The latest Love Hounds Digest

["I'm totally free...living in the trees...."<BABOOSHKA@nuacc.acns.nwu.edu>]

Greetings!

Well, this is only my second time through the Digest and already I
feel at home.  My name is Liz Owens, aka BABOOSHKA@nuacc.acns.nwu.edu.
I thought my roomies and I were the only ones who sat up till the wee
hours listening to Kate and ransacking the lyrics for still another
meaning. It's a relief to know that I have company.

Someone in the latest edition was critical of us for listening and
playing analyst with Kate's music. Let me try to explain it this way:
Ok, go see a Shakespeare play. Laugh, cry, have a good time. Fine,
great, that's what old Will would have wanted. But there is something
more there, hidden behind the blood and swords and broad comedy. And
each time you go to see that play, you see more and more of what it's
about, whether or not Will ever intended that it be there. And that's
what we see in Kate much of the time-- the sheer poetry of the
marriage of word and music, but with a mind behind it that is rapier
sharp, supremely imaginitive, and incredibly artistic. If she were a
painter instead of a musician, her works would either be worshipped
before or condemned for their imaginitive scope and color.

Someone else (forgive me not giving you credit--I don't have my print
out in front of me) asked if any of us ever sit and FEEL Kate's
music-- instead of just ripping it apart and putting it back together.
Of course we do!  I can't tell you how many times I have played "Sat
in Your Lap" at a zillion decibels on my stereo when I was frustrated
with the world. Or how many times "The Kick Inside" has made me cry.
Or how many times Babooshka makes me feel vaguely naughty (she's my
alter ego--hence the account name ;-) ), and how often "The Big Sky"
has made me happy and hopeful.  Kate would probably kill me for it,
but a tape I made of my remixes was my favorite tape to load into my
Walkman and listen to while going to the grocery store--takes your
mind off the price of food these days, I tell ya! :-)

After 24 years of pining for England (I should have been born there
instead of Iowa), I finally made it to London for a week after
Christmas. I felt like I had finally come home. One of my favorite
memories was visiting Covent Garden. Despite being New Year's Eve, it
was nearly 60 degrees and sunny. The place was full of people out to
do their shopping, and as I located the market stalls and walked into
the building, "Wuthering Heights" began playing on someone's radio,
and wherever I went in the stalls it was playing. It seemed so
appropriate that standing there in very correct London amid very
exotic goods that I heard Kate's vocal gymnastics. (The other big song
at the time was that Rick Astley song that's now so big here--that
wouldn't have fit in at all!)

QWell, I've rambled enough, and I'm sure this will get edited to
pieces, so I'll be off. Maybe someday I'll get back in touch and tell
y'all about the perfect master's thesis, assuming you could get
someone to approve it-- humor in Kate's music.

Lizooshka