h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Marv, congratulations on demonstrating your knowledge. May any future employer recognize your worth and potential.

Ben, whatever it is must be good. Share and enjoy.

Spork-E: Sad to see you go, buddy. Do take the time to lurk. Drop a comment on occasion. It ~has~ been fun while it lasted.

Just to clarify our American dialect:
Jelly = some form of fruit preserve, usually made with pectin
Jell-O = brand name of a gelatin dessert, available in many colors and flavors, advertised most effectively by the comedian Bill Cosby

Tattoos: I can get the artwork on a lithograph and hang it on a wall. No pain...no pain.

Piercings: I've found myself entranced by a few nose piercings I've seen. They were tastefully done with just a tiny diamond stud showing right at the crease of the nostril. I'm certain there must have been some inconvenience in the actual piercing, and the stud inside the nasal cavity surely has some physical presence for the wearer. However, the effect of the decoration was such that it definitely added to the person's "face value."

Endorphins: Piercings and tattoos may bring on this feeling of a physical rush, but there are other activities that will do the same. Certain sporting activities with a high degree of risk have gained popularity because of it. Getting cranked up while on an amusement park ride such as a roller coaster is another way to experience it. Good sex, done right, is one of the easiest methods to reach this state. Unfortunately, it's a physical state that's temporary and that's why people seek out many alternate methods to achieve it.

We may never see something like Larry Niven described in his Ringworld novel: a droud, which was an electronic connection to the pleasure synapses, and could be controlled by the user to extend that endorphin flood to the brain. In the story, Niven posits that even that technology would have its junkies. They would defeat the timer mechanism, plug in, turn on, forego all other activities (work, social life, eating), and likely die the most pleasurable death imaginable while still hooked up. Just a story, but you know some people would go that route.

B4ifindahandywallsocketforthisthing

[GDZ]

Ben, I will leave that as an excersize for the student. I won't go in to a clinical definition of what an apa is.

Thanks for the congrats. I guess this means that I keep my job for a while longer yet.

Good morning y'all. *gets a cup of tea and a bun and sits down with the paper to read about the Fahrenheit 9/11 parties*

GDZ, what's Rush?

Rush, the band from the 70's. Great drummer, sort of boring songs (Tom Sawyer).

Canadian rock band.

Marv seems to have something against rock so, I wouldn't necessarily trust his judgement on their being boring.

Rush dot com has a sampling of their tunes on the highspeed portion.

The band, perhaps, featuring Geddy Lee on vocals? Did I spell his name correctly? Excellent forward-thinking band that had quite a few outstanding songs. "Tom Sawyer" is the one most folks hear on the radio play lists, though it's not their best work. Best theme album was "2112," which posited a future scenario where music is outlawed / arcane and only a few "priests" know of it. A young kid finds a guitar amongst the rubble of a war-torn world, experiments with it, and becomes "a natural." This invokes the wrath of the PTB, and they try to quell the music. However, the art will out, and the young rebel prevails.

There was another tune of theirs I thought about recently during an exercise in free association:

Phil [?] noted the eclipse of the sun
The Police - "King of Pain" - "There's a little black spot on the sun today..."
Sting - "Englishman in New York" - "I'm an alien, I'm a legal alien..."
Genesis - "It's No Fun Being an Illegal Alien"
Billy Thorpe - "Children of the Sun"
Queen - "In the Year of 39"
Rush - "Cygnus X-1"

Now you've had a glimpse of how I tie disparate ideas together, I should warn you not to turn over any of the rocks or other debris you may find littering my mind.

B4irambleincessantly...2late

I like rock, but I am sick of classic rock (with the exception of Pink Floyd of course). Rush has arguably the greatest rock drummer. Geddy Lee, however, annoys me when he sings.

I still like some heavy metal from the 80's (though MikeA would disagree as to the designation of heavy metal I am sure) like Def Leppard and some others. But the hard rock stuff just does not do it for me any more.

I pretty much have regressed into the music of my youth and am listening to a ton of New Wave and alt rock from the 80s and 90s. Hence my current obsession with Berlin.

Now, if Pink Floyd ever tours again (unlikely) I will do everything in my power to get tickets.

Oh, Rush the band! Right. I think there was a movie called Rush with Jennifer Leigh and Jason Patric. And I was pretty sure you weren't going to see Rush Limbaugh.

B4, "Year of '39 is my favourite Queen song, and IMHO the best song on "A Night and the Opera". Glad to see other people enjoy it.

I am finding of late that many of my favourite songs by various artists are not their hits. Examples:
Thomas Dolby "Hyperactive"
Ah-Ha "Cry Wolf"
Primus "Have a Cigar" -a cover of the Pink Floyd tune.

The radio station I listen to ( http://www.kjq.com ) is an alt rock/new wave station and they tend to play many of the more obscure songs along with the hits.

Best theme album was "2112," which posited a future scenario where music is outlawed / arcane and only a few "priests" know of it. A young kid finds a guitar amongst the rubble of a war-torn world, experiments with it, and becomes "a natural." This invokes the wrath of the PTB, and they try to quell the music. However, the art will out, and the young rebel prevails.


Sounds very much like a sci-fi short story I read once, but the ending was very sad (I remember crying when I read it) - now, if I could only remember the author...

Actually, Ti, that sounds like a fairly common template for Sci-Fi. I find that a lot of older (now) music lends itself very well to Sci-Fi.

Two prime examples are the sister songs from David Bowie and Peter Schilling. "Major Tom" and "Ground Control to Major Tom" respectivly. They both tell a great story of an astronaut. Pink Floyd has a space reference with "Set the controls for the heart of the sun".

What other songs are good examples of musical Sci Fi?

Let me point out that Def Leppard is not Metal. Metallica, Megadeath, and Tool are metal.

When I watched back a tape of a programme that went out about the transit of venus, they had a small but where they linked to Sir Patrick Moore's house. He was recording bits for the Sky At Night and in the background was the much frothy haired Dr Brian May, a good friend of Sir Patrick's I believe (so double link to ya B4)

I think I saw Primus supporting Rush, when they were in the UK doing the Roll The Bones Tour back in '92, wasn't impressed with them. Rush put on a good show though.

Bye Sporky. Nice to see people are still getting you and me mixed up . Maybe I should just change my name again. To "luther Blissett" maybe.

You know, I currently have red hair. It was meant to go blonde, but I don't think I put enough hair dye on.

Maybe I should call myself "Sunderland Redhead"

And here I thought GDZ was going to see Limbaugh as well.

A terrible example of a sci-fi "rock" song--and this stretches the definition of rock n' roll--is that kitchy song from the 1960's "In the Year 2929". I don't remember who commited the crime of recording it, but it goes something like:

In the year 2929
yadda yadda yadda (something bizarre is happening)
In the year 3939
yadda yadda yadda (something is happening)
In the year 4949
yadda yadda yadda (something terrible is happening)

It goes on to 9999 and you get the picture.

It was "in The Year 2525" by Zager and Evans.

Here we go- http://www.lyricsdownload.com/zager-and-evans-in-the-year-2525-exordium-and-terminus-lyrics.html

I used to know that one off by heart!

Hmm, Tool is more like NuMetal.