From: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org (basia-digest) To: basia-digest@smoe.org Subject: basia-digest V3 #180 Reply-To: basia@smoe.org Sender: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "basia-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. basia-digest Wednesday, August 26 1998 Volume 03 : Number 180 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Kevin's Tape, ISP's, no news, and guitar tabs ["Diane F. Fisli" ] Re: Okay-- I think we're all set this time... [Mike Nice ] Re: From the mists of history... [Joel Cairo ] Re: THE COPERNICAN CHRONICLES: Take time to think it out... [Phil Hall Subject: Kevin's Tape, ISP's, no news, and guitar tabs Hey Kevin! WOWZA!!! That tape sounds like it's really great! Actually, that concert sounds very close to the one I saw the first time I saw Basia - - however it was much later. This is a wonderful find!!! Congratulations on your good fortune, and thanks for sharing this with the rest of us Basiamaniacs! :) At 01:15 AM 8/21/98 -0400, you wrote: >First, my ISP has been rather dicey over the past few days... I've >already tried one upload, and GTE timed out on me, so I'll try again >later. :( If anyone is having trouble with their ISP, you should try FlashNet. We're very reliable, quite affordable (as low as $13.12/mo prepaid annual unlimited access account), and offer quality and speed that is equal to or better than the competition. 56K FLEX supported in most places and V90 when the upgrade comes. Over 70% of the USA covered with local dialup access numbers. 30-day 100% satisfaction guaranteed or your money back, so there's NO RISK INVOLVED in checking out this great ISP. Check out my webpage for further info and an easy way to signup online - and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. http://musicats.com/flash.htm Sorry for the "commercial", folks. But I know a lot of you have trouble with your ISP's and I wanted to offer a reliable, affordable alternative. :) I've been away from home, so don't have any "news" on Basia yet... Peter is planning to go home to England for a two-week visit I believe sometime in October. I'll try to get him to pry some info out of Danny concerning the next Basia album... And while I'm at it, there really is no "guitar tabs" for any of Peter's work. I've been trying to get him to release something - am a little closer to this, but cannot promise anything... He's been quite busy lately and it's difficult to pin him down to get a project like this started. All I can do is say I'll try my best... :) TTFN! - --Di. "...If you follow your dreams... You can never go wrong..." --Peter White, "Caravan Of Dreams" ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 01:36:19 -0700 From: Joel Cairo Subject: Okay-- I think we're all set this time... ...because my ISP appears to have (once again) received my upload of the Aretha Franklin Medley MP3, so give it a couple of hours (it's 1:30 AM Pacific time as I write this), and it should propagate *this* time!!! Hope everybody enjoys it-- the message is labeled as follows: ">>>>>FOR JUAN, ASHOKE & THE BASIA MAILING LIST... " Should be easy enough to find this time around!! Enjoy, folks! (I'm going to bed!) Ciao, - -Kevin ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Aug 98 07:56:20 -0400 From: Mike Nice Subject: Re: Okay-- I think we're all set this time... In <35E27783.38B3964@gte.net>, on 08/25/98 at 01:36 AM, Joel Cairo said: >...because my ISP appears to have (once again) received my upload of the >Aretha Franklin Medley MP3, so give it a couple of hours (it's 1:30 AM >Pacific time as I write this), and it should propagate *this* time!!! >Hope everybody enjoys it-- the message is labeled as follows: >">>>>>FOR JUAN, ASHOKE & THE BASIA MAILING LIST... " It came across this time so I grabbed it! (Got to run, so I haven't played it yet) Thanks, - -- - ----------------------------------------------------------- Mike Nice - ----------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 12:00:15 -0400 From: "Ashoke S. Talukdar" Subject: THE COPERNICAN CHRONICLES: Take time to think it out... Often change is good. Sometimes not so. An internet search engine should be robust. Hence, as a general rule, I stick with Infoseek. However, yesterday I decided to try something else, so I used a generic search engine through AOL. The object of the quest was the find Bills of Ordinances regarding company charters, the benefactor of which query would be my boss, who is in the process of drawing up a business plan for his newly . Gingerly, I searched for "bill". The results came back : the first, second AND third in the list were all links to "Hillbilly Lesbians United". I went back to Infoseek before I suffered any permanent subliminal damage. _______________________________________________________________________ Recently, a new member joined the Suzanne Vega list. In his self-introductory message, among other things, he mentioned the artists that he likes. He wrote: > > My other musical interests are Fionna Apple, Celine Dion, > Olivia Newton-John, The Pretenders, Madonna, Sarah McLachlan,and > Natalie Merchant. > To this post someone replied : > > Ever hear of any MALE singers? > I was not the only one that noted the somewhat vitriolic tone of the last post. However, unlike a few others, I did omit to make comments about it. After all, every one is entitled to their two cents. But, I have to admit that I have occasionally run into this same problem of finding many male singers that provide me with food for entertainment and thought. There have been a few though and to this day "Negotiations and Love Songs" (Paul Simon) remains one of my favorite albums, as is Marc Cohn's "Rainy Season". There is a pub near where I live called The Grog Shop, which features local bands and some of national repute. I have noticed that the male bands have tended to be rather derivative of each other in the past few years. I mean skinny tattooed arms and unkempt hair do not necessarily musicians make! There were and continue to be exceptions, but they ARE exceptions. Nevertheless I have noticed some interesting trends over the past years that I don't have explanations for. For example, there have been many female performers that have played at The Grog Shop whose works I have enjoyed. In fact I actually felt compelled to ask some of these performers both male and female why there was such a vast difference in the average of their styles. The most intriguing answer came from the manager of the pub herself. She stated that (and I paraphrase) that it would seem that the music industry is encouraging the more thought provoking works from the female artists whereas the male artists are being allowed to stick to existing recipes. Gender issues aside, I find that to be an interesting remark. Could it possibly be that we have stopped expecting cerebral matter from our male artists? That would indeed be unfortunate. Consider what we would have missed if Paul Simon had been forced to stick to a "recipe"! On the other hand, perhaps there is some truth to it which goes deeper into our perception of the arts than what might be apparently dictated by the moghuls of the production business. Considering the number of queries I have received regarding MY gender since I started posting the Chronicles, I had to reflect on the relevance of gender on art. There indeed seems to a difference in what we expect from male and female artists. There are conditions of social atmosphere that might, rightly or wrongly, cause women to have different perceptions than men, some or much of which can and does get reflected in the artistic content of their work. But it does not explain the difference in artistic style. However, I do believe that at least a part of the answer lies in the singularity of an artist's particular talent. I have noted before that songwriters have the exceptionally difficult task of keeping the content separate from the style, if and when they choose to. There are some like Basia who don't have to, primarily because Basia is represented in her entirety in her songs. Hence, there is rarely a confusion in how we perceive her work. But then Basia has a talent that many artists don't - a singularly captivating physical and vocal presence. When she sings, people LISTEN, more to her voice than to her songs. And in her realm of style, there hardly is ever any ambiguity related to the environment. I don't mean to imply that mastery of content is any more or less of an artisitic achievement than the mastery of style. They both reflect different strengths. However, content is typically more susceptible to the social environement in which it is conceived. This, so far, is the only explanation that I have found, which could begin to address this odd dichotomy of context between contemporary male and female artists. Peace, Ashoke. ________________________________________________________________ Ashoke S. Talukdar | When the darkness takes you talukdar@morph.ebme.cwru.edu | with her hand across your face Home : 216-381-5872 | Don't give in too quickly Imaging Lab : 216-368-8812 | Find the things she's erased MetroHealth : 216-778-8987 | Find the line, find the face Pager : 216-670-5872 | Through the grain... Cellular : 216-317-7079 | Fax : 216-368-4969 | Suzanne Vega ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 12:20:14 -0400 From: jp Subject: Re: From the mists of history... My server can't find the end of the mp3. I guess all the parts didn't make it there. Or maybe Brigid O'Shaughnessy grabbed it. Is anyone else finding it all? un abrazo, juan ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 13:20:30 -0700 From: Joel Cairo Subject: Re: From the mists of history... jp wrote: > > My server can't find the end of the mp3. I guess all the parts didn't make > it there. Or maybe Brigid O'Shaughnessy grabbed it. Is anyone else finding > it all? I think it's more likely that the fat man palmed it. - -K PS- The post *did* make it intact to my server, so hopefully, there's more to follow for you, Juan. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 21:42:57 +0000 From: Phil Hall Subject: Re: THE COPERNICAN CHRONICLES: Take time to think it out... At 12:00 PM 8/25/98 -0400, Ashoke S. Talukdar wrote: > >Often change is good. Sometimes not so. Ashoke has a good point in the 200 or so lines subsequent to the above cogent observation. The basic change he refers to I think is that the female artist of today's popular music is enjoying a rare pre-eminence when it comes to producing original, innovative music. At least, to the degree it obtains the exposure it does on VH-1 and elsewhere within the genre-fold. My 18 year-old son is bitter about it, denigrating the phenomenon to the fact that "girl acts are popular right now". He, electric foursome prone, mirrors the goatee-encrusted, bleached scalp 'boy-band' template that typifies his age. Anyone not singing in a monotypic baritone in front of a pulsing straight ahead neo-fusion salad-bar band is simply being a jerk. If it don't sound A LOT like the Dave Matthews Band, there must be folks flocking to the door. The female scene, on the other hand, dominated by the Joni-wannabes (right, Ashoke?), seem to be struggling to keep the folk scene alive as best they can, since it seems the guys have abandoned it in force. And since (my interpretation follows here) folk music depends on simple, pure melody and strong literary interpretation of life, it is a natural that anyone of the female gender who wishes to succeed in the business BETTER do what Joni did, or sure as water dries up the market will forget the goodness that it was and follow the Hole route. As much good is said of the Lilith Fair tour, I have read some pretty negative stuff about it as a vehicle for PC. However, since folk music is by definition issue-orientated, rote condemnation is out of place as long as there is some musical salvation. I guess that is the lesson my son will learn as he mellows (tho at his age I loved the lamented Laura Nyro!) The list of female composers who have made successful careers in pop is sadly pretty short, while the male contingent is (unfairly? who knows?) quite huge. Given the state of today's contributions from either end of the sex-spectrum, this seems a pretty good opportunity for some chick to really score big....tho, as Ashoke probaly rightly observed, the key is who will put the bucks behind her. It just seems, to my simple mind, that having a baby should not by necessity prevent a woman from making good music, like it might prevent her from making pizzas or automobiles. It's a wondrous conundrum. Phil (lamentable as usual) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 23:27:09 -0500 From: Beverly Martin Subject: From EPIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fellow Basiamaniacs! For the heck of it over the weekend (as I was finishing up the art for the video project) I popped over to the Epic site and left some plaintive "where oh where is Basia?" email. And -- believe it or not -- I had a response in my mailbox Monday: Subject: Re: BASIA??????????????????? Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998 08:13:19 -0700 From: Epic_Records@sonymusic.com To: beej_martin@earthlink.net She is still in the studio. Hey, I know it's not much -- especially since we alredy knew through Diane and her well-placed spies about it -- but hearing it from the "home office" (and SO quickly!) is heartening. I'm thinking we should all start emailing Epic and ask the question - -- get the juices going on the promotion people or something!!! -- Beverly Martin - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -=> Visit The all New *LEGENDS* APA site!!! <=- http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9049/Legends.html FEATURING THE ONE AND ONLY SUGAR AND SPIKE WEBSITE ON THE WHOLE BLASTED INTERNET THINGIE!!! http://home.earthlink.net/~beej_martin/SandSMain.html AND MY OLD "STAND-BYS" AT: http://home.earthlink.net/~beej_martin/index.html http://home.earthlink.net/~beej_martin/graphics.html http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9049/twice1.html (12/29/97) - -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*--*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* "Now the internet has all these people who are sitting around typing one-handed, and they're illiterates! I mean: 'Fick me! 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