From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V7 #287 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Monday, October 8 2001 Volume 07 : Number 287 Today's Subjects: ----------------- guilty pleasures and fun ["Karen Hester" ] Re: Led Zeppelin/Guilty Pleasures [kerrywhite@webtv.net (kerry white)] Wendy Rule In NY [meredith ] Re: guilty pleasures [Jerene Waite ] Re: guilty pleasures [Valerie Nozick ] guitly pleasures ["Adam K." ] The Rufus and Tori Show--DC, 10/7/2001, Wash DC [Craig Gidney Subject: guilty pleasures and fun Irvin Lin one question. What makes something a guilty pleasure or an embarrasment? i know this question has been asked before, but i just wonder, why should i be embarrased that i like BRITNEY SPEARS or MANDY >MOORE . is i because she is a commercial success? but doesn't TORI AMOS sell millions of records? .......... >i am just wondering what the criteria is that makes us (me included) comfortable telling people that we listen >to KATE BUSH or YO LA TENGO but makes us kinda mumble under our breathe when we have to admit that > we like ABBA or the A*TEENS. I feel that embarrassment too, even though my grown-up self knows better. Some of our (=my) musical education from the first was through the most snobbish of music magazines, and the 'uncool/too commercial/sell out' categories that were then essential in passing musical judgements are now difficult to distangle from more valid criteria. But also, I feel guilty because of *why I* like certain music, not because of anything in the music itself. There are less noble attractions :) I kinda look down on my need for bouncy-walking-to-work music, compared to music I have a deep-and-meaningful connection with, whereas if someone else is deeply moved by music that makes my feet move and lets my mind sloth, then I don't see their attachment to that music as something to be embarrassed by. Just my attachment, because of my lower reasons. I'm thoroughly embarrassed with some aspects of my current Mylene Farmer obsession. At first I found her music mysterious and so catchy and pop-ish, despite being in a language I don't understand. But then I became rather more interested after seeing bits of her music videos which involve insanity and martial arts and cross-dressing and blood and flying and the Russian revolution and turning into an insect and duelling and vampires being burnt at the stake and a considerable lack of clothing. Liking someone's music partly because of their videos is pretty stupid, I reckon, and developing a fascination (and something like a mythology around them if you're at the right age, perhaps a delicate teenager, ooh French Diva of Melancholy, Goddess of Disenchantment etc), well ... oh, who cares if I'm silly, Mylene's music is so gorgeous, and fun isn't something to be embarrassed by. Maybe that's it - fun. Fun and nothing more than fun being embarrassing, if it is popular genre fiction or chart music or popcorn movies or other artforms. I wish I could end this with a populist set of 'now reading' and 'now playing' etc, but not so. np Hannah Fury's 'meathook' ep (with a gothic piano and absinthe ABBA cover!) nr Beryl Bainbridge's latest, on Samuel Johnson & friends ne (now eating) crumbly citrus cookies I baked ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 02:37:04 -0500 (CDT) From: kerrywhite@webtv.net (kerry white) Subject: Re: Led Zeppelin/Guilty Pleasures Hi, uh.. let me check some ticket stubs: Friday Sept 10, 1971 LED ZEPPELIN, $5.00. Just before the -runes- album. What a surprise to see the acoustic guitar come out. Also: JETHRO TULL, 1970 $4.50 Right about at AQUALUNG. MOODY BLUES, 1970 $4.50 Just before EVERY CHILD something.. Forgot title. DION opened. No date, EMERSON, LAKE, AND PALMER/ EDGAR WINTER'S WHITE TRASH. Mixed crowd, both sides suprised. Twice in the late '90s I flew East to see HAPPY RHODES and also drove East to visit family and the next day drove several hundred miles to see HR again. TORI AMOS was[ HELP ME VICKIE OR JAVAHO WHEN WAS TA AT KC?] And, I've seen THE DEAD twice. And in '78 I saw KaTe Bush on SNL with a cheap cassette recorder running (for the comedy). My guilty pleasure is REBA McINTIRE. I always hated C+W music, but, RM's voice is as smooth as water rolling down a really neat medium-size falls. I tend to gravitate towards the latter-day KaTe, P GABRIEL, and SOUXIE, and TRIBE side of ECTO and RM is from out way in left field. bye, KrW I'm Peter Pan! I'm perpetually young!! OW!! What's wrong with my back? ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2001 11:44:35 -0400 From: meredith Subject: Wendy Rule In NY Hi, Wendy Rule is back in the States! She will be playing in New York City at the Baggot Inn this Friday, October 12 at 7 pm. The Baggot Inn is located at 82 W. 3rd St. in Greenwich Village. http://www.thebaggotinn.com for more info... And don't forget, she'll be back in our living room on Sunday, November 4. Seeing Wendy perform is an experience you won't forget. Every ectophile who can, should go see her while she's back in this hemisphere. ======================================= Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth "an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind" -- mahatma gandhi ======================================= Live At The House O'Muzak House Concert Series http://www.smoe.org/meth/muzak.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2001 08:59:17 -0700 From: Jerene Waite Subject: Re: guilty pleasures OK I admit to the BeeGees--before they went disco however. I will not admit to liking the goofy falsetto songs. They were a prolific and melodically gifted group of brothers. Somehow that first blush of youth is gone and either they or I are not the same anymore. (must be them...) My daughters relive their childhood through old BeeGees songs. I didn't have the nerve to name my younger daughter Melody Fair, but she did get named something close. ("Won't you comb your hair..") (What lyrics!) Jerene ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2001 18:26:07 +0100 From: Valerie Nozick Subject: Re: guilty pleasures Egads, guilty pleasures. I'm a little late to this topic, but I have a *ton* of them. Anything from the 80s, especially British/European new wave (Spandau Ballet, a-ha, Duran Duran, Soft Cell...). Lots of country music, especially Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson. Pure pop (Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, etc...but NOT Britney 'I'm just a marketing tool' Spears). Broadway musicals (preferably sung in the shower). It feels a little strange to write this email right now - President Bush has just addressed the nation, and in effect, the world, announcing the first strikes on Afghanistan. From the UK, I send my hopes and prayers to everyone in the United States. ==> Valerie ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 13:04:01 +0100 From: "Adam K." Subject: guitly pleasures You want "guilty pleasures"? You want REAL "guilty pleasures"? Slade --- how about THAT? SLADE!!!! Sure, all the US contingency are going "Who?" but the UK lot --- well, we know. There's nothing else I'll apologise for -- not my early Elton John, my early ELO or even my Roy Wood collection, or even my entire prog-rock collection. Nope --- because they're all brilliant, and I'm not ashamed to say so. But the Slade --- well, whenever anyone notices it, I can only say "Yeah, well...there's a story behind that...". But there isn't. It just seemed like a good idea at the time. And I still kind of like them. Guiltily. adam k. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 16:18:59 -0700 (PDT) From: Craig Gidney Subject: The Rufus and Tori Show--DC, 10/7/2001, Wash DC Rufus opened the show, accompanying himself on keyboard and guitar. He started out with "Angels & Cigarettes," followed with "Greek Song." In "California" he made a crack about "General Bea Arthur" (who, incidently, is playing in DC in her one-woman show). It was a good, short set. I did, however, miss the rich harmonies and expansive backdrops of his album. But the songs are so well constructed, they didn't suffer that much. I even felt a little sorry for the guy--he oughta have the adulation and following that Tori inspires. Amos performed by herself, accompanying herself on grand piano, synth, and a wurlitzer (she played "Crucify" and "Playboy Mommy" on the "whirly" as she dubbed the instrument. It was an elegant show that mostly touched on her 5 album career. "Enjoy the Silence" and "Rattlesnakes" were the highlights from Strange Little Girls. Her backdrop--consisting of billowing fabrics and geometric shapes and lighting (mostly greens and purples) were notible. Since she played "Pandora's Aquarium" I'll say that it was an near-perfect evening. She also played weird b-sides, including "Take to the Sky," and a Diamanda Galas-sings-nursery-tunes version of "This Old Man." - --Craig (who'll be seeing Shannon Wright tonight.) ===== "Tired moons ask higher tides."--Zelda Fitzgerald NEW from Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1 ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V7 #287 **************************