From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V9 #355 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Thursday, December 18 2003 Volume 09 : Number 355 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Today's your birthday, friends... [Mike Matthews ] re: OT: tech help & Johnny Cunningham ["Connell, Michael P" ] SF Penelope Houston show and news [Neile Graham ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 03:00:01 -0500 (EST) From: Mike Matthews Subject: Today's your birthday, friends... i*i*i*i*i*i i*i*i*i*i*i *************** *****HAPPY********* **************BIRTHDAY********* *************************************************** *************************************************************************** ***************** Laura Clifford (lclifford@genuity.com) ****************** ********************* Dirk Kastens (no Email address) ********************* ************************ Milla (no Email address) ************************* ****************** Chris Schernwetter (no Email address) ****************** ******************** Sherry Haddock (no Email address) ******************** *************************************************************************** -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Laura Clifford Tue December 17 1957 Sagittarius Dirk Kastens Tue December 17 1963 Sagittarius Milla Wed December 17 1975 Sagittarius Chris Schernwetter Tue December 17 1974 Sagittarius Sherry Haddock Sat December 17 1960 Sagittarius Tracy Benbrook Tue December 18 1973 Sagittarius Mark Lowry Mon December 22 1969 Capricarius Kay Cleaves Wed December 22 1976 Prancing Pony Uli Grepel Wed December 25 1968 Steinbock Joseph Wasicek Sat December 25 1976 Brown Eagle Stuart Castergine Mon December 30 1963 You Are Here Marvin Camras Sat January 01 1916 Tapehead Jeanne Schreiter Tue January 03 1967 Capricorn John Sandoval Wed January 04 1967 Capricorn Paul Cohen Tue January 05 1954 Capricorn Tony Garrity Mon January 08 1962 Pool of Life Greg Bossert Tue January 09 1962 OfTheTimes Troy J. Shadbolt Thu January 14 1971 Capricorn Chris Sampson Wed January 15 1964 Void where prohibited Dennis G Parslow Fri January 17 1964 ...of the Saint Ross Alford Thu January 17 1957 Positive - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 07:11:29 -0500 From: "Connell, Michael P" Subject: re: OT: tech help & Johnny Cunningham Kerry sadly lamented: > Hi, I have an old VCR, a Mitsubishi TU U52. I got it in the > 80's. About 8 or 10 years ago I needed service and found that Mitsubishi > was very proprietary and only authorized service centers could get the > manual, etc. {snip} > This thing has amazing 'bells and whistles' and I'd pay to get it > fixed up. Can a info fiend find something that I can't or is this > destined to be a boat anchor? Thanks,bye, I too recently suffered the loss of a dear ol' friend Mitsubishi VCR. Can't recall the model number, but it cost me well over $800 in 1987 when the most any of my acquaintances ever spent for a VCR was maybe 450. It too had amazing bells & whistles and the tape-transport was second to none. When it finally passed, I wanted to give it a proper burial in the woods out back. As for advice on getting it repaired, if it were me I'd go to the best local repairshop that is not a chain/franchise. Mike P.S. I have to be honest, I had never heard of Johnny Cunningham (or if I had (considering his resume), I have forgotten)...I am sorry that he passed so very young and both sad for those here at Ecto that saw him so very recently, and also happy for them that they were some of the few to see one of his last performances. Reminds me of when I saw Harry Chapin two or three weeks before he died, and saw Elvis a couple of months before he passed away. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 12:40:04 -0500 From: Michael Curry Subject: Some Johnny Cunningham stories (kinda long) Over on IRTRAD-L, they've been sharing a few stories about Johnny, so I thought I'd forward some of them along.... - ----- From: Fred Keller Shock and grief indeed. He was one of my favorite players and a heck of a nice guy to boot. I had the distinct pleasure to be playing Kieran's pub in Minneapolis a number of years ago. Johnny had been playing earlier in the evening as part of the Celtic Fiddle Fest (I think it was called) with Christian LeMaitre and Kevin Burke. A fellow named Bill Watkins (who knew the Cunninghams from the 60's and essentially started Silly Wizard) brought him in for a pint. Bill asked us if he'd mind if Johnny could sit in (!!!) but not to make a big deal of it as he just wanted to play a couple and wind down. We did Drowsy Maggie into the song Mary Mack (we were a pub band, not strictly trad). Biggest thrill of my on-stage life. Damn damn damn. - ----- From: Paul Mulvaney Friends: This is so so sad. I didn't know. What a cybercommunity this has become, that the passing of someone dear to us is revealed by email. I'm sure we are all in shock. Johnny spent a few years in the Boston area; he was a regular visiter to the Village Coach House-later-Greenbriar sessions. He'd had a wonderful fiddle stolen in NYC ---these things can happen anywhere ---- and had ordered a beautiful fiddle made to replace it. I was sitting at the bar in the 'Briar waiting for Larry Reynolds one night --- this must have been 12 years ago now ---- and in mid sip I felt the weight of an enourmous arm on my shoulder. I looked over and saw a gleaming, red, Celtic Tiger. I don't mean the economic sort --- I mean a knotwork dragon tattoo. It's Qui-Chang- Kane, I think to myself. I'm buying a drink under duress for David Carradine. No, as I turn, I see Johnny's smiling face. "Paul" he says - --- I hardly knew he knew who I was ---- "I've just got the new fiddle and we've got to trrrry it out" --- and he bodily drags me over--- he hadn't needed to! --- to the bench in the snug, pulls out this absoultely *gorgeous* violin --- and proceeds to teach me "Hector the Hero". I had to fight off tears, sitting next to Johnny Cunningham, listening to that. Johhny the Hero. I saw Johnny perform at the Eisteddffod, or however it gets spelled, a local folk festival of high quality we used to have about an hours drive south, near Zouki's turf. He walked out alone under the lights, with a cigarette (sigh), which was forbidden. Nobody cared. He tole us "I can come out here and talk about the tunes and tell jokes and amuse you for a while, but they've only given me fourty-five minutes, so if you don't mind, I'll just play the tunes". Then he played a fourty- five minute, unbroken set of Scots, Irish, original and altogether amazing music, segueing from one to another seamlessly, reels, jigs, strathspeys, airs, the only silence the odd sixteenth note rest for empahasis. I have never heard an audience roar the way they did when he was done. There was no space in the schedule for an encore, and no need. I have no idea who had the misfortune of following him onstage, I have long ago forgotten, but I'll never forget that performance. From my kitchen window I have a view of Harvard's Memorial Hall, where the Wizards did those live recordings years back, before I knew how to play. He knew how to play. Silly Wizard indeed. It was Johnny, dropping in at a session hosted by Cillian Vallely, who taught me the difference between a "Scotsman and a Rolling Stone"; I won't repeat it here. Johnny and Susan Zimelis were great buds and played immortal music whenever they'd show up together, as oftimes they did. Susan passed on a decade ago now, early December. The believers among us can look forward to one amazing session. Jimi Hendrix has probabaly learned dadgad. All of us can shake our heads and wonder at the genius of these people who will sit with the likes of folks like me and create beauty from nothing, like the One did long ago. Where does the music go when the playing stops? Does it cheat the heat death of the universe a wee bit by adding to the thermal noise? Where do we go when we stop? While there is tradition, there will be life, and music, and this amazing guy, this friend of ours, is more here than gone. Johnny wasn't one to rage against the dieing of the light; he was one to fill the night with perfect music, and the intense laughter that leaves you with tears. I hope I can live half so well. ---pg - ----- From: Larry Sanger My story places Johnny in Anchorage, Alaska, a year or two after I had started playing fiddle. He was brought up, I think in mid-winter, for a solo concert I believe. He had the kindness to sit in with us in a session on 4th Ave. downtown--there are some surpisingly good musicians up there, but no one anywhere near his caliber. At one point, I tried to play his strathspey-ized version of "Paddy Fahy's Reel." Visibly annoyed (properly) by my inability to pull this off, he took off playing the Irish version at the proper speed. He gave me some prime fiddle playing advice about playing with a flexible wrist and playing strings of triplets (which of course he could do as effortlessly as anyone). There were dancers at this session, including a middle-aged Irish woman who insisted on dancing a polka with Johnny. He was reluctant, since she was alarmingly drunk, but she managed to get him out on the floor. Meanwhile, it was up to me to play polkas. That's how, after I had been playing for perhaps a year, I got to play polkas for Johnny Cunningham to dance to, which he did. Mercifully, it didn't last more than a few tunes. Johnny was a great sport throughout the abuse. Goodbye to a great musician. - ----- From: Fred Keller I received this from Bill Watkins, writer, poet (The Errant Apprentice is one of his best), and long time friend of Johnny's. Says Bill "pass it on - Johhny would like that." The Silent Fiddle He blazed across the heavens like a meteor Whilst we earth-bound mortals gazed in wonder. His flight on the swift wings of an ancient tune Now bears his soul to the great hall of his forebears. Majestic is the legacy of this man of mischievous might Fierce his renown - a champion never bested. I knew him when he was but a child And watched that child become a man Yet in that man a child remain. To play, to play, always to play. A bow seldom still. Those who loved him are legion, enjoined for now in one distress Reaching across the globe, lover to lover, friend to friend. Time is now for the fiddle to lie silent The raised glass and merry jibe will come soon enough. Many tongues shall sing the lament - the song of passing The flowers of the forest are a' weed away. And we shall tell stories of how he lived, laughed and loved And he shall live on, forever the impish youth in the warmth of our imaginings. Those who seed the earth with such splendor can never die. It's always springtime somewhere. Take your ease, Johnny - have one on me. Lessened we are for your passing, but ennobled we remain Able to smile and say, "You were my friend." le gra Seanmn - ----- From: Jack Gilder Fred Keller wrote: > I received this from Bill Watkins, writer, poet (The Errant >Apprentice is one of his best), and long time friend of Johnny's. >Says Bill "pass it on - Johhny would like that." Thanks for posting "The Silent Fiddle" Fred, this is a great tribute. I had the pleasure of being the sound man at Johnny's final appearance here in San Francisco. At the end he invited Michael and Shay Black up to sing "Ol Lang Syne" and I was amazed at how lovely and rich the harmonies sounded with Johnny, Aiden, Susan and the Black brothers all singing together. I don't think I've ever heard that song sound as lovely and with so much depth before. Now, sadly, it seems like it was Johnny's way of saying farewell. - ----- Michael - -- XS2Mail: Check your mail anywhere http://www.xs2mail.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 15:21:43 -0600 From: "Xenu's Sister" Subject: One From The Heart! (Re: great movie news At 10:41 PM 12/15/2003 -0800, Michael Pearce wrote: >One of my all-time favorite movies, One From The Heart, has finally broken >free from the clutches of the lawyers and will be back in release, with a >DVD coming out in late January. > >I always include this on my list as the most romantic movie of the '80s, >if not all time. Soundtrack by Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle, proving the >most unlikely pairing conceivable can still work. > >More info here: http://www.onefromtheheartmovie.com/ I read this and I thought, oh, I must have multiple personality disorder and posted this during a blackout. But then, wait, I've been gone, off staying with Chris at a hotel and seeing Trilogy Tuesday yesterday, and I think I can account for all my actions. SOMEONE ***ELSE*** COUNTS ONE FROM THE HEART AS AN ALL-TIME FAVORITE FILM???? ON **ECTO**????? What the freak are the odds? Talk about bizarre and wonderful! Needless to say, I agree with everything. Chris and I have loved this film since the mid-80's when we first saw it on video. We bought the video (I think it cost $80.00) and have worn it out too. We're counting down the days when it will be re-released to the theater on January 2. We've never seen it in the theater (not surprising since it was only in the theaters for literally a week and a half). The web page above shows dates it will be at various theaters around the country. It doesn't open the same date everywhere. Michael, you are so cool! Vickie ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 16:02:05 -0800 (PST) From: Craig Gidney Subject: Heather Duby, "Come Across The River." The new Heather Duby is wonderfully intricate and catchy. I hear Daughter Darling, (good) Sarah MC, Siberry bits of 4AD. Pop, with an arty edge. Her voice is mixed up front, and it's huskier and fuller bodied than on her debut. I heartily recommend it. http://www.heatherduby.org __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard http://antispam.yahoo.com/whatsnewfree ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 16:54:25 -0800 From: Neile Graham Subject: SF Penelope Houston show and news For those interested. - --Neile >Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 14:30:17 -0700 >From: "P. Houston" >Reply-To: phous@earthlink.net >To: penelope >Subject: (FWD) Holly day show and news > >Hi Folks, > >Pat Johnson and I are doing a post X-mas show on >Sunday Dec 28th @ 10:pm >The Make Out Room in San Francisco. >3225 22nd Street btwn Mission and Valencia >(415) 647-2888 >Playing in the middle of Steve Yerkey and Dandeline. >21 and over. >It's a cozy/hip bar with a nice sound so please come by. > >Thanks to all those who ordered the new avengers stuff: >http://www.penelope.net/avitems.html > >and new Penelope stuff: >http://www.penelope.net/allcds.html > >NOTE: Any orders made between Dec 17th and Dec 28th will be mailed on >Dec 29th. > >Have a wonderful holiday season! >Penelope > >PS To be deleted from this list reply with Please remove in subject >line. - -- - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Neile Graham .... neile@sff.net/@drizzle.com ... www.sff.net/people/neile Les Semaines: A Weekly Journal ........ www.sff.net/people/neile/semaines Editor, The Ectophiles' Guide to Good Music ........... www.ectoguide.org Workshop Administrator, Clarion West ................ www.clarionwest.org ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V9 #355 **************************