From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V3 #415 Reply-To: shindell-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk shindell-list-digest Tuesday, November 27 2001 Volume 03 : Number 415 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] and so collectables are created [jim colbert ] [RS] may and editing [jim colbert ] [RS] Christmas in the trenches [jim colbert ] [RS] I Am Not Quite [Lisa Davis & family ] Re: [RS] I Am Not Quite [Vanessa Christina Wills ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 08:09:03 -0800 From: jim colbert Subject: [RS] and so collectables are created > Big News #1: The designer, Charlie Hunter of Hunter Studio, got the song > order wrong on the tray card (first 20,000 copies of COURIER), Stinkin' graphic designers, all hopped up on folk music and sniffing pantone chips... Been there, Charlie, been there. (Twice. Although in my own case, it was the point person's info that was incorrect...) I feel your pain. Jim Colbert Art Director Barash Advertising... ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 11:03:52 -0800 From: jim colbert Subject: [RS] may and editing > ><< OK. What's the longer version of May? >> > > > > > A lot of the best writing consists of removing unnecessary verbage. I think it was Neil Simon who said "write fast, edit slow..." Anyway, for the record, I don't think the missing couplets add anything essential, but I do think it balances the song a little better as far as when it brings you back to the chorus. But it's not something I'd argue that the song needs. jpc still in a pie stupor ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 14:36:29 -0800 From: jim colbert Subject: [RS] Christmas in the trenches The discussion of Christmas in the Trenches by McCutcheon a few weeks back made me take notice of a book jacket by a local author and professor at Penn State, Stanley Weintraub: Silent Night the story of the world war 1 Christmas Truce (from the jacket:) "Chronicles at least since Troy record cessations in fighting to bury the dead, to pray to the gods, to negotiate a peace, to assuage war weariness, to offers igns of amity to enemies long opposite in a static war as to encourage mutual respect. None had ever occurred on the scale or with duration of, or with such potential for changing things as, when the shooting suddenly stopped on Christmas Eve 1914V the event appears in retrospect somehow unreal, incredible in its intensity and extent, seemingly impossible to have happened without consequence for the outcome of t he war. Like a dream, when it was over men wondered at it, then went on with the grim business at hand." "Vit began when German soldiers lit candles on small Christmas trees, and British, French, Belgian and German troops serenaded each other on Christmas Eve. Soon they were gathering and burying the dead, in an age-old custom of truce. But as the power of Christmas grew among them, they broke bread, exchanged addresses and letters and expressed deep admiration for one another. When angry superiors ordered them to recommence the shooting, many men aimed harmlessly high overheadV Weintraubs's recreation demonstrates that peace can be more fragile than war, but also that ordinary men can bond with one another despite all efforts of politicians and generals to the contrary..." Anyway, I haven't read it but just thought I'd pass that along in case it interests anyone enough to pick it up. It's published by simon and shuster. One of the jacket blurbs, in the writer's never-ending search for adjectives, did make me chuckle though... (yada yada)" Vthe senseless killing of the trenches of world war 1V " Ah, yes, the senseless killing back then, as opposed to all that other good and worthwhile and meaningful killing that goes on. Yeesh. Writers. Jim also a writer and somewhere near i-80 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 00:22:22 -0500 From: Lisa Davis & family Subject: [RS] I Am Not Quite Oh dear -- I have to agree with Vanessa (having received my download). I mean simplicity can be profound, or it can be ordinary. Of course there is Richard's delivery, which can make anything extraordinary, and it is a kind of RS-building melody, but still... not quite "living up to his potential" (just been reading kids' report cards) (that is a lie actually, the report card was just fine but the "effort" marking wasn't up to snuff and we thought she was just "mailing it in" whichis what I was thinking about this song....) Maybe the thing is that as Wordsworth said poeetry is emotion recollected in tranquillity and if you compose in the throes of emotion you are blinded to craft. Relatively speaking, mind you. And then there is the Walt Whitman echo, except that in this case I think whitman was better And I suppose what we need to have a lecture about now is what Richard learned in the Buddhist monastery, assuming it was zen. Is anyone out there an expert? Lisa Cantankerous ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 01:15:19 -0500 From: Vanessa Christina Wills Subject: Re: [RS] I Am Not Quite yeah... I mean, I really wish that I loved this song, but what can I say? I downloaded it, and I am very happy that my $5 went to what seems to me a really worthy cause. And I think it's great how Richard is using this song to make some real steps towards recovery in NYC. All I'm saying is that the rest of Richard's rep is about ten notches above "I Am." And I stick by what I said before--there's nothing essentially Richard about this song, that I can hear. In closing, I agree with Lisa about the craft v. emotion thing, and reiterate what I said before--that I hope this isn't Richard's last attempt at a song about this event, because I very much look forward to more of the genius I've grown so used to. (Of course, I got plenty of genius in "Love (Before You Go)," a song I can't stop thinking about!) - --Vanessa Lisa Davis & family wrote: >Oh dear -- I have to agree with Vanessa (having received my download). >I mean simplicity can be profound, or it can be ordinary. Of course >there is Richard's delivery, which can make anything extraordinary, and >it is a kind of RS-building melody, but still... not quite "living up to >his potential" (just been reading kids' report cards) (that is a lie >actually, the report card was just fine but the "effort" marking wasn't >up to snuff and we thought she was just "mailing it in" whichis what I >was thinking about this song....) Maybe the thing is that as Wordsworth >said poeetry is emotion recollected in tranquillity and if you compose >in the throes of emotion you are blinded to craft. > >Relatively speaking, mind you. > >And then there is the Walt Whitman echo, except that in this case I >think whitman was better >And I suppose what we need to have a lecture about now is what Richard >learned in the Buddhist monastery, assuming it was zen. Is anyone out >there an expert? > >Lisa Cantankerous ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V3 #415 ***********************************