From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V11 #264 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Tuesday, August 20 2002 Volume 11 : Number 264 Today's Subjects: ----------------- catch up/waiting ["ross taylor" ] sines ["drew" ] Mans Environmental Mistakes May Fuel Squid Boom ["ross taylor" ] Re: sines (moderate spoilerage) [Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey ] Signs [The Great Quail ] Re: Signals [gSs ] Re: Signs [steve ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 16:28:33 -0400 From: "ross taylor" Subject: catch up/waiting Just want to thank several for responses re. warped vinyl, linguistics etc. I never get so much email as when I go out of town. - --- I need to share this w/ someone-- Bad music to play at a wake: Even if it is so soft & slow & tinkly piano that you almost don't recognize it when you listen carefully: - --Somewhere over the Rainbow - --Never My Love - --Hey Jude - --You Decorated My Life - --probably others, but I decided not to listen carefully any more. - --- Thanks for the review eB. Nice to be able to add details to one's anticipation. - --- Gene Clark-- I know the story about his fear of flying, but didn't he also leave the Byrds because he didn't want to play in South Africa during aparthied? Or have I got my Byrds members mixed? I have a Hullabaloo tape where he is forced to start saying "hullabaloo" 20 times very fast as they are going into a commercial. It's also funny to see pictures of him aging into Johnny Cash. - --- Mardon me, Padam, but this pie is occupewed. Please allow me to sew you to another sheet. - - When the lads come home, as a patriotic gesture we should have all the hags flung out. - - etc. Ross Taylor "it's not the way it was supposed to be but I have set you free this time" Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 14:07:02 -0700 (PDT) From: "drew" Subject: sines > From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey > Shyamalan fairly obviously is thumbing his nose at the CGI-happy > Hollywood hacks and hypercaffeinated post-MTV cinematographers: Maybe, but I would argue that his shots -- and I like them -- are easily as affected and pretentious and intrusive. You are VERY aware of the camera because it is looking in ways that no human would ever look. > From: "LSDiamond" > Shyamalan's > films don't need special effects - they are about the story itself, not > how cool the story can look. *coughSpidermancough* Odd comparison -- of the superhero / blockbuster movies I've seen recently, Spider-Man seemed least concerned with "looking cool." Anyway, I would have liked Signs better if there had _been_ a story, or at least one I could believe in on any level. Even if you accept the science fiction premise, which was so wildly implausible I don't know why he bothered with it, you have to accept the human part of the story, and I found that wholly unconvincing and flimsy as well. In fact, the only thing I liked about the movie was that it was photographed beautifully -- in short, that it looked cool. Drew ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 18:01:09 -0400 From: "ross taylor" Subject: Mans Environmental Mistakes May Fuel Squid Boom http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/squid020814.html ""It's kind of hard to really nail down but anecdotally it looks like something is going on with these squid populations," said George Jackson" and "Nor is there a definitive way to put an actual number on the world's squid population. But it is possible their biomass may have already surpassed the whole of humanity." and ""If you warm them up a little, you just snowball them even faster," said Jackson." - --- Ross Taylor "lordy lord they sucked George Jackson down lordy lord they made him sink and drown" dylan? Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 15:22:51 -0700 From: "glen uber" Subject: Ain't gonna play Sun City ross earnestly scribbled: >I know the story about his fear of flying, but >didn't he also leave the Byrds because he didn't >want to play in South Africa during aparthied? >Or have I got my Byrds members mixed? Gene left the band because of his fear of flying. Gram Parsons, Gene's replacement, left the band after Keith Richards advised him not to commit career suicide by touring South Africa. - -- Cheers! - -g- "The reason the mainstream is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow." - -- George Carlin glen uber =+= blint (at) mac dot com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2002 17:31:10 -0500 (CDT) From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: sines (moderate spoilerage) On Mon, 19 Aug 2002, drew wrote: > > From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey > > > Shyamalan fairly obviously is thumbing his nose at the CGI-happy > > Hollywood hacks and hypercaffeinated post-MTV cinematographers: > > Maybe, but I would argue that his shots -- and I like them -- are > easily as affected and pretentious and intrusive. You are VERY > aware of the camera because it is looking in ways that no human > would ever look. I wasn't trying to go all Dogme at you - of course you're right; the film is very stylized. But it's a cinematographer's style, old school - not, well, what I said above. I wasn't trying to defend some sort of (to me, absurd: it's intrinsically a technical medium) "organic" filmmaking. > > From: "LSDiamond" > > > Shyamalan's > > films don't need special effects - they are about the story itself, not > > how cool the story can look. *coughSpidermancough* > > Odd comparison -- of the superhero / blockbuster movies I've > seen recently, Spider-Man seemed least concerned with "looking > cool." I'd agree w/you there too. > Anyway, I would have liked Signs better if there had _been_ a > story, or at least one I could believe in on any level. Even > if you accept the science fiction premise, which was so wildly > implausible I don't know why he bothered with it, you have to > accept the human part of the story, and I found that wholly > unconvincing and flimsy as well. In fact, the only thing I liked > about the movie was that it was photographed beautifully -- in > short, that it looked cool. I think all of Shymalan's films are less about their stories, or even specifically their characters, than about the ethical situations the stories and characters navigate. In this, they're rather like (one way of) SF, which we were discussing the other day. Probably why he's doing genre films (supernatural thriller, more-or-less comic-book superhero, alien invasion) instead of more conventionally "realistic" work - which work expects character and plot to be primary. In some respects, I'd compare _Signs_ to _Changing Lanes_: both films are about ethics, I'd argue - and if you watch them primarily for character, you'll have to stretch a little bit to accept them as realistic (as in: I don't really believe Jackson's character in CL would loosen the lugnuts of Affleck's car - if only because, with Jackson following and checking the situation out in a cab, *he'd* be at risk too). In a sense, these movies are the oldest kind of story: they're strongly allegorical. It's interesting that we (generally) accept "unrealistic" situations, knowing they're part of a particular genre (like SF), but have a harder time w/unrealistic characters in a (very, in the case of _Signs_) realistically rendered world. [mild spoilers] . . . . . . . . . . . . I assume by "the human part of the story" you mean Gibson's character's crisis of faith, his reaction to it, and the way the plot leads to his (apparent) resolution of it? I found it less "unbelievable" than not subtly rendered enough (the outline of the cross on the wall? C'mon...)- and hampered a bit by Gibson's seeming less despairing than his character was supposed to be. His acting fell a bit short on that score. And I suppose if you're predisposed to be hostile toward religious ideas, you'll not like this one either - since, to me, it pretty clearly suggests their importance and (loaded word in this context) reality. Usually, though, I don't really care if my movies are less than perfect, as long as they're entertaining, and they make me think, w/o grievously insulting my intelligence. I might disagree w/their premises - but if either those premises are reasonably put forth, or if they're sort of a given (aliens are invading: okay, not very plausible, and *why* they're doing so is - intentionally, I'd say - not made clear - but just accept it and move one), I don't mind. oh - and it helps if the film looks cool. - --Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html ::flag on the moon...how'd it get there?:: ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2002 11:53:53 +1200 From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) Subject: Re: Edinburgh gigs FWIW, "Creeped out American girl" returns exactly 0 hits on Google. So if it's not an original, it's one that no-one's transcribed the lyrics to on the web yet (or at least if they have, Google can't find them). I'm betting original. It *sounds* like a RH original lyrically. 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, 19 Aug 2002 23:37:58 -0500 From: steve Subject: Some Scary Moments (NR) Opening 9/20 in select theaters and wider on 10/4. The subtitled version will also be released, so you can tell your friends that you're going to see a foreign film. http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/spirited_away.html And you can find one of the Japanese trailers, featuring the character No Face, at the official U.S. site (Flash 5 required). http://bventertainment.go.com/movies/spiritedaway/index.html - - Steve __________ Does pop music really change anything other than the width of a teenager's trousers? Is there really no Santa Claus on the evening stage? Does the shed hold only a push bike, or is there a lawn mower in there too? Well, I've done the research, talked to the culprit's parents and come to my own conclusions. The answer is this: God's atoms have been scattered and re-assembled in the form of a fluffy bunny. - Bill Nelson ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2002 09:29:58 -0400 From: The Great Quail Subject: Signs I found "Signs" to be a very frustrating film, and Shyalaman to be a very frustrating director. While I loved the idea of the movie -- and his technique of focusing on one small family during an international crisis -- I really think that he need to learn that sometimes less is just less. I loved the build-up in tension and the creepy atmosphere -- but there's so little payoff, in both "Signs" and "Unbreakable," that I find myself very frustrated. Spoilers ensue! * * * And on another level, I thought the plot was ludicrous! An alien race evolves to the point of invisible spaceships, an all-too familiar and quite HUMANOID alien race, and yet -- get this -- they are harmed by WATER, one of the most basic compounds in the universe, and one required for the carbon-based life that the aliens obviously were. Gah! Not to mention the fact that their only real tactics seemed to involve innate poison gas squirters and, uh, grabbing people. Ooh, get out the baseball bats, we're under alien attack! Christ. And -- crop circles as navigation???? What the fuck is that all about? Seems like a pretty arcane way of navigating a hyper-advanced interstellar invisible starship. I long for a real balls-to-the-wall alien invasion movie, you know? One where we are totally fucked, like "Childhood's End" or any Greg Bear book. I was hoping "Signs" would veer into more disturbing territory, but by the end I was laughing. Which again, was really a disappointment, because I though the first two-thirds were great! Why can only John Carpenter seem to destroy the human race in his films? - --Quail ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Great Quail, Keeper of the Libyrinth: http://www.TheModernWord.com "O Nature, and O soul of man! How far beyond all utterance are your linked analogies! Not the smallest atom stirs or lives in matter, but has its cunning duplicate in mind." --Herman Melville, "Moby Dick" ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2002 10:51:31 -0500 (CDT) From: gSs Subject: Re: Signals I saw the Rush show last night as was thoroughly impressed. They only played 2112 and cygnus x-1 medleys but they did the entire Natural Science and a number of other classics as well as some newer songs from the nineties and off their latest release. The video work was prime and the audio was about as good as it could be in an open air auditorium with a cover. The breeze was nice so though it felt like 96, it was probably closer to 98. The crowd looked the same as it did when Moving Pictures came out, and included a fair number of black and hispanic fans, though the male-female ratio is still about 10-1. The band still looks good and they sound even better. The song list was excellent. Tom Sawyer Distant Early Warning New World Man Roll the Bones Earthshine YYZ The Pass Bravado The Big Money Between Sun and Moon Vital Signs Natural Science One Little Victory Driven Ghost Rider Secret Touch Dreamline Red Sector A Leave That Thing Alone Neil Drum Solo Resist (acoustic version) 2112 Limelight La Villa Strangiato Spirit of Radio encore By-Tor and the Snow Dog Cygnus X-1 Working Man ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2002 19:58:35 -0500 From: steve Subject: Re: Signs On Tuesday, August 20, 2002, at 08:29 AM, The Great Quail wrote: > I long for a real balls-to-the-wall alien invasion movie, you know? One > where we are totally fucked, like "Childhood's End" or any Greg Bear > book. Except that in Childhood's End we are totally fucked by evolution, which I guess is the same thing in the end. - - Steve __________ Members of the Christ Community Church in Alamogordo, N.M., burned Harry Potter books, Star Wars items and works by Shakespeare and J.R.R. Tolkien, USA Today reported. Pastor Jack Brock called the Potter books "a masterpiece of satanic deception [that teaches] children how they can get into witchcraft." ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V11 #264 ********************************