Moving, Vaseline, Kashka, fine art, Dax, Reedy River, angry energy

[Doug Alan <nessus@mit.edu>]

This message is a collection of responses that have been piling up for
some time.  If all of these have already been answered recently,
please forgive me -- I have been on vacation for a while.

> [mandorallen@st1.vuw.ac.nz:] Yipes! "Moving", a "gay" song? Tell us
> more. Your theory seems to be: "L. Kemp is gay [which I, personally,
> never heard before], KaTe wrote it for him there- fore it's a gay
> song". What is a "gay song"?  Is it a song about gay people?  Is it
> a song expressing pro-gay sentiments? If the former, who cares? If
> the latter, "Moving" doesn't seem very much so to me. I mean "Touch
> me, hold me, how my open arms ache"? I fail to see what's so
> specifically gay about that.

I'll make a stab at indicating why the person you are responding to
may have said what he or she did.  Kate has said at one time or
another that the song "Moving" was written for Lindsay Kemp, who is
known to be gay.  One possible interpretation of part of the song is
that it is a love song from a woman to a man who cannot return the
love because of his sexual preference:

	Moving stranger,
	Does it really matter,
	As long as you're not afraid to feel?
	Touch me, hold me.
	How my open arms ache!
	Try to fall for me.

With this interpretation, one might paraphrase this verse like so:

	Beautiful dancer,
	What difference does my gender make
	If you can feel my love?
	Touch me, hold me.
	How I long for you.
	Try to fall in love with me too.

> [barger@ils.nwu.edu (Jorn Barger):] Anyone know if Kashka is a real
> man's or woman's name?

I did a lot of research on this at one point and could not find the
name Kashka in any name dictionary or in idices of Arabic literature.
I think that Kate must have made up the name.

> I think the line "I watch their shadows/ Tall and slim" argues for
> their both being male, as does the unelaborated "another man"
> reference.

A number of years ago, I had always thought of Kashka as being a
female name.  A gay friend of mine, however, seemed very sure that
Kashka was male, so I asked John Carder Bush a few years back and he
said that Kashka is male.

> [judi@coyote.datalog.com (Judi McKernan):] Is anybody 100%
> absolutely sure that the line "putting on the vaseline" in "WOW"
> refers to gay sexual relations?

Yes, I'm one hundred percent sure!  Kate has never said so directly
that I am aware, but it is just completely obvious.  Furthermore, in
the video, at the point where she sings this line, she bends over and
pats her rear end!  This should eliminate the 1% doubt that may linger
in the minds of the most sceptical.

> [aurs01!aurxc3!whitcomb@mcnc.org (Jonathan Whitcomb):] And let's
> keep this in perspective here, we're talking pop music here, not
> fine art.

Are you implying that pop music can't be "fine art"?  I think that the
people who run the Museum of Fine Art here in Boston might disagree
with you.  They often have exhibits, films, or videos that are pop
music related.

> [greg <greg@cmatter.physics.indiana.edu>:] So, the nib of my gist
> is: Is most of her work [Danielle Dax's] this sort of alternative
> dance sounding stuff?  I've seen _Dark_Adapted_Eye_ and
> _Blast_The_Human_Flower_ in the local stores.

Danielle does a variety of different kinds of songs -- always somewhat
to very weird.  Her best stuff is from a few years back.  Definitely
get *Dark Adapted Eye* -- it's much better than *Blast The Human
Flower*.  If you can find them, get the incredibly superb *Pop Eyes*
and *Jesus Egg That Wept*.  These two records are combined on one
Japanese import CD called *Up Amongst The Golder Spires*.

> What are they like?

Excellent.

> [Meredith Tarr:] Hmmm... I don't think "The Empty Bullring", "Under
> The Ivy", "My Lagan Love", "The Handsome Cabin Boy" and "Ne T'En Fui
> Pas" are sub-par efforts at all, though I do agree some of her
> b-sides were mistakes ("Lord Of The Reedy River" comes most readily
> to mind.)

Reprent sinner!  "Lord of the Reedy River" belongs in the B-side hall
of fame, along with "Under the Ivy", "Dreamtime", "Ran Tan Waltz" and
"Warm and Soothing".

> [Bob someone:] In terms of the Beatles/John Lennon, I'll have to
> listen to "Number Nine Dream" more closely; I had never thought
> about it as an influence on Kate's music.  Which of Kates songs do
> you think were influenced by it?

Anything that has backwards music played in it, which is quite a few
of Kate's songs.  "Number Nine Dream" is full of backwards stuff.

> By the way, where does all that angry energy  of "The Dreaming" comes from?  
 
> I don't think anybody can produce a work of such STRONG emotion without 
> some stimuli of an equivalent magnitude. 
 
Kate has said that at the time she was living in the city and that she
found it very stressfull.  She was also very upset about the death of
John Lennon.  This made also made her fear for her own safety, living
in the city and all, and she installed a security system in her home
with remote cameras at the gate so that she could see someone before
letting them through.  (This is mentioned, by the way, in the song
"All The Love": "So now when they ring I get my machine to let them
in.")  The age of 25 is also a very common age for people to be filled
with all kinds of angst.

|>oug

"Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball"