From: les@jmdl.com (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2001 #479 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: les@jmdl.com Errors-To: les@jmdl.com Precedence: bulk Unsubscribe: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe Archives: http://www.smoe.org/lists/joni Websites: http://www.jmdl.com http://www.jonimitchell.com JMDL Digest Saturday, October 13 2001 Volume 2001 : Number 479 The Official Joni Mitchell Homepage, created by Wally Breese, can be found at http://www.jonimitchell.com. It contains the latest news, a detailed bio, Original Interviews, essays, lyrics and much 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: -------- Re: Q Review of 'Shadows & Light' [Relayer211@aol.com] Thanks for support (njc) [BigWaltinSF@aol.com] Hot and Hard? (njc) [BigWaltinSF@aol.com] RE: Subject: heroism on UA flight 93 (njc) ["Kate Bennett" ] The Hue and Cry of Art (very long and njc) ["Kakki" ] Re: toboggan njc [Catherine McKay ] Re: les ross !!!!!!!!!!!!!! - NJC [Bruyere ] Re: dates and measurements (njc) [Catherine McKay ] RE: NJC - Scripture Posting Etc now njc [Catherine McKay ] Re: robert holliston!!!!!! NJC [Bruyere ] Re: desert island books [Bruyere ] Re: top ten movies on an island...NJC [Catherine McKay ] Re: Q Review of 'Shadows & Light' [Catherine McKay ] pop and soda jerks (njc) [Vince Lavieri ] Re: Please be thinking of Max the Wonder Dog (njc) [Vince Lavieri ] Cinema Paradiso ["Kate Bennett" ] NJC - speaking of bologna, are there any Boston Celtic fans ["Norma Meath] Re: Subject: heroism on UA flight 93 (njc) [Vince Lavieri ] Re: NJC - Scripture Posting Etc now njc [Vince Lavieri ] Rumi, God, grief [dsk ] Re: Desert Island Movies & Books - NJC ["Mark or Travis" ] Re: desert island books (njc) [dsk ] "Court And Spark" gold CD ["jlamadoo, home account" ] Re: Desert Island Movies - NJC ["Mark or Travis" ] Re: desert island books (njc) [Vince Lavieri ] The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, 100% Joni Content ["jlamadoo, home account" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 21:14:23 EDT From: Relayer211@aol.com Subject: Re: Q Review of 'Shadows & Light' when will the book be available in the U.S.??? I CAN'T WAIT TO READ IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 21:24:31 EDT From: BigWaltinSF@aol.com Subject: Thanks for support (njc) Thanks to Cindy, Bob, Mack... all of you who sent condolences and support re: Max (the Wonder Dog)'s departure. It means a lot. -- Walt ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 21:55:56 EDT From: BigWaltinSF@aol.com Subject: Hot and Hard? (njc) Hey, Colin, You listed "Hot and Hard" in your top ten movies; sounds like it might be up my alley (so...very...sorry, but i figured if the gals can joke about "Bound",...). Was that a shakespearean play -to -movie thingy, or what? :-) Walt p.s.: also, did anyone list Brazil in their top ten? And speaking of gay-themed movies, Prick Up Your Ears? I'm on digest, on my sis's computer, and having to race through. np: James Taylor, New Moon Shine ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 18:42:23 -0700 From: "Kate Bennett" Subject: RE: Subject: heroism on UA flight 93 (njc) colin wrote, "A man to today was saying this was an unfortunate side effect of what muuts be done. i wondered oif he would say that if it was his family or freind that was killed as an unfortunate side effect." yes, i heard someone in the government, maybe it was Rumsfeld (sp)or someone at a high level, say he did not apologize for killing innocents, that it was like colin said, unfortunate...(this is a paraphrase but close to the meaning of what was said) how hard is it to say, we are deeply sorry about killing innocent people?...this outrages me...this is what i mean by arrogance... ******************************************** Kate Bennett www.katebennett.com sponsored by Polysonics www.polysonics.com Discover the Indies at Taylor Guitars: http://www.taylorguitars.com/artists/awp/indies/bennett.html ******************************************** ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 22:12:01 -0400 From: "Deb Messling" Subject: RE: desert island movies (NJC) These aren't the movies I'd admit to liking in a film class, necessarily, but these are the ones that always draw me in when I'm channel-surfing. Monty Python and the Holy Grail -- funny. Norma Rae -- inspiring. The Shining -- don't care what anyone says, it's scary. Reds - a leftist's "Gone with the Wind" Desk Set - Best movie ever about librarians and computers Rear Window - love her clothes Goodfellas - like this better than The Godfather The Birds - Eeek! To Kill a Mockingbird - love Scout, love Atticus - ----------------------------------- Deb Messling =^..^= - ----------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 18:48:23 -0700 From: "Kakki" Subject: The Hue and Cry of Art (very long and njc) articleHere is the article from the L.A. Times yesterday. I'm sorry it is so long and this will probably spit out another digest for its length, but some may be interested in it. I have a feeling that maybe there was some kind of theme originally here which would have included Joni's paintings and then maybe they decided to just go with the people in the New York. I will still try to get information from the Times about Joni's paintings being printed. (Just heard on the news that the L.A. Times building has been evacuated for perhaps yet another Anthrax incident). Kakki THE HUE AND CRY OF ART By PAUL LIEBERMAN, TIMES STAFF WRITER NEW YORK -- The "Missing" fliers went up first, as desperate relatives brought photocopied head shots to hospitals and other places where they hoped to find loved ones alive. Within days, there was a "Wall of Prayers" outside Bellevue Hospital and a "Mural of Hope" outside the Lexington Avenue armory, each with hundreds of photos of World Trade Center workers in wedding tuxedos, or graduation gowns, or by the swimming pool. Then others set candles and flowers by the fliers, creating shrines at the hospitals or in parks, one of the largest around a statue of George Washington, on horseback, in Union Square. Handmade posters were next, usually showing hearts or flags or with "God Bless America"-type messages. But some brought rolls of white paper so anyone could express themselves, and one became a mural of the Statue of Liberty sagging to support a fallen man. By the first weekend, crowds were lining up to file past the displays. On the first day back at school, children were given crayons and construction paper. A Brooklyn fourth-grader drew the twin towers turning into monsters while a classmate drew a beautiful blue sky, with the sun crying. Separate groups of architects and artists proposed re-creating the towers with projected lights. Others called for preserving the standing ruins of the walls, a haunting silhouette. Commercial art made its appearance, as fast as the silk screeners could work. Vendors asked $34 for T-shirts showing Osama bin Laden as a target in the crosshairs, "wanted, dead or alive." The events of Sept. 11 were an overwhelmingly visual experience that demanded, for many, a visual response. There also were words to remember, of course, as in the calls from passengers on the doomed jetliners, like the "Let's roll!" of Todd Beamer, over Pennsylvania, as he and others apparently headed off to confront their hijackers. Certain poetry had resonance, as well, such as "September 1, 1939," in which W.H. Auden observed "the lamentable odour of death." The memorable words, however, seemed fewer than the memorable images. That was one reason New York's legion of professional artists was reluctant to offer its own images of what happened--or so they said. How could any painting match what the world had seen on CNN? Most artists insisted they would need time to distill what they did not need TVs to witness, having seen the towers crumble from outside their homes and studios in lower Manhattan. The experience would have only an oblique impact, if any. "We were out in the street looking and saw this incredible fireball. I don't know if any artist will be able to cope with that," said Leon Golub, 79, who has never shied away from the underside of human nature, painting scenes of political interrogation and torture. "The art world is a pretty introspective place. It rarely has a direct response to events like this," Golub said. "How this will come out in time, it's hard to say. But I don't think either of us will take this on in a direct way." Yet even as he spoke, the other half of the "us"--his wife, artist Nancy Spero--was defying his prediction. On her side of their Greenwich Village studio, Spero, 75, was finishing two collage paintings that came out "like a really wild, angry explosion." Although Spero, like her husband, has often portrayed brutality--in her case to women--she was celebratory in a recent work, creating a colorful mural for the subway station below Lincoln Center, showing archetypal dancers and acrobats and an angelic diva raising her arms. As with many of her pieces, it was horizontal, unfolding like an ancient scroll. Her works, after Sept. 11, were vertical and "kind of insane," she noted, with splattered purple paint. One has several contorted figures, tumbling. The other is topped with a cloud made of tiny, tormented heads. "I just did it," Spero said and shrugged. "Analyzing--that's not my job. My job is to make art, whether anybody wants it or not." Others also have found their work taking unexpected turns. Painter Jane Dixon, who lives in TriBeCa, 10 blocks from the trade center destruction, is known for her portrayals of urban realism, such as Times Square prostitutes. But she did not turn her camera to the rubble--she left that to the journalists. Dixon decided it was time to pull out photos she had been taking since 1996, at airports. "I take photos sometimes for years of subjects I don't know what I'm going to do with," she said. These began when she dropped her kids at Newark International Airport on the day TWA Flight 800 crashed off Long Island. "There was this horrible feeling. I just took pictures of people waiting for the bus, doing nothing," she recalled. Another time, she focused on limo drivers "with the little signs, waiting in the baggage area, all these things that seem inconsequential. But now when I look at those.... " After the Sept. 11 hijackings, she sees a favorite theme, the menace of the mundane. "The total ordinariness of people collecting their baggage suddenly has another dimension. For a lot of people, this is the last thing they did," says Dixon, who has begun making drawings from the photos, the first step toward turning out full paintings. Like many colleagues, she is working in a "semi-dazed" state. She had to look after her son, who goes to Stuyvesant High, formerly in the shadow of the towers. She has helped friends driven from their soot-filled apartments. She worries about the economy and "Who is going to buy a painting?" One artist was killed. Michael Richards, a Jamaican-born sculptor, had worked late and slept in his studio on the 92nd floor of the North Tower, facing the Statue of Liberty. His remains were identified Sept. 17. Fourteen others lost studios in the tower as well, part of a "World Views" residency program sponsored by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, which lost its offices. Another sculptor, James Croak, an expert on cutting tools, assisted the rescue crews while Richards was still listed among the missing. Croak had a show scheduled to open Thursday at the Stux Gallery in Chelsea, and knew he'd have to add "something" to the planned works. He considered writing on a wall, in Arabic, "Does this make you nervous?" then decided on a less edgy message, "Sept. 10, 2001." He sees that as "the obscure object of desire, what everyone wishes--to have the world back as it was." The show will still feature a "Dirt Man," one of his life-size figures made of cast dirt. Croak believes audiences will have a different view of such works now. "I've been doing after-the-bomb art for 15 years," he says. Many other artists already were tackling life-and-death themes that could be seen in a different light. Kiki Smith, in the East Village, had recently begun painting weeping willows, inspired by their use in early American grave drawings. After Sept. 11, she was tempted to view her work "as a premonition," but resisted playing that game, or embracing any notion of topicality, which depends on viewers' being "in the know." "You're making things within time, and people are reading things within time," Smith said. "But I think that art has its mysterious process and it's very rarely linear. It's also something I don't have control over." Gwynne Duncan, a 32-year-old Brooklyn artist, did change her work. Duncan was not finished with two lush paintings, one titled "Empress," showing a saintly woman in repose, "dreaming of a better world." Before the attack, her eyes were open. "After, I felt the need to close them," Duncan said. "It took over a week for me to return to those paintings. I wanted to do something new but felt frozen, and obligated to finish what I started. I wanted them as peaceful and calm as possible after what happened." Her new works will be on display Saturday, in a show that may be the most direct attempt to tie art to the events of a month earlier. A group of artists and performers had already been planning a three-week event in the East Village to help save a crumbling building, CUANDO, the Cultural Understanding and Neighborhood Development Organization. Built in the '20s as a Methodist missionary training school, the structure at 9 Second Ave. had fallen into disrepair, and an eviction notice pending. A builder was poised to put housing and shops on the site. Before Sept. 11, it was merely another local development battle, with the artists trying to stop "gentrification." But after Sept. 11, the effort became a metaphor. The artists renamed their show "From the Ashes," with fliers promising "Artist reflections on the recent tragedies.... In the midst of destruction and chaos, art stands witness to the creative soul." Some of the art is still in the works. Jackson Krall is transforming a trashed baby grand piano, putting bells on its sound board, "a rebirth," he promises. William T. Meyer III, who calls his art "visual ecology," is planning to dig a hole in a community garden and bring the plant matter inside, so there's "a space with emptiness and a space with hope." Mark Koval is exhibiting two abstract paintings made before Sept. 11, "Some Distress" and "Chase the Malcontent," which he now sees as prescient, and not merely because of the titles. One has rod-like shapes in it, he noted, "and when I turned it upside down, it's like a weird visual obliteration." "My sister is working for the Red Cross. This is what I can do," he said of the show. Not surprisingly, given the bohemian traditions of the Lower East Side, some are uneasy with the patriotic fervor seen everywhere these days. Trisha Cluck, who was in Orange County, Calif., at the time of the attacks, said she may display photos she took Sept. 10 of a little girl running with her arms out like wings, "playing airplane," by her family's front-door flag. "It's my response to the happy, flag-waving suburbanites," Cluck says. But just like the flag-waving groups, the artists will be raising funds for the cause. It may not be the big-dollar "Art for America" benefit planned by Sotheby's and other auction houses for November, but they will have a "portrait marathon," in which artists will sketch spectators in exchange for donations for the Sept. 11 victims. And here too, there's debate over what's appropriate. Duncan, the painter who closed the eyes of her dreaming "Empress," had the debate with her own father. A sculptor, he considered exhibiting photos also--of the exploding towers. Duncan, a curator of "From the Ashes," turned him down. "I told him, 'People don't want to see that,"' she said. "He said, 'Really? I can't get enough of it."' The East Village show is being assembled as many of the street displays are vanishing. Rains have taken a toll on the "Missing" fliers and flag posters around the city. Parks officials said they removed displays in Washington Square for safekeeping, perhaps for showing in the future. At Union Square, workers scrubbed the base of George Washington's statue, obliterating a peace sign. But the "Have You Seen My Daddy?" fliers can still be found, carrying a power hard for any art to match. The "Wall of Prayers" in front of Bellevue was protected by plastic. Visitors continue to study the photos and messages that relatives assembled in minutes: Rocco Medaglia, 49, shown in lime green swim trunks, seemingly proud of his barrel chest and python tattoo; Lindsay Herkness, a vice president of Morgan Stanley, in a Christmas card showing him next to a four-legged creature during a trip to Switzerland, with his own caption, "The bulls are tiring"; and Deanna Micciulli, seen only in a small snapshot because a cousin used most of the space to say she was last heard from on the 106th floor, "saying that there was smoke and flames all around and that she was waiting for someone to rescue her." It's far more a memorial than a gallery, and the spectators absorb it in silence, and then walk away past the street version of a gift shop, a vendor selling tiny American flags. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 22:38:42 -0400 (EDT) From: Catherine McKay Subject: RE: dates and measurements (sjc) - --- Wally Kairuz wrote: > well, this is getting more and more interesting [at > least for me]. > so who says pop, who says soft drink, who says soda > among you? i swear i am > serious. > wallyK > > I say pop. I always thought pop was what Canadians said, and soda was what Americans said. I realize from the answers I'm seeing here that it's not your nationality, but maybe the region you live in, that affects what you say. When I was about 12, my family moved from Pembroke, a small town about 100 miles north of Ottawa, to the Toronto area. For some reason, the kids in the school I went to (in what is now Mississauga,just west of Toronto) used the word "rubber" for what I called an eraser. I thought that was really weird (and gross). One thing I can never understand is when some Americans, when they tell you the time, will say, "It's a quarter of twelve." I never could understand whether that meant a quarter to, or a quarter after! As far as "cold cuts" are concerned, I had no idea there were so many different ways of referring to the stuff! Joni herself has used it in a couple of songs - -Winn-Dixie coldcuts in "Refuge of the Roads"; "We've got coldcuts from the fridge" in Cherokee Louise. i guess Joni's not a vegetarian. Get your free @yahoo.ca address at http://mail.yahoo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 22:40:38 -0400 (EDT) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: toboggan njc - --- Dolphie Bush wrote: > wally, you have made me think of this. we have > always, in the texas panhandle > where i grew up and now, here in central texas, > called the knit caps we wear > in winter toboggans. That is totally weird! In Canada, we call them "tuques" (which usually comes out sounding more like "chooks" the way some people speak. Get your free @yahoo.ca address at http://mail.yahoo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 22:43:09 -0400 From: Bruyere Subject: Re: les ross !!!!!!!!!!!!!! - NJC A belated happy birthday Mr. Ross! Hope it was a good one! Heather At 03:20 AM 10/9/01 -0300, Wally Kairuz wrote: >late as usual! happy birthday [october 8... oops] les ross!!!!!!! >love you, >wally ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 22:44:54 -0400 (EDT) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: dates and measurements (njc) - --- jan wrote: > So who would win in a fight betwixt 'Gram' Parsons, > Sharon 'Stone' and Ezra > 'Pound'? > -jan Jan, I truly admire the way you can express something very funny so concisely and precisely. Get your free @yahoo.ca address at http://mail.yahoo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 22:47:40 -0400 (EDT) From: Catherine McKay Subject: RE: NJC - Scripture Posting Etc now njc - --- Wally Kairuz wrote: > ron, > really, i'm not trying to be smart or anything but > the bible also says that > it is wrong to wear clothes that are made from three > different fabrics, Does this mean TWO different fabrics are OK? Sorry, I couldn't resist. Get your free @yahoo.ca address at http://mail.yahoo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 22:48:31 EDT From: Murphycopy@aol.com Subject: Re: dates and measurements (njc) In a message dated 10/12/01 9:46:15 PM, jan wrote: > So who would win in a fight betwixt 'Gram' Parsons, Sharon 'Stone' and Ezra 'Pound'? >> Hedwig? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 19:11:46 -0700 From: "Kakki" Subject: Re: Killing of innocents (njc) Around 7, 000 innocent people were killed without warning and without any justification on Sept. 11th. Due to one plane being brought down and perhaps more that were grounded, the planned murder of other innocent lives that day was thwarted. Innocent people are now contracting and being exposed to Anthrax in the U.S. daily. I certainly and sincerely don't want any innocent Afghanis to be killed but consider this - the U.S. gave them almost a month of warning. Did the people ruling that country do anything to shelter or protect the innocent people? They had no idea of what was going on in the world because they are forbidden to have TVs or read news. There is an American reporter in Afghanistan who just yesterday reported that he'd shown the Northern Alliance photos of what was done in New York and they were stunned - they had no idea. Here is a link if you are interested regarding a report from the U.N. as to what the Taliban of have been systematically doing to the innocent people of Afghanistan. I don't think there is a moral equivalency here with the U.S. at all. http://www.newsday.com/ny-wartali12.story Kakki ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 22:54:32 -0400 From: Bruyere Subject: Re: robert holliston!!!!!! NJC A belated happy birthday to my sweet pal Roberto! Luv ya kiddo! Heather At 12:45 AM 10/11/01 -0300, Wally Kairuz wrote: >happy birthday, teeno! >your very own wallykins ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 22:58:57 -0400 From: Bruyere Subject: Re: desert island books >A Giacometti Portrait by James Lord. Absolutely the best books I've ever >read on the creative process. An absolute must read for anyone interested >in the mysteries of the arts! This is a good one Jack. Heather ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 23:01:04 -0400 (EDT) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: top ten movies on an island...NJC - --- Steve Polifka wrote: > > 7. The Fifth Element. It is too funny, love Bruce > Willis, the soundtrack > rocks, and of course, it is sci-fi. > I love that film too - for the life of me, I'm not sure what it is exactly about it - it's just so nutty! To be honest, I don't care for Bruce Willis all that much - he always seems to be smirking. And yet, I love so many of the films he has been in. Go figure! I think he's great at comedy, or maybe it's just really good casting. I liked "The 12 Monkeys" or "The 12th Monkey" (whatever) too. Get your free @yahoo.ca address at http://mail.yahoo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 23:02:36 -0400 (EDT) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: dates and measurements (njc) - --- Norma Meatheringham wrote: > There will be a new soft drink on the market soon > that will > contain Viagra. > > They're gonna call it "Mount 'N Do." > > > > A bear walks into a bar and says, "I'll have a > gin----------------and tonic." > > The bartender says, "What's with the big pause?" > > The bear says "I don't know, my father had them, > too." > LOL - Norma, your jokes crack me right up! Get your free @yahoo.ca address at http://mail.yahoo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 23:06:56 -0400 (EDT) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: Q Review of 'Shadows & Light' - --- Paul Castle wrote: > Here's the review from November's Q Magazine > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > FAR-REACHING > How a gentle folkie changed modern music > > Joni Mitchell > Shadows and Light > The Definitive Biography > Karen O'Brien > Virgin Does anyone have any idea what cloth-headed sexism is supposed to mean, as is this quote from the Q article: > Mitchell's recurrent clashes > with cloth-headed sexism, particularly > pronounced during the first phase of > her progress. "Joni Mitchell is 90% > virgin", read the tag-line on an early > record company ad, before the > copywriter sketched out her first > album in terms of a long delayed > female orgasm, finally brought on > by some big-hearted male hippy. > Groovy times, eh? **** > > John Harris - Q Magazine (Nov 01) Get your free @yahoo.ca address at http://mail.yahoo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 23:14:16 -0400 (EDT) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: an odd trio (njc) - --- Anne Sandstrom wrote: > Here's an odd piece of info I've come upon. > > Ramzi Yousef (who bombed the WTC in 1993) is jailed > in Colorado in the > maximum security wing of the maximum security > prison. Amnesty International > complained about him not being allowed to exercise, > so he was eventually > allowed to go out into a little yard for an hour a > day, where he would have > the company of two other prisoners. Now think, who > might the other two have > been (at first)? > > One was Timothy McVeigh. The other was Ted Kaczynski > (the unabomber). > ... > > Weird, eh? > This is beyond weird - it's downright creepy. Get your free @yahoo.ca address at http://mail.yahoo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 23:17:26 -0400 From: Vince Lavieri Subject: pop and soda jerks (njc) Catherine McKay wrote: > > I say pop. I always thought pop was what Canadians > said, and soda was what Americans said. I realize > from the answers I'm seeing here that it's not your > nationality, but maybe the region you live in, that > affects what you say. Midwest is pop all the way. A soda is pop with ice cream and syrup, usually chocolate, in a tall glass with a straw, served up at a soda fountain, I know, my first job was a soda jerk - yes, a soda jerk because we jerked the seltzer water knobs to blast the soda water into the ice cream and syrup, and yes, i have every joke about being a jerk, and how appropriate that I was one. (the soda jerk) Vince ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 23:21:23 -0400 From: Vince Lavieri Subject: Re: Please be thinking of Max the Wonder Dog (njc) love to you and Max. My own Fielder, 13 year old Lab, will be there soon and I still cry when i remember any of the wonderful dogs that I have had to take to the vet one last time, and I will always cry for them as you you for Max, and that is how it should be, because dogs trust us to do what is right for them and they love us more unconditionally than any human being ever will. (dog lover) Vince ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 23:20:19 -0400 From: Bruyere Subject: toodles Hi all - I'm quite a bit overwhelmed lately with the on goings in my life .... school,research, teaching, working, grandchildren .... so I'm taking leave from the list for a bit. It is difficult for me to keep up with all the posts. I do try to read everything that is posted. I'll be back later on. Keep your spirits high and your love in the wind - Heather ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 20:03:40 -0700 From: "Kate Bennett" Subject: Cinema Paradiso >>>Cinema Paradiso - I'm with Joe on this one. Magnificently sentimental.<<< is that the one about the bicycle delivery guy & the poet? ******************************************** Kate Bennett www.katebennett.com sponsored by Polysonics www.polysonics.com Discover the Indies at Taylor Guitars: http://www.taylorguitars.com/artists/awp/indies/bennett.html ******************************************** ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 21:29:38 -0600 From: "Norma Meatheringham" Subject: NJC - speaking of bologna, are there any Boston Celtic fans on this list?? teachers, rastas... oh, you lucky folks, I'll be going on hiatus!! tt - moi FUNNY DEFINITIONS: Antacid: Uncle Acid's wife. Antelope: How she married my Uncle. Arbitrator: A cook that leaves Arby's to work at McDonald's. Avoidable: What a bullfighter tries to do. Baloney: Where some hemlines fall. Bernadette: The act of torching a mortgage. Bottom: What the shopper did when she found the shoes that she wanted. Bucktooth: The going rate for the tooth fairy. Burglarize: What a crook sees with. Cantaloupe: When you are unable to run away to get married. Cartoonist: What you call your auto mechanic. Castanets: What they did to fill the role of Frankie Avalon's movie girlfriend. Celtics: What a parasite salesman does. Concert: A breath mint for inmates. Consist: A growth on an inmate. Content: A fabric shelter for inmates. Control: A short, ugly inmate. Convent: How inmates get air conditioning. Counterfeiters: Workers who put together kitchen cabinets. Crestfallen: Dropped toothpaste. Cross-eyed Teacher: A teacher that looses control over his or her pupils. Decrease: De fold in de pants. Demote: What de king put around de castle. Despise: De persons who work for the CIA. Detention: What causes de stress. Dictator: Another name for Richard Spud. Dilate: When a person lives longer. Dioxin: What you say before you kill a herd of buffalo-like cattle. Dreadlocks: the fear of opening the dead-bolt. ~~~~~~~~ "Just when you think that a person is just a backdrop for the rest of the universe, watch them and see that they laugh, they cry, they tell jokes... they're just friends waiting to be made." -Dr. Jeffrey Borenstein "It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 23:32:36 -0400 From: Vince Lavieri Subject: Re: Subject: heroism on UA flight 93 (njc) The heroes of flight 93 - and yes they were heroes for sure, they knew about the World Trade Center attacks, and they knew that they and everyone on that plane was already dead, in a matter of time, and the reports are that they voted on what to do - the three men we know for sure who rushed the hijackers, the attendant who called her husband to say she was boiling water to throw in the hijackers faces - when you have a situation where all are dying and make a decision to choose the a path that saves others, that is heroism, and it is not analogous to going to war. The airline captain, quoted widely and in the current New Yorker as saying to his passengers, if hijackers try and take the plane, throw stuff at them, blankets, coats, jump them, sit on them, hold them down until I land the plane at the nearest airport, do this because we are the people and our constitution begins "we the people" and we the people will not surrender to terrorism - that sends chills up and down my spine. I am flying to Minnesota a week from today and home the following Sunday and hope to live by the example of Flight 93 and the words of that airline captain. (the Rev) Vince ps those who have flown recently - what are we allowed to bring on as carry on luggage - if I have one back pack to carry on for example, will that be ok? I plan on bringing a few books and magazines to allow for the ample time that I have in line. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 23:36:03 -0400 From: Vince Lavieri Subject: Re: The Hue and Cry of Art (very long and njc) Kakki, thanks for the sharing. The article said: The memorable words, however, seemed fewer than the memorable images. That would be I think because words will always fail us, be inadequate to describe emotion. Thus Picasso's Guernica, thus Verdi's and Mozart's requiems, and in fact, thus all art. (the Rev) Vince ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 23:34:23 -0400 From: "Victor Johnson" Subject: Serendipity(njc) Went to see Serendipity tonight...a wonderful movie I recommend to anyone...with a cool soundtrack to boot, featuring Louie Armstrong and not one, but TWO Nick Drake songs! Victor in Athens Victor Johnson http://www.cdbaby.com/victorjohnson "Velveteen rabbits and moonbeams, Come when you lay down your head. While you are sleeping, they kiss you and tell you, That you are the reason the sun lights the sky." Scarlet-V. Johnson ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 23:39:02 -0400 From: Vince Lavieri Subject: Re: NJC - Scripture Posting Etc now njc Catherine McKay wrote: > --- Wally Kairuz wrote: > > ron, > > really, i'm not trying to be smart or anything but > > the bible also says that > > it is wrong to wear clothes that are made from three > > different fabrics, > > Does this mean TWO different fabrics are OK? No. That is specifically forbidden. So are synthetics. The author of Leviticus would never have been able to endure through the polyester of the disco era. > Sorry, I > couldn't resist. Neither could I. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 23:51:31 -0400 From: Vince Lavieri Subject: Outwitted and njc Having two sons who were 4 years apart in age, I thought I was experienced and could handle anything. I was outwitted tonight, totally. I was at the Big Boy with 6 year old Gage and 2 year old Brady. Gage had already has triumph in that while we were shopping, he had segued himself from a $5 toy to a $20 toy, a bike motocross playset, on the grounds he could leave it at my house and play with every week, and thus the cost per week would be minimal. Oh, he is clever. But that was the minor outwitting. These kids are smarter than my kids, or I am getting slower. Brady - the 2 year old - well, all I can say, is, never, ever take your eyes even for a second off a 2 year old in a restaurant of you have a container of maple syrup on the table. Did you know that if you put enough maple syrup on a plate of french fries, that french fries float? Do you know that once the waiter sees french fries floating in maple syrup, that the waiter will never return to the table to refill your diet coke? Do you know that if a 2 year old sats "Look, Poppa!" sweetly enough that is impossible to do anything else but laugh at french fries floating in maple syrup? Oh, he outwitted me. I got no refills on my pop and had to leave an extra large tip because of the floating french fries. And Brady got smiled at for it all. (the Rev Poppa) Vince ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 23:23:36 -0400 From: dsk Subject: Rumi, God, grief There's an interesting article about Sufi poet Rumi and Coleman Barks, his best known translator, with comments about fundamentalists, God, grief and other things at http://www.salon.com/people/feature/2001/10/12/barks/print.html This is my favorite quote today: To make name distinctions, says Rumi, is to miss the point. He makes his point with a fish metaphor -- Barks gave one rendition: "One of [Rumi's] jokes about what theology is, he says it's like we're a school of fish getting together to try and discuss the possibility of the existence of the ocean. There is no separation. So don't try to find names for it." Debra Shea ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 20:52:37 -0700 From: "Mark or Travis" Subject: Re: Desert Island Movies & Books - NJC > Desk Set - Love when Hepburn gets drunk at the Christmas Party and sings > "Night & Day" That's a classic moment! So un-Hepburn and thus, so funny! > > North By Northwest - The Cary Grant-Eva Marie Saint scenes on the train > are a textbook on flirtation. Arrgghh!!! How could I have left out 'Rear Window' and 'Vertigo'? Classic films from the great master, Mr. Hitchcock! 'North By Northwest' is great too, but the other two are my personal favorites. Glad to see 'All About Eve' at the top of your list, Brenda. I think you have excellent taste! Mark E. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 21:05:22 -0700 From: "Mark or Travis" Subject: Re: top ten movies on an island...NJC > 4)Harold & Maude > Another one I forgot! Mark E. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2001 00:06:39 EDT From: MGVal@aol.com Subject: Books on that lonely desert island njc Some of my favorites to be read and re-read when the solar panels on the VCR are being recharged and as with my movie choices, there is not a whole lot of intellectual depth. I've got a lazy brain! Herman Wouk's: Winds of War War and Remembrance Marjorie Morningstar (all three can be a bit corny but contain great truths of human behavior and interaction) Carolyn White: "The Cheerleader" (I have never, ever read a better book about being a teenaged girl) The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath Lousia May Alcott's books A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Collected Photographs of Doreatha Lange Freida Kahlo: Her Life Joy of Cooking, (Marian, I think that this is MUCH better than the Betty Crocker one!) MG ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2001 00:14:29 -0400 From: Vince Lavieri Subject: njc 10 movies for the desert island And does this desert island have a dvd player and electricity? Home stereo surround sound? Pop corn and pop? E bacalounger? and at least a 25 inch screen? Thieves Like Us, directed by Altman Rocky Horror Picture Show Babe Woodstock Monterey Pop The End of the Affair/Crying Game (my desert island with all the comforts of home, so I can have this as a twin spin dvd) Bad Company (with Jeff Bridges, Barry Brown) Annie Hall Moonstruck Titanic (second 11 I'd toss in Night of the Shooting Stars, Jeremiah Johnson, the Great Waldo Pepper, Swept Away, Das Boot, Ran, Mephisto, All That Jazz, Jesus Christ Superstar, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Nashville) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 23:24:01 -0400 From: dsk Subject: Re: desert island books (njc) Les Miserables - Victor Hugo To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen An unabridged English language dictionary and thesaurus The book about galaxies that Marian has on her list and maybe the field guide too Reams and reams of unlined paper and lots of pencils and chalks and other stuff for making marks and writing stories Debra Shea Marian wrote: > > Animal Dreams - Barbara Kingsolver > Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe - Fannie Flagg > Ingathering: The Complete People Stories of Zenna Henderson - Zenna > Henderson > Betty Crocker Cookbook > Hubble Atlas of Galaxies > A Field Guide To The Stars & Planets ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2001 00:41:27 -0400 From: "jlamadoo, home account" Subject: "Court And Spark" gold CD eBay Item #1471287959. The seller is demanding $74.99 as a starting price! What is that guy *smoking*?!? I do not recommend this but I thought it was funny enough to post. Amazed, Lama np: Steve Stills' Thoroughfare Gap on vinyl ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 20:43:20 -0700 From: "Mark or Travis" Subject: Re: Desert Island Movies - NJC Ok, I give up. I'm going have to at least make a stab at this one. Mark E's Desert Island Movies 1. Dr. Zhivago - Omar Shariff, Julie Christie and Geraldine Chaplin, all young & beautiful in a sweeping historical epic directed by the visual master, David Lean. Beautiful music, great story, visually stunning film. I never get tired of it. 2. All About Eve - Bette Davis in one of her many finest hours and a script that can't be beat for wit and sophistication. Unlike Emory in 'The Boys in the Band' I don't know the entire screenplay by heart. But I've been working on it for the past 15 or so years. Remind me to tell you about the time I looked into the heart of an artichoke. 3. Julia - Jane Fonda & Vanessa Redgrave, two of the hot, talented, young starlets of the 60s, both radicals in their day, and here they're mature women giving their considerable best in an inspiring, beautifully crafted film about two radical women. I don't know if the story is true or if Lillian Hellman grafted her desire to be seen as heroic onto the memoirs of the real life resistance fighter, Muriel Gardiner. Frankly I don't care. It's a great story both on the page & on screen. 4. Cleopatra - Is it a historical epic? Is it a sometimes silly melodrama? Is it a star vehicle for Elizabeth Taylor? Is it over the top? It is all of that and more & I love it. Edward & I used to occasionally watch this on a Sunday afternoon while we lounged around drinking champagne & eating seafood (prawns, crab, scallops, etc). Decadence inspires decadence I guess. Bought this on DVD not long ago and finally saw it in a widescreen format for the first time. If it ever gets restored & re-released into the theatres, I'm there! Cleopatra's entrance into Rome alone would be worth the price of admission! 5. Maurice - Lesser known Merchant/Ivory from a lesser known E. M. Forster novel. The usual exquisite production values of a Merchant/Ivory film and a remarkably frank story about homosexuality in Edwardian England. The hero eventually finds true love and a happy ending with the man of his dreams. Unusual and very positive & affirming for me and, I suspect, many others on this list. 6. Howard's End - Two Merchant/Ivory but I couldn't leave either one of them out. The radiant Vanessa Redgrave is in this one all too briefly but she is matched by the splendid Emma Thompson. Round out that cast with Anthony Hopkins & Helena Bonham Carter and add a great script and the Merchant/Ivory treatment and you have a nearly perfect period film. This & 'Maurice' are my favorite Forster film adaptations but I have to say that my favorite Forster on the page is actually 'A Room With A View'. I love the film 'Maurice' for obvious reasons and although I liked 'Howard's End' as a novel, I didn't like it as well as 'A Room With A View.' But for some reason, I think 'Howard's End' is the better film. Not sure why. 7. Gone With the Wind - It's certainly not politically correct and a far cry from a realistic portrayal of slavery in the pre-Civil War U.S. South. But for story-telling, you just can't beat it. Nearly four hours but it never sags or loses the viewer's interest. Although not the greatest movie ever made, it could be seen as the peak of American movie-making in the studio era. Although it was rushed and much of it flung & held together largely by the iron will and obsessive attention to detail of David O. Selznick, GWTW comes through as an extremely well-crafted and remarkably faithful literary adaptation. You almost never get the feeling that they scrimped on anything - from the wonderfully sumptuous interior sets to Walter Plunkett's exquisitely detailed costumes to that long shot of Scarlett picking her way through the multitude of wounded soldiers at the train depot, the overall impression is of Hollywood movie-making at its best. I watched it a few weekends ago to take my mind off the grim reality of our present situation for awhile and it did the job nicely. 8. The Wizard of Oz - Released in the same year as GWTW and directed by Victor Fleming who also got directing credit for GWTW, this is another masterpiece from the studio era. If you've never seen this in a movie theater (with the proper aspect ratio) and you ever get the chance to, don't hesitate for a second! Go! See it! Even if you've seen it 20 times on tv! It's like a beautifully illustrated storybook come to life. Great songs (Harold Arlen is my favorite composer of 'standards' and E. Y. Harburg wrote some of the wittiest lyrics ever), wonderful sets, incredible character makeup, costumes & talent, talent, talent everywhere! I would watch this just to see Judy Garland sing 'Over the Rainbow' again. Her ability to make the audience believe that *she* believes everything that happens to Dorothy makes this movie work and also helps make it a true classic. She was really an incredible actress and this was the MGM musical at its best. 9. The Philadelphia Story - If you want star power this movie has it in spades. Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart make this sophisticated comedy sparkle like Dom Perignon. It's not a purely fluff piece either, posing some serious questions about wealth & art & the complexity of human emotions. Hepburn was never more haughty & alluring, Grant never more suave & sophisticated and Stewart never more down to earth and earnest (except for maybe in 'It's a Wonderful Life') than in this film. Another one I never get tired of. 10. The Lion in Winter - Another film where the chemistry between the stars creates something extraordinary. The imperious Peter O'Toole strikes sparks with the unflinchingly regal Katharine Hepburn as England's King Henry II and his remarkable queen Eleanor of Aquitane. A young Anthony Hopkins appears as their son Richard the Lionheart, battling with his two brothers for the succession to Henry's throne. His bedroom scene with Timothy Dalton as the young King of France turns into a family brawl that is not to be missed! This is another film that has great, witty & biting dialogue. 11. The Miracle Worker - Ok, so I'm cheating! I think Jerry Notaro mentioned this one & it reminded me of how fine a movie it really is. An inspiring & engrossing story about Anne Sullivan's teaching of the blind & deaf child, Helen Keller. Anne Bancroft gives one of the most powerful performances I've ever seen in a movie as the steel-spined Anne Sullivan and she is matched every step of the way by Patty Duke's amazing portrayal of the headstrong, young Helen Keller. Their struggle for the upper hand, both physical and emotional, is amazingly portrayed and the final breakthrough when their respect & ultimately their love for one another is cemented is one of the most emotionally fulfilling scenes I have ever seen committed to film. There are so many more: 'The Color Purple', 'It's A Wonderful Life', 'Now Voyager', 'The Sound of Music', 'Cabaret', 'Apocalypse Now', 'Orlando', 'Mrs. Dalloway', 'To Kill A Mockingbird', 'The Maltese Falcon', 'The Big Sleep', 'My Fair Lady', 'Roman Holiday', 'Sunset Boulevard', 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?', '2001: A Space Odyssey', 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes', 'Some Like It Hot', 'Sense & Sensibility', 'Persuasion', 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof', 'Suddenly Last Summer', 'A Streetcar Named Desire', 'Funny Girl', 'Yentl', 'Titus', 'Mary Poppins', 'The Man Who Came To Dinner', 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane', 'Antonia's Line' - far too many to mention. In case you don't know by now, I love movies, especially classics. Thank you for letting me play Leonard Maltin for awhile and sorry if I put anyone to sleep. Back to mostly lurkdom Mark E. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2001 01:08:37 -0400 From: Vince Lavieri Subject: Re: desert island books (njc) does this island have a comfortable chair, a good reading light, and will I have my reading glasses? Jewel in the Crown Bible (New Revised Standard Version) Luther's Works (there are 50 of them, but counts as one my desert island) Collected works of Bonhoeffer (counts as one, but I would pick Letters and Papers from Prison as the one above all) Old Testament Theology by Gerhard Von Rad collected works of John Dominic Crossan (Birth of Christianity as one above others) the Ancient Near East edited by James Pritchard (with wonderful translation, not the best, but really fine anyway translation, of the Gilgamesh Epic - "he who saw everything to the ends of the land, who all things experienced, considered all..." you can't beat ancient Mesopotamian legends!) collected works, Jay Macinerney collected works of F Scott Fitzgerald collected works of Carl Sandburg and Yevgeny Yevtushenko in one series as I am down to my 10th and last choice next twelve, History of the Christian Church by Williston Walker, New Testament theology collections by Norman Perrin and Bultman, American Church history by Sidney Ahlstrom, collected works of Anne Rice, Lord of the Rings (plus the Hobbit), collected works of Tama Janowitz (she cracks me up), Please Don't Eat the Daisies by Jean Kerr (the funniest book I have ever read), Chocolate days, Popsicle Weeks by Edward Hannibal to remember my youth and still a profound read, and Joni Mitchell Companion by Stacy Luftig, and Fire in the Lake by Frances Fitzgerald and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 20:52:24 -0400 From: "jlamadoo, home account" Subject: The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, 100% Joni Content Hi Karen, Congratulations on the book release! Someone on the Joni Discussion List said that you are especially fond of The Hissing Of Summer Lawns. Me too. Here's a post I wrote about it. Jim L'Hommedieu Covington, Kentucky, USA - ---------- Sunday, 1/14/01 7:10 AM EST Subject: Re: Jungle Line, ~~ an essay, very long, 100% Joni Mitchell Content!! - ---------- Tanya, in NYC (at least for another week) said in Digest #18 on Saturday morning, > I just can't make it through > Jungle Line. It's just so > different from anything she > did before it, I think it's > just not speaking to me and > I'm not getting it. The rest > of the album, I get - - beautiful. > It's funny because when I first > heard Hejira I thought it was > the wierdest thing Joni had > ever done - now I get it, it > speaks to me and I love it. > Will the same thing happen > with Jungle Line?" Hi Tanya, In a word, "Yes". You _will_ get "The Jungle Line". It's not so different from the rest of Joni's songs. She's working with several new media but there's nothing new about that!! Her trademark attention to quality shines through. Don't let those drums throw you! When I read your post, I thought, "Oh good! A chance to talk about _The Hissing Of Summer Lawns_." I love this album. I've been singing the songs, reading the lyrics, jumping around to the drum tracks, examining the artwork, humming the tunes, soaking it up, pondering it, and most of all, celebrating it since it was new. I've even participated in a discussion list on the Internet about this album. :) I apologize in advance if I sound like a know-it-all. I've been accused of that in the past. I'm not. I'm just gonna be myself and use my own words, okay? Here goes: ~~ To understand "The Jungle Line", you have to understand the album as a whole. You have to be open to the idea that a CD can be as great as a book. Just like any great piece of literature, each element, each chapter defines part of the whole. The Hissing of Summer Lawns is a masterwork. There is no "fat" on this album. Everything is there on purpose and serves to support the whole. Joni has masterfully built an exquisitely detailed, multimedia work that begins with the fold open cover. So, the themes on the cover are the themes of the album. Let's open up the double-square cover and look at it as the _rectangle_ that she intended..... You can "read" the cover from left to right. On the left, you see a wealthy person's home in some hills, complete with a "blue pool" in the backyard. It's quite far from everything else. From this, I surmise that it's possible that some of the characters on this album are modern and wealthy and very much in their own world. :) There's a Christian church that is separate from all else. Separate from the home with a pool, separate from the modern world, separate from the jungle figures. The church is a concept unto itself. Lastly, we get to the heart of the matter. Two things- juxtaposed vertically. In the foreground is a group of primitive people, fresh from a kill. These folks are the only people in the picture, as if we are all African no matter where we live. They have slain a snake, a symbol of evil to Christians. Uh-oh, the themes are interacting already. They are familiar with death. In the background is the ordered modern world, both suburban and urban. We are observing the primitive and the modern simultaneously. While writing this post, I just found something brand new in this 25 year-old graphic. Long ago I noticed that Joni used blue in only two places on the whole cover. It's in the wealthy person's home on the left. Look at the other end of the picture, at the _other_ use of blue. Check it out. Isn't it striking how this small war-era building looks like the childhood home in Maidstone, Saskatchewan Canada of a certain under-appreciated, multi-talented master that we all know? Did anyone "get" this before? Judge for yourself- Ashara generously shot Joni's Maidstone house for posterity and included it at 1 hour, 57 minutes into JMDL Video Tree #2 (tape #1). It was shot on a windy July 1, 2000. Thank you Ashara. Okay, I admit the windows are different but many, many of the other details match like a hand and its shadow. IMO two of Joni's homes are right there- highlighted in blue, bookending the cover at the extreme left and the extreme right. I'm not saying that these are literal representations- only that the author may have used architecture familiar to herself and that we are privileged to look over her shoulder in this small way. Anyway, this graphic sets the themes. Enough about the cover. Let's pop in the CD and listen to the first track. I think of "In France They Kiss On Main Street" as classic Joni. It's sort of about young people partying. Every thing's primary colors. There are "Kisses like bright flags hung on holidays". It could be a track from Court and Spark, the preceding studio album. The listener has something familiar to enter with. It's a throwback. It's an introduction to the album. It's about kids raised in "middle-class circumstance" who have gone to the City to become young adults. It's about youthful exuberance and the lack of experience that makes partying seem harmless when you're in your twenties. These are partiers who haven't seen a friend die of drunk driving.... There are no dead junkies on this track. If this album was a book, the next chapter would be "The Jungle Line". The second chapter begins abruptly. The suburban kids are gone and we listeners are alone, confronting something ancient, primal, and as we will see, deadly. We are in the African jungle listening to.... war drums. There is no narrator. Nothing familiar to the westerner, just the frenetic beat of a big gang of hand-made drums, calling for war. The drums are in the foreground. We are thrown into a strange land wondering what the hell is next. This is like the huge jump-cut in an American film, "The Deer Hunter". One moment you're observing every tiny, tiny detail at a friend's wedding. The next millisecond you're over wartime Vietnam, staring out the open door of a roaring American helicopter, wondering where the snipers are......... "We are not in Kansas anymore, Toto." About the drum track, Joni said that she owns an album of the Burundi 'warrior' drummers and liked to dance to it. As I recall, she said that she hears a Bo Diddley figure in there, but she may have been talking about the later "The Tenth World". (See Tape Tree #5, complied by Simon, "My Top 12" - from BBC Radio 1, London, England - broadcast May 29, 1983.) In fact, at the time, she include the Burundi drummers as one of her top 12 tracks of biggest influences! So I guess she started with the rhythm track and built it up from there. If there is a single key to liking this track, maybe it is picturing the author dancing to the drums in her kitchen with her cats. As the camera pulls back, out the kitchen window and up, you can see an aerial view of the Spanish compound on the cover. :) Imagine that she's dancing to the African drums, thinking about the primal pleasure of live music in a nightclub, the dangers of the drug culture, and in contrast, the simplicity of a distant church. All of the rest of the stories on the album flow out of these images. Together they form a classic Joni duality- the jungle within the city. She's been writing about these things from the first album, observing first the country, then the city. Anyway, when HOSL was released, drums had never been so prominent on one of her studio albums. Here's a new color on Joni's palette. The drums reflect the African influence on the cover and the song's title. She used layers of ominous sounds from a pioneering electronic instrument called a Moog synthesizer. This was a huge departure too. "The Jungle Line" signals that this album is not "Court and Spark 2, The Sequel". So, here she is, a folk singer no more. A pop singer no more. She's not only playing a Moog, she's _layering_ it on top of a African rhythm track. She's composing with layers; she's now become a record producer. But not a _folk_ producer. She's not putting dulcimers on top of nylon strung acoustic guitars. She's not putting strings on top of jazz-pop songs (as John Lennon suggested) like on Court and Spark. This is something new yet again. She's juxtaposing African rhythms with synthesizer! The ancient/primitive with the modern/electronic. Amazing in itself. All the more amazing when you realize that she did it in 1975! You gotta realize this was before Paul Simon was lauded for inventing "World Music". Before Sting was celebrated for hiring Branford Marsalis. Anyway, like the cover, the primitive is in the foreground and the urban is being observed from a distance. The words on The Hissing of Summer Lawns. Oh, the words! If there was any doubt before, it is now clear that Joni is a deep thinker. On "The Jungle Line", the words borrow the ambiguity of "Sweet Bird" (also on this album). It's more of a scene than a story. Joni, (the narrator and a painter herself), is looking over the shoulder of another painter. This time out it's Rousseau. Rousseau is painting an urban scene, a nightclub. There's lots of excitement in the air, (live music, a low-cut blouse, beer) and more than a hint of danger. The narrator enters the painting and never leaves. The rest of "The Hissing Of Summer Lawns" is all about this one painting. It's people. About the primitive world in the city. About danger. She never goes back to the innocent, youthful partiers. As Springsteen observed, "there's a darkness on the edge of town." She never calls for a return "to some semblance of a garden". The narrator notices that the waitress is working among "cannibals" who might "eat a working girl like her alive". Then the danger theme is duplicated in an image of a poppy wreath on a soldier's tomb- a drug death. She works these images into a Tangled (hi Victor!) vine near the end, intertwining poison (the jungle's danger) and mouthpiece spit (the vulnerable, primitive musicians), and the nightclub (the urban scene). Then the "camera" pulls back, still inside the Rousseau painting, and we go "steaming up to Brooklyn Bridge", as if to say "There are a million stories in the Naked City." We go traveling, traveling, traveling in New York City, to look for the next chapter in this book about dangers and compromises and paradoxes of the twin worlds. We witness Edith and the Kingpin locked in their awful yet perfect embrace where meeting your mate is also meeting your match. A new adult world in which every blessing is a curse. Where benefactors kindly offer perils yet parasites carry blessings. A world where hostages are forced to do the unthinkable.... to smile for the camera. All of the themes from the cover except the church are right there in "The Jungle Line". This is not a minor work. This album is the work of a multi-dimensional Master at the top of all of her games simultaneously. A masterwork. Now Tanya, will you give "The Jungle Line" just one more try? All the best, Lama PS- Thanks for the bandwidth Les. Without you, for whom would I write? ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2001 #479 ***************************** ------- Post messages to the list by clicking here: mailto:joni@smoe.org Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe ------- Siquomb, isn't she?