From: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2009 #18 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, January 20 2009 Volume 2009 : Number 018 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Re: the hissing of summer cicadas [Mark-Leon Thorne ] Re: the hissing of summer cicadas ["Randy Remote" ] Re:Hissing [Dave Blackburn ] Seeger on Sunday ["Barbara Stewart" ] Fw: A Song for Obama [ann jensen ] In praise of Pete Seeger (UK Guardian article) ["Barbara Stewart" Subject: Re: the hissing of summer cicadas Jamie, as you know, Joni did get into sampling and synths and loops with the likes of your countryman, Thomas Dolby and everybody put Miss Mitchell in a box of weirdos and hoped it would be quickly forgotten (everybody except me). The album was, of course, Dog Eat Dog. It is still today her most maligned album of all but, her use of synth lines and overdubbing, to my ears, was brilliant. It is up there as one of her strongest albums, lyrically but because it uses synth styles that were at the heart of '80s synth-pop (no wonder, Dolby was king in those days), it is thrown on the '80s trash heap and not fully appreciated. Joni has incorporated some of the lessons she learned from the synth master in her following albums, just to a more subtle degree. Dog Eat Dog was ahead of it's time really and just as layered as any album of Joni's. Mark in Sydney NP Ethiopia - Joni ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:59:32 +0000 From: "Zooby" Subject: Re: the hissing of summer cicadas Lol! Mark, I'd hoped you of all people to not take my posts *that* seriously. ;) The Jungle Line as we know was looped and sampled and possibly a first foray into World Music and technically its House Music. LOL she is of course a genius - ------Original Message------ From: Mark-Leon Thorne To: Jamie Zubairi Cc: Joni JMDL Subject: Re: the hissing of summer cicadas Sent: 19 Jan 2009 10:52 Jamie, as you know, Joni did get into sampling and synths and loops with the likes of your countryman, Thomas Dolby and everybody put Miss Mitchell in a box of weirdos and hoped it would be quickly forgotten (everybody except me). The album was, of course, Dog Eat Dog. It is still today her most maligned album of all but, her use of synth lines and overdubbing, to my ears, was brilliant. It is up there as one of her strongest albums, lyrically but because it uses synth styles that were at the heart of '80s synth-pop (no wonder, Dolby was king in those days), it is thrown on the '80s trash heap and not fully appreciated. Joni has incorporated some of the lessons she learned from the synth master in her following albums, just to a more subtle degree. Dog Eat Dog was ahead of it's time really and just as layered as any album of Joni's. Mark in Sydney NP Ethiopia - Joni Sent using BlackBerry. from Orange ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 14:20:26 -0800 From: "Randy Remote" Subject: Re: the hissing of summer cicadas From: "Mark Scott" > I assume sprinklers > are much more prominent in the residential parts of LA where there is > less rainfall than where I grew up. Pretty much none in the summer. >Anyway, I think it was the > sprinklers that Joni referred to as the hissing of summer lawns. I think so, too. LA is an unnatural place for a city; the water comes all the way from the Colorado River, without it, the area would be dry as a bone. In years of low rainfall, there has been water rationing. I think, in typical Joni fashion, the reference is multi-layered. The wealthy water their lawns and fill their pools, oblivious to any but their own world. Hence the hiss has a sinister undertone, as the sprinklers automatically come on every morning. And if you listen to her vocal, there is a hiss at the end of her line..."and the hissing of summer lawnsssssss". RR ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 07:42:59 -0800 From: Dave Blackburn Subject: Re:Hissing The "hissing" of the summer lawns, which I had always assumed to be sprinklers, and probably insects too has surely a metaphorical resonance too. What could be more joyful than a summer lawn? And yet even there, there lurks a menace, a venom, a snake-like threat. The serpent in the garden and all that mythology. Now go over the lyric to the THOSL song in your head; " darkness, with a joyful mask", "tube's gone darkness, darkness, darkness, no color no contrast", "he put up a barbed wire fence to keep out the unknown and on every metal thorn just a little blood of his own". This fear, this ennui, this drabness among the affluent middle classes, set against the lushness of grass, beautiful homes and happy masks of the owners is, I'm starting to realize, the dichotomy that lies behind many of the songs on THOSL: Harry's House, Shadows and Light, The Jungle Line, Shades of Scarlet Conquering, and more. An album title ideally captures in a single stroke the mood or vision of the songs contained in the album as a whole (as Hejira does) and The Hissing of Summer Lawns may be one of Joni's most compact and powerful titles; visual, aural, mythical. Thanks to Mark for sparking this debate, Dave (a mere 8 months to SoCal JoniFest to go...) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:00:14 -0500 From: "Barbara Stewart" Subject: Seeger on Sunday The foto featured in Variety (online at any rate) for the inaugural concert review? PETE SEEGER!!!!!!! Folk legend Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen perform at We Are One. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117939371.html?categoryid=32&cs=1 (wasn't Tao's voice impressive? - and up against Springsteen, AND in that cold !!!!!) B from : Barbara L.Stewart, MLS Library - Sesame Workshop 1 Lincoln Plaza, 4th fl, NYC, NY 10023 USA tel: 212-875-6393 fax: 212-875-7309 barbara.stewart@sesameworkshop.org "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter." - ML King Get ready to FEEL THE POWER of The Electric Company--an All New Series on PBS! Catch a Sneak Peek Monday, January 19th! Check us out online! pbskidsgo.org/electriccompany ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:38:40 -0800 (PST) From: ann jensen Subject: Fw: A Song for Obama from a friend here in milwaukee... From: David HB Drake Subject: A Song for Obama To: "!Organic Arts-Gmail" Date: Sunday, January 18, 2009, 9:26 PM Just wrote this... I'll sing it at the Martin Luther KingB Justice Rally/March Monday January 19 at St Francis of Assisi Church B Feel free to use itB anywhere you see fit. B DHBD B Black Man in the White House David HB Drake - January 18, 2009 B B B B B B B B B B B CB B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B EmB B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B FB B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B C In our nation of all colors there is dawning a new day B B B B B B B B B B CB B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B EmB B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B DmB B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B G Many Sisters, many Brothers have been shown a better way B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B CB B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B EmB B B B B B B B B B B B B B B DmB B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B C Therebs a bright light from Miss Liberty now shining on the wavesb& B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B FB B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B GB B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B Am (Therebs a)B Black Man in the White House built by slaves b B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B FB B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B GB B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B C B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B Black Man in the White House built by slaves B Itbs forty years since Martin lead his march across the land Now the people see the waking of the dream that he began And Old Abe in silence watches as our history turns a pageb& (Therebs a)B Black Man in the White House built by slaves b B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B Black Man in the White House built by slaves. B How many years webve waited for a chance to cast a vote For all souls created equal as the Founding Fathers wrote Now we finally can have a hope to live the promise that they gaveb& (Therebs a)B Black Man in the White House built by slaves b B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B Black Man in the White House built by slaves. B I see Sister Oprah smiling as she wipes a tear away And Brother Jesse never thought hebd live to see this day But a million Ku Klux Klansmen must be spinning in their gravesb& (Therebs a)B Black Man in the White House built by slaves b B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B Black Man in the White House built by slaves. B David HB Drake, Organic Arts Ltd. For calendar, programs, and information on David visit: www.davidhbdrake.com For more fine grassroots musicians and storytellers visit: www.organicarts.info "One can be both entertained and educated and not know the difference" - -Mark Twain- ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:58:11 -0500 From: "Barbara Stewart" Subject: In praise of Pete Seeger (UK Guardian article) http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/20/obama-inauguration-pete-s eeger B from : Barbara L.Stewart, MLS Library - Sesame Workshop 1 Lincoln Plaza, 4th fl, NYC, NY 10023 USA tel: 212-875-6393 fax: 212-875-7309 barbara.stewart@sesameworkshop.org "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter." - ML King Get ready to FEEL THE POWER of The Electric Company--an All New Series on PBS! Catch a Sneak Peek Monday, January 19th! Check us out online! pbskidsgo.org/electriccompany ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2009 #18 ******************************** ------- Post messages to the list by clicking here: mailto:joni@smoe.org Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:onlyjoni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe