From: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org (precious-things-digest) To: precious-things-digest@smoe.org Subject: precious-things-digest V10 #217 Reply-To: precious-things@smoe.org Sender: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "precious-things-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. precious-things-digest Friday, December 30 2005 Volume 10 : Number 217 Today's Subjects: ----------------- I loved this [handal@r2d2.reverse.net (Richard Handal)] Swell review--The Original Bootlegs [handal@r2d2.reverse.net (Richard Han] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2005 12:28:13 -0500 (EST) From: handal@r2d2.reverse.net (Richard Handal) Subject: I loved this Hi, All: This shows in a beautiful light what the music means to some people. I, too, am a great fan of the music of Bernard Herrman, which is another reason I really relate to this fellow. The article is from the Texas newspaper The Austin American-Statesman. The whole thing sets up the payoff at the end. Be seeing you, Richard Handal, H.G. _____________________________________________________________________ http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/12/29library.html Ex-DJ shows generosity, to tune of 13,000 CDs Music gift to quadruple Southwestern's collection By Jennifer Barrios AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Thursday, December 29, 2005 One man's treasure is adding an abundance of music to Southwestern University. A donor with no previous ties to the university in Georgetown is giving his entire collection of 13,000 CDs of classical, rock 'n' roll, jazz and film music to Southwestern's library, more than quadrupling the school's music collection. Former radio host Stephen Aechternacht initially offered his gift to his alma mater, Southern Methodist University in Dallas. But after officials there seemed underwhelmed at the prospect of receiving so many CDs, he chose Southwestern instead, he said. "When I offered to give them the collection, they practically jumped out of their skins," Aechternacht recalled. "And I said, 'Wait, don't back up the truck yet.'" He won't give the whole collection to the library right away. The majority of his CDs will go to the library after his death, a bequest he has added to his will. In the meantime, Aechternacht said, he is picking through his CDs to find duplicates to deliver to the library. He gave Southwestern a first installment of about 60 CDs in November and will give more in batches of several hundred during the next few years. "We're absolutely thrilled that Stephen has made this choice," said Paul Gaffney, dean of the School of Fine Arts at Southwestern University. "His collection is about as comprehensive as you can get, with a full range of classical and concert music." Gaffney said most of the CDs will go into normal circulation at the library. The duplicate CDs will be stored in faculty offices to be used in classes. Although the university is no stranger to donor gifts, Gaffney said, this is one of the largest such donations that Southwestern has received. Aechternacht, 57, lives with his wife, Claudia, on a hilly 20 acres in Spicewood, in far western Travis County. His home, which he designed himself, includes a 22-by-10-foot wall filled with nothing but CDs. A separate nook features even more CDs, records, books and a card catalog such as one a person might find in an older, nondigital library. Each card corresponds to a song, and all the information is carefully handwritten in black ink: the guide to Aechternacht's collection. Aechternacht, who works as a regional director for a healthcare company, has been collecting the CDs for 18 years. But two recent near-death experiences -- a bout with skin cancer and a severe allergic reaction to an anesthetic -- caused him to search for a future home for his collection, which he values at $150,000. Aechternacht says it is not hard to give up at least some of his CDs, which he used while he was a radio host at KMFA, a classical station in Austin, and other Texas stations. He's concentrating on giving up duplicate recordings, such as some of his 56 versions of a orchestral work called "The Planets" by Gustav Holst. "There are some CDs in my collection that you're going to have to pry out of my cold, dead hands," he said, a category that includes Tori Amos' first album, "Little Earthquakes", and a compilation of film music by Bernard Herrmann. And his gift doesn't mean the end of his collecting days. Aechternacht said that he'll keep buying CDs and that he adds about 600 a year to his home library. "My want list is longer than ever," he said. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2005 21:32:53 -0500 (EST) From: handal@r2d2.reverse.net (Richard Handal) Subject: Swell review--The Original Bootlegs http://www.thetrousers.co.uk/reviews/191205-toriamos-boots.htm monday, december 19, 2005 Tori Amos The Original Bootlegs Epic travel edition 4 1/2 stars Should anyone have any doubts about what a commanding and provocative artist Tori Amos remains, they will surely be put to rest by these officially sanctioned "bootlegs". Recorded during this year's solo Original Sinsuality and Summer Of Sin tours, five of these double CDs were initially released exclusively online, and have now been packaged together as a comprehensive boxset (along with an extra bonus 2CD recording), offering yet another fix for Amos' followers. Indeed, 2005 has been an amazingly fertile year for Amos artistically. With another brilliant studio album in The Beekeeper, an absorbing and stylistically innovative memoir in Piece By Piece, and now these releases, she's in danger of spoiling us rotten. On these discs, culled from dates in LA, Chicago, Denver, Manchester, London and Boston, we find her singing (better than ever) songs both old and new, rarities and a series of creative covers - sufficient material to keep both die-hard enthusiasts and recent converts occupied for months. If you were at these shows (and surely not even Amos's most devoted fans could have attended all of them) then these CDs offer a wonderful memento of some amazing musical moments. If you weren't, it's a chance to catch up on some of what you missed and to savour the enthralling experience that is Amos's live show. As skilful as she has been at integrating other instruments into her music over the years, there remains something ineffably magical about Amos performing solo; the only time she shares the spotlight here is when she's joined in quite spectacular fashion by the a six-piece gospel choir in London. With just piano, Rhodes and Hammond B3 organ to accompany her sinuous vocals, she's at her most riveting, her ability to command an audience second to none. But is it any wonder that she's so accomplished? Lest we forget, this self-confessed "road dog" has been performing for audiences since she was a teenager, and there's a nice nod to those apprentice years in the 'Piano Bar' segments featured here, in which she performs her pick of the songs requested by fans via her website. Among those receiving the Amos treatment are tracks by Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Madonna, Oasis, Bonnie Tyler, George Michael, Bon Jovi and Aerosmith (yes, really!), so it's just as well that she has such a strong personality as a performer, and such finely-honed interpretive skills, that she stamps her distinctive mark on every one. "This could really be crap," she warns before delivering a decidedly non-crap version of A Flock Of Seagulls' I Ran. Particularly gorgeous are her takes on Jim Croce's Operator, where she captures beautifully the combined bravado and vulnerability of the narrator, and Like A Prayer, which she invests with more genuine sexual and spiritual fervour than Madonna could ever hope to muster. There's also some typically cherishable between-song banter in these Piano Bar interludes, including one already notorious diatribe. Who but Amos would have the chutzpah to lob some very descriptive insults at Morrissey in front of an audience of Mancunians? It's one of many reasons to love her. Another reason is that she's amassed a back catalogue that ranks among the greatest in contemporary music, and which provides a very rich resource for her to mine in live performances. Aside from her undebatable instrumental prowess, Amos has always been a terrific writer of songs that can be equal parts tender and savage, raw and healing, sad and sensual, and both her oldest and newest material gets a workout here. Highlights from her own repertoire include Little Amsterdam, sounding spookier than ever with its organ accompaniment; the baroquely beautiful Yes, Anastasia; the startling Father Lucifer; the buoyant Take To The Sky; the ever-green Winter, Silent All These Years and Tear In Your Hand; and the majestic Cool On Your Island. It's fascinating, too, to hear new songs such as Sweet The Sting and The Power Of Orange Knickers stripped down to just keyboard and voice, and in the process sounding more themselves than ever. It should be noted that there is, inevitably, quite a bit of repetition of material over the discs. Original Sinsuality kicks off every show, and we get several Jamaica Inns, Space Dogs and Parasols when we might wish for a Pretty Good Year or a Northern Lad. But, as Amos would no doubt argue, Parasol in Chicago on April 15th is not Parasol in Denver on April 19th, and the duplication of material does offer a valuable opportunity to compare different versions. Amos is such a spontaneous, in-the-moment performer that she never delivers identikit readings of her songs anyway, and the chance for listeners to play "compare and contrast" is one of the many pleasures offered here. Collectively then, these discs further demonstrate Amos's sheer mastery of her art. From first note to last, you're confronted with the slightly overwhelming sensation of hearing a performer at the very peak of her powers. While some critics continue to recycle tired complaints about "abstruse" lyrics and "excessive" ambition, Amos just gets on with making some of the most adventurous, intelligent and extraordinary music out there. Long may she continue. - -Alex Ramon ------------------------------ End of precious-things-digest V10 #217 **************************************