From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V5 #420 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Saturday, December 25 1999 Volume 05 : Number 420 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Andrea Parker [sae@zeus.cas.suffolk.edu (Acme Instant Dehydrated Boulder ] RE: Andrea Parker ["girl with the curious hair" ] Happy Holidays! [Bill Mazur ] Re: My top ten for '99 [James Dixon ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 10:01:55 -0500 From: sae@zeus.cas.suffolk.edu (Acme Instant Dehydrated Boulder Kit) Subject: Andrea Parker Has anyone heard anything by Andrea Parker? I just was reading www.brainwashed.com/brain, and someone wrote a letter to the editor about a completely unrelated topic, and then said PS: Andrea parker sounds a lot like 1989 Bel Canto It was a total non-sequitur, but it really caught my attention, since I was positively *nuts* about bel canto back in 1989. I never heard of Andrea Parker before, but then I went to www.cdnow.com and listened to a few of her sound samples... Wow! She does! I'm gonna have to order one of her CDs soon, I guess. - -- Alan Ezust Cambridge, MA USA http://www.brainwashed.com/ezust ezust@brainwashed.com - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is Music. -- Aldous Huxley ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 10:17:20 -0800 From: "girl with the curious hair" Subject: RE: Andrea Parker i thought this message was very strange because yesterday i was randomly buying cds and i picked up andrea parker. i love this cd. very different. thought i'd share. j - -----Original Message----- From: owner-ecto@smoe.org [mailto:owner-ecto@smoe.org]On Behalf Of Acme Instant Dehydrated Boulder Kit Sent: Friday, December 24, 1999 7:02 AM To: ecto@smoe.org Subject: Andrea Parker Has anyone heard anything by Andrea Parker? I just was reading www.brainwashed.com/brain, and someone wrote a letter to the editor about a completely unrelated topic, and then said PS: Andrea parker sounds a lot like 1989 Bel Canto It was a total non-sequitur, but it really caught my attention, since I was positively *nuts* about bel canto back in 1989. I never heard of Andrea Parker before, but then I went to www.cdnow.com and listened to a few of her sound samples... Wow! She does! I'm gonna have to order one of her CDs soon, I guess. - -- Alan Ezust Cambridge, MA USA http://www.brainwashed.com/ezust ezust@brainwashed.com - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is Music. -- Aldous Huxley ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 12:49:27 -0800 From: Bill Mazur Subject: Happy Holidays! Hello Everyone, It has been a really fun and adventurous year on Ecto. I have enjoyed the experience here very much. I just want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Peace and Love to you all! Bill Mazur ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Dec 1999 00:54:04 -0500 From: James Dixon Subject: Re: My top ten for '99 Occasionally, I de-lurk... Jason wrote: > 10. Axelle Red - "Tojours Moi" - My new french chanteuse sensation...dont > know what she's singing about but it doesn't matter > -Jason Very cool. Very 70's. Not very ecto, but a good CD, just the same. Axelle has two other CDs out that I know about (and have), _À Tatons_ (warily), and an all-Spanish CD, with pretty much the same songs, called _Con Solo Pensarlo_ (with only ...more or less... the thought of it). À Tatons has a hidden track at the end, a duo with Barry White, seemingly called "Branded." This might be a remake of an earlier tune of his; I'm not real up on my Barry White. He sings the song mostly in English, she mostly in French, but they swap a little later in the tune, and Barry White in French doesn't work. It just doesn't. La magie n'est pas là. I have, in recent months, been pretty seriously captivated by the French music scene, to the extent that I don't often listen to anything that isn't French. I got Tori's latest CD weeks ago, and haven't even been able to give it a fair listen, despite having been a rabid fan of hers at one time. My top ten, as it stands now, are all French, and they are: Anything & everything by Mylène Farmer (my personal French-sensation), especially _Anamorphosée_, the 3 Axelle Red CDs, _Miserère_ (VERY good) by a fine singer named Bruno Pelletier, & Autour de Lucie's _Immobile_. Honorable mention for Lara Fabian (from Belgium), who promises to be the Next Big Diva, if her people manage things correctly. She's done 4 studio CDs, 3 in French, 1 of which closes with a song in (flawless) English, and another of which closes with a song in (flawless) Italian. Her current CD is mostly English, and the kickoff single, "Adagio" is quite good. An italian version of the song closes the CD. Being of the Diva ilk, some of the songs on her CDs tend to be, to put it mildly, well beneath my established musical tastes; she is not to be compared with 'real' musicians (Sarah, Tori, Jonatha Brooke, Jennifer Kimball, Emily Bezar, etc.), but she has an exceptional voice, very sweet at times, very forceful at times. She does both equally well. Inevitable comparisons will be made to Celine Dion, which is most unfortunate as Lara's style and voice are uniquely her own, and Celine Dion is far luckier than she is talented (imho). "Adagio" should be introduced to the American market in a month or so, and killed by radio within another few months, as radio must do. Radio must kill in order to survive... Anyone who thinks they might be interested in taking a French break can tune his/her RealPlayer to the PageFrance RealStream, which is 100% French-language, in contrast to the average French radio station which supplements its French-con with an unhealthy dose of English-language pop-crap. The URL for the website is: http://www.pagefrance.fm (no kidding. fm) The stream is at http://www.tuner.fm/pagefrance.ram . PageFrance (rightly) does not play "Adagio" because it's not in French. The cool thing about being into the music of another culture is that you can tolerate, or even enjoy, banal lyrics for a few years while you learn the language, although Lara Fabian's "Je t'aime" (I love you) was an immediate exception to this rule; sometimes you can detect banality without speaking the language. The only English-language CD I've been able to get into lately is Diana Krall's _When I Look in Your Eyes_. "Let's Face the Music and Dance" is a very cool, smoky, loungy kind of tune. She seems to do mostly old jazz standards, but she does them pretty well. This one's probably not in my top ten, but not a bad CD. Oh, yeah. I got Melanie Doane's CD (I don't remember the title); it was pretty good. Not great. Just good. My 2nd most embarrasing purchase of the year was _Come on Over_, by none other than Shania Twain, which I bought out of curiosity because "Man, I Feel Like a Woman," which I almost kind of like, has been regularly getting some airplay on French radio. Big mistake. This CD has nothing for me. She has a real pretty voice when she's not puttin' on the twang, but this CD offers no examples of it. If she were to fall in with the right people, she could put out some really good stuff. She'd make a great torch singer. My #1 most embarrasing purchase was _acoL adiV aL 'niviL_, by the Spanish pop sensation, nitraM ykciR, which I bought because I went through a Spanish pop phase a few years ago (which did not include Mr. nitraM), and I had hopes that there might be something interesting. There wasn't. My take on this CD is that Desmond Child, who wrote a string of really bad but really popular pop tunes in the 70's & 80's, and his cohorts came up with a concept of an album, hoping to start a sensation, then scoured the hispanic music scene looking for the pop star who could make it happen. They found him. I certainly don't want to offer any disrespect to nitraM ykciR (he seems very gracious and kind in his public appearances), but I ended up giving this CD to my 9-year-old niece who just LOVES it. Whatever. My humble thanks to Jason for letting me come-out to you all as the lowly French music lover I've become. Happy Holidays to all. Mr_Jim ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /whois Mr_Jim *** Mr_Jim is James Dixon *** Mr_Jim is a Radio Communications Systems Analyst/Technician *** Mr_Jim lives in Savannah GA USA *** Mr_Jim works predominately in Hilton Head SC (also USA) *** Mr_Jim has been idle for *quite* a while, now... FuE exfe94CFNY a+++ fte lus r+ ps+ t C++ w- p1 LF** N+ cd#+++ x+ Fa$ m? fc E rl--- d+ s** X-no-archive: yes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now Playing: Elenah, "Le jour s'est levé" which sort of means "Day has risen" (I think), via PageFrance. <><><> ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V5 #420 **************************