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Subject: Why a finger in the ear? From: Jim Dixon Date: 28 Jan 02 - 01:50 AM As an American who has been fascinated by all things British for several years now, I admit there is one expression that I keep seeing over and over again in various postings by our British friends that has me totally baffled. Alex: "I'd rather spend an evening with the Corries than sit in an English folk club listening to some conceited bore with one finger in his ear and the other up his ass…" Ian Kirk: "Usually bearded blokes who run folk clubs that are soooo traditional that unless your floor spot is a turgid ballad with 93 verses sung ala Ewan MacColl with your eyes shut and your finger in your ear you get frowned at and ignored for the rest of the evening and not asked to sing again." Mick Lowe: "Apart from the Spinners, you can also blame Aran Jumpers, people singing whilst sticking their fingers in their ears and singing unaccompanied... if you want to be superficial that is." Susanne (skw): "If a paper like The Observer can define a folk festival as 'drinking your beer with one finger in your ear' (May '99 - as a joke, but still), what do you expect?" Gervase: "I've lost count of the number of Aran jersey/beard/finger-in-ear/pewter tankard taunts I've heard, and what really hurts is that so many of them are true." Someone please enlighten me: What is the significance of the finger in the ear? Does anybody really do this? Who? Why? (I've never seen such a thing in the US, and I presume it is/was only done in the UK.) |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Anahootz Date: 28 Jan 02 - 02:04 AM This might be completely wrong, but in noisy situations, sticking a finger in your ear (or otherwise blocking noise) is a way to tell what you sound like. I have seen singers do this when monitors go out for no apparent reason, and it sems to work. As for doing it while not singing, or with "one finger in his ear and another in his ass", well, maybe he can't tell the difference. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: The Shambles Date: 28 Jan 02 - 02:29 AM I suspect it was done because people saw other performers do this and assumed that in order to be taken seriously as a 'traditional' singer, and felt they had to follow suit and trust that there was some good reason for it.
A bit like placing a lighted cigarette in the headboard of one's guitar, which seem to make you a better and more earnest blues player.
It would be interesting to establish the history of these practices. Who were the people setting the example?
In truth, I do not seem to see it done much now. If it is done now at all, it tends to be reifly and not done throughout the song. Which lends me to believe that it was always more fashion than passion. Or possibly a signal, in a noisy place that someone was trying to sing? You could stick the finger in another orifice but it may give an entirely differnt signal? |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Cappuccino Date: 28 Jan 02 - 02:43 AM It simply seems to concentrate the sound in your head - so when you're searching for the note, you've got a better chance of finding it. I occasionally do it (briefly, so nobody notices) in church. But of course, as Shambles rightly points out, in folk clubs one scores points for intensity, and there's even a way of tuning up which can have the audience listening respectfully... so I guess people overdid the ear thing to win some kind of credibility. Damn... got my finger stuck again.... - Ian B
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: GUEST,Boab Date: 28 Jan 02 - 02:51 AM I'm not a "practitioner", but with one finger in your ear, you can hear yourself singing, even if you're a mere foot from a great muckle speaker; try it! |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: paddymac Date: 28 Jan 02 - 03:03 AM Jim - I've seen it commonly enough on the american scene as well. It's normally done to block external noise (especially somebody singing in your ear off-key) and help you focus on the note you are producing (or trying to produce anyway). |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: mooman Date: 28 Jan 02 - 03:49 AM The good thing about watching an unaccompanied English ballad group is that they can always stick their fingers in each others' ears! (8>) mooman |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: AliUK Date: 28 Jan 02 - 04:41 AM I always thought that it was so that their brains wouldnt run out as they cocked their heads to hear the whispered prompts from someone in the audience. But then again what do I know? |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: JohnInKansas Date: 28 Jan 02 - 04:50 AM 'Way back in the stone age, when I was a mere highschool puppy, my "Public Speech" class instructor informed us that the "finger in the ear" was a technique used by many radio announcers. We did practical exercises - with lots of discussion, although I never did get to stick my finger in "Tanny's" ear. Most people are rather astonished at the result the first few times they hear a recording of their own voice played back. Truth is - what you hear "from the inside" is generally quite a lot different than what comes out. Blocking the feedback from outside with a finger in one ear allows you to hear and control "which voice" you are using. Most people's conversational speaking voice is rather thin, but with practice one can learn to use a "more resonant" voice. It is easy, however, when using one voicing, to slip back into another. The finger in the ear allows you to assure that you maintian "your radio sound," particularly if you are "projecting" something that is learned rather than run-of-mill-everyday-yellin'-at-the-kids noise. Some voice teachers will teach the use of the "FIE" to help students learn aspects of voice control. Using mouth shape, vocal chord tension, open or constricted larynx, and emphasising "chest resonance" are all part of learning "taught" singing. It's also handy if your duet partner is a little off pitch. John |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: GUEST,micca at work Date: 28 Jan 02 - 04:51 AM I suspect (if my memory serves) that this is another part of the legacy of Ewan Mc Coll.... |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: JudeL Date: 28 Jan 02 - 04:56 AM If you can't hear what you are singing it's very difficult to adjust the note you are singing to what you believe you should be singing. Ever notice people who have walkmans and personal cassette players who have them turned up loud, when they sing they are almost invariably badly off key, even people that would normally be able to at least sing along matching an instrument. This is partly what they are hearing is the note being produced by the recorded artist and not the one they are singing. Putting your finger in your ear seems to help you hear what you are singing and distingish it from other sounds around you. Unfortunately like everything else anything mildly different from the standardised, homogenised, media-fed/dictated idea of normal is immediately identified used as a stereotype and ridiculed. Jude |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: The Shambles Date: 28 Jan 02 - 05:09 AM What ever the (slight) practical advantages, I would still come down on the side of ridicle, in the context of the practice whilst singing in folk clubs. 'Go-faster' stripes, alloy wheels and spoilers on one's saloon car may give some slight aerodynamic advantage, but that is not the real reason for their popularity. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: JohnInKansas Date: 28 Jan 02 - 05:47 AM The "FIE" is a legitimate practice, that can be a help in certain situations. While primarily useful as a "training tool," to help in learning a desired projection of the voice, there are circumstances where its use in performance may help the performer to do a better job. Anyone who does it in performance just "because it makes me look like a folk singer" is certainly to be pitied. If a performer uses the technique because it helps the quality of their performance, then it would seem appropriate to applaud their knowledge of what makes their own performance the best they can do. To a certain extent, it is the mark of an inexperienced perfromer, but folk is where we accept and applaud the tradition that is presented/preserved first, and the performance as a secondary element. Judging too harshly may mark the "judge" as "not quite into" the folk element. I guess it would depend a lot on whether we are expecting a professional PERFORMANCE or whether were sharing someones appreciation of a song. Try it sometime, and see if it helps (in a private practice session - of course). John |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Dave Bryant Date: 28 Jan 02 - 06:51 AM One of the reasons that some people have a problem pitching notes is that their ears are slightly "out of tune" with each other. Try listening to note with one ear and then the other - you might find that one way round the note seems sharper/flatter. The FIE technique can help with pitching in this case. The technique is also useful when you're singing a tight harmony with someone and want to block out other sounds (ie an audience member who is well out of key in choruses). However I usually find that the "Hand cupped between mouth and ear" method is usually the best way of providing personal unaccompanied "Foldback". It is especially useful in packed singarounds where everyone is trying to pop different harmonies in (the sort with Johnny Collins, Jim Magean, Tom & Barara Brown, Dave & Annie etc.). It was this method, rather than FIE that Ewan McColl made famous - I always recall him sitting the wrong way round a chair resting his elbow on the back with his hand between mouth and ear. Unfortunately both methods are very difficult when you're trying to play an instrument with two hands. Perhaps some musical accessory manufacturer will come out with a clip on device (worked by a pedal) to overcome this. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Hollowfox Date: 28 Jan 02 - 08:21 AM I always thought that FIE was making fun of the "hand cupped between mouth and ear" method that Dave described above. It really is useful, sometimes. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: The Shambles Date: 28 Jan 02 - 08:49 AM Unfortunately both methods are very difficult when you're trying to play an instrument with two hands.
Of course if you are not singing and playing an instrument at the same time, you have nowhere to stick your lighted ciggarette and may actually have to smoke it.
I am a singer who may sound better with one finger in my ear but like thousands of other 'singers with guitar' and singers in many other types of music have never felt the need to try it. I am sorry I just don't buy it. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 28 Jan 02 - 09:07 AM As Micca says, this seems to have started with Ewan MacColl, who learned it as an actor and used it -and taught it- as an aid to voice production; it is not a technique that was ever used by traditional singers, being associated only with the revival of the 1950s and later.
As Dave points out, the finger is not usually put in the ear, but the hand cupped slightly behind it; perhaps some people who had only seen the operation from a distance misunderstood what was being done and copied it. Lightly closing the ear with one finger (no insertion is required) also reduces extraneous sound but is less effective, being mainly useful for making phone calls in noisy places.
Martin Carthy has been known to use the cupped hand method and I've seen others doing it from time to time in folk clubs (and in rock concerts, for that matter), but never, so far as I remember, anybody with a finger in their ear. Though I don't doubt that there are people out there doing it, sometimes for the wrong reasons, I suspect that the stereotype is usually just a straw man, invented so that it can be more easily knocked down than the real thing. Constructive criticism is so much harder, after all. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: JudeL Date: 28 Jan 02 - 09:20 AM Having in noisy (usually multi-harmonied) environments occasionally resorted to using the finger in the ear to keep myself from sliding into copying the loudest person next to me. The finger in the ear method, I find tends to help more than cupping of ear in these places as the sound seems to reverb around your skull and is therefore more easily distingished from the confusion around you. However I have seen both methods used where it seemed to be more affectation than need. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Jim Dixon Date: 28 Jan 02 - 09:53 AM Thanks, folks, for all your explanations, but I am still somewhat dissatisfied. If I needed to block out external noise for any reason, I'd probably place the palm of my hand over my ear. It's more comfortable, more sanitary, less disgusting to onlookers, probably more effective (though I haven't done a lot of tests), and would serve as a signal to the noisemakers to "pipe down!" (Where does that expression come from, by the way?) In fact, this method seems so natural to me that it would never occur to me to use any other. As for the radio announcer technique – this must date back to the days before radio announcers wore earphones. I can't remember where I learned it, but I thought it worked like this: Place the finger tips gently on the outer edge of the ear, bend the ear forward so as to extend it outward from the head to the maximum extent, and hold the fingers palm of the hand parallel to the cheek an inch or two away from it, with the heel of the hand near the mouth. This will form a channel that conducts sound from one's own mouth to one's ear. (Dave Bryant: Is this what you mean by "foldback?") I see the benefit of doing this, BUT – it seems to me that if you did it enough while practicing at home, you wouldn't NEED to do it in public. You'd already know what your voice sounds like. Anyway, it's not the same as sticking your finger in your ear, and not likely to be confused with it. Several people have stressed that there are good, practical reasons for the FIE. If so, why is the technique so often mentioned with scorn (as in the quotes in my first post)? |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 28 Jan 02 - 01:12 PM Dominic Behan said the reason he put his finger in one ear was because he didn't like half the songs he was singing.
But it does help you hear yourself, especially in a noisy environment - more so if you stick the thumb behind the ear and press it to close down the earhole. It means, I suppose, that you get the sound coming round inside the head instead of taking the route round the outside.
Meself, I think it's an affectation not to do it, rather than the other way round. I'd rarely consciously choose to do it, but at times I've consciously chosen not to, what with the FIE jokes.
If you're playing an instrument of course you have to do without the technique - but then you've got the instrument to help you keep in tune.
And then of course some of us are getting a bit hard of hearing these days, and that's always been a reason for the hand cupped to the ear, for traditional singers and all. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Noreen Date: 28 Jan 02 - 01:39 PM Hmmmm: What d'you think? |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 28 Jan 02 - 01:54 PM And you'll note in the last picture up there he appears to have the thumb up behind the ear as I mentioned. The man knew what he was doing. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: breezy Date: 28 Jan 02 - 02:27 PM I stick me finger in me ear to dig out the wax while I'm singing, then I stick both fingers in me ears when dave Bryant is on cos he's so bloody loud! a sea shell would work just as well or a pewter tankard angled forward or two tankards, one for each ear,"st-ear-i-o" with or without beer ,now that is the question.A beer sleeve would do the job but it doesn't have the same stage cred. "And we'll stick one of our fingers in our ears," x 3 and we'll all sing out of tune Make up your own verses to "roll the old chariot a shore" Off now to clean me nails, then the keyboard, and then the mouse. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Herga Kitty Date: 28 Jan 02 - 02:32 PM I agree with McGrath and Dave Bryant - I don't stick a finger in my ear but I do press on the outside to block out external noise and hear what I'm singing - and, since we used to have 4 of the people Dave mentioned as members of Herga, it is a jolly useful technique for checking whether what you're singing fits with what you're hearing in your other ear. Only works if you're sober, though. (I thought I should point that out before anyone else does on my behalf.) Kitty |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: GUEST,NERD (cookieless computer) Date: 28 Jan 02 - 02:33 PM I agree with JudeL; environments with polyphonic singing (like rounds, part singing, etc) make it very difficult to remain in your own part unless you are experienced. FIE helps a lot. As for being unsanitary, even people who do the real FIE rather than the cup-behind-the-ear are not necessarily doing anything unsanitary; your ear has a little flap in front of the earhole and when you put your finger "in" your ear you are really pushing on that flap so it closes your earhole. Your finger does not really go "in" your ear, but someone looking from even a slight distance would not be able to tell this. I rarely if ever use FIE these days, but when I used to attend round singing groups I would absolutely have to use it or I could not stay together with my part. It's true that it's fairly ridiculous to use it when singing unaccompanied and alone unless there is a lot of noise or the acoustics are really bad. But I wouldn't presume to accuse anyone of using this just for show. Certainly if you know Martin Carthy you know he wouldn't do something like this just to imitate Ewan MacColl; it must be helping him or he'd lump it. That said, I'm sure SOME poseurs do use it for the wrong reasons. As for singing with one finger up your ass, I guess it might help you hit the high notes ;-) |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: InOBU Date: 28 Jan 02 - 02:38 PM I thing the cupped hand is older. I learned it as a child and still do it, and the real trick is when I have to switch back to the pipes or whistle and have to drop the hand at the last messure to grab the pipes, and the change in tone hits me. It takes practice to not be thrown by that, but one can be much more carefully on pitch especially if one is singing with harmonies... or you are doing the harmony. Cheers, Larry |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Skipper Jack Date: 28 Jan 02 - 03:22 PM I go along with the cupped hand over the ear, if you try it, your voice can be positively deafening if you sing loud enough! Personally I think that if you waxing lyrical you need your finger in your ear to stop the wax coming out!! |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: GUEST,Martin Ryan Date: 28 Jan 02 - 03:41 PM Never stuck my finger in my ear while singing (and try valiantly not to do ao at other times!) but I DO occasionally find myself with my index finger pressed semi-firmly against my jawbone somewhere in that region, when trying to sing harmonies in noisy environments! I could speculate about picking up harmonics (sic) or feeding them back around my head - but speculation is what it is. I certainly don't think its really a matter of blocking out the background - rather of amplifying somehing closer! Regards p.s. I think I should go and lie down.... |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Mrs.Duck Date: 28 Jan 02 - 03:50 PM Norma Waterson once told me that for maximum effect one hand should be cupped just behind the ear as above with the other between the mouth and other ear. As she put it "not so much one finger in your ear and the other up your arse but one in your ear and the other up your nose" |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Lyrical Lady Date: 28 Jan 02 - 04:06 PM I use the FIE for the excact reasons that InOBU states and find the practice quite helpful. As for "FIE" used as a derogatory statement ... perhaps it stems from the idea that if one places a finger in the ear to allow oneself to hear oneself better ... maybe it refers to one who likes to hear him/herself speak/sing ... far fetched...maybe! LL |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Crane Driver Date: 28 Jan 02 - 04:07 PM Skipper - when I stick my finger in my ear, it's not my voice that's deafening (know what I mean?) Seriously, trying to learn the melody line with some very loud 'armonisers around, you sometimes need all the help you can get. I don't do it on stage though (unless things are going very wrong indeed). And where I stand, you need all the earwax you can get! |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Pterry Date: 28 Jan 02 - 04:15 PM Muezzins seem to do it up there Minnaretts.... Put one finger in there ear that is. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Don Firth Date: 28 Jan 02 - 04:33 PM After Ewan MacColl's first concert at the 1960 Berkeley Folk Festival, just about everybody went around with a hand cupped behind behind an ear. Lotta guitars and banjos got dropped that weekend. No radio announcer I've ever seen (I was one for eight years) ever cupped a hand behind an ear, except for the guy on "Laugh-In." They use headphones. Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Bill D Date: 28 Jan 02 - 04:54 PM I have some hearing loss, and have used a cupped hand to help focus sound for many years. It can help you hear you own voice in a crowd. If you actually insert a finger, it further isolates YOUR voice from other sounds, but also reduces amplification. (I have now gotten hearing aids to do some of what I need, but many times they are TOO loud, so cupping the hand still is useful... ......however, when I was in college, there was a guy who was director of the Physical Plant (building & grounds) who was occasionally observed walking about with his pinky finger inserted in his ear, so it looked like his arm was partially supported by the 'hook'. People remarked on this for years, but as far as I know, no one ever got up the courage to ask him why...grin*..he never sang, as far as I know.(he was 'strange' in several ways...a real character) |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: sophocleese Date: 28 Jan 02 - 06:34 PM I've noticed that wearing ear plugs in a very noisy rock bar means you can actually hear the conversation of those you wish to talk with. I think this is similar to the finger on the outside of the ear. If you feel you might be considered a poseur by the uninformed and undiscriminating you can always hold a book, bodhran or beer mug up in front of your mouth and hear yourself in the bounce back off of that. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: GUEST,Amy Date: 28 Jan 02 - 07:12 PM As a voice teacher I can tell you that sticking your finger in your ear or cupping your hand around your ear can help people with conductive hearing loss hear whether they are singing their own note or something else. This is used very often in choral singing rehearsals or rehearsals of 4 part harmony. I remember Robin of the Bee Gees doing this a lot in the 70's to make sure his note was correct. The jokes in the first entry are probably refering to those singers who put their finger in their ear and still can't get the correct note! |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 28 Jan 02 - 07:23 PM Right, that's sorted the FIE business - we're agreed it's the ones who don't do it who are the show-offs who are worried about their image.
Now for the Aran sweaters...I haven't seen one of those in years. Waistcoats are surely the key fashion statement if you're into Irish music anyway? And brown boots of course. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: The Shambles Date: 28 Jan 02 - 07:26 PM Brown boots? |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: bill\sables Date: 28 Jan 02 - 08:00 PM I'm not sure if I will get into trouble from other British folk singers for revealing the real reason why we put our fingers in our ears while singing but I think it is time the world knew our secret. Firstly, it dates back to 1943 when British scientists were developing new ideas for the war effort. Not only did we discover that carrots helped pilots to see in the dark but we also dabbled in radio and minaturisation. We developed the miniature radio tape recorder which could be planted in various parts of the body beneath the skin, this was a great aid for our spies and under cover agents. Military doctors would perform a small operation to implant the miniature radio receivers in the index fingers of the right hand. Unfortunately, the recorders and transmitters were slightly larger than the receivers so a suitable place had to be found to conceal their existence. As usual the boffins at MI5 came up with the result when a cleaner, who had been asked to do a rather unpleasant task remarked, "If you think I'm doing that you can stick your job up your arse." This was so obvious a place of concealment that they wondered why no one hadn't thought of it before. During the early sixties many of these devices were on sale to the general public in Army and Navy surplus stores and indeed on market stalls throughout the land and for a small fee doctors would do the implant operation. Folk Singers in particular found this an invaluable aid to remembering song lyrics and tunes. All they had to do was play the song they had recorded at home on the miniature recorder and then transmit it to the tiny speaker in their finger. But the one problem was that the speaker was so small that they had to stick their finger in their ear to hear the words and music. Once this technique had been mastered and accepted by folk audiences across the country another problem arose. It was found that most of the long ninety seven verse songs in the English tradition were putting the audiences to sleep and so singers had to find a way to keep the audience interested in their performance, so they decided to give long introductions to their songs. Unfortunately this meant switching the recorder on and off. And that is why when you see a folk singer singing with his finger in his ear he usually does have the other finger up his arse. Cheers Bill |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Desdemona Date: 28 Jan 02 - 08:05 PM I've seen loads of photos of people singing that way---the Watersons in particular come to mind off the back of one of their records. I imagine the "hearing yourself better " explanation is probably the correct one; of course, as with anything I suppose it could easily become an affectation. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Paul from Hull Date: 28 Jan 02 - 08:34 PM *LMAO* Brilliant stuff Bill! |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: little john cameron Date: 28 Jan 02 - 09:08 PM Talkin aboot Arran sweaters,Rick where is the photie o' you an' me an' Ralph wi the Japanese Arran sweaters.Ah'm sure aw' hauns wid like tae see that. ljc |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: bill\sables Date: 28 Jan 02 - 09:35 PM While we are on the subject of Arran Sweaters, The history of this form of dress again dates back to the sixties when Folk Clubs were springing up all around the UK. Every town and village had its own folk club and the English Folk Dance and Song Society declared that each and every club should wear a form of uniform (Rather like the Scouts)which would be an Arran Sweater. Not any old Arran sweater would do however, every club had to develop a patern which only their members were allowed to wear. This was very handy for the police forces around the country because when they picked a drunk up from the gutter they knew by the patern of his or her sweater exactly where he had come from. Cheers Bill |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: catspaw49 Date: 28 Jan 02 - 09:57 PM You're cookin' tonight Bill!!! LMAO!!! But truthfully, wasn't that your first thought when you saw the thread title? "Why a finger in the ear?" -- Because my thumb is occupying my ass! Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Jim Dixon Date: 28 Jan 02 - 10:02 PM So, are you guys telling me, that no one actually puts their finger IN their ear, but they actually cup their hands BEHIND or AROUND their ear, and that all these finger-in-ear comments are merely jokes? Or honest misunderstandings? Or deliberate misrepresentations meant to ridicule folksingers? Anyway, in those photos of Ewan McColl, he definitely doesn't literally have is finger IN his ear, but he doesn't exactly appear to have his hand cupped either. So what the heck IS he doing? |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: catspaw49 Date: 28 Jan 02 - 10:16 PM Yeah Jim.....That's how it looks to me too. And am I the only one who didn't immediately flash on Robin Gibb too? Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Pene Azul Date: 28 Jan 02 - 10:23 PM Hmmm... looks like he's pressing his finger against the back of his ear. That seems to produce a similar effect, but more subtle. Spaw, I thought of Gibb too when I saw this. Jeff |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: Chip2447 Date: 28 Jan 02 - 10:40 PM THREAD CREEP... Jim Dixon Pipe down is an actual call on a bosuns Pipe, used to get rowdy sailors attention and give them warning that the Bosun is about to start breaking heads. Quite literally "Pipe down". And if memory serves me correct, it is sounded as a long high trill dropping into a low pitch trill... Imitating Gary Owens from Laff In, one finger stuck in his ear "We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread." Chip2447 |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: JedMarum Date: 28 Jan 02 - 10:46 PM Why a finger in the ear? It is one of the least offensive orifices. |
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Subject: RE: Help: Why a finger in the ear? From: GUEST Date: 29 Jan 02 - 12:29 AM I've got a question about the miniature speakers implanted in the fingertip. I'm curious as to whether they could act as microphones as well. Can one find these on eBay? Do you have any model numbers ? How much could one expect to find one in reasonable good (unimplanted) condition? |
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