From: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2006 #99 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, April 4 2006 Volume 2006 : Number 099 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Dona Alias story [Chuck Eisenhardt ] Re: onlyJMDL Digest V2006 #98 [StDoherty@aol.com] Re: Joni's voice [J Kendel Johnson ] Sheila chandra and joni ["clive sax" ] The Hat Box ["c Karma" ] Re: Sheila chandra and joni ["ron" ] Top 20 singers [Stewart.Simon@sunlife.com] Re: The Hat Box ["roberto munguia" ] Re: Favorite among Joni's guitar licks ["Arkay O'Malley" ] Monday, Monday [Peep Richman ] Re: Sheila chandra and joni [Smurf ] Re: Why are birds are active at night? [JRMCo1@aol.com] bright nitegown [rsc1@humboldt.edu] Re: Sheila chandra and joni [Randy Remote ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 07:21:56 -0400 From: Chuck Eisenhardt Subject: Dona Alias story I guess I should post my Don Alias story one last time.... I was in college and playing piano behind Tommy Sullivan around Boston, on the strength of a summer long Cape gig and an appearance on the Mike Douglas Show. We got a Friday-Saturday gig somewhere in Boston (Ken's Pub, maybe) and we thought it would be cool to get a drummer to round out the sound. We called the Boston Musicians Union and asked for a drummer. Alias shows up with another drummer, with traps and hand drums. (Don was in his Boston grad student phase?) , He was still largely a hand drummer, and he was teaching the other guy. Don played traps. This was 1970, and I can still remember how sweet it was playing over the grooves these guys were creating. (Here we are doing MOR like Bachrach and showtunes.) We were in 'good hands with AllState'. Among my best -ever musical experiences. About two years ago I sent Don an email about this gig, and he claimed to remember it well. A wonderful player and a sweet soul. Chucke ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 08:26:39 EDT From: StDoherty@aol.com Subject: Re: onlyJMDL Digest V2006 #98 In a message dated 04/03/2006 3:30:27 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org writes: This 'hatbox' issue could not have been more of a fiasco. First of all, it's certainly not a collector's item - you can go on Amazon.com today and buy one for $14, about a third of what the original release commanded. Second of all, as we recall, the CD wasn't secured and lots of them got scratched as they bounced and shook in transit. Third (and worst, imo) the hatbox came out 6 weeks prior to the basic jewel-case edition, exploiting I've got the hatbox and glad to have it. The only thing is that it's fabric and collects dust. But as far as these things go - it's fine. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 06:17:15 -0700 (PDT) From: J Kendel Johnson Subject: Re: Joni's voice rsc1@humboldt.edu wrote: As a live sound engineer, I've had the opportunity to do a couple of shows with Judy Collins in the last 3 years. I The last time I worked with her was worse. She did a couple of tunes ("things I picked up from my granddaughter - here's a song by the group Train") with her accompanying herself on piano and a cheesy drum and bass track on a laptop. She got lost a couple of times and fumbled and smiled, obviously embarassed. The songs weren't very good, and her performance of them poor. She also had a lot of trouble staying in pitch during the second set. Plus, she was the stereotypical diva... walked right off stage, smiled, and had her assistant wrap a coat around her as she walked out the door and straight into the limo. Sorry folks, Judy has left the building. I witnessed the same erratic, embarassed forgetfulness with Judy at this year's Folk Alliance in Austin -- compounded by the fact that she had the "headliner of headliners" kind of slot in front of the largest crowd at the conference. The reverb never caught my attention -- or seemed excessive -- so maybe she didn't get as cooperative a sound engineer as you, Gus. The same sort of oddball/erratic accompaniment showed up, though, with her pianist, who was bent on excessive, distracting noodling under -- and sometimes over -- her vocals. J rsc1@humboldt.edu wrote: > The destruction of her voice through decades of chain smoking is a > tragedy that stabs me in the heart every time I think about it. > Sitting in auditoriums recently listening to the still-vibrant, > full-ranged voices of Joan Baez and Judy Collins -- Judy, in particular > -- just twisted the knife that much further. As a live sound engineer, I've had the opportunity to do a couple of shows with Judy Collins in the last 3 years. I was once a fan of her work, but she was really difficult to listen to now. She requests that her voice be drenched in reverb, ALL THE TIME, even when she speaks, which helps smoothe out the notes that she has trouble sustaining, but also makes her sound like she is in a huge cave. It was weird when she talked between tunes with this 3-4 second concert hall 'verb on her voice. Ugh. The last time I worked with her was worse. She did a couple of tunes ("things I picked up from my granddaughter - here's a song by the group Train") with her accompanying herself on piano and a cheesy drum and bass track on a laptop. She got lost a couple of times and fumbled and smiled, obviously embarassed. The songs weren't very good, and her performance of them poor. She also had a lot of trouble staying in pitch during the second set. Plus, she was the stereotypical diva... walked right off stage, smiled, and had her assistant wrap a coat around her as she walked out the door and straight into the limo. Sorry folks, Judy has left the building. Give me Joni and her weathered, but full-bodied and passionate voice over that any day! Now Joan Baez - she can still sing! I actually prefer her voice of the last ten years to any before. Her pipes have just gotten better and better. Gus ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 14:50:55 +0100 From: "clive sax" Subject: Sheila chandra and joni Hi all, wanted to post a nice link to a mashed video on 'You Tube' of Joni and sheila chandra. It opens with queen so don't think it's the wrong link. http://youtube.com/watch?v=75RBTpkUywY I hope you enjoy - it had me bopping in my chair. Clive xx _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE! http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Apr 2006 14:24:08 +0000 From: "c Karma" Subject: The Hat Box " Limited edition "Night Ride Home" cd ... or Limited Edition "Both Sides Now" hatbox (neither of which are really worth a whole, whole lot in terms of price, at least not yet). "I threw that hatbox thing away. . I couldn't stand it. . ." "A useless and impractical packaging scheme, and that doesn't even touch on the quality of the music on the discs that did play. I was all too happy to give my worthless dust-collecting hatbox to Ashara for a Jonifest giveaway." GOSH, folks. Joni is an artist. Every artist must do one DADA piece. (Although for some, CMIRS came pretty close.) My "hatbox" is still in it's original shipping container, unopened. I guess I'm Joni speculating. CC ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 16:52:01 +0200 From: "ron" Subject: Re: Sheila chandra and joni hi >>>clive wrote > wanted to post a nice link to a mashed video on 'You Tube' of Joni and > sheila > chandra. It opens with queen so don't think it's the wrong link. thanks - that was kinda cool also - quite a good site - lots of other joni mitchell (also some joni covers & and other) video clips ron ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 10:57:08 -0400 From: Stewart.Simon@sunlife.com Subject: Top 20 singers This was really tough...here is mine... Joni Mitchell Ricki Lee Jones Laura Nyro Neil Young Jim Morrison Stevie Wonder Patti Smith Cat Stevens Michael Franks Sade Aimee Mann Madonna Sting Donald Fagen Dolores O'Riordan Alanis Morrisette Chrissie Hynes James Taylor Tom Rush Kenny Rankin And to whoever provided that link to Jane Siberry ......thanks.....really good stuff... Stewart - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This e-mail message (including attachments, if any) is intended for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, proprietary , confidential and exempt from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender and erase this e-mail message immediately. - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 09:53:02 -0500 From: "roberto munguia" Subject: Re: The Hat Box now, what would a good Joni Dada piece be??? a statue of a business man in the town square made of......birdfeed, so that it would eventually be half eaten and covered in bird poo....on a concrete pedestal, of course. oh, yeh, he'd be holding Indian cigars, too! or.....an airplane smoke trail in the sky in the form of Amelia's face.....like a vapor trail. a piece of old Beale Street asphalt with Furry's leg glued to it sitting on a limo parked on a stage. So many possibilities. Cheers to all on this GREAT DAY, (first day of the rest -o-y-l) Roberto On 4/3/06, c Karma wrote: > > " Limited edition "Night Ride Home" cd ... or Limited Edition "Both > Sides Now" hatbox (neither of which are really worth a whole, whole lot in > terms of price, at least not yet). > > > "I threw that hatbox thing away. . > I couldn't stand it. . ." > > "A useless and impractical packaging scheme, and > that doesn't even touch on the quality of the > music on the discs that did play. > > I was all too happy to give my worthless > dust-collecting hatbox to Ashara for a Jonifest > giveaway." > > > GOSH, folks. Joni is an artist. Every artist must do one DADA piece. > (Although for some, CMIRS came pretty close.) > > My "hatbox" is still in it's original shipping container, unopened. I > guess > I'm Joni speculating. > > CC ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 11:50:18 -0500 From: "Arkay O'Malley" Subject: Re: Favorite among Joni's guitar licks >* That loosely-strung opening slide upwards at the beginning of "Cold Blue > Steel and Sweet Fire". > when i read the subject line this is exactly what i heard, lol great minds and all that... arkay ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 12:08:34 -0500 From: "roberto munguia" Subject: Re: Favorite among Joni's guitar licks I really like that crazy loose string on The Wolf That Lives in Lindsey...especially when she goes Zen sonic banging on it over and over and over. Roberto On 4/3/06, Arkay O'Malley wrote: > > >* That loosely-strung opening slide upwards at the beginning of "Cold > Blue > > Steel and Sweet Fire". > > > > when i read the subject line this is exactly what i heard, lol great minds > and all that... > > arkay ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Apr 2006 13:50:06 -0700 From: Randy Remote Subject: Re: Top 10, no top 20 The other thing is: where is Roger Daltry? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 14:43:46 -0700 (PDT) From: Peep Richman Subject: Monday, Monday Hey everyone! I just caught up on reading the past few Digests. Ron, you gave us all a magnificent gift!!! Thank you so very much for your hard, hard work! I think it may have been "Smurf" who mentioned all the birthdays we're having....and this thought coincides with a thought I had the other day about growing older. I'm smack in the middle of being 55. Sometimes I can feel my middle-age physically. There are even a few times when I feel a change in my tolerance for a variety of things. But, the primary feeling I have is how fortunate I feel because I can revisit almost every age anytime I want or need to....for therapy when I'm working with kids, as an example of "need". Growing older...thinking that Joni is now 62...recognizing that some of the best years are behind me now and the future is not looking real bright...feeling less fear about things that were the boogie-men of the past...and thinking about things like idealism, having a passion for a cause....I've retained these....I was reading what Kakki posted and wonder if people live fighting or rationalizing their disillusionment or are we talking about illusions? What exactly is it that we do with the potential power of having collective knowledge? Or, are we collectively (unconsciouly) agreeing to ourselves to be put in the position of being disillusioned because there is some faint recognition that we live in multiple layers of illusions. Sorry if I sound nuts...maybe I am...but, it seems to me that each person has the inner-power to interpret all the knowledge that's freely manipulated and thrown in our face or continue searching for truth....that's where the idealism comes in. It's too much of a disillusionment to really accept the fact that life is lived by so many people in response to other people, who may have more power, who then create a society that permits poverty, starvation, mass killings, profiling, child abuse, wife/husband abuse, slavery, exploitation, dishonesty, and manipulation...and you know this list can continue. When I see a movie, a documentary, or read a news article, or hear debates on TV/Radio, I always end up thinking that people are more apt to condone killing and all the other negatives I just listed, rather than consider productive change. Sometimes it feels as though we're missing the point. We're carrying on like wild, frightened, cornered animals because we can't fathom even the notion of real change. We fight one another, have passionate debates, enforce 'new' infra-structures....but everything remains the same. Nothing really changes. We Americans have a president who actually thinks he can say "When I talk about war, I am talking about peace", and the masses say...'oh yeah, that's right...how can we have peace unless we have war'...as if those two words are able to be interchanged at whim. I realize that I'm adding my thoughts to people who care....but I doubt you want to read a friggin' novel! On to other significant things. When I read about Joni collaborating with Jean Grand Maitre on a ballet I was absolutely thrilled. Once again, Joni is challenging herself...freely exploring foreign waters. This is exactly how I think Joni has always managed her talents as her talents interchanged with the necessities of her life. What I admire about Joni, with continuing awe, is that she doesn't follow a current or challenges a current...she lives with complete honesty in her life, exploring the many gifts she has wherever they may lead. I wonder how death affects Joni...Mingus, now Don Alias (not to say there haven't been many deaths). I wonder how Joni expresses her grief. Just wondering....maybe because some of our Digest family have lost people so dear to them....maybe because I feel that unresolved grief is so dangerous. I had a moment of sheer magnificence today. I'm living in a rented condo...since September 15TH to be exact. When I was financially forced to sell my beloved house that I had saved for 17 years to finally apply and get a mortgage, one of the attractions to this magnificent house was that it has three separate gardening areas. I felt as though I was living in a fairy tale, complete with bunnies and frogs and a pond I built with gorgeous fish....and such brilliantly colored flowers. Well, I have a MUCH smaller area to plant a little garden this year for the first time in so many years (4 to be exact), and I noticed that a former tenant had planted bulbs. They were in full bloom for two days...white with orange middles...daffodils...and this morning I cut a few and made an arrangement in a lovely glass a friend gave me many years ago. The reason I experienced such magnificence this morning was that for a short time I know I can watch a part of nature, that with little effort, I 'composed' into a glass. Then, of course (if you really know me) I thought for a long, long time about what it feels like to have the magic gift of talent...like Joni...and to memorialize emotions through music and art and now collaborating with Ballet. Enough...enough...!!! I know. I'm rambling! (Sorry). Love to all of you very precious people. BO - --------------------------------- How low will we go? Check out Yahoo! Messengers low PC-to-Phone call rates. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 17:31:43 -0700 (PDT) From: Smurf Subject: Re: Sheila chandra and joni - --- clive sax wrote: > Hi all, > > wanted to post a nice link to a mashed video on 'You > Tube' of Joni and sheila > chandra. Thanks, Clive! I enjoyed this very much. I know nothing about Sheila Chandra, so I just googled and found out a bit. I'd like to check out more of her music. Anyone have any recommendations? Also, the drummer, Steve Reich is new to me but from googling him, I see everyone in the world knows him. I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder -- or 'french fry' here in the states -- about the endless attention "don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone" gets when Joni has said so many pithy and profound things -- right, Patti? -- but this little video was very nice. - --Smurf Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 20:34:06 EDT From: JRMCo1@aol.com Subject: Re: Why are birds are active at night? I couldn't help posting the following. Sorry about the length. Some peeps can't access the NY Times online, so I submit... April 4, 2006 Side Effects It's Time to Discuss Migration, but I've Got to Be Moving On By JAMES GORMAN Ah, zugunruhe! Spring is here, and it brings with it thoughts of migration. Birds head north, college students go south b the birds to breed, the college students to find a warm spot to study for their final exams. Zugunruhe is what does it to them. Zugunruhe is the need to migrate. Joni Mitchell, the singer, songwriter and ethologist, called it "the urge for going." Unfortunately this description is a tad imprecise and subject to sophomoric misinterpretation. Some geese go north when they get the urge; others go all over the golf course. Zugunruhe brooks no confusion. It has a Germanic certainty, and there can be no doubt what it means, once you know what it means. I confess that I only learned the word this week. If I understand the paper about it by Barbara Helm of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Andechs, Germany, and the late Eberhard Gwinner in the Public Library of Science (www.plos.org), I have often experienced zugunruhe but didn't know it. The two researchers studied African stonechats. Stonechats are in the thrush family, and many breed in Europe and fly south in winter. The birds that the researchers studied were residents in Africa, and were thought not to have a genetic predisposition to migrate. What the researchers were looking for was evid ence of zugunruhe in the resident stonechats, which they raised in the lab at the Max Planck Institute, under a variety of circumstances. The scientists did not expect to find it in the resident birds. But they did. The stay-at-home stonechats exhibited the same sort of nocturnal restlessness as their migrating relatives. The conclusion: some level of zugunruhe may be common even in birds that don't migrate. I imagine that the nonmigratory stonechats probably didn't experience a true Joni Mitchell sort of urge, but something more like, "Did you ever have the feeling that you wanted to go, and still have the feeling that you wanted to stay?" This was a signature bit from Jimmy Durante, an entertainer with a Cyrano-like nose (he was known as the "great schnozzola") who was well known in antiquity. A more recent example of the musical expression of zugunruhe among captive, resident human beings might be "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash: I'm stuck in Folsom Prison And time keeps draggin' on But that train keeps a-rollin' On down to San Antone." Presumably, the singer feels the urge to migrate, perhaps to San Antone, but is unable to make travel arrangements. I know that I myself often experience the vague urge to go to San Antonio or somewhere other than my seat in the pod before my computer. I can't, because I have a job, and the result is that, like the resident stonechats, I sometimes hop about aimlessly at night, without knowing exactly why. Like birds, some humans are migratory and others are not. College students, for instance, are migratory. And as I sit typing this, many of them are heading off for spring break. Much to the relief of the towns they flock to, they don't nest and raise their young on the beaches. But they do engage in noisy mating behavior. Those humans who work for a living, to take one subgroup, are nonmigratory. Some may feel that they are captive. Some think that, like stonechats, they are being studied by a far more powerful species for purposes beyond human understanding. But I'm sure there's another German word for that. Most of us just daydream and hum songs about rambling, wandering and going down that road, any road. The proof is that we have no end of rambling songs in every musical genre. We even have cars, like the famed Nash Rambler, that capture our desires. That's an old-fashioned car, of course. But expect an advertising campaign soon for some sort of German car that has a resonant voice intoning the word zugunruhe! over the growl of a serious engine. I don't expect that this research will have any immediate benefit for me or other resident humans. But at least I have a new word for spring fever. And if I ever do leap up from my desk, smash my keyboard and head for San Antone or Jackson or San Francisco or Kansas City or north to Alaska, or down that long and dusty road, or leave on a jet plane or decide that I was born to run, I'll know what to shout. Zugunruhe! _____ - -Julius ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 20:13:33 -0700 (PDT) From: rsc1@humboldt.edu Subject: bright nitegown I'm with you on this one Bob! First time I listened to the CD, I kept wondering to myself "When is this going to end?". IMO it's WAYYYYY too long.... a generic riff and simpistic chorus that is repeated over and over. Donald should've faded it during the guitar solo... Gus >> Re: Morph the Cat >> and the unbelievably funky 'Bright Nightgown'. The last could easily >> be a dancefloor hit if anyone had the wit to market it. >> Rob > And funny that you mentioned "Brite Nitegown" as > one of your 4 classics as it's the only tune on > the CD that I think is on the weak side. Well, to > each their own after all. > > Bob > NP: Drive-By Truckers, "Marry Me" (new one from > them this month - can't wait!) It's good! We have it at the radio station where I do a weekly show, and I played some on Saturday night. The epitome of solid modern Southern rock!! best, Gus ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 Apr 2006 21:01:31 -0700 From: Randy Remote Subject: Re: Sheila chandra and joni - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Smurf" > I know nothing about Sheila > Chandra, so I just googled and found out a bit. I'd > like to check out more of her music. Anyone have any > recommendations? "Weaving My Ancestors Voices" on Peter Gabriel's Real World label is a good one. ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2006 #99 ******************************** ------- 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? 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