From: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2006 #237 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 Sunday, August 20 2006 Volume 2006 : Number 237 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Re: JMDL Digest V2006 #293 [Snapple1984@aol.com] Re: need joni help ["Martin Giles" ] Borderline on You Tube ["mia _" ] Slide Guitar ["Cassy" ] Off-Topic ["Cassy" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 04:17:38 EDT From: Snapple1984@aol.com Subject: Re: JMDL Digest V2006 #293 I still don't think I've figured out this listserv thing yet. I'm trying not to drag along the whole string of messages from last time. I am currently working on a book proposal about a book about my experiences with OCD, depression and the mental health system. I wrote a short piece about Joni and obsessional thinking. I'd really appreciate anyone's feedback if you have the time. Please don't jump on me for being snotty! Thanks! The Circle Game (One, Two, Cinch Up My Shoe) Kira Lesley Until my first psychiatric hospitalization, I never understood the opening skit of Eminem's "The Slim Shady LP", in which he says, "Children should not partake of the listening of this album with laces in their shoes". The nurses took my shoelaces away when I was 20, a late bloomer. (James Taylor had his first psych stay at 17). So here I go, sounding like I'm arrogantly and erroneously comparing myself to James Taylor. Sounding like his one-time lover Joni Mitchell did on her live album, Miles of Aisles, when she responded to audience requests for popular melodies by saying, "No one ever said to Van Gogh, 'Paint us Starry Night again, man'". While music world expectations undoubtedly differ from those of the visual arts world, Joni's comparing herself to Van Gogh can't help but come off as a bit conceited. Allow me to interject that I am also not comparing myself to Joni Mitchell, or even just referencing her quote in a self-important manner. I hate the many music people who reference this quote smugly, but not because I think it's pretentious or even because I don't like the quote very much. Rather, the reason I dislike people quote-dropping this line in particular is that it displays only a sophomoric knowledge of Joni's music - Miles of Aisles is one of her most popular recordings - yet quoters think they are initiating me into the secret mystery rites of Joni Mitchell. So essentially I hate people for falsely believing that they know a lot when they don't. I obsess over Joni and her music and I would never make the mistake of getting in over my head with a fellow fan by using shallow, obvious quotes. How snobbish and yet, simultaneously, I hate music snobs so I go round and round and round in the circle game (but at least I know alluding to "The Circle Game" is trite) and end up hating myself again. Not only do I hate myself for being a music snob, but also I hate myself on a much more visceral level as well. When trying to learn Joni's chords (Polio left her semi-crippled and to match her defects from the disease, she tuned the strings of her guitar to obscure tunings, rather than leaving it in the standard EAGBDE tuning), I twist and contort my fingers to grasp the foreign shapes. Then I strum, and if I hear a dissonant note, I force my fingers back into position and hold them there, stretching to the point where my fingers feel as if they are about to tear apart. If I make another mistake, I pound and pound on my stomach as punishment. I am reminded of my childhood idol, Martin Luther, who was also caught in the cycle of self-hatred. Before his conversion, Martin would beat himself to the point of near death in punishment for sin. One day, he prayed at the altar for several hours. When the chief priest asked Martin why he had taken so long, he replied that he was taught he must confess every sin, and he had been very sinful. The priest responded by asking him whether or not he thought hogging the altar for so long was selfish. The same cycle is true of many fourth-century Christian ascetics I learned about as part of my Religious Studies concentration at Brown. Middle Eastern monks performed spectacular feats, such as hanging themselves off the side of cliffs in burlap sacks and living there for years. St. Anthony of Egypt battled demons for twenty years in an abandoned fort while subsisting on unleavened bread and water. They fought their own bodies and minds in an effort to subjugate them to the soul. When the body and mind were kept in check the ascetics could perform miracles and truly live out God's will. St. Anthony coined the phrase: "My body kills me; therefore I kill my body." But no matter what they did to themselves and how much they suffered, other sects believed these ascetics were selfish for focusing so much on self-betterment. If their lesson taught me anything it's that no matter what I do, I'm going to lose. In the case of Joni Mitchell, I strive to discipline my mind and fingers. Training my fingers is simple, but training my mind takes a bit more finesse. I aim to eradicate my obsession about how it would sound to others if they thought I was comparing myself to Joni, and the subsequent obsession about my obsession, because it's all too selfishly focused on self-betterment. The above goes to show how far an obsessive mind can distance itself from shoelaces. In the mental ward, nurses confiscate shoelaces for fear that we patients will asphyxiate ourselves - auto-erotically or otherwise. Instead, they issue plastic ties that poke through shoelace loops and twist to a painful, cinching knot. If I can keep my mind from obsessing about Joni Mitchell or my feet, I am on the path to subjugating the mind and body to the soul. Currently, my feet hurt. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 11:35:23 +0100 From: "Martin Giles" Subject: Re: need joni help Hi Billy So often, I when hear the subject of poetry in popular music come up (on the media or otherwise), I hear Bob Dylan's name immediatley, but very rarely have I heard Joni mentioned. This is in the UK; it could well be different elsewhere. It seems that even the most ignorant have heard of Dylan. On the other hand Mitchell is not on the radar of the GB's poet laureate, Andrew Motion (who is a big Dylan fan). I've never really listened to Bonnie Raitt's guitar playing. Is she good? Martin. > Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 01:05:14 EDT > From: Wtking59@cs.com > Subject: Re: need joni help > > Perhaps, Martin. But then again, I believe Joni IS recognized as one of > popular music's greatest lyricists. In fact, I'd venture to say that most > critic's > consider them to be her absolute specialty. > > And when music magazine's and such conduct their various polls for > "all-time > best (female?) guitarist," Joni often ranks rather highly (...usually, > just > behind Bonnie Raitt). > > However, when it came to playing the piano she (unfortunately) could never > compare to the furious, emotional brilliance of the great Laura Nyro. > > > XXXOOO, > Billy ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 13:33:36 -0500 From: "mia _" Subject: Borderline on You Tube I'm just now starting to get addicted to youtube.com (always runnin' behind the times). The Borderline video is my favorite Joni video, hands down! Makes me cry every time I watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4fvbzmDmoM&NR Mia ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 15:43:13 -0400 From: "Cassy" Subject: Slide Guitar And Elmore James? He's not chopped liver, albeit he's a blues man. Warmly, Cassy From: "Richard Flynn" <<< How could you leave out Lowell George (who taught Bonnie _a lot_). Beats George Harrison with his slide tied behind his back in the guitar battles in the hereafter. >>> > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Randy Remote IMO there have been 3 great (stimulating?) slide guitarists in the rock idiom; Duane Allman, George Harrison, and Bonnie Raitt. >>> ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 23:00:13 -0400 From: "Cassy" Subject: Off-Topic I am interested in communicating offlist with anyone who has knowledge of the Seattle/Everett area of Washington State. Anyone who is willing to exchange mail with me please contact me off the list at Siquomb@Comcast.net Thanks for the bandwidth. Thanks for the Bandwidth. Cassy ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2006 #237 ********************************* ------- 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)