From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V3 #41 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Wednesday, October 15 1997 Volume 03 : Number 041 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: What's Ally McBeal? ["Ron Starr" ] Radio, Radio! ** Fwd: WFMU's Signal Is On The Net! [faucet@pipeline.com] Cassini is not a threat [Steve VanDevender ] Re: Cassini is not a threat [Steve VanDevender ] Velvet Belly - interview? [yngveh@mo.himolde.no] Birthday list administrivia [mmatthews@loudoun.com (Mike Matthews)] Lili Haydn ["Kelly B. Ashkettle" ] Re: Who is singer on Ally McBeal? [Greg.Jumper@Eng.Sun.COM (Greg Jumper)] Peter & Wendy / Susan McKeown [Carolyn Andre ] Broadcast Alert! [Joseph Zitt ] Re: Cassini is not a threat ["Michael P. Hayes" ] Re: Central Jersey [Joseph Zitt ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 00:41:42 -0800 From: "Ron Starr" Subject: Re: What's Ally McBeal? Sherlyn Koo wrote: > Okay, I have to ask - what's Ally McBeal? > ..... > It's a very smart, well-written series on FOX, done by David Kelley (of Picket Fences fame). I think it's being pushed as a "dramedy"-- a comedy/drama. The lead, Ally McBeal, is an on-her-second-job attorney. She has a complicated life that is further complicated by the events around her. Bits of surrealistic fantasy pop up in the course of the show to indicate what Ally is thinking. In the most recent episode she worked through the rather awkward situation of being asked by a former professor's widow to help with the funeral. The professor was a former lover. The emotions and situations were funny, authentic, and touching, all at the same time. The ambience is probably closest to that of Sisters in its first season when it was still clever and before it became maudlin and self-indulgent. Or, a little like Picket Fences, but without the dark, gothic edges. To sum up, it's one of the best things on (North American?) television. - - Ron Starr (rstarr@eskimo.com) ==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+= "It was, indeed, the Age of Information, but information was not the precursor of knowledge; it was the tool of salesmen." -- Earl Shorris, A Nation of Salesmen ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 12:05:11 -0400 (EDT) From: faucet@pipeline.com Subject: Radio, Radio! ** Fwd: WFMU's Signal Is On The Net! Well this is official. I have been having a ball listening live to CBC (Brave New Waves and their great news stuff), community stations from Australia, KCRW archived live sessions, KUSF and now this.. If you dont have at least a 28.8 speed modem, now is the time.. It is a real radio revolution! * Nicholas Forwarded from wfmu: ****************** WFMU NOW BROADCASTING ON THE INTERNET If you're a fan of adventurous non-commercial radio that mixes Space Age Pop, Tuvan Cowboys, electronica, scratchy 78 rpm discs from the 1920s, free jazz, the latest indie rock, 60s psychedelia, salsa, and home-recorded cassettes found in thrift shops.....you might be interested to know that WFMU's renowned free-form programming can now be heard worldwide on the internet at: http://www.wfmu.org or http://www.audionet.com/Radio/Public/Wfmu/ To hear WFMU, you need a 28.8 connection to the internet, and Realplayer software, which can be downloaded FREE from either of the above sites. Just click, follow instructions, and enjoy WFMU in all its eccentric glory. [Note: Be prepared to endure a 20-second promotional soundbite for Audionet before WFMU's signal kicks in.] If you have problems receiving WFMU through the above links, e-mail: or **************** Nicholas Hill ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 09:18:41 -0700 (PDT) From: Steve VanDevender Subject: Cassini is not a threat Philip David Morgan writes: > A huge shocker. If Cassini had been launched - and had it exploded mid-air > - it'd be a really black Monday. (We still have the damn space gamble in > two days...) Even if Cassini does explode during ascent, nothing like what the alarmists are worried about will happen. I'm really tired of hearing people freak out about the 70 pounds of plutonium on board as if it's the greatest threat to humanity in our history; an explosion of the launcher or an uncontrolled re-entry will not spray a fine mist of plutonium into the atmosphere, because the designers know how to prevent that (and have successfully prevented it in past accidents). More people will be killed in car accidents this year than ever could be put at risk by the Cassini launch, yet the protesters of the Cassini launch gladly drive around in cars. More people will get cancer from exposing themselves to sunlight than anyone could by being exposed to plutonium from a Cassini launch failure, but people aren't hiding from the sun. (An important principle of risk management: People accept well-understood dangers, and become worried about ones they don't understand, even if those poorly understood risks are less dangerous than the well-understood ones.) And Cassini can't use solar power, because at Saturn's distance from the Sun, it receives only a few percent of the sunlight per unit area than we get on Earth, and solar panels big enough to power the spacecraft would be too big to carry. I want Cassini to launch, and go to Saturn, and let us explore a beautiful world that we've had only tantalizing glimpses of before. And I want people to stop being victims of alarmists and sensationalists who fear what they don't understand, and who use their influence to prey on other people that are fearful and ignorant. The Cassini Program Manager, Richard J. Spehalski, has an eloquent explanation of the issues at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/MoreInfo/pm_message.html I'm sorry that this is such a sore point with me, but I've seen this alarmism happen first with Galileo (which was successfully lauched and is now sending back a feast of information about Jupiter) and now with Cassini, both times with the alarmists distributing outright lies about the risks of the launches. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 15:46:04 -0400 (EDT) From: jason and jill Subject: Re: Cassini is not a threat On Tue, 14 Oct 1997, Steve VanDevender wrote: > Even if Cassini does explode during ascent, nothing like what the > alarmists are worried about will happen. I'm really tired of hearing > people freak out about the 70 pounds of plutonium on board as if it's > the greatest threat to humanity in our history; an explosion of the > launcher or an uncontrolled re-entry will not spray a fine mist of > plutonium into the atmosphere, because the designers know how to prevent > that (and have successfully prevented it in past accidents). More While I do thing the protestors were a bit nutty, equally nutty is mindless devotion in the skill and aptitude of the folks that brought us O-rings. Jason ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 13:13:33 -0700 (PDT) From: Steve VanDevender Subject: Re: Cassini is not a threat jason and jill writes: > On Tue, 14 Oct 1997, Steve VanDevender wrote: > > > Even if Cassini does explode during ascent, nothing like what the > > alarmists are worried about will happen. I'm really tired of hearing > > people freak out about the 70 pounds of plutonium on board as if it's > > the greatest threat to humanity in our history; an explosion of the > > launcher or an uncontrolled re-entry will not spray a fine mist of > > plutonium into the atmosphere, because the designers know how to prevent > > that (and have successfully prevented it in past accidents). More > > While I do thing the protestors were a bit nutty, equally nutty is > mindless devotion in the skill and aptitude of the folks that brought us > O-rings. > > Jason Who's talking about mindless devotion? Not me. I'm talking about biased and inaccurate portrayal of risk, alarmist hype, and fear of radiation beyond rational bounds. None of the media pieces I've seen on this have even come close to providing an objective evaluation of the risks of the Cassini launch. Just repetition of the phrase "plutonium, the most toxic substance known" (several biologically-produced chemotoxins are as bad) and irrational, physically impossible beliefs about what a launch accident or re-entry could do to the RTGs (the Apollo 13 LEM RTGs were recovered _intact_ after it re-entered the atmosphere and impacted). The people who designed Cassini (and Galileo, and Mars Pathfinder, and the Voyager spacecraft, and the Apollo spacecraft) were not criminal, or incautious, or uncaring. Nuclear power sources on spacecraft were being designed and tested for safety long before these ignorant activists started protesting their use. The reason I'm upset is that this has gone beyond rational public scrutiny to little more than hype and rumors. "We live in the interface between radioactive molten rock and hard vacuum, and we worry about safety." -- Chris Hunt ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 14:02:17 -0700 From: neile@sff.net (Neile Graham) Subject: Taja Sevelle? I haven't heard of her, but a friend noticed Taja Sevelle's "1 & 1" video on MTV and thought she was someone I'd like. Apparently she has an album called _Toys of Vanity_ on Sony. Has anyone heard her? Any opinions? - --Neile - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Neile Graham ..... http://www.sff.net/people/neile ..... neile@sff.net The Ectophiles' Guide to Good Music .... http://www.smoe.org/ectoguide - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 16:11:55 -0500 (CDT) From: Joseph S Zitt Subject: Re: Cassini is not a threat On Tue, 14 Oct 1997, Steve VanDevender wrote: > The reason I'm upset is that this has > gone beyond rational public scrutiny to little more than hype and > rumors. I agree. I tend to be highly skeptical of scientists' claims for safety, but it looks like they've done their homework on this one. It's been tested for many years, and it looks like it works. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 00:25:04 +0200 (MET DST) From: yngveh@mo.himolde.no Subject: Velvet Belly - interview? Hi, I'm trying to get together an interview with Velvet Belly on Friday. I am going to do the review from their concert, and then use the opportunity to ask them some questions. Anyone got something they would like to ask them? I'll of course translate everything I do and post it on ecto ... *hugs* Yngve - -- ________________________________________________________________ Yngve Hauge | __ ___ __ | | _ www: http://aure.himolde.no/~yngveh/ |-- | | | ||-- |_||| |_ Irc-nick: One_Alien, (_)Yngve_ |__ |__ | |__|| | |||_|_ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 19:13:12 -0400 From: mmatthews@loudoun.com (Mike Matthews) Subject: Birthday list administrivia The birthday list is broken again, thanks to yet another ......... by my UUCP-providing ISP. Once they fix their end , the birthday wishes will go out. From 8 October: *************************************************************************** ****************** Dan Riley (dsr@lns598.tn.cornell.edu) ****************** ****************** Neile Graham (neile@u.washington.edu) ****************** ************ Quenby M. Chunco (v115p8d6@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu) ************* ********************* Mike Garland (garland@pic.net) ********************** *************************************************************************** From 10 October: *************************************************************************** ****************** Michael C. Berch (mcb@postmodern.com) ****************** ****************** Chris Gagnon (populuxe@geocities.com) ****************** *************************************************************************** From 13 October: *************************************************************************** ******* Wolfgang Drotschmann (drotschm@eos.informatik.uni-bonn.de) ******** ********************* Gracescape (Gracescape@aol.com) ********************* *************************************************************************** and from today: *************************************************************************** ********************* Brian Bloom (brianb@imagin.net) ********************* *************************************************************************** I may end up having to do these manually again, which means they won't be coming out at midnight any more. :) Mike ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 19:11:43 -0400 (EDT) From: "Kelly B. Ashkettle" Subject: Lili Haydn Has anyone here heard of Lili Haydn? I heard part of a promo of her new disc, while in a record store, but the manager said it hasn't been released yet and he didn't know anything more about it. It was very intriguing...a bit like Rasputina with the high vocals and the cello, but with many other elements, too..funk, rock... - --Kelly ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 16:38:54 -0700 From: Greg.Jumper@Eng.Sun.COM (Greg Jumper) Subject: Re: Who is singer on Ally McBeal? Yesterday, I wrote: The singer is Vonda Shepherd (she even appeared in one of the two episodes I've seen). I highly recommend her second album; her first, not so much. Sorry, I can't seem to retrieve the titles at the moment... And Sherlyn replied: Okay, I have to ask - what's Ally McBeal? Lots of people have been talking about it on the Indigo Girls mailing list because Vonda Shepherd has played with the Girls on a few occasions... I still have no idea what the show is though... Before getting into Ally McBeal, I remembered (or so I think) the titles of the Vonda Shepherd albums about five minutes after I posted yesterday (of course). I believe the first is self-titled, while the second is called _It's Good, Eve_, or something close to that. The second album came out about two years ago, I think, while the first was just re-released in the last six months or so. The first album has the one (good) song I associated with Vonda Shepherd several years ago, but the rest of that album doesn't do much for me; the second album is a much better effort overall. _Ally McBeal_ is the latest series from David E. Kelley, of _Picket Fences_ and _Chicago Hope_ fame. The new show airs Monday nights on Fox in the US -- or it will once baseball finally goes away; it follows a young female attorney's trials (no pun intended :) and tribulations as she leaves a big faceless law firm and joins a small firm of former law school colleagues, including her now-married former boyfriend. The show's gimmick is that many of Ally's internal thoughts are rendered on-screen. I'm not sure the gimmick will hold up, and the two episodes I've seen have relied too much on the stock trick of characters having to extricate themselves from awkward situations. If the show succeeds, it will be due to Ally's charisma; she can probably pull it off. Greg ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 19:05:41 From: Carolyn Andre Subject: Peter & Wendy / Susan McKeown It has been pointed out to me that the Alula Records site has a pretty nifty page devoted to the new Peter & Wendy release, including some sound samples for those of you who haven't tracked down the CD yet. (and yes, its quite a wonderful experience. the booklet alone is a fascinating read & production effort ) main Alula page: http://www.alula.com Peter/Wendy page: http://www.alula.com/pw.html (er, it *is* rather ORANGE ) Also re: Susan. I have it on good authority that the first copies of "Bitter Frost" are in Hillary & co's hands over at Prime, and looking good for the Dublin Booksellers' release concert this week. (susan's concert dates are on her website http://house-of-music.com/susan/smktour.shtml and via Musi-cal, searching for McKeown http://concerts.calendar.com Regards, Carolyn (ok, ok, I did go to hear Susan Werner on Saturday nite - nearly all new songs ... posted a review to the Susan Werner (believers) mailing list...) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 20:37:31 -0500 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Broadcast Alert! The Rolling Stones having taken an unexpected sick day, tonight at 10 PM EST on Live at the 10 Spot on MTV, they're featuring the fabulous Gail Ann Dorsey Band! ... oh all right, it's really David Bowie, with Gail Ann Dorsey and (if memory serves) Reeves Gabrels, Mike Garson, and Zachary Alford. They just got the call to do it yesterday, and happened to have the day off from their tour, so it's happening! My VCR is geared up. For those for whom this is too short notice, I understand that it will be rebroadcast on Saturday night. It's also being cybercast, though I forget from where. The "Teenage Wildlife" web site at http://www.etete.com/bowie (I think) has details. I reeeeeeally hope they do "O Superman"! n.p. Bowie: "I'm Afraid of Americans" (new CD single released in the States today, with 5 Reznor remixes and one by Photek) n.r. Still Eno... - -- - ---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------- |||/ Joseph Zitt ===== jzitt@humansystems.com ===== Human Systems \||| ||/ Maryland? = <*> SILENCE: The John Cage Mailing List <*> = ecto \|| |/ http://www.realtime.net/~jzitt whodp://ding.activerse.com/jzitt \| ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 20:30:49 -0500 (CDT) From: "Michael P. Hayes" Subject: Re: Cassini is not a threat For what it's worth re: Cassini... I recall seeing an article about risks in general in relation to the neo-Luddites protesting the launch of this satellite, and it mentioned that the odds of Cassini colliding with the Earth were about 1 in 300,000... roughly the same as having a commercial airline jet land on your head. I believe it was in the Oct. 5 Chicago Tribune, for those interested... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 21:07:54 -0500 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: Central Jersey Mitchell A. Pravatiner wrote: > > WRT the query on places to perform in central New Jersey: There is an outfit > called Outa Sights and Sounds, in Hightstown, which has put on concerts by > some relatively blue-chip artists for a promoter whose performance space > is a high school auditorium. Thanks. A high school auditorium would probably be a bit large for us, but we'll followup and see what he suggests. - -- - ---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------- |||/ Joseph Zitt ===== jzitt@humansystems.com ===== Human Systems \||| ||/ Maryland? = <*> SILENCE: The John Cage Mailing List <*> = ecto \|| |/ http://www.realtime.net/~jzitt whodp://ding.activerse.com/jzitt \| ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V3 #41 *************************