(idm) chow down

From Alex Reynolds
Sent Tue, Sep 28th 1999, 14:20

MYSTERIOUS CEREAL BOX SEEN ON BOARDS OF CANADA WEBSITE SHOWS UP IN EBAY AUCT=
ION
Hungry BoC fans want more

Edinburgh, Scotland (REUTERZ) -- September 27, 1999

"Like 'says lad, eat yuir bock-o's or I'll clip yuir ear, ya daft cunt. I
dinnae want people thinkin' yuir a wide-o."

Thus opens the flashback in Chapter 53 of Irvine Welsh's _Filth_, as Bruce
Robertson's surrogate father berates him at the breakfast table. But what
are these mysterious "bock-o's" that have kept humanities grad students
drinking lattes and arguing long into the night?

Surprising clues were found published yesterday on EHXs new Boards of
Canada website and on the famed auction site Ebay in the form of pictures
of a bowl, a spoon, a bottle of milk, and a cereal box.

Across the front of the box screams 'BoC-Os' in cartoonish,
turquois-coloured text, above a pair of what appear to be Boards of Canada
members Mike Sandison & Marcus Eoin standing with looks of glee and
anticipation over a bowl of breakfast cereal.

The cereal itself appears to be a crunchy, corn-puffed variant of the
eye-and-two-legs logo of the National Film Board of Canada, with blue-ish
marshmallow hexagons strewn throughout.

One hundred cases of the cereal were being auctioned off the Ebay website
as an ultra-rare release from the BoC crew. Before going to press, the
bidding reached as high as $53,000 US. It is presumed up to two hundred
cases were distributed to friends and family of the two artists.

One IDM fan, known only as "B.", questions the existence of this release:

"I've heard no confirmation/report of it anywhere else before or since -
200 cases is a pretty sizable run, [and] you're telling me Skam, Autechre,
Kellogs, Weetabix, General Mills, these people well involved with BoC, even
they didn't know?

"So where would the cases go? Friends/family. Okay. None of them are on
this mailing list? And yet they appreciate IDM and a delicious, nutritious
breakfast nonetheless. This is a box of cereal, not a 12". That requires
significant costs, and a run of 200 would be expensive (the cost, as people
who put out cereal can tell you, isn't in the number of boxes but in the
diecasting/pressing/packing/etc. of the crunchy, sweet goodness, which is
why under 500 costs about as much as 500)... Bizarre."

In response to these claims, the EHX/BoC website administrator, who will
identify himself only as "Yum-Yum", released this official communique:

"BoC's decision never to mention these items before is their own. But I
will say that there is definitely NO financial gain here, and there is no
particular timing in the announcement, particularly as "hype" for their new
line of yummy breakfast bars... I find it a pity that some people view the
discography as simply a mechanism to artificially pump interest in BoC's
food products prior to their release; this is NOT the case.

"As for my "disclaimer" on the discography page about sharing cereal: this
is totally out of necessity. I too have a full and busy life, and it is
totally true that I do not have any time to distribute BoC's cereal.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm feeling a little peckish. Anyone got milk?"

Most 'Boards fans were thrilled about the surprise release and were looking
forward to gorging themselves on the next batch of gastronomical delights
from the two Scotsmen.

"At least this means the next Skam release won't be chopped haggis, like
the last one," says list member "A.", licking his fingers impatiently.

=A9 1999 Reuterz News and Dining Services LTD

Alex Reynolds / Biology IT Support
SAS Computing
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104
V +1 215 573.2818
=46 +1 215 898.8780
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~reynolda/