From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V13 #364 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Thursday, December 23 2004 Volume 13 : Number 364 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Foreign languages and writing systems [Jason Brown ] Re: Reap (or un-reap, as the case may be) [FSThomas ] Re: top 25 of 2004 and other lists [Eb ] robyn. largo. march. [bisontentacle ] 'tis the season... [James Dignan ] RE: olleJ/snivleM ["David Stovall" ] Eb-requested expoundsion Re: top 25 of 2004 and other lists [Dolph Chaney] Top 10 list ["michael wells" ] Re: Pixies - WOW [Jeff Dwarf ] Essay contest [The Great Quail ] White Album gig / Morris Windsor is God [Tom Clark ] Meeting of the minds! [Eb ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 08:41:42 -0800 From: Jason Brown Subject: Re: Foreign languages and writing systems Stewart C. Russell wrote: > > the > > important characteristic being that at least sound alike but have different > > meanings. > > But the homonyms (and homographs) minute (n, /minit/) and minute (adj, > /min-yoot/) don't sound remotely similar. Ah, english! You pronounce minute, as in "a minute amount", as /min-yoot/? I've always pronounced it as /my-newt/. You Scots are weird. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 11:31:59 -0800 (PST) From: Benjamin Lukoff Subject: Re: Foreign languages and writing systems On Wed, 22 Dec 2004, Jason Brown wrote: > Stewart C. Russell wrote: > > > the > > > important characteristic being that at least sound alike but have different > > > meanings. > > > > But the homonyms (and homographs) minute (n, /minit/) and minute (adj, > > /min-yoot/) don't sound remotely similar. Ah, english! > > You pronounce minute, as in "a minute amount", as /min-yoot/? I've > always pronounced it as /my-newt/. You Scots are weird. I've also heard it as /my-nyoot/. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 11:39:19 -0800 (PST) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Re: Pixies - WOW Eb wrote: > > I wish that Paul would have just left well enough alone > > and not insisted on adding keyboard parts. Not they > > were terrible, just pointless and annoying. > > Paul may play well, but he has no taste at all. Elvis Costello once said more or less the same thing about Mariah Carey (when he was half-jokingly lobbying to produce what would have been her next album since she had just signed to Island/Mercury, making them label-mates) I think > he basically conceives music as being of two camps: > either "old-time rock and roll" or "music that the kids > listen to." He's a hopeless reactionary. Too true. He's somewhat useful as a sidekick, but more because of what he lacks than what he brings. > Saw "The Station Agent," last night. Very good film. Wow, a movie I saw before Eb did! And yeah, it's a very good film. > Eb > > PS That "Paul Whitehead" who's away couldn't be the > famous album-cover artist, could he? > (http://www.clearlight888music.com/paulwhitehead/site/musicgallery.html) > ===== __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Find what you need with new enhanced search. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 14:39:42 -0500 From: FSThomas Subject: Re: Reap (or un-reap, as the case may be) And furthermore: (From the EzT forums) For some unknown reasons the database starts eating up all available CPU resources about every 24 hrs. This happens always all of a sudden (CPU usage of the DB server jumps from about 40% to 100% and stays there). We then need to stop all webservers, afterwards stop the database, then start all again. Sometimes this doesn't help and a few minutes later we'll need to do it again. And sometimes a third and a fourth time. There is no entry in any log which would indicate any reason for this database behaviour. So, all we can do is try to analyze realtime db statistics for some minutes before we restart the whole thing. Until yet, we didn't find any reason in the realtime stats, too, BTW: Any mySQL sysadmin with deep mySQL skills out there who would want to take a look in it? Take care! erwe, EZT Admin - -f. FSThomas wrote: > EasyTree is definitely down, but I don't know if it's out yet. The host > won't resolve (nor the IP address), but I'm still getting notifications > from them. > > That may be because they're using Yahoo for their forums/emails, but I'm > not sure. > > According to a post by one of the moderators: > > --- > > Folks, > > Sorry, we don't know yet what's going on. EZT Admin will look into > the matter asap, but it might take 1-2 hours until he'll be > available. Until then, please bear with us, thank you. > > Best, > > jupiter2101, EZT Mod > > --- > > -f. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 14:34:25 -0500 From: FSThomas Subject: re: Reap (or un-reap, as the case may be) EasyTree is definitely down, but I don't know if it's out yet. The host won't resolve (nor the IP address), but I'm still getting notifications from them. That may be because they're using Yahoo for their forums/emails, but I'm not sure. According to a post by one of the moderators: - --- Folks, Sorry, we don't know yet what's going on. EZT Admin will look into the matter asap, but it might take 1-2 hours until he'll be available. Until then, please bear with us, thank you. Best, jupiter2101, EZT Mod - --- - -f. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 11:54:19 -0800 From: Eb Subject: Re: Pixies - WOW >> Saw "The Station Agent," last night. Very good film. > > Wow, a movie I saw before Eb did! Are you kidding? It's practically a joke among my friends, how I never go to theaters and see everything a year late on cable. And I *still* haven't seen "Attack of the Clones." ;) Eb ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 12:56:01 -0800 From: Eb Subject: Re: top 25 of 2004 and other lists > 5. Deerhoof  Milk Man > 6. Fuck - Those Are Not My Bongos > 11. A.C. Newman - The Slow Wonder > 13. The French Kicks - The Trial Of The Century > 16. Beatallica - Beatallica > 19. Xiu Xiu  Fabulous Muscles > 24. The Telepathic Butterflies - Songs From A Second Wave > 25. The Girls - The Girls You may expound on these albums' virtues, if you like. Eb ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 16:31:43 -0500 From: bisontentacle Subject: robyn. largo. march. per yep roc : tue, march 8 - cafe largo, west hollywood, ca (solo, all-request) tue, march 9 - cafe largo, west hollywood, ca (solo, all-request) tue, march 10 - cafe largo, west hollywood, ca (solo, all-request) nothing's shown up on the ticket vendor websites yet, but keep an eye out for more dates in march and let me know if you stumble across any. thanks! woj ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 12:43:56 +1300 From: James Dignan Subject: 'tis the season... Ho ho ho! Do they know it's Christmas? 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, 22 Dec 2004 17:32:39 -0800 From: "David Stovall" Subject: RE: olleJ/snivleM >From: Eb >Subject: Re: Melvins/Jello >me: >> Jello still sounds pretty much the same as >> ever, appears to be aging well, and crowd-surfed with gusto for >> a couple minutes. > >Does he still walk with a limp? Heh - I couldn't tell ya. The crowd was packed so tight that I never saw anything lower than his shoulders while he was actually on the ground. Whether he was limp while crowd-surfing, I was not close enough to find out. d9 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 22:02:17 -0600 From: Dolph Chaney Subject: Eb-requested expoundsion Re: top 25 of 2004 and other lists At 02:56 PM 12/22/2004, Eb wrote: > You may expound on these albums' virtues, if you like. Why, thank you, I shall! >>5. Deerhoof Milk Man This is the kind of record the Residents should be making in the 21st century -- all the disturbing concept-album fractured narrative and altered voices you can slurp down, and the instrumental backing matches the wild energy instead of trying to generate "tension" out of weak, generic MIDI-pop. >>6. Fuck - Those Are Not My Bongos Apart from the fact that the first track is called "Motherfuckeroos," what do you need to know? These guys were mid-90s Matador also-rans, and I always had a soft spot for 'em. But this rekkid is their best yet. Hilariously downcast, laconic, dry-as-a-bone humor, odd analogtronic touches but with their center of gravity low with the bass and drums. I've been in a mood to giggle and mope simultaneously for much of the year, so this has been perfect. >>11. A.C. Newman - The Slow Wonder This is Carl Newman from Zumpano and the New Pornographers, which might tell you all you need to know. Big big shiny pop done right. >>13. The French Kicks - The Trial Of The Century Everyone who bought the Franz Ferdinand album and kinda liked it but was vaguely disappointed because of the hyping should go get this NOW. The vocals are swoony over the top of very tight grooveage, interweaving guitar layers and goofy synths. They should be huger than huge. >>16. Beatallica - Beatallica In a year of mashups ridiculous and sublime, I included this which is both. Two guys play all instruments Metallica-styled (with the singer doing an uncanny Hetfield homage); the tunes are Beatle songs but with the lyrics warped around old-school-Metallica lyric concepts. My favorite piece of theirs is still "Everybody's Got A Ticket To Ride Except For Me And My Lightning" from their first album,A GARAGE DAYZ NITE, but this album's "Blackened The USSR" and "Got To Get You Trapped Under Ice" bring it. >>19. Xiu Xiu Fabulous Muscles Here we have music that could only be made by this guy, to paraphrase something very wise Palle said here awhile back. Overwrought on every possible level, this stuff is designed to irritate, and congratulations! it does. My indie-rock friends hate it, my experimental-rock friends hate it, and nearly all of you would probably find it stinky like poo. And yet... I... can't... look... away... >>24. The Telepathic Butterflies - Songs From A Second Wave Ahhh, it's the 60s again -- when it rocks, it rocks in an authentically tinny way, the harmonies are spot-on, and my hips are doing the white-groovy-boy shake so hard that my McGuinn glasses flew across the room. This is what I mean by FUN. >>25. The Girls - The Girls Well, they edged out Dogs Die In Hot Cars and The Futureheads for the (un)coveted 25th spot on the list by virtue of just a *smidge* more attitude (for starters, there are no girls in this band). AND the first sound on the album is cowbell. They're totally full of themselves, in a way that is really entertaining sometimes (the "sometimes" being why they didn't place higher). - -- Dolph ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 22:38:17 -0800 From: "michael wells" Subject: Top 10 list 2004 1. THE SPIRIT OF THE STAIRCASE by Paul Curreri I knew it was going to take a whopper of an album to knock "Thoths" out of the top spot, and this one struck like lightning last week. A stunning release from one of the most utterly amazing guitar players/songwriters that I have ever had the privilege to see, Paul plays a hopped-up blend of country blues, jazz, and fingerstyle that is redefining what I know of as "American" music. There is no-one out there, except perhaps for a guy by the name of Paul Geramia, who is doing things like this. Lyrics sang softly or story-told, shouting or scat and with flawless polyrhythmic solo acoustic guitar accompaniment (in person) or small band (on record), think Bukka White, Dave van Ronk, Duke Ellington.but all somehow all fused together into a tiny white guy from Virginia. This is one of those albums that remind me why I love music. This thing burns so fiercely original that I break out in smiles just listening to it. 2. TINFOIL THOTHS - MUSIC FROM THE GLOBE OF FEGS by various artists Little needs to be said of this here, other than to again thank Rex for his work. Such a wonderful collection.sure there's the odd piece, but overall one of the most consistently excellent compilation CD's I have ever heard from any genre. I'm STILL hearing new stuff in some of these songs, and I think I can sing about two thirds of all the lyrics. This is one of only three CD's in the last five years to have stayed in my car for over half a year straight (and counting). 3. KITCHEN RADIO by Peter Mulvey His first all-originals album in four years, and certainly worth the wait. Peter can arrange stunningly complex guitar work into easily listenable songs, and these stretch out like a big comfy sofa under a window open to the autumn. Seemingly effortless at first, they unfold over repeated listening to reveal subtle harmonic shifts, brilliant fills and the tiniest of perfect production details. An excellent release by any set of standards, and another addition to the expanding canon of new American singer-songwriter classics. 4. LOVE IS HELL (complete version) by Ryan Adams What Beck's SEA CHANGE was supposed to be. 5. SPOOKED by Robyn Hitchcock You all know my feelings on this. It's very fucking cool. 6. STRIPPING CANE by Jeffrey Foucault The third "Americana" album to make my top 10, and another long in coming. I've raved here about Jeffrey's first, his incredible MILES FROM THE LIGHTNING, but this one takes his songwriting structures and lyrical themes into interesting new territory.and yet no-one else can still approach what it sounds like to be from this part of the country (upper Midwest) quite as well; this music *belongs* here like nothing else I've ever heard. Real mud-on-the-boots stuff, without affectation or corniness.yet thoughtful and well-conceived. I'm still stunned at how perceptive his songs are straight out of the box for a young twenty-something. 7. INDIANS COWBOYS HORSES DOGS by Tom Russell Tom continues an impressive run of albums put out in his 50's with this top-notch effort. The combination of macho, melodrama and cowboys isn't for everyone, but still Tom's songwriting comes through. 8. HOW TO DISASSEMBLE AN ATOMIC BOMB by U2 It would get on for the sheer thunder of when I heard Vertigo for the first time, but rest of the disc adds plenty of reason. It won't be my favorite U2 disc, maybe about on par with Zooropa, but it's still excellent. 9. HILLBILLY PILGRIM by Mark Erelli A Northeastern folkie that's always had a Nashville streak, here Mark dons the pearl-snap shirts and brings his multi-instrumental skills to the fore for this very enjoyable, if occasionally lighthearted, full country-swing collection. A perfectly produced, well balanced album that rings of a true fan reveling in music that's a bit out of character. 10. WHEELS OF FORTUNE by The Flatlanders Joe Ely needs no explanation, and the inclusion of his previously recorded solo song "Indian Cowboy" is a special treat. I still want to confirm that Jimmy Dale Gilmore is actually NOT James Dignan, however. Have they ever been seen together? I still haven't picked up this year's Interpol, JJ Cale or Leo Kottke discs, all of which I could see angling for a spot in the top 10. Honorable mentions: FEEDBACK by Rush, SOMEONE TO TELL by Ari Hest, and WISDOM/DELUSION by guitarist Ben Woolman. Biggest disappointment: VIRGINIA CREEPER by Grant-Lee Philips. This shit is getting WAY too slick now.time to stop fiddling with that production, Grant. Best collection received: TOM T. HALL - THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION. Admit it, you still like "Harper Valley P.T.A." Michael "and that's the way it is" Wells ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 23:23:15 -0800 (PST) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Re: Pixies - WOW Eb wrote: > >> Saw "The Station Agent," last night. Very good film. > > > > Wow, a movie I saw before Eb did! > > Are you kidding? It's practically a joke among my > friends, how I never > go to theaters and see everything a year late on cable. Yeah, but I usually see things 2-3 years late when I finally get around to going to the video store. > And I *still* haven't seen "Attack of the Clones." ;) Well, I haven't stapled my scrotum to a porcupine, but.... I actually did see that one the day it came out, but only because my sister had just lost her job and I was trying to do something nice to cheer her up. Nothing about that movie that clubbing George Lucas into a coma the night before shooting began and a couple more script rewrites and less reliance on effects and some recasting couldn't have solved. ===== __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - now with 250MB free storage. Learn more. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 09:37:24 -0500 From: The Great Quail Subject: Essay contest Hey Fegs! Considering how eclectic this List is, I thought I might as well pass along this press release.... The Modern Word, the American Friends of James Joyce, and the Great Books Foundation are sponsoring a James Joyce Essay Contest: http://www.themodernword.com/contests/joyce_essay.html The contests is open to all high school students in the United States, and the top prize is a $1000 cash scholarship. This scholarship is being offered by the AFJJ, whose main goal is to foster the readership of James Joyce in the United States. If you know any students, teachers, parents, or even local media that might be interested in this contest, please feel free to pass along this information. We don't have much in the way of an advertising budget, so any "grass roots" support would be very welcome. Also, if you run a Joyce or writing-related site, a link to the contest would be greatly appreciated. You can find a small banner here: http://www.themodernword.com/contests/joyce_essay.gif Thanks! - --Quail ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 11:04:40 -0800 From: Tom Clark Subject: White Album gig / Morris Windsor is God Listened to the first White Album gig disc yesterday and I just wanted to give Eddie a heads-up that Morris is in top form. Unfortunately, Robyn's vocals are a bit off though. - -tc ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 12:52:53 -0800 From: Eb Subject: Meeting of the minds! Gervais joins The Simpsons by Julia Day The Office creator and star Ricky Gervais has been asked to write an episode of The Simpsons, the first Briton to do so. The cult cartoon's creator, Matt Groening, is a big fan of The Office and initially asked Gervais to do one of the voices for a Simpsons episode. But after the two had met up several times in the UK and the US, where the British comic was setting up the American version of his Slough-based series, Groening asked Gervais to write the episode he was to appear in. The two discussed the episode at last night's British Comedy Awards where Matt Lucas and David Walliams' Little Britain took over from The Office as this year's top show. "I've got the rough idea but this is the most intimidating project of my career. The Simpsons is the greatest TV show of all time. I can only make it slightly worse," said Gervais. "When I first got into comedy my greatest ambition was to get one joke on The Simpsons. I may as well retire now." His spokeswoman today said Gervais had started writing the episode, the plot of which is a closely guarded secret, and it is likely to be made in the new year. - --------- PS from me: I heard the whole Arcade Fire CD this morning. I'm just not hearing the reason for all the acclaim. The songs are very well-arranged, but the melodies are too repetitive and the howling singer has a distinctly unpleasant voice (I almost wonder if the extra instruments are designed to cover this up). I don't think I'll even be *keeping* this, and I'm usually a big Merge fan in general. So...despite this apparently being THE indie phenom of the year, I'm just dropping it in my very large "Nothing good ever came out of Canada except comedians and Neil Young" file. ;) Eb ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V13 #364 ********************************