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Welcome to Optimism's Flames There was a midi file of the song Optimism's Flames, created by Brian Matthews, that ran each time you entered the site. The speaker at the bottom right of the site was supposed to turn it off - on, but we couldn't work the Kinks (that one's for you Andy) out in time for launch. So we've scrapped that for now... but it will be coming soon. Thanks for the use of the virus-catchy midi, Brian.
There are several nice XTC sites online, but as informative as they all are none of them come close to capturing the spirit of XTC. My attempt here was to create a lavish site as complicated and lovely as the band and their music. Inasmuch as that's possible I think we succeeded. Not that the site is anywhere close to where I'd hoped it would be at this point... there is still much to do. We've just begun to add the bones to the flesh of this site. The content is being added and uploaded daily now so stop by anytime you like... and just so you don't miss out on the new things you should hit REFRESH until your index finger bleeds. Ummm, well... maybe not that often As you can see, the ship from the cover of Oranges and Lemons takes flight in the lower left of the screen and moves upwards through each period of XTC releases towards Andy Partridge's yellow Wasp Star noggin' (uh, you really should see a doctor about your jaundice Andy... you're not a pink thing anymore). The colored bars on the left are buttons that link to different sections of the site, put your cursor over one to see it come to life. The colored buttons, below the Shed image on the main page, are also linked to the same portions of the site. Place your cursor over one of the colored buttons, it will display which portion of the site it is linked to as well as show you which colored bar goes with that portion. Each page that the buttons link to has further buttons that appear at the top of the screen, each of which takes you to another page. There are also images at the bottom of the screen. These too link to other pages, and each is animated... run your cursor over them to see what they do. Take a look above at HOW 2 GO 2 for detailed information on how to navigate the site.
A BIT ON OUR IDEAS... NO MONEY IS TO BE MADE BY THIS SITE! All costs come out of my pocket with the exception of contest giveaways which will be contributed by myself and the more than kind folks at TVT Records. I originally intended to feature each of the 1989 radio tour gigs in mp3 form for the fans to download free, a different gig from my collection each month. A few of these gigs have been bootlegged many times over and I thought that this would be a neat way to pull a Zappa and beat the boots. As I understand it....Virgin owns the rights to all the songs XTC played on that tour... so I contacted them. After a dozen failed attempts they finally got back to me with this short and sweet reply: "I have checked with our Licensing Cordinator
[Legal] and I am sorry, but your request has been denied. Do not use
our copyrighted assets on your site." Not once was I able to chat with someone about this, although Virgin itself features a few links to sites currently doing the free download thing. Still, I've got a wife and two children and at this point in my life do not care to incur the wrath of a fat-wallet company with a team of piranha-rabid lawyers. So I've settled on running a different XTC interview each month as I've got a few hundred hours of those. I assume the radio stations that originally broadcast these interviews won't track me down and hammer me for it. The majority of the stations most likely either don't exist now or have changed personnel and format so many times that no one there knows who XTC are, much less recalls them once broadcasting an interview with the band. We will also be running exclusive interviews from time to time.
THE CHARITIES... You'll find a page called XTCHARITY here which features four well known charities whose work falls in line with what I feel are the messages in most XTC songs: peace, love and help for all creatures in need of it. WORLD WILDLIFE FUND INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS DR's WITHOUT BORDERS vh1 SAVE THE MUSIC: (Save The Music is a charity that is fighting to keep music education in US schools that have had to cut music classes from their curriculum because they simply cannot afford it.) I offer no incentives to give to any of these fine organizations, and I receive nothing but a warm fuzzy feeling if you do. I simply wanted to take this opportunity to make everyone aware that there are things that we can do to help make this world a Garden of Earthly Delights
If you are offended by or have question to any content on this site ... DON'T LOSE YOUR TEMPER! ... please contact me and we can discuss it... see the eye at the bottom of the page? |
