From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V4 #313 Reply-To: alloy@smoe.org Sender: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "alloy-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. alloy-digest Monday, November 22 1999 Volume 04 : Number 313 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Alloy: An ambition fulfilled. [Slarvibarglhee Subject: Alloy: An ambition fulfilled. Evening all. Some of you may have been wondering about the absence of any mail from me for a while. Then again, you may not. I HAVE been lurking, but haven't felt able to make any significant contribution of late. I'm currently hobbling around like a little old man, as I've been suffering with sciatica since the middle of July. Sometimes it's not so bad, sometimes it's particularly painful. At the moment it's OK when I'm sitting, but after a couple of steps the pain can be quite remarkable. But that has nothing to do with my fulfilled ambition. Some of you who've known me for a while know that I'm an old hippy at heart, with a love of 'progressive' rock a la Yes, Genesis, John Martyn, King Crimson, Jethro Tull and their like. Over the years I have seen some of these artists in concert, but until Friday, much to my regret, I had never seen Jethro Tull. Their tour was advertised months ago, and their new album (J-TULL DOT COM) is on the 'net (j-tull.com), as are some of the tracks their development stage. I have a few friends who are also big Tull fans, and I asked the chap who was my best man all those years ago if he and his partner would like to go to the Manchester gig. They said yes, as did my wife, which surprised me a little as she has never been a big JT fan. So, tickets were booked in the late spring, and in July the sciatica struck. It wasn't bad at first, and I hoped it would fade with time, but it failed to happen. It's been an interesting problem. Sometimes I can walk but not sit, at others I can sit but not walk or stand for more than a few seconds. Luckily it rarely keeps me awake at night. I've had physiotherapy, but that did no good. I'm currently waiting for a date for a scan to see if we can find out the root cause. Anyway, the Tull concert was looming, but my leg had been quite painful this week, and I was beginning to think I wouldn't be able to go. I'm in a 'sitting OK' phase at the moment, so I thought that if I could get to the theatre early I could park in the car park right outside, so I wouldn't have far to walk, but I'd wait until the doors had been open a while so I wouldn't have to stand in a queue for any length of time. In the event we got the very last place in the car park, so were as near to the doors as it's possible to be. The doors were already open, so I didn't have to queue. My only worry was that the seat would be uncomfortable, but luckily it was OK so I was able to enjoy it to the full. And what a great gig it was. Plenty of Tull's really old work, some not-so-old, and some off the new album. Ian Anderson's voice isn't what it was, and he was straining a little to hit some of the high notes, but his flute playing was superb, and the whole performance was very professional, which is no more than I'd expected. For those in the know, there was a brief appearance of The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles, and also a brief interruption of one song when the whole band stopped playing to work out who's mobile phone was ringing. Not, as you might imagine, a member of the audience, but one Ian had about his person. And I'm glad to say that Ian seemed to have fully recovered from his leg injury and was still able to perform the one-legged flute playing and a reasonable amount of dancing around the stage. Not bad for a chap in his early fifties. I'm sorry I never saw them in their heyday, but now I can say I HAVE seen them. And my wife was VERY impressed. She's not familiar with their newer work, but knew most of the old stuff and enjoyed Ian's antics. Next up, Jimmy Nail in a couple of weeks. Now, if I can just get this damn leg fixed, I'll be laughing. Slarv ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 23:00:41 -0600 From: "Brian R. Gilstrap" Subject: Re: Alloy: Welcome new members :) RThurF@aol.com wrote: [snip] > And... it's become an informal tradition here for new members to post about > the very first time Thomas Dolby's work came to their attention, if they > wish. It isn't required by any means, but I know I love hearing these > stories, so please indulge us! I had no idea. I've been lurking on the list for several weeks. I will rectify this lapse immediately. I first heard Thomas Dolby when She Blinded Me With Science started to get popular here in the U.S. I enjoyed the song immensely but didn't pursue the album at the time. I'm sure that was partly due to the fact that I was getting ready to graduate from high school and had other things on my mind (partly relief, as I'd done the incredibly stupid thing of only _completing_ application to one university; thankfully, they accepted me and all was not lost :-). I saw the video for She Blinded Me With Science when I came back home for winter break. Things had already started off a bit surreal, since my parents had sold the house I'd lived in since I was 8 and moved to a new place. As a result, I needed directions to get home for Christmas! The new house felt strange, since all the furniture and the 'home' part of it was the same, but the actual structure was different. On the plus side, my parents had gotten cable, so I was able to watch MTV, and so saw the video. That video certainly increased my interest, but I was smack in the middle of my first year of college, my brother had gotten married to a woman that I didn't like earlier in the semester, and I was suffering from 'existential angst' (wondering about the reasons for being alive and my place in the world). But the video planted the seed. I attended Rice University (Houston, Texas), where they have a residential college system. They don't have fraternities and they don't have dormitories (one of the things that made me actually finish the application to Rice). The residential colleges are sort of a mix of the two, without the worst of either. So each year you have to find someone to room with if you are living on campus. Of course, I suppose the same is true of living in dorms, but since you have a smaller set of people to select from (it is rare for someone to change residential colleges), it can make the selection process interesting. Well, a guy named John Munsch and I decided to room together my sophomore year. But that only lasted a semester. At the time I didn't understand why he wanted to move out. Looking back on it, I suspect that my existential angst was quite depressing. My new roommate was also named John, and was a very nice guy. But about halfway through that second semester it became clear that his interest in me was more than platonic. So I had to explain to him that I was not gay or bisexual (I must send out a 'gay vibe', as this has happened to me numerous times since then:-) and was not interested in a relationship with him. This made things a bit awkward, to say the least (regardless of the genders of the people, rooming with someone that is interested in you when you are not interested in them is awkward). On the plus side, John liked Thomas Dolby and had The Flat Earth, in addition to The Golden Age of Wireless. Well, Screen Kiss and The Flat Earth hooked me, especially The Flat Earth. For me, it spoke to the part of me that was frustrated with society and the people around me. I was desperately wanting to find a woman to be in a relationship with (too desperately, I must say). But I was incredibly frustrated that the women I met seemed to be interested in such superficial things. No one wanted to talk about much of anything but football, drinking, and fashions. And I was also struggling with my own concept of what an 'attractive' woman was (I *still* like stiletto heels, despite the fact that I would never expect my wife to wear them :-). Society had done its job on me, and I had quite a bit to undo. Its funny, I just went to Thomas' site and read the lyrics to The Flat Earth. I'm not sure what he meant them to mean, but to me they speak of the potential of life, the fragility of relationships, and the importance of caring. They gave me hope that I could find people in the world who weren't so superficial, and who thought about things deeply (I had some friends like that in high school, but only one of them has remained a close friend). And it gave me hope that I could find someone to love at a time when that seemed almost impossible. The song didn't completely cure me :-), but even though my existential angst continued for a few more years, I eventually achieved a happier perspective on things. At that point, I had bought both the Golden Age of Wireless and The Flat Earth. I lost track of Dolby's work for a few years, and didn't discover the later albums until I was in the midst of replacing all my old albums and cassettes with CDs (Ah! The fidelity! The quality of sound!). I then discovered Aliens Ate My Buick and Astronauts and Heretics. By then, I was dating the woman who is now my wife, so the promise of The Flat Earth proved true. I'm happily married and have discovered that I love being a father (7 month old) much more than I would have ever thought possible. One of the reasons I like Thomas' music so much is that it really touches my emotions. I'm a very analytical person (programmer by trade), and music is one of the ways that I balance out the logical side. I enjoy listening to complex lyrics combined with evocative music that strike at the heart of emotional issues without getting sugary/sappy. If you're listening Thomas, thanks. This has run a rather long. Thanks for reading. Scoop - -- Brian R. Gilstrap gilstrap@inlink.com http://www.inlink.com/~gilstrap Husband and father, Tai Chi practitioner, Software architect Java developer, Macintosh User, Winnie-the-Pooh fan "Understanding is a three edged sword. There's your side, there's the other side, and then there's the truth." --Kosh ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V4 #313 ***************************