THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR

The Ben Folds Five Digest

Issue #298 - May 13, 1997



Magical Armchair Digest     Tuesday, May 13 1997     Volume 01 : Number 298



                           THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR
                     The Ben Folds Five Mailing List


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   That said, on to the next big problem:

   KEEP YOUR POSTS ON TOPIC. This means: No chain letters. No top ten
   lists. No cute little stories that have nothing to do with Ben Folds
   Five. NO MESSAGES ASKING PEOPLE NOT TO POST CHAIN LETTERS, ETC. And,
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   band, and let's take the bickering elsewhere.

   Thank you everyone!

-Topics in this issue:

     The Melodica Auction
     Beanies
     Re: 90 minutes? + Elvis C 
     all sorts of ben folds stuff... 
     re: beeftodd
     unsubscribe 
     Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #295

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sun, 11 May 97 22:31:54 -0500
From: Michael Bluejay <bluejay@pobox.com>
Subject: The Melodica Auction

I wanted to bid on Ben's melodica in that online auction, but the price 
went way too high for me.  The first bid I saw online was $300, and it 
didn't go much higher than that for several days, but I checked a few 
hours before the close of bidding so I could place my bid, but it was up 
to $675!  Well, $700 is too much even for a fanatical fan such as myself.

I couldn't find what the official final bid was, or who bought it.  
Probably nobody here, I'm guessing.  Anybody got any more news about the 
auction?

Maybe we could talk the boys into offering some items for auction that 
wouldn't be quite as expensive, so us common folks could have a shot at 
them.  (Or better yet, have a drawing with multiple winners.)  I'm 
thinking things like bass strings, picks, drum sticks, mic clips, and, 
um, piano strings maybe?  Too bad Robert's probably already thrown away 
the strings he used on Whatever & Ever.

 -- Michael Bluejay

- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
 http://pobox.com/bluejay  | Home of AUSTIN MUSIC, KING CHEESE, 
                           |  BIKING IN AUSTIN, VEGETARIAN pages, & more
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 12 May 1997 13:39:18 +1000
From: Urban Gentleman <ad@healey.com.au>
Subject: Beanies

>Also, someone wrote...

   Yeah, that would have been me.  :)

>Just wondering how many of you people have groovy Ben Folds Five
>beanies...
> I love the little gold piano on them!!!  YES!!!  
>Where'd you get a beanie?!? I want one! *whine* Oki, thank you all for
>your time and have a pleasant day (c=

   Well, same place as I got the two shirts from.  :)  That is some web
site on here somewhere.  It listed a few items you could buy and they were
15 bux each and there was postage.  I sent away and received a fax a couple
of weeks later asking for more cash for postage (I live in Australia) and
the the goods arrived by courier a bit later.  LOVE THAT BEANIE!!!!  :)
   I might try and find it again.  I think it was some popular site,
like...  THEY'RE OFFICIAL SITE!!!  :)

Bye

Ad.


&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
&                   Ironside                      &
&      "...the 17th best band in the world"       &
& http://www.healey.com.au/HomePages/ad/ironside/ &
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 12 May 1997 00:43:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: AngrYngFan@aol.com
Subject: Re: 90 minutes? + Elvis C 

In a message dated 97-05-08 01:51:39 EDT

Alan said - 

> I think that after seeing BF5 on MTV, I relize that
>  they won't go much futher than they allready are.  Their outlook on music
>  will never change.  We can expect years of good music from them.


I couldn't agree more.  Elvis Costello's "fuck you" attitude has kept him out
of the mainstream for 20 years.  He has softened a bit in interviews, but not
in the type of music he's making.  Not that he's still the "angry young man",
but he frequently commits career suicide by making the music he wants to
make, not what the public wants to hear.  Unfortunately, when he expects the
public to actually listen to one his albums, he is usually disappointed.  His
latest example is "All This Useless Beauty".  It really is one of his best
(even the critics agree), but it has done poorly.  By the way, I highly
recommend it, especially for those of you into piano.

Everyone says that BFF is influenced by Elton John, Billy Joel, Joe Jackson,
etc. but I say they're more influenced by Elvis Costello.  Stylistically they
don't sound much alike, but I think they've been influenced by his attitude,
his intensity, his lyrical originality, and his diversity of  influence.
 When Ben said something to the effect of  "you don't want to sound like the
people you really admire because they're too good", I immediately thought of
Elvis.  Not that I think that he's too good for them, but it would be
pretensious of them to try to sound like him or write lyrics in his style.  

Margaret

"There is hope in honest error, none in the icy perfections of the mere
stylist" - Charles Rennie Mackintosh

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 11 May 1997 23:56:26 -0400 (EDT)
From: Qudrophnia@aol.com
Subject: all sorts of ben folds stuff... 

OK first I really like this list and the people on here
are a lot cooler and more intelligent than any other list
I have ever been on.  I just needed to let you all know that 
you're doing a good job!

also, i think the angry dwarves is a good name for all of "us"
at least it's perfect for me and for a lot of ben folds five fans
who identify with the way it seems like he grew up

another thing is that I was curious about what people on this list
are in real life, you know, age, where you live, what you do.
I noticed at the concert that most of the fans kinda fit into the 
20-30 something category, but there were a lot of other people there
also.  Don't feel like you have to answer, I was just curious.

finally, i wanted to know if anyone on here has ever heard the band Utopia
or Todd Rundgren on solo stuff because, not to knock my friends rob, dar and
ben, but they sound a lot like Utopia and I don't know why I've heard people
compare
them to Billy Joel, but there's a lot of crazy people out there, so who
knows?

Sorry for the long, rambling and downright silly post, but that's just who i
am.

talk to you all soon

...keep your freedoms
speak your mind...

"yeah its uncanny to see, you'd almost think it was me,
i do the best imitation of my self." - you know who
"i hate my generation" - cracker
"the girl i used to love, lives in this yellow house
yesterday she passed me by, she doesn't want to know me now." - if anyone
knows who this is, i'd be very impressed

alkaline

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 12 May 1997 10:59:45 +0000
From: hhor1@student.monash.edu.au
Subject: re: beeftodd

>Date: Sat, 10 May 1997 02:37:49 -0400 (EDT)
>From: BEEFTODD@aol.com
>Subject: Ben Got Nah Soul. 
>
>Reet this is phat time cheeky mon.  Gonna Big up all da crew.  Why
>ain't Ben Fold Fives, got neh rap in'it?  OK, it got da rap, but wid a
>C, nargh wot I mean. Massive.
etc.

huh?  does anyone know whats going on with this?
beeftodd, could you use like english when you write?
...it's kinda funny when you read it out loud though.
you did the 'watch us wreck' crap as well!  well i guess i won't be 
the only one to tell you off!

otherwise this list isn't to bad, i missed a whole heap of mail cause 
i didn't get time to read it.  So that probably why i'm puzzled about 
this fiver/armchairites thingy.  All i want to know is when are they 
coming down under!

and to aussie alex, a few people on this list don't actually like 
silverchair, there not too bad though...

that enough mail from me for the year

bye
chris
(ps for people who know me, my email crashed and i've lost all my 
addresses, which is why i haven't written)

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 11 May 1997 13:12:39 +0900 (JST)
From: mdijok@sm.rim.or.jp (michael)
Subject: unsubscribe 

unsubscribe

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 10 May 1997 00:04:30 -0700
From: "Larry Combs" <larrycombs@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #295

Did anyone catch Letterman last night? Paul Schaffer's band played "Battle
of who could care less" . .. They're getting up there!  I need tour dates
for anywhere near Atlanta. Thanks
Lindsay


------------------------------

End of Magical Armchair Digest V1 #298
**************************************


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