From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V13 #430 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Thursday, March 20 2008 Volume 13 : Number 430 To unsubscribe: e-mail ecto-digest-request@smoe.org and put the word unsubscribe in the message body. Today's Subjects: ----------------- Today's your birthday, friends... [Mike Matthews ] When a happy song isn't ["Alexander Johannesen" ] Re: When a happy song isn't [John Higdon ] Re: When a happy song isn't [Nadyne Mielke ] Re: When a happy song isn't ["Alexander Johannesen" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 03:00:03 -0400 (EDT) From: Mike Matthews Subject: Today's your birthday, friends... i*i*i*i*i*i i*i*i*i*i*i *************** *****HAPPY********* **************BIRTHDAY********* *************************************************** *************************************************************************** ********************** Barry Wong (no Email address) ********************** ******************* Graham Dombkins (no Email address) ******************** ********************** Ian Young (no Email address) *********************** ********************** Jeff Wasilko (jeffw@smoe.org) ********************** *************************************************************************** -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Barry Wong Thu March 19 1970 Merlin Graham Dombkins Fri March 19 1965 Pisces Ian Young Wed March 19 1969 Squiggol Jeff Wasilko Wed March 19 1969 Pisces Geoff Carre Sat March 20 1954 Pisces John Stewart Sat March 21 1970 Aries Bob Brown Thu March 22 1951 Ham Valerie Nozick Thu March 25 1971 Aries Tom Proven Sat March 27 1971 Eat at Joe's Jennifer Albert Wed March 30 1966 Aries (w/Cancer rising!:) Warpaint Mon April 01 1991 Brilliant! Michael Pearce Wed April 03 1946 Pegasus Michael E. Bravo Mon April 05 1971 Dandelion Wine Brion McIntosh Sun April 06 1958 Aries Marcel Kshensky Thu April 06 1950 Aries Bill Mazur Mon April 06 1953 Aries Sun/Cancer Rising David Dixon Tue April 07 1970 Aries Heidi Heller Mon April 08 1974 Aries Jill Hughes Sat April 09 1955 Aries Klaus Kluge Sun April 10 1960 Unicorn Steve VanDevender Sun April 10 1966 Racer Art Liestman Fri April 10 1953 Repeat Stephen Golden Sat April 10 1971 Jokey Michael Bowman Wed April 11 1962 Aries Wolfgang Ullwer Fri April 11 1969 Widder Janet Kirsch Thu April 11 1974 Aries Kristen Scallion Fri April 12 1974 Aries Jerry Tue April 13 1971 Aries Stuart Myerburg Mon April 14 1969 Aries T-Bone Wed April 15 1992 happy cat Jeff Hanson Sat April 16 1966 Aries Michael Klouda Mon April 17 1967 Aries - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:01:57 +0100 From: "Alexander Johannesen" Subject: When a happy song isn't http://www.hereinmyhead.com/updates/?p=503 Anyone know what this means? 'Reviews and retrospectives: "Singing Ears with Feet: Casey Stratton" and "When a Happy Song Isn't: Happy Rhodes."' Alex - -- - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Project Wrangler, SOA, Information Alchemist, UX, RESTafarian, Topic Maps - ------------------------------------------ http://shelter.nu/blog/ -------- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:30:18 +0100 From: leon Subject: Re: When a happy song isn't Alexander Johannesen wrote: > http://www.hereinmyhead.com/updates/?p=503 > > Anyone know what this means? click through to http://www.little-blue-world.org/ When a Happy Song Isn't: reviewing the latest by Happy Rhodes. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:32:35 -0500 From: John Higdon Subject: Re: When a happy song isn't Alexander Johannesen wrote: > http://www.hereinmyhead.com/updates/?p=503 > > Anyone know what this means? > > 'Reviews and retrospectives: "Singing Ears with Feet: Casey Stratton" > and "When a Happy Song Isn't: Happy Rhodes."' > The latter refers to a review submitted to the Tori Amos fanzine "Little Blue World" for a regular music review column. Since the fanzine is devoted to Tori and many might not have heard of Happy, I felt that a description of Happy's background and past works was needed before launching into discussion of the latest album. The title stems from this early sentence in the review: "Yes, Happy is her namea cognomen she made legal at 16but the name belies the artists music." (The title isn't my best work, I admit.) In other words, a Happy song isn't necessarily (and seldom is) a happy song. I was hesitant to do this review, I admit. I'm not really wowed by the new album, have very mixed feelings about the songs. But I'd been wanting to do a Happy review since I took over the column, and here finally was my chance. And even if I dis the album some, I hope that what I say about Happy and her work in general and her past albums will inspire some new fans. As I conclude the review: "Overall, I dont think Find Me is Happys best work. But then, the standard her previous albums set is impossibly high." - -- John Higdon ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:43:36 -0700 From: Nadyne Mielke Subject: Re: When a happy song isn't On 3/19/08 11:01 AM, "Alexander Johannesen" wrote: > http://www.hereinmyhead.com/updates/?p=503 > Anyone know what this means? > 'Reviews and retrospectives: "Singing Ears with Feet: Casey Stratton" > and "When a Happy Song Isn't: Happy Rhodes."' That's the title of the review of Happy's latest, which appears in the upcoming issue of Little Blue World (a Tori fanzine): http://www.little-blue-world.org/ /nm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:31:08 +0100 From: "Alexander Johannesen" Subject: Re: When a happy song isn't On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 8:32 PM, John Higdon wrote: > As I conclude the review: "Overall, I don t think > Find Me is Happy s best work. But then, the standard her previous > albums set is impossibly high." Thanks all. I'm not a Tori fan (and only a slight Kate fan of a small portion of her work), so I don't really want to miss out of anything Happy. It's a weird thing, being a Happy fan, to absolutely love something coming from someone who nobody really knows anything about. BTW, I think I can put my finger on what's missing on Find Me; surprises. It's all as expected, really really good, but expected good. I was reminded of this the other day listening to "Nevermore" (Left-hand demos) when she all of a sudden burst into a weird cacophony of a chorus medley ending so so sweet, making me all ooo-eee-yeah, ooo-eee-yeah ... That! That little thing right there is what Find me should have a little more of. Ahem. Yes. Thanks for the clarification. Regards, Alex - -- - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Project Wrangler, SOA, Information Alchemist, UX, RESTafarian, Topic Maps - ------------------------------------------ http://shelter.nu/blog/ -------- ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:47:45 -0400 From: "robert bristow-johnson" Subject: Re: When a happy song isn't > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "John Higdon" > To: Ecto > Subject: Re: When a happy song isn't > Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:32:35 -0500 > ... > I was hesitant to do this review, I admit. John, thanks for the review. i'm looking forward to it. > I'm not really wowed by the new > album, have very mixed feelings about the songs. But I'd been wanting to do a > Happy review since I took over the column, and here finally was my chance. > And even if I dis the album some, I hope that what I say about Happy and her > work in general and her past albums will inspire some new fans. As I conclude > the review: "Overall, I don't think "Find Me" is Happy's best work. But then, > the standard her previous albums set is impossibly high." i think you have some company sharing the same assessment and for the same reasons: "the standard her previous albums set is impossibly high". i think the title song is one of Happy's deepest, and i also like She Won't Go as a kicky rock song (that my 10-year-old daughter also likes, and finding songs we both like is hard - another is Gnarls Barkley: "Crazy"). in the pre-release "Find Me sampler", i could say i liked *every* song (which i can't say about some/most of the previous albums, i literally press "skip" on some songs, and i won't say which those are). no song on the Find Me sampler gets the "skip" hit and even though the sampler was mixed/mastered a little hot (i can't tell exactly what "mastering" really is for CDs since there isn't the tradeoff of loudness vs. track width you get with vinyl), i liked some of the mixes better on the sampler than on the release CD. i thought also that the title of your review could allude to the sadness of some of the songs: the title song and Charlie and Chosen One. - -- r b-j rbj@audioimagination.com "Imagination is more important than knowledge." ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:17:49 -0500 From: John Higdon Subject: Re: When a happy song isn't Alexander Johannesen wrote: > BTW, I think I can put my finger on what's missing on Find Me; > surprises. It's all as expected, really really good, but expected > good. I was reminded of this the other day listening to "Nevermore" > (Left-hand demos) when she all of a sudden burst into a weird > cacophony of a chorus medley ending so so sweet, making me all > ooo-eee-yeah, ooo-eee-yeah ... That! That little thing right there is > what Find me should have a little more of. > With me it's less easily definable. What I'm missing from "Find Me" is some sort of connection, the type of emotional connection I had with her previous work. This connection is why I listen to Happy's music, and so to find it lacking was distressing. This further explains my hesitation to review the album. There was the concern that, maybe it's not Happy that's lacking here, but me. And there was the concern that I might be pigeonholing Happy, only able to appreciate her when she covers specific emotional territory, and nowhere beyond that. This started, actually, with MWABT. I find a few songs on that one, such as the title track, really very beautiful. But otherwise, I find the album a bit cold, and don't listen to it very much. MWABT seemed like more of an art project than the exploration of emotional depth that I was used to and loved, and so it never really clicked for me. With "Find Me", Happy stepped back from that brink into territories unknown, but...perhaps not as emotionally bare. And again, it feels unfair to me for me to expect her always to be a certain way. But I don't seem to connect with her songs so well when she isn't that way. - -- John Higdon ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V13 #430 ***************************