From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V5 #277 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 Sunday, November 19 2000 Volume 05 : Number 277 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Alloy: Loads of questions [jonathan.chiddick@nokia.com] Alloy: Fever Pitch [andyjmail@cheerful.com] Alloy: Re: loads of questions !!/Mulu ["Diva" ] Re: Alloy: PopTech page/Dolby rarities ["Diva" ] Re: Alloy: PopTech page/Dolby rarities [Robin Thurlow 4) Cloudburst - "Return to Albury" - Albury near Shere > in Surrey UK? - if not where? It is actually return to Mulberry... if you have heard the commonly 'accepted' reasoning behind the Shingle Street lyrics then a connection to WWII will be assumed by you already. Mulberry harbours were prefabricated concrete harbours that were floated to the coasts of Northern France and hastily erected to support the invasion of the continent to force back the third Reich during the latter stages of the war. As Shingle Street has this legend attached to it of the landing exercise that went wrong - or something like that - the connection 'may' be there. Read the history and lyrics then go figure. I know Shingle Street quite well and have experienced the same atmosphere there as I have at Slapton Sands in the south of England. During the preparations for the D-day landings, 27/18 April '44, several American units were rehearsing their amphibious landings at Slapton near Salcombe in Devon. Unprepared, they were ambushed by German E-boats and in the ensuing chaos 750 men lost their lives and several ships were sunk. This was covered up as it would betray the invasion plans and was of acute embarrassment to the US and UK governments. Today, as a memorial to those who lost their lives a solitary rusty Sherman tank, dragged from the sea, stands guard there at the beachhead as a reminder of what happened. Slapton, unlike Shingle Street, is undisputed and well documented fact. The scenario for Shingle Street may or may not be similar to Slapton but a stroll along the gravel at either on a windy day fills the mind with difficult and challenging images. The inhabitants of Shingle Street were evacuated for one reason or another - just like Slapton - and their beach also strikes a more than passing resemblance with the Normandy beaches such as Omaha. Draw your own conclusions. Something happened there. Shingle Street is without a doubt a very beautiful place and due to the 'legend' holds a fascination with me. If Shingle Street suffered a similar fate then there would also have been many souls wearing vests of plaster and boots of concrete who would never have been able to 'return to Mulberry'. > 6) Autobiography - I'd quite like to start one off > called 'The Geography of Thomas Dolby' starting with > Cairo....maybe the best place to put this would be on > the Web? It would consist of a list of places where > significant things happened including places mentioned > in his works. > > I'd like to see how he maps out 'spatially' as it > were.......Ultimately and with huge amounts of imagination > it would become an interactive map...........oh sonified > with Beatnik of course............but then again I think you > can go too far and I do respect his privacy so perhaps > it's a daft idea? Does anyone remember the bold promise of the multi-media game based on the lyrics of Thomas' songs that was always 'coming soon' according to the Flat Earth Society pages years ago? Whatever happened to this? I got fed up reading the same 'coming soon' thingy every visit and then it just evaporated. > 10) Is this OK for my first posting ? Is this the sort > of thing you want or expect at Alloy ? YES. On-topic is good! We're prone to rambling off on just about any subject! Have a nice weekend. Jon ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2000 08:57:37 -0500 (EST) From: andyjmail@cheerful.com Subject: Alloy: Fever Pitch Hi all, hope you're all keeping well, there's been some interesting Alloy stuff recently - thanks to all concerned :o) Another question from one of my page's readers, any answers gratefully accepted. Many thanks. +AndyJ+ > I came across your Thomas Dolby page -- which I liked > quite a lot -- but I was wondering if you would know > what ever happened to Thomas Dolby's work for the > movie Fever Pitch? It came out in the mid-80's, > starring Ryan O'Neal as a gambling-addicted journalist > something-something. Dolby was in top form for the > soundtrack, but I don't think the movie (which tanked) > ever released the music, not even on vinyl -- or did > they? Do you know? > > Cheers! Tristan - ---------------------------------------------------------------- Get your free email from AltaVista at http://altavista.iname.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2000 01:53:02 -0000 From: "Diva" Subject: Alloy: Re: loads of questions !!/Mulu Tim asked: >9) Obscure ways of looking at his music number 433427… >'Mulu' - could this be influenced at a subconcious >level by Joni Mitchells 'The Jungle Line" from the >Hissing of Summer Lawns album? Did anyone else ever read the book "Mulu the Rainforest" which was written before the song? I always assumed that's where Thomas got the title. I read it as a teenager, and later went to the university where the author taught, but I never had the guts to go and ask him if he'd heard the song... *Really* going back into lurk mode now.... Sally diva@tn.prestel.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2000 01:48:08 -0000 From: "Diva" Subject: Re: Alloy: PopTech page/Dolby rarities Robin said: >Just an update from yesterday... I've heard back from the very nice >people at the PopTech site, who tell me that by the end of next week, >they'll have streaming video of all the PopTech session summaries >available. For those of you who could not tune in for the live >presentation, you'll soon be able to see it @ http://www.poptech.com Thank you Robin, it's very kind of you to find this out and pass it on to us :-) BTW, I have one of those "Aliens ate my Buick" toy cars and it's really cute! I also have a very sad thing - when I was 17, I bought a 12" remix of "Hyperactive" by post and it arrived still in the sleeve but in pieces. I was so upset, because I knew I wouldn't find another one. I'm 31. I still have the pieces. I just couldn't ever bring myself to throw them out. Sad in both senses of the word! My other Thomas story is that once I was in a record shop in London and a guy there said "I have a record by Thomas Dolby but it has no label. If I play it, can you tell me if it's one of his and what song it is?" He put it on and I *instantly* said the title and he was really impressed. Not so impressive really - who wouldn't recognise *that* drumbeat? I won't insult your intelligence by saying what it was ;-) My favourite rare thing I own is a cassette tape of a live show that some dodgy guy in another record shop produced from a drawer "out the back". I never got to see Thomas live - he did a show in London in the middle of my A-levels, and I thought I should take my exams seriously so I didn't go (I lived quite a long way away then). Needless to say, I've always regretted it. It's the things you *don't* do that you regret.... Oh, and I got into Thomas because when I was 14 or so, a friend made me a tape of his stuff. I went to sleep every night listening to that tape and the occasional rattle of a passing train. When it finally broke from overuse, I decided it was time to buy the records! And then the cds....and maybe, if Thomas ever gets the rights, one day I'll be buying them again as computer files of some type. I hope so. Back into lurk mode now, Sally diva@tn.prestel.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2000 00:25:49 -0500 From: Robin Thurlow Subject: Re: Alloy: PopTech page/Dolby rarities Diva wrote: > Oh, and I got into Thomas because when I was 14 or so, a friend made me a > tape of his stuff. I went to sleep every night listening to that tape and > the occasional rattle of a passing train. This is very much like my own early days listening to Thomas' music. I first came to know him through the She Blinded Me With Science MTV video at my friend's house, and then friends made me a tape of some of his other work. I got enough together to get the Blinded By Science ep shortly thereafter & listened constantly. He kept me company while drawing or writing in my room til ungodly hours of the morning, and there's still nothing like listening to Thomas' music in the dark, I think! Robin T ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V5 #277 ***************************