From: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2006 #55 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org 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 Tuesday, February 21 2006 Volume 2006 : Number 055 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Nellie McKay Interview ["Gerald A. Notaro" ] Re: Morgen Morningtown [Bobsart48@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 08:13:25 -0500 (EST) From: "Gerald A. Notaro" Subject: Nellie McKay Interview For you Nellie fans :) Fast Chat: Nellie McKay Rafer Guzman February 19, 2006 Since the 2004 release of her double-disc debut, "Get Away From Me," the young singer-composer Nellie McKay has been busy, productive and somewhat embattled. She left her label, Columbia Records, last year after a dispute over the length of her sprawling new disc, "Pretty Little Head." With the album in limbo, she's spending her days rehearsing for her role in Wallace Shawn's adaptation of "The Threepenny Opera," which goes into previews at Studio 54 March 24. She's also composing songs for a movie musical based on a book, "The Amazing True Story of a Teenage Single Mom." And she continues to attend animal-rights protests and campaign against wearing fur. More pressing, however, McKay plays the Allen Room at Lincoln Center next Saturday. Understandably, she seemed tired during a recent interview in an Irish pub on Manhattan's Upper West Side. In fact, as a photographer snapped away, she rested her head on folded arms and briefly slept. Nevertheless, she found the energy to verbally dance through her interview. McKay is what might be called a fabulist: She prefers fiction over fact. She claimed to be quitting music one minute but looking for a new label the next. She gave her age as 21, though news reports say otherwise. And when a curious onlooker approached her, McKay improvised, pretending to be the reporter and identifying her hapless interviewer as a singer for a fictional rock band. ("It's called Bud Indigo," she said, deadpan.) Returning to reality, Newsday's Rafer Guzman reports. "The Threepenny Opera" is your first major foray into acting. How are you liking it? I'm better at it in real life. You act in real life? All the time. Especially at airport security. You need to, otherwise they'll forbid you from ever flying planes again. You're playing Polly Peachum in "The Threepenny Opera." Describe her character. She's a little naive, a little sensitive. And, you know, ambitious in her way. She's a different person at the end of the play than she is at the start. She's a little like Ray Liotta in "GoodFellas," that's the best comparison I can think of. She enters a new world, and then things happen. And she changes for going through that new world. Any similarities between the two of you? Yes - we both sing. Tell me about your new album. Will it ever be released? Oh, I think not. I'm going to start saying that: "It's never coming out!" No, hopefully in the next month or so. We're working something out. We're talking to labels and distributors. And street vendors. We're talking to everybody. What do you do when you're not rehearsing or making music? I write protest letters. And I put up protest stickers. I think it's a good way, because I'm bad at confrontation. I could never just go up to someone - although I would like to - and say, "Here's some information about your fur coat." It's very hard for me. Where do you get your activist leanings? My mother. We were always very poor. In Harlem, the only beings worse off than the people were the animals. Who's colder than the old people and the homeless in winter? The alley cats. And they were often victims of violence, because the young men would sic their pit bulls on them. So it's activism through experience, really. You've also talked about feminism in interviews. Is that an important issue for you? Oh, certainly. It's very tied into other things I care about, whether it's children's rights or animal rights or racial equality. Feminism realized that all systems of oppression are intertwined, they're not separate. Once you can say you're dominant over one species or sex or race, it leads to others. Are there any new songs you've written with that in mind? Well, there's a song called "Old Enough." I think it portrays aging as a good thing, using the word "old" in a good way. I think women feel the brunt of ageism more than men, although everybody does. There's a song called "Food" on there - there's a whole book written called "Fat Is a Feminist Issue." But speaking of ageism ... you were the one who initially said you were 19, when you were actually older. No, no, no. I really don't believe this, what they're putting forward. They've been quoting things I don't understand. So no, I don't agree to that. But I will say there's a lot of ageism in the music industry. So how old are you? Well, I'm 21 now. Is that true? Yeah. Hmmm. You've come a long way for 21. Yeah. But I'm going to quit soon! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 00:12:09 EST From: Bobsart48@aol.com Subject: Re: Morgen Morningtown I believe that the very first Joni song that I ever listened to Joni sing was Morning Morgantown. Today, 35 years later, connection between the words finally dawned on me. Well, I only took two years of German in college. I guess that's what you get when you don't go to class ;-) Geesh Bobsart ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2006 #55 ******************************** ------- Post messages to the list by clicking here: mailto:joni@smoe.org Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:onlyjoni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe ------- Siquomb, isn't she? (http://www.siquomb.com/siquomb.cfm)