From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V10 #314 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Thursday, August 23 2001 Volume 10 : Number 314 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Hi, I'm God ["Brian Huddell" ] Re: 1987..... [Capuchin ] Re: overrated [Eb ] RE: Bowie ["da9ve stovall" ] cake & dylan ["Andrew D. Simchik" ] Re: 1987..... ["Sweet & Tender Hooligan" ] Re: overrated ["Sweet & Tender Hooligan" ] Re: overrated ["Andrew D. Simchik" ] Re: 1987..... [steve ] reap [grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan)] Re: overrated [Capuchin ] Re: 1987..... [dmw ] The Dylan Thing [Keith Hanlon ] Re: Dylan ["lucifersam" ] U2-Bono's Dad [Mike Swedene ] Holy Grail [Mike Swedene ] Re: Hi, I'm God ["lucifersam" ] Re: overrated dylan ["lucifersam" ] The Ooh.... ["lucifersam" ] Re: overrate me ["lucifersam" ] RE: 2001 (Re: 1987.....) ["matt sewell" ] Andy Kershaw ["lucifersam" ] Robyn at Dancebase, 22/8/02001 ["Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Hi, I'm God Today while I was working away from the PC I started composing a feg message in my head -- basically lamenting the lack of recent traffic, and maybe getting a little maudlin about what a drag it would be if/when fegmaniax eventually faded away. When I got back to my PC there were 41 new feg messages in my inbox. Obviously what I really meant to write about was how sad it is that people aren't sending lots of large checks to me every day. I also think it would be a good idea for the daytime temperature in New Orleans to drop about 20 degrees. Thanks. +brian ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 16:40:53 -0700 (PDT) From: Capuchin Subject: Re: 1987..... On Wed, 22 Aug 2001, Eb wrote: > Jeme: > >target demographics (mostly the 2-14 year-old set) > > I'll blah on the rest of your deja-vu lecture, and focus on this. Hey, it's a soundbite world you live in. > Now, *here* is a central problem. [snip] > Now, if the Big Evil Corporations had targeted a more mature > demographic with this music, things might be very different now. Even > though the Big Evil Corporations would still be in place. But that's exactly IT. The BECs can't market to a more mature demographic. It's against their core desire to maximize profits. Mature audiences are too set in their ways and don't spend enough money on wasteful things for themselves. The advertisers don't give a damn about mature audiences. They want the meaty, succulent little children. Parents spend more on their chilren than themselves. Children below 14 are the fastest growing consumer group. In 1997, children aged four to twelve (4 - 12!!!) spent $24 BILLION dollars. That's three times higher than 1987. And the work is paying off. 80% of girls 14-17 say they "love to shop" and make 40% more trips to the mall than any other group of people. In 1998, the media conglomerates thought they would start getting a jump on their victims... err... target audience and begin producing music and television for the under-2 crowd. One TimeWarner children's television exec, in a rare moment of clarity, said, "There's something vaguely evil" about that. He was probably just bitter over losing their bid for Teletubbies. Anyway, you recognize a problem (marketting essentially to children), but fail to recognize that that is the rational choice for an organization bent on the singular goal of maximizing profits. The hyper-commercialization of all media since 1987 is directly related to this as well and goes hand-in-hand with the decline of the popular arts, marketting to children, and all the rest. Like I said, it's complex, but the consolidation of the media is the singular cause. > Personally, I think Green Day deserves a lot of blame. ;) I think I've > said this before, but it seems to me that they engendered this whole > shallow, harmless, happypunk thing which so dulled the movement's > edge. Granted, Green Day was probably the first popular act with those attributes... and their success showed the media conglomerates that there was success in that formula. But it doesn't matter if it's "happypunk" or rockabilly or boyband vocal groups. It's homogenized and pre-digested for the audience that big media NEEDS to target. > Also, on the heavier end of the spectrum, popular alt-rock's appeal > somehow mutated into the same redneck headbanging which the music > originally aimed to rub out. Very sad. I can't be sure *why* this > happened (the fundamental human need to "let go," I guess?), but I'm > not going to blame it solely on Big Evil Corporate Marketing. Eb, it's absolutely CLEAR WHY. It didn't "somehow mutate" into that which was grossly popular before the hiccup in popular culture. The acts that met the previously successful formula were carefully filtered and brought to the top. They stick to what they KNOW works... there's no evolution because change means chance of lost revenue. > >Morphine, Cake, and Social Distortion are and have been sort of fringe, > >second-class musical acts with their own particular niches in the rock > >world. [snip] > >Compare with, say, > >Bruce Hornsby or 311. > > You don't see the same degree of self-righteous militancy in the > fanbases of Hornsby and 311. So you mean to say these bands are over-rated because they have fans that rate the band higher than you would rate them? Wouldn't that be just about everyone EXCEPT Claudine Longet? > And haven't both those artists lapsed into relative obscurity by now, > anyway? Hornsby, 311, and Cake are all playing the same venue (on different nights) in Portland in the next month. That's how I chose them as being roughly in the same category of appreciation. It was arbitrary, but better than nothing. I suspect the shows will have similar attendance. [on Morphine] > But they do retain a rabid cult following among both the press and > public, and I think the band is remarkably monochromatic and dull. Are they WORSE than most bands with a cult following? I mean MOST. Remember, there are all kinds of bands with cult followings. Witness the lifeless drones that endlessly peruse rec.arts.music.* or alt.music.*... oh, wait. You do. I guess we come back to your criteria for being "over-rated". I'd like to see you compare a set of musicians and say "Ok, these all get roughly the same amount/type of praise... these deserve more (under-rated), these deserve exactly what they get, and these don't deserve what they do get (over-rated)." Otherwise, you may as well just say "I don't like these bands... the fact that they have record contracts at all means they're over-rated." J. - -- _______________________________________________ Capuchin capuchin@bitmine.net Jeme A Brelin ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 16:48:28 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Re: overrated Drew: >>I wouldn't put U2 on there. They're very good at what they do -- it's just >>not for me. > >I mean, you could say the same for so many other bands, couldn't you? Yes, I sure could...and those were the other names who weren't on my list. For instance, one of the last bands I deleted was the English Beat. And I could name a *host* of classic-rockers who would fit in that category. Though now that I think about it, maybe I should've added Garth Brooks.... You know, when I posted that list, I was more interested in seeing *others'* suggestions rather than defending my own choices. It wasn't even my definitive list -- just the top names which came to me within a half-hour or so. Oh well. But, let me just say that maybe I conceptualize "overrated" a bit differently than some of you. I'm more interested in what the "enlightened tastemakers" have endorsed -- not necessarily the explosive sales of this week's mainstream bubblegum sensation. There will always be a need for ephemeral, catchy, substanceless pop. I can easily shrug that off. It's a given that those acts will fade out with time. No biggie. OK, I really need to get offline now. Eb, putting away his defibrillator paddles ;) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 16:48:39 -0700 From: "da9ve stovall" Subject: RE: Bowie >> ...Much of the narrative concerned Bowie retiring the >> Ziggy Stardust character, and he was nowhere near >> his Thin White Duke period yet...what do YOU think >> came between those two phases? > >Surely I'm not the only one who remembers Bowie's >"Gap-Toothed Beer-Swillin' Confederate-Flag-Wavin' >Redneck" persona? Oh, yeah - David and Klaus Nomi as the Thin White Dukes of Hazzard. I remember that. da9ve ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 17:39:50 -0700 From: "Andrew D. Simchik" Subject: cake & dylan At 06:59 PM 8/22/2001 -0400, fegmaniax-digest wrote: >From: Natalie Jane Jacobs > >I don't think Cake are overrated. In fact, I don't know of anyone who >even likes them apart from Jeme. Several of my friends who like "hipper" music than I do (read: DJ Tiesto, Crystal Method, Badly Overrated Boy) have praised the new Cake album and plan to see the upcoming show. I didn't think they would even make another album. >(read the review of "Kid A" at pitchforkmedia.com - hilarious!) Didn't that used to be, like, this tiny little amateur review site? >I have to >say that the absolute most overrated band of the past five years has to be >Sleater-Kinney. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Another band that I like, but not as much as everyone else seems to. >From: "lucifersam" > >I actually got 3 Dylan CD's the other week (#15) for this very reason. >Still dont get it. BOT was one of them.... I never listen to Blood on the Tracks. It probably marks me as a casual listener (no contest!) but I only really listen to Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, and Bringing It All Back Home. It took me a while to get into any of his stuff. Ditto for the Beach Boys, but in the latter case I'm still not really a "fan" of any kind. Drew - -- Andrew D. Simchik, drew at stormgreen dot com http://www.stormgreen.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 20:18:30 -0500 From: "Sweet & Tender Hooligan" Subject: Re: 1987..... > You don't see the same degree of self-righteous > militancy in the fanbases of Hornsby and 311. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Come to Omaha and see if there's any self-righteous militancy in the 311 fanbase. The local scene is so delirious about the fact that they produced a major-label act that they don't realize said act is devoid of, well, any redeeming qualities. Spend a week listening to fucking Omaha rock radio or hanging out at the local clubs and you'll be convinced that 311 is the second coming of Christ. Hatin', hatin', and hatin' some more, s&th cirhsein@yahoo.com "all that i have, all that i hold all that is wrong all that i feel for or trust in or love all that is gone it used to be so easy i never even tried yeah, it used to be so easy..." . . ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 20:30:04 -0500 From: "Sweet & Tender Hooligan" Subject: Re: overrated > >I was just more or less told that I'm going to be laid off. > >My boss didn't say, "such and such will be your last day", > >but he said, "Nothing is official, but I would start looking > >for something if I were you". > > I can't decide if that was nice of him or not. I guess I'll take all the advance notice I can get. > I'm sorry to hear it, and I wish I could say I was > surprised (and not worried that the same will happen > to me in a matter of time). Yeah. Weird to think that just this morning I was offering my condolences to someone on another list for this very thing. > It took me a while to understand how you meant this. I can't > understand how anyone manages to listen to Cake at all. Cake makes me smile, and I guess that's enough. I really like 'em. > I stopped buying DiFranco's records when they stopped > being distinguishable from one another. Well, okay, > a little after that, I guess. I bought "Up, Up, Up, Up, Up" just to see what all the fuss was about. There were a couple of decent songs, and a few agonizing one. I was extremely underwhelmed. I think she'd be a lot better if she didn't try so damn hard. Tori Amos is another one that falls into this category for me. I mean, I like some of her stuff, but she weighs in far too heavy on the pretentious end of the spectrum. > Regarding U2 and the Smiths: I agree, it is not possible to overrate the Smiths. > well, of course you know I adore the Smiths, > and I frankly don't think it's possible to > overrate them, especially while allowing U2 > so much rope: Well, U2 seems to be in on the joke, to some degree, which makes it more difficult to criticize them. > let me throw Rage Against the Machine on the fire And let me second that my dousing them in lighter fluid. Rage sucks. s&th cirhsein@yahoo.com "all that i have, all that i hold all that is wrong all that i feel for or trust in or love all that is gone it used to be so easy i never even tried yeah, it used to be so easy..." . . ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 18:56:56 -0700 From: "Andrew D. Simchik" Subject: Re: overrated At 08:30 PM 8/22/2001 -0500, Sweet & Tender Hooligan wrote: [I said:] > > I stopped buying DiFranco's records when they stopped > > being distinguishable from one another. Well, okay, > > a little after that, I guess. > >I bought "Up, Up, Up, Up, Up" just to see what all the fuss was about. I'm sorry to hear that...it was the last album I bought, and I think it was her worst up to that point. Like you, I found at least half of it unlistenable. I liked _Out of Range_ and a few of the others around that period a lot, though. >Tori Amos is another one that falls into this category for me. I mean, I >like some of her stuff, but she weighs in far too heavy on the pretentious >end of the spectrum. I would have argued vehemently with you even a few years ago, but between Boys for Pele and from the choirgirl hotel I passed out of _my_ "ectophilic" phase (it lasted a good long time, though). Even so, I still love those first three albums and a lot of their b-sides. I have to agree that each successive album has ratcheted up the pretension. Still, there are some drop-dead wonderful songs on both from the choirgirl hotel ("Black Dove," "Jackie's Strength," "Northern Lad," and "Playboy Mommy" -- all the ballads, imagine! though "Iiieee"(?) isn't bad, either) and to venus and back (I adore "Concertina" and quite like "Josephine" and a few others, and how about "Cooling"?). The new album of covers "from the girls' point of view" is not an encouraging sign. >Well, U2 seems to be in on the joke, to some degree, which makes it more >difficult to criticize them. What joke? Being immensely bland? How's that? Drew - -- Andrew D. Simchik, drew at stormgreen dot com http://www.stormgreen.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 21:11:09 -0500 From: steve Subject: Re: 1987..... On Wednesday, August 22, 2001, at 02:40 PM, Eb wrote: > Bill Nelson Bill can't even get DGM to release his back catalog, so how overrated is that? But I've a good mind to sign Eb up to the BeBop Deluxe list, where he can wax rhapsodic over his favorite note from his favorite solo from the tour when BBD opened for BOC. Reap - Fred Hoyle, who didn't believe in the Big Bang. - - Steve __________ HALTON, England  President Bush said Thursday he is having a hard time selling a missile defense plan to skeptical allies in Europe because he has only "vague notions" about what it would entail. - Ron Fournier, AP, 07/19/01 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 14:19:21 +1200 From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) Subject: reap Fred Hoyle James np - Songs to Learn and Sing - Echo and the not-at-all-overrated Bunnymen 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: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 19:40:54 -0700 (PDT) From: Capuchin Subject: Re: overrated On Wed, 22 Aug 2001, Eb wrote: > Eb, putting away his defibrillator paddles ;) I do believe it was Robyn's webcast that brought everyone to the electronic totem today. Sorry to burst your cardiological bubble. J. - -- _______________________________________________ Capuchin capuchin@bitmine.net Jeme A Brelin ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 23:29:39 -0400 (EDT) From: dmw Subject: Re: 1987..... On Wed, 22 Aug 2001, Eb wrote: > acquainted with them, beyond knowing they're Scottish, instrumental and a > fave of the post-shoegaze set. (Uhh...right?) So hard to find Matador > releases secondhand, and I don't often bite for "exploratory" albums at > full retail prices. I suspect I'd like Mogwai if I heard them. only even mostly instrumental. i fell in love with the first two mogwai records, in which slow pretty songs burst in glorious cathartic cacophony and playful tape loop experiments abound (someone once described one of the _young team_ tracks as "listening to a day at a crowded ufo port," which i cherish). i'm disappointed by their two more recent records, in which the noise is (almost entirely) jettisoned in favor of stately melodies that are pleasant but not very affecting. many peoples' mileage varies widely. didn't 1987 have a good dumptruck record in it, too, or was that 1986? and lucy show's _mania_, which might make my list of most UNDERratted records. overrated: Led Fucking Zeppelin (somebody had to say it!) Lynyrd Skynyrd Aerosmith Love and Rockets all Who albums after _Who Are You_ (hell, maybe even including it...) Rolling Stones post _Some Girls_ (one of the funniest things I read recently, while interviewing a band in the studio who'd brought a pile of old girlie mags to the session, was a contempory review of _emotional rescue_ or _steel wheels_ or one'a'them, in Playboy, by a reviewer obviously in love with the band, who was trying *desperately* to say good things about it. heh.) Dylan post, what, _Empire Burlesque_? Sting (as solo artist) Black Crowes (nb: I like at least a few songs by most of these acts -- in particular i've had "good times, bad times" stuck in my head for almost three days... but still...) - -- d. np dire straits _making movies_ ...you ever look out your window and see some rough-housing and wonder how consensual it is (or isn't)? to be clear: not talking sexual assualt here; buncha boys chasing each other around, lotta hollering, little bit of wrasslin. i guess if someone gets shot it probably wasn't by prior agreement, huh? - ------------------------------------------------- Mayo-Wells Media Workshop dmw@ http://www.mwmw.com mwmw.com Web Development * Multimedia Consulting * Hosting ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 00:26:05 -0400 From: Keith Hanlon Subject: The Dylan Thing Sorry to butt in here... you're probably thinking "who the hell is this guy" but I've been lurking for sometime now. The thing with Dylan: you really have to listen to the early stuff. You have to acquaint yourself with the "folk scene" in NYC in the early 60s... and also the commercialization of the scene. You have to listen to Woody Guthrie. You have to listen to the first Dylan album, and trace his development through "Bringing It All Back Home." Compare that music to what else was going on at the time. Understand the significance of plugging in at the Newport Folk Festival. Check out the remastered "Highway 61" on the DCC/Dunhill label in all it's raw glory. Watch "Don't Look Back." Put on "Blonde on Blonde." Watch footage from the tour with The Hawks. Listen to the Royal Albert Hall show... the disgust in his voice when he plays "Like a Rolling Stone." And on and on.... Not to say that you don't know about that stuff... but appreciating Dylan (especially for those of us who came of age in the 80s) takes work and research. To see that progression... to experience it the way his audience did (if you can actually get that experience in retrospect). Then there's Greil Marcus' book on the Basement Tapes ("Invisible Republic"). I really need to sit down and read that damn book... Keith ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 08:06:52 +0100 From: "lucifersam" Subject: Re: Dylan ...maybe the Robyn album will > do it for you? You never know my friend ! ;0) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 00:13:45 -0700 (PDT) From: Mike Swedene Subject: U2-Bono's Dad Bono's father passed away from cancer on Tuesday. http://www.ananova.com/entertainment/story/sm_380036.html A moment of silence. Herbie Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 00:15:09 -0700 (PDT) From: Mike Swedene Subject: Holy Grail So who else is going to see the rerelease of the classic python film? I guess it is cleaned up, in stereo and has an additional 26 (some say 24) seconds of footage. Just curious. Join me my miopic and optically impaired friends! Herbie Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 08:12:33 +0100 From: "lucifersam" Subject: Re: Hi, I'm God Please Pay Brian $10,000 and 25 cents.... BL Zeebub...;0) > Today while I was working away from the PC I started composing a feg > message in my head -- basically lamenting the lack of recent traffic, > and maybe getting a little maudlin about what a drag it would be if/when > fegmaniax eventually faded away. > > When I got back to my PC there were 41 new feg messages in my inbox. > Obviously what I really meant to write about was how sad it is that > people aren't sending lots of large checks to me every day. I also > think it would be a good idea for the daytime temperature in New Orleans > to drop about 20 degrees. Thanks. > > +brian ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 08:14:33 +0100 From: "lucifersam" Subject: Re: overrated dylan And a bit of Dylan Baiting ! > I do believe it was Robyn's webcast that brought everyone to the > electronic totem today. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 08:17:29 +0100 From: "lucifersam" Subject: The Ooh.... Actually, I'd say all albums after 'Sell Out' !!!!!!!! Including the hideous'Tommy'...sheesh.... > overrated: > all Who albums after _Who Are You_ (hell, maybe even including it...) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 08:25:05 +0100 From: "lucifersam" Subject: Re: overrate me Blimey! > > Hey Fuck You, Natalie Jane!!! > > Fuck you too, Tom Clark!!! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 09:47:22 +0100 From: "matt sewell" Subject: RE: 2001 (Re: 1987.....) You know, come to think of it, I think Jim Davis may well have said 1985... I have to say I agree with Ed - I don't think there's any good news/music coming from the bloated, blood-sucking major labels, but there most certainly is great music out there - the fact that it's not served directly to our couches means a certain amount of effort to get out and find it but eh, that's part of the fun, no? Matt >From: "Poole, R. Edward" >Reply-To: "Poole, R. Edward" >To: "'Tom Clark'" , ElBroome@earthlink.net, "In A Van With Sebadoh" >Subject: RE: 2001 (Re: 1987.....) >Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 16:41:45 -0400 > >tc: > > still waxing nostalgic about 1985-1987 alt rock. > >Yeah, me too. Which reminds me, how come fIREHOSE didn't make the 1987 >list? (admittedly, their 1987 "If'n" was not quite as outstanding as 1986's >"Ragin Full On" but still.) > >Jeme: > > >Well, the media consolidation of the past fifteen years is unsurpassed > >probably in any industry over any similar period of time ever. It's quite > >obvious why diversity and artistry are on the decline. > >I couldn't argue with that w/r/t "major label" artists, but nowadays, anyone >with $3000-5000 dollars worth of recording equipment & cd-burners can >release a cd (less, if you want to). The vast media >consolidation/homogenization chokes off the ability of such "indies" to get >distribution (and radio airplay and marketing, etc). There is still great >stuff out there, you just have to work hard to find it (and the artists >rarely derive a living wage off it. Which reminds me of another neglected >late 80's & 90's outfit, Columbus Ohio's very own Scrawl. In 1990 (91?), I >went to their record release (for "Bloodsucker") "Potato Chip Party" at >Lounge Axe in Chicago. The band members (still 3 women at that point, >before they got a different, and make, drummer), wore their "work clothes" >for the gig -- i.e., office attire, complete with heels and snappy suits -- >because that's how they made their money to support their music -- being >temps. > >moral: corporate rock still sucks (and always did) (even if some great music >was released by majors when they smelled profit in it; really a historical >anomaly, more than anything else). > >-ed > >============================================================================This e-mail message and any attached files are confidential and are intended solely for the use of the addressee(s) named above. This communication may contain material protected by attorney-client, work product, or other privileges. If you are not the intended recipient or person responsible for delivering this confidential communication to the intended recipient, you have received this communication in error, and any review, use, dissemination, forwarding, printing, copying, or other distribution of this e-mail message and any attached files is strictly prohibited. If you have received this confidential communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail message and permanently delete the original message. > >To reply to our email administrator directly, send an email to postmaster@dsmo.com > >Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky LLP >http://www.legalinnovators.com - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 10:08:16 +0100 From: "lucifersam" Subject: Andy Kershaw So is Robyns full performance being broadcast on Radio 3 tommorow? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 11:04:40 +0100 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Robyn at Dancebase, 22/8/02001 I went on spec, without a ticket, through to Edinburgh last night to see if they'd let me in. The very nice person at the desk said there was a good chance if I was there by 21:30, but then another person at the door said -- absolutely straight -- that there was no chance and I might as well go home. She then proceeded to give me a ticket. Hmm. The show was being recorded for Andy Kershaw's Radio 3 show, Live Line-Up, to be broadcast Friday night at 22:30. Radio 3 used to be almost entirely classical (given to major series on Buxtehude, and the like) but it has changed a bit. I got video interviewed by a BBC staffer to see if I listened to Radio 3 at all (I might do; I just listen to whatever the Baygen's tuned to) and whether it and/or I have changed in broadcasting/listening habits. Dancebase, or The National Centre for Dance, in Grassmarket, has a main hall with a glass roof. There was quite a good view of Edinburgh Castle through the roof, and one could occasionally see fireworks and searchlights from the Edinburgh Military Tattoo (going on in the castle) through the roof. The large audience were mostly World Music types, there to see The Bhundu Boys, didn't quite "get" much of Robyn's work -- they were just there to hop around to the Zimbabwean beat*. Robyn's set started ofter a couple of songs from The Bhundu Boys, and went like this: 1. Don't Talk To Me About Gene Hackman - - with some patter beforehand regarding his two microphone stands, one disconnected but there so it could "learn from the one that was working". Whilst perorating about how trained artistes could be heard without microphones by using their lungs "...or if you miss out the N, their lugs**". The crowd chuckled their way through this one. 2. Cheese Alarm 3. Arms Of Love - - during this, a huge starburst rocket went off overhead, and everyone went "ooh!" and looked up. Afterwards, Robyn looked up at nothing in particular going on at the castle, and asked "Does it usually do that?". Then he saw the searchlights, and told a story about a dark zeppelin creeping up carrying the thing they feared the most. 4. Surgery 5. I Often Dream Of Trains - - "dedicated to my mother" 6. Autumn Is Your Last Chance 7. Freeze In quiet moments, you could hear Andy Kershaw's trademark laugh, which sounds vaguely amphibian. Quite a short set (just over half an hour), and the sound was a bit mushy, but I enjoyed it a lot. Robyn had some equipment problems, but was on good form. As there were video cameras present, he wasn't having the best hair day (I'm convinced that cameras steal the soul from Robyn's [august] hair), even managing to get his sunglasses entangled -- pipistrelle-like -- in his locks as he left the stage. I left after some crew packed up Robyn's kit. They told me that he wasn't coming back on, so I scooted at about 23:05. Ticket image: http://homepages.enterprise.net/scruss/Images/rh_220801.jpg *: which they did, but since they were mostly Scottish, they were the customary half a beat behind. **: which, in a remarkable piece of Scottish post-modernism, lug == ear in Scots, which neatly completes the whatever between the artist and the observer. - -- Stewart C. Russell Senior Analyst Programmer stewart@ref.collins.co.uk Collins Dictionaries use Disclaimer; my $opinion; Bishopbriggs, Scotland ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V10 #314 ********************************