From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V8 #124 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Monday, April 5 1999 Volume 08 : Number 124 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: RH content, well, some... [cinders blue ] Re: very, very strange days [Hayagriva ] Largo [Chris Franz ] album cover similarity [digja611@student.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan)] the MM dilemma [digja611@student.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan)] the canopener [digja611@student.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan)] downloading troubles [Joel Mullins ] Killing an artist [digja611@student.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan)] Friday at Largo [Chris Franz ] very,very strange ways [J Branscombe ] killing an artist [J Branscombe ] Re: Cd's/too long ["Russ Reynolds" ] Re: RH content, well, some... [Terrence M Marks ] RE: Cd's/too long ["Chaney, Dolph L" ] Re: Cd's/too long [Eric Loehr ] Re: RH content, well, some... [Ethyl Ketone ] RE: Cd's/too long ["Thomas, Ferris" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 04 Apr 1999 15:50:42 -0400 From: cinders blue Subject: Re: RH content, well, some... MC 900 Ft Ethyl Ketone rapped: >Bay Area feg collectors - >there is some kind of 3 song promo import in the used Robyn bin at Amoeba. which reminds me. i saw a "madonna of the wasps" promo single last week whilst perusing the used bins. if anyone would like me to go back and get it for them, please let me know. i think it was around $7 or something like that. woj ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 Apr 1999 17:45:01 -0700 (PDT) From: Hayagriva Subject: Re: very, very strange days Don't you have any friends that you can spew your mindless dribble upon? Larry. _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Apr 1999 21:35:35 -0700 From: Chris Franz Subject: Largo Well, I just got back from LA, and my roommate is dragging me out to see "Vertigo," which is playing on the big screen at the theater across the street. I'll post all the Largo details when I get back. For now I'll just say there were about twelve impromptu tunes on Friday, a barrage of covers last night, a few old tunes I never thought I'd hear live, and a surprise set by a Kiwipop legend. Details soon. - - Chris ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 16:39:04 +1200 From: digja611@student.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan) Subject: album cover similarity Here's an odd one... I was just looking at my copy of Storefront Hitchcock, and my recently bought (cheap, seconded) copy of REM's Up. And I was suddenly struck by the similarity of the design of the two album covers. Sure, Robyn has a view through the windows of the storefront, and REM is simply a bunch of squares (erm, let me rephrase that), but the similarities are unmistakeable. The design credits on the two albums have noi names in common, but I can't help wondering... 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: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 16:39:12 +1200 From: digja611@student.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan) Subject: the MM dilemma >About Y2K: I haven't lost a fegnanomillibananosecond of sleep over this. >The applications and files for which I care most are all Macintosh. It >will only inconvenience me slightly if my PC dies (will I notice the >difference?) My UNIX stuff barely concerns me, though that's primarily >from whence my income emanates. In all cases, it's somebody else's problem >to make sure this stuff works. If it doesn't, it will quickly, as there >are a lot of paranoid and angry people who will make a big deal out of it >with my proxy. I've also tested some of the things by changing the date on >my computer and everything seems to work as poorly or as well as it does >now. >Y2K impresses me as one of those things that a great many people can find >to become unitedly paranoid about. I'm just one of those folks who doesn't >choose to be particularly paranoid about anything except my ability to >hang with you nice folk. I feel pretty much the same way. I've tested the software oin my computer by letting the clock go mad for a while. All of it worked AOK. Then again, as I too am a Mac user, it came as litle surprise. But us lucky few make up a tiny proportion of users, between 5 and 20% according to various different surveys. And most large corporations are in the 80-95% that got sucked into using systems that will not necessarily be so reliable. Thankfully Otago University is largely Mac-run, which is a relief - but are the power companies? However, y2k does concern me for its 'downstream' problems. You mentioned that it it is something 'that a great many people can find to become unitedly paranoid about'. As a former dabbler in that weird and arcane artform that is economics, I think we're in for a rocky few months with the sharemarket going completely haywire in December (panic buyers, panic sellers, raining frogs, locusts, cats sleeping with dogs, etc), followed by either a boom of relief in January or (if there is y2k chaos) a bust of oooh...big proportions. I'm not planning to be in the air at new year's, though, and I'm keeping a supply of candles handy (again, luckily, it's mid-summer, so the cold won't be such a problem). James ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 16:39:10 +1200 From: digja611@student.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan) Subject: the canopener I tuhituhi Hone Partridge >So I was listening to yet another Beatles Anthology piece of merchandise >and it >was a version of Yellow Submarine with Ringo starting with a rap before >launching into the song we know so very very well. The Can Opener copies the >rhyme scheme and meter of Ringo's rap perfectly. Even the accents seemed >similar >to this (non-UK and therefore accent-deaf) listener. >This caught me totally off guard. I assume the Beatles Anthology boot >tapes have >been floating around forever and the Thothy Three thought it would be fun >to goof >on it. And then there's the explicit reference in the lyrics: >It sawed up Chinese railwaymen 5 >With cutlass and harpoons >It opened fleshy submarines >And dug in them with spoons well, the word submarine is not that uncommon that it might have been a coincidence. And the rhyming structure and scansion is about as common as you can get in folk verse. A couple of examples should suffice: Australia - The stranger came from Narromine And made his little joke "They say we folks in Narromine Are narrow-minded folk; But all the smartest men down here Are puzzled to define A kind of new phenomenon That came to Narromine" (first of 12 stanzas of A.B. 'Banjo' Patterson's "The City of Dreadful Thirst") New Zealand - 'Twas in the year of '62 As near as I can guess I left my dear old hometown In trouble and distress My family didn't want me I was left out in the cold Until I started searching for The Tuapeka Gold (first of about six verses of Phil Garland's "Tuapeka Gold") Most importantly, though - especially considering the theme of both Yellow Submarine and The Canopener - it is the same rhyme as and similar scansion to that most notable of maritime poems, Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (an excerpt follows): "The loud wind never reach'd the ship Yet now the ship moved on! Beneath the lightning and the Moon The dead men gave a groan (etc for some 35,271 stanzas) It would surprise me none had our Robyn read this poem on at least one occasion. James PS: can anyone tell me about a neo-folkie called Jude? Think he might be Scottish - sounds like a cross between Dodgy and Nick Drake. Despite risking an even-Eb style 'ehhh' I have to add that I was more than a trifle impressed by what I've heard (a couple of tracks off an album called "No-one is really beautiful") 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: Sun, 04 Apr 1999 23:37:17 -0700 From: Joel Mullins Subject: downloading troubles Hey, I've got a computer problem I was hoping someone could help me fix. I was just trying to download some fonts and had some difficulty doing so. For some reason, it would save the files as RealAudio files. Then when I'd try to install the fonts or open them up, it would open up my RealAudio player and tell me that the file is not a RealAudio document. This has happened many times before and I can't figure out why. I'm sure there's an easy way to fix this, but I just don't know enough about computers to figure it out on my own. Can someone help? Please? Joel ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 16:57:57 +1200 From: digja611@student.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan) Subject: Killing an artist >Do remixes of a favourite song spoil it forever for you? Did >"Stars On" kill the Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Stones forever? >I still like Jeff Beck even though I heard a Muzak version >of Freeway Jam at the food court last month. Yup, Freeway >Jam. nope - the remixes don't kill a song. What kills a song for me is hearing it repeatedlky on an advertisement for some inane piece of useless junk. Or even for a piece of quite useful stuff. Especially if the song is one which the public had either gereally forgotten about because it was a minor but lovable hit many many years ago, or a song that is very or even somewhat obscure or leftfield - especially if the ad doesn't use the original; version but a lamearsed cover version. Case in point, the beautiful (and somewhat paganistic) lullaby "Cradle song" by Shriekback, which is NZ features in a watered down cover version for wall insulation products. Now I live in fear that if I play the original version someone will say "oh, yeah, - that's the song from the Gibboard ad". Plus of course hearing it 5-10 times a day sort of dulls its pristine beauty, if you get my drift. >i just can't figure out who's the most fucked up. >the idiot schools for enforcing the idiot rule. >the idiot students who want to be forced to say it once a week rather >than once a day, because this will ensure a more meaningful, respectful >pledge. lordylord - you mean you STILL have to say the pledge in school in the US? I thought that went out decades ago! I thought only fundamentalist religious states or those on a constant war footing did that sort of thing! Erm... then again... Eddie? I remembers Merv Wellington (former Minister of Education)'s laughable attempt to get schools to fly the NZ national flag outside their gates every day. Most schools ignored the suggestion. Those that did fly things up the flagpole in response...well, it was rarely the national flag... James (glad the Dignan could help steer Natalie, Allen & co back to the sea of Feg, and that it wasn't a ghost ship they got to...) 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: Mon, 05 Apr 1999 01:52:14 -0700 From: Chris Franz Subject: Friday at Largo All right now. A weekend of Hitchcock indeed. Here goes. I'm not totally unpacked yet, and don't have the definitive setlist kototh wrote down; this is what I wrote during the second set. Meaning the first set is likely in the wrong order. Black trousers, white shirt, black vest. Gene Hackman Sally Was A Legend Cheese Alarm Ride Autumn is Your Last Chance A really, really brief set (his name wasn't on the bill, after all), leading up to a much longer one from Jon Brion. I won't go into the details of it, Jon was basically as Jon always is. Benmont Tench materialized after a while to play piano, and Robyn, Grant, and a drummer whose name I can't remember came out as Jon was doing "Space Odyssey" on the ukelele... Space Odyssey Last Match I Can Talk To Fish Like Aquaman All Thumbs Bleach Me The Last Temptation of Pork Fist (Noodles and You) Emotional Hernia When The Saints Come Marching In Stark Robyn left at that point, and the rest of the band finished off the night with "My Ghost Is Made of Cleveland." Robyn made a comment early on about this being the first show since his operation two months ago. I hadn't heard about that operation; from later comments, the reasonable inference is that he had a hernia. Anyway, certainly nothing earth-shattering in the first set; a couple of fun stories, a bit more rambling than usual. All of it was solo. The later bit had Robyn, Jon, Grant, Ben, and the drummer whose name I still can't remember; Jon solicited impromptu song titles from the audience between each tune, and they ran with it. Last Match was a brilliant rock song; Robyn just amazed us with how quickly he came up with the tune. Definitely a highlight. The Aquaman tune, done bossanova style, was a riot. All Thumbs was Grant's creation, was moody and really clever. Another highlight. Pork Fist was done reggae style, and was hilarious. There was some uncertainty in the crowd whether the one song was called "Bleach Me" or "Leech Me"; I'm in the bleach camp. Whatever. I'm too tired to type anything more; tomorrow I'll give more details and info about Saturday. cheers, - - Chris ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 05:56:28 -0400 From: J Branscombe Subject: very,very strange ways I know I'm new here, but can I be the first to tell Larry The Love I Or Leave It Lorry Driver that he is not appreciated. jmbc The word is 'drivel' by the way, if you want to be discourteous elsewhere. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 06:14:56 -0400 From: J Branscombe Subject: killing an artist James Dignan wrote >What kills a song for me is hearing it repeatedly advertising some inane piece >of useless junk. Walking On Sunshine is being used to advertise Shredded Wheat in Britain at the moment. It sort of fits, but I know I'm going to get irritated by it. At least it puts a few bob in Kim's back sky rocket. The same goes for a friend in a band called My Drug Hell whose Girl At The Bus Stop is currently being played on a British Miller beer ad. I don't know if Levi's used Muddy Waters, Percy Sledge, Marvin Gaye etc. in their '80s/early '90s campaigns worldwide. But I do know this meant exposure for these artists in the UK that they wouldn't have got otherwise. jmbc. Not enamoured of advertising, but ho hum, I've taken a few pieces of their silver in my time ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Apr 1999 08:19:56 -0700 From: "Russ Reynolds" Subject: Re: Cd's/too long Eric: >Artistically, I agree with the above, but there's also the consumer factor >to consider; for example, when I saw Dave Davies at the Iron Horse last >year he played a fabulous hour, maybe hour-15 min. set; I figured he was >taking a break when he started to leave the stage, but was stunned to >instead hear him say goodnight, and that was it. I loved every minute of >the show, but if I pay $20+ for a ticket I think I'm entitled to more than >that (and with no opening act!). The difference being that once the artist leaves the building, all you've got for your $20 are memories. A CD can be played again whenever the urge strikes. >Same thing with CD's - the fucking record companies charge so much (for >relatively small cost to them) that I find myself feeling cheated when I >pay full price (which I try not to do anyway, but..) for an album that's >only 35-45 min. long - -especially rereleases of 60's stuff that don't >have bonus tracks -- some of those suckers are less than 30 min. and have >no excuse taking up a whole CD (you could fit two I agree with you to a point. Let's take Zappa's Apostrophe (') as an example. About 30 minutes of music, but a terrific album. I've been wanting to convert to CD for years but, like you, I can't see paying over $17 for such a small amount of music. But unlike you I wouldn't change my mind if it were loaded up with bonus tracks, 'cause that's not what I'm looking for. Those extra tracks aren't going to make Apostrophe (') a better album. They aren't going to make it "eight songs better." Chances are they're just going to detract from the experience I'm accustomed to when listening to my Apostrophe (') LP. (see food analogy below) I *would* change my mind if there were another complete album tacked on, however. In fact maybe the reason I have a problem with shelling out $17 for Apostrophe (') isn't because it's so short, but because I'm pretty sure there was a CD out at one point which contained both Apostrophe (') AND One Size Fits All. I could get BOTH those albums for the same $17. (BTW If anyone has this CD can you tell me whether or not these are remixed versions of the album? I bought WOIIFTM/Lumpy Gravy on one CD years ago and was very disapointed with what he had done with WOIIFTM.) Ross: >As for new releases with weaker material, if they add garlic pepper >squid rings to your meal did they enhance it or ruin it? Just push >them aside if they're not for you, and eat the rest. It certainly would ruin my perception of the meal. Sure I'd push 'em aside and eat the rest, but that's not the point. Underwater Moonlight was a perfect meal in and of itself. Put some GPSR's on the plate and the meal ain't perfect any more...it's 85% delicious and 15% crap And what a waste of food, putting stuff I'm not going to eat on my plate whene there are people starving in homeless shelters Let's take annother look at this food analogy while we're at it. What if the main course included the best salmon you ever tasted. And as a bonus they threw is some leftover salmon from an inferior recipe. Does that enhance your meal? I don't need extra versions of the same song on my CDs. Save 'em and put 'em out as a side dish. - -rUss, who has a meeting in half an hour but is still 35 minutes from work composing e-mail in his underwear. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 11:48:15 -0400 (EDT) From: Terrence M Marks Subject: Re: RH content, well, some... On Sat, 3 Apr 1999, Ethyl Ketone wrote: > A few things: > Saw "Positiveland" the other night (Negativeland but I guess it's the 90s > and the economy is doing well...). Wow! I hadn't seen them since the mid Was there ever a Positivland? I recall that the manager of their record company threatened to put together a band by that name to tell his side of the story. Did that ever happen? Terrence Marks Unlike Minerva (a comic strip) http://grove.ufl.edu/~normal normal@grove.ufl.edu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 11:56:28 -0400 From: "Chaney, Dolph L" Subject: RE: Cd's/too long First, as a side note to Russ: Apostrophe (') was paired with Over-nite Sensation, not One Size Fits All. (If you haven't blocked out my long Zappamail from a while back, you might recall that One Size Fits All is a fave of mine. Over-nite Sensation, I detest.) Anyway, no, there was no radical remix surgery performed on those tracks, so if you can still find it, you might want to pick that one up. On topic, though still about FZ -- when the double album Uncle Meat was reissued on CD, it was too long for a single disc. And, of course, some of the least economically-justifiable examples of CD waste are double vinyl albums released as double CDs, with no added material, at a total playing time under 80 minutes, costing over $25. So FZ, trying as he often did to give the listener maximum playing time per disc, filled out disc 2 with about 40 minutes of audio material from the "movie" Uncle Meat. Even the rabid alt.fan.frank-zappa faithful soon began to refer to this material as "the penalty tracks." A big part of the problem was where they were placed on the disc -- between tracks from the original 2LP version that people actually WANTED to hear. Also, the movie-excerpt tracks weren't indexed at all, and one of them was over 37 minutes by itself! This frustrated the weenie completist types -- probably the only people who actually wanted to hear the material -- by not allowing them to access individual pieces of the dialogue without manually searching through the track, rather than giving them a track ID for each scene or whatever. Of course, knowing Frank, it may well have amused him to imagine fans sitting by their CD players, scanning forward to 23:37 of track 8 or whatever, just to hear them say "I'm using the chicken to measure it" one more time... It's a real shame, too, because Uncle Meat is one of Frank's very best things imho. I like long CDs -- my attention span runs about an hour. I think it comes from XTC's Oranges & Lemons, which was probably the first album I ever got totally obsessive about. But then, just this weekend, I bought a turntable, and playing my few vinyl albums, I realized that I actually *like* the 20 minute side length. I enjoy getting up and turning over the record. I think somehow I feel like I have to do something to earn the right to hear side 2, and therefore it's more satisfying to do so. (I also forgot how the crackles of vinyl sound like a fireplace to me... mmmmmmmm... viiiinyl...) Dolph np: Cheap Trick, "Surrender '99" (an .mp3 from getsigned.com, of all places) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 11:57:52 -0400 (EDT) From: Eric Loehr Subject: Re: Cd's/too long On Mon, 5 Apr 1999, Russ Reynolds wrote: > I agree with you to a point. Let's take Zappa's Apostrophe (') as an > example. About 30 minutes of music, but a terrific album. I've been > wanting to convert to CD for years but, like you, I can't see paying over > $17 for such a small amount of music. But unlike you I wouldn't change my > mind if it were loaded up with bonus tracks, 'cause that's not what I'm > looking for. Those extra tracks aren't going to make Apostrophe (') a > better album. They aren't going to make it "eight songs better." Chances > are they're just going to detract from the experience I'm accustomed to when > listening to my Apostrophe (') LP. (see food analogy below) > > I *would* change my mind if there were another complete album tacked on, > however. In fact maybe the reason I have a problem with shelling out $17 > for Apostrophe (') isn't because it's so short, but because I'm pretty sure > there was a CD out at one point which contained both Apostrophe (') AND One > Size Fits All. I could get BOTH those albums for the same $17. (BTW If > anyone has this CD can you tell me whether or not these are remixed versions > of the album? I bought WOIIFTM/Lumpy Gravy on one CD years ago and was very > disapointed with what he had done with WOIIFTM.) Russ, I've got this, except that it's Overnite Sensation and Apostrophe - -I'm pretty sure it's on Rykodisc, but I forget. I haven't listened to it recently, so I don't remember for sure, but I think it was the same as the original LP versions. Definitely a bargain! I've got a similar vintage One Size Fits All (one of my favorite FZ albums) CD on Ryko that's just the one album, whatever that's worth. > It certainly would ruin my perception of the meal. Sure I'd push 'em aside > and eat the rest, but that's not the point. Underwater Moonlight was a > perfect meal in and of itself. Put some GPSR's on the plate and the meal > ain't perfect any more...it's 85% delicious and 15% crap And what a waste > of food, putting stuff I'm not going to eat on my plate whene there are > people starving in homeless shelters > > they threw is some leftover salmon from an inferior recipe. Does that > enhance your meal? I don't need extra versions of the same song on my CDs. > Save 'em and put 'em out as a side dish. I agree that adding whatever bonus tracks to an album doesn't make it any better, but rarely do the record companies deign to actually put this stuff out as a separate side dish -- and even when they do they often put out the wrong stuff. Doesn't it come down to what format you prefer something in? If I don't want to hear the bonus track stuff I just stop the CD when it gets there. If you had that mythical Apostrophe/One Size Fits All CD, wouldn't you say that having Evelyn, A Modified Dog (by the way, one of my faves on One Size), etc., tacked on the end takes away from the Apostrophe experience? Just playing devil's advocate here -- having the two together doesn't bother me at all. Having said all that, I do see your point about extra stuff tacked on the end taking away from the experience of a great album, but for me, I'd rather have the stuff available to me that way than not at all. > > -rUss, who has a meeting in half an hour but is still 35 minutes from work > composing e-mail in his underwear. > Doesn't everybody? Eric ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 09:09:53 -0700 From: Ethyl Ketone Subject: Re: RH content, well, some... At 8.48 AM -0700 4/5/99, Terrence M Marks wrote: >Was there ever a Positivland? I recall that the manager of their record >company threatened to put together a band by that name to tell his side of >the story. Did that ever happen? All I know is that they billed themselves as "Positivland" and, on one sign, "Positivbland". But it was definately Negativland playing. The same guys. Be Seeing You. "Questions are a burden for others. Answers are a prison for oneself." **************************************************************************** M.E.Ketone/C.Galbraith meketone@ix.netcom.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 12:11:42 -0400 From: "Thomas, Ferris" Subject: RE: Cd's/too long Ryko had originally released the Over-night Sensation/' pairing (which is the one I've got), but, when re-issuing the stuff a few years ago broke them apart. Apparently the idea of selling two cds instead of one appealed to them for some reason. Anyway, after checking Ryko's website, both discs are listed, but no combination of the two. Later... - -f. np: the idle pratter in my office. I'm too danged busy to bother with a disc. PS: Going to probably check out Low tonight after work. They're playing an in-store in Waterbury (CT). I know I've heard them before on a sampler but, of course, I can't remember a thing. - -----Original Message----- From: Chaney, Dolph L [mailto:DChaney@facstaff.oglethorpe.edu] Sent: Monday, April 05, 1999 11:56 AM To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Subject: RE: Cd's/too long First, as a side note to Russ: Apostrophe (') was paired with Over-nite Sensation, not One Size Fits All. (If you haven't blocked out my long Zappamail from a while back, you might recall that One Size Fits All is a fave of mine. Over-nite Sensation, I detest.) Anyway, no, there was no radical remix surgery performed on those tracks, so if you can still find it, you might want to pick that one up. On topic, though still about FZ -- when the double album Uncle Meat was reissued on CD, it was too long for a single disc. And, of course, some of the least economically-justifiable examples of CD waste are double vinyl albums released as double CDs, with no added material, at a total playing time under 80 minutes, costing over $25. So FZ, trying as he often did to give the listener maximum playing time per disc, filled out disc 2 with about 40 minutes of audio material from the "movie" Uncle Meat. Even the rabid alt.fan.frank-zappa faithful soon began to refer to this material as "the penalty tracks." A big part of the problem was where they were placed on the disc -- between tracks from the original 2LP version that people actually WANTED to hear. Also, the movie-excerpt tracks weren't indexed at all, and one of them was over 37 minutes by itself! This frustrated the weenie completist types -- probably the only people who actually wanted to hear the material -- by not allowing them to access individual pieces of the dialogue without manually searching through the track, rather than giving them a track ID for each scene or whatever. Of course, knowing Frank, it may well have amused him to imagine fans sitting by their CD players, scanning forward to 23:37 of track 8 or whatever, just to hear them say "I'm using the chicken to measure it" one more time... It's a real shame, too, because Uncle Meat is one of Frank's very best things imho. I like long CDs -- my attention span runs about an hour. I think it comes from XTC's Oranges & Lemons, which was probably the first album I ever got totally obsessive about. But then, just this weekend, I bought a turntable, and playing my few vinyl albums, I realized that I actually *like* the 20 minute side length. I enjoy getting up and turning over the record. I think somehow I feel like I have to do something to earn the right to hear side 2, and therefore it's more satisfying to do so. (I also forgot how the crackles of vinyl sound like a fireplace to me... mmmmmmmm... viiiinyl...) Dolph np: Cheap Trick, "Surrender '99" (an .mp3 from getsigned.com, of all places) ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V8 #124 *******************************