From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V8 #271 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Sunday, September 29 2002 Volume 08 : Number 271 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: American Gods [Neile Graham ] Re: Peter Gabriel's UP (and various Buffitudes and such) ["John Zimmer" <] Mia Doi Todd [steve ] [Re: Mia Doi Todd] [Valerie Richardson ] Re: Mia Doi Todd [Neile Graham ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 00:04:59 -0700 (PDT) From: Neile Graham Subject: Re: American Gods On Fri, 27 Sep 2002, Chad Lundgren wrote: > I think that's really one of Neil's strengths. He does a really fine job of > weaving seemingly disparate plotlines into a very satisfying climax. > _Coraline_ is also a very nice book. It's written in a different style, more > of a storybook narrative, but it has such an overwhelming creepiness to it. > It's not as intricate as his longer and more intricate novel, but it's a > fine read. I really loved Coraline and have liked others of Neil Gaiman's books but American Gods left me cold for the most part--didn't like the character or believe in his situation enough to carry the book for me. I don't like to read a book where I feel like I want to kick the main character. And the ending especially didn't come together for me. What this book was especially missing that I value in his other work is invention. Anyway, I own a copy so I'm going to try to read it again in a year or so and see if my opinion changes. Haggis, and all that. - --Neile - -- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- neile@drizzle.com / neile@sff.net......http://www.sff.net/people/neile The Ectophiles' Guide to Good Music ......... http://www.ectoguide.org ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 00:07:03 -0700 From: "John Zimmer" Subject: Re: Peter Gabriel's UP (and various Buffitudes and such) Greg Bossert wrote: > the amazon.com version (which is winging its way towards me e'en > now) is listed as "enhanced", but it fails to mention the nature of said > enhancement, or whether this differs from the normal release. i'm > guessing that it's got some CDROM stuff, and that this is the normal > release... Besides the 5.1 version that's apparently downloadable (and only playable via Windows Media Player, naturally), I've heard that there are both DVD-Audio and SACD versions in the works for release in January. > i was iffy around the collar after the BtVS season premiere, but on > reflection, it was a fine (and typical) start. liked the Giles and > Willow bits, liked the bad guy review, how can you not like James > Marsters with some scenery to chew on (not to mention his own > flesh!), and i'm beginning to to envision "DtVS" as a season eight. i > miss Tara. Me too. But as we found out from that cavalcade of baddies, nobody is truly gone in Buffyland; if Drusilla can make a return visit (all too brief, and I hope not the last), surely Tara's shade/memory/hallucination will also make an appearance before too long. That's my hope, anyway. John ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 10:43:38 -0500 From: steve Subject: Mia Doi Todd All about Mia Doi Todd, including a documentary clip - http://columbiarecords.com/midweekmusic/ - - Steve __________ Does pop music really change anything other than the width of a teenager's trousers? Is there really no Santa Claus on the evening stage? Does the shed hold only a push bike, or is there a lawn mower in there too? Well, I've done the research, talked to the culprit's parents and come to my own conclusions. The answer is this: God's atoms have been scattered and re-assembled in the form of a fluffy bunny. - Bill Nelson ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2002 00:55:21 -0400 From: Valerie Richardson Subject: [Re: Mia Doi Todd] I don't know that I've ever written into Ecto to recommend a CD (I'm always on the receiving end of the recommendations here), but I'm enthusiastically recommending Mia Doi Todd's new release _Golden State_, which I guess is her first major label release. Mia is the daughter of an Irish-American sculptor (dad) and a Japanese-American judge (mom), is classically trained (and a Yale grad), and studied traditional dance in Japan. For some reason the singer she reminds me of most is Robin Holcomb, although they sound entirely different. They seem to have sort of the same quiet poetic vision and spaciousness in their music. I watched the video bio clip from Steve's link below. Her producer, Mitchell Froom, talked about wanting to keep the sound of the CD very modest. From what I've read, Mia has a multi-octave voice, but her vocal range on the CD is kept very narrow with one or two exceptions. Her voice is a very precise instrument and described as crystalline, although the sound is somewhat breathy and husky rather than tinkly. For those of you in Southern Connecticut, My WPKN colleague Ruth Eddy will have Mia on her show on the afternoon of Thursday, October 10, sometime between 2:00 and 6:00 p.m. If you're not in this area, you might be able to hear the interview at www.wpkn.org if our server is working. - --Valerie Richardson (Who would rather listen to music than try to write about it) ___________________________________ steve wrote: > > All about Mia Doi Todd, including a documentary clip - > > http://columbiarecords.com/midweekmusic/ > > - Steve > __________ > Does pop music really change anything other than the width of a > teenager's trousers? Is there really no Santa Claus on the evening > stage? Does the shed hold only a push bike, or is there a lawn mower in > there too? Well, I've done the research, talked to the culprit's > parents and come to my own conclusions. The answer is this: God's atoms > have been scattered and re-assembled in the form of a fluffy bunny. - > Bill Nelson ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 22:47:43 -0700 From: Neile Graham Subject: Re: Mia Doi Todd Anyone who remembers Neal's and my opposing commentary on seeing Mia Doi Todd opening for Kristin Hersh a couple of years back (Neal found her fascinating and bought her current cd; I found her set interminable beyond belief and couldn't believe that _anyone_ could like her music) will be surprised to learn that I bought _The Golden State_. I came across a sample from the album, "Digital", and really liked it and since a local store advertised her discs on sale for $8.99 (regular still only $9.99--Columbia is clearly trying to make it as painless as possible to try the disc) I decided to pick it up. I've only had it a couple of days and haven't listened to it all that much. I've been buying a lot of discs recently and frou frou, someone new called Edie (more about her soon), Robin Holcomb, Rachel Spektor's delightful _songs_, the new Iva Bittova and a couple of others have had priority in my player. But I have listened to it enough to find that for me it is a really mixed experience. I love "Digital" but there are a couple of tracks that remind me of that horrible experience seeing her live. I think that for me she works best when she's doing songs with a quicker pace. The slower ones become bogged down for me by the slightly forced quality of her voice and make me rush to pull the disc out. I still love "Digital" though, so I'll be giving this more chances. - --Neile ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V8 #271 **************************