From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V6 #281 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, October 27 2001 Volume 06 : Number 281 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Alloy: Song of the Week: Weightless [Brian Clayton ] Re: Alloy: Hello everybody [kathryn ] Re: Alloy: Song of the Week: Weightless ["Chris & Beena Cracknell" ] Alloy: Britain's eccentric heritage ["Keith Stansell" ] Alloy: MP3 encoding queries. ["Chris & Beena Cracknell" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 22:32:22 -0700 (PDT) From: Brian Clayton Subject: Alloy: Song of the Week: Weightless Well, I've been looking through past posts to see what songs have been posted as Song of the Week, and I came up with this list. Discussions about the first three in the list have been added to the FES website. One of Our Submarines Airwaves Valley of the Mind's Eye Pulp Culture Cloudburst at Shingle Street Don't Turn Away New Toy Urges Some of these lyrics didn't engender much discussion, and so perhaps they might be revisited in the future...or perhaps Thomas said it all in the song and nothing was left to be said! But for now, let's set the Way Back Machine to almost exactly twenty years ago--because, yes folks, it was in the fall of 1981 that much of The Golden Age of Wireless was recorded. And here are the lyrics to one of my favorites from that album, a song which I have on past occasion called "cryptically personal"--"Weightless." WEIGHTLESS Some nights he's weightless he has to travel his mouth is gravel and there's an empty feeling within his heart... Eye on the fuelguage Westchester Thruway that triple octane won't contain the empty feeling in Dolby's heart... Same old insecurity strap him into his carseat and a sump started leaking all over New Jersey gas stations everywhere - not one drop to fill me (fill me)... fill me (fill me)... Big hunk of carrot cake blueberry milkshake fistful of coldrex won't fix the empty feeling in Lizzy's heart... So she flick[s] on the TV take[s] in a movie but all those memories won't erase the empty feeling[?] from in her heart... Then a dog woke inside her head to watch the explosion And a pipe started leaking as she bent to the basin fruit juice everywhere - not one drop to fill me (fill me)... fill me (fill me)... "You...you could be the one," she whispered, "Listen - love is all you've ever wanted, All you'll ever need." (+) End of our summer Your body weightless in condensation My heart learned to swim And the feeling was gone again NOTES: * "flick[s]/take[s]": Thomas says "flick" and "take" although the lyric sheet has the grammatically-correct "flicks" and "takes." * "feeling[?]": It sounds as if Thomas sings "fear" in place of "feeling" when referring to Lizzie. This obviously changes the meaning of the line if this is so. * (+): In this verse, Thomas sings the words of the whispering woman (presumably Lizzie) in a higher pitch; however, he didn't sing the word "Listen" in that same pitch. One might conclude that "Listen" was an interjection of the singer's, not something that the woman actually said. This probably makes little difference in the way the line is interpreted, however. INTERPRETATION: As most Alloyites are aware, this song is based at least in part on a real person--well, TWO real persons: "Dolby" and "Lizzie." The former you can guess; the latter's name is in the linear notes for TGAOW if you need to look it up. But as with "Europa and The Pirate Twins," Thomas tends to write semi-autobiographically, so we are left wondering how much of the scenerio he paints is fact, and how much fantasy. In "Weightless" there is obviously a relationship; and, obviously, something's amiss. We never learn exactly what that something *is*, but are instead treated to some rather vivid imagery: leaking sumps in New Jersey (an odd location for an English boy), hunks of carrot cake, mental canines, and perhaps one of the more colorful metaphors for projectile vomiting ever written. But everything is stuck, suspended, weightless. "Dolby" is between destinations, between motion and rest. "Lizzie" is somewhere between health and illness. Neither is there for the other, and would it matter? Their hearts are empty as well, floating, without a drop to fill them. And so is there any resolution? Do things work out (reality aside for the moment) for "Dolby" and "Lizzie?" Although there are certain notes of finality to the words ("End of our summer"), there are signs of hope. "My heart learned to swim" -- back to her? "You could be the one" -- yes? no? More ambiguity. Even the final line doesn't quite wrap things up. "And the feeling is gone again" -- the empty feeling? *Any* feeling? Hmmm... All right, I've prattled on long enough. Please step forward with your thoughts, and speak clearly into the microphone so we can all hear. BC - -- "Faith is an island in the setting sun, but Proof is the bottom line for everyone." -- Paul Simon ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 01:40:44 -0700 (PDT) From: kathryn Subject: Re: Alloy: Hello everybody welcome phil! i'm a newbie here as well. :) ===== - -kathryn "...honey, Rome wasn't built in a day, but now it's a ruin, the joke has worn thin..." -thomas dolby robertson - ----------------------------------------- Make a great connection at Yahoo! Personals. http://personals.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 11:23:39 -0400 From: "Chris & Beena Cracknell" Subject: Re: Alloy: Song of the Week: Weightless Ah, "Weightless". This was a song very dear to my angsting teenage heart when I was a young lad. I've always seen this song as being about two lonely souls desperately searching for each other. There's this big hole in their being that they seek to fill. Thomas tries to fill it with his automobile. Lizzie tries to fill it with food and over the counter medications. The "weightless" is the feeling they get from not being anchored in their lives. They feel like they're toy balloons that have slipped from a child's grasp and they just bob and weave their way through life unconnected to anything or anyone. There's some sort of connection between the Thomas and Lizzie in this song. I've always gotten the feeling that they don't know each other but perhaps they pass each other every day as they commute to work on the subway. They never connect physically but there's a spiritual bond between the two of them. Their souls know each other. They both swallow their emptiness and continue to look for something, anything, to fill that void. Thomas probably has the stiff upper lip approach and doesn't let his inner pain show outwardly. Lizzie is not handling it as well. The food, the pills, the diversions, everything she's used to numb the pain suddenly stops working and she has a rather explosive breakdown. > Then a dog woke inside her head to watch the explosion > And a pipe started leaking as she bent to the basin > fruit juice everywhere - > not one drop to fill me (fill me)... fill me (fill me)... I've always imaginged this verse as a failed suicide attempt. She's OD'd on a fist full of Coldrex, washed down with fruit juice. Her inner watch dog comes to her defence it warns her this isn't the path she wants to takes. She runs to the washroom and throws up in the basin. > "You...you could be the one," she whispered, listen > "love is all you've ever wanted, > All you'll ever need." (my CD version of this song actually has a female singing Lizzie's part with Thomas saying "she whispered, listen") I've always seen Lizzie laying on the cold tiles of her bathroom floor, pale and shivering, her face stained with tears, her eyes dark. One arm wraps around herself as she lays in a fetal position, in her other lax hand she holds the empty pill bottle. When she whispers her plea though, she's not speaking to herself. She's probably not even aware that she's speaking. This is her soul speaking. It's speaking through the spiritual connection that links it to Thomas's soul. She's telling him why he's hurting, why he feels this great void inside his heart. She's telling him what he really needs to fill it. She's offering herself to him and together they can make each other complete. > End of our summer > Your body weightless in condensation > My heart learned to swim > And the feeling was gone again Time goes by. "End of our summer, your body weightless" perhaps the dog inside her head was no longer enough to save Lizzie from herself and her inner void claimed her. Thomas on the other hand, has frozen his feelings. He supresses, he adapts, he goes on. He believes he's learned how to deal with the emptiness, the weightlessness, and it's gone again. "Gone again", however, implies that he's banished that feeling before but it has returned to be banished again. Does he manage to get through life numbed and frozen to the emptiness inside him? Will a dog wake inside his head in time to warn him of the explosion? I guess we'll have to wait for another song to find out. Crackers (The dog inside my head is an annoying, yapping Shih'Tzu from hell!!!) Ghastly's Ghastly Comic - http://ghastly.keenspace.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 10:26:10 -0700 (PDT) From: Brian Clayton Subject: Re: Alloy: Song of the Week: Weightless On Fri, 26 Oct 2001, Chris & Beena Cracknell wrote: > > "You...you could be the one," she whispered, listen > > "love is all you've ever wanted, > > All you'll ever need." > > (my CD version of this song actually has a female singing Lizzie's part with > Thomas saying "she whispered, listen") Oh no, don't tell me there are *two* versions of this song too! Give it another listen, Crackers--I think that's just Thomas singing falsetto. BC - -- "Faith is an island in the setting sun, but Proof is the bottom line for everyone." -- Paul Simon ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 11:49:22 -0600 From: "Keith Stansell" Subject: Alloy: Britain's eccentric heritage I don't know why, but this really made me think about the "Blinded By Science" video. - ------- Toe-Wrestler, Bean Man No Match for Top Eccentric Updated: Fri, Oct 26 8:21 AM EDT LONDON (Reuters) - The world toe-wrestling champion and a man who dresses like a baked bean were no match for a river-going tricycle inventor who was named Britain's biggest eccentric on Thursday. Lyndon Yorke, from Marlow, west of London, who sails his Edwardian tricycle-turned-catamaran down the River Thames and has designed and built a wickerwork car, won the title of the Best British Eccentric 2001. His odd behavior beat the world toe-wrestling champion, who wears a yellow rubber glove on his head to make his pet chickens feel part of the family, and a man known as Captain Beany who sports a orange swimming hat to make him look more like a baked bean. Other eccentrics included a man who crammed his house with more than 100 postboxes and a woman who has the world's biggest garden gnome sanctuary in the grounds of her home, said breakfast cereal company Kellogg, which hosted the award. "I think we should all be extremely proud of Britain's eccentric heritage. Throughout history, our spirit of eccentricity has produced great thinkers, writers, inventors, explorers and scientists -- and of course our famous sense of humor," eccentric expert Bernard Le Vay said. "We could all learn a thing or two from their alternative approach to life and help make every day just a little less ordinary," he said in a statement announcing the award winners. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 15:54:05 -0400 From: "Chris & Beena Cracknell" Subject: Re: Alloy: Song of the Week: Weightless - ----- Original Message ----- > Oh no, don't tell me there are *two* versions of this song too! > > Give it another listen, Crackers--I think that's just Thomas singing > falsetto. You mean that wasn't Brenda O'Leary singing that part? Sorry... I must have been thinking of my CD version of Radio Silence which has Yono Akiko singing the female parts that Thomas sang on my cassette version. Crackers (Hyperthyroid - The Best Of Brenda O'Leary from hell!!!!) Ghastly's Ghastly Comic - http://ghastly.keenspace.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 17:21:18 -0400 From: Robin Thurlow Subject: Re: Alloy: Britain's eccentric heritage keith, thanks for the news clipping! (LOL!!) Every now and then, in the London Times, I catch an article about the latest world pole-dancing championship going on in the UK and I wonder, what am I still doing in the US! The Best British Eccentric competition is another thing I'll have to look out for! xxxx Robin T ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 16:19:38 -0700 From: "Ehrcraft" Subject: Alloy: Dictionaraoke Hello Gang, A friend passed this along... http://www.dictionaraoke.org/ And I don't remember seeing it here before. Look for Thomas Dolby under "T". Good for a laugh! Also, check out XTC and for prog. fans the King Crimson is quite funny. Slow load times...I had better luck right clicking and choosing "Save target as..." Have fun! - -Doug Powered by "Santa's Boyfriend - Swings & Roundabouts" (Sting's son Joe's band) a great disc! ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 20:49:33 -0400 From: "Chris & Beena Cracknell" Subject: Alloy: MP3 encoding queries. I was suprised the other day to discover I've got about 100 CDs. What else is interesting is that I rarely ever listen to them on my CD player. Usually I listen to them on my computer. So I thought, why the hell don't I just rip all my audio CDs and burn my entire collection on CD-ROM. Sounds like a good idea, eh? Then I won't have to change CDs so often. Well the problem is, I don't seem to be able to do this without ending up with really sucky MP3s. I keep getting all these bizarre little skips and stutters and pops and chirps in the MP3s. Does anyone know of a simple to use CD-Ripper that encodes to MP3 that will function on a P-166 with 32meg running under windows and is freeware? I've tried Media Producer and Zlurp and they both have this problem. Now is this a problem with the Ripper or am I just totally inept when it comes to doing this? Crackers (frustrated by technology from hell!!!) Ghastly's Ghastly Comic - http://ghastly.keenspace.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 09:13:39 -1000 From: Barbara Cohen Subject: Re: Alloy: RE: The Beauty Of A Dream... I never had a dream about TMDR either. An exclusive group indeed! But I did have a dream once about Holly Johnson from Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Before I figured out that he was gay. I was pretty oblivious in highschool :) ______________________________________________________________________ Dr. Barbara Cohen, lunatic bcohen@higp.hawaii.edu Hawaii Institute of Geophysics & Planetology (808) 956-3901 (office) University of Hawaii at Manoa (808) 956-6322 (fax) Honolulu, HI 96822 http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~bcohen/ ______________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 22:10:11 -0700 (PDT) From: Brian Clayton Subject: Re: Alloy: MP3 encoding queries. Chris, are you sure the skips are happening when you rip the mp3s, not when you play them back? Either way, a P-166 might be a little underpowered to deal with mp3 audio, especially if you do *anything* else with the computer at the same time--especially during the ripping phase, when the audio has to be captured perfectly. The program I've come to use is Exact Audio Copy, which tries its darnedest to read the CD data with (or despite) whatever hardware you may have. You can get it at www.exactaudiocopy.de , though be warned that it only claims to be beta quality and it has crashed on me on several occasions--I'm just too lazy to look for anything better, I guess. :) BC (Also ripping his CD library of over 350 discs, and is currently up to "S" as in "Scott, Raymond" -- from hell!) On Fri, 26 Oct 2001, Chris & Beena Cracknell wrote: > > I was suprised the other day to discover I've got about 100 CDs. What else > is interesting is that I rarely ever listen to them on my CD player. Usually > I listen to them on my computer. So I thought, why the hell don't I just rip > all my audio CDs and burn my entire collection on CD-ROM. Sounds like a good > idea, eh? Then I won't have to change CDs so often. > > Well the problem is, I don't seem to be able to do this without ending up > with really sucky MP3s. I keep getting all these bizarre little skips and > stutters and pops and chirps in the MP3s. > > Does anyone know of a simple to use CD-Ripper that encodes to MP3 that will > function on a P-166 with 32meg running under windows and is freeware? > > I've tried Media Producer and Zlurp and they both have this problem. > > Now is this a problem with the Ripper or am I just totally inept when it > comes to doing this? > > Crackers > (frustrated by technology from hell!!!) > > Ghastly's Ghastly Comic - http://ghastly.keenspace.com > - -- "Faith is an island in the setting sun, but Proof is the bottom line for everyone." -- Paul Simon ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V6 #281 ***************************