Snappy Happy

[stern@chem.nwu.edu (Charlotte Stern)]

I finally got a hold of Happy's latest work, the Warpaint CD, and
from first listen it seems commensurate with everything else she's
done.  Though, I still have a weak spot for her first and *especially*
her second albums.  These, along with Ecto and Rearmament are available
only on cassette from Aural Gratification, POB 8658 Academy Station, Albany,
NY, 12208.  Each tape is $9.95, each order is $2.00 P&H.  The CD
is $13.99.  The quality of the tapes is very high, considering they
are cassettes.  They are recorded on high bias (CrO2) tape, with dolby,
although I'm sure they could do otherwise if you so specified in your order.
Playing time on Rhodes I is around 45 minutes; all the others are around
50 or more (the CD is 55).  If you haven't already ordered your copies,
I'm not exactly sure how you have been living with yourself on a day to
day basis.

The latest from our incommunicado love-hound in Chicago, Vickie, is
that she and Chris suspect that Kate's message at the Ohio con was a 
dub of her message at the Canadian BreakThrough con several years back.
Also, she recently spoke to Happy and Kevin... they received the lyrics
that Jeff Burka transcribed with comments from myself and Vickie.
Happy was verily amused, in particular at the attempt to figure out a
vexing line in Moonbeam Friends:  Jeff was clueless, I though I heard
"my oxy and my toe" and Vickie claimed it was something else that I
don't remember.  Anyways, Happy said the line is actually
"my oxy and nitro", where oxy is short for oxygen, and nitro is short
for something as well (I guess either nitrogen, or nitroglycerin).
In any case, she threatened to re-record the song using "my oxy and my toe"
because she was so amused by this...  Gee, what an honour that would be!

I asked Vickie if Happy would ever tour (like maybe in Chicago) and
apparently she used to perform just herself and Kevin around Albany,
but they haven't for a while since they feel they would need more of
a band, and of course they're short on cash.  As for the possibility
of producing the earlier work on CD, she said there was a good chance
Ecto would get done (eventually) but that the other 3 might be made
into a "best of" project.  PLEASE NO!!!!  There are no songs, at least
on I and II, that bear omission!

As for Kate these days, the album I have been listening the most (almost
exclusively) is (gasp!) Lionheart.   The more I think about Lionheart,
the better it gets.  I literally find myself consumed by some of its
songs, singing them spontaneously in public.  In particular, there is
a pattern in chord progression and change that I have noted in a majority
of the songs on that album, that is just all-consuming... absolutely
Kate at her peak of brilliance.  I can't for the life of me figure how
*she* figured out how to put those sequences together.  Absolutely
miraculous.  This for me is where Kate's divinity surfaces *without
a shadow of doubt*.  It is there for the asking... one need only
discover to be sure.

-mjm (mike mendelson, chicago)