From: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org (precious-things-digest) To: precious-things-digest@smoe.org Subject: precious-things-digest V10 #58 Reply-To: precious-things@smoe.org Sender: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-precious-things-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "precious-things-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. precious-things-digest Wednesday, March 16 2005 Volume 10 : Number 058 Today's Subjects: ----------------- tori tv reminder: ellen and dennis miller [jeff albertson ] RE: Mac Aladdin ?????? ["Tom xxxxx" ] Re: Mac Aladdin ?????? [Cyndi S Crawford ] RE: Mac Aladdin ?????? [e m ] Adrian Belew [Jennifer Mitts ] Re: Mac Aladdin ?????? [Richard Handal ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 09:20:23 -0500 From: jeff albertson Subject: tori tv reminder: ellen and dennis miller just a quick reminder that tori has two television appearances today. first, she's on the ellen degeneres show . this is a syndicated program which airs at different times on different networks in different markets. to see if and when it airs in your area, vist . second, tori will be on the dennis miller show on cnbc . this program airs at 9:00pm and midnight eastern time. i believe there is only one feed for cnbc so adjust for your local time zone and check your local listings. woj ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 14:23:34 +0000 From: "Tom xxxxx" Subject: RE: Mac Aladdin ?????? Hi Lou and others, I agree that Mr. Belew's guitar work is wonderful, but I still miss Caton. His guitar work on "God," "Spark," "Josephine," and parts of Pele is wonderful. I understand through the grapevine, rumor-mill, and such that he and Tori had a big falling out and won't work together anymore. Still, I miss his guitar. I've gotten the feeling that he is the subject of "Apollo's Frock." As for the Mac Aladdin thing, someone I bumped into on the subway after the 92ndY show expressed the same theory that he's a computer program. Interesting. Tori mentioned him at 92ndY but in kinda an off-hand way. Cheers, Tom M. "Can you Mr. Bush light the sage" - --- Tori Amos, "Indian Summer" ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 10:54:44 -0500 From: Cyndi S Crawford Subject: Re: Mac Aladdin ?????? well, according to an interview that I read (on yessaid.com in fact), Mac Aladdin is a real person, but very reclusive.. I'm not sure, but there's a possibility that she could be making it up, or going a similar route as she's done with her piano--speaking of it as if it's a real being (or person, even..). you can read it here: http://www.yessaid.com/interviews/05-03recordingmusicien.html and here are the parts that she talks about Mac specifically: Recording: That's where Mac Aladdin shows up? Tori: Yes... Mac is a kind of "recluse", all his life is based on his guitar. That's why his work is so good. The months after are devoted to guitars and voices. And it becomes really boring because the recording process is so long at the end whereas the basic tracks only took 3 weeks! But it doesn't matter. I always put a lot of money into the finalisation of my records. I should put some aside because times are getting hard but no. We have to take time to take your time. We were in the studio from May to mid December whereas the record should have been finished by the end of the year, in December I was still there to record! Recording: Are you the one that directs the guitars sessions? Tori: I listen to Mac's parts and then I ask the questions. Like in Sweet the Sting, in which the intro is really strong. We had to find a gimmick that would have worked well with the B3 on the verse. So we listened and listened to the song searching for this gimmick. When we found it, Mac played it or let's say he interpreted it, that's how he works. At this stage I leave, because when I'm here Mac starts getting nervous. It's not that I'm arrogant or demanding. Mac is a musician really much more meticulous than me. But as a composer I have ideas of sounds. The work Mac does is really hard because he has to insert his guitar between the drum, the bass, the piano and the hammond. So we give him a lot of time to develop his ideas. For him all the space available is already taken. He needs a lot of patience and it's really frustrating, it's using. so, what do you guys think? Sincerely, Cyndi S. Crawford "I know we're dying / and there's no sign of a parachute / we scream in cathedrals / why can't it be beautiful / why does there gotta be a sacrifice?" -- Tori Amos ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 08:00:10 -0800 (PST) From: e m Subject: RE: Mac Aladdin ?????? i agree that adrien's work was the best with tori. caton had some nice moments, but more often i now find his work annoying and distracting from the song. every note adrien did on SLG was perfect. i recall in a interview him saying that working on SLG was very different b/c most of the songs were done before he got there and he had to add his part on top of tori, and what he ended up doing most often was respond to her vocals, i think that worked nicely. as for theories on mr. aladdin, i don't see how a computer program could sound so real, but you never know. i did submit a question at 92Y about him, something on the lines of, "you often share thoughts and insights on many of your musical collaborators, can you share a bit more insight on Mac Aladdin". of course, they didn't pick that question! but tori randomly brought him up when talking about how she goes to other musicians to learn, how she'll watch mac aladdin play, etc. i thought it was curious how she slipped him in all the sudden when she's been so quiet on the subject, maybe she's figuring that we figuring something is odd... tori seems to have a strong need to build loyal longterm relationships musically with all her collaborators, we hear a ton of stuff on so many others, and yet nothing on this Mac guy, that is what is so suspicious. it doesn't fit in with her history and how she relates to the guys she plays with at all. we can speculate on his true identity all we want, but we'll never know for sure unless she fesses up. and that doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon. but all i have to say is Mac Aladdin is such a fake name! - -ellen ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 08:56:51 -0800 (PST) From: Jennifer Mitts Subject: Adrian Belew Lou was talking about how Adrian Belew did some fabulous guitar work for Tori on SLG. I am wondering-- is this the same Adrian Belew who had his own Christian rock band that went around and did concerts for teenagers with an intermission so one could be saved right then and there at the concert? I went to an Adrian Belew concert in college and this happened. Is this the same guy? What's his story? - -jen Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 12:18:33 -0500 (EST) From: Richard Handal Subject: Re: Mac Aladdin ?????? Lou Fauxbel told us: > I have been wondering about this Mac Aladdin and his dad in the credits > for Beekeeper. I have come to the conclusion that he is not a real > person but a computer and that his "dad" generates the guitar with > software. Good call, Lou. This reminds me of what Public Image Ltd did on their third album. Bassist Jah Wobble had "borrowed" some tracks from their second album and included them on his solo album, after which he was excised from the band. The next PiL album contained no bass guitar at all; heavy drums and looped melody instruments were used to (I feel, quite inadequately) fill the gap. It served as a petulant "fuck you" to Wobble, saying "not only don't we need you, we don't need *any* bass player." In this instance the message is "we can replace you with samples." I would guess it wasn't planned to be done this way when it was first used; they probably messed around with it for a demo version, then thought they could tweak it and come up with something good enough to put on released tracks. I'll say this: those who think Tori has no sense of humor is missing many instances of it. The company Allume Systems which makes a variety of software for the Mac used to be called Aladdin Systems, Inc. They make some audio products, but they've been known for many years as makers of ubiquitous Mac utility software such as the uninstall program Spring Cleaning and the compression program StuffIt. I'll leave it to the reader to connect the dots. > Mark? Any thoughts? Mark plays guitar, but this could be anyone with musical sensibilities who can operate a computer. Surely, as Tori is the producer, she gives much guidance as to the direction of "Mac's" part. I wouldn't be surprised if Mark was the main person assembling it, but we'll never know unless someone decides to spill. To me, it's sad enough overall that I'm not sure I'd even care to hear about it. I haven't liked any guitar parts on any new Tori tracks since Caton became gone. They've felt tacked-on to me, and often superfluous. This time it's less objectionable and sounds more integrated than it did on Scarlet, so I think it's ironic that the guitar on parts of The Beekeeper is as Caton- sounding as I've heard since his departure. As much as I've loved Tori's post-Caton recordings, I think in the final musical analysis, the joke may be on Tori. And I'm deeply sorry all of this has transpired. I don't care how much each of them tell us the guitar was too much, the band concerts haven't been as musically rich without Caton playing on the tours, either. It's an enormous musical loss. How appropriate that someone with 'faux' in their name helped bring this to our collective consciousness. Thanks, Lou. Be seeing you, Richard Handal, H.G. ------------------------------ End of precious-things-digest V10 #58 *************************************