From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V8 #228 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Friday, July 2 1999 Volume 08 : Number 228 Today's Subjects: ----------------- I'm now caught up with civilization [michelle wiener ] Re: Costello/Imperial Bedroom/CD Q: ["John B. Jones" ] eb all over the world [Capitalism Blows ] Eb's plot unmasked ["Russ Reynolds" ] UK Tour Date [dr john halewood ] Re: eb all over the world [michelle wiener Subject: I'm now caught up with civilization I'm not sure if anyone unfamiliar with Oxford, OH is going to truly feel the significance of this event, but...an amazing thing happened earlier tonight. I was on my way to the local video rental place (there are two here, both rather small, but I use the one I don't have fines at, plus I know the manager and she gives me free movies), but dropped in the local music shoppe first--haven't been there in ages because they never (well, rarely) have what I'm looking for, but I figured I'd go ahead and ask if they have JfS ordered--just in case. For whatever reason the guy couldn't get to that information, but they did have a used--USED! (*indignant huff*)--copy of SH, which i immediately swiped, because (*gasp*) I didn't have it yet. (listening to it now...something about "swaddled in duct tape" which I'm going to have to go back and transcribe later) All this is to say that I got into a very nice conversation with another nice young (too young, unfortunately) man about Robyn, how we're going to the show on the 14th, I told him about the film showing in Chicago, and he told me that Robyn will be in the WOXY station (note: no Q) on the 14th to chat and sing some songs. I'll be taping that one. This completely rejuvenates my enthusiasm. And the video I rented was "Waking Ned Devine" because I still hadn't seen *that*, either. Damn fine film. I feel as though my balance has been restored and I'm running at full Force. Cheers, Michelle ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 16:42:02 +1200 (NZST) From: digja611@student.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan) Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V8 #226 >Watch out for sauces, of course, too. A lot of Mongolian BBQ places (and >Asian food restaurants in general) will offer vegetarian dishes, but throw >some seafood related sauce (fish, lobster, prawn(!), oyster, etc.) into the >mix. mongolian seafoosd? Presumably just caught off the coast. Sheesh. That's as good as the local places that sell 'traditionaloriental food' - with tomato in the sauces! Since eating tomato will assure me a quick trip to hospital, I have to beware... Thankfully the local Cambodian satay houses know better... James PS: Someone's only just getting into Imperial Bedrioom? That really is "Beyond belief"! PPS: At times, Robyn';s lyrics near perfection. The "I'll reach your lungs" verse of Cynthia Mask, for instance, and the "but they used to be trees" aside in "Ride", not to mention many of the poignant images of "I'm only you". And the melodies and arrangements, even on 'discarded'songs like August Hair...Occasionally it falls directly on the spot and hits the bullseye - "Airscape", for instance. Yes Joel, at times, he is truly transcendent. Happy now? 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: Fri, 02 Jul 1999 00:08:08 -0500 From: Miles Goosens Subject: the devil and other quail relatives Many have complained of Elizabeth Morgan. I met her and her boyfriend at Robyn's last Nashville show in February '97; she seemed exceptionally friendly and nice. All these "bad trader" alerts make me really glad that I didn't actually follow through on her offer to trade me a tape of the Nashville show. A fortnight ago, Melissa and I spent an enjoyable weekend in New York City. Unfortunately we didn't manage to hook up with lj and Quail-j, who claimed to have been attending the Boston Fleadh that weekend. I find this story highly suspicious, because 1) the NYC Fleadh was the very next weekend, so one would think that they could attend that Fleadh instead, were they truly Fleadh-bitten, and 2) at the Sunday They Might Be Giants free show in Central Park, there was a suspiciously Quail-looking individual present, attending a female companion who looked suspiciously un-lj-like. Since lj herself did not respond to my missives soliciting an NYC meeting, and was not copied on Quail's replies to me, I'm now convinced that this "sorry, we're not in town" story was all a cover for Quail's secret breeding project. At least it's being kept secret from lj. Or maybe Quail was just helping move Sargent's "Madame X" from New York to Boston for the special Sargent exhibit. I certainly felt foiled when we made it to the empty space in the Metropolitan Museum of Art where it usually resides. Robyn Hitchcock: He's at the very top of the heap, he is. Of course, I think GROOVY DECAY, GLOBE OF FROGS, and PERSPEX ISLAND are all great records. I think YOU & OBLIVION is superb. So there's no accounting for me, except at tax time. Melissa and I are now addicted to Momus, her even more so than me. We added THE ULTRACONFORMIST and the amazing PHILOSOPHY OF MOMUS to the collection while in New York, but WE MUST BUY MORE MOMUS IMPORTS. I blame Susan Dodge as much as I blame the media and the devil. later, Miles np: the Fall, CEREBRAL CAUSTIC ====================================================== Miles Goosens R. Stevie Moore website http://www.rsteviemoore.com My personal website http://www.mindspring.com/~outdoorminer/miles "If a million people say a stupid thing, it is still a stupid thing." -- Anatole France ====================================================== ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 01:21:23 -0400 From: The Great Quail Subject: "Quailtilius Varos, where are my beagles!?!" Michael Wolfe writes, >Quail (I had this >weird pre-conceived, ill founded, Brian Blessed-esque image of >you. Good to be set straight.), Really? Wow, cool! I *love* Brian Blessed! For all you Fegs who've met me, could you all just *pretend* I look like Brian Blessed from now on? And Nick, I don't suppose you could snag a picture of him and digitally replace all my images on the FegFoto Page . . .? ("Voltar" from "Flash Gordon" would be cool. And while you're at it, you can replace all of Woj's photos with JPGs of Max Von Sydow. I'm sure he'd like that, too.) - --Quail, working on his big hearty laugh. PS: Um . . . the subject line, right? Brian Blessed as Octavian Augustus in "I, Claudius." One of my favorite movie-lines. . . but, er, I'm not sure I remembered it right. That's entirely Mark's fault . . . my brain has not functioned propery after seeing his video for "Dinsosaur." And I can't sleep right, either. Rubber masks are scary. PPS: Speaking of, or rather just speaking, beagles -- yes, the world needs more songs that feature talking dogs. I thank Mr Zappa and Mr Hitchcock for recognizing this fact -- are there any other songs with talking dogs? PPPS: The Left Coast Fegs are all great. And musical. And tall. I will write more about that later, after I recover from Glen's beer and Tom Clark lets me buy the domain name "libyrinth.com" from him. +---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+ The Great Quail, K.S.C. (riverrun Discordian Society, Kibroth-hattaavah Branch) For fun with postmodern literature, New York vampires, and Fegmania, visit Sarnath: http://www.rpg.net/quail "The people asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven." --Psalms 105:40 (Also see Exodus 16:13 and Numbers 11:31-34 for more starry wisdom) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Jul 1999 00:33:57 -0500 From: Knaurr Subject: Re: invisible genius At 01:41 PM 7/1/99 -0400, you wrote: >On Thu, 1 Jul 1999, a "la" from Terrence Marks was heard: > >> Am I the only one that thinks that Robyn is a fucking genius? >> >> I mean, I love this list! You guys have turned me on to so much good >> music. But I hardly ever hear about people's personal reactions to >> Robyn's albums. And I'm not talking about lists. I just would like to >> hear someone getting drunk and listening to Robyn and raving!! I think >> this list needs someone to say "God walks among us." > >Well, in all honesty, Robyn's music doesn't impress me too mch. It's good >music, he has some great tunes, etc, but I never think to myself "Now >that's an impressive tune" when I listen to it. Mst of Robyn's tunes >don't even get a nod for "fun to sing" (yeah, they're ok, but not as >enjoyable as the WPAEB's "I won't Hurt You", Jeremy Enigk's "Abegail >Anne" or Bill Oddy's "Telephone Directory") He's very good, but just >doesn't impress me much. Wow. I wish I could be so blase ("blaysse? What does she mean, 'blaysse'?"..."Shhh...honey, she can't afford an accent mark. She means 'blah-zay'. Now hush and don't be rude!") However, Robyn being a very new thing to me, I'm filled with that kind of brand-new-toy euphoria. Annnnnd, since I haven't been here for four years, I feel pretty justified in raving about it. As I've been lurking, I've realized that I am being introduced to Robyn and his music from a rather different perspective than most of the frequently-vocal people on this list. First of all, I've only been under the influence of Mr. Hitchcock for about 6 months, and secondly, I'm not a musician. In fact, I've only recently been introduced to the kinds of music Sam Goody =doesn't= sell. And by joining this list, I was hoping to continue in that vein. Of course, it seems that unless I'm going to just delete messages without reading them, I'm not going to be able to help BUT learn about new and old groups (almost all new to me). So yay! Now I only wish I had the money to be able to keep up. But I digress. So being very new to all of this, I can't help but be standing here, mouth agape, eyes rolled back in my head, body limp, just impressed with the magnificence of it all. At the same time, I'm like a kid in a Toys "R" Us, high on sugar and caffeine, bouncing from one aisle to the other saying, "This is my favorite! No, this is my favorite! No, I like THIS one best!" And I keep bouncing back to Robyn and/or The Soft Boys. So I'm not very qualified to say much about him from a musical perspective, and yes, while I was writing this someone beat me to the lyrical aspect, however, I'm going to add my $2 (let's be honest, this has already gone beyond cents, eh?). From a poet's perspective, I am impressed and awed. Not to mention redundant. Whether it's something as bizarre as The Man With the Lightbulb Head or Furry Green Atom Bowl, something as lucid and piercing as Heaven or Cathedral, to things nonsensical as Leppo and the Jooves, I just devour them all, wanting more more more. I want to write down every word and keep it. There is a texture and vibrance to his writing which makes each word valuable, whether it makes sense or not. I'm reminded of Kristen Hersh, when speaking of her time with Throwing Muses: "Every note and word had to fascinate us."(1) And while I may soon become jaded and be able to say, "Ohhh, Robbbyyyyynnnn. Welllll, In MY Humble Opinion, he could have been excellent, he just needed a little *ooomph*..." I hope that I'll continue to be fascinated by the words that make it out of his mind and into his songs, whether or not his musical ability continues to impress me. So there's my newbie-allowance. We now return you to your regularly scheduled slightly-Robyn-tinted Feglist. La Rebecca (1) Oh come on, just because I may be associated with reference librarians, that doesn't mean I'd actually annotate a quote! Rebecca Knaur http://www.bonni.net/becca that makes her email address becca@bonni.net ------------------------------ Date: 1 Jul 1999 22:56:54 -0700 From: "John B. Jones" Subject: Re: Costello/Imperial Bedroom/CD Q: > After giving many listens to a used CD of Elvis' "Imperial Bedroom," I >finally decided that I need to own this rekkid (I know, I know -- I'm a slow >learner!). It's the old Columbia CD, though. Am I missing out on tons of >improved fidelity? What about the bonus tracks -- are they stellar? For >those of you who haven't filed away in their brains this generally useless >bit of trivia about myself, I'm not a huge fan of bonus tracks, so that's not >really a *huge* consideration. I'm just wondering if it'd improve my life >dramatically if I went the step up to the Ryko version of "IB" (as we >Costello fans call it . . . um, right?). Whaddya think? Oh man, that was my second Elvis album, and I was HOOKED for life afterwards. Great arrangements, great wordplay. Having owned both the Columbia and the Ryko versions at diff times, I must say that the Ryko version has been remastered, and really does sound better, but the bonus tracks don't really enhance the album much more. The only bonus track that sticks out in my mind is the song "Imperial Bedroom", which was pretty good, but makes sense they would leave it off the album cuz it wasn't stylistically fitting with the other material.... I didn't know you are an EC fan, Michael!! My first Elvis album is TRUST, and I must say that Trust, Imperial Bedroom, and Taking Liberties were the Holy Trinity for me for a LONG LONG time. =jbj= ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 02:23:37 -0400 (EDT) From: normal@grove.ufl.edu Subject: Re: invisible genius On Fri, 2 Jul 1999, Knaurr wrote: > >Well, in all honesty, Robyn's music doesn't impress me too mch. It's good > >music, he has some great tunes, etc, but I never think to myself "Now > >that's an impressive tune" when I listen to it. Mst of Robyn's tunes > >don't even get a nod for "fun to sing" (yeah, they're ok, but not as > >enjoyable as the WPAEB's "I won't Hurt You", Jeremy Enigk's "Abegail > >Anne" or Bill Oddy's "Telephone Directory") He's very good, but just > >doesn't impress me much. > > Wow. I wish I could be so blase Get yourself the following albums: The Zombies: Odessey & Oracle The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds, Holland, a Smile bootleg Bob Dylan: Bringing it all back home The Kinks: Arthur, Something Else The Monkees: Head, Pisces Aquarius Capricorn & Jones Ltd. The Incredible String Band: Hangmans's Beautiful Daughter Pink Floyd: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn Stevie Wonder: Innervisions Donovan: Gift from a Flower to a Garden Isao Tomita: The Snowflakes are Dancing That's the most impressive stuff I can think of. Robyn is good. He's consistantly a 4-star artist, wheras the dudes above did a few 5-star albums and a lot of unlistenable material. Robyn's material is very good and you ought to listen to it, but I couldn't say he's in the same league as Brian Wilson, Bob Dylan or the RCA writing/sessions crew. (yeah, he's easily in the same league as Donovan, but Gift has a sincerity and packaging that Robyn can't match. He hasn't had good packagingon any CD I can recall.) And their songs are usually more fun to sing, too. ("Brenda's Iron Sledge" is enjoyable, but it just doesn't _soar_, darnit) (looks around for eb and finds him gone) Get Viva Saturn's "Brightside" too. > So there's my newbie-allowance. We now return you to your regularly > scheduled slightly-Robyn-tinted Feglist. Nice to have you aboard. You're going to start reading my comic strip, right? Terrence Marks Unlike Minerva (a comic strip) http://grove.ufl.edu/~normal normal@grove.ufl.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 03:17:44 -0400 (EDT) From: Terrence M Marks Subject: Re: plundertronics Eddie sez: > don't give two fucks about them stealing content. "copyright >infringement is your best entertainment value", right? i fucking detest >the concept of "intellectual property." Now, I don't know if you've ever actually worked on creating unique intellectual property. As you may or may not know, creating and developing intellectual property requires a decent amount of labour. I think that there's something wrong with cheating people out of their labour, be it physical or mental. > hey, if they're gonna spread *anything* on my webpage, that's > cool, 'cause (i like to think) it's stuff that oughta be seen by people. > mean, it's 90% to do with robyn, and the other 10% to do with smashing > capitalism. i don't need credit, nor royalties. i *believe* it, man! > [wipes tear from his eye] Yeah, a fan site and a manifesto. As far as "intellectual property that needs protection" goes, you're pretty much a lightweight. If Warners announced tomorrow that according to Robyn's contract, they could legally stop take his royalties, you wouldn't think anything were wrong? Or, heck, look at the Kinks. Have they really benefitted from people spreading their works? There's a new Greatest Hits album out every month by some fly-by-night company because Ray Davies signed away the residuals. The Kinks don't get a penny of it and can't stop it. Maybe you don't need credit or royalties. Most of the people who work hard to create things do. >i'm wondering how many of those people that have > signed on to the boycott make money off their sites? Most people who make money off of sites get a real server. I'm against it on principle and I imagine that most people are too. As to whether or not they could take your Robyn pics and sell them as clip art (that sort of thing has happened), I'm not sure. A lot of writers are leaving because they don't like other people getting that sort of control over their work. Terrence Marks Unlike Minerva (a comic strip) http://grove.ufl.edu/~normal normal@grove.ufl.edu ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Jul 1999 01:19:37 PDT From: Capitalism Blows Subject: eb all over the world well, just reading through that boycott page, that sure didn't seem to be what people were all up in arms about. in fact, i don't think they referred to it at all. don't look now, susie, but it's already summer! unless you mean *next* spring, which would mean that hedblade is capable of planning ahead an (for me) unfathomable *three seasons*. oh, i was just joking about that. Airscape is my favorite robyn song. but it's also, i think, the only song that i've never heard him do better live than the album cut. that does look pretty cool, although i think Sleepy Hollow looks even cooler. well, i'm maybe not the best judge. i did, after all, once tot up all the "fuck"s in Big Lebowski, by character. so for me, i'm definitely glad to see the r-rated version. (though, really, there isn't too terribly much that they can't get away with on the tv show. i mean, they let stan get away with saying, "roy's a dick", which is one of the all timer killer lines.) but you're right, it probably does lose some of its "shock value", not so much because the bleeps made it exciting, i don't think, but because you're so used to hearing curse words on the big screen. but i must say, as much as i LOVE the cursing, that's not in the end what makes South Park so hilarious. just as you wouldn't say that eric idle simply singing all the different names for one's penis is what made that song so hilarious. you've gotta have substance, or the style wears pretty think pretty quickly. i've always said that South Park is one of the more political shows on tv, and the movie is, too. (weird note: the Seattle Times' reviewer, apparently completely ignorant of american history, wrote the bit about using blacks as cannon fodder as "crude humor".) but i think where South Park really shines (same with The Simpsons) is in peopling its universe with such a diversity of great, believable characters, that it's able to consistently come up with compelling plots. uh, this is all getting awfully boring, isn't it? yes, it is. well, he might've included a d. b. cooper reference. and, see, i think that you (and any other new listmembers) should just jump right in and start talkin' robyn. i remember when i first joined the list. i was just so ecstatic that there was such a forum. that there were actually people *interested* in hearing me rave on and on and on and on about robyn. but then, you kind of get all of the pent-up robyn-talk out of your system, and settle into the pattern, as susan says, of just talking about whatever you want to talk about. but when vivien joined the list, for example, it was all robyn, all the time, all day, every day. and it was great! it reminded me so much of myself when i had first signed up. and while i love the list so very much as it is, i do think it'd be great to have people just freshly among us share all their robyn thoughts. speaking of cher lyon, here's another question you might ask him. ask whether it's true that he specifically had bosnia in mind while writing Filthy Bird. then, of course, hit him with the followup of asking for his thoughts on the fucking war; maybe using the angle that it was, literally, impossible to listen to tony blair say *anything* about it without getting physically ill. oh, but you mustn't forget to ask if maisie still listens to nine inch nails. you know, for eb. KEN "It *was* parked in a handicapped zone, perhaps they towed it" THE KENSTER _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Jul 1999 05:54:04 -0700 From: "Russ Reynolds" Subject: Eb's plot unmasked EXHIBIT A said Eb, >I'm taking my computer to the shop. Expect a deafening silence for a >week. EXHIBIT B said JH3, >Sorry, but I'm afraid you've fallen for one of Eb's oldest >tricks: Pretending to be "on vacation" or to have a "busted >computer" just in order to lull you into a false sense of security - >and draw you out into the open. (This is the second time he's >used it this year.) EXHIBIT C said Terry, >Well, in all honesty, Robyn's music doesn't impress me too mch. It's good >music, he has some great tunes, etc, but I never think to myself "Now >that's an impressive tune" when I listen to it. Mst of Robyn's tunes >don't even get a nod for "fun to sing" (yeah, they're ok, but not as >enjoyable as the WPAEB's "I won't Hurt You", Jeremy Enigk's "Abegail >Anne" or Bill Oddy's "Telephone Directory") He's very good, but just >doesn't impress me much. CONCLUSION: Isn't it obvious what's hapened here, folks? Eb has flown to Florida, kidnapped Terry (or worse!) and is now spouting his blasphemous "B-plus Artist" spew disguised as the young man who used to spend every waking moment posting Robyn Hitchcock guitar tabs! It's all part of Eb's secret plot to gain support for his "Robyn is just a B-plus Artist" movement by making it appear as though others are backing him up! Lock your doors and windows, fegs--there's no telling where he might strike next! - -rUss. PS sorry about all those =B3s & =B9s in my JfS post. If you'd all get Macs we wouldn't have these problems. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 14:19:34 +0100 From: dr john halewood Subject: UK Tour Date hmm... dunno if this means there's actually going to be a proper tour at some point, but Robyn's playing at my local pub, Fibbers in York, on the first Friday in October. What could be more convenient? The reason I'm not sure about whether this heralds a full tour is that Fibbers has a great tendency to get people in for one off gigs rather than as part of a tour. still, can't complain.... cheers john p.s. anyone got any idea when jfs is coming out in the UK? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Jul 1999 09:20:00 -0500 (EST) From: michelle wiener Subject: Re: eb all over the world I'd tack a new subject line on this one but I'm WAY too tired. And it's that kind of tired where everything seems important so this doesn't strike me as boring at all. My apologies for those of you who actually sleep on a regular basis for potentially putting you back there. > Airscape is my favorite robyn song. but it's also, i think, the only song > that i've never heard him do better live than the album cut. It's definitely mine too, and I was extremely gratified to find, on the liner notes to Uncorrected Personality Traits (that's right, right? and these people trust me to input their ILL requests accurately...suckers) that it's one of Robyn's as well {note to self: check this last for accuracy when you get home}. I think my second favorite song to hear live is Clean Steve. > that [Mystery Men] does look pretty cool, although i think Sleepy Hollow looks even > cooler. > haven't even heard of that. details, please? what also looks good to me (ah, she's gone back to lowercase, hmmm...) is Red Violin. it's at the art theatre in cinci right now. i'm also waiting for that movie about the filmmakers who go looking for witches. something something Briar Witch. and Summer of Sam. ok, so maybe it won't be a long month. {the south park convo} ok, i haven't seen many south park episodes since the first season, and i agree that it's not just the cursing that makes the show funny (case in point: "now i know how all those white women must have felt."). and i've actually used the first part of the "who's cartman's father" episodes in a freshman composition class because, believe it or not, it fit perfectly with what we were reading--stuff about race and biology and essentialism. but what often gets the biggest laugh out of me is when cartman opens his mouth and nothing but bleeps come out (with his eyes in one big X). it's akin to not seeing a whole body naked, but just enough skin to be tantalizing. you can't read lips in a cartoon--so you have to see how far you can push your own dirty perverse minds to figure out what's really been said (same goes for Kenny). {the previous analogy is because i'm damn tired} oh, and to Rebecca--bounce around all you want. i'm right there with ya. 4 more hours and i can nap. cheers, michelle ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 09:05 +0000 From: mrrunion@palmnet.net Subject: Blair Witch Project michelle wiener wrote: > i'm also waiting for that movie about the > filmmakers who go looking for witches. something > something Briar Witch. Yeah, it's called The Blair Witch Project. Haven't seen it yet, but it made a huge splash down here at the Florida Film Festival. In fact, it was made by three UCF (University of Central Florida) grads on a massively shoe-string budget. Apparently, they could have bought a nice car for more money than it cost to make the firm. It's playing at our local Orlando art house theatre soon, and should be going into major distribution later this summer. It's sorta a local boys done good...REALLY GOOD...kinda thing. Apparently, they've already signed with a major studio to do a bigger budget movie and maybe even a sequel. The way they filmed it apparently is unique. The story revolves around a group of people finding some lost footage filmed by a crew that vanished in some New England woods while investigating some old ghosts of Salem-style witches (something like that). Anyway, the film is presented in almost documentary style. But, what the filmmakers did (I mean, the real filmmakers, the UCF guys) was take their actors up into the woods, issue them the barest of scripts, and then basically deprive them of sleep, food, etc...making the actors truly go schizo for a time. The horror you see on screen is partially real...in a sense. Anyway, we're all excited about this film down here as well. Mike Runion (who hasn't heard JfS yet...DAMN!) ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V8 #228 *******************************