From: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2008 #199 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, October 12 2008 Volume 2008 : Number 199 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Small Joni mention in Toronto Star article, Sat, Oct 11/08 - sjc [Catheri] Re: CSNY w/Joni Mitchell Long Island 09/08/1974 [Monika Bogdanowicz ] Joni photos [] Re: Wolfgang's Vault [PassScribe@aol.com] SV: CAS at 60+ US dollars ["Marion Leffler" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2008 06:02:55 -0700 (PDT) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Small Joni mention in Toronto Star article, Sat, Oct 11/08 - sjc Today's Toronto Star has an article by Noah Richler (son of Mordecai) dealing with the arts and the "ordinary Canadian". Our Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently made a comment about working people and the arts that raised many a hackle. "I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people at, you know, a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren't high enough, when they know those subsidies have actually gone up b I'm not sure that's something that resonates with ordinary people," Harper said in Saskatoon, where he was campaigning for the Oct. 14 election. The Joni mention is in the first paragraph. CULTURE WARS How 'ordinary working people' are central to our art Noah Richler When Stephen Harper made his unfortunate remarks about the arts, in Saskatoon, what really grated was just how patronizing they were to Saskatchewan and the "working people" whose vote he was soliciting. They inferred that "working" Canadians have unsophisticated tastes and showed a stunning disregard for the cultural contribution of a province that has provided Canada with the singer Joni Mitchell, the sculptor Joe Fafard, the famous artists' colony at Emma Lake, and a panoply of authors including W.O. Mitchell, Sinclair Ross, Fred Wah, Sharon Butala, Guy Vanderhaeghe b and, one could easily argue, the great American author and environmentalist Wallace Stegner. Pace StC)phane Dion (not just Harper has put his foot in it), the arts are about more than "fun." And let's be clear, just in case any "ordinary Canadians" b whoever you may be b are reading this article, the subject of work has been fundamental to Canadian writers since this country was founded on the backs of pioneers and the fur trade. Canada was discovered, and then narrated, through work. First fur traders and then miners and loggers roamed the country just as the aboriginal hunter-gatherers who preceded them had done, then returning home with stories of Canada that were authentic and often utterly at variance with whatever ideas about the country came from Ottawa. Canadian writers tell the story of Canada's "ordinary working people" because through work we have discovered ourselves. And so this strain of storytelling is robust from one end of the country to the other b in the novels of writers such Michael Crummey and Donna Morrissey of Newfoundland, just as it is in the more contemporary work of Vancouver's Michael Turner, Douglas Coupland (Silicon Valley geeks are tomorrow's "ordinary working people") and the inventive Lee Henderson. "Ordinary" Canadians b working ones, reading ones, and the vast number Harper does not realize actually do both b should reflect on the Saskatoon novelist Guy Vanderhaeghe's dedication, in The Last Crossing (a CBC "Canada Reads" pick in 2004) to "all those local historians who keep the particulars of our past alive." When it comes to telling the story of this great country, it is the historians who have certainly done most of what we've come to call "the heavy lifting," and then novelists run with it. It is wrong to disparage this bunch, for one day you, an "ordinary working" Canadian, possibly, may find yourself wondering where your life went. And as you watch American television saying nothing about how you came to be where you are (work usually explains it), perhaps you will be fortunate enough to have had a wife or a relative who might actually have written something of your life down. Maybe you will even have done so yourself. But if not, it will be a novelist or an artist who does that job, and you will be grateful for it. You will be thankful for Sharon Butala, whose great short story "Gabriel" follows a farmer who has abandoned his homestead for a job in the city (but who can never forget the farm he left), or someone who has subsequently followed in her fine footsteps. Or, if you are from Newfoundland, you will thank the stars for Lisa Moore who, in her forthcoming novel, is busy remembering the workers and the families affected by the loss of the Ocean Ranger b who else is remembering them? You will appreciate the stories of Jacqueline Baker who, in A Hard Witching, shows hard lives shaped by the unrelenting work of the Sand Hills in southwestern Saskatchewan b that province where Stephen Harper imagines no one who works with his hands could be much interested in music, dance, art, theatre or books. You will be thrilled with the work of Vanderhaeghe, whose early short stories and novel Homesick charted the transformation of a dying Saskatchewan community into a thriving company town b that most Canadian of work arrangements. You will marvel at how David Adams Richards has immortalized the loggers of New Brunswick in his novels, and at how Alistair MacLeod has remembered the working fishers and globally scattered shaft miners of Cape Breton. And, if you are from Toronto, of West Indian descent or not, you will be unforgettably moved by how Austin Clarke has chronicled the lives of Toronto's hard-working (or not-working) Caribbean immigrants of the 1960s in his Toronto Trilogy of novels. You will be unforgettably moved because governments, promising so many things, will have done none of this work. And if the company that you work for, or your government, screws you over, you will see that it is the novelist, not the politician, who remembers you. It will be someone like Leo McKay Jr., a teacher from Stellarton, N.S., who ensured, in his novel Twenty-Six, that the "ordinary people" of the same number who died in the Westray mining disaster of 1991 were not forgotten even as a company shunning questions strove to obliterate the memory of these fallen men. Or it will be the next Hugh Garner who, in his great novel Cabbagetown, made sure the abused working stiffs who'd survived four years of the Great War and then were rewarded with the Depression were not forgotten, even as provincial governments in the West wanted nothing to do with these "hoboes" and "hunkeys" from the East. "Ordinary working people," ones now doing shifts out of a bunkhouse in Athabasca or Yellowknife, roaming the country in the hunt for work as so many previous generations of Canadians have done, take account: when the inflation of the coming years arrives, and the value of your home is reduced to half of what it is now; when the payments on your wide-screen HD television are becoming impossible to meet; when, God forbid, you lose your home because 80 per cent of Canada's exports travel to the United States but, unlike the wooden arrow manufacturer whose representative in Congress has managed to attach a pork-barreling loan onto the tail of the $700-billion bailout he subsequently approved, we here in Canada have no American votebthen you will see that the oil executives and their government toadies, not artists, will be the ones swilling champagne because theirs is the stock that won't drop. And you will find that they'll not give a toss about "ordinary working Canadian," beyond what can be squeezed out of you at the pumps. You will discover that artists and writers are your friends and your champions and that what they do is not a "niche issue." And if you do not already, then you will see that they are workers just like you and that what they do is tell your story. http://www.thestar.com/article/515830 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2008 09:25:36 -0700 (PDT) From: Monika Bogdanowicz Subject: Re: CSNY w/Joni Mitchell Long Island 09/08/1974 Right on though I have to say that CSNY's '74 tour was a mixed bag. There are some songs I have seen/listened to from that tour that are amazing. Yet, there are other songs I have seen/heard from that tour that are just awful. For example there's a performance of "Carry On" on YouTube from '74. The music itself is really rocking. They amp it up and rock out. However, all 4 members (especially Stills) look stoned out of their minds. I think they were so high that it affected their performance--not the musical quality but the vocal quality. Normally, Carry On has tight harmonies. That particular version I saw from that tour is almost embarrassing and I love CSNY. You would have never known they were a group most known for their vocal harmonies from that performance. However, at that time I would have told them to lay off the drugs and get their vocal chops in gear man. Joni sounds great though on what I've heard her on during that tour. There's a performance of CSNY's Helpless that features Joni on vocals (and Stills plays a mean solo in the song). That is pretty tight. - -Monika - --- On Fri, 10/10/08, Victor Johnson wrote: Wolfgang's Vault is featuring a CSNY performance today from 1974 w/ Joni Mitchell providing backup vocals on "Our House" and "Another Sleep Song". Pretty sweet to listen to...Joni can be heard pretty clearly. You have to join to stream the concert, but it's free and they have a lot of cool stuff. http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/dt/crosby-stills-nash-and-young- concert/2301-1462.html? utm_source=NL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=081010 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:39:06 -0400 From: Ashara Stansfield Subject: RE: STAS and me I was 12, and my cousin had just bought the album as soon as it was released. As she played it for me on her "suitcase-typer" record player, (anyone remember those?) I was floored and went out immediately with my allowance and bought it. I played it over and over and over and over and since that day bought each release of hers the day it came out. I'll never forget that day! (Although I sometimes forget my kid's names!) :-) Hugs, Ashara ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:29:38 -0400 From: Subject: Joni photos During the McCabe's Guitar Shop 50th anniversary show at UCLA on 10/2 (fabulous concert!) there were a number of B & W photos by Sherry Rayn Barnett displayed in the bar. There were several of Joni, both at McCabes and other places. Sherry's website at http://www.sherrybarnettphotography.com/ is difficult to navigate, but go to "gallery store" to see thumbnails of some of these images. Pretty pricey, BTW. All the best to my Joni friends! *************************************************** Steve Dulson Costa Mesa CA tinkersown@ca.rr.com "The Living Tradition Concert Series" www.thelivingtradition.org "Folk Alliance Region - West" www.far-west.org ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2008 22:06:04 EDT From: PassScribe@aol.com Subject: Re: Wolfgang's Vault In a message dated 10/11/08 3:02:17 AM, owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org writes: > From: Victor Johnson > Subject: CSNY w/Joni Mitchell Long Island 09/08/1974 > > Wolfgang's Vault is featuring a CSNY performance today from 1974 w/ > Joni Mitchell providing backup vocals on "Our House" and "Another > Sleep Song". > And for all you Laura Nyro (& Joni) fans, there is a FABULOUS Laura Nyro Live at the Bottom Line 7-13-78 concert there for your enjoyment (and mine). Kenny B ************** New MapQuest Local shows what's happening at your destination. Dining, Movies, Events, News & more. Try it out (http://local.mapquest.com/?ncid=emlcntnew00000002) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2008 08:22:44 +0200 From: "Marion Leffler" Subject: SV: CAS at 60+ US dollars Jerry, thanks for the info! I do learn so much on this list! Yet, I still think this particular edition of CAS seems to be grossly overpriced. I have to wait until I get better equipment before even considering it. My cd-player is not very sophisticated technically, and I'm afraid I wouldn't hear the difference. Marion - -----Ursprungligt meddelande----- Fren: Jerry Notaro [mailto:notaro@stpt.usf.edu] Skickat: den 9 oktober 2008 19:02 Till: Marion Leffler; Bob Muller; Joni List Dmne: Re: CAS at 60+ US dollars Marion, Giving you multiple UPC numbers is very misleading. Though there have been multiple releases of the title, each one is assigned to specific releases. Japanese remasterings are usually much higher quality than originally produced early album cd releases. But I have found the Japanese imports, which usually go for about $31.00, of Joni titles are not superior to the the subsequently remastered domestic (USA) releases. Usually these will say HDMC on them. While adding that particular encoding the domestic releases WERE remastered from the original master tapes and sound much better than the first cd releases of Joni's vinyl catalog. Now if you find the GOLD CD release or the BSN DVD Audio titles I would say grab them. They are excellent, especially Blue and CAS. Jerry > I asked the store for more information on the CAS they offer at the > outraging price of 449 Swedish Crowns (approx. 63 US-dollars) and this is > what I got: > > > > Title: Court and Spark > Artist: Joni Mitchell > Release Date: 1/1974 > Re-Released On: 0/0/1974 > Label: Asylum, DCC, Elektra, WEA Japan > Duration: 36:52 > Album Type(s): lyrics/libretto > UPCs: 010963102529, 075596059329, 4943674065639, 0081227763824, > 075596100144, 4988029302847, 075596059343 > Genre: Rock > Styles: Singer/Songwriter, Folk-Rock, Album Rock > Moods: Intimate, Knotty, Plaintive, Bittersweet, Literate, Passionate, > Reflective, Stately, Autumnal, Brooding, Earnest, Earthy, Melancholy, > Poignant, Sophisticated, Complex, Enigmatic, Gentle, Wistful, Elegant, > Laid-Back/Mellow, Sensual, Sweet, Refined/Mannered > > > > The track list is the same as on the CAS I already own. > > > > Their explanation for the price is that this is an import from Japan. At the > same time, they have the album at 79 Swedish Crowns (approx. 11,50 > US-dollars) so why anyone would by this edition beats me. Anyhow, what I > found refreshing is the description of moods. Is there anything we can add? > Note "knotty" and "stately" - they had me laughing on the floor! > > > > Marion ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2008 #199 ********************************* ------- Post messages to the list by clicking here: mailto:joni@smoe.org Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:onlyjoni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe