About, and history of Ecto-the mailing list
Postings about Happy Rhodes have appeared in the Kate Bush newsgroup rec.music.gaffa (and the mailing list Love-Hounds) since January 1989 via a fan (Vickie Mapes) who discovered Happy's music in the summer of 1988 and played the music regularly on her (now defunct) Kansas City-based radio show called Suspended In Gaffa. It wasn't easy trying to interest Internet readers in Happy's music, mainly because her albums were only available on cassette at that time.The release of Warpaint on CD in April 1991 prompted many gaffa readers to try Happy's music for the first time, even though the music was still only available via mail-order, even in the United States. Many of those Warpaint buyers liked what they heard and went on to complete their Happy collections by ordering the (now very rare and no longer available) hand- made early tapes.
Discussion about Happy (requests for background information, raves, a "1st4" lyrics project) grew to deafening levels and eventually it was pointed out to the Happy Rhodes fans that gaffa was, after all, a Kate Bush group, and that no, not all Kate Bush fan will automatically like Happy's music, so could we please start talking about Kate again? Since many gaffians wanted to continue the Happy talk, but also wanted to respect the wishes of those who had little or no interest in the subject, Jessica Dembski Koeppel decided to create a Happy Rhodes mailing list. "Ecto" was born on June 13, 1991.
The mailing list was an immediate success, and continues to grow. Ecto is a very active mailing list, with over 400 subscribers, and those who join should be aware that it can be a busy list. It's very free-form and many topics of interest to Ectophiles are discussed.
Subscribers talk about other artists besides Happy (female artists mainly, but recommendations of male artists are fine) with an emphasis on what Ectophiles call "ecto-music" encompassing such diverse artists/groups as Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan, Jane Siberry, Milla, Bel Canto, and many, many others.
Non-musical topics seen in Ecto range from movies to books to politics and just about everything in between. Discussions are friendly and flame-free, and the term "agree to disagree" is used often.
FRIENDLY WARNING: Ecto contains frequent amiable posts from a group of friends (into which newcomers are very welcome), hanging out, chatting about everything under the sun, and not letting themselves get fettered by other list's mandates or inconsiderate flaming. Hugs are not uncommon :-)
To join Ecto-the mailing list, send a message to:
majordomo@smoe.org -
subscribe ecto (for loose mail)
unsubscribe ecto (for loose mail)subscribe ecto-digest (for, um, digest)
unsubscribe ecto-digest (ditto)
The digests are now automated and will generally be sent out once a day, possibly more often if traffic is heavy.
Suspended In Gaffa / Ecto page
Vickie Mapes
vickie@sorry.about.this.spam.filter.wwa.com