Chalkhills Digest Volume 5, Issue 352
Date: Monday, 27 December 1999
Chalkhills Digest, Volume 5, Number 352
Monday, 27 December 1999
Today's Topics:
My Holiday Wish List
Re: Spike Jones
Tattoo You
music, but no XTC
boys/men
Re: But Christmas isn't for another fortnight
Re: Oscar Wilde
'99 Top Cd's
My 1999 Favorites
Thanks for christmas... and the stereo, too...
How 'bout them Endorphins!
I have returned
Filipino XTC disc/McCartney
Interesting opinion
Riddle of the Ages
Re: Spiked
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Thank you for the winter friendliness that's snowing down!
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <19991224134749.6546.qmail@web701.mail.yahoo.com> Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 05:47:49 -0800 (PST) From: Susperia Five <susperia5@yahoo.com> Subject: My Holiday Wish List Howdy Chalkies DeLurking to share my ultimate Holiday Wish List ~ 1) Andy and Colin would decide to play some gigs and come to the South. 2) Barry Andrews would burst from obscurity to amaze and terrify us all! 3) I could locate and record all of the XTC and Shriekback videos I've yet to capture. See? I don't ask for much. Happy Holidays everyone! Peace, Angelina ===== The value of anything is how much it hurts ~~ Shriekback
------------------------------
Message-Id: <v04210101b48893cc15fc@[208.13.202.195]>
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 11:24:25 -0500
From: "Christopher R. Coolidge" <cauldron@together.net>
Subject: Re: Spike Jones
Regarding Harrison's very astute Spike Jones missive, I always
insist on giving Spike's "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front
Teeth" ample playing room on the the stereo every Chrithmath. I also
have his Christmas album, which is half nasal and clanking novelty
songs that Spike does so well and about half serious close harmony
stuff, some of it beautiful("Silent Night" and some of it a little
syrupy. If nothing else, the album does legintimise him to layfolk as
a serious musician who happens to have a wicked sense of humor and
uses it most of the time. I have another album of his, an Italian
best-of called around The World With Spike Jones which collects some
of his best stuff in a trip around the world theme. The Middle
Eastern one is priceless. I'm glad I own the album, I should have
remembered to ask my Dad for a more comprhensive CD of his for
Christmas. Damn..and I just got off the phone with him too.
Christopher R. Coolidge
Homepage at
http://homepages.together.net/~cauldron/homepage.html
"A Great law protects me from the government. The Bill of rights has
10 GREAT laws. A Good law protects me from you. Laws against murder,
theft, assault and the like are good laws. A Poor law attempts to
protect me from myself." - Unknown
------------------------------
From: "Mark Strijbos" <mmello@knoware.nl>
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 19:12:01 +0100
Subject: Tattoo You
Message-Id: <19991224180951.32D66A6CE4@mail.knoware.nl>
Dear Chalkers,
> does anyone else have an xtc related tattoo?
Yep, i've got the English Settlement style logo on my left arm, right
beneath the shoulder.
I had it done in 1983, before tattoos were fashionable, because that
album changed my life. I _knew_ this was the band i would spend
the rest of my life with and i already knew that i wanted a unique
tattoo. I figured nobody in the world would (a) have the sense to like
XTC and (b) be stupid enough to get a tattoo. I mean, it is not a band
you'd normally associate with tattoos, now is it?
Or is it? ( cue spooky Theremin music )
a leather-clad, bare-chested Dave, sitting on a Harley Davidson
chopper with several tattoed "biker chicks" hanging around his neck
while he plays Yacht Dance on the acoustic that is suggestively
straddled between his legs
[the image fades away...]
Oops! Sorry, my imagination runs a little wild sometimes... further
proof that marijuana is bad, bad, BAD! It will ruin your short term
memory and... and... damn! i keep forgetting those other reasons.
BTW: The White Horse image will be my next, and probably last,
tattoo. Perhaps i'll get it next week just to have something real to
celebrate ;)
yours in xtc,
Mark Strijbos at The Little Lighthouse
http://www.knoware.nl/users/mmello/
or http://come.to/xtc
------------------------------
Message-ID: <19991225001410.99101.qmail@hotmail.com>
From: "Megan Heller" <hellerm@hotmail.com>
Subject: music, but no XTC
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 18:14:10 CST
David Seddon succumbs to the decade listing bug--
>Very - The Pet Shop Boys - Ditto, and the cover of Go West is lush and
>uplifting. Biting social comment if you listen to the words.
yum! yes, I love this album (and fantastic packaging-- you can always spot
it on a cd shelf!)-- I think I may have to add this to my Christmas Eve
listening list...
Ben Gott cheers another excellent album--
>I bought Belle & Sebastien's "Tigermilk." Damn, these songs are so
>light, you could push 'em over with a feather...and whomever is >singing
>lead ("Sebastien," I'd imagine) sounds like Nick Drake risen >from the
>dead. Spooky.
I can't stop listening to this cd. The singer is Stuart Murdoch, who
normally shies the public eye but has recently come out in support of the
Scottish Socialist Party. I love his voice, and his marvelous songwriting.
I can see the Drake resemblance, although, to me, the most Drake-ian
recording I've heard in the past few years is Beck's "Mutations" (not the
whole thing, style-wise, and maybe just more what I think Nick Drake would
be doing if he were around today).
btw, sorry if my millennial post in the last digest was a bit incoherent...
I finally slept and am feeling a great deal better.
megan (of the preemptive apologies).
------------------------------ Message-ID: <19991225021135.14379.qmail@web2101.mail.yahoo.com> Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 18:11:35 -0800 (PST) From: Tyler Hewitt <tahewitt@yahoo.com> Subject: boys/men Seb wrote: Now repeat after me, "'BOYS' is a very common synonym for 'MEN'". I wrote "boys". It implied "men", not for the least reason that, as a number of people have helpfully pointed out, ummm let's see now, oh yeah it's *illegal*. I for one understood. I think that using 'boys' for 'men' is commom in the gay commumity, maybe not so much anywhere else. Happy Holidays everyone! Tyler
------------------------------ Message-ID: <38641095.78B3@bhip.infi.net> Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1999 00:32:24 +0000 From: Brian <mattone@bhip.infi.net> Subject: Re: But Christmas isn't for another fortnight Tschalkgerz! >Brian continues his side in a debate which is perhaps more fruitless than the whole drug thing--< Sorry, Megan, but I was "continuing" nothing on my side. My 'schillenium bullshit' commentary was the first thing I posted about this subject. Your response now rates lower than it might had you not made this mistake. >my god but I am so sick of the millennium hype and arguments and everything else (I'm not commenting on anyone on the list; I mean this about everywhere).< Well, I'm sick of the dumb attitude about when the millenium starts. 1 + 1 does not equal 3 because a bunch of bandwagon jumpers want it to. >with the mentioning of all the different calendars, I'm surprised there's been no mention of the Julian calendar.< We don't operate on the Julian calendar, so we can stop this discussion right now. -Brian Matthews
------------------------------ Message-Id: <v04210101b4895fa5fcfb@[208.13.202.131]> Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 22:53:20 -0500 From: "Christopher R. Coolidge" <cauldron@together.net> Subject: Re: Oscar Wilde At 5:35 PM -0800 12/23/99, megan wrote: >whoa! while I agree with your sentiments, I'm afraid you have your facts >wrong. Laws against sodomy and the lesser charge of "gross indecency" >(basically homosexual sex which could not be proven) were *indeed* in place >in Victorian England. Our man Oscar Wilde was put in Reading Gaol for two >years at hard labor for his antics with male prostitutes (he was one charged >with gross indecency-- see any of the books on the trials of Oscar Wilde, or >the Moises Kaufman Brechtian interpretation of the trials, "Gross Indecency: >The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde"). The were a number of scandals in late >Victorian England-- the Cleveland Street scandal (referring to a house at 88 >Cleveland Street, London, operating as a brothel for clandestine meetings >between telegraph boys and members of the upper class) sent many British >officials and aritocrats off packing to France on late-night boats >(homosexual sex was legal in France). In fact, these laws, which tended to >mandate a couple years of jail (and the unofficial punishment of societal >ruin, since they were directed less an informant male prostitutes and more >the men who were supposed to be examples and the pillars of society), were >merely a lessening of the death penalty for such acts, which was in place >only a little earlier. They were not repealed until 1967. > >megan (specialist in late 19th/early 20th century British literature and >queer theory). I stand corrected, my memory of where I got that information is hazy; it may have been in a book on the gay marriage issue my father lent me, and it may have been France or even the USA the author was referring to. My point is the same, though, that in a truly free society "deviant" behavior is neither encouraged nor condemned legally. Christopher R. Coolidge Homepage at http://homepages.together.net/~cauldron/homepage.html
------------------------------ From: Robeach11@aol.com Message-ID: <0.287cef99.25967833@aol.com> Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1999 14:42:43 EST Subject: '99 Top Cd's I have really enjoyed everyone's favorite 1999 CD's..... well, after thorough research and investigation.....here are mine (in alphabetical order). Top 10 Beck- Midnite Vultures Blinker the Star- August Everywhere Marshall Crenshaw- 447 Jason Falkner- Can You Still Feel? Flaming Lips- The Soft Bulletin Fountains Of Wayne- Utopia Parkway Ron Sexsmith- Whereabouts Sloan- Between the Bridges Wilco- Summer Teeth XTC- Apple Venus V.1 XTC gets the top spot followed by Fountains Of Wayne. After that? It's a free for all. And contrary to what a few others have said, I felt this was a great year for music. So here are some honorable mentions: High Llamas- Snowbug Owsley- Owsley Stereolab- Cobra Phases...... Cockeyed Ghost- Scapegoat Factory Gigolo Aunts- Minor Chords & Major Themes Freedy Johnston- BLue Days Black Nights Old 97's- Fight Songs Self- Breakfast With Girls How about some great reissues/collections: Stevie Wonder- At the Close Of the Century Beastie Boys- Sounds Of Science Pete Ham- Golder's Green Os Mutantes- Best Of Shaggs- Philosophy Of The World Finally, soundtracks: Rushmore South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut Thanks for indulging me! Happy Holidays, Rob Carson, Ca
------------------------------ Message-ID: <003201bf4ed5$25a2f3a0$3a84ebd1@Pjbaldan> From: "johnbaldan" <johnbaldan@advanix.net> Subject: My 1999 Favorites Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1999 07:38:47 -0500 Just another Chalkhillian weighing in with his favorite discs of 1999. Merry New Year! Apple Venus, Volume 1 / XTC Utopia Parkway / Fountains of Wayne Mars, Pennsylvania / John Southworth Hydrangea / Kate Jacobs Summer Teeth / Wilco Looking for a Day in the Night / Lilac Time When Your Heartstrings Break / Beulah #447 / Marshall Crenshaw NRBQ / NRBQ Bad Love / Randy Newman Breakfast With Girls / Self Rain, Steam and Speed / Mutton Birds
------------------------------
Message-Id: <199912251857.NAA25088@nantucket.net>
Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1999 13:04:54 -0800
Subject: Thanks for christmas... and the stereo, too...
From: "Diamond" <arnos@nantucket.net>
My main gift this year for christmas was a brand new stereo. this thing is
awsome, it has four speakers, with long cords, so that you can mount them on
opposite walls to create a soround sound effect. I have to tell you, I'ts
magic. the first song I listened to on it was River of Orchids, and it's
like I've never truely heard this song before. It just fills up the room
with musical bliss. I think that, if I was forced to only listen to one song
by XTC, I would choose ROO. It's just so magical, and brilliant. I could put
it on repeat and listen to it for hours. It's great.
in other news, can't wait for AV2 . Apparently, the recordings done, right?
And the tentative release date's still april? I'm so excited, the year 2000
is going to be absolutely fantastic. New XTC, new Tom Robbins book,
hopefully a new TMBG album, and I've heard rumours of a new David Byrne
album, but they may be unfounded.
kevin Diamond
P.S. I'd like that is awsome too on this stereo. God, great X-Mas.
____________________________________________________________________________
"To emphasize the afterlife is to deny life. To concentrate on heaven is to
create hell."
-Tom Robbins
------------------------------ Message-ID: <38665F47.5A52A458@erols.com> Date: Sun, 26 Dec 1999 13:32:39 -0500 From: Todd and Jennifer Bernhardt <toddjenn@erols.com> Subject: How 'bout them Endorphins! Hi: I never used to think those letters in Chalkhills Forum were real, but I just had such an intense XtcPerience that I had to share it with a bunch of people I've never met. As an XtcMAS present, my beautiful and talented wife (who, btw, hates Air Supply with all her might, bless her soul) took the kids and headed over the hills and through the woods to Grandmother's house, leaving our house -- and my drumset -- all to me. After a nutritious breakfast of black coffee, Mallomars and _The Washington Post_ (for roughage), I headed downstairs, grabbed my CD of _English Settlement_, and sat down behind the kit. It was good. You'll notice that I didn't say *I* was good, though I may have sounded Respectable from the Street (wrong album, forced pun, so what). But I think I may have briefly channeled the soul of Terry Chambers, snatching it for a moment from his warm bed on the other side of the globe, as I used to do in the days of yore, when my forearms were like Popeye's and I could play "Outside World" at twice its normal tempo. Those were the days when I had calluses, too. No more. By the time I had finished "Melt the Guns," I was thinking, okay, I'm in considerable pain here, maybe I should stop. But "Leisure" started, so what the hell, I had to play along if only to listen to Andy's sax swing solo and mimic Terry's breaks. Well. "It's Nearly Africa" came on after that. 'Nuff said. Okay, so I figured I'd finish up with "Knuckle Down," because the hi-hat/snare interplay is too much fun to pass up. Hmmm. "Fly on the Wall" really rocks, what with its driving kick/snare patterns, and I would have been an idiot to stop before "Down in the Cockpit" (man need a woman to pull him right out of it). Then there's that segue right into too-cool ska-in-5/4 "English Roundabout," so no stopping there. And what I really want to know, man (my oh my), is who could pass up playing "Snowman"? Not I. Or me, either. So now I'm in exuberant pain, gingerly typing to remind you all what a great band it is we gather here for, and what great fucking albums they've put out. I don't care what year it is or what millennium it's going to be, what drugs we do or don't do when we usher or don't usher it in, what we own, what we bought, who we say we are ... what matters is this: For more than 20 years, there have been these talented people from Swindonium who decided to get together, pool their considerable talents, and share the fruits of their labors and their love of music with us. What a joy that I can sit here secure in the knowledge that more Apple Venus will be coming our way, next year, and in the years to come. I'm coming down now, so I'll stop. Thanks for Chalkhills... Todd
------------------------------ Message-ID: <19991226230955.26869.qmail@hotmail.com> From: "garret harkawik" <funktaisia@hotmail.com> Subject: I have returned Date: Sun, 26 Dec 1999 18:09:54 EST Finally! after almost a month, my internet provider has fixed my connection!!! Anyone who lives in Buffalo: Avoid Adelphia's internet services at all costs!!!!! Sure, cable modems are fast but Adelphia is just so fucking unreliable!!!!!!!!!!! But anyway, Here are the best albums I bought in 1999: 1-All the XTC albums I bought(AVv1, Homespun, O+L, Nonsuch, GO2, D+W, Dub Experiments, Black Sea, Live, Big Express, Skylarking, and some other things which I can't remember as of right now) 2-Morphine: like Swimming 3-Man...Or Astro-Man: Your Weight on the moon 4-FireWater: The Ponzi scheme 5-Mark DeGliAntoni: Horse Tricks 6-G. Love And Special Sauce: Philidelphonic
------------------------------
From: Robeach11@aol.com
Message-ID: <0.9755020e.25985979@aol.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 1999 00:56:09 EST
Subject: Filipino XTC disc/McCartney
I noticed Mark Strijbos mentioned a Filipino (!) 7" single of "Peter
Pumpkinhead". This interests me greatly. Any details? How did ya get it?
Where can I get one?
Again, thanks to all who have put up their lists of '99 faves. Very fun to
read. It has me wanting to check out some of those picks. I know my list
was quite voluminous, yet I left a key CD off the list... Paul McCartney's
"Run Devil Run". Great stuff.
And just a sidenote.... some of McCartney's solo work has been horrid
("Ebony & Ivory", "The Girl Is Mine", "Spies Like Us", "Say Say Say",
etc...). This is true. But I feel much of his solo work has been sadly
neglected. Songs like "Junior's Farm", "Getting Closer", "Arrow Through
Me", "My Love",etc...... to me, sound great. Among the best work of the
1970's. My question is this.... had Paul just appeared out of the blue in
1970 (without ever being in a BIG band) , wouldn't music critics/historians
have been quite enamored with him? I tend to think so. Call it fluff, but
songs like "Let 'Em In" are really super tunes. Just curious for some
feedback.
I have championed Prefab Sprout in the past, so I should inform anyone who
cares that they have a new 2 CD compilation called "38 Carat
Collection". It is an import & quite expensive-- but it is great. It also
includes the Sprout's debut single "Lions In My Own Garden (Exit Someone)"
which has been out of print for at least 15 years. And yes, they're still
together.
Finally, I am very excited about "Apple Venus Volume 2" AND "Fuzzy Warbles"
(I hope it has at least 6 discs!). Bring on 2000.
Salamat,
Rob
Carson, Ca
------------------------------ From: JStrole@aol.com Message-ID: <0.d726ce41.2598f328@aol.com> Date: Mon, 27 Dec 1999 11:51:52 EST Subject: Interesting opinion << he started buying into the political philosophies of so-called "radicals" (charlatans) of the time--people like John Sinclair, Abby Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, Angela Davis, etc. He also started creating songs with what I'm sure he felt were "Right On!" political lyrics. >> Oh, yes, that's right "Abby Hoffman was wackey," those weirdos had nothing important to say, let's just shade our eyes from an embarassing time when people thought they could put things right. Let's all be right thinking people and realize our fate is in the hands of our corporate overlords. Suck it up and go with the tide, in fact why am I listening to XTC right now, there are so many Celine Dion records that make perfect sense right now. After all Sony wants me to listen to them on my Sony CD player that I bow down to every night(sic). Sorry if you find this all disturbing but I find a posting basically hinting that John Lennon should not have put on his glasses and start thinking a little disturbing. Yes and Andy should have sucked it up and kept touring too I suppose. After all who needs that sentimental hogwash like "Merely A Man?" Harry
------------------------------ Message-Id: <199912271853.KAA04943@snipe.prod.itd.earthlink.net> Date: Mon, 27 Dec 1999 10:46:34 -0800 Subject: Riddle of the Ages From: "Jeannie" <venusnvy@earthlink.net> Hey fellow Chalkers, I'm hunkering down in my freshly dug bunker, cowering and typing, as I await the inevitable. If we do survive the turn of the millenium, I want to wish you all a joyful, prosperous, healthy and xTc-filled New Year! My NY's resolution: to bring more into the fold, to open peoples ears up to the under-appreciated music of xTc. I just don't understand why they are not the big rich rock stars that they deserve to be. I don't get it? why? why? why? Someone please explain! ---jeannie
------------------------------ Message-Id: <199912272129.QAA27303@gilgamesh.nh.ultra.net> Date: Sun, 26 Dec 1999 17:14:18 -0500 Subject: Re: Spiked From: "Duncan Watt" <dwatt@fastestmanintheworld.com> So The Inmitable Sherwood po-sted: >The nugget I offer up for your delectation, then: Thomas Pynchon's liner >notes for "Spiked! The Music of Spike Jones" (Catalyst, 1994), available and >handsomely formatted by your correspondent at: >http://users.erols.com/fiction-net/spike ...and I'll ri-poste by re-posting it: you've gotta check this out. Duncan "all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth back, ma'am" Watt -- Kanuba Music email: dwatt@fastestmanintheworld.com net: http://www.fastestmanintheworld.com
------------------------------ End of Chalkhills Digest #5-352 *******************************
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