From: les@jmdl.com (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V4 #570 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: les@jmdl.com Errors-To: les@jmdl.com Precedence: bulk JMDL Digest Tuesday, December 21 1999 Volume 04 : Number 570 The Official Joni Mitchell Homepage is maintained by Wally Breese at http://www.jonimitchell.com and contains the latest news, a detailed bio, original interviews and essays, lyrics, and much more. ------- The JMDL website can be found at http://www.jmdl.com and contains interviews, articles, the member gallery, archives, and much more. ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- I Just Wanna Wish . . . . . ["Peter Holmstedt" ] Re: Top Five Releases of 1999 (unfortunately, NJC) [Rob Jordan ] Best of the Year (NJC; long) [Bounced Message ] Top Five and Christmas (NJC - and quite long) [AzeemAK@aol.com] Re: Best of the Year (NJC; long) [catman ] JMDL meeting! NJC [Emily Kirk Gray ] Bergman's Nordic Blues (NJC) [Emily Kirk Gray ] RE: Bergman's Nordic Blues (NJC) ["Wally Kairuz" ] RE: They're Cutting Down Trees Recipe (NJC) (MD) ["Wally Kairuz" ] Re: DJRD cont. - NJC ["Helen M. Adcock" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 21:17:43 +0100 From: "Peter Holmstedt" Subject: I Just Wanna Wish . . . . . ..... everybody a very, merry christmas and an even more happier new year! ! ! Take care, Peter ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 16:27:33 EST From: FMYFL@aol.com Subject: Re: Good News! Joni interview on KCSN 88.5 FM tomorrow Kakki writes: << As a holiday gift to the list from Ken Corral and me, I've arranged for a professional audio "clipping" service to record Joni's KCSN interview tomorrow. >> What a wonderful gift to the list Kakki and Ken. Thank You for all of your hard work and persistance on getting a copy of this interview, especially when you're so busy. You're the GREATEST!!! Jimmy np : Steve Polifka "Cobalt Blue" ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Dec 99 8:08:00 AM From: john low Subject: Re: Seasonal Films & Happy Christmas Jmdlers!! Jimmy wrote: >What a beautiful post John. That's one that you >could have posted 114 times like you did >with "Meeting with Ashara in Sydney" . I still >remember all those emails. LOL Gosh, I'd almost forgotten that. Thanks for reminding me, Jimmy! :-) Looking on the bright side, Australia has had a great year of international sporting success so I guess I can add my spamming 'achievement' to that. Somehow, though, I don't think I'm going to get an official ticker tape reception like our cricketers and rugby players!! Thanks, too, for your good wishes, Jimmy. John (in Sydney). __________________________________________________________________ Get your free Australian email account at http://www.start.com.au/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 17:41:20 -0500 (EST) From: David Wright Subject: Best of the Year (NJC; long) I'm looking forward to everyone else's lists. I've bought/heard almost no new releases this year, unfortunately. Here are a few worth mentioning (with commentary): Moby, _Play_ Less pristine than Moby's earlier _Everything is Wrong_ (which I also love) -- more messy and human. Only one of the sampled-field-recording tracks really works, but that one ("Run On") is just wonderful. The first half of the album has some great songs (like "South Side"); the second half gets into and sustains this odd mood of quiet, restrained, creeping, almost weightless sadness. Lal Waterson and Oliver Knight, _Bed of Roses_ For more on which see "Once in a Blue Moon" below. My best new discoveries/rereleases of the year: Lal Waterson and Oliver Knight, _Once in a Blue Moon_ The best album of the decade, in my opinion (it's about time to make *that* list too, isn't it?). I've never heard anything like it. Oliver is Lal's son, a guitarist; Lal was a folk singer (with the harmony group The Watersons) and songwriter -- I think she's as good a writer as Joni (June Tabor sings an earlier song by Lal and her brother Mike called "Scarecrow" which I truly think is just about the greatest song ever written), though they're very different. She uses language in an unusual way. Her songs are plain-spoken, bare, haunting, almost like prophesies or dark visions (she has some of the same painterly approach to songwriting as Joni, I think), above all intensely personal, and they work on many different levels (the use of language, and of simple yet unusual song structures, on a purely technical/craftsmanship level, for instance). Her plain but commanding singing and Oliver's music are also key elements. Thanks again to Rob Jordan for taping it for me, BTW! _Bed of Roses_ was not quite finished when Lal died last year. It has several songs (many dealing in different ways with love and home and family) at least as good as _Blue Moon_'s, though -- including a demo (?) of a beautiful, mystical song about music, with a gorgeous, severe melody, with Lal accompanying herself on what sounds like a slightly rickety old upright piano, called "At First She Starts." The English Beat, _Wha'ppen?_ What a great band. All of their old albums were reissued on CD this fall, at long last. _Wha'ppen?_ (their second album, from 1981) is a surprise. It has passionate, complex lyrics about both personal and social concerns (The Beat were outspoken anti-Thatcher critics) -- it's comparable in nature to _The Hissing of Summer Lawns_ (plus a little bit of DED). And great music (their rhythm section is kick-ass)! Flora MacNeil, _Craobh nan Ubhal_ A great singer from the island of Barra, Scotland. This is a collection of songs from the oral tradition, including some of the great bardic poems, all in Gaelic, mostly a cappella (in the ornamented Gaelic style). It's very soothing -- she has a beautiful, regal, pure voice, somewhat like Sandy Denny's -- but the striking melodies (some of them very complex) and the expressivity of her singing is very emotionally powerful as well. (It's beautiful just to listen to the language even if you don't speak it.) Terrific liner notes with song translations. My three favorite movies of the year: "American Beauty," "The Blair Witch Project," "Go" (Two disappointing movies, IMO: "The Sixth Sense" -- the most un-scary movie ever and I saw the ending coming a mile away -- and "Election") Happiest live music events of the year: "Being Not Nothing" (an original opera/theater piece by several of my friends here at Oberlin) and singing at the Midwest Sacred Harp Convention in Chicago! - --David ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 22:03:50 +0000 From: Rob Jordan Subject: Re: Top Five Releases of 1999 (unfortunately, NJC) At 04:15 PM 12/19/99 -0700, Les Irvin wrote: >It's time. IMHO, the Top Five Releases of 1999: These are the ones which took my fancy: 1. Macy Gray - On How Life Is 2. Buena Vista Social Club presents Ibrahim Ferrer 3. XTC - Apple Venus Vol 1 4. Flook - Flatfish 5. Van Morrison - How Long Is A Piece of String (bootleg) In the "always running behind the time" dept... some older things I finally caught up with this year: Jane Siberry / Maria; Virginia Rodrigues / Sol Negro; Eva Cassidy Happy festive season to all on the list Rob ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 23:10:18 +0000 From: Rob Jordan Subject: Wayfaring Stranger Isn't it just called 'Wayfaring Stranger'. That's the way Tim Buckley titles it on the great live album Dream Letter. I remember from previous discussion on the list, that Joan Baez also recorded it. Often, these traditional stanzas turn up in a variety of songs under different titles, though. I guess there's no *right* answer. Rob >Catherine McKay wrote: > >> David asks: >> >Isn't the very first line, "I am a poor wayfaring stranger," out of >some >> >old folk ballad too? >> >> Yes it is, and it has been driving me nuts for ages trying to remember what >> song it is! >> >> Catherine (in Toronto) >> cateri@hotmail.com >> ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 15:53:44 -0700 From: Bounced Message Subject: Best of the Year (NJC; long) Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 17:41:20 -0500 (EST) From: David Wright I'm looking forward to everyone else's lists. I've bought/heard almost no new releases this year, unfortunately. Here are a few worth mentioning (with commentary): Moby, _Play_ Less pristine than Moby's earlier _Everything is Wrong_ (which I also love) -- more messy and human. Only one of the sampled-field-recording tracks really works, but that one ("Run On") is just wonderful. The first half of the album has some great songs (like "South Side"); the second half gets into and sustains this odd mood of quiet, restrained, creeping, almost weightless sadness. Lal Waterson and Oliver Knight, _Bed of Roses_ For more on which see "Once in a Blue Moon" below. My best new discoveries/rereleases of the year: Lal Waterson and Oliver Knight, _Once in a Blue Moon_ The best album of the decade, in my opinion (it's about time to make *that* list too, isn't it?). I've never heard anything like it. Oliver is Lal's son, a guitarist; Lal was a folk singer (with the harmony group The Watersons) and songwriter -- I think she's as good a writer as Joni (June Tabor sings an earlier song by Lal and her brother Mike called "Scarecrow" which I truly think is just about the greatest song ever written), though they're very different. She uses language in an unusual way. Her songs are plain-spoken, bare, haunting, almost like prophesies or dark visions (she has some of the same painterly approach to songwriting as Joni, I think), above all intensely personal, and they work on many different levels (the use of language, and of simple yet unusual song structures, on a purely technical/craftsmanship level, for instance). Her plain but commanding singing and Oliver's music are also key elements. Thanks again to Rob Jordan for taping it for me, BTW! _Bed of Roses_ was not quite finished when Lal died last year. It has several songs (many dealing in different ways with love and home and family) at least as good as _Blue Moon_'s, though -- including a demo (?) of a beautiful, mystical song about music, with a gorgeous, severe melody, with Lal accompanying herself on what sounds like a slightly rickety old upright piano, called "At First She Starts." The English Beat, _Wha'ppen?_ What a great band. All of their old albums were reissued on CD this fall, at long last. _Wha'ppen?_ (their second album, from 1981) is a surprise. It has passionate, complex lyrics about both personal and social concerns (The Beat were outspoken anti-Thatcher critics) -- it's comparable in nature to _The Hissing of Summer Lawns_ (plus a little bit of DED). And great music (their rhythm section is kick-ass)! Flora MacNeil, _Craobh nan Ubhal_ A great singer from the island of Barra, Scotland. This is a collection of songs from the oral tradition, including some of the great bardic poems, all in Gaelic, mostly a cappella (in the ornamented Gaelic style). It's very soothing -- she has a beautiful, regal, pure voice, somewhat like Sandy Denny's -- but the striking melodies (some of them very complex) and the expressivity of her singing is very emotionally powerful as well. (It's beautiful just to listen to the language even if you don't speak it.) Terrific liner notes with song translations. My three favorite movies of the year: "American Beauty," "The Blair Witch Project," "Go" (Two disappointing movies, IMO: "The Sixth Sense" -- the most un-scary movie ever and I saw the ending coming a mile away -- and "Election") Happiest live music events of the year: "Being Not Nothing" (an original opera/theater piece by several of my friends here at Oberlin) and singing at the Midwest Sacred Harp Convention in Chicago! - --David ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 18:38:51 EST From: AzeemAK@aol.com Subject: Top Five and Christmas (NJC - and quite long) I reckon it's been a pretty thin year for new albums. Last year it was a real struggle to narrow it down to 5, this year it's a job just to think of 5 good ones. Still, here they are: Macy Gray On How Life Is Mock Tudor - Richard Thompson My Beautiful Demon - Ben Christophers Central Reservation - Beth Orton Supergrass - Supergrass Best singles: Stolen Car - Beth Orton Moving - Supergrass I've probably left out something really important, but I don't suppose they'll lose much sleep... I thought I'd share my Xmas plans with you good people too. On Christmas Eve I'm going to stay - for 10 days - in a small hotel in a fishing village in Cornwall (right down on the south west tip of England) called Polperro. I decided I wanted to get away from it all, "it all" being London (no matter how much I love it, it can get a bit much), Christmas Hype (I'm not at all religious, so from that point of view it's not a significant time of year) and Millennium Madness (nuff said). Initially I was going to go abroad, but after I thought about it for a while and sized up the options, I decided Cornwall was the place to go. It's a beautiful county, quite sparsely populated, with spectacular coastlines and countryside. I also decided to go alone; well, what I mean is I wouldn't have had anyone to go with anyway, but I decided I wanted to BE on my own over Xmas and New Year, and really have a chance to reflect and chill out. I could have stayed with my mother and aunt for Christmas and gone to a friend's NY's Eve party, but decided to do something different. I can't wait! I won't be completely abandoning the trappings of modern life: I'll take my laptop with me, so I'll be able to access the Net. I'll probably unsubscribe from the list for the duration, although I'd be delighted to receive email from anyone who wants to get in touch. I'll also take my guitar with me, hoping I'll get in a bit of practice so that I can bring my rudimentary strumming to as-good-as-it-gets level, so that I can, perhaps, play a song or two at the Jonibash in London on the 4th January. Well, it's below freezing and late, so I'll send this and bid you all good night and spare a thought for the people of Venezuela. Much Joni Azeem ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:14:22 +0000 From: catman Subject: Re: Best of the Year (NJC; long) > > > (Two disappointing movies, IMO: "The Sixth Sense" -- the most un-scary > movie ever and I saw the ending coming a mile away I loved it and it didn't occur to me that it was meant to be scary. Maybe I am dim but I didn't see the ending coming tho i did ponder on certain things in the movie which were obvious in hindsight. I have a good knowledge of mediumship and stuff so i guess we appraoched the film from different angles. I didn't go expecting to be scared. As an aside, i am glad Mr willis is playing different roles now. this is the second film I have seen him in where his gentle caring side is on show, instead of the macho crap. Oh and I also have a Moby cd-double everything is wrong. I play it in the car so i can blast it! > -- and "Election") > > Happiest live music events of the year: "Being Not Nothing" (an original > opera/theater piece by several of my friends here at Oberlin) and singing > at the Midwest Sacred Harp Convention in Chicago! > > --David - -- "It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 19:16:10 -0500 (EST) From: Emily Kirk Gray Subject: JMDL meeting! NJC hi everyone this sunday i saw/heard david lahm play some amazing music! through a lucky coincidence i had plans to take a friend out for a birthday brunch, and just then heard from david where he plays "jazz brunch" -- a wonderful spot in NYC's great chelsea district (a very arts-friendly, warm place with great restaurants) called judy's chelsea. so after a nice long brunch (yummy omelets) with close friends, i met and chatted with david, both of our (right, david?) first JMDL-in-person-meetings. fun! it was so good to hear him play -- i'm kind of clueless when it comes to jazz, but david played wonderful, warm piano and had a bassist accompany him. it was also nice to listen to good live jazz in the daytime -- seems like i mostly hear it in a crowded club at night. but the lovely lazy sunday afternoon was a perfect setting to linger and hear such great songs. i overheard someone at the table behind us say, "good music they have at this place, huh?" and i heartily concur! anyway, thought i'd pass this on -- and encourage any NYC JMDL to check it out! (FYI, judy's is on eighth ave. between 18th and 19th streets.) - -- emily ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 19:36:25 -0500 (EST) From: Emily Kirk Gray Subject: Bergman's Nordic Blues (NJC) i saw "the seventh seal" for the first time last night, at this wonderful small art-film house in brooklyn called ocularis (right inside a bar called galapagos!). although it was hard to go in with no expectations after all the cultural build-up around this movie (the friend i saw it with said beforehand, "what i can't get out of my head is the grim reaper from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" ha ha), it was very interesting for me to watch it. the only other bergman film i've seen is "wild strawberries" and i must admit i sort of snoozed through it. one thing i loved about "seventh seal" is all the literary allusions -- the Bible, Chaucer, Cervantes' "Don Quixote," the Hephaestus/Vulcan myth, even Shakespeare (the part with the actor who is "playing dead" right before the character Death [also of course an actor acting death] steps in to fell his tree seemed to me particularly shakespearean). i also loved the way max von sydow's face looked on screen: haunted, gaunt, ascetic. sometimes those ravaged, christ-like (or iconic christ anyway) faces are so intriguing on camera -- i'm thinking about john turturro or daniel day lewis also. does anyone else have a bergman thought to throw in? "talk to me"! (no just kidding -- i'm rambling and really what i'm doing is procrastinating getting started on grading the ENORMOUS stack of papers i've been delaying...) - -- emily ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 23:19:17 -0300 From: "Wally Kairuz" Subject: RE: Bergman's Nordic Blues (NJC) emily! like many argentines -- whose national disease is melancholy -- i'm a fierce bergman freak!!! the seventh seal, cries and whispers, journey into autumn, the silence...what masterworks! i can never get enough bergman. i own copies of most of his movies, and of some, extra copies for when the tapes are worn beyond use. and if i didn't have a million papers to edit tonight, i would head straight into the bedroom, slam a tape in and watch bergman movies all night long! wallyk, big-time procrastinator too. > does anyone else have a bergman thought to throw in? > "talk to me"! (no just kidding -- i'm rambling and really > what i'm doing is procrastinating getting started on > grading the ENORMOUS stack of papers i've been delaying...) > > -- emily > > > ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 23:42:18 -0300 From: "Wally Kairuz" Subject: whassat? (NJC) LOL!!!! where was ruth from? i sometimes have a hard time understanding english speakers. two years ago, at barnes and noble i had to ask the woman that did the gift wrapping to repeat FIVE times what she was saying before i understood that she wanted to know whether i wanted a card. do canadians have trouble understanding americans and vice versa? i find it virtually impossible to understand australians. just before the last jonifest, i was staying at this very "festive" hotel in chelsea. after a...let's call it a brief encounter with two aussies, i asked their names. for maybe about a whole minute i believed that one of them was called "goy". i thought, what an extraordinary way to call one's child. maybe he had been adopted by an orthodox jewish family, and they called him goy to distinguish him from the rest of his siblings. it then dawned on me that his name was guy!!! wallyk > > Ruth was famous for her misinterpretation of the English language. > >One day, Ruth was overheard asking Ken > how his ejaculator was working. > ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 23:49:31 -0300 From: "Wally Kairuz" Subject: RE: They're Cutting Down Trees Recipe (NJC) (MD) pat advised >....a little fart could blow out your whole system! > when you were kids, did you ever borrow your daddy's lighter to ignite your farts? i know it sounds like an urban legend, but my friends and i used to do it at school and you could see the flame!!! wallyk ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 22:09:46 -0500 From: Deb Messling Subject: Paved Paradise Do any "insiders" know if John Kelly will be doing any more Paved Paradise shows in the near future? If necessary, I wil travel to DC, but if he's coming to NYC... Happy Solstice, y'all. Deb Messling messling@enter.net http://www.enter.net/~messling/ ~there are only three kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 20:58:26 +1300 From: "Helen M. Adcock" Subject: Re: DJRD cont. - NJC Jerry wrote: >Yes. Wayfaring Stranger, probably best recorded by both Emmy Lou Harris and by >Tim Buckley. I always felt her song was a modern take-off/interpretation od a >classic folk song. Dusty Springfield also sang this, I'm sure. I don't think she recorded it for an album, but I'm sure I remember seeing a clip of her singing it for her TV show. Helen NP: Santana, Supernatural - Love of My Life (with Dave Matthews) - I LOVE this album!_______________________________ "I don't believe in livin' in the middle with available extremes" - Carole King hell@ihug.co.nz ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V4 #570 ************************** The Song and Album Voting Booths are open! Cast your votes by clicking the links at http://www.jmdl.com/gallery username: jimdle password: siquomb ------- Don't forget about these ongoing projects: Glossary project: Send a blank message to for all the details. FAQ Project: Help compile the JMDL FAQ. Do you have mailing list-related questions? -send them to Trivia Project: Send your Joni trivia questions and/or answers to Today in History Project: Know of a date-specific Joni fact? - -send it to ------- Post messages to the list at Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe joni-digest" to ------- Siquomb, isn't she?