Remember the database that I set up a couple of weeks ago? It swung into action last week, and Eris has employed two people to staff the phone lines well into the evening, expecting a flood of calls. At the end of one week, we've had fully 31 calls. The cost to the company is going to be something like GBP 40 per call. That's fine for Eris's pet project, but that sort of money buys three PCs, or a clerical person for a month and a half.

Add to this my physical state: I've been feeling under the weather for the past couple of weeks, and the cold snap has begun to make breathing more difficult. Not good at all.

A quick quiz, which (allegedly) is part of the tests for 11 year old kiddies.

1. Which of these properties applies only to solids?

• Keep their shape
• Take the shape of their container
• Flow easily
• Can be squashed into a smaller volume
• Are invisible

2. Magnetism is a force that can be measured in which of the following units?

• Kilograms
• Newton meters
• Metres
• Newtons

3. Which of the following metals would both be attracted to a magnet?

• Copper and tin
• Copper and aluminium
• Lead and iron
• Iron and mild steel

4. The Sun appears to move across the sky moving from east to west. Why is this?

• The Earth spins on its axis
• The Earth orbits the Sun
• The Moon orbits the Earth

5. There are 365 days in one year. Why is this?

• The earth spins on its axis
• The earth spins on its axis and orbits the sun
• The moon orbits the earth
• The earth orbits the sun

6. Which of the following is not a source of light?

• A glow-worm
• A star
• The moon
• Car headlamp

7. Sometimes planets do make their own light. Which of the following could not be a source of light on a planet?

• A cold, shiny surface
• Lightning
• Red hot lava from a volcano
• A rocket flame when taking off

8. A number that is formed by multiplying a number by itself is called a...

• Prime number
• Square number
• Cube number
• Triangle number

9. The last king of Rome was called...

• Romulus
• Tarquin the Proud
• Julius Caesar

10. For roughly how long had Rome already existed by the time Julius Caesar tried to invade Britain in 55 BC?

• 100 years
• 300 years
• 700 years
• 400 years

Answers

• 1. Keep their shape
• 2. Newtons
• 3. Iron and mild steel
• 4. The earth spins on its axis
• 5. The earth spins on its axis and orbits the sun
• 6. The moon
• 7. A cold, shiny surface
• 8. Square number
• 9. Tarquin the Proud
• 10. 700 years

I got nine, figuring that magnetism is measured by the Newton metre. Nope, that's a measurement of torque.

jaeda:
Yesterday, Heather took me out to the lake where we went the very first night we were together over 4 years ago...and PROPOSED!
No way!

With an engagement ring and down on one knee and everything!
Well! I am more than a little gobsmacked by this one. I kinda knew it was in the offing, but this really is fantabulous.

It's a quarter carat round (heather wants me to be sure to tell you guys that *I* wanted a stone that little, she wanted a bigger one...she thinks you guys will think she's cheap)
Heather? Cheap? Not a chance. She didn't pay at the parking meter because it was *out of order*... and the traffic cops didn't appear in an hour anyway.

..it's GORGEOUS and I was stunned.
Well, [hugs] for Jaeda, [hugs] for Heather, and Hurrah for them both.

An inch better in the afternoon, well enough to spot the problem in our training room. The computers there have a dial-out connection to the internet, and are dialing out for no obvious reason every half-hour or so. A good look with netstat shows they're connecting to a local address, which turns out to be our new anti-virus server. Whip that from the PCs. This anti-virus stuff has been no end of trouble - our field users are still experiencing problems, and it's caused no end of trouble in the office. Basically, the cure may be worse than the problem.

That could also be said of my cold. It finally explodes into life late afternoon, sending me packing off to bed early evening for the night.

Tori jaeda:
I AGREE! I was afraid to say so, but the only song of Tori's I get is Silent All These Years...the rest...well...huh?
I think it's possible to appreciate Tori's works on lots of levels. Most of her songs, especially from the first two albums, were straightforward Good Songs, musically and lyrically. From a musical theory viewpoint, her piano playing is exemplary, and the orchestration is similar to the standard classical orchestras reach.

And there's the message behind the tune, the underlying emotional content. This is something else entirely.

pretty she is, but I don't think even *she* knows what on earth she's singing about.
I reckon she does. And that it's possible for The Rest Of Us to get an idea with enough hard work. It's not easy, mind.

I decided a while back that she wrote her songs with magnetic poetry....the same way Jewel wrote her *book* of poetry
[chortle]

No, that's lyricists for the pop bands. Picking cliches from the bag.

Alicia Keyes took me to a level above like tho...I was...speechless...astounded...gaping open mouthed at the TV...I have since watched my tape of the performance roughly 36 times.
It's good. It's very good. But thirty-six times in one weekend? That's almost as often as the McDougals commercial airs.

Victoria
Little Earthquakes came out in 1991 (or was it 90?).
For some reason, I can tell you UK release date to be 20-Jan-92. Don't ask why. The next two albums came out in the last week of January.

when the only popular female singers were Whitney and Mariah and Paula.
We had Whiney and Cantsing. Abdul never really passed into superstardom, but we did have the monumental presence of Lisa Stansfield, and Annie Lennox and Kate Bush had kept the distaff presence flying high right through the 80s. Maybe the UK was a bit more receptive to a talented female singer-songwriter.

here comes Tori with only her piano, singing about rape and abuse and the constraints and evils of religion.
It took four releases to crack mainstream radio, and to this day only "Crucify" and "Cornflake Girl" have made the top 50 airplay. OTOH, she has become a staple of the few AOR stations.

Before Lilith Fair, before Alanis or Fiona,
Well, before the Alanis we know. Back in 1990, Alanis was the Hot New Dance Sensation From Ottawa, churning out disco songs like Debbie Gibson or Tiffany.

Before it was cool to be a weird angry female rocker, or to be a female singer at all.
There was the ever so short-lived Riot Grrrrrl movement (L7, Huggy Bear, Bikini Kill, acres of press coverage, zero sales) around that time.

She put out two albums dealing with serious issues and weirdness even before grunge opened up people's minds beyond pop.
Sorry, but "Nevermind" is ten years old *next week.* (Cripes, is it *really* that long? Must be: next weekend is M2's Grunge Weekend.)

Me and a Gun broke more new ground than any female artist since
Actually, I'll not take any exceptions to this defining moment. This is up here with "Good Vibrations" and "Hound Dog" and "Anarchy in the UK" as one of popular music's defining moments.

And yeah, she's got all the faery and glitter stuff going, though that seems to have come more from her fans (a certain group of them anyway).
There's no more weirdness than amongst, say, Kate Bush fans. Or the Stevie Nicks groupies.

I think many times she has pushed her weirdness to maintain her image as the faerie queen
Interesting to note that she's portraying herself as a normal person for the new album, a lot more settled than before.

but then she's gotten this huge fan base without the assistance of radio or MTV play.
...though she *has* had a receptive press, at least in this country.

It takes some research to understand her songs.
It makes the listener think. It's not like the identikit pop bands that are ear candy: this is difficult listening.

Little Earthquakes makes little sense if you don't know Tori's religious >background or that she was raped.
...or you've been there yourself.

Boys for Pele makes little sense...
Regrettably, this is so.

knowing that, along with some mythology and Tori terminology...it's heartbreaking and makes perfect sense.
Or if you're able to listen and consider and reflect and listen again and understand.

Everyone else in junior high was listening to NKOTB and country music and Little Earthquakes was something that I'd never heard before, never heard again really.
One of the music monthlies was unable to put Little Earthquakes in any sub- genre of pop, and gave it album of the month for that reason.

I was disappointed by Venus and am wondering if I'll like her new one much...because she is straying from her weirdness and strange poetry... but then I guess if she kept doing the same thing we'd all be bored.
From the choice of tracks, this is going to be an interesting ride.

It's a bit of a shame she didn't include the cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from way back when, coz that kicks ass.

Oh I've missed debating music...as there hasn't been much to debate of late...'this sucks' 'that sucks'...it's all been the same for so long...
It has. Who knows what delights the autumn schedule will hold. Hey, CMAs soon...

Paulo
From what I've picked up, most of Ms. Amos' appeal comes from her lyrics, and perhaps that's the explanation, since I don't understand most english lyrics in the first (or the second, or the third...) listening,
This is true. They hardly make sense to a native English speaker, never mind for someone who only knows English as a foreign language.

MTV awards follow-upNews reaches Chateau Weaver that Damon Albarn was at the ceremony (er) last week, and had been tipped off that the Gorillaz had won the MTV2 award. They had even made an expensive animated acceptance video. Albarn sat there smug and expectant. They opened the envelope. Someone else had won. Rumour has it Damon became so furious that smoke was emerging from every single orifice.

And who was it that *did* actually win the award? Anyone? Has their 15 minutes of fame expired so soon?

Victoria:
I'm hesitant to change the subject to something so trivial,
As I said on Tuesday, life *does* go on, and the trivial has its place in life. It's one of the joyful things in life, the sort of thing that doom-mongers would stop doing.

So here I go, hoping to give those that don't want to talk serious a chance...to flame me!
Now, you know that's not going to happen.

Anyway, sorry again if this is inappropriate.
This is not inappropriate. Heck, in Britain, just about the first thing to interrupt the ongoing coverage was a game show. If that's appropriate, so are you.

I especially like the R&B feel with the piano and her soaring voice. I do however wonder how she ever got compared to Tori Amos. Is it just the piano?
It's the feel of the performance, compared against Tori's Choirgirl Hotel tour from a few years back. The one with a backing band. Remove the backing singers from Alicia, and the set-up is the same.

On record, and by sound, they're like chalk and cheese.

Cos that's a bit like comparing Dave Navarro and Ani Difranco since they both play guitar.
Or a bit like comparing Jennifer Lopez and Alicia Keys because they sing and have had #1 singles lately. Well, they've both had #1 singles lately.

In other music recommendations, we got Chantal Kreviazuk's cd Colour Still and Moving. While some songs are a bit too...sugary for me, her voice is amazing and her lyrics are at times very poignant:
Abso-freakin'-lutely. "Before You" could be a signal song for right now, with the hook line "Now I think I'll get through."

I'm also really enjoying releases from Nina Gordon and Jimmy Eat World. chelle has a *lot* to answer for, not least getting me to try to sing along with "Tonight..." with a stinking cold. Not a pleasant sound!

For those that like Tori, you may want to check out Mary Timony, who falls into the tori-kate-stevie-glitter-mythical category if there is such a thing. Jamie sent me her Mountain cd and I love it.
I'll keep a look out. And, yes, there is such a category. Just ask my chum Sarah.

Jaeda:
you make me giggle.
Good, that's the intention.

yes the Metroplex is nuts
You don't say. Just ask the pistachio I met at Union Station.

yes, shootings happen rather often.
You don't say. There may have been a night without a shooting on the local news, but I was probably laughing too hard at their complete inability to construct a single cogent English sentence even with the assistance of an autocue.

but how often do they happen in *microsoft's parking lot*??
Depends how often the head geek is in town, I guess.

There's a new page containing responses to this week's events in New York and Washington.

Weaver 21 Matchbox Twenty (Mad Season, 2000) the highest entry, with a record that is just *so* appropriate for this week. That's also the call for Sinatra (Greatest Hits, 1963) Crowded House (epon, 1987) Sarah McLachlan (Sweet Surrender, 1998) and Alisha's Attic (Alisha Rules the World, 1996.) Blondie's comeback video (No Exit, 1999) has been attracting heavy play, in spite of its espionage theme. Current hits from Nelly Furtardo and Little Trees mosey into the top end.

An unusual outbreak of kindness from Paxo, who allows "Gulliver" as an answer, shorn of the given name "Lemuel." He's close to the knuckle in refusing "imaginary" as the numbers illustrated by an Argand diagram; "complex" is the correct answer. (A maths grad writes: A complex number has both a real and an imaginary part. An imaginary number would be somewhere on the vertical axis of the diagram. Not quite precise enough for the points.)

Both decisions are on Keele questions, and the team has the best of the early exchanges, leading 80-20 after the first picture round. Identify the Womble. They all count. Paxo has a good giggle as Keele's Rob McElroy tries - and fails - to remember an answer. Ian Shepperson has a great night on the buzzer; his only blot a momentary lapse during a biography of Cleopatra.

But this is his only failure, as Shepperson goes on to score 100 points before the second picture round. Keele is a mile ahead, and though Nottingham closes the gap slightly in the closing minutes, 215-125 is the final score. Shepperson's contribution: 128, the highest of the series so far.

Keele made 18/39 bonuses, Nottingham 9/30. Andy Foinette of Nottingham has the lowest individual score of the series, four incorrect interruptions giving a grand non-total of 0.