From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2014 #1935 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 Sunday, April 5 2015 Volume 2014 : Number 1935 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Re: Joni Article in The Guardian (UK) [Joe Jones ] Re: Joni Article in The Guardian (UK) [Kevin Foehr ] Re: Joni Article in The Guardian (UK) [Garret ] Here are 2 places to express your love to Joni [Barbara Sullivan ] nervous, then send joni a message [lesli shadowsandlight ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2015 19:47:07 +0100 From: Joe Jones Subject: Re: Joni Article in The Guardian (UK) Hi Anita, Agreed, pretty bleak - Joni's music brings me joy mostly - with more than a hint of admiration. I met some Saskatchewanites on a London - North Wales train recently - asked them who was easily the most famous Saskatchewanite in the world - - they didn't have a clue - but agreed when I said Joni ;-) I think I'll put "Live at The Hague", 1983 on now. Cheers - Joe On 4 April 2015 at 16:48, Anita Gabrielle wrote: > Blimey, Joe I thought 'He's in a really bad way" until I realised you'd also > cut and pasted the article. The bit at the end which says: > > "I don't think she knows how much she' s venerated. Or maybe she knows and > it doesn't t matter. It fulfils nothing. It makes no difference. She's as > alone with her music as we are." > > > Pretty bleak, huh? Linda Grant - You Should Join JMDL!!! :-))) > Anita > > > > > On 4 Apr 2015, at 10:36, Joe Jones wrote: > > http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/04/not-easy-to-be-joni-mitchell-fan-but-illness-devastates-me > > Itb s not always easy to be a Joni Mitchell fan, but her illness > devastates me - Linda Grant > > Joni Mitchell is one of the greats, indisputably, and her increasingly > frail health is, to a superfan like me, a terribly sad thing to see b > however angry, bitter and paranoid she seems to have become > > I donb t think Joni Mitchell knows how much sheb s venerated. Or maybe > she knows and it doesnb t matter, writes Linda Grant. > > Saturday 4 April 2015 08.00 BST > > For a long time I have worried about where I will be when I hear the > announcement of Joni Mitchellb s death. I donb t want it to be when I am > in transit, or about to do a literary festival or attend a family > celebration. I need to be on my own. I need to close down the > internet, draw the curtains and spend the next two days repeatedly > listening to the albums Hejira, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Court and > Spark and Blue. I am going to be traumatised. This wonb t be just a > death; it is going to feel like an emotional amputation. No other > artist has meant as much to me, or has taught me so much about myself. > This week the news broke that Mitchell, now 71, had been found > unconscious and was in intensive care. A childhood survivor of polio, > her health has not been good for a long time. She has, by her own > admission, wrecked her voice through smoking and is suffering from a > mysterious skin condition called Morgellons disease. She is not in > great shape, and I worry that our long ride together may soon come to > an end. > > You start out being a fan of some teenybop star when you are 12 or 13 > and then grow out of it. You cringe and shudder when you remember > those hot, passionate feelings for the little doe-eyed boy-man, deny > that you ever had a Smash Hits centrefold of Donny Osmond or One > Direction on your bedroom wall. But what if you started to listen to > someone when you were 17, someone who was one of the greatest of their > generation and of the century, who articulated that particular moment > when opposing longings for love and for artistic self-expression are > waging war in you? And nearly 50 years later, you are still a fan, and > the person whose music means everything to you is hospitalised and in > danger and youb re holding your breath; youb re ready to be heartbroken. > Joni Mitchell treated in intensive care at Los Angeles hospital > > Mitchell is one of the greats b as great as Bob Dylan, maybe greater, > but itb s not a contest; she just means more to me than he does. If she > means nothing to you, too bad, your loss. Just donb t persecute her. > One element of my devotion is anger at the raw and rawer deal she has > received from the music press, since the contemptuous awarding of the > title b Old lady of the yearb by Rolling Stone, as if she were more of > a groupie than a great lyricist. Mention Joni Mitchell today and you > may still be greeted by a sarcastic falsetto imitation of her song > Woodstock, from the early years before the cigs introduced gravel into > her voice. She was at her height in the early 70s, a decade of bad > clothes and celebrity sex pests, of overblown prog-rock and a general > political malaise. Punk came along and kicked in anything with nuance, > sophistication, feeling, lyricism. She was shunted into the same > derisory cul de sac as, say, Peter, Paul and Mary or Donovan b hippy > and drippy b when she was a jazz singer, a consummate composer, a poet > and a thinker. > > What she always lacked, to oppose all that dismissive contempt, was > the obsessiveness of the male fanbase: the Deadheads and Dylanologists > who catalogue and compete for record-collection kudos among a > fraternity of admirers. Where are the dry, 1,000-page volumes of > musical Joni-trivia, the conferences, the PhD dissertations? We just > locked the door and listened on our own. On hearing the news of her > hospitalisation, the crime writer Val McDermid tweeted: b Distraught to > hear Joni Mitchell in intensive care. Her music inhabits my heart, my > very soul.b > > I accept that Mitchell has not been the easiest star to love. She > gives little back to her fans and her views on feminism have been > disheartening to say the least. She seems to have lately rejected > everything her generation stood for, from its ideals to its clothes. > There is a tendency to think that if you could only meet the person of > whom you are a fan, you would inevitably become friends. For a long > time I imagined that I would be hitchhiking one day and Joni would > pick me up and web d drive along under a limitless sky talking about > the men we had loved and the trap of marriage and the perhaps > unavoidable tendency of romantics to become cynics, and the desire for > Paris gowns and lacy dresses and skating on a frozen lake in a snow > storm b& and I wouldnb t need to tell Joni a thing about me. She already > knew. Sheb d written my emotional biography. b I am a woman of heart and > mind / With time on her hands / No child to raiseb . b Sharon, I left my > man / At a North Dakota Junction / And I came out to the Big Apple > here / To face the dreamb s malfunction.b And, definitively, b Nothing > is capsulised in me / On either side of town / The streets were never > really mine / Not mine these glamour gowns.b If I could express any of > that in a novel, so succinctly, I would have done. But sheb s the > genius, not me. > > I hate the media and the music business for their disgraceful > treatment of an artist of her stature. And I have to concede, when I > read interviews with her, that these blows have not been borne > graciously. They have not been borne at all. She seems lonely, angry, > bitter, paranoid and afraid. I worry about her. Had she been a man, > she would be on her third or fourth considerably younger partner, with > a new young family, that complacent second act that women are denied. > Maybe if sheb d been a Buddhist or got into some faith system, been > born again into a cult or the church, sheb d have found peace. But in a > recent interview in the Sunday Times, she laid into hippies, all > contemporary music, Bob Dylan, and again, feminists. She nixed a > biopic starring Taylor Swift because all the young star could offer > was cheekbones. Her reunion with the daughter she had given up for > adoption went sour. Her tone is autocratic, arrogant and angry. She > reminds me, in a way, of Philip Roth, another raging titan of the > American arts. > > She has called herself b a scientist of loveb ; how to love is what > sheb s trying to get to the bottom of. Like Jean Rhys, she has drawn > the anatomy of a womanb s heart, the men we fall for, the loneliness, > the fatal choices. The accretion of age, the disappointments of > living, are part of the journey web ve all been on with her, so this > life-long fandom canb t have a happy ending. Or even a happy middle. > Pity the poor children with an indelible online record of the day they > wept when they heard Zayn Malik was leaving One Direction. Perhaps the > lifelong experience of being a fan, an admirer, an acolyte or a > student of an artist will turn out to have been a fluke, a small > window of privilege, and from now on careers will burn up in a year or > two, the experience fleeting for the adorer and the adored alike. I > donb t think she knows how much sheb s venerated. Or maybe she knows and > it doesnb t matter. It fulfils nothing. It makes no difference. Sheb s > as alone with her music as we are. > > Joe Jones (St. Asaph) > > np - Late For The Sky - Jackson Browne > > -- > -- > Joe Jones > +44 7831 914094 - -- - -- Joe Jones +44 7831 914094 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2015 11:38:54 -0700 From: Dave Blackburn Subject: gathering on 4/11 Dear Joni friends, Robin and I would like to host a minifest potluck gathering at our home in Fallbrook on Saturday afternoon from noon (April 11th) for any members of this list who would like to come together to visit, play music and give ourselves some strength during this time of worry about Joni. Please email me, or Robin, robinadler52@att.net offlist if youbd like to join us. The weather looks fine and there are inexpensive motels nearby, if needed. thanks, Dave ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2015 20:56:05 +0000 (UTC) From: Kevin Foehr Subject: Re: Joni Article in The Guardian (UK) Hi, That Guardian article was horrible. B Talking about her death was in very poor taste and complaining abut everything from the music biz to Joni herself was very tiresome. To the author I say, give her a break, please! B Love her music, love her for her genius and for all the joy and deep emotion she brought to our lives. B But leave her personal life alone. B Accept her as she is; she could never match the exalted status of perfection many of us put her on in our youth. B She is unique; she is unlike the rest of us. (And thank god TS is not going to play her in a film; what a travesty that would have been, imo!) B I think she is an inspired soul, a musical genius,B and, as Aristotle said, B "There is no great genius without aB mixture of madness". B Enjoy the genius accept her "madness" and love her now when she needs it. Kevin F. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2015 20:56:05 +0000 (UTC) From: Kevin Foehr Subject: Re: Joni Article in The Guardian (UK) Hi, That Guardian article was horrible. B Talking about her death was in very poor taste and complaining abut everything from the music biz to Joni herself was very tiresome. To the author I say, give her a break, please! B Love her music, love her for her genius and for all the joy and deep emotion she brought to our lives. B But leave her personal life alone. B Accept her as she is; she could never match the exalted status of perfection many of us put her on in our youth. B She is unique; she is unlike the rest of us. (And thank god TS is not going to play her in a film; what a travesty that would have been, imo!) B I think she is an inspired soul, a musical genius,B and, as Aristotle said, B "There is no great genius without aB mixture of madness". B Enjoy the genius accept her "madness" and love her now when she needs it. Kevin F. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Apr 2015 00:06:25 +0000 (UTC) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: Joni Article in The Guardian (UK) I understand Kevin's point of view. I found the mention of Joni possibly dying kind of disconcerting. But, apart from that, I found that the article pretty much summed up how I fell in love with Joni's music when I was in my early teens and how she has been part of my life ever since. Yes, I get a bit discouraged by her complaining, but I don't blame her for feeling that way. Interviewers tend to ask her the same stupid questions over and over again and I guess she sticks to certain stories, but I care more about her music than all of that. From: Garret To: Kevin Foehr Cc: "joni-digest@smoe.org" ; JMDL Sent: Saturday, April 4, 2015 6:40 PM Subject: Re: Joni Article in The Guardian (UK) Oh gosh. I disagree entirely.B I thought thw article summed up my feelings and my experience exactly. EachB to their own. Now let's go and listen to the music as that's what brought us all here in the first place :) Garret On 4 Apr 2015 22:17, "Kevin Foehr" wrote: > Hi, > That Guardian article was horrible. B Talking about her death was in very > poor > taste and complaining abut everything from the music biz to Joni herself > was > very tiresome. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2015 12:02:58 -0700 From: Victor Subject: Re: gathering on 4/11 That sounds divine. Wish we were just a little bit closer. Though 950 miles is definitely an improvement from 2150. Victor in Bend NP: John Coltrane "Chasin' the Train" Sent from my iPhone > On Apr 4, 2015, at 11:38 AM, Dave Blackburn wrote: > > Dear Joni friends, > > Robin and I would like to host a minifest potluck gathering at our home in > Fallbrook on Saturday afternoon from noon (April 11th) for any members of this > list who would like to come together to visit, play music and give ourselves > some strength during this time of worry about Joni. Please email me, or Robin, > robinadler52@att.net offlist if youbd like to join us. The weather looks > fine and there are inexpensive motels nearby, if needed. > > thanks, > > Dave ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2015 23:40:14 +0100 From: Garret Subject: Re: Joni Article in The Guardian (UK) Oh gosh. I disagree entirely. I thought thw article summed up my feelings and my experience exactly. Each to their own. Now let's go and listen to the music as that's what brought us all here in the first place :) Garret On 4 Apr 2015 22:17, "Kevin Foehr" wrote: > Hi, > That Guardian article was horrible. B Talking about her death was in very > poor > taste and complaining abut everything from the music biz to Joni herself > was > very tiresome. > To the author I say, give her a break, please! B Love her music, love her > for > her genius and for all the joy and deep emotion she brought to our lives. > B But leave her personal life alone. B Accept her as she is; she could > never > match the exalted status of perfection many of us put her on in our youth. > B > She is unique; she is unlike the rest of us. (And thank god TS is not > going to > play her in a film; what a travesty that would have been, imo!) B I think > she > is an inspired soul, a musical genius,B and, as Aristotle said, B "There > is no > great genius without aB mixture of madness". > B Enjoy the genius accept her "madness" and love her now when she needs it. > Kevin F. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2015 17:34:00 -0400 From: Barbara Sullivan Subject: Here are 2 places to express your love to Joni Her followers have rushed to social media to show that they care, posting their concern using the #WeLoveYouJoni hashtag. To give them a place to express their love for Joni, a new website We Love You Joni contains more than 3,000 postings with outpourings such as those below.Here are a few posts, including mine. Theres really no famous person I care about as much as this woman. To a rapid healing process. #WeLoveYouJoni My aunts and uncles and parents would play you records. As a toddler I would fall asleep in front of the speaker, stairing into the patterns of the woven cover and of the songs. Later you helped me see that making art spanned across all mediums. Rightly so. You soothed my broken hearts and complimented the parties. The biggest bouquet of flowers that ever I picked was given to you because you have given so much to us by way of your lifes work. Good working Joni, now you get to rest. On behalf of my entire family, we thank you. Grateful that you were there when I was growing up, in my radio, on my record, and in my heart. Sending my best and most positive vibes to transform your health.Hello it's me and all your loving fans!It's gonna be a new day ahead for you Joni.Our words you've heard before...becauseIt's only for the sake of Love.The Best is yet to come!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9G5X180C2w ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2015 16:48:32 +0100 From: Anita Gabrielle Subject: Re: Joni Article in The Guardian (UK) Blimey, Joe I thought 'He's in a really bad way" until I realised you'd also cut and pasted the article. The bit at the end which says: > "I don't think she knows how much she' s venerated. Or maybe she knows and it doesn't t matter. It fulfils nothing. It makes no difference. She's as alone with her music as we are." Pretty bleak, huh? Linda Grant - You Should Join JMDL!!! :-))) Anita > On 4 Apr 2015, at 10:36, Joe Jones wrote: > > http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/04/not-easy-to-be-joni-mitc hell-fan-but-illness-devastates-me > > Itbs not always easy to be a Joni Mitchell fan, but her illness > devastates me - Linda Grant > > Joni Mitchell is one of the greats, indisputably, and her increasingly > frail health is, to a superfan like me, a terribly sad thing to see b > however angry, bitter and paranoid she seems to have become > > I donbt think Joni Mitchell knows how much shebs venerated. Or maybe > she knows and it doesnbt matter, writes Linda Grant. > > Saturday 4 April 2015 08.00 BST > > For a long time I have worried about where I will be when I hear the > announcement of Joni Mitchellbs death. I donbt want it to be when I am > in transit, or about to do a literary festival or attend a family > celebration. I need to be on my own. I need to close down the > internet, draw the curtains and spend the next two days repeatedly > listening to the albums Hejira, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Court and > Spark and Blue. I am going to be traumatised. This wonbt be just a > death; it is going to feel like an emotional amputation. No other > artist has meant as much to me, or has taught me so much about myself. > This week the news broke that Mitchell, now 71, had been found > unconscious and was in intensive care. A childhood survivor of polio, > her health has not been good for a long time. She has, by her own > admission, wrecked her voice through smoking and is suffering from a > mysterious skin condition called Morgellons disease. She is not in > great shape, and I worry that our long ride together may soon come to > an end. > > You start out being a fan of some teenybop star when you are 12 or 13 > and then grow out of it. You cringe and shudder when you remember > those hot, passionate feelings for the little doe-eyed boy-man, deny > that you ever had a Smash Hits centrefold of Donny Osmond or One > Direction on your bedroom wall. But what if you started to listen to > someone when you were 17, someone who was one of the greatest of their > generation and of the century, who articulated that particular moment > when opposing longings for love and for artistic self-expression are > waging war in you? And nearly 50 years later, you are still a fan, and > the person whose music means everything to you is hospitalised and in > danger and youbre holding your breath; youbre ready to be heartbroken. > Joni Mitchell treated in intensive care at Los Angeles hospital > > Mitchell is one of the greats b as great as Bob Dylan, maybe greater, > but itbs not a contest; she just means more to me than he does. If she > means nothing to you, too bad, your loss. Just donbt persecute her. > One element of my devotion is anger at the raw and rawer deal she has > received from the music press, since the contemptuous awarding of the > title bOld lady of the yearb by Rolling Stone, as if she were more of > a groupie than a great lyricist. Mention Joni Mitchell today and you > may still be greeted by a sarcastic falsetto imitation of her song > Woodstock, from the early years before the cigs introduced gravel into > her voice. She was at her height in the early 70s, a decade of bad > clothes and celebrity sex pests, of overblown prog-rock and a general > political malaise. Punk came along and kicked in anything with nuance, > sophistication, feeling, lyricism. She was shunted into the same > derisory cul de sac as, say, Peter, Paul and Mary or Donovan b hippy > and drippy b when she was a jazz singer, a consummate composer, a poet > and a thinker. > > What she always lacked, to oppose all that dismissive contempt, was > the obsessiveness of the male fanbase: the Deadheads and Dylanologists > who catalogue and compete for record-collection kudos among a > fraternity of admirers. Where are the dry, 1,000-page volumes of > musical Joni-trivia, the conferences, the PhD dissertations? We just > locked the door and listened on our own. On hearing the news of her > hospitalisation, the crime writer Val McDermid tweeted: bDistraught to > hear Joni Mitchell in intensive care. Her music inhabits my heart, my > very soul.b > > I accept that Mitchell has not been the easiest star to love. She > gives little back to her fans and her views on feminism have been > disheartening to say the least. She seems to have lately rejected > everything her generation stood for, from its ideals to its clothes. > There is a tendency to think that if you could only meet the person of > whom you are a fan, you would inevitably become friends. For a long > time I imagined that I would be hitchhiking one day and Joni would > pick me up and webd drive along under a limitless sky talking about > the men we had loved and the trap of marriage and the perhaps > unavoidable tendency of romantics to become cynics, and the desire for > Paris gowns and lacy dresses and skating on a frozen lake in a snow > storm b& and I wouldnbt need to tell Joni a thing about me. She already > knew. Shebd written my emotional biography. bI am a woman of heart and > mind / With time on her hands / No child to raiseb. bSharon, I left my > man / At a North Dakota Junction / And I came out to the Big Apple > here / To face the dreambs malfunction.b And, definitively, bNothing > is capsulised in me / On either side of town / The streets were never > really mine / Not mine these glamour gowns.b If I could express any of > that in a novel, so succinctly, I would have done. But shebs the > genius, not me. > > I hate the media and the music business for their disgraceful > treatment of an artist of her stature. And I have to concede, when I > read interviews with her, that these blows have not been borne > graciously. They have not been borne at all. She seems lonely, angry, > bitter, paranoid and afraid. I worry about her. Had she been a man, > she would be on her third or fourth considerably younger partner, with > a new young family, that complacent second act that women are denied. > Maybe if shebd been a Buddhist or got into some faith system, been > born again into a cult or the church, shebd have found peace. But in a > recent interview in the Sunday Times, she laid into hippies, all > contemporary music, Bob Dylan, and again, feminists. She nixed a > biopic starring Taylor Swift because all the young star could offer > was cheekbones. Her reunion with the daughter she had given up for > adoption went sour. Her tone is autocratic, arrogant and angry. She > reminds me, in a way, of Philip Roth, another raging titan of the > American arts. > > She has called herself ba scientist of loveb; how to love is what > shebs trying to get to the bottom of. Like Jean Rhys, she has drawn > the anatomy of a womanbs heart, the men we fall for, the loneliness, > the fatal choices. The accretion of age, the disappointments of > living, are part of the journey webve all been on with her, so this > life-long fandom canbt have a happy ending. Or even a happy middle. > Pity the poor children with an indelible online record of the day they > wept when they heard Zayn Malik was leaving One Direction. Perhaps the > lifelong experience of being a fan, an admirer, an acolyte or a > student of an artist will turn out to have been a fluke, a small > window of privilege, and from now on careers will burn up in a year or > two, the experience fleeting for the adorer and the adored alike. I > donbt think she knows how much shebs venerated. Or maybe she knows and > it doesnbt matter. It fulfils nothing. It makes no difference. Shebs > as alone with her music as we are. > > Joe Jones (St. Asaph) > > np - Late For The Sky - Jackson Browne > > -- > -- > Joe Jones > +44 7831 914094 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2015 01:16:40 -0700 From: "Mark Scott" Subject: An update on JoniMitchell.com http://jonimitchell.com/news.cfm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2015 03:23:35 -0700 From: lesli shadowsandlight Subject: nervous, then send joni a message jonimitchell.com has created a way for fans to send joni get well messages. it's called : we love you joni mitchell. you can use twitter or facebook format, It says it will be shown to joni, even if she never looks at it, it keeps us busy and from worrying quite so; much. it gives us a chance to contribute rather than worry. , i ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2015 23:00:43 -0400 From: "Jim L'Hommedieu" Subject: Conflicting stories 1. Was she non-responsive or did she just faint? 2. Is she still in intensive care or not? 3. Did she get surgery or not? 4. Does the lack of news mean that she wants it that way? 5. Since she lacks parents, a manager, and a spouse, does she have any support group? You know, is she making her own decisions, or is it Kilauren? Jim ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2014 #1935 ****************************** ------- To post messages to the list,sendtojoni@smoe.org. Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------