From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V6 #113 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 Saturday, May 5 2001 Volume 06 : Number 113 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Alloy: a link from Thomas [Brian Clayton ] Alloy: Bookends and paperweights and nice biog Elaine.. ["Tim Hudson" ] Re: Alloy: shark house (OT) [Robin Thurlow ] Alloy: Tim's ideas [Robin Thurlow ] Re: Alloy: Tim's ideas ["Keith Stansell" ] Alloy: Flat earth Reviews from Amazon in the UK ["Tim Hudson" ] Alloy: Re: Cloudburst. The benefit of being on topic. [jonathan.chiddick@] Alloy: RE: alloy-digest V6 #112 [jonathan.chiddick@nokia.com] Re: Alloy: RE: alloy-digest V6 #112 [Robin Thurlow Subject: Re: Alloy: a link from Thomas On Thu, 3 May 2001, Robin wrote: > Tata is the incredibly talented singer who Thomas featured on "Armageddon" > from the Gate to the Mind's Eye soundtrack, and on "I'm on my way" from Fever > Pitch. In looking at her very extensive discography, I see she was also > featured on the Howard the Duck soundtrack.. I wonder if she worked with > Thomas there as well? The song "I'm On My Way" actually appears on the Howard The Duck soundtrack. I was suprised it was on the Fever Pitch tape, perhaps it was recorded for it first, but later used in Howard? I don't have copies of either film, so I can't recall how it was used. > http://www.tatavega.com/ Appears that it's not a website, but a Flash site...guess I'l have to fire up Netscrape or Internet Exploder to view it. BC ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 04 May 2001 09:31:48 +0000 From: "Tim Hudson" Subject: Alloy: Bookends and paperweights and nice biog Elaine.. Oxford was the town with the terraced house with the big shark diving vertically down through the roof - I visited it - must have been about 8 - 10 years ago now. I'd been visiting a cousin there and this was en route on the way back home. It was very surreal and had become a local and latterly national cause celebre [probably spelt that wrong] all the neighbours didn't really mind the shark - it was the traffic it generated - which really miffed them. It wasn't a small thing it must have been about 15 foot long but the neat thing was the angle at which it entered the roof and the way the tiles were scattered across the roof to make it look like it had just crashed into it. To end on a dolby thing: I am going to listern to Astronauts and Heretics tonight and do a 'geography of the Album'. I'll post the results up and if you like them - I'll go through his stuff and combine them all so that someone can post it up on the web. A sort of Hitchikers Guide to the Geography of TMDR. RE: Norwich ..... theres a great Robyn Hitchcock song where he ryhmes Norwich with Porridge - I think its called 'Gotta let this hen out'. Norwich to me : means the Cathedral, Colmans Mustard, Delia Smith and Alan Partridge - AHA ! Nice Biog Elaine - very atmospheric and interesting - I vote it the best yet ! RE TMDR plastercasts......you could use them as bookends or paperweights I suppose but frankly - I dont think I'd probably have the space in my flat. Talking of Bookends and paperweights, I have heard that if you have a smallish book collection, or pile of papers that needs weighting down, the 'Howard Jones' model would suffice or failing that the 'Nik Kershaw economy 5'. OK I think thats a ridiculous enough note on which to close and say have a good weekend from Tim in Lux City. Regards, Tim ___________________________________________________________________ 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: Fri, 04 May 2001 13:32:03 +0000 From: "Tim Hudson" Subject: Alloy: DISKY records Compilation 12" of Hyperactive via EMI news Hi again, Thomas Dolby on DISKY communications compilation cd Have just bought this compilation Compact Disc at Lunchtime here in Luxembourg Entitled : Maximum New Wave 12" The original Maxi Single Collection - the ultra rare vinyl classics 1. Killing Joke / Love like Blood 6.44 2. Arcadia / Election Day 8.38 3. Thomas Dolby / Hyperactive! 5.05 4. Talk Talk / Its my Life 6.18 5. Duran Duran / Girls on Film 5.45 6. Spandau Ballet / Chant No1 ( I dont need this pressure on) 5.45 7. The Ruts / Jar War 6.53 8. Kajagoogoo / Hang on Now 6.20 9. Ultravox / Vienna 4.53 10. Heaven 17 / Temptation 6.53 So this is supposed to be a version of the 12 " Thomas Dolby Hyperactive! (5.05) Record Label: DISKY Communications Europe. B.V. CD catalogue number: DC 994322 Marketed and distributed by Disky Communications B.V. P.O.Box 249 1620 AE Hoorn, The Netherlands Track licensed from EMI. The barcode number reads 0724389943221 - if that means anything useful? There are absolutely no sleeve notes or further information - the cover is terrible and the disc labels pretty unispiring - no mention of the songs or artists on the CD itself. They haven't even bothered to do that. Inside it just says Thomas Dolby / Hyperactive! 12" 5.05 [T.Dolby] and then there is a little p inside a small circle followed by 1983 EMI Records Ltd. And thats it.. No reference to anything ..not even a biog of the artists or anything. And the price of this compilation CD ? 249 LUFs [ Luxembourg Francs] - - thats 3 quid 89 in real money. I suppose that the label take a cut out of this and then EMI take a cut and then whatever is left gets divided up between the 10 artists on the album and eventually my purchase will be registered somewhere and Thomas will get his 0.05% or whatever? I wonder if EMI ever ask their artists "Excuse me - but we want to feature your stuff on a crappy compilation disc but by the way - your name and the song wont be written on the disc - alright?" I will cross check it with the 12 x 12 cd when I get home. In two years time this track will be 20 years old. Which begs the question what was the first commercially available release of Toms and was there an anniversary party ? I think alloy should start planning a 25th Anivesary party / Dolby Fest !! OK thats all.. I'll leave you with the observation that Midge Ure's 12 incher comes in at a marginally less satisfying 4 minutes and 53 seconds compared with Thomas's 5.05. But to be honest I dont think I could handle any more than 4 minutes 53 of 'Vienna' anyway. If anyone wants a copy of this disc there were about 5 left in the shop at 3 quid 89 you could say they were 'going for a song'. I'll buy another one tomorrow and give it to Robin to give away in a special Alloy list competition - because I think we need another competition .. All I need now is a good TMDR type of question  Bye have a good weekend. Hope the details of this compilation CD will enable the hard core to update their listings accordingly. I know some of you have amazing discographies and even though I am not a collector - I do appreciate having the details on line as a reference. Nice one. 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: Fri, 04 May 2001 09:44:13 -0400 From: Robin Thurlow Subject: Re: Alloy: a link from Thomas Brian Clayton wrote: > Appears that it's not a website, but a Flash site...guess I'l have to > fire up Netscrape or Internet Exploder to view it. I'm sorry, I didn't know there was a classifiable difference between a normal web site and a flash site, when directing people to visit... needing different things to open it with, etc (I don't work with computers or do a lot of surfing around the 'net) I hope everyone got to view it okay. xxx Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 04 May 2001 10:01:41 -0400 From: Robin Thurlow Subject: Re: Alloy: shark house (OT) Tim Hudson wrote: > > Oxford was the town with the terraced house with the big shark diving > vertically down through the roof - I visited it - must have been about > 8 - 10 years ago now. I'd been visiting a cousin there and this was > en route on the way back home. > > It was very surreal and had become a local and latterly national cause > celebre [probably spelt that wrong] all the neighbours didn't really > mind the shark - it was the traffic it generated - which really miffed > them. > > It wasn't a small thing it must have been about 15 foot long but the > neat thing was the angle at which it entered the roof and the way the > tiles were scattered across the roof to make it look like it had just > crashed into it. Thanks to your information I was able to find a picture of it, by looking up "Oxford" "Shark" "House" all at once in a search engine: http://www.virgin.net/daysout/features/feature_5362.html Thanks Tim! back to Dolby content now i promise.... xxxx Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 04 May 2001 10:19:09 -0400 From: Robin Thurlow Subject: Alloy: Tim's ideas Tim wrote: :: I think alloy should start planning a 25th Anivesary party / Dolby Fest !! :: I've been thinking for a long time that it'd be fun to have a get-together of as many Alloy people as possible. We could have a Film Festival! The problem is, where to locate such a thing? if we did it here in upstate NY I could probably get a lecture hall reserved for us @ the university, and accomodations would be cheap... plus it's only three hours' drive from NYC. We can be centered in beautiful Ithaca (rather than stark Binghamton) where there's a huge lake, waterfalls, the Farm Sanctuary, and lovely wild-looking gorges to walk in. :: If anyone wants a copy of this disc there were about 5 left in the shop at 3 quid 89 you could say they were 'going for a song'. I'll buy another one tomorrow and give it to Robin to give away in a special Alloy list competition - because I think we need another competition :: Ideas for the next competition anyone? :) xxx Robin ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 08:37:43 -0600 From: "Keith Stansell" Subject: Re: Alloy: Tim's ideas Or perhaps here in Denver! There are already 5 Alloy people in the area - midway between east and west coast - and direct flights from England! Don't know about a lecture hall though. Bye the way, what is the record for most Alloy people at one gathering? We had 6 together at Beth Meyer's house last summer when Stephen Tilson was in town (8 if you count Melina and Mark - but they are more like "Alloys - in - law" than actual Alloy members). - -Keith - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robin Thurlow" > I've been thinking for a long time that it'd be fun to have a > get-together of as many Alloy people as possible. We could have a Film > Festival! The problem is, where to locate such a thing? if we did it > here in upstate NY I could probably get a lecture hall reserved for us @ > the university, and accomodations would be cheap... plus it's only three > hours' drive from NYC. We can be centered in beautiful Ithaca (rather > than stark Binghamton) where there's a huge lake, waterfalls, the Farm > Sanctuary, and lovely wild-looking gorges to walk in. > > :: If anyone wants a copy of this disc there were about 5 left in the > shop > at 3 quid 89 you could say they were 'going for a song'. I'll buy > another > one tomorrow and give it to Robin to give away in a special Alloy list > competition - because I think we need another competition :: > > Ideas for the next competition anyone? :) > > xxx > Robin ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 04 May 2001 15:47:49 +0000 From: "Tim Hudson" Subject: Alloy: Flat earth Reviews from Amazon in the UK Hi again !! Just found these reviews of the Flat Earth on amazon.co.uk Tony Schofield (schomojo@yahoo.co.uk) from Manchester, England , 2 May, 2001 Perfection in 7 Tracks Without a doubt my favourite record of all time. Too many people incorrectly associate Thomas Dolby with the quirky Hyperactive and expect all his tracks to be simular. I encourage anyone who does to buy this album. Not only will it change your opinion of Thomas Dolby but it will make you the lucky owner of one of the best written and brilliantly produced albums of the eighties (if not all time). Every track is different, from the haunting Mulu to the sublime title track. Do yourself a favour a buy this album, however be warned Dolby can become addictive mike@tech-stuff.co.uk from Weymouth,UK , 1 February, 2001 Abolsute Classic The only tape I have left. I bought this album years ago and recently played it and reminded myself how superb it is. Probably my favourite album off all time. Just decided to update to CD. b.memery@lipa.ac.uk , 10 March, 2000 Thomas Dolby's masterpiece Seven songs that are almost perfect, superbly written and played. The Flat Earth has rock, jazz, funk, soul and computer wizardy in abundance. The opening song Dissidents is probably the weakest song here, but still tells a interesting story with a super bass line. The title song The Flat Earth is an emotional outpouring, gripping in melody and word. Screen Kiss follows, and disects Hollywood with humour and style. White City is an apt interpretation of the Orwell 1984 book, and has a great closing line dismissing flat Bedford! Mulu The Rain Forest is as intriguing as it's title, darkly foreboding, and ecological in its message. I Scare Myself, composed by Dan Hicks, is a smoky jazz piece, with a super trombone solo and sampled vocals. Hyperactive! concludes the album, and is a frantic, witty pop song, a deserved hit single. A superb album to return to again and again. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Customers who bought music by Thomas Dolby also bought music by these artists: Howard Jones Art Of Noise Gary Numan David Sylvian Associates Should we invite them to join ? I liked the first two reviews especially as they have a sort of urgency and passion.... You see thomas ........ there must be thousands of us out there - being picked up in twos and threes...... Whats also interesting is the time lag........these reviews were written recently. Are we all the lost Dolby People? Tum dammit janet - just typed tum instead of tim so tum it is. appologies for hogging the list today. bye. - -- 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: Fri, 4 May 2001 10:21:53 -0700 (PDT) From: Brian Clayton Subject: Re: Alloy: a link from Thomas On Fri, 4 May 2001, Robin Thurlow wrote: > Brian Clayton wrote: > > Appears that it's not a website, but a Flash site...guess I'l have to > > fire up Netscrape or Internet Exploder to view it. > > I'm sorry, I didn't know there was a classifiable difference between a > normal web site and a flash site, when directing people to visit... > needing different things to open it with, etc (I don't work with > computers or do a lot of surfing around the 'net) I hope everyone got > to view it okay. That was a little bit of a rant on my part, Robin, sorry. I'm just getting dismayed at the fact that more and more websites are becoming so dependent on Flash, Java, and Javascript that it becomes harder to view them with older browsers. Doesn't anyone remember plain old HTML anymore? It seems that the message is getting lost in the medium. It used to be that webmasters would create a non-Flash version of a page along with the Flash version so that everyone could enjoy the content of the site. This is becoming more rare, and it's sad to see. I'm writing this on a Unix box, and neither the Netscape version I have here nor another supplied browser can view Flash. Fortunately, Tata's site *does* have a non-Flash page, so it's not a problem in this case. Anyway, I'll shut up now. Perhaps we can have a discussion on the merits of various web browsers and plug-ins. I'm sure it'll all come back around to Beatnik in the end. :) BC ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 23:10:39 +0300 From: jonathan.chiddick@nokia.com Subject: Alloy: Re: Cloudburst. The benefit of being on topic. Hi all, After the discussion yesterday of The Wreck Of The Fairchild when I drifted off into rambling on about Shingle Street (again) I was delighted to find the following mail in my inbox this evening. Thank you Thomas for this fascinating insight. Cheers all, Jon - -----Original Message----- From: ext Thomas Dolby Robertson Sent: 04 May, 2001 21:54 To: jonathan.chiddick@nokia.com Subject: Suffolk Hi Jonathan, Your observations about Suffolk on the Alloy list today were spot on! Please feel free to relay the comments below to the List. The Europa video was indeed shot at Sizewell. The pics in the FES gallery of me on a rainy beach, in faun suit and specs, were at Aldeburgh--this was the beach I had in mind in "Europa and the Pirate Twins" because an early girlfriend and I spent a stormy weekend there in a house I lived in as a child. And we went through my family's old kids' books, one of which was called "The Pirate Twins"--at the end, the Twins sail away from a beach but promise to always return on Mary's birthday. So "Europa" and I promised to meet again on this beach after the apocalypse. BTW the eponymous "Europa" is NOT Mary Brown :) although Mary has glimpsed the aforementioned kids' book. Purely a coincidence... The famous pics of me operating and fleeing from the giant generator panel at sunset were shot on a gorse-covered common near Minsmere. (Walberswick common?) "Cloudburst at Shingle Street" is both a very personal statement and a reference to the clandestine goings-on during WW2. The German Invasion theory is still very clouded in mystery and has never been proven, although a few aging locals have first-hand accounts of burning petrol and charred bodies on the beach in Nazi uniforms. What is very evident though along that coast--also at Sizewell and Dunwich--is the anti-tank invasion precautions, in the form of rows of huge cubic concrete blocks, now mostly sunken into the beach. There was another aborted effort to build floating concrete harbors--called Mulberry Harbors--to be towed across the North Sea to help battleships land troops on the Normandy coast during the D-day operation. To describe Shingle Street as a "hot spot" is pushing it though. On the hottest Saturday of the summer, you'll only see a couple of hundred people on the beach. Compare that to the tens of thousands that head for Felixtowe or Yarmouth! part of the reason for its relative obscurity is that it is very hard to find, and the signposts have mostly been torn down. Even people in the nearest local town of Woodbridge assume you're asking directions to a street in the town. Another reason is that there are no shops, tea houses, or even pubs in the little hamlet. This is because Shingle Street's one pub was accidentally blown up in WW2 by Barnes Wallace (famous inventor of the Bouncing Bomb!) who used it for sighting practice when his unit was inventing new weapons of destruction at nearby Alderton. [Postscript: before legions of Alloyite tourists head off there for their vacations, please note this word of warning: the year-round Shingle Street community (who number only about 20 people) is very private and insular.] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 23:30:19 +0300 From: jonathan.chiddick@nokia.com Subject: Alloy: RE: alloy-digest V6 #112 Hi again, Elaine Linstruth wrote: > I hope it's not too late to join in. No! Delurk One and All. This is interesting stuff for us all. (especially for me the manic Alloy-archive reader from Finland!) Slarvibarglhee uttered: > > And now from Norwich: it's the quiz of the week! > > [cue cheesy theme song] > > > > You're showing your age a bit there, sunbeam. Ahem. Yes I suppose that you're not far wrong there... It was an aeon ago now wasn't it. > > Norwich is my home town (city actually) and the above isn't > going to mean > > anything to anyone who was there at the time. > > > > Erm, shouldn't that be 'the above isn't going to mean > anything to anyone who wasN'T there at the time.' Doh! From Robin: > I've always felt "Cloudburst.." was a more personal kind of statement, or > train-of-thought... about not wanting to be trapped in a certain stage of > life or situation, and having to make it through something really wrenching > and difficult in order to break free. > 'looks like we were both close to the mark here. Vive le Alloy! > On a documentary recently I saw footage of a certain town > somewhere in the south of England, where one of the houses has a giant shark sculpture > positioned head-first, halfway through its roof. The house's > owner put it there, and apparently the people in the town complained for a > little while, then realized they kind of liked it.... What town is this, > does anyone know? Hehe, yes I remember this as well. I can't for the life of me remember where it was but it was huge! I'm going to be off-line for a week now as I'm heading out to California tomorrow and have only just realised that my new PC's infra-red port doesn't seem to work and the GSM1900 phone I have borrowed only has infra-red out (no cable connection) for use as a modem... Damn. Maybe I will get connected with the hotel phoneline. It's only money afterall! If I don't manage it I'll catch up on the 14.05.01. Have a good week everyone. Jon ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 04 May 2001 16:59:04 -0400 From: Robin Thurlow Subject: Re: Alloy: RE: alloy-digest V6 #112 jonathan.chiddick@nokia.com wrote: > I'm going to be off-line for a week now as I'm heading out to California > tomorrow and have only just realised that my new PC's infra-red port doesn't > seem to work and the GSM1900 phone I have borrowed only has infra-red out > (no cable connection) for use as a modem... Damn. > > Maybe I will get connected with the hotel phoneline. It's only money > afterall! If I don't manage it I'll catch up on the 14.05.01. Jon, best of luck on your trip and most importantly of all, have lots of fun!! I hope you have a great first visit to California. For internet access, I'm certain there must be cybercafes near where you're staying, or at least a local library that will let you sign on. xxxxx Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 04 May 2001 17:12:05 -0400 From: Robin Thurlow Subject: Re: Alloy: Re: Cloudburst. The benefit of being on topic. Thanks very much Jon, for forwarding Thomas' wonderful letter (and thank you so much Thomas for taking the time to write this all out, and for wanting to share it with us!) I love hearing background information on what inspired someone to do a certain piece. The feeling of the piece is what struck me, not having known before about the history of the place itself until fairly recently through Alloy members' posts. Also the background info on the photos, and the concrete blocks, is truly fascinating! I'd always wondered about those blocks. On the Spanish release of Wreck of the Fairchild, Thomas is sitting against one, with what looks like white parachute fabric completely wrapped around both himself and the block, concealing him. It's an extremely cool photo! Someone else here just mentioned it... don't you think this would make a fantastic poster? I've actually just won a copy of this on eBay from a seller in Spain, but have yet to receive it. When I do I'll publish it on my page right away so everyone can see. It'll make a nice addition to the Curio, plus perhaps Thomas might like it for the FES Galleries? xxxxx Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 20:05:44 -0400 From: "Robin" Subject: Re: Alloy: Sale of the century / Wreck of the Fairchild Jon wrote: > There is also a great Martello tower at Shingle > Street that was one of a series of over a hundred built to repel a > Napoleonic invasion. That beach has been a hot spot for ever. By 'hot spot', I'd thought you meant this in terms of it being a historical focal point for some pretty dramatic events... not as a vacation hang-out :) From all descriptions, the beach itself sounds like it's pretty much just the area resident's private back yards. I think that's what makes the stories of wartime defense efforts, and burned bodies washing ashore, all the more intense. What Thomas said about he and his girlfriend planning to meet up on the beach after the apocalypse is very cool. I feel as if today's generation of people (I think anyone born in the 1980s or later) has no idea of the sort of effect it had on our generation, to grow up under the constant menace of The Bomb... that we could lose everything forever thanks to one moment of stupidity in some official office somewhere. I know this could still happen, as it seems a lot of nations have nuclear capability, but it isn't publicized now, and pounded into everyone's psyche, anywhere near as much as it was for us. Recently I've come to realize that almost all of my career choices as an adult have subconsciously revolved in some way around how this or that skill would be most useful, or which geographic location would be best, once civilization is gone completely. It's probably also the reason why I have instinctively never gone in much for computers (???) Hmm... xxxxx Robin T ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V6 #113 ***************************