From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V7 #145 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Thursday, April 16 1998 Volume 07 : Number 145 Today's Subjects: ----------------- pianos, fegtaste (was: "our concern, dude.") [Bayard ] Re: pianos, fegtaste (was: "our concern, dude.") [dmw ] Re: pianos, fegtaste (was: ["Capitalism Blows" ] Re: here we go again..... (0% RH) [MARKEEFE ] Re: here we go again..... (0% RH) [Terrence M Marks ] Re: incoherent ramblings from a spazz [sdodge@midway.uchicago.edu (amadai] Re: Wilde and Wilder [james.dignan@stonebow.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan)] Re: Wilde and Wilder [sdodge@midway.uchicago.edu (amadain)] Re: here we go again..... (0% RH) [Capuchin ] Re: Wilde and Wilder [Capuchin ] Re: Wilde and Wilder [Eb ] Neutral Mall Hitchcock [Capuchin ] Re : Three Robyn's [dlang ] Re: Stephen Fry, Professional Scribbler ["West A. Moran" Subject: pianos, fegtaste (was: "our concern, dude.") On Wed, 15 Apr 1998, Eb wrote: > Yes, Brion did, but that's not really the point, is it? I think Edmond from Redmond meant that RH doesn't play piano now b/c he has someone to do it for him (and I hear they're heading to the studio in a couple days.) Did RH ever tickle the ivories *before* the eye tour?? i think that was the only time he didn't have someone to do it (roger and/or andy were around the other times) > >eb, when you say that all fegs would really dig neutral milk hotel, do > >you say that simply because you think we have such fine taste in music? > > No, I think there's a strong RH/NMH conceptual overlap... i dinno about conceptual overlap, but at the very least the lyrics point to a common ground... "bursting with fruits", "the notches in your spine", etc. but jeff (who's jeff? ask lj) gets props for going over the top for mentioning foetuses and the smell of semen (both in the same song, if i'm not mistaken.) gross out city!!! (; > so many folks on this list like the album proves my point, I believe. but Ed's point is not lost-- fegs do have super good taste. In fact there are a few people I know whose taste in music is, IMO, impeccable, and all of them are on this list except one, who happens to be Robyn Hitchcock. (and a big hello to another one, caroline, recently rejoining the list). Then there are a few others who have super good taste in general but have a few questionable outliers, like eddie, ebbie, and me. =b, who can't really be counted in Eb's list of NMH purchasers, cos it was sent to him (that is to say, me) by a feg who hates it (your DAT tapes for the trade are going in the mail!) ps. i only like ginger spice for her music! - -the larva from delmarva ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 18:35:38 EDT From: KarmaFuzzz Subject: Re: here we go again..... (0% RH) sdodge@midway.uchicago.edu writes: >KarmaFuzzz said: > >some lone psycho fuckwad with a grudge based on misreading Salinger. it > gives > >his growing up fatherless some sort of meaning. that's the reason > conspiracy > >theories exist: they are ultimately more comforting than the truth of some > >lone twit wreaking so much havoc. > > I agree with this completely. I think it's also even more true in a case > like Abbie Hoffman's- it's difficult to accept that he would in a way > "betray the faith" (I don't personally feel that way, I'm just saying a lot > of people probably did) by committing suicide. > > However, since in all three cases, there -was- quite a bit of documented > history of FBI harassment/surveillance, it's not totally outlandish (as I > recall from seeing a documentary on this, Strom Thurmond in particular was > semi-obsessed with the idea that John Lennon was a threat to the State). > It's not as if this "government conspiracy" thing was invented out of the > ether and has no basis at all. > > And there have been cases (witness Jean Seberg) where government harassment > of a celebrity figure actually -did- drive that person to suicide. > > I'm not saying that I believe anyone other than Mark David Chapman was > responsible for Lennon's death. I don't. It's just that I don't think that > -in this case- the government conspiracy idea is completely and utterly > unreasonable. It isn't unreasonable at all. the subject header though made it at least seem that whoever posted this originally thought it was just another case of paranoia (maybe i'm just reading too much into it having had a james earl ray/mlk conversation inflicted upon me a few hours earlier) and of delusions, when it isn't. as a species, we need our bad news to have some meaning, and lone armed nutcases don't provide that for us. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 18:48:01 -0400 (EDT) From: dmw Subject: Re: pianos, fegtaste (was: "our concern, dude.") On Wed, 15 Apr 1998, Bayard wrote: > Did RH ever tickle the ivories *before* the eye tour?? i think that was > the only time he didn't have someone to do it (roger and/or andy were > around the other times) nobody but me ever seems to remember this so it enters the realm of quasi apocrypha, but... (you could try asking my ex-girlfriend, i suppose, she might be able to corroborate the tale). on a solo tour shortly after the release of _invisible hitchcock_, well before _eye_, he had a piano and one guitar. (an early spoken part to the show made on observation to the effect that some of the stuff he planned to play had just come out (on "invisible," though he didn't name it) some of it would be on another record sometime in the future (which turned out to be, uh, the other odds and sods record. the one with surgery on it), some of it would probably never be out, and "some of it was real.") Anyway, he visited the pianer a couple times during the set -- i'm pretty sure there was some lovely "trains" material e.g. "flavour of night" -- and then at some point broke a string on the guitar, made a crack about not being able to afford another guitar on this tour, and finished the set (maybe 7 or 8 more songs) on piano. the ex-gf in question was at the time a piano performance major, and remarked that robyn's guitar playing was vastly more interesting than his piano playing. and it was true; since he was pretty much arranging songs on the fly as he played them, he tended to favor very blocky, obvious chords. it was still pretty flippin' cool, though, and much cooler than if he had restricted himself to piano-based material. it was at the old 9.30 club. the piano was crammed against the left wall of the stage, so that we looked upon the robyn edge on. i swear to whatever gods you name (nyarlothep, anyone?) this really happened, i'm not making it up. - -- d. - - oh,no!! you've just read mail from doug = dmayowel@access.digex.net - - and dmw@mwmw.com ... get yr pathos at http://www.pathetic-caverns.com/ - - new reviews! tunes, books, flicks, etc. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 18:58:53 EDT From: KarmaFuzzz Subject: Re: here we go again..... (0% RH) In a message dated 98-04-15 14:29:06 EDT, MARKEEFE@aol.com writes: > In a message dated 98-04-14 01:51:49 EDT, Karmafuzzz wrote: > > << that's the reason conspiracy > theories exist: they are ultimately more comforting than the truth of some > lone twit wreaking so much havoc. >> > > You really think so?! Wow. It's *much* more comforting for me to > think > that there is a very small percentage of the population that's just plain > randomly nuts, rather than believing that the entire government is "out to > get > us". I mean, if I had my choice of only one of those being true (rather > than > both of them being true?), I'd choose the handful of lone psychos. Your > odds > are way better that way. well, neither are that comforting ultimately. but in the sense that lone psychos are random, as opposed to government (or other organization) conspiracies are targetted, it's comforting to think that someone was taken out for a legitimate reason, that john lennon or martin luther king were truly dangerous to the establishment (which they were), so dangerous that they had to be eliminated, so they didn't die in vain. with some random twit, their deaths have less meaning in some way. > Poor Sean. But I guess he's at that age where one is prone to getting > all fired up about conspiracy theories and what's evil about the world, > regardless of whether or not we've had one of our parents shot by a loon. and let's face it, unlike most of us at that age, Sean is more easily fed being as that he has never been (nor ever will be) anonymous in anyway. it's going to be harder for him to grow out of it. hopefully Yoko doesn't think it was a conspiracy, or else Sean will probably never not believe it, and he'll never be truly able to come to terms with his father's death. it's hard enough accepting something like that when you're 25 at the time, and it's just a freak home accident. reconciling an assassination that happens when you're 5 (or a suicide that happens when you're 2, frances bean) must be a gargantuan task. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 16:22:58 PDT From: "Capitalism Blows" Subject: Re: pianos, fegtaste (was: not so much that as, even if it's not robyn himself playing the piano, it *has* been heard on robyn songs at robyn gigs. which, to me anyway, is more important than who is doing the playing. he definitely played it during some of his solo gigs in'87, '88, and '89. but that's kind of the same thing, i guess. one of these decades, i'm going to get around to compiling a list of all the shows at which a piano has been utilized. so exactly what year are you talking, doug? are you sure it wasn't *between* the releases of INVISIBLE and EYE? ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 20:16:00 EDT From: MARKEEFE Subject: Re: here we go again..... (0% RH) In a message dated 98-04-15 19:14:37 EDT, you write: << well, neither are that comforting ultimately. but in the sense that lone psychos are random, as opposed to government (or other organization) conspiracies are targetted, it's comforting to think that someone was taken out for a legitimate reason, that john lennon or martin luther king were truly dangerous to the establishment (which they were), so dangerous that they had to be eliminated, so they didn't die in vain. with some random twit, their deaths have less meaning in some way. >> Hmm. To my way of thinking, the nature of Lennon's or MLK's death isn't so important as is what each person said and did during his (respective) lifetime and the fact that each man died when he did, which thereby intensified everything that his life had been about up until that point. Maybe God (or who/whatever) was the head of the conspiracies in these men's deaths. . . maybe their messages are kept most poignant due to each person being killed "before his time." I don't know how firmly I believe in destiny and all of that (a bit, for sure), but it seems that, when we're meant to go, the instrument of our undoing -- be it a freak accident, natural causes, a nut with a gun, or a government with an agenda -- is hardly as relevant as the fact that that person's dead and that it was probably all part of The Big Picture (which has a greater scope than any one government, of course). Treading on dangerous waters here, talking about religious/spiritual beliefs. But, whatever. - -------Michael K. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 21:37:29 -0400 (EDT) From: Terrence M Marks Subject: Re: here we go again..... (0% RH) Q: How dangerous was Lennon in 1980? I mean, I could see him as a threat to the establishment in the 1960s what with the "Christianity will just fade away", TM and drug culture, but was he really *that* dangerous in the 80s? Terrence Marks normal@grove.ufl.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 22:40:26 -0400 From: tanter Subject: Re: here we go again..... (0% RH) At 09:37 PM 4/15/1998 -0400, you wrote: >Q: How dangerous was Lennon in 1980? > >I mean, I could see him as a threat to the establishment in the 1960s what >with the "Christianity will just fade away", TM and drug culture, but was >he really *that* dangerous in the 80s? Well, he was expressing feelings of love--wasn't that contrary to Reaganomics? Marcy ;) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 20:59:14 -0500 From: sdodge@midway.uchicago.edu (amadain) Subject: Re: incoherent ramblings from a spazz >>the way he answered the chat questions. I don't think any of us knows him >>all that well. Well, I didn't mean "know him" in the sense that you do here. I think I was getting at something more like knowing his work, and knowing those tropes that keep emerging in it, and being familiar with his personal sort of symbology that appears in the music/lyrics/stories/artworks. In a way that's knowing him in a personal sense too, I 'spose, because a person's work tells you a lot about them, but that isn't really what I was trying to get at. I think the original poster meant what I meant- by using the word "personally" he really meant to convey that you need to know the work in depth to appreciate it, at least, that's how I took it. It would be sort of absurd to suggest that any of us knows him "personally" in the strictest sense of the word :). >>gives a decent answer to a question, but most of the time he's resistant to >>letting strangers in to his world. He is a fairly self-protective person and likes his privacy, there's no doubt on that score, and I think he also enjoys being considered enigmatic and actively works at it (another reason the Dylan parallel came to mind immediately :)). But a person who is completely resistant to letting others into their world wouldn't spend so much time creating and dispatching bulletins from said world. IMHO, the drive to create is also (among other things) the drive to communicate. Of course it's self-contradictory but then, to paraphrase Whitman, the man contains multitudes :). >>We don't know how many of his songs are really autobiographical and how many are just pissing around. In a non-literal sense they're all autobiographical, I would argue, because they all reflect the mind and soul of the person who created them. Every creative choice tells something about the person who made that choice. For example, Ray Davies may or may not have had a fling with a she-male when he was 18 years old. I don't know for sure if he did or not, although knowing a bit about his sense of humor I would guess the latter- that it's just a light-hearted fancy that occurred to him one day ("Hey, imagine this scenario. Wouldn't -that- make an interesting story?"). But the choice of subject matter and the story told in "Lola" do tell you something about him, his sensibilities, his sense of humor, &c., even if the song isn't literal biographical truth. Love on ya, Susan P.S. From the "Damn, the guy is EVERYWHERE department": The Chicago Sun-Times reported today that a high school teacher in the suburbs of Chicago was fired over a case of alledgedly having sex with a 14 year old student. His name? CARL PALMER. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 15:07:52 +1200 From: james.dignan@stonebow.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan) Subject: Re: Wilde and Wilder >On Tue, 14 Apr 1998, James Dignan wrote: >> haven't seen it yet, but the rumours I've heard are that Stephen Fry is >> excellently cast, but the script doesn't live up to the promise. I don't >> know who the scriptwriter is, but Wilde he ain't. > >Well, Fry is better than I expected, but the film is so low-key that you >would never _guess_ that the guy had a sense of humour, let alone that he >was a brilliant and witty conversationalist. Fry is better when paired with Hugh Laurie. The two did an offbeat but frequently funny stand up/sketch show "A bit of Fry and Laurie", and were excellent in a TV adaptation of the Wodehouse "Jeeves and Wooster" stories. James James Dignan___________________________________ You talk to me Deptmt of Psychology, Otago University As if from a distance ya zhivu v' 50 Norfolk Street And I reply. . . . . . . . . . Dunedin, New Zealand with impressions chosen from another time steam megaphone (03) 455-7807 (Brian Eno - "By this River") ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 23:51:19 -0500 From: sdodge@midway.uchicago.edu (amadain) Subject: Re: Wilde and Wilder >Fry is better when paired with Hugh Laurie. The two did an offbeat but >frequently funny stand up/sketch show "A bit of Fry and Laurie", and were >excellent in a TV adaptation of the Wodehouse "Jeeves and Wooster" stories. Yes, they were :). Although actually I'd recommend Stephen Fry the writer over any movie or tv program I've seen him in. "The Liar" was a really splendidly funny and trenchantly observed novel, and the second one (I forget the name, "The Rhinoceros", I want to say) was even better than the first. Anyone who enjoys Martin Amis and/or Evelyn Waugh will get a big kick out of these two. I have to say that as someone who's observed academia in action first hand, I got a particular kick out of "The Liar"- parts of it contain academic satire that is so dead-on it's almost funnier than David Lodge's "Nice Work" or even the elder Amis's "Lucky Jim". Love on ya, Susan P.S. Is "Peter's Friends" really the worst movie you've ever seen, Monsieur Godwin? See "Lisztomania" and then get back to me :). ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 01:37:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Capuchin Subject: Re: here we go again..... (0% RH) > At 09:37 PM 4/15/1998 -0400, Stuck In The 60s (though he's never been > there) Terry wrote: > >Q: How dangerous was Lennon in 1980? On Wed, 15 Apr 1998, tanter wrote: > Well, he was expressing feelings of love--wasn't that contrary to Reaganomics? That would be funny, except Reagan wasn't elected until Nov. 1980 and didn't actually become President until 1981. Lennon was more dangerous (to what, though, really?) in 1980 than he ever was in the sixties because in 1980 he had pretty much dropped out and was living on all those royalties and things. In the sixties he was too dependent on the system to actually undermine it in any meaningful way. Lennon and his ilk were dangerous because they opposed rational discourse and threatened to (and possibly did succeed in some measure) destroy the societal motivators. Too much Dropping Out can cripple an economy, let alone a whole society. You can blame folks like Lennon for undermining the values that made our parents (or at least our parents' parents or our parents' older siblings) go out and get jobs and want to be successful financially and all that. I'm tempted to believe we're at a point now where the rebelling kids aren't going to "come around". I don't think there's going to be a 2K Yuppie. It's sunk in too deep in the culture. I'm not saying it's a bad thing... it's a whole new world, that's all. No better, no worse. And this new system is pretty cool because of the amount of change built into it. By its nature, it must bring about a whole new culture in cycles of less than a generation. So that's fun, but will disorient people. And at the same time, the folks that DO want to participate in the Old School society can because the Machines and Corporations are so huge, you can't just drop them off the map without dropping us all back to 1924. This means that some folks can still become their parents or their grandparents and be CEOs and attorneys and doctors. And again, by nature of the new system, these people are NOT part of modern culture, yet they run the show. The bums will always lose, Mr. Lebowski. The bums will always lose. I think I should go to sleep now. J. ________________________________________________________ J A Brelin Capuchin ________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 01:43:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Capuchin Subject: Re: Wilde and Wilder On Wed, 15 Apr 1998, amadain wrote: > Although actually I'd recommend Stephen Fry the writer over any movie or tv > program I've seen him in. "The Liar" was a really splendidly funny and > trenchantly observed novel I read The Liar at the end of last year after a short-lived SO mentioned "that Stephen Fry novel" and I flipped out. I didn't know it existed... I borrowed her copy and read it right away. Damn, it was funny and super well conceived. The sort of thing that leaves you puzzling after it's closed. But I'm a big fan of Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie and that whole latter-day Footlights crowd... Tony Slattery, even. And.. well... Emma. Ever see Stephen Fry on Whose Line Is It Anyway? He looks like he's doing someone a favor by even sitting on the set. It's REALLY funny. Jonathan Pryce, too. Good stuff. > P.S. Is "Peter's Friends" really the worst movie you've ever seen, Monsieur > Godwin? See "Lisztomania" and then get back to me :). Don't get me started. Write to me for a LIST (no pun intended) of films worse than Peter's Friends (which was just really poorly written). ________________________________________________________ J A Brelin Capuchin ________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 02:08:38 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Re: Wilde and Wilder >> P.S. Is "Peter's Friends" really the worst movie you've ever seen, Monsieur >> Godwin? See "Lisztomania" and then get back to me :). Off the top of my head, I might give my vote to the Brooke version of "The Blue Lagoon." Then again, almost anything directed by Zalman King is a strong candidate. Lisztomania? Aww, I got a kick out of that. ;) Actually, I really hated a later Russell film, Gothic. Or whichever the one was with Julian Sands. I hate that hammy mofo in just about every one of his films. Eb ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 02:07:25 -0700 (PDT) From: Capuchin Subject: Neutral Mall Hitchcock OK, so I was at the mall the other day... (a friend works at the candy store and gives me free candy. Beat that. You'd go to the mall, too.) Anyway, I was at the mall and stopped into the Mall Record Store. It's some massive mall chain. So I think "Hey, I'll just step in and check on three things: That Squirrel Nut Zippers EP Joshua mentioned, Tonya Donnelly's new album, and that new Neutral Milk Hotel album. They had none of them. They had about six copies of a two year old Nut Zippers album. That's it. Not so much as a card for the other two. So that's that... Mental note: Don't go to mall record stores ever again. A secondary little result of that trip was an increased curiosity about the NMH album. So I made a more temporary mental note to check it out at a more diverse record store in the near future. Which brings me to today. Today I had sushi like any good Wednesday. After sushi, I was going to go shoot some pool, but thought maybe I could go up the record store up the street and check on that Neutral Milk Hotel album. I got up to the record store and read some of the bills posted inside the window. Hmm... UofP is doing Tom Stoppard's Arcadia... that's worth checking out. Hey, there's an ad for the Neutral Milk Hotel album. And written right on the poster wasy "@satyricon 4/15" in blue marker. Hey, that's tonight. I turned tail and went to Satyricon. I didn't even open the door of the record store. So I went to Satyricon... blah blah blah... Saw our own Michael K. and hung out with him waiting for the show to begin. Beautiful line of the night: We were standing outside catching some fresh air away from the smokey environs of Satyricon. After ten or fifteen minutes, Michael said, "Hey, let's go inside. I'm kind of cold and kind of tired. I think I need some really bad indie rock." But as we went back inside, we saw that the stage was being reset with horns and things... hey hey hey. I'm going to actually hear Neutral Milk Hotel. Michael and I worked our way toward the front to see over the Very Tall People. As we passed the little Buy Our Shirts And CDs table, I pointed out the be-mutton chopped fellow working the concession. He was wearing a Thoth shirt. Made my day. The set was beautiful and the horns made me tremble. The saw was appropriately haunting and the mousey looking girl standing in front of me kept backing up until I had to step around her. I'm really tired. So of the two albums on sale, I bought the most recent. EbCount: People who bought the thing +1, People who love it +1. I'm on the second listen-through at the moment. It's mostly really great. Parts are a little weird, but I think they'll grow on me. Give me a break, I've had the album just over an hour. OK, going to sleep now. J. ________________________________________________________ J A Brelin Capuchin ________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 22:03:50 +2909 From: dlang Subject: Re : Three Robyn's I think I prefer the earlier incarnations of Robyn on the whole. I first got listening to RH in the eighties when a friend in the Uk sent me copies of his early albums, I loved all of that stuff ,most especially the video "Got to let this hen out." which etched this indelible image of Robyn and the Egyptians as the definitive Rh experience into what passes as my conscious ( and subconscious as well I expect ) mind. I also was a big fan of the Soft Boys " Live at the Portland Arms and I have to admit that the trio of "Give it to the Soft boys, Human Music and Leppo and the Jooves" remain amongst my fave all-time sequences of songs by anyone, anytime. I actually almost stopped listening to Robyn for about six years and only took up again about a year ago, so I missed a good number of albums, songs and shows which I still have not properly caught up with even now. When I heard a live solo show of RH on tape it took a bit of getting used to , I missed the live band something rotten and still do for the energy they could generate on songs such as "Devil Mask" " Egyptian cream " and "Bass". However , I soon warmed to Robyn solo after a few listens to a number of shows from the late 90's, Robyn solo offers a chance to experience what some have called the "Folk " side of Rh and since I also have become very interested again in Acoustic and Celtic music , I find it a very enjoyable experience to listen to Rh acoustic and marvel at how his Incredible string band, Dylan and Byrds influences blend seamlessly with his punkish and psychedelic traits to achieve his own unique way of delivering music. I appreciate artists who don't stay still and mutate into different creatures over time ,sometimes the new incarnation isn't quite as good as, or misses aspects of an earlier version, but at least the artist continues to take risks and evolve , giving us alternative versions of themselves , even if those versions aren't those that we cherish the most.. In some ways having these various versions of an artist during their career is a good thing, especially for forums such as discussion lists.Many of the best lists feature artists such as Robyn , Richard Thompson, Grateful Dead, Miles, etc ,all of whom have a number of definite , varied phases in their musical output, which give list members far more to squabble over and discuss endlessly. Imagine being on a list for someone like Max Bygraves , or even Slade or Chuck Berry, none of whom have radically changed their sound throughout their careers, what would one talk about?, apart from trivia like the calibre of guitar picks used by Chuck over the decades, or the type of hair gel that Max used in the 60's. However, I would like to think that Robyn would some day get back on the road with an electric band, if only because they would I think be more likely to attract larger crowds to shows and a more popular Robyn could afford to tour more frequently, which might eventually mean an Australian tour. Robyn electric is just one of the best experiences you are ever likely to hear anywhere, but if its not on offer I'll continue to listen to Robyn acoustic as its still great stuff, (whatever the mode of delivery) and attempt to collect electric shows from days gone by as a substitute. Dave ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 02:35:21 -0700 From: "West A. Moran" Subject: Re: Stephen Fry, Professional Scribbler amadain wrote: > Although actually I'd recommend Stephen Fry the writer over any movie or tv > program I've seen him in. "The Liar" was a really splendidly funny and > trenchantly observed novel, and the second one (I forget the name, "The > Rhinoceros", I want to say) was even better than the first. Anyone who > enjoys Martin Amis and/or Evelyn Waugh will get a big kick out of these two. > I have to say that as someone who's observed academia in action first hand, > I got a particular kick out of "The Liar"- parts of it contain academic > satire that is so dead-on it's almost funnier than David Lodge's "Nice Work" > or even the elder Amis's "Lucky Jim". > > Love on ya, > Susan > > P.S. Is "Peter's Friends" really the worst movie you've ever seen, Monsieur > Godwin? See "Lisztomania" and then get back to me :). The second Fry novel to which you refer is "The Hippopotamus" (perhaps the rhinoceros you were thinking of is the play by Ionesco), and you're so right--it's a lulu! I laughed until I stopped! Have you, by any chance, read his latest novel? I happened to see it in a bookstore just a couple of weeks ago, and although I cannot remember the title, I do recall reading on the flap that it concerns a slight alteration of history--Earth minus Hitler--with quite unexpected results. If I didn't have several other books in a holding pattern hovering over me impatiently (you're next, Infinite Jest!), I would have eagerly snatched up the new Fry novel; alas, I shall have to wait until the decks are, if not completely cleared, at least reasonably so. At any rate, if you have read Fry's latest, I'd love a review. And when I get the new one, I'll pick up "The Liar" as well. Thanks for the tip! Your friend and mine, West ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V7 #145 *******************************