From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V8 #178 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Thursday, May 13 1999 Volume 08 : Number 178 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Derek Icks Gaspard Niven Van den Bogaerde [Ethyl Ketone ] Re: Happy Highway Mummy [amadain ] Re: Derek Icks Gaspard Niven Van den Bogaerde [amadain ] Re: fegbooks: Let there be more darknesse [overbury@cn.ca] Re: fegbooks: Let there be more darknesse -- PS [overbury@cn.ca] Double Happiness in a Sweater. [Capuchin ] Re: Not Re: Bouncy Bouncy [Joel Mullins ] Re: Double Happiness in a Sweater. [amadain ] Re: Happy Highway Mummy [Joel Mullins ] Re: Double Happiness in a Sweater. [Joel Mullins ] Re: Not Re: Bouncy Bouncy ["Paul Christian Glenn" ] Re: Double Happiness in a Sweater. [Joel Mullins ] Re: Happy Highway Mummy [Aaron Mandel ] Re: Happy Highway Mummy ["chad leahy" ] Re: Happy Highway Mummy [amadain ] Re: Happy Highway Mummy [Eric Loehr ] Gene Machine ["JH3" ] Re: Gene Machine [Eb ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 10:05:09 -0700 From: Ethyl Ketone Subject: Derek Icks Gaspard Niven Van den Bogaerde At 4.10 PM -0700 5/11/99, amadain wrote: >He successfully transitioned from matinee idol to a really intense and >gifted actor's actor, working with some of the leading directors of the 60s >and 70s, including Alan Resnais ("Providence"), Rainer Werner Fassbinder >("Despair"), Lucino Visconti ("Death in Venice"), John Schlesinger >("Darling"), and Bertrand Tavernier (1990's "Daddy Nostalgia", for which he >briefly came out of retirement). And who can forget Cavanis' film "Night Porter" with Mr. Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling??? It still gives me the creeps. Be Seeing You. "Questions are a burden for others. Answers are a prison for oneself." **************************************************************************** M.E.Ketone/C.Galbraith meketone@ix.netcom.com carrieg@blueplanetsoftware.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 10:18:50 PDT From: "Ghost Surfer" Subject: Terrastock '99 It was announced on GLR the other day that the Terrastock festival will be held in London this year on 27-29th August at ULU. No other details were announced, but i presume the Elephant 6 mob will be there. Should be good and better than going to Carnival!!! - ----------------************************************************------------ "There are times when i can't think about the future, when all my days seem so dark and life seems cruel" - Mojave 3 & "Make a moment last forever, gaze across the ocean to the sun" - Unknown !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 12:16:35 -0600 From: amadain Subject: Re: Happy Highway Mummy >Well, I hadn't read anything about it. I rented it for two reasons: >1) it looked like it might be funny, and 2) Lara Flynn Boyle. Huh. You rent things you've never heard of? I know people do that. I just think it's really odd. Probably because I have a backlog in my head of about 1 billion things that I managed to miss that I want to see. Maybe 1 out of ten times I pick something unknown, and that's not usually based on who's in it. There are very few actors whose choices are consistent enough in tone/overall quality that I would feel confident using their presence as a reliable gauge. Alan Rickman comes to mind. Jeremy Irons is another. Maybe John Hurt. But they're exceptional. Most actors aren't being offered such a plethora of work that they can establish a discernible pattern of choices the way these guys can, or maybe, if they're someone like Michael Caine, they are offered a lot of work but choose mostly by non-artistic criteria (e.g., money, do I get to go to Europe?, etc.). Most actors' choices are so wildly inconsistent that I don't get how you could choose that way. IMO, director, screenwriter, or in the case of Merchant Ivory, the production company, are usually much better ways to determine what's actually in the box. Point being, if you're renting something totally unfamiliar based mostly on "I like that actor" and what it "looks like", you -are- taking quite a chance, and I would think it's pretty much a long shot that anyone would consistently get films they like by that method. That being said, I do think that if this is in the comedy section, you might perhaps want to have a word with the store about that, because that's pretty misleading. I haven't seen the blurb on the box, so I have no idea if it's also misleading, but I suspect it probably does say "dark" or "painful" somewhere on there. >thought it was gonna be a comedy. And not a really dark one. And I'm a >firm believer in the idea that expectations have a lot to do with >perception. Well, yes they do. But I have to say I think you may be a bit at fault here. A good consumer does a bit of homework before they take something home. Roger Ebert has an excellent video guide. Actually that is worth getting just to read. He's an entertaining and insightful sorta guy. But I digress.... I have to say also, that when I saw this in the theater, I did have to wonder why people walked out at certain (predictable) moments. They should have known this was coming. I go to things I actively want to see, and I know what I'm in for before I go. If you go into a currently playing film not knowing what you're in for I'm not sure you have cause to complain if you're bothered by it- the information is out there in a variety of forms and easily acquired with about five minutes' reading time. Same thing came to mind when I read a woman whining in the Tribune about how an elderly couple she knew were very upset that no one had told them that "Life Is Beautiful" would be subtitled. Good grief Charlie Brown. Would you choose music that way? Or books? Or a pet? Love on ya, Susan ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 12:21:24 -0600 From: amadain Subject: Re: Derek Icks Gaspard Niven Van den Bogaerde >And who can forget Cavanis' film "Night Porter" with Mr. Bogarde and >Charlotte Rampling??? It still gives me the creeps. Oh yeah, and I forgot "The Servant". Wow. GREAT film. I think I need to see that again. Love on ya, Susan ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 18:21:49 +0100 (BST) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: fegbooks: Let there be more darknesse Here is the promised report on 'Hawksmoor' by Peter Ackroyd, which I have just re-read (Natalie, are you listening?): Hawksmoor is about temporal resonances between London in the 17th/18th Centuries and in the 20th Century: chapters alternate between the two. The 17th Century portions are written in apparently authentic dialect which is really well done. The 20th Century sections don't come off quite as well. The protagonist, Nick Dyer, is orphaned by the Great Plague of 1665 and falls in with some pagans (Manichaeans even) who hold that good and evil are equally powerful. "Darknesse will call out for more darknesse" he cries, as he becomes increasingly besotted with masonic lore. After getting a job in a building firm, he is taken on as an assistant by Sir Christopher Wren and designs seven churches. It is difficult to continue without giving away the whole plot. However, Dyer becomes involved with some unsavoury practices (so necessary to underpin church foundations) which in turn become tangled up with a series of murders in the 20th Century. The 20th Century detective, Nick Hawksmoor, gradually discovers the relationship between the murders and the building of the churches. But why do the characters in one period echo the words and actions of the other? Who is the mysterious tramp with the matted hair? And has Hawksmoor simply flipped his lid? The final joke which isn't even mentioned in the book is that there never was an architect called Nicholas Dyer. But Christopher Wren really did have an assistant who designed some rather sinister London churches, whose name was, of course, Hawksmoor. The atmosphere of this book is a bit like that of Alan Garner's 'The owl service', but there are more gruesome post-mortems in it and it isn't a children's book. At one point I was reminded of M R James's 'The treasure of the Abbot Thomas'. - - Mike Godwin PS Pedants' corner: There was a headline in the Grauniad today which used the phrase 'Wrack and ruin'. I thought that 'wrack' was a kind of seaweed, and that the correct spelling of this phrase was 'rack and ruin'. Any ideas? And what does 'wrack / rack' mean in this context? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 13:33:51 -0400 (EDT) From: Chris Gillis Subject: Re: Terrastock '99 This has not been officially announced as far as I know. Phil is still in some sort of "decision" stage. A tentative date was given as around Labor day in London, yes an American date, but it gave time for those on the other side of the puddle to make plans and avoided the August holidays in England. This of course may have hanged, but I would doubt this report for the time being. Although, official news should come soon. .chris On Thu, 13 May 1999, Ghost Surfer wrote: > > It was announced on GLR the other day that the Terrastock festival will be > held in London this year on 27-29th August at ULU. No other details were > announced, but i presume the Elephant 6 mob will be there. Should be good > and better than going to Carnival!!! > > ----------------************************************************------------ > "There are times when i can't think about the future, when all my days seem > so dark and life seems cruel" - Mojave 3 > & > "Make a moment last forever, gaze across the ocean to the sun" - Unknown > !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! > > > > ______________________________________________________ > Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com > ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 13:49:33 +0000 From: overbury@cn.ca Subject: Re: fegbooks: Let there be more darknesse > PS Pedants' corner: There was a headline in the Grauniad today which used > the phrase 'Wrack and ruin'. I thought that 'wrack' was a kind of seaweed, > and that the correct spelling of this phrase was 'rack and ruin'. Any > ideas? And what does 'wrack / rack' mean in this context? Wrack is "bend, twist, distort", in Billy Gates' thesaurus. Robert & Collins English/French dictionary shows it as synonymous with "rack", and the illustrative use of the word "rack" is 'to rack and ruin'. - -- Ross Overbury Montreal, Quebec, Canada ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 14:07:08 +0000 From: overbury@cn.ca Subject: Re: fegbooks: Let there be more darknesse -- PS > > > PS Pedants' corner: There was a headline in the Grauniad today which > > used the phrase 'Wrack and ruin'. I thought that 'wrack' was a kind of > > seaweed, and that the correct spelling of this phrase was 'rack and > > ruin'. Any ideas? And what does 'wrack / rack' mean in this context? > > Wrack is "bend, twist, distort", in Billy Gates' thesaurus. Robert & > Collins English/French dictionary shows it as synonymous with "rack", and > the illustrative use of the word "rack" is 'to rack and ruin'. And it shows wrack to mean "a kind of seaweed" as well. Everybody's right about everything! - -- Ross Overbury Montreal, Quebec, Canada ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 11:37:14 -0700 (PDT) From: Capuchin Subject: Double Happiness in a Sweater. On Thu, 13 May 1999, amadain wrote: > There are very few actors whose choices are consistent enough in > tone/overall quality that I would feel confident using their presence > as a reliable gauge. Alan Rickman comes to mind. Jeremy Irons is > another. So you're a big fan of the Diehard movies? Brilliant choices for both. (I'm not sure what the word means, but I'd call myself naff right about now.) Anyway, Susan, based on my preconceived notions about Joel, he didn't choose the film based on Lara Flynn Boyles ability to choose insightful or entertaining scripts as much as her ability to create an alluring sillhouette (or just be naked and sickly looking, like in The Road To Wellville). Shouting. Je. - -- ________________________________________________________ J A Brelin Capuchin ________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 14:01:57 -0700 From: Joel Mullins Subject: Re: Not Re: Bouncy Bouncy Michael R Godwin wrote: > PS The characteristic twanging sound on 'You didn't have to be so nice' is > John Sebastian playing the autoharp. Does anyone still use autoharps? I have an autoharp. I've jammed with it a few times but I still haven't found any real use for it. Someday, I'll find a song to use it on. Also, J. Spaceman of Spiritualized has played the autoharp on some albums. Joel ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 14:28:52 -0600 From: amadain Subject: Re: Double Happiness in a Sweater. >> as a reliable gauge. Alan Rickman comes to mind. Jeremy Irons is >> another. > >So you're a big fan of the Diehard movies? Brilliant choices for both. No, but that was the reason I used terms like "mostly" and "consistent enough". I was not attempting to hold these individuals up as models of actorly integrity, exactly, just trying to give examples of people who are mostly predictable. Neither one of these guys does obvious bank-roles all that often- it's usually pretty obvious when they do, and to me at least it's often also obvious that they do it mainly so they can make enough money to continue to choose more challenging projects and still make a living, or in Irons' case because they sometimes like to put their own money behind projects that might not otherwise see the light of day. The wonderful and criminally neglected "Moonlighting" (NO relation to the TV show) is one example I can think of, for Irons, whose financial participation was key in getting it off the ground. I suppose a more commercial actor would have confused the issue less- e.g., Sandra Bullock, who's almost always in some romantic comedy that involves the life and loves of annoyingly plucky people. Besides which, my SO adores Die-Hard kinds of movies, and the pleasure of watching an actor like Alan Rickman chow down on a villain role does kind of help me get through the experience without being too miserable. >entertaining scripts as much as her ability to create an alluring >sillhouette (or just be naked and sickly looking, like in The Road To I actually kind of suspected that, but I wanted to give some benefit of the doubt given the fact that he did make a kind of apology. I also wanted to make the point that if you're picking a movie mostly for that sort of reason, I'm not sure you've earned the right to bitch. Love on ya, Susan ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 14:31:47 -0700 From: Joel Mullins Subject: Re: Happy Highway Mummy amadain wrote: > Huh. You rent things you've never heard of? I'd heard *of* it. I just couldn't remember what I'd heard. > I know people do that. I just think it's really odd. Probably because I > have a backlog in my head of about 1 billion things that I managed to miss > that I want to see. Maybe 1 out of ten times I pick something unknown, and > that's not usually based on who's in it. Yeah, most of the time, I pick movies that I know something about. But sometimes, something in the movie store will catch my eye and I'll rent it. That's how I saw Kicking and Screaming, which turned out to be great. > There are very few actors whose > choices are consistent enough in tone/overall quality that I would feel > confident using their presence as a reliable gauge. Alan Rickman comes to > mind. Jeremy Irons is another. Maybe John Hurt. But they're exceptional. I agree with this. I'll rent anything with Clint Eastwood or Jimmy Stewart or Alan Alda. But I wouldn't rent a movie just because Nicholas Cage is in it. Just because I liked him in Raising Arizona doesn't mean I'm gonna like Snake Eyes. I still haven't seen Snake Eyes and I love Brian de Palma. But I heard bad things about the film so I keep passing on it. I don't usually pick movies based on an actor, I usually choose based on director or writer. But this changes in the case of beautiful women. You have to remember that I'm a man. I love looking at beautiful women and if they happened to get naked then that's cool too. I'm not a big fan of Lara Flynn Boyle, but she's very easy on the eyes. > That being said, I do > think that if this is in the comedy section, you might perhaps want to have > a word with the store about that, because that's pretty misleading. It's in the new release section. > I > haven't seen the blurb on the box, so I have no idea if it's also > misleading, but I suspect it probably does say "dark" or "painful" > somewhere on there. I don't remember what it said on the box. But I'm sure it said something about being funny. > Well, yes they do. But I have to say I think you may be a bit at fault > here. A good consumer does a bit of homework before they take something > home. Well I agree that I'm at fault. I usually do my homework. I didn't this time. Oh well. > I have to say also, that when I saw this in the theater, I did have to > wonder why people walked out at certain (predictable) moments. They should > have known this was coming. But see, I'm not sure this is always good. I'm really jealous of my friend, who saw From Dusk til Dawn without having any idea it was gonna turn into a vampire flick. That's the way I would've liked to see it. And what about The Crying Game? I saw that the night it opened and boy, was I surprised. Other people who saw it later and did their "homework" found out about the big surprise before they saw the movie. Sometimes, it's good to have no idea what you're getting. > I go to things I actively want to see, and I know what I'm in for before I > go. Where's your sense of adventure? > Good grief Charlie Brown. Would you choose music that way? Or > books? Or a pet? Well, sometimes, yes. But movies are a lot different. Film is a two-hour commitment. I don't think it requires a lot of research. How can you compare that to chooosing a pet which is a 10-15 year committment? - --Joel ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 14:36:00 -0700 From: Joel Mullins Subject: Re: Double Happiness in a Sweater. Capuchin wrote: > Anyway, Susan, based on my preconceived notions about Joel, he didn't > choose the film based on Lara Flynn Boyles ability to choose insightful or > entertaining scripts as much as her ability to create an alluring > sillhouette (or just be naked and sickly looking, like in The Road To > Wellville). That's it, Jeme. You've hit the nail on the head (whatever that means). Joel ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 14:46:34 -0500 From: "Paul Christian Glenn" Subject: Re: Not Re: Bouncy Bouncy >Also, J. Spaceman of Spiritualized has played the autoharp on some >albums. How odd. I'd never heard of Spiritualized until yesterday, when a friend brought "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" to work. A bit too ethereal for me to really dig, but it was interesting. Now, here they pop up again. Incidentally, anyone here ever heard of the band Gene? Heard their cd "Revelations" yesterday, and was extremely impressed. Being an old fan of The Smiths, New Order, etc., I found myself ecstatic about this band. Haven't heard any of their other stuff, though, so I'm trying gather as much info (and impressions) about the band as I can. Paul Christian Glenn | "Besides being complicated, trance@radiks.net | reality, in my experience, is http://x-real.firinn.org | usually odd." - C.S. Lewis Now Reading: "The Two Towers" by J.R.R. Tolkien ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 14:39:49 -0700 From: Joel Mullins Subject: Re: Double Happiness in a Sweater. amadain wrote: > I actually kind of suspected that, but I wanted to give some benefit of the > doubt given the fact that he did make a kind of apology. I also wanted to > make the point that if you're picking a movie mostly for that sort of > reason, I'm not sure you've earned the right to bitch. Jeez! I didn't think I was bitching. I simply gave my impression of the movie. I don't usually bitch about movies. After all, I'm the one who chooses what movies I'm going to see. Joel ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 15:51:34 -0400 (EDT) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: Happy Highway Mummy On Thu, 13 May 1999, amadain wrote: > Huh. You rent things you've never heard of? hey, i do that. if i like an actor or a director, i'll try something i haven't heard of. it's been a while since i rented something based on the box alone, but i think i've done that too. it's so hard to see the limitations of whatever grapevine you hear about things on unless you make a point of jumping out of it sometimes. not being too much of a film buff, i find it easier to do this by taking chances. well, and going to a video store i trust to have a lot of obscure goodies. > That being said, I do think that if this is in the comedy section, you > might perhaps want to have a word with the store about that, because > that's pretty misleading. I haven't seen the blurb on the box, so I > have no idea if it's also misleading, but I suspect it probably does > say "dark" or "painful" somewhere on there. the whole categorization scheme that rental places are stuck on bothers me. i don't think any of my favorite movies cleanly belong in either 'comedy' or 'drama'. (some are 'foreign', though.) it's not because they're genre-smashing tour de forces, either. > Same thing came to mind when I read a woman whining in the Tribune > about how an elderly couple she knew were very upset that no one had > told them that "Life Is Beautiful" would be subtitled. Good grief > Charlie Brown. Would you choose music that way? Or books? Or a pet? if i knew that a pet was subtitled, i would choose it almost without hesitation. on the other hand, a few years ago i was teaching with someone who said to me "i don't know why you bother with all these weirdo movies you watch. you two talk about which ones you liked and which ones you didn't -- well, i've NEVER seen a movie i didn't like, and all i have to do is watch the ads on TV and i can tell if i'll like a movie or not." i was totally baffled, so i asked her to explain. she told me, as one would tell a small child, that you can tell from ads if a movie will be funny, or scary, or sad. and then you know if you'll like it. superficially it might seem that video store divisions are for people like her, but she had the system pretty well internalized. a ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 15:01:14 -0500 From: "chad leahy" Subject: Re: Happy Highway Mummy >> Huh. You rent things you've never heard of? > >hey, i do that. if i like an actor or a director, i'll try something i >haven't heard of. it's been a while since i rented something based on the >box alone, but i think i've done that too. i also rarely rent a movie based on the box alone. one semi-recent exception would be "pi." an excellent example of the power of decent packaging. - --the real happy chad ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 15:12:06 -0600 From: amadain Subject: Re: Happy Highway Mummy >women. You have to remember that I'm a man. I love looking at >beautiful women and if they happened to get naked then that's cool too. >I'm not a big fan of Lara Flynn Boyle, but she's very easy on the eyes. Heh. Capuchin wins something. >And what about The Crying Game? I saw that the night it opened and boy, >was I surprised. Other people who saw it later and did their "homework" >found out about the big surprise before they saw the movie. Sometimes, >it's good to have no idea what you're getting. If you mean not knowing the twist, then OK. If you mean being all freaked out because there was a transvestite in it, or because there was violence in it, or you didn't like the language, and getting all huffy, that's precisely the sort of thing you could have -avoided- if you'd taken a couple minutes to read the reviews. Urgh. And if I see another suburban mom bitching about how they want a refund because "Rent" featured both the f-word and gay characters, I'm going to have to hurl. >> I go to things I actively want to see, and I know what I'm in for before I >> go. > >Where's your sense of adventure? I think my wallet killed it. I can't afford to randomly walk into a theater. I don't know about where you live, but here it costs 8 bucks for a first-run flick. Throw in transportation, and snacks if you get em (I usually don't), and you're up to 10 or 15 bucks, easy. That's no mean sum when you're talking about 2 hours entertainment. Look, I'm not talking about knowing all the twists or the ending or anything. I'm talking about knowing in basic terms what the damn thing's about, or really simple things like what -kind- of movie it is and what the general tone of it is. I don't think knowing that "Singing In The Rain" is going to be a musical comedy ruins the experience for very many people. >two-hour commitment. I don't think it requires a lot of research. How >can you compare that to chooosing a pet which is a 10-15 year >committment? In the broadest sense, the same issue is bugging me. Obviously it's different with a pet, because a pet is a responsibility- the issue is writ much larger in that case. But similar issues are often at stake. You have people bitching because they bought a collie and didn't get Lassie, and a perfectly nice animal ends up in a shelter, and it wouldn't have happened if they'd bothered to find out something about the breed first. My feeling is similar for both cases- I don't feel all that sympathetic about complaints from people who didn't do the basic research. Love on ya, Susan ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 16:34:03 -0400 (EDT) From: Eric Loehr Subject: Re: Happy Highway Mummy On Thu, 13 May 1999, Joel Mullins wrote: > > But see, I'm not sure this is always good. I'm really jealous of my > friend, who saw From Dusk til Dawn without having any idea it was gonna > turn into a vampire flick. That's the way I would've liked to see it. > And what about The Crying Game? I saw that the night it opened and boy, > was I surprised. Other people who saw it later and did their "homework" > found out about the big surprise before they saw the movie. Sometimes, > it's good to have no idea what you're getting. I'll heartily agree with Joel on this -- I ran across From Dusk til Dawn late one night on HBO or Cinemax or whatever and just started watching without having ever even heard of it - - and was totally blown away when it morphed into the vampirefest about 45 minutes in. I try to approach reviews with a long pointed stick in my hand, because I really really really hate it when the reviewer starts giving away the whole (or any, for that matter) plot. I *like* to be surprised, at least for films. Music is more of a committment, and I like to know something about what I'm buying - although even there you can fall prey to hype or disagree with a reviewer. I've been tempted several times to buy albums because of cool covers, but I don't remember actually ever doing that. Pets you can sort of judge by the cover, but if you're smart you'll read numerous reviews and get a full psychiatric profile. I agree with Aaron here -- I'd go for one with subtitles in a second, especially if they were in English. Eric ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 15:56:53 -0500 From: "JH3" Subject: Gene Machine From: Paul Christian Glenn : >Incidentally, anyone here ever heard of the band Gene? Heard their cd >"Revelations" yesterday, and was extremely impressed. Being an old fan of >The Smiths, New Order, etc., I found myself ecstatic about this band. I'm something of a Gene fan, I suppose. They get compared with the Smiths all the time, and for good reason if you ask me, though Martin Rossiter's voice takes a bit less getting used to. Their two previous records didn't grab me at first, though they got a lot better after repeated listenings. So maybe this new one has more...immediate appeal? >Haven't heard any of their other stuff, though, so I'm trying gather >as much info (and impressions) about the band as I can. I thought "Olympian" was better than "Drawn to the Deep End". But they're both a little short on variety, in terms of the instrumentation & arrangements. (I doubt Eb would like them.) Maybe the new album has more going for it there as well? AFAIK it isn't available in the US yet, unless it just got released this week. John "but I do like the new Owsley album" Hedges ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 14:05:44 -0800 From: Eb Subject: Re: Gene Machine JH3: >I thought "Olympian" was better than "Drawn to the Deep End". >But they're both a little short on variety, in terms of the >instrumentation & arrangements. (I doubt Eb would like them.) You got that right, bubba. MG: >PS The characteristic twanging sound on 'You didn't have to be so nice' is >John Sebastian playing the autoharp. Does anyone still use autoharps? I saw that all-star Johnny Cash tribute on TV a couple of weeks ago, and June Carter Cash sang a song (I think it was "Ring of Fire") while playing autoharp.... Eb ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V8 #178 *******************************