From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V6 #265 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 Wednesday, October 10 2001 Volume 06 : Number 265 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Alloy: (another) one of life's odd coincidences ["Mary A. Brown" ] Alloy: Are those 'OXFORD' crickets on MULU ? - the DAFTEST ALLOY QUESTION EVER? ["Tim Hudson" ] Alloy: Thomas Dolby narrating a story - link attached ["Tim Hudson" ] Re: Alloy: Chance Alloy meeting. ["Keith Stansell" ] Re: Alloy: Chance Alloy meeting. [Robin Thurlow ] Re: Alloy: Chance Alloy meeting. [Paul Baily ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2001 02:42:19 -0400 From: "Mary A. Brown" Subject: Alloy: (another) one of life's odd coincidences Robin wrote: > A friend of mine in the music biz who knows I'm a fan of TMDR has > just told me yesterday he thinks Dan Hicks is doing a new version > of "I Scare Myself"... has anyone heard of this? or is my > friend just spreading rumors? :) He has done an updated version on his most recent CD called "Beatin' the Heat" which is a duet with Rickie Lee Jones. I thought I mentioned it last year when I saw him perform here in his old stomping grounds (he lived in Santa Rosa). He coyly said that Rickie wouldn't get out of the cab and perform with him so he was going to have to do it by himself. I highly recommend the CD. He covers a Tom Waits (who also sings on another track) tune and has other great guests such as Elvis Costello and Brian Setzer. Even Bette Midler does a nice turn. I'm surprised those two haven't worked together before considering their mutual love of swing. And, Lissu, don't you have some embarrassing photos of your mother in a fluorescent lime green mini-skirt and peace sign necklace you could blackmail her back with? ;-) Seriously, what a pleasure to have you here, Pam! We're definitely seeing genetics in action here. I wonder which chromosome the charming gene is on? And Beth, I hope your parents are faring okay. I know the frustration of being so far away. I also hope you're managing to cope. Being a new mom is enough stress without everything else you're dealing with. Off I go back into the madness that is harvest... Mary ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 18:40:09 +0800 From: "Andy Venables" Subject: Alloy: AndyJ *DOES* like Mulu, Neon S., Screen K... Anyone who may have read my TMDR webpage may well have the impression that I cannot tolerate certain TD tracks. Not so... Last night was an especially bad TV night, so once the Wife and Child had gone to bed and left me with a spare hour or two, I decided to refresh my memory as to which tracks on TGAOW blended together with radio noises (on the original vinyl version). I've long been more familiar with each track in isolation, on the CD copy. I found my old car-copy cassette from 1986, and was amazed a) how rough the vinyl sounded b) how clear it was on the Flat Earth side, cassettes *can* be very good (easy to forget in this digital MD/CD/mp3 age) c) what a difference it made to link The Wreck of the F to Airwaves, then to Radio Silence d) Just how different the running order is to the CD ...and I found myself pitying anyone who's never heard TGAOW in this format! I found myself liking tracks that I don't usually like, and skipping ones that I do. Maybe I was in one of my "gimme something different" moods last night. Maybe it was an unusual sound quality that made a difference. I was listening on my cheap-n-cheerful Jamo speakers either side of the PC monitor while reading old Alloy digests (to see if there was anything I've missed). I have to admit that I seem to have developed piles of CDs (nice place for a line break there) in front of each speaker which affects the sound somewhat... a little bit of fuddle-duddling with the EQ got things sounding good enough, and is more fun than tidying up (and not finding anything). Plus, I had to keep the bass low to avoid waking up the folks upstairs. Even though I still can take or leave Flying North after more than a minute or two that piano riff gets stale... I was surprised how good Screen Kiss was, once I reached the Flat Earth. It was at least halfway through before I remembered what I didn't like about it.. but even then I still enjoyed it right to the end. Shortly afterwards, I found myself enthralled by Mulu! Wow... this isn't like me :o) By the time I put my A&H CD on, I was soon enjoying Neon Sisters too. I hope this makes up for my previous heresy :o) BTW, if anyone close to smoe.org has checked the log and wonders who downloaded the entire Alloy at the weekend, it was me! I found a widget called HTTPGET that allows a download and save of any internet file. So... in geek mode I wrote a quick Turbo Pascal program to create six DOS batch files to simultaneously download all six Alloy volumes. Only took me 3 hours!! The Wife was Not Pleased - "what if someone's trying to call us?" - so I had to split the entire job into 3 sessions - tsk! ** Extreme Geek Section ** Then it was a simple case of processing each file with a quick-n-dirty Visual Basic prog to tidy up each file and rename to 8.3 format, so that another ancient old Turbo Pascal program could replace LineFeeds with CarriageReturn - -LineFeeds for us DOSsers that don't 'do' Unix. And finally another TP widget I cooked up was used to glue each volume together into one humungous TXT file... and I pkZIPped them up to less than half the size. That would save an hour or more of downloading by modem. If anyone wants all of Alloy in six moderately sized downloads... let me know! Or perhaps they could find a home at on the smoe server? With the whole lot locally in text files it's easy to find specific items. So I'm halfway through 1997 at the moment. Nice to see who joined when, and read all the introductions. Fascinating stuff to follow how Aliens Ate My Birthday Cake (Retrospectators!) developed. I like Melissa's idea of the obscure T-shirt - "Fruit Juice Everywhere", but I haven't yet reached the point where anyone's yet worn one! Me, I'd have liked : 2 + 2 = 5.25 "I thought I was immune" Right then, I've rambled enough. There was no digest yesterday so I thought I'd compensate! +AndyJ+ - -- _______________________________________________ FREE Personalized E-mail at Mail.com http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup Talk More, Pay Less with Net2Phone Direct(R), up to 1500 minutes free! http://www.net2phone.com/cgi-bin/link.cgi?143 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 20:57:20 +1000 From: Paul Baily Subject: Alloy: How 'bout it? Hi y'all, Hope you're doing well. Actually that's the crux of this message. Given the latest world developments I'm guessing that like me, you've found your tension, nervousness, and preoccupation levels wound up a few more points. Before I explain myself, if I may I'd like to go over a nice bit of history involving one of Alloy's earliest (and hopefully still present) members: Clif Brigden. (I know, you're probably rolling your eyes thinking 'oh great, Paul's doing his doddery slef-indulgent old professor insessant rambling' thing again. Please stay with it, I do actually have something meaningful to say here this time. :-) Does the name ring at least a faint bell? It should. Clif has been an occasional collaborator of Thomas' at various times. Take a look at the credits for TGTTME for starters. He also was the author of the original FES site circa beginning of Alloy. Probably like a few of you I've also been fortunate enough to have the occasional email conversation with the man in past years. Very approachable and down to earth fellow. As a few of us say in Oz, if he were any more laid back he'd be lying down. Clif had - and I'm sure still has - a beautifully well adjusted outlook on life that shines. Much like taking time out from the hectic mousewheel of daily life and truly looking out at a sunset for the first time in a long while. One particularly striking example was that he used to have this page called "12:04 moments"* [*- Try as I might, I can't find the page nor verify the actual time. Go with me on this anyway willya?] The story behind it was that one day he'd parked somewhere in LA prior to an appointment and had set his watch alarm to go off a couple of minutes before the parking meter ran out so he could get there and put more change in the meter. He never reset that alarm and it dutifully went off at 12:04 (?) each day. He then fell into the practice of using the alarm as a prompt to take a breath and identify a snapshot of each day. Where he was, what he was thinking, and what he was doing at that time. Anyways, to my point. Today while looking out my office window and listening to the news stories I took a moment to wonder how people I've been fortunate enough to get to know here are, what you'd be doing at that time and whether you were okay. I then thought of Clif's 12:04 moments and had a thought. What's say we (as in Alloy) try this exercise and share these with each other? What I'm thinking is that we each pick a single time, say 12:04pm - or any time you choose, just make it the same time each day - and each take a moment to write a few words about what we were doing/thinking/feeling at that point. It could be just a few words, or a song we were listening to/had running through our mind, or for those with access to a digital camera a single shot of some random thing they were looking at at the time. (Extra credit for URLs of webcams of your room/office/town/city!) Basically providing some kind of snapshot of each of our lives. I think this would help bring us a little closer together when we most need it. Even if people added to it just once, or once daily, I think it'd add a nicely diverse perspective on daily life in our corner of TFE. I have about 96MB web-hosting space to burn so if you've observations or pictures to spare I'd be more than happy to put them up on a page for all to see, alternately Robin's graciously given her support for messages to be posted here (in such case, let me know if you're also okay with me adding them to my pages.) Whadayasay? These are tense times for all of us, but I'm hoping that together we'll get through this. Dare I say it: there is a spirit here that won't be broken. cheers, and please stay safe and stay well, Paul. This message powered by, funnily enough, Valley Of The Mind's Eye off The Gate To The Mind's Eye/Thomas Dolby. and I will be with you and I will stay with you and I will dream with you if you need me to. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 14:43:18 +0000 From: "Tim Hudson" Subject: Alloy: Are those 'OXFORD' crickets on MULU ? - the DAFTEST ALLOY QUESTION EVER? Hi, On the song MULU theres a recording of crickets chirping. This may sound like a daft question but there are different species of cricket and each one makes a different type of sound. Some crickets are basically louder than others and the ones in the UK are particularly noisey late in the summer evening sun. In fact the ones in the north - I'll spare you the scientific name - are actually a sub- species of the larger and more noisier southern variety. So I was wondering of the Cricket noises on 'MULU' are the species found on the Southern English chalklands around the Oxford area or whether they are the smaller more quiet Afro-Eurasion species? To me they sound like English Oxford crickets (I think its the female mating call - but without slowing down the waveform and anlaysing the bump in the signature its hard to tell). Tim. Cigarette anyone ? How was it for you ? _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2001 09:23:05 -0600 From: "Keith Stansell" Subject: Alloy: Chance Alloy meeting. It is always fun when a couple of Alloy members meet up. There was a chance meeting in Englewood Colorado this weekend where I bumped into Erik Habbinga at the Ben Folds show at the Gothic Theater (Thomas really needs to play there some day - the name is perfect - plus it is a 15 minute walk from my house). Ben Folds was great. I just picked up his new album - I think a lot of Alloy folks would really like it. From what I read, he lives in Australia now. Perhaps Paul will bump into him some day, tell him I said hi : ) I like the 12:04 idea - but I will need to pick another time, otherwise - Monday - 12:04 - eating lunch at my desk - just turned to the sports section of the paper. Tuesday - 12:04 - eating lunch at my desk - just turned to the local section of the paper. Wednesday - 12:04 - eating lunch at my desk - just turned to the entertainment section of the paper. - -Keith (hey is someone's birthday soon?) Stansell ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 16:54:10 +0000 From: "Tim Hudson" Subject: Alloy: Thomas Dolby narrating a story - link attached Hi, Check this out ! It's Thomas narrating a story first published in an anti slavery publication in 1832. http://www.pixcentrix.co.uk/pomo/arts/stand/stand.htm Greetings from Luxembourg where the sky is turning evening blue and its been a chilly autumnal 8 degrees today. "But the skies were blue and sunny" earlier. By the way I like Pauls 12:04 moments idea after the original idea from Cliff. I also wonder who learnt most - Cliff from Thomas or Thomas from Cliff and where did they both pick up their engineering and production / arrangement skills ? It must have been great to have been there and to have felt the music evolve into its form. Exciting. Just from memory I think Cliff was also involved with the Sprouts. Maybe its time to give Cliff some credit for his work on the TMDR projects? Well - more credit that is? I also think Kevin Armstrongs guitar bits are just spot on. Dammit, - they're all good ! You cant really single anyone out. I still adore the brassy slide trombone bits. Just wish there could be a new album. must dash I love you all. "Hi to Lissus mum". :-) Enjoy the link to Thomas nararting the text. http://www.pixcentrix.co.uk/pomo/arts/stand/stand.htm Exit this way ..... Tim. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 15:56:04 -0400 From: Robin Thurlow Subject: Re: Alloy: Thomas Dolby narrating a story - link attached Tim Hudson wrote: > Check this out ! It's Thomas narrating a story first published in an anti > slavery publication in 1832. > > http://www.pixcentrix.co.uk/pomo/arts/stand/stand.htm I'm *really* thrilled he's done this project. I'll have to go back & read more about it, and actually have a chance to hear it, later, as soon as I can. Thank you so much for sending us this link!! xxxxx Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 16:14:52 -0400 From: Robin Thurlow Subject: Re: Alloy: Chance Alloy meeting. Hey Keith, any success capturing the Thomas' performance on SNL with your Tivo? Last night I finally managed to get my life organised long enough (while up to my elbows in plaster, & Dave patiently sitting next to me holding my sculpture in place) to see my own tape of it. Thomas his usual gorgeous self... and I may have been projecting my own sculpture-making troubles onto the video but - did Thomas' synth somehow disintegrate onstage? It just looked a lot different at the end of the performance than it did at the beginning..(??) I have to go back & watch it again, to look more carefully @ what went on in between. I admit I couldn't help staring at the guy in front of Thomas who was onstage in his underpants, so there was a distraction factor there. Keith Stansell wrote: > I like the 12:04 idea - but I will need to pick another time, otherwise - > > Monday - 12:04 - eating lunch at my desk - just turned to the sports section > of the paper. > Tuesday - 12:04 - eating lunch at my desk - just turned to the local section > of the paper. > Wednesday - 12:04 - eating lunch at my desk - just turned to the > entertainment section of the paper. Nor should it be any time before 10am, or every day it'll be me offering to sell my soul to Satan in exchange for just another hour's worth of sleep. (not a morning person) > -Keith (hey is someone's birthday soon?) Stansell Yes..! Dave is going to help me locate the software I'm looking for, but the calendar is going up this week, in which this will be mentioned (along with other Alloy birthdays!) xxxxx Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2001 15:01:22 -0600 From: "Keith Stansell" Subject: Re: Alloy: Chance Alloy meeting. Hi Robin and all. Yes, I did get the SNL performance and it is on my computer now, but don't have a way for people to get it yet. I recently re-installed my OS and haven't re-installed a web server on my computer yet. I didn't notice Thomas' synth changing form, but then again, there wasn't much of Thomas to be seen as he was hiding behind Clinton and the guy that looked like he was wearing a diaper with cowboy boots and a sports coat - yikes. - -Keith - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robin Thurlow" To: Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2001 2:14 PM Subject: Re: Alloy: Chance Alloy meeting. > > Hey Keith, any success capturing the Thomas' performance on SNL with your Tivo? > Last night I finally managed to get my life organised long enough (while up to > my elbows in plaster, & Dave patiently sitting next to me holding my sculpture > in place) to see my own tape of it. Thomas his usual gorgeous self... and I > may have been projecting my own sculpture-making troubles onto the video but - > did Thomas' synth somehow disintegrate onstage? It just looked a lot different > at the end of the performance than it did at the beginning..(??) I have to go > back & watch it again, to look more carefully @ what went on in between. I > admit I couldn't help staring at the guy in front of Thomas who was onstage in > his underpants, so there was a distraction factor there. > > > Keith Stansell wrote: > > > I like the 12:04 idea - but I will need to pick another time, otherwise - > > > > Monday - 12:04 - eating lunch at my desk - just turned to the sports section > > of the paper. > > Tuesday - 12:04 - eating lunch at my desk - just turned to the local section > > of the paper. > > Wednesday - 12:04 - eating lunch at my desk - just turned to the > > entertainment section of the paper. > > Nor should it be any time before 10am, or every day it'll be me offering to sell > my soul to Satan in exchange for just another hour's worth of sleep. (not a > morning person) > > > > -Keith (hey is someone's birthday soon?) Stansell > > Yes..! Dave is going to help me locate the software I'm looking for, but the > calendar is going up this week, in which this will be mentioned (along with > other Alloy birthdays!) > > xxxxx > Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 19:33:20 -0400 From: Robin Thurlow Subject: Re: Alloy: Chance Alloy meeting. Keith Stansell wrote: > I didn't notice Thomas' synth changing form, but then again, there wasn't > much of Thomas to be seen as he was hiding behind Clinton and the guy that > looked like he was wearing a diaper with cowboy boots and a sports coat - > yikes. yeah... that guy! That's why I got so distracted watching the performance - I kept thinking "Is that guy in his underwear?" Ten seconds later: "He's really in his underwear!" etc. I just didn't expect it I guess. xxx ~R ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 09:46:25 +1000 From: Paul Baily Subject: Re: Alloy: Chance Alloy meeting. We never get/got any vid coverage of Thomas' work over here . > yeah... that guy! That's why I got so distracted watching the performance - > I kept thinking "Is that guy in his underwear?" Ten seconds later: "He's > really in his underwear!" etc. I just didn't expect it I guess. Maybe Thomas is working his way up to playing with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers? :-) P. This message powered by a server just outside my office making enough noise to give a rack-mount Proliant 3000 a good run for it's money. Just what I want to hear first thing in the morning. Memo to self: find a new location for the build bench. ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V6 #265 ***************************