From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V6 #389 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Friday, December 29 2000 Volume 06 : Number 389 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: wrong address? [karen hester ] happy rhodes live/in person ["Julio Ortega" ] Re: happy rhodes live/in person [meredith ] Bandwidth Testing [Phil Hudson ] Re: wrong address? [Steve VanDevender ] New music (for me, anyway) [Steve VanDevender ] Re: happy rhodes live/in person [Neal Copperman ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 22:19:13 +1300 From: karen hester Subject: Re: wrong address? Kia Ora Drew wrote: > I really didn't expect this to be desolate place as far as HR >info. I don't think lists which bubble along discussing the central artist when that person hasn't released anything or toured recently are about *info* so much as gossip, creating myths, curiousity about the person's life, sometimes worship ... hagiography ... and an awful lot of merchandise collecting. ... and I personally enjoy many of those lists but that approach doesn't seem appropriate to Happy. She wasn't the most-photographed women before Princess Di in Britain, we needn't succumb to debating whether she is the ultimate British beauty or Irish beauty, there aren't any automated Happy-quote lists which email wisdom once daily. That's fine - Happy isn't big enough to have much of a media persona, doesn't seem interested in cultivating one, and there aren't decades of magazine images to gather and interviews to dissect and 12" picture sleeves to collect. Her music is pretty damn good though. And I'd certainly like to read more interviews with her. How did you come across her music, Drew? karen. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 01:28:54 -0300 From: "Julio Ortega" Subject: happy rhodes live/in person Who's met Happy? And how was knowing her in person? I have never ever been to any live performance of her, how is it like? I mean, what instruments does she play on stage? How does she arrange songs like ra is a busy god, where she over dubbed her vocals so much on the album that doing it live seems impossible,,, thanks! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 14:05:08 -0500 From: meredith Subject: Re: happy rhodes live/in person Hi! Julio inquired: >Who's met Happy? And how was knowing her in person? Happy is a very nice person with a wicked sense of humor. And I mean *evil* sense of humor. But in a nice way, of course. :) >I have never ever been >to any live performance of her, how is it like? I mean, what instruments >does she play on stage? How does she arrange songs like ra is a busy god, >where she over dubbed her vocals so much on the album that doing it live >seems impossible,,, She has performed in several configurations, from solo to full band, and all are great in their own way. She usually plays acoustic guitar and/or keyboards. And seeing her live, you can't believe how those sounds are coming out of her -- yes, in the studio there are lots of overdubs, but she somehow manages to make those sounds in live performance with no seeming effort whatsoever. She can go from the bottom of her range to the top in the span of two notes, and even after seeing it several times it still stuns me when it happens. In between songs, she is hilarious. Painfully funny. She has no qualms about making fun of audience members as much as she makes fun of herself. +==========================================================================+ | 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 *** | +==========================================================================+ Shop Safely Online Without a Credit Card http://www.rocketcash.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 12:00:44 -0800 From: Phil Hudson Subject: Bandwidth Testing Microsoft may be the butt of all jokes, etc, but sometimes, when the moon is full and the muse obliges, someone over there comes up with a good idea. This one in particular will tell you exactly how fast your internet connection really is, which is handy, given the basic marketing weasel-words and deception surrounding DSL connect speeds, etc. The test takes about 10 seconds, during which time, the program is most likely looting your email address book, or corrupting your JPegs of Uncle William with the lampshade on his head, but the end result is that you can find out how fast you're driving. Watch out for those hairpin turns. Happy New Millenium Phil http://msn.zdnet.com/partners/msn/bandwidth/speedtest.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 14:55:00 -0800 From: Steve VanDevender Subject: Re: wrong address? Dan Riley writes: > Steve VanDevender writes: > > So unlike the "all about Kate Bush, all the time" slant of > > Love-Hounds, Ecto has never been intended to be "all about Happy > > Rhodes, all the time". > > err...huh? Am I subscribed to the wrong love-hounds or something? > > Love-hounds has never been "all Kate, all the time", and was never > intended to be--|>oug has been quite explicit that love-hounds was for > anything vaguely KaTe-like. Yeah, I know, some love-hounds got all > twisted in a knot by all the HR discussion--some love-hounds will get > all twisted in a knot by the weather (and I seem to recall |>oug > arguing that the anti-HR forces were all wet)--but AFAICT ecto was > mostly a "kinder, gentler" (to coin a phrase) love-hounds (dare I say > a "compassionate" love-hounds?), but otherwise not fundamentally > different. Except for nominally being about Happy, not KaTe. And > being a bit younger and less ossified. I guess my memories are old enough to have become corrupted. If it wasn't that Love-Hounds was "all Kate, all the time" then it was at least something like "talk about someone other than Kate at the risk of being flamed by the dweeb contingent." I think I was actually subscribed to both Ecto and Love-Hounds for a while after the formation of Ecto, but after a while Love-Hounds kind of lost its appeal. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 15:19:57 -0800 From: Steve VanDevender Subject: New music (for me, anyway) I think I've found a counteragent to EWS (Ecto Wallet Syndrome, for those of you new to the list), which is a condition I call RSA, Record Store Amnesia. When I go into a record store, I _know_ there's all this great stuff I could maybe get, but I can't remember what it was. Maybe I need to start making CD shopping lists. Despite the battle between RSA and EWS, I managed to plunk down $70+ dollars by spotting some familiar names in the racks. The highlight of the haul is Hooverphonic's _The Magnificent Tree_. I am enjoying this immensely. It's lush, atmospheric, and varied. Many of the songs mix strings and synthesizers smoothly, and there's one song where Geike Arnaert uses a voder to lower her voice a la Laurie Anderson. I'm really interested in finding more of their stuff now. The CD I got, apparently as a marketing move, includes "Renaissance Affair" (the song used in one of the VW Beetle ads) as a bonus track. I also found a used copy of Milla's _The Divine Comedy_, which was much talked-about on Ecto back when it was new. I wish I had bought it sooner; it's a great album. I also picked up a few other less notable items: the eponymous Dead Can Dance album; Cocteau Twins, _The Pink Opaque_; Squirrel Nut Zippers, _Hot_, and a backup used copy of the eponymous Ben Folds Five album (also since I lost the case and liner notes for my original copy). ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 18:53:44 -0500 From: Greg Dunn Subject: Re: happy rhodes live/in person >Happy is a very nice person with a wicked sense of humor. And I mean >*evil* sense of humor. But in a nice way, of course. :) When I met her one evening at the Bearsville Theater (we had made the 750-mile drive to see Jewel give her once-in-a-lifetime fan club concert), Happy asked me why I hadn't driven up for her show a couple of weeks previously. :-) She was almost-but-not-quite deadpan when she asked this. - -- | Greg Dunn | Now I know I'm being used. But | | gregdunn@indy.net | that's okay man, 'cause I like | | The Sultan of Slack(tm) | the abuse. | | http://www.indy.net/~gregdunn/ | The Offspring | ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 21:58:33 -0700 From: Neal Copperman Subject: Re: happy rhodes live/in person At 2:05 PM -0500 12/28/00, meredith wrote: > >I have never ever been >>to any live performance of her, how is it like? I mean, what instruments >>does she play on stage? How does she arrange songs like ra is a busy god, >>where she over dubbed her vocals so much on the album that doing it live >>seems impossible,,, > >She has performed in several configurations, from solo to full band, and >all are great in their own way. She usually plays acoustic guitar and/or >keyboards. Most of Happy's shows have been in Philly, though she did do two(?) tours with Project Lo that hit a few more places on the east coast. I saw them in both Baltimore and DC suburbs. Some of the full band shows from a few years ago were really impressive, particularly since Happy had a back-up singer (Kelly Bird) who could do a pretty good job keeping up with her. The amazing part was Kelly looked like she was working really hard, and Happy was effortless. Even the stripped down shows have usually had a guitar player with her. For a long time, that was Kevin Bartlett, adding all sorts of amazing guitar wizardry to the songs. Subtle but wildly affective. More recently it's been Bon Lozaga (of Project Lo). >And seeing her live, you can't believe how those sounds are coming out of >her -- yes, in the studio there are lots of overdubs, but she somehow >manages to make those sounds in live performance with no seeming effort >whatsoever. She can go from the bottom of her range to the top in the span >of two notes, and even after seeing it several times it still stuns me when >it happens. That's the part that is truly amazing. Nothing about singing seems to require any work from Happy. Singing any note in her range, and shifting quickly between them, is as effortless as talking. She really doesn't seem to be working even a little bit. She just stands there, looking nonchalant, and opens her mouth and that voice comes out. It's really unbelievable. neal np: The Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers at the Launchpad (Albuquerque) ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V6 #389 **************************