AI, Threads, and a whole lotta love, babeh


Big Daddy Cool ([email protected])
Sun, 26 Jul 1998 22:00:54 -0400 (EDT)


    Good morning, my friends and neighbors. Long time no see and hear.
You remember me, don't you? Daryl. Daryl Van Horn, at your service.
Pleased to me et you, won't you guess my name...?

   It has been too long, my darlings, but of course, there is always a
good reason for it. Graduate school at Yale is definitely as challenge,
between the courses in taphonomy, primate evolution, evolutionary theory,
and etc., my drinking schedule has been seriously compromised. But I
invite you to sit beside me, let me pour you a nice glass of Courvoisier,
and allow me to rub your shoulders and neck while I whisper to you my
latest thoughts on "that band," as I call them.

   First, I think that it's important to remember that the WIRE
contribution to the Amnesty International Fund Drive has been a little
slow. I realize that we are all a little tapped out, and that the POPMart
tour has emptied our bank accounts, but we must remember what we are
contributing to. We have a need to fufill, my friends, and let that need
be satisfied. I quote the JT tourbook re: AI:

   "Until this tour, I always thought of Amnesty International as a
well-meaning institution, but now I see that what they do is very vital,
and very day to day... There's so many of the world's countries involved
in torture and imprisonment without trial...everybody... has a part to
play in helping to change what's going on around them." - Edge July '86

   "To a prisoner, terrified and trying to survive another day, your
letter may bring life-sustaining hope. To a prison authority or
government official, your letter means that you're watching... If you
write a letter, you may save a life." - Propaganda for AI, JT Tourbook.

   "Further along the top table [at a press conference for the Conspiracy
of Hope tour], Cyrill Neville [of the Neville Bros.] listened skeptically
to the castigation of brutality and oppression worldwide... Nobody had
mentioned America yet. 'If you're black and on the street in this
country, you're oppressed,' Neville exploded. This was the first sign of
real anger this afternoon, an ironic reminder of the score..." (Dunphy's
Uforg. Fire, 1987:271).

   So, the bottom line: there are still people dying, maybe in your own
country. There are few things that can make you feel like you can make a
difference. Recycling, helping an elderly lady across the street, looking
someone of a different color or creed in the eye and saying hello in the
morning. But nothing feels like writing a letter and saying, you fuck,
you fucking asshole, I know, I KNOW what you're doing, and I will not rest
until everyone else knows. You will not get away with it, and I will make
you pay. Well, something like that, anyway.

   I urge all of you out there to just throw a buck, a pound, a mark, a
drachma, a peso. anything to this organization. Doing it via WIRE is a
nice way to do it, as it would be a large contribution from a fan base for
the most vocal band in the world (regarding the great sell-out, you may
notice that POP has the exhortations for the release of political prisoners
that JT and their other records had), and it also provides a way to send
money without wondering if you dollar or two will make a big difference in
the scheme of things. With you alone, it doesn't always seem that way.
With 200 of us, it is almost everything. Please pay attention to HEIDI
DUTTON'S pleas and respond. Thanks.

   So, now that the money thing is over with, let's talk beats. There
was a discussion about vocal range, spontaneity, and raw power in U2 over
time. question for the thoughtful: I have noticed that I spend less and
less of my listening time with the early U2. This struck me as
interesting, and I wonder how much of it is just wanting to know the new
stuff as well as the old stuff, or if listening to the older material
just doesn't have the same impact for me. My meaning: U2's members have
grown so much since Boy that their latest material is far more compelling
than the earnest but awkward "Out of Control" and "Rejoice" of their
youth. I don't think it's\ me getting older, as I still get off on new
bands and their latest awkward steps toward soming to terms with
themselves, but the richness in lines like "love's a bully/pushing and
shoving/in the belly/of a woman" is something to savor (and no,. it's not
just about sex).

   The thread: do you find yourself listening to later U2 much more than
early U2, and why?

   On other music fronts, I simply haven't found something to light my
fire lately from the latest kids. I've got Tori's Choirgirl, Radiohead's
OK, and PJ's Yields (seeing them in Hartford, pretty fuckin; close to
the pit, BABAY!!) and have been checking my local college station (88.7 U.
New Haven, which has an eclectic if repepitive set list). I instead mine
the forgotten gems: I'm listening to Janis and BBHC Winterland '68 as we
speak, and have been wearing down my 'Mats LPs with use. I also found the
local used LP joint, so I have just sat in awe of AC/DC's Back in Black, a
masterpiece of its genre. I've been looking to pick up Tricky's latest
and Fatboy Slim, but music today seems much more oriented toward the
single rather than the album experience. Any recommendations? Note: my
wife and infant son have totally been grooving on the Backs \ boys, a
group that I find myself increasingly attracted to in a sexual manner,
which has been causing me great anxiety. Are they... hot?

   Another interesting point: having been on this list for quite a few
years now, it's interesting to see the massive drop in posts from the
tour's height to its current level. Have we lost the chaff, or are people
simply spent, and needing the U2 equivalent of Viagra? or maybe it's for
the best, given the Best passages we haver had lately.

   Well, I guess that I should send this off. time to wrap the shawl back
around your glistening shoulders, finish the last of your ambrosia, and
give me that soft look that says goodnight, but you really don't have to
go if you don't want to. But, go I must, so I look forward to hearing
from all you little Satellites of Love in the near future.

   Bom Bom Bom...

   BDC
      



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