From: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org (idealcopy-digest) To: idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Subject: idealcopy-digest V8 #156 Reply-To: idealcopy@smoe.org Sender: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk idealcopy-digest Saturday, June 11 2005 Volume 08 : Number 156 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [idealcopy] RE: bunuel ["David McKenzie" ] [idealcopy] RE: [really OT] TR (-1) ["David McKenzie" Subject: [idealcopy] RE: bunuel And (unless I missed it in my skimming) no one mentions *my* favorite, Viridiana. Preferred probably because it was my first. (one always remember one's first time fondly ;) Let us not neglect Bunuel's *marvelous* autobiography, My Last Sigh. Rocking my world Listening: Beck - Guerro Mascott - Follow the sound (just got the Japanese copy with a bonus track off eBay) Motion Picture: Shaolin Soccer (saw Kung Fu Hustle last month, and while in no way disappointing, wen back to satch SS w/ the daughter and realized it is better) Angelic Layer (Japanese OVA) - schoolgirls with battling dolls, positive messages about 'doing your best' - as good as shared viewing with a 5 year old can get Reading: The dailydave mailing list from immunitysec (where I lurhq to find out what REALLY SMART software reengineers think about just about everything from hackers' peferred pets (bunnies, of course) to entimology to art to music (the muppets were uncommonly popular) - latest thread: a discussion proposing 0bay, a vulnerability auction site) Looking for my john cage books in the attic this weekend (I cannot fathom why they are still packed away) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 06:51:19 -0500 From: "David McKenzie" Subject: [idealcopy] RE: [really OT] TR (-1) Amusing anecdote: A fellow with whom I worked in a few record stores back in the day was a huge eno and todd fan. He ended up marrying a v nice girl some 7 or 8 years his junior when she finally broke down his resistance (and passed the age of majority), She was also a rabid Todd fan. In time, her career as a photographer took them to the Bay area where they ultimately became very good friends with Mr and Mrs R. Last I heard, they had a standing Tuesday evening bowling double date. Life is funny that way sometimes Me - I have recently revisited the first handful of albums (up to Todd) with surprisingly favorable results (oh yeah, Hermit of Mink Hollow anin't half bad either) All The Children Sing Macka ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 13:27:41 +0100 From: "Keith A" Subject: Re: [idealcopy] a fond thankyou............ > > Just come back from a real old fart gig myself - Todd Rundgren. > > Not sure what to say, except... > > Oh dear ; ( > > > > so, did he play badly and then write the audience an apology? Now I'm not a major Todd fan by any means, but I've got a soft spot for him. As for the gig... Oh dear. I knew it was going to be one of those nights as soon as we were unable to turn left out of our street because a man and woman were blocking it as they crossed the road very slowly, whilst carrying a ladder. We were then nearly hit by a passing football, the garage wouldn't accept my mates switch card and then as we approached the venue, my mate realized that he'd left the tickets in the car and we had to go back. Consequently, we missed the string quartet Ethel, but arrived just in time to see this strange sickly thin alien creature, half ET-half Boris Karloff, walk onto the stage and milk the applause like some sad old luvvie. Yes, it was the man who appears to have turned into rock's very own Richard E Grant, Mr Joe Jackson. Joe's solo set at the piano started impressively, with a number entitled (I think) Hometown before seguing into an impressive version of Stepping Out that mad me realize it's a far better song than I gave it credit for. After that, although the set had it's moments, it was downhill from here. Different For Girls, a perfect pop single in my opinion, fared less well as a solo piece as it didn't really suit the moody introspective interpretation, and not even the closing Is She Really Going Out With Him could save it for me. In the meantime we had some new songs with awful punny titles like Love At First Light and Citizen Sane and some old Cockney bollocks that he apparently plays in some forthcoming movie set in 1910 or something. But I liked his singing and he can tinkle a mean ivory or however it is that rock fans describe keyboard players. So, all in all, er, pleasant. And then, after some large scale milking of applause, the alien creature went to rest his weary - and not inconsiderable - forehead. For now anyway. In the meantime, it got worse. Far worse.Ladies & Gentlemen please welcome live on stage, the headline act Todd Rundgren. As I said, 'Oh dear'. Now Todd was affable, and I'm sure he's a nice bloke, but really, this was bollocks. A man who's too clever for his own darn good, if you ask me. It says something when the highlights were probably the ukelele number and a Beatles cover (You've Got To Hide Your Love Away) - and when I say highlights, well.all things are comparitive. Otherwise, it consisted of Todd over-doing the vocals (forced, affected, show-offy, etc), when at times he showed he could still sing in that sweet voice of his, not to mention some HORRIBLE rawk thing (Black & White?) on the acoustic and a throwaway - almost flippant - version of the pop masterpiece that is I Saw The Light, though in his defence I guess Todd was distracted by a couple who asked him if they could dance and proceeded to do so right in front of him in this otherwise seated venue. Like the Ian Hunter gig I attended recently, I felt like something of an intruder in this audience. In fact, one old bloke who looked like he was dying on his feet at the front of the Hunter gig, obviously defied medical science, because here he was again. Obviously, he might just be saying the same thing about me! Anyway, this audience were a right odd bunch, not least the smelly person of indefinable gender who sat behind us and laughed at all of Todds bad jokes. But as for Todd, well I could waste loads of times coming up with pithy little comments, but frankly I can't be arsed. Because a lot of the time I just had the one same word recurring in my head.boring. And the encore, where Todd sang more in a sweeter, more restrained manner as he was joined by support acts Ethel and Alien Creature - I mean Joe Jackson - only served to remind what a wasted opportunity this was. People got on their feet as things got going with a version of - wait for it - While My Guitar Gently Weeps - that whilst far from being a pivotal moment in my life, did actually make you feel like you were at a gig and not a posy recital from some old has-been virtuoso. Actually I think I'm going to stop going to see old farts like this, because with the honourable exception of Brian Wilson (who was, of course, superb) they - Roy Wood, Ian Hunter, and now Todd - have all disappointed to some degree. It was at times like this that I'm glad Marc Bolan's dead. K np V/A - U2 Jukebox (Mojo cd with Suicide, Pere Ubu, Virgin Prunes, Cure, etc on it) ------------------------------ End of idealcopy-digest V8 #156 *******************************