Re: About buying more than one format...

[nrc@cbema.att.com (Neal R Caldwell, Ii)]

> Really-From: katefans@world.std.com (Chris'n'Vickie of Chicago)
> 
> Vickie here. 
 
> The album set is ***GEORGEOUS***!!! I'm buying a pair of gloves to keep
> in the box and I'm not letting anyone touch the booklet or albums without
> wearing them. 

Great!  Now if I only knew what georgeous meant.  :-)

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Good idea.  We are now the proud owners of the CD box and we hope to
be able to buy the album set eventually as well.   The CD Box will be
the only set that is played while the album set will serve as a
collectors item and will only be opened to enjoy those gorgeous photos
in their full sized glory.

> The photos are glorious and beautiful and their impact
> is definitely diminished when looking at the CD booklet. The full size of
> the color "Dreaming" cover alone was enough to take my breath away. 

Definately.  I never imagined that picture could look any better but
color certainly does enhance it.  This is as opposed to the color
print of the "cover" of _The Ninth Wave_ which looks better in B&W.  

I was surprised to note that KT symbol does not appear in _The
Dreaming_ print.  Am I the only one who thought this was written on
her sleeve rather than added to the photo?

I note with more amusement than disappointment that the pink leotard
photo is included but considerably cropped.  :-)

No doubt about it, this booklet contains some of the best photos to
appear in print in some time, beating out Sherilynn Fenn's appearance
in Playboy by wide margin.

> As far as which will be more "collectable"---definitely the albums.
> As far as which "sounds" better---definitely the albums.
> As far as which are cheaper---definitely the albums.
> 
> More compact? The CDs.
> More convienent? The CDs.
> More durable? The CDs.
> Quieter? The CDs.

I have to comment that the albums may sound better, but only if you
have a good quality turntable and only for the first N plays (where the
value of N depends on how you handle your albums and how good your 
equipment is).  You may consider the problems that arise on the {N+1}th 
play to be "noise" rather than "sound" but it all winds up in the same 
place.  I hope we can afford to buy the album set but we will never play 
them.  (Did I hear a chorus of "Oddball."?)

> 4) Too bad a biography wasn't included. If it was left out because it
>    was assumed that people buying the set already knew her background

I suspect that the ommission of a bio could be explained by the title
of the anthology, _This Woman's Work_.  Kate might have felt that
a bio would focus too much on herself rather than her work.  If this
is the case I would have liked to have seen a page or two of her
thoughts about each album.  Maybe she feels that in the end the music
will have to stand on its own.

> 5) Though I LOVE most of the photos, I could have done without the
>    stills from the videos. They're not even identified so what good are
>    they to people who've never seen Kate's videos? For those of us who
>    have seen the videos they're useless. If I want to see a scene from
>    "The Big Sky" all I have to do is pop in TWS video and still-frame
>    a particularly nice section. 

Then why not complain about the color versions of the album covers?
You may be able to freeze frames from the video but that will not give
you the resolution of these photos.  More importantly, Kate has
apparently chosen these stills as being representative of her work and
not whatever frames you may chose to freeze for your own viewing.

No matter what we may think of the individual photos (there are a few
I don't care for, either) Kate has for some reason chosen them to
represent her work and before we criticize her selection we should
consider her reasoning.

> Even with my minor nits, I still am awed by the BxSt and am waiting with
> impatient anticipation until I can bring that baby home.

My only regret is that they did not chose to package the CDs in the
same type box as the albums, allowing them to include the full size
booklet and full size copies of the album art.

It's a shame that CDs are destroying album art.



"Don't drive too slowly."                 Richard Caldwell
                                          AT&T Network Systems
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