I don't really have anything to report just now. You'd think that would mean I wouldn't bother writing an entry at all, wouldn't you? When I haven't written in a while, though, I feel like I should at least post something, even if it's totally insignificant. I'm not sure why, since hardly anyone ever reads my entries anyway, and I get the impression that most of the people who do don't care about them. Oh, well.
Today, I got my copy of the Fastbacks' New Mansions in Sound in the mail. I also got a call from Longwood Gardens, and I should be going there and doing some cataloging two weeks from today. I've also been spending some time looking at This Might Be a Wiki. A pipe dream of mine was to make a database of information about They Might Be Giants songs, but I never had the skill or the industriousness to actually do something with that idea, so I'm glad someone else came out with something similar. I put up a few of my own interpretations of songs. I've been interested in interpreting TMBG songs for some time, but a lot of my earlier takes were probably a bit on the ridiculous side. I came up with the idea that "Chess Piece Face" was about the Red King from Through the Looking-Glass, but I think that was based pretty much entirely on the line, "But I don't believe he's dreaming." Still an interesting idea, I think, but I doubt it's something the Johns were thinking of when writing the song. I also remember thinking that "Mainstream USA" was about homophobia, but I never really did much with that. Then there was the time I tried to connect all of the TMBG lyrics about writing on foreheads or scalps. I get the impression that a lot of people aren't interested in interpreting songs, but I've always found it kind of fascinating, at least as far as TMBG goes. I think earlier TMBG songs are more open to interpretation, though. Their more recent songs are still pretty weird, but nowhere near as esoteric as the early stuff.
EDIT: By the way, when reading newsgroups in Outlook Express, is there any way to mark all posts made before a certain date as read? I remember I used to be able to do this on Netscape's newsgroup reader, but I haven't been able to figure out if it's possible with Outlook Express.
Today, I got my copy of the Fastbacks' New Mansions in Sound in the mail. I also got a call from Longwood Gardens, and I should be going there and doing some cataloging two weeks from today. I've also been spending some time looking at This Might Be a Wiki. A pipe dream of mine was to make a database of information about They Might Be Giants songs, but I never had the skill or the industriousness to actually do something with that idea, so I'm glad someone else came out with something similar. I put up a few of my own interpretations of songs. I've been interested in interpreting TMBG songs for some time, but a lot of my earlier takes were probably a bit on the ridiculous side. I came up with the idea that "Chess Piece Face" was about the Red King from Through the Looking-Glass, but I think that was based pretty much entirely on the line, "But I don't believe he's dreaming." Still an interesting idea, I think, but I doubt it's something the Johns were thinking of when writing the song. I also remember thinking that "Mainstream USA" was about homophobia, but I never really did much with that. Then there was the time I tried to connect all of the TMBG lyrics about writing on foreheads or scalps. I get the impression that a lot of people aren't interested in interpreting songs, but I've always found it kind of fascinating, at least as far as TMBG goes. I think earlier TMBG songs are more open to interpretation, though. Their more recent songs are still pretty weird, but nowhere near as esoteric as the early stuff.
EDIT: By the way, when reading newsgroups in Outlook Express, is there any way to mark all posts made before a certain date as read? I remember I used to be able to do this on Netscape's newsgroup reader, but I haven't been able to figure out if it's possible with Outlook Express.