From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V6 #98 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Monday, December 15 1997 Volume 06 : Number 098 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Charlie is one of the missing Higsons ? ["Matthew Knights" ] Re: speaking of Phillip Glass... [lj lindhurst ] Last Words: Glass, Reich, Part, and Rouse who Rocks! [The Great Quail ] James blethers on (RH=0) [james.dignan@stonebow.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan] Re: biggest band in the world [james.dignan@stonebow.otago.ac.nz (James D] Re: The Kinks (no RH) [Steronious ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 10:25:26 -0000 From: "Matthew Knights" Subject: Charlie is one of the missing Higsons ? There's a picture and brief description of Charlie Higson on a web page about the BBC's Fast Show http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/reception/fastshow. Is this just a coincidence or does anyone know if Charlie is one of the missing Higsons who once supported Robyn ? _________________________________________________________________ Matthew Knights mknights@harrywasp.prestel.co.uk `Ton ame est un lac d'amour dont mes desirs sont les cygnes...' _________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 14:04:48 +0000 From: "FROST C.N" Subject: Frippertronic Meetings Earlier this year met Steve Hackett (ex Genesis: when they were good). I think it's hard to get over the feeling that you know them and therefore they must know you. I simply asked him what he'd been up to lately. He replied that he'd just recorded an album based on Shakespear's Midsummer Nights Dream with the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra. I commented that it was good to see he was keeping busy (!?!!!) I also met Robert Fripp, Tony Levin, Bill Bruford, John Wetton and Greg Lake over two album launches ( both held at London's Hotel Intercontinental ). I asked Fripp about an obscure folk musician called Colin Scot whose album he played on in 71. The only information he would give me was that he was an excellent judge of beaujolais wine, and a charming fellow. Cheers, thanks Bob. Tony Levin told me that he's finished recording his bass parts for the next Gabriel album, and now it's just up to Peter to write the lyrics! Chris - --------------------------------------- FROST C.N fh523124@stmail.staffs.ac.uk ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 10:15:12 -0500 (EST) From: lj lindhurst Subject: Re: speaking of Phillip Glass... Eb, ever-so-full of "sheesh" and "phooey", wrote: >>This week's Village Voice has a huge story about him. There's a big full >>color photo of him on the cover.... > >Does he look really "pensive" 'n' stuff, and have his finger >oh-so-contemplatively pressed against his temple? > >Every picture I see of Glass, he looks like he's posing for a bust. Sheesh. Yes, yes, yes! That is so true. In this picture, he actually has his fingertips pressed together in front of him, almost prayer-like. No smile, and he looks very tired. He definitely looks like he's a big fuckin barrel of monkies to be around! lj ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Dec 97 17:32:56 -0400 From: The Great Quail Subject: Last Words: Glass, Reich, Part, and Rouse who Rocks! I know some people are getting sick of minimalism around here, so I apologize for not sending this privately. But there are a few folks who still seem interested. . . . Ner says: >My favorite minimalist is, and has always been, Philip Glass but I agree that >Reich rochs! I only have a couple of his CDs though (Different Trains and the >one with Four Sections/music for mallet instruments, voices and organ). I am not wild about "Different Trains" as much as the other, but if you like "Different Trains" you will really like Reich's opera, "The Cave." It uses a lot of samples from interviews over a very minimal score. (Not at all like a Glass opera!) I can provide more details about it -- and just about any "contemporary" piece! -- if you want to email me privately. >Anyone >have any recommendations of the rest of his work? Well, if you have the money, the 10-disc Elektra Nonesuch Box Set is all the Reich you'll ever need. But that costs around 100 bucks, so you'll probably be picking up individual CDs. Seeing as you are a Philip Glass fan like myself, I will suggest my two favorites: "Music for 18 Musicians" is tops. Very loopy and intricate, goes on for an hour or so in interlocking gears. More "shivery and ethereal" than Phil Glass, but also (paradoxically) more fuller sounding than some of Phil's work. "Drummming" is also a great Reich peice. There are more drums and marimba tricks in here than should be allowed. Great stuff! >I'm also partial to Arvo >Part >(is there a way to get those two dots on top of the letter 'a'?) but I don't >know - would he be considered minimalist? No, he is not. Minimalism is largely "dead" now, and we are in a vague period of "postminimalism," a style employed to some extent by composers such as Gorecki, John Adams, Mike Nyman, and occasionally the less talented Robert Moran. But Part is usually not considered "minimalist" at all. As a matter of fact, I would like to say that a few people around here seem to be confusing "Ambient" with "Minimalism" Really, they are *very* different styles of music. Of course, like *any* style, there is some blurring of boundaries, and composers such as Gavin Bryars do certainly blur that line . . . If you like Part, you might like Gorecki's vocal/liturgical works as well. I recommend "Misere," which is definitely in the Arvo Part vein. For those of you sick of Minimalism, may I suggest a modern composer who really does rock, in the fullest sense of the word: Christopher Rouse. The man cites Led Zeppelin and Shostakovich as his two biggest influences, and his pieces are always intense, filled with very dark and tense passages, bursts of complex percussive brilliance, and occasional passages of delicate beauty. His two symphonies are my favorites, but the Pulitzer-Prize winning Trombone Concerto is pretty amazing stuff. . . . . - --The Quail - ---------------------------------+-------------------------------- The Great Quail, K.S.C. | Literature Site - The Libyrinth: TheQuail@cthulhu.microserve.com | www.rpg.net/quail/libyrinth www.rpg.net/quail | Vampire Site - New York by Night: riverrun Discordian Society | www.rpg.net/quail/NYBN 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, 14 Dec 1997 15:26:04 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Re: Last Words: Glass, Reich... >I know some people are getting sick of minimalism around here, so I >apologize for not sending this privately. But there are a few folks who >still seem interested. . . . I'm still waiting for James Dignan to finish his ambient mix of "See My Friends." ;) >(is there a way to get those two dots on top of the letter 'a'?) On my Mac, you hit option-u (umlaut), then "a." Eb ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 14:47:22 +1300 (NZDT) From: james.dignan@stonebow.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan) Subject: James blethers on (RH=0) >This is not wacky at all. It is perfectly obvious that quantities should >be given in ascending or descending order (dollars and cents, pounds >shillings and pence, hours-minutes-seconds, >miles-furlongs-chains-yards-feet-inches, et cetera). That being the case, >the only two possible alternatives are DD/MM/YY and YY/MM/DD. MM/DD/YY is >just perverse. I blame Joe Friday. Agreed. It would never have happened if Robinson Crusoe hadn't taught him to write. Seriously though, AFAIAA the US (and possibly Canada?) is/are the only country(ies) to use the other bizarre system. Ah well, we have to put up with their little foibles occasionally, I suppose. >And incidentally, I shall be sulking in my tent for the whole of the year >2000, waiting to celebrate the millennium on 1st January, 2001, NOT on the >1/1/2000, which is the last 1st of January of the current millennium. And >that's 1/1/2001, NOT to be confused with 1/1/2001. I'd like to wish you all a happy new milennium! The milennium that started on December 13th 997 came to an end over the weekend... I'm going to celebrate 1/1/00 with a "big numbers party" in celebration of the big number rolling over from one to two on the calendar. The milennium party is, of course, planned for 31/12/2000. Of course, the *real* milennium - the one all the serers and sages are watching for - should come up on the 2000th anniversary of JC's birth (sometime in March 2004 is as near a guess as any I've heard) or his death (don't know whether I'll be party hearty in April 2037, but I'd like to think I will be!) Mind you, I'm one of the dying breed who's still trying to convince people that the work billion comes from the idea of bi-million, i.e., million million. Similarly, a trillion should be a million million million (10^24 is a quatrillion, then comes quintrillion, hextrillion and septrillion etc etc etc. None of your teragigapolyillion rubbish). 1,000,000,000 is a *milliard*! And a billiard is one of three balls on a big green table. James (whose first published journal article was on resistance to the change from imperial to metric measures! Fact!!!) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 14:45:05 +1300 (NZDT) From: james.dignan@stonebow.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan) Subject: Re: biggest band in the world jvaska@mail.com writes: > but the debate should be, who could fill a stadium, any size, anywhere, on a > whim? > michael jackson folks! can y'all think of any others? hate to break it to y'all... Pink Floyd. The Rolling Stones. Elton John and Billy Joel (twice the dross in one concert!) >And of course, that Greek >chanteuse [sp?/name?--the proto-type for that pop creation Lisa Loeb, >who could not sing here way out of a wet paper bag] who puts out an >album every month, literally, brings us to the phrase erk. Nana Mouskouri! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 22:38:25 EST From: Steronious Subject: Re: The Kinks (no RH) Terrence, (This is a delayed response but...) NO! You are not the only one who has a copy of "Soap Opera!" (Sorry, this is another in the continuing Kinks - non- Robyn - series.) There is no denying that the Kinks peaked with the "Face To Face" through "Muswell Hillbillies" series, but there is PLENTY to like on the ramshackle theatre-troup concept albums of the early 70's and on the more AOR albums of the later years. I would never suggest it as a starting point, but I find albums like "Soap Opera" particularly charming... "Holiday Romance" is one of my favorite Kinks songs, period. And yes, "Face In The Crowd" is great. Other essential latter-day Kinks songs (some already mentioned): "Better Things" (Give The People What They Want) "Sweet Lady Genevieve" (Preservation, Act 1) "Misfits" (Misfits) "Return to Waterloo" (from Ray's EP of the same name... dated 80's production, but great song) "Art Lover" (Give The People What They Want) "Stormy Sky" (Misfits) "The Informer" (Phobia - good song, although it sounds very similar to "Misfits!") "Heart of Gold" (State of Confusion) "I'm in Disgrace" (Schoolboys in Disgrace) ...I could go on, but this IS supposed to be about Robyn isn't it? It's good to know that there ARE other human beings out there who enjoy "Soap Opera." By the way, I know that Rhino deleted their excellent reissues of the early 70's concept albums... but if anyone lives in the Baltimore area, the store "Record And Tape Traders" in Towson seems to have a consistently replenished supply. Good luck! - - David Furst ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V6 #98 ******************************