From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V6 #131 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 Thursday, May 24 2001 Volume 06 : Number 131 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Alloy: 'found it! [jonathan.chiddick@nokia.com] Alloy: Good morrow! [jonathan.chiddick@nokia.com] Re: Alloy: TMDR on CBC is A-OK ["Ian Gifford" ] Alloy: Westchester Thruway [Barbara Cohen ] Re: Alloy: Good morrow! [Merujo ] Re: Alloy: TMDR on CBC is A-OK ["Blagg & Norling" ] Re: Alloy: Good morrow! [Slarvibarglhee ] Re: Alloy: MY DEMANDS ["Robin Thurlow" ] Re: Alloy: Westchester Thruway ["Robin Thurlow" ] Alloy: A Question for the Alloy TechFolk [Merujo ] RE: Alloy: A Question for the Alloy TechFolk ["Krzysko, Bill" I found the correct prodigy song title offensive. Ooh, you aint the only one there but what a song it is too. I wish I didn't like it but I do. Prodigy are a bit of a strange case for me. I want to like them but they really aren't helping... Mayhaps I'm getting old. Their videos are really thought provoking too. Raw and in-your face. Provocative. (just to paint in all the crass details for you: the author of the above text is presently listening to the gentle strains of Everything But The Girl is his office with the door closed so as to avoid interruptions from work... how alternative can you get...) > Also what is the worst lyric of all time by anybody anywhere...... Oh Jesus! You're opening up Pandoras box here my friend! Personally I have always been left cold and bored by the pompousness of some of the later Queen songs. Not all of them obviously and I am also not inferring that they are by any means the worst offenders but Radio GaGa, Radio GooGoo. No thanks. If you want to hear crap lyrics then flip on MTV at anytime of day or night these days and you should have enough material to fill a skip. > or even just the worst lyric of TMDR !! Is there anything that doesn't > cut it or makes you cringe....... Mind is blank. I suppose if I were pushed I would say that Get Out Of My Mix would be the most (though still very mild) cringe inducing TMDR moment for me although it does contains some great bits. This is a case of 2+2=2.5 for me I'm afraid. When it came out there was a lot of that kind of stuff around and I was much happier with the free flexi with Therapy/Growth than the 12" itself! It's a good question. I wonder which song Thomas wishes that he hadn't recorded afterall. I guess these are dodgy questions actually as the song is probably someone's favourite somewhere and knowledge that the artist doesn't actually like it for some reason would maybe spoil their own feeling for the track. > On the subject of lyrics.....Fruit juice everywhere.....does > the 'Westchster Thruway' really exist and I wonder where that Launderette was........ > Ive always imagined it to be somewhere in Clapham or Wandsworth in London. > But being a child of the A3 I would wouldn't I ? Tim, I wish that you had asked these questions a couple of weeks ago when we were having the rounds of what would you ask Thomas if you had the chance? As far as fruit juice everywhere is concurred this is a reference to Elizabeth Aumont who is credited on the sleeve notes of TGAOW. She was the current girlfriend of Thomas in Paris and she uttered this to him and he liked it so much that he included it in Weightless. Probably this also refers to the Elisabeth concerned in the line: won't fix the empty feeling in Lizzy's heart... Westchester Thruway has been discussed before but I really don't remember what the outcome was. Weightless has several references to the US but at the time it was written Thomas was still very much in the UK so I guess that this is just artistic license. What launderette? I'm a bit woozy this morning and this one went right over my head! Aha! Flying North. I wonder if the launderette was a real place that Thomas used to go to? Probably. We've all been there as students and so on. Maybe it was across the street from the fruit and veg shop that he worked in in Notting Hill. I can imagine him gazing out of the window to the launderette as he twirled the brown paper bag contain half a pound of plum tomatoes over to close it up. UK people, do you remember the fruit and veg shop brown paper bag closing technique? (maybe it was just me, I need coffee!) > The copper cables all rust in the acid rain..... Has anyone else noticed that in the FES pages the lyric to Airwaves is only for the short version and omits that one verse? Controls enabled the abandoned wires again the copper cables all rust in the acid rain that flood the subway with elements of our corrosion cabled in to me... The CD GAOW that I keep at work is a Capitol US copy with the 3:35 version on it so I did this from memory so maybe I'm left of centre here. If anyone has a GAOW with the long version of Airwaves lyrics handy maybe they can correct. I only have the disc here, no booklet. > she cabled them to me..............[good pre internet ref there!] Hmm, I'll have to listen to this again but my memory says 'cabled into me'. The story behind this song is interesting. Thomas recorded this in a studio which was located in an old and quite dilapidated London warehouse and the 'knee-deep in water under a pylon' stuff is conjured up from the images of that place. I have an article in my archives somewhere which describes this. I'll dig it out sometime and digitise it. I've already done this with a dozen or so Dolby articles and one of these days I'll open my web-site to the public and get hassled through copyright infringement... > > Deep in the half light on this one.........and what is the lyric about > the motorhomes - > > It sounds like the motorhomes are Ay oh Ay oh ........or something? It is 'the motorhomes leave eeow eeow' - or something like that. When Thomas wrote what became this song he was living in a VW bus in the grounds of a school in Athens and I believe that this is where the motorhome reference could (maybe) have come from. > I always have to mumble over that bit because I cant sing along the words. > Bah! > Try my eeow eeow! It works for me anyway! > AY oh [maybe its Teletubby land?] Ay oh, eeow, tomayto, tomato. Whatever. > Subject: Alloy: Excel's hidden flight simulator - Cool Excel secret area OK Tim, here's something that is going to KILL your productivity at work today. I'm warning you first. This will KILL your productivity at work. I warned you! http://www.eeggs.com/ I warned you! Easter Eggs are everywhere and fascinating stuff too! Melissa wrote: > Okay, the first half of this isn't Dolby-related, but it's > CBC-related. I'm liking the CBC a whole lot lately. Weirder and weirder. I listen to CBC radio One every afternoon in the car on the way home from work - in Helsinki, Finland! We get a mixture of radio from around the world on Capital FM and there is two hours of CBC each afternoon and I must say that I find it really interesting listening. They have some great current affairs discussion there. Good radio! > Well, imagine my delight to see that not only did the CBC do > that, I've received two lovely, funny notes from Peter Wildman and Dan > Redican, formerly of The Frantics, which I've shared with my family. Well > done, Canadian> Broadcasting Company. Here ends your Canadian content for the day. :-) Great story! This kind of thing is really great isn't it. I sent a mail to an e-mail address the other day enquiring about the release date for the reprint of a book that I have been trying to get a copy of for ages and the reply came direct from the author with loads of really fascinating information straight from the horses mouth. It was such a great surprise and the book is out in two weeks. I can't wait now! This, my friends, IS the power of the internet. The internet makes things happen. Nothing is really new; it was all possible long before the internet came into our lives but this technology gives every one of us the power to actually and comparatively effortlessly MAKE it happen. Look at this list for a start. We were all lonely Dolby listeners before the Tap Room and then Alloy. My collection of Thomas's music was quite modest until ebay... ebay has a lot to answer for! It's just like anything else in life that empowers people; it can be used for good and evil but we are wearing digital white hats and that's something. Melissa wrote: > I drove 17 hours in blinding rain and > fog yesterday, but I managed to find "all '80's" stations on > the radio all the way - I didn't know they existed until this trip! I used my > cell phone and requested Dolby tuneage on each one. Excellent results! Melissa, you know your recommendation for things for me to do when I was in the US? Well I followed your advice and it was really fun! More details will follow soon but let's not go into any details until then...Stay tuned! Slarvage consisted of the following: > Ah, now, I'm glad you said that. Copper doesn't rust, does > it? It's not a ferrous metal; it might corrode, but it don't rust. But it's > artistic license, so let's not dwell on it. Absolutely. These kind of things come up everywhere in songs and sometimes they work well and sometimes badly - but still somehow work. Rust and corrode are synonymous with each other after all even though rusting necessitates a ferrous compound but this is art! Thomas has had this scientist label attached to him for so I suppose that it is permanently attached now and maybe people think that he therefore is scientific in nature and should understand all these things. Thomas is a musician not a metallurgist or chemist afterall! As you so rightly say, artistic license, so let's not dwell on it. > Now it can be revealed. Thomas is really a ghost writer for > the Teletubbies and was trying out some ideas. Hehe. At first I was very much against my son watching teletubbies as I was a bit concerned that this non-language that they use may complicate his life even more as he is growing up with Finnish and English already... I was, however, amazed to find that the teletubbies in Finnish (yes, really!) actually speak properly albeit in a fenno-urgraic tongue that it the linguistic equivalent of trying to knit with mud! Apparently the Finnish authorities didn't like teletubbies either so decided that they would exercise their own artistic license. Good on 'em I say. I now owe my employer about two hours of work. Tomorrow is a public holiday which I will be working through so I guess that makes up for it already. This message was powered initially by EBTG, the mid section was powered by the wonderful and inspiring Oleta Adams and this bit by Tear For Fears - Raoul and the kings of Spain, which I love. The hangover is gone now. A very good morning to you all. Cheers! Jon (the wordy (today anyhow...)) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 09:14:40 -0400 From: "Ian Gifford" Subject: Re: Alloy: TMDR on CBC is A-OK Melissa wrote: Okay, the first half of this isn't Dolby-related, but it's CBC-related. I'm liking the CBC a whole lot lately. Crackers and Ian might remember The Frantics, a Canadian comedy group that did a lot of funny stuff in the '80's. Members of the group have gone on to do a whole variety of fun things, including writing and producing some stuff that folks on both sides of the Canadian/US border would know, including Kids in the Hall... I LOVE THE FRANTICS!! THey have an album available called "Boot to the Head". It has two of my favorite sketches ever one called "I shit a piece of Pie" and one called "Make up Dirty Words" and then a song called "I shot Bambis Mother" which I sing all the time "... and now the deer all hate me... thumper too!! Greenpeace now berates me and.... Disney plans to sue..." They also did a whole whack of TV Shows called "Four on the Floor" in the 80's. They contained the famous boot to the head sketches and ideas for video games based on real life things. One of the fellows is now the nephew on "The Red Green Show" I believe. The first one I ever heard was the "last will..." and I think I almost cried I was laughing so hard. Hey on a side note... has anyone ever seen the 60's cartoon version of spiderman?? I found out that a Cousin of mine (through marriage) was actually the voice of him. I also found out that He is playing "SHylock" in "Merchant of Venice" at Stratford this year! Paul Soles is the name and I met him last year at a family reunion. Very nice man! Any old cartoon buffs out there? And if there are can you remind me.... Did Thomas do the soundtrack to Fern Gully? Peace, Ian _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 09:20:00 -0400 (EDT) From: Barbara Cohen Subject: Alloy: Westchester Thruway Westchester is a county in New York state, just north of NYC, where all the affluent people who work in NYC live. The Thruway is the toll portion of Interstate 81 from NYC to Albany, goes right through Westchester. The Thruway continues along I-90 from Albany to Buffalo (following the Erie Canal). I've always been slightly embarrassed at the spelling "Thruway," but it is a proper noun, not a generic term for road in the US, AFAIK. I guess I hadn't ever caught that geographic reference before! Neat! I wonder why Thomas ever had reason to go north out of NYC, or come into it from upstate? Maybe to go to Boston? Robin, that would mean he'd have stopped in to see me in Albany before journeying on to see you :) _____________________________________________________________ Dr. Barbara Cohen, lunatic bcohen@utk.edu Dept. of Geological Sciences http://web.utk.edu/~bcohen/ University of Tennessee phone (865) 974-6024 Knoxville, TN 37996 fax (865) 974-6022 2+2=5 for extremely large values of 2. _____________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 09:48:06 -0400 From: Merujo Subject: Re: Alloy: Good morrow! jonathan.chiddick@nokia.com wrote: > This message was powered initially by EBTG, the mid section was powered by > the wonderful and inspiring Oleta Adams and this bit by Tear For Fears - > Raoul and the kings of Spain, which I love. The hangover is gone now. A very > good morning to you all. Raoul and the Kings of Spain! One of my very, very, very favorite cds! Good taste, Jon. Roland Orzabal's new album "Tomcats Screaming Outside" (he's dropped the Tears For Fears moniker) has just been released in the UK (and continential Europe, I think), but it's still only an import here. I may have to scrimp together the $21.95 and just buy it. Cheers, Melissa ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 19:27:57 +0100 From: "Blagg & Norling" Subject: Re: Alloy: TMDR on CBC is A-OK Ian Wrote: <> Hi Ian, Yes he did, but don't make the same mistake I did. I won this item on ebay only to discover that despite assurances that this was a much sought after TMDR item it was in fact the version recorded by Alan Sylvestri. Nice CD, but no mention of our leader. I have been kindly informed by another Alloy member (can't remember who) that a version by Thomas is available somewhere. As it happens...a major coincidence...life is full of these, I just read in 'What Satellite' that Ferngully is to be screened on Sky Premier on 16th June 4pm. Trevor....... ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 19:35:29 +0100 From: "Blagg & Norling" Subject: Re: Alloy: Good morrow! A comparably infinitesimetly indistinguishable part of what Jon wrote was: <> I'd always wondered about this part and who Lizzy was. Jon this is great info. Thank you for sharing this with us. I'm just trying to imagine the conversation though that must have been going on when "Lizzy" mentioned her fruit juice....Also I wonder why Lizzy's heart was empty? Was this anything to do with the fruit juice discussion that Thomas was having with her? Hmmmm! Trevor....... ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 23:03:52 +0100 From: Slarvibarglhee Subject: Re: Alloy: Good morrow! Merujo wrote: > Raoul and the Kings of Spain! One of my very, very, very favorite cds! Good > taste, Jon. Roland Orzabal's new album "Tomcats Screaming Outside" (he's dropped > the Tears For Fears moniker) has just been released in the UK (and continential > Europe, I think), but it's still only an import here. I may have to scrimp > together the $21.95 and just buy it. > > Cheers, > > Melissa Thanks for the tip, Melissa. I didn't know Roland had a new album out. I've been waiting for something new for yonks, and assumed it would be another TFF release. His albums are always worth waiting for; I hope the new one's up to the usual standard. I might just take a trip to HMV tomorrow. Slarv ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 23:26:24 +0100 From: Slarvibarglhee Subject: Re: Alloy: Good morrow! jonathan.chiddick@nokia.com wrote: > [snipped] > Great story! This kind of thing is really great isn't it. I sent a mail to > an e-mail address the other day enquiring about the release date for the > reprint of a book that I have been trying to get a copy of for ages and the > reply came direct from the author with loads of really fascinating > information straight from the horses mouth. It was such a great surprise and > the book is out in two weeks. I can't wait now! > > This, my friends, IS the power of the internet. The internet makes things > happen. Nothing is really new; it was all possible long before the internet > came into our lives but this technology gives every one of us the power to > actually and comparatively effortlessly MAKE it happen. Look at this list > for a start. We were all lonely Dolby listeners before the Tap Room and then > Alloy. My collection of Thomas's music was quite modest until ebay... ebay > has a lot to answer for! > > It's just like anything else in life that empowers people; it can be used > for good and evil but we are wearing digital white hats and that's > something. Agree with you 1000% there. I've come into contact with people through the net I'd never have otherwise met and learned a lot of things I'd never have made the effort to find out if I'd had to traipse down to the local library to find them. Your book story is typical of the effort that some artists make if you take the trouble to contact them, which is a lot easier by e-mail. A few months ago I heard a track on the BBC Late Junction show, Fast Float from Floating Rhythms by Terje Isungset. Only heard part of it once and was grabbed by it. There was a lot of discussion about it on the Beeb's LJ message board, and a couple of other people wanted to know where they could get a copy. The Beeb publish all their LJ playlists a couple of days after they're broadcast, so you can look them up, get the cat number and order a copy. Alas, Terje's work is not distributed in the UK, so it looked like we'd have to live with the memory, as LJ presenters tend not to repeat tracks all that often, though they DID play it again about 6 months later, so I got that one track on tape. (Now I routinely record LJ and keep anything I really like.) Anyroadup, one enterprising contributor to the message board contacted Terje's record company in Finland (I think) to ask if there was any way they could sell us copies, but they said they didn't do mail order. However, this guy managed to find Terje's e-mail address, so wrote to him direct and he was happy to send copies if we sent him a cheque for the CDs plus p+p. So, a couple of weeks later, I have a rare (and SIGNED) copy of Floating Rhythms that that I probably wouldn't have been bothered to chase after if it hadn't been for the net. Another nice story in the same vein. When I was first venturing on to the net in the mid 90's I got hold of a copy of Internet for Dummies. I was really struggling with something (can't remember what it was now) but the author had published his e-mail address in the book, so I mailed him. Within about 48 hours I had a comprehensive reply to my query and the author's best wishes for my future surfing. This sort of thing restores one's faith in human nature. Slarv. This missive powered by some weird throat singers now being broadcast on LJ, a lot of whom seem to have nasty coughs. ------------------------------ Date: 23 May 2001 23:34:48 -0000 From: "doughboy" Subject: Alloy: MY DEMANDS THE DOUGHBOY DEMANDS THAT A NEW THOMAS DOLBY ALBUM BE RELEASED BY FRIDAY NIGHT, 2359 ZULU, OR THE DOUGHBOY WILL GO ON A HUNGER STRIKE UNTIL SUCH TIME AS A NEW THOMAS DOLBY ALBUM IS RELEASED. FULL STOP. ______________________________________________________________________ Get Your Own Private, Free Email Account at http://www.dotcomemail.com Now With Over 1,500 Com, Net, and Org Domains to Choose From! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 20:02:07 -0400 From: "Robin Thurlow" Subject: Re: Alloy: MY DEMANDS Oh dear... and no one likes a skinny doughboy. It's all up to Thomas now! :) xxxxx Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 20:50:51 -0400 From: "Robin Thurlow" Subject: Re: Alloy: Westchester Thruway - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barbara Cohen" > Maybe to go to Boston? Robin, > that would mean he'd have stopped in to see me in Albany before journeying > on to see you :) I only lived in Boston for about 7 years of my adulthood.. back when the song was written, he'd've had to slingshot back south-westward from visiting you in Albany, in order to drop in on me here. I hope Thomas would've brought his hiking shoes & a healthy interest in the Devonian era, for some good old-fashioned fossil-hunting. We could've found him some nice trilobites to take home. Thanks to a friend who's a hobbyist, I've just learned the area is one of the richest in easily accessable fossil remains of this type, and I find this extremely interesting. Boy, I'm really wandering today aren't I ??!! yours in free-association, xxxxx Robin ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 22:53:43 -0400 From: Merujo Subject: Re: Alloy: MY DEMANDS doughboy wrote: > THE DOUGHBOY DEMANDS THAT A NEW THOMAS DOLBY ALBUM BE RELEASED BY FRIDAY NIGHT, 2359 ZULU, OR THE DOUGHBOY WILL GO ON A HUNGER STRIKE UNTIL SUCH TIME AS A NEW THOMAS DOLBY ALBUM IS RELEASED. > > FULL STOP. I find a hunger strike by the spokescritter for tasty rolls, cookies, and cake mixes to be rather ironic, but I support his cause. Thomas, help out the Pillsbury dude! Give the gift of new music! (Now, had this been posted by, say, the Snuggles bear or the Taco Bell dog, I might have hesitated a second, but the doughboy is so cute, and he's aged so well...) - - Melissa ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 23:24:31 -0400 From: Merujo Subject: Alloy: A Question for the Alloy TechFolk Hey, y'all, I am in possession of a cassette tape of a presentation my mom made to the members of the local U.S. Air Force Association chapter - it's an account of her WWII military service. I would like to transfer this recording to some sort of format where I could burn it onto cds for my family members to hear. (I'm buying a cd burner and a nice scanner for a family photo archive project I've volunteered to handle.) Can someone tell me if this is something I can do? I'm sure I don't have the technology to do it myself, but some advice would be much appreciated. Thanks, folks! - - Melissa ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 22:34:48 -0500 From: "Krzysko, Bill" Subject: RE: Alloy: A Question for the Alloy TechFolk How long is the recording? If you have a windows machine, and a sound card, and enough disk space, you should be able to do this. I will try to find the name of a freeware program that will do this for you. - -----Original Message----- From: owner-alloy@smoe.org [mailto:owner-alloy@smoe.org]On Behalf Of Merujo Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2001 10:25 PM To: alloy@smoe.org Subject: Alloy: A Question for the Alloy TechFolk Hey, y'all, I am in possession of a cassette tape of a presentation my mom made to the members of the local U.S. Air Force Association chapter - it's an account of her WWII military service. I would like to transfer this recording to some sort of format where I could burn it onto cds for my family members to hear. (I'm buying a cd burner and a nice scanner for a family photo archive project I've volunteered to handle.) Can someone tell me if this is something I can do? I'm sure I don't have the technology to do it myself, but some advice would be much appreciated. Thanks, folks! - - Melissa ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 00:12:56 -0400 From: "Robin Thurlow" Subject: Re: Alloy: A Question for the Alloy TechFolk (Alloy post) I can see if the folks in Cornell's sound lab can help you out. Perhaps they would do the transfer for you in exchange for being able to keep a copy for their own archives. I don't know but I can certainly find out! xxxx Robin T ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V6 #131 ***************************