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 #291 ecto, Number 291 Monday, 13 July 1992 Today's Topics: *-----------------* Box H.A.P. & 2 B E. Mortal i should be doing my laundry... Re: Tori on ``Christian'' radio Laurie Anderson: My Two Cents Happy Birthday Re: B careful what U say RE: ecto #290 Heppy Berthdeys... Happy Birthday, Mitch As seen, or as not seen, on TV best music deals My deux centimes on music deals ======================================================================== Date: Fri, 10 Jul 92 09:28:55 EDT From: ken@startek.com (Ken Descoteaux) Subject: Box H.A.P. & 2 B E. Mortal Vickie too?! Now com'on folks, I thought we're all fans here! I have to be honest and say that Box H.A.P. is one of those songs that I couldn't match the title to the sounds in my head, but its not bad! And To Be E. Mortal is just grand.. I can't believe that people actually fast forward or skip over some of the tracks on the albums! :^) -Ken D ======================================================================== Date: Sun, 12 Jul 92 20:59:56 EDT From: woj@remus.rutgers.edu Subject: i should be doing my laundry... ...but instead i am playing on the net. how typical. more laurie anderson stuff... gda@wayback.creare.com sez: >The "United States" recording is my favorite. It's the best thing I've >found for enduring waiting for delayed flights in some far-from-home >airport. gee, i wish i had thought of that. enjoyed a 30 hour delay in madrid flying back last weekend. continential airlines had never given me a problem before, but i guess in this day of carrier wars, they will do all they can to keep their passengers when they have a problem with a flight. grrr. Vickie Mapes sez: >I passed up a chance to get United States on cassette, >hoping it (they) would be released on CD, but I've never seen them. they are out there - i got my copy a long time ago. it should be available from noteworthy cd still at a reasonable price (under $40) unless they have sold out of them or something. i highly doubt that though. woj ======================================================================== Subject: Re: Tori on ``Christian'' radio Date: Sun, 12 Jul 92 22:45:23 -0400 From: jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu Tim sez, regarding _Little Earthquakes_: >I had no preconcieved ideas of what this would sound like, and much >to my dismay, it reminded me so strongly of the kind of ``Christian'' >music I was exposed to about ten years ago, I could barely listen to >it. I can't figure this at _all_. Maybe xian music was quite different 10 years ago. About 6 years ago, I worked in a record store where the manager and another employee (not quite but almost assistant manager) were both born again xians. As such, I ended up listening to gobs of xian music, ranging from the Imperials to Amy Grant to Michael W. Smith to DeGarmo & Key to Petra to who-knows-what-else. At one point I came up with a full genre classification of "genrerocker--for- christ" such as Amy Grant, who until her recent secular-humanist-pop-flirtation was an "adult contemporary rocker for christ". I simply fail to see how Tori sounds even the remotest bit like any of this. And, even if there's a similarity in production values or arrangements, one would think that the lyrics would be enough to offset this... Jeff ======================================================================== Subject: Laurie Anderson: My Two Cents Date: Mon, 13 Jul 92 00:07:22 -0400 From: jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu Well, I'm a teensy bit late coming into this, but I figgered I'd write about it anyway. I knew who Laurie Anderson was for a long time. I saw her performance on SNL--the second one, I believe. Or has she only been on once? I know that I have a videotape of her on SNL performing Mach 20, or whatever the proper title is. (hmm, Vickie, that video of her _is_ from SNL, isn't it? This is the one on the SiG 118 videotape) But I don't think she performed that song the time I saw her live. All I remember is a chromakey being used to project sheep over her head. It was really warped and I wasn't sure _what_ I thought of it. But I was still a mostly pop kid at the time. A friend of mine get _Strange Angels_ not long after it came out, and I used to hear bits and pieces of it in her dorm room. Mostly "Babydoll", her favorite song on the album. I very much wanted to see the _Strange Angels_ tour, which hit Bloomington, but alas I had to fly home for my sister's bat mitzvah. My flight was the night of the concert. All of my friends had a wonderful time. I sat on a plane. Cut to August '90, my first night back at school before the semester starts. The aforementioned friend and another mutual friend of ours came over to my room to order pizza. We try to pick music. Jen runs down to her room to pick up _Big Science_, which she's bought on CD, despite the fact that she owns no CD player. We listen to the CD. I'm a bit too busy talking to my friends to pay much attention to it, but I'm not overly impressed. Jen 'n Glenn leave. I go to sleep. The next morning, I notice the CD and decide to listen to it while setting up my room. I didn't give Jen her CD back until December. I've not heard all of Laurie Anderson's albums. I have _Big Science_, _Mister Heartbreak_ and _Strange Angels_. I've heard _Home of the Brave_. _Big Science_ is my favorite. I think it's one of the best albums ever recorded. I love the sparseness of the arrangements. I love that Laurie barely sings on it. I worship her sense of timing, her ability to deliver simple sentences in a spoken manner that pack all the wallop of a perfectly sung verse. It is one of the few albums I can listen to over and over again (the other few include _Animals_ (Pink Floyd), _Crossroads_ (Tracy Chapman), and most of Happy's albums). _Big Science_ is on the DID list I posted back during the DID craze on Gaffa. Angelos mentioned using the chunk of "Oh, Superman" on his answer machine. I, too, did that, for most of my senior year at college (in fact, the message is still on my outgoing tape; the machine is not currently hooked up to a phone line). The only people who really found it confusing were people who got the wrong number. I'll never understand how people can listen to the "Hi! I'm not home right now, but if you want to leave a message, just start talking at the sound of the tone", complete with a few measures before and after, and then leave messages like, "Hey, George, guess you're not home. Give me a call later." Idjits. Anyway. The funniest thing that ever happened was when an acquaintance called and said, "Hi, Jeff. I'm not sure if I dialed your number of accidentally dialed mine. If you get this message, call me at ..." I called his house. He wasn't home, but sure enough, he had the same answering machine message! ;-) After _Big Science_, _Strange Angels_ is my second favorite. I'm so glad that Laurie took voice lessons. She sings wonderful. The title track is _stunning_. I think my favorite track is "Coolsville." "Ramon" is also nice, as is "Hiawatha" and "The Dream Before." A lot of people have recommended _Mister Heartbreak_ as a next album. I've never been entirely won over by that one. It's not a _bad_ album, in fact it's quite good. I particularly love "Sharkey's Day" and "Gravity's Angel." But I still don't think it's _that_ strong. Oh well. I should probably stop now. Jeff |Jeffrey C. Burka | "Show what you are / Be strong, be true | | | Time for you to / Be who you are." | |jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu | --Happy Rhodes | ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 13 Jul 92 13:08:11 +0100 From: Terry Partis Subject: Happy Birthday Hi Mitch, Here's wishing you a very Happy birthday on the 14th July, and may you have many more of them. Happy Daze. Terry ======================================================================== From: S.L.Fagg@bnr.co.uk Subject: Re: B careful what U say Date: Mon, 13 Jul 92 13:09:01 BST On Sat, 11 Jul 1992 at 12:11:47 EDT sae@cmpsci.suffolk.edu (S. Alan Ezust) wrote: > > > On sun, 5th of April, Stephen Thomas says: > > ] Consolation in the fact that I can almost guarantee that I was the only > > ] person in London wearing an ecto T-shirt. > > On the 6th of april, 1992, Steve Fagg says: > > You should be careful what you say (sounds like a good title for a song) > > Hmm! I am catching up on old digests and I just *HAVE* to wonder if > this was a coincidence or what.... > Sorry Alan, it was entirely deliberate. There was a version of "Be Careful What You Say" among the Bartlett/Rhodes demos on Vickie's Ecto SiG tape. It sounds quite different to the bonus track on the 1st4 CD, but I can't tell if it's just a remix of the Bartlett/Rhodes demo or a different recording altogether. Any idea Vickie? On the subject of the 1st4 CDs, mine arrived on Saturday and have not left my CD player since. After listening to them straight through in order I've had them on shuffle play. It's wonderful. So much new (to me) Happy music to get into. The only 1st4 tracks I'd previously heard were the eight on the Ecto SiG. I think the painting on the cover of "I" is really neat, is this the famous Alice? How's the HBP coming along? It's nearly a fortnight since the cut-off date now, do we have a final line up? Did my contribution make it across the pond OK? Will all the contributions fit onto two C100s?? Doug, is there enough balance in my cassette account for a copy of Meredith's Champagne Jam tapes? Why do I have so many questions? OK, this isn't a question. Went to the Hammersmith Appollo (new name for the legendary Odeon) last Tuesday to see Ringo & his band. It was a good show and as it was his birthday the audience sung Happy Birthday to him. His son Zak was on drums all evening, keeping things in the family. The gig got slagged off by one of the "quality" papers because Ringo wasn't on stage all the time and only sung about half the songs. Speaking personally, if I'd thought the show was going to be a whole evening of Ringo singing his owm songs I wouldn't have gone. Thanks to reports on the net of the band's previous outings in the States I knew just what to expect and was not disappointed. -- Regards Steve Fagg ( S.L.Fagg@bnr.co.uk +44-279-402437 ) BNR Europe Ltd., London Road, Harlow, Essex, CM17 9NA, UK *** "Better drowned than duffers. If not duffers, won't drown". *** ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 13 Jul 92 11:01:43 EDT From: Chris Sampson Subject: RE: ecto #290 Hi everyone, No judgement involved, but I was surprised to hear that one of our fold had not heard ANY Laurie until recently! My introduction to LA was, on the advice of the guy-at-record-world, Big Science, which...as recent posts suggest, might be why I haven't gone out to buy more....not that it's bad, but rather that you find yourself saying..."Okay, what ELSE does she do?". Ironically, I recognized some phrases here on EcTo from Ms. Anderson...like "Today's your birthday, friend...so happy birthday". Or, "It's a sky-blue sky.....". A recent issue of VF (with Jack Nicholson on the cover) covers the performance artists (Karen Finley, Diamanda Galas, Cindy Sherman....and, Laurie Anderson). It seems that LA's first performance was a "symphony" of car horns which she conducted somewhere in Vermont.....I love this woman's sense of the wacky :) ! In summation, Big Science is wonderful, I just wish I liked to listen to it more often.....aspirations of avant-ness, y'know. :) I think I might try to locate Strange Angels a/o Mr. Heartbreak, myself, thanks for the suggestions. Also, thanks to Greg "footah" Bossert et. al. for the leads on cyberpunk....and thanks for steering me clear of the less-than-worthy entries in the genre. "'cause I've seen the future, and it's a place about 70 miles east of here" Laurie (quoted from memory) Chris Sampson "...hopes and dreams... ...notes and themes... ...scope and schemes..." ...py Rho... ======================================================================== Subject: Re: ecto #290 Date: Mon, 13 Jul 92 12:39:05 -0400 From: jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu Chris Sampson writes: >Ironically, I recognized some phrases here on EcTo from Ms. >Anderson...like "Today's your birthday, friend...so happy birthday". Interesting juxtaposition. "Today's your birthday friend" is from a Genesis song, ca '68 (their first album). The Laurie Anderson quote is "You were born. And so you're free. So happy birthday." That's from "Born, Never Asked" off _Big Science. I think it's probably the most _musically_ interesting song on the album (though not the most interesting). On the other hand, I adore the cascading tones on "Oh, Superman". >"It's a sky-blue sky.....". Satellites are out tonight. >"'cause I've seen the future, >and it's a place about 70 miles east of here" "Cause I can see the future, and it's a place--about 70 miles east of here. Where it's lighter." >Chris Sampson "...hopes and dreams... >...notes and themes... >...scope and schemes..." >...py Rho... Neat sig! Jeff ======================================================================== From: Martin Dougiamas Subject: Heppy Berthdeys... Date: Tue, 14 Jul 92 0:46:56 WST * * * * * * *_|-|-|-|-|-|_* /|* Happy *|\ \ | Birthday! | / |`-------------'| | Mitch | `-------------' -- ,--------------------------------------------------------------. _ . | All the deserts I could irrigate Martin Dougiamas. | _r| Ll\ | All the poor I could emancipate martin@cs.curtin.edu.au | | | \ | But that's not what interests me Curtin University | \ |_ / | I'm interested in apathy Perth, Western Australia -+-> x~ `-' `=== This Is Serious, Mum =====================================' V ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 13 Jul 92 11:41:35 -0700 From: Michael G Peskura Subject: Happy Birthday, Mitch Hmm... Full Moon, Bastille Day ... you should have a *great* time! (Love your posts, too!) Cheers, Mp ======================================================================== Date: 13 July 1992 13:10:23 CDT From: Subject: As seen, or as not seen, on TV Late last Saturday night, I was flipping periodically between _America's Top 10_ on Channel 5 and the video show on Channel 50, when on the latter, I caught the tail end of a commercial for Sophie B.'s album, which clearly indi- cates that Columbia Records has great confidence in it. The commercial featur- ed excerpts from what we have called the "plaid" version of the DIWIWYL video. A little later, I became engrossed in a film short on _Night Flight_ about a rabbit who managed to turn the tables on a homicidal motorist. When the comm- ercial came on, I switched to Channel 50 and was simultaneously delighted and dismayed to come in on the tail end of what we have referred to as the "bikini" version of the DIWIWYL video--delighted that it was being shown, dismayed that I missed most of it. I returned to Channel 5 to be greeted by a good comp- ilation of Australian rock, highlighted by the Divinyl's "I Touch Myself." Though that certainly wasn't the best song in the set, it did occur to me that Sophie and Christina Amphlett would make a great team. :-) Ironically, the show ended with another song that has two videos, "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak. I don't know if they showed the David Lynch version or the Herb Ritts one. After a few hours of sleep, I awoke to a feature on _Mystery Science Theater 3000_, which I didn't really absorb because I was not yet entirely awake, but it refueled my hope that the show will one day make it to free TV. As fate would have it, yesterday afternoon was topped off by a showing, on the local PBS station, of the 1968 film _The Night They Raided Minsky's_, a rumination on the apocryphal story of the accidental invention of the striptease. This, of course, feeds into the short thread that emerged in these pages late last week, on the Greek etymology of the word "ecdysiast." Since I may or may not be near a terminal tomorrow, Happy Bastille Day a day early. Mitch -------------------- "I've heard it said that the status passage from quasi-middle age to full-blown middle age is survivable. We shall see. :-)" --Me from the introduction to my HBP selection (If Vickie can do autoepigrams, so can I :-) ) ======================================================================== Date: Mon, 13 Jul 92 11:55:37 -0700 From: Michael G Peskura Subject: best music deals I recently acquired Diamanda Galas' 'Plague Mass' CD at Tower at cut-out price. This seems to be a national phenomenon (i seem to recall reading about one of you finding a similar deal at a local Tower store). Why? Is the disc being discontinued? Mp ======================================================================== Date: 13 July 1992 14:06:35 CDT From: Subject: My deux centimes on music deals What comes to my mind, for some reason, as the best find on a recording in my recent experience derives its status less from its price than its availability or lack thereof. It is Shawn Colvin's self-published _Live Tape_, which I got a couple of summers ago at Val's Halla in Oak Park. This was less than a year after I had first encountered her Columbia album, which label, I was told, had forced her to withdraw her earlier enterprise when they signed her. Hallelujah, I'm a collector, assuming that having a collector's item makes you that. Mitch ======================================================================== 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)