20 Comments on “A Birthday Tune”

1. I’ve always liked Dolby. Thought his head “attachments” looked very Steampunk-like.

   Deven’s lucky to have a friend like you.

2. Well, you know. I’m lucky to have a friend like him. So we’re even!

3. Tiny margins, eh? Where have I heard that excuse before? Would you let Athena get by in math with that excuse, eh? “I wrote down the proof in a tiny margin and my pet carpet beetle ate that edge.” Humph! This is how things get lost around here!

   Grumpily,
   Jack Tingle

4. Happy Birthday friend whose name I spelt wrong 86 times last year so I’m not even gonna do it this year.

   Dolby is the shizz. FLAT EARTH is his best album. Hands down. It always reminds me of being in California in 1984. Gorgeous record.

5. Was completely a Dolby fan until he suddenly (at least, in my world view) evaporated and I didn’t see anything. I am still very, VERY fond of “Aliens Ate My Buick”.

6. Great. Now future mathematicians will spend countless hours trying to recreate Scalzi’s Last Theorem. Way to go.

7. Loved Dolby since I was in High School in the 80’s. Just found your first book. Never ever did my damn homework. Thank you. Happy Birthday to your friend.

8. Happy Birthday Deven!

9. Yes, I’m very lucky to have John as my friend. I love The Flat Earth. And thanks to John I have a great limited cd by Dolby in my collection from a previous birthday gift.

   Thanks to all for the good wishes. Enjoy the music and the day. And love to Clan Scalzi.

10. Fermat FTW!

11. Hey, besides a plain vanilla “Best of” CD, wot would be a good Thomas Dolby CD to get, mr Birthday? I’ve found you can unearth some very good music of your favorite artist (or any artist for that matter) that’s never gotten airtime simply by buying the right CD.

    Be sure to snag Information Society’s album of the same name if you don’t already have it!

12. Justin,

    There are a a couple of Dolby cds out for any friend who is a fan. There is a Collector’s Edition (from FSK out of Germany I believe, available at Amazon) of both The Golden Age of Wireless, and of The Flat Earth. Arguably, his best two albums.

    The music has been remastered, and bonus tracks have been added. (in the case of TFE, there are 8 bonus tracks, more than the original album) They make a very nice gift, I know because that’s how I got them.

    The TGAW also contains a DVD of a semi-concert filmed movie, part Dolby playing, part Dolby running the projector. At that time it would have been considered an early multimedia event, bordering on performance art. This particular album was released something 4 or 5 times, all with different songs, songs orders, mixes, etc. This one CD does an excellent job of putting all the various and sundry tracks.

    Also, there is a Best of CD, called The Singular Thomas Dolby, which not only has most of his singles, but a DVD with all or most of his videos.

    If you can’t tell, I’m a bit of a fan.

13. I’ve spent the last six years of my life working on it, and I’m pretty sure I’ve proved Scalzi’s last theorem.

14. Instead of getting it fer Deven you should have gotten it fer Matt.

15. I saw TMDR when he was touring in the US a few years ago. Great show – was able to get up close to stage and see all the gear and he was really interactive, showing how he builds up songs and giving lots of backstory on the material he played.

    Interesting side note – he basically started the cellphone ringtone business, building a company up from scratch to develop the IP to embed music players in phones and make the marketing linkage between the music biz and cell carriers. He was based in the SF Bay area for much of that time but has since moved his family back to the NE coast of England and is now recording a new album in a studio built into an old boat.

16. Greg Karber@13: You probably shouldn’t have said that. Now he’ll go make another last theorem just to spite you, and you’ll only be remembered as having proved Scalzi’s next-to-last theorem.

17. This is my favorite Thomas Dolby song and I love this version of it, especially the MLK clips.

18. Yeah, saw TMDR twice on this tour. Fantastic. Small venues and very intimate. He was very relaxed and did some great reworks of his classic songs.

19. I hope that comment doesn’t mean you’ve been wasting your time on Stieg Larsson books; it is bad enough that I did.

20. I finally saw Thomas Dolby in concert a couple years ago, when he came through town. This was after almost 30 years of being a fan. It was a small nightclub and I was in heaven.

    So that video’s a gift to all us Thomas Dolby fans too. Thanks!

    – yeff