From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2007 #35 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk Unsubscribe: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe Archives: http://www.smoe.org/lists/joni Website: http://jonimitchell.com JMDL Digest Friday, January 26 2007 Volume 2007 : Number 035 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- barn, njc ["Kate Bennett" ] Re: barn, njc ["Kate Bennett" ] Live or on record? njc ["Kate Bennett" ] I would do that why NJC ["mike pritchard" ] Re: I would do that why NJC [Catherine McKay ] Re: I would do that why NJC ["mike pritchard" ] Re: I would do that why NJC ["mike pritchard" ] Re: Live or on record? [Bob.Muller@Fluor.com] Re: I would do that why NJC [Catherine McKay ] Re: Ballet Joni, now Pirate of Penance [Bob.Muller@Fluor.com] Re: I would do that why NJC [Catherine McKay ] Re: Ballet Joni, now Pirate of Penance [Catherine McKay ] Re: I would do that why NJC [Smurf ] Re: Joni the Zombie [Victor Johnson ] Joni Photo & another ballet article [est86mlm@ameritech.net] Carly Simon Alert (NJC) [est86mlm@ameritech.net] Live reclusive [missblux@googlemail.com] Joni's Blue Period ["Cassy" ] Re: Carly Simon Alert (NJC) ["Cassy" ] Re: Live or on record? [Michael Flaherty ] Re: Carly Simon Alert (NJC) [Victor Johnson ] Radio highlights of gala, CBC radio Jan 29 ["Michael O'Malley" ] Re: Joni's Blue Period [Norma Jean Garza ] Re: Media NJC [Norma Jean Garza ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 00:08:58 -0800 From: "Kate Bennett" Subject: barn, njc What a beautiful barn! I love barns, a friend sent me a picture of her green barn... she built it from pallets & stained it green (the barn is for her horses) what do you keep in your barn? >my neighbor frances is a realator and she took a picure of my barn and put it on her web site: if you want to see: http://www.arealrapport.com/< ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 00:12:54 -0800 From: "Kate Bennett" Subject: Re: barn, njc RR>Marianne, what can I say? Nice barn! More barn!< LOL, randy, this is not the neil young list, you may have to splain ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 00:17:58 -0800 From: "Kate Bennett" Subject: Live or on record? njc >For another example, I'd say the Beatles are better on record. What they created and recorded far surpassed their live shows which even they figured out when they quit touring all together (not that their live shows were bad! Though they did lack energy towards 65-66). < unless I confuse you with someone else, I'm pretty sure you haven't seen the beatles live or maybe in a previous lifetime? Lucky me I did get to see the who live in the very early days when IMO they were more about smashing stuff than music (sorry) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 09:18:36 +0100 From: "mike pritchard" Subject: I would do that why NJC I'm watching Season II of 'Murder One' and in yesterday's episode there were at least three examples (see below) of this type of question which I find strange. Is this common in the US or is it just TV folk who use it? What say'st thou, Notaro? mike in bcn (paraphrasing from memory but you get the drift) ''And this would help you how?" "the excuse for this is what?" "You want me to give you a million dollars why?" npimh - language is a virus by Lorry Anderson (ha ha) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 07:53:11 -0500 (EST) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: I would do that why NJC Well, I'm no American, but I've heard questions asked this way before. They may have picked it up from TV! I could be mistaken but I think this particular syntax may have its origins in Yiddish. Imagine Henny Youngman asking these questions. - --- mike pritchard wrote: > I'm watching Season II of 'Murder One' and in > yesterday's episode there were > at least three examples (see below) of this type of > question which I find > strange. Is this common in the US or is it just TV > folk who use it? What > say'st thou, Notaro? > mike in bcn > > (paraphrasing from memory but you get the drift) > ''And this would help you how?" > "the excuse for this is what?" > "You want me to give you a million dollars why?" > > npimh - language is a virus by Lorry Anderson (ha > ha) > Catherine Toronto - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 13:54:37 +0100 From: "mike pritchard" Subject: Re: I would do that why NJC And I would know who Henry Youngman is how? mike - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Catherine McKay" To: "mike pritchard" ; "list" Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 1:53 PM Subject: Re: I would do that why NJC > Well, I'm no American, but I've heard questions asked > this way before. They may have picked it up from TV! > > I could be mistaken but I think this particular syntax > may have its origins in Yiddish. Imagine Henny > Youngman asking these questions. > > > --- mike pritchard wrote: > > > I'm watching Season II of 'Murder One' and in > > yesterday's episode there were > > at least three examples (see below) of this type of > > question which I find > > strange. Is this common in the US or is it just TV > > folk who use it? What > > say'st thou, Notaro? > > mike in bcn > > > > (paraphrasing from memory but you get the drift) > > ''And this would help you how?" > > "the excuse for this is what?" > > "You want me to give you a million dollars why?" > > > > npimh - language is a virus by Lorry Anderson (ha > > ha) > > > > > Catherine > Toronto > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ----- > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:16:20 +0100 From: "mike pritchard" Subject: Re: I would do that why NJC Hi em, Yeah sounds like immigrant speak (or Woody Allen yiddish parodies) but I was surprised more than anything because the speakers were all well-educated first-class lawyers. Thats' all, mike - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Em" To: "mike pritchard" Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 2:05 PM Subject: Re: I would do that why NJC > you mean to have the "how" at the end?? it is immigrant-speak. Most > common in NY, Philly and maybe Boston. Late 19th and through mid 20th > century European immigrants. You have to imagine it with a heavy > Russian or Italian or some other eastern European accent. > Then as the generations went on, the accent faded, but the odd sentence > structure remained among their offspring in some pockets of the US. > Thats my take. > :) > em > > --- mike pritchard wrote: > > > I'm watching Season II of 'Murder One' and in yesterday's episode > > there were > > at least three examples (see below) of this type of question which I > > find > > strange. Is this common in the US or is it just TV folk who use it? > > What > > say'st thou, Notaro? > > mike in bcn > > > > (paraphrasing from memory but you get the drift) > > ''And this would help you how?" > > "the excuse for this is what?" > > "You want me to give you a million dollars why?" > > > > npimh - language is a virus by Lorry Anderson (ha ha) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 08:30:12 -0500 From: Bob.Muller@Fluor.com Subject: Re: Live or on record? That's a good point - many artists can excel both in the studio and on the stage, Joni is certainly one of them because she has the ability to transform her music and re-invent it in many cases in a live setting. A casual listen to her live recordings proves that out; like them or not, the smooth-jazz stylings of Woodstock & Carey among others are vastly different on MOA than on their respective studio albums, and on SAL Woodstock becomes transformed again, and even the songs that aren't drastically reinvented are certainly "re-colored" with the addition of Metheny, Pastorius and the rest of that band. Her '83 tour added some musical muscle to lots of her catalogue as well, some to good effect and some to lesser effect. The point is, Joni rejects the idea of a concert being a human jukebox, regurgitating note-for-note what is on record. In that regard, one of the worst live acts I ever saw was The Eagles because their belief was that people wanted to hear exactly what they heard on record so their objective was to duplicate it as closely as possible, even going so far as playing guitar solos indentically to the studio versions. And the flip side of that is Peter Frampton...his solo albums couldn't have been more limp-dishraggish, but on Frampton Comes Alive the songs exploded with power and energy and even his vocals became stronger. As soon as he went back in the studio (with "I'm In You") the wimp factor reappeared and lo and behold, stick a fork in him he's done. Bob NP: Elvis Costello, "My Flame Burns Blue (Blood Count)" - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain proprietary, business-confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient of this message you are hereby notified that any use, review, retransmission, dissemination, distribution, reproduction or any action taken in reliance upon this message is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of the company. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 08:48:40 -0500 (EST) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: I would do that why NJC - --- mike pritchard wrote: > Hi em, > Yeah sounds like immigrant speak (or Woody Allen > yiddish parodies) but I was > surprised more than anything because the speakers > were all well-educated > first-class lawyers. Thats' all, > mike Education, schmeducation. It's one of those things that people pick up for whatever reason. Once you start asking questions that way, it's hard to stop. In a weird way, it kind of makes sense. Language really is a virus. Catherine Toronto - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 08:58:27 -0500 From: Bob.Muller@Fluor.com Subject: Re: Ballet Joni, now Pirate of Penance It comes off as being overly clever, like Gift of the Magi (which I actually like much better). A choral song being sung by one voice and in so doing losing much of its meaning. I think that besides the obvious allusion to Gilbert & Sullivan that is the title, there's an attempt to emulate the rapid patter of those Gilbert & Sullivan operettas as well. The melody takes too many quirky turns, some of the lines are overly packed with verbage, and I still say that the story is too vague for me to care about it. It puzzles me why she chose this song (which is coincidentally the ONLY one on STAS NOT to be covered) over the other GREAT songs she had written by this time. But...PoP might have been an interesting inclusion on T'log. To add alternative choral voices and some sweeping orchestral effects could have fleshed out the composition and given it new life, much like the T'log version of Dawntreader was an illumination. Bob NP: Ani, "Shy" 10.9.03 - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain proprietary, business-confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient of this message you are hereby notified that any use, review, retransmission, dissemination, distribution, reproduction or any action taken in reliance upon this message is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of the company. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 09:06:51 -0500 (EST) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: I would do that why NJC - --- mike pritchard wrote: > And I would know who Henry Youngman is how? > mike > I guess you would have to have lived in the US or Canada - and be over 40, or even 50 - to know that. He was a comedian famous for his one-liners, very corny, but you just had to laugh. Here are some quotes from brainyquote.com: I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up - they have no holidays. I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back. I told the doctor I broke my leg in two places. He told me to quit going to those places. My Grandmother is over eighty and still doesn't need glasses. Drinks right out of the bottle. What's the use of happiness? It can't buy you money. When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading. Here's a bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henny_Youngman If you're going to Jonifest, and if Smurf is going, then ask him to do his Henny Youngman schtick. Catherine Toronto - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 09:10:22 -0500 (EST) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: Ballet Joni, now Pirate of Penance - --- Bob.Muller@Fluor.com wrote: > But...PoP might have been an interesting inclusion > on T'log. To add > alternative choral voices and some sweeping > orchestral effects could have > fleshed out the composition and given it new life, > much like the T'log > version of Dawntreader was an illumination. > I would be interesting to hear PoP that way. Funny how a lot of people like the T'log version of "Dawntreader" better than the original. I prefer the simplicity of the original. Catherine Toronto - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 09:30:47 -0500 From: Bob.Muller@Fluor.com Subject: Joni the Zombie Check out this objet d'art on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/STEVE-KEENE-PAINTINGS-JONI-MITCHELL-ALBUMS_W0QQitemZ270083612293QQihZ017QQcategoryZ20135QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem The "Clouds" Joni looks like the stuff of nightmares. Bob NP: Ani, "Promised Land" - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain proprietary, business-confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient of this message you are hereby notified that any use, review, retransmission, dissemination, distribution, reproduction or any action taken in reliance upon this message is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of the company. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 06:19:33 -0800 (PST) From: Paul In MD Subject: Media NJC Chiming in really late on this one but I have to agree with your comments about the media, Catherine. I understand the marketplace determines content but I also understand about the ease of pandering to the lowest common denominator and the basest instincts as opposed to trying to uplift and educate. Media is a powerful tool (there is a reason advertising works) and its effect on the masses is huge. If our Media is full of pablum, who needs Soma? The truly scary thing is not that there are so many gossip type shows on the air, it's that this now passes as hard news. I saw a show with Laurie Garrett, a reporter who had recently left her job at Newsday and wrote a memo to her colleagues when she left. It detailed her reasons and outlined the decline in the field of journalism. Excerpts of the memo follow: ... news organizations have been devoured by massive corporations, and allegiance to stockholders, the drive for higher share prices, and push for larger dividend returns trumps everything that the grunts in the newsrooms consider their missions. Long gone are the days of fast-talking, whiskey- swilling Murray Kempton peers eloquently filling columns with daily dish on government scandals, mobsters and police corruption. The sort of in-your- face challenge that the Fourth Estate once posed for politicians has been replaced by mud-slinging, lies and, where it ought not be, timidity ... ... too many journalists seem to mistake scandal mongering for tenacious investigation, and far too many aspire to make themselves the story ... ... honesty and tenacity (and for that matter, the working class) seem to have taken backseats to the sort of "snappy news", sensationalism, scandal-for-the-sake of scandal crap that sells ... ... this is terrible for democracy. I have been in 47 states of the USA since 9/11, and I can attest to the horrible impact the deterioration of journalism has had on the national psyche. I have found America a place of great and confused fearfulness, in which cynically placed bits of misinformation ... fall on ears that absorb all, without filtration or fact-checking. Leading journalists have tried to defend their mission, pointing to the paucity of accurate, edited coverage found in blogs, internet sites, Fox-TV and talk radio. They argue that good old-fashioned newspaper editing is the key to providing America with credible information, forming the basis for wise voting and enlightened governance. But their claims have been undermined ... The rest of the memo can be found here: http://pentaside.org/article/journalist-resignation.html And an interview with her here: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/14/151255 In the interview I saw, she said that other parts of the world do a much better job of reporting the news than Americans. She related that people who visited from overseas commented on how much time the national media devotes to fluff (OJ, Michael Jackson) while ignoring covering and explaining the issues that truly affect people (Social Security, Global Warming, eroding freedoms). She also had some great ideas about how to improve the state of journalism. There's more ... but that's enough of a rant for one day. :) Paul In MD Catherine McKay wrote: And going really off-topic into njc territory, all this makes me wonder about just how big the gossip media are today. There are just so many magazines, websites and crap-TV posing as journalism shows that regurgitate the same endless blah-blah-blah about the same annoying celebrities. It's just a ploy to take our minds off the real problems of the world - those little things called war, famine, poverty and so on. Keep 'em gossiping about Brittney and Paris and maybe they'll forget about the big issues. Catherine Toronto - --------------------------------- Access over 1 million songs - Yahoo! Music Unlimited. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 06:48:47 -0800 (PST) From: Smurf Subject: Re: I would do that why NJC Mike asked: << And I would know who Henry Youngman is how? >> By maybe googling? Here are some Henny jokes: http://www.funny2.com/henny.htm And here are some samples of his wonderful face: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=henny%20youngman&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa =N&tab=wi Henny was known as King of the One-Liners, his most famous being "Take my wife . . . please!" He was the ultimate Borscht Belt commedian. I loved him. In the early 80s I saw Henny in a very small club (Jonathan Swift's) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from the front row. I was seated about ten feet away from him! The day he died people called and faxed their condolences to me. (It was before email was in general use.) "I went to the doctor and said, "Doc, it hurts when I do this." He said, "Don't do that." Sigh. - --Smurf - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Catherine McKay" To: "mike pritchard" ; "list" Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 1:53 PM Subject: Re: I would do that why NJC > Well, I'm no American, but I've heard questions asked > this way before. They may have picked it up from TV! > > I could be mistaken but I think this particular syntax > may have its origins in Yiddish. Imagine Henny > Youngman asking these questions. > > > --- mike pritchard wrote: > > > I'm watching Season II of 'Murder One' and in > > yesterday's episode there were > > at least three examples (see below) of this type of > > question which I find > > strange. Is this common in the US or is it just TV > > folk who use it? What > > say'st thou, Notaro? > > mike in bcn > > > > (paraphrasing from memory but you get the drift) > > ''And this would help you how?" > > "the excuse for this is what?" > > "You want me to give you a million dollars why?" > > > > npimh - language is a virus by Lorry Anderson (ha > > ha) > > > > > Catherine > Toronto > - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ----- > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com _____________________________________________________________________________ _______ Finding fabulous fares is fun. Let Yahoo! FareChase search your favorite travel sites to find flight and hotel bargains. http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 10:03:02 -0500 From: Victor Johnson Subject: Re: Joni the Zombie Scary stuff!!! The "Blue" Joni looks like she's strung out. And is that a hamburger in the middle of the STAS? Victor NP: 680 AM The Rude Awakening On Jan 26, 2007, at 9:30 AM, Bob.Muller@Fluor.com wrote: > Check out this objet d'art on ebay: > > http://cgi.ebay.com/STEVE-KEENE-PAINTINGS-JONI-MITCHELL- > ALBUMS_W0QQitemZ270083612293QQihZ017QQcategoryZ20135QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewIt > em > > The "Clouds" Joni looks like the stuff of nightmares. > > Bob > > NP: Ani, "Promised Land" ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 09:13:58 -0600 From: est86mlm@ameritech.net Subject: Joni Photo & another ballet article Joni Photo here http://www.canada.com/topics/entertainment/story.html?id=6298b57e-ab76-4176-a98b-c422495d81e1&k=61959 Laura **************************************************** Hey Moms! Win a DVD prize pack. Enter every day. http://universal.eprize.net/becauseisaidso ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 09:20:28 -0600 From: est86mlm@ameritech.net Subject: Carly Simon Alert (NJC) HANGIN' WITH CARLY SIMON will be on VH1 Classics this Saturday, 1/27 at 5pm EST. It will be repeated again on January 28th at 9pm EST and again on February 2nd at 1pm EST. Short interview with Carly here: http://www.lime.com/node/7510 Laura ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 15:41:44 +0000 From: missblux@googlemail.com Subject: Live reclusive Here are some thoughts about Joni being reclusive and seeing her live.... I think it is not entirely unjustified to call someone reclusive if she claims that she is a painter above all and yet doesn't exhibit her art work. Doesn't that show very clearly that she is uncomfortable with meeting the public? In those Youtube clips from 1970 I think she looks nervous and shy. The other day Mark talked about how he had met someone who turned out to be a close friend of hers; and he described the panic in the lady's eyes when he told her he was on this mailing list. I wondered if that reflects Joni's own panic at meeting the public, maybe in particular people like us who experience all sorts of deep and intimate connections with her. It must feel intimidating, like when someone is in love with you and you just don' t relate to that person in that way. Because you wonder about all the delusions going on in their minds. I'd love to see her perform live, but whenever I watch clips with her I think she looks a bit out of place. Well and right on spot at the same time... A danish writer, Suzanne Brxgger, wrote a lot of autobiographical stuff from the seventies onwards, about her love-life and about gender etc. When she became really famous, she found that some women identified so much with her that they began to write letters in her name, to men they fancied, saying that they were Suzanne Brxgger and wanted to have sex with them or whatever. It has got to make you feel queasy when people you don' t know or who yo don't feel the same for begin to identify with you in that way. Just my thoughts... Bene ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 10:45:02 -0500 From: "Cassy" Subject: Joni's Blue Period Here is an interesting article about Joni from the cbc site today: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/joni.html Joni's blue period The impact of Joni Mitchell's Blue album on a teen in the 80s By Katrina Onstad January 26, 2007 On Jan. 28, Joni Mitchell will be inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and I'm praying that no one serenades her with River. The uninvited soundtrack to Christmas 2006 was Sarah McLachlan's low-fat, fun-free, vanilla-latte version of Mitchell's 1971 classic River. Between the first and 24th of December, every time I found myself wading through a snake pit mega-chain toward the last stripy scarf in the bin, Sarah McLachlan was there, too, braying the theme song of my holiday disorganization with all the laziness that typifies a one-off Christmas cash grab: "I wish I had a river so looong." I swear she yawns during the word "long." There is something peculiar about McLachlan, founder of the successful women's music festival Lilith Fair, covering Mitchell. Mitchell has always shrugged off the "woman genius" mantle, despite her status as musical pioneer and adopted mommy figure for legions of female singer songwriters. She once told a reporter: "One guy came up to me and said, 'You're the best female singer-songwriter in the world.' I was thinking: 'What do you mean female? That's like saying you're the best Negro.'" Point taken; it's a backhanded compliment with a ghetto sting. But as a teenaged girl in the mid-'80s encountering Blue (the album containing River) for the first time, the fact that the songs - confessional but not solipsistic; folk but not earnest; pop but not empty - were written by a woman felt thrilling. Mitchell sang of adventure, disappointment, God, love, disaster. Not only was the music emotionally bloody and intricate, the lyrics - her busy phrasing pushing the words to spill out over the song's structure - made it seem like she was living a gigantic life. Pre-Google, I harassed my favourite clerk at the local second-hand record store for information, researched her in back issues of Rolling Stone, and learned that Joni Mitchell was a painter, too, and a poet. She owned all the rights to her songs. She had been smoking since she was nine. She occupied the world. That this music didn't come from Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen (her contemporaries) or REM's Michael Stipe and the Fall's Mark E. Smith (mine) provided a kind of comfort I didn't know I needed: greatness and arrogance and artistry could be female, too. That Mitchell didn't want to be considered a feminist paving the road for female musicians only made her more intriguing (though her very existence did, and still does, seem like feminism to me); that was a way of being I hadn't known, either. I first heard the song River - and this is so very sad - during an episode of the yuppie angst TV drama thirtysomething when I was 16 or 17. The female singers of my generation were Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, Whitney Houston: teeny boppers, vocal acrobats and hired hands, mostly singing songs written for them by other people - often men, or Carole Bayer Sager. They sang about liking boys, and wanting to dance with somebody. I was just old enough to recognize how hard this stuff sucked, and I was rabid for music more like the poetry and fiction that had my head spinning; something speaking of all the possible ways to exist. I knew, as all teenagers do, that I was leaving adolescence, and I heard the thrill and sadness of adulthood in River's opening note, that repeated one-finger Jingle Bells piano, and then the lyrics: "It's coming on Christmas/ They're cutting down trees/ They're putting up reindeer/ Singing songs of joy and peace/ I wish I had a river so long/ I would teach my feet to fly." A song about ice-skating ! (Lou Reed didn't have one of those!) The rumours were true, then: Joni Mitchell was Canadian, too. By the end of the '60s, Mitchell had become a darling of the Laurel Canyon So-Cal folk scene. Though singers like Judy Collins and Buffy Saint-Marie had made hits out of Mitchell's songs, her own stardom wore on her, and in 1970, Mitchell "quit this crazy scene" (a phrase from River), writing most of Blue in self-imposed exile while travelling through Europe. Big Yellow Taxi and Both Sides Now may be her best-known songs, but it's the entire album Blue that is still her most resonant work. In an upcoming tribute disc, three of the 12 songs come from Blue. On Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums of all time, it's ranked No. 30. Her long career since has been marked by departure and reinvention, most famously her collaboration with jazz idol Charles Mingus. At the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony, Margaret Atwood will read her poetry, and jazz musician Herbie Hancock and soprano Measha Brueggergosman will perform her songs. Mitchell, who hates a box, is sure to love this. But no matter how experimental the evening gets (I fear interpretive dance), many of us watching will be hearing the clean, raw precision of Blue in our heads. The record feels like it could only exist as an album, something from before the fragmentation brought on by iPods and downloads, when you were forced to witness the whole vision, track by track. The thing Mitchell built was a house of postponed grieving: maybe for her privacy, her relationship with Graham Nash or the daughter she gave up for adoption a few years before. In the mid-'90s, when Mitchell publicly reunited with that daughter, the cryptic lyrics to Little Green made sense: "He went to California/ Hearing that everything's warmer there/ So you write him a letter and say 'Her eyes are blue'/ He sends you a poem and she's lost to you.." It's a perfect rumination on sorrow. Mitchell has said: "At that period of my life, I had no personal defences.. There's hardly a dishonest note in the vocals." Mitchell's work, while not a roadmap to her life, has always been far too personal to pass as hippie banner-waving. The exception may be the anthem Woodstock, a hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, but Mitchell never actually made it to the festival, choosing instead to make an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show. Still, the vagabond principle of the era is all over Blue, as in the song Carey: "Carey get out your cane and I'll put on some silver/ Oh, you're a mean old daddy but I like you fine." Silver, linen, African winds - there's a vaguely Wiccan, Tiffany-lamp vibe to Mitchell, and her dedicated followers, that I've always tried to ignore. Yet Blue doesn't feel like an artifact. If Mitchell were merely a boomer hero, she wouldn't matter so much to Sufjan Stevens and Bjork, who cover her on the upcoming tribute disc. If she were merely a female hero, Prince and Elvis Costello wouldn't cite her as a major influence; they appear on the tribute, too. The song Prince chose to cover? A Case of You, from Blue, in which Mitchell famously sings: "I drew a map of Canada/ Oh Canada." and the word Canada loops up and down and closes in on itself. That Joni Mitchell is Canadian, and female, matters almost not at all to me now; role models get less necessary, or are abandoned entirely, with age. But studies have shown that the music we meet at our most self-involved, in youth, is the music that hits us deepest. McGill professor Daniel Levitin has done research to show the music of childhood almost burns itself into our brains, which is exactly how it feels. Maybe that's why the ubiquitous Sarah McLachlan cover of River is so grating: the River part of my brain is well travelled, sacred territory. There's no room for anyone else there. On the other hand, McLachlan's cover lacks that unfathomable combination of gravitas and weightlessness that defines Mitchell's singing, even now, with a voice smoked down to a crackling ember. Mitchell can never hit those Blue notes again, but I can always turn to them and remember who I was. When I listen to Cat Power, Lucinda Williams, Tracy Chapman, Jenny Lewis, Martha Wainwright, Will Oldham, Ben Harper - I think of Joni, who came first, reluctantly, and right on time. Hosted by CBC Radio's Andrew Craig and Radio-Canada's Sophie Durocher, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame gala will take place on Sunday, Jan. 28 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The following day, CBC Radio will broadcast segments of the tribute gala, beginning with Sounds Like Canada on Radio One at 11 a.m. and as a two-hour special beginning at 8 p.m. on Radio Two. A CBC-TV production will follow on March 5. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 10:51:45 -0500 From: "Cassy" Subject: Re: Carly Simon Alert (NJC) From: Laura <<< Short interview with Carly here: http://www.lime.com/node/7510 >>> OK... here I go again... Last week Carly Simon and her two children by James Taylor were guests on Oprah's "What's Playing on Your iPod" show along with Mary J. Blige and Corinne Baily Rae. Carly and her children performed together and I couldn't get over how much her son looks like his father - he's the spitting image. Carly talked about her bouts with depression and breast cancer and it was great to see her looking so well. http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200701/tows_past_20070116.jhtml Warmly, Cassy NP: Joni - Lakota (I love this song) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 08:06:39 -0800 (PST) From: Michael Flaherty Subject: Re: Live or on record? From: "Bob.Muller@Fluor.com" >>The point is, Joni rejects the idea of a concert being a human jukebox, regurgitating note-for-note what is on record. In that regard, one of the worst live acts I ever saw was The Eagles because their belief was that people wanted to hear exactly what they heard on record so their objective was to duplicate it as closely as possible, even going so far as playing guitar solos indentically to the studio versions. This is also why tapes of Joni live (at least one of every tour, and often more than that) are worth collecting. Every show is a bit different, and every tour VERY different, than the others. Michael Flaherty _____________________________________________________________________________ _______ Don't pick lemons. See all the new 2007 cars at Yahoo! Autos. http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 11:10:30 -0500 From: Victor Johnson Subject: Re: Carly Simon Alert (NJC) I saw him live at Whole Foods in Atlanta a few years ago. It was almost haunting how much he sounded like his dad and yet had his own voice as well, kind of fused together. He had a funny line about how when they legalize marijuana, he hoped Whole Foods would carry only the highest quality organic pot. Victor On Jan 26, 2007, at 10:51 AM, Cassy wrote: > > > I couldn't get over how much her son looks like his father - he's > the spitting image. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:30:19 +0000 From: "Michael O'Malley" Subject: Radio highlights of gala, CBC radio Jan 29 TORONTO (CP) - Folk music icon Joni Mitchell and country pioneer Wilf Carter are among artists to be inducted next year into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. Organizers say the music legends are among four songwriters and 25 songs to be celebrated at a black-tie gala in Toronto on Sunday Jan. 28. Raymond Egan, who wrote songs for films and Broadway musicals, and Quebec chanteur Jean-Pierre Ferland are the two other artists to be honoured. The honour comes as Mitchell is said to be working on her first new album in eight years. Also scheduled to take part in the gala celebration are James Taylor, Measha Breuggergossman, Chaka Kahn, Michael Bubli, George Canyon, Emm Gryner and Corb Lund. A CBC-TV special of gala highlights is scheduled to air on March 5. Me: However, on January 29th, the day following the ceremony, we will be able to hear a one-hour program of highlights from the award ceremony on CBC Radio 1, (Sounds Like Canada) from 11 am to 12 pm. Later the same day, at 8 pm, a two-hour version of the award show will be aired on CBC Radio 2. You can hear live streaming audio of CBC Radio 1 & 2 by following the links from this url: http://www.cbc.ca/listen/index.html Enjoy! Michael in Quebec _________________________________________________________________ Buy, Load, Play. The new Sympatico / MSN Music Store works seamlessly with Windows Media Player. Just Click PLAY. http://musicstore.sympatico.msn.ca/content/viewer.aspx?cid=SMS_Sept192006 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 13:53:41 +0000 (UTC) From: "anne@sandstrom.com" Subject: Re: are you a ...? (njc) Oh, wait - Norma Jeanne, are you an emperor penguin???? (LOL!) (If you don't get it, you haven't see Happy Feet.) Just having a little Friday fun... lots of love, Anne ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 10:34:15 -0800 (PST) From: Norma Jean Garza Subject: Re: Joni's Blue Period This piece is worded so beautifully. I can't help but cry. I want Joni near us always.Thank you, Cassy, for sharing. I remember Suzanne Vega was acting silly and said something about Joni. I had just seen her in concert and I was so hurt and I never bought any of her albums again. Nobody did, in my world. I thank God for giving me life right now, with my family, Joni, friends and pets. I think we can make a difference and help our planet heal. NormaJean - --- Cassy wrote: > Here is an interesting article about Joni from the > cbc site today: > > http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/joni.html > > Joni's blue period > The impact of Joni Mitchell's Blue album on a teen > in the 80s > By Katrina Onstad > January 26, 2007 > > > On Jan. 28, Joni Mitchell will be inducted into the > Canadian Songwriters > Hall of Fame, and I'm praying that no one serenades > her with River. > > The uninvited soundtrack to Christmas 2006 was Sarah > McLachlan's low-fat, > fun-free, vanilla-latte version of Mitchell's 1971 > classic River. Between > the first and 24th of December, every time I found > myself wading through a > snake pit mega-chain toward the last stripy scarf in > the bin, Sarah > McLachlan was there, too, braying the theme song of > my holiday > disorganization with all the laziness that typifies > a one-off Christmas cash > grab: "I wish I had a river so looong." I swear she > yawns during the word > "long." > > There is something peculiar about McLachlan, founder > of the successful women's > music festival Lilith Fair, covering Mitchell. > Mitchell has always shrugged > off the "woman genius" mantle, despite her status as > musical pioneer and > adopted mommy figure for legions of female singer > songwriters. She once told > a reporter: "One guy came up to me and said, 'You're > the best female > singer-songwriter in the world.' I was thinking: > 'What do you mean female? > That's like saying you're the best Negro.'" > > Point taken; it's a backhanded compliment with a > ghetto sting. But as a > teenaged girl in the mid-'80s encountering Blue (the > album containing River) > for the first time, the fact that the songs - > confessional but not > solipsistic; folk but not earnest; pop but not empty > - were written by a > woman felt thrilling. Mitchell sang of adventure, > disappointment, God, love, > disaster. Not only was the music emotionally bloody > and intricate, the > lyrics - her busy phrasing pushing the words to > spill out over the song's > structure - made it seem like she was living a > gigantic life. > > Pre-Google, I harassed my favourite clerk at the > local second-hand record > store for information, researched her in back issues > of Rolling Stone, and > learned that Joni Mitchell was a painter, too, and a > poet. She owned all the > rights to her songs. She had been smoking since she > was nine. She occupied > the world. That this music didn't come from Bob > Dylan or Leonard Cohen (her > contemporaries) or REM's Michael Stipe and the > Fall's Mark E. Smith (mine) > provided a kind of comfort I didn't know I needed: > greatness and arrogance > and artistry could be female, too. That Mitchell > didn't want to be > considered a feminist paving the road for female > musicians only made her > more intriguing (though her very existence did, and > still does, seem like > feminism to me); that was a way of being I hadn't > known, either. > > I first heard the song River - and this is so very > sad - during an episode > of the yuppie angst TV drama thirtysomething when I > was 16 or 17. The female > singers of my generation were Tiffany, Debbie > Gibson, Whitney Houston: teeny > boppers, vocal acrobats and hired hands, mostly > singing songs written for > them by other people - often men, or Carole Bayer > Sager. They sang about > liking boys, and wanting to dance with somebody. I > was just old enough to > recognize how hard this stuff sucked, and I was > rabid for music more like > the poetry and fiction that had my head spinning; > something speaking of all > the possible ways to exist. I knew, as all teenagers > do, that I was leaving > adolescence, and I heard the thrill and sadness of > adulthood in River's > opening note, that repeated one-finger Jingle Bells > piano, and then the > lyrics: "It's coming on Christmas/ They're cutting > down trees/ They're > putting up reindeer/ Singing songs of joy and peace/ > I wish I had a river so > long/ I would teach my feet to fly." A song about > ice-skating ! (Lou Reed > didn't have one of those!) The rumours were true, > then: Joni Mitchell was > Canadian, too. > > By the end of the '60s, Mitchell had become a > darling of the Laurel Canyon > So-Cal folk scene. Though singers like Judy Collins > and Buffy Saint-Marie > had made hits out of Mitchell's songs, her own > stardom wore on her, and in > 1970, Mitchell "quit this crazy scene" (a phrase > from River), writing most > of Blue in self-imposed exile while travelling > through Europe. Big Yellow > Taxi and Both Sides Now may be her best-known songs, > but it's the entire > album Blue that is still her most resonant work. In > an upcoming tribute > disc, three of the 12 songs come from Blue. On > Rolling Stone's Top 500 > Albums of all time, it's ranked No. 30. Her long > career since has been > marked by departure and reinvention, most famously > her collaboration with > jazz idol Charles Mingus. At the Canadian > Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony, > Margaret Atwood will read her poetry, and jazz > musician Herbie Hancock and > soprano Measha Brueggergosman will perform her > songs. Mitchell, who hates a > box, is sure to love this. > > But no matter how experimental the evening gets (I > fear interpretive dance), > many of us watching will be hearing the clean, raw > precision of Blue in our > heads. The record feels like it could only exist as > an album, something from > before the fragmentation brought on by iPods and > downloads, when you were > forced to witness the whole vision, track by track. > The thing Mitchell built > was a house of postponed grieving: maybe for her > privacy, her relationship > with Graham Nash or the daughter she gave up for > adoption a few years > before. In the mid-'90s, when Mitchell publicly > reunited with that daughter, > the cryptic lyrics to Little Green made sense: "He > went to California/ > Hearing that everything's warmer there/ So you write > him a letter and say > 'Her eyes are blue'/ He sends you a poem and she's > lost to you.." It's a > perfect rumination on sorrow. Mitchell has said: "At > that period of my life, > I had no personal defences.. There's hardly a > dishonest note in the vocals." > > Mitchell's work, while not a roadmap to her life, > has always been far too > personal to pass as hippie banner-waving. The > exception may be the anthem > Woodstock, a hit for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, > but Mitchell never > actually made it to the festival, choosing instead > to make an appearance on > The Dick Cavett Show. Still, the vagabond principle > of the era is all over > Blue, as in the song Carey: "Carey get out your cane > and I'll put on some > silver/ Oh, you're a mean old daddy but I like you > fine." Silver, linen, > African winds - there's a vaguely Wiccan, > Tiffany-lamp vibe to Mitchell, and > her dedicated followers, that I've always tried to > ignore. Yet Blue doesn't > feel like an artifact. If Mitchell were merely a > boomer hero, she wouldn't > matter so much to Sufjan Stevens and Bjork, who > cover her on the upcoming > tribute disc. If she were merely a female hero, > Prince and Elvis Costello > wouldn't cite her as a major influence; they appear > on the tribute, too. The > song Prince chose to cover? A Case of You, from > Blue, === message truncated === ____________________________________________________________________________________ We won't tell. Get more on shows you hate to love (and love to hate): Yahoo! TV's Guilty Pleasures list. http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/265 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 10:41:59 -0800 (PST) From: Norma Jean Garza Subject: Re: Media NJC Christiane Amanpoor has my greatest respect and she has fought fitting into this media mold of moron newscasters even if she works for CNN. N. J. - --- Paul In MD wrote: > Chiming in really late on this one but I have to > agree with your comments about the media, Catherine. > I understand the marketplace determines content but > I also understand about the ease of pandering to the > lowest common denominator and the basest instincts > as opposed to trying to uplift and educate. Media > is a powerful tool (there is a reason advertising > works) and its effect on the masses is huge. If our > Media is full of pablum, who needs Soma? > > The truly scary thing is not that there are so many > gossip type shows on the air, it's that this now > passes as hard news. I saw a show with Laurie > Garrett, a reporter who had recently left her job at > Newsday and wrote a memo to her colleagues when she > left. It detailed her reasons and outlined the > decline in the field of journalism. Excerpts of the > memo follow: > > > > ... news organizations have been > devoured by massive corporations, and allegiance to > stockholders, the drive for higher share prices, and > push for larger dividend returns trumps everything > that > the grunts in the newsrooms consider their missions. > Long gone are the days of fast-talking, whiskey- > swilling Murray Kempton peers eloquently filling > columns with daily dish on government scandals, > mobsters and police corruption. The sort of in-your- > face challenge that the Fourth Estate once posed for > politicians has been replaced by mud-slinging, lies > and, where it ought not be, timidity ... > > ... too many journalists seem to mistake > scandal mongering for tenacious investigation, and > far > too many aspire to make themselves the story ... > > ... honesty and tenacity (and for that matter, the > working > class) seem to have taken backseats to the sort of > "snappy news", sensationalism, scandal-for-the-sake > of > scandal crap that sells ... > > ... this is terrible for democracy. I have been in > 47 > states of the USA since 9/11, and I can attest to > the > horrible impact the deterioration of journalism has > had > on the national psyche. I have found America a place > of > great and confused fearfulness, in which cynically > placed bits of misinformation ... fall on ears that > absorb > all, without filtration or fact-checking. Leading > journalists have tried to defend their mission, > pointing to the paucity of accurate, edited coverage > found in blogs, internet sites, Fox-TV and talk > radio. > They argue that good old-fashioned newspaper editing > is > the key to providing America with credible > information, > forming the basis for wise voting and enlightened > governance. But their claims have been undermined > ... > > > The rest of the memo can be found here: > > http://pentaside.org/article/journalist-resignation.html > > And an interview with her here: > > http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/14/151255 > > In the interview I saw, she said that other parts of > the world do a much better job of reporting the news > than Americans. She related that people who visited > from overseas commented on how much time the > national media devotes to fluff (OJ, Michael > Jackson) while ignoring covering and explaining the > issues that truly affect people (Social Security, > Global Warming, eroding freedoms). She also had > some great ideas about how to improve the state of > journalism. > > There's more ... but that's enough of a rant for one > day. :) > > Paul In MD > > Catherine McKay wrote: And > going really off-topic into njc territory, all > this makes me wonder about just how big the gossip > media are today. There are just so many magazines, > websites and crap-TV posing as journalism shows that > regurgitate the same endless blah-blah-blah about > the > same annoying celebrities. It's just a ploy to take > our minds off the real problems of the world - those > little things called war, famine, poverty and so on. > > Keep 'em gossiping about Brittney and Paris and > maybe > they'll forget about the big issues. > > > Catherine > Toronto > > > > --------------------------------- > Access over 1 million songs - Yahoo! Music > Unlimited. > ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a PS3 game guru. Get your game face on with the latest PS3 news and previews at Yahoo! Games. http://videogames.yahoo.com/platform?platform=120121 ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2007 #35 **************************** ------- Post messages to the list by clicking here: mailto:joni@smoe.org Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------