From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V11 #304 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Thursday, September 26 2002 Volume 11 : Number 304 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: another jewel in my geek crown, please [grutness@surf4nix.com (James ] Re: NDL + [Eb ] Very Sad Reap ["matt sewell" ] Re: Fruhling, Sommer, Herbst, Winter ["matt sewell" ] Re: Very Sad Reap [Michael R Godwin ] Re: Harmony/Racket ["Brian Hoare" ] Re: clari-fixations and more rantations [Christopher Gross ] Re: clari-fixations and more rantations [Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey ] Re: clari-fixations and more rantations [Christopher Gross ] Dig this... ["Rex.Broome" ] beating polls to death (briefly) [Christopher Gross ] Re: Fegs for Peace [Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey ] Coolest FireWire hub ever! [Ken Weingold ] Re: Coolest FireWire hub ever! [Kevin.Welton@arm.com] Re: Fegs for Peace [The Great Quail ] Why is Captain Kirk like a roll of Charmin'? [0% rh] [Stewart Russell ] Rhett Miller Article (10% RH Content) [Tom Clark ] Nextdoorland [Tom Clark ] carry them back to now [drew ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 17:32:01 +1200 From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) Subject: Re: another jewel in my geek crown, please >May I chime in here in support of instant run-off voting - in which voters >allocate their preferences amongst the candidates and eliminate in one >step both useless "primary" elections and the pernicious "lesser of two >evils" approach to ballot-casting? this sounds to me like preferential voting, as used in Australia, which for no apparent reason is called Single Transferrable Voting in New Zealand (not to be confused with the compeletly different system that the rest of the world calls Single Transferrable Voting). It's a very good system although (like every other system), it's not infallible. Look on the bright side, folks. The party I voted for at the last election came in eighth! 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: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 00:00:57 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Re: NDL + >From: drew > >I wanted to like "Unprotected Love" and "Strings" but they just >haven't grabbed me yet. Eb's descriptions of them seem so much >more exciting than the songs. Gosh. What a nice compliment to me...what a grave insult to the album. Seems like you folks had some pretty sky-high expectations for this disc, as if the long-term Beefheartian-rock-to-pleasant-jingle-jangle evolution (de-evolution?) of his music suddenly would be reversed in an instant. Oh, to bring everything full circle...Ralph Nader would be filed between Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares and Napoleon XIV in my record collection. I'm sorry -- it had to be said. I feel some nebulous sense of irony there, but can't quite pin it down in words. ;) Eb, semi-baffled by all the ringing endorsements for "I Love Lucy" ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 09:42:59 +0100 From: "matt sewell" Subject: Very Sad Reap Tim Rose. I saw him play a couple of years back, supporting Percy Plant at a secret gig at the Zodiac in Oxford - I hadn't even heard of him (!), but he completely blew me away, just him and an accoustic guitar. Cheers Matt - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: Click Here ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 09:59:13 +0100 From: "matt sewell" Subject: Re: Fruhling, Sommer, Herbst, Winter What the hell happened to Godwin's Law? That's about the third post now... ;0) Cheers Matt >From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) >Reply-To: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) >To: fegmaniax@smoe.org >Subject: Fruhling, Sommer, Herbst, Winter >Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 12:09:47 +1200 > > >1. The implication that Hitler's goal was not to conquer Europe and to > >create a greater Germanic state but to get the volk off his back until the > >economy picked up. > >it is perhaps worth noting that the original German minister's statement >did not compare Bush to Hitler. It compared Bush's methods to Hitler's >methods. A subtle difference, but an important one. > > >> That is, the dusks are better the further you > >> get from the equator. > > > >yeah, but you guys got your seasons ass-backwards ... > >nah. That's you northerners. What better time to have Christmas than in the >middle of summer? You can spend most of the holiday on the beach. >(Admittedly, eggs and bunnies in autumn is a bit weird). > >James (will Nextdoorland ever be released in New Zealand???) > >nf - New Mexico. Well, why not? It's one of the most attractive US state >flags. (Not much competition there, really, except Maryland, Alaska, >Hawaii, and a couple of others). > > 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") - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: Click Here ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 10:18:41 +0100 From: "matt sewell" Subject: Re: another jewel in my geek crown, please Don't worry, James - in my experience the best things come in eighths! Cheers Matt >From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) >Look on the bright side, folks. The party I voted for at the last election >came in eighth! > - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: Click Here ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 12:59:24 +0100 (BST) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: Re: Very Sad Reap On Thu, 26 Sep 2002, matt sewell wrote: > Tim Rose. > I saw him play a couple of years back, supporting Percy Plant at a secret > gig at the Zodiac in Oxford - I hadn't even heard of him (!), but he > completely blew me away, just him and an accoustic guitar. Too bad. I hadn't heard of him for years and years. The only time I saw him was at a Savile Theatre concert in 1967 when he was supporting Fairport - that's the original Judy Dyble Fairport. At that time he had an anti-bomb song called "Morning Dew" which was performed by absolutely everybody (it had a good riff and only 4 chords) notably The Jeff Beck Group on their palaeo-Zep LP "Truth", and also Fairport of course. While checking this, I see from http://www.hedgerow.net/ that it is also on the new Plant record. - - Mike Godwin PS Just found that Zeppelin once played 'Morning Dew' with Fairport, and that John Bonham once drummed for Tim Rose, which explains the Plant connection. From: http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:KHHEGtn-zTsC:members.aol.com/lzhistory/sep.html+%22Tim+Rose%22+%22Fairport+Convention%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 "On this day in 1970, after playing their Blueberry Hill show to a crowd of 20,000 at the L.A. Forum, Led Zeppelin appear with Fairport Convention at the Troubadour in Los Angeles to a much smaller crowd of a couple hundred. "Fairport Convention is in the midst of recording a live album, and Zeppelin agrees to perform with the band during the second set. None of the Zeppelin/Convention tapes would be released, but Fairport Convention's other sets would see their official UK release 16 years later. "The group consists of Simon Nicol and Richard Thompson, both on guitar and contributing vocals, Dave Swarbrick on the fiddle, Dave Pegg on the bass, and drummer Dave Mattacks. (Note that singer Sandy Denny had left Fairport almost a year ago to form Fotheringay.) "Together, the bands play several songs John Bonham was quite familiar with, having played them with Tim Rose on the Summer 1968 tour. "Hey Joe" is one tune, which Bonham had also played with Robert Plant in the Band of Joy (their demo recording of "Hey Joe" with Plant on vocals can be heard online at Electric Magic). Rose's "Morning Dew" is another popular cover song". ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 13:09:04 +0100 (BST) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: Re: Very Sad Reap On Thu, 26 Sep 2002, matt sewell wrote: > Tim Rose. PS to last: Tim Rose was also known as the originator of the very slow version of "Hey Joe", as performed by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Earlier folk-rock versions of "Hey Joe" were speedy and jangly, notably the US hit version by the Leaves, and the very similar covers by the Byrds and Love. - - MRG ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 13:27:47 +0000 From: "Brian Hoare" Subject: Re: Harmony/Racket >The first time I heard "Strings" I said to myself "now *there's* the >Soft Boys", but I'm rethinking that reaction now. I still like >Strings, but isn't the Soft Boys the band that features a Robyn >who is nearing 50? Songs like "My Mind Is Connected To Your >Dreams" is the Soft Boys of today, and the song itself sounds better >as rendered by the band than it did with Robyn on TV a while back. "There's bound to be a certain amount of nervousness," he said. "[The fans] will be initially pleased to hear it, and then they'll say it's not as good as Underwater Moonlight and then about five years down the line they'll probably get to like it on it's own merit." RH My thoughts after a few listens would fit in with this, don't know how I'll feel in five years. I like it but it doesn't feel like a classic. The venom of the old Soft Boys is missing and so is the richness of recent RH releases. The one feature of the SBs it preserves is the guitar work which surpases recent examples such as NASA and Seattle. Of the stuff slated for side 3, we got to hear Narcissus, Disconnection and Om ( listed by Mr Godwin as White Light) last year and I remember them feeling more like SB songs than the first batch. Anyone prepared to investigate the lyrics of the new songs? As yet no great depths of meaning have suggested themselves to me and it may be this and the fact that I don't get an emotional connection to the lyrics rather than the playing that bothers me about this release. Pulse, has some good sounding lines but I can't get a handle on it. Unprotected Love, is it actually an appeal to drop ones emotional defences? Strings, is he trying too hard to write what he used to? Japanese Captain ??? _don't_ get drawn into imagine the Captain (Sensible or Beefheart) turning Japanese while trawling for ideas. Lions and Tigers, I don't get it. Tull and the Bonzos have better songs about Tigers. >This whole thing is the Soft Boys, and it could be the most vital >reunion album I can remember hearing. Maybe some of you can >think of better examples. I can't. The Damned's recent Grave Disorder has some truly splendid moments. > >If the Beatles were all still alive and reunited, I'd wish for better >than a rehash of "I Am The Walrus". I don't know what would happen but the two main song writers moved so far apart in their later work that the songs wouldn't sit well together and the particpants would feel like each others disinterested backing bands (isn't that what happened anyway). I would guess a similar disapointment to the Bonzo's Let's Make Up And Be Friendly when Innes (McCartney) and Stanshall (Lennon) tried to get the Bonzos functional again. That said the 80's reunion single was rather good. Brian _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 10:02:17 -0400 (EDT) From: Christopher Gross Subject: Re: clari-fixations and more rantations On Wed, 25 Sep 2002, Mark Gloster wrote: > Here is a little clarification of my 2% comment, for which I didn't > see any response, Hey, what am I, chopped squid-liver? > Statistically, Ralph Nader did not exist in the election, as he > brought in 2% of the voters to the election that would not have > otherwise voted. Not correct. At least, in every poll I saw, only 30-40% of Nader voters said that they would not otherwise have voted. Meanwhile, 40-50% said that they otherwise would have voted for Gore. > It is a complete waste of > time to villify a statistical non-entity for the failings of an > incompetent entity, though it is doing just that. What, you don't think the Democrats have been criticizing Gore for his campaign? This too is incorrect. I think you just notice the Nader bashing (if you can call it that) more because you happen to care about Nader. Running to catch the bus, Chris ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 10:58:12 -0400 From: Ken Ostrander Subject: Re: Fruhling, Sommer, Herbst, Winter >What the hell happened to Godwin's Law? That's about the third post >now... didn't this thread start with hitler? maybe it should end with cynthia mask. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 10:58:44 -0500 (CDT) From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: clari-fixations and more rantations On Thu, 26 Sep 2002, Christopher Gross wrote: > > Statistically, Ralph Nader did not exist in the election, as he > > brought in 2% of the voters to the election that would not have > > otherwise voted. > > Not correct. At least, in every poll I saw, only 30-40% of Nader voters > said that they would not otherwise have voted. Meanwhile, 40-50% said > that they otherwise would have voted for Gore. So the percentage of voters who both voted for Nader and otherwise would not have voted is 30-40% of whatever percentage voted for Nader overall. That adds up to pretty close to "2% of the voters...," since Nader got maybe 5% vote total, no? - --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 ::[clever or pithy quote]:: __[source of quote]__ np: Robert Pollard _Kid Marine_ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 16:08:25 +0000 From: "Golden Hind" Subject: Fegs for Peace Jill: >Maybe we can meet in Washington on 10/26 under a Fegs for Peace >banner. >Wouldn't that just be totally misconstrued. Heh. That could make for a nice piece of street theater. When Robyn made the comment bout Bush being the Brits president too, I thought he was joking. - ------------------------ Eb: >You're the only one who has escaped me. You've seen the old Terence Stamp >film "The Collector," right? I shouldn't have to >explain further. Wait, wasnt he one of the actors who was a villian in a "Superman" movie? Oh - --and he was in "Modesty Blaze." Now "Modesty Blaze" -- theres a movie, and a herione, for you;-p - ----------------------- John wrote: >There's a marvelous scene in the movie _Party Girl_. Due to some drug >induced >indiscretions, Parker Posey has been sentenced to community service in the >public library. She falls in love with the Dewey Decimal system, and her >DJ >boy friend comes home to prep for a gig, only to discover that she has >rearranged his record collection according to the Dewey Decimal system. It was the cross-indexing that impressed me;-) - ---------------------------------- Quail: >I think this might just be a projection of your own wishes. On account of >the last elections, the Greens have alienated themselves >almost >irretrievably from mainstream Democrats. The Greens -- especially with >Nader- -- are a marginal party, with little power to >win a national >election,especially in a post 9/11 environment. Not to mention the alarming >drift of the Democrats towards the right, and >their remarkable reluctance >to criticize the Bush regime. While it may well be a projection of my own wishes, it may also be a projection of my own memories. Theres nothing like a war-mongering government to energize and expand the opposition, especially as the right goes righter. And if the opposition expands, the Dems might find it adventageous to move left. There is a -small- possibility that Bush is acting the tyrant so as to effectively challange the tyrant. Maybe, but I fear that's crediting Bush with too much intelligence. I get the feeling he really does want to play with all those nice shiny missletoys. More Quail: >And even then, I still think a larger threat comes from >Saudi Arabia, our so-called "allies." Except for possibly Jordan, the whole area is tricky, to say the least. I agree about the Saudies. - ----------------------- ReX: >As such I can not only tell you what letter of the alphabet, but also what >years dominate my collection. I could graph them to show the ebb and flow >of music I like from year to year. But I won't. But please do. Ive loved following this thread. Its precision has me in awe. Hell, If I can keep a record in its proper slipcase I feel organized, but filing it? Putting it in a database? Knowing where the hell it is in the house? Is it a Cd, Cdr, vynal, casette, mp3? This thread is a nice vicarious thrill for me. And I -love- graphs. No, really. Graphs were why I always did so well in economics classes. I'd love to see graphs of peoples collections by years, and then a mega graph for all Feg. That would be monster high geek. - -------------------------- Kay, occaisionally she was a Monica Vitti, graph-reading type _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 12:19:52 -0400 (EDT) From: Christopher Gross Subject: Re: clari-fixations and more rantations On Thu, 26 Sep 2002, Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey wrote: > So the percentage of voters who both voted for Nader and otherwise would > not have voted is 30-40% of whatever percentage voted for Nader overall. > > That adds up to pretty close to "2% of the voters...," since Nader got > maybe 5% vote total, no? Hmm? No, I thought Nader's *total* vote was two-point-something percent of the votes cast. Hold on, let me use the massive library resources at my disposal to check.... Okay, according to the Statistical Abstract of the United States (an extremely handy little book, btw), in 2000 there were 105,397,000 votes for president cast, of which Nader got 2,883,000 (all numbers rounded to the nearest thousand). This means Nader won 2.735% of the popular vote. - --library geek Chris ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 10:14:02 -0700 From: "Rex.Broome" Subject: Mostly guitar blather with small side of politics Chris G.: >>in polls at the time, about 40-50% -- yes, forty to fifty percent -- of Nader voters >>did say that they would have voted for Gore if Nader hadn't run. That's the nature of the polling question, though: either/or. Gore SO alienated me that I would've found someone else to the left of him-- or more to the point with more integrity-- to vote for, Nader or not. One of them online polls told me that David McReynolds, the Socialist candidate, was the guy who best fit my views. Next up: Bill Bradley, followed by Nader, and then Gore. _________________ Ross and Brian on the R & K's guitars: >>I think I consistently >hear Robyn's guitar on the left (i.e. the >earphone that's in my left ear) and Kimberly's >on the right -- K w/ more choppy, syncopated >strumming & harsher, fatter tone, R w/ more >fingerpicking, or strumming that's more a >straight pulse-- but w/ single-note stuff it's harder >for me to tell their styles apart. That's one of the things I love about the full-band disc of "Robyn Sings"... hearing Robyn cut loose with solos on half of the songs, none of which he wrote, and trying to match that up with his style as we know it (forget who the other guitarist is, but his solos are notably different). I assume you're referring more to leads/riffs than the solos, though. Robyn's solos are underrated... very unique and, I dunno, serpentine. Maybe more like Thompson than anyone else (although I'd love to know who else other fegs might hear in there). The crazy thing is how he gets those cascades of notes going, fast runs up and down, but never wusses out and just goes up to the high note, digs in and bends the hell out of it like a "normal" player would. I never get tired of it. Not having heard Kimberley as much lately, I'll have a keen ear out stereo-right in an attempt to decide on the purchase of KR's solo record. - -Rex, who frequently wusses out and just goes up to the high note, digs in and bends the hell out of it like a "normal" player would ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 12:20:58 -0500 (CDT) From: gSs Subject: Re: The German Way On Wed, 25 Sep 2002, steve wrote: > > why then didn't the us veto the resolution? > > Don't mistake a short term position for a long term goal. the long term goal being? let me guess, a universal neocrusade to rid the world of everyone except anglican judeo fundamentalist ivy league graduates? or should that be 'judeo anglican...' ? gSs ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 10:25:44 -0700 From: "Rex.Broome" Subject: Dig this... Just got this from my partner in the Ghost Ship Party: >>I got a little work done today- A combination of the footage from the "exploring >>the sub" scene from the Abyss and the death scene from the Perfect Storm for >>"Luminous Rose" (great song, by the way) Heh heh heh... it's not a party if it doesn't have Robyn singing while a crab crawls out of some bloated corpse's mouth! Rex ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 13:36:56 -0400 (EDT) From: Christopher Gross Subject: beating polls to death (briefly) On Thu, 26 Sep 2002, Rex.Broome wrote: > That's the nature of the polling question, though: either/or. Gore SO > alienated me that I would've found someone else to the left of him-- or more > to the point with more integrity-- to vote for, Nader or not. I *think* the polls I saw allowed people to name any other candidate they would have voted for. At least, they must have allowed you to choose from Gore, Bush, "another candidate," or not voting, because I remember seeing numbers for each of those choices. (I think I saw some results for Buchanan too, but I'm not entirely sure about that.) > One of them > online polls told me that David McReynolds, the Socialist candidate, was the > guy who best fit my views. Next up: Bill Bradley, followed by Nader, and > then Gore. Heh. I think I took the same online poll (on Salon.com?). Bill Bradley was my top match, followed by McReynolds, and Gore was *third*. (I forget where Nader came in; maybe fourth.) Dunno about McReynolds, but Bradley was indeed my first choice, not Gore; so maybe there is something to this poll. I still wish Bill had won the nomination, though I can't claim to be positive he would have beaten the Chimp -- he lacks Gore's negative rep, but shares his stiff, awkward manner. Oh, well. That's all, Chris ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 12:52:30 -0500 (CDT) From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: Fegs for Peace On Thu, 26 Sep 2002, Golden Hind wrote: > There is a -small- possibility that Bush is acting the tyrant so as to > effectively challange the tyrant. Maybe, but I fear that's crediting Bush > with too much intelligence. I get the feeling he really does want to play > with all those nice shiny missletoys. Unfortunately, Cheney, Wolfowitz et al. have been pursuing military preeminence and seeking "preemptive strieks" against any nation that acts a threat (i.e., doesn't kowtow to US interests) for a decade. Bush policy is wholly consistent with that. Combine that militaristic perspective with the Bush/Ashcroft millennarian view of America as chief divine agent to hasten the Second Coming, and we're in deep shit. Plans were afoot amongst right-wingers to overthrow Iraq before Bush's "election," and in fact, overthrow the govt. even if Hussein had no longer been in power. - --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 ::"Shut up, you truculent lout, and let the cute little pixie sing!":: ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 14:05:56 -0400 From: Ken Weingold Subject: Coolest FireWire hub ever! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 13:29:51 -0500 (CDT) From: Kevin.Welton@arm.com Subject: Re: Coolest FireWire hub ever! At some time, Ken Weingold wrote: > But not as cool as this Ethernet switch: http://draco.mit.edu/teddyborg/. K. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 15:19:54 -0400 From: The Great Quail Subject: Re: Fegs for Peace Kay writes, > While it may well be a projection of my own wishes, it may also be a > projection of my own memories. Theres nothing like a war-mongering > government to energize and expand the opposition, especially as the right > goes righter. And if the opposition expands, the Dems might find it > adventageous to move left. Again, I think the only real example you can make is Vietnam, which -- let's face it -- we have finally put behind us. It's history. The Dems haven't been so ready to green up their party for, let's see -- over thirty years, which is almost two generations. And having said that, let's not forget that McGovern did not win. > There is a -small- possibility that Bush is acting the tyrant so as to > effectively challange the tyrant. Maybe, but I fear that's crediting Bush > with too much intelligence. I get the feeling he really does want to play > with all those nice shiny missletoys. Yes, alas, I feel the same way. If he *is* fronting -- which is a possibility -- and that opens Iraq to inspections, so be it. But dammit, I think that Bush just wants to play with toys and send other people's children out to bleed.... > More Quail: >> And even then, I still think a larger threat comes from >> Saudi Arabia, our so-called "allies." > > Except for possibly Jordan, the whole area is tricky, to say the least. I > agree about the Saudies. The whole area is tricky, yes, but the Saudis are are closest allies, and since the fall of Nasser, they have the biggest regional influence among the non-Iranian Middle East.... Bah. Maybe I'll finally listen to "Nextdoorland" so I can get this political monkey off my back! - --Q ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 15:24:51 -0400 From: Stewart Russell Subject: Why is Captain Kirk like a roll of Charmin'? [0% rh] sigh ... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 15:26:16 -0400 From: Ken Weingold Subject: Re: Coolest FireWire hub ever! On Thu, Sep 26, 2002, Kevin.Welton@arm.com wrote: > At some time, Ken Weingold wrote: > > > > But not as cool as this Ethernet switch: > http://draco.mit.edu/teddyborg/. Hubzilla will kick Teddy Borg's ass. - -Ken ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 14:09:25 -0700 From: Tom Clark Subject: Rhett Miller Article (10% RH Content) http://www.examiner.com/ex_files/default.jsp?story=X0926MILLERw Pertinent excerpt: "And my first date with Erica was on the bank of the Thames, seeing Robyn Hitchcock play," Miller recalls. "And then we went to a dinner party at his house a few days later, so he was tied up in the whole beginning of our romance." It made perfect sense to have Hitchcock come to town to sing on "Point Shirley." He played guitar and laid down a harmony on the lines, "These stones are not a home." Miller says, "And to hear Robyn Hitchcock singing 'stones' and 'bones' in the studio? Well, 'stones' and 'bones' are the most Robyn Hitchcock-y words in the world, I think." I've been meaning to pick up some Old 97's or solo Miller stuff. This just about seals it. - -tc ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 15:16:27 -0700 From: Tom Clark Subject: Nextdoorland I'm not one one for long, in-depth reviews, but I'm really enjoying the new disc. While I wish there was just a little more grit to the whole affair, I can appreciate it for what it is. Matthew stands out tremendously on a few tracks, especially "Strings", which I can't wait to hear live. That is all. - -tc p.s. To whomever entered the Nextdoorland info into CDDB - "Soft Boys, The"?? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 15:38:22 -0700 From: drew Subject: carry them back to now I don't really want to get embroiled in the political threads. But I like analogies. Here's my revision, where now buyer = voter rather than candidate: You see a CD by Limp Bizkit, a CD by Jewel, and a CD by the Soft Boys. (This actually works out well to say that it's Nextdoorland.) - - The clerk tells you straight out that you can't have Nextdoorland no matter what. If you want you can put a down payment on it that _might_ allow you to buy the next Soft Boys CD in four years, though. - - In the meantime you can plunk down your $17 (a price I NEVER pay for CDs...$16 is bad enough) for either Limp or Jewel. By the way, there's a chance that if you buy either one it will prevent more Soft Boys material from being available in the future, so paying for one of those CDs may actually help to kill off the band you do like. - - Oh, and by the way, there's also a chance that if you pay for Jewel you may still leave the store with Limp, or vice versa, because in the end everybody leaves with the same CD regardless of what they paid for. - - And you're handing your money to the bored senior citizen in the corner, not the clerk, so your actual order might get lost in the translation, or perhaps even "lost." If the clerk is a big Limp fan you might end up with Limp instead. Now, I fucking hate Limp Bizkit. And guess what, Jeb the clerk gave me their CD, even though I put money down on the Soft Boys CD. What you might be asking at this point is why you can't just pay your money and get the CD you want, and the answer is that the analogy has broken down a bit. In the real world, the record industry does allow people to buy more than one specific CD every four years, and in the real world, your vote is free. It still seems like a fucked-up situation, though, doesn't it? It seems like I should be trying to change the factors that affect the quality of the choices I have and the ways I am allowed to choose. And if you don't know ahead of time that you could, DEFINITELY, get Jewel by DEFINITELY hurting the Soft Boys, would you do it? I'm not talking about after the fact, when you have no guarantee that your purchase of Jewel will have any effect on the outcome at all. I do like Jewel better than Limp Bizkit. I'd be happier with a Jewel CD than a Gore presidency. If I'd been able to guarantee a Gore presidency OR a Bush presidency with my vote (which is not the same as having only two options) I might have voted differently. >From: Brian > >Drew: It's good you're giving yourself the opportunity to grow into >it. I hope it works! Definitely sounds better on headphones, I think. >You've been listening to lots of Bowie lately. >Does Lions and Tigers remind you at all of Scary Monsters? Vaguely, I guess, except that I like Scary Monsters. :) I wouldn't have made that comparison unprompted. >From: rosso@videotron.ca > >No, there isn't an "Old Pervert", or a "Sandra's Having Her Brain >Out". Robyn's doesn't have any zits of that nature left to squeeze. >To me those songs were sometimes interesting, sometimes embarassing >songwriting exercises. They also had a sense of fun, invention, and style that these songs lack, to my ears. They may have been zits, but these aren't even liver spots. >If this year's SB CD did comprise a number >of tracks like those, wouldn't that be the " half-assed nostalgia" >Drew heard? Yeah, so "nostalgia" was probably a poor choice of words, since it applies only to the name of the band, really. [the next album] >The othe would be a carefully planned excursion over the edge. That's the album I wanted to hear, maybe minus a little care in the planning. This will do for now, I guess. >isn't the Soft Boys the band that features a Robyn >who is nearing 50? People keep bringing this fact up, but I don't see what difference it makes. What, is he too old to, like, "rock out" now? Did he become a brittle old man (of 50???) between the terrific songs on _Bram_ and the sedate stopgap of _Robyn Sings_? How come Bowie can make an album like _Heathen_ at 50 but Robyn has to write songs like "Mr. Kennedy"? I don't buy that at all. 60, 70, okay, maybe no more "NASA Clapping," but until then, it's no excuse. >This whole thing is the Soft Boys, and it could be the most vital >reunion album I can remember hearing. Maybe some of you can >think of better examples. I can't. Then it's rather faint praise, isn't it? I feel the need to reiterate: it's not a _bad_ album. But it's not at all an impressive one, to me, and after the newness wears off I doubt I'll be reaching for it too often. Drew ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V11 #304 ********************************