From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V14 #87 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Monday, March 30 2009 Volume 14 : Number 087 To unsubscribe: e-mail ecto-digest-request@smoe.org and put the word unsubscribe in the message body. Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Carina Round song on Dollhouse [Gregory Bossert ] Lyrics [kerrywhite@webtv.net (kerry white)] Re: stupid lyrics [Sharon Nichols ] Re: Carina Round song on Dollhouse [Ellen Rawson ] Re: Stupidest lyrics in all of music [meredith ] new astrid williamson [=?iso-8859-1?Q?anna_maria_stj=E4rnell?= ] Re: pandora.com [=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Elin_Bekkebr=E5ten_Sj=F8lie?= ] Wendy & Lisa's gatefold coloured vinyl release of... [birdie ] Re: pandora.com [Alexander Johannesen ] Re: pandora.com [Michael Quinn ] Re: Stupidest lyrics in all of music [Damon ] Amanda Palmer on wanting out of her label deal [birdie ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:32:47 -0700 From: Gregory Bossert Subject: Re: Carina Round song on Dollhouse On Mar 28, 2009, at 8:14 PM, Timothy Jones-Yelvington wrote: > Anyone know where to get a full-length copy of the long version of the > Jonatha Brooke theme song? if there were such a thing, a good thing it would be. is there? > Oh, but it gets better and better each week. > Episode six was gangbusters. ah, and episode six was written by Joss. and episode five was written by Tim Minear. i have to say, the "mechanism" is a little tired -- dropping into different lives and stories each week. shades of Quantum Leap, Mission Impossible, Artemis Gordon and other "masters of disguise", etc. it allows for lazy writing, because you don't have to clean up last week's mess. and it encourages clichi, because the writer has to sell the new setting in a few minutes, and that's easier when it's already well known to the audience. i'll bet Dollhouse scripts take a fraction of the time and agony that Firefly's did (which is bad). and, well, frankly, Firefly's cast was much stronger. overall, though, as some one who works in the film industry... i find TV far more interesting right now. Sturgeon's Law applies of course, but i think the 10% of TV that is not crud is far more exciting than the corresponding 10% of film. or theatre. this is largely because the writers have much more say. much much much more say. well, and also it's a younger medium. and it provides the ability to tell stories over dozens of hours. but mostly it's the writers. it's astonishing how little influence and control writers have in film. speaking of which, i just finished the best book i have yet read on screenwriting. it's a tough sell, because it's 500 large format pages with small print taken from email correspondence and a $45 price tag and lots of photos of Daleks. it's Doctor Who: A Writer's Tale by Russell T. Davies and Ben Cook, BBC Books, 2008. it's ostensibly (and actually) about the writing of the fourth season of the new Doctor Who. but you don't have to like, or even know anything about the show, to benefit from the insight into storytelling. (if you really can't get past the fact that it's based around Doctor Who, you probably have some more fundamental issues with imagination and the creative process, and might want to try, say, flipping burgers, instead. ooh, me.) anyway, it's audacious, laugh out loud funny, disconcertingly honest, but mostly very very useful if you're interested in telling stories. 'tah! - -g n.r. Dan Simmon's "Drood" n.p. Aphex Twin "Selected Ambient Works Vol II" ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:29:07 -0700 (PDT) From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?anna_maria_stj=E4rnell?= Subject: stupid lyrics Hi. I have a few.. The Culture Club's "War song"..."War is stupid and people are stupid". Sting's "Russians".."I hope the russians love their children too". A lot of well-intended but hopelessly flat songs in other words. Oh, and Joss Whedon is my lord and master. That's all. Anna ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 00:02:59 -0400 From: Mike Connell Subject: Re: Carina Round song on Dollhouse At 10:54 PM 3/28/2009, Karen Hester wrote: > Now I have to hit 'send' without saying something nasty about how >poorly this show compares to Firefly, blessed be its name. Oops, >didn't quite make it :) I have never seen (nor heard of) Firefly, but so far I'm liking Dollhouse. Haven't seen last nights Dollhouse yet, but I enjoyed last week's and the preview for this week (if memory serves...always an iffy call) looked great. Mike np - Standing Stone, Paul McCartney ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 05:41:00 -0500 From: kerrywhite@webtv.net (kerry white) Subject: Lyrics Hi, John Tesh: "Our God is an Awesome God (repeat)". Bye, Kerry "Who was born today, Patti?" "Uh, nobody, Hugh!" "I mean in history, before they changed the water!" ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 08:10:52 -0400 From: Sharon Nichols Subject: Re: stupid lyrics how about lyrics that are so stupid they qualify as brilliant? I see you girls checkin' out my trunks I see you girls checkin' out the front of my trunks I see you girls lookin' at my junk, then checkin' out my rump, then back to my sugar lumps while I shake yeah I shake it all up, you probably think that my pants have the mumps, it's just my sugar lump bump-ba-bump, they look so good that's why I keep them in the front All these bitches checkin' out my britches put them in a trance when I wear track pants my dungarees make them hung(a)ry send them over the moon when I don pantaloons My sugar lumps are two of a kind sweet and white and highly refined honeys try all kinds of tomfoolery to steal a feel of my family jewelery my cannonballs cause a kerfuffle the ladies they hustle to ruffle my truffle if you party with the Party Prince you get two complimentary after dinner mints (Flight of the Conchords, natch) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 06:44:56 -0700 (PDT) From: Ellen Rawson Subject: Re: Carina Round song on Dollhouse - --- On Sun, 3/29/09, Gregory Bossert wrote: > > Anyone know where to get a full-length copy of the > long version of the > > Jonatha Brooke theme song? > > if there were such a thing, a good thing it would be. is > there? She didn't perform it in her recent London gig, the one Adam and I attended (without realising each other was there :), perhaps because 'Dollhouse' hasn't been aired here yet. Ellen ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 10:55:54 -0400 From: meredith Subject: Re: Stupidest lyrics in all of music Hi, Aly Fields wrote: > Anything written by Melissa Ferrick. Most especially "Drive." In this particular case, extreme slack is given for delivery. This is a song that's best experienced live, and that line gets a laugh every time. The look on her face when she delivers it is the icing on the cake. She knows exactly what she's doing. - -- =============================================== Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth =============================================== hear at the HOMe House Concert Series http://hom.smoe.org =============================================== ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 08:20:55 -0700 (PDT) From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?anna_maria_stj=E4rnell?= Subject: new astrid williamson hi. a new astrid williamson album soon.. http://wearsthetrousers.com/2009/03/27/astrid-williamson-plugs-in-on-new-album/#more-5808 anna ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:27:09 -0500 From: "Amy-Collected Sounds" Subject: RE: Carina Round song on Dollhouse >Anyone know where to get a full-length copy of the long version of the >Jonatha Brooke theme song? I don't know where you can get the song itself, but I posted about the song when I heard about it and I posted the video. http://www.blog.collectedsounds.com/?p=3487 I think the last couple of episodes have been really good. It's getting pretty convoluted. Which I like. But nothing compares to Firefly :) ~A ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 11:24:40 -0700 (PDT) From: Michael Mendelson Subject: stupid human lyrics Wes sed: >The Killers, Human: > >*"cut the cord >are we human or are we dancer >my sign is vital, my hands are cold >and Im on my knees looking for the answer >are we human or are we dancer"* > >Interestingly enough people say it's a reference to Hunter S. Thompson (or >say it's denser, even though it's confirmed that it is, in fact, dancer.) In >either case it doesn't make it sound less idiotic. I think it's trying to be >profound but I think it just sounds silly. I have to confess that I love this song. But I agree the lyrics are a joke. I almost feel like songs like this are intentionally banal from the POV that it sounds to me like they are more interested in a cheap rhyme than in meaning. I mean really, what else rhymes with 'answer'? are we human or are we prancer? Vixen? pants-er? lancer? cancer? Really, 'dancer' is the best they could come up with and it was good enuf to complete the song. Considering that the whole thing is a play on words anyways --- "My sign is vital?" must be a vital sign, heh. and obviously a play on capricorn or aquarius, right? The dancer thing is just as silly. But hey -- there are *so* many songs where rhyming is more important to the lyricist that making sense. So that would be an interesting topic -- songs where the lyricist goes for the dumb rhyme despite it making absolutely no sense, or being a total cliche. - -mjm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:33:02 +0200 From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Elin_Bekkebr=E5ten_Sj=F8lie?= Subject: Re: pandora.com morayati@email.unc.edu skrev, 25. mars 2009 17:11: > Quoting Elin Bekkebreten Sjxlie : > >> Sharon Nichols skrev, 24. mars 2009 01:23: >>> this has probably already been mentioned, but the happy rhodes station >>> at pandora.com is pretty great... >>> >> Pity it's just for US residence... :-( > As I understand it, it wasn't always that way. They got hit with a > bunch of copyright issues a year or so ago. I honestly thought they > were going to have to close, but it seems they didn't... I tried to sign up... Oh, a few years ago, I think it was, and was told I couldn't due to me being in Norway and not the US. So, as far as I know, it always has been... Elin - -- http://lunacia.net/ http://photos.lunacia.net/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 11:41:12 -0700 From: birdie Subject: Re: Carina Round song on Dollhouse Gregory Bossert wrote: > > > overall, though, as some one who works in the film industry... i > find TV far more interesting right now. Sturgeon's Law applies of > course, but i think the 10% of TV that is not crud is far more > exciting than the corresponding 10% of film. or theatre. this is > largely because the writers have much more say. much much much more > say. well, and also it's a younger medium. and it provides the > ability to tell stories over dozens of hours. but mostly it's the > writers. it's astonishing how little influence and control writers > have in film. I'm fascinated in all the changes it is going through, but only as one part of the overall picture - which includes internet, film, music, tv, radio - current trends in all of it... It is a more immediate medium and as such can touch on more current themes, issues, and fads. The downside is that it consumes a heck of a lot of material and is constantly hungry for more 24/7, so many have had their 15 minutes of fame on Jerry Springer or Paris Hilton's shows, showcasing messed up or doe-eyed dumbbells that make Joe/Jane public feel "better than". Same function as the tabloids and car crashes. On the other hand, it can employ herds of writers (although budgets are being trimmed) and they certainly can license quality music for less now - - so - there is always room for good work. Film, as you know, can take many years to complete from idea to screens. The budgets are enormous. The studio bosses don't like to take chances, and you just get one shot at it. I have noticed in the past few years that the bar has gotten lower, and there has been more crappy commercial approved by the marketing department, films than ever. And, big budget failures. People tend to go out to see them and invest time/money to go sit in theatre seats rather than hang at home on the couch, so, they are more demanding of what they will be getting... I've been off work for a year, and didn't bother to see anything. I'll get around to seeing "Milk, as I was involved in the castro district and gay politics at that time and soon after he was shot, got the Castro Theatre on contract as it's operator and got it up and going for what it became famous for, the presentation of really really great films. If you want great writing, go rent films from the 30's! Same with musicals. It's a little horrifying that people watch the junk that is out there, when there are whole libraries of amazing interesting work from decades gone by.... Jerry Springer or Carmen Miranda? Typically, I see everything and most of the time, you really need to go through a few hundred films to find one that is wonderfully crafted and fires on all pistons - such as Alan Parker's "The Commitments". The year that came out, we must have gone through about 300 films til we found it. Like looking for a needle in a haystack, but then, I tend to run with very hardcore people in regards to film, and we know what works and what doesn't and why and can pick things apart to no end. If you want to go to the show and have a nice innocent time, hahahaha.....don't go with us! Same applies for music, god forbid if I go to sxsw, i'll have key acts picked out and will probably run in and out of loads of other shows, not waiting for sets to end. Festivals being what they are. But, I'm not so focused on other peoples work anymore - just my own, for the future. Doctor Who: A Writer's Tale sounds great. One of the last times I watched a whole series of TV shows was Red Dwarf, from the UK, and that was mostly because my neighbor was writing for it and I was recovering from knee surgery or something....and, I had a good run with AbFab, having pitched some things that were used in a special. During the 90's, I pretty much stuck with TV shows out of the BBC. As I spent my early years watching nothing but top notch indie, art, international and studio films - which formed my foundation, that....the rest of this stuff is just not worth the time of day to me. I'd rather be out in nature, the real world or doing something positive for change. Getting trapped with other peoples bad visions, is a nightmare, for sure. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:01:42 -0700 From: birdie Subject: Wendy & Lisa's gatefold coloured vinyl release of... their new album The White Flags of Winter Chimneys is magnificent I have the deluxe edition, which comes with the 12" gatefold magically colored vinyl, CD and mp3 & flac files The 12" is only avail now in this deluxe package but they will be releasing in as a single item down the road Love having the gatefold to open and all the lyrics there to read - wow the colored vinyl work is priceless ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:26:36 +0000 From: Greg Blair Subject: With apologies to Richard Harris > Joss Whedon is not television. "I am not... television! I am... a human... BEING!!!" _________________________________________________________________ Quick access to Windows Live and your favorite MSN content with Internet Explorer 8. http://ie8.msn.com/microsoft/internet-explorer-8/en-us/ie8.aspx?ocid=B037MSN5 5C0701A ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:58:09 +1100 From: Alexander Johannesen Subject: Re: pandora.com 2009/3/30 Elin Bekkebreten Sjxlie : > I tried to sign up... Oh, a few years ago, I think it was, and was told I > couldn't due to me being in Norway and not the US. So, as far as I know, it > always has been... I started using it while living in Australia, so that certainly was ok. I moved to Norway later, and that's when they ended my joys. I really miss Pandora; it's how I found Happy. Regards, Alex - -- - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Project Wrangler, SOA, Information Alchemist, UX, RESTafarian, Topic Maps - ------------------------------------------ http://shelter.nu/blog/ -------- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:24:56 -0400 From: Michael Quinn Subject: Re: pandora.com You used to have to say you were from the US when signing up and make up a zip code but that was easy enough and it would let you listen as long as you did that. Then about a year or so ago they put in an IP blocker so now you really can't listen outside the US (unless you manage to fake your IP address through a proxy server) It sucks :( Alexander Johannesen wrote: > 2009/3/30 Elin Bekkebreten Sjxlie : > >> I tried to sign up... Oh, a few years ago, I think it was, and was told I >> couldn't due to me being in Norway and not the US. So, as far as I know, it >> always has been... >> > > I started using it while living in Australia, so that certainly was > ok. I moved to Norway later, and that's when they ended my joys. I > really miss Pandora; it's how I found Happy. > > > Regards, > > Alex ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:28:36 -0700 From: Damon Subject: Re: Stupidest lyrics in all of music > Anything written by Melissa Ferrick. heh, and here one of the reasons melissa is one of my personal goddesses is because her lyrics always seem so spot-on to me. at first i thought this post was facetious. shows how subjective this can be, i guess! - -damon - -- dl+ecto@usrbin.ca: protecting my real address since 2002 (too late!) > EWS starts here! < http://www.last.fm/user/kalaleq/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:46:55 -0700 From: birdie Subject: Amanda Palmer on wanting out of her label deal she met with Tori Amo's in SXSW and one of the topics they discussed was "How to get out of your record deal without having to piss on soem exec's desk" - Tori has had a few deals, so, is a good brain to pick anyway....hahaha...this is what Amanda decided to do - hoping she'll be out of her deal this summer. there is no point in having a label deal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMi7wRfmoMs ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:52:11 -0700 From: Gregory Bossert Subject: Re: Carina Round song on Dollhouse On Mar 29, 2009, at 11:41 AM, birdie wrote: > I have noticed in the past few years that the bar has gotten lower, > and there has been more crappy commercial approved by the marketing > department, films than ever. And, big budget failures. > [...] > If you want great writing, go rent films from the 30's! Same with > musicals. > [...] > It's a little horrifying that people watch the junk that is out > there, when there are whole libraries of amazing interesting work > from decades gone by.... ah, but history and hindsight are marvelous filters. i've watched films from the 30s, hey, from 1900 on up, noir and musicals and noir musicals, and... 90% of them are still crud. the writers weren't better, the writers weren't treated better; we're just more likely to see the good stuff now, as the bad stuff atrophies away with time. but the 10% that's not crud, oh, that makes it worth it, yeah? and i absolutely agree that it's a shame that so much great stuff from other times and places -- and even from right here and now -- gets overlooked. that's what makes ecto here so wonderful -- it compresses that history-and-hindsight process down into real-time. 'tah. - -g n.r. Dan Simmons, "Drood" n.p. Magnapop, "Rubbing Doesn't Help" ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:01:36 -0700 From: birdie Subject: films/tv/sxsw Gregory Bossert wrote: > > but the 10% that's not crud, oh, that makes it worth it, yeah? Right, and like at the Castro - we took the best of all decades, best being a loose term - as it could be "Dinner at Eight" to a yet to be discovered brazilian film, and we'd break films there - from "Divine Madness" to "Spetters" and introduce new directing talent to the world. It's the best kind of template, there is all kinds of good to be found in all sorts of things, and it takes an open mind and some risk. And, of course, good taste and keen eyes and ears and knowing what makes it and what will fail. knowing the audience and what is going on in the world, helps enormously. We knew who we were shopping for....it's like knowing who you are cooking for....and we actually cultivated a very very sophisticated audience over the years - you do so by introducing them to new better interesting good things all the time. Then, you wind up with a very picky group of followers. In my case, they grew to 8,000 people a week on average. You serve up great consistent product and present it in the best way possible, and there you go. A monster on your hands in no time. The whole process was esteem building, in a cultural sense, and for the community. It was their theatre. I'm not keen on how the term "curator" is being used these days, as i spent a few years working at LACMA- with real curators, and it rings the pretentious bell when i hear it used outside the museum/gallery confines. Culture is defined by everyday people. > and i absolutely agree that it's a shame that so much great stuff > from other times and places -- and even from right here and now -- > gets overlooked. that's what makes ecto here so wonderful -- it > compresses that history-and-hindsight process down into real-time. I would have been happy running with meth at sxsw but i also would have torn out to see School of Seven Bells and Chairlift and some others, with an electric wheelchair, of course....front row seating and all. currently figuring out how to break my leg for next year. ;-) the cannes film festival is more brutal than sxsw as it goes for 3 weeks and there are billions of screenings and so many of the movies are dreck, so you learn to suss things up real fast and move on, quick. I look at lighting, acting, script, art direction, et al.....it's a fast scan....music is pretty much the same...playing ability, feel, ear, sense of timing, lyrical quality, interaction with other members in the band and the audience, and so on... I had no idea there were so many truly awful movies made until i went to the American Film Market one year and hahaha, i was flying out of screenings about serial killer pig farmers, as if the theatre was on fire. They were buying these sorts of things for other countries and after that (the majority of these indie films were all low budget action & horror films and I was looking for the odd gem in the sh^t stack) - after that, i realised why people in other countries disliked americans so much - if that was the view they were getting.... > > 'tah. > -g > > n.r. Dan Simmons, "Drood" > n.p. Magnapop, "Rubbing Doesn't Help" ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V14 #87 **************************