hammersmith, whole story videos

[tracyr@uunet.uu.net (jane smallberries)]

well, i finally got the opportunity to view these. 
thanks to my KaTe menTor Tom affiniTo, who led me into
this whole world (tom's been a love-hound since his days
back at princeton, and only recently lost newsfeed--i  
promised to forward him everything).  thankyou taff!

hammersmith first:
i couldn't take my eyes off the screen.  while she didn't
have the slick, polished look of a professional dancer,
her own style of movement and expression were intensely
engaging.  and keeping in mind that in 1979, most concerts
were musicians standing on the stage singing (save for a
few colored lights, perhaps), i found her performance
especially creative and interesting.  the costumes, the props,
the drama!  however, i wouldn't have minded seeing more of
the big picture--at times there seemed to be interesting things
happening on the stage, but the camera stayed focused on kate's
face, close-up.  i can only assume keef is smitten, and couldn't
imagine anything more important to film (however, i did enjoy
studying the close-ups as well--exaggerated as they were, for
the stage).  i noticed a very sweet-young-girl expression
at the end of "feel it" and "oh england,...".  anyone else
catch those smiles?  i only wish she didn't seem so detached   
while singing "oh england,..."--it's such a sad song.  and
ofcourse, it would've been nice to see her perform "oh to be
in love"--i imagined a giant pendulum swinging across the 
stage...

the whole story:
i like kate with short hair.  (sorry guys, i know it isn't 
as sexy.)  i love the rain-maker machine (apologies for my
lack of technical terms--i too would appreciate more discussion
on the relationship between cloudbusting and the peter reich (spl?)
book).  and the army dreamers video!  is that a *camera* i hear
snapping when she blinks her eyes??  her originality is so 
delightful!  i preferred this style to experiment iv--it was a
bit too slick (and the song doesn't excite me terribly--not
yet, anyway).  and what can i say about the breathing video?!
for a break between tapes, tom and i watched a bit of the
joe jackson (in tokyo) concert video.  he sings sunday papers 
(called monday papers in the video)--another song about the
despondent state of the world.  yet it's so literal.  in 
breathing, kate is so symbolic, so artistic.  sigh.

ofcourse, i must see these several more times.

happily, i went home with an armload of albums, including
the cloudbusting single.  i must say, i do like the extra
kate voices (airy, like a breeze) and the additional
violins.

-tracy
...!uunet!sco!tracyr,
tracyr@sco.com