Stretched out on the sofa watching "Johnny Mnemonic" which I reckon helped Keanu Reeves to get the Neo role in the Matrix trilogy - well, I got to wondering if that was where OUR Mnemonic got her name from. Which got me wondering where all the OTHER weird and wonderful pseudos come from. Start the ball rolling - I live in France and love The Divine Comedy. Simple choice really. Here's my song: 
56 comments:
Funny you should ask, the same topic's occurred to me. Mine happened when I decided to join RR and filled out the 'application', when it came to nom de plume I tried every variation I could think of on my name, all taken! Out of nowhere goneforeign popped into my head, it's what a Jamaican might say if you ask 'Where's so and so?" Answer, "Yeah mon, 'Im a goneforeign", meaning he's off the island for a bit. Since I've been 'goneforeign' these many years it seemed appropriate and nobody else had claimed it.
Nice one. And in my fantasy world, you have a brother called Gonefishin'
'Fraid mine's blindingly obvious. However, this thread does give me a chance to clear my conscience after a ticking-off I got from orangeairplane a while back:
Yes, Darcey is the younger of my two daughters, but I never bought anything online when DarceysSis was a baby. Having initially not planned a second child, we gave away / sold almost everything as and when 'big girl' grew out of it. I was then too tight-fisted to buy it all new again (I think I've been in Yorkshire too long!) when Darcey came along. So I signed onto eBay and needed a moniker ...
I made mine up, the combination of words amused me at the time.
Ah, Blimpy, but now you have to live with it . . . FOR EVER !! Mwah-ha-ha-ha- HAH!
Mine is quite boring, E.J.D. are my initials, like the Americans do with the middle name included. Had I done it properly, it should have been ejayefdee, but that's even sillier.
Isn't that funny, ejaydee, I've always thought it was a clever, pig-latinny kind of version of deejay.
After one too many viewings of The Big Lebowski one of my old flatmates got into the habit of referring to everyone as el ____ino (from the "el duderino, if you're not into whole brevity thing" line); since my name's duncan I became el dunkerino; then rather ironically he did get into the whole brevity thing and it became el derino (then just derino in fact).
This has mostly been covered in an RR episode. Steenbeck is my dog's name, she must have been walking by when I was pondering a screen name. But she's named after a film-editing machine. When she was a puppy she was similarly volatile--push the wrong button and she went crazy, just like the machine. I happened to have a rented one in my apartment at the time. The truth is, I'm a disappointed filmmaker. I've written, directed, edited, produced...two feature-length fiction narrative films. No distribution.
Sorry to disappoint steenbeck, although my brother's a DJ.
Since you'the same age as my sister, and you live not too far, it makes me wonder if you were maybe studying film at NYU in the early to mid 90's?
Hold on a minute, what am I doing talking to you people? It's RR TIME!!! See y'all on the mothership.
No, an earlier source than Keanu Reeves. Mine is from a play by Theatre de Complicite. They are now known just as Complicite and are my favourite theatre company by miles and leagues. Mnemonic is a multi-layered play about the nature of memory and early on had the audience blindfolded and tracing the veins on the back of a leaf which represented the generations of memory back in time.
Mine is reasonably obvious I assume. It's supposed to sound like 'Gott und Himmel' as found in many boyhood comics and cheap war films. There's no actual reason for making it sound like that. It was either that or gordonblur.....
What - you're not actually called Gordon, you mean? I feel like you did when you discovered I don't live in Paris in a large Hausmann flat.! Steenbeck. Three letters - V.O.D!! No risk for the distributer! C'mon - get them on line and let us see those babies!
I just like frogs a lot, ever since I was a child and there was a field behind our house with a large pond in it; and I specially like treefrogs (though they don't live in ponds) because they are small and cute and kinda dangerous; and you can never have just 'treefrog' so I like the idea of a demon treefrog - a bit like David Mach's vampire teddies, only frogs have no teeth. It'll gum you to death, or else poison you with its deadly skin, mwah hah hah!
If I'd come onto this thread earlier I'd have suggested that it might be more fun to guess the derivation of other people's aliases - has nilpferd ever explained *why* he's called after a hippopotamus? Still, too late. So, Abahachi is one of the lead characters in one of the funniest films ever made, and certainly the funniest spoof western, Der Schuh des Manitu. Even in the various English versions it's funny, but the original German one is hilarious - up there with Spinal Tap, honest.
Well guess away if you wish, I haven't explained yet! There are actually two of us.. a hippo-paar..
Actually we've been Nilpferd for so long that I'm struggling to remember why we chose the name in the first place. I'll have to ask my co-hippo if she can remember, or failing that make something up.
So... Potentially, comments from 'nilpferd' may actually be made by two different people?? Is it going to be easier to think of you as schizophrenic, or to work through all your previous posts and try to decide who likes which music? This is actually very disturbing; you meet someone on-line, you think you get to know them, and then... Almost as disturbing as the notion that fp is identifying with the character in a great but, let's be honest, decidedly unsound song...
Well, only one of us types these things, with occasional interjections from the other Hippo-half. The name arose when we were looking for an E-mail identity and we both use it, so I didn't want to claim it for myself. And we both like all the music recommended, so I wouldn't inflict all of Nilpferd's old posts on myself if I were you..;-)
steenbeck - do you reckon we have enough material for another film here? Maybe a DreamWorks/Pixar-style animal adventure:
The heroine, a frogprincess, is kidnapped by the nasty treefrogdemon, who wants her for his own. The hero (Ah ... "Hello, is that Central Casting?") must set off on a quest to rescue her, meeting all kinds of creatures along the way, such as the mysterious double nilpferd and the trigger-happy Abahachi . . .
Whaddya reckon?
Fp, what did you think of Johnny Mnemonic? I'm a William Gibson fan and loved the original short story but I've only heard bad things about the film, so I've avoided it. Should I give it a chance?
I suppose I deserve to be made the novelty animal in this fable...
never mind..
in the course of his quest, the hero encounters a band of misfits led by exiled wise old man Goneforeign and the sword-wielding, wise-cracking slacker El-Derino. Together they pile into Shiv's side car.. but first they need to head off the quixotic Mnemonic (strokes white cat on lap) and her formidable henchwomen Dominia and Bethnoir..
Much as I'd like to claim that my nom de poste indicates some kind of involvement with the Human Genome Project or some such, I'm afraid it is just my initials.
Well, I say 'afraid'… I actually quite like my initials (they don't really work in an ejaydee style though: deeennay. Too many e's).
Oh you lot are keeping my pecker up this afternoon. Rather topical. see the Mother Ship for why. So we've got Ian McKellen playing Goneforeign, I rather fancy Billy Bob for El Derino (just sounds right) and Abahachi is a kind of Roberto Benigni character. Though I could be wrong. I do of course want Monica Bellucci playing me.:-)
Mnemonic - I enjoyed the film. Good special effects but it really did feel like a forunner of The Matrix. I kept wanting him to put that long black leather coat on and kick some ass. No worries - I don't identify with that song - don't fancy getting my head lopped off after all! I just love every note they've ever played and they're very very good in concert too.
Halfway to Bristol, the sidecar is seized by the fiendish Beltway Bandit. "Gordonimmel!" cries our hero...
@fp: a relief to hear about the absence of identification. I too love the Divine Comedy - but there are times when it's all too easy to imagine David Coverdale covering the Casanova album. Or maybe that's just me.
Um that is actually just you. But I'll have a glass of whatever you're having:-)
And that sign says... What exactly? Tittmoning? That's as good as Titisee, that is! Schön!
Jawohl, Tittmoning, one of the stops on a sponsored bike ride between Salzburg and Passau last summer. Which also took in Unterfucking and Oberfucking. Surprisingly, they haven't yet started cashing in on the tourist market - unlike the town of Wank in eastern Bavaria, which does a roaring trade in 'Ich bin ein Wanker' t-shirts.
Yes, it's Friday...
Continuing on from Nilpferd:
...at some point their journey intersects with arch criminal Senor Blimpy McFlah, late of Glasgow where he was an intimate of two frog princesses, [flashbacks with raining frogs] both le Surete and Interpol represented by Herr Nilpferd and Mr Darcey of Scotland Yard are in hot pursuit. Mr El Blimpo resorts to his usual tactic of fleeing the forces of justice in a hot air balloon. Sister Steenbeck could play herself as a film editing nun who assembles our footage as part of the film, we see it evolve as it evolves. Ace reporter Mr. Dorian is on the story for our competitor, the Guardian. And there's the elusive and never seen Russian Countess Alexa, everyone speaks of her in whispers, we could have Uma Thurman not play her and Quentin and Woody could be co-directors....
We need a title.
Yeah, I could go for that. I'd like to see me played by Clive Owen, but Clive Anderson would be nearer the mark !!!
I'm down in Cannes in May as usual. Do y'all want me to pitch it to the Weinsteins...?
---
Cheers for the giggle Abahachi...
I'm called Tracy ("council estate chic", says my most superficial friend) and my surname starts with a K. But only for 6 more months!
I started posting on CiF and I didn't want a ridiculous name, having been stuck with a previous slightly silly screen name, which grew into an actual nickname, which John Peel roundly mocked for about 5 minutes after failing to play one of my requests a few years back.
I sometimes wish I'd been more creative!
Does anyone else read Blimpy McFlah as Blimpy McFlash? I'd assumed it was the latter for months before I actually noticed.
A nun, Goneforeign? I don't think so. I'll buy the rest of the story, though. I'll set Malcolm to work making the figures out of play-doh as soon as he gets home from school.
Well, I think you'd make a damn good dj if you were so inclined, Ejaydee. Did your sister go to NYU film school? I thought about it, actually had an application, but it's very expensive, and I thought if I was going to spend that money, might as well spend it making a film. Thinking back, now, I think you go to NYU for the connections more than anything. My undergrad filmmaking professor taught at NYU simultaneously, though, and I worked with an NYU student on my first feature. Would your sister know them?
What's VOD, frogprincess? I'm intrigued. I'm working on transferring my films to DVD, and editing them, but it feels pretty damn pointless, I must admit.
Utter utter respect to TracyK for having been insulted by John Peel. But you're among friends here and we really want to know - what was your pseudo and what record didn't he play?
--
Steenbeck - VOD is video on demand - the most risk-free form of film distribution ever. Your films can be sold or rented on line by a distributor. No print costs, no marketing etc. I'll see what sites I can find if you want.
I'm with you Goneforeign, I'd much rather play a scruffy, sausage munching, beer quaffing, jazz listening German official next to Darcey's hard bitten, rock obsessed Scotland yard type than be a freakshow twinned hippo.
frogprincess, you may have misunderstood my earlier comment (it's way back up the post, in the boring bit before the film). I had to be gordonsomething 'cos yes, that is my first name. I wish I'd been a bit more inventive tho'.
Sigh!
And ofcourse when I came up with it 'Gordon' wasn't such an unpopular name in the UK....
John Peel quotes my joke in 'Margrave of the Marshes'...he doesn't credit me, but then he didn't know it was mine.
If you would like to know the joke I will tell you but I'm afraid it's not very politically correct for these times.
Please go ahead! You simply must!
OK then...it is a night in the early 70s, in Shrewsbury, and my spouse and I are in bed listening to JP on the radio, when he announces the birth of his first child, and that said child has been given the middle name 'Anfield' after Liverpool's ground. So I said: "Ho, it's just as well he doesn't support Shrewsbury Town!" and my spouse, being tickled by this, wrote it on a postcard and sent it in, and JP read it out on the air.
And I was a bit miffed, because after all it was my joke: but anyway JP has it in the book and says that he used to tease his son with it. We knew, you see, because JP had been to school in Shrewsbury, that he would know Shrewsbury Town's ground was called the Gay Meadow.
Ahem, well my old nickname was kittencat, oft shortened to KC. I asked for some Fall for my ex, who was travelling that night from Aberystwyth to Wrexham, just to see the Fall. Peelie then told a story about his little brother almost falling out from Pater's car just outside Wrexham and then chuckling away at my nickname for about 5 mins. He played the White Stripes' Red Bowling Ball Ruth instead, the first time he'd played them, I believe. My ex kept bumping into Peel when we later moved down to London, notably in the loos the first time Peel played Fabric. He recognised my ex and confided he was petrified of what the cool Fabric crowd would make of him. My ex said "Play what you usually do, they'll love it! You're giving us Teenage Kicks, right?"...and thus Peel became a Fabric favourite.
Interestingly my fiance also met Peel at Glasto several years back: Peel stopped him (!) because he was wearing an Ipswich Town shirt and wanted to know how they'd played that day.
I had to make do with mockery...
Nice memories of a very very influential broadcaster. And by your accounts a nice bloke. We used to laugh at the way he said 'Splodgenessabounds' in that accent....Oh and glad Gordon really is called Gordon!!
My nom-de-blog comes from the name of an online game I started running more than 10 years ago, which is still running.
It has nothing whatsover to do with the short-lived and apparently very sickly alcopop of the same name. I've owned the kalyr.com domain for longer, and can prove it.
It's a word I just made up, but I started using the name as a username on a number of music-related forums since then.
If you really want to know what the game is all about, the archives of the game are online
here, with a summary of sorts here.
What pseudonyms?
Everton fan - male. Quite dull really. I suppose 'boy' is pushing it a bit at my age - perhaps the whole thing's a sub-conscious attempt to come across as sweet and loveable. As if!
I just find the years go by quicker as I step into them. Oh, and every Friday seems to reel round ever more rapidly with each new RR theme.
Hey steenbeck, I'm not sure if they're the same thing, but my sister went to NYU as a postgraduate and studied film there, not sure if it's the same thing as the NYU FIlm School. Funny you should mention connections, because guess who was in her class: Spike Lee's sister, the one form She's Gotta have It (apparently she was really snooty, a total b*). She might know these people if you give me some names.
Is your sister a filmmaker? What a strange coincidence. My professor was Darrell Wilson, and he's one of the most amazing people I've ever met. I can't really describe him, but...I don't know what to say, he was very inspiring, and I felt this great affection for him. I guess you'd have to meet him. But maybe your sister has!! and the guy that did sound on my first feature (which I haven't youTubed at all yet) was Jeff Roenning.
No she's not, had she not stopped when she had her first child, she would have been more into journalism. She told me how all the other students were making Tarantino-style films, while she had made a documentary on Black nannies of the Upper East Side, and how basically that wasn't encouraged. I'll ask her about those 2 though. My best friend is a filmmaker though, and I have another cousin who started out as that and is now an editor, and I have another second cousin who's into post-production as well. Oh and another cousin is an actress. I have a large family, so we have most occupations covered.
I think that Tarantino has a lot to answer for. Maybe I'm just bitter, but I feel like the early to mid-nineties were a terrible time for independent film. Before that you had Spike Lee, Jim Jarmusch--people doing sincere and interesting and courageous work. After that you had people trying to be cool in a really false way, and trying to make some edgy though hollywood-esque film that would make it big.
I'm planning to get back to it someday. I still have this idea of a perfect film in my head somewhere. What kind of films does your best friend make? I feel like it's possible now, with digital video and the internet, for a whole new movement, a new wave, I suppose. Actually it's probably happening all around me and I'm completely oblivious!! And it's probably not happening in America. I've seen some really good Brazilian films--Central Station, and these films (I can't for the life of me remember the titles) but they starred the same, very appealing, guy. In one he worked in a photocoppy place and was obsessed with the girl in the apartment across the street. The way the story was told and filmed was so unexpected. Does it ring a bell?
I'm going on too long... Don't get me started about film. Your sister's film sounds very interesting, I'd like to see it.
My friend's starting so he's doing small jobs like filming a lot of shows and plays, as well as a few EPKs. His end of school project is about the history of the Venitian ghetto (he's still editing it). I have the teaser, but I can't really put it up on youtube without his agreement.
I don't know the film you mention, was it with Rodrigo Santoro? I'd like to see the film my sister did too but I've never seen it! I should ask her about it. It's probably still in VHS.
It was The Man Who Copied, with Lazaro Ramos. (I'm playing it safe with the English title.) And the other was Lower City, a very different film, but also good in a lot of ways.
I put an ad online last spring for a cinematographer for a short film I want to shoot here, and someone from Paris responded. He had done some hip hop videos. The videos were pretty good, and I liked to hear hip hop in French. But it would have been a very long commute.
Don't know the first one, but I've seen Lower City. That actor was playing in the prime time telenovela last year (it seems to be more respectable here). Funny about the ad, it could have been him (he's worked on some french hip-hop videos), his name wasn't Jeremy was it?
I don't remember his name, but I think he had lived in NYC for a while, or maybe had friends there.
Lower City was more like I imagine a telenovela to be--very dramatic. The Man Who Copied was imaginatively shot, and I think Ramos' performance was amazingly natural and good. It did take a strangish plot turn in the middle, but I like the rest so much I didn't really mind.
Hmm a telenovela is more like a daytime-TV soap opera with a bigger budget and shown in prime time. There's another brazilian film with 2 distinct sides. Handy since it takes place in arecord shop and the "A Side" is all about musical passions, it's called Durval Discos if you ever come across it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmYYe6MHjL8
You can also practice your portuguese
Haha, I'd get it from netflix, and apparently they're sending out versions dubbed into Spanish--so much for my Portuguese. I wonder why they'd do that? It looks good. If they sort out the language thing I'll get it.
We have friends from Oaxaca that watch their telenovela very faithfully--the men, too, which surprised me at first, based on my ideas of American Soap operas.
Well, my name's quite boring too, obtained from a book title, surely no need to state it in full. Unlike some of my friends, I've never grown out of loving the book, and I've been using Catcher as an identity basically since I first went online, lo these many years ago. I quite like it actually, as a word and a name.
Post a Comment