From: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2009 #21 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 Friday, January 23 2009 Volume 2009 : Number 021 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- writers on obama's speech ["Kate Bennett" ] Re: Hissing [Mark-Leon Thorne ] Personal invitation from Rob Steen [Rob Steen] Re: fiddle and the drum [Bob.Muller@Fluor.com] Re: Hissing [Bob.Muller@Fluor.com] Re: Hissing [Monika Bogdanowicz ] Re: Hissing [Jamie Zubairi Home ] tell joni what? [Kate Johnson ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:29:13 -0800 From: "Kate Bennett" Subject: writers on obama's speech As a writer I was interested in reading what other speechwriters thought of Obama's speech. I think most of them gave him high marks overall. As a writer I have to say that it is very difficult to turn off the editor's brain. So everyone will add that. And of course there is ego. But, from what I read from some of the most prominent speechwriters, all were grateful that he didn't have sound bytes! Sound bytes are junk food for juveniles which I guess makes this JC. :~} Most were thankful that his speech had more substance. Intelligence is back. O Yeah!! Kate ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:59:57 +1100 From: Mark-Leon Thorne Subject: Re: Hissing Thanks very much for digging this up, Bob. It makes things clearer. Any of the songs on Hissing could be set anywhere I guess. I'll stick to my fantasy of the house in Scarsdale for now. Mark in Sydney On 21/01/2009, at 12:25 AM, Bob.Muller@Fluor.com wrote: > > Here's what Joni has to say (from her interview with Cameron Crowe > in Rolling Stone, 1979): > > "The Hissing of Summer Lawns is a suburban album. About the time > that album came around I thought, "I'm not going to be your sin > eater any longer." So I began to write social description as > opposed to personal confession. I met with a tremendous amount of > resentment. People thought suddenly that I was secure in my > success, that I was being a snot and was attacking them. The basic > theme of the album, which everybody thought was so abstract, was > just any summer day in any neighborhood **when people turn their > sprinklers on** all up and down the block. It's just that hiss of > suburbia." > > And while she was based in LA, this was her first album of mostly > portraits ("In France They Kiss On Main Street" being an exception) > as opposed to being autobiographical so her specific location is > kind of irrelevant...like you say, some of it takes place on the > west coast, some on the east, and like she says, it's "any > neighborhood". > > Bob > > NP: Suzanne Vega, "Bad Wisdom" > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------ > The information transmitted is intended only for the person > or entity to which it is addressed and may contain > proprietary, business-confidential and/or privileged material. > If you are not the intended recipient of this message you are > hereby notified that any use, review, retransmission, dissemination, > distribution, reproduction or any action taken in reliance upon > this message is prohibited. If you received this in error, please > contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. > > Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual > sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of the company. > ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 07:44:02 -0500 From: Rob Steen Subject: Personal invitation from Rob Steen Hi, On 1/8/2009 11:59:44 AM, you were invited to join Rob Steen's UNYK address book so he/she would always have access to your contact info and you to his/hers. To accept his/her request, Click here. http://www.unyk.com/ml/65/5/?i=3baabf39e01c4dc78adb22367751ba20 UNYK is a smart and simple way to manage your contacts so you never lose anyones contact information again. No more worrying about your contacts' info. From now on, let them do it for you. By changing their information in UNYK.com, you address book will be automatically updated. By changing your information in UNYK.com, their address book will be automatically updated. Its so simple and its free... Already 10 million users. Click here if you no longer wish to receive invitations from Rob Steen to try UNYK! http://www.unyk.com/ml/375/82/unsubscribe.asp?mid=9E92A7A47D748BA4&email=joni%40smoe%2Eorg&remove=2&s=11504087 Click here if you no longer wish to receive invitations to try UNYK! http://www.unyk.com/ml/65/6/unsubscribe.asp?i=3baabf39e01c4dc78adb22367751ba20 UNYK, the first smart address book that updates itself! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:06:02 -0500 From: Bob.Muller@Fluor.com Subject: Re: fiddle and the drum That'll be great, Rob -hope you get another photo op. I'll be looking forward to your report. Bob NP: Modest Mouse, "This Devil's Workday" - ------------------------------------------------------------ The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain proprietary, business-confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient of this message you are hereby notified that any use, review, retransmission, dissemination, distribution, reproduction or any action taken in reliance upon this message is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of the company. - ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:58:45 -0500 From: Bob.Muller@Fluor.com Subject: Re: Hissing Absolutely. Just like I always felt like Joni was singing about me & a former girlfriend when she sang "now there's a man and a woman sitting on a rock, they're either gonna thaw out or freeze". That's one of the strengths of her work, and even when you KNOW it's not the case it doesn't diminish its meaning in any way. Bob NP: Thom Yorke, "Analyse" - ------------------------------------------------------------ The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain proprietary, business-confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient of this message you are hereby notified that any use, review, retransmission, dissemination, distribution, reproduction or any action taken in reliance upon this message is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of the company. - ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:52:06 -0800 (PST) From: Monika Bogdanowicz Subject: Re: Hissing Yes, I've always presumed that the "hissing" sound was from the lawn sprinklers and of course, Joni says so herself. However, I think she leaves it open for other interpretation to evoke all sorts of images from that "hissing." That is the beauty of it. Also, those sprinklers are loud! Though Cleveland, OH is just north of me, I do live in a suburb of it. Pure suburbia. We've got a mall, plazas, all of it. I remember my childhood days of riding my bike through the sprinklers! - -Monika ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:08:35 +0000 From: Jamie Zubairi Home Subject: Re: Hissing Hmmm good question Mark Joni didn't sub-let in New York until later on in the 70's. I've a feeling as this song is written about Jose Feliciano (thanks to Chaka Khan's faux pas) that it is LA but it's universal enough to be any suburban area where husbands and wives slowly 'hurt' each other in private while appearing all fine and dandy in public. Very much like the films 'The Ice Storm' or 'American Beauty'. For me, even though the song is clearly about sprinklers, that symbol of suburban normality, the hissing also refers to the snake in the grass that hides just under our view, as Joni illustrated in her cover. And where it's set - to answer your question - is also illustrated in the cover. There's a New York skyline, a Canadian suburban house, Joni's house in LA (with the pool) - so North America. Interestingly, the painting starts on the right (the Canadian house, to In France They Kiss on Main St), then you follow the snake to The Jungle Line and then a more urban landscape via Edith and The Boho Dance. Then she brings it home again back to LA, back into her own landscape, and includes the church for Shadows and Light. It's all there in the cover! She is a genius. Much Joni Jamie Zoob 2009/1/20 Mark-Leon Thorne > The one thing that could answer the question of the source of the hissing > is, where was Joni at the time she wrote this song? Without looking it up, I > assume Joni was in L.A. in 1974/5. - -- Feel like supporting a World Record Attempt while giving to charity? go to: http://www.justgiving.com/zooby Jamie Zubairi can be found for voice-overs at http://uk.voicespro.com/jamie.zubairi1 acting CV and showreel at http://uk.castingcallpro.com/u/81749 agent: http://www.pelhamassociates.co.uk 01273 323 010 http://www.jamiezubairi.co.uk Facebook me! Everest Blog: http://jamiezubairi.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:36:22 -0600 From: Kate Johnson Subject: tell joni what? I don't have much more to tell Joni, were I to meet her, than I've already said in two rambly letters over the past 25 years. If I were to meet her, what might I say that wouldn't be old news and she needs to know? That her voice is so beautiful, now as well as then, that it holds so much emotion, that she is an incredible singer, her voice so uniquely lovely that I'm surprised training it wasn't a focus as she was growing up. Her parents must have heard her sing, must have known, surely she must have sung at family gatherings at the very least. Kate http://stubblejumperscafe.pnn.com/6853-the-front-page ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2009 #21 ******************************** ------- Post messages to the list by clicking here: mailto:joni@smoe.org Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:onlyjoni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe