From: owner-lucy-list-digest@smoe.org (lucy-list-digest) To: lucy-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: lucy-list-digest V4 #206 Reply-To: lucy-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-lucy-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-lucy-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk lucy-list-digest Monday, September 9 2002 Volume 04 : Number 206 In this issue: [lucy-list] Lucy in Bridgeport 9/7: Part 1 [lucy-list] Lucy in Bridgeport 9/7: Part 2 [lucy-list] UK Dates [lucy-list] for the parody library [lucy-list] crustacean correction, and idea RE: [lucy-list] UK Dates ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 08 Sep 2002 04:09:17 -0400 From: "Benay Bubar" Subject: [lucy-list] Lucy in Bridgeport 9/7: Part 1 I swore to Gerry that THIS time I was not going to stay up until all hours reviewing tonight's Lucy show...I was going to go right to bed and do the review in the morning. But that was before I drank an entire bottle of Pepsi---the regular, non-blue kind---in the attempt to keep myself functional through two hours of train/subway/walking to get home...over an hour of that time having been spent on a train next to three college-aged women discussing, literally, The Sex Education They Don't Give You in Catholic School. (I mean, I'm not a prude or anything, but my feeling is that just because some may have missed such education in Catholic school doesn't mean the whole world needs to obtain it on a commuter train at midnight.) So I am nowhere close to sleep now that I'm finally home, which means that I can spend the next little while either correcting the grammar in my company's dealing-with-the-9/11-anniversary memo (don't know what else to do with it but correct the grammar...good of them to say SOMETHING, and it's a very nice thought that if you spell out all appropriate reactions in a logical four-page typewritten memo and mail it out, everyone will knuckle back down to business and all will be well, but I'm not so sure that's how I feel) or posting to the Lucy-list. And I choose posting. The magnificent Donna Myers was kind enough to meet me in New Canaan and drive me to Bridgeport, where we had a quick dinner (WARM ham and cheese this time, Sharon---much better!) and then waited to get into the zoo for the show. And the Beardsley Zoo is...yes, a zoo...although if you have only attended a concert there, you could come away with the impression that it features only bugs and peacocks. (More on those momentarily.) The Peacock Pavillion is a pleasant little column-sided stage area with sand in the front (where the more intrepid among us spread our blankets and festival seats) and picnic tables in the back. Donna and I were front and center and were soon joined by the exalted Gerry Lane. The Peacock Cafe, near which CDs were sold (including Going Driftless---so I am spared buying that in a behemoth store and will have to find another quest) was a distance to the front of the stage on one side, with a huge carousel on the other side (near which Lucy apparently had her dressing room---she said she'd never had a carousel in her dressing room before). The show began at 6:45 with Maria Sangiolo (sp?), a Connecticut performer I'd never heard of but who was actually quite decent...a pleasant surprise for an "opening" opening act. At 7:15, Alice Peacock came on. I'd seen her open for John Gorka and enjoyed her quite a bit, and tonight I did like her catchy song I'll Be the One, but I just wasn't riveted after that...except when the peacocks ("my tribe," Alice called them) appeared. Or maybe it was all one peacock...but for a good part of Alice's set, there was indeed a peacock walking across the top of the pavillion. Alice said peacocks make noises---she imitated one and it sounded quite annoying---but tonight's peacock seemed to be the strong, silent type. There were, to my disappointment, no visible kaplanskies (lower case). However, I came to realize that this must be due to the fact that...and I neglected to mention this earlier...they are simply not nocturnal creatures. Kaplanskies (lower case) go to bed by six, so by the time the show started they were clearly all snug in their burrows. In fact, I saw a number of depressions in the sand near where I was sitting that I was quite sure were indicative of kaplansky burrows...so I knew they were there after all, even if they were asleep. (Incidentally, when I said hi to Lucy after the show, she said something like, "What's new?" And of course, this being SUCH a tough question, I went blank for a moment, then burst out in full dolt mode with something like, "I invented an animal for you!" Lucy looked confused, so of course I managed to dig myself in deeper, trying to explain briefly about the peacock thing, and kaplanskies and their traits...and during the course of this I saw Lucy's look of confusion deepen to a look I judged to fall somewhere between bewilderment and horror...I could practically see her making a mental note: Never Again Ask Benay What's New.) Anyway, finally, after an intermission following Alice Peacock's set, and after a raffle drawing for a CD giveaway, came the moment we had all been waiting for: it was time for Lucy's performance. Just one small problem...the promoter was onstage trying to introduce her, but there was no Lucy waiting to come onstage. Gerry had seen her earlier, so we knew she was somewhere...the question was, WHERE? The promoter stalled a little bit by telling us about future events at the zoo. Then he asked a little bit desperately if someone back in the hospitality room could alert Lucy to her impending performance. ("Is there a doctor in the house?") Still no Lucy. So the promoter started telling us for the second time how Pitney-Bowes had helped sponsor the show. We all clapped for Pitney-Bowes. He began discussing how we could thank Pitney-Bowes. Listing all the individual ways. We could, for instance, write Pitney-Bowes to thank them. Or call them. Or email them. Just as I thought he was going to come around to suggesting that we film ourselves doing an interpretive dance of gratitude and send the tape to Pitney-Bowes...there, at last, was Lucy!!! (Though we never quite found out what, if anything, had delayed her.) To be continued... Benay ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 08 Sep 2002 04:07:35 -0400 From: "Benay Bubar" Subject: [lucy-list] Lucy in Bridgeport 9/7: Part 2 So Lucy came onstage at about 8:30 in her preppy/hippie outfit. No peacocks around the Peacock Pavillion by then that I could see, though Donna insisted one was perched nearby in a tree. It was totally dark now, so we were seeing Lucy only by the stage lights. The stage lights also illuminated various bugs as they whizzed past Lucy...who at a certain point warned us that should she start freaking out during a song, it would be because she thought a bug had flown into her mouth (luckily, that did not appear to happen). So here's what Lucy sang: Small Dark Movie (discussion of Going Driftless and how somebody had nicknamed it "chicks do Greg") Written on the Back of His Hand (I've noticed that the last few times I've seen Lucy live, the phrasing on the chorus has changed...the end of "it was written on the back of his hand" is cut off slightly, with "you once" tacked on before any real pause...I wasn't sure about this at first, but now I think it's a good change because it really makes "you once" sound distinct from "you won't" in the next phrase...it's not too clear on the CD if you don't already know the words) I Had Something (Lucy still sets out paper for herself on which I assume she has the lyrics for this...but I've never seen her actually consult the paper even when she was first playing it) Broken Things (a request from the promoter, which Lucy said was like getting a request from the Mafia---you just do it. Later, the promoter got all mock-offended by this and spoke in a Godfather voice bringing Lucy back for encores) Ten Year Night (with bug intro...after all this time, I still laugh) Scorpion (together, what I think of now as the bug/crustacean song set!) Don't Mind Me I'm Looking Through You (so great...how I want her to record this!) This Is Home Land of the Living (together, what I think of now as the see-if-you-can-pull-yourself-together-after-THIS song set) (mention of how it was Rosh Hashanah and her mother had reminded her of this and hinted that she shouldn't be working today, but well, here she was) Alphabet Song Turn the Lights Back On You're Still Standing There (delightful---a relative live-show rarity) Song for Molly By Way of Sorrow That was the end of the main show, but Lucy ended up doing two encores. For the first, she asked for requests. Somebody asked for Still Life, calling it Flesh & Bone as many people tend to, and Lucy said, "Do you REALLY want to hear a really depressing song?" and someone else shouted "NO!" so that was that. Lucy then said there was one song she felt like doing, and she launched into the opening chords of Mary Magdalene before remarking with a start that this was some song to be doing on Rosh Hashanah and she was now going to feel REALLY guilty. (Yes, Mary Magdalene may henceforth be known here as the Rosh Hashanah song!) But after singing the first lines---"My name is Mary Magdalene; I come from Palestine"---Lucy remarked, in thoughtful self-defense, "[Well,] she was a Jew..." Ah, rationalization...and it was all OK. And Lucy ended the show with Good Night...a beautiful closing. There was one more notable part of the evening to come, though. Waiting to say hi to Lucy (before my kaplansky-babbling debacle), it came down to two women from somewhere in Connecticut, Donna, Gerry, and me. Donna and Gerry and I turned away chatting for a bit as the Connecticut Women were talking to Lucy...and when we turned back, Connecticut Woman #1 was holding out, and asking Lucy to sign...a rock. Yes, a rock...your basic, fist-sized, roundish gray rock. Lucy remarked on how she'd never signed a ROCK before, and she reached out toward it... At which point---and I am not making this up---Connecticut Woman #1 FUMBLED the rock and dropped it on Lucy's foot. There was a moment of absolute, total silence. We all gaped down at the rock, which had appeared to bounce off Lucy's right foot and had come to rest between her feet. I think the rest of us all expected Lucy to shriek in pain and were bracing to rush her to the emergency room (yeah, way to be memorable to a singer you like---drop a rock and break her toe!!) but she just stared down at the rock for a moment too. Then we were all asking at once whether she was all right...and thankfully she was...the rock had only hit the SIDE of her foot, she said. So Connecticut Woman #1, somewhat flustered at this point, picked up the rock from between Lucy's feet, and Lucy proceeded to sign it. At which point Connecticut Woman #2 thrust in front of Lucy a bricklike rock at least three times the size of the first rock and asked her to sign THAT. Lucy did it...cheerfully...but at a slight distance, and not before asking Connecticut Woman #2 to please hold onto the rock...TIGHTLY! Benay P.S. My reviewing duties completed for a while...sigh...I now pass the show reviewing torch to Timothy and then the UK contingent. At least, knowing you are all on the list, I don't have to feel quite as if Lucy's disappearing...I am simply ushering her onward to visit other branches of the extended Lucy-list family. To those who will be seeing her next...you are in for a treat, but you already know that. We'll miss her here...so report back...but I know you will. And take care of her, OK? I know you will do that, too. (I mean, of course Lucy can and does take care of herself, I'm not suggesting she can't...but just make her welcome, make sure nobody drops any more rocks on her, etc.!) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 10:30:06 +0100 From: "KMelmoth" Subject: [lucy-list] UK Dates Does anybody know whether Lucy will have a support act on her forthcoming UK dates, or whether she will have any guest musicians with her on any of the dates? Also, Dave and I are going to the Saturday Westhoughton show as well as the London one, and perhaps somebody who has been to Westhoughton Folk Club before could give a bit of information on the layout of the club, how early to get there, that kind of thing? Kay Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 08 Sep 2002 11:23:35 -0400 From: "Benay Bubar" Subject: [lucy-list] for the parody library Just a minor addition to the canon...and one that's embellished a bit (I repeat---Lucy is, thank heavens, just FINE!)...but sometimes these things are simply impossible to resist. Broken Toes You can sign my rock It isn't smooth It's all rough and broken And kind of grayish-blue. Found it down by the road It got dirty on the way. Didn't show it to you 'Til I'd made it clean Washed the dirt away. You can sign my rock If you don't mind broken toes You can sign my rock Hope there'll be no tears. I heard that you sign anything, true? So I thrust this granite toward you. If you want to, you can sign my rock. So beyond control Nothing I could do. Tried to hold it myself But it woudn't stay; It just slipped through. It tumbled down right through the darkness Our surprise complete And you didn't make a sound As it hit...and thudded Down at your feet. You can sign my rock If you don't mind broken toes, You can sign my rock, Hope there'll be no tears. I heard that you'll sign anything, true? So I thrust this granite toward you, If you want to, you can sign my rock... If you want to, you can sign my rock. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 08 Sep 2002 13:01:48 -0400 From: "Benay Bubar" Subject: [lucy-list] crustacean correction, and idea Before anybody points out, as someone almost surely will, that I erred...I know now, I looked it up myself, and I think I'd been told before but I just forgot...a scorpion is an arachnid, not a crustacean. What prompted me to find this out was the fact that the New York Times says today that President Bush used the word "crawfish" as a verb in relation to Saddam Hussein...and everybody was afraid it wasn't a word. But they checked, and it IS a word, at least a slang word---"an intransitive verb [meaning] to move away backward, to turn tail, to back out of a commitment or to renege." Aha! So I wasn't wrong, just ahead of myself. A crawfish IS a crustacean---now, THERE'S a possibity for a crustacean song! "Don't Crawfish On Our Love," anyone? Benay ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 21:19:28 +0100 From: "Kevin Ball" Subject: RE: [lucy-list] UK Dates I've been once (last year). http://www.folkclub.org.uk/ has all the gen - it says doors open 7:15, music starts 8:15. I recall getting there quite early last year (7:45-ish I think), and still the car park was busy and the room quite full - although obviously there's enough room for everyone! It's a very intimate, cosy venue - the performers walk through the audience to get to the stage; and the sound quality on my single visit was excellent. Not sure what you mean by a layout of the club. It's a large rectangular upstairs room that is used, with the 'stage' set along the back long wall. Seating is in a U shape, on nice chairs. There's an adjacent (small) bar that serves mediocre beer for average prices, and they do sandwiches in the interval, although the queue for these can get quite long! Follow the (excellent) directions carefully - the golf club is in the middle of nowhere, down a road that looks initially most unlikely to have a golf club at the end of it! Kevin Ball > -----Original Message----- > From: owner-lucy-list@smoe.org [mailto:owner-lucy-list@smoe.org]On > Behalf Of KMelmoth > Sent: 08 September 2002 10:30 > To: Lucy-List@Smoe.Org > Subject: [lucy-list] UK Dates > > > Does anybody know whether Lucy will have a support act on her > forthcoming UK > dates, or whether she will have any guest musicians with her on any of the > dates? > > Also, Dave and I are going to the Saturday Westhoughton show as > well as the > London one, and perhaps somebody who has been to Westhoughton Folk Club > before could give a bit of information on the layout of the club, > how early > to get there, that kind of thing? > > Kay > Everything you'll ever need on one web page > from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts > http://uk.my.yahoo.com ------------------------------ End of lucy-list-digest V4 #206 ******************************* This has been a posting from the Lucy Kaplansky mail list digest To unsubscribe send mail to Majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe lucy-list-digest" in the body of the message