From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V7 #276 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Thursday, July 16 1998 Volume 07 : Number 276 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Reasons for not watching "South Park" [lj lindhurst ] Re: critical support? [Terrence M Marks ] Re: There Can Be Only One! [Gregory Stuart Shell ] Re: There Can Be Only One! [Gregory Stuart Shell ] Re: Revelling in evil (also long and also probably boring :)) [Aaron Mand] Re: Robyn, in the news [Eleanore Adams ] Re: Muggins (mostly Eb, a little techno) [amadain ] Re: South Park/Reasons for not posting [Tom Clark ] Re: Quick Quiz [Tom Clark ] brief addendum to last post of mine [amadain ] Fwd: Re: critical support? ["Gene Hopstetter, Jr." ] "Robyn Hitchcock, Vic Chesnutt Write for Indie Film" ["Gene Hopstetter, J] Re: Muggins (mostly Eb, a little techno) (now all-techno) [Christopher Gr] Re: Techno in LA [MARKEEFE@aol.com] Re: Kinks Lincoln County/There Can Be Only One! [nicastr@idt.net (Ben)] Re: critical support? [Terrence M Marks ] Re: Muggins (mostly Eb, a little techno) [Eb ] couldn't be more off-topic... [Eb ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 11:57:12 -0400 From: lj lindhurst Subject: Re: Reasons for not watching "South Park" >OY! Even though I'm extremely-busy-and-trying-to-finish-all- my-work-so-I-can-go-see: L U N A !!! Wheeeee!!!-- I have to chime in on this topic: South Park absolutely RULES!! It is much more than crude humor and "baby kicking"-- in fact, I cannot imagine that anyone who saw last night's show could find it anything other than BRILLIANT (now there's a fight-startin absolute statement)(eh). It was all about drugs, and the guidance counselor, "Mr. Mackey" gets hooked on every imaginable drug. The drug scenes were extremely trippy and hilarious-- his head gets inflated like a balloon, pops off his head, and floats around through different scenes talking to other characters. Later, he meets a finger-painting hippie chick and they run off to India to get married! And I'm not even mentioning half the details or the crazy "Bris" sub-plot! I also love the episode where Mr. Garrison (the teacher) gets a nose job and he looks like David Hasselhoff when it's done. Only, they animate it so crudely that it's both trippy AND hilarious-- they just roughly cut out a picture of David Hasselhoff's head and stick it on Mr. Garrison's shoulders. It never changes facial expression or perspective through the entire show-- the only moving part is an animated mouth! (JH3, this can be your new .sig: "Children, I've left teaching to do what I've always wanted to do with my life: Hang out and screw hot chicks all day!" --Mr. Garrison) I work. l "getting lost in Chinatown" j ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 11:56:35 -0400 (EDT) From: Terrence M Marks Subject: Re: critical support? > That was more difficult than I expected - many of these are post-65 acts. > It might be easier to split the 60s into pre-psychedelic and > post-psychedelic phases. I think this is the start of the increasing > diversity of popular music which makes it so difficult to select > 'definitive' artistes for the 80s and 90s. I'm not going to point out any big ones you missed because, well, we've all got our favourites. Now, I wasn't there, but I don't think that the music of the 60s was that much less diverse than the music of the 90s. Genres came and went with about the same frequency. Difference is, then, most bands would switch genres. The 60s looks coherent at first, but it looks as though you're only looking at psychedelia (I'm rather inclined to classify the American and English varieties as separate genres). A look at the charts reveals a good deal of soul, motown, bubblegum, instrumental surf, vocal surf, skiffle, folk and others. It just happens that when people boil the 60s down they get Jimi Hendrix and the things around him. When people boil down the 80s, they'll probably get Michael Jackson. I think that in ten years, when people boil the 90s down, they'll get someone. My vote goes for either Nirvana (the American one) or Beck. Terrence Marks normal@grove.ufl.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 10:58:07 -0500 (CDT) From: Gregory Stuart Shell Subject: Re: There Can Be Only One! On Wed, 15 Jul 1998, JH3 wrote: > Now wait just one minute here! I thought you said *I* was the > Official Pathetic Whiner on this list, and now you're grabbing > that role for YOURSELF? How fair is THAT? Look fellas, I am the OFFICIAL PATHETIC FUCKING WHINER on this list. I am also the only OFFICIAL ex-surreal posse member. SO as long as I am still rolling big Dutch fat ones, nobody can take my place. Regards, Gregory S. Shell Subversive Specialist System Analyst ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 11:12:14 -0500 (CDT) From: Gregory Stuart Shell Subject: Re: There Can Be Only One! Hey All, Two in one day, wow something has to be wrong. Anyone got a copy of the Kinks song - Lincoln County. I have only heard it a couple times but cannot find an album in print that has this song. Does anyone know the album on which it was originally released or if it was actually written by the Kinks? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Gregory S. Shell Subversive Specialist System Analyst ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 12:30:35 -0400 (EDT) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: Revelling in evil (also long and also probably boring :)) On Mon, 13 Jul 1998, amadain wrote: > I probably wouldn't be quite as keen on it myself if I hadn't taken a > class on it, and also read John Berger's "Ways of Seeing" (excellent > book!) at some point in high school, on a teacher's recommendation. i just read Leslie Savan's book The Sponsored Life -- a great primer for seeing through ads, though as a collection of columns that originally appeared in a paper one week apart it's numbing to read too much at one sitting. did anyone else see Circuit City's "we've got everything dads want?" campaign? yeah, fine, it was for father's day; it still caused me pain. > I'm not sure that any one thing is CLEARLY more obvious than another. > To me the nature of it seems pretty random. Something like NBK may > suggest a blueprint more readily than Star Wars would, but that's really > the only difference. i just don't know. i've read several places (though they may not have been independently sourced) that 15-20 murders have been pegged as copycats of NBK. if it's true, this number is high enough to make me wonder what's going on. maybe Stone just managed to make a film that was very appealing to people who already wanted to go out and kill for fun, but there's something creepy about that, too. not having seen the movie, though, i couldn't say. > P.S. apropos of absolutely nothing- does anyone else find Natalie > Imbruglia completely annoying? yes. speaking of music, this Inspiral Carpets cd is by far the coolest of the things my ex-roommate left me to dispose of when he left. a ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 09:44:33 +0000 From: Eleanore Adams Subject: Re: Robyn, in the news Aaron Mandel wrote: > On Thu, 16 Jul 1998, Ben wrote: > > > >FYI, for you Robyn Hitchcock fans, he appears, according to the NYT's > > >review, in the new Cameron Diaz film There's Something About Mary. > > >Apprently he pops up throughout the film providing musical commentary on > > >the action. Anyone seen it yet? > > i haven't seen it, but i think someone has got robyn confused with > Jonathan Richman. > > a I saw the film at a sneak peek last week and yes, it is Johnathan Richman who walks through the film strumming his guitar. eleanore ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 12:21:44 -0600 From: amadain Subject: Re: Muggins (mostly Eb, a little techno) >*laugh*. I insult him back. For example, I tell him that confessing to >a fondness for Emerson Lake and Palmer is utterly sad. Ah, I didn't know this! Thank you so much! :) >exchanges with Woj. There's a good-natured, humorous tone to a lot of >those digs, but some of you donít seem to see it. Deep, cleansing >breaths, all. Yes, indeed there is, and indeed said breaths are necessary, apparently. Good Lord, you'd think Eb had gone and run over everybody's dog. >But: >> As for the Prodigy, they really aren't that much of a critic's >choice --they received lots of press, but it was mostly not-so-informed >> mainstream critics completing assignments to write about the big >Electronica phenomenon (which never quite took off). >And once again I say *in America*. It never took off *in America*. Is >the US the only country which doesn't get it yet? "Electronica" or electronic music? Personally I know quite little about this kind of music and the various naming vagaries, but as I understand it electronica was a name for a very small segment of this genre, in fact, I only ever really heard it used to describe Prodigy and The Chemical Brohters, now that I think of it. I mean, "drum and bass" is called "drum and bass", "industrial" is called "industrial", whatever and so forth, but "Electronica" is the thing that is supposed to have not taken off. It's an invented name for a small sliver of this pie, and I don't know quite which sliver it's supposed to describe, only that this isn't supposed to mean that there is no market for electronic music in the US, and you can stop talking about what barbarians we all are now :). Incidentally, house music was invented in Chicago. Just so you know, you, you, KIWI :). >Ben said: >> So you do admit you have done a bit of name-calling here? >I have to wonder, does no one appreciate a bit of well-honed insulting >rhetoric any more? I guess not. I think perhaps the thing to do would be for Eb to sprinkle smileys quite liberally, so that everyone knows exactly when he is joking and doesn't start in with the "your momma wears combat boots" stuff every time he does. Love on ya, Susan ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 13:15:49 EDT From: Tobyhello@aol.com Subject: Tim Keegan etc I've been offline for a couple of weeks, so I don't know if the following have been discussed: 1) Is the new Homer single out yet? A friend of mine had a letter from the record company urging her to buy it a couple of weeks ago, but I've yet to see it... 2) Has Robyn announced any UK gigs? Toby ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 18:17:03 +0100 (BST) From: M R Godwin Subject: Re: critical support? On Thu, 16 Jul 1998, Terrence M Marks wrote: > I'm not going to point out any big ones you missed because, well, we've > all got our favourites. It's not so much a question of "missed" as a question of who gets into your personal top 10. But Ben's question concerned who was "definitive", and there ought to be a fair degree of agreement over who were the best songwriters / musicians / vocalists working in the rock field in any particular year. > Now, I wasn't there, but I don't think that the music of the 60s was that > much less diverse than the music of the 90s. Genres came and went with > about the same frequency. Difference is, then, most bands would switch > genres. I can't agree. In the UK at least, pop music was hardly publicised at all during the early 60s. There were only about four major labels, _no_ independent labels, and certainly no separate racks for rock, pop, r'n'b, soul in the shops. It was pretty well impossible to market anything diverse or unusual. Consequently, most groups played very similar music. My understanding is that the Liverpool groups tended to all play the same _numbers_ (the Beatles and the Searchers played them better than anyone else). Musicians would hang out at specialist import record shops looking for the latest US hits to add to their repertoire. Gradually the groups became more diverse as they found new records. You can classify acts by the sounds that they picked up on: Beatles: Arthur Alexander, the Shirelles, Buddy Holly Stones: Jimmy Reed, Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker Who: James Brown, surf music (strange combination!) Animals: John Lee Hooker, Ray Charles, Memphis Slim. > The 60s looks coherent at first, but it looks as though you're > only looking at psychedelia (I'm rather inclined to classify the American > and English varieties as separate genres). I wonder what the difference is? Possibly US psychedelic bands are more guitar-based (the Dead, the Airplane) and UK ones more keyboard-oriented (Floyd, Nice, Soft Machine, Van der Graf). > A look at the charts reveals a > good deal of soul, motown, bubblegum, instrumental surf, vocal surf, > skiffle, folk and others. I'm trying to apply the word 'definitive' to these to see what I get. Skiffle was definitive in the 50s in the UK - there's a new book out by Chas McDevitt which shows how sales of guitars went up from tens to thousands as all the teenagers (including John Lennon) formed skiffle groups. I would see folk as a separate musical stream altogether, which occasionally impinges on pop, as in the folk-rock era. I don't think that bubblegum is sufficiently distinctive to count as a definitive innovation. I do remember a craze for all things Motown which reached fever pitch with the release of 'Reach out I'll be there'. But I'm not sure how much of an _influence_ Motown was on subsequent music. - - Mike Godwin "Money feeds my music machine, now listen while I play" (boom, boom-boom) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 10:23:48 -0700 From: Tom Clark Subject: Re: South Park/Reasons for not posting >>But, as for South Park, is the show as great as its adherents--George >>Clooney, say--claim? > >Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it isn't. It certainly is better than most >of the inane programs on TV. Since it's on Comedy Central it will probably >vanish soon. :) I like the fact that they have no problem skewering pretentious celebrities like Barbra Streisand and Kathy Lee Gifford. Oh, and George Clooney does a wicked impression of a gay dog! "The fireman is magical. When you rub his helmet, he spits in your eye!" - -tc ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 10:28:02 -0700 From: Tom Clark Subject: Re: Quick Quiz Sean wins the lifetime supply of acetone! >> I was in Tower Records last night and while visiting one of the listen >> stations I had to chuckle when I saw a selection from the band >> "Superfuzz" right next to one from the band "Bigmuff". >> >> Q: What the hell is so funny about this? > >A: The Superfuzz and the Bigmuff were two different type of late sixties >(or possibly more early 70's) distortion pedals. They also happened to >respectively be the favourite pedals of the two guitar players in >Mudhoney, who released a mini-album called 'Superfuzz Bigmuff', with the >seminal song 'Touch Me I'm Sick'. > >And it's hilarious. wonder if either band is as good as the band they >combine to namecheck? :) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 12:49:14 -0600 From: amadain Subject: brief addendum to last post of mine Also should have added that Chicago is the home of Wax Trax. Duh. Anyway, electronic music is quite the thing in Chicago and New York and this has been true for quite some time now. I have no idea how it plays in Nebraska. Or for that matter, other large cities. I have trouble seeing it in LA for some reason, I think because LA isn't particularly industrial (don't EVEN talk to me, you know I mean actual industry, not "Industrial Light and Magic", ya California candyasses :)) and has 80 degrees and sunny weather in December. Love on ya, Susan ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 13:40:58 -0400 From: "Gene Hopstetter, Jr." Subject: Fwd: Re: critical support? M R Godwin sed: >I wonder what the difference is? Possibly US psychedelic bands are more >guitar-based (the Dead, the Airplane) and UK ones more keyboard-oriented >(Floyd, Nice, Soft Machine, Van der Graf). From what I know, one of the big differences, initially, was their, um, chemical motivators. Seems the US bands were more into psychedelics (y'know, on the West Coast, Owsley was around, LSD was easier to get); whereas the UK bands were more into alcohol. I can't substantiate that, but I do remember some American ex-psych band member discussing going to jam in the UK with a handful of LSD, only to be met with apprehension by the pub-hopping Brits. Of course, as soon as Mr. Barrett got a taste of it, things weren't really the same anymore, right? ;-) As for guitar-based US bands vs. keyboard-based UK bands, I can think of several that don't fit that scheme. F'rinstance, in the US, the Silver Apples and Fifty Foot Hose definitely relied upon keyboards (or proto-electronic buzzy devices). However, overall, outfits on both sides of the pond like White Noise, the United States of America, Red Crayola, Comus, etc. surely pushed the guitar/keyboard/noodling envelope quite a bit. Or, of course, there's Brainticket. And who the hell knows what *they* were experimenting with. >"Money feeds my music machine, now listen while I play" (boom, boom-boom) "... my green tambourine!..." (wee! I luv them Lemon Pipers!) ++++++++ Gene Hopstetter, Jr. + Online Design Guy http://extra.newsguy.com/~genehop/ ++ All hail Brak! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 14:19:59 -0400 From: "Gene Hopstetter, Jr." Subject: "Robyn Hitchcock, Vic Chesnutt Write for Indie Film" From Wall of Sound News: Robyn Hitchcock, Vic Chesnutt Write for Indie Film On Monday, July 6, the small independent film The Slipping-Down Life began shooting in Austin, Texas. Based on the novel by Anne Tyler, the movie stars indie queen Lili Taylor and Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert), and tells the story of singer-songwriter Drumstrings Casey. Pearce, who plays Casey, performs several songs in the film, but it seems most of them have actually been written by some fairly well-known musicians, including Robyn Hitchcock, Vic Chesnutt, Ron Sexsmith, and Joe Henry. Luckily for the film's producers, the artists are doing it for the love of the script, rather than for money. "It's really difficult to get marquee names for a project like this," music director Chris Violette tells Wall of Sound. "You have to contact the artists directly, which is what we've managed to do." Violette met Hitchcock years ago, "when I was a club rat in New Hampshire," he says. The two met again in March, when they were both in Austin for South by Southwest, a music industry conference. "I pitched the story to Robyn and followed up with a script," says Violette. "He responded with six original songs written specifically for the film. We recorded two of them." Although his isn't the biggest name on board, Ron Sexsmith has turned out to be the film's biggest supporter. "He'd just begun to write for his next album when we first spoke with him," Violette tells Wall of Sound. "The director, Toni Kalem, met him at a bookstore in Los Angeles. Ron responded most favorably and has since been a terrific advocate for us. He's sent us nearly 40 demos to choose from. We ended up recording six of his tunes with Guy Pearce, and we'll also be using other songs of Ron's in his own voice throughout the film." Joe Henry also sent in a tape with five songs. "We were so knocked out by them that we asked to use three of them, and for Joe to produce all of the songs performed by the lead character," says Violette. "He was up at the top of our wish list for songwriters we hoped would contribute. He came through in a big way." After repeated attempts to get a script to Vic Chesnutt through the mail, Violette finally contacted him. "Vic contributed a very special song. He had previously recorded 'This Cruel Thing' for his last album, but excluded it from the release. It's nothing short of brilliant." Also contributing demos for the project were Dan Bern, Emmylou Harris, and Chris Whitley. Violette also recently served as music director on Orgazmo, the next film from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, which features a soundtrack produced by the Dust Brothers. "Great guys, all around," he says. "Between those four, there's just tons of talent." Orgazmo is slated for a Sept. 25 release. - -- Anders Wright ++++++++ Gene Hopstetter, Jr. + Online Design Guy http://extra.newsguy.com/~genehop/ ++ All hail Brak! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 14:18:11 -0400 (EDT) From: Christopher Gross Subject: Re: Muggins (mostly Eb, a little techno) (now all-techno) On Thu, 16 Jul 1998, amadain wrote: > "Electronica" or electronic music? Personally I know quite little about > this kind of music and the various naming vagaries, but as I understand it > electronica was a name for a very small segment of this genre, in fact, I > only ever really heard it used to describe Prodigy and The Chemical > Brohters, now that I think of it. I mean, "drum and bass" is called "drum > and bass", "industrial" is called "industrial", whatever and so forth, but > "Electronica" is the thing that is supposed to have not taken off. My understanding is that "electronica" is a marketing term, invented by record labels and retailers ca. January 1997 to provide a catch-all term for all the various genres of electronic music -- house, drum 'n' bass, industrial, the _Metal Machine Music_ tribute album, etc. Because it was a marketing label not used by artists or fans, it was mainly associated with the acts marketers pushed the hardest in '97, like Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers. However, in theory the Orb, Plastikman, :wumpscut:, and maybe even Bjork can also be listed in the "Electronica" section of BMG's mailers. Electronica was a market failure in the sense that it failed to do what the marketers hoped it would: sell as many CDs as the grunge did in 1992-1994. Therefore, the problem was more excessive expectations (or desperate hopes) than lack of an audience. Even here in the benighted guitar-worshipping United States, there is a large -- but not infinite -- audience for electronic music. To the chagrin of those marketers who bet big on electronica, the average American frat boy occasionally dances to techno at clubs, but then buys Oasis and Matchbox20 discs to listen to at home.... - --Chris ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 14:25:02 EDT From: MARKEEFE@aol.com Subject: Re: Techno in LA In a message dated 98-07-16 13:34:35 EDT, Susan wrote: << I have trouble seeing it in LA for some reason >> Or anywhere on the West Coast, really. I mean, obviously, there are "scenes" in any big city, but I think that the West Coast is too much into "real rock" to be totally overcome by techno/dance/electronic music. . . especially here in the Pac NW. People here dress poorly and swill beer; the style is simply not conducive to the crisper rhythm tracks and obligatory throwing of attitude that comes along with dance culture. I don't know; maybe San Franciscans have a different perspective -- the culture there is a little finer than it is here. - ------Michael K. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 15:30:43 -0500 From: nicastr@idt.net (Ben) Subject: Re: Kinks Lincoln County/There Can Be Only One! >Anyone got a copy of the Kinks song - Lincoln County. > >I have only heard it a couple times but cannot find an album in print that >has this song. Does anyone know the album on which it was originally >released or if it was actually written by the Kinks? Any help would be >greatly appreciated. I have it, nyah nyah nyah! (sorry I'm just a child... :) ) It's on the new Castle reissue of "Something Else", as a bonus track. According to the liner notes, it was written by Dave Davies, and originally released as a single A-side in 1968. I assume it was a Kinks single, not a Dave single, because the B-side "There's No Life Without Love" is a Davies brothers collaboration... n.p. XTC - Nonsuch (anyone else notice this album and "Oranges & Lemons" are always around $2 in most used CD stores?) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 17:56:06 -0400 (EDT) From: Terrence M Marks Subject: Re: critical support? > > The 60s looks coherent at first, but it looks as though you're > > only looking at psychedelia (I'm rather inclined to classify the American > > and English varieties as separate genres). > > I wonder what the difference is? Possibly US psychedelic bands are more > guitar-based (the Dead, the Airplane) and UK ones more keyboard-oriented > (Floyd, Nice, Soft Machine, Van der Graf). Yeah, part of it is guitar v. keyboard. In my experiences[1] British psychedelia is less loud, uses less distortion/overdrive, has more of a music hall influence and less of a rock influence, less dissonant and is more likely to sing about magic elves and fairies. There's probably a few other things out there that I either can't think of or qualify at the moment. 1: Yeah, I'm sure you can find bands on either side who break the 'rules'. Terrence Marks normal@grove.ufl.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 15:12:46 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Re: Muggins (mostly Eb, a little techno) Dan'l Boomed: >For example, I tell him that confessing to >a fondness for Emerson Lake and Palmer is utterly sad. I tell him that >no one should admit to liking a band whose members wore capes without >irony. ;) Fine. Just SEE if I make you that tape of The Six Wives of Henry VIII. And don't I know a certain Kiwi with a fondness for Jethro Tull? And can't we add some bonus points there, for bands who also wear TIGHTS without irony? Speaking of Vic Chesnutt, I discovered some unhappy news last night: He has been dropped from Capitol. Grrrrr. He apparently has a new record finished already, called The Salesman & Bernadette. I'm dying to hear this, not only because it's Chesnutt, but because his backing band for this album is my beloved LAMBCHOP. Holy mackerel! The album is apparently coming out fairly soon overseas (I think his overseas label is called PLR?), but Vic doesn't have a US label yet. Man, that blows. Incidentally, the Sugarplastic just parted ways with their label too (Geffen). Phooey. Personally, I think the band might be better off with an indie label, so when Ben (the bandleader) asked me for some labels to pester, and information about the labels' rosters, I suggested a few names (Bar/None, Restless, Flydaddy, Sub Pop and Mammoth, to be exact). We'll see what happens. A guy as talented as him deserves to come out on top. South Park? I never saw that show for AGES, but finally, someone recently lent me a couple of tapes containing about the first dozen episodes. Ehhh, it was entertaining, but I wasn't overly impressed. Let's just say that it's not going to become part of my internal pop-cultural reservoir. There's just not enough sense of character for me -- just little anonymous animated figgers spouting the writers' one-liners. And the person who lent me the tapes was crowing about how blasphemous the show is, but damn, I didn't see anything on those tapes which rivalled The Simpsons' weekly trashing of Christianity via the moronic Flanders family. Of the episodes I saw, there were two which I did like enthusiastically: the one with the Ethopian refugee who traded places with Cartman, and the one which Susan already mentioned, with the school counselor going on a drug binge. The counselor ("mm-kay?") is the show's only truly clever characterization, in my view. Well, Kyle's mother ("wha-wha-WHAT?") is reasonably clever too, though that's more of a standard stereotype. Thanks to various parties for various defenses on my behalf. "Yea, man, The Happenings," Bernie replied quietly, his eyes lighting up like imported roman candles on the Fourth of July. Eb ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1998 15:42:58 -0700 From: Eb Subject: couldn't be more off-topic... >>WELKISMS: A Wunnerful Way With Words >>(Compiled by Dick Wilson, a sound mixer who worked on "The Lawrence Welk >>Show" for more than three decades) >> >>"Now the band will play a medley of tunes from World War Eye [World War >>I]." >> >>During an audience warm-up: "I just wrote a book, but don't go out and >>buy it yet, because I don't think it's finished yet." >> >>"There are good days and there are bad days, and this is one of them." >> >>Introducing a guest performer: "His act may start out slow, but it >>tapers off." >> >>When an audience was not responding with generous applause: "I see we >>have a few sourpussies in the group tonight." >> >>Referring to rock music: "That's not my cup of dish." >> >>"How do you spell conductor after C-U-N?" >> >>To the band just before going on the air: "Boys, look like you're having >>fun, but don't have any." >> >>"I just had an idea that went right over my head." >> >>Introducing the high potentate at a Shriner's convention: "Ladies and >>Gentlemen, your high totem pole." >> >>To his stand-in: "Whenever you have a minute I'd like to see you right >>now." >> >>To a band member: "I never realized that your hair was so close to your >>head before." >> >>To a performer who apologized for being late and said he had no excuse: >>"That's no excuse." >> >>About a vocalist who auditioned: "She has a nice voice, but she looks a >>little bit too much like Eleanor Roosevelt." >> >>To the dress rehearsal audience about the use of a phony turkey on the >>set of a Thanksgiving show: "Don't worry, folks, this will be a real >>turkey when it gets on the air." >> >>To the person who wrote his cue cards: "Don't use the word 'dat' (that). >>I can say 'dis' (this), but I can't say 'dat' (that)." >> >>"I just let it in one ear and out the top of my head." >> >>When a group of people came in to discuss problems in the band: "You >>know, when people band together, it causes a house divided." >> >>Referring to a singing duo he first heard perform at a nightclub: "They >>were so good, I could hardly wait to get out of there." >> >>When he found the Hollywood Palace stage to be too small to accomodate >>the whole band: "Fire four feet of the band." >> >>"I'm keeping perfect time. I"ll get my barometer [metronome] and prove >>it." >> >>Then there was the time he accused a vocal group of being out of >>lip-sync when they were singing live. >> >>"Boys, if you don't stick together, how do you expect me to follow >>you-ah?" >> >>To the pianist who was rehearsing: "Why do you do that? You play too >>many notes already." >> >>"That's what really broke the camel's straw." >> >>After a jet plane flew over and disrupted rehearsal: "You know, those >>jet planes make masonic booms." >> >>To the accordionist: "You go over there and play the accordion. I'll >>stay here and beat off the band." >> >>Asking the guitarist to accompany a guest vocalist: "Get behind her over >>here, and give her a nice feel." >> >>Inviting the Wisconsin Cheese Queen in the audience to come up on stage >>and dance: "Come up here and let us see you cut the cheese." >> >>After a production number in which the Champagne Lady sang of unrequited >>love: "Yes, she sure looks like a woman who has been tampered with." ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V7 #276 *******************************