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fegmaniax-digest         Tuesday, May 27 2008         Volume 16 : Number 612



                               Today's Subjects:
                               -----------------
  My name is "Eb", and I "lay eggs" for the Railroad Men  ["Stacked Crooked"]
  Re: Fleece 2000                                         [hssmrg@bath.ac.uk]
  Re: Fleece 2000                    ["kevin studyvin" <kstudyvin@gmail.com>]
  Re: Your fellow voters (U.S. edition)       [2fs <jeffreyw2fs.j@gmail.com>]
  Re: Fleece 2000                                         [cakrm@comcast.net]
  reap                                   [FSThomas <fsthomas@ochremedia.com>]
  Re: Fleece 2000                             [2fs <jeffreyw2fs.j@gmail.com>]
  Colorful!                            [Steve Schiavo <steveschiavo@mac.com>]
  REAP                             ["Marc Alberts" <malberts1@earthlink.net>]
  Re: Shortest LPs                                        [hssmrg@bath.ac.uk]
  Re: Shortest LPs                            [2fs <jeffreyw2fs.j@gmail.com>]
  Re: My name is "Eb", and I "lay eggs" for the Railroad Men  [Rex <spottede]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 07:28:03 -0700
From: "Stacked Crooked" <etews@inwa.net>
Subject: My name is "Eb", and I "lay eggs" for the Railroad Men

<<but the occupation of gaza and the west bank is about to enter its
sixty-second year.>>

<Forty-first year, actually.>

just making sure you were paying attention!  or something like that.  for
the record, the occupation is *entering* its forty-second year (june 5),
the dispossession its sixty-first (may 14).


<And of course arguments could be made in defense of all the actions you
mention--but we won't go there.>

arguments can be made in defense of the invasions of afghanistan and iraq,
too.  the important question is whether *reasonable* arguments can be made.


<I still think if Gaza and the West Bank were made into a Palestinian
state, with some sort of arrangement for Jerusalem, the Golan were given
back to Syria, and people stopped firing rockets into Israel, then Israel
would no longer be any sort of "threat" at all to anybody.>

first of all, obviously, nobody would be firing rockets into israel were it
not for its occupations and depredations.  as for your supposition, sure.
but one may as well say something along the lines of, "if the united states
stopped invading the major oil-producing countries, overthrowing
democratically elected governments, and propping up dictators, then it
would no longer be any sort of 'threat' at all to anybody."

ain't gonna happen (so long as u.s. taxpayers are making it possible.)  in
fact, it's even *less* likely, as israel is claiming *specifically* the
land and water in question.  if some massive new energy source were to be
discovered on the moon (or wherever), then the united states would probably
drop its meddling in the middle east in fairly short order.


<I don't know if it's even fair to consider Israel a "menace" considering
most sane Israelis gave up the idea of a Greater Israel quite a while
back.>

well, it's not like all those new settlements are sitting there empty.


<<(of course, i suppose i'd be unemployable, given  that i'd be unswavering
in my insistence upon logical close-quotes punctuation...)>>

<Just don't start acting like these fools.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-typo-guys-0521may21,0,701362.stor
y>

as much as i think those guys are fucking *awesome* (which doesn't, note,
preclude their also being fools), i'm far too lazy to end up like them.


>>Back on the street, Deck said poor use of the apostrophe was their most
commonly encountered typo. "It's like a virus," he said. Herson agreed: "It
really is contagious, I think. Especially the lack of them in
possessives."<<

hmm, it seems to me that their use in plurals is more common?


>>"My, that's specific," the first clerk said.

"I'm not sure we keep spare apostrophes," the other said.

"Very observant," the first clerk said.

"Amazing, actually," the other said.<<

this is better than an episode of *Flying Circus*!


<It was 10 years ago that a bunch of weirdos attended a party in the middle
of Pennsylvania hosted by a neo-hippie Rush fan and his future wife.>

it occurred to me (but i was too lazy to mention it) that we negelected to
commemorate the tenth anniversary of the legendary bayard's-birthday gig
(april 29th of this year).


<Bruce "Utah" Phillips has caught the westbound.>

damn.  not only is that fucked, but it's also fucking eerie timing: the
seattle folklife festival put on a utah phillips celebration show (had been
scheduled for months, i should guess) *the same day* as his passing.


<Nowadays, I think it's entirely a matter of price: you call something an
"EP", and it's going to cost less than an album does...even if your next
album is only 32 minutes long and your EP has 12 tracks and is 40 minutes
long.>

i don't think any act would make an album whose running time was shorter
than *the same act's* previous, longer EP.

by the way, were sugar trying to invent a new category in calling *Beaster*
a "short-form album"?  didn't catch on, i guess.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 18:04:52 +0100
From: hssmrg@bath.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Fleece 2000

Quoting fegmaniax-digest <owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org>:
>
> Date: Sun, 25 May 2008 18:56:35 -0400
> From: gaseous clay <woj@smoe.org>
> Subject: NEW on DIME: Robyn Hitchcock - 31 Jan 2000 - Fleece and   
> Firkin - Bristol - England - UK
> http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=198242&hit=1
> - -------- Original Message --------
> A new torrent has been uploaded to DIME.
> Torrent: 198242
> Title: Robyn Hitchcock - 31 Jan 2000 - Fleece and Firkin - Bristol -
> England - UK.
> Size: 583.49 MB

>> From 'The Asking Tree':
> Yes, it was a corker of a gig - much better than last time I saw him (a
> rather lacklustre performance at Oxford). He was in full-on jangle mode
> for most of the evening - Birds in Perspex, Oceanside, QoE, Madonna of the
> Wasps etc. Also a nice duelling harmonicas version of Queen Elvis with
> Tim Keegan. High point for an Egyptians fan was the appearance of Morris
> Windsor to duet with Robyn on Airscape, then to play drums on Kingdom of
> Love and Insanely Jealous - three Soft Boys on stage together!
> Regular drummer Patch Hannon returned to the seat for Eight Miles High,
> which had Morris and Tim on stunning harmony vocals. This was followed by
> 'a George Harrison song'. What would you choose, folks? Soomthing? Beware
> of Darkness? Taxman? No, none of these, he had dug out the obscure Beatles
> B-side 'Old Brown Shoe' and the whole band zipped into it with joie de
> vivre and aplomb. Finale was 'Beautiful Girl'.
> Anyhow, Darbi, this one was super-wizzo-sonic!
> - -Mike G

* I would still say that this was the best post-Egyptians gig I have  
seen, though a couple of the reformed Soft Boys ones were memorable,  
and the second Venus 3 gig was better than the first.

I wasn't going to bother to go to Cheltenham, but listening to those  
encores again makes me very tempted to abandon Bob Brozman on Friday:
<http://www.bathmusicfest.org.uk/index.php?id=44>
and go up there instead:
<http://www.wychwoodfestival.com/lineup.html>

- - Mike Godwin

PS The shortest album I ever heard of clocked in at less than half an  
hour. Any idea what it was?

PPS Ever been fooled by one of those so-called EPs which actually  
plays at 33 and a third?

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 10:55:01 -0700
From: "kevin studyvin" <kstudyvin@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Fleece 2000

> PS The shortest album I ever heard of clocked in at less than half an hour.
> Any idea what it was?
>

As I recall Tom Petty's first is under a half hour.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 13:14:23 -0500
From: 2fs <jeffreyw2fs.j@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Your fellow voters (U.S. edition)

On 5/26/08, Steve Schiavo <steveschiavo@mac.com> wrote:
>
> "I just really feel like he's...not a people pleaser as in the Americans,
>> but the other people who don't necessarily need to be pleased, the other,
>> the enemies if you will, I don't know. I'm just not real positive on that."
>>
>
> Here's the whole thing.
>
> <http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/americandebate/
> Equal_time_for_the_willfully_ignorant.html>
>

Upstream a bit <http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/americandebate/> is
Polman's response to the Hillary/RFK kerfuffle - which states, better than I
did, some of the points I was trying to make.


- -- 

...Jeff Norman

The Architectural Dance Society
http://spanghew.blogspot.com

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 18:19:47 +0000
From: cakrm@comcast.net
Subject: Re: Fleece 2000

I'm pretty certain Dylan's Nashville Skyline was under 30 minutes.

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "kevin studyvin" <kstudyvin@gmail.com>
> > PS The shortest album I ever heard of clocked in at less than half an hour.
> > Any idea what it was?
> >
> 
> As I recall Tom Petty's first is under a half hour.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 15:10:34 -0400
From: FSThomas <fsthomas@ochremedia.com>
Subject: reap

Thelma "Family Circus" Keane, 82.

http://www.ajc.com/hp/content/shared-gen/ap/Other_Entertainment/Obit_Thelma_Keane.html

Inspiration for 'Family Circus' Mommy dies at 82

     PHOENIX b Thelma Keane, the inspiration for the Mommy character in 
the long-running "Family Circus" comic created by her husband, Bil 
Keane, has died. She was 82.

     She died Friday of Alzheimer's disease, the family said.

     "Family Circus," which Keane began drawing in 1960, depicts the 
good-humored life of two parents and their four children. It is now 
featured in about 1,500 newspapers.

     "She was the inspiration for all of my success," Bil Keane, 85, 
told The Associated Press from his home in Paradise Valley on Sunday. 
"When the cartoon first appeared, she looked so much like Mommy that if 
she was in the supermarket pushing her cart around, people would come up 
to her and say, 'Aren't you the Mommy in 'Family Circus?' and she would 
admit it."

     Bil and Thelma "Thel" Keane met during World War II in the war bond 
office in Brisbane, Australia. She was a native Australian working as an 
accounting secretary, and Bil worked next to her as a promotional artist 
for the U.S. Army.

     "I had this desk alongside the most beautiful Australian 
18-year-old girl with long brown hair," Bil Keane said. "And I got up 
enough nerve to ask her for a date."

     The two married in 1948 and moved to Bil Keane's hometown of 
Philadelphia. They had five children and moved to the Phoenix suburb of 
Paradise Valley in 1958.

     Not only was Thelma Keane the inspiration for the always-loving and 
ever-patient comic character also named Thel, but she worked full-time 
as her husband's business and financial manager. Her family says she was 
the reason Bil Keane became one of the first syndicated newspaper 
cartoonists to win back all rights to his comic.

     "There was nothing that I did in the cartoon world or in the 
business world that she wasn't the instigator of, and she certainly 
deserves all the credit that I get credit for," Bil Keane said.

     Thelma Keane's Alzheimer's disease was diagnosed about five years 
ago, and she had been at an assisted-living center near the family home 
for the last three years, said her daughter, Gayle Keane, 58, of Napa, 
Calif.

     Just last month, Gayle Keane said, her mother was singing and 
dancing as the family visited her and celebrated her birthday.

     "We all had a time to say goodbye in the end," Gayle Keane said. "I 
just think she's in a better place, and she's not dealing with that fog 
and confusion that Alzheimer's brings into your life."

     Bil Keane continues to produce "Family Circus" with the help of his 
youngest son, Jeff. Keane sketches out the ideas, characters and 
captions and sends them to Jeff for inking.

     In addition to Bil, Gayle and Jeff Keane, survivors include her 
sons Neal, Glen and Christopher, and nine grandchildren.

     Keane said that although his wife is gone, she is still with him.

     "The losing of Thel is a heartbreaking thing for me," he said. 
"However, it makes me realize how important she was to my worldly 
success, and I know where she is now, I feel that she's still helping me 
and probably giving me the inspirations you can only get from an angel 
in heaven."

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 15:52:27 -0500
From: 2fs <jeffreyw2fs.j@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Fleece 2000

On 5/26/08, kevin studyvin <kstudyvin@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > PS The shortest album I ever heard of clocked in at less than half an
> hour.
> > Any idea what it was?
> >
>
>
> As I recall Tom Petty's first is under a half hour.



Not quite: 30:48 according to my database.

From that database (it's sometimes ambiguous whether something's an EP - I
looked to see (if it's in print) what's being charged, and also how it's
referred to at AMG) - but here's some very, very short releases that are
referred to and charged as full-length releases:

Minton Sparks _Middlin' Sisters_  22:34 (12 tracks)
The Moles _Instinct_ 23:50 (9 tracks)
Ex-Models _Other Mathematics_ 24:17 (13 tracks)
Tiffany Anders _Runnin' from No Place to Nowhere_ 24:43 (7 tracks)
Henry's Dress _Bust 'em Green_ 25:00 (12 tracks)
The Faint _Blank Wave Arcade_ 25:39 (9 tracks)
Strawberry Alarm Clock _Incense & Peppermints_ 26:02 (10 tracks)
Stephin Merritt _Pieces of April [sdtk] 26:35 (10 tracks)
Violent Green _Hangovers in the Ancient World_ 26:37 (9 tracks)
Buttercup s/t 27:17 (9 tracks)
The Hives _Barely Legal_ 27:18 (14 tracks)
Starflyer 59 _I Am the Portuguese Blues_ 27:27 (10 tracks)
The Minders _Hooray for Tuesday_ 27:42 (12 tracks)

Okay, bored now - but some highlights from well-known artists: Stereolab
_The Groop Played 'Space Age Bachelor Pad Music'_ 28:16, The Byrds _Younger
than Yesterday_ 28:23, _Fifth Dimension_ 29:10, and _Turn(x3)_ 29:59, Weezer
2001 s/t 28:29, Apples in Stereo _Velocity of Sound_ 28:52, Slint _Tweez_
29:27, Randy Newman _12 Songs_ 29:46.

Shortest entries from Enormous Major Huge Artists (see also Byrds, above):

Beatles' _A Hard Day's Night_ UK version 30:24
The Who _Magic Bus_ 30:54
Rolling Stones _England's Newest Hitmakers_ 31:03

And even though Mr. Zimmerman was usually quite generous in LP length
compared to most artists of his era (many of his '60s releases top 50
minutes), the chintziest length of his items that I have on CD is _Under the
Red Sky_ at 35:27. There are those who'd say that's longer than that album
should have been...as if "Wiggle Wiggle" isn't the height of Dylan's poetic
inspiration.

I think the CD era has seen a bit of bloat: frankly, few artists can sustain
quality over 80 minutes, and even if they can, only certain kinds of songs
work that well over such a length. If you do quick, fast two-minute songs,
even if you have 40 of them that are brilliant, your listeners are going to
be worn out. If you insist on releasing them all at once, at least put it on
two discs instead of one. I'd say 35-40 minutes is good for your shorter,
faster, simpler songs; someone like Robyn can sustain 40-50 readily,
possibly up to 55 if there's sufficient variety...but beyond that, you'd
better have a lot of good but long songs or quite a bit of range (well-done
range). Otherwise, it's really better to split it into 2 CDs: I don't think
the cost of the physical discs is that much, and the packaging etc. would be
the same...so I don't believe there's good reason to charge much more (50
cents, say) for a 2-disc release that's 75 minutes total than a single-disc
release of the same length.

(The other consideration is that if I recall, royalty rates have nothing to
do with the length of the song but with the number of songs...country music
is notorious for insiting that you just don't put more than 12 (or maybe 14)
songs on a single release, regardless of how short they might be. The list's
legal department might weigh in on this one.)

For we US fegs, it's Memorial Day - which means we honor the memory of dead
soldiers by drinking too much beer, eating too much food grilled over
flames, and getting too much sun if the weather cooperates. Duty calls.

- -- 

...Jeff Norman

The Architectural Dance Society
http://spanghew.blogspot.com

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 20:10:06 -0500
From: Steve Schiavo <steveschiavo@mac.com>
Subject: Colorful!

Not a lobster nor a trout
Nudibranchs all come out
No no no, they don't appall us
We celebrate these nifty mollusks

<http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/video/player?titleID=1531204600>


- - Steve
_______________
Interaction with cosmic intelligence may be influenced by Penrose  
noncomputable Platonic wisdom embedded in Planck scale geometry.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 21:50:09 -0700
From: "Marc Alberts" <malberts1@earthlink.net>
Subject: REAP

Sydney Pollack, age 73.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 08:23:25 +0100
From: hssmrg@bath.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Shortest LPs

Quoting 2fs <jeffreyw2fs.j@gmail.com>:
> From that database (it's sometimes ambiguous whether something's an EP - I
> looked to see (if it's in print) what's being charged, and also how it's
> referred to at AMG) - but here's some very, very short releases that are
> referred to and charged as full-length releases:
>
> Minton Sparks _Middlin' Sisters_  22:34 (12 tracks)
> The Moles _Instinct_ 23:50 (9 tracks)
> Ex-Models _Other Mathematics_ 24:17 (13 tracks)
> Tiffany Anders _Runnin' from No Place to Nowhere_ 24:43 (7 tracks)
> Henry's Dress _Bust 'em Green_ 25:00 (12 tracks)
> The Faint _Blank Wave Arcade_ 25:39 (9 tracks)
> Strawberry Alarm Clock _Incense & Peppermints_ 26:02 (10 tracks)
> Stephin Merritt _Pieces of April [sdtk] 26:35 (10 tracks)
> Violent Green _Hangovers in the Ancient World_ 26:37 (9 tracks)
> Buttercup s/t 27:17 (9 tracks)
> The Hives _Barely Legal_ 27:18 (14 tracks)
> Starflyer 59 _I Am the Portuguese Blues_ 27:27 (10 tracks)
> The Minders _Hooray for Tuesday_ 27:42 (12 tracks)
>
> Okay, bored now - but some highlights from well-known artists: Stereolab
> _The Groop Played 'Space Age Bachelor Pad Music'_ 28:16, The Byrds _Younger
> than Yesterday_ 28:23, _Fifth Dimension_ 29:10, and _Turn(x3)_ 29:59, Weezer
> 2001 s/t 28:29, Apples in Stereo _Velocity of Sound_ 28:52, Slint _Tweez_
> 29:27, Randy Newman _12 Songs_ 29:46.
>
> Shortest entries from Enormous Major Huge Artists (see also Byrds, above):
> Beatles' _A Hard Day's Night_ UK version 30:24
> The Who _Magic Bus_ 30:54
> Rolling Stones _England's Newest Hitmakers_ 31:03

* Thanks for these, Jeff. I think it might well have been a Byrds  
album I was thinking of - what does 'The Notorious Byrd Brothers' LP  
clock in at?

> For we US fegs, it's Memorial Day - which means we honor the memory of dead
> soldiers by drinking too much beer, eating too much food grilled over
> flames, and getting too much sun if the weather cooperates. Duty calls.

* Ah, the crazed UK govt are talking about bringing this in over here:
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/military-strategy-new-bank-holiday-antidiscrimination-laws-and-school-cadets-830716.html>

- - Mike Godwin

n.p. Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band: 'I try but I can't buy your  
Veteran's Day Poppy'.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 08:23:58 -0500
From: 2fs <jeffreyw2fs.j@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Shortest LPs

On 5/27/08, hssmrg@bath.ac.uk <hssmrg@bath.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> Q
> * Thanks for these, Jeff. I think it might well have been a Byrds album I
> was thinking of - what does 'The Notorious Byrd Brothers' LP clock in at?



This throws a wrinkle into the works (of my list, anyway), since for some
Byrds releases I have the original CD issues (which have only the LP tracks)
and for others (such as TNBB) I have the reissues, with bonus tracks.

But an iTunes playlist of the original tracks on TNBB is only 28:33 - so
you're right about it being among the shorter Byrds albums. Curious that
their stuff is all so short!

- -- 

...Jeff Norman

The Architectural Dance Society
http://spanghew.blogspot.com

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 08:46:45 -0700
From: Rex <spottedeagleray@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: My name is "Eb", and I "lay eggs" for the Railroad Men

On Mon, May 26, 2008 at 7:28 AM, Stacked Crooked <etews@inwa.net> wrote:

> >>Back on the street, Deck said poor use of the apostrophe was their most
> commonly encountered typo. "It's like a virus," he said. Herson agreed: "It
> really is contagious, I think. Especially the lack of them in
> possessives."<<
>
> hmm, it seems to me that their use in plurals is more common?


Might be a tossup, but the latter seems to be increasing these days, and
that puzzles me.  Most common spelling or punctuation errors tend toward
laziness and shortening... it seems counterintuitive to add punctuation (and
sometimes letters) through carelessness... but there you are.  (Then again,
it may be simply that I'm reading more elementary school students'
compositions these days than I had been for quite some time.)


> by the way, were sugar trying to invent a new category in calling *Beaster*
> a "short-form album"?  didn't catch on, i guess.


Sounds familiar.  That was around the time when people were also trying to
push (market) "long-form videos"-- like video presentations of entire
albums-- as if it was an artistic enterprise rather than a way to move some
VHS tapes.  Bad idea, lousy terminology, and hey-- it didn't stick!  I guess
it happens sometimes.

- -Rex

------------------------------

End of fegmaniax-digest V16 #612
********************************