[Cosmia]

[Jordan~]

"Scrape your knee, it is only skin."

Oh, tattoos. I'm not sure whether I would or not even if I weren't deathly afraid of anything puncturing my skin. I mean, it might seem like a great idea now, but will it when it's hanging six inches south when I'm 95?

[Ann]

I don't think I'll ever get a tattoo. There are so many beautiful ones that I see, it gets me inspired, but I'm too wishy-washy to commit to a tattoo. I know I'd regret it and want my pure, un-inked skin back.

[Weirdelves]

My best friend of 7 years just got a tattoo on his arm of the infinity symbol. It's literally the most perfect tattoo I've ever seen, and I can't think of anything that would suit him better.

[doublewuzzy]

I will never get a tattoo simply on principle. I'm sure lots of people get them for deep, meaningful reasons, and that's fine, but it feels... too much like a fad at the moment.

[polliwog]

It is a fad. Unfortunately it is a lot easier to stop having a mullet hairstyle, or wearing unlaced sneakers, or wearing a baseball cap backwards, than it is to stop having a tattoo. But, I don't expect anyone who is determined to have tattoos, for whatever reasons, to be diverted by anything I say. It's not my skin, and I'm not the one who has to live with it.

[Cosmia]

[Wanbli]

Arte.TV Interview - The Harp, Literature & Happiness

[slowheart]

There's actually a second part to that video here:

http://www.arte.tv/de/suche/3482404.html

[Wanbli]

actually I posted part 2 the interview
Part 1 is mostly the narrator talking over, showing live shots, background- etc

[Wanbli]

LG Optimus T-Mobile commercial featuring Bridges & Balloons


Review of Phoenix show
http://www.statepress.com/2010/11/11/ha ... m-theatre/

[polliwog]

Nice review Peter. I also followed the links from statepress to other articles/reviews/interviews.

[silentdan]

On your tube !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXJEUimk-hg

[Wanbli]

Dallas review
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/dc9/201 ... _at_th.php

Austin Review

[Wanbli]

nice article and interview - the first time JN will enter Florida

http://www.tallahassee.com/article/2010 ... T/11120306

Great quote by Van Dyke Parks:

Parks laughed and added on a more serious note, "She has a rapture that takes her beyond our own time and place. She's savvy, she's smart. She is an irascible artist, and I say that only in the highest regard. We should have more irascible artists these days. I salute her."

[beverley]

[Wanbli]

grrrr... it wasn't the first time I looked- now it is.
perhaps it got too popular?
Perhaps too much traffic from this referral
I'll go look from another PC and cut and past if I can open it

EDIT: Yes I can open it with a direct link from Google, here it is:



When legendary songwriter-arranger-producer Van Dyke Parks was in town in October, he was asked if he had any "dirt" on Joanna Newsom. The two worked together on Newsom's critically hailed album "Ys."

"Dirt? I would love to but I don't have any," the ever-dapper Parks said in his genteel Southern accent. "There is no dirt on Joanna Newsom. You could eat a sandwich off her kitchen floor. That's how little dirt there is."

Parks laughed and added on a more serious note, "She has a rapture that takes her beyond our own time and place. She's savvy, she's smart. She is an irascible artist, and I say that only in the highest regard. We should have more irascible artists these days. I salute her."

"Irascible" is a good word for a singer-songwriter who plays a classical harp the size of a Mini-Cooper and whose idea of a pop song runs 10 minutes with more lyrics than a William Blake collection of poetry. Newsom has been hailed as the heir apparent for such trailblazers as Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush and Bjork. For once, the hype may be right.

On Monday night, Newsom — along with her harp — will pay a visit to The Moon. The show is being presented by the Seven Days of Opening Nights arts festival and Florida State's Union Productions. It's her only date in the Sunshine State on a tour that will end with a concert in Carnegie Hall later this month.

"This will be my first time setting foot in your fair state," Newsom said in an e-mail interview with Limelight. "I'm really excited. I have always wanted to come to Florida."

Pop culture was verboten

Newsom, 28, grew up on the opposite side of the country in Nevada City, Calif., an arty, quaint, former Gold Rush town nestled near the forests around Lake Tahoe. Her parents, who were both musicians and doctors, raised Newsom in a protective, eclectic vacuum that did not allow pop music, violent movies or TV shows such as "The Simpsons."

"We didn't have TV growing up, but I used to bump my 'The Simpsons Sing The Blues' cassette nonstop for about six years straight," Newsom said. "And eventually I did get around to watching pretty much every episode made before about 2001. I had a roommate when I was 18 who owned VHS recordings of every 'Simpsons' episode ever made, and I would just watch them over and over."

Matt Groening, the creator of "The Simpsons," recently drew a caricature of Newsom playing the harp. The cartoonist served as guest curator of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in England in May and recruited Newsom to play. She treasures the drawing.

Instead of listening to Madonna or Nirvana while she was growing up, Newsom's musical heroes were more along the lines of English folk singer Roy Harper and American composer/folklorist Ruth Crawford Seeger.

When she was 12, Newsom attended Lark Camp, a week-long musical jamboree held in California. It was there Newsom was introduced to the harp and the harp-like African instrument called the kora. She was hooked.

After studying music and creative writing at Mills College in Oakland, Newsom dropped out to become, well, a bohemian in San Francisco. Some of her home-recorded releases found their way into the hands of Will Oldham, the indie musician and actor who sometimes goes by the name of Bonnie (Prince) Billy. He invited her to go on tour with him and she later signed to Oldham's record label Drag City.

While her 2004 debut album, "The Milk-Eyed Mender," was more of a lo-fi affair with rather traditional song structures, she upped the ante and ran the tables with follow-up "Ys" (rhymes with "fleece") in 2006. It was a swirling, lush, surreal, word-drunk Renaissance fair of an album driven by Newsom's harp and unorthodox singing style (think falsetto-voiced eccentric John Jacob Niles meets Bjork). Calling "Ys" daringly original does not begin to scratch the surface.

The high-flying "Ys" was engineered by Steve Albini (of Nirvana fame), mixed by experimental musician Jim O'Rourke and arranged by Parks, who reduced his normal fee just to get the chance to work with her. The two clicked.

"Van Dyke Parks would remain eloquent and well-spoken during the actual Rapture, I believe," Newsom said. "He's a delight, and I love him and his work, both collaborative and solo, especially 'Song Cycle' (Parks' debut solo album)."

'Have One'? Heck, have three

In typical firebrand fashion, Newsom followed "Ys" this year with a triple-CD set titled "Have One on Me." Yes, she released a triple album in the era of downloads and micro-measured attention spans. Did anyone try to talk her out of her triple dare?

"No," Newsom said. "But, the week that all my final design stuff was supposed to go out to the printers, I did make a panicky last-minute phone call to a 'highly regarded' psychic lady I'd heard about from a friend, who told me that I was absolutely not under any circumstances to name my album 'Have One On Me.' I gave her the list of names I was considering and she just hated that one, above all."

Newsom always goes against the grain. Despite the psychic's qualms, "Have One on Me" was received warmly. Its collection of melodic tunes were pitched on a more personal level and the songs, dare it be said. were pop-driven.

"Sure, in contrast to 'Ys' it's pretty poppy," Newsom said. "But I think of it as just more corporeal, more physical and tactile and earthbound."

While most under-30 musicians have abandoned the album as a cohesive art form, Newsom revels in the writing, sequencing and packaging of her very distinctive discs. She appears to be working on some larger vision and bigger scale than her peers.

"The scale has never been so grand as to eclipse the self-contained album form," Newsom said. "But, within the structure of each album, I do aim for a sort of thematic cohesiveness or narrative arc. Maybe when I'm 70 years old I'll look back and realize that the separate albums I've made tell some sort of story, in combination with each other, but for me, it feels more like I start from scratch at the beginning of each record."

While she's been known to tour with full orchestras, Newsom is traveling with a small-scale band this time around. And, yes, a demanding and unwieldy harp follows her wherever she goes. Those suckers are hard to keep in tune, according to Newsom.

"I rented a harp for this tour that I love — a Lyon and Healy Style 23," Newsome said. "And, yes, they go out of tune so easily. Any change in temperature, any extended playing. They're the most persnickety instruments imaginable."

Persnickety? Don't you mean irascible?

[Wanbli]

Joe BR wrote a "review" of this show for BR/NOLA's own indie music blog Stereo Gumbo. Go "Like" it!

[schlep]

There's a pretty good, funny e-mail interview in our local (Richmond Va) rag Style Weekly - not on the web yet (I'll post the link when it appears (tomorrow)
I am intrigued by this Q and A:
Is there any musical artist you would most love to reinterpret or play?
Yes. Stay tuned. It's happening. "Newsom Sings Nilsson Sings Newman".


(Please please do not be kidding, this time!)

[Wanbli]

There’s Something about Joanna (Newsom)
Indie harpstress inspires wonder, defies comparison



“I was trying to use it to my advantage a few months ago,” she admits with a chuckle. “I was trying to launch a pretty heavy campaign to get the people making The Hobbit to let me audition. I just wanted to see if they would let me be an elf. I feel like if I’m going to have to deal with this f—king elf thing forever, I should at least be able to enjoy myself by getting to live in Middle Earth for a while.”