From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V10 #9 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Thursday, January 11 2001 Volume 10 : Number 009 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Mexican boating accidents ["Andrew D. Simchik" ] ketchup [Ken Ostrander ] Re: not All That Jazzed ["Russ Reynolds" ] Off topic, but interesting [steve ] oops! ["Russ Reynolds" ] Re: Film (0% sci-fi or comic-book content, believe it or not) ["Stewart C] compellingly bad tv ["Stewart C. Russell" ] Re: not All That Jazzed [The Great Quail ] amazon.com storefront hitchcock interview [recount chocula ] Re: amazon.com storefront hitchcock interview [recount chocula ] Re: which of us is me/lazerlove5 [Asshole Motherfucker ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2001 16:58:19 -0800 From: "Andrew D. Simchik" Subject: Mexican boating accidents >From: Eb > >BBC ONLINE > >[...] >Kirsty was killed shortly before Christmas in a Mexican boating accident. That's a strange way of putting it. Would they say "an Italian boating accident"? Or a "Greek boating accident"? It was "a boating accident in Mexico." Unless there's something called "Mexican boating" I've never heard of. Drew ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2001 20:05:06 -0500 From: Ken Ostrander Subject: ketchup > May 2001 be a thrilling odyssey for everyone. Open those pod-bay doors,HAL! in the netherworld of the netherlands i saw an advert for a performance of "2001: a bass odessey". i missed it (i was too busy getting drunk and kissing floozies); but it must've been a very special evening. >Isn't anyone going to post any personal comments/observations/reviews about >"O Brother, Where Art Thou?" i just saw it this weekend as the first of a triple feature (afterward i snuck into 'finding forrester' and then 'cast away' at the huge fenway multiplex) and it was really wonderful. you can get lost in the overlapping mythologies from the depression and the oddessey; but the characters and the music really carry it home. the other two flicks were also very good. undoubtedly the scotsman and the bossom buddy will get oscar nods. perhaps busta rhymes and the volleyball will get supporting nominations? >I watched the first part of the "Jazz" epic on PBS last night, and Ken >Burns' typically pretentious, formulaic style was so *exasperating* that it >gave me a headache which I was still fighting at 3:30 in the morning. No >exaggeration. considering my extreme ignorance of jazz, i thought it was most entertaining and informative; but found myself reading the paper during more than half of it. it's funny that no one really knows what "jazz" means; but "jellyroll" is no problem. >and the band start playing this weird old timey song which has trumpets >and clarinets in the chorus and is called "Before the Jailhouse Blows " >-its very catchy but unlike anything that he has ever played before . i find that original music in my dreams can be utterly amazing. it'd be so nice if it could be reproduced somehow. i'm a bit leery though, since the last time i went into deep hypnotic recall i found out that i was a roman sex slave in another life. >"surely underwater moonlight is better than _like a prayer_?" i've never been able to get a woman to dance to underwater moonlight. ken "living on hopi standard time" the kenster np. relationship of command at the drive-in ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2001 20:14:30 -0800 From: "Russ Reynolds" Subject: Re: not All That Jazzed Eb, who's job it is to grumble, grumbled > I watched the first part of the "Jazz" epic on PBS last night, and Ken > Burns' typically pretentious, formulaic style was so *exasperating* that it > gave me a headache which I was still fighting at 3:30 in the morning. No > exaggeration. I'd just like to point out that Ken Burns' typically pretentious, formulaic style can't give you a headache. You can give yourself a headache by watching a Ken Burns documentary and choosing to allow its typically pretentious, formulaic style bother you, but Ken Burns' typically pretentious, formulaic style in and of itself can't give you a headache. If it did I'd-a got one too. I agree with your points. I watched a little bit and that formulaic style was the very first thing that struck me, easily inside of a minute. "Put baseball caps on those guys," I said to myself, "and what you've got here is a re-run". But I would guess that yer average Joe doesn't notice things like that. Yer average Joe can also sit through awards ceremonies, reality TV, sales pitches, music videos, commercials with talking lizards, daytime talk shows, "recount" jokes, 20/20, big pretentious movie scores and Howard Stern. A keen awareness of the man behind the curtain can be an endless source of frustration but if it gets to the point where you're getting headaches it's time to turn off the TV and put on a good Robyn Hitchcock album. - -rUss, ametuer psychologist looking out for fellow feg PS It doesn't necessarily have to be a Robyn Hitchcock album. I'm just, you know...playing to the room. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2001 22:19:39 -0600 From: steve Subject: Off topic, but interesting http://www.msnbc.com/news/513749.asp - - Steve __________ If they know our secrets, why can't we know theirs? - Dana Scully ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2001 20:22:47 -0800 From: "Russ Reynolds" Subject: oops! > -rUss, ametuer psychologist ...and amateur speller. This is why I chose radio over print! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 10:27:08 +0000 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Re: Film (0% sci-fi or comic-book content, believe it or not) Michael R Godwin wrote: > > On Mon, 8 Jan 2001, Stewart C. Russell wrote: > > The soundtrack album, while excellent, doesn't need four slightly > > different versions of "Man of Constant Sorrow". > > There's a song from the past - traditional, I assume. My favourite version > is... My favourite version isn't Bob Dylan, on his first album. He also mangles "Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie" beyond recognition too, bah. Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 10:36:11 +0000 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: compellingly bad tv Admission to make; I can't help myself watching "Battle Dome". For those unfamiliar with it, it's a cross between WWF wrestling, Gladiators, and Beavis & Butthead (well, the presenters, at least). Website here: http://www.battledome.com/ It's the ultimate dumb tv show. It's so dire that you must watch. It's a giveaway that it has a cast list at the end -- staged! Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 10:04:46 -0500 From: The Great Quail Subject: Re: not All That Jazzed >Yer average Joe can also sit through awards ceremonies, reality >TV, sales pitches, music videos, commercials with talking lizards, daytime >talk shows, "recount" jokes, 20/20, big pretentious movie scores and Howard >Stern. A keen awareness of the man behind the curtain can be an endless >source of frustration but if it gets to the point where you're getting >headaches it's time to turn off the TV and put on a good Robyn Hitchcock >album. I like commercials with talking lizards. In fact, if more commercials had talking lizards, I'd watch a lot more TV. - --Quail ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 12:57:25 -0500 From: recount chocula Subject: amazon.com storefront hitchcock interview [i don't remember this ever beng posted way back when so, for the record, here it is....] Demme Gets Positively Hitchcockian Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme puts Robyn Hitchcock under the lights to bring his fractured pop songs to the local cinema. There are countless pop artists with larger fan bases than Robyn Hitchcock's. So why is it that he gets the rare honor of being featured in a full-length film documentary directed by Academy Award winner Jonathan Demme? Well, Demme, it seems, has good taste, recognizing that the otherworldly Hitchcock and his no-less-otherworldly Lennon- and Barrett-rooted psychedelic folk-pop creations would make for engaging cinema. Filmed over two days in an abandoned space on Manhattan's 14th Street, Storefront Hitchcock captures the artist mostly alone with guitar, voice, and muse. And while film-exec decision making might keep the flick from its proper audience (see below), Storefront Hitchcock, the album, remains a wonderful moment, with Hitchcock presenting new songs, reinventing old ones, and proving himself a (surprisingly) adept guitarist and colorful between-song banterer. Colorful banter, of course, being a skill that Hitchcock takes to interviews as well, as Amazon.com's Neal Weiss is quick to discover. _____________________________________________________________________ Amazon.com: How did you hook up with Demme? Robyn Hitchcock: It was a dark, wet night in April. I'd done a set in a small club just outside New York City, the kind of place where, in films, you get people blundering through the forest streaked with blood and being hatcheted by sheeted beings, flashes of lightning lighting up screaming faces or whatever. Out of the miasma, Jonathan Demme appeared. We chatted, and I got the impression that he wanted to direct a video or something. It all very slowly coalesced over the following 18 months. One day he rang me up--I think he was just on his way to the dentist, and I was in bed for some reason; it was about three o'clock in the afternoon--and said it's a movie, full-length. Amazon.com: Were you a fan of his? Hitchcock: Very much. Married to the Mob, in particular, is one of my all-time favorites because it's this sort of comedy-thriller, and you don't get many of those. But I liked Philadelphia and Something Wild. The Silence of the Lambs is a bit gruesome. Amazon.com: Had you seen Stop Making Sense? Hitchcock: Oddly enough, I hadn't. I hadn't seen any of his musical endeavors, but I knew he was a music fan. Amazon.com: Did you have input into the film concept? Hitchcock: I had a bit, but it was really basically Jonathan's. He wanted to do it in a shop front, which seemed like an interesting idea. I had thought of doing it in a railway carriage, but that was more because it sounded fun to do--I can imagine it wouldn't have looked that great. Although I'd still like to make a follow-up sometime and do Railroad Hitchcock or The Hitchcock Blimp or Underwater Hitchcock--something like that. Amazon.com: Storefront is mostly just you and a guitar. Is it something you found yourself working toward? Hitchcock: Yes, it is. And it's interesting that this all happened now. I think the reason Jonathan wanted to make the film in the first place wasn't just that he liked my songs but that he liked the show that I did. It was just Deni Bonet and myself--Deni was playing violin on a few songs. Very simple, like a couple of people playing in a Middle-European wedding or something. We could have almost wandered from table to table serenading them. It wasn't quite that gruesome, but it was that simple. Amazon.com: A feature film with you as the subject--that's got to feel good. Hitchcock: Well, it would be more if it had more distribution, but MGM aren't really doing anything much with it. When they swallowed Orion I don't think they were really interested in that size fish. They kind of slit Orion's belly open and looked to see what was in there and went for the bigger creatures first and actually wanted to chuck Storefront back in the water, but Jonathan's people have kept it there. Amazon.com: If nothing else, it's got to be flattering that someone wanted to make such a film. Hitchcock: Oh, yeah, and that it was Jonathan as well. I can't really think of anyone better suited to the job. I was very shocked the first time just to see my head so big on the screen. I couldn't really take it. I've seen it three times now, and I really like the way he's done it. He basically just put me in a good context and let me get on with it. Amazon.com: The album holds up well--it's not just filler, like many live albums. Hitchcock: Well, that's probably because songs mutate over the years. The arrangements change, phrasing alters, the odd word will change. You can write the basic song in half an hour, and you can record it, but then it carries on developing after that, very slowly, rather like a corpse. The fingernails will continue to grow, and the hair. Same with a song. Let's say they've gotten hairier in their coffins. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 13:54:19 -0500 From: recount chocula Subject: Re: amazon.com storefront hitchcock interview when we last left our heroes, recount chocula exclaimed: > oops. the correct url for this article is . woj ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 15:00:36 -0700 From: Eb Subject: The Perils of Ken Well, my cranial health fared better, last night. I determined that the slow pans were the major source of my aggravation, so I managed to stay on the painless side this time by sorta half-listening to "Jazz" and half-reading a book. Last night's best moment illustrating the pitfalls of the Burns formula: His research apparently uncovered a newspaper clip relating the arrest of a teenaged Louis Armstrong for some petty crime. Now, wouldn't it have been a kick to *see* that yellowed clipping onscreen? Of course. But no...we are strictly forbidden from reading in Burnsworld. So, Burns had yet another narrator dramatically intoooone the text, thus robbing the citation of almost all its vivid authenticity. One other gripe about the Formula which I should've mentioned earlier: The belabored, "suspenseful" way he always introduces important figures. Like, if Burns was introducing the Jimi Hendrix Experience, he would *have* to phrase it something like "The group consisted of drummer Mitch Mitchell, bassist Noel Redding ...and a soft-spoken, ex-paratrooper from Seattle named [audience goes silent with hushed awe]jimi hendrix [audience gasps, and pauses to reverently swoon]." Burns must've pulled this move three or four times with Armstrong *alone*, already. One other question: Did W.E.B. Dubois really pronounce his name "Du-BOYZ"? I doubt Burns would've gotten something like this wrong, but boy, that sounds screwy. Eb, recalling a past semi-nemesis named Joaquim who insisted on being called "JO-a-kim" ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 15:13:18 -0800 From: Asshole Motherfucker Subject: Re: which of us is me/lazerlove5 for the record, i'm into collecting the various compilations of live and/or rare "material". scanning the list, i apparently have in my possession the following: Demos, 1981-1984 Demos, 1995 "Egyptian Cream Demos" "Eye Tour" "Give It To The Thoth Boys" "Live At The '80's" "Mineral Man" "Miscellaneous Hitchcock" "NetSurfer Ghost" "Old Curiosity Shop" "re: Robyn on Piano" "Robyn Hitchcock's Xmas Party" "Robyn Springs Forth" "Uncarved Pumpkins" "Uncarved Pumpkins II" "Unhatched Crablings I" "Unhatched Crablings II" "Unhatched Crablings III" "Unhatched Crablings IV" if there are any others floating around, will their owners please get in touch with me? (and brian please e-mail me your address, naturally.) <17. Lysander (RH live Maxwells, NJ 4-10-95) 18. Serpent at the Gates of Wisdom (same as above)> was actually 10/4/95 (that is to say, october 4, 1995). ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 17:26:28 +1030 From: great offwhite dude Subject: prog rockers rejoice ! Just added new pages of stills of some of yer fave/most hated (delete if not applicable ) prog bands circa 1970/71 and you can find them here http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/ebony/546/updates.html new Yes, Airforce, Colosseum , Family and Nice photo galleries for all the retro prog rockers amongst you. Its worth a look to see the ridiculous boots that Chris Squire is wearing , ah those were the days when Rock stars could be guaranteed to make idiots of themselves on TV enjoy ( or else) Commander Lang ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V10 #9 ******************************