This is my latest attempt, taking all suggestions (thanks so much!) into account:
$query="SELECT id, firstname, username, rssfeed FROM members WHERE rssfeed!=''";
$result=mysql_query($query);
$feeds = array();
$id_array = array();
$first = array();
while ($cur_feed = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
$feeds[] = $cur_feed['rssfeed'];
$id_array[] = $cur_feed['id'];
$first[] = $cur_feed['firstname'];
// This array will hold the items we'll be grabbing.
$first_items = array();
// Let's go through the array, feed by feed, and store the items we want.
foreach ($feeds as $url)
{
$user_id = $id_array[$ix];
$firstname = $first[$ix];
$ix++;
// Use the long syntax
$feed = new SimplePie();
$feed->set_feed_url($url);
$feed->init();
It looks sensible to me, but no results. I suspect the approach is still wrong somehow. id, username etc. should be "along for the ride" with the rssfeeds and this approach seems to put them on the same level. Something feels wrong there.