Hey, Smurph,
First of all, before i forget, I have a pop lit Joni reference for you. It
originally appeared in satirewire.dom, which parodied business magazines
during the rise and fall of dotcoms. The fictional magazine was called
"BusinessMonth Weekly"; the best of it is now in book form, called "Economy
of Errors". In the December 1997 issue, there's a picture of Alan Greenspan
with his typical dull, vacant, glum gaze. At the top of the picture, the
cation is "What's on Alan Greenspan's mind?" Among his thoughts are:
(1) Boy, if they knew I tie interest rates to my cholesterol level...
(2) Does "fundamentally antidisinflationary" mean anything? Think not. Must
use in next speech...
(3) What I could make on Wall Street: $250 million. What I make at Fed:
$141,300. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
and (drum roll, please)
(4) First wife: Joan Mitchell
Now wife: Andrea Mitchell
Next wife: Joni Mitchell?
(btw, he really was married to someone named Joan Mitchell, and he is
currently married to Andrea Mitchell, a senior correspondent on NBC.)
Hope you're okay, Bob. I'm having a rough spot, and haven't been able to get
on the computer for weeks -- too weak to sit up for long, and too shaky to
type. As you probably know, sweet Ashara called me from Stephen's in
Vancouver on TG Day to make sure i was okay -- she said she'd tell everybody
on the list as much.
Turns out part, or most, of the reason I was so tired and slightly zomboid at
the fest was that I was vastly poisoned with lactic acid -- a side effect of
at least one of the antivirals I was on. I've been off the drugs for two
months now, and *I'm still fecking toxic, and they don't know why*. Of
course, having gone off all my antivirals, I now have a viral load the size
of Rhode Island (>500,000, if anyone's curious), and am feverish half the
time. And the *really* good news is that they want to investigate the
possibility that I may have a new lymphoma! Just in time for Christmas,
which is also when i got diagnosed 7 years ago! Ho ho ho! At the moment I'm
more pissed than terrified. At least, if (God forbid) it turns out to be the
case, I'll know what to expect. Anyway, yesterday I had another test to see
if the lactic acidosis is going away, I see the doctor on Monday, and then
(yay!!) more tests.
Oh, I was alerted to the release date of Travelogue by a local jmdl lurker
who lives near me, and I forced myself up, into the shower, and all the way
to Virgin Records to get it -- my longest trip on my own in weeks. I was
shaking by the time i got home, but BOY WAS IT WORTH IT!!!!! I wept through
the whole thing on the first listen. (Robert sort of shook his head: "Why
are you *crying*??") Laughing and crying, it's the same release, or so i
hear. Joni lets me cry, at the moment. Most of the time I put up a good,
cheerful front.
I'm sure the list has been crawling with opinions and reviews, and when I
next have the energy, I'll see what everybody else thinks, and add my own
20000 cents then. Okay, a few comments now: I can live without Circle Game
-- nice version, but just not her best song; ditto for Borderline
(coincidentally, the last two songs on the second disk); I would've picked
something else from her first album rather than Dawntreader, maybe Nathan La
Franeer or Pirates of Penance; what, *nothing* from HoSL?????; and oh, I'm
sure someone else must have already brought up the predominance of "lasties"
on Travelogue. I've frequently liked the last songs on so many Joni albums
-- sometimes it caps the album, sometimes it's a contrast -- but almost
always good -- so I'm happy.
And, of course, I'm working on the song list for Joni's 5- or 6-disk release
in '04 or '05, unless she actually does a Christmas album or a disk of new
self-penned songs in the meantime, in which case "Gallery" (the name of the
6-disk set) can wait a little longer.
Hugs to you, Bob, and to all my buds on the list.
love,
walt
