Various & sundry Dull Ramblings(tm) for your perusal

[katefans@chinet.chi.il.us (Chris n Vickie)]

I posted this and the darn thing never appeard. Maybe it was in one of
the missing Digests, which I didn't get either. My apoligies if this
appeared everywhere but my site.

btw, Hosannas to Ron "mightyfingers" Hill for his efforts in every area
he efforts in. Oh, I enjoyed the latest episode of...
Star Trek-The Alternate Generation
but I have one small problem with it. You see, I would *never* live in Ohio,
(except for Dayton, maybe) so Richard would just *have* to move to Chicago,
that's all there is to it. Vickie Caldwell? Yeah, well, it sounds better
than Mapes (my ex-husband's name anyway) so it might work.

Well, not that it's important or anything, but here's the missing post...
============================================================================

Vickie here. My goodness, gaffa's just so quiet. Ecto's quite busy, so I
know everyone's not on vacation. I received some missing Digests (thanks!)
and have finally gotten around to reading them closely. I thought I'd
put some bulk in gaffa by responding to some things. Hell, why not?
These are in bits and pieces and cover lots of different topics.

Evan Welsh noted that Terry Wogan said something like:

> "I know someone who'll be particularly pleased to see KaTe and that's 
> Hanna. She always watches the show, particularly when KaTe is on. Hello
> Hanna and get well soon!"

I talked to Peter Morris and he said that Hannah has indeed been ill, but
that she is better now. Details of her illness have not been made public.

That's all I know. There wasn't any more Kate news.

----
>From Jorn's monthly post:

> Topics of interest to Love-Hounds include other alternative female artists,
> and Kate-related others like Peter Gabriel and Roy Harper, and, for that
> matter, anything sproingy, or not-so-sproingy.  Many new discoveries have
> been brought to our attention by Vickie Mapes (of Vickie'n'Chris), whose
> definitively sproingy radio show "Suspended in Gaffa" focuses on
> alternative female artists, airing Wednesdays from 7 to 8pm on WZRD in
> Chicago (88.3 FM), and Saturdays from 10 to 12pm on KKFI (90.1 FM) in
> Kansas City.  Vickie is especially big on Jane Siberry, the
> soon-to-be-superstar from Albany Happy Tyler Rhodes, and Victoria Williams.

I thought I'd be losing the Kansas City show because KKFI is revamping
their schedule and Saturday nights have been reserved for a World Beat
show. The fate of my show was up in the air but I found out last night
that I've been moved to Sunday nights (10pm-11pm) so I'm deleriously
happy that I haven't been bumped off. I originally started on Sunday
night, so, nearly 4 years later, I'm back "home." CoolCoolCool!

----
What's all that broohaha@camelot.bradley.edu (Alden Arzaga) asked long ago:
In <9112132127.AA14815@samba.acs.unc.edu> Ken.Saintjohn@samba.acs.unc.EDU
writes:
>> Has anyone else around here seen a Paula Abdul video on MTV called
>>"Blowing Kisses In The Wind"?  (or at least something very close to that)
>>This video remind anyone just a little of a certain KaTe video?  :-) :-)

>        Since I only watched one Kate Bush video in my entire life,
>        what KaTe video are you talking about?

Nobody answered this. I've seen *all* of Kate's videos (except for Rocket
Man) but not Paula Abdul's, so I don't know which video Ken and Jessica
referred to either. We give up, what's the answer?

----
Andrew Raphael and Jon both caught me on this one:

Re: Millions of Stars (Single Gun Theory)
katefans@chinet.chi.il.us (Chris n Vickie) writes:

>> Does anyone know where that (silly, IMHO) album title came from? How 
>> about the (stupid, IMHO) band name?

> The band's name refers to the assassination of President Kennedy of the
> USA.  Was there a single gun (Oswald), or many guns (the grassy
> knoll)?

Sheesh! I should have known this. I even remember where I was when 
Kennedy got shot. I still don't like the name, though Andrew's right 
about it being very distinctive and hard to forget. Anyway, my face is red.

----
Richard Caldwell writes about IED (even though he says "Andy")
and the song "Rocket Man":

> Of course, among the many things that there are to admire in
> Andy's personalities you will not find objectivity on matters
> related to Kate Bush.  Since Andy does not acknowledge
> imperfections in Kate's work, does he have any choice but to say
> that the song does indeed conjure feelings compatible with those
> expressed by the lyrics?  Admitting otherwise would be
> acknowledging that Kate's performance is inconsistent with the
> lyric and might hint at something less than perfection.

Pooh! Yet another example of "If I don't like it and you do then
you're obviously a Kate-Can-Do-No-Wrongoid" thinking. I don't understand 
this highly strange attitude. <Lots more writings that would get me 
into a flame war deleted after counting to 10> 
Maybe IED/Andy says that the song does indeed conjure feelings compatible
with those expressed by the lyrics because for him the song does indeed
conjure feelings compatible with those expressed by the lyrics. They do
for me too.

Still Richard:

> The way the feel of this song goes against the grain of the lyric
> is pretty much my whole point.  If the lyrics where about how
> great it must be to be an rocket man it wouldn't be nearly as
> grating.  

Richard, go your shelf and get out Never Forever. Listen to the
track called "Army Dreamers" and then tell me if you can say the
same thing about it. That is, assuming you _like_ Army Dreamers.
If you don't, then...well, never mind. Personally, whenever I hear AD
I feel like crying while still bouncing happily around the room.

> Careful attention, however, often reveals that Kate has added her 
> own touch of genius to the otherwise conventional effort, lifting 
> it to an entirely new level.

Bingo! My thoughts on Rocket Man and Candle In The Wind exactly! 
WELL put Richard!

Steve VanDevender re: Subject: Rocket Man

> I have finally been able to listen to Kate's cover of "Rocket
> Man" and study it in detail.
> It passes two important tests:  I got the tingly feeling the
> first few times I listened to it, and I not only can stand to
> listen to it over and over again, but really _want_ to.

Me too, absolutely. As for the rest of your post, all I can say is that
it got put into my "Best of Love-Hounds" file. Excellent!

Also, thanks for the TACAN trivia.
("TACAN is the TACtical Air Navigation system used by the military,
analogous to the ILS (Instrument Landing System) used in
commercial aviation.")

----
woj:
> as for "candle in the wind", i find it rather cheesy with those synths
> and the electric piano. 

As a usually fervent part-time synth-basher, I kept trying to figure out
why I love the synth sounds Kate uses in CitW. For some reason I couldn't
quite grasp, they provoked warm and friendly memories in me. I finally
realized why. I'm an old Genesis fan who followed most of the member's
solo albums for a while. It occured to me that the synth sounds *very*
much reminded me of the Genesis album _Wind and Wuthering_ (my favorite
post-Gabriel album) and Tony Banks first solo album _A Curious Feeling_,
which I was deeply in love with. I really can understand why other people 
don't like the synths in the song, but for me they're like old friends. 
I'll probably never know if Kate was actually inspired by those albums.

Ron Hill said:
>  Koodos to Vickie for her "Candle In The Wind" observations.  Her As 
> I was walking away from the screen after reading it (with CiTW playing 
> in the background) the part was she said "press" jumped out and grabbed 
> me, and I find it interesting that she holds on that word specifically.

Thanks. These little inflections have become even stronger to me. I think
her voice is beautiful, but very restrained. The real power is in the
subtle way she brings emotions to these key words.

----
Ron asks:

> Since we're coming up on the new year, perhaps it might be a good 
> idea to talk about the best Kate-related thing to happen to you in 
> the past year - you know, hearing the new single, meeting a fellow fan,
> seeing an old video, reading Cloudbusting :-), etc. 

All those things, plus Katemas, plus Ecto birthin' via gaffa. A great year!

----
woj:
> i'm curious about something. imagine if you will: you're a renowed 
> record producer and you're sitting in your office somewhere (anywhere)
> cleaning the your fingernails. the phone rings - it's KaTe's mom asking 
> you if you would be interesting in producing the next album. being a long
> time KaTe-fan and having always harbored a desire to produce one of her
> records, you accept. the contract is signed and you now have a rather 
> large impact on how the next album will sound. 

I'd take a vacation and let her do what she wants. I'd also ask if she's
called the police about that nut impersonating her mum. 

When Kate was supposed to come to America but didn't because "the QEII
broke down" the rumor was that EMI America had lined up some producers
for Kate to "talk to" while she was here, she found out beforehand and
that's *really* why she didn't come. Only Kate knows for sure.

As fictional fodder though, I enjoyed Lazlo's post, but I wouldn't let
Jon Drukman anywhere near her. :-) I've *heard* "Kate R**e." 

----
Stephen "Jokey" Golden says:

> Last night I had a dream about Kate.  When I was younger, I used to 
> compete in ice skating competitions.  In my dream, I had started ice
> skating again, and asked Kate if she would ice skate with me in one of 
> her video's.

Great dream!

I love ice skating and I'd love to see really good skaters skate to a
Kate song during an exibition or professional competition. *My dream* is
to see a world class skater let rip to the instrumental portion of
"Jig of Life."

Cool music I have seen skated to: Peter Gabriel's "Rhythm of the Heat";
Genesis's "Eleventh Earl of Mar"; Yma Sumac; Malcolm McLaren's "Madame
Butterfly"; Julia Fordham's "Happy Ever After"; Phillip Glass.

Cool music I'd love to see skated to: Cocteau Twins "Pandora" (or *any*
Cocteau twins); Dead Can Dance-anything; Le Mystere des voix Bulgare-any
thing, but especially "Polegnala E Todora"; Jane Siberry's "Map Pt. I";
tons of other things. I want to be music director for the Ice Capades. 
Screw that Vegas/Disco/Barbra Streisand-Neil Diamond stuff, I want to hear
ice shows/single skaters/ice dancers using innovative and unusual music.

----
Ron again:

> In addition, the Amiga version will (hopefully) be finished a month
> after the other two versions.  So I'll need a volunteer for that, also.
> I'd also like to know - are there a large number of people out there who
> have the Amiga AND the ability to FTP to and from it? 

We do! (...have an Amiga and FTP capability)

> I'm trying to debate the merits of posting the Amiga version to the net,
> if nobody with Amigas have net access then I guess it wouldn't make much
> sense.  

Uh, well, I'd hope you wouldn't post it :-) but otherwise it's a great
idea! Thanks for all your work on these things. They're appreciated.

Vickie (one of Vickie'n'Chris)
katefans@chinet.chi.il.us

"We're going to play a game. It's called 'Is there a God?'"
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"Hozanna Heyzanna Zanna Zanna Ho Zanna Hey Zanna Ho Zaaaaana"
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"God does _not_ make deals!"
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