From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V6 #132 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 Friday, May 25 2001 Volume 06 : Number 132 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Alloy: Raoul [jonathan.chiddick@nokia.com] Alloy: Quote of the day [jonathan.chiddick@nokia.com] Alloy: A mile in their shoes [jonathan.chiddick@nokia.com] Re: Alloy: MY DEMANDS ["Chris & Beena Cracknell" ] Re: Alloy: MY DEMANDS ["Robin Thurlow" ] Alloy: Thomas in NYC 1981 ! ["Robin Thurlow" ] Re: Alloy: A Question for the Alloy TechFolk [Merujo ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 11:04:07 +0300 From: jonathan.chiddick@nokia.com Subject: Alloy: Raoul Hi all, Barbara wrote: > Westchester is a county in New York state, just north of NYC, where... Thanks for that. I was racking my brains trying to remember where I had recorded this info but couldn't for the life of me place it. (all my tubes and wires, my careful notes...) It seems that the place names mentioned in songs generally are invariably based in some modicum of fact as songwriters don't have the ability to generate random thought (except Bjvrk obviously!) and so these things have to come from somewhere; that somewhere seems to default on the box labelled experience and hence by examining the content of the songs of a particular artist you can build up a kind of atlas of their experiences. Someone, Tim I think, did this geography of Astronauts' recently which I thought was a fascinating idea. I have done this previously for another artist and then later, after reading their autobiography, I was amazed how much correlation there was with significant events in their life. Trevor scribed: > I'd always wondered about this part and who Lizzy was. Jon > this is great info. Thank you for sharing this with us. Oh don't thank me! Thank Thomas! It's all there... (The Flat Earth Society) ...in writing. It was Slarved so: > 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. Why does this always happen to me? I absolutely love Tears For Fears; a much maligned pair of muso's and I regularly take heavy critique when visitors see the foot and a half or so of discs in my CD collection dedicated to said band. Somehow I always seem to miss it when something new is released and usually end up finding it about 3 months later by luck or happenstance. Thanks also Melissa. It has been duly noted. I shall buy it this very evening. Shit! Today is a public holiday here... I will buy it tomorrow. It feels strange discussing TFF or indeed anyone else on this list so I'm going to stop right now before I make myself too uncomfortable but not before one last statement which I like to drop into conversations when the mood takes me (which is generally most of the time). The album Sowing The Seeds Of Love is the finest piece of engineering, production and sumptuously embroidered musical art that has ever been sealed onto a little silver disc. It is so gloriously multi-facetted that it beggers belief. Legend has it that Curt and Roland spent 15 days editing just the drums on Woman In Chains. It was a very lengthy labour of love and is truly complete. I don't want to get into an argument with anyone over this I just love this albums rich qualities. > Floating Rhythms by Terje Isungset. Only heard part of it > once and was grabbed by it. Now this is a name that I have heard several times in Finland but I have never actually heard anything. When I woke this morning I finally got around to replacing all the work-located CD's back into the main collection at home and making a new selection as I try to do every few weeks. I had a real hunger for something that I had never heard before and it took me literally ages to choose 20 discs for the office. I am currently waiting for an order from my favourite but sometimes rather slow e-tailer in Germany (www.jpc.de highly recommended and also in English) as I have the following on the way from them which I am itching for... Menge Bestellnummer Titel Preis 1 1815231 Musikb|cher: Musiker-Biographien R 9.95 DM 1 3459641 Soul / Rhythm And Blues: Motown Fo 29.95 DM 1 3379965 Davis,Miles: You're Under Arrest 14.95 DM 1 6152819 Electric Light Orchestra: Out Of T 14.95 DM 1 2405111 Leftfield: Leftism 14.95 DM 1 5558441 The The: Soul Mining 14.95 DM 1 3459508 Adams,Oleta: Moving On 14.95 DM 1 1761977 Sly & The Family Stone: Backtracks 9.95 D The Electric Light Orchestra, Out Of The Blue thing was a bit of a whim. I used to like this when I was a kid and when I was going through the printed catalogue they send me monthly I saw it on offer and thought what the hell! I'm also a bit of a sucker for Motown in the car and when doing domestic stuff at home. I made this order a while back and I can't even remember whose biography I have ordered! That'll be a nice surprise then! Anyway, I digress, Terje Isungset will also be purchased on the morrow. No doubt my darling wife will give me that certain expression that she expressly reserves for my myriad musical purchases... > 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. Well I never. Looks like you're in for a stomach churning time Doughboy. I consider myself to be an eternal optimist but I fear that this puppy's gonna drown! Melissa articulated: > 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. Good grief! I would like to hear that too! I have recently finished an excellent book called A Mile In Their Shoes which are short accounts by common-or-garden (i.e. normal Joes) American WWII veterans about their experiences of battle and wartime generally. It was truly fascinating stuff; a close human element which is often absent from the official or authoritative accounts. It was full of stuff about things like the food and relationships between comrades forced together in adversity. Inspiring and touching. The reason that I bought the book in the first place is that it has a first-hand account of 'operation tiger' in it which was the catastrophic ambush of a D-Day landing preparation exercise at Slapton Sands in Devon- I think I have posted about this once before a while back. This story always makes me think about Cloudburst at Shingle Street (there you go! back on-topic already!) It is an absolutely enthralling story and one which - like Shingle Street - was classified secret for very many years. Phew! Two days running... they must be putting something in the water. Message powered by Elvis Costello's 'This Years Model' and Bjvrks 'Post'. Over and out. Jon ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 12:11:28 +0300 From: jonathan.chiddick@nokia.com Subject: Alloy: Quote of the day Hi again all, I didn't much feel like contributing last week to the discussion of Douglas Adams' untimely demise. I very much respected him - mainly for what he wasn't, rather than what he was. This quote that I came across today kind-of sums it all up for me. "Once, when halfway down the A40 on my way to Shropshire, I thought I seem to have spent my bloody life driving this road, so I turned round and ended up in Florence. It was a very liberating experience." How so very much like Douglas Arthur Dent must have been. RIP Cheers, Jon ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 16:22:17 +0300 From: jonathan.chiddick@nokia.com Subject: Alloy: A mile in their shoes Hi again, just in case anyone is remotely interested I came across a url today when I was cleaning up some stuff and it happened to be the page where I originally found out about the book that I mentioned earlier. http://www.tankbooks.com/intviews/hawk/hawk1.htm You can get it from Amazon.com but not from .co.uk It's a fascinating read. Cheers, Jon ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 09:59:05 -0400 From: "Chris & Beena Cracknell" Subject: Re: Alloy: MY DEMANDS - ----- Original Message ----- From: "doughboy" > FULL STOP. I take it someone has been poked in the stomach one too many times. CRACKERS (Giggle Doughboy, giggle from hell!!!) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 10:11:41 -0400 From: "Chris & Beena Cracknell" Subject: Re: Alloy: True (and some not so true) Adventures in Steel Town - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ian Gifford" > SHortly after entering the front door, Crackers invited us to "The Geek > ROom"... "Really??" I thought "I am going to get to see the infamous 'geek > room'??? Can it be that easy". So we walked through 2 rooms and into the > kitchen where the stairs were tucked around a corner. He led us down the > stairs past a mountain of pizza boxes (and not just any pizza... "Pizza > Pizza", which leads me to believe that it was most likely the mediteranean > veggie pizza mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmm) to the entrance of > the geek room. Heheheh, the huge stack of Pizza boxes always gets an intersting raise of the eyebrows from passer-bys. They're the two-in-one pizza boxes from Pizza Pizza which I am saving up in order to build a stair case. You see I am building a set of stairs to our attic and I have two designs in mind, so in order to get a better idea which design will truly look best I am saving up these double pizza boxes and I am going to build full scale mock-ups of my new staircase out of cardboard pizza boxes. > As we walked into the room one could not help but notice the vast libraries > of computer game cartridges, video game units, monitors on every wall, and a > plethora of tubes and wires (and careful notes). Yes... wires, wires everywhere. I can't wait for the say they invent tiny little cold fussion power cells so that each device I own can be internally powered, and them wireless PCM transmitters for all my devices so they don't have to be tethered together in a web of cables. Although I suppose all the wires and cables add to the charm of the geekroom. It just wouldn't be as geeky without a few kilometers of wire strung about all over the place. I should hook up my videocam to my grab-it cart and create a virtual tour of the "Geekroom" so that those not fortunate enough to be able to visit me in Hamilton can bask in the glory of my geekroom. Crackers (Virtual geekrooms from hell!!!) I was in awe and pretty > much breathless. Crackers was very gracious immediately by offering a > beverage to each of us (mmmm I like Honey Brown!!). After a brief tour of > the various gadgets and instruments flanking each wall, I found an old > Silvertone arch top with f-holes just begging to be played. > > One chord strum later and it was responded to with a blast from an accordion > (it was like the scene from "Meet John Doe" where John Willoughby pulls out > a harmonica and the "Colonel" pulls out a "doo hickey" just as quick). > > It was a very cool exchange of songs that went from Crackers describing some > of his gigging escapades and back to me talking about some of mine. We > jammed together on tunes like "NuVogue" (great harmonies between us!!) > "Istanbul was Constantinople", "The Legend of Bill", "The little Bitter > Song" and some other Crackers classics. We had Kim in stitches and in awe > for much of the jams. > > So, after 2 hours of exchanging tunes and lies, Kim and I had to venture out > so that we could go make dinner and Leaves Chris and his wife Beena to get > ready for a party. We however did resolve to get back together and take our > jams to tape sometime in the near future. Hopefully we can post them to the > Alloyance so that they may know what kind of monsters they have created ;) > > My impression of Crackers from our meeting is that he is absolutely as crazy > as he appears through his postings. I know that he and I will get along JUST > FINE ;) > > By the way... On a TMDR note... Crackers did show me some computer enhanced > drawings of what Thomas might look like in drag... I was impressed... Thomas > certainly has the legs for it. > > Peace all... > > Ian > > (the first alloy witness to the Geek Room from Hell) > _________________________________________________________________________ > Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 15:07:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Brian Clayton Subject: Re: Alloy: MY DEMANDS On Wed, 23 May 2001, Robin Thurlow wrote: > Oh dear... and no one likes a skinny doughboy. It's all up to Thomas now! > > :) Perhaps a sufficiently large and well-organized (not to mention tongue-in-cheek) strike on the part of Alloy will persuade Thomas to release those rareities of his on CD. As of this moment, I am foreswearing all food beginning with the letter 'Q' until the above transpires. BC "Nobody writes jokes in base 13." -- Douglas Adams, 1952-2001 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 19:48:39 -0400 From: "Robin Thurlow" Subject: Re: Alloy: MY DEMANDS Brian Clayton wrote: > > Perhaps a sufficiently large and well-organized (not to mention > tongue-in-cheek) strike on the part of Alloy will persuade Thomas to > release those rareities of his on CD. > > As of this moment, I am foreswearing all food beginning with the letter > 'Q' until the above transpires. No more Quail for you, then! No Quince, and you can't play Quarters at the bar... no Nestle's Quick... you must be getting Queasey just thinking about giving up all of these great things. When you're asleep, you can't nibble on the corner of the Quilt, no matter how much it comforts you. Brian, you're a brave man to give up all of these things for a cause you believe in. I can participate too, via symbolic acts/performance art instead of giving up Q food. I suppose my first will be to fly all the way to London next week... conscious. I was going to ask for sleeping pills so I could be knocked out for the whole thing, but since we're protesting, I'll do the flight COLD TURKEY, baby. As part of the performance art, I will also bring my Walkman and listen to nothing but Thomas the whole way. I won't be sitting with Dave (we got an ultra-cheap fare but it means we won't be seated together) so Thomas' strength as composer and musician will be all I'll have to sustain me, as I am rocketing through the earth's lower atmosphere in a flimsy pressurized metal tube full of electronic equipment and flammable materials. xxxxx Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 20:23:12 -0400 From: "Robin Thurlow" Subject: Alloy: Thomas in NYC 1981 ! I've just received a copy of a video of Thomas in concert with Lene Lovich, at Studio 54 in NYC, 1981!! Dave brought it in with the rest of the mail as I was putting away the groceries, and I dropped everything to watch it! Admittedly I had to forward through the majority of the performance so that my Rice Dream wouldn't melt... only stopping on the parts which focused on Thomas... but I intend to watch/listen to the whole thing in its entirety tonight. It looks like it must have been a fantastic show, and there was a nicely intimate arrangement of the performers on stage, so that it looked like they were all in good communication. Some very nice shots of Thomas. At one point he looks back and laughs with someone (perhaps the drummer). It's always a plus, too, when a performer as gorgeous, talented and energetic as Thomas arranges to have his clothing seductively fall away during the show. Okay, so it was only one of his "braces" (have I got it right? it's "suspenders" to us here in America, though I know in the UK this would be entirely the wrong word!!) ...it slipped off his shoulder & he righted it. It was the *way* he did it. I'd love to know who the other performers were with Lene on that tour. I'll have to check out Chris' page :) xxxxx Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 May 2001 22:25:37 -0400 From: Merujo Subject: Re: Alloy: A Question for the Alloy TechFolk "Krzysko, Bill" wrote: > 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. Thanks, Bill. It's probably about 20-25 minutes long. I don't have that much loaded onto my computer, so disk space shouldn't be an issue. Win95 and soundcard. Muchas gracias. - - Melissa ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V6 #132 ***************************