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

I've just been on-line there's a lot of stuff.
Dr. Demento's been playing some of their stuff for years on a syndicated radio show.
Several university sites have copyright-allowed lyrics posted.
Stupid question. Could we do the entry in bad verse?

When I was doing my entry on mumming type folk plays I linked to a couple of university sites where there were full texts for the plays. Maybe we could quote small amounts.

I have sleeve notes as probably have you. Some of the songs were so widely known at one time that they became part of the national consciousness. Songs like 'The Gas Man Cometh', 'Transport of Delight', 'The Song of Patriotic Prejudice' (one of my particular favourites) and the ubiquitous 'Hippopotamus Song'.

If you have a look at the entry for the band 'The Police', there are huge swathes of lyrics quoted. I thought the entry might breach copyright, but I think as long as you are sparing, it may be acceptable.

Have you thoughts on the skeleton of the entry? Would you prefer to do the lot, or should we share the work?

The sites I've seen so far suggest that there are a dozen duets legally running around the US doing their catalog as shows. One fellow, with the permission of the estates, is doing stuff they never recorded.
Tom Lehrer cites them as an influence in an interview.
I was thinking of knocking out a rough outline
then filling in the bones.

What about my suggestion about doing it in bad verse?

Actually, I think that the fewer lyrics we use, the shorter we can make the entry. Titles should pique enough interest, as there are at least three comprehensive cd sets and they really didn't write that much together.
I think an intent to be entertaining rather than pedantic might suit the guide more, though I may be aiming so high that it takes a howitzer, rather than the pop gun it will probably turn out to be.

We know when they were born-first part
We know when they died-last part
Lives and philosophy-second part
careers-fourth part
importance to anything-third part.....with reference to people they influenced.

Feel free to tell me when you think I'm p***ing in the wind.

Oh, I say, Just zis Guy has got in pretty sharpish and done and entry!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A658857

Not three bad! Needs a little polish and definitely a couple of lines from the 'Song of Patriotic Prejudice. What do you think?

I like that decorator song, what was it "House & Garden"?
Where they put rush matting on the walls and wallpaper on the floor?
By the way, it's 'tonsil revenge', no 's' on 'tonsil'.
Sorry.

Okay. Well, what next? I've got half a quarter of my hard drive filled with Flanders and Swann bumpf! What to do with it, what to do with it.....

Wellllll, crud! If I don't find something to do, I might have to go ahead and finish the damn novel.

Bossel wants me to become a scout. Uh, uh....

Sorry, Tonsil Revenge! (why Tonsil Revenge?)

Yes, give it some thought. I've just become a scout.

Why not contact Just zis Guy and suggest expanding the entry. There is a facility for more than one person being credited. What you have is likely to complement his stuff. When I saw it, I mentioned that you would be interested in the entry.

Tonsil Revenge is the name of a character I've lived with for over a decade. he started out in bad play, cropped up in bad short story and that escalated into a series of abandoned drafts that led to some sick thinking that dribbled into a bad novel which I'm avoiding working on the second draft of.
I bopped over and complimented JZG on his entry and thanked him for yanking the task out from under me.
I can't really think of much to add to it. Besides, I'm intimidated by him. I've read most of his past entries. He's confident and has a reason to be.

You don't sound like the type of person who would be intimidated by anyone!

Maybe you could do one on Tom Lehrer, if there's not one already. That would be good and I for one would enjoy it. I promise not to mention it to anyone so they can't nick the idea.

Which gives me an idea - I might do something on Music Hall songs (again if there's nothing already on it). I think it became Burlesque later in America - or is that something entirely different?

(...Brain slow to react) What was that about stuff they never recorded? I'm definitely interested in that. Do you have any more details? If you do decide to do something on Tom Lehrer, you could include it in that!

Sorry, I just got here. I had to come in through the back door at the BBC Radio Kent site. The server connection between NY and London has apparently gone splut!
Yes, Tom Lehrer was in the back of my mind. I've got a pile of stuff on him.
Oh, yes, I am intimidateable. I cower.....then I bite. When they're not looking. Then I run.
As for the stuff they didn't record, apparently it was stuff done in shows and with and for other people that they didn't choose to record as F and S. I'll see if I can find the person's name.

I think the server problem was a lot bigger than BBC. If you do decide to become a Scout, you'll be part of an e-group and you get to hear a lot of off-site talk. Most of yesterday's and the day before's was about the problems people had accessing the site and the h2g2 team told all the e-groups the reason why.

I do hope you'll do the Tom Lehrer. You sound much quicker off the mark than me, although I did do the Heracles entry for the University in a weekend, but it was very concentrated stuff - not really to be repeated.

Have you thought about the Scout thing? Bossel supported me in becoming one.

Um, you're talking to a guy who who's novel is sitting in a shoebox at his feet.
Took me ten years to do the first draft.
Second draft may be done before I die.
No, I have some ideas for the Tom Lehrer piece. I just read an interview with him as part of the F and S research.
I might do a rip off the top of my head piece on my space.
There is a an eric idle 'noel coward' bit on one of the Pithon albums,
something like "Isn't it awfully nice to have a Penis".
Well, a generation or two of Yanks have no idea who Noel is, so when they see a fellow with a piano being silly, they think of Mark Russell, or Tom Lehrer, or Marvin Hamlisch, or Jerry Lee Lewis, or
that danish guy who just died (I think), aaahhh, Victor Borge!
And some of them think Tom Lehrer is British! Being from Boston, I suppose he could be. The Tories have been plotting underground for a long, long time. Look at the Kennedies.

I don't know who Mark Russell is and the Eric Idle ditty had escaped me (or I just can't remember it). I didn't know Victor Borge had just died. He was *incredibly* silly.

Do you remember Hoffnung? Well I'm not sure I knew him first time round. A bit 'old' sounding, but quite dotty. I remember his version of 'Why Murphy's not at work today' - the one about the workman, the pulley and the bucket of bricks. He had immaculate timing.

Now Noel - probably loads of young Brits have never heard of him either.

Both little 'un and I are a bit off colour today, so having just become and ACE and a Scout, I'm going to skive by having an early night, but I sort of feel I shouldn't.

Well, feel better soon. I don't know if we are destined to help with our child's immunities or they are are supposed to test ours. I often get whatever infantis rodentia is carrying.
Anyway, I just cranked out some rot in the form of the beginning of an entry on my space. So, if you have time, take a look at it and feel free to spew on it because you're going to get saddled with a co-researcher tag. I'm not going down that dark route alone.

I'm going there straight away to have a look.

And you're right. He got it first, then I got it! However, I'm sure he'll recover just in time to go and see the Harry Potter film tomorrow!

Take ear plugs, a tiny torch, and a book.
I've seen It. It's about as long as 'Lawrence Of Arabia'.

I can see you were impressed!

My little 'un cried his eyes out when an earlier trip arranged by someone else fell though. I'm part way through reading the second book to him at present and he's engrossed.

You've completely revamped your space! I was completely thrown at first. Some of the things on your 'like' list seem to be looped/nested(?). Was that intentional?

It's quite interesting to see how people approach subjects differently. I've an entry in progress - well progress seems a bit like overstatement - on firewalking. There's not much more than headings there at the moment.

Have you given more thought to being a Scout?

Oh, yeah the nesting/looping was intentional. I haven't gotten around to reading the Guide ML page yet and I don't have a printer set up yet. So I'm playing with text arrangement.

I warned you that it was written off the top of my head. That's what I do. I plow in with my faulty memory, get a rhythm going and go back later and put in the facts.

I figure if we put 10 man hour in on this thing, bop it into PR, ignore them for a week, read the thread, fix it, and wait for the scouts.

I haven't gotten around to investigating the scout thing yet. I'm messing around trying to get some of the stuff in the flea market and AWW back up and running. JWF and Lucinda are working on some way to get some of the remaindered stuff into the Post in a weekly column.
I'm just trying to find an excuse to write humor on a regular basis.
That's why I started talking to JWF about the AGGH and the Comedy Workshop, both of which are suffering.

I strongly suggest you take a toy for the springoff. A lot of them were restless last night. And have some favorite music in the vehicle for afterward. The john williams score will seem familiar.

I've not got a printer set up either, which can be a bit of a stopper. When I need to see things, I send tthem to work and print them there, but I do it very sparingly as we're not supposed to do stuff for our own benefit. I did that for the basic GuideML page and after a bit of fiddling (I'd never used it, or html before) seem to be fairly OK with it now.

I've a full day with sprog today, Saturday Club, film, then swimming lessons, but I will do some poking and prodding to see if I can find useful stuff to contribute to the entry.. (I'm quite happy for you to take all the credit for it - I'm sure my stuff will be fairly incidental.) I'll start with something on Victoria Wood - just a couple of lines. I think she was born in about 1952/3 in Bury, Lancashire (as it was then, it's now Greater Manchester [ptui]) and she's been on TV for at least 20 years doing stand up, playing the piano and singing, and sitcoms and she's also written a lot of stuff for other people. That might be all you want to know, as the entry is about Tom Lehrer!

I suspect you know an awful lot more than I do about Tom Lehrer, so I'm conscious that any stuff I send to you, you probably know about anyway.

What's AWW and AGGH by the way?