subject: ectopics "The man with no one name [for purposes of this space, anyhow]" sez: >Bob Edwards' _Fridays With Red_ soon as i get around to sending my membership dues to new york public radio, this book will arrive in my mailbox as a premium. yip yip yip. a morbid thought regarding red: sometime not too long before he died, i remember commenting to meredith on how hale he seemed (over the radio, anyways) for his age. hmmm. kiri sez: >I'm really happy to see the rerelease of Michael Moorcocks Elric books. they are being reprinted again? my favorite editions are the daw yellow spine printings. after they went out of print, i think it was ace who picked them up and printed the grey-spined ones with the robert gould covers. is there another reprint now? as an aside, i'm a bit of a sucker for daw yellow spines and was rather miffed when they stopped printing their books that way. i became quite good at spotting daw books at a distance and owe much of my early science fiction reading to the yellow spines since i found that press to have a high hit to miss ratio - in fact, it was the whole yellow spine thing that introduced me to my now favorite authors c.j. cherryh, tanith lee and jo clayton. >happily they are back in paperback, and in graphic novels! do you mean the graphic novels from first? i agree they are quite wonderful, especially since at least the first two novels feature the art of p. craig russell (whom sandman readers will recognize from "ramadan"). Dan Riley sez: >I'll second this. I read _Dreamships_ recently, and liked it a lot. haven't read this one yet, but i did read _five twelfths of heaven_ a while ago and found it to be pretty much as you described _dreamships_. scott has a great characters and great ideas but more often than not, her writing is almost pure space opera which i don't always find that intriguing. i especially liked her weird physics stuff regarding space travel which ties music to charting the voids between stars (folks who like mccaffery's _crystal singer_ take note). Mike Mendelson sez: >I found a (new?) album called This Lush Garden Within. yeah, that is the latest black tape for a blue girl release. over time, they have gone from being a bit more visceral (as on their first release, _the rope_) to progressively more etheriel. more and more female vocals are featured over time as well. _this lush garden within_ is sam rosenthal's attempt to get in touch with his feminine half, or so he says...so it may be more ectophilic than other releases. >It is a little too gothic for me, on 1st listening at least. rosenthal runs projekt records (from whence love spirals downwards comes from) which prides itself in being a leading gothic/ambient label. however, i wouldn't go as far as to describe black tape as a gothic band but they do have that feel to them. if anyone cares, i find black tape to being interesting but not at all compelling. good stuff to "listen" to while doing email on a grey, autumn afternoon but not something that i can concentrate on for longer than a few minutes. Chris Sampson sez: >(Yeah, I know, NJ jokes aren't nice) but they can be funny! ;) +woj ======================================================================== From: brianb@netcom.com (Brian Bloom) Subject: NonHappy UnHappy news Date: Sun, 31 Oct 93 15:56:58 PST I don't know if y'all have heard yet, but both River Phoenix and F. Fellini died yesterday. I didn't catch the cause for Fellini, but Phoenix collapsed in a night club, the autopsy is pending... After that sad note, back to ecto... -- __ ____ __ ____ __ __ (__==__) /\ \ / \_\ / /\ / \ \ / |\ / /\ (oo) ( moo.) / \_\ / /\ |_| / / /| /\ \ \ / ||/ / / /-------\/ -' / /\ | |\ \/ /_/_ / / / \ \/ \ \ / |/ / / / | U.T.|| / \/ |_| \ __ \_\ /_/ / \ /\ \_\ / /| / / * ||----|| / /\ ./_/ \ \ \/_/_\_\/ \ \ \/_// / | / / ^^ ^^ \ \/ |_| \ \_\ /_/\ \ \_\ /_/ /|_/ / Br!an Bloom \__/_/ \/_/ \_\/ \/_/ \_\/ \_\/ brianb@netcom.com .. but music hides me so well, ..and reveals me.. oh well - HR ======================================================================== Subject: Delaney and Ryman Date: Sun, 31 Oct 93 23:38:44 -0500 From: jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu Youch. Back from a few days away and there are 80+ *new* messages in the inbox (which was already at 100+!). Anyway, just a few quick things before bed. A few people have mentioned Chip Delaney. I'll start by saying that I checked _Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand_ out of the library once, got 20 pages into it and decided I was too busy with other things to devote the time it clearly needed. I absolutely adore the title, though (note the absence of an article at the beginning; it changes the sound and meaning of the title significantly and is far superior without the "the"). The only Delaney book I've finished is one I *high* recommend and should be easy to find in most book stores as long as you look in the right place: The Motion of Light in Water. It's Delaney's autobiography and it's both fascinating *and* superbly written. The man has such an immense talent with words. Now then, some news. A good friend of mine is *also* a black, gay sci-fi writer (unfortunately unpublished. but to tie into another thread, he just got a fulltime job at Borders...;-) who knows Delaney and has even taken classes with him! Delaney is the head of the comp lit department at UMass/Amherst (despite the lack of a phd) and teaches classes there. He *does* have a new book out called, I believe _They Fight at Ciron_ (Craig says that Delaney pronounced that last worked as "cheer-ee-on"). Unfortunately, it's only in a limited edition hardcover. Michael...if you liked _Was_, do your best to find a copy of _The Child Garden_. It's set in distant-future-London and the main character is a lesbian. An extraordinary book and incredibly well written. Jeff |Jeffrey C. Burka | "When I look in the mirror, I see a little clearer/ | |SAFH Lite [tm] | I am what I am and you are you too./ Do you like | |jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu | what you see? Do you like yourself?" --N. Cherry | ======================================================================== From: snpf@ugcs.caltech.edu (The Duchess Of York) Subject: Re: present tense books Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1993 22:22:55 -0800 (PST) oh oh oh!!!!!! Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay Pretty fantastic. I liked most the undeniable equality of both genders by the author. good story.too. -seanympf ======================================================================== From: snpf@ugcs.caltech.edu (The Duchess Of York) Subject: Re: Mitch klauses again Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1993 22:34:17 -0800 (PST) Garrison Keillor and Fredricka Von Stade have done an album called Songs of Cats which is music about, yes, cats! I hear it is very good. It is in our classical department under vocals, von stade (opera singer) and sometimes in the children's section. -seanympf (the french railroad...hmmm what does that imply????) ======================================================================== From: snpf@ugcs.caltech.edu (The Duchess Of York) Date: Sun, 31 Oct 93 23:34:53 -0800 Subject: Re: a buncha stuff, most of it annoying To: mojzes@monet.rutgers.edu (brni) Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1993 21:46:26 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <9310280614.AA12902@monet.vill.edu > from "brni" at Oct 28, 93 02:14:57 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL21] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 2051 >brni: > >I dislike pms being used as the reason for womyn's emotions > >and to further push the 'irrational' concept to and about womyn. > > > on the other hand, i, and probably several others out there, > have certainly experienced the secondary effects of pms as someone > i love lashes out suddenly or, just as suddenly, break into tears. > > something that is rarely mentioned is that men undergo a similar > cycle. it is not accompanied by any physical manifestations, and > the effects are more subtle (i think that the cycle is longer, as > well). that subtlety makes it more insidious, tho, as we are more > likely to blame our days of extreme moodiness on outside forces. > "and this is not a story my people tell; this is something i know > myself." (hope i got that quote right). Thus is true. I'll find out about it. if no body else does. A nice thing about menstration which also explains some lashing out and breaking / bursting into tears at random--every month you're reminded of the sanctity of life. > are burroughs and anderson the authors? if not, could you please > let me know? Jeffy kindof said this; but burroughs wrote Language is a Virus (the half sentence), and Laurie Anderson wrote a song based on that line. The Book Snowcrash goes into detail about language/ ideas being viruses...Laurie Anderson says in a song from the album 'Strange Angels', "Womyn shouldn't be president, because they go crazy from time to time." 'You're the one I want to share my money with' is a song on the United States Live 2-cd set, and I think it is a movie. > d) i also saw another album that i almost got, featuring william s. > burroughs on voice and kurt cobain (sp?) of nirvana on guitar (no > other musicians). i didn't get that one either, since i'm broke. There is a new one with Disposible Heros of Hiphopcrisy and William S. Burroughs called Hard-Ass Annie or something like that. My friend got it and said it wasn't that good. ok okay ok I could go on and on.... ciao forever!!!!!!! happy halloween -seanympf ======================================================================== From: snpf@ugcs.caltech.edu (The Duchess Of York) Date: Sun, 31 Oct 93 23:49:22 -0800 ---------------------------------- About the footwork for getting the ad in Pulse! if that is what is decided (I think that's cool cause it's national-at least-and free), I'll be overjoyed! to help or give any info... I work at a tower records... -seanympf ================================== OK. another book series. Summer Queen, Snow Queen, and the one in the middle, something called middle earth...???????. very cool books, very involving, sorry I forgot the author...a woman, and married to another author.... Also has lots of technology--fantasy sf. promise...awesome. ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 1 Nov 93 00:08:01 PST From: dixon@physics.berkeley.edu (David Dixon) Subject: Variousness Jeff Burka mentioned how much he liked the title _Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand_. This could start a whole new thread on Really Cool Titles (regardless of their content). My nominees: Reflect Like a Mirror, Respond Like An Echo (new age album) "The Journey Within, The Journey Without" ( by Mark Sloniker) "Mr. Moto's Penguin (who'd be an eskimo's wife?)" - Mark Isham "The Funky Avocado" - Michael Hedges "Energy Fools the Magician" - Brian Eno "The Sound of Someone You Love Who's Going Away and It Doesn't Matter" - The Penguin Cafe Orchestra Well, last night I went to see Eric Bogosian perform here at UC-Berkeley. As I was waiting for my food at a restaurant about half an hour before curtain, I checked my pocket to see if my ticket was still there... and it wasn't. I ran (well, scooted) all over looking for it, and didn't find it. Finally, I went up to the ticket window at the auditorium and said that I lost my ticket... they checked my name & SS#, and gave me a replacement! Whew! The restaurant even re-filled my order when I went there after the performance. All in all, not a bad day.. Bogosian was brilliant as usual.. no one can probe the dark park of the male psyche like he can.. (er.. did I say "park"? I meant "part"... no Skinny Puppy references inferred :) ) Today fellow Ectophile Karel stopped by and we did a little auto tour of the Oakland hills where there was a huge firestorm about two years ago.. many of the houses are rebuilt or being rebuilt, but there's still plenty of vacant lots that dot the hills (spoooky).. Then we checked out the Lawrence Hall of Science.. which is a nice science museum, but *nothing* compared to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Tonight I saw Christine Lavin in concert, and she was a scream! Twirls a mean baton, too. :) One of her songs is an acapella rendition of the Final Jeopardy theme with her own words.. after the show I went up to her and said that I'm going to be on Jeopardy in December.. her eyes lit up and she jumped to her feat with an amazed expression on her face! Then she asked me all sorts of questions about how I got on.. it was really strange, being treated like a semi-celebrity *by* a celebrity. In any case.. if she comes to your town, go see her. Wonderful, wonderful lyricist. Good singer too.. :) Weekend CD buys: _God Shuffled His Feet_ by Crash Test Dummies... (how can you NOT like a band that references "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"?) _Olympus_ by Mars Lasar (new age with a beat.. not bad) _Untitled_ by Tim Story. Tim Story's music is ... well.. hard to explain.. think of a somber Erik Satie, and you've got the general idea.. His songs aren't very memorable by themselves, but *something* about them really resonates if you're in a reflective mood. His most recent album, _Beguiled_ (another cool title) is a real gem. Babbled enough, D^2 ======================================================================== From: Tim Cook Date: Mon, 1 Nov 93 08:32:32 GMT Subject: Re: ecto threads My vote is to let people discuss what they want for as long as they want. Then again I don't have to pay for my email so maybe people should ensure their subject line accurately reflects the email contents so people can delete without having to read. tim ======================================================================== From: Tim Cook Date: Mon, 1 Nov 93 08:54:08 GMT Subject: Polish CDs Quite a few people have asked my about the CDs I bought in Poland so here it is! The music industry in Poland has only been around for the last 10-15 years. It's only since the mid to late eighties that songs no longer have to be submitted to a government bureau so that their lyrics can be checked for contentious material. There's still not much opportunity to make money making music. Most of the groups and singers here have full time jobs and the music making is a hobby (for example, one of the members of Maanam lives round the corner from a friend of mine in Warsaw). CDs in relation to wages are quite expensive (although cheap by our standards). A Polish CD costs about Zl150,000 (about 5 pounds). Imported CDs (and you can get most things) are about Zl240,000 (8 pounds). Considering the average wage in Poland is 150 pounds, CDs are expensive. I didn't quite manage the same volume of CDs as I did in Boston but I did manage to snarf up 8 of the little babies; Krystyna Janda - Gumm Do Zucia This is quite theatrical. You know how theatre productions sound *different* from regular music. I wish I knew what she was singing about. Whatever it is she's definitely pissed off about something on some tracks. On others she can't stop giggling!! She doesn't so much sing the words as say them (sometimes in a wonderful breathy vocal). My favourite track is "Na Zakrecie", probably because I can understand some of the words! Edyta Bartosiewicz - Love This one is completely in English. Edyta is obviously aiming her sights at the American market. Although it was recorded in Warsaw it's got the backing of Chrysalis music. This is very rocky in the Cher/Jane Wiedlin mould. Nothing wrong with it except that it doesn't sound very Polish. She's even put the tracks in the classic rock album format. Start off fast on track 1 and then slow it right down for track 2. Lora Szafran - W Gore Glowa! This was the first Polish CD I bought and it's also my least favourite. Nothing really stands out. Very much AOR/MOR etc. Maybe it'll grow on me with time but I don't hold out much hope. Renata Przemyk - Spiew This is definitely interesting. The first track starts off with an accordian and the tune has a slight resemblance to David Bowies Laughing Gnome (honest). If Cabaret was set in Poland - this would be the soundtrack. The only CD not to be recorded in Warsaw (this was recorded in Krakow). I love "co to dedzie" - it's wonderfully ecentric and I love the funky piano. Kora & Maanam - Best of.. Vols 1 & 2 These must be one the most popular Polish bands. They have quite a few albums out. Kora is actually the singer. On the Best of she's credited separately. Definitely the most upbeat of all the CDs. Heavy use of electric guitar. Quite punky/New Wave. The albums done under the "Maanam" group are a little softer. Maanam - Nocny Patrol Starts off sounding like the Police. That is until Kora starts singing! I prefer this album to the Best Of. Magda - Umer Mostly Magda and a guitar or a piano. More folky than the other albums. This one has the lyrics printed on the sleeve. Now all I need is my Polish/English dictionary..!! ======================================================================== The ecto archives are on hardees.rutgers.edu in ~ftp/pub/hr. There is an INDEX file explaining what is where. Feel free to send me things you'd like to have added. -- jessica (jessica@ns1.rutgers.edu)