From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V12 #356 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Wednesday, September 24 2003 Volume 12 : Number 356 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Television live CD ["Maximilian Lang" ] More Canadian doubles (nb. ends with word "breasts") ["Rex.Broome" ] Re: Attention shoppers.... [John Barrington Jones ] Re: I am not me ["Stewart C. Russell" ] John Bartlett's swap-mix CD [Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey ] [please take notes, because there will be a test later] [Eb ] Television-Live At The Old Waldorf, San Francisco, 6/29/78 ["Marc Holden"] where the &*@! are the prawns? (100% RH content) [Miles Goosens Subject: Television live CD Rhino Handmade just put this out today: http://www.rhinohandmade.com/browse/ProductLink.lasso?Number=7846 Max _________________________________________________________________ Get MSN 8 Dial-up Internet Service FREE for one month. Limited time offer-- sign up now! http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/dialup ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 15:18:43 -0700 From: "Rex.Broome" Subject: More Canadian doubles (nb. ends with word "breasts") Gnat: >>Kathleen Edwards really couldn't follow that up But she was still good, in >>a Lucinda Williams-ish kind of way. Dunno if Rex would find her fuckable, >>though... Well, I just checked. She looks kind of like... my wife! So, well, yeah. Suddenly I want her record more than I did before. >>I'm not sure what the usual issues are. ;) I like Neil but he never really >>grabbed me (eek! bad touch!), so to speak. I don't have an outright >>aversion as I do with Bob Dylan, so there still may be hope for me. If you like that Yankee Nextel Hottentrot album, I think you might be well-advised to give a listening-station audition to the recently reissued "On the Beach" or "Tonight's the Night". Beautiful and stoned, if you will. (The usual issues: the voice, the raggedness, the "they all sound the same" thing, the "all his fans are stoners" thing (I myself loathe pot), and a perceived hippy-dippiness which you can't fully expunge from someone who is occasionally part of something that starts with "Crosby, Still, Nash and".) _____ Chris H: >>Or Should I Stay or Should I Go. That was in the last Rugrats movie. You see, it >>doesn't have to make sense! If I recall crackedly, that 3rd Doors Blind (sic) song that goes "Doot doot doot, doot do doot do" and is about crystal meth was used to promote "A Goofy Movie" among numerous other kid's films. Yip Song... won't that probably rapidly become Robyn's most-played song ever? Sort of like the themes to That '70's Show and The Daily Show must be for Big Star and Bob Mould at this point? Weird. _________ Eb: >>Anyone have any thoughts on the new Rufus Wainwright album? ;) >>I'm still trying to fathom all of its riches -- Dude, you're just saying that to get me to talk about Scott Miller. Which I might do, since Wainwright immediately brings to mind the phrase "miserable whine". I do like Loudon, though. The really weird thing is that there was just a big piece in the LA Times about WKRP last Friday... prior to that the last time I thought about it was when I had to sort out the episodes of WKRP from the episodes of The New WKRP here at work. Hint: the latter was bereft of any of the original stars who had talent and/or enormous breasts. - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 15:10:46 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Re: More Canadian doubles (nb. ends with word "breasts") > >>Anyone have any thoughts on the new Rufus Wainwright album? ;) >>>I'm still trying to fathom all of its riches -- > >Dude, you're just saying that to get me to talk about Scott Miller. Which I >might do, since Wainwright immediately brings to mind the phrase "miserable >whine". Ree-dic-ulous. Eb ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 11:57:02 +1200 From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) Subject: Re: Reap >Gordon "Mr. Carlson" Jump. oh man. I remember in the early days of the local student radio station we used to watch videos of WKRP to get ideas. If our station was anything to go by, it was practically a documentary. 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: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 11:57:16 +1200 From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) Subject: Re: spam and X(TC) >> Helpless >> and the Marijuana Brass". > >This doesn't ring any bells re XTC - but it's very close to the remark >tossed off in the middle of Peter Sellers & Dudley Moore's "L.S. Bumblebee" >about "Alf Pervert and the Marijuana Brass." it was in the foldout that came with the Drums and Wires LP, that contained all the lyrics to Go2 and White Music. 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: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 17:21:59 -0700 From: Eb Subject: Attention shoppers.... http://pitchforkmedia.com/features/castoffs-and-cutouts/ An entertaining list, though it doesn't seem to have much in common with the bins around *this* promo-soaked land. (I bet the guy lives around Boston, because there sure were a lot of Boston bands included.) I don't think it makes any sense to arbitrarily eliminate platinum and non-alternative albums from such a list, but that's life. Monster probably has earned its #1 slot, however. ;) Belly/Star seems like a pretty good choice, too. Jesus Jones/Doubt also gave me a laugh of recognition -- in fact, it probably should rank much higher on the list. Eb ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 17:32:27 -0700 (PDT) From: John Barrington Jones Subject: Re: Attention shoppers.... On Tue, 23 Sep 2003, Eb wrote: > http://pitchforkmedia.com/features/castoffs-and-cutouts/ > Belly/Star seems > like a pretty good choice, too. I dunno - I see way more copies of "King" in the bins than I do "Star". "King" just plain sucked. It was a band not knowing who they were or who they wanted to sound like. =jbj=, one of those folks who ran screaming to the nearest record store, copy of "Monster" in hand to unload. WTFK? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 21:31:26 -0400 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Re: I am not me Rex.Broome wrote: > > In one, I really wanted to eat crayons. You weren't reading religious text too? Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 21:35:46 -0500 From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: John Bartlett's swap-mix CD I've been remiss in not mentioning earlier my receipt of a shiny plastic disc from the estimable John Bartlett. It came in a very cool foldable cardboard slidy package, and was graced by a cute drawing of an orange kitty courtesy John's 9-year-old daughter (which went over quite well in this house, inhabited as it is by two orange cats). In honor of the drawing, and since John didn't give it a title, I've christened the CD "The Orange Cat Mix." The songs are primarily post-Beatles guitar pop (there's another term for that, but I don't like it...), with a few stylistic diversions thrown in for variety. Anyhow, track listing with a few comments (* means I already owned the track): 1. Moods for Moderns "Slacker Ways"* 2. The Model Rockets "Maybe NOw" 3. OK Go "So Damn Hot" 4. The Yum Yums "Be with Me" - not to be confused with Yum Yum, that orch-pop band that either was or wasn't a joke... 5. Beagle "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" - Is this a newer cover, or a vintage one? I ask because it sounds as if it could be vintage, and during that era quite often songs charted by different acts on different sides of the Atlantic. Another household favorite, since it namechecks my wife. 6. Phantom Planet "In Our Darkest Hour" 7. The Shazam "New Thing Baby" 8. Cathy Dennis "Am I the Kinda Girl?" - the demo version, written by and featuring playing from Mr. Andy Partridge...a fact which is immediately apparent, the guitar sounding very much in the mode of "Playground" or "Cherry in Your Tree." Cool! 9. The Paranoids "Real by Reel"* - one of a very few tracks on the "Chalkhills' Children" XTC fan-band tapes that's good enough to have been releaesd for real (although I don't think it has), this is my favorite from those sets. An absolutely manic tempo, vocals that sound sped-up, and an amusing middle bit wherein the singer begins with some lines about "walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, stares accusingly like a duck, drives a microchip inside your skull like a duck" and ends with a bit about cookies and "looking for some information...broadcasting my every thought like a goddam TV station." Oh - and an intro setting one of Thomas Pynchon's lyrics, and a brief outro quote from Frank Zappa. 10. Simon Knight "Summer Grass"* - another good one from the "Chalkhills" series, this one wittily layers XTC's "Summer's Cauldron" and "Grass," featuring male vocals on the one and female on the other. Works better than you'd think it would. 11. Ed James "Trippin' on Your Love" - I mainly remember this because the first time I heard it, in the car, I thought the singer was singing "I'm distributin' your love" - ("Phil is my brother's name, he's a distributor") 12. Nixon's Head "Kids" - Dig the "Futurama" reference in the band name... 13. Admiral Twin "Be the Show" 14. Georges Decimus "Nwel"(?) - I can't quite read what John wrote for the title - anyway, a sort of horn-filled Afropop excursion - fun. 15. You Am I "Rumble" 16. Half Man Half Biscuit "Them's the Vagaries" - John's tried to sell me on these guys, he says...well, fun, catchy, energetic...hmm...intrigued, at least. 17. HMHB "Vatican Broadside" - a brief, rudely funny Pope joke. 18. The Liquor Giants "Town Bike" - Sort of an Amerindie sound here - unsurprising, since they are. 19. The Judybats "Ugly on the Outside"* - I have this on some comp or other. Pleasant enough, except...I don't know what, but something's always bugged me about this band. Oh well. 20. Starbelly "Broken Hearts in Stereo" 21. The Welcomats "She Gets Around" 22. The Mutton Birds "Pulled Along by Love" 23. The Salteens "Bubba Da" 24. Ice Cream Hands "Olive" - Dig the Robyn Hitchcock reference in the band name... 25. Andy Partridge "Goosey Goosey" (demo)* - Sounds like John had these demoes on some old cassettes prior to their reissue in the "Fuzzy Warbles" series...but that doesn't matter. Anyone who likes XTC should immediately buy all four Fuzzy Warbles titles, right now. Yes, you. Stop reading your e-mail, order the damned things. Anyway, I'm not quite sure how John crammed all these tunes on one CD...but there they are, and a fun bunch of 'em they are too. What presents did *you* get? ..Jeff J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com/ :: "am I being self-referential?" ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 19:54:32 -0700 From: Eb Subject: [please take notes, because there will be a test later] Sometimes, TV commercials are really messages from God to let people know more about the celestial relationship between Our Lady Heidi Klum and me, Nick Kaffes, aka Kansan1225. Over the last few months actor John Stamos has been on TV, doing commercials for a long-distance telephone company. He is married to Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, who succeeded Heidi as "Sports Illustrated" swimsuit issue cover girl: Heidi had the cover in 1998 and Rebecca in 1999. Rebecca was born on November 6, 1972. On November 6, 1993, I was exactly twice as old as Heidi in terms of days. (I was born on December 25, 1952, and Heidi on June 1, 1973.) November 6 is 11/6 in American notation, or 9/11 upside down. Stamos and Rebecca were engaged on December 24, 1997, one day before my birthday. Stamos was born on August 19, 1963, one day before the minus 14th anniversary of my wedding to my wife Dina on August 20, 1977. Stamos and Rebecca were married on September 19, 1998, the seventh anniversary of the discovery of Oetzi the Iceman, the frozen mummy, along the Austrian-Italian border in Tyrol, close to the intersection of the N. 47th Parallel and the E. 11th Meridian. Oetzi was discovered on the 19th of September, 1991, or 19/9/1991 in European notation: 1991991, the reverse of 911. Heidi's family have a ski chalet in South Tyrol, close to the N. 47, E. 11 intersection, and her father used to work for "4711" in Cologne, the company that produces authentic Eau de Cologne. Cologne, Germany, and her suburb Bergisch Gladbach, where Heidi was born, are on the intersection of the N. 51st Parallel and the E. 7th Meridian. 47 * 11 = 517, or the coordinates of Cologne, N. 51, E. 7. Also, 4 + 7 + 1 + 1 = 13 5 + 1 + 7 = 13 Heidi does TV commercials in Germany for Katjes, a candy manufacturer. Katjes is based in Emmerich, Germany, a small city near the German-Dutch border, close to the intersection of the N. 52nd Parallel and the E. 6th Meridian: Again, 5 + 2 + 6 = 13 These three locations, Emmerich, Cologne, and Tyrol, are on a straight diagonal line on the Earth's grid. This diagonal "13" line extends to the southeast, passing by Venice, Italy, where Heidi videotaped her latest TV commercial for Katjes. Venice is close to the intersection of the N. 45th Parallel and the E. 13th Meridian: 4 + 5 + 1 + 3 = 13 Further to the southeast, this diagonal "13" line runs parallel to the Nile River in Egypt, in the vicinity of Luxor and the Valley of the Kings. John Stamos was born on August 19, 1963, on the 17th birthday of President Bill Clinton, who was born in 1946. The number 17 is characteristic of the Egyptian God Horus, the God of the New Age. John is Greek, like me. Rebecca Romijn is of Dutch background, whereas Heidi is Deutsch (German). Emmerich, where Katjes is based, is close to the Deutsch-Dutch border. "Katjes" is the Dutch word for "kitten". The so-called "Face on Mars" is cat-like, like the Egyptian Sphinx. Bill Clinton's hero was President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, the year Stamos was born. Heidi was born on June 1, 1973, the 47th birthday of Marilyn Monroe, who was born in 1926. In Freemasonry, the Pythagorean Theorem is known as the 47th proposition of Euclid. My wife Dina was born on July 28, 1952, on the 23rd birthday of Jackie Kennedy, who was born in 1929. Both Dina and I were born in Volos, Greece, along the E. 23rd Meridian. My wife Dina has the same birthday as JFK's wife, Jackie, whereas my "cybernetic girlfriend", Heidi, has the same birthday as JFK's lover, Marilyn. JFK was born on May 29, 1917, close to the Summer Solstice, and I on December 25, 1952, close to the Winter Solstice. President Bill Clinton was exactly twice as old as Empress Heidi Klum, in number of days, on March 14, 2000, "Big Tuesday" of the Presidential primary season. It was on that very day that both George W. Bush and Albert Arnold Gore won enough delegates to capture the nominations of their respective parties. One of these two, these "Twins", "W" or A. A. Gore, was going to be Clinton's successor. Notice that the letter W looks like AA upside down. The outcome was not decided for many months, not even by the Presidential election in November. The result was decided when A.A. Gore accepted the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court on the 13th day of December, 2000. The very next day, on December 14, 2000, Gemini Heidi appeared as a guest star in the NBC sitcom "The Weber Show": i.e., "Weber" for "W". That day, December 14, was the death anniversary of another George W., of George Washington, the first President of New Atlantis, aka the USA. That day, December 14, 2000, came nine months, the length of a "pregnancy", after March 14, 2000, Big Tuesday, the day when Bill Clinton was exactly twice as old as Heidi in number of days. Recently, on Sunday, September 14, 2003, Bill Clinton was in California and said that the recall election is threatening to turn California into a laughinstock and a carnival. The most colorful California gubernatorial candidates are the Austrian Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Greek Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington. Heidi has ties to the ethnic-Austrian region of South Tyrol, whereas my hometown, Volos, Greece, is nicknamed "Austria" by other Greeks. A man with a German accent, Schwarzenegger, and a woman with a Greek accent, Arianna, subliminally standing in for a woman with a German accent, Heidi Klum, and a man with a Greek accent, me, Nick Kaffes, aka Kansan1225. The name "Arianna" sounds like the Greek word Ariane', meaning "woman from Mars". On that very evening of September 14, when Clinton compared the California recall to a carnival, HBO premiered its new series, "Carnivale". Heidi Klum and Renault Formula 1 team manager Flavio Briatore were first seen as a "secret couple" together on March 2, 2003, on her float during the Carnival parade in Bergisch Gladbach, her hometown. Briatore was born on April 12, 1950, the minus 11th anniversary of the first human space flight by Yuri Gagarin in 1961. I was born on December 25, 1952. What is the mid-point between Briatore's birthday and my birthday? The mid-point is August 19, 1951, the fifth birthday of Bill Clinton and minus 12th birthday of John Stamos. This year's Victoria's Secret fashion show, starring Archangel Heidi Klum, will be broadcast by CBS on November 19, 2003: http://www.tvbarn.com/ticker/archives/015168.html November 19 comes nine months, the length of a "pregnancy", before August 19, the birthdays of Bill Clinton and John Stamos, and the mid-point between the birthdays of Flavio Briatore and me, Nick Kaffes, aka Kansan1225. Why did God Almighty bother to arrange for all these intricate connections? He has His own good and Divine Purposes. His Purposes are not trivial. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 23:03:35 -0400 From: Ken Weingold Subject: Re: [please take notes, because there will be a test later] Hands off Heidi, Eb. She's mine. We have the same birthday, though I'm a year older. - -Ken ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 12:21:04 +0100 From: "Matt Sewell" Subject: You are not you? (0.1 Robyn content) I think that it's quite normal - as human beings we're immensely complex (sorry to state the obvious): in the same way as we cannot comprehend our physical autonomic systems (breathing blinking etc), the concious and subconcious is just as if not more unfathomable... the concious mind ties together the disparate elements of our selves (or at least deludes itself into thinking it does). For instance, though you may not have any desire to eat crayons, perhaps at some point you did (and were obviously fairly disappointed with their flavour), as for being desirous of someone you never conciously desired, perhaps it just shows up our amazing ability for sublimation... to say this bloke dreaming your dreams is not you, well, perhaps he is dreaming you and *you* are the one with the anomalous desires... or maybe you're actually Chuang-tzu... or a butterfly... The next question is (Robyn fans): Which of us is me? Actually I know the answer to that one: I am! Cheers Matt >From: "Rex.Broome" >Reply-To: "Rex.Broome" >To: "'fegmaniax@smoe.org'" >Subject: I am not me >Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 14:23:08 -0700 > >So, I know that dream threads are always lame, but I keep having vivid >dreams that I can actually remember, and something about them puzzles me. >In most of them, I (or the character representing me) seem to have desires >that I don't at all have in real life. > >In one, I really wanted to eat crayons. Now, I know where the raw material >for this comes from... my younger daughter often tries to eat crayons. But >in this dream, it was me. And I was being really sneaky about it, trying to >eat crayons whenever I could without anyone catching me. Odder still, I >really wasn't enjoying the crayons in the dream (they were, um, grittier in >texture than one would hope), but I was compelled to keep eating them for >some reason. > >In two others, I was fantastically romantically obsessed with someone for >whom I've never had much attraction in real life. This was a friend from >high school, although I was slightly closer with her sister (on whom I *did* >have an intermittent crush). In the dream I was just talking with her and I >suddenly realized that I had to tell her I was madly in love with her, and >maybe, just maybe, she'd feel the same way. She showed up again last night >in some deal where a whole bunch of people were staying in various rooms in >a hotel and I kept gravitating to her room and, well, stuff like that. > >So what the hell? This guy's not me. That kind of thing happens to me >occasionally in dreams, but this has been a long run of dreams (there are >other examples) where I never behave in any way like myself. Whuttup, ya >think? > >-Rex - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Make your messages more exciting with MSN Messenger V6. Download it for FREE today! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 08:49:39 -0500 From: steve Subject: Get out your Holy Handkerchiefs Some things are just too good not to share - http://tinyurl.com/oglw - - Steve __________ More requests... And of course, the requisite "Free Bird" gets called out. And Jon decides to teach the audience a lesson about requesting "Free Bird", launching into what I'll call "Free Bird Suite" (apologies to Stravinsky (who, as you'll recall, was name-checked prominently the night before on introducing The Section)). He starts out with a delicate, Mozartean treatment of the verse, then he gets a bizarre inspiration and starts again, this time playing Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" with his left hand, and playing the "Free Bird" melody with his right. That morphs into some honky-tonk piano and then a Tom Waits waltz, complete with Tom Waits-style vocal. Eventually that turned into an extended jazz jam, and he called Sebastian Steinberg up to play bass and Matt Chamberlin to play drums, and they went on for another 10 minutes at least. At some point in all this, Jon says, "You know, I can play this a hell of a lot longer than Skynyrd ever could." ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 08:48:52 -0700 From: "Marc Holden" Subject: Television-Live At The Old Waldorf, San Francisco, 6/29/78 I just got an update from Rhino Handmade that might interest a few people here: Television - Live At The Old Waldorf, San Francisco, 6/29/78 Some bands make their mark on the stage. Others do their best work in the studio. Television is one that must be experienced in both contexts. The jam band of punk, they massaged their songs to mesh with whatever vibrations coursed through a given concert hall on a given night. They performed faster and heavier on stage, adding rich overdrive to the crystalline tones heard on their first two studio albums, 1977's Marquee Moon and 1978's Adventure. Originally recorded for radio broadcast during Television's sole U.S. headlining tour (when they were on the road promoting the Adventure album), LIVE AT THE OLD WALDORF finally gets a commercial release with this new Rhino Handmade CD. The band starts with "The Dream's Dream," which sputters avant flourishes before unleashing its mid-tempo procession of harmonic delights; Fred Smith's seething bass lines punch through with particular immediacy. A faithful reading of "Venus De Milo" follows, and then "Foxhole," a wound-tight rocker that simmers with punk stabs and nervy guitar workouts. Television then tackle two more Adventure tracks: the New York Dolls-like "Careful" and "Ain't That Nothin'," the staccato single that here sports a slightly extended jam section. Their first single, "Little Johnny Jewel," gets an improvised spoken section in the middle, while "Friction" remains similar to the version on Marquee Moon. Next, that album's title track stretches out with a few extra minutes of soloing, falling just short of its 17-minute peak heard elsewhere on the tour. The band encores with "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," a tense but otherwise reverent rendition of the Stones' classic that flies off in a freakish guitar solo before returning to a stomping, soulful finale. Released concurrently with Rhino's expanded and remastered editions of Marquee Moon and Adventure, this passionately performed, sonically rich live recording completes the picture of Television in their late-'70s prime. Live At The Old Waldorf, San Francisco, 6/29/78 is available as an individually numbered limited edition of 5,000 copies. Get it at: http://www.rhinohandmade.com/browse/ProductLink.lasso? Number=7846 I have a few of their Handmade releases, and they are usually very high quality, if a bit higher priced than regular CDs. Some titles sell out quickly, so it's probably a good idea to get it sooner rather than later. I wish I had gotten in on the Stooges Complete Funhouse Sessions box (10 CDs)--every take of every song, studio chatter, etc. Unfortunately, that one is long gone. btw--Has anyone seen the Kings of Leon, yet? How are they live? I went last night, but the show was cancelled because the singer was having throat problems. Later, Marc I believe in making the world safe for our children, but not our children's children, because I don't think children should be having sex. Jack Handey ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 11:50:14 -0500 From: Miles Goosens Subject: where the &*@! are the prawns? (100% RH content) At 12:51 PM 9/23/2003 -0600, Devin Lee Ens wrote: >Also for discussion re Luxor: Where are the prawns? And that transitions nicely into my main complaint about LUXOR, and generally about Robyn's work since (perhaps even beginning with) RESPECT. To me, Robyn has far *less* appeal to me when he's singing directly about his feelings. I think at some point he began to take seriously the oft-repeated complaint about him being a funny guy who sang funny songs about fish and balloon men and being dead. As a result, he's become a far more ordinary, conventional-sounding (by Robyn standards) singer-songwriter. More often than not, the flora and fauna populating Robyn's songs *were* expressing very real emotions and urges. I've come to realize that an enormous part of what must have drawn me to Robyn was the way that he expressed his innermost feelings in such an astoundingly creative way, through these symbolic proxies. Records like UNDERWATER MOONLIGHT, I OFTEN DREAM OF TRAINS, FEGMANIA!, ELEMENT OF LIGHT, and GLOBE OF FROGS (always my "underrated classic" pick from Robyn's catalog) were packed with emotion. The amazing thing was seeing these emotions take these amazing corporeal forms in Robyn's lyrics and music. (Sometimes a fly was just a fly, but that's beside the point. I think.) Over the last dozen years or so, in interviews Robyn has often remarked about how he wants to become a more direct person, more able to express his feelings without creating layers of intermediaries, both in his private life and in his art. And he's done that, both in his art and, as far as we can tell from circumstantial evidence and from what we can glimpse of the man himself as reflected in that art, in his private life. This has probably made him a far better partner, father, and friend. It's got to be easier to live with a guy who'll just ask you to pass him the Cheezy Poofs instead of him constructing a ten-minute fable about a capybara, a lemon wedge, and Claes Oldenburg, when what he really wants is for you to pass him the Cheezy Poofs. Unfortunately for me as a fan, the soundtrack Robyn's constructed to accompany these changes, as most succinctly embodied by LUXOR, holds little interest for me. In fact, LUXOR caps a run of releases (NEXTDOORLAND excepted) where I've become progressively less interested in what Robyn's trying to do with his music. LUXOR comes across like the product of a slightly more off-kilter but still largely standard-issue confessional singer-songwriter, albeit one who's heard Syd Barrett and can pick a little rather than just strumstrumstrum. If it was the first Robyn album I ever encountered, I wouldn't buy another one. I haven't lost hope entirely, mostly because the late-model Soft Boys tapped into a lot of the strange, sometimes sinister spark that makes Robyn unique and compelling. And I'm not making some Griffis-like point about the primacy of the listener's needs over the needs of the artist himself -- far better that Robyn should be happier as a person and have more successful relationships than for me to be happier with Robyn's creative output. But I'm not going to sing LUXOR's praises just because Robyn's therapy is going well. later, Miles p.s.: all of this is just a more detailed way of saying what Melissa said after hearing ten minutes of LUXOR in the car -- "I like Robyn better when he's singing about things instead of feelings." ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V12 #356 ********************************