The National Midnight Star #629

From temples@syrinx.umd.edu Tue Feb 23 19:15:18 1993 Return-Path: <temples@syrinx.umd.edu> Received: from syrinx.umd.edu by dsys.ncsl.nist.gov (4.1/NIST-dsys) id AA03617; Tue, 23 Feb 93 19:15:15 EST Received: by syrinx.umd.edu (5.57/Ultrix2.4-C) id AA18879; Tue, 23 Feb 93 18:30:08 -0500 Date: Tue, 23 Feb 93 18:30:08 -0500 Message-Id: <9302232330.AA18879@syrinx.umd.edu> Errors-To: rush-request@syrinx.umd.edu Reply-To: rush@syrinx.umd.edu Sender: rush@syrinx.umd.edu Precedence: bulk From: rush@syrinx.umd.edu To: rush_mailing_list@syrinx.umd.edu Subject: 02/23/93 - The National Midnight Star #629 Status: R
** ____ __ ___ ____ ___ ___ ** ** / /_/ /_ /\ / /__/ / / / / /\ / /__/ / ** ** / / / /__ / \/ / / / / /__/ / \/ / / /___ ** ** ** ** __ ___ ____ ** ** /\ /\ / / \ /\ / / / _ /__/ / ** ** / \/ \ / /___/ / \/ / /___/ / / / ** ** ** ** ____ ____ ___ ___ ** ** /__ / /__/ /__/ ** ** ____/ / / / / \ ** List posting/followup: rush@syrinx.umd.edu Administrative matters: rush-request@syrinx.umd.edu or rush-mgr@syrinx.umd.edu (Administrative postings to the posting address will be ignored!) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The National Midnight Star, Number 629 Tuesday, 23 February 1993 Today's Topics: Neil, Lyrics, and Boulderdash (none) Help with Rush GIF Files!!!! Dream Theater list is *HERE*! <public service announcement> Sign of Eth Who DAT? Stuff Caress of Steel Tour...the unknown? My supposed statement Okay, I admit it! Re: The Sign of Eth apologies laser set list; un dreamo strangiato Tour dates listing Permanent Waves cover Re: The Sign of Eth MTV and a Rockumentary ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1993 15:56:38 -0500 From: Smoove <fontaine@wam.umd.edu> Subject: Neil, Lyrics, and Boulderdash Listen fellas, I know every one of you, no matter what you say, would love it if Rush published a book with the 'official' meanings of every song that they have written and performed. That way, you could mosey into your local bookstore, pick up the book, find your favorite song and tear the page out, drop the book and leave. Well, you can forget it. If Neil were to sit here and spoon-feed symbolism to you, you would appreciate the quality of the lyrics much much less, I assure you. Although it I agree that it would be cool to know what exactly the band was thinking when they wrote the songs, you people simply can't crucify Neil for being a little fed up. I mean, twenty years of the same questions for new fans would piss me off too. (Sorry if this came off like a flame) Questions, comments, Stimulating arguments to: ---fontaine@wam.umd.edu--- p.s. if anyone has ANY info for ANY boots from the 2112 tour, PLEASE write me, so I can, uh, promptly arrest you and confiscate the boots. :) ---------------------------------------------------------- From: wvgray@1302.watstar.uwaterloo.ca Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1993 16:20:57 EST I haven't noticed any other posts about this, but here goes. I was partying with some friends, and they were playing Bare Naked Ladies 'Grade Nine', or whatever its called, and in the middle comes a thundering clip from Tom Sawyer! A bit later, there is a small chunk of Spirit of Radio, and an even smaller bit of La Villa Strangiato and one more at the very end that I can't recognize (I wish I had my tapes with me!) Has anyone else heard this? Unfortunately, the people I were with didn't seem to appreciate the significance of this, and were actually surprised that those pieces were from another group. Sigh. WVGray - UWaterloo, Waterloo, Ontario Canada ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Feb 93 19:52:23 EST From: matthew-d Klain <klain@gauss.rutgers.edu> Subject: Help with Rush GIF Files!!!! Hello to everyone in computerland!!! I've only had a computer account for a short time and I have greatly been enjoying NMS!! I am very interested in finding out how to use GIF files. All this talk of digitized RUSH photos has gotten me quite enthralled with the idea. I have no idea as to how I would go about using GIF files in General. Anyone who can send me any info to get me started with them so that I may call up some of these 'real keen' files would be doing me a great service. It seems as though the UNIX operating system is about as user friendly as a locked door with no keyhole. (sorry for the poor attempt at a metaphor). Thanks a lot!!! KLAIN@GAUSS.RUTGERS.EDU -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE BUT WHO THE HELL ARE WE?? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1993 19:58:52 -0500 From: mcmahan@cs.unca.edu (Scott McMahan -- Genesis mailing list owner) Subject: Dream Theater list is *HERE*! <public service announcement> Just to let everyone know that a Dream Theater mailing list is HERE! Please don't use NMS -- use the new list! (It needs some discussion going!) DREAM THEATER Ytsejam To subscribe, send: subscribe ytsejam Your Name to ytsejam-request@bnf.com (replacing Your Name with your real name). Also: set ytsejam digest to get a digest (the default is bounce!) Now back to your regular "how good is Peart" debate... :) Scott -- >...I will choose free will! (Rush) ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: 22 Feb 1993 18:04:47 -0600 (MDT) From: BROWNEA@CC.UVCC.EDU Subject: Sign of Eth I replied on this, but maybe it didn't get through. When I heard this, I looked it up in a dictionary so that I could try to find out who By-Tor was. This was about 12 years ago, so I'm not guaranteeing acuracy. Eth (AKA edh - look them both up for more info...) is an older designation for the 'th' sound. I seem to remember reading that Edh was the symbol of a god which was used as a battle standard way-way-back-when. Therefore the 'sign of eth' rising in the air is a battle standard to rally 'round. Earl brownea@cc.uvcc.edu ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: 22 Feb 1993 20:51:09 -0500 (EST) From: ASILVERM@umiami.IR.Miami.EDU Subject: Who DAT? Hi all, I just thought I'd comment on a few things from yesterday's issue. You can all stop worrying about albums ever being mastered on dcc or MD, since these formats are basically crud compared to DAT, ADAT, CD, or any of the others which are currently used. On the other hand, don't go off and buy yourself a DAT deck unless you're willing to spend a fortune on making your own high quality boots(or master your own band. . .). There are several reasons why DAT will never reach the price level of the other formats. For one thing, the mechanics of the system are too expensive to produce. There is a point at which they can't lower production costs any more and the price level gets stuck. They have pretty much conceded the death of DAT as a consumer format and are concentrating on marketing it to the professional sound industry, where they can get away withthe high price level. Don't worry, we've got until the fall to choose a favorite format before we have to buy the next Rush album! And about vinyl sounding better than CD, you can't beat a good record on a good system. . .the first couple of times you play it. Of course, each time that needle scrapes away at the recording information, whereas a CD has a rather lengthy lifespan. Everything electronic will be obsolete in 5 years anyway, so let's all move to a cave and sing Rush songs to each other while foraging for food. "Everybody's got to devalate from the norm???" Aaron Silverman ASILVERM@UMIAMI P.S. 3 days 'till Neely Time!!! P.P.S. Which will happen first: The 'Canes lose at home or win on the road??? ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1993 20:07:47 -0600 From: Jason Crawford <me12792@camelot.bradley.edu> Subject: Stuff Hey all. It has been a long time since my last post (sounds like a confessional). I think that it is great that a Dream Theater list is being set up. They are a good band who should become very popular. I was wondering what the status of the new album is thus far. Anyone know? Another thing, do you think that I should tell my friend to piss off because I won't change my message on my answering machine. It says, " Hi this Alex Lifeson of Rush and this is Geddy Lee of Rush." I taped their voices off of Rockline or In The Studio. One of those two. I like it. Finally, (unrelated to rush) are there any Phi Tau's reading this list? Or, if any of you know any Phi Tau's addresses, could you give them to me. Thanks a lot. -Jason -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [][][][][] [][] [][] [][][][][] [][] --"Use the key, unlock the [][] [][] [][] [][] [][] -- door. See what fate might [][] [][] [][] [][][][][] [][][][][] -- have in store. Come explore [][] [][] [][] [][] [][] [][] -- your dream's creation. Enter [][] [][][][][] [][][][][] [][] [][] -- this world of imagination." ---------------------------------------------------------- Neil Peart --------- -- Lerxst on IRC -- Phi Kappa Tau -- Gamma Mu -- me12792@camelot.bradley.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1993 20:30 CST From: CUBSFAN@OREAD.CC.UKANS.EDU Subject: Caress of Steel Tour...the unknown? Why is the Caress of Steel tour such a mystery? On the boot list, or in the complete Rush tour listing, or anywhere for that matter, there is no information on the CoS tour. I know it was a failure, and in Visions it says the band called it the "Down the Tubes" tour, so it probably didn't last too long, but they still must have played at least a couple dozen shows...somebody must know where they were, even for a couple nights of the tour...did any NMS readers go to a CoS show? The FBN tour is well documented, and so is the 2112 tour..dates are known, and boots exist...but neither existed for the CoS tour. Is this tour just wiped out of history....George Orwell couldn't have done better with this '1984'-style erasing of history :-) [ If you check with the tour list, it says that only 40 shows were played over the course of 3 and a half months. I also remember reading that most were in the MIDWEST area, although no exact places. : rush-mgr ] Does anyone know anything about the CoS tour...this mystery has been bugging me since I first got into Rush! cubsfan@oread.cc.ukans.edu Mike Silverman Support President Clinton's Economic Plan. ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1993 19:30:31 -0700 (MST) From: jeffrey r brinkman <brinkmaj@helium.GAS.uug.Arizona.EDU> Subject: My supposed statement I gotta think of a new way to say hello, I just read that one of my (supposed) friends [ :) ] at Iowa State, Bing, has said that I said that Rush did their own sound at the shows. Hmmm, well, I just can't seem to remember what I was talking about, so suspend your flames until I find out what I was referring to! Uh... unless I'm correct, then you may compliment me all you want!!! BTW on the 4th issue, Bing told me that his MOM was a fourth member for the Show of Hands tour. She actually played drums. Neil was only FAKING his drum lines. He was having a real bout with that bone cancer of his, and she filled in for him!!!!! :) I heard this from the Dali Llama, or whoever took that picture for the GUP album, (or was it Itzhak Perlman?) :) Take that, Bing. Oh ya, for all you guys starting the DT newsgroup, I thought of a good name for it. How about "I DREAM of a good band"?? HeHeHe. No offense intended, none taken I hope. I'm not flaming here, just playing around! On the question yesterday about the 2112 banner. I've got one, and so so about 3 of my friends. We all got them in the Midwest. Mine in KC and the others were in Omaha and Minneapolis, I think. But mine was from some kinda banner stand in the middle of a mall in KC!!! I was amazed. It only cost me about 10 bucks I think. BTW it looks cool if you get some of that glow in the dark paint, and outline the entire star, man and 2112 logo with a thin line of it. I did this and put it on my wall. Way cool. I think I've said enough stupid stuff for today. Jeff Brinkman Univeristy of Arizona Biochem can be your friend! ---------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Okay, I admit it! Date: Mon, 22 Feb 93 22:37:24 CST From: dts@quad.sialis.com (David Sandberg) I suppose it's time to fess up... Gregg Jaeger writes: > If I recall correctly, the comment "That was fifteen years ago -- get a > life" which has been attributed to Neil as a response to a question > about the meaning of some fifteen-year-old lyrics, was someone's > _attempt_ to recall the _actual_ comment Neil made... I've been reading the lengthy discussion centering on Neil's "fifteen years ago!" response to an interview question about "the inspiration of the Fountains of Lamneth" with some chagrin and discomfort, since that particular interview question happened to be one which I proposed to the interviewer. (Actually, I believe I added "only ask this if he seems to be in a *really* forthcoming mood". So much for that idea. B-) Anyway, when I saw that it had been asked and read Neil's response to it, I have to admit that I was more than a little shook and embarrassed. I felt like I had been slapped down by someone for whom I had a great deal of respect, and to this day I regret having proposed that question. I also have to admit it has slightly affected my perception of Mr. Peart, in that as much as I love the band's music, I would not care to meet the guy anymore. In fact I wouldn't want to meet Geddy or Alex either, for fear of being similarly upbraided for saying something they might perceive as stupid or irrelevant. By the way, although I don't have the interview online at the moment, I approximately recall the wording of his response to have been this: "Oh, come on! That was fifteen years ago!" There was no "get a life", at least; that would have really stung, particularly since I like to think I do have a life of sorts. B-/ > ...................................... It is hardly rude in itself > simply to decline comment on something written fifteen years ago. I've never understood what the time frame has to do with it. It's fine if someone doesn't care to explain their lyrics... a response along the lines of "it was inspired by whatever you think it was inspired by", or even a simple "I don't remember anymore", would have been great. But just because something is fifteen years old doesn't mean that it loses it's worth in the ears of a listener. Whereas to me the actual response sounded like Neil was virtually saying "I can't believe you're still listening to that old crap!", rather than being flattered that someone still found much of the old music worthy of continued appreciation. (As a final note, about three other questions of mine also were posed to Mr. Peart in the same interview, and a couple of them did get reasonably nice responses, which at least made me feel a bit better about my contribution to the interview as a whole.) -- \ david sandberg dts@quad.sialis.com / | "oh well - give me an easy life and a peaceful death..." | / << The Sundays, "Goodbye" >> \ ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1993 22:46:30 -0600 (CST) From: MuffinHead <smills@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu> Subject: Re: The Sign of Eth I remember looking up "eth" in the dictionary after I found my brother's FBN album in '74 or '75. In fact, I looked up a LOT of words from that album back then. :D From American Heritage: eth n. Variant of edh. edh n. 1. A letter appearling in Old English, Old Saxon, Old Norse, and modern Icelandic to represent an interdental fricative. 2. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet representing the interdental voiced fricative, as in /the/, /with/. An edh looks like: \_--~\ \ -~~- / \ { } \ / ~-~ Well, sorta. Like a lower-case "o" with a wavy propellor. What symbolism an edh has in By-Tor's tale, I have no idea. Muff ___________________________________________________________________________ smills@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu -=<*>=- MuffinHed@aol.com ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 23 Feb 93 00:03:57 -0600 From: Joshua Hyatt Weiss <jhweiss@lime.wustl.edu> Subject: apologies In yesterday's NMS, I had referred to the "cubsfan's" previous posting in which he discussed the fact as to whether Neil was an artist or entertainer. I accidently misquoted him as saying that Neil was only an entertainer, which is entirely untrue--he did concede that Mr. Peart was both. I apologize for this grave and irresponsible reference to his ideas. However, I do not take back the spirit of my argument, which still remains in disagreement with his. Sorry again, Josh Weiss jhweiss@lime.wustl.edu ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: 23 Feb 93 03:38:43 EST From: Bruce Holtgren <70724.1622@CompuServe.COM> Subject: laser set list; un dreamo strangiato So hey, everyone. This is not my first post to TNMS. For those wondering about the set list of the Rush laser show now playing in Cincinnati, it is (or at least was as of Feb. 13): Cygnus X-1 (spoken intro only) Fly By Night 2112 (Overture/Temples of Syrinx) The Trees (cool laser animation with this one!) Closer to the Heart Tom Sawyer Subdivisions Distant Early Warning Time Stand Still Presto (encore:) The Spirit of Radio The show is one hour and is well worth the six bucks. Info: (513) 345-8505. Tickets: (513) 749-4949. And now for something completely different. I must say I couldn't remember ever having a Rush dream - until this ridiculous thread got going. The other night I dreamed I went to a Rush concert, and there were *five* people in the band. Not only that, but Geddy was the only one of our heroes still in it. (Presumably Alex died of excessive belching, and Neil became so disgusted with people asking him what "Lamneth" means, he quit to become a corps drummer.) So stop it, you people. (And OK, now I will too.) >............................................................... ORQ: More than just a dotted line, more than just a ... ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1993 10:54:27 -0500 From: Scott David Daly <skipdaly@wam.umd.edu> Subject: Tour dates listing Hi there! It seems in this lull between albums and tours everyone starts grasping for Rush related topics to argue (discuss?) about...this can be tedious and many times annoying to some of us readers (SOME of you people really should work for The Enquirer). Anyway, the idea presented yesterday for everyone to help out with making the tour dates listing even more updated, more accurate, and all around better sounds like a damn good one to me! I find this listing to be an invaluable aid as a cross reference in collecting tapes and even if you don't do that, it's cool just to browse through for curiosity's sake. Someone mentioned yesterday about the St. Louis 2/14/80 or 3/16/80 confusion...well, that particular error has made me wonder quite a bit! It seems there are 2 bootleg lPs out there (Xanadu and The Temples of Syrinx) and now a couple bootleg cds (La Villa Strangiato and The Spirit Of St. Louis) that are all copies of the same show , but ALL OF THEM LIST DIFFERENT DATES!!! It has GOT to be either 2/14/80 or 3/16/80...Jimmy's list has those two dates on it...the question is : which one!? [ The 3/16/80 show is most likely wrong. I think it was a bootlegger's mistake that has perpetuated into the list. If you look at the show the day before, they were in San Francisco, and three days later in Washington?? I don't think that date is correct. The change will be made. :rush-mgr ] Since nobody seems to have anything better to do than argue (endlessly) about what Neil owes us or Rush's new horn section, maybe we could all pitch in and help Jimmy out with his list! It would benefit all of us as a reference. Perhaps someone could talk to Anthem about getting tour schedules...if we told them it was for a kind of fan club and we kept a listing, they MIGHT be willing to help us out. Also, talk to anyone you know that saw RUSH and try to get the date/venue/city of the show! I just thought this might be a semi-CONSTRUCTIVE thing to do (great...now I sound like Mr. Rogers.). Anyway, thanks to Jimmy for all the hard work in keeping the tour dates list going (once again...it's been an AWESOME REFERENCE...it's AMAZING how people can screw up show dates, ESPECIALLY bootleggers!). Let's fill in those COS dates!!! Skip ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 23 Feb 93 13:28:07 CST From: Michael D. Weston <westomd@mail.auburn.edu> Subject: Permanent Waves cover Ron Wiseman noted that the Anthem release of _Permanent Waves_ had the Freewill lyrics printed correctly, and asked about any other differences between the Mercury release and others. I don't have "Visions" with me, but if I remember correctly, there are several differences among the cover. In addition to the well-known missing headline, the billboards and signs are different in the background. The American Mercury release show billboards with the guys names on them (Peart written similar to the Coca-Cola wave (tm) and such), but other countries releases have actual advertisement names on the signs. Am I remembering this correctly? I don't know, but I am sure there are those who can verify or correct this, so please do. As far as I know, the cover was changed in these respects because of problems with U.S. trademark laws and not having permissions to use some trademarks. Mike Weston Rockin' forever westomd@mail.auburn.edu Religion and sex are power plays. Manipulate the people for the money they pay. We're selling skin, we're selling God; the numbers look the same on out credit cards. The politicians say no to drugs, while we pay for wars in Saudi Arabia. We're fighting fire with empty words, while the banks get fat and the poor stay poor and the rich get rich and the cops get paid to look away as the one percent rules america!!! --Queensryche Operation:Livecrime "Spreading the Disease" ---------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 23 Feb 93 14:16:38 EST From: Josh Beatty <IQM265@URIACC.URI.EDU> Subject: Re: The Sign of Eth Hopefully I can shed some light on the meaning of "the Sign of Eth"... "Eth" is a letter in the Old English alphabet that was dropped from the alphabet as it evolved into Middle and Modern English. It repre- sented the sound /th/, as in "cloth" for example. It looked like a lower- case "o" with a cross on top. Capitalized, it was like a "D" with a horiz- ontal line through the straight part. This was also the symbol used for a capitalized "Thorn", another Old English letter representing /th/. "Thorn" was adapted into the Old English alphabet from a Germanic rune of the same name. The rune, in its turn, was associated with the Gothic (as in the tribe of the Goths, not cathedrals) word "thurisaz", which meant "demon". So "Eth" itself has some historical background in representing demons and hell, obviously appropriate in the context of the song. I suppose I see "The sign of Eth is rising in the air..." in two ways: first, that it represents simply the demonic power in the Tobes of Hades, and secondly, that it represents By-Tor himself and that when the sign is, rising, By-Tor is coming forth from Hades to do battle with the Snow Dog (don't we assume usually that Hades is underground? By-Tor would have to rise to get out of there to most anyplace?) Just my thoughts. Maybe it's a coincidence. Josh Beatty "It's a test of ultimate will, iqm265@uriacc.uri.edu a heartbreak climb uphill..." University of Rhode Island - Neil Peart ---------------------------------------------------------- From: "Travis Williams" <F1TRAVIS%ILSTU.bitnet@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu> Subject: MTV and a Rockumentary Date: 23 FEB 1993 13:49 -00 I agree with Mr. Davis, in that Rush SHOULD have a rockumentary, although I'll chew on my shoelaces for an hour if MTV ever actually does one. Even if we do send them a lot of letters. It would take a huge amount of letters to get that done, and someone would most definitely have to spearhead that effort. I might be interested in it if we feel MTV is worthy of our attention, and you guys are interested. Enough said...more later. Trav. PAR-5: Mythical, mystical, in fact...just plain too much. ----------------------------------------------------------
To submit material to The National Midnight Star, send mail to: rush@syrinx.umd.edu For administrative matters (subscription, unsubscription, changes, and questions), send mail to: rush-request@syrinx.umd.edu or rush-mgr@syrinx.umd.edu There is now anonymous ftp access available on Syrinx. The network address to ftp to is: syrinx.umd.edu or 128.8.2.114 When you've connected, userid is "anonymous", password is <your userid>. Once you've successfully logged on, change directory (cd) to 'rush'. There is also a mail server available (for those unable or unwilling to ftp). For more info, send email with the subject line of HELP to: server@ingr.com These requests are processed nightly. Use a subject line of MESSAGE to send a note to the server keeper or to deposit a file into the archive. The contents of The National Midnight Star are solely the opinions and comments of the individual authors, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the authors' management, or the mailing list management. Copyright The Rush Fans Mailing List, 1993. Editor, The National Midnight Star (Rush Fans Mailing List) ******************************************** End of The National Midnight Star Number 629 ********************************************