From: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org (seven-seas-digest) To: seven-seas-digest@smoe.org Subject: seven-seas-digest V2 #845 Reply-To: seven-seas@smoe.org Sender: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-seven-seas@smoe.org Precedence: bulk seven-seas-digest Friday, October 31 2003 Volume 02 : Number 845 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 09:11:02 -0500 From: Red Subject: seven-seas Boo! It's the Bunny Man (part 3) Urban legend expert Jan Harold Brunvand says such monster or maniac stories are common. He mentions the Mothman legend in West Virginia, made into a movie last year, and classic tales such as "The Hook," "The Killer in the Back Seat" and "The Hairy-Armed Hitchhiker" are widespread. "Often they are about a deformed and insane person who suffered some kind of electrical, chemical or explosive accident, then retreated to the woods where he terrorizes locals. Like Bunny Man, their primary audience is teenagers," says Brunvand, author of "The Truth Never Stands in the Way of a Good Story." In downtown Clifton, Melissa Bettius, 20, says, "All the high school kids this Halloween are going to Bunny Man Bridge even though you're not supposed to." She works at Noodles 'n' Noggins, a shop on Main Street, but the 2003 high school grad says she has been to the bridge often. "It was scary," she says. "Supposedly on Halloween, somebody in a bunny suit does show up!" The Haunted Trail at the Park is the Halloween fright hike for trick-or-treaters that has become a tradition. Every year someone creeps around the trail dressed as the Bunny Man. Tom McNamara, owner of the Clifton General Store, denies it's him despite what some people say. "No," he says bluntly. Anything to the legend? "Bunk, totally false," he says. Tom Peterson's front yard along Main Street displays a fake cemetery to entertain Halloween ghouls. One headstone reads "Axe Murderer Bunny Man" with the parting words: "I'll be back!" Peterson says last year he drove his children, ages 8 and 12, to the bridge, stopped in the tunnel and turned off the car lights. "My kids screamed!" laughs the Robinson High School teacher. "It's terrifying because of the stories they've heard. Every one around here knows about the Bunny Man." Officer Courtney Young, spokeswoman for the Fairfax County police, assures that no heinous crimes have happened at the bridge. "We get the usual kind of calls for juvenile trespassing or suspicious vehicles down in that area," she says. But Halloweeners deciding to cross that bridge when they get to it tonight will find someone ominous waiting. Fairfax County police this week decided to close down the bridge for Halloween and "run out" all gawkers. So take Alex Picciano's word for it. "It was scary but not that scary," says the Oakton High junior, who went to Bunny Man Bridge the other night with five friends. On the way home, they rented "The Blair Witch Project" and really got scared. "It would've been a lot scarier," he says, "if we had watched the movie first." ====================================== http://www.bunnymenlist.com ====================================== ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 15:06:05 +0100 (CET) From: looloo Subject: seven-seas review of reissues in Guardian Pop CD Echo and the Bunnymen: Various Crocodiles Heaven Up Here 5 stars Porcupine Ocean Rain Echo and the Bunnymen 3 stars (all Warner Strategic Marketing) Adam Sweeting Friday October 31, 2003 The Guardian For their 25th anniversary, Echo and the Bunnymen have released expanded reissues of their first five albums. While the phrase "digitally remastered" often seems to mean little more than somebody running a finger through the dust that has accumulated on the master tapes, these discs have emerged from their sonic brush-up sounding fat, loud and incredibly detailed. Over the Wall, from Heaven Up Here, is a tour de force of crispness and stereo definition, while the fabled murkiness that used to envelop Porcupine has been blown away in a shimmer of sonic brilliance. Each disc arrives with a generous dollop of additional material, with the debut album, Crocodiles, including some terrific early out-takes plus the live Shine So Hard EP, and Porcupine including the "disco" version of Never Stop. ====================================== http://www.bunnymenlist.com ====================================== ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 17:40:35 -0000 From: "Barry Whiting" Subject: seven-seas Re-issues Review [Q magazine] From Q Magazine : GLOOMY TUNES THE BEST BITS OF UK ROCK'S NEW GUIDING LIGHT. CROCODILES * * * * HEAVEN UP HERE * * * * PORCUPINE * * * OCEAN RAIN * * * ECHO &THE BUNNYMEN * * IN TERMS OF worldwide sales Echo & The Bunnymen lost a three-way battle with their closest '80s rivals U2 and - surprising as it may seem now - Simple Minds. But, when it comes to a useful and lasting legacy, the group who hailed their own fourth album as "the best ever recorded" laid very obvious foundations for todays British rock big cheeses Radiohead, Coldplay and Muse. In 1980 Echo & The Bunnymen released their impossibly dark debut, Crocodiles, hitching the final faint ripples of The Doors to canyons of thundering drums and slashing guitars. Going Up, Monkeys, the title track, Rescue, Villiers Terrace and All That Jazz hinted at a world of nightmarish psychedelic drugs where untrusting corners of the psyche were exposed as blithely as others buy milk. The gloom intensified a year later with Heaven Up Here, strung-out defiance (Show Of Strength) turning to emotionless candour (The Disease) and back to defiance (Turquoise Days). Will Sergeant's guitars, now chiming where they had previously sawed, combined with Ian McCulloch's dramatic, emotive voice to unwittingly inspire hordes of far lesser goths. By 1983 something was awry. Though Porcupine delivered their first Top 20 hits - The Back Of Love and The Cutter - the once inspirational Sergeant seemed to have lost his way. As record company pressure to match their rivals' sales mounted, the band released their poppiest album, Ocean Rain, in 1984. Cocaine and internal communication issues, however, saw the band shoot themselves in both feet: singles Killing Moon and Seven Seas re-confirmed their status but the beautiful Silver, Crystal Days and My Kingdom were let down by chintzy production. A one-off single (Bring On The Dancing Horses), an AWOL drummer (Pete DeFreitas went on a six-month lost weekend -he claimed alien abduction) and a best of collection later, the band returned in 1987 with their least impressive album, even though it contains three classics in The Game, Bedbugs & Ballyhoo and Lips Like Sugar. McCulloch soon left fora solo career and although they would re-form in the '90s, DeFreitas's fatal motorcycle crash in 1989 effectively ended their chances of glory. However, no one rolls their eyes at the mention of McCulloch like they do with Bono, and even Jim Kerr would snigger like a schoolboy if invited to make a case for Simple Minds' enduring influence. Therefore, the slew of seldom illuminating extra tracks aside, in amongst the hubristic under achievement lies a magnificent victory, albeit a victory won 20 years too late. Andy Fyfe - -- Barry Whiting barry@urquell.freeserve.co.uk ====================================== http://www.bunnymenlist.com ====================================== ------------------------------ End of seven-seas-digest V2 #845 ********************************