From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@ecto.org To: fegmaniax-digest@ecto.org Reply-To: fegmaniax@ecto.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@ecto.org Subject: Feg Digest V5 #57 Fegmaniax Digest Volume 5 Number 57 Sunday March 23 1997 To post, send mail to fegmaniax@ecto.org To unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@ecto.org with the words "unsubscribe fegmaniax-digest" in the message body. Send comments, etc. to the listowner at owner-fegmaniax@ecto.org FegMANIAX! Web Page: http://remus.rutgers.edu/~woj/fegmaniax/index.html Archives are available at ftp://www.ecto.org/pub/lists/fegmaniax/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Topics: ------- ------- Re: lengthy and good! Re: This n that Oscar Potential Moldy Discovery Re:Vocal ranges... "Fegmania" by Cronenberg: A new Robyn Movie idea Re: This Microsoft Stuff Re: This Microsoft Stuff The Movies Re: The Movies Please help!!! ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 14:54:30 -0500 From: mr bean jeans Subject: Re: lengthy and good! also sprach lj: >Does anyone know exactly what this Microsoft thing is? He wasn't very >clear about it. It sounds intriguing. riff is a program on one of microsoft network's "tv channels". (i don't know exactly what it is since i'm not on msn, but i gather that they are trying to make their online service more familiar-looking by emulating television channels). robyn was supposed to be on riff in january, but i never heard if that happened or or not. woj ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 12:41:36 -0800 From: Eb Subject: Re: This n that >From: Terrence M Marks > >Roger Waters Baritone. I think. I think this was a trick question, since Roger Waters doesn't actually sing at all. ;) >Here's the REAL Swedish lyrics... Well, brace yourself, folks (and hold off on that marriage proposal, fickle Susan), because the new issue of The Bob has a flexi-disc with a GERMAN version of Alright Yeah!!!! >From: Truman Peyote > >Mickey Dolenz was a baritone. Huh?? His range was WAY up there! Eb, who's not too impressed by the new Pavement record but loves Susan's idea of the young Peter Cook playing Hitchcock ------------------------------ From: RIELWJ@sbu.edu Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 16:00:05 EDT Subject: Oscar Potential Why can't Robyn play himself, or some version of himself? Howard Stern did it. Okay. Bad example. Riel ------------------------------ From: RIELWJ@sbu.edu Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 15:58:09 EDT Subject: Moldy Discovery Hi again. As I searched through an old box of cassette tapes I discoverd some lost treasures that were sent to me a few years ago from a girl I was close to who is from Sussex,England. Most prominent among these is a 90 min amalgam of various RH and Billy Bragg items from Radio one. I don't have a complete list of songs and whatnot-- I'll figure out what I can over the weekend-- but here is what she (the girl's name, oddly enough, is Robyn Carter) labelled it as: 1)RH--Radio 1 Andy Kershaw 9/92 2)Nigel & the Crosses : Queen of Eyes; Foxy Lady--5/28/89 3)RH--West Virginia Mountain Stage--4/91 4)Bragg--Nicky Campbell R1 3/9/92 (Interview, mostly) 5)Violet(?) a.k.a. RH--Bingo Hand Job Tapes 3/14/91 Borderline Club, London I also have Bragg at the Town & Country Club 10/91, and some live sessions by House of Love, James, and Catherine Wheel. Anyone interested or with any kind of info (I know of N&TC, but Violet--if I understand her handwriting-- is new to me) I'll be curious to hear from you. The sound quality is fair to excellent. Oh, and a curious Jesus & MC bootleg called "F**K." As far as who asked if I am religious (sorry, don't recall your name at the moment) what's the point? And, no, my first name is not Riel. It starts with a B. Gotta think more on this Cronenberg/RH fantasy. Crispin Glover should be in there somewhere... Peace, Riel ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 14:26:52 -0800 From: Mark Gloster Subject: Re:Vocal ranges... Another great thread brought to you by our very own Terry Marks! My understanding is that we vocalists are grouped into the sonority of our vocal qualities more than our vocal ranges. Though Robyn sings a low "E" (dammit, I can't after noon!) on Raymond Chandler Evening, which is technically a bass range note, he would be grouped clear up in the tenors by a choir director because his sound is so heady and complex with overtones. That said, he could get moved back downward in many choirs if he wasn't placed as a soloist, because it's so much harder to find someone who can hold onto low notes. I am also a tenor by sonority, but could be stuck in the baritone category comfortably. My voice usually isn't chesty enough for real bass singing, even though I can hit notes lower than most people. I can also hit high notes in the soprano range, but that wouldn't put me in with the women (darn!). Men are typically grouped into bass, baritone, and tenor categories- often for seemingly subjective reasons; as women are placed into alto, mezzo, and soprano for similar reasons. FYI, though tenors and sopranos are extremely common, we have reputations in classical music as temperamental primadonnas- especially if we're any good. It's like Capricorns attracting lightning or Virgos thinking up great mail list threads. It may not, in fact be true, but I try to stay indoors during electrical storms. As always, I'm more than happy I'm able to blur any clarity that this subject once might have had. I something you all, -Mark Gloster your faithful rubber shark and happy Capricorn (bzzzzt!) ------------------------------ Subject: "Fegmania" by Cronenberg: A new Robyn Movie idea Date: Sat, 22 Mar 97 19:28:17 -0000 From: The Great Quail >RIEL proposed: >> One last thought. My dream movie: A David Cronenberg film written >>by Robyn Hitchcock. Starring who? Any ideas? Ok, I will try my hand at this. . . . *******"Fegmania"******* Being a Most Unusual Concert Film Directed by David Cronenberg Produced by David Lynch Songs by R. Hitchcock Song Lyrics by R. Hitchcock Script by Cronenberg, Lynch, and Hitchcock Incidental music by Angelo Badalementi and Philip Glass We begin: The camera never shows you. Only your perspective. You awake from a dream. . . . or into a dream. You are on Burton Crescent, London. The Year: 1894. Located in the same area as the British Museum and London University College, De Chirico Street is a tiny, very dark alley that suddenly opens up from Burton Crescent and is almost completely obscured. There isn't much to see along the street, but it immediately has the ability to put one ill at ease . . . as if it haunted. Which suits the patrons of a small pub situated on De Chririco street quite fine. . . . The pub is quite easy to miss. As a matter of fact, most people who have even found De Chirico Street never even see the pub ­ and yet, once you see it, it seems like it would be impossible to miss. . . . until you miss it again. At first, it looks like a very small pub. A door and a window let some light out onto the street, and the sign hanging over the pub is odd ­ a circular sign with some quirkily painted frogs. The name of the pub is written above the door in faded letters: Globe of Frogs, est. 1666. A clock is positioned in the window, illuminated by a few pale yellow globes. The place is filled with an eclectic mix of eccentrics - maybe refugees from the Royal Society, Victorian inventors, and other odd figures, and even the occasional wanderer through Burton Crescent finds it. Indeed, it almost seems as if it really isn't quite there all the time . . . though if a non-regular finds it by accident, the locales treat him with a mixture of curiousity, respect and indifference: some say that there has to be some reason that a person finds the pub. . . . The most disturbing aspect of the tavern is perhaps yet to come, for once inside, it seems as if the interior were too large ­ impossibly large ­ for the small area that it should occupy, based from the outside. . . . A definite Snopy's Doghouse effect, it is not quite as spacious as the TARDIS, though. Cue a creepy Badalementi theme as you glance down the street and enter the pub. (What did you see down the street? A dark woman like a bat, hanging on the wall? Why was it erotic? Glimpses, only glimpses. . . .) Right as you cross the door's threshhold, a coach rattles by outside, and you hear something hissingly whispered at you: "Fleshhead! Well, that was disturbing. . . . but inside it is warm and cozy. The bar is being tended by a matronly woman named "Mrs Watson." (Angela Landsbury) Three assistants roam about, attending to the needs of the patrons: Jacob Lurch, Mr. Moose, and a young lad named Dandy. (Played by, respectively in cameos, Tim Burton, Edward Gorey, and Pee Wee Herman.) Mrs. Watson has this strange ability to brew up house drinks of a surprising nature. The "Moss Elixir," for instance, which has decidedly warmly hallucinogenic effects, or the "Brenda's Iron Sledge," which seems top be pure alcohol. As you take a seat, you look at the walls. Hmmm. . . . Framed copies of Dr. Moreau's latest research papers. Dr. V. Frankensteins's diploma. A few beakers from the chemistry collection of one Sherlock Holmes, above which are posted a treatise on the mathematics of asteroids by a Moriarty and a monograph on tobacco ashes by the former Mr. Holmes. A lens in a display case claims to be from some observatory out in Surrey. Intersting. . . a guy named Clean Steve drops by (Steve Buscemi) and starts hustling you on this new thing, a drink called "Lord Kelvin's Surprise." It starts out as blended Irish Whiskey, but as you drink it it changes to chilled Gin. Weird. This guy is talking about tonight's musical performer, some guy named Reginald Hitchcock. He's a friend of the owner - Lady Waters. Who? Oh, man. Lady Waters, y'know? The rumours? Supposedly she's been running this Pub since 1666. Some say she's a vampire. Or a female Comte St. Germain. Others. . . . well, Reg has a song that explains her, um, longevity. OK. . . . He holds his hand out and orders, "Two bilberries, a laburnum, and a sixty-nine!" Rather than waiting for his drinks, however, he walks away humming "I Knew the Bride When She Used to Rock and Roll." Humming *what?* So suddenly you overhear another conversation at a nearby table. Some old professor - a Dr.Oswald Fane (William S. Burroughs) is describing a really weird encounter he had with some - what was that? Ghouls? - and he seems emphatic that it was real. His companion, some bloke named Dr. Higson (The locals call him Dr. Sticky, and he is played by a cooly reptilian David Bowie) is protesting that it was all a delusion brought on by Mrs. Watson's latest concoction, the "Midnight Fish. . . " A constable sits down and joins in the converstation, some "Inspector Pobjoy" (Sir Anthony Hopkins) or something like that. They begin a conversation on the nature of delusion, and the camera moves from one to another in an intense, dreamy Ken Russell kind of way. Strains of Philip Glass start rising in intensity as their conversations gets more and more surreal, each one talking about personal adventures, utterly ignoring the other and yet talking perfectly in turn, in synch, in step. . . . you shake your head. Suddenly the atmosphere changes. . . . A lanky man begins clearing out an area of the stage. He moves with a dreamlike quality, and he is moving into place large . . . cabinets? With screens over them? And gutta-percha cords coming out of them? Why do they look so familiar. . . .? A sense of Deja-Vu grips over you with a cold invisible tendril. You call for a drink, a simple ale. A man (The late Jack Nance) takes a seat next to you and begins telling you about his drowned wife. You don't quite know how to react . . . he is sad, but obviosly deluded. Suddenly he addresses the air, smiles, and walks off with his former spouse, still invisible to you. (Played by Tori Amos in noncorpreal form.) You are about to go get an ale when another man taps you on the shoulder. (Kyle MacLachlan) He looks you right in the eye and says, "Are you ready? This is why you are here. Deep inside you know this is true." "Who are you?" "The Devil, of course. You may call me Nalhaclcam Elyk. I'll see you at breakfast tomorrow." "Wha?" But too late. He turns away, and suddenly your attention is caught by the man with the guitar and the strange boxes. Silence falls over the Pub as this man begins speaking. His voice has a vague hypnotic quality, and he seems only dimly attatched to "reality" - and yet the patrons all seem perfectly at ease. His first song is dediacted to a friend at the Royal Society, an archeologist named Dwight. It is called "Trilobyte," and as he plays, the archeologist - a funny man (played by Eric Idle) - gets up and dances in a goofy sort of way. After that song, he starts singing about other odd things, and in between each song he tells delirious stories . . . and occasionally, he even claims to have seen the future in his dreams. His stories avbout the future have a fragile, almost precious quality, but they strike home for some reason. They seem top . . . resonate. What's going on here? Why is this all familiar in a strange way? More songs, including "Straned in the Future," "Ghost Ship," and "Trams of Old London." Why are you so *attracted* to his stories? Why does his description of the future seem so canny, and yet so off-center? Why haven't you left? After another round of quirky but brilliant songs - where he makes definite allusions to events that *have not happened yet*, the most scary being some future epic called "1974" - he suddenly picks up a strangely shaped guitar. He calls it his Faraday Guitar, and he plugs a cord into it - the cabinets he now calls "Electro-Magnetic Acoustical Distortion and Amplification Boxes." He strums the guitar - and the sound is so strange! So primitive, yet modern. At times, so loud and howling it brings down swirling motes of cold fear in your heart. Something is NOT RIGHT here . . . but the patrons all look on hungrily, drinking Mrs. Watson's drinks, are they insane? After a trio of songs from this instrument "Victorian Squid," "I often Dream of Trains," and "Some Kind of Love," you start feeling sick. Something is about to happen. . . . He takes a short break, when Clean Steve reappears at your table. He has a pair of tall glassses, and - eek! - a small fish is swiming in each one. You look around. All the patrons are so equipped. . . . suddenly the clock chimes midnight, and all the fish begin secreting a murky blue liquid. He hands you the glass: "It's called a Fegmania, buddy. Drink up." You glance over at the bar, where some man dressed in a cabbie outfit ("Milo," played by Brad Dourif) winks at you, and mouths the word, "Fleshhead. . . ." Possessed by an out of body sense of dislocation, you imbibe the weird fluid, and feel the cold wriggle of the fish as it slips down your throat. Then. . . . Then your world explodes. Everything takes on a half-melting, psychedelic, *organic* look. The floor is breathing. The walls are quivering - Jesus! Is that a squid? No. . . . you look into the shadowy corners. A convusing tangle of knotted - prawns? As panic overwhelms you, you see everyone in the bar suddenly creep together and merge into a . . . vibrating flesh mandala, with feathery projections reaching for you. . . . NO! A quick shake of your head brings all back into normality. Professor Fane is looking at you strangely, droning on in a gravelly junky voice, "What we have here is a failure in communication. Part of the primitive organism that has yet to learn a viable response to chaos has not yet realized that - Fegamnia - has - come - for - him!" He says as he pulls a lobster from his vein and his eyelids flicker. All reality slips away again, and Reginald takes the stage for a glittering psychedelic encore. The songs merge with the Pub and the characters in a surreal mesh that keeps slipping into and out of your delusion. "Queen of Eyes" slips around the floor in great jangling shards of broken salt crystal, and a carapaced - no, its a bustier in black lace, she's not an insect - is she? yes, no - the woman (Patricia Arquette, why not!) Is dancing with Clean Steve, but all keeps slipping out of focus and changing into vibrating cones. . . . then comes the next song, "Listening to the Higsons," and all scream out "Wo-oh-oh!" in a mass rhthmic slurping of hands, mouths, tongues, tendrils . . . a fish swims through the air, a dog with a pipe in his mouth looks up at you, the paper bag on your table begins to breathe, and . . . and the Queen of Eyes is walking towards you,flowers with glittering thorns and moist, gleaming flesh petals bloom from -- AAAAch! You run away through the halls of the Globe of Frogs, everytghing whirling around you in confusion and delusion. Why have you come here? Why is it all familiar? Your way is stopped by a trio of - of ghouls?! (Alice Cooper as Dr. Saxmundham Cross, Trent Reznor as Dr. Sledge, and Marilyn Manson as Miss Slugbelch) They leer at you for a heartbeat, but their prey is elsewhere and they pass. . . . Pass? Passed? Past? The future runs into the past, and you burst into the lavatory (In Victorian England??) turn on the water and splash your face, then look into the mirror - >From the Pub, "I am not Me" begins to play, filling the air with brooding dark electric menace - - look into the mirror - Your face!! Your face is not yours at all! You are (Being played by David Cronenberg) the director! My God, you are *creating* all of this! You whirl around and find a camera crew aimed at you! Confused, the cameraman askes, "What is it, Mr. Demme?" A guy who looks like David Lynch (played by David Lynch) raises an eyebrow and looks concerned. "Golly, are you all right?" Noo. . . . . Nooooo. . . . . The modern world reforms around you as you (Still being played by Cronenberg) walk out of the bathroom and into the New York Street. You run home, confused, defeated, afriad. . . . The busker on the corner finishes his acoustic song, "The Face of Death," and packs up his guitar. A baffled film crew stands around confused in the restaurant. The busker whistles a jaunty tune - something like "DeChirico Street" and walks down a very dark alley. Pausing suddenly at an almost concealed crevass, he smiles enigmatically and slips down a street that didn't seem to be there a moment before. He has a gig tonight, you know. ---------------------------------+-------------------------------- The Great Quail, K.S.C. | TheQuail@cthulhu.microserve.com | "Keeper of the Libyrinth" | Sarnath - The Quailspace Web Page: riverrun Discordian Society | http://www.microserve.net/~thequail 73 De Chirico Street | Arkham, Orbis Tertius 2112-42 | ** What is FEGMANIA? ** "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." -- H.P. Lovecraft ------------------------------ Subject: Re: This Microsoft Stuff Date: Sat, 22 Mar 97 21:15:51 -0000 From: Della & Steve Schiavo >Does anyone know exactly what this Microsoft thing is? He wasn't very >clear about it. It sounds intriguing. Here's something from the XTC list. Just substitute Robyn for Andy. (I don't think Peter will mind, it's more PR for Microsoft). Be aware that you must be running Win 95 for this thing to work. Don't know if Robyn has already been on. - Steve >At last I can tell you what Andy Partridge has been doing with the >folks here at Microsoft. >During the month of May (exact date to be confirmed) there will be a >'show' on the Microsoft Network featuring Andy Partridge. The exact >number of weeks that this will be live on MSN has yet to be decided. >The show is part of the hugely sucessful "Rifff" series (those of you >that have seen it will remember musicians & composers such as Philip >Glass, Robyn Hitchcock, Alan White, Jane Siberry & others). >What is Rifff ? >* Regularly changing artists >* The Improvision: An interactive music video. >* Interactive Interview: Outloud and unbuttoned. >* The Faloopinhymer: Makes you the arranger. >* Live music all the time. >* More than fun than a blind date.... >Basically you have to experience it for yourself ! >Here's some of what you can expect : >A new, previously unreleased Andy Partridge composition playing on >your PC ! >Interact with the music and graphics to develop and grow the music. >(when I say "interact", I really mean it......devotees of Rifff will >know what I mean) >Andy worked closely with the Rifff team to create graphics that will >be familiar to any fans of his music. >Images of Andy and XTC. >An exclusive interview with Andy - no holds barred, some of the >questions were submitted by people on this very mailing list ! >It is also hoped (but not yet 100% confirmed) that a live chat with >Andy will take place. (...you could chat on-line with the man himself!) >How do I get this ? What do I do ? >first : you need to be running a PC capable of using the New MSN. >second : go to MSN and either download the New MSN software >(http://setup.msn.com/public/setup/) >or go here (http://www.msn.com/freemsn/default.asp.) to order a CD-ROM >with all the software you need >(in case you didn't already know - there was a major upgrade to the MSN >software that comes with your copy of Windows95) >Once you've got MSN setup you can go to http://rifff.msn.com and see >what goes on. As I mentioned above - I don't know when the show is >going live but I'll try to keep you posted. >***the good news : MSN is free for one month to new users with >unlimited use ! *** >So, it won't cost you anything to check it out. >I have seen some of this show and it is likely to be the best yet ! >Hope to see you all there ! >Peter Fitzpatrick >Multimedia Production Manager > Microsoft (Ireland) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 22 Mar 1997 22:57:59 -0500 From: Hal Brandt Subject: Re: This Microsoft Stuff I forget who wrote: > >Does anyone know exactly what this Microsoft thing is? He wasn't very > >clear about it. It sounds intriguing. Then: > >Peter Fitzpatrick > >Multimedia Production Manager > > Microsoft (Ireland) wrote: >During the month of May (exact date to be confirmed) there will be a >'show' on the Microsoft Network > > >***the good news : MSN is free for one month to new users with > >unlimited use ! *** Robyn's computer friend probably surfs the net using Netscape on his Macintosh. He should warn Robyn away from Bill Gates®. Microsoft makes me soft. Venting, hal "Good morning, doctors. I have taken the liberty of removing Windows 95™ from my hard drive." -First words: HAL9000 Urbana, Illinois 3.14.97 ------------------------------ From: RIELWJ@sbu.edu Date: Sun, 23 Mar 1997 12:45:06 EDT Subject: The Movies So many RH/DC movie ideas going through my head -- --Robyn Hitchcock is Donald Barthelme's "The Dead Father" --Robyn Hitchcock as Jacob Horner in John Barth's "The End of the Road" --or how about Keith Talent in Martin Amis' "London Fields"? The very best idea, though, has Robyn, Morris, and Andy joing the Banzai Institute as new band members/criminal biologists in order to aid Buckaroo and co. in there battle against The Man With the Lightbulb Head. Also starring Beck Hanson as the mysterious Enchanted Wizard of Rhythm, Iggy Pop as Clean Steve, David Lynch as the near- deaf FBI guy from "Twin Peaks," those kids from "The Brood" (played by the Spice Girls), and the lovely Kate Winslet as Brenda. Or, perhaps,he can play the young Ben Kenobi in the new SW movies. "Everything you say you won't is what you will eventually, Anakin." ------------------------------ From: Hedblade@aol.com Date: Sun, 23 Mar 1997 14:14:59 -0500 (EST) Subject: Re: The Movies I think I wasted my grey matter on that damn Two Halves / Portland Arms thread (I've no one to blame but myself). I can't seem to add anything to this movie thread which is far more fun. Therefore, I'm with RIELWJ@sbu.edu on this suggestion: <> My half pence: David Lynch's near deaf FBI character was named Gordon. <> "Dishonesty; there's money here in villainy / You are just your feelings, The Force gives you vertigo / Falling off volcanos and into it" SW geeks will understand that last line. Is someone going to play parent and "ground" me from the list or something? Better yet, maybe Susan should give me a spanking! Sincerely (losing it), Jay "waiting for one of our freindly UK Fegs to call me a 'saddo'" Hedblade ------------------------------ From: swfcooke@warren.med.harvard.edu Date: Sun, 23 Mar 1997 13:42:50 -0500 Subject: Please help!!! Fegs, A drunken oaf spilled half a plastic cup of beer onto my tape deck TWO MINUTES into Robyn's set last night. Needless to say my recorder didn't like the taste and refused to spin. I NEED a tape of last night's great show at TT's. If anyone on fegmaniax recorded it or knows of someone who did, I would *really* appreciate getting a copy. I have a fairly amazing tape list. Also have an analogue master of Friday's show (CSB mics>Sony WMD3, standing in front of the left stack. The sound is a little muddy but a boost of the treble knob helps). My list is on the web: http://www.geocities.com/sunsetstrip/alley/8090 Thanks!! Stefan swfcooke@warren.med.harvard.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The End of this Fegmaniax Digest. *sob* .