From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V16 #493 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Friday, February 8 2008 Volume 16 : Number 493 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: COOKIE [Rex ] RE: Teh Teh (was: to forge in teh Smithy of my soul an lead zeppelin) [Mi] Re: Mars Volta [Michael Sweeney ] Re: Mars Volta [Michael Sweeney ] Re: ZEPPELIN!!! [craigie* ] Re: COOKIE ["kevin studyvin" ] Re: COOOKIE!!! [Barbara Soutar ] Re: Teh Teh (was: to forge in teh Smithy of my soul an lead zeppelin) [le] Re: Mars Volta [lep ] Vancouver [Barbara Soutar ] Re: Gwynne Dyer [Caroline Smith ] Re: COOOKIE!!! [Barbara Soutar ] Re: Teh Teh (was: to forge in teh Smithy of my soul an lead zeppelin) [2f] Re: Teh Teh (was: to forge in teh Smithy of my soul an lead zeppelin) [Re] Re: Teh Teh (was: to forge in teh Smithy of my soul an lead zeppelin) [le] Re: Teh Teh (was: to forge in teh Smithy of my soul an lead zeppelin) [C] Re: COOKIE [2fs ] Re: Vancouver [2fs ] Re: Vancouver [Rex ] Re: COOOKIE!!! [grutness@slingshot.co.nz] Re: Teh Teh (was: to forge in teh Smithy of my soul an lead zeppelin) [gr] Re: COOKIE [Rex ] Re: Give 'em what they want/Mars Volta/Beatles/Crimso/Bowie [grutness@sli] Re: Teh Teh (was: to forge in teh Smithy of my soul an lead zeppelin) [Re] Re: Give 'em what they want/Mars Volta/Beatles/Crimso/Bowie [2fs Subject: Re: COOKIE On Feb 7, 2008 9:52 AM, David Stovall wrote: > > Satanism in metal? Yeah, mostly boring. The most interesting example > in music I can think of is the anthropologically scholarly "A Hymn to > the Morning Star/The Donkey Headed Adversary of Humanity Opens the > Discussion" from Sleepytime Gorilla Museum's first album... I'll take Roky Erickson for $500, Alex. And that's about it. Oh, and that wacky Black Mass record by Lucifer... was that Mort Garson, too, or am I getting confused here? - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 18:33:09 +0000 From: Michael Sweeney Subject: RE: Teh Teh (was: to forge in teh Smithy of my soul an lead zeppelin) Rex wrote: >Bah. I was nesting quote marks back when you were on the board at WalMart, working for your slum lord pal... or... something. > >Um, perhaps I'm feeling a little Supert Uesday post-partem blooze (or maybe (probably) I'm just an idiot)). ...As my GF likes to point out (mostly about trolls on the craigslist forum she likes to post on), the chances of making a similar mistake when pointing out or referring to (even facetiously) someone else's perceived mistakes are roughly 100%...(i.e., one too many parentheses?...or, as the Germans would have us believe, was that intentional?) ...Anyway, your Hillama retort was well-played...and brought to mind this incident from my long-ago employment history: On a suddenly tightened deadline to produce a project proposal (for a small, fairly tightly-knit organization), I -- along with a few key colleagues -- worked all night (in fact, it was over parts of 2 nights -- about 44 hours straight, including occasional tag-team catnaps) to produce the material we needed to compete for this very badly needed project. The boss/company owner, however, did NOT participate in the all-nighter (although his skills would've been useful, but...whatever -- we regarded it as one of the perks of being in charge: he was paying US to pull the main weight). When he arrived at the office on the morning of the third day, as we deliriously wrapped up the material he would take and present later that day, we were all flush with proud exhaustion...a camaraderie had bonded us and buoyed us along. We were so glad to have reached the finish line and passed off, relay-baton-style, the work to our boss, who would carry it to the finish line... ...So, as we tiredly but proudly recounted our travails and triumphs to the boss (an oft-annoying 50-something Brit ex-pat), he slapped me on the back and said (in what we all took as a belittling tone of "oh, so you think you did something?"), "I've pulled more all-nighters in my time than you've had hot breakfasts, my boy!" I just looked at my co-workers, and could feel our joint elation of accomplishment get completely pissed away. Yeah, we managed to get that project that helped keep Mr. Hot Breakfast's business afloat for another little while...but, not much longer thereafter, all of the younger key members of that team had left for better gigs...Yeah, we knew we had to toil for The Man, but...if The Man couldn't even bother to recognize or appreciate what we did, then EFF HIM!!! Michael "{'["('!')"]'}" Sweeney _________________________________________________________________ Connect and share in new ways with Windows Live. http://www.windowslive.com/share.html?ocid=TXT_TAGHM_Wave2_sharelife_012008 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 18:45:40 +0000 From: Michael Sweeney Subject: Re: Mars Volta craigie* wrote: >On 07/02/2008, lep wrote:>>>>>> p.s. i often wonder how my crush on bowie starting at age 12 affected>> my taste in men (i do still like them pale, thin, and english.)>>> >damn, damn and WHOO-HOO! ...or, as the case may be...WHOO-HOO!, damn, and damn... Michael "Taken anyway, but...always nice to gauge imaginary possibilities..." Sweeney _________________________________________________________________ Shed those extra pounds with MSN and The Biggest Loser! http://biggestloser.msn.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 18:49:07 +0000 From: Michael Sweeney Subject: Re: Mars Volta Sebastian Hagedorn wrote: >- --On 7. Februar 2008 13:59:28 +0000 craigie* wrote: >>> p.s. i often wonder how my crush on bowie starting at age 12 affected>>> my taste in men (i do still like them pale, thin, and english.)>>>>>>> damn, damn and WHOO-HOO! >>WHOO-HOO, damn and damn? I guess? ...DAMN, DAMN, and DAMN my not scrolling down on the digest before replying! Beaten on the joke from half-a-world away! Well-done... Michael "First Hasselhoff, then this!" Sweeney _________________________________________________________________ Climb to the top of the charts! Play the word scramble challenge with star power. http://club.live.com/star_shuffle.aspx?icid=starshuffle_wlmailtextlink_jan ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 17:00:13 +0000 From: craigie* Subject: Re: ZEPPELIN!!! yeah, and Misty Mountain Hop. What he said. c* On 07/02/2008, kevin studyvin wrote: > > Dude. Misty Mountain Hop. > > On Feb 7, 2008 5:46 AM, craigie* wrote: > > > but... but... > > > > House of The Holy has Rain Song and The Ocean and Over The Hills And Far > > Away and The Crunge and D'yer Mak'er (surely the most punsome song title > > EVER) > > > > my 2c > > > > c* > > > > > > On 07/02/2008, Tom Clark wrote: > > > > > > On Feb 6, 2008, at 8:30 PM, Michael Sweeney wrote: > > > > > > > Michael "May be the only person I know whose fave Zep record is 'In > > > > Through > > > > the Out Door'..." Sweeney > > > > > > For me it's a toss up between "Physical Graffiti" and "Presence". I > > > mean "Ten Years Gone"? "Achilles Last Stand"? GOLD JERRY, GOLD! > > > > > > -tc > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > first things first, but not necessarily in that order... > > > > I like my girls to be the same as my records - independent, attractively > > packaged and in black vinyl (if at all possible)... > > > > - -- first things first, but not necessarily in that order... I like my girls to be the same as my records - independent, attractively packaged and in black vinyl (if at all possible)... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 10:55:41 -0800 From: "kevin studyvin" Subject: Re: COOKIE > Amen. Though I don't know about "I Talk To the Trees" or whatever that > unfortunate number is called. I know women aren't supposed to like KC, but my wife has been exposed to more than her fair share through me and is nuts about Discipline and Thrak, specifically because of the aforesaid "Matte Kudasai" and "Walking On Air." And I totally agree about B'Boom. Bill Bruford was put on earth to play with Fripp, is how I feel on that issue, and that album is one of the major documents supporting that notion. > > King Crimson, metal? Violently agreed that 21st Century Schizoid Man > did a lot of what metal eventually got around to, faster, firster and > more betterer,... If the metal elements of KC grate, get the > double-live B'Boom and listen to "Matte Kudesai" "One Time" and (dang, > "Walking on Air" isn't on B'Boom?) "Elephant Talk" before digging into > the rest of it. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:53:59 -0800 From: Barbara Soutar Subject: Re: COOOKIE!!! Rex: I would LOVE to see that SCTV skit again, the one where Gordon Lightfoot sings every song ever written. I spent my early teenage years with a best friend who played every Gordon Lightfoot song on her guitar. She sang like an angel, so her version of his songs were done in a voice like Joan Baez. I must say hearing Gordon's mellow voice instantly relaxes me, much like the effect the late Peter Gzowski used to have on my mood. CBC Radio listeners will understand what I mean. When it comes to cookie monster type voices (I had never heard that term before) the only examples I can think of are Johnny and Edgar Winter. Their tendency toward gruffness. Is that the kind of sound you guys are talking about? Barbara Soutar Victoria, BC ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 14:17:58 -0500 From: lep Subject: Re: Teh Teh (was: to forge in teh Smithy of my soul an lead zeppelin) Sweeney says: > just as shirtless Spike is the province of Our Lauren i'd rather be known be known for how quickly i can finish my formal proofs in first-order logic, but, i can't complain, i'll take my accomplishments where i can get them. BTW, why the hell does puppet spike come with a shirt *and* a coat? as ever, lauren - -- - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "People with opinions just go around bothering one another." - The Buddha ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 14:11:34 -0500 From: lep Subject: Re: Mars Volta Sweeney says: > Sebastian Hagedorn wrote: >- --On 7. Februar 2008 13:59:28 +0000 craigie* > wrote: >>> p.s. i often wonder how my crush on bowie > starting at age 12 affected>>> my taste in men (i do still like them pale, > thin, and english.)>>>>>>> damn, damn and WHOO-HOO! >>WHOO-HOO, damn and damn? > I guess? > > ...DAMN, DAMN, and DAMN my not scrolling down on the digest before replying! > Beaten on the joke from half-a-world away! > > Well-done... re: the bowie boys: pale, thin, and english is a sufficient but not necessary condition. i may be shallow, but i'm not stupid ;) xo - -- - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "People with opinions just go around bothering one another." - The Buddha ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2008 11:19:12 -0800 From: Barbara Soutar Subject: Vancouver A couple of good links - the first one funny, the second one informative, both originating from Vancouver: The Groucho-Marxist manifesto: http://www.sniggle.net/Manifesti/groucho.php Mythbusting Canadian Health Care: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/mythbusting-canadian-health-care-part-i Barbara Soutar Victoria, BC ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 14:24:38 -0500 From: Caroline Smith Subject: Re: Gwynne Dyer On 7-Feb-08, at 11:15 AM, Christopher Gross wrote: >> My high school history teacher assigned Gwynne Dyer's columns for the >> Toronto Star (...I think) as reading assignments. It was a great way >> to learn about current events. > > I've always remembered Gwynne Dyer from reading his book and seeing > his > PBS miniseries _War_ back in my high school days. We watched that too. Grade 11 history, I think. Hmm, 20 years later I wouldn't mind watching it again. You know... just to see how everything is still damn relevant. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2008 11:24:33 -0800 From: Barbara Soutar Subject: Re: COOOKIE!!! Reading back in the digests, I see that it was Kevin Studyvin, not Rex who first mentioned the Gordon Lightfoot SCTV skit. Can't...keep... up... Barbara Soutar Victoria, BC ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 13:30:02 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: Teh Teh (was: to forge in teh Smithy of my soul an lead zeppelin) On Feb 7, 2008 1:17 PM, lep wrote: > BTW, why the hell does puppet spike come with a shirt *and* a coat? > So you can remove them, of course. > > > > -- > > ...Jeff Norman > > The Architectural Dance Society > http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 11:31:30 -0800 From: Rex Subject: Re: Teh Teh (was: to forge in teh Smithy of my soul an lead zeppelin) On Feb 7, 2008 11:17 AM, lep wrote: > Sweeney says: > > just as shirtless Spike is the province of Our Lauren > > i'd rather be known be known for how quickly i can finish my formal > proofs in first-order logic, but, i can't complain, i'll take my > accomplishments where i can get them. > > BTW, why the hell does puppet spike come with a shirt *and* a coat? > To prolong your pleasure by delayed gratification? - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 14:35:25 -0500 From: lep Subject: Re: Teh Teh (was: to forge in teh Smithy of my soul an lead zeppelin) 2fs says: > > On Feb 7, 2008 1:17 PM, lep wrote: > > > BTW, why the hell does puppet spike come with a shirt *and* a coat? > > > > So you can remove them, of course. i feel so understood. as ever, lauren - -- - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "People with opinions just go around bothering one another." - The Buddha ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 14:59:24 -0500 (EST) From: Christopher Gross Subject: Re: Teh Teh (was: to forge in teh Smithy of my soul an lead zeppelin) On Thu, 7 Feb 2008, lep wrote: > BTW, why the hell does puppet spike come with a shirt *and* a coat? You're assuming they aren't removable. - --Chris ps: Don't people realize that I take a late lunch in order to have the whole staff lounge to myself, and the entire point is lost when a large noisy group of them decides to eat their lunch in there at the same time? Is this really so hard to understand? People are so unreasonable. ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 15:50:15 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: COOKIE On Feb 7, 2008 11:52 AM, David Stovall wrote: > Way behind on digests, got some free time at work to wank and babble, > jumping in arbitrarily here,.... > > > Instrumental/guitar wanking in metal/prog/art rawk? Yeah, mostly > boring, but I got a bit of an insight into this,.... in 2004, at > NEARFest, Keneally sat next to me for a bit of Planet X's set (a guy > from Dream Theatre, I think, and some others from other prog-metal > bands, crunched together in a power-trio (or power-quad?) format, with > the simply inhuman Virgil Donati on drums). They weren't half a > minute into their first song, stupidly, arithmetically complicated and > leaving many members of even a NEARFest audience wondering how many > other players were hiding behind the curtains, and I noticed the seats > shaking. Turned to my left, and it's Keneally *laughing his ass off*. > The phrase "the little dog laughed to see such sport" sprang > instantly to mind, and I appreciated one virtuoso's reveling in seeing > other virtuosos having a fuck of a fun time. But the thing is, it's loads of fun *for the musicians*. So's masturbating - that doesn't mean anyone else wants to be there when they're doing it. - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 15:48:24 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: Vancouver On Feb 7, 2008 1:19 PM, Barbara Soutar wrote: > A couple of good links - the first one funny, the second one > informative, both originating from Vancouver: > > Mythbusting Canadian Health Care: > > > http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/mythbusting-canadian-health-care-part-i > ** And in fact, this one's not quite strong enough: ** *"5. You don't get to choose your own doctor.* *Scurrilously False.* Somebody, somewhere, is getting paid a lot of money to make this kind of stuff up. The cons love to scare the kids with stories about the government picking your doctor for you, and you don't get a choice. Be afraid! Be very afraid! For the record: Canadians pick their own doctors, just like Americans do. And not only that: since it all pays the same, poor Canadians have exactly the same access to the country's top specialists that rich ones do." We get to choose our own doctors here in the US? Really? First, of course...that's if we have insurance - otherwise we have Dr. Nobody. But even if we have insurance, typically, you can choose from a list of doctors with your particular HMO...and from that list, the ones who are accepting new patients (if you're new). The doctor we'd been seeing for years several years ago transferred to a different branch of the same system...and suddenly, for various reasons I don't recall, we couldn't have him as our doctor any more. (As it happened, a few years later he transferred back...and miraculously, we could sign back up with him.) So no: Americans, for the most part, do not get to pick their own doctors. Generally, though, I've never understood this: do most people really know which doctors they want to go with? Oh sure, you can do a bit of research and maybe find which doctors you *don't* want to go with...and Rose has a preference for female doctors generally (although ironically, the doctor I refer to above is a man...and his inept replacement was a woman...although to her credit, she did motivate me to try to lose weight. Otherwise, she was about as sensitve as Michael Scott...which is to say, very in-)...but most people see a list of doctors and they don't know any of them, or anything about them. - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 14:11:40 -0800 From: Rex Subject: Re: Vancouver On Feb 7, 2008 1:48 PM, 2fs wrote: > > Generally, though, I've never understood this: do most people really know > which doctors they want to go with? Oh sure, you can do a bit of research > and maybe find which doctors you *don't* want to go with... In my experience, you generally get a list and pick someone based on geographical proximity and whichever one of your own subconscious prejudices lead you to like one name more than another. Worse, you have to switch plans almost yearly to stay within your budget or adjust for changing circumstances. There's usually an obvious choice, and your HR person will lay it out for you, but it doesn't necessarily have your current (read: previously randomly chosen) doctor on it, so it another year, another dartboard. Sometimes you have to choose between continuity with your general practitioner *or* your specialist(s), and you can't have both/all. Sux. Go the Capitalists! - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2008 11:27:54 +1300 From: grutness@slingshot.co.nz Subject: Re: COOOKIE!!! >I recollect one late night many wasted years ago a hilarious spot on SCTV >for an album of covers of Stairway to heaven called, predictably enough, >"Stairways To Heaven," with seriously giggle-inducing snippets of persons >purporting to be Rickie Lee Jones, Gordon Lightfoot and I don't remember >who-all in mid-stairway. Unfortunately it hasn't made the move to DVD. It did, however, make it to CD. The Rolf Harris one has gone down as a kitsch classic in some quarters, as has one by a Japanese Beatles cover band (called The Beaish, IIRC) 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: Fri, 8 Feb 2008 11:40:10 +1300 From: grutness@slingshot.co.nz Subject: Re: Teh Teh (was: to forge in teh Smithy of my soul an lead zeppelin) > Personally i think rex should be congartulated for constructing the "the > "the 'the "The The"'" the", the like of which we are not wont to see again > for a long time. Hate to point this out Craigie, but in the 'the "the "the 'the "The The"'" the", the', the "the" is a pretty contrived addition. 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, 7 Feb 2008 14:13:58 -0800 From: Rex Subject: Re: COOKIE On Feb 7, 2008 1:50 PM, 2fs wrote: > > > But the thing is, it's loads of fun *for the musicians*. > > So's masturbating - that doesn't mean anyone else wants to be there when > they're doing it. > Don't be so exclusive... I know plenty of non-musicians who also enjoy masturbating. Well, okay, a few. Four, if you must know. - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2008 11:41:34 +1300 From: grutness@slingshot.co.nz Subject: Re: Give 'em what they want/Mars Volta/Beatles/Crimso/Bowie >For the music trivialists and trend watchers. > >There I was thinking that Robyn's idea of peforming a show based >around a single old album was an unusual idea, when I received news >that Gary Numan is embarking on a tour of Replicas. Is this the >start of some new trend or is this a common occurance that I've been >unaware of? > >The only other occaisons I can think of an artist doing live >versions of one of their old albums are the Pretty Things >resurrection of SF Sorrow at Abbey Road and I think at some other >venue(s) sometime in the last decade and Roger Waters' The Wall in >Berlin. So RW may not be Pink Floyd but it's near enough. > >Brian > >ps. Should you ever think to get a copy SF Sorrow, get the 2 disc >version with the abbey road session on it. ISTR Sparks recently did a 21-date tour where they played an entire album live each night, one from each of their 21-album oeuvre. Not only astonishing, but mightily impressive from a musicianship point of view if they succeeded. >...I'm sorrry, but I cannot hear / read Ryan Adams' name without laughing out >loud recalling the multiple "way to drive him crazy in concert by shouting out >requests for 'Summer of '69'" stories... I'm still amazed that so many people think the title refers to a year :) > Beatles space broadcast 'risks alien attack' Anyone else here think that NASA's choice of a song with the chorus "Jai guru deva om" was a deliberate finger up at the fundie creationist lobby? >King Crimson, metal? Violently agreed that 21st Century Schizoid Man >did a lot of what metal eventually got around to, faster, firster and >more betterer,... If the metal elements of KC grate, get the >double-live B'Boom and listen to "Matte Kudesai" "One Time" and (dang, >"Walking on Air" isn't on B'Boom?) "Elephant Talk" before digging into >the rest of it. Thrak and B'boom (the albums), make me think of the Beatles beiong mugged by a metal band on the way to making Abbey Road. James PS - >lauren > >p.s. i often wonder how my crush on bowie starting at age 12 affected >my taste in men (i do still like them pale, thin, and english.) hm... must make a note of that, though my accent has drifted a bit due to time in the South Pacific. - -- 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, 7 Feb 2008 14:44:42 -0800 From: Rex Subject: Re: Teh Teh (was: to forge in teh Smithy of my soul an lead zeppelin) On Feb 7, 2008 2:40 PM, wrote: > > Personally i think rex should be congartulated for constructing the > "the > > "the 'the "The The"'" the", the like of which we are not wont to see > again > > for a long time. > > Hate to point this out Craigie, but in the 'the "the "the 'the "The > The"'" the", the', the "the" is a pretty contrived addition. > Ho. Lee. Shit. You know what this does? It goes far beyond depending on what your take on the old Clintonism "what your definition of 'is' is" is, is what it does. - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 19:08:38 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: Give 'em what they want/Mars Volta/Beatles/Crimso/Bowie On 2/7/08, grutness@slingshot.co.nz wrote: > > > ISTR Sparks recently did a 21-date tour where they played an entire > album live each night, one from each of their 21-album oeuvre. Not > only astonishing, but mightily impressive from a musicianship point > of view if they succeeded. "Will be doing" - as craigie* pointed out. (BTW: I assume the * is silent?) > Beatles space broadcast 'risks alien attack' > > Anyone else here think that NASA's choice of a song with the chorus > "Jai guru deva om" was a deliberate finger up at the fundie > creationist lobby? If only! > > >p.s. i often wonder how my crush on bowie starting at age 12 affected > >my taste in men (i do still like them pale, thin, and english.) Errmm...I'm sorta pale. I speak English. Oh never mind. - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 22:41:27 -0800 (PST) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Re: to forge in the Smithy of my soul a lead zeppelin 2fs wrote: > The problem I have w/Marr's career post-Smiths is that he seems to > totally submerge what was once a distinct playing style to the > extent that nearly anyone could have played the parts he played on > most of those recordings (I haven't heard them all, however). The thing about Marr is that he always wanted to be like Phil Spector more than he wanted to be like Jimmy Page (professionally, not in the going insane, pulling guns on people, and murdering people sense of being like Phil Spector), so he's always been less interested in playing "like himself" than most guitarists, and that goes back to his work with The Smiths -- compare "How Soon is Now?" to "There is a Light That Never Goes Out," for instance. Obviously, there is some connection between the two, but they are further apart than, say "So. Central Rain" is from "Begin the Begin" or "A Sort of Homecoming" is to "Where the Streets Have No Name" (not that Peter Buck and The Edge don't have range as well). > I'd > totally forgotten he played on a Talking Heads record - but that's > because it's easy to forget he's playing on that record even when > you're listening to it. "(Nothing But) Flowers" doesn't sound like Marr? Who else would it be? Roger McGuinn, maybe, but.... > That's the problem: he's like The Invisible Guitarist. More to the > point: he's the invisible songwriter. Except for Electronic (and > we're talking only a couple of tracks), the notion that Marr was > an equal songwriting partner seems now a bit unlikely. Even if > Morrissey's solo stuff does sound more Smithy - and hence more > limited - that only means he seems, in retrospect, to have had a > greater hand in the Smiths' records than most people thought > at the time. Except that they rarely rise to same level of quality, especially the post-Stephen Street stuff. Even if you collected to absolute best of Alain Whyte and Boz Boorer, while it would probably be as good as the first album and probably Meat is Murder, it wouldn't hold The Queen is Dead's or Strangeways Here We Come's jock, so to speak (I just got home from working out, so sorry about that metaphor). I think the better term than invisible is malleable; Marr has always seemed _very_ uninterested in repeating himself, so he's ended up with this shape-shifting sort of career. Hell, his desire to play differently and write differently is what broke up The Smiths in the first place ("he wanted to be in Herman's Hermits, I wanted to be in Sly & The Family Stone," was Johnny's exit quote, more or less). Which is frustrating on a lot of levels, but how many guitarists really have done that much better when the band breaks up? Richard Thompson, and I suppose Eric Clapton even though he's sucked since _Layla?_ And they both can be the singer, which Johnny showed he really can't. Non-singing guitars heroes rarely have any place much to go when they get fed up with the singer. > Even when Morrissey's records are boring, though, his lyrics are > usually quite good. He's definitely up there in overall quality of > lyrics (even when he's being an idiot, as in the recent revival of > the "lost Britishness" bullshit...) True, though I actually thought the lyrics were, for once, one of the big problems on Ringleaders (and he's never been good at really expressing himself on ethno-racial issues all the way back to "Bengali in Platforms," which is really strange -- and I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt that he's telling the truth when he says he isn't a racist -- given that he doesn't hit those same stumbling blocks when writing about other matters). > Plant, though, continues to surprise me: even though he's clearly > rooted in the stuff he's always been, he also obviously keeps an > ear to the ground (uh, several ears, or several grounds, or...next > metaphor please?). His music sounds committed to that sort of > discovery - unlike a lot of massively successful musicians his > age, he doesn't sound like he's just phoning it in, > content that his band's back catalog still sells assloads. And he's always been that way. I had always avoided Zep through high school, just because they were something the head-banging 'tards listened to (even at a high school with very few such 'tards -- my senior year's homecoming kings favorite artists were Morrissey and They Might be Giants, ferbono'ssake -- until I was bored at the dentist's one day with a Rolling Stone he was in, and ended up reading about his love of The Cure and R.E.M. (both of whom he had been championing for years, apparently, among others), and his decision to using samples of Zep in "Tall Cool One" (the then-current single) as a reaction to the Beastie Boys and other using LZ samples. I didn't really pursue his work, solo and Zep, immediately, but I remember being kinda impressed with the guy's attitude, etc, and that ended up, erm, planting the seeds of future fandom. "I'm not tempted to write a song about George W. Bush. I couldn't figure out what sort of song I would write. That's the problem: I don't want to satirize George Bush and his puppeteers, I want to vaporize them." -- Tom Lehrer "The eyes are the groin of the head." -- Dwight Schrute . ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V16 #493 ********************************