Errors-To: owner-ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu Reply-To: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu Sender: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu From: ecto@ns1.rutgers.edu To: ecto-request@ns1.rutgers.edu Bcc: ecto-digest-outbound@ns1.rutgers.edu Subject: ecto #374 ecto, Number 374 Sunday, 29 November 1992 Today's Topics: *-----------------* Ecto FAQ (including Projects) **LONG** Proof of the Pudding covers Kate Happy KateSkater & PeterPuppets Dracula & other Scary Tales ======================================================================== My apologies to digest-people for sending out three digests at once!! I didn't expect to not log in for three days.. For those who wonder why I didn't just send out one big one - a couple of people on the list have machines that cut off mail at 1000 lines. I don't want them to miss anything. --jessica ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 28 Nov 92 7:53:36 EST From: WretchAwry Subject: Ecto FAQ (including Projects) **LONG** In response to Christopher's query (Welcome Christopher!): This an FAQ for new Ectophiles. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Hello! Welcome all newcomers to Happy Rhodes and Ecto-the fuzzy blue mailing list. (Fuzzy Blue=Warm, friendly & flame-free) You are now officially an Ectophile! Abbreviations: HR-Happy Rhodes (also H, HTR) KB-Kevin Bartlett (though, with all the Kate Bush fans here, be sure to H&K-Happy & Kevin (personal partners and co-producers) check the context) B\R-Bartlett\Rhodes (a professional duo in 1988 and part of 1989) AG-Aural Gratification 1st4-Happy's 1st 4 albums (cassettes) VI-Volume I album (also V1, Vol. I or 1) VII-Volume II album (also V2, Vol. II or 2) Rearm-Rearmament album WP-Warpaint album Her full name is Happy Tyler Rhodes. She was born Kimberly Tyler Rhodes but has always been called Happy by family and friends. When she was 16 she had her name legally changed to Happy. She's 27 years old, born August 9, 1965 in Poughkeepsie, NY. The address to order Happy's music or write to her is: The discography: Happy Rhodes c/o Aural Gratification 1) Rhodes Vol. I (1986) P.O. Box 8658 2) Rhodes Vol. II (1986) Academy Station 3) Rearmament (1986) Albany, NY 12208 4) Ecto (1987) 5) Warpaint (1991) 1-4 are available CD and cassette 5 available on CD and cassette The CDs are $13.99 each Postage for one CD is $2.00 The tapes are $9.99 each Postage for one tape is $1.50 Each additional tape or CD is $ .50 apiece If you were to buy just the 4 tapes, the total postage would be $2.55. For the CD and all 4 tapes, or all 5 CDs, postage would be $3.40. Price in English pounds is: 8 pounds per cassette (postage included) 11 pounds per CD (postage included) The postage prices for Happy (Aural Gratification) stuff to Australia: Warpaint CD (in its own package) approx US$4.50 First 4 Albums on tape ( all 4 in size 5 mailbag) approx US$8.50 Ecto - the mailing list 0.00 (yay!) Ectophiles from other countries who have not yet ordered anything from Happy but wish to do so should enquire through this list (perhaps there are others who have ordered from the same country and know the prices of postage) or write directly to Happy & Kevin. Whenever you write to them, and you want an answer to postage or other questions, please consider enclosing an IRC (International Reply Coupon) for their convenience. Americans and Canadians might consider a self-addressed stamped envelope. H&K have not requested this, I mention it only to make mail easier for them, when an answer is required. As to which album(s) to get? That's a toughie, because they're all excellent. There's a huge difference between 1 and 5, and the progression is evident in the middle three. If you asked the people here in the mailing list, you'd get lots of different answers. If you already have Warpaint, one suggestion would be to start with 1 and 4, and if you like them, you will almost certainly like the middle two. Of course, it's just about impossible to know what different people will like. My stock answer is "get them all!" :-) because they're all worth getting. IMHO, of course. The 1st4 cassettes are worth having, not only for their musical value, but also for their "cherishibility factor" which comes from the fact that H&K dub the cassettes, put together the inserts (complete with photographs of Happy's paintings) and package and mail the cassettes out themselves. Notes about the 1st4 on CD: After a long and, at times, frustrating wait, fans were finally treated to the 1st4 albums on CD in May 1992. Only 1000 CDs of each album are being pressed, and, while that sounds like a lot, Happy's popularity is growing daily and they could very well sell out soon. Though more might then be pressed, anyone in "collector" mode might want to get in on the first pressing. Bonus tracks are on the 1st4 CDs. FYI, if you ask Happy to autograph the tapes and/or CD, she will! She has been working on the 6th album. The songs have been written, but not yet completely arranged or recorded. Fans who saw Happy perform live in Albany, NY (March 18, 1992) or Philadelphia, PA (March 21, 1992) were treated to a preview of the next album. Three new songs (Mother Sea, He Will Come and The Flight) were performed, and they will definitely be on the next album, which is due in February 1993. (Keep yer fingers crossed!) Happy has never had a major-label recording contract. All her music has been released so far on Aural Gratification, a private label started and owned by Kevin Bartlett. Kevin started the label to release his own music (he's quite well-known as a musician in the Albany area), then added Happy after they met. The first 4 albums were recorded by Happy, all alone in the studio. She played acoustic guitar and keyboards and used lots of overdubs. She produced them all herself and even engineered quite a few of the songs. Happy started out working as an apprentice engineer at Cathedral Sound Studios and learned the equipment by recording her own songs. Pat Tessitore, Cathedral's owner, was impressed by Happy's talent and encouraged her, even giving her free studio time to play around with the equipment and record her songs. When Happy met Kevin in 1986 and he encouraged her to let him release her music on AG, she had amassed enough songs for 2 albums. They gathered together all the tapes of the various songs and VI and VII were born. Later that year, Happy released Rearmament and Ecto came in 1987. Between Ecto and Warpaint, Happy and Kevin joined forces professionally as Bartlett\Rhodes. They never released any music but did play live in the Albany area quite often. In mid-1989 they decided to continue as they had started, as separate artists. Happy then began work on Warpaint. WP is more professionally recorded (she and Kevin took out a bank loan to make sure it was as high-quality they could possibly make it) and uses more musicians, though it's mainly just her and Kevin. They also co-produced the album. H&K are still personal partners. Kevin is also working very hard on the promotional side of Happy's career while keeping a full schedule with his own career. {Live} Happy has played live in and around the Albany, NY area for many years. On March 18, 1992 Happy played live for the first time in years and it was the first time with a full backup band. ======================================================================== A few days later, on March 21, 1992, Happy sold out the 800-seat University Museum Auditorium at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. ======================================================================== "Incredible." "Mindblowing." "Astounding." "Spellbinding." "Magical." Full details of these concerts via Ectophile impressions can be found in the Ecto archives beginning with Digest 187. These concerts provided the very first opportunity for a "Happy Gathering of Ectophiles." May there be many, many more! {Background} She was a very lonely child and has always been a loner. She suffered from depression as an adolescent and teenager and sought solace and help in the music she listened to (Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Bach) and in writing songs herself. She "wrote out" the demons in her mind, never guessing that the songs would someday end up on albums that would be cherished by other people. Happy is an interesting, intelligent, singer/songwriter/musician who cares deeply about her music and makes music to last, music that matters. Happy's lyrics can sear your heart and soul in its intensity and introspectiveness. Her lyrics are very often dark and are nearly all autobiographical, but they are almost all about emotions. Human emotions are universal, so many of her songs touch nerves in other people too. Many of her songs are about depression, some are about suicidal feelings and some are cynical, but there are also songs about hope and light, with a "you must love yourself before anyone else can love you" point of view. She does have a sense of humor, and it comes out in a few songs, but most of her songs are very serious. Not that they are all slow, dirge-like ballads. Many songs are fast-paced and very melodic. You could enjoy the music and Happy's voice(s) without ever paying attention to the lyrics. The lyrics add another layer to be fascinated by if you choose to delve further, though. {Fans} Happy's fan base is small but growing and we here in Ecto think it's exciting to see how she's progressing and to "be with her" at each step of her career from now on. Happy Rhodes fans are very passionate about promoting her music. Record companies have ignored her (and, so far, continue to) I think because they don't really know what to do with her. She can't be easily put into a box and labled. We all think that it's extremely unfair and wrong that she's unknown and obscure. We want to change that :-) It's only at a small grass-roots level at the moment, but will grow as more people become aware of Happy, fall in love with her music, and care enough to spread the word about her. H&K are *very* aware of Ecto and are kept informed of it's topics of conversation. They are deeply appreciative of everyone's interest and have great affection for Ecto. This affection manifested itself after the Philadelphia concert when Happy and Kevin made it a point to invite Ectophiles to a post-concert "Schmooze-With-Philly-Bigwigs" party at the Penn Towers Hotel. They didn't *have* to invite us, they *wanted* to. {History of Ecto} Semi-regular postings about Happy Rhodes have appeared in rec.music.gaffa (Love-Hounds) since January 1989 via Vickie Mapes, who "found" Happy in 1988 and played her regularly on her radio show called Suspended In Gaffa. The release of Warpaint in April 1991 prompted many gaffa readers to try her music for the first time. Many of those people liked what they heard and went on to complete their collection with the early tapes. As discussion grew to deafening levels, it was pointed out to the Happy Rhodes fans that, no, not *every* Kate Bush fan will like Happy's music, and could we please start talking about Kate again? As many gaffians wanted to continue to talk about Happy, but wanted to respect the wishes of those who had no interest, on June 13, 1991 Jessica Dembski created the mailing list Ecto. The list has been *very* active, and topics on any subject of interest to Ectophiles are welcome. GIFs, lyrics to all the albums, articles, interviews, reviews, other tidbits and Ecto Archives are available from: hardees.rutgers.edu by anonymous ftp, in pub/hr (Internet address is: 128.6.18.2.) For those without FTP capability, Doug Burks has offered to send anything in the archives to you via e-mail. Write him at: dbx@olympic.atmos.colostate.edu If you are getting Ecto as loose mail, you might want to know that it is available in a Digest form. Write Jessica at ecto-request@ns1.rutgers.edu for details. {Happy as artist} Happy painted the monsters featured on VI, VII & Ecto. Monsters are her friends. The VI monster was painted on the gas tank of a motor- cycle, so if you ever see it-CATCH UP WITH HIM! (Happy would like to get into contact with him. It probably wouldn't hurt to tell him that he could auction off his motorcycle, or just the gas tank, to Happy's fans.) Happy will soon (if everything works out) be painting her first book cover, a science fiction novel by Michael D. Weaver (who wrote _Mercedes Nights_ and _My Father Immortal_, among others) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ECTO PROJECTS ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The current Ecto Projects are (for blue fuzzy newbies) : 1) The Ecto-zine $8/year for 8 issues. A print fanzine lovingly provided by Jessica for Ectophiles and those not on the net. 8 pages and an ever-expanding number of colours. Subscribers will have their first issue autographed by Happy. The first issue has been delayed, but you should subscribe ASAP anyway. Address to subscribe: Ecto PO Box 11291 New Brunswick, NJ 08906 Donations above the subscription cost are welcomed - all money goes to bringing you better issues! A special issue is being put together focusing on the Albany and Philly concerts. NOTE: This project is on hold, but it's *NOT* dead. Honest! 2) The Happy Interview tape. (aka The World Cafe or WXPN interview) WXPN in Philadelphia syndicates a program called "The World Cafe" and Happy was interviewed on it. She recorded 3 songs live in the studio which were played within the interview. ("Feed the Fire" "Words Weren't Made For Cowards" and "Given In") The entire show is about 20 minutes total. You can get a copy of this (in 2 different ways) from Doug Burks. Please e-mail him for details before sending anything. (dbx@olympic.atmos.colostate.edu) Doug Burks, 2036 West Plum St C7, Fort Collins CO 80521 A) If you just want a copy of the interview w/songs, recorded from the radio, send Doug a short (60 min.) tape & postage or $$ equivalent. B) OR, Doug will also have available a more elaborate tape consisting of... The live songs, by themselves, dubbed from a dub of H&K's Master tape. AND... The complete WXPN interview /songs. The interview is from WXPN's Master tape and the songs are from H&K's Master tape. This sounds much better than a copy made directly off the air. AND... A dub of "When the Rain Came Down" AND... 2 songs by Kevin Bartlett with Happy singing ethereal vocals. This version will require a 90 minute tape & postage or $$ equivalent. Also available from Doug are copies of Vickie's "Suspended in Gaffa" radio show and, especially made for Ectophiles by Vickie, "SiG Collection" tapes consisting of songs played on the show. All the songs have female vocals. Write Doug for details. (dbx@olympic.atmos.colostate.edu) Also available from Doug is a Happy sampler tape, put together by Meredith. She has a radio show called "Champaign Jam" and is going to provide Doug with dubs of her show. Again, write Doug for details. (And thank him for being such a great guy for doing all this for free, because he believes in spreading the music!) Various other things will be made available via Doug here and there. 3) The Happy Gift Project/Happy Birthday Project This is a twice a year tradition, a gift to Happy from Ectophiles for Happy's Birthday and the Winter Holidays. The idea is to assemble a tape with possibly a spoken message from everyone and ONE song she/he would like Happy to hear. Vickie will create a tape with all the songs and messages and will send it to Albany. Every participant will get her/his tape(s) back with a copy of what Happy receives, if postage has been included. The first HGP spilled over onto a second tape so if you want copies of both tapes be sure to send 2 tapes. Besides postage, a buck would be appreciated for return packaging, or include one in yours. There are no restrictions about what song to select, except not to take one from Happy :). It's nice to have have a variety of music, so hopefully not everyone will select one from KaTe. So, decide on your song & your message, put it on a 100 minute tape, and mail it to Vickie. Don't forget to include return postage if you want your tape(s) to be returned! It will be filled with lots of interesting music from famous artists and notorious Ectophiles. ;) The deadline for HGP-1992 is December 10, 1992. A complete listing of the songs on HGP-1991 are available via ftp and e-mail from Vickie. Mail tapes to: Vickie Mapes P.O Box 805392 Chicago, IL 60680-4114 Again, get tapes to Vickie, and this time put a song and a personal message (if you want to) to Happy on it. Vickie will compile them into a present for Happy from all of us. Klaus' idea, this one. HGP-Happy Gift Project (for the Winter Holiday season) HBP-Happy Birthday Project (for Happy's Birthday...natch!) Note: The HGP tapes are available to anyone, even if you did not participate. Write Doug for details. 4) The Personal Database Project Mail to ecto with all your particulars. Which particulars? We're not particular. Birthdays (for the Birthday List) and physical characteristics (if you wish) are a good start. Besides a Birthday list, Vickie is keeping a mailing list for Happy and Kevin. If you want to be on this (to get mailings from Aural Gratification) just send her your name and address. Do this (assuming you want to) even if you've ordered something from AG in the past. This mailing list is strictly confidential. Also let us know how you found out about Happy and what you have and what you think about what you have. 5) The Ecto\Homeground Interview Over the summer of 1991, Ectophiles sent questions to Happy via Vickie. Happy answered the questions and the interview was posted to Ecto. It will eventually be edited down and sent to Homeground (the Kate Bush fan- zine) for inclusion there. This interview is available via ftp. Or you can request a copy from Vickie. (vickie@njin.rutgers.edu) We will eventually have an Ecto Interview Pt.II, so if you have any questions you'd like to ask Happy directly, post or e-mail them to Vickie. 6) The Kevin Bartlett interview This is Greg Bossert's project. If you have any questions directed specifically to Kevin, send them to Greg. NOTE: This project is currently on hold, as Greg Bossert has temporarily lost net access. 7) The Ecto-band Project Not sure where this is but it IS somewhere. :-) Several musical ecto people are doing joint but remote collaborations on covers of some songs. It seems to be dormant, but might be revived at any time. Any questions? Feel free to ask. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Welcome to Ecto! ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 28 Nov 92 8:03:01 EST From: WretchAwry Subject: Proof of the Pudding covers Kate I'm sitting here listening to Monitor News and there's a feature on an acappella group called Proof of the Pudding. I wasn't really paying attention, until they talked about some of the songs they've covered. One of the singers mentioned Kate's "This Woman's Work"! It's a group from Yale, all female. They say they'll be performing in Boston and New York within December, but gave no dates. The snatches of music they played sounded very boring to me. I mean, this is not Zap Mama or anything, so I don't know that I'd actually *want* to hear them cover TWW, but I thought I'd pass it along. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Vickie "My ears are lucky to hear vickie@pilot.njin.net these glorious songs" HTR _________ |_ _ | _ The Happy Rhodes mailing list "Imagination sets in, then |__|_ ||_| ecto-request@ns1.rutgers.edu all the voices begin" KB Jessica Dembski-Ecto Goddess Lady -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ======================================================================== Subject: Happy Date: Sat, 28 Nov 92 10:55:46 EST From: sole gain dry silk Hi, After coming back to Boston from NY where I spent Thanksgiving, my friends and I went to Tower, picked up PULSE! and this morning I had a *major* surprise when I saw Warpaint in the top 10 Dance. (I then logged in and saw it is old news, but what the hey, I'll post about it :) ). OK, so who is passing around the _Wrong Century_ and _Poetic Justice_ remixes? :) Could the editor of PULSE! have heard Po-Jo-Rap? Or the techno version of Feed the fire, with samples from Kate, Queen, Bowie, Yes, and others? Or the Public Enemy cover of Waking Up? Whatever the reason, it's WONDERFUL!! Warpaint made the Xmas issue of PULSE! two years in a row. Angelos +=====================================+ |'My ears have parasites'-hApPy RhOdEs| +=====================================+ ======================================================================== Date: Sat, 28 Nov 92 18:38:43 EST From: WretchAwry Subject: KateSkater & PeterPuppets Skater Skates to Kate Just now, in the Pro-Am Figure Skating Challenge, we watched as Rosalynn Sumners skated her program to Kate's "This Woman's Work." Good for her!!! (Big day for TWW) Rosalynn always did have taste in music that was generally more interesting than most skaters. Last year she skated to Julia Fordham's "Happy Ever After." Rosalynn, for those who don't closely follow skating, won the Silver medal at the 1988 Olympics in Sarajevo (sob) coming in second to Katarina Witt. This particular skating competition will go down in the history books (also meaning it's *very* important and millions of people watched it) because it's the first "mixed" competition, in which professionals, such as Caryn Kadavy, Rosalynn Sumners, compete with amateurs, such as Nancy Kerrigan & Tonya Harding. Pros and amateurs have skated together in exibitions and benefits before, but never in actual competition, so this was a major milestone in the skating world. That's great, because it means that more people were watching and heard Kate. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that Rosalynn skated the same program in "Skate the Dream" the special fund-raiser for AIDS research that was held in Toronto. (I hope it's broadcast, it hasn't been yet. At least, in America it hasn't.) The ending credits are now running and they're re-playing Rosalynn's program. They're not even talking over Kate! I hope Rosalynn influences other skaters to delve into Kate, or, at least other female vocalists besides Barbra Streisand and Linda Rondstat. Last night on CNN's Future Watch, a feature on the modern state of puppetry showed a bit of a strange puppet show which used the music of Peter Gabriel's "San Jacinto." Yay! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Vickie "My ears are lucky to hear vickie@pilot.njin.net these glorious songs" HTR _________ |_ _ | _ The Happy Rhodes mailing list "Imagination sets in, then |__|_ ||_| ecto-request@ns1.rutgers.edu all the voices begin" KB Jessica Dembski-Ecto Goddess Lady -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ======================================================================== Date: Sun, 29 Nov 92 1:47:08 EST From: WretchAwry Subject: Dracula & other Scary Tales I've mentioned this before (in Ecto, anyway) but I just want to repeat that Coppola's _Dracula_ (er, Bram Stoker's...) is an absolute *must-see*! It's worth seeing at the theater on the big screen, so don't wait too long. At the least, it's a *gorgeous* film, and Diamanda Galas' vocals on the soundtrack add to the general creepiness. Also, try to check out the film _Gas, Food and Lodging_. We waited too long and missed it, though we're still hoping it will show up at at least one of the more arty second-run theaters here in Chicago. Victoria Williams has a song on the soundtrack (thanks for telling me Mitch) and it stars Fariuza Balk, who was in _Valmont_ and played Dorothy in the sadly underrated and overlooked brilliant film _Return to Oz_. Music-wise, we finally watched the Siouxsie & the Banshees compilation _Twice Upon A Time_ and it's a perfect companion to the first compilation. It starts out with recent live versions of the old songs "Fireworks" and "Slowdive" but from then on it's all videos. It's a treat to finally have good copies of the Dear Prudence, Dazzle and Cities in Dust videos, and it was *very* nice to see some other videos for the first time, Candyman, This Wheel's on Fire, The Killing Jar, The Last Beat of My Heart and Shadowtime. Lineup: Fireworks, Slowdive, Dear Prudence, Dazzle, Cities in Dust, Candyman, This Wheel's on Fire, The Passenger, Peek-A-Boo, The Killing Jar, The Last Beat of My Heart, Kiss Them For Me, Shadowtime, Fear (of the Unknown)-extended version and Face to Face. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Vickie "My ears are lucky to hear vickie@pilot.njin.net these glorious songs" HTR _________ |_ _ | _ The Happy Rhodes mailing list "Imagination sets in, then |__|_ ||_| ecto-request@ns1.rutgers.edu all the voices begin" KB Jessica Dembski-Ecto Goddess Lady -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ======================================================================== The ecto archives are on hardees.rutgers.edu in ~ftp/pub/hr. There is an INDEX file explaining what is where. Feel free to send me things you'd like to have added. -- jessica (jessica@ns1.rutgers.edu)