From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V6 #102 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 Tuesday, April 24 2001 Volume 06 : Number 102 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Alloy: I like this biography thing . . . ["Ian Gifford" ] Re: Alloy: delurking [Robin Thurlow ] Re: Alloy: I like this biography thing . . . ["Keith Stansell" ] Re: Alloy: I like this biography thing . . . ["Robin" Subject: Re: Alloy: I like this biography thing . . . Hi... I am Ian Gifford, from London Ontario. I First became a fan of Thomas after hearing SBMWS and Europa and the Pirate Twins. The first album of TMDR's that I actually bought was "Aliens Ate my Buick" which is my all time favorite LP EVER!! Joined Alloy after reading an article in a recording mag about Thomas and Headspace. I was fresh out of Audio Engineering College when I joined, which made me prime candidate to "produce" the first ever tribute tape that Alloy put together with fellow Canadian Crackers. I still am in London and am a sort of "Jack of all trades": producing, promoting, acting, performing live, engineering (live and otherwise) composing, arranging, em-ceeing (the home County Folk Festival 2001), hosting a radio show ("For the Folk") and hold down 3 day jobs on top of all that (Courier, store clerk and Waiter). Did I mention website designer and former stand-up comedian (it was one-night only to be honest but they didn't throw fruit and vegetables so i would say it was a success ;) Alloy is the only fan type of mail group that I am a part of other than the "Rheostatics" mail group (My favorite art-rock band from Canada... I highly suggest "Whale Music" to all of the alloy members). I have been a part of Alloy since mid-1997 Cheers, Ian _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 08:26:26 +0000 From: "Tim Hudson" Subject: Alloy: Soft Boys Brighton gig - a review of sorts....... Hi, Just got the following 'Review' from my friend Julian who was at the soft boys Gig at Brighton Pavillion last friday. For reasons to be explained in another posting at another time I was'nt able to attend. OK heres my friends verdict of the Brighton Pavillion gig: soft boys > good gig. as hitchcock's and hayes/balls guitars intertwined and seligman struggled to get his bass in tune constantly altering the bottom string during many tunes. honestly, he's supposed to be a pro! dolby, bowie and co just wouldn't put up with that ineptitude. musical highspot for me was "kingdom of love" and "bells of rhymney". ....as for the support act EAR (aka sonic boom ex- spacemen 3 person). well mark, tell us all about it. what in hell's name was going off there? with his back to the audience he was, with all those "gadgets", dragging on his cigarette every now and then. for a minute there he had a good drone going but as far as i'm concerned that's about it! now it's yr turn mark. tell it like it is! julian. Not Much of a review....! I bet Selligman still rocked - even if he had bottom E string problems! It would have been interesting to have seen what a UK audience would have made of a support act with Thomas on 'Gadgets and drones' instead of that ex spaceman 3 chap. An evening with Thomas Dolby at Brighton Pavillion on the 'Multimedia Gadgets and Drones tour'. Now that would be a thing...... Tim. - -- Tim Hudson tim_hudson@zdnetonebox.com - email ___________________________________________________________________ To get your own FREE ZDNet Onebox - FREE voicemail, email, and fax, all in one place - sign up today at http://www.zdnetonebox.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 13:05:13 +0300 From: jonathan.chiddick@nokia.com Subject: [none] who alloy ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 13:18:10 +0300 From: jonathan.chiddick@nokia.com Subject: Alloy: Ahem... Excuse me. Did I just say that? Oops. ;-> Jon > -----Original Message----- > From: Chiddick Jonathan (NET/Helsinki) > Sent: 23 April, 2001 13:05 > To: 'dolby' > Subject: > > who alloy ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 13:42:50 +0000 From: "Tim Hudson" Subject: Alloy: another Franco American Joke........ Hi, My French is not very good and I had to babel fish translate this joke sent to me by my colleague. (Pierre) - As usual the translation is funnier than the so called 'Joke' but anyway for those who are easily amused - here it is: Set your browser at this adress below and then cut and paste the text below into the translation box and choose your language: http://babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn Avant d'aller (sirieusement) voter... Jacques Chirac se trouve ` une riception donnie par Bill Clinton ` Washington (cette histoire se passe peu de temps avant la fin de son mandat). Trhs impressionni par le staff de son homologue amiricain, Jacques s'approche de Bill et l'entranne ` l'icart : - Dis moi, Bill, comment fais-tu pour avoir des conseillers si intelligents ? Moi en France, je suis entouri d'une bande d'idiots ! - Ah, Jack ! Parce que tu es un ami, je vais te donner mon truc. C'est facile : tous les jours, j'en appelle un, je lui pose une question : s'il ripond juste, je le garde, sinon je le vire. Dimonstration ! Bill appelle Al Gore, qui s'approche : - Al, je te pose une question : si tu riponds juste, je te garde, sinon tu es saqui. - Ok, Bill ! ripond Al Gore en se concentrant. - C'est le fils de ta mhre et ce n'est ni ton frhre, ni ta soeur, qui est-ce ? Al Gore riflichit 2 secondes et ripond : - Facile, c'est moi ! - Parfait ! Je te garde ! Chirac est ipati et, de retour ` son httel, appelle Jospin : - Lionel, j'inaugure une nouvelle mithode d'ivaluation des compitences : je vais vous poser une question, et si vous trouvez la bonne riponse, je vous garde, sinon je vous vire. - Bien, Monsieur le Prisident, je vous icoute. - C'est le fils de votre mhre et ce n'est ni votre frhre, ni votre soeur, qui est-ce ? - Ouh l` ! C'est compliqui ! Je ne peux pas vous ripondre comme ga, ripond Jospin inquiet, je dois consulter mon gouvernement. Donnez-moi 24 heures ! - Accordi, et Chirac raccroche. Jospin riunit son gouvernement en session extraordinaire et pose la question de Chirac. Tout le monde se plonge dans ses pensies. Personne ne trouve ; toute la gauche plurielle est mobilisie, mais ni les Verts, ni les Communistes ni les Socialistes ne trouvent rien. Finalement, quelqu'un sugghre d'appeler Quilhs : - Il a fait l'ENA et Polytechnique, il est trhs intelligent, il aura s{rement une riponse ! Jospin tiliphone donc ` Quilhs : - Allo, Paul ? Chirac m'a posi une question et si je ne trouve pas la riponse, il me vire ! Voici sa question : " C'est le fils de votre mhre et ce n'est ni votre frhre, ni votre soeur, qui est-ce ? " - Facile ! ripond Quilhs, c'est moi ! Enthousiaste, Jospin appelle Chirac : - Monsieur le Prisident, j'ai la riponse ! - Je vous icoute ? - C'est Paul Quilhs ! Chirac ricane : - Vous jtes viri, Jospin ! C'itait Al Gore ! Well pretty crap joke huh ? But its always interesting to see what other cultures think is funny. Sincere appologies for being off message - I hope it hasn't upset anyone - - I only wanted to raise a smile. I cant remeber who it was on Alloy who introduced me to the Babel Fish translation program - but its a blast on a hot and muggy monday afternoon. Bye..... Luxembourg Tim. - -- Tim Hudson tim_hudson@zdnetonebox.com - email ___________________________________________________________________ To get your own FREE ZDNet Onebox - FREE voicemail, email, and fax, all in one place - sign up today at http://www.zdnetonebox.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 09:54:54 -0400 (EDT) From: Barbara Cohen Subject: Alloy: delurking Hi, Barbara Cohen, recently-turned-30, American, grew up not far from Robin though I usually put a more positive spin on verdant Upstate New York :) Spent 7 years in grad school in Tucson, Arizona and became a Westerner at heart. Now doing a postdoc in lunar geology at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN. TMDR has been "my man" since 1983, when some late-night national radio show held a contest where you voted for your favorite synth artist, Howard Jones or Thomas Dolby. At the time I was mad about Howard Jones, sent in my postcard, and got randomly selected to receive The Flat Earth and Hyperactive! albums, plus 3 Golden Age posters (oh had I only known their future worth!) :) I was disappointed at the time because I voted for HoJo! I honestly don't know what I would ask given the chance. The chance would have to be better than spotting TMDR at a coffeeshop since I'd be more respectful of privacy in spite of my tendency to gush. Hmmmm, maybe "what did you mean by that heavy water line anyway?!?!" :) Barbara Cohen, Lunatic University of Tennessee, Knoxville ************************************ Radioactive cats have 18 half-lives. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 11:49:36 -0400 From: Robin Thurlow Subject: Re: Alloy: delurking Barbara Cohen wrote: > grew up not far from > Robin though I usually put a more positive spin on verdant Upstate New > York :) but cows and rotten weather *are* positive :) I think I'm one of the few people on earth who doesn't like hot, sunny weather (major migraine trigger!) or living in cities (too exhausting/depressing) I love going on car trips here. On an average 45-minute drive to Ithaca @ this time of year we normally see (of course) cows, horses, sheep, goats, ducks, chickens, geese and miniature ponies. In addition to the domestics there's the beautiful wildlife: usually hawks, groundhogs, white herons, wild turkeys, Canadian geese, crows, red fox and deer. The rare ones are wolves (we saw one once!) a bald eagle which soared right in front of our car, and some kind of humungous turtle with a very long neck who was near a pond. xxxxx Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 10:40:12 -0600 From: "Keith Stansell" Subject: Re: Alloy: I like this biography thing . . . Hi eveyone, this is Keith Stansell with my latest bio... I grew up a small town in Louisiana (the sheriff had a hair-lip - really). My first Thomas Dolby was a cassette of GAOW that I recorded off of the radio. My freshmen year of college I decided to buy the real thing and picked up a casette at a little shop near LSU where I went at the time. I didn't really pay attention to the cassette but when I got home found out that it didn't have She Blinded Me with Science or One of our Submarines on it, but did have this cool instrumental track called "Wreck of the Fairchild" on it. I didn't realize how rare the casette was at the time, and unfortunately played it in my hot car stereo on many 2 hour drives home to visit my parents for the weekend. For some reason, one TMDR memory that sticks in my mind is driving town Dalrymple drive as I am leaving the LSU campus, windows down and TMDR on the stereo on a nice spring day contemplating the meaning of the lyrics (fruit juice everywhere). Jump ahead to 1995. I'm now in Salt Lake City UT, working for a corrosion engineering company. I purchased a home computer in December and in early 1996 I joined Alloy. I'm not sure exactly how I found it, but I think it was via the Flat Earth Society pages. Part of the reason for joining Alloy was because I was now curious about the Wreck of the Fairchild on my old cassette and was curious to know how rare it was. That was answered on the first Tommy Awards. In 1997 I got an entry level position in Denver Colorado as a software developer - I was tired of the corosion engineering thing. Colorado now has 5 Alloy members - myself, Beth Meyer, Dennis Alexander, Theresa Adams and Erik Habbinga. We've gotten together on various occasions over the years and even had a visit from a couple of west-coast Alloy members. I worked with Stephen Tilson to create the second and third installments of the Alloy tribute albums. I created the Flattery Earth CD artwork and handled the duplication of the CD's (on a 2x writer). I also "re-mixed" Crackers artwork for the Bride Of Aliens Ate My Birthday Cake CD. I've been promising to rework the web based version of these albums for a couple of years now and I promise, I will have them done soon. I now finally have some web space to work with at http://www.keithstansell.com/dolby so I can post them there. Sorry if this ran too long. - -Keith (100th Alloy member - no longer the sole inhabitant) Stansell Denver ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 13:58:11 -0400 From: Robin Thurlow Subject: Re: Alloy: I like this biography thing . . . don't forget to include your latest 'burning question' in with your biographies (I didn't because I used up my burning question option already) xxx Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 14:52:23 -0600 From: "Keith Stansell" Subject: Re: Alloy: I like this biography thing . . . Oh, this is a hard one. What question would I ask? I once had a similar situation with Howard Jones. I was a big HoJo fan in high school / college and several years later while in Salt Lake City the morning radio show that I was listening to was broadcasting live from Howard Jones' kitchen in his home in England. It was around 5:30 in the morning and they were taking calls from listeners. I got though, but all I could think to ask was how the morning DJ's had come to be good friends with him ( they went to his house almost every year). Turns out that HoJo missed an interview with them the first time they went there back in the 80's and felt so bad he invited them to his house to redo the interview. Guess they just hit it off, plus HoJo was always well received in Salt Lake that they kept going back. In a similar situation with the same station, I had the opportunity to talk briefly with Captain Kangaroo - Bob Keeshon(sp?) So, now - I meet up with TMDR and what do I ask? Not sure. I'd probably apologize for attempting Mulu and ask what he thought of the "Thomas as a Bride" photo I made for the back of the Bride of Aliens CD. If I was comfortable in the situation, I might ask him to remove his hat and try to encourage him to be more confident with his nicely bald head. (:-) - -Keith - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robin Thurlow" To: Sent: Monday, April 23, 2001 11:58 AM Subject: Re: Alloy: I like this biography thing . . . > > don't forget to include your latest 'burning question' in with your > biographies (I didn't because I used up my burning question option > already) > > xxx > Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 21:53:42 +0100 From: Slarvibarglhee Subject: Re: Blast from the past! Alloy: I like this biography thing . . . Well, if I posted my full bio again it'd be the third time, the original having been sent some time in 1996. In MS-Word it runs to over 2 pages, which is a bit much for some people to cope with, and probably 1.5 pages more than some people want to know. I STILL haven't posted it on my home page, so I can't refer you to it there, so I'll cut it down to the essentials and post it here. Here goes ........ I was born in Feb 1954, so that makes me 47 at the moment, married with one wife and two kids (a son, 22 and a daughter, 20) a dog and a cat. I work for the Government Office for the North West (GONW), in Manchester (UK) as IT Administrator, Helpdesk Operator, IT trainer, PC/printer technician/installer and office manager, looking after around 300 IT users. I've ALWAYS worked for "the department" having taken a temporary job at Openshaw Unemployment Benefit Office when I left school at 18, and never left. Since then, I've worked in employment offices, training admin offices, as an accounts supervisor, a training officer, an open learning development officer, and have been doing my current job since 1990. This is the best job I've ever had, though the training job came a close second. My wife likes Simply Red and we often used to see Mick Hucknall shopping in Safeways or riding his mountain bike, as he had a house about a mile from us. John Squire (ex Stone Roses/Sea Horses guitarist) used to live next door, and we used to look after his house and feed his cats when he and his girlfriend were away, and I even had to jump start his Merc one cold winter morning. He once cleaned our kitchen after causing it to be filled with plaster dust when he was doing alterations to HIS kitchen. I like many types of music, being and ex-hippie and flower child......, well "ex" is only as far as my appearance is concerned, inside I'm still the beautiful person I was at 18, or at least *I* think I am. I like old "progressive" rock music and lots of other stuff as well (Yes, Jethro Tull, Genesis, John Martyn, Steve Hackett, Brand X, TMDR [of course], CSN&Y, Crazy Horse, Neil Young, The Incredible String Band, Procul Harum, Clannad, Camel, Led Zeppelin, Fairport Convention, Roxy Music, The Beatles, Bruce Hornsby, King Crimson, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, Scritti Politti, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sting, Tears For Fears, Judy Tzuke, and many, many more). I first heard TMDR when a friend of mine who has similar musical tastes introduced me to The Golden Age of Wireless. I can't remember when this was, but it was certainly not long after it was originally released. I was immediately impressed by the originality, the production, the lyrics, everything really, but what stuck out in my mind was that Thomas clearly sounded ENGLISH and hadn't chosen to sing with that mid-Atlantic accent which so many artists seem to adopt. I think I'd was aware that he had released She Blinded Me With Science and had heard it a few times, but couldn't have told you who the artist was at that time. I used to be a keen cyclist and I used to cycle to work every day until I was struck down with sciatica just under two years ago, and now drive to work in my ten year old dirty Datsun (though it's known as a Nissan over here). The sciatica's not a real problem these days, most of the time, and I'd really like to get back on the bike this year. I started playing acoustic guitar when I was 10, played bass in a band briefly when I was 17, but couldn't tell you the name of a single chord that I can play. I don't play much these days, much to my regret, but there never seems to be enough time to do everything I want to. (This is a lame excuse, but it's the best I can manage.) I think the internet is the most fun place I've found in recent years, and I've made contact with people all over the world as a result of finding people with similar interests, like you good people. I should explore it more, but time is against me again. I used to log in to the Flat Earth Society Chat Room everyday until its demise, and I still miss it terribly. I met my best net buddies in there. I live about 3 miles out of the city centre, in a suburb called Chorlton-cum-Hardy, which I think is a quaint and very "English" name, as is Didsbury, which is another Manchester suburb where I lived until I was 18. We're about an hour's drive from the North Sea coast, most notably Blackpool and Liverpool, and about 90 minutes from the Lake District, which is where Wordsworth wrote about the "host of golden daffodils" and where an aunt of mine lives, and about 4 hours drive from London. Manchester is the home town of those surly Gallagher brothers (Oasis) as well as the original home of Graham Nash and the rest of the Hollies, Peter Noone, New Order (originally Joy Division), The Smiths, and a lot of other talented people that I can't remember the names of. >From my office window on the 21st floor I can see the Pennines in the distance, and from the other side of the building Granada TV studios where they record Coronation Street, probably Manchester's biggest and most enduring international export, as well as Cracker and Prime Suspect. I have little interest in politics, but think that the world is now such a complicated place that NO political parties will ever sort it out, but I just wish they'd all stop sniping at each other and work together for the common good. I try to do my bit for the environment by recycling whenever I can, but I'd like to do more. I'm worried by the increased competitiveness in business, which causes downsizing, streamlining, redundancies, insecurity and exceptional stress. I'm worried by the lack of jobs for school leavers, the general rate of unemployment, and all kinds of "-ist" discrimination (racist, sexist, ageist, etc.). I worry about how we're going to pay for the upkeep of all the additional retired people now that we're living longer, the queues for medical treatment and the lack of affordable housing. And I like to use parenthesis a lot in my e-mails. This is still much more info than than I'd intended, but never mind, it'll give you more of an insight into the life of Slarvi. If I could ask Thomas one question it would be, "Did you really perform that back flip yourself in the video for Airhead or was it a stunt double?" Slarvibarglhee P.S. Slarvibarglhee, my net handle, in case you hadn't realised, is just Bill Hargreaves rearranged. I didn't think of it myself. A Scottish colleague of mine a few years ago had the habit of rearranging the letters of people's names to make amusing alternatives. The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy was popular at the time and he turned me into something not entirely dissimilar to Slartibartfast. When I first found my way into the FES I couldn't think of a handle to use, so used Slarvi and have stuck with it ever since. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 17:51:49 EDT From: DAbbitt32@aol.com Subject: Alloy: unsubscribe unsubscribe ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 00:32:18 -0400 From: Merujo Subject: Alloy: Bio Thing Hi, I'm Melissa Jordan. I've been around Alloy since, I think, pretty much the very beginning. I miss some of the folks who inhabited the Tap Room (anyone else remember the really, really cool ER doctor from Chicago? He was such a nice human being.) I still miss the Sweet Cheese is Made of Cream dream thread out there... I was born in New Jersey, grew up in Moline, Illinois (self-proclaimed Farm Implement Capital of the World - and currently the site of massive flooding on the Mississippi River), and went to college in St. Paul, Minnesota - Macalester College, alma mater of Husker Du and The Replacements. I've lived in London and Moscow, and I've traveled to something around 25 countries in the past fifteen years. I'm the last of nine children. I have 13 nieces and nephews and 7 great- nieces and nephews. Whew. My mom, who recently passed away, was my hero and my inspiration - I aspire to be as cool as she was. If my eyes were better, I would have been a pilot like her. I live in a tiny suburban apartment surrounded by souvenirs of places I've lived. My favorite piece of furniture is a camel saddle from Cairo that I use as a footstool. I bought a cover for it in Dagestan (close to Chechnya) and I was amazed that the cover fit perfectly - I had no idea there was a universal standard for camel saddles. I first heard Thomas Dolby courtesy of my friend Mary Brodd, who, in our backwater, music-starved, podunk cowtown, still managed to find him. I still have the Memorex tape she made for me of TGAOW (it has Michael Praetorius Renaissance music on the flip side.) By the time I got to college, I was a serious Dolby-phile, and I collected all sorts of Dolby ephemera and every different mix of anything I could find. I met my best friend because I heard Dolby tuneage wafting out the door of his dorm room. Most of my Dolby stuff was destroyed (along with all my vintage Star Wars stuff) by a woman who used to clean house for my mom - she had a nervous breakdown and, in her altered state, poured dry dog food over all my stuff in storage at Mom's and rodentia had a hoe-down in it. Most unfortunate. I've tried to selectively rebuild my collection. I've been in DC for seven years now. Theoretically, I work for myself. I have a contract with the US Dep't of Commerce, running an international training program for post-Soviet scientists and business people. In truth, I'd rather be writing and making funky things, and I'm trying to shift my life in that direction. I love to sing in public, but rarely get the chance. I'm planning on winning $58 million in tomorrow night's Maryland Big Game lottery. A burning question for Mr. Dolby? Hmmm... Do you have Prince Albert in a can? Sorry, my brain is fried, and I can't think of anything good tonight, other than my usual plaintive cry, "When, oh when, Fearless Leader, will you play a smoky little club date to totally delight us little groundlings???" Off to hang my head in the freezer, trying to keep cool and praying the air conditioning gets turned on soon... - - Melissa ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 00:31:08 -0400 From: "Robin" Subject: Re: Alloy: I like this biography thing . . . Keith wrote: > If I was comfortable in the situation, I might ask him to remove his hat and > try to encourage him to be more confident with his nicely bald head. Thomas definitely looks fantastic au natural!!! The way the other ladies and I go on about this all the time you'd think he'd be really conceited about it by now :) But I do love Thomas in hats too. He's got good taste. The knit one at the Soft Boys show was definitely happening. I wonder how many different styles of hats he has worn over the years? xxxx Robin T ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V6 #102 ***************************