From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V7 #366 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Monday, December 24 2001 Volume 07 : Number 366 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Courage of the Artist [cyo@landoftheblind.com] Merry Christmas, everyone.... [adamk@zoom.co.uk] Christmas Music; Tolkien Stuff ["Lyle Howard" ] Re: Karan Casey - The winds begin to sing [Jessica Byers ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2001 23:52:05 -0800 From: cyo@landoftheblind.com Subject: Courage of the Artist hello and happy solstice and merry be to all...my butterfly peace group sent this out, as a struggling artist it meant a lot to me as one of the few with no extra present money, one of those outside of the malls, one of those people giving music I made, as that is all I can do....it brought me some peace in these war-ignored holiday shoparama days. America is open for business, ha ha, it always is, eh? May all your hearts be filled this Christmas with comfort and love instead. All artists take heart. peace,cyoakha > > >01/16/2000 >From: pzet@montana.com (Peggy Zetler) > >I copied this from the inside of a turn of the century shed in Glen Montana. >The signature was S. Stefanic which I believe is Susan Stefanic of Butte who >must have writen it on the wood wall when she was young. I do not know if >she is the author of if she found this somewhere and was so moved that she >was compelled to scribe it permanently. I have carried this with me for >years and whenever I am feeling pressured to disallow the wonderment that is >me, I reread it. This expresses the base of my personality principles. I >hope it gives you the courage to dream BIG and bring your visions into the >world. > > >Courage of the Artist > >It is the duty of the artist to resist >It is the duty of the artist to reject all truths >To put an end to all answers >To demolish the status Quo >To expose the king's nakedness >To ignore the facts >To fall in love as often as possible >To be in love with as many as possible simultaneously >To see through walls >To walk through fire >To fly over the crevasse >To bring inspiration to the isolated doubting angel >To dive into intuition >To abandon all solutions >To create the ultimate vision > > >Credo of Those Who Try to Better the World > >We the willing, led by the unknown, >Have been doing the impossible for so long, >And with so little, that we are now qualified, >To do almost anything with practically nothing. > >From: pzet@montana.com (Peggy Zetler) 11/13/2000 > >"Art is not a mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer with which to shape >it."--Bertol Brecht > >We are the music makers. We are the dreamers of dreams. >Wandering by lone sea breakers. Sitting by desolate streams. >World losers and world forsakers on whom the pale moon gleams. >And yet we are the movers and the shakers of the world forever it seems. > >-Arthur O'Shaughnessy > > > > > > > TO ALL, I have changed my email address to cyo@landoftheblind.com please update your address book, thanks Cyoakha O'Manion Music PO Box 198 Mill Valley, CA 94941 cyo@landoftheblind.com http://www.landoftheblind.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 13:47:22 +0000 (GMT) From: adamk@zoom.co.uk Subject: Merry Christmas, everyone.... Hi folks, Nesting down in the New Forest, I realised I forgot the inevitable, so hooked up this old computer for a quick message, and caught up with all the posts. while I'm here, though, I thought I'd chuck in my tuppence worth re Xmas music. Somewhere, I have an album I picked up called "Just Say Noel", which is a bit of a laugh -- possibly the first combination of Aimee mann and Michael Penn, but also Sonic Youth, the Posies, and several other indie bands. not essential Xmas music, but fun, nonetheless. Me, I'm still a sucker for "I Believe in Father Christmas" by Greg Lake, which has sweet nostalgia value for me, and it's always good to hear "Fairytale of New York" (forgive me if I got the title wrong) to remind us of what we've lost. Finally, I just wanted to wish everyone on the list a very Merry Christmas (or whatever) and a happy, healthy, musical and -- above all --- peaceful new year. adam k. Get your own zoom email - click here - http://www.zoom.co.uk/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 18:38:34 From: "Lyle Howard" Subject: Christmas Music; Tolkien Stuff Hi, Just a quick note to let you know our local public radio station, KERA, is playing twelve hours of Christmas music. Glenn Mitchell got the ball rolling thirty minutes ago and will not stop till midnight Texas time. The address is: www.kera.org/radio/local/mitchell/ If you have any trouble getting there, just type in KERA as a search word and their site will come up. From there you can click to get streaming audio. I wish I could listen to it, but I head west in a while and lose the signal one hour out. If any of you are in a Tolkien frenzy, go to www.phil.unt.edu/~hargrove, where you will find plenty to read. This site is owned by the UNT environmental philosophy professor who has set Middle Earth songs to music. Still don't know anything about his music. Maybe he has mp3s. Babylon 5 fans might find something there too. Happy Holidays, Lyle _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 16:57:51 -0700 From: Jessica Byers Subject: Re: Karan Casey - The winds begin to sing OK this post was from several weeks ago, but sometimes I get behind. Anyway, I just want to say that Karan Casey's solo CDs are beautiful. I highly recommend them both, Songlines and The Winds Begin to Sing. Its not the same energy as Solas, but her vocals were always my favorite thing about them anyway. AND she is coming to Missoula in March!! Jess ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 21:24:40 -0500 From: "Bill Adler" Subject: RE: Karan Casey - The winds begin to sing I just received Karan Casey's "The Winds Begin to Sing." I agree with Jess -- it's not as high energy as Solas, but "The Winds Begin to Sing" is an expressive CD, with warm lyrics and a soulful rhythm. Karan Casey's voice is, as always, the star of the show. - --Bill n.p. Cara Dillon, "Cara Dillon" - -----Original Message----- From: owner-ecto@smoe.org [mailto:owner-ecto@smoe.org]On Behalf Of Jessica Byers Sent: Sunday, December 23, 2001 6:58 PM To: ecto-digest Subject: Re: Karan Casey - The winds begin to sing OK this post was from several weeks ago, but sometimes I get behind. Anyway, I just want to say that Karan Casey's solo CDs are beautiful. I highly recommend them both, Songlines and The Winds Begin to Sing. Its not the same energy as Solas, but her vocals were always my favorite thing about them anyway. AND she is coming to Missoula in March!! Jess ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2001 14:39:11 +1100 From: Andrew Fries Subject: top 10 of the year Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, for those who don't care about its significance but enjoy the time off work - have great holidays... and condolences to those who, like me, have to work regardless. As a gift to you all I give you my top-10 list :) Actually my list will be short and sweet this time because I bought very few records this year, and I'd really have to struggle to come up with 10 I'd consider worthy of the honour. But here's what I've got: 1. My record of the year is Kirsty Stegwazi, "Jailbirds". I've been a great fan of this obscure artist from Melbourne for many years now, so it's no suprise I like this album. But is it really better than anything else released this year? Well, I'm objective enough to know her appeal is far from universal, even here on Ecto. But whatever your reaction might be, one thing is for sure: her sound is all of her own. I think of her as a kind of raw talent, untempered by any kind of formal training. Which might be completely off the mark; for all I know she's been having music lessons since before she could walk (which in a way would make the way she sounds even more remarkable)... She reminds me of Veda Hille in a way - they both polarise the opinions, and they seem to make a conscious effort to shun "accessible" in favour of more difficult path. Difficult both musically and in terms of financial rewards they can expect. Kirsty seems well connected and respected on Melbourne's m! usic scene and she can be found in different collaborations and in the credits as a studio musician. But there's no way on Earth she'll find herself on the charts with this stuff! Though on her earlier record she sings, "I'll lick your boots till they glow in the daylight/if you promise me I won't stay this poor" on Jailbirds she shows no signs of softening. These songs are just as stubbornly hers, strange and clearly not appealing to the radio programmers as ever. Still, they worm their way into my subconscious until I catch myself humming them without even realising I'm doing that, and when I sit in front of my CD rack trying to figure out what to play, as often as not I find I'm already holding "Jailbirds" in my hand. That's why she gets to be my Number One. 2. Sarina Simoom, "thread bone bare". Though technically released a year ago, I only discovered it early this year. I posted a glowing review then and I can't really add much to what I wrote, except that it's still holding up against the duoble test of time and familiarity. And the closing track, "thread" gets my Song Of The Year award. 3. Lamb, "What sound" - I can't believe I'm still the only one to comment on this one at any length. Could it still be waiting for its release in the States? 4. Cowboy Junkies, "Open". Lauder and more edgy than their usual fare. I'm not sure if I'd want them to continue in this direction, but they deserve a prize for not standing still... 5. Natalie Merchant, "Motherland". As usual, she delivers the goods, with the title track, "Golden Boy" and "Tell yourself" my hot favourites of the moment (I'm playing this CD as I type) 6. Suzanne Vega, "Songs in Red and Grey". I think she'd automatically qualify for at least a mention just for still being around and releasing new album, but fortunately there is a bonus: the album is very good. Since her very first self-titled record remains the favourite, I happily welcome any new recordings in similar spirit. And this one is just that. Is that all? well, that's pretty much all I can think of right now, which kind of suggests that yes, those were indeed the only releases of this year to make a real impression on me. I actually think this was a pretty quiet year, again. Or maybe I was just paying less attention? For the second year in a row, there is a very, very important category missing from my list: "The *New* Artist Of The Year"! This does not bode well. But at least, I've got... Discovery of The Year - Hannah Fury. While both of her records predate this year, they took a while to reach me - I won't let that happen again! - and they were certainly some of the most often played ones around here. And finally, Blah of The Year - sadly, this non-award has to go to Tori Amos for her "concept album", as the concept here seems to be to make up an angle where there isn't one. The very existence of this album truly offends me, as all I can see is a bunch of very average songs and a cynical marketing exercise. And if this was just her way of getting herself out of her contractual obligations, well... you know I'm all for sticking it up record companies' and I would easily overlook this lapse if it paved the way for her going solo in Ani Difranco fashion but forgive me for not dancing in the streets when all she does is jump from one major to another! - ---------------------------------------------------------------- "Directed denial of service attacks. Computer security averted and disabled. Files deleted from hard drives. Is this the work of malicious hackers breaking into a computer system? No. This is what the RIAA envisions is fair play in their crusade to control the distribution of copyrighted material." - arstechnica.com - ---------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V7 #366 **************************