No Subject

[barger@aristotle.ils.nwu.edu (Jorn Barger)]

Chris here,

   Vickie and myself are over here at Jorn's place of work, and he has let
us catch up on gaffa. Too many interesting subjects lines to be able
to respond to this time, but with any luck we will be be back in touch in a
little while.
   Wednesday night we experienced (no other word will work) Diamanda Galas
at the Vic theatre. If you are not familier with her, she is a 
"performance artist" with operatic vocal training. She performed "The
Masque of the Red Death", a work inspired by Aids. Her brother died of
Aids and the Masque deals with both the suffering of the victums and the
hateful reactions of narrow-minded gay-bashers. It was one for the
"Difficult Listening Hour".

Vickie here,

Yes, Diamanda was truly frightening! Brilliant, scary, sad, angry...like
nothing else I've ever experienced in my life. Remember when Mt. St. Helens
blew? Remember the pictures of the trees, stripped and bent over?
That's what my eardrums felt like! We had the best seats in the house,
right up front and just a few feet away from her a few times when she
crawled toward the front of the stage. Terrifying!

Re: The Shining. Richard, I didn't see your post. Larry, I saw yours
but you said that GooMH was based on the movie. Since the book and the
film are so different, I wanted to clarify that Kate said that the song
was inspired by (not based on) the _book_ by Stephen King. She said that
she wanted to get that same sort of claustrophobic terror into a song.

Re: Virginia Astley. I didn't mean to imply to mjm that she was a 
brand new artist. She's been around for years, writing and recording
great music. We have two albums and three 12"s. Her last album was
released in 1987 (?) in England and released in the US in 1988. She
was on Geffen then but not anymore. I've asked people from Geffen and
Arista (the label Lily Was Here is on) and no one's heard of her.
I hope this song is an indication that she's coming back. The song is
truly beautiful (she co-wrote it with DS) and her voice is not quite
as "little-girl" sounding. I can see some people comparing her to
Julee Cruise. The whole album (Lily Was Here) is great, Virginia's song
is just an extra added treat.

Re: Happy Rhodes. Mark and Jeffrey, I'm glad you like the album. I'm
completely in love with it. The lyrics are wonderful, especially the
song "Feed the Fire" which (though not indicated on the album) is
about Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Wendy Carlos and Bach.

"So many powerful beings, So many in tune with life. Imagination abounds
here. There's wisdom and great insight.
My ears are lucky to hear these glorious songs of inspiration. And
voices crafted from thunder, the power of life"
There is a road straight to my heart, traveled by those with fire.
I hope to follow their patterns. There're many more to inspire. 
I live to see my fondest dreams realized, of living under the sights
and sounds of the gifted, who gave so much to me"

IS THAT GREAT OR WHAT??????
sigh....

I also love "In Hiding"
"You'll find me forever in hiding. And only time will tell what it's
done to me. I've tried to show, God only knows, to grow. But music
hides me so well, and reveals me, oh well. You can find me in hiding"

They're all amazing. I think everyone will really enjoy the album.
Some songs might take a few listens, maybe not. I'm overjoyed with it.

Jeffrey, thank you for the lyrics to the first three albums. Michael,
thanks for printing them out and sending them to me. They'll be in the
mail to Happy within this next week. I talked to her yesterday and made
sure she was aware that we want these to be the "ultimate" lyric sheets.
Complete and available to present and future fans forever more and
evermore.

Happy is not any closer to a record contract but they're working on it.
They have been talking to people at various labels but haven't been
offered anything yet. 
To the person in Albany (I didn't see you post, just heard about it),
Happy was suprised that she'd sold a CD already at the Music Shack.
You should be able to find her first four cassettes there too. They are
worth getting. Ecto and Vol.1 are what I'd suggest you start with.
Buy them all if you can afford it. I have a story about the Music
Shack that I'll post once we get back on line.

For those interested:
To get Happy's tapes and the new CD, write:

Aural Gratification
P.O. Box 8658
Academy Station
Albany, NY  12208

Tapes are $9.95 + $1.50 p&h
The CD is $13.99 + $2.00 p&h
All are well worth the price. The first three will most likely become
collectors items. I was told that if they ever had the money to spend
they would release Ecto on CD and make a compilation of the first
three. That wouldn't be for years though. Probably.

Thanks to Jorn for letting us take over his computer for a bit. We'll
not be able to be back on line ourselves for at least a few more
weeks.We have been getting our mail from Chinet on a fairly regular
basis. We can't get World though, so any mail should come to:
katefans@chinet.chi.il.us


Hi Footah! Hi Hargie!

Forever Suspended In Gaffa....

Vickie & Chris