Chalkhills Digest Volume 9, Issue 13
Date: Friday, 14 March 2003
Chalkhills Digest, Volume 9, Number 13
Friday, 14 March 2003
Topics:
Re: The Office
Runt
All in all it was a petroleum byproduct (and still is)
Coming to two continents near you ...
Squeeze me? (I invented that.)
RE: financial salvation for the record industry
Vinylcidal mania
re: worst live shows
from bad to worse
Air Supply, other stuff
A couple of points
Chalkhorse sighting
RIP Lynne Thigpen
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Everyone wants a slice of / The jingoistic cake.
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2003 15:35:24 EST From: JamieCFC1@aol.com Subject: Re: The Office Message-ID: <1d5.493ab1b.2b9bae0c@aol.com> In a message dated 08/03/2003 > "Jonny Pop" writes:- > > I don't know how many of you outside the UK have had a chance to see the > brilliant comedy show, "The Office" - it's on BBC America in the States - > but it's incredibly funny. The reason I bring it up here is that in the > show, which is set in the office of a paper company outside of London, they > mention that the main branch of the company is in Swindon. <snip> Actually in series 2 the Swindon branch gets merged into Slough, so there goes the XTC thing! Sorry if I gave the plot away (heehee). Jamie
------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2003 14:00:37 -0800 (PST) From: pancho artecona <partecona@yahoo.com> Subject: Runt Message-ID: <20030308220037.76354.qmail@web10404.mail.yahoo.com> Hey 'hillers, I caught Todd at the House of Blues New Orleans about a month ago and I agree with Annamarie. The show was pretty mediocre. His guitar was constantly out of tune and he was just paying exceedingly sloppily and seemed to just be phoning the performance in. He kept trying to tune the guitar by ear and would eventually have to use his built in guitar tuner and he was invariably sharp and otherwise out of key. I kept thinking of Andy's comments (maybe in the book Chakhills and Children?) about his sloppy piano playing. I have seen him about 14 times. This is the first time I see him solo and was by far the worst showing yet. The high point is that he played "I Don't Want to Tie You Down" from AWATS. I believe it was a request from someone in his family. He was in New Orleans vacationing with the family Rundgren. Did you know his son is apparently a pretty good short-stop with pro potential? Little trivia there. Pancho XPRXTCFAN
------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2003 23:14:43 EST From: WTDK@aol.com Subject: All in all it was a petroleum byproduct (and still is) Message-ID: <95.2b104c10.2b9c19b3@aol.com> In a message dated 3/8/03 8:14:43 AM Pacific Standard Time, <owner-chalkhills@chalkhills.org> writes: > I respect your opinion on this, but I'm not one of those people who think > this is true. I for one don't miss clicks, pops and hiss. I don't miss > scratches, skips and warps. I don't miss worn styluses and off-speed motor > drives. And as far as the notion that all of the above aside, the LP as a > better overall *sound* - I've never been able to ascertain that. The first > time I heard side 2 of Abbey Road on CD, I nearly swooned I agree although I have to argue that the reason Abbey Road sounded so damn good was because of the improved technology, tape quality, sound equipment and digital filters, recording, etc., used during the remastering process. I thought my MFSL copy of Abbey Road sounded pretty darn good as well. I also seem to remember not being all that impressed with the first batch of CDs released. It's not that they sounded bad, just, well, different. Dry. Sterile. Kind of tenth generation master material. >It's not the death of the album that I mourn, it's the death of the album COVER!!! I agree with that. I never liked the tiny booklets all that much. I prefer the booklets for the DVD audio only because they are 1) about twice the size of a CD booklet 2) They sound awesome blowing away earlier CD pressings. As to how they would compare to a HDCD with a compatible player, I don't know. Certainly they wouldn't have the multichannel capacity but, then again, that's not always a bad thing. I do like the SCAD/CD hybrids (because they are backwards compatible) but hate the packaging on most of them (the Stones packaging is cheap and insulting. The Police Greatest Hits package looks shoddy as well). It would be nice to have this stuff at least the size of a single (that is 45rpm for you young folks) sleeve size. I wouldn't have to start worrying about going blind trying to read the fine print. I'm anxiously waiting Andy's next Fuzzy Warble although I wish it would be available in a local store only so I could help out the few independents still out there. Instead of making it Internet only perhaps he could charge more if there was extra tracks (like the Japanese pressing of Homegrown) or an extra disc with one or two songs (or variations on demos) (hey, he could charge more which is OK with me as I'd pay more to have them). For those of us who can't or won't pay a bit more, the regular version would be available as well. It's kind of like the thing Best Buy (the enemy of the independent dealer) does when it offers an extra disc as a special promotion (or like the movie studios do now with extras such as the Star Trek boxed sets. These include an extra disc for some retailers that has more extras for the hard-core fan or completist). Worst concert, sad to say, for me was by one of my favorite bands. Roxy Music's tour to support their High Road EP was horrible. You can catch it on the horrible live album While My Heart Is Still Beating (clearly that wasn't the case when they performed). I'm happy to say that their recent tour made me feel that it wasn't the end of the line for them. A pity they're not making a new album as Bryan Ferry's latest is his best, most energetic album in years. It's also his best written with its mix of originals and unusual covers. What about it Andy old pal? We could finally hear the end of the bitching from fans (plus I'd get the extra stuff I crave and could ignore the stuff I am not the least bit interested in). While we are at it...any friends of Colin that are part of this list--encourage Colin to put out his Fuzzy Warbles. A single double disc compilation could put some spare change in his pocket and wouldn't be as expensive as Fuzzy. Plus we'd get marvelous upgrades of stuff already floating around out there. >During the course of writing this I have had to bury our family hamster. For those who didn't know him, 'Pebbles' was a fine upstanding hamster who lived to the ripe old age of 3, which for a hamster is very old. In view of this I would like to formally propose that Friday 21st March is now billed as the "Pebbles the Hamster Tribute Concert". I will contact the BBC to see if we can arrange a live webcast. Anybody got Paul McCartney's phone number? Brian May?? Elton John??? Your concert idea touches my heart! Perhaps we can all meet up in a local park. The results have got to be better than any of the tribute concerts I've seen. Most of them have been great in intend but poor in execution. A handful of songs by a variety of performers who might not otherwise hang together. Seriously, though, I'm sure Pebbles in a better place where he/she won't have to endure Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and their ilk. Ah youth is wasted on the young or the old super rich. a random thought--anybody know how the US editions of the remastered albums are doing sales wise? Wayne now at wtdk12@msn.com (I've gone from one part of the dark side, i.e., AOL to the other). Where's the Justice League of America when you need them?
------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2003 12:57:31 +0000 From: "dunks58" <dunks58@milesago.com> Subject: Coming to two continents near you ... Message-ID: <200303091257.AA142475482@milesago.com> Greetings Chalklings, Neal Buck's missive prompts me to likewise decloak in order to issue a similar warning to inhabitants of the northern hemisphere. Assuming that the current difference of opinion between Darth Hussein and His Confederate Majesty Generalissimo El Busho does not destroy the entire world within the next few weeks -- we (i.e. myself, my wife and my kids) will be embarking on a tour of the charred and reeking ruins of Europe and North America later in the year. Our intinerary (we hope) takes us first to Athens and to whichever areas of the Mediterranean are least likely to inflict upon us a painful death at the hands of fanatics. Our journey will commence most likely in late August. After reclining languidly on a Greek island for some days, we will then proceed through as many bits of Europe and the UK as our feeble Australian currency, our children's legs and our Eurail pasees will carry us. Above all, we hope to be able to visit some of Britian's most famous and holiest shrines, including Abbey Rd, Olympic Studios, Portmeirion, and the Sacred Sheds of Swindon (praise be to St Andrew and St Colin!) From La-la-Londinium -- assuming we are not turned back at the border -- we then go west young man to Noo Yawk and other points in the East, and then over to L.A., then north to Vancouver, Canada, and finally back home via Hawaii. It would indeed be a pleasure to meet up with any Chalkers on either continent (who have not by then been rounded up by homeland security) who might be in or near our intended path and who might feel disposed to join us a beverage or a meal and a chinwag on topics chalkish or otherwise. Any and all suggestions concerning modes of transport, places of accommodation and points of interest will be gratefully accepted. For those less favourably disposed to our impending invasion, we will provide a full intinerary in due course, along with suggested vantage points from which you may safely hurl fruit and vegetables in our general direction. You have been warned. Dunks
------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2003 07:13:52 -0800 (PST) From: Todd Bernhardt <beat_town@yahoo.com> Subject: Squeeze me? (I invented that.) Message-ID: <20030309151352.17218.qmail@web41114.mail.yahoo.com> Hi: In response to Annamarie's question about the worst concert ever, I'd have to say Squeeze, 1985. Though I liked Squeeze well enough, the reason I'd bought tickets to their show at George Washington University, in DC, was to see Oingo Boingo, who was opening for them in support of "Dead Man's Party." BUT ... someone in OB got sick, they didn't play, and instead my girlfriend and I endured a mess of a concert by Squeeze. Bad sound, uninspired sleepwalking-type performances by all involved (except Glenn Tilbrook ... I was quite impressed by his voice and playing), and overall a big disappointment. The best part of the night was watching the teeny-bopper co-eds in the upper seats attempt to dance along to the music without any regard to the actual beat of the song involved. Jonny Pop asked if any of us in the U.S. had seen "The Office," and I completely agree with his assessment of the show -- it's stunning, first-rate comedy, filmed in "mockumentary" style at Wernham Hogg, a fictional paper-distributor office in Slough (which is trying to assimilate the Swindon branch). You'll find yourself alternating between laughing out loud and cringing in head-shaking disbelief at the slimy antics of Regional Manager David Brent, Assistant to the Regional Manager (though he insists he's really Assistant Regional Manager) Gareth Keenan, and Sales Rep Chris Finch, and their long-suffering co-workers. I believe it runs on BBC America at 10:20 on Thursday nights, and repeats at 10:40 on Sunday nights. My undying gratitude to chalkers Adrian "Fuckin' A" Ransome and David "Smudgeboy" Smith for alerting this Yank to the show. -Todd "So there I am, back of the cab, both of them got their laughing gear round my old single-barrel pump-action yogurt rifle, yeah..." --Chris Finch
------------------------------ Date: Sun, 09 Mar 2003 08:51:26 -0800 From: "Thomas Vest" <tvtwo@hotmail.com> Subject: RE: financial salvation for the record industry Message-ID: <F38SlIZaoRdITblCBA700005b32@hotmail.com> hello chalkdom just received the latest chalkhills issue (9.12) and it made me remember that i also want to chip in a thought or two about the state of the record industry that William Sherlock talked about in in issue 9.11. the idea that the record industry thinks that "illegal downloads" or cd burning is killing the industry is ridiculous. before you had mp3 files to download, everyone i knew made copies on cassette tape and the record companies thought that it would kill their bottom lines as well. in the late 70's and early 80's, home taping was the most evil thing in the minds of record executives and while we are at--- movie companies as well... everyone remember the sony betamax court case?! one of the things that a lot of people don't think about is that when cd's came out, no one really knew what they where yet and lots of people did not buy into the idea right away. pricing of those players and the actual cd's themselves did not help either (remember early cd's were 20 bucks a shot) i did not get a cd player myself until 89 and i still knew many, many people who did not get them until the 90's. when people really clicked on the idea of cd, they wanted to buy their whole back catalog of classic oldies they had from the 50's through the 70's. you had an older generation (with more money) supporting this awesome growth of the cd in the early to mid 90's that was bound to end sometime. once they stopped buying their copies of the White Album or Dark Side of the Moon, what were they going to get next? a new release by arrested development or nirvana?? hell no! they did not buy much of the newer releases, it was younger people who bought those albums because the labels catered to the masses at a point (and i still believe this) when their was still good quality music at the time. A & R was still a viable department at record labels. A & R still had that connection with musicians and fans. this was all before the mega mergers started to happen and budgets/departments were slashed to nothing. you still had lots of good music to put out then and the younger generation who would be the focus of record company bean counters. have you ever heard of M.A.P. pricing? well, if you worked in the retail music industry you might have heard about it. MAP stands for minimum advertised pricing. here's how MAP started: when large retailers like best buy, circuit city and Wal-Mart realized that they could drive the cd buying masses in their stores by selling the latest (_______ <--- insert any band name here) for $10.88 or less (below cost and they did not care if they lost a few cents when a customer might buy some borax bleach or a microwave at a higher price to more than make up the difference), the other retail chains and labels balked. "you cannot expect us to compete with 9.88 on the new bon jovi when we are selling it for 13.99. that's unfair. you are selling it below cost (their cost for actually buying it). we don't like it that you can do this and we want to make sure you don't do this anymore..." or something like that. so what happened was that these retail outlets and labels got together at one of their NARM conventions and said each title will have a minimum advertised price and no one store should be able to sell a title under that amount. "it is unfair to competition and (whispering this part in the back rooms) and we like our profit margins just fine." when MAP pricing hit, new release sale price's eventually started to get closer together but the STANDARD pricing of cd's started to increase in that ever upward sprial... 14.99 was the norm for most none-hit cd's that are now the 18.99 cd's you see in most stores. you can thank MAP for part of this. i worked and managed record stores from 1989 to 1998 and saw this glut first hand. so much money was made that even the retail industry over reacted and expanded to such a large number of stores that the only place to go was down-- not up. the company i worked for had an over 40 % profit margin in the heyday of cd's! if a large retail chain record company has that kind of margin, what do you think the record companies themselves had? more than 50%? i think its entirely possible. now i agree with doctor pilby in 9.12: <Looks like if the majors want to get back to where they were in their heyday, they're going to have to actually figure out how to provide the world with some good music. I don't think they have it in them.> the labels have really killed the industry as we knew it. napster would have been a great thing, but they don't realize that by killing it, another two or three like it (not better mind you) will pop up. the internet is the new radio. we will never see radio like we grew up with. Clear Channel Communications will see to that (another long rant for another day). when i worked retail, i did not buy much because i got it mostly for free as a promotional copy. when i left, i purchased about 30-50 new cd's a year. napster nor any other file site has not lowered that figure. a lot of people that are getting mp3's still buy cd's. where are people going to get exposure these days on something new? mtv? radio? likely not. they will read about it or hear about it from somebody and then go listed to a sample of it from amazon's website or download it from any number of file sharing sites. they might go buy it if they see it on sale or, if they are like me, i will go see if it is a used cd yet in my local independent store. i am still not convinced that more people are copying music than buying outright (and i have a burner myself plus i still have the 100 pack of cd's that i got last year!). i go into virgin megastore on occasion where i live and there are always customers lined up to buy something for a lot higher than i would pay for it. the norah jones', teen pop & and rap will still drive people into the malls get get the latest sensation. i don't think that will likely ever change. my final thought about it all is use your head when buying your music. support local independent stores if they are in your area. used music is just as good and better for your wallet. shop around the net- eBay and its conjoined twin half.com are good places to ubuy music. you can buy downloaded copies from artist sites that are legal and generally cheaper than your local corporate chain store. the industry will still be around to try and gouge you and it is your choice whether you allow it to happen or not. thanks for reading. thomas NP 100th Window by Massive Attack
------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2003 23:38:46 -0800 (PST) From: Ryan Anthony <hamsterranch@yahoo.com> Subject: Vinylcidal mania Message-ID: <20030310073846.77297.qmail@web10108.mail.yahoo.com> In Digest #9-12, Josh Phelan remembers finding that Tulane University radio station WTUL's copy of the "Dear God"/"Grass" single had been vandalized, with "enormous gashes" carved into "Dear God" -- and nowhere else on the record. Only once before had I heard of such vinylcidal mania. Some two decades ago, I had a chance to meet and compare notes with a woman who had grown up on my block in the 1960s. (Okay, since she was one of the agenda-setting big kids and I was one of the little kids, perhaps I should say I grew up on HER block.) She told me that her mother, while not forbidding her to buy or listen to the White Album, had rendered "Why Don't We Do It In the Road" unplayable by carving gulleys into that track, and no other, with some sort of sharp object. In retrospect, one can only be thankful the mother plunged the sharp object into a mere record album, albeit one of the greatest of all time, rather than into her husband or daughter or son (my best friend in those days). She was the kind of Roman Catholic who weeps for the passing of the Spanish Inquisition. In other sad news, Chalkman Edward Percival reports the death of Pebbles, his excellent hamster, who lived three years. What I want to know is, Edward, what's your secret? Do you buy from a better class of pet shop whose suppliers don't engage in inbreeding or overbreeding? Or do you feed your animals an appropriate amount of appropriate food? Readers of my New Year's rant (four of you, and thanks!) know that I believe small domestic animals should be as nearly spherical as possible. This might explain why my last companion rodent, Gingrich the hamster (purchased on Election Day 1994), perished after only two years of sharing morsels of all the nasty lardified human food I prepared for myself. I have since owned a pair of REAL pets, namely dogs, and I don't think I'll ever go back to mere tribbles, but if I do, I should stop the enablement and feed my charges Science Diet for Rodents -- and see if they attain the Lazaruslongesque life span enjoyed by Pebbles Percival. Then again, the motto of every hamster I've ever owned, dating back to the LBJ Administration, has been, "Live Fast, Die Young, and Leave a Good-Looking Corpse For the Cat." Ryan Anthony An independent (and as of this moment, non-sales tax-charging) Internet content provider P.S.: John, I shopped this post to the alt.fan.sphericalhamsters newsgroup first, but the moderator rejected it: "Too much XTC."
------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 17:06:41 +1100 From: "Crawford, Jeff" <crawfordj@mng.newsltd.com.au> Subject: re: worst live shows Message-ID: <17B04C523C3ED31195410000F8753548CA4E74@mngxchange.mng.newsltd.com.au> Greetings Chalkhillians, As a long-time fan, I'm disappointed to hear (from Annamarie) that Todd is giving such lacklustre live performances. I get the sense he just isn't trying these days, he used to deliver big time on stage in his glory days (judging by live albums, bootlegs etc). Anyone else out there seen him lately? Worst concert by a name band for me was a Beach Boys gig in Adelaide in (I think) 1978. It was an absolute mess. Harmonies were all over the shop during the entire debacle. At one stage Brian (who was there in body but certainly not in spirit) stepped up to sing Sloop John B and barely a squeak came out. He was practically shoved aside and one of the others, possibly Al Jardine, quickly took over. A raw, drunken You Are So Beautiful from Dennis was the most soulful moment of the whole sorry occasion. Years later I found out just how fractured the band was at the time. By all accounts a huge brawl broke out between the two opposing camps (Love vs Wilson) at the hotel, involving body guards and musicians. A mess of a Pretenders gig, when the first line-up was falling apart due to drug excesses, comes a close second. The highlight was Chrissie Hynde abusing a friend of mine who was taking pictures. Volatile relationships can produce great music, but it didn't work for The Pretenders, believe me. Recently read the brief AP interview in Mojo - interesting to see if he can write some pop standards to rate alongside the likes of Bacharach, Lennon & McCartney etc. Of course, most of us know he already he has (at least in our little world), Jeff This message and its attachments may contain legally privileged or confidential information. It is intended solely for the named addressee. If you are not the addressee indicated in this message (or responsible for delivery of the message to the addressee), you may not copy or deliver this message or its attachments to anyone. Rather, you should permanently delete this message and its attachments and kindly notify the sender by reply e-mail. Any content of this message and its attachments which does not relate to the official business of News Limited or its subsidiaries must be taken not to have been sent or endorsed by any of them. No warranty is made that the e-mail or attachment(s) are free from computer virus or other defect.
------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 14:32:34 -0800 (PST) From: Jim Smart <jimsmart1@yahoo.com> Subject: from bad to worse Message-ID: <20030310223234.72208.qmail@web13506.mail.yahoo.com> >Looks like if the majors want to get back to where >they were in their heyday, >they're going to have to actually figure out how to >provide the world with some good music. I don't >think they have it in them. Me either. The Grammy awards being exhibit A. Does anyone give a shit about any of the stuff being hawked these days? The worst concert I ever saw was The Clash in the early eighties. Mick Jones had left the band, and they came to Santa Barbara billed as The Clash, and some poor sod was thrust into Mick's role and forced to slog through Should I Stay or Should I Go just because it had been a hit the year before. Who was that replacement guy? I think they made an album that way. I seem to remember a rather tuneless thing where the chorus consisted of screaming "We are the Clash!!!", but my brain has thankfully smothered the memory, probably our of mercy. I'm glad that Joe Strummer redeemed this bad decision with some good Mescalero stuff later on, and I'm very bummed that he died recently, and I still love the Clash. But this was a tuneless, bad concert. I suspect that Joe Strummer's role was a bit like that of Roger Waters in Pink Floyd. They both were the main movers and shakers, but they needed their partners to arrange their strong ideas into magnificent music. Jim
------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2003 07:37:26 -0500 From: "Christopher R. Coolidge" <cauldron@together.net> Subject: Air Supply, other stuff Message-ID: <BA9342B6.7B11%cauldron@together.net> on 3/8/03 10:30 AM, Tyler wrote: > I also saw Air Supply, but that doesn't really count > because we went for free, knowing that it would be a > pathetic laugh riot (we were not disappointed in that > respect). Hmm. While I am emphatically NOT an Air Supply fan, my wife is, and when they played in New Hampshire a few years ago, the nearest they've been to us since I met her, so I dutifully treated her(I'm getting her back by taking her to see Lou Reed tomorrow, BBBWWWHHAAHAAHAA) to a show, with America opening, no less; has-beens from the 70's opening for has-beens from the 80's. Though their heart-on-sleeve earnestness made me wince at times, their stripped-down sound for the 90's was quite tolerable(just piano/occasional synth, bass, drums and guitar, with co-leader Graham Russell playing an electric 12 string, of all things), even enjoyable at times. I had to remind myself that they were playing songs I loved to hate in the 80's. One of the new songs even had political lyrics like they were trying to be Midnight Oil(fat chance!). Hey, it made my wife happy, she had never seen them before. They never come to Vermont(though the local county fair is about their speed these days). America was surprisingly tolerable too, I liked them when I was about twelve. Dewey Bunnell's lyrics still made no sense whatsoever(the likes of "Tin Man" and "A Horse With No Name" made some of Paul McCartney's more inane offering seem like Shakespeare sonnets by comparison) and Gerry Beckley's love songs were still a bit corny, but they played some new material that was actually pretty good SoCal AAA format pop/rock, along the lines of Lowen and Navarro or The Rembrandts. Apparently Dewey Bunnell isn't allowed to write lyrics anymore, which helps. Too bad about the Psychedelic Furs, though; I still enjoy their albums, I found most of them used on cassette during the last ten years and I play them in the car on occasion. The first album especially is great driving music. I suspect some of them were having drug problems in the 80's, which contributed to the worst show by an established band I ever saw: The Gun Club at Hampshire College sometime in the mid-80's. The band was thrown together in a hurry, I found out later, Jeffrey Lee Pierce was having trouble finding people who could put up with his heroin use and attitude problems. Two of them had never played with the band before and sounded it(Dee Pop of the Bush Tetras and Jim Duckworth of Panther Burns; only bassist Patricia Morrison remained from the Miami album a couple of years before), with a bit of rehearsal they would have sounded better, they sounded like they didn't really know the songs. Pierce gave a sloppy and half-assed performance like he wanted to end the show and go shoot up, and somebody threw up on my sweater.
------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2003 22:51:21 +0800 From: "Simon Deane/Gina Chong" <ginsim@netvigator.com> Subject: A couple of points Message-ID: <005201c2e7dd$ae6f17a0$0200a8c0@netvigator.com> It sure is a long time since I last posted here but, anyway, I still keep up to date with what's going on and read most missives when I get a chance. I'm inspired to write in on a few issues: 1. My four year old daughter is a burgeoning Andy fan. His "funny voices" on "That wag" from Fuzzy 1 (I think) has her in paroxysms - actually I myself think the Dylan take off is pretty good on this - gets me smiling to myself too. And "Everything will be alright" also has her singing along in the back of the car. "James and the Giant Peach" is one of her current favourites and she must already be getting bored with Daddy trying to explain that "Everything will be alright" and the others was almost used in the film. 2. I've been wondering for a while how XTC fans "came" to the group i.e. musical antecedents before being converted, if that's the right expression. As someone nearing mid-40s (bloody hell, am I really that old?), I principally liked David Bowie and Jethro Tull (with some mercifully short sidetracks into Genesis and Yes - this was the early 70s, you see), before settling into XTC. What inspired my interest here was hearing some of the other oldsters on Chalkhills mentioning Bowie and Tull favourably in dispatches a couple of years ago (yes, it has taken me that long to write in about this), and I just wondered whether there was some kind of pattern here i.e. all Bowie and Jethro Tull fans end up with XTC. 3. I have to pass on a couple of recommendations here - not particularly recent but deserving of serious interest nevertheless. The first is Jim White. An English friend of mine living in Houston recommended his second album "No such place" to me last year when I was over there on holiday with him. I acquired a copy and have been hooked ever since. It's difficult to describe the music but I'll try anyway - really haunting, strange tunes and lyrics - a kind of country Nick Drake mixed with Tom Waits is as close as I can get. It's the tunes though that really get you. His first album "Wrong eyed Jesus" is just as good. You could do a lot worse than invest in both these cds - both on David Byrne's LUAKA BOP label. Second is Peter Perrett, ex-The Only Ones front man and songwriter. I hadn't realised but he brought out an album with a new band (The One) in the mid-90s. I acquired a copy - called "Woke Up Sticky" (which means exactly what you think it means) and it must be one of the great lost rock records of the 90s. It reminded me what a great band The Only Ones were - like XTC, they weren't really part of the punk mainstream (like XTC, they could all really play and, what's more, had great songs to get stuck into) but made the most of the association while they could. If there had been any justice in this world, XTC would have been recognised as the Beatles of the New Wave and The Only Ones as the Stones. The CD is quite difficult to get hold of but I managed to get a new one from somewhere - it's on demon or dwarf records and I think Voiceprint sells it. If you can't get the studio release there is also a Live CD which has all the album stuff on it and that's pretty good too. That's all for now. Simon Deane
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 03:02:22 -0500
From: Jefferson Ogata <ogata@antibozo.net>
Subject: Chalkhorse sighting
Message-ID: <3E703B0E.3080703@antibozo.net>
Organization: The Antibozo
Episode #9 ("Jamming With Edward") of "Cowboy Bebop", an anime running
on the Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim", set in the far future: an
ancient, long-dormant satellite laser-weapon awakens and uses its
weapon to carve a variety of animal caricatures into the surface of
the Earth -- in one newsclip pan of the markings, lo and behold, a
Nazca rendition of the Uffington chalkhorse.
--
Jefferson Ogata : Internetworker, Antibozo
<ogata@antibozo.net> http://www.antibozo.net/ogata/
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 10:06:02 -0500 From: "Krys Olsiewicz" <kolsiewicz@hotmail.com> Subject: RIP Lynne Thigpen Message-ID: <BAY1-F81rBoe2U8QVjp00039874@hotmail.com> Lynne played the Chief on Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? -- Lynne Thigpen, Actress in CBS's 'District,' Dies at 54 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LOS ANGELES, March 13 - Lynne Thigpen, a Tony Award-winning actress for "An American Daughter" and a star of "The District," a drama on CBS, died on Wednesday at her home here. She was 54. Ms. Thigpen had appeared to be in good health and the cause was not immediately known, a network spokeswoman, Beth Haiken, said. On Thursday production of "The District" was shut down. The show stars Craig T. Nelson as the police chief of Washington. Ms. Thigpen played his aide, Ella Farmer. The 20th episode was in production this week, Ms. Haiken said. Twenty-two were planned for the season, and no decision has been made about how the death will affect the show. Ms. Thigpen grew up in Joliet, Ill., and lived primarily in New York. She had a distinguished stage career and also worked steadily in films and television. In 1997 she received a Tony for featured actress in a play for her role as a black Jewish feminist in Wendy Wasserstein's "American Daughter." Ms. Thigpen recreated the role in the 2000 television movie made of that play. She was nominated for a Tony for her role in "Tintypes" and won Obie Awards for her Off Broadway roles in "Jar the Floor" and "Boesman and Lena" and an Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for her work in a production in that city of August Wilson's "Fences." On television she portrayed the Chief in the PBS series "Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?" and "Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?" She appeared in the series "Thirtysomething" and "L.A. Law" and the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentations of "Night Ride Home" and "The Boys Next Door." Her film credits included "The Insider," "Shaft," "Random Hearts," "Lean on Me," "Bob Roberts," "Tootsie" and most recently "Anger Management."
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