From: les@jmdl.com (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2000 #411 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: les@jmdl.com Errors-To: les@jmdl.com Precedence: bulk Archives: http://www.smoe.org/lists/onlyjoni Websites: http://www.jmdl.com http://www.jonimitchell.com Unsubscribe: mailto:onlyjoni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe onlyJMDL Digest Wednesday, October 25 2000 Volume 2000 : Number 411 The 'Official' Joni Mitchell Homepage, created by Wally Breese, can be found at http://www.jonimitchell.com. It contains the latest news, a detailed bio, Original Interviews, essays, lyrics and much much more. --- The JMDL website can be found at http://www.jmdl.com and contains interviews, articles, the member gallery, archives, and much more. --- Ashara has set up a "Wally Breese Memorial Fund" with all donations going directly towards the upkeep of the website. Wally kept the website going with his own funds. it is now up to US to help Jim continue. If you would like to donate to this fund, please make all checks payable to: Jim Johanson and send them to: Ashara Stansfield P.O. Box 215 Topsfield, MA. 01983 USA ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Re: The Boston mystery ["Kakki" ] Re: The Boston mystery ["Stephen Epstein" ] Re: Joni's MOA Comment ["Kakki" ] The Boston '83 Concert on the Commons ["Russell Bowden" ] Re: Joni's MOA Comment [davidpaulmarine@webtv.net (David Marine)] Joni and her audience ["Patrick Willoughby" ] wally breese article ["Wally Kairuz" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 20:36:48 -0700 From: "Kakki" Subject: Re: The Boston mystery Ric wrote: > thanks for sharing your ideas. i always applaud anyones >resistance to this joint's tendancy to deify joni. let's allow >her to be a human being, which, sometimes, means being a >jerk. we need to seperate the artist from the art! I think it's really two sides of the same coin. Both viewpoints stem from the belief that she's just a human being. One viewpoint expresses thjis by saying "Look!" She's flawed! She's not a goddess, she is merely human. The other viewpoint is expressed by saying "yes, she's flawed because she is human, just like us, who are all flawed." Kakki ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 23:59:17 -0400 From: "Stephen Epstein" Subject: Re: The Boston mystery Well said, Kakki! Stephen in Vancouver "Kakki" on 10/24/2000 08:36:48 PM Please respond to "Kakki" To: Ricw1217@aol.com, jll@tampabay.rr.com, SCJoniGuy@aol.com, Joni@smoe.org cc: (bcc: Stephen Epstein/Agmont) Subject: Re: The Boston mystery Ric wrote: > thanks for sharing your ideas. i always applaud anyones >resistance to this joint's tendancy to deify joni. let's allow >her to be a human being, which, sometimes, means being a >jerk. we need to seperate the artist from the art! I think it's really two sides of the same coin. Both viewpoints stem from the belief that she's just a human being. One viewpoint expresses thjis by saying "Look!" She's flawed! She's not a goddess, she is merely human. The other viewpoint is expressed by saying "yes, she's flawed because she is human, just like us, who are all flawed." Kakki ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 21:03:12 -0700 From: "Kakki" Subject: Re: Joni's MOA Comment > I love Joni's artistry deeply, always have, but in spite of trying to give > her every benefit of the doubt over the years, I've come to view her > attitude toward her audience (and "peons" in general) as one of veiled > contempt. I always felt that the MOA comments were a manifestation of what I > believe is this flaw in her character, and I elected, however stupidly in > the context of the JMDL, to express this opinion. I would expect nothing > less than the most positive spin from her most ardent fans, and am still > puzzled as to why I went ahead and wrote what I did, under those > circumstances. I can only defend my post as an honest admission of my > feelings about Joni as a person. I want the people I admire to be kind, as > well as talented. Jim, thanks for responding to my post and I apologize if I sounded a bit harsh. I find myself getting a bit gnarly in my old age (but I kind of like it after always being deemed "too nice" for most of my life ;-) All I can say to your perception of Joni's actions over the years, and which I mean with all sincerity (and not to "deify" her in any way) is that as much as I've always loved her, I also always had a perception that she would be aloof, and somewhat snobbish and cold in person. Which was O.K. with me because I felt the art she has given to us gave her a bit of a free pass in my opinion. Well guess what - when I first got to speak with her after the Warner Bros. taping in May '98, I was completely surprised at how warm, down to earth and sweet she was. No, I didn't think that because I wanted to think that. I really expected her to be different and she threw me for a loop with her warmth and vulnerability. She was not at all how I'd imagined. I think the numbers of JMDL'ers who have met and spent some time with her number upwards of 60 people at this point and their accounts all corraborate what I felt when meeting her. The *only* maybe less than positive thing I've heard from a few people is that she talks too much. And those comments were all from men, and we know how men sometimes feel when us women yammer on and on. ;-D Kakki ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 21:48:25 PDT From: "Russell Bowden" Subject: The Boston '83 Concert on the Commons Hey, All, Found the comments from Boston Jim very interesting. Here is my take on it....again! (During the concert, I made copious notes so I would never forget what I hoped would be a defining moment in my humdrum little life) I remember that day as being BLAZING hot and humid...Two friends and I had driven down from Maine just to see her. She opened with Coyote...Great start. She was wearing a white out fit with black over it....Reminiscent of the Hejira cover with the black and white reversed. When she got to Song for Sharon...she sang a couple of verses and stopped. She said, "I can't sing to your back." A great many folks were wandering around...lots of noise and chatter. She left the stage. Quite some time later she returned in what looked like a brown suede (?)pantsuit number...it must have been 110 degrees in that thing. She did a few numbers..mainly from WTRF..gotr mixed up on "Underneath the Streetlight"...it did go on just a little, but love the song anyway, so I didn't care.. She sat at the piano just once..it was "Chinese Cafe". She played about a verse and then stopped and apologized for the poor quality of the sound, saying that they really hadn't had time to make superior to what it was...sounded great to me...but, then again, I am not a Genius/Goddess. She left the stage again..and a LOT of people left. The faithful were able to get down to the stage...and for about 20 minutes we chanted Jo-ni, Jo-ni. She finally came out, being supported by Klein and one of the band guys. They were holding her up under her arms... She shook them off, bounced (mildly) off one of the speakers...strapped on her electric guitar and proceeded to give the most amazing 30 minutes of just herself playing, singing and walking around the stage. If I had died right then, I wouldn't have cared. She ended with "Woodstock". I have the shivers just remembering that from 17 years ago. So, that's how I saw it. When she finally had just the real fans there, she delivered...AND HOW! Much love, Russ The light, creation's mind, was everywhere, and all things owned its power. Charles Dickens _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 21:51:54 PDT From: "Russell Bowden" Subject: Boston....one more thing. Guys, I also distinctly remember that this concert was in the afternoon..Honest to God!! It was in the afternoon. Love, Russ The light, creation's mind, was everywhere, and all things owned its power. Charles Dickens _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 22:08:48 -0700 (PDT) From: davidpaulmarine@webtv.net (David Marine) Subject: Re: Joni's MOA Comment Hey List -- I saw first Joni in Maryland in, hmmmmm, '76, I think, at the Cole Field House. She walked off stage about six bars into her first song. I was livid. That was many years ago. Now I understand the frustrations of a performer on the road. And Joni is an artist first, a performer second. Talk all you want about showbiz professionalism, but unless you've been there yourself, you never really know. Joni puts her heart into what she does. If she has to walk off stage or cancel now and then, so what? David ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 23:14:12 -0700 From: "Patrick Willoughby" Subject: Joni and her audience At the risk of flogging a by now dead horse, I don't think Herself has any real disdain for her audience, nor would I interpret the MOA comment that way. Surely any performer can be worn down by requests for the "same old same old song", when he or she is constantly striving to produce new and more challenging work. In Joan's case, even in 1974, she couldn't actually sing some of those really early songs with any sincerity any more. When Joni accepted the Billboard Century award, she explicitly thanked her *audience*, not the wheelers and dealers who arranged for that award to be presented to her. Not to excuse her behaviour in Boston in '83! When she performed here in Vancouver in '98, the so-called music press accused her of performing her less well-known music, even though she presented a broad selection of her work from Hejira, HOSL, and albums all jmdl-ers know well. Just ignorance on the part of the press. On the other hand, she is not always a humble person when the spotlight is on her. But I've seen her live 4 times, lucky me, and though the performances have sometimes been uneven, she has always treated the audience I've been part of with respect. Cheers from Vancouver, Patrick. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 03:24:30 -0300 From: "Wally Kairuz" Subject: wally breese article i don't know if this is old news but at the following site i've just found an article signed by wally breese!!! [hi wally!!!] http://imusic.com/showcase/contemporary/jonimitchell.html wallyK ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2000 #411 ********************************* ------- Post messages to the list at ------- Siquomb, isn't she?