From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2013 #229 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 Website:http://jonimitchell.com JMDL Digest Thursday, February 14 2013 Volume 2013 : Number 229 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- TS as Joni ["kbhla" ] TS as Joni [Sharon Watkins ] Re: TS as Joni ["Mark" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2013 16:18:08 -0800 From: "kbhla" Subject: TS as Joni I'm neutral on the casting of TS as Joni in Girls Like Us (though I love Catherine's suggestion of Jennifer Lawrence) and more concerned about how the film will portray the "National Enquirer" type tales from ex-lovers and husbands sourced in the book. Some of the stuff really made me squirm and felt pretty intrusive and, well, I'll stop there. As for Joni's Glam period - "everything comes and goes, marked by lovers and styles of clothes" ;-) Kakki ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:48:15 -0600 From: Sharon Watkins Subject: TS as Joni I swore I would never post on JMDL again, but here are my thoughts on the matter: 1. I still don't think it's confirmed that TS has the role of Joni. It was mentioned in Variety, but TS herself has never confirmed that she was offered the role. If she really had the role, I don't think she could keep quiet about it. 2. If this movie ever gets made, it has to tell the stories of three recording artists within approximately 2 hours, meaning that approximately 40 minutes will be devoted to each person. 3. Assuming the entire range of the book is to be covered, each singer's allotted 40 minutes has to cover childhood through the present. 4. Assuming #3 is true, the movie will do justice to neither Joni, Carole nor Carly. How can their life stories possibly be distilled into 40 minutes? Impossible! But in my biased opinion, especially Joni's, as I believe she's infinitely more talented than Carole and Carly. 5. The only possible way to even remotely develop each character is to focus on a limited time span within Girls Like Us, much as Speilberg did when making Lincoln from Team of Rivals. 6. Assuming # 5 is true, the movie will still only hit a few highlights for each singer. So TS would have so little screen time, it probably doesn't make a dime's worth of difference if she plays Joni or not. 7. I vote for a full out biopic on Joni alone, along the lines of those for Ray Charles and Johnny Cash. She deserves this. Cast an unknown after a vast casting call and maybe check out some singers from premier music schools like Berklee etc!! Sent from my iPhone ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2013 21:20:50 -0800 From: "Mark" Subject: Re: TS as Joni I don't really have anything against Taylor Swift personally and since I'm not 15, I'm not very likely to cotton much to her music. I have seen at least one interview with her and she seems to be quite likable and not overly self-obsessed. I'm sure the production for her stint opening the Grammy Awards was entirely out of her hands. So I can't really fault her for that either, if the truth be told. I've thought about this and my real problem is that I don't want to see a biopic made about Joni. Period. I just can't see it as being anything but a botch job. There have been a couple of attempts at TV movies about Elizabeth Taylor. I haven't seen either one of them so I'm no fair judge, although casting Lindsay Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor seems so laughable to begin with that I find it impossible not to have an 'attitude' about that particular project. But Elizabeth Taylor is someone else that I don't think anyone should ever even attempt to portray in a movie. Elizabeth's image will be preserved for as long as humans preserve motion pictures in one form or another and I just can't see anyone coming close to projecting the persona that she created, let alone the look of that face. Cate Blanchett managed to do justice to Katharine Hepburn, who is at least as great a legend as Elizabeth, in 'The Aviator'. But that was a supporting role. The film was about Howard Hughes, not Katharine Hepburn. But an entire movie about Kate Hepburn? Don't want to see it. Maybe the world at large doesn't have the same awareness of the talent and persona of Joni Mitchell as it does of Elizabeth Taylor. Maybe I'm sounding fanatical or obsessive about Joni. But for me her genius and utterly unique personality are impossible for anyone to successfully capture. And as far as singing is concerned, I don't know of anyone who could approach the vocal range, the depth of emotion or the honesty of Joni Mitchell in the days when her voice was still a pristine soprano. And as long as humans preserve recorded music in one form or another, the sound of Joni's voice and music will be preserved. But, then again, I'm no fair judge since I don't keep tabs on today's popular music. So what do I know? I resisted reading 'Girls Like Us' for a long time because of some of the more sensational excerpts from it I had seen. Like Kakki, they made me squirm. But I finally did read it. I learned a lot of things about all three singers that I didn't know, Carole King in particular. Also, as more time goes by, I see Sheila Weller's purpose in tying these three women's lives together. Superficially it would seem the only things they had in common were that they were all three singer/musician/songwriters and all three were connected with James Taylor. But I think Weller did manage to make her point that these three artists, each in her own way and out of her own experience, expressed a uniquely feminine point of view and helped shatter many of the restrictive 'rules' that women had felt compelled to live by for so many centuries. And, as many of us have said about Joni, they provided a soundtrack to the lives of many women (as well as men) as they gained maturity, confidence and power. How do you portray the glue that holds 'Girls Like Us' together in a movie without making it belabored or didactic? And, as Sharon pointed out, how could you even begin to tell the stories of those three women in the accepted time period of a commercially viable film? So I'm going to go one more step out onto my opinionated limb and say I don't think 'Girls Like Us' can be made into a movie that successfully captures the essence of the book. I also have to admit that had I never seen 'Lady Sings the Blues', inaccurate as it is, I might not have started to listen to Billie Holiday. So maybe a movie about Joni Mitchell would broaden her fan base. But from everything I've read about Billie, her status as a highly revered artist was conferred long before Diana Ross sang 'Good Morning Heartache'. Whether her recordings generate mass sales or not, the same can be said about Joni and Taylor Swift singing 'Help Me' or 'A Case of You' is not going to change that. Mark in Seattle - -----Original Message----- From: kbhla Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2013 4:18 PM To: joni@smoe.org Subject: TS as Joni I'm neutral on the casting of TS as Joni in Girls Like Us (though I love Catherine's suggestion of Jennifer Lawrence) and more concerned about how the film will portray the "National Enquirer" type tales from ex-lovers and husbands sourced in the book. Some of the stuff really made me squirm and felt pretty intrusive and, well, I'll stop there. As for Joni's Glam period - "everything comes and goes, marked by lovers and styles of clothes" ;-) Kakki ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2013 #229 ***************************** ------- To post messages to the list, sendtojoni@smoe.org. Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------