From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V12 #133 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Monday, April 7 2003 Volume 12 : Number 133 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: reap (12:40 pm) [The Great Quail ] RE: reap (12:40 pm) ["Brian Huddell" ] Re: Interesting, but not surprising (5% Zeppelin) [Miles Goosens ] RE: Interesting, but not surprising (5% Zeppelin) [Sebastian Hagedorn ] Return of the Sacred Blue Crab... ["Rex.Broome" ] "Sail on Sailor" [David Witzany ] but my heart lies in ol' West Virginia [Miles Goosens ] Drug Store Truck Drivin' Gear Changes ["Rex.Broome" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 15:54:10 -0400 From: The Great Quail Subject: Re: reap (12:40 pm) > My father. Eb, I think I speak for all of us when I say that this just sucks. There are no useful words to offer, no words that can bring you comfort; I just hope that you can find something in the next few days to keep you going. All my best, - --Quail ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2003 14:56:16 -0500 From: "Brian Huddell" Subject: RE: reap (12:40 pm) I'm very sorry, Eric. peace, +brian in New Orleans > My father. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 15:02:44 -0500 From: Miles Goosens Subject: Re: Interesting, but not surprising (5% Zeppelin) At 10:07 PM 4/5/2003 -0500, Stewart C. Russell wrote: >Tom Clark wrote: > > >> RIAA's 100 top selling albums: >> http://www.riaa.com/Gold-Best-5.cfm > >how surprised would anyone be if I said I didn't have any of them? ;-) Somewhere around my level of surprise that Ken Griffey Jr. suffered a catastrophic injury over the weekend. While this may be a crafty scheme of mine deliberately geared to make me appear *more* mainstream than I am in order to discredit Eb's implied contention that people here are engaged in a "more alt than thou" contest, I own, or have owned, a pretty high number of them: Eagles, EAGLES GREATEST HITS 1971-75 When I was 11, I thought HOTEL CALIFORNIA was the greatest album ever. My 8-track of this dates to that period. Pink Floyd, THE WALL As I got older, I came to like the Syd stuff and the MEDDLE-era stuff better, but I'm hardly ashamed to own this -- I'd still give it four out of five stars. LED ZEPPELIN IV I love this, HOUSES OF THE HOLY, and especially PHYSICAL GRAFFITI. Lester Bangs may have hated them, but the Loder girls understand. AC/DC, BACK IN BLACK Totally kicks ass. I have a slight preference for HIGHWAY TO HELL and POWERAGE, but this is a fine, fine album. The Beatles, THE BEATLES (aka THE WHITE ALBUM) Stewart, do you hate the Beatles or something? I can't believe you wouldn't own this. Would seem to be a required prerequisite... Fleetwood Mac, RUMORS Sterling pop craftsmanship, inspired arranging and playing by Lindsey Buckingham, five stars. Boston, BOSTON See EAGLES GREATEST HITS - I like everything on the radio when I was 10 through 12. I still think "More Than a Feeling" is a really good song. Eagles, HOTEL CALIFORNIA See EAGLES GREATEST HITS, though I think Don Henley's poison pen on this album and THE LONG RUN stands up for the most part, and Henley's first two solo albums were quite good as well. The Beatles, 1967-1970 Still remember the shock of this collection after 10 year-old me bought and adored the Red collection. I always mention the Clash and Springsteen as the artists that changed my listening habits, but this collection probably laid the groundwork. Guns 'n' Roses, APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION While I'd hardly endorse all their actions and (for the most part) dumbass viewpoints, this record kicks a lot of ass. And as much as it was overplayed, "Sweet Child o' Mine" was just about the only decent thing on mainstream radio in the summer of '88 -- and the best of the last I had to hear of mainstream radio, since we moved to Nashville in August '88 and said goodbye to Top 40 stations forever. Bruce Springsteen, BORN IN THE USA Almost all of its best songs ("Born in the USA," "I'm on Fire," "My Hometown") were written in the same '82 writing hot streak that produced NEBRASKA; Bruce (and Landau/Marsh) opted for commercial viability rather than another super-dark artistic winner; it's the first Bruce album to feature a clutch of songs I never really warmed to ("No Surrender," "Bobby Jean," "Working on the Highway"). It still manages to be a dark, dark album behind its brilliant circusy-synth disguise: the peaked-in-high-school losers of "Glory Days," the rage and despair of the Vietnam vet in the title track, the utter desperation of the protagonist of "Dancin' in the Dark" ("Wanna change my hair my clothes my face"), and whatever in the name of MACON COUNTY LINE happens to the joyriding Yankees in "Darlington County," it all adds up to something not as far off from the superb BtR/DARKNESS/RIVER/NEBRASKA run as I used to think it was. Pink Floyd, DARK SIDE OF THE MOON Again, no apologies here -- fine, if overexposed, record. I prefer the albums immediately on either side of it, but big deal. Led Zeppelin, PHYSICAL GRAFFITI A diverse, smart (!), loose-limbed double record that captures a Led Zep that you'd think never existed if you were to listen to the folks who are openly dismissive of the band. And while Jimmy Page actually does deserve the sneers for his shameless plagiarization of blues classics, where's the credit for Page/Plant beating Byrne, Gabriel, and (ack!) Paul Simon to the punch in seamlessly incorporating "World Music" into their own unique muse? Various, SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER soundtrack The Brothers Gibb creating some of the best-arranged and executed pop music of the '70s, if you ask me. The Beatles, 1962-66 After viewing an NBC airing of THE RUTLES, I was ready to hear the real thing, so I pestered my mom to get this for me next time we were near a record store. I tried to pass on the karma by getting a copy of it for my young cousin when she turned 10, but so far, her collection looks like the album collection of every fourteen-year-old American girl. Meat Loaf, BAT OUT OF HELL As over the top as it gets, but an all-star cast of Rundgren, Bittan, Sultan, DeVito, etc., etc. Not even the guiltiest of pleasures, really. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, LIVE 1975-85 Sit down any fan with recordings of any two 1978 shows, and he or she could put together a much better collection than Bruce/Landau/Marsh came up with by playing things utterly safe. But it's testimony to the Power of Live Bruce that even this compilation, which features only one seriously "different" track (the opening glockenspiel-and-piano "Thunder Road"), seven or eight already-overplayed BORN IN THE USA songs in near-identical renditions, and songs recorded from the tour *after* they were hottest live (DARKNESS songs are mostly from the '80 tour; songs from THE RIVER are usually from the '84-'85 tour, etc.), is still one of the best "official" live albums ever. Prince, PURPLE RAIN Four out of five stars, and if you dropped the superfluous (both on the album and in the film) "I Would Die 4 U"/"Baby I'm a Star" section of Side Two, and substituted the eight-minute "Erotic City," I'd give it all five stars, just like the three albums that came before it, and two of the three that immediately followed it. On many days, "The Beautiful Ones" is my favorite thing he ever did -- from a whisper to a scream, literally. The Beatles, ABBEY ROAD I'm glad they left on this note, instead of with LET IT BE, but it hasn't aged as well with me as their 1964-68 material. Probably the Album Most Likely To Be Named The Greatest Album Of All Time By The Twelve-Year Old Me. Def Leppard, HYSTERIA Aside from one godawful power ballad, catchy pop-metal at its finest. "Animal" and the title track are the outstanding cuts, and the hook with both is actually... restraint, believe it or not. Just when you think they're going to cut loose with a crescendo, it's back to the sneaky riff. Like with Herbie Hancock's "Rockit," anticipation, even if unfulfilled, can be as much of a hook as any songwriting tool. The CD I saw in our yard ("Wonder why someone dropped a Def Leppard CD in our yard...") that was my first tipoff that our CDs had been stolen in '95. LED ZEPPELIN II I liked it a lot in my early teen years, when it hit the "loud, hard" sweet spot that most early teen boys have, but now I prefer the more sophisticated stuff that came after. Metallica, METALLICA "Enter Sandman" showed the promise of harnessing Metallica's power to a discernable groove, but the rest of this album is a bunch of crap. Extremely disappointing, and the beginning of their still-running "Worship Us As GODS!" phase. The Rolling Stones, HOT ROCKS Superb compilation. If you have this and BEGGARS BANQUET through EXILE ON MAIN STREET, you have all the Stones you'll ever need. Led Zeppelin, HOUSES OF THE HOLY As previously discussed on list, I'm repulsed by the nekkid-kids-'n'-orange cover, but the contents rock. The Beatles, SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND I think it's overrated, but it's also still essential listening, if only to understand everything that came after. Before anyone jumps on the "overrated" comment, I'd still give it four of five stars. It just has a rep that's impossible for the actual music to match. Pearl Jam, TEN I still think that a lot of the vitriol hurled toward Pearl Jam and Nine Inch Nails has more to do with the proliferation of cheap knock-offs that saturated (and continues to saturate) the airwaves after these groups' initial rise to popularity. However, both of them had their best record first and really haven't developed too much since then. TEN has great hooks, killer riffs, and in "Black," their best song. Don't let the Seven Mary Threes and Creeds sour what is, on its own merits, a worthwhile album. Van Halen, 1984 Never cared for "Jump" much, though I love Aztec Camera's cover, and the more typically VH stuff ("Hot for Teacher," "Panama") seems less inspired this time around, which to me meant that it was perfectly fine that David Lee Roth left afterwards. (Don't get me started on the inferiority of Van Hagar.) The five albums that proceeded it, especially WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST and FAIR WARNING, are among the finest hard rock albums ever IMO. They really should follow ZZ Top's lead and do the "Van Halen Six-Pack," reissuing all the DLRoth-era albums on twofers -- all the Van Halen that's any good on a mere three CDs. Speaking of ZZ Top... ZZ Top, ELIMINATOR In which ZZ Top makes the same record they always make, a bunch of winningly off-kilter blues-based songs about their penises and how to relate to said appendages, only with some synth drums and actual synth added here and there. Somehow, this small touch coupled with the advent of MTV turned them from a sort of large-selling cult act into superstars. My original vinyl version has the un-remixed version of "Legs," plus there's a voice in the leadout groove, so if you play it on a turntable that doesn't have automatic return and shut-off, you hear "Have mercy [BUMP] have mercy [BUMP] have mercy [BUMP]" until you decide to turn the record over. Or your power goes off. Or the needle wears out. Or something. LED ZEPPELIN More varied than II, harder than III, probably the one I've played the least. Nirvana, NEVERMIND Best album of the '90s. U2, THE JOSHUA TREE I liked it so much the first six or eight times I played it. I'm not sure if that's all the listens it had in it, or if it's that the sudden and massive airplay overkill hastened the burnout. They went from looking really, really clean to looking really, really dirty (not 2 Live Crew "dirty" but literally dirty) during the course of the videos for this album, like not bathing and not washing their hair was some sort of devotional act. Perhaps they unwittingly unleashed the unfortunate '70s fashion/hair revival, which has only lately begun to abate. Van Halen, VAN HALEN Ferocious debut; favorite track is "Ice Cream Man." Dire Straits, BROTHERS IN ARMS Another strange ascent from dependable gold-to-platinum seller to momentary superstardom (see ZZ Top), but Knopfler is, as always, a more-than-able guitarist (even if by the time this came out I had figured out that Richard Thompson was sixty times better than Knopfler), and while the songs don't stick in my head as well as those on COMMUNIQUE, MAKING MOVIES, or LOVE OVER GOLD, most of them are still Dylan-with-good-guitarist good enuff. Liked "Money for Nothing" better when I thought the "We gotta move these refrigerators / gotta move these color TVs" part of the song was referring to MTV's sponsors rather than the working-class narrator going about his blue-collar job and, well, really physically moving those appliances. Sorta like how I lost some enjoyment of Peter Himmelman's "Woman With the Strength of 10,000 Men" when I figured out that the lyrics weren't metaphors about communication, but about how a disabled woman was actually communicating. Thus I don't refute Berkeley . R.E.O. Speedwagon, HI INFIDELITY The 10-12 year-old me dug REO, especially YOU CAN TUNE A PIANO BUT YOU CAN'T TUNA FISH and the live record (I think I wore out "Ridin' the Storm Out" and "157 Riverside Avenue"). So when this came out in 1981, even though I was busy learning about Talking Heads and Elvis Costello and Squeeze, I had not re-examined whether or not R.E.O. Speedwagon was any good, and had the "oh, the new Speedwagon is out, in the basket it goes" moment just as I would today with a new Wilco or Hitchcock album. Hey, time of transition and all. But when I listened to it, I realized that I'd moved on, even if they hadn't. Even worse, "Keep on Lovin' You" is responsible, IMO, more so even than predecessors like Aerosmith's "Dream On," for the exact godawful power-ballad template with which every godawful hair-metal band of the '80s would have godawful chart-topping hit after godawful chart-topping hit. Beastie Boys, LICENSED TO ILL Insufferable but catchy as hell. They'd get smarter and better, but there's something about this album that clicks, no matter how much I wish it wouldn't, and even if I would have sooner torched my own house than have them as neighbors during this period... So that's... 35 of 100 that I've owned, 31 I still own and make no bones about. Of the rest, I don't have Marley's LEGEND because I have everything on it somewhere or other, I probably wouldn't mind owning the Dixie Chicks or Shania albums, or the Green Day album either. But that's about it. Hammer sold 10 million of that record? Wouldn't a 12" single (or a Rick James album) have sufficed? later, Miles ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2003 16:03:11 -0400 From: Steve Talkowski Subject: Re: reap (12:40 pm) On Monday, April 7, 2003, at 03:45 PM, Eb wrote: > My father. My condolences to you and your family. - -Steve ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 22:11:24 +0200 From: Sebastian Hagedorn Subject: RE: Interesting, but not surprising (5% Zeppelin) - -- "Rex.Broome" is rumored to have mumbled on Montag, 7. April 2003 11:59 Uhr -0700 regarding RE: Interesting, but not surprising (5% Zeppelin): > #33 Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits (another redundant comp) Not entirely redundant. It has my favorite recording of "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her". - -- Sebastian Hagedorn Ehrenfeldg|rtel 156, 50823 Kvln, Germany http://www.spinfo.uni-koeln.de/~hgd/ "Being just contaminates the void" - Robyn Hitchcock ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 13:17:54 -0700 From: Glen Uber Subject: Re: reap (12:40 pm) > My father. > > ............ > > Eb So sorry, Eric. Please know that you I share your grief and offer my most sincere condolences to you and your family. - -g- ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2003 13:43:43 -0700 From: "Rex.Broome" Subject: Return of the Sacred Blue Crab... Jeff FF: >>Well, too bad this keyboard can't produce IPA (either one: the alphabet or >>the ale...) True enough. Local market started stocking Ipa as a relatively cheap beer last year but ditched it just as I was beginning to consider it worthy of regular purchase... bastids. >>The state gets pronounced more or less like the name "Marilyn" only w/a >>light "d" sound at the end, so...no. I gather that the vowel in "merry" is >>closer to a short "e" while that of "Mary" is closer to a long "a"... Some natives also say something akin to "Merlin'd". Depends on your region. _____ woj: >>i've heard 'laurie' being pronounced >>with two different vowel sounds. one of them being the 'o' in lorry and the >>other being the 'a' in are. Funny thing, people with this name (and "Laura" as well) can be really prickly about which pronunciation you should use. And I don't blame them, of course, but in this case both versions are so widespread that there's really *no* way to guess just by looking at the spelling. (Whereas I am totally nonplussed as to why people decide to pronounce my wife's name as "Mee-gan" when it's spelled Megan. Maybe because she's from Mare-lind?) ____ Mary from Maryland: >>One of my favourite things from Maryland is Old Bay Seasoning. Everyone >>should have a tin in their home. Yes, yes, yes. And the seafood that generally goes with it? Best in the country if not the world. Blue crabs, man. I love the stuff from New England, but I'll fight in favor of Chesapeake Bay Seafood Supremacy any day. Yup. ___ Miles from West Virginia: >>I hate that damn song, not just because of John Denver, but because the specific >>geographical features mentioned in the song ("Shenandoah River... Blue Ridge >>Mountains...") aren't even in West Viriginia. Glad you mentioned that. It must never be forgotten. You couldn't have a song about the Great Salt Lake of California, or Grand Canyon of Texas, could ya? We can have a "hate contest" over it, if you'd like. I inherited my dad's resentment over being expected to play it as a band from West Virginia. And the hate got worse as it seemed to haunt me on my European travels... the cake being ultimately taken by the street musician singing it with a heavy Czech accent in Wenceslas Square, Prague. >>Didn't stop the state legislature from making it an official state song, though. Good lord, they didn't actually replace "West Virginia Hills" with that, did they? Not that it was any hot shit as a song, but still... >>"if it's north of the Kanawha, it might as well be Pennsylvania, Ohio, or Maryland" - -Rex: born in Maryland; raised in W. Va just thatide of the Potomac; therefore a Marylander in Miles' etimation, but willing to share my tin of Old Bay with him any time ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 13:47:38 -0700 From: Tom Clark Subject: Miles is a geek (Re: Interesting, but not surprising (5% Zeppelin)) But at least he's man enough to admit it. I guess I've got all the Zep and Floyd mentioned, most of the Beatles, Pearl Jam, Bob Marley, Nirvana, and that Aerosmith's Greatest Hits, which the wife bought. No Frampton Comes Alive on that list? Hell, I've got two copies myself! - -tc ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 20:48:19 +0000 From: "K L N W" Subject: RE: Interesting, but not surprising (5% Zeppelin) Rex: >#33 Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits (another >redundant comp) Sebastain: >Not entirely redundant. It has my favorite recording of "For Emily, >Whenever I May Find Her". Theres another version? Whats the dif? _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 15:59:53 -0500 From: Miles Goosens Subject: Re: Miles is a geek (Re: Interesting, but not surprising (5% Zeppelin)) At 01:47 PM 4/7/2003 -0700, Tom Clark wrote: >But at least he's man enough to admit it. Whee! >I guess I've got all the Zep and Floyd mentioned, most of the Beatles, Pearl >Jam, Bob Marley, Nirvana, and that Aerosmith's Greatest Hits, which the wife >bought. I should have added Aerosmith comp to the list of things I wouldn't mind owning -- another "since I have the albums" case. Also, I probably would like the No Doubt and Kid Rock just fine for the most part. >No Frampton Comes Alive on that list? Hell, I've got two copies myself! I'm shocked that it wasn't on there. Maybe it sold a measley 8 mill, but I really thought it sold up around 10-15... later, Miles ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 23:04:15 +0200 From: Sebastian Hagedorn Subject: RE: Interesting, but not surprising (5% Zeppelin) - -- K L N W is rumored to have mumbled on Montag, 7. April 2003 20:48 Uhr +0000 regarding RE: Interesting, but not surprising (5% Zeppelin): > Rex: >> #33 Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits (another >redundant comp) > Sebastain: >> Not entirely redundant. It has my favorite recording of "For Emily, >> Whenever I May Find Her". > > Theres another version? Whats the dif? Well, what I wrote may have been misleading. The Greatest Hits doesn't have a different *studio* recording but rather a live recording of the song. It's just beautiful. BTW, I'm talking about the LP, which my sister got when I was about 6 ;-) - -- Sebastian Hagedorn Ehrenfeldg|rtel 156, 50823 Kvln, Germany http://www.spinfo.uni-koeln.de/~hgd/ "Being just contaminates the void" - Robyn Hitchcock ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 14:04:34 -0700 From: Tom Clark Subject: Re: more robyn in spain on 4/7/03 9:36 AM, noam tchotchke at woj@smoe.org wrote: > also thanks to oscar for a scan of the leon (5 april) setlist which you can > spy with your little eye at http://fegmania.org/live/images/robyn-set-leon-5_3_03.jpg >. he did not > play all that was listed and did a couple that aren't there -- i'm working > on getting a complete list. Cool setlist. But what's with his lowercase e's? I don't remember him writing them like that before. - -tc ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2003 16:16:44 -0500 (CDT) From: David Witzany Subject: "Sail on Sailor" Glen Uber sez: "My strongest complaint with most Beach Boys' comps is that none of them, to my knowledge, contain the brilliant "shouldabeenahit" "Sail On Sailor". That song rules!" Besides the two albums already mentioned which contain the song, here are three more comps with it: Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of the Beach Boys The Beach Boys in Concert Classics: Selected by Brian Wilson Here's a two-disc set at Amazon; maybe this is what you're really looking for: Carl and the Passions: So Tough/Holland Dave. David Witzany witzany@uiuc.edu ....one of Nature's bounds checkers - ------------ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 16:47:02 -0500 From: Miles Goosens Subject: but my heart lies in ol' West Virginia Rex, who distressed me by neverlisteningto NEVERMIND, sez: >Miles from West Virginia: >>>I hate that damn song, not just because of John Denver, but because the >specific >>geographical features mentioned in the song ("Shenandoah River... >Blue Ridge >>Mountains...") aren't even in West Viriginia. > >Glad you mentioned that. It must never be forgotten. You couldn't have a >song about the Great Salt Lake of California, or Grand Canyon of Texas, >could ya? Exactly. Though a friend on Loud-Fans debated me on this same issue for what seemed like five thousand e-mails -- he has a friend who claims that their house on the WV/VA border is in the "Blue Ridge." I mean, only in the most technical sense is the Blue Ridge Province even partially in WV (and maybe it isn't -- I've seen maps that go either way on this), and then just barely grazing the Eastern Panhandle, while the area almost any human would identify as "Blue Ridge Mountains" is primarily in Virginia and North Carolina and well south and east of the Mountain State. I think that real estate and tourism people like to use "Blue Ridge" as a marketing tool, because people have heard of it. See http://www.essc.psu.edu/soil_info/soil_lrr/mlra.cgi?130?landuse for a map where I'm not even sure that the larger Blue Ridge Province intersects the state -- WV isn't on the list of states just beside the map -- much less the specific area people usually mean by "Blue Ridge Mountains." >We can have a "hate contest" over it, if you'd like. I inherited my dad's >resentment over being expected to play it as a band from West Virginia. And >the hate got worse as it seemed to haunt me on my European travels... the >cake being ultimately taken by the street musician singing it with a heavy >Czech accent in Wenceslas Square, Prague. You win, because Jason & the Scorchers doing the cursed song makes me happy, despite my hatred of the song. >>>Didn't stop the state legislature from making it an official state song, >though. > >Good lord, they didn't actually replace "West Virginia Hills" with that, did >they? Not that it was any hot shit as a song, but still... No, it's in addition to, not a replacement for, "West Virginia Hills." >>>"if it's north of the Kanawha, it might as well be Pennsylvania, Ohio, or >Maryland" > >-Rex: born in Maryland; raised in W. Va just thatide of the Potomac; >therefore a Marylander in Miles' etimation, but willing to share my tin of >Old Bay with him any time Sounds yummy. Rex, can't speak for hearts 'n' minds, but I know that as a southern West Virginian, when my friends and I were at the state basketball tournament in a hotel elevator crammed with Wheeling Central cheerleaders babbling Valley-Girl-fashion about going to the Galleria after the game, they sure didn't sound like any West Virginians I knew. Not sure I've met many Eastern Panhandle folks. I've been to Harper's Ferry, but encountered only other tourists, of course. Our football team was all set to play the Musselman Applemen in the state football tourney in '82, but there was some flip-flop in the rankings in the last week of the regular season, and we ended up going to Greenbrier West, who beat us by turning their field into a mudpit to negate our speed advantage. So there went my great chance to determine if the Eastern Panhandle should have been lopped off and annexed to Maryland. later, Miles "I'm just waiting for West Virginia, like Poland in the 1790s, to be partitioned among its neighbors" - - my friend Danny Cantrell, Jolo native, Huntington-area dweller ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2003 15:04:08 -0700 (PDT) From: John Barrington Jones Subject: RIAA top 100 Wow, I'm surprised that REM's "Out of Time" isn't in there. that's me in the corner, =jbj= ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2003 15:48:51 -0700 From: "Rex.Broome" Subject: Drug Store Truck Drivin' Gear Changes S. Mary: >> I followed a link to site about "Truck >>Driver's Gear Changes." I've never heard of this term before. I thought >>with all the feg's extensive knowledge of music, surely someone can add to >>the list that's posted. Hmmm. On every title I clicked, the guy actually had good things to say about the songs (up to calling "Green" a "classic album"... eh?). But I am still slightly nonplussed about the qualifications... my understanding is that the modulation has to occur within any given chord sequence, as in "chorus -> chorus modulated a whole step", whereas "chorus --> bridge --> chorus modulated a whole step" wouldn't qualify... right? If I'm wrong, I'd nominate "Surrender" by Cheap Trick, certainly the most popular song to ever contain a *half step* modulation. Discovering that did a number on my brain, lemme tellya. Offhand, on topic... doesn't Robyn do one in "Dreams"? And then there's the country tunes... "Good Hearted Woman"... "Lucille"... oh, wait, I'm supposed to send these to the site, huh? - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 15:41:38 -0700 From: Barbara Soutar Subject: Merging of left and right wing? Here's a story I read on Yahoo today that seems to indicate that the political left and right wing are beginning to merge on some issues. My personal belief is that the "neo-conservatives" now running the U.S.A. are not even an extreme branch of the right wing, but are simply war profiteers. The more I read about the political bigshots, the more I see that they are set up to gain financially from either going to war and/or protecting America from terrorism. I won't even get into Enron and the fiddling with hydro electric supply to California. Barbara Soutar Victoria, British Columbia "Gingrich, Nader Debate Education Mon Apr 7, 6:05 AM ET By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer SAN FRANCISCO - On the surface, Newt Gingrich and Ralph Nader couldn't seem more different. One is the beefy, garrulous conservative who, as the nation's first Republican House speaker in 40 years, crashed like Icharus after flying too close to the sun. The other is the righteous, rumpled consumer crusader who morphed into a political gadfly as a Green Party candidate for president. ] But a closer look at Gingrich and Nader betrays some striking similarities. Both men are passionate intellectuals who have weathered scorn for occasionally outlandish ideas. More poignantly, both have begun winding down careers that saw their greatest successes years ago. But before a packed audience at the National School Boards Association annual meeting Sunday (April 6), both took the stage showing much of the old fire and willingness to engage. And in the end, they demonstrated that competing philosophies on education can circle back around to a common goal of fixing America's public schools. "Thank you for allowing me to be here," Gingrich said after strolling to the podium, hinting he knew this audience might not be his natural constituency. As House speaker, he had enraged teachers and other public school advocates for his support of free-market education reforms like the the use of vouchers to take students out of failing schools. Those efforts, plus his crusade to defund the school lunch program for poor students, were blamed for costing the Republican party the support of many moderate voters, including the famed constituency known as 'soccer moms.' But Gingrich seemed to step out of stereotype almost immediately, winning applause and cheers for proclaiming that "transforming education is a challenge more compelling than Iraq or any conceivable war." Calling himself "much more of a radical than Ralph about education," Gingrich defended his support for school vouchers as an important way for families to put pressure on schools to improve. "To keep them trapped while we fight," he said, "is truly tragic and ruins lives." For his part, Nader echoed Gingrich's call to revitalize public education but differed on specific strategies. "Vouchers are a great diversion, aren't they?" he said. "Let's not exaggerate their theoretical promise." He blamed the failures of public education on a fraying social fabric that no longer cares about or protects young children. "There is no country in the world that has as much wealth or as much pretention and has neglected its children in so many ways," he said, citing a range of hazards from overmedication to lead-based paint to lack of adult supervision. Nader's rant on American ills provoked a sharp reply from Gingrich. "Ralph and I live in substantially different countries," he said, provoking laughter and applause from the audience. "I live in a country that people migrate to, because they think it's the land of opportunity, and while there are problems, we'll fix them." In the end, both men found substantial agreement on one matter: the folly of favoring sports teams over schools. "Taxpayers are required to build gleaming stadiums and ballparks while schools are allowed to crumble," growled Nader. "A country that pays more money to some athletes than to an entire school system is a country that is begging for a social crisis," Gingrich agreed. Backstage after the debate, the two men posed together for pictures and shook each other's hands. Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, viewing the scene, remarked, "You know? They're both right." ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V12 #133 ********************************