From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V10 #217 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Monday, May 28 2001 Volume 10 : Number 217 Today's Subjects: ----------------- ...the air in columns [grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan)] Re: Everest [grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan)] sigh [grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan)] Re: Into Thin Air [Traveling Riverside Blues ] worst book EVER! ["victorian squid" ] Re: worst book EVER! [Ken Weingold ] Feels like August 23rd ["Russ Reynolds" ] Re: best book EVER! [Capuchin ] The Bormann 6 girl has GOT to have... [JH3 ] I Heart Boils ["victorian squid" ] hello? [grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan)] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 12:54:20 +1200 From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) Subject: ...the air in columns James James Dignan, Dunedin, New Zealand. =-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= -=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.- .-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=- You talk to me as if from a distance -.-=-.- And I reply with impressions chosen from another time =-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-. (Brian Eno - "By this River") ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 13:06:40 +1200 From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) Subject: Re: Everest >"The image of one of the guides being stuck on top of the mountain when a >satellite call gets patched through from his wife in New Zealand, and them >talking and trying to sound optimistic when they both know it's the last >time they're ever going to speak to each other, is heartbreaking. (The >call was picked up by climbers lower on the mountain. The guide was never >seen again.)" > >Well, this was heartbreaking on paper, but it was REALLY heartbreaking >watching it. I don't remember if they showed this on NOVA or in the IMAX >movie called Everest, but the audience got to see the men in the tent and >hear the conversation which they patched between New Zealand and Rob Hall, >who was up at about 27-28K feet and who clearly wasn't going to make it >through the night. I was a blubbery mess afterwards. I was also a blubbery mess? I went to university with Jan Arnold (Rob Hall's wife) - she was briefly the girlfriend of the bass player in my band, some 15 years ago. Rob Hall, not surprisingly, is regarded as a national hero for his selflessness. James James Dignan, Dunedin, New Zealand. =-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= -=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.- .-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=- You talk to me as if from a distance -.-=-.- And I reply with impressions chosen from another time =-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-. (Brian Eno - "By this River") ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 13:14:01 +1200 From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) Subject: sigh >From: Jeff Dwarf >Subject: Re: books/your specialist subject > >James Dignan wrote: >> I suspect that any Feg with a specialist area gets the occasional >> question (funnily enough, I get the odd question about the Chills, > >so what ARE the words to "heavenly pop hit?" sigh. Heavenly pop Hit, (c) Martin Phillipps 1990 Each day the sun sets in five billion places, Seen by ten billion eyes set in five billion faces Then they close in a daze and wait for the dawning But the daylight and sunrise are brighter in our eyes Where night cannot devour golden solar power Once we were damned now I guess we are angels For we passed through the dark and eluded the dangers Then awoke with a start to startling changes All the tension has ended, the sentence suspended And darkness now sparkles and gleams And it all seems larger than life to me I find it rather hard to believe And so I stand and the sound goes straight through my body I'm so bloated-up happy I could throw things around me And I'm growing in stages and have been for ages Just singing and floating and free It's a heavenly pop hit if anyone wants it It's something we're humming As we swoop low on trees or we sweep under carpets We could dive into suns though it's not recommended We can hover silent and listen closely And it all seems larger than life to me I find it rather hard to believe So where was our home? Well our home was in tears For its fruit had gone bad, they'd been that way for years Yet their lives are elastic, they should be fantastic They should be expanding It's a heavenly pop hit if anyone wants it It's a heavenly pop hit for anybody For those that still want it James James Dignan, Dunedin, New Zealand. =-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= -=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.- .-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=- You talk to me as if from a distance -.-=-.- And I reply with impressions chosen from another time =-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-. (Brian Eno - "By this River") ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 18:18:28 -0700 From: Traveling Riverside Blues Subject: Re: Into Thin Air At 8:50 PM -0400 5/27/01, jlbrand@bu.edu wrote: >I don't remember if they showed this on NOVA or in the IMAX >movie called Everest, but the audience got to see the men in the tent and >hear the conversation which they patched between New Zealand and Rob Hall, >who was up at about 27-28K feet and who clearly wasn't going to make it >through the night. I was a blubbery mess afterwards. Jesus. Yeah, that would be the IMAX documentary - I haven't seen it, but IMAX was one of the expeditions on the mountain at the time. I recently heard an interview on NPR with Jamling Norgay Sherpa from that team (who happened to be the son of Tenzing Norgay, Hillary's top Sherpa), who said heard the call himself. I didn't know that they had put it in the movie. Wow. Mike ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 19:35:12 -0700 From: "victorian squid" Subject: worst book EVER! I can't comment on "American Psycho", because I haven't read it. I can comment on "Less Than Zero". I think "People on LA freeeways are afraid to merge" about sums it up. No doubt it is supposed to resonate with the reader as a poetical way of expressing the emptiness and lack of emotional connection these people are experiencing, He was evidently very impressed with it or he wouldn't have repeated it every five pages or so to make -sure- you picked it up. Apparently he couldn't resist the temptation to dance around shouting "hey, here is a significant example of the characters' emotional emptiness!!! I am pointing it out for you!!!! what an awesome leitmotif!! I am such a WRITERDUDE!!!!". This is actually the major thing I remember from the book. I have a particular aversion to clumsily executed writer tricks, of which the aforementioned is not the only example, merely the most notable and most notably irritating. I would also like to add that being nihilistic doesn't excuse you from drawing interesting characters. Note well that I did not say -sympathetic-. I said interesting. The characters in this book were so uninteresting that I really didn't care if they all od'd or their parents were divorcing or if they were experiencing anomie or if they were moving to Tulsa to start a dry cleaning business. It's all very well to say "part of my point is to show that there IS nothing to them because they have no real sense of self". Fine, ok, but one should at least be able to tell major characters apart fer cryin out loud. A few times I had to flip through and figure out which major character was which, and I am not an inattentive reader nor especially lacking in the reading comprehension department. Granted this in and of itself is not necessarily fatal. I've read interesting books that didn't really have much in the way of characters. Buuuuuutttt.....if you don't have characters, you should have something else going. There's nothing else going on here but "Loook! 19 year olds doing Cocaine! Divorce! Parties! Expensive Landscaping!". This alone cannot carry a novel. It cannot even carry an hour long "Hard Copy" special. At least the folks at "Hard Copy" don't pretend their work has profound artistic and social significance. One wishes Mister Ellis were as self-aware. Yes, of course I have read worse books, but they weren't by writers who were considered or would consider themselves "serious". Ellis wishes to be regarded as such and is treated as such by many, therefore I believe he should be held to a higher standard than someone like, say, Rosamunde Pilcher, or even Eric Idle (who I suspect would not call himself "a serious writer" either) . loveonya, susan p.s. now that we're on the subject of trendy 80s literature, anyone else remember Delacorta? Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 23:36:35 -0400 From: Ken Weingold Subject: Re: worst book EVER! One book that I would comment on is Geek Love. I really liked it, but the end really pissed me off; a real cop-out. Can anyone else comment on this? - -Ken ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 00:48:41 -0700 From: "Russ Reynolds" Subject: Feels like August 23rd A long time ago on a mailing list very far away, someone wrote: >> Does anyone know the significance of Robyn calling his publishing = >> company August 23rd Music? > > John Lennon and Cynthia Powell wed (1962) > "She Loves You" is released by The Beatles (1963) > "Help", the Beatles second film, is released (1965) I was just examining my "Walls & Bridges" booklet and I discovered yet another Lennon connection: "On the 23rd Aug. 1974 at 9 O'clock I Saw A U.F.O. - J.L." 1974, no less. I guess the official story is that August 23rd is Robyn & Michelle's "anniversary", but I'm liking the mistique this adds to the date. - -rUss np: Old Dirt Road ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 02:48:16 -0700 (PDT) From: Capuchin Subject: Re: best book EVER! On Sun, 27 May 2001, Ken Weingold wrote: > One book that I would comment on is Geek Love. I really liked it, but > the end really pissed me off; a real cop-out. Can anyone else comment > on this? Huh? I don't get this AT ALL. Cop-out? Feel free to write off-list, etc.... I'll remind you up front that I've claimed Geek Love to be the greatest book I've ever read... probably even reclaimed that recently. Oh, and GSS, you done with my well-travelled paperback copy of Geek Love, yet? Thanks. J. - -- _______________________________________________ Capuchin capuchin@bitmine.net Jeme A Brelin ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 14:39:52 -0500 From: JH3 Subject: The Bormann 6 girl has GOT to have... SOUL! >>np: the pimple commercial tune from "Putney Swope", over and over >>again, in my head. make it stop!! >Wow! So you're the other person who's seen that movie. Putney Swope is my favorite movie of all time. (I'm absolutely serious.) So that makes, what, just three of us then? Surely not! There was a favorite feg-movie poll taken back in 1998, maybe. So if you're looking for the guy who ranked it #1, that would be me! >C'mon, Brautigan's the literary equivalent of Country Joe & the Fish, >not *the* best in show for a style, but interesting & extremely >evocative of a scene. Well, there ya go. I don't like Country Joe and the Fish either! However, as long as we're talking about most-disliked books, and assuming that for a book to qualify you have to have actually *finished* it, I wouldn't put "Trout Fishing in America" at the top (bottom?) of that so-called list -- it'd be behind both "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" (by Tom "appalling hippie scum" Robbins) and "The Magus" (John "aptly named" Fowles). There are also some really terrible Sherlock Holmes pastiches I've read, in full, over the years -- but most of those are one-offs and vanity pressings and suchlike, and I'm not really sure they should count. (Should they? Btw, if anyone wants a list of Sherlock Holmes pastiches to avoid, let me know! There are, believe it or not, one or two lists I don't mind making.) John "HE'S REALLY OUT OF SIGHT, AND SO ARE HIS PIMPLES" Hedges ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 17:45:38 -0700 From: "victorian squid" Subject: I Heart Boils On Mon, 28 May 2001 14:39:52 JH3 wrote: >Putney Swope is my favorite movie of all time. (I'm absolutely serious.) >So that makes, what, just three of us then? Surely not! Oh, I've seen it. I just didn't like it that much. The first time I saw it, I didn't like it. I thought "This is supposed to be some kind of underground classic. Many people think it is brilliant. Maybe it's one I need to see a few times to fully appreciate". Then I saw it again and didn't feel differently. As satires go, it's kinda crude. Don't flame me for saying that and for adding that I think "How To Get Ahead In Advertising" is way more effective. Admittedly it does not feature dwarf orgies, but it DOES feature a talking boil growing out the side of Richard E. Grant's neck. >(bottom?) of that so-called list -- it'd be behind both "Even Cowgirls >Get the Blues" (by Tom "appalling hippie scum" Robbins) and "The Oh thanks. I'd blissfully forgotten about Tom Robbins. loveonya, susan Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 15:34:13 +1200 From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) Subject: hello? I don't like it... it's too quiet. It's almost as if... aaaauuuggh! has everyone stopped talking, or have I somehow gotten disconnected? No digests for about 36 hours is rare these days on Fegmaniax... James James Dignan, Dunedin, New Zealand. =-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= -=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.- .-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=- You talk to me as if from a distance -.-=-.- And I reply with impressions chosen from another time =-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-. (Brian Eno - "By this River") ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V10 #217 ********************************