From: owner-ecto-digest To: ecto-digest@ns2.rutgers.edu Subject: ecto-digest V2 #158 Reply-To: ecto@nsmx.rutgers.edu Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Monday, 17 July 1995 Volume 02 : Number 158 The Ecto digest is now being generated automatically. Please send problems and questions to: ecto-owner@nsmx.rutgers.edu. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: anthony@xymox.apana.org.au (Anthony Horan) Date: Sun, 16 Jul 95 16:35:11 EDT Subject: Re: Margot Smith Albert replied: >Anthony Horan wrote: > >> EMI were concerned that Margot didn't have a band ready to tour with, >> and for some reason this seemed to cause them to lose interest. Hundreds of >> posters were printed up and never used, > >Can I have one please? :) Sure, I have a few of them here. >> almost as if, having heard the album, EMI's promotional people panicked and >> went to the pub for a few months. :) > >Well, why couldn't some people try to promote it a second time? It's to do with the thinking process that goes on at major labels. Records get one chance at being succesful, and if they don't, the record company figure that it's never going to work and swutch their attention to whatever's new. In other words, they put it in the "too hard" basket. - - Anthony - -- - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anthony Horan, Melbourne Australia - anthony@xymox.apana.org.au Physical mail: P.O. Box 40, Malvern 3144, Victoria, Australia "The red sky was bleeding glimpses of heaven, in sections of seven..." - Rose Chronicles reaching lyrical perfection on "Awaiting Eternity" - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ From: anthony@xymox.apana.org.au (Anthony Horan) Date: Sun, 16 Jul 95 16:38:35 EDT Subject: Re: Question... Matt Bittner asks: >Does anybody know where I can get a 3" CD adapter for older CD >players that can't play 3" CD's? I ask because I have had - for >years, since it came out - NIN's _broken_ that came with a 2 song 3" >"EP-CD". Hmm... Would this actually be called a CD single? I call it a bonus disc. :-) I love those little 3" singles, and I wish they were still made regularly. I have a huge pile of 3" adapters here that aren't needed as my CD player directly supports 3" discs, as do the players at work. You're welcome to one, just mail me. I have a couple going out to Neile as well. Maybe I could start a 3" adapter business. :-) >Also, if there are any NIN fans here, and you have this CD and know >what these two songs are, could you email the titles to me? Thanks. The songs are "Physical", a cover of an old Adam And The Ants song, and "Suck", a song Trent did with Pigface previously. - - Anthony - -- - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anthony Horan, Melbourne Australia - anthony@xymox.apana.org.au Physical mail: P.O. Box 40, Malvern 3144, Victoria, Australia "The red sky was bleeding glimpses of heaven, in sections of seven..." - Rose Chronicles reaching lyrical perfection on "Awaiting Eternity" - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ From: klaus@inphobos.wupper.de Date: Sun, 16 Jul 1995 12:55:24 CET-1 Subject: the White Wooden Website Here's to announce that I set up a website for the German band "Bobo In White Wooden Houses". To access the White Wooden Website point you browser to the following URL: http://www.wupper.de/white-house/ _____ Klaus "cosmic vagabond" Kluge - klaus@inphobos.wupper.de "I have a friend in Phobos, at times I think I'm almost there." Happy Rhodes "You have a friend in Phobos, at times I think you're almost here." Klaus :) ------------------------------ From: awphili@xs4all.nl Date: Sun, 16 Jul 95 13:53:00 Subject: Re: Beth Perry Jeff wrote: > Beth who? > > >WRT Albert's query: Beth is still at the National Zoo, where the sad > >state of the email system has kept her from being as active in the ecto > >world (and cyberspace more generally) as she'd like. > > Apparently the phones don't work either. > > And there are gates so the humans can't get out and walk the two blocks to > where their friends can often be found. Well, maybe it would do some good if all the humans who work in zoos would spend some time in cages too. :) > At least, that's been my experience. Some time ago she wrote me that she had taken skin samples from seals. Are you sure this is the same Beth as the one I knew? :) Albert ------------------------------ From: "jessica" Date: Sun, 16 Jul 1995 15:15:47 -0700 Subject: Hello again Ecto. I'm back. :) I never really left but since all my ecto went to rutgers and I never logged in there, I wasn't really here. I suppose I was being ectoplasmic myself, just a ghost of me on the list. Well, I've tried to remove myself from the list but since my rutgers accounts are actually gone now, Greg'll have to take care of that for me, and I've added myself to the list at my real address now. jessica@erg.sri.com. I've been working at SRI for 8 months now. They've been incredibly busy but very good months. I've spent a month and a half total in Korea (and may be going there again in august). Things are calming down a little bit at work, and my personal life has been pretty stable for a while now, so it's time to start getting back into my favorite mailing lists, and this one was, is and probably always will be my favorite, so here I am!! It's good to be back. I have one small bit of ecto topic I wanted to share right now: I was visiting my Aunt Pam last week. A long long time ago I had played some Happy for her and my mom. My mom wasn't too interested so we didn't listen long but Pam did seem to like it so I gave her a tape. I don't keep in touch with Pam much so I didn't really think about it after that. Now, so much later, I got together with Pam and she mentioned that she LOVES happy and got to see her live at the bottom line when she did the songwriters convention thing. I was envious and very pleased :) --jessica ------------------------------ From: "Chandra L. Sriram" Date: Sun, 16 Jul 1995 19:24:13 -0400 (EDT) Subject: who are you (sorry, not real ecto content)? i just received the lovely throwing muses flat from one of you lovely ectophiles, but alas, i cannot read the name on the note, and have inadvertently erased the relevant email message. so sorry all for the general post to say thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou! whoever you are, please email me privately!! now back to your regularly scheduled ecto..... :-)chandra ------------------------------ From: Philip Sainty Date: Mon, 17 Jul 1995 13:29:48 +1200 Subject: Re: Hello again Ecto. Jessica!! > I'm back. :) *HUGS* > I never really left but since all my ecto went to rutgers > and I never logged in there, I wasn't really here. I suppose > I was being ectoplasmic myself, just a ghost of me on the > list. :) :) Actually, does that mean that you had eight months of Ecto waiting in your rutgers mail-box??!!?? > Things are calming down a little bit at work, and my personal > life has been pretty stable for a while now, so it's time to > start getting back into my favorite mailing lists, and > this one was, is and probably always will be my favorite, > so here I am!! It's good to be back. It's good to see you posting here again! (and good to hear that things are going well for you.) (Cool beans regarding Pam, btw :) Philip _ _ ___ _ _ _ (_ / | / \ |_) |_| | | (_ Philip Sainty (_ \_ | \_/ | | | | |_ (_ ectophil@comp.vuw.ac.nz - -------------------------------------------------------------- "This is where I want to be, this is what I need." --Kate Bush ------------------------------ From: Philip Sainty Date: Mon, 17 Jul 1995 23:12:21 +1200 Subject: Dear Ecto, I sit here bewildered as the heaviest snowfall I can remember (and I could probably count on one hand the number of times that snow has fallen in this city in my lifetime at anything remotely like the rate it is at the moment) carpets the ground. (This is about as near sea-level as it gets, btw.) It will quite possibly be a one-night event -- I somehow doubt that skating on frozen ponds will be this winter's big attraction -- but for all those of you across the world who froze away half a year ago, fear not -- we're not missing out now that winter's wandered our way... I think I might put on "Count Your Blessings" when I get home :) Philip (off to dance in the snow) _ _ ___ _ _ _ (_ / | / \ |_) |_| | | (_ Philip Sainty (_ \_ | \_/ | | | | |_ (_ ectophil@comp.vuw.ac.nz - -------------------------------------------------------------- "July will be magic again." --Kate Bush on her NZ tour? ------------------------------ From: chip-l@nwu.edu (Chip Lueck) Date: Mon, 17 Jul 1995 09:01:25 -0500 Subject: Ecto Fun Welcome to the ectoparty/Katemas! It's early in the gawdawful am, and some of us are battling hangovers (Good morning, Valerie!). We just got done kneading the dough for our fuzzy blue bread and have the freezer set to churn out fuzzy blue ice cubes. Valerie has become a control queen and sent Tim and Simon for the newspapers. Being the helpful chaps that they are, they complied! Valerie here. I sent them out to get the papers, and more importantly, get them off their lazy asses -- erm I mean arses. ;-) Chip here again. I would like to point out that one bloody bastard from England is responsible for Chip & Valerie's plunking down thousands of dollars on palm-top computers & peripherals. This post is coming to you from Chip's new Psion, and I'm sure that before the festivities are over, Val is going to want to interface to get her own copy. ;-) Valerie just left to escort Tim & Simon to the liquor store because their first solo attempt failed. I guess Tim's sense of direction (or lack thereof as the case may be) is not limited to airports! They just returned from the store with many alcoholic drinks in tow, but unfortunately, they do not have the staple ingredient required at Ecto parties - -- Blue curacao. It seems that many places are not stocking it these days. I'm going to have to send Tim out to a different place, but I'm not worried about him not enjoying himself because he gets off doing anything related to alcohol. btw, I just remembered an interesting tidbit about the fuzzy blue bread. See, Val and I decided to save some time by buying ready-to-bake dough (so sue us!) and the name brand just happens to be ("and I'm not making this up", as Dave Barry so fondly says) RHODES. Yup, our fuzzy blue bread is truly ectophilic in all ways! Well, the search for blue curacao continues. Valerie & Tim are out trying to find a liquor store that carries the magic ingredient for fuzzy blue drinks. More on this breaking story as it develops. btw, it is just after 1:00, so the party may officially start, although the only guests are the resident guests, they being: Tim Cook & Simon Condliffe from England, Jeff Wasilko from Boston, and Valerie Nozick & Chip Lueck from Chicago. More guest lists as they grow... ...and it's growing. James & Marie just arrived with Mitch trailing not far behind! Just got a call from Val who reports that the fuzzy bluestuff has been acquired! They are at C&V's (the original!) picking up videos, etc. and should be here soon. It's really happenin.... Mitch here. Arguably, the best decision I've made all day was to buy pretzels (fat-free) and beer (not fat-free) for this do at the Dominick's by the L station, Sam's Food and Liquor over by me having lost its rational nexus to the ecto world when they painted over the Happpy's Liquor imprimatrur on the facxade. Irrespective of whether Dominick's carries blue curacao (I didn't stay long enough to look), they charge no more for cold beer. While the blue curacao at the former Happy's (assuming they carry anything that esoteric, by local stabndards) may well be fuzzy (based on the appearance of the exterior), I'm undecided how potable it might be :-). We did manage to bring the old ecto ingeuity into play, sort of, by having Chip squeeze off a snapshot of me petting his cat with one hand (fuzzy) while hoisting my bottle of Red Dog with the other (red, which is a sort of yang if you think of blue as yin). Jeff Wasilko pointed out that on the color negative, the RL red will show up as a mix of cyan [blue] and something else (unless I've misremembered him, which is quite likely after two bottles of beer with minimal food :-) ). As I write this, Chris and Vickie and Valerie have lately arrived with the blue curacao, as has Cindy. Chip has just brought in a pitcher of fuzzy blue drinks. That stuff is, as Klaus might say if he were here, AUSGEZEICHNET :-). Jeff explained the etymology of the term "fuzzy blue" to Cindy, who's comparatively new at this. BRB. Re all, as they say on IRC. I was interrupted by the first call for solid food, just as I was about to note how it had occurred to me that I obviously wasn't thinking clearly when I bought pretzel nuggets instead of tortilla chips made from blue corn. I quipped to Vickie that maybe after a few fuzzy blue drinks, I could think of a blue joke or two to tell :-). Anyway, the food is as tasty as I had expected, and we are now watching a compilation tape of Kate bits. Now to see for myself what fuzzy blue bread really tastes like. Stay tuned for further first-person accounts from one or more of us. Hi, CYndy here (all Y", no I"s, please :-) ), spending my time looking at a lot of blue, today... So now that I have a Deeper Understanding of the significance of fuzzy blue things, I'd like to say thanx to Chip and Valerie for hosting a great KateMas ... sat in my lap is the dang *cutest* palm top computer! so, now we're all watching a Happy Rhodes video live from Philly. Mitch here again, hoping I can maybe catch a glimpse of familiar faces in the Middle East audience on the tape of Happy's January gig, before I must regretfully pry myself loose from all this to get home in time for _Masterpiece Theater_. But between the fuzzy blue drinks, clear yellow beer, mineral water out of a blue can, on blue ice, and good solid food, not to mention the happy hours spent with Kate and Happy on the VCR, I will leave Chip's place a happy man with or without that little it of icing on the cake. I look forward to reading this collective work-in progress in its entirety. Chip here again. Mitch, Cyndy, James & Marie have all just left. MJM & Nancy have just arrived, followed by my good buddy Shelby, who is a netless ectophile at the moment. Some time in there, some other long-time friends Chris & Laura arrived. They are Kate/Happy fans by default. :-) We just finished listening to Valerie's & my joint HBP contribution. I won't tell you what it is so it will be a surprise for all of you. In fact, I'll just shut up. While we were watching the Happy video, Tim & I brought out a tray of hot sauces (and with names like "Pain is Good" and "Capital Punishment", they are *HOT*). Only a few participated, but it was enlightening. We are kinda nuts because we did the same thing the other day, only it was > 100 degrees. Talk about sweat! Tim here. Sampling all. Expanding the European experience! Discovering that whilst fuzzy blue is good, domestic beer on a bagel is better. Watching videos is kinda strange. Lots of stuff from UK shows from the seventies. Don't those presenters look young! shelby here! yeesh, you can tell i've been netless, computerless, and otherwise Way Behind In Technology far too long, cuz my tiny brain can't seem to deal w/ typing w/ my thumbnail! music food and drinks are, as those blessed to exist within chip's locus of hospitality know, wonderful, tho i haven't had anything quite spicy enough to balance the tropicalized climate =-( sarongs are definitely in order! Valerie here again. Remember me? It has been incredible seeing everyone, and listening to Kate music. IED called earlier, so we all got to talk to him. And the fuzzy blue drinks were good (to all future ectoparty hosts: get the recipe for "This Drink Wasn't Made for Cowards"). Ooh, they're talking about the three stooges right now. And now the topic has switched to Baywatch -- high conversation here. Where are you, Mitch, when we need you? Tim and Simon escorted Valerie to the bus stop. The bus arrived, hugs were exchanged. The bus left, Valerie was left behind.! Moral: hugs must be exchanged in *front* of the bus. A cab saved the day. Chip here to close this thing down. It has been great fun. Vickie and Chris left courtesy of the Shelbymobile. Vickie said to say hi to everyone...she never got a chance to type anything in. Well, the post-fest mess is well under control, and this tired boy is ready to have another shot or two of blueberry schnapps while watching an episode of Star Trek:The Kirk Generation.. Good night, all. - --- Chip Lueck chip-l@nwu.edu ------------------------------ From: "Matt Bittner" Date: Mon, 17 Jul 1995 12:02:27 CDT Subject: Re: Ecto Fun On 17 Jul 95 at 9:01, Chip Lueck, et. al. wrote: Yikes! That sounded like fun! Too bad Chicago is so far away. Beer on a bagel? What exactly IS the recipe for fuzzy blue drinks? If you need any help with the "expelling of stomach gases", I'll set Aaron on my shoulder and pat his back. Now there's something for the next party: everybody help each other out, and pat each other on the back! It means more that just "Hey! How ya doin'?" Happy KateMas to youuuuuu Happy KateMas to youuuuuu Happy KateMas everybody Happy KateMas to youuuuuu Matt Bittner | "We devour those meba@cso.com | who would subdue Omaha, Nebraska | us." ------------------------------ From: Jeffrey Hanson Date: Mon, 17 Jul 1995 10:25:56 -0700 Subject: Betty's new album Hi folks! Saw Betty! last night at the San Diego Gay Pride Festival. Great fun show, as always. Even though their songs may be coming more commercial oriented, they have so much fun singing them, you can't help but like them. They've finished recording their new album, and it will be available in mid-August. To place orders for the new album, or any of their previous releases, call 1-800-HIBETTY. They also have a track on the soundtrack to "The Incredible Story of Two Girls in Love" (or whatever the title is). Jeff Hanson ------------------------------ From: awphili@xs4all.nl Date: Mon, 17 Jul 95 20:21:40 Subject: Subjective voice impressions Did you ever notice a sudden change in the voice of a singer after repeated listenings to the same album? It is interesting to know that the voice of a singer is actually created by the listener. (If you've ever heard a playback of a recording of your own voice, you should know what I mean.) A very complicated process constructs a voice out of an almost random bitstream on a CD. I think that if we hear a singer for the first time, we tend to synthesize a voice for her out of voices we already know. Later, we may recognize the real voice, if that voice is somehow more "pure" or "primal" than the other voices we know. (The same can happen with colours.) This has happened to me with a few singers: early Kate Bush, Jewel and recently Susan Aglukark. I think it is because they all seem to have a childlike quality to their voices that first attracts the attention of the listener, while in fact they are very mature women. Especially Jewel can sound very "old" to me now. Susan's album _This Child_ has really grown on me, and I think it's definitely Ecto music. :) Albert ------------------------------ From: "Mitchell A. Pravatiner" Date: Mon, 17 Jul 95 16:14:06 EDT Subject: KidLit for the Information Age (fwd) At Chip's Katemas party yesterday, Valerie suggested I repost this here.--Mitch Forwarded message: > From owner-cybermind@jefferson.village.virginia.edu Wed Jul 12 19:06:34 1995 > Message-Id: <9507122158.AA24726@lambada.oit.unc.edu> > Subject: KidLit for the Information Age > To: cybermind@jefferson.village.virginia.edu > Date: Wed, 12 Jul 95 17:58:53 EDT > From: "Mitchell A. Pravatiner" > X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4dev PL65] > Mime-Version: 1.0 > Content-Type: text > Content-Length: 5961 > Sender: owner-cybermind@jefferson.village.virginia.edu > Precedence: bulk > Reply-To: cybermind@jefferson.village.virginia.edu > > Recently, when we had the thread on KidLit, I got to thinking about > whether today's computer-literate kids might find some of our favorite > stories from childhood a little dated, and about whether some of them > could be successfully be updated to reflect current conditions. I think > I've figured out how that could be done to at least one juvenile classic, > to bring it into the age of cyberspace. It might be called... > > CHARLOTTE'S WORLD WIDE WEB > > In this fanciful transduction of the original, Mr. Zuckerman's farm is now > another little corner of agribusiness--mechanized, routinized, and above > all computerized. Workstations on a local area network are strategically > located in various places around the complex. One of them is in the barn > where Wilbur the pig is being developed as a likely food source for the > American consumer. Of course, Wilbur would rather see his life go in > other directions then that, and has made his feelings known to his friend, > Charlotte the intelligent spider, who generally hangs out on the ceiling > above the narrow stall where Wilbur is being fattened. Charlotte > sympathizes, and wishes there were something she could do. As she > dangled, at length, from the structures supporting the roof, a solution > finally occurred to her. > > Using the intelligence that the lower animals are given all too little > credit for, Charlotte figured out the sequences of ASCII characters that > would add up ta uuencoded binary picture files of Wilbur (hey, how much more > of a stretch can that be than a spider writing words? :-) ). She then > painstakingly built a web strand across the ceiling to a point directly > above the workstation in the barn, and proceeded to go to work over a > period of nights when nobody was there. Drawing on a trick described to > her years earlier by her old friend Archy the Cockroach, she bobbed up and > down on a web strand to the keyboard, landing on one key after another, > until she had succeeded in installing a virus in the LAN. Soon, people > working at the various workstations on the farm found their work being cut > into, randomly but with increasing frequency, by full-color graphics of > Wilbur, accompanied by texts such as "SOME PIG," "TERRIFIC," etc. This > ongoing incursion into the flow of data was enough to shut down the entire > system eventually, putting a severe crimp into the operating efficiency of > the farm. > > Naturally, a virus with such major effects became a topic of conversation > on the internet, starting with the newsgroups on computer security, and > spreading to the discussions among hackers. Somehow, it occurred to > someone at the farm to take a look at Wilbur himself, to get a handle on > what could possibly have inspired all this. Wilbur was determined to be > every bit as impressive as Charlotte's virus made him out to be; > naturally, word of this also made its way onto the net. > > People emailed the farm en masse, asking if Wilbur had a homepage, and > whether the binaries of him were available for downloading. Meanwhile, a > security review found nothing that would point to the source of the virus, > but the maintenance department did make note of unusual cobweb growth in > the area of the barn workstation. This bit of information naturally got > sucked into the feeding frenzy, though most people who speculated on > possible links between it and the near-shutdown of the farm reached the > same conclusion--"Naahhh." > > The whole affair continued to gather steam as a genuine pop culture > phenomenon. alt.fan.wilbur soon became the biggest newsgroup on the > entire net. It even went in unexpected directions within cyberspace. > For instance, a large number of posts turned up on alt.sex.bestiality, in > which the authors fantasized about having affairs with Wilbur. A few people, > particularly on talk.bizarre, continued to cling to the notion that > Charlotte had put the virus into the system; posts to sci.skeptic > uniformly discounted this possibility, but the _Computer Underground Digest_ > paid attention to both viewpoints evenhandedly. Somebody wrote a piece of > speculative fiction about an assignation between Wilbur and Charlotte, > under the title "Kiss of the Woman Spider," and submitted it to > rec.arts.erotica. It soon became an underground classic on the net. > > Eventually Charlotte, feeling a sense of her own mortality, decided it was > time to give the farm a fighting chance of returning to normal. Among her > last acts was to bob up and down on the keyboard of the barn workstation, > sending email to the farm's sysadmin through an anonymous remailer in > Finland, with detailed instructions not only on how to uninstall the > virus, but with tips on how to reverse-engineer it into a screen saver as > well. The task finally enervated her beyond any chance of recovery, and > she died. Wilbur was depressed. > > Mr. Zuckerman and the rest of the farm's upper management, recognizing the > need for some kind of profit center until food production returned to > normal, decided to market the Wilbur screen saver. It was an instant > success; the farm soon was making more money from its nascent software > operation than it ever had from agriculture. Realizing that they owed it > all to Wilbur, they took specific action to keep him out of the pork > production process, and retained an ad agency to help determine how best > to use him in their marketing strategy. Wilbur sensed this, and was > delighted. > > Ultimately, Bill Gates, realizing the profit potential in the software > side of the business, made Mr. Zuckerman an offer. Zuckerman sensed that > Gates had gotten burned out from his continuing battles with the > government over antitrust issues, and yearned for a simpler way of life. > He made a counteroffer, to trade the farm for Microsoft, on the condition > that Wilbur remain untouchable. Gates readily agreed to this, and they > all lived happily everafter. > > It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good > hacker. Charlotte was both. > > > Mitch > ------------------------------ From: "Mitchell A. Pravatiner" Date: Mon, 17 Jul 95 16:43:24 EDT Subject: It's a Bush-wa town and other stories As I write this, I have yet to receive a digest containing the collective account of Chip's Katemas party. Suffice it to say in the interim that it carried the wuthering to new heights :-). I found the hot-sauce tasting particularly enjoyable. WRT Shelly's query: Joan Osborne was on Letterman last week. I wasn't particularly imoressed with her performance, and soon took refuge in the Doobie Brothers' simultaneous appearance on Leno. WRT Jeff's experience with problematic phone connections at the zoo: There's always a possibility that the bears have been chewing on the cables, or something like that :-). I just got a note from Beth, BTW, acknowledging the copy I sent her of "Charlotte's World Wide Web," which I also reposted to these pages. Mitch ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V2 #158 ************************** ======================================================================== Please send any questions or comments about the list to ecto-owner@nsmx.rutgers.edu