From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V7 #88 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Tuesday, March 27 2001 Volume 07 : Number 088 Today's Subjects: ----------------- China invades oscars ["Ted" ] Re: Sinead Lohan ["Bill" ] Re: China invades oscars [GSS ] Re: China is quite welcome at oscars [RavFlight@aol.com] Re: China is quite welcome at oscars ["Ted" ] Oscars [MRL220@aol.com] Harmonicas [tenthvictim@mindspring.com] Harmonicas [tenthvictim@mindspring.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 12:16:47 -0500 From: "Ted" Subject: China invades oscars Just some random musical thoughts from viewing the Oscars: ** Who was that chick with the last name "Harden"? While she was accepting her award (or whatever she was doing), I kept getting a visual in my mind of John Clese as the Headmaster in "The meaning of Life" saying her name ("har........... DEN"!) ** That musical performance of the theme from "Crouching Tiger" reached a new low in schmaltzy! ** That was until I saw Randy Newman and Susanna H. Bangle doing their version of "Christmas in Heaven". ** Sting is bald. Really bald. Don Rickles Bald!I can't deny he's somewhat talentedbecause I hate his guts and he still didn't fall on his face in his performance, in my view. I am still concerned that his performing children's songs may inspire a whole new generation of conceited prycks like him, however. ** Professional Virgin Brittany Spears was not invited to perform at the Oscars. There was a reason for this, she is mediocre, and you have to be either really good or really completely suck to be on the Oscars as a musical talent. A plague on the house of Pepsi for blindsiding me with a forced viewing of her well shaped, but completely bland ass. Thank Allah for that mute button. ** What a wonderful occasion to invite the world's greatest violinist and cellist to perform the world's most annoying medley of yuppie elevator music. Pearlman's tremolo only made it more annoying, but I forgive him, because he and Yo Yo threw everything they had at it, and combined they made the impossibly unredeemable plausibly lukewarm. ** Michelle Yo is Da Bomb! But I don't understand why she took a Hip Hop last name. ThankyaThankya! I'm here all week folks! ** Bjork. Let's pause here a minute and close our eyes, and let's go to our special place. You may find in this place a natural mineral bath, where the warm soothing waters melt the tensions away, steam rising from the water and condensing to a fog that obscures the mountainous snow laden landscape, in a land where everyone is friendly, and has an umlaut in their surname. Ahhhhh. Bjork. Bjork was wonderful! The fact that she appeared on this tackyfest reminded me of the famous "Guy chooses his hell" joke where he is given a choice of tortures he must endure for eternity. One curious torture seemed a little less painful than the others, it was a room where everyone stood waist high in sh*t drinking coffee. Naturally the guy chooses this over the teeth extruding and branding nonsense going on in the other rooms. Upon being inserted into the "Dung and Java" chamber a voice comes over the intercom: "Okay guys! Coffee break is over! Back on your heads." Ahh, Bjork!Three minutes of heaven! Then it's back on our heads. ** The Grinch got an Oscar???? They shoulda got life. ** Where was Aerosmith???? And Kidd Rock???? I was sure they would jump out of Randy Newman's Piano. ** Bob Dylan. Big Whoop. Of course I picked him as the winner. It was only natural, he was the 2nd least relevant, next to Newman, and he didn't get one when he was relevant. I picked him to win over Newman because Newman was never relevant, plus members of the Oscar committee, given a choice, would rather smoke a bong with Dylan. It follows that Bjork will get an Oscar when she is no longer relevant. It will make a nice decoration sitting on top of her breathing machine. ** Okay this post is over, back on your heads. -- Oh no! You've just been accosted by a cross-posting from Ted! Go ahead and whine about it. Baby gonna cry, baby gonna cry? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 10:46:39 -0700 From: "Bill" Subject: Re: Sinead Lohan True; _No Mermaid_ is a fine album as well. Just a bit more produced, which is not a sin, but places the album in a slightly different category. But, again, yes, both are fine albums, worth of a slot each in everyone's CD bin/shelf/drawer/floor. And thanks C. for the interesting Sinead info. - - B. np: Over The Rhine - Patience (Karin makes noises in this album which are keeping me awake at night...) On Sat, 24 Mar 2001 13:33:40 -0500 (EST), cdavis@tir.com wrote: >Bill wrote: > >>On Thu, 22 Mar 2001 23:10:05 -0700, phclark wrote: >> >>>I'd strongly recommend this one, even at the price. >> >>I second that emotion. Excellent album all around. And more "indy" to >>my ears than "No mermaid". >> >>- - Bill G. >> >>np: Over The Rhine - The Darkest Night Of The Year > >(Christmas music in March???) :^) > >But "No Mermaid" is an excellent album too. Since my wife gets claustrophobic >in small venues, a co-worker (Bob) and I had tickets to see her in Jan.99. >Another co-worker (Doug, a latent ectophile whom I've introduced to several >artists like OTR and H.Nova) called to tell me about this wonderful artist >he had just discovered the day before. He couldn't stop playing the album >and pronounced her name as "Sin-ee-add Loan". When I figured out who he was >talking about, I told him that Bob and I were going to see her the next >night. He almost had a fit before I invited him to come along. >Sinead came on stage that night six months pregnant (surprise!) and played >for 1 1/2 hours, standing the whole time. She's very good live, but doesn't >say much (disappointing as I love her Irish lilt). > >Doug and I went to see her again in Sept.99 and ran into her on the street >in Ann Arbor, she was coming back to the venue after dropping off the baby >before the show. She was nice but shy and antsy being approached by fans >(we don't look threatening). The dreadlocks were gone and her hair was >quite short because of grasping baby hands. > >Sinead had a second child Jan.12,2001 (Amy) and is writing songs for the next >album (no projected release date). > >I'm really looking forward to her next effort. > >C. > >n.p. "No Mermaid" ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 12:20:49 -0500 (CDT) From: GSS Subject: Re: China invades oscars On Mon, 26 Mar 2001, Ted wrote: > Thank Allah for that mute button. Sorry, allah came up with the favorite channel button. Confucius gets credit for the mute button and I give Bob Dylan credit for just about everything else. > Bob Dylan. > Big Whoop. Be careful, allah is a big Bob Dylan fan, but he watches Teletubbies on PBS religiously. Kinda makes you wonder. Greg "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." - Albert Einstein ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 14:13:47 EST From: RavFlight@aol.com Subject: Re: China is quite welcome at oscars An interesting synopsis of last night's events. I am curious if you have ever watched the Oscar telecast before. It is not as though in years past the musical preformances have been on the cutting edge of brilliance. I mean.. does anyone remember the dance number to the "color of the wind' from Pokahontas or the "Hakuna Matatta" number from Lion King preformed at the Oscars from years past? Hell, even great songs have been put under the gliding blade of the Oscar cheese factory like "Theme from Shaft" so many years ago. Admittedly, there are a few bright spots on occasion, like Aimee Mann's preformance for Magnolia, but it is well known that Oscar night is not the height of great art of incredible presentation. If you want a better telecast, watch the Spirit Awards (the Independent Film Awards, given on the same day as the Oscar) on Bravo. Better actors, better films, better musical preformances. But as for Oscar..it is a well known glitter and smaltz factory. While last night didn't have too many 'golden' moments..it was pretty boring in fact... it also wasn't all that terribly awful in context with other Oscar nights. I'd say it was a pretty average evening. What just surprises me, when I hear people criticizing the oscar telecast for being boring, or slow, or cheezy, that they have actually sat and watched it long enough to criticize things that happened in the third and fourth hour of the telecast. What a feat of brainwashing it must be for the advertisers to convince people to stay for more than four hours watching a show that they absolutely hate. If you want to find out who the winners are, read it on the internet 5 seconds after the show.. They were already posted. Or if you want to see the 'great moments' that occured, record the thing and find out what happened the next day, then watch it with the fast forward button. Otherwise I can't understand why someone would put themselves through four HOURS of 'dung room' watching and then criticize ti later. It's like "Well, I did choose to sit in the dung room, and they weren't forcing us to stay, in fact I could have left any time...but I figured I'd stay and see what happened next." It seems like a strange choice to have picked something that you hate and never have left the entire night. I will add a couple specific comments as well. First, while there may be some criticism of Randy Newman's preformance last night, which was admittedly bland, he has put on some fantastic number for the Oscar night in the past.. His duet with Lyle Lovet (for Toy Story) was fantastic, as was his duet with Sarah McLachlan (for, coincidentally, Toy Story 2). So was his song with Peter Gabriel (for Babe)... so while the mis-fire was evident last night, i don't think that paints dear old Randy with the red mark of death. Also, and this is just a personal statement, but Bob Dylan will always be relevant. If it weren't for Bob, this list would not exist. He has done more for the advance of folk music than any human being ever. EVER. If you ask a list of 100 singer songwriters who they consider some of the most important to their success and their artform, all would say Bob Dylan. Saying he is not relevant now is like saying John Lennon isn't relevant because he isn't putting out albums anymore. While I do think the song he wrote was great in an age where original songs in films are saved for kids movies, I can see how it can be seen as an 'honorary' oscar. My thinking is, 'what's a matter with that??'. I love Bjork too, but I'll be even she said "AMEN" when Bob Dylan won. Frankly, he deserved it...and 1000 more awards. Also, any fan of indie film has to feel glad that Steven Soderbergh and Cameron Crowe walked away with oscars...again, both quite deserving. (and in this case, deserving for their current work as well as their bast brilliance) And in a closing note in reference to the comment 'China invades oscars', I think that Crouching Tiger was more than welcome to have won every single award which they did. I wish only that the Academy had the courage to give the Best Picture award to them. It was a brilliant film and if anything, deserved more. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 14:40:05 -0500 From: "Ted" Subject: Re: China is quite welcome at oscars From: To: Sent: Monday, March 26, 2001 2:13 PM Subject: Re: China is quite welcome at oscars > An interesting synopsis of last night's events. I am curious if you have ever > watched the Oscar telecast before. It is not as though in years past the > musical preformances have been on the cutting edge of brilliance. I mean.. > does anyone remember the dance number to the "color of the wind' from > Pokahontas or the "Hakuna Matatta" number from Lion King preformed at the > Oscars from years past? Hell, even great songs have been put under the > gliding blade of the Oscar cheese factory like "Theme from Shaft" so many > years ago. Admittedly, there are a few bright spots on occasion, like Aimee > Mann's preformance for Magnolia, but it is well known that Oscar night is not > the height of great art of incredible presentation. If you want a better > telecast, watch the Spirit Awards (the Independent Film Awards, given on the > same day as the Oscar) on Bravo. Better actors, better films, better musical > preformances. But as for Oscar..it is a well known glitter and smaltz > factory. While last night didn't have too many 'golden' moments..it was > pretty boring in fact... it also wasn't all that terribly awful in context > with other Oscar nights. I'd say it was a pretty average evening. So you almost agree with me that it sucked. > What just surprises me, when I hear people criticizing the oscar telecast for > being boring, or slow, or cheezy, that they have actually sat and watched it > long enough to criticize things that happened in the third and fourth hour of > the telecast. What a feat of brainwashing it must be for the advertisers to > convince people to stay for more than four hours watching a show that they > absolutely hate. If you want to find out who the winners are, read it on the > internet 5 seconds after the show.. They were already posted. Or if you want > to see the 'great moments' that occured, record the thing and find out what > happened the next day, then watch it with the fast forward button. I will take it for granted that you will completely avert your vision should you ever drive by a train wreck. > Otherwise > I can't understand why someone would put themselves through four HOURS of > 'dung room' watching and then criticize ti later. It's like "Well, I did > choose to sit in the dung room, and they weren't forcing us to stay, in fact > I could have left any time...but I figured I'd stay and see what happened > next." Okay, my "Dung and Java" analogy is in ruins. > It seems like a strange choice to have picked something that you hate > and never have left the entire night. No, it was fun calling my friends and raving each time they hit a new low! > I will add a couple specific comments as well. First, while there may be some > criticism of Randy Newman's preformance last night, which was admittedly > bland, he has put on some fantastic number for the Oscar night in the past.. > His duet with Lyle Lovet (for Toy Story) was fantastic, as was his duet with > Sarah McLachlan (for, coincidentally, Toy Story 2). So was his song with > Peter Gabriel (for Babe)... so while the mis-fire was evident last night, i > don't think that paints dear old Randy with the red mark of death. > Also, and this is just a personal statement, but Bob Dylan will always be > relevant. If it weren't for Bob, this list would not exist. Not everybody is Bob Dylan's Love Child, ya know.... > Crouching Tiger was more than welcome to have won every single > award which they did. I wish only that the Academy had the courage to give > the Best Picture award to them. It was a brilliant film and if anything, > deserved more. I agree. Now Fess up, what row were you in??? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 14:45:11 EST From: MRL220@aol.com Subject: Oscars Everybody seems to not know who Marcia Gay Harden is. She is a well respected stage and screen actress who has been in movies since 1990 and has been in Millers Crossing, Space Cowboys and Meet Joe Black, among others. She was absolutely wonderful in Pollock and deserved her Oscar. Her part was intense and she was really good with Ed Harris. See the film and you will see what I mean. I know there are a lot of disappointed Kate Hudson fans out there but what Harden did in Pollock is the work of a seasoned actor. Marty ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 21:12:49 -0600 From: tenthvictim@mindspring.com Subject: Harmonicas Hello, Kids, I take back my kind words about Spring reaching North Texas. It sleeted here for an hour this morning. Nothing stuck. Diatonic and chromatic harmonicas are two different creatures. A diatonic scale is a major or minor scale in which the notes in the scale are made up of the notes of the prevailing key (Oxford Dict. of Music). What that means to me is notes outside the scale of the harmonica (a G scale or C scale or whatever the key of the harmonica is) are not available. In theory that means you can't play a wrong note if your song is in the key of G and so is your harmonica. But, harmonicas aren't fool proof. You can play the wrong note of the scale at the wrong time. I often do. If you happen to hit a note a third or a fifth above or below the current note being played or sung by others you are playing with, you have instant harmony and people smile at you. If you play a second or sixth or whatever, people frown. This means you have to have a harmonica for every key you intend to play in-- unless, you are very skilled at bending notes so that you get your sharps and flats. I have seen that done before. Always impressive. That (the one harp per key thing) is why harmonica players tend to have belts loaded with harmonicas. If the band ever modulates, you could be left hanging in the wind with a harmonica a step too low. In the blues (cross harp), you play a harp that is in the key of the fourth (I think) degree of the scale. Playing the blues in G means you have to play a harmonica of the key of C, using a blues scale, to sound like you're playing the blues. Also, you have to bend lots of notes. In a chromatic harmonica, every note in a scale is available, sharps and flats included. There is a lever on the harp that shifts the note up a degree of the scale. So, you hear people hitting a note and raising the pitch with the lever. You get trills if you push the lever in and out rapidly. The chromatic harpists I am most familiar with are Toots Thielman (jazz), Stevie Wonder (you know), and the guy who plays for Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. I'm sure I've simplified something complex to a ridiculous level. Anyone else out there with more music theory can correct me. Bye, Lyle ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 21:45:44 -0600 From: tenthvictim@mindspring.com Subject: Harmonicas In case you're trying to figure out what universe I just blew in from, I do have a reference to work from with the previous E-mail (I don't quite have the hang of these thread things and don't know if I believe in them anyway): John J. Henshon said in yesterday's digest, "Gary Schreiner played keyboards, accordion and harmonica. The program described it as a "chromatic" harmonica. Perhaps one of you more musically minded among us can enlighten me there, are there panchromatic and monochromatic harmonicas on the loose out in the wild as well ???" The panchromatic harmonicas are made in Pandaemonium. You often see monochromatic harmonicas in old black and white movies. ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V7 #88 *************************