From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V8 #44 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Wednesday, February 13 2002 Volume 08 : Number 044 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Philip Pullman [Dracovixen@aol.com] Re: children trilogy [Dracovixen@aol.com] Re: prophecy [Ellen Rawson ] Re: Philip Pullman [dmw ] Helen Watson, live in London. [adamk@zoom.co.uk] Re: Philip Pullman [Chris Morriss ] Question for the List ["John" ] RE: Question for the List ["Bill Adler" ] Re: Philip Pullman ["atholbrose" ] Emily Dickinson, Gilligan's Island, Jimmy Webb ["Lyle Howard" > ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 02:07:52 EST From: Dracovixen@aol.com Subject: Re: children trilogy I work in a bookstore, and I recommend them every chance I get. You'd be amazed at how many kids get sucked into them...Though, they're in the young adult section, the young adult section is always considered as part of the children's section, for some reason...but anyway, I have seen 8 year olds pick book 1 up, andf ocme back for book 2...I would have never imagined it myself, though...had I not seen it... Black Dove In a message dated 2/12/02 1:56:58 AM Eastern Standard Time, owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org writes: << I find it hard to imagine many children getting to the end of the trilogy though. - -- Chris Morriss >> ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 01:47:23 -0800 (PST) From: Ellen Rawson Subject: Re: prophecy - --- kitty kat wrote: > > Hmph. Let's take an informal ecto poll - how many > people heard of that > independent of B5, and how many people heard of it > on B5? I'm an English teacher. I've been singing Emily Dickinson poems to my students for twenty years now... Is there a website where those of us not near the US tour (those of us on the other side of the pond) can purchase Prophecy? Susan hasn't been over here in over a year, and I missed her that time due to work insanity. Ellen ===== "Literature stops in 1100. After that, it's just books." - -- JRR Tolkien Send FREE Valentine eCards with Yahoo! Greetings! http://greetings.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 09:46:00 -0500 (EST) From: dmw Subject: Re: Philip Pullman On Mon, 11 Feb 2002 adamk@zoom.co.uk wrote: > Apologies for being off-topic, but thought I'd drop a line > about this man, 'cos I think he might appeal to a lot of > people on the list.. He just won a prestigous book award, lemme say a good word for his non-dark materials work, too, which is pretty neat, too, especially the sally lockheart trilogy (starts with _the ruby in the smoke_ and don't read the back covers! criminal spoilers) and _clockwork_, a spooky little fable. I natter on about Rowling and Pullman in typical fashion at http://www.pathetic-caverns.com/books/b_p.html (And apologize for some of what i said about Rowling at http://www.pathetic-caverns.com/books/b_r.html) - -- d. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 16:51:53 +0000 (GMT) From: adamk@zoom.co.uk Subject: Helen Watson, live in London. Some time back I posted a "whatever happened to..?" query about Helen, and now I know. I saw her at the 12 Bar Club last night, a TINY venue on London's famed Denmark Street (probably fits about 50 people, max -- the venue, that is, not the street). An odd sort of evening. I stumbled upon her after her cd "Companion Girl", which had the almost- hit, "#100 Watch" on it, and is a really, really great album (also contains one of THE ultimate, sad breakup songs, "Some Mistake") but then she seemed to disappear. Meanwhile, she's been singing, guesting, gigging, and backing away from whatever that album almost brought her. The gig was a very low-key one, just her and her guitar (and harmonica) and, while she looked like she should have been serving behind the bar of some Northern Pub (the Rovers Return, for our UK contingency) she has a voice like Emily Saliers married with Billie Holliday. She did mostly covers, a wide range -- John Hiatt, George Jones, Smokey Robinson -- and a few of her own, all in a very folky, bluesy vein. But, to my surprise, not a single one from "Companion Girl". Not a hint. Even more surprising was the audience. When we got there, the first supporting act was on, and all the seats (yeah, all 12 of them later) were taken, and people were standing. Another support act (more on them)and then, when Helen came on, most of them seemed to drift away, to talk loudly in the bar (which is just through a doorway). By the time she was finished, (although it was quite late on a weekday) there were only a handful of us left, and it's not because she didn't deliver the goods -- she was very good. Odd, very odd. I picked up one of her more recent albums "Somersault"(from 1997), and have given it a listen -- really nice, mellow and bluesy/folky, not exactly pulse-racing stuff, but quietly beautiful and intimate. She has a new one coming out soon, but of all the damned things, I forgot to pick up a leaflet for it. The second opening act were a female trio called Elan, who were also really good. Electric bass, acoustic guitars, and one of the guitarists doubling with brushes on a tribal drum (hmmm..sounds like a song title, there). Great harmonies, and a nice varied palette of sounds, including a song sung in Welsh. Worth looking out for -- they have website, somewhat outdated, at www.kdgweb.btinternet.co.uk/elan/index.html -- I hope I got that right. BTW --- did someone, once, mention The Bush, The Tree and Me? They sounded familiar, and I came across one of their albums -- very good, in a "Dolores O'Riordan fronting the Neilds" sort of way, with some lovely instrumentation (one of them plays the clarinet, and there just aren't enough clarinets in contemporary music, as far as I'm concerned). Okay, I'm done. adam k. Get your own zoom email - click here - http://www.zoom.co.uk/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 18:45:37 +0000 From: Chris Morriss Subject: Re: Philip Pullman In message <20020211212537.10242.qmail@web21412.mail.yahoo.com>, Ellen Rawson writes >--- Chris Morriss wrote: > >> >> I find it hard to imagine many children getting to >> the end of the >> trilogy though. > >Did you see the Pullman interview in the Observer >months ago? The one in which he discussed why he >thinks they're children's books? In the US, they >initially were marketed for young adults/adults rather >than children, and he disagreed with that approach. > >I remember being in an Oxford bookshop when the third >book was first published in hardcover. Two sisters >(probably around 8 and 10 years old) were fighting >over it because Mom would only buy ONE copy. As an >English teacher, that's the kind of fight I want to >see -- who will read it first. :) > >Ellen > >===== >"Literature stops in 1100. After that, it's just books." >-- JRR Tolkien >Send FREE Valentine eCards with Yahoo! Greetings! >http://greetings.yahoo.com Oh yes, I'm not denying that children were awaiting the third book with eager anticipation. As it was a more difficult read than the first two, and really required a lot of background knowledge that few children would have had, I still wonder how many finished it. Those who did will certainly have had some of their assumptions challenged. Thinking of easier, but high quality fantasy that children might read, I know everyone knows the 'Earthsea trilogy', but of course the fourth book when it came out was much bleaker, and again probably directed to older readers. I happen to like Peter Beagle's 'The Last Unicorn' and Joy Chant's 'Red Moon, Black Mountain', both of which are accessible to children, even if 'Unicorn' was a student read when it appeared. - -- Chris Morriss ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 20:13:53 -0500 From: "John" Subject: Question for the List In the spirit of Valentine's Day (and High Fidelity for that matter), would anyone be willing to share their top five ecto-ish love songs? js ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 20:38:45 -0500 From: "Bill Adler" Subject: RE: Question for the List Here goes (and not in any particular order): Beth Patterson, Steer by the Stars Marti Jones, Whenever You're on My Mind Lisa Moscatiello, Second Avenue Grey Eye Glances, Kind of Love Orleans, Still the One Capercaillie, Why Won't You Touch Me? Vienna Teng, Between Okay, these are seven songs, not five, and I'm bound to think of another seven songs in a few minutes. Some are bittersweet melodies, but they're songs about love nonetheless. Crank up the CD player and bring out the Kleenex! - --Bill n.p. Molly Zenobia, Wind Chains - -----Original Message----- From: owner-ecto@smoe.org [mailto:owner-ecto@smoe.org] On Behalf Of John Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2002 8:14 PM To: ecto@smoe.org Subject: Question for the List In the spirit of Valentine's Day (and High Fidelity for that matter), would anyone be willing to share their top five ecto-ish love songs? js ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 22:50:05 -0500 From: "atholbrose" Subject: Re: Philip Pullman > lemme say a good word for his non-dark materials work, too, which is > pretty neat, too, especially the sally lockheart trilogy (starts with _the > ruby in the smoke_ and don't read the back covers! criminal spoilers) and > _clockwork_, a spooky little fable. Yeah, I was pretty mad when I read the back of book 3 before I finished book 2. (Don't ask me why I did it -- but it still shouldn't have had such a bad and blatant spoiler!) I think after His Dark Materials, my favorite Pullman is probably Count Karlstein. > I natter on about Rowling and Pullman in typical fashion at > http://www.pathetic-caverns.com/books/b_p.html *cough* And you also say "Steve Meretzky's _Zork_ series", when Steve Meretzky only wrote one Zork game (Zork Zero). Writing the sixth of 8 games hardly makes it his series... The blame for the Spellcasting series -- wonderful puzzle-based interactive fiction practicaly spoiled by the "wonky sex comedy" angle -- rests solely with him though. At least it made Legend a bunch of money and allowed them to publish some other fully enjoyable games. Sorry... Infocom was always a favorite of mine, spurring childhood dreams of working there. Hey, at least it got me to learn to program! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 04:14:26 From: "Lyle Howard" Subject: Emily Dickinson, Gilligan's Island, Jimmy Webb Buenas Noches, I heard ten or more years ago that Emily Dickinson's poems could all be sung to the tune of.... and there my mind draws a blank. I think it was "The Yellow Rose or Texas." Seems like it was a literary professor saying this, so for all I know the idea might have sprouted in an English journal. Lit majors and profs are always using their finely tuned brains for mischief. Speaking of "Because I could not stop for death...." A couple of years ago I printed off a copy of that poem because a co-worker had just lost her father. I never gave it to her; put it in my desk instead. One day I was out sick and my co-workers rifled my desk looking for something (I'm sure it was an important something) and stumbled across the poem. When I came back they wanted to know if I was suicidal. Dr. Demento used to play a version of "Stairway to Heaven" that featured the lyrics of the Gilligan's Island theme. I was impressed by the elegance of the pairing. (We did get near the topic of the theme song to Gilligan's Island, did we not?) For the songwriters on the list-- I picked up a remaindered copy of Jimmy Webb's book _Tunesmith_ on Saturday. He is a surprisingly good writer of prose. And I don't think he used a ghost writer. He covers songwriting in great depth. And he tries to make the reader aware of the history of pop songwriting. He includes a section where he interviews other songwriters. He gets points for including an interview with J.D. Souther, who mentions the great Asylum writers and mentions Judee Sill, who seems to be fading from the collective memory a little too fast. If you can find a bookstore that carries remaindered books, check for Mr. Webb's book. Bye, Lyle (P.S. Mr. Webb lived an hour away from my hometown in southwest Oklahoma: Elk City. Roger Miller's hometown, which, if memory serves, is Erick, OK, is twenty miles to the west of Elk City.) _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V8 #44 *************************