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 #156 Fegmaniax Digest Volume 5 Number 156 Sunday July 6 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: ------- ------- eating anything that isn't diseased Re: eating anything that isn't diseased Re: eating anything that isn't diseased Out on a Tarantino limb. . . . . . . because it hasn't happened yet Re: Lurkers of the world...Unite and take over. Dreams... Obsession? ------------------------------ From: "Eddie Tews" Subject: eating anything that isn't diseased Date: Sat, 05 Jul 1997 12:20:27 PDT only 7 posts on the fourth of july? well, if you were all out burning flags, then, i forgive you. this has probably already been discussed, but: susan, you'll likely be happy to know that when robyn was introducing Feels Like 1974 in seattle last november, you know how it's sort of a lamentation of the dissolution of the 60's, he said, "...and i don't mean any don mclean, 'when the music died' bullshit..." i think one reason i don't really mind that song is that i'm young enough that i wasn't subjected to it every hour on the hour for months on end. i only heard it, you know, about as often as i heard Stairway To Heaven, or i dunno, Suite Madame Blue or something. which is to say, once every other month or so. i also happen to love yes. maybe for the same reason, although i think 90125 is their best album, so it almost doesn't count, really, 'cause the lyrics for that one are quite...grounded, i guess you'd say. you know, like, "round and round and round we living in gravity." a question about the spoken chain tape: is it ok to record segments that aren't on a live tape? for example, the intro to Heaven from the FEGMANIA! reiussue ("this is a floating...a floating cathedral prairie song.") might just be my favorite. but i suspect it would be considered piracy to use it. _______________________________________________________ Get Private Web-Based Email Free http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 14:54:09 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Re: eating anything that isn't diseased Eddie wrote: >i think one reason i don't really mind that song is that i'm young >enough that i wasn't subjected to it every hour on the hour for months >on end. i only heard it, you know, about as often as i heard Stairway >To Heaven, or i dunno, Suite Madame Blue or something. which is to say, >once every other month or so. Random memory/observation...When I was growing up in the late '70s, I remember that were three "holy" songs on rock radio -- three songs where it was like an universally acknowledged "event" every time they were played: "Stairway to Heaven," "Freebird" and..."Smoke on the Water." I think it's intriguing that "Stairway" and "Freebird" are just as "holy" today, and yet "Smoke on the Water" is now sort of an also-ran. Why is that? What's "Suite Madame Blue"??? Styx? >i also happen to love yes. maybe for the same reason, although i think >90125 is their best album.... Ewwwww. Come on, you gotta give the prize to Close to the Edge or Fragile. ;) Eb ------------------------------ From: "Sam Iambic Pentameter" Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 16:24:58 -0800 Subject: Re: eating anything that isn't diseased On 5 Jul 97 at 14:54, Eb said something to the effect of: > What's "Suite Madame Blue"??? Styx? Maybe he meant to say "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" by Crosby, Stills and Nash. I turn myself on in the dark, --g I used to be drug- and alcohol-free until I figured out how to get drugs and alcohol free. ********************* Glen E. Uber glen@metro.net http://metro.net/glen ********************* ------------------------------ Subject: Out on a Tarantino limb. . . . Date: Sun, 6 Jul 97 10:27:06 -0000 From: The Great Quail Hi Fegs . . . . Obligatory Warning: This is long, off topic, non RH and maybe a bit tedious. If you don't care about the bad movie/Tarantino discussion, delete away! Well. . . . After catching up on my past Fegmail, I was rather surprised to see so much venom spread about Pulp Fiction and Tarantino in general. I know this is not RH, but since I haven't been posting in a while, and since none of you know how I order my CD collection or what songs I think are bad, I feel vaguely justified in posting this. I love Quentin Tarantino. I saw Reservoir Dogs long before the hype, and I was immediately hooked. (I do not mention this to establish how cool I am or anything - I loathe "hipper than thou" pissing contests. I merely got lucky and caught an intriguing movie that nobody had yet heard of.) I would like to defend QT to his detractors on the List. I know I won't be changing your minds, but at least I can go on the record. 1. I do not think QT is "unbearably hip." I thing he is very cannily aware of his image, and there is a fair amount of self-deprecation and awkward charm in how he deals with it. If he seems "unbearably hip,"it's because his style helped to *establish* an entire frame of references that a subculture uses to define a type of hipness. As a matter of fact, I see a certain irony in the fact that true to the form of this sort of pop culture phenomena, there are a significant amount of people who now think that hating Pulp Fiction and Mr. Tarantino is in itself a "new hipness." (Relax! I am not accusing anyone on this List of that intolerable and shallow stance. I realize that some of you just may not have *liked* the film, plain and simple.) Backlash is always amusing if you observe the cultural politics behind it. I like QT, I will stick by him, even though he has legions of ill-wisher hoping his next movie bombs. (The David Lynch Syndrome - Remember after Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks? I can just picture them, vultures on their shoulders, ready to spam the Internet with countless bits like "Why Tarantino Sucks.") 2. I actually think QT is occasionally humble. He freely acknowledges his inspirations, and does what he can to promote them to his own fans. The film "Curdled" (an excellent movie!) would not have been made without him, and the whole Jackie Chan craze is partly QT's responsibility. 3. As far as the movies themselves: I loved True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Dusk to Dawn - I enjoy all the dialogue, precisely beacuse it's *not* "natural." It's hyper-real, scripted, witty and tense, mixing elements of amusingly juxtaposed banality with flippant and devastating comments to a marvelous effect. To be honest, I often compare Tarantino to Shakespeare. People simply do NOT talk like that, but it still feels *right,* and it conveys a sense of spontaneity which, though entirely spurious, is never stilted. People don't talk like that, but you WISH they did, so it works - it plugs into the skewed image we carry of ourselves. Now, I am not saying QT is as profound as Shakespeare, that would be a bit too far. But there are some valid points of comparison - you really don't think that they talked that way in Elizabethan England? I think QT has tapped into that vein, a modern electric-fast poetry. I have seen his movies multiple times, and I am just amazed at the dialogue. I find myself repeating lines during the day when appropriate. . . . I mean, that "whaddya mean you don't tip" scene that opened RD is classic. 4. The violence - ok, so there's violence - and yet, in a QT movie there is rarely as much of it as you think there is. This is because he writes about violent people, not necessarily violent situations (like war or constant action hero shootouts.) There is always a tense air of expected violence, and that charges his movies like no other director but Scorsese. His characters are fascinating to me, because most of them are so alien and terrifying, larger than life, comic pulp fiction with an edge honed by the poetry of black mordancy. 5. The nonviolence - I hate seeing QT's movies get stereotyped as just all hip wit and brutality: something more fitting to his imitators. Pulp Fiction transcends this to a large degree . . . The scene where Bruce Willis realizes that his girlfriend forgot his watch . . . his explosion to his understanding and finally acceptance and forgiveness - this is one of my favorite scenes from any modern film. These are just some of my thoughts. I also loved Natural Born Killers - a movie that some people "get" and some don't. (Which is not a value/intelligence/hipness judgment - I, personally, do not "get" Merchant Ivory films, but I don't think that makes me stupid or "low class." I just don't grok, and some don't grok NBK.) "Bad Leiutenant" was one of the most painful film experiences I have ever put myself through, (though "Crash" was the most disturbing) and I thought it was excellent. To fully understand the end of the movie, you HAVE to go through that hell. You must see the darkness - in the face - to fully comprehend what Keitel does at the end. Some folks just don't like that sort of confrontation with what they don't like. ("Why see a movie like that when real life is bad enough," etc.) All art is not to everyone's taste, and everyone needs something different. "Eraserhead" is also a similar film, as is "A Clockwork Orange." They may not be pretty, but that's not their purpose. . . . although I am still debating the function of the Radiator Lady. . . . The Quail PS: and before you all think I only watch these sort of films, I would like to add that "Wings of Desire," "Fellini's "8 1/2", and "Willy Wonka" are three of my all-time favorite movies. . . . PPS: Please direct flames to me, not the list; although feel free to cc a copy to the Spice Girls List just to add some confusion in their lives. (No comments about shooting fish in barrels, please.) ---------------------------------+-------------------------------- 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: . . . because it hasn't happened yet Date: Sun, 6 Jul 97 10:26:25 -0000 From: The Great Quail Hm. About the quote for the T-shirt based on "Raymond Chandler Evening" - the "lurking in the shadows because it hasn't happened yet?" I just want to add that I am not sure this is the best choice. I mean, it sounds sorta creepy, don't you think? The poor guy already wonders if we're fiends, and going to his concerts wearing shirts printed with a lyric from a song about murder seems like we're not exactly putting our best foot forward. I mean, *what* hasn't happened yet? Sounds like an outline for a sordid made for TV movie. Evil fan club entraps quirky singer . . . tied up in Bayard's basement . . . You *must* draw us all new, personalized cones . . . hey Ross, hand Robyn another prawn while the Quail makes forces him to listen to one of his ten-page postings. . . . whaddya mean you don't really like prawns? You sing about them in all your songs,don't you? Yessss, here's a prawn, there you go Mr. H, now draw those cones . . . only three hundred more to go . . . see how tasssty prawns really are, now? Yessss. . . . two hundred ninety nine. . . . The Quail ---------------------------------+-------------------------------- 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 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 06 Jul 1997 10:46:37 -0500 From: LSDiamond Subject: Re: Lurkers of the world...Unite and take over. >I enjoyed Antwoman's missive. It is SOO nice to have management that >actually WANTS to be involved with fans. (or even the artist themselves, >for that matter!) I haven't seen alot of that, except for Throwing Muses' >website. If you post a message for the band on the bulletin board, they >will usually respond (well, not the band as a whole; usually Billy O >Connell (Kristin Hersh's hubby) or David Narcizo (drummer extraordinaire)). Los Straitjackets also does this. I was thrilled to receive a response to an email I sent them last summer! (They answered within a couple days as i recall) LSDiamond ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Have you been exceptionally bad lately? Come serve your penance at http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/1542/penance1.html You'll never commit THAT sin again! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 06 Jul 1997 10:55:42 -0500 From: LSDiamond Subject: Dreams... Obsession? Okay, here's an interesting thought--has anyone ever had a dream with Robyn in it? This thread seems familiar to me, and it may in fact have been covered already, but I dreamed last night that Robyn himself (either owned, or) was signing autographs and selling biscuits at a gas station somewhere in the middle of nowhere.. We're talking bigger and fluffier than Hardee's, too. :) Most people who came into the store didn't know, much less care, who this "guy with the funny accent" was, but I think I managed to get on his nerves a bit by coming back in a few times to say whatever stupid fannish thing next popped into my head. Of course, this may just be a side effect to taking mass quantities of pain killers... The previous night, i dreamed my boss bought the church building we use to go to and kept it a church, but they served dinner there during the services.................. Maybe I just need therapy! :) LSDiamond ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Have you been exceptionally bad lately? Come serve your penance at http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/1542/penance1.html You'll never commit THAT sin again! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The End of this Fegmaniax Digest. *sob* .