Mailbag

[Andrew B Marvick <abm4@columbia.EDU>]

IED had a wonderful time in England and wants to thank again the
Homeground crew for their stunning show of generosity and Kately
spirits both during and after the convention.  IED had an absolutely
marvellous time at Homeground Towers in the company of Peter
FitzGerald-Morris, Krystyna, Pami, Mark Semich, Chris'n' Williams and
Vickie Mapes, |>oug /\lan and Cheryl Aittima.  IED was permitted to
hold forth to his heart's content, with minimal ribbing from his polite
hosts and friends, and what more could IED ask for? Anyway, he is quite
confident that |>oug will never show anyone that video record he made
of the occasion, so IED's reputation is safe...

To answer some questions and comments of recent days:

There are three mixes (that IED knows of) of "This Woman's Work":  the
original, which includes a very brief, and (to IED) still undeciphered
line of dialogue from the movie itself, near the beginning of the
track -- this version appeared on the soundtrack CD of "She's Having a
Baby", and the spoken words were part of the finished Kate Bush track,
not (apparently) added on later; a mix done for The Sensual World
by Kevin Killen, which brought the sound of the track into line with
the general sonic character of the album -- but with the spoken words
removed; and a slightly different-sounding mix of the album mix,
released as the CD-single.  The three tracks sound much more like
each other than unlike each other.

If TRS has really gone platinum in the US already, then one can
scarcely say that the album appealed only to "a fanatical handful".  
Doesn't platinum status in the US symbolize a million units sold?
Surely there are not a million Kate Bush fanatics out there...(*gulp*) are
there?

Many thanks to Karen Newcombe, doyenne of Kate Bushological sciences
in Northern California, for her report on the CD Plus interview with
Kate.  Could someone please transcribe and post the interview in its
entirety? 

Kate Bush did not "sample" the line "It's in the trees...It's coming!"
from the movie "Curse of the Demon".  Del Palmer explained in 1985 that
they went to some trouble to reproduce the sound of the film's spoken
line as closely as possible, without actually sampling it. Similarly,
in "The Ninth Wave", the choral singing heard during "Hello Earth" was 
as close a recreation as could be got of the original heard in the
movie "Nosferatu", but was not lifted from the actual film soundtrack.

Love-Hounds was not particularly disorganized at the convention, as
Andy Semple asserts  -- there was a loud shout from our spot when our
name was mentioned by Dave Cross on stage. Anyway, it's always embarrassingly
easy to find the American contingent(s) at Kate Bush conventions. It's IED's
suspicion that a lot of the philocanines who had earlier announced their
intention to attend, apparently didn't make it. Too bad, they didn't
get their nametags! Many thanks to Peter Manchester for keeping a
detailed written record of the event as it unfolded -- no easy feat
when sitting in near darkness among a close press of Love-Hounds,
all the while braving powerful onslaughts of draft, chill, and decibels.  

IED hopes, too, that Kate "won't give up the day job," but does not
concede that TLTCATC is a less-than-superior artifaKT.  Whether some
viewers (Peter Chow?) enjoyed the extended twirling shots of "Moments 
of Pleasure" or not, they were obviously done not for want of imagination
(Kate Bush lacking imagination?!) but to reach intended expressive and
dramatic ends.  In fact, the camera twirls at other points in the
film, too, and these sequences' cumulative effect on the eye is either
hypnotically or nauseatingly vertiginous (depending on the aesthetic  
receptivity and gastric constitution of the viewer), but hardly
boring!  It is amply evident that the film is a work of unqualified
genius, and absolutely without flaw. 

The two new CDs entitled "This Woman's Work, Extended Edition (Vols. I
and II)" are NOT official EMI releases, but bootlegs.  They are marked
with the not unprecedented bootleg claim, "Made in Luxembourg", and
neither bears any EMI identifying mark.  The little booklets (which
are identical to the official black EMI booklets' design, except that
in place of one KT-female symbol each bears two), furthermore, contain
low-resolution photos that were obviously lifted from magazine prints.  
IED has not bought or heard the CDs, but he assumes that they are
straight digital transfers of the EMI originals, and probably sound
great.  The first adds "RBG" to the original track listing, the second
"Rocket Man" and "Candle in the Wind".

In defense of Love-Hounds Team A, who did not meet their full
potential during the convention quiz (er, a precise score is not
available at this time, sorry), Peter F-M told IED that the
quizmasters' express aim was to frame each question so that it would
strongly suggest one answer while in fact requiring another, much more
obscure one.  IED agrees that it would have been better had all
Love-Hounds in attendance pooled their intellectual resources for a
common goal.  One unfortunate result of combining IED with three
equally well (or indeed, far better) versed afficionados of KTrivia  
was that the team wasted many precious minutes considering the wealth of
subtle tricks which the questions concealed, leaving insufficient
time to write out complete answers.  The suggestion was made and
enthusiastically seconded that next time (2008? 2019?) the Love-Hounds
should set up a portable satellite link and access the vast
philocanine database, also transmitting realtime minutes of the
proceedings to all those unfortunately unable to attend in person.

It was wonderful to meet so many Love-Hounds and to see so many old
friends.  Let's hope we can all meet again sooner than is likely.
Take care, everyone.

-- Andrew Marvick (IED)
   "IED, ergo QED"