THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR
The Ben Folds Five Digest
Issue #420 - July 31, 1997
Magical Armchair Digest Thursday, July 31 1997 Volume 01 : Number 420
THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR
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TOPICS IN THIS DIGEST:
Uncle Walter's a Disney character?!?!?!?!?
Eep!
HORDE in columbus and young life
Long time no submit....
Japanese CDs are expensive;)
Taping
signings
You got questions, we got answers...
Cosmic?
BFF coming to Canberra - WAHOO!!!
Paul Shaeffer?
Brad and the flamer
tour
PLAYBOY
Possible meanings of "Brick"
DAYTON Armchairs Untie... er... Unite!
digest format
Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #419
liveconcerts.com
liveconcerts.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 21:39:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: Eric Patton <shirak@umich.edu>
Subject: Uncle Walter's a Disney character?!?!?!?!?
Well, not really, but I just noticed this tonight. In the
Aristocats, one of the movies Disney produced before Satan took over the
company, there ia a kindly, drunken goos byt the name of Uncle Waldo. He
squaks about, embarassing his two nieces, much like a certain character
in a song we all know. Hrmmmmmn, did our beloved hero sit through one too
many animated features as a kid? Find out in our next exciting adverture.
Same BFF time, same BFF channel! ;)
ERIC
P.S. I'm not obsessed with Batman. Really, I'm not. My therapist told me
so. So did Dick, and Alfred, and Commisioner Gordon.....
_______________________________________________________________________________
"Batman is the greatest hero of them all, because he can do
anything he sets his mind to. Conversely, the Joker is the greatest
villain, because he WILL do anything he sets his mind to."
Me
_______________________________________________________________________________
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 21:41:12 -0400 (EDT)
From: Eric Patton <shirak@umich.edu>
Subject: Eep!
Excuse my horrid spelling in that last message. I just finished
fighting crime in my Batsuit, and my fingers cramped. ;)
ERIC
_______________________________________________________________________________
"Batman is the greatest hero of them all, because he can do
anything he sets his mind to. Conversely, the Joker is the greatest
villain, because he WILL do anything he sets his mind to."
Me
_______________________________________________________________________________
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 22:50:52 -0400
From: david beck <drbeck@ibm.net>
Subject: HORDE in columbus and young life
this may be too late, but ill be at the horde col show, and wearing a
bff shirt and sandals, and have hair to my ears,and oh yeah, a guy.uhhh
also, i was at young life camp in ny,(anyone else in yl?) and talked to
this guy about seeing bff, and he saw them at chapel hill, i thought
that was cool, but he wasnt as excited as i was, maybe cause he was
lethargic...
cool
kule
officer friendly
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 22:12:13 -0500 (CDT)
From: koenij22@vaxa.cis.uwosh.edu
Subject: Long time no submit....
Hello Brothers and sisters!!!
After 3 months of computer-free life, I gave in. And lo and
behold, there were 112 messages waiting for me. Of course they were all
Armchairs. Well, I skimmed most of them, and was amazed at all the
new fans, but all the same discussions.
I went and saw BFF in June at Milwaukee. To be truthful, I was
let down. And I'll tell you why. Before seeing them I must have read
200 show reviews, each one describing the show like it was better than
sex. I guess my expectations were way to high. Obviously it was a very
good show, but I remember thinking while BFF was playing that maybe I got
alittle too in to them. Kind of unhealthy.
My point is I have no point.........
"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue"
--Airplane!!
Joel the Baker,
koenij22@uwosh.edu
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 23:45:05 -0400
From: Allan Hsu <animate2@underworld.net>
Subject: Japanese CDs are expensive;)
For those people wondering why Japanese imports are so expensive:
The Japanese copy of W&EA I have retailed in Japan for something
like $23. My Song for the Dumped single retailed for around $12 (for 3
songs). I think the cause of this is the fact that the standard for
living in Japan is so much higher than here in the states. People make
more in Japan, so everything costs more;)
On another note, the MP3s at http://www.underworld.net/bff have been
taken off-line for now. Our provider frowned upon our use of so much
disk space, so now we have to wait until we buy a new HD for our own
server. The RealAudio (Audio. Really!) files are still on-line, but it
will be a few weeks until all the MP3s (plus some live tracks & b-sides
I never had a chance to put on the site) are back online. In the
meantime, I'm going to try and incorporate a web-based IRC client into
the site so that even the people who are dis-IRC-lexic can chat on #bff
on irc.underworld.net. If anyone has seen any good java-based IRC
clients, *please,* email me; I've been looking for a while;p
Allan.
- --
Animate2/Allan Hsu: Master of Reality
<http://www.underworld.net/allan>
Dept. of Eigenstate Theory, Dept. of Sleep Deprivation - Masters of
Reality
"Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean that everyone isn't out to get
me."
Ben Folds Five: <http://www.underworld.net/bff>
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 00:10:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: Adamweezer@aol.com
Subject: Taping
Someone wrote:
>What the hell are you talking about! You know, at the end of your post
>you say you have 1200 tapes. You mean to tell me you've never been
>involved in a tape tree?
I have loads of tapes and have yet to become involved in a tape tree.
Getting shows is not always as easy as joining the nearest tape tree,
especially when dealing with smaller acts (as my tastes seems to dictate).
>Almost every band I've ever got a tape of has done a
>tree.
Once again, This is _Your_ experience and _Your_ experience only.
Not all bands have a large and rabid enough following to warrant trees.
Many bands that _Do_ have the above don't deserve it.
Some of the greatest bands (IMHO) that I've come across have never had trees.
I'd hate to see your music collection.
>Now that's not to say that I've got tapes of every band on the
>planet, but just about every band I've been involved with has done one.
>It's an easy way of distributing the tape to a mass of people. Plus if I
>went to a BFF show an started passing out tapes of them I know that I'd
>be hauled off by security in a second if they caught me. They have a
>no-see, no-enforce policy.
Where the hell do you get this idea from?
Shows are one of the best places to conduct trades, it saves on postage.
>> One more thing - these 22 foot tall mic stands with omni directional
>> mics attached to an 8 channel DAT recorder running off of 3 Diehard car
>> batteries are a bit much. In my day ( now I sound like my dad ) after
>> walking to school barefoot in the snow uphill both directions, I would
>> SNEAK a Sony Walkman R2 into the show.
>Well, I don't hear anyone bitching when they hear my tapes! I'm no
>quality snob, but if I'm going to spend the money on tape and postage, I
>damn well better get something back that sounds superbe. Not like
>something from some dork who borrowed his daddy's micro-cassette
>recorder and stuck it down his pants, got his pubies all knarled up in
>the condenser mic, then stands with it chest high and commenses
>recording while singing out of tune at the top of his lungs!
everyone starts out somewhere. I'll bet the first show you taped sounded just
as bad as everyone else's. Getting vulgar with unneccesary details isn't
going to help your case any.
adam
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 00:12:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: Adamweezer@aol.com
Subject: signings
>goodomen@rocketmail.com wrote:
> It was probably the most unusual thing they signed all day, but I can't be
sure.
Ben signed on as a witness to someone's intent to donate organs on their
driver's license. I don't know which is more unusual; you be the judge.
adam
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 00:40:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: Frank Maynard <maynard@mail.oeonline.com>
Subject: You got questions, we got answers...
To answer some recently-asked questions:
1. The Sessions at West 54th show with BFF will air September 13 on most
PBS stations, but as always, check your local listings.
2. Back issues of the armchair (at least thru June; in a couple days I'll
post July) are at http://oeonline.com/bff/list/. (George, I'll remail
you the ones you need.)
3. A lot of folks wear those "Hello, my name is" badges or stickers at
shows to identify themselves as members of the Armchair. You can fill in
your name if you want, or just use Satan.
4. If you really want to know more about the Bhagavad Gita, go to my web
page (http://oeonline.com/bff), look under Discography, then Whatever &
Ever Amen, then Kate. There will be a link to a site with all sorts of
info including a full translation, in case you have an unlimited-time
internet account or your boss is out of town for a couple weeks.
5. Finally, and not to stifle discussion, but Brick is about getting an
abortion, according to Ben. This was discussed at length a couple months
back.
Happy 'chairing.
-fjm
Everyday you wake up late. Sometimes I wish I was that way
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 23:47:28 -0700
From: Jeffrey Coleman <reason9@idt.net>
Subject: Cosmic?
Today was the day that I discovered BFF. I said to myself,"Hey,this
sounds like a cross between Joe Jackson & Todd Rundgren (early,pre-
ponderous Todd)". I went to my local record store to buy up everything
they had,and the guy behind the counter said,"Yeah, kinda like a combo
of Joe Jackson & Todd Rundgren." ?!? Please tell me,is this
1. cosmic
2. common
3. totally irrelevent
Whatever the outcome,what a great band! BTW, my intro was via the new
issue of Launch,a freebie CD from my job. Not worth $40 a year,but
had a nice interview,and performance of "Dwarf". It's $9.98 retail.
You decide.......
Frances C.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 19:05:22 +1000
From: Liz <bregg@macquarie.matra.com.au>
Subject: BFF coming to Canberra - WAHOO!!!
I was thinking we would get left in the dust .... that news just made my day!!!! Thanks Frank!!! I'm so happy I could hug the messenger!!
Hey, if I time this right I can see them in Adelaide and in Canberra and, if I so desire, twice in Sydney ..... COOL!!!
btw - this is my first post. Hello all :-) I'll go read some more of the digest now .....
Cheers
A very happy Liz
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 07:46:24 -0700
From: "Kamp, Marcus S" <Marcus.Kamp@PSS.Boeing.com>
Subject: Paul Shaeffer?
>Hey, take it easy...<
>...an (angry?) dwarf.<
How can you mention Paul Shaeffer + Ben Folds in the same breath?
(Oops, I just did it, too.) Paul is the most caucasian (+ I mean
that in the worst possible way) keyboardist out there. While Ben is
rockin' away with both hands, feet, his butt, and his piano stool,
Paul's waving his left hand in the air. I don't mean he's conducting
the band, because he does it during his solos, and he does it on side
projects where he's NOT the leader. Personally, I think he's waving
in a desperate plea for help. It's one thing to compare Tori + Ben,
who are legitimately two of the best pianists to come along since the
late '60s (the other would be Marcus Roberts-check him out!), but Ben
+ PAUL? Please, don't blaspheme on a list dedicated to Ben Folds!!!
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 08:16:03 PDT
From: "Michael Mohan" <driver8_@hotmail.com>
Subject: Brad and the flamer
>for the record (no pun), I have enjoyed the HELL out of the topten
thread
>here, it's positive non-flame threads that make a list WORTH reading
>between large events for the band we're all here to chat about.
what's wrong with this person. I think we all agree with him that we
enjoy non-flame articles, but why did his article have to toatlly flame
an unaware newbie. There are so many other ways to POLITELY tell a
newbie to check the back issues. Does he think he is going to gain
respect from us by calling other people names? He sounds more like a
Korn fan than a Ben Folds Five fan to me.
And about that band that people think Ben Folds is the drummer in- they
are called Brad. It is not actually Ben, it's Regan something. They do
have a similar style to BFF, but they have guitars. The band also
includes Jeremy Toback and Stone Gossard (pearl jam).
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 12:54:55 -0400
From: Evan Chakroff <chakroff@ee.net>
Subject: tour
I've looked everywhere I could think of and I haven't been able to find
tour dates for after the Australia ones. Are they coming back here for a
tour (of their own) immediately following that?
Thanks
- -ec
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 13:55:19 -0600
From: "Erik C. Lyons" <EPA8820@epa.state.il.us>
Subject: PLAYBOY
Yep, that's right, Ben Folds Five is the life of the party at PLAYBOY. As I
was thumbing through the *articles* I noticed a section devoted to "Party in
1999," and who was there, what was served, etc., etc. Sooooo, in the
section of what music was in the CD player, there was Ben Folds Five at
the beginning of the list. They decribed the band as a trio from NC. . .Billy
Joel meets Queen meets Squeeze. . .yea, yea, yea, we've all heard this
before. But it is cool to see that Ben, Robert and Darren are recognized at
the bunny mansion on new year's eve 1999. It also had a picture of the CD
cover on the page. Next thing ya know, the guys will be doing a spread.
Whoaaaaaaaaaaa Nellie!!!!!!!!!!
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 15:19:45 -0700
From: Anne_Lyons@BayNetworks.COM (Anne Lyons)
Subject: Possible meanings of "Brick"
Hi all!
Just wanted to add my $.02 to the "Brick" discussion...
Lance wrote: "I think that we are talking about an AIDS test, thus his
"dying for me" line. Just a quick thought to share and steer us from this
other topic about which some of us think it might be."
What I think is great about song lyrics and poetry is that, when
well-written, it can mean so many different things ("I didn't know words
could mean so many different things." "The question is: who is to be
master, that's all." -- loosely quoted from Alice in Wonderland) For
example, the section of lyrics that Lance quoted could mean going to an
AIDS clinic, or it could be the narrator speaking directly to what the
narrator considers to be a child as in "Hey, as a guy, I've been told that
this ain't *my* choice... so you aren't dying for *me*..." (note my extreme
PCness in describing the situation, as I do not want to get flamed! = D).
So -- I LIKE the fact that this song has never been defined as an anthem to
one thing or another -- that's the beauty of it. Personally... I admire the
tight writing that conveys the tension of a visit to any type of clinic and
the harsh feelings (directed both toward yourself and toward your partner)
in that situation...
As I say... just my dos centivos...
- -Anne
P.S. BTW, to whoever was asking about ages on the Armchair -- I'm 27...
years and years beyond my teens!!! So, we aren't all young and nubile
(well, not young anyway! hahaha), but the jury is still out on "crazed"
hahaha!
P.P.S. Can't wait 'til the Great Woods HORDE on the 8th... I'll see all you
N.E. Fivers there!
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 10:53:37 EDT
From: jtrzeciak@juno.com
Subject: DAYTON Armchairs Untie... er... Unite!
Anyone in the DAYTON, OHIO region or Miami Valley? If so, please write
to this email address: trzeciak@sprynet.com
After a week or so of emails, if a group does evolve, I will send each of
you an email list of Dayton Armchairs. Its use will be defined later!
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 23:41:15 -0400
From: schander@juno.com (joe s schanderson)
Subject: digest format
I for one, as a member of another band list which is sent out in
individual posts, LOVE the fact that we receive the armchair in digest
form. It makes it so much less tedius when I can just scroll down through
everything instead of opening 30 emails. I may be wrong, but I wouldn't
know it.
re: brick. No matter what it is really about, I think people(including
myself at one time) are struggling to find something else for it to be
about because they don't want it to be about abortion. It's harder to
listen to it that way. If you want to really get out the specs and look
for another reason, that's fine, but on the surface, just reading the
lyrics, I'll quote the band, "It's pretty obvious." On a lighter note, I
think "Kate" is about Ben's wife Kate. Uh...duh.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 18:04:27 -0400 (EDT)
From: MasterAEPi@aol.com
Subject: Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #419
anyone have ben folds videos to trade?????from live shows?
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Apr 1997 23:17:55 +0100
From: paul.leung@virgin.net (paul.leung@virgin.net)
Subject: liveconcerts.com
Hey!
Where is that concert? I've looked and I'ce looked and I just can't
locate anything by Ben Folds Five like people said there were!
Singles released in UK: Underground, Where's summer B?, Battle of who
could care less and Kate!
Anthony
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 29 Apr 1997 23:17:55 +0100
From: paul.leung@virgin.net (paul.leung@virgin.net)
Subject: liveconcerts.com
Hey!
Where is that concert? I've looked and I'ce looked and I just can't
locate anything by Ben Folds Five like people said there were!
Singles released in UK: Underground, Where's summer B?, Battle of who
could care less and Kate!
Anthony
------------------------------
End of Magical Armchair Digest V1 #420
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