From: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2009 #84 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 Thursday, March 26 2009 Volume 2009 : Number 084 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- re: Girls like us [Lieve Reckers ] re: Girls like us [Mags ] Joni interview on Dutch tv [Monika Bogdanowicz ] First Joni The Ballet, now ELTON?!?!?! [Jamie Zubairi Home ] Re: First Joni The Ballet, now ELTON?!?!?! [gerard mclaughlin ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:36:15 +0000 (GMT) From: Lieve Reckers Subject: re: Girls like us Mags asked for opinions about the Girls Like Us book, and Bob sent his reply (see below) which is more or less the way I feel about the book. I wrote my review on 6 January (digest v.2010 n005 - strange numbering, by the way, comes up out of sequence, but I guess that's nothing to do with my computer?) There was also some further correspondence, some on the list and some, I think, off line between Marion and me, and Corey and me. Mags, I will forward you those exchanges, I am sure Marion and Corey will not mind. My one bit of advice to you Mags, at this point, is: do read the book in proper order as it is intended! To use a Joni-like image: if you want to appreciate a painting, you don't cut out certain parts from it and hang them up separately! Maybe with the exception of the last parts of the book, the "story" (i.e. the image of a time, of women growing up, of the music scene developing, some of which, as you say, feels like visiting old friends!) is built across the 3 individual life stories. So you are really doing yourself a disservice by skipping the other parts or reading them in a different order! (At least, that's my free advice, for the way it came across to me!) I am repeating my own review here, hopefully this time a bit more readable if I can keep those damn "capital Bees" out by sticking to plain text: - ------ Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 16:58:57 +0000 (GMT) From: Lieve Reckers Subject: re: new Joni book - now about Girls Like Us I am just finishing the last few paragraphs of "Girls Like Us" and I must admit that, in spite of half remembering rather negative comments about it here on the JMDL when it came out, I find it an extremely well written book. Even though the writer got no collaboration from either Joni or Carole King (she did get it from Carly Simon), her book is very thoroughly researched with input from an enormous number of well placed people, and the quotes are verbatim. I would venture to say that almost in spite of that amount of research, the book is an amazingly good read, rather than just a list of quotes like so many biographies I've read before. I feel this is because of 2 main reasons. Firstly, the author Sheila Weller has really got an understanding of these individual women. I don't feel that what we get is cheap gossip, of the type we are so sadly used to in the UK tabloids, for instance, where they really degrade a person and reduce him/her to a lowest common denominator of curiosity, which makes me feel sick for the intrusion in the privacy of that person, who is left like a piece of meat on a slab. I felt there was always respect and understanding in the writing for Carole, Joni and Carly, and what I got was a picture of the real person. I know others have written here that, in as far as these women did not participate in the book, all that is written is idle speculation. Having read the book, I don't get that feeling. There is very little speculation, and as I said before, the research is very thorough, to my mind as good as any decent historic work. Secondly, and I thought this is the great merit of this book, it is much more than 3 biographies. It is a social study of a generation, and it is stunningly good at that. It shows first hand so many things I remember from those days, either in my own life (I am ten years younger than these 3 women, but in Belgium many social trends followed with considerable delay) or in the life of people I knew who were ten years older than me, such as an uncle and aunt who I looked up to very much, as one of those "modern" couples in the early 60s when being married young was still fashionable, something I had observed but never seen described so well. The book is absolutely brimming with descriptive gems and observations of that kind. I understand that Joni refused to participate in a book where she was grouped with 2 other female singer-songwriters. Even without Joni's well known ego and position on that subject, it would be a normal first reaction. But I think the justification for writing the book this way, is that, as I said, this is not a bare collection of biographies, or a work "on female singer songwriters", but a social study of an era. I guess Joni would still have refused to cooperate if she had understood this, and that is her absolute good right, but I also think the author had the absolute good right to write this book. By the way, Sheila Weller obviously writes from more than research, but also from experience and conviction. It is a feminist book. Of course, I am also very much looking forward to the new book, by Michele Mercer, coming out. It sounds like it will be fascinating in a totally different way, with Joni's participation! Lieve in London. - --------- Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:22:16 -0400 From: Bob.Muller@Fluor.com Subject: Re: Girls Like Us Like you, I didn't have any interest in the Carly part and only a minimal interest in the Carole part, so I just read the Joni part. I do intend to go back this summer and read it in its entirety. I thought it was great and offered lots of fresh insights into Joni's biography. Even though Joni herself did not participate, Sheila Weller did an extensive amount of research and interviewing and I felt like the level of detail she offers is very credible. The simple truth is that each of has pockets of our history that we wouldn't necessarily share freely with an interviewer, but a third party close to us would in contrast offer up some of that kind of information. If you talk to Chuck Mitchell, you get a very different side of the Chuck-Joni story that she offers. Is his story more accurate? Is hers? Is it somewhere in between? Does it even matter? Anyway, read on and of course feel free to share YOUR thoughts. Bob ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 06:30:28 -0700 (PDT) From: Mags Subject: re: Girls like us Thank you for sending your comments again, Lieve and for the nudge to read the book from the beginning. This is the second invitation Ive received to read it in its entirety, and I am more than willing to give it a go. I am getting used to Weller's "voice" and the pages go by quickly :-) Mags, looking out in disbelief at the winter storm! (major winter weather system hovering from Colorado) __________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Canada Toolbar: Search from anywhere on the web, and bookmark your favourite sites. Download it now http://ca.toolbar.yahoo.com. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 09:19:06 -0700 (PDT) From: Monika Bogdanowicz Subject: Joni interview on Dutch tv If you haven't seen it before....enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLCGMA8d3m8 - -Monika ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:27:06 +0000 From: Jamie Zubairi Home Subject: First Joni The Ballet, now ELTON?!?!?! http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090325.BUZZ25-2/TPStory/TPEntertainment/?page=rss&id=GAM.20090325.BUZZ25-2 My goodness... I guess ALL the stars want a ballet of their music now Joni's done it! Kinda like having your own perfume brand. Not sure how I feel about this... I don't think it'll be as poignant or as deep, but that's my take on Elton's music... I do like some tracks but only the ones where he doesn't sound too Eltony. Zooby - -- 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: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:42:39 -0700 From: Corey Blake Subject: Re: Girls like us I would also encourage reading the whole thing. Some times one of the other three is mentioned in one of there other chapters, or an experience they had just gone through in a previous chapter is used to frame what one of the others is going through in their own chapter. (Hopefully that makes sense.) Yes Lieve, by all means, forward on what I wrote. I don't really remember what I wrote at that point, but hopefully it's coherent. I'm still reading the book by the way. (I'm a colossally slow reader.) So it'll be interesting to see if my opinion has changed since then. - -Corey On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 6:30 AM, Mags wrote: > Thank you for sending your comments again, Lieve and for the nudge to read > the > book from the beginning. This is the second invitation Ive received to read > it > in its entirety, and I am more than willing to give it a go. I am getting > used > to Weller's "voice" and the pages go by quickly :-) > > Mags, looking out in disbelief at the winter storm! (major winter weather > system hovering from Colorado) > > > > > > __________________________________________________________________ > Yahoo! Canada Toolbar: Search from anywhere on the web, and bookmark your > favourite sites. Download it now > http://ca.toolbar.yahoo.com. > - -- http://www.CoreyBlake.com - a whole lot of me Newest video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suYs8fB5hjQ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:59:57 +0000 From: gerard mclaughlin Subject: Re: First Joni The Ballet, now ELTON?!?!?! o canada!! and now i want to say something about gorgeous wings and flying away...but i guess we should expect things like this. Art is big business and bums on seats what make the world go round . Of course Elton will have the British market. Maybe there will be a double bill tour- one night the fiddle the next night the rocketman? so i wont knock it. might give us a chance to see tfatd in remotest scotland.there could be something in it for us all- or am i just trying to drown my disappointment in monsieur grande-maitre? i congratulate him in getting elton though. what a time for alberta ballet. whats madonna got to say about all this ?i am befuddled or have i just got myself defiddled somewhere down the yellow brick road??They will have to get a big diva to play sir elton though if its going to be autobiographical. my bets on dame edna everidge. She looks great in a tutu and can dance with her glasses on...A nice night of fiddling while rome burns or maybe just another candle in the wind. On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 4:27 PM, Jamie Zubairi Home wrote: > > http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090325.BUZZ25-2/TPStory/TPEntertainment/?page=rss&id=GAM.20090325.BUZZ25-2 > My goodness... I guess ALL the stars want a ballet of their music now > Joni's > done it! Kinda like having your own perfume brand. > > Not sure how I feel about this... I don't think it'll be as poignant or as > deep, but that's my take on Elton's music... I do like some tracks but only > the ones where he doesn't sound too Eltony. > > Zooby > > -- > 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: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:27:47 -0400 From: Bob.Muller@Fluor.com Subject: Poem For Joni Saw this CD while perusing CDBaby: http://cdbaby.com/cd/theoutlanders And of course track #5 jumped out at me. I contacted the band to see if it was inspired by OUR Joni and he said: "I wrote that tune right after listening to Joni Mitchell's Travelogue album. Joni is definitely an influence in my writing." Another one for the books! Bob NP: Ani, "Pixie" - ------------------------------------------------------------ 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: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:49:37 +0000 From: gerard mclaughlin Subject: Re: Joni interview on Dutch tv thankyou very much. that was delightful! On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 4:19 PM, Monika Bogdanowicz wrote: > If you haven't seen it before....enjoy: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLCGMA8d3m8 > -Monika ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:08:47 -0700 (PDT) From: Monika Bogdanowicz Subject: Rest of the Dutch Joni interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBfXuiv9XOg AND http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG96PO595hU ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:55:48 -0600 From: "Les Irvin" Subject: RE: Joni interview on Dutch tv See all kinds of Joni videos without having to go to YouTube! http://jonimitchell.com/video.cfm ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2009 #84 ******************************** ------- Post messages to the list by clicking here: mailto:joni@smoe.org Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:onlyjoni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe