Hello + Misc.

[<WADE%UCLASTRO.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu>]

     Hello, my name is Wade and this is the first thing I've ever sent to
this newsgroup, although I have been reading news from it from a friend's
account for some time.  I am a 23 year old graduate student in astronomy
at UCLA and have been a fan of Kate Bush ever since the release of The
Dreaming.  I am originally from Illinois and this is the beginning of
my second year in California.
     As I said I've been reading the newsgroup for a while now and I felt
compelled to make a comment or two...

 > Yes, ambiguity can be a truly wonderful artistic tool.  It allows one
 >work to mean many things.  This is one of the reasons why I think that
 >it is often worthwhile to discuss interpretations of art even if the
 >artist says they intended something else.  The artist may very well
 >
 >-- |>oug

    I agree whole-heartedly.  It brings to mind a story about Isaac Asimov
who sat in on a college English course while a professor discussed his short
story "Nightfall".  Asimov walked up to the professor after the class and
said that he had certain knowledge that the author of the story didn't have
in mind many of the things that the professor had described to his students
as being important parts of the story.  After the professor asked how this
man could be so certain HE knew what was in the story, Asimov said
"Because I, sir, am Isaac Asimov, the author of the story in question."
The Prof. replied "Yes, I know, but what makes you think you know what's
in it?"  Once a piece of art leaves an artist's hand it can take on a real
life of it's own.

>HEADS WE'RE DANCING
>     "I understood the reaction, but I felt a bit sorry for
>Oppenheimer. He tried to live with what he'd done, and actually,
>I think, committed suicide.
>-Kate in the NME interview. (Many thanks to IED for sending it!)

     Not that it really has much to do with the song, but just for the sake
of historical accuracy, just in case some Love-Hounds don't happen to know,
Oppenheimer didn't commit suicide.  He died of cancer at the age of 64 plus
or minus a year.  He was among those who wanted to drop the atom bomb on
an uninhabited spot as a demonstration to Japan instead of using it on a
city and he actively oppossed the development of the H-bomb.
     For his radical views he was, ridiculously, determined to be a
communist sympathizer and his security clearence was taken away.  Kate
was right to feel sorry for him and not use him as the "devil" of this
song, even though I agree with those who find the story of the song now to
be impossibly far-fetched.  (Even if the woman wasn't sure of what the most
famous man in Europe looked like [hard to believe] how could his identity
been kept hidden from her?  Hitler was a head of state and certainly not in
hiding.  He was in the middle of starting a World War (he had already
annexed Austria and the Munich appeasement had already taken place
though we are not told whether the actual war had begun yet or not).
That Hitler would have been carousing about another country in secret
going dancing in '39 stretches the imagination.)

>> I've got a question about the song "Keeping me Waiting" that appears
>> on the Cathy Demos. There's a line that goes something like:
>>
>>    I've seen many strange things/shooting stars, stars and stripes
>>
>> Is the phrase "stars and stripes" supposed to mean the USA, and if so,
>> why exactly does she consider is _strange_?

>Keeping Me Waiting is set on the moon.  One of the things you would
>see on the moon is an American flag.  Which, when you think about it,
>is rather a strange thing to see on the moon.
>
>Jim

     It's also very strange to see a shooting star on the moon.  A shooting
star is a meteor burning up in the earth's atmosphere.  On the moon since
there's no atmosphere...

     Well, sorry this first message was so long-winded- Till next time

-Wade Greiner, UCLA Astronomy Dept.  (wade@uclastro.bitnet).