From: owner-ammf-digest@smoe.org (alt.music.moxy-fruvous digest) To: ammf-digest@smoe.org Subject: alt.music.moxy-fruvous digest V1 #214 Reply-To: ammf@smoe.org Sender: owner-ammf-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ammf-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk alt.music.moxy-fruvous digest Thursday, August 6 1998 Volume 01 : Number 214 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Jian's Cool! [ceelove@ibm.net (Colleen Campbell)] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 06 Aug 1998 03:44:57 GMT From: ceelove@ibm.net (Colleen Campbell) Subject: Re: Jian's Cool! On 5 Aug 1998 10:40:26 -0700, Jason A. Reiser wrote: >But we can't believe anything they say on stage, and often have to >stay on our toes even when they're NOT on stage. After all, you were >at last year's Philly Folk Festival where Jian's Blow Wind Blow lyrics >included, "... so I slept with Dan Bern and Laura Love" ... followed >shortly thereafter by "I wish." *nod* Actually, I remember it as him singing about *dreaming* of sleeping with Dan Bern and Laura Love; but yes, I distinctly remember the "I wish." (I have to concur with his tastes, if he was being honest; but that's neither here nor there.) (Lucky me, I saw her on Saturday and Sunday and him on Thursday, but that's also neither here nor there, or rather, was there and then here, but .. .whatever.) As to whether we can believe anything Jian says on stage, or off, whether about his sex life or not--well, clearly, I'd take anything any of the Lads said with a whole shaker of salt. I didn't mean that if Jian publicly stated that he'd had sex with Brad Pitt that I would believe him. I meant, such a public statement would mean he was opening his life to public view, taking a stance and, in a way, inviting the public to believe something about his sexual preferences. Whether those beliefs correlated to his reality would be another question; but at that point, I think, Jian would be inviting the post, "Is Jian gay?" in addressing it himself. In short, Jian's sex life is his private business and I would consider it out of line to ask for discussion of it in a public place (i.e., the newsgroup) until such time as Jian suggests discussion of it in a public place (i.e., from the stage). >I've seen people wonder at Dan Bern and Laura Love's sexual >preference too. Perhaps we're just curious about people whose >outwardly visible self confidence in their own sexuality is more obvious >than their sexual preference. It's certainly more interesting than the >labels we throw around so casually. Wow. Now *that's* an interesting thought. Would also relate to why I'm taken with artists who tend towards music & commentary that leaves their preferences in a sort of forthright ambiguity: singing about relationships & situations that defy typical sexual categorization. As Harry mentioned, those artists include in their ranks the Indigo Girls, Dar Williams (both of whom I'll see this weekend :), and of course Dan and Laura; and then there are hypotheses floating around about mainstream, big name artists like Dave Matthews, Sarah McLachlan, and Suzanne Vega, among many others. Why is it so important to us to be able to box up those our society has fastened on as idols? Oddly enough, it's those we've elevated above ourselves--made inaccessible by their ability to pen a song or strike a pose on stage--that we need to grab back down, make them human again, by divvying them up into "available" and "not available" categories. Makes no difference, of course, whether a star is gay, bi, or straight, once you've established that said person is a star and therefore "out of your own league." I sincerely doubt I'm ever going to have sex with Ani DiFranco, no matter whether she's open to sex with women or not, because she's the kind of person whose name will more likely be on a poster on my wall than in my little black book. So. A rambling and not hugely relevant post. But I'll iterate what I've said in the past and what others have said better than I'm about to: Fruvous has done us the tremendous favor of including us in their lives enough to talk with us after shows, remember our names, occasionally even cater to our song requests and such. They make themselves far more available than many of their stature. Let's give them the courtesy due them as people and the respect due them as people we admire. Indulge your curiosity all you want, about whatever aspect of their lives intrigues you--Jian's sexual preferences, what Murray eats for breakfast, what brand of razors Dave uses to shave, how many times a day Mike thinks of calling his wife from the road--but *in private.* Don't invite others to speculate with you in public. ceecee, teetering atop a stack of soapboxes ------------------------------ End of alt.music.moxy-fruvous digest V1 #214 ********************************************