From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V4 #316 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Thursday, September 10 1998 Volume 04 : Number 316 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Ashley Maher gigs in LA - date change ["Anthony Kosky" ] Rhodes I (Re: a different view on Happy ["Xenu's Sister" ] Culebra ["Xenu's Sister" ] Re: irate customer [neal copperman ] Listening to music and birthday list administrative stuff ["Michael Matth] Hole, etc. ["Donald G. Keller" ] Re: irate customer [Philip David Morgan ] emotional response to music ["J." Wermont ] various [meredith ] now in NM (plus MD concerts) [neal copperman ] MrBB-Cindy Lee Berryhill East Coast Dates [ABershaw@aol.com] Re: various [pauly on the shore ] Re: irate customer [Joseph Zitt ] Re: Listening to music and birthday list administrative stuff [Joseph Zit] Comma (sort of) in Philly this Saturday night [Joseph Zitt Subject: Ashley Maher gigs in LA - date change I wrote: > > Ashley Maher is performing to gigs in the Los Angeles area in the near future. > The first is on Sat 12th Sept (i.e. this Saturday) at Borders Books in West > Hollywood at 8pm. The second is on 1st October at Luna Park, also in West > Hollywood. No changes to the first date (this Saturday), but the show at Luna Park is now scheduled for Fri 25th Sept at 9:30 pm. So it's: 12th Sept., 8pm Borders Books, 330 La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048. 25th Sept., 9:30 pm Luna Park, 665 North Robertson Blvd. West Hollywood, CA. Please feel free to post these details on any other appropriate mailing lists or newsgroups. thanks, - -Anthony > > More information about Ashley, included real-audio samples from her current > album, can be found at http://www.rahul.net/hrmusic/ashley/ashley.html > ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 12:40:26 -0700 (PDT) From: "J." Wermont Subject: indie stores > Support your local independents! Surely there's a little Mom&Pop > record store who can order stuff for you? If not, let me know, I'll > direct you to several--you know the type: dirty floors, peeling > pop-poster wallpaper, official cat on the counter, owner works there > alone every day but Saturday--that track down whatever obscure > indie/impoort I'm looking for and are happy to do mail order. There was a store in Cambridge, Mass., that fit this description to a T, right down to the mangy black cat on the counter: Harvard Music on Mass Ave in Central Square. I used to hang out there a lot. Any Bostonians on this list? Can you tell me if that place is still there? Last time I checked it was, but that was in 1993. I'm just curious. Now I live in Silicon Valley, and I'm wondering if anyone can recommend stores to me around here - I'm in Sunnyvale, which isn't far from Palo Alto in one direction, or San Jose in the other. If you're local and know of any such stores, please point me to them! I don't need suggestions for San Francisco or Berkeley stores - I already know about Amoeba and Rasputin and Down Home, etc. Those places are 50 miles away from me, so I'm looking for something local, too. Thank you! Joyce ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 15:35:52 -0500 From: "Xenu's Sister" Subject: Rhodes I (Re: a different view on Happy At 04:08 AM 9/9/98 -0400, Joanna M. Phillips wrote: >If you *are* talking about "Rhodes I" and not "RhodeSongs", then I can >understand a bit. Oooh, after numerous posts along the same lines, I can't help but speak up and give Rhodes I the credit I think it deserves. I must say that, out of Happy's albums, RI is one of 3 that can most easily move me to tears. RII is very close behind, and Rearmament is right there too. I call those 3 albums my "emotional favorites" of the 10. It's a personal thing, it's how so many of the lyrics are personal emotional touchstones for me. When I discovered Happy I couldn't believe I'd finally found someone who wrote words that could have come from my own psyche at various points in my life. It didn't have anything to do with how I felt at that time either, because it was the happiest time of my life (mid/late 1988), but when you have those feelings, you never forget what they feel like, and I was amazed that those feelings were coming out of my speakers, from my headphones. It was a revelation. "The First To Cry" hit me especially deep. And if I should die, who'll be the first to cry? I have not the nerve to show anyone how I am For I'd be misunderstood Who was this woman writing these words that I'd thought a million times? Who was this woman who *did* have the nerve to show listeners who she was/had been? I was amazed then and I'm amazed now. I too highly respect Joyce's point of view (and think it's great that she felt comfortable writing it here) though personally I've always heard Happy as an emotional singer. Not all songs on all albums, of course, but on the whole, as an artist. Kate too. She has a load of songs that just leave me in a puddle on the floor, including almost the entire The Sensual World album, which so many Kate fans seem to despise (that completely baffles me). It's not my favorite Kate album (The Dreaming, another album stuffed and dripping with emotion, is) but it's the one I listen to most often. Back to Rhodes I, some songs hit me on an emotional level long before Mike Mendelson, Jeff Burka and I started the Lyrics Project to figure them all out. Songs like "Oh The Drears," "Given In," "Possessed," "I'll Let You Go," "I'm Not Awake, I'm Not Asleep," "Step Inside" and the emotional grandmom of them all, "The First To Cry" could make my psyche and heart soar (either in joy or an ecstatic empathetic despair) long before I ever knew all that she was saying in them. Knowing the lyrics just made them even better, even if the lyrics turned out to be about something that I didn't relate to on a personal emotional level (the urgent, driving, wind-swept dreamscape of INAINA, for example, or the oh so sad, I-deserve-to-be-hurt confusion of "I'll Let You Go" or the tension-filled nightmare of insanity in "Possessed" - Happy didn't write the lyrics to that, but she sings them as if she did.) Now, some of the early songs were easy to understand and didn't need lyric sheets, but having the words right in front of me often made me hear them in a new way. Actually, knowing the lyrics helped me to appreciate many songs that I hadn't paid much attention to until then. Once I knew the lyrics to "The Wretches Gone Awry" it went from being a light, sometimes too-sweet-for-me- but-nice-harmonies-Happy ditty to an amazing, gut-wrenching epic. Ever see the wings of a dragonfly? Paper-thin and cellophane And quickly broken like the will to live for a mind in pain WOW! Bambi meets Godzilla! Of course, not every song has to be an emotional touchstone for me to hear it as an emotional song *for Happy* and be moved by that. "He's Alive" is a great example. I never painted, I never had monsters as friends and I never had vivid revenge fantasies against those who hurt me, but boy, hearing that little girl call to life the monster Alice to go and "roam the streets, invade their dreams" is chillingly exhilirating! It's an amazingly simple song with more power than a full-length film, IMEWO (In My Extremely Weird Opinion). Go Alice! One of the many interesting things about Happy, especially in her earlier work, is her ability to hide dark, depressing and/or scary lyrics under layers of beautiful music, sweet vocals and sometimes even happy music. "Rainkeeper" is sweeter than cotton candy, but listen to the lyrics: Only mother knows That I'm the other half The psychopath I'm here, better fear me Your other side Know where you hide I'm there, so be wary of me (Shades of "Mother Stands For Comfort" and _The Dead Zone_.) "Case of Glass" is so slight it can be heard without being heard, but when you realize what it's about...chills up and down the spine time. (It reminds me of the novel "Small World" by Tabitha King) Listen to the yearning-for-hope pain of "Number One": Now love and life and I We don't get along So help me be strong Where I don't belong The I-dare-you taunts of "Step Inside": Easily frightened? Step inside, step inside My mind The child's creepy creature pals, "Moonbeam Friends": One of them I know I call him by his name He has a special cause To keep this child insane And it just continues on and on, song after song. And the whole thing starts all over again with the equally wonderous Rhodes II! Maybe I am just too weird for words, but I can't see RI as anything other than emotional, complex, fascinating and the work of a budding genius. Vickie (Too Weird For Words) "You're never safe in this atmosphere Do you want to be? You could be trapped inside of me Do you want to be?" HTR ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 13:54:28 -0700 (PDT) From: Greg Jumper Subject: Re: Happy Happy Joy Joy Charley wrote: Bach was cold and sterile. Is. But in his cold and sterile language he painted pictures of god. Happy's technical proficiency--her eerie perfection; her nearly inhuman cleanliness of musical line and melody--has its place in the scope of my musico-emotional needs. Sometimes I can't listen to Bach: anal bees arguing over how many angels can square dance on the head of a pin. But sometimes noting else will do. Hmmm. As a mathematician (well, by education, if not by vocation), I know I'm *supposed* to love Bach for all his (cold, sterile) mathematical precision. Never have, much, though. Give me Beethoven (powerful) or Debussy (pretty) any day. (But you have to put a gun to my head to make me choose between the two.) For some reason, I really do like "calculating/calculated" music in other genres (e.g., Happy, electronic versions of classical music, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, etc.). Lord knows, some days nothing but PJHarvey or Geraldine Fibbers will do. But sometimes, Happy fits like a cold latex glove squeezing my innards like an overdue cardiac arrest. If you like the Fibbers, you might like the new Ednaswap -- their vocalist sounds like a smoother version of to me. I'm not sure how similar you might find the groups in other respects, though. Greg np: Conrad Praetzel, _En.Trance_ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 16:56:47 -0500 From: "Xenu's Sister" Subject: Culebra At 09:38 PM 9/9/98 -0500, Culebra wrote: >No need to mention names here, but I'm always amused when someone has >"listened to an album many times", but isn't really sure of the name of the >album, or the songs on it. "J", it's "Ashes to Ashes", but very different >from the David Bowie version, which is of course the sequel to "Space >Oddity"...sort of like forgetting that Michael Jackson wrote "Billy >Jean"...would that we could, but life is cruel. No one is saying that you >should have feeling for songs if you just don't feel it, but it doesn't >sound like you are very familiar with the music of Happy Rhodes. I guess if >you want warm fuzzies, you'll have to get out your Master P a-a-abblums. This shocks and saddens me. Joyce opened up her heart and shared a point of view that could have caused (on another list) a massive flame war. Instead her post got us to talking about Happy (something that sometimes is in short supply here) and thinking about music and emotions. There's no call for what you wrote above. You intentionally set out to make her feel stupid (I'm glad she didn't fall for it) and inserted a sour note into an otherwise interesting thread. If you're a Happy fan, you're not helping her with this attitude. If you're just a troll, go away. If you're just having a bad day (something I often have, and it can make me post without thinking first) then perhaps you should think about apologising to Joyce and join in the thread, and tell us why Happy's music is emotional to you and why what Joyce wrote struck such a nerve that you felt you had to write the above. We *will* understand. If nothing else, the next time you want to heap abuse onto another Ectophile who is only expressing honest opinions, you should quit hiding under an anonymous name and e-mail address. Have the guts to post using your own name. Vickie ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 17:43:23 -0600 From: neal copperman Subject: Re: irate customer Charley sez: >That's the M.O. of e-commerce customer service. In any other >commercial environment--retail, service, wholesale, whatever--if a >customer expresses dissatisfaction, someone at the offending company >will take responsibility for the problem and see that it gets fixed. >That _never_ happens in e-commerce. Perhaps it never happens in e-commerce, but I've been finding it happening less and less in regular transactions too. I keep dealing with amazingly incompetant customer service people, who insist on trying to tell me why I am mistaken that the service I have gotten is poor or that their poor service is the result of other people's errors that they can't control. (That's my favorite. When I called Sprint to ask why they cut off my phone card, they said it was the phone companies fault. When my phone gets turned off, they may cancel the calling cards, even if Sprint supposedly made arrangements in advance to leave them on. This is all done via computer, so it is impossible for anyone to do anything about this. That's a good explanation too... that's the way the computer does it.) On the other hand, today I received, yet again, amazingly stupendous service from REI. They certainly win my customer service award for the year. But I think you are right Charley, on- and off-line, customer service people are no longer trained to satisfy the customer. Instead, they just shift blame and argue. Maybe they're all budding politicians? and about Chip's UPS problems.... I always ask for USPS instead of UPS. I'm amazed at how many companies can't or won't deal with that. They always try to explain why UPS is such a great service, and can't understand how anybody isn't happy with them. It seems like the problems with using UPS are so clear (no convenient pick-up sites, no specified time delivery, an insistance that the best thing for you to do is to sign a form relieving them of any responsibility so that they can leave your stuff sitting in the open for other people to take). Sorry, UPS is a pet peave of mine. Neal ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 20:33:14 -0400 From: "Michael Matthews" Subject: Listening to music and birthday list administrative stuff Just to comment on the idea that not knowing a CD title or being familiar with songs implies not listening to the CD... Well... I can listen to a CD many times, have *NO* idea what the title is, and even more likely have *NO* idea what the name of the song is. I can probably recognize it from a crowd, but that's about it. It's very difficult for me to understand sung words. Just not good at that kind of pattern matching. As such, it's hard for any emotional content to be noticed by me. anyway. I'm going to do another sanity check on the birthday list. If you get mail, that means you're on it. If it's the wrong address, let me know. If you want to change your "vital stats," let me know. If you did NOT get it, but want to, also let me know. My new Email address is mike@matthews.net, which I believe matthewm@smoe.org points to by now. Hopefully MailBank has fixed their problems of a couple of nights ago and that address will actually work. - ----------- Mike Matthews, Mike@Matthews.net http://mike.matthews.net ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 20:58:48 -0400 (EDT) From: "Donald G. Keller" Subject: Hole, etc. I've decided I'm not going to buy the new Hole album. I went and sampled it at a listening booth, and listened to part of every cut, and never heard a song I wanted to listen to the rest of. Nearly every one is in major key (the exceptions are the two acoustic songs, which are OK); i.e. it exceeds my blandness threshold. (Probably means it's going to be a smash, he said cynically.) Bet the store and the label are sorry about the listening booth now, because most likely I would have bought the album unheard otherwise.) This from someone who thought =Live Through This= was among the 10 best albums of 1994, and who likes =Pretty on the Inside= better, if anything. But =Celebrity Skin= is as much more polished/produced than =Live Through This= as the latter is than =Pretty on the Inside=. Most bands hit this point sooner or later (took U2 and R.E.M. half a dozen albums or so each); for Hole it happened sooner. I just reread Nabokov's =Lolita= (in preparation for watching both movie versions); it deserves its #4 position on that 100 Best Novels list. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 21:21:48 -0400 From: Philip David Morgan Subject: Re: irate customer Hello, Mike: > I am very disappointed in Music Blvd. It took them 5 days to figure out > that all 3 CDs I ordered were out of stock. I sent them a long nasty > letter. Anyone else had crappy experience with this outfit? I would highly > UNrecommend anyone from patronizing them. What irks me the most is > that the CDs I ordered were *new* -- i.e. they *should* be in stock now if > they were *ever* in stock! (One of them was _Many Worlds are Born Tonight_.) I tried ordering a Sissel Kyrkjebø album from them - a different edition of the _Innerst i sjelen_ album - and got goose egg results, just as you did. (The album turned up in Tower stores recently. "Why did I bother?" I asked myself.) Slick advertising (_Utne Reader_ e.g.) aside, those guys just don't have the goods. By contrast: My copy of _MWABT_ came from MassMusic.com - no excuses, promptly delivered safe and sound. I had no problem with them when I snapped up an import Loreena McKennitt CD single earlier this year. It came just as promptly as _MWABT_, and again, with no excuses. As Anne Sexton once wrote: "a dog only laps lime once." Philip David (something to be said for experience and poetry) 10 September 1998 n.p.: _Radient Warmth_ - Mari Boine (Universal-Antilles). Later: _When Night is Falling_ soundtrack - Lesley Barber (Naiad Press) (or Sissel Kyrkjebø - I haven't made up my mind yet). ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 18:29:03 -0700 (PDT) From: "J." Wermont Subject: emotional response to music First of all, Charley wrote: > I nominate Joyce for the most levelheaded muckraker on Ecto! This has to be the *oddest* compliment I've ever received. "Levelheaded muckraker" - maybe I could put that on business cards. :) Charley again: > Bach was cold and sterile. Is. But in his cold and sterile language > he painted pictures of god. Happy's technical proficiency--her eerie > perfection; her nearly inhuman cleanliness of musical line and > melody--has its place in the scope of my musico-emotional needs. Then Greg wrote: > Hmmm. As a mathematician (well, by education, if not by vocation), I > know I'm *supposed* to love Bach for all his (cold, sterile) > mathematical precision. Never have, much, though. Give me Beethoven > (powerful) or Debussy (pretty) any day. I know what you mean, Greg. I also majored in math in college (where, in fact, I focused on the abstract, conceptual aspects rather than on formulas and computations). During that time I read and loved the book "Godel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstaeder, which talks about the connections between math/computer science theories and the art of both Bach and painter M.C. Escher. I found all that extremely fascinating and exciting intellectually. But somehow that doesn't translate to the musical realm for me. I think what I really look for in a music-listening experience doesn't have anything to do with craft, skill, or concept. I can *appreciate* art (including music) that's interesting, well-crafted, and challenging, but that appreciation isn't emotionally deep for me - it doesn't go to the gut. I listen to music with my body more than with my head. There's something primitive about the way I respond to the music that moves me - it's visceral, I'm touched in a non-intellectual, sub-verbal way. In fact, intellectual analysis of music tends to get in my way of enjoying it. I do have some musical training so I could do that if I chose. But I prefer to shut that off and listen from the right side of my brain - I get so much more out of it that way. I do understand that for many people - probably a lot of folks on this list, too - it's the craft *itself* that's beautiful to them. Many people are deeply moved by the human effort it takes to master a high amount of skill, and that *is* an emotional experience. So given that, I can see why Bach, or Happy, or any other artist who pursues that "nearly inhuman cleanliness of musical line and melody" would evoke profound emotions in those listeners. But that's not how it is for me. Although I can recognize and appreciate skill and craft, that's not what I want to spend time listening to. Hofstaeder did more for my appreciation of Bach than listening to him ever did. If music doesn't fill my senses right down to the unconcious core, then it's just an academic exercise to me - interesting to think and talk about, but not something intensely pleasurable to *experience*. If I happen to fall in love with some music that's wonderfully crafted, that's great, but it's just a coincidence. I like my trashy music just as much. I can distinguish between the two in my head - I know when this one's artistically accomplished and that one's not. But in my *body*, where the real business of responding to music is happening, they are equally good. Joyce ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 22:29:29 -0400 From: meredith Subject: various Hi! Way too much to reply to, way too little energy. A few things, though: woj and I have never had a problem with CDNow, though I've heard from several sources that mileage definitely varies. The only online music emporium I've ever personally had a bad experience with is A&B Sounds - they were out of stock of everything and it took them FOREVER to fill the order. Turns out they were moving at the time and lots of orders got lost in the shuffle, but they could have at least told me what was up. I think I'm having a good experience with the Ultimate Band List Store right now - I ordered Rachael Sage's disc from them after finding that I could get it there for $9.95 with free 1st class shipping (special this week, woo-hoo!), as opposed to $15 plus shipping from her web page. They sent me a note confirming that it was shipped the next day. It should arrive tomorrow -- we'll see. On the topic of customer service (or the lack thereof in this day and age): As a client services representative for a national firm providing telephone customer service for a variety of Fortune 500 companies (yadda yadda yadda), I can speak from personal experience from the other side. Sometimes it's not the person you're actually dealing with, it's the company they're supposedly working for. One of my major clients threw their policy of "world class customer service" out the window officially three years ago because they deemed it an "unnecessary expense", and they've been suffering for it ever since, though to this day they won't admit that's the reason why. So we've been struggling along wanting desperately to help these people we've got on the phone, but we've been completely hamstrung and pretty much all we can do is say "I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do" and, yes, try to blame everything else for the problem. This company is by no means alone. I'm finding that when a company which provides services or otherwise interacts with the public needs to save a buck (the almighty profit margin, you know), the first thing to go is the customer service department. First they outsource it to a firm like mine, which is fine, but then they make it impossible for the service agency to do a good job for them and then things just go from bad to worse. It's not pretty. From what I deal with every day, I'd have to say things aren't going to improve on the customer service front any time soon, either. The standard has been lowered so far that it's going to take a lot to raise the bar again. Enough work stuff. Ugh. :) Got a postcard in the mail today trumpeting a June Rich show in NYC on Saturday night. Coincidentally, the gig is set to start shortly after I expect that Cindy Lee Berryhill will be leaving the stage at the Mercury Lounge, so I'm there, dude! June Rich are playing at a place called the Lion's Den, which I've never heard of before -- anybody know anything about it? Apparently it's on Sullivan St., between Bleecker and West 3rd (i.e. within spitting distance of the Bottom Line). Anybody else planning on going? I've finally gotten round to listening to some of the discs I bought over the weekend. Ebba Forsberg was nothing more than background music - nothing jumped out at me and begged me to take notice. I did note a something Toni Childs-like about her, though. I'll be listening again. After that I put in Wendy Bucklew, whom I've been exhorted by several people to check out for over a year, but never got to before now. She's basically Melissa Ferrick with a little Pamela Means thrown in. Not a bad thing at all, in my book. :) I'll get to the rest later, I guess. Oh -- n.b. to Paul Blair: the postcard we got from Kat Devlin said very clearly "Kat Devlin Sings The Songs Of Kate Bush", so something tells me she'll be singing a bunch of KaTe songs that night. Not sure where I'm getting that from. ;) +==========================================================================+ | Meredith Tarr meth@smoe.org | | New Haven, CT USA http://www.smoe.org/~meth | +==========================================================================+ | "things are more beautiful when they're obscure" -- veda hille | | *** TRAJECTORY, the Veda Hille mailing list: *** | | *** http://www.smoe.org/meth/trajectory.html *** | +==========================================================================+ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 11:03:39 -0600 From: neal copperman Subject: now in NM (plus MD concerts) Hi everyone, I'm now in Albuquerque, where I've been for a few days frantically trying to get my apartment in order before starting work. It's amazing how much there is to do! But I have to admit that it's pretty damn wonderful not working. Why, I haven't done it for almost 3 weeks now :) Alas, that'll be coming to an end soon. I also like this borrowed 17 inch monitor from CompUSA. Despite being one of the most pathetic stores on earth, I highly recommend taking advantage of their 10 day return policy to try out new equipment, especially if you need it to surf the web so you can the lowdown on what you really want to buy from somewhere better. (Yeah, I've got a bone or two to pick with the place.) Anyway, if anyone wants to come to New Mexico until I leave in June of next year, the doors are open. Here's the first thing of ecto-interest I found wading through my mailbox. For those in the MD/DC area, Folkal Point is a tiny little club upstairs of the Coho Grill at a country club in Columbia. Ok, so you have to go to Columbia AND a country club, but the food is pretty good and cheap, and the place only holds 50 people. They have a few repeat offenders from previous years who are great to see in a tiny place. Why, you could probably even have dinner with Richard SHindell! WHen I saw him there a few years ago, he was eating at the table right next to mine. (I can't believe he's still playing there.) I've seen the first three people there before, and recommend each one of them. I've deleted all the info about the Folkal Point and the artists, but you can check out the web site if you want to see what I removed. neal now shuffling over: Joe Jackson & Friends: Heaven & Hell (Yeah, I was reading old ecto yesterday!) ruby - salt peter John Renbourn and Robin WIlliamson - Wheel of Fortune >>From matthews@erols.com Thu Sep 3 22:10:29 1998 >X-Sender: matthews@pop.erols.com >Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 22:06:31 -0400 >To: Folkal Point E-mail List >From: Jim Matthews >Subject: The Folkal Point Fall 1998 Newsletter >Mime-Version: 1.0 >Status: O >X-Status: > >*************************************************************** > > THE FOLKAL POINT - Fall 1998 Newsletter > > Located in the Coho Grill > Hobbit's Glen Golf Club > 11130 Willow Bottom Drive > Columbia, MD > > Directions: 410-740-2096 > Program Info: 410-531-5350 > > http://www.serve.com/folkalpoint/ > > Unless otherwise noted: > > Doors Open 7:15 PM > Show Starts 8:00 PM > Admission $10.00 > > The Folkal Point is a smoke-free listening room. > Food and beverages are available. > >*************************************************************** >FALL SCHEDULE > >*Sep 24 - Sally Fingerett w/Jack Williams > Oct 1 - David Massengill w/Tammerlin >*Oct 8 - Richard Shindell w/Nancy Dougherty > Oct 15 - Oscar Brand > Oct 22 - Annie Gallup and Rachel Bissex >*Oct 29 - Al Petteway and Amy White w/Gary Wingerd > Nov 5 - Bruce Davies w/Johnsmith > Nov 12 - Lui Collins and Dana Robinson w/Carla Ulbrich > Nov 19 - Mac Walter and John Cronin >*Nov 21 - Anne Hills (Oliver's Carriage House) > (Just announced - Local favorite Christina Muir of Hot Soup! opens.) > Dec 3 - Susan Graham White and Caroline Horn > Dec 10 - Joni Bishop and Tom Vincent > >All concerts $10 except * are $10 adv/$12 door. Advance tickets for * may >be ordered by sending Check and a stamped, self-addressed envelope to: The >Folkal Point, P.O. Box 10, Columbia, MD 21045. Please indicate on your check >which concert's tickets you are ordering. Tickets will be held at the door >for orders with no SASE or those received less than 10 days before the >concert. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 23:10:14 EDT From: ABershaw@aol.com Subject: MrBB-Cindy Lee Berryhill East Coast Dates Direct from her smashing surprise engagement at The Cape Cod LRT Show, Cindy Lee Berryhill lands in several other East Coast cities over the next few weeks. Do yourself a big favor & check out these upcoming shows! MrBB Saturday 9/12 Mercury Lounge, NYC Tuesday 9/15 Iota, Arlington, VA Wednesday 9/16 Sam Adams Brewhouse, Philadelphia,PA Friday 9/18 Fletchers, Baltimore, MD Sunday 9/20 Green Street Grill, Cambridge, MA ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 23:09:35 -0400 From: pauly on the shore Subject: Re: various also sprach meredith: >woj and I have never had a problem with CDNow, though I've heard from >several sources that mileage definitely varies. well, i just remembered one "problem". i placed a pre-order for robyn hitchcock's _mossy liquor_ (the vinyl version of _moss elixir_) which they were not able to deliver on. no stealthiness or back-ordering or customer disservice though -- they just outright cancelled my pre-order and were very up-front about not being able to fulfill it. all in all, i can count on both hands the items i've ordered from cdnow. never really had a problem with customer service -- shopping on the web just isn't as much *fun* as pawing through the bins. ;) woj j.p. sinead lohan -- no mermaid (first listen, eehhh) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 23:19:39 -0400 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: irate customer neal copperman wrote: > Perhaps it never happens in e-commerce, but I've been finding it happening > less and less in regular transactions too. I keep dealing with amazingly > incompetant customer service people, who insist on trying to tell me why I > am mistaken that the service I have gotten is poor or that their poor > service is the result of other people's errors that they can't control. Yup. I got caught inside a massive screwup last year: the number I was given by Sprint as my local ISP dialup turned out to be long distance, since the dividing lines for long distance zones (or something like that) ran through Gaithersburg. I ended up with well over a thousand dollars in long distance charges. Sprint blamed Bell Atlantic. Bell Atlantic blamed AT&T. AT&T blamed Sprint. I got screwed. > I always ask for USPS instead of UPS. I'm amazed at how many companies > can't or won't deal with that. They always try to explain why UPS is such > a great service, and can't understand how anybody isn't happy with them. It > seems like the problems with using UPS are so clear (no convenient pick-up > sites, no specified time delivery, an insistance that the best thing for > you to do is to sign a form relieving them of any responsibility so that > they can leave your stuff sitting in the open for other people to take). > Sorry, UPS is a pet peave of mine. Mine, too. I just got done mildly flaming amazon.com for UPSing my most recent order, after USPS mailing the earlier ones, without asking or even telling me that they were going to do this. It's impossible for UPS packages to reach me, since no one is home during the day and they won't just leave the package (even if I wanted to risk its getting taken), and it's a royal pain to get to their facility, which is out someplace named Landover (I'm told it's in the DC Metro area, but I sure as hell don't want to schlep out there when the Post Office would have handled it correctly). Argh. - -- - ---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------- |||/ Joseph Zitt ===== jzitt@humansystems.com ===== Human Systems \||| ||/ Maryland? = <*> SILENCE: The John Cage Mailing List <*> = ecto \|| |/ http://www.realtime.net/~jzitt ====== Comma: Voices of New Music \| ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 23:25:41 -0400 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: Listening to music and birthday list administrative stuff Michael Matthews wrote: > Just to comment on the idea that not knowing a CD title or being familiar > with songs implies not listening to the CD... > > Well... I can listen to a CD many times, have *NO* idea what the title is, > and even more likely have *NO* idea what the name of the song is. I can > probably recognize it from a crowd, but that's about it. Yup. I still have to check which song is which, for example, on Equipoise, where I don't have any obvious mnemonics to connect titles such as "The Flight". "Out Like a Lamb", and "Temporary and Eternal" with the songs themselves. This is especially true, also, of Sarah's FtE, where I can only name two or three of the songs after obsessive listening. n.p. Mooko: Japan Concerts n.r. Uh, whatever I pick up next. - -- - ---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------- |||/ Joseph Zitt ===== jzitt@humansystems.com ===== Human Systems \||| ||/ Maryland? = <*> SILENCE: The John Cage Mailing List <*> = ecto \|| |/ http://www.realtime.net/~jzitt ====== Comma: Voices of New Music \| ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 23:44:44 -0400 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Comma (sort of) in Philly this Saturday night As part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, I'm going to be playing Philadelphia this Saturday night with an approximation of my vocal ensemble, Comma. (One singer, Tom, is in Texas for a family emergency, so a wonderful soprano, Linh Kauffman, is appearing with us). We'll be at the Third Street Gallery, 58 N. 2nd St, at 8 PM. It probably wouldn't be called Ecto music (I don't know what to call much of the stuff we do), but if you're in a mood for what one reviewer called "bizarre and challenging", contemplative and energetic music, come on down! (See http://www.artswire.org/comma and http://www.smoe.org/ectoguide/guide.cgi?search/comma&type=all&for=comma for more on the ensemble, and http://www.pafringe.com/ for info on the festival.) - -- - ---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------- |||/ Joseph Zitt ===== jzitt@humansystems.com ===== Human Systems \||| ||/ Maryland? = <*> SILENCE: The John Cage Mailing List <*> = ecto \|| |/ http://www.realtime.net/~jzitt ====== Comma: Voices of New Music \| ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 23:47:45 -0400 From: "Jeffrey C. Burka" Subject: Re: Listening to music and birthday list administrative stuff Joseph Zitt sez: > Michael Matthews wrote: > > > Just to comment on the idea that not knowing a CD title or being > > familiar with songs implies not listening to the CD... (I feel compelled to point out right now that Mike never has any idea who anybody is, nor any songs, nor does he remember the lyrics to anything, or, well, whatever. But he does still have surprisingly good taste in tunes, if you can get past that tape he made with _The Lion And the Cobra_ on one side and the eponymous _Wilson Philips_ on the other. ugh.) > This is especially true, also, of Sarah's > FtE, where I can only name two or three of the songs after obsessive > listening. Er, let's see. I'm pretty sure I can't do it in order, but... Possession. Elsewhere. Good Enough. Plenty. Mary. Circle. Ice. Hold On. Ice Cream. Fear. FTE. acoustic-piano-Possession. I'm pretty sure I'm missing one. Oh well. This thread has had me thinking about the whole emotion in music thang, and I've come to the conclusion that it's *usually*, though not always, a strong lyrical link that really makes me flip out over a song, whether that flipping out is an intense enjoyment, a tendency to break down weeping, or whatever. The songs that can really make me cry usually do it through a combination of lyrics which strike a chord with me, and the music used to convey those lyrics (both as composition and as arrangement/ production/performance). Poetry generally doesn't move me the same way, and instrumental music is less likely to move me in quite the way music with lyrics do (though, again, this isn't meant as a sweeping generalization; listening, for instance, to Gorecki's _Symphoney of Sorrow_ can bring me to tears). But I've always been a fiend for lyrics... jeff np: _Search for the Golden Dreydl_, Naftule's Dream (one of those 3 discs I picked up from the dirty-floored indie shop last night; sorry, Charlie, no cat on the counter) - -- |Jeffrey C. Burka | moving to jburka@cqi.com -- come say hi | |http://www.cqi.com/~jburka | at the new digs...now up and running! | ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 23:56:38 -0400 From: Joseph Zitt Subject: Re: Listening to music and birthday list administrative stuff Jeffrey C. Burka wrote: > (one of those 3 discs I picked up from the dirty-floored > indie shop last night; sorry, Charlie, no cat on the > counter) BTW, what shop is this? Melody? I got the tape today. Thanks. I hope to listen to it over the weekend if I get a break from the madness of the Philly jaunt... - -- - ---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------- |||/ Joseph Zitt ===== jzitt@humansystems.com ===== Human Systems \||| ||/ Maryland? = <*> SILENCE: The John Cage Mailing List <*> = ecto \|| |/ http://www.realtime.net/~jzitt ====== Comma: Voices of New Music \| ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V4 #316 **************************