Midnight Voices Web Digest, week 33 (MV875-883)


Midnight Voices                      
The discussion forum for fans of Pete Atkin and Clive James,
their works and collaborators on stage, TV, disc and in print.

Web Digest week 33 (12.04.98, MV875 - 883) begins | index | prev | next |
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From: Cary <email address>
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1998 23:32:45 +0000
Subject: MV875: Web site

Nice one Steve - how do you do that?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~        
ROCK FOLLIES - The Classic 1970's TV Drama starring 
Julie Covington, Charlotte Cornwell and Rula Lenska. 
Online at:-  http://members.xoom.com/Follies
Pictures,sounds and much more (unofficial site)
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Regards - Cary (like Mary with a 'C' for cat)

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Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 10:14:37 +0100
From: Leslie Moss <email address>
Subject: MV876 Re: MV875: Web site

At 00:11 13/04/98 +0100, you wrote:
>From: Cary <email address>
>Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1998 23:32:45 +0000
>Subject: Web site
>
>Nice one Steve - how do you do that?
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~        
Nice trick! Does it only appear to MVs or would that be asking too much?!

Leslie

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Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 12:03:27 +0100
From: S J Birkill <email address>
Subject: MV877 Re: MV876; MV875: Web site. And a note or two.

Hi Leslie, Cary,

Intriguing little trick, eh? Now to make it recognise MVs would be REALLY
impressive ...

I was searching yesterday for reference to a piece by actor Antony Sher on
his work with the RSC in Athol Fugard's "Hello and Goodbye", and stumbled
across a totally unrelated Javascript item on a page the author had dubbed
"Hello and Goodbye".

Its use simply involves adding a command to the <BODY> tag of the page's
HTML code. You may have something like <BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">, which you
change to <BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" onLoad="alert('Welcome to the page!');"
onUnload="alert('Must you leave already?');">, with of course your own
message text in there. If you don't want the goodbye message just omit the
onUnload section. It being so easy I'm surprised not to be seeing the
annoying thing everywhere!
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As it's so quiet around here I trust no-one will mind too much if I answer
some recent mail, my own as well as the forum's:

Cary, re http://www.allmusic.com/cg/AMG.exe?sql=A313773#REV (and MV867: AMG
database)

I think Kate Bush backed on 'The Kick Inside' on Julie's Virgin album. The
bootleg track could be a rip of that, or an alternate take with Kate
singing the lead?

Dave Jones, re Le Voleur

Yes, you did right not to find the transcription lurking on the Website --
I emailed it direct to Pete for his comments, which I passed on to you. We
eagerly await its second coming.

Barry Holley, re Failed Missive

Your mistake might have been (if you quoted it literally) to address it to
<email address>. Should be a dot between midnight and voices.
Yes, the Monyash CD is still current, only the video (UK version) is sold out.

Richard Corfield, re MV874: Morgan Studios

I don't have the answer to that one, but I do have some 30 years of "Studio
Sound" (formerly "Tape Recorder") in my library, which no doubt at some
time has covered in some detail the history of Morgan and its successes
(and successors), which I should dig into to find out. Incidentally,
engineer Roger Quested now runs his own business in Sussex designing and
building monitor speakers.

Pleased to hear brother John enjoyed his prezzie. Another to encounter Pete
in the bar while escaping the support band! Yes, I did get your previous
message, if it was "Last PAL that shows you all the album etc" on April
6th. Thanks.
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Other news:

Website: I've added one or two new chord transcriptions recently, plus Dave
Gelly's liner note from the "The Rider to the World's End" cassette (at Roy
Brown's suggestion). I'll be expanding the available RealAudio space soon,
so will be able to extend the recently somewhat neglected audio clips bit.
We also need to redo the Discography in tables form, so chords, sound
clips, annotations and parodies can all have their columns to the right of
the song name. Anyone out there fancy a go at another annotation? There's
plenty to choose from!

New MVs: Belated welcomes to Bill Anderson, Jim Arnold, Kenneth Hutchinson
and John Schwiller.

Concert: Name will probably default to "Pete Atkin and Clive James in
Concert" or "Pete Atkin in Concert with Clive James". We are on track to
put tickets on sale to MVs before the end of April (but please, NOT YET).
Please watch this space for an announcement.

Best to All -- Steve

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From: Dave Jones <email address>
Subject: MV878: Pete Atkin on Page 3 shock horror sensation!
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 09:36:23 -0400

No, not that kind of Page 3. I'm talking about page 3 of
the Magpie direct catalogue.  After 6 months burning up
their sales chart, Magpie have finally seen fit to put the
re-issue CD in their printed listings, as of issue no. 62.
Because Pete wisely chose a surname beginning with
'A' he is at the top of the first page of listings, nicely placed
to catch the eye.  The company is a bit mixed: Amen 
Corner on the one hand, and those lads in tartan who 
were in remedial reading class on the other.

Odd Magpie would think it worthwhile to mail a copy to me
here in the USA (this is about the sixth one) but it's worked.
I'm eagerly awaiting "Fleetwood Mac's Greatest Hits" (the CBS
collection of the 60's blues classics, which I only have as a
decaying 27-year old bootleg cassette) and I'm almost certain
to order up Jake Thackray (see p. 59) if the first CD comes
through in reasonable time.

"Le Voleur" will be sent along soon, Steve.  Since you were
able to handle a HTML attachment for "For Instance", I'm
going to do the same here and save you some work.

Regarding Web Site tricks:
In theory, you can make the Smash Flops site recognize us
acolytes by planting cookies if we register with the server 
during a visit. Just cross-ref. the e-mail address with the MV
list and send back a cookie if we match.  Every time after
that the server will be able to inspect the cookie and verify
our bonas.

I've yet to experience the new trick at the website, but I would
like to recommend a website for Java: http://www.best.com/~pvdl.
This belongs to Peter van der Linden, another UK expat who
is the author of "Just Java" and other books. He is part of the 
compiler group at Sun Microsystems, has a taste for
oddball humour, and is a general decent chappie, not least
because he has twice quoted me in his books. You'll find some
interesting Java examples at his site, as well as some strange
stories that I'm still not sure whether to take seriously...

Dave Jones
Running out of taglines in Rochester NY.

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Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 19:46:50
Subject: MV879: The Caftan of the Caliph Turns to Powder...
From: <email address> (John N L Morrison)

Well, Voices, you've disappointed me. Yes, I know it's
Ginger Rogers, and that a Buck and Wing is a dance step (20s
or earlier? Is it that the final one that leaves the
performers on one leg grinning at the audience?). But Ray
Harryhausen? ....that must be a BLUFF. Now, who has the
TRUE card? (For the benefit of expats, this refers to our
long-running BBC TV show "Call My Bluff"). 

So, not a Ginger film - but could it be one of the "Road"
movies (Bing and Bob)? The problem is, I can almost see
the scene.....if Clive or Pete read this, can they
illuminate?

See you in Buxton! 

John N L Morrison

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From: Dave Jones <email address>
Subject: MV880 RE: MV879: The Caftan of the Caliph Turns to Powder...
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 09:22:47 -0400

>From: <email address> (John N L Morrison)
>Well, Voices, you've disappointed me. Yes, I know it's
>inger Rogers, and that a Buck and Wing is a dance step (20s
>or earlier?

Actually I think each is a distinct tap-dance maneuvre. A Buck 
involves movement forward and back, up and down, while a Wing
is a gesture out to the side.  I remember a certain B. Forsyth
demonstrating a Wing while reminiscing of his days as a child
dance star.

>So, not a Ginger film - but could it be one of the "Road"
>movies (Bing and Bob)? The problem is, I can almost see
>the scene.....if Clive or Pete read this, can they
>illuminate?

Probably, but it's hardly the point.  Between them Pete and Clive
could render moot most of the lines of inquiry we come up with,
but then we wouldn't see all that lovely scenery along the way to
finding the answer ourselves, even if it's the wrong answer - or
a different one, anyway.  As Clive has noted, once a piece is out
there, people read into it what they will. The results are sometimes
beyond the artist's expectations, but not without their own unexpected
delights.

>See you in Buxton! 
I wish....

Dave Jones
On the road less taken in Rochester NY.

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Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 00:39:51 +0100
From: Pete Smith <email address>
Subject: MV881 Re: MV879: The Caftan of the Caliph Turns to Powder...

In message <email address>,
Midnight Voices <email address> writes
>
>So, not a Ginger film - but could it be one of the "Road"
>movies (Bing and Bob)?
That would have been a nice symmetry, as Bob Hope was in Fancy pants and
Ginger's long-time partner Fred Astaire was in Funny face, but I don't
think so.
I think this is a reference to the 1940 remake of "Kismet" with Ronald
Coleman and Marlene Dietrich.

-- 
Pete Smith

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From: "Murray Francis McGlew" <email address>
Subject: MV882: Clive's CV
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 09:34:38 +0800

Sorry to be out of date, I haven't fought my way through the kids to get to
the computor lately.
In the "Clive's CV" post, you refer to a book called "The Man From Japan".
Does anyone know if that was released in the antipodes as "Brrm Brrm", or
is it a sequel?
Alternatively it could be a completely different book. I am often slow
getting onto recent releases.

Murray McGlew

P.S. I agree with a more recent post about CJ's TV critcisms. I have all
three books of them, and I find them both funny and thought provoking,
despite only having faint memories of the actual shows. 

==============================================================================
From: Dave Jones <email address>
Subject: MV883 RE: MV882: Clive's CV
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 09:49:42 -0400

>From: "Murray Francis McGlew" <email address>
>In the "Clive's CV" post, you refer to a book called "The Man From Japan".
>Does anyone know if that was released in the antipodes as "Brrm Brrm", or
>is it a sequel?

This book and "Brrm Brrm" are one and the same, being the Candide-like
adventures of Suzuki-san in the high and low life of London.

The other book, "First Reactions" is a distillation of "The Metropolitan Critic",
"Visions before Midnight" and "At the Pillars of Hercules" (the latter being
a reference to a pub of that name, for all the high-flown content).  Interesting
not just for the content, running the gamut from Tolstoy to Norman Mailer,
but for echoes and correspondences with the songs, as well as the usual
explosive prose.  Clive partially disowns some of the earlier stuff, a
depressing habit that writers have, since, as here, the sparkle and fizz of
the words written in the flush of youth (he was only 30...) grabs you by
sheer force.  So it makes him cringe now, so what.

Clive's critical style of running down the details with almost ruthless efficiency
makes me wonder where the dividing line between scholarship and anorakship
lies. Probably the anorak worships the details where the scholar uses them
as a means to an end. Fascinating to watch the process - if you were to take 
on Sherlock Holmes and his modern fanatics, would you note that Nordon's
mistaken opinion of Orwell's opinion of Holmes's London was coloured by a
faulty translation of Orwell into French ?  Would you even know ?

There are poets aplenty in this book, and I even was inspired to check out
Richard Wilbur's "The Beautiful Changes", which I recommend. Clive's piece
on e e cummings, for all that he later deprecated it, makes me suspect 
a strong influence. I shall be investigating.

Dave Jones

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The discussion forum for fans of Pete Atkin and Clive James,
their works and collaborators on stage, TV, disc and in print.
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