From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V7 #64 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Wednesday, February 18 1998 Volume 07 : Number 064 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re : Quailspiracy [Jon Fetter ] Re: Let's Hear You Sing A Song [Jon Kanis ] Elvis and George. [Capuchin ] Re: Elvis and George. [hal brandt ] Re: Elvis and George. [Capuchin ] Pumpkins, Christmas, Eddie and Me [John Barrington Jones Subject: Re : Quailspiracy I'm still catching up on a lot of back mail. I came across dlang's quail ravings about ancient quails, and it reminded me of something I saw on the Reuters web-page recently. - --Jon Reuters: "New Prehistoric Tracks found in Kenya" (OULDAVI GORGE) Dr. T.G.Q. Fane smiled as he pointed to the level surface of rock where workers were busily removing sand from what appears to be a set of animal tracks nearly 2 million years old. "We were packing it in for the season and we were all in the vans when I realized I had to take a wiz. And this is what I, er, uncovered." Fane points to some large bird footprints leading off in a trail to the south and spits through his teeth. "This was once a fertile plain swarming with large game mammals, but there was some volcanic activity that covered the area in soft ash, which allowed these prints to be made as the animals escaped the region in search of food. We thought these tracks here were an early ostrich or emu, but looky here up ahead. Ostriches and emus don't trip and fall like that. It's a complete body print, and by the pear-shape of the body and the impression of the humhius, or apical feather, we can determine it was a quail. Or to be more precise, a Giant Sloth Quail." The print indicated this particular Giant Sloth Quail was seven feet tall and weighed almost 400 lbs. What stunned Fane beyond the fact that he had found the tracks of a previously unknown animal was the repitition of the body-print in the space of only another meter. When he found the third body print soon after the second, he thought the quail must have been wounded or dying. However, the print was to be repeated fourteen more times before Fane tossed that theory aside and decided to dig down into the impression of the head in one print, and found the answer he was looking for. "Snail shell fragments, driven two inches into the ground. It had been feeding! It needed the force of its fall to break the shell, as its neck muscles weren't strong enough to do it alone." Fane waved his hand across the gorge, coughing a moment as he retched up a tetse-fly that had flown into his mouth. "Imagine this as it was two million years ago, a lush plain massed with herds of these giants belly-flopping their way placidly across it, then back again. They must have made an easy meal for predators." Indeed, Fane has found the proverbial end of the trail in a clutter of what he thinks are Australopithecus footprints, possibly relatives of "Lucy" found by the Leakeys thirty years ago. "The monkey boys came in from every direction. If it hadn't been a plain at the time I'd say this critter was dry-gulched." Fane points at the top of the print, kicking an untenured junior professor out of the way. "The head print is six inches deeper than in those in the other body prints, and an extremely hard fall does not explain such a depth. These other deep impressions around the head area suggest that the Australopithicenes were using clubs. The prints of early hominids revealed more facts about prehistoric life. "Australopithecenes had terrible aim. Look at these prints here, the large, deeper ones; they suggest an overweight male. His foot print here near the quail's head is at a depth similar to that of the head, thus it was probably driven there by a club-strike. And we think we know who did it. Those smaller, shallower prints of a thin male. See how they're pigeon-toed to brace for the blow. We call these two Laurel and Hardy. "Apparently the injury was enough to incapacitate Hardy, so he had to be dragged off by Desi, Bud and Ethel, whose tracks appear here, before they could return from over yonder to cut up and make off with the quail sloth. We assume Lucy was at home getting the dinner-fire going." Fane, no relation to the evil professor of the same name, is a member of an international paleontological team searching for early primate fossils, sponsored by Quailcom Corp. - ------------------------------------------------------------------- There should be a signature here. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 20:39:54 -0800 (PST) From: Jon Kanis Subject: Re: Let's Hear You Sing A Song I know that this is probably "old" shit but busting the chops of Elvis Costello? The guy's voice is wonderful. As is Bob Dylan's. It just gets better every year. I'm not kidding. But Susan's comments on Frankie Valli and Lou Christie. She's NEVER been more spot on in her life: "I am really surprised that no one has yet mentioned the most annoying voice EVER, which belongs to one Frankie Valli...also, anyone from this "school" (e.g., Lou Christie, also possessor of a most annoying vocal instrument) should definitely get a mention. On to more pleasant voices- just heard Paul Revere and the Raiders'cover of "Do You Love Me?" on the radio today, quite wonderful. P.Revere sounds like if you don't love him NOW he'll jump off the Talahachee Bridge with Billie Joe..." Actually, that was Mark Lindsey who crooned that number, not Paul. n.p. silence _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 21:44:34 -0800 (PST) From: Capuchin Subject: Elvis and George. Forgot to mention this as an addendum to a more relevant post, so I'll send it out as a one-off, off-topic note. I saw George Jones, Elvis Costello, and some modern country fellow whose name I don't recall (Ricky something?) on The Nashville Network the other day. It weirded me out something fierce. It seemed to be a show hosted by the younger country guy. Elvis did some solo stuff, as did the other two. At the end they were all on stage playing together. When the show ended, the hostguysinger said, "I want to thank George Jones!" and that was that. It was almost like Elvis was just SUPPOSED to be there. Am I missing something? Oh, when the credits had ended and the production bumper was playing, a voice came on saying "Elvis has left the building." Typical TNN humor. That's that. J. ________________________________________________________ J A Brelin Capuchin ________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 23:14:28 -0700 From: hal brandt Subject: Re: Elvis and George. Capuchin wrote: > I saw George Jones, Elvis Costello, and some modern country fellow whose > name I don't recall (Ricky something?) on The Nashville Network the other > day. It weirded me out something fierce. > It was almost like Elvis was just > SUPPOSED to be there. Am I missing something? Elvis has long been a fan of George Jones. He guested on an HBO "Tribute to GJ" special years ago. He sang "She's Got You" and "Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down" with George and seemed positively in awe to be doing so. In fact, he had the flu the day of the taping and remarked "I would have gotten off my deathbed to be here!" It was a great show. I don't see why this should be surprising. Haven't you heard "Almost Blue"? /hal ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 22:50:37 -0800 (PST) From: Capuchin Subject: Re: Elvis and George. On Tue, 17 Feb 1998, hal brandt wrote: > I don't see why this should be surprising. Haven't you heard > "Almost Blue"? I wasn't surprised by the content (except that Elvis' voice was almost unrecognizably clean and clear and it was wonderful). I was mostly surprised that he got next to no credit for being there. I'm also a little surprised that someone of his political standing would be given time on a TNN show at all. They're frighteningly backwater over there. J. ________________________________________________________ J A Brelin Capuchin ________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 00:09:48 -0800 From: John Barrington Jones Subject: Pumpkins, Christmas, Eddie and Me Jon Kanis, back from his world tour, wrote: >On the bus cross country I enjoyed listening to >Lobsterman's wonderful Uncarved Pumpkins cassette. >"Gigolo Aunt" is fabulous. and then later wrote: >Thanks again to Lobsterman for putting together the >Christmas tape. Sorry I missed getting together with >woj and Bayard, but my schedule went haywire. And I >missed chatting with Eddie. Wow, Jon, thanks for your kind words. I'm glad my tapes enhanced the quality of your trip. Lord knows how my roadtrips have been greatly improved by the kindness of fegs and their penchant for trading tapes. And yes, if you missed meeting woj, bayard, or eddie, I can honestly say that you've missed out on ALOT. good folks, them. Finally, you wrote: >The other side of that coin is that also heard >that Dan Bern disc and it sounds pretty weak to these >ears. You can't please everybody I guess... This reminded me of a CD that I forgot to put on my best of 1997 list. Not the Dan Bern eponymous full length cd, but the Dan Bern EP called Dog Boy Van. This was the EP that he released independently before his record deal and then was rereleased by his record company in the fall of last year. To my ears, Dan Bern is incredible. An up-and-comer. Yes, the full length was spotty, but after 999 listens it starts to grow on you. And in an interview that Eddie was kind enough to send me, Dan talks about Bob Dylan in much the same way that Robyn does: mainly, that although he was influenced by other artists (in Dan's case Culture Club, Elvis Costello, and Squeeze), Bob Dylan showed him how to be what he wanted to be. I've heard Robyn say the same thing; Syd showed me what to do, and Bob showed me how. Dan Bern's sophomore effort comes out in April, and if songs like Tiger Woods, Bob Woody Dan Bruce, and Krautmeier, and True Revolutionaries are on it, it should be a great big helluva CD. G'night, mother. lobstah ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V7 #64 ******************************