Hey all! I just got off a 13 hour shift and I've been awake for 17 hours on
4 hours
sleep, and oh yeah, I've been drinking, God help you...
OK, I have a couple random notes:
1. After an AOL chat, I have
decided--in conjuction with Dave (Crizma), Babe
(OLDERFAITH), Nikki (Mouse7727), and Adrianna (Adrianna78)--that YOGMAIL will
henceforth
be known as YOGMFL. It was a unanimous vote that had something to
do with YOGMFL Weekend 1997, and oregano... I'll tell you all
more about it
sometime.
So I guess I should tell you how to get the mysterious and ever cool merged A
and E, or a and e if
you don't already know. Here's the trick, hold down the
ALT key, and then on the *number pad* of your keyboard, type:
0198 for
an F
0230 for an f
2. If you want the hell off this list, fine, but please refrain from:
a.) slamming us as you leave
b.)
calling this "crap", "shit", "junkmail", etc,
c.) referring to me as a--and this is a
quote--"stupid motherfucker"
Please just say UNSUBSCRIBE. I've been good so far, not even responding to
the wankers
whatsoever, but I think the next person who leaves on rude terms
is going to be posted for a good flaming.
3. I was in the
Doc's office this morning, and heard Careless Whisper in the
waiting room. It made the 45 minute wait bearable...
4. A nice
older English lady at the restaurant wished me a "Happy Christmas"
this evening.
5. Lastly, Freudian slip o' the
day: While tending bar: "Would you prefer
some Egg Yog?"
AND AWAY WE GO...
***************************
JMac022-at-aol.com
(Jason) writes:
--------------------------------------------------
what david frost interview? what david frost interview???
only THE david
frost interview of the decade.......with George Michael. :)
(Look, I compile this list at 1am most nights
lately...it makes for some
interesting dreams... AG)
I'm just teasing, but apparently you weren't aware that George gave an
interview
to David Frost just a few days after he lost the court case. All
they may talked about was the court case, but i'm not sure what
else they may
have discussed.
(I was aware, I just Donnfd--flaked--on it. Who knows more? Nancy maybe?
AG)
***************************
AWHFY1-at-aol.com
(Sam) writes:
-------------------------------------------------
Hey Amanda --
Hello from one of the newest members of
the "Yogmail Family". Your stuff is
thoroughly enjoyable, obviously a labor of love! I didn't really expect to
be
writing (Yes, I tend to lurk), but everyone has gotten me into the spirit,
so here I am with just a couple of items.
(Now a
labour of love, initially, a labour of obsession... AG)
1. I have, I think, an extra copy of Jive Talkin on vinyl. If I don't
have
an extra, I at least have an original that I would be willing to copy. Just
have whomever e-mail me to set up the
details.
(You know who you are. AG)
2. How often does Yogmail get posted to the archives. I'm dying to read the
"Big
Issue", but it doesn't appear to be in the archives yet. Am I just
getting lost on the internet highway?
(No, I
checked the archives, and they're only up to issue 40. Tim's a busy
man, we have to be patient, but if you could drop us a line
when you do
update them Tim, we'd really appreciate it. I will be doing some mass
re-sendings in the next couple days, the
welcome letter, the Big Issue Sun
rip off, and ANGEMAIL. Trash if read to those who don't need. AG)
Thanks again.
Sam
***************************
egroeg-at-onaustralia.com.au
(George Bielinski) writes:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amanda,
Well,
finally I had some time to type the full Australian TV interview with
GM (by Richard Wilkins). So here it is.
RW
George,
thank you for the opportunity to talk with you. You haven't spoken
publicly to the media for some time.
GM
That's true,
very true.
RW
Why is now the right time?
GM
Well, one of the last things I ever said publicly was that I wouldn't
be
saying anything again for a while, unless I really had something to say. And
when I made those statements, firstly I didn't
know I was going to be out of
action for as long as I was, but secondly, really, I just had to say "thank
you" to
people. At the end of the day it's been six years since my last
album, and "Older" has been incredibly successful. I
mean, I did think that
my audience would stay with me, but I didn't think that my audience would
grow in the way that it has.
And I just think, although I have no intention
of doing the rounds again, and doing everything the way I did in the
eighties,
I did think it was important to at least take some time to say
"thank you" to people who have stayed with me.
RW
When
you think back to WHAM, and the shorts, and the Choose Life, and the
gloves and all that, it's a far cry, it's light years from
where you are now.
You are one of the few artists who has been able to move from being a teen
idol, from being a teen pop
star, with everything that goes with that, to be
a credible adult.
GM
I think in reality, though, I think that one of
the strange things about my
career is you couldn't get much more You know, looking at my career now and
the way people
perceive me now, and looking at my career twelve, fourteen
years ago there is very little in terms of image that you can relate,
that
you can say one from the other. They are so far apart. But in reality
"Everything She Wants" was not a
bubble-gum record, "Careless Whisper" was
not a bubble-gum record. I was very serious about music, I was
putting a
lot of effort and a lot of craft into the music from a very early
age even just I haven't had a clue. In terms the way I looked,
and the
things that I did, yeah of course, they are very obviously I was a very
young person making a very young mistakes.
RW
You
have won the Grammy for the album of the year, everything from the
outside looking in looks like as if it's blissfully happy. And
then you go
and try to get yourself out of the record deal. Why did you decide to do
that?
GM
Well, what really
happened was that I was very uncomfortable with my life in
general being the person that sold faith really. And "Faith"
basically
became very it was a bigger hit that I had ever imagined. I became bigger
star that I ever had imagined. And I found
that I wasn't really particularly
well equipped to handle it, so I decided to try and just calm everything down
- get out of
the public eye, and try and stay in the rear
as it were. And I fell out very badly with the bosses of the American
company,
and ultimately the American company controlled the world, and Sony's
attitude to me in general suffered very badly because of my
relationship with
the American executives. It became a completely unworkable situation, so I
decided I had to try to get out
of it, and I knew it would take time - I
didn't know it would take as much time as it has taken, didn't know it would
be as
painful to get out of this particular situation - but I had no choice.
I can't work with people that don't really want to work
with me.
RW
The period when you decided to take yourself out of videos - and used the
supermodels and all that - what
were you trying to do? Were you just trying
to put the music first, and put the image away? Did you see that as a period
of
change, were you trying to make a transition from one image to another?
GM
I felt very uncomfortable, so I thought because
I was very confident in my
musical ability, I decided I was going to stay away in a visual sense for a
while. I knew I would
lose a lot of my audience, and therefore obviously a
lot of sales, but I felt that was less dangerous than trying to make another
album
in the atmosphere that I made "Faith", and trying to get through
another couple of years living that lifestyle. I just
didn't think
it was possible. To be honest, by the time I came of stage on the last show
of the "Faith" tour, I
really didn't know if I would ever go on the stage
again I was that unhappy with what I was doing.
RW
Can you give us a
little insight? Who is the real George Michael?
GM
If people listen to what I do, they listen to the lyrics, they read the
lyrics,
I give them myself. If they look at the pictures, I don't give them
myself. If they look at the videos I give them an act, I give
them something
to sell records. But, in terms of knowing me, I don't think they need to
really know me to enjoy the music. If
they want to know me, they just have
to read the lyrics really.
RW
One of the by-products of making yourself reclusive
is that there is a lot of
speculation, particularly sexual preferences and all that. I mean, you've
seen and heard and read
far more than anyone else, I'm sure. Is that
something that you fuel by not commenting on this, or is it simply none's
business?
GM
We
live in an age where people actually think they have a right to know about
everything, about everyone they ever see on television
or they see in the
papers. Like if you're a celebrity, automatically you have no right to a
private life, and if you wanted a
private life you shouldn't have become a
celebrity and I just do not accept that, do not accept that. I do my work,
I give
people music, they choose to buy it if they want to, that doesn't give
them the right, and doesn't give the media or anyone the
right, to narrow
every detail out of that person's life... there are a lot of media
personalities who seem to thrive off
giving the media their entire life. I'm
just not one of those people you know.
(Thanks to both Georges for their
co-operation and time! AG)
***************************
its156-at-freenet.mb.ca (Kinga) writes:
------------------------------------------------------
Hi
Amanda and the whole YM group! (Czesc Marek!!)
In response to:
>bozejko-at-math.uni.wroc.pl (Marek Bozejko) writes:
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>3.Can
anybody find me..."Calling you" lyrics.
Calling You (Bob Telson)
A desert road from Vegas to nowhere
Someplace
better than where you've been
A coffee machine that needs some fixin'
In a little cafe just around the bend
Chorus:
I
am calling you
Can't you hear me?
I am calling you
A hot dry wind blows right through me
The baby's crying and I
can't sleep
But we both know that a change is coming
Come in closer, sweet release
Chorus
Desert road from Vegas
to nowhere.
Amanda, the next few lines are in Polish..please leave them in! If
necessary, I will provide a translation, ok?
Czesc Marek...zobaczylam Twoja
notke na tej liscie, no i chcialam tak Cie
przywitac do tej naszej "rodzinki".
Chcialabym sie zapytac czy George jest
popularny w Polsce dalej tak jak kiedys? "Red Hot and Dance" jest swietna
kaseta...ma
tylko trzy piosenky George'a, ale reszta piosenek tez jest
ciekawa! Jak masz szanse i pienadze, to bym bardzo radzila zakup tej
kasety!
Dlugo juz sluchasz George'a? No to narazie..pozdrowienia z Kanady! :-)
Thank you!! I just scribbled a few notes in
my native tongue to welcome
Marek to the group and strongly encourage him to get "RH+D" as it is AN
EXCELLENT tape!
I also asked him whether he's been a listener of George's
music for long and whether George is as popular as ever in Poland.
Thanks
for keeping it in! :-)
(Hey, no problem! As I recall I ran half an issue in German once...it's
important to keep
up on the native tongue, or else face the wrath of 50
customers thinking you speak it tonight, even though you didn't last
weekend...I
mean WHAT THE HELL!!! Oops, sorry, that was the Bacardi's
talking... AG)
As always, you're doing a fine job, even though I
haven't the time to read
this as well as I've been in the past...but my student teaching is finally
FINISHED!!!!! YEARGH!! :-D
Okie
dokie...
Hugs
Kinga
___________________________________________________________________________
"So this is
Christmas
And what have you done
Another year older
And a new one just begun...
Have a very Merry Christmas
And a
Happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any tears"
- John Lennon
_____________________________________________________________________________
Kinga
Pawlaczyk *<:-]
its156-at-freenet.mb.ca or older-at-geocities.com or kinga-at-geocities.com or...
(Yes, I collect e-mail
addys, why do you ask? ;-))
_____________________________________________________________________________
(I've got 4
myself... AG)
***************************
renestem-at-edge.net (Tina Stem) writes:
----------------------------------------------------------
Hi
Amanda!
First off Merry Christmas! I think the unplugged was a GREAT early Christmas
present. I will admit that I did tear
up when he sang "You Have Been Loved"
and "Praying For Time". Both of these songs have tugged at my heart
before
but hearing & seeing him live just gave it that little push. Don t you think
it was the sweetest thing when he said
hello to his mother? He looked soooo
excited!
(Merry Christmas to you to! I finally got in my Unplugged tape yesterday,
and
I think it was as yet, the best Xmas gift! No wonder, it came from
George--well via Christie--but I think we all know that was
George's seasonal
gift to his faithful. So uh George, I'd really dig a gig in Toronto for my
birthday...AG)
Do you get
the Oprah show? I know that you like Madonna, she was on this
past Friday (the 13th). I hope you got to see it or will get to see
it. I
was home sick from work and just decided to see who was going to be on Oprah.
I had heard that she was going to
interview Madonna but had no idea when. I
didn t think about taping it until it was half over, sorry. It was really
great.
Madonna looked very eloquent and very happy.
When Oprah asked her if Sean Penn was still the love of her life Madonna told
her
no that her daughter is the love of her life. They talked a lot about
"Evita" and showed lots of clips. When Oprah
asked Madonna when she was
getting married, Madonna asked Oprah when SHE was getting married. Madonna
also told Oprah that she
needed to have a baby. Oprah told her that she,
Oprah, was suppose to be interviewing her, Madonna, not the other way around.
Everyone
got a good laugh out of them. It really was a good show.
(OK, not George related, but there are a good 25 Madonna fans on here
who
appreciated that. Yes I saw it, in fact I taped it. It was a great show!
AG)
Here are the words to "Calling
You" for Marek Bozejko. (I love this song!)
Calling You
A desert road from Vegas to nowhere
Someplace better
than where you ve been
A coffee machine that needs some fixin
In a little cafi just around the bend
CHORUS:
I am
calling you
Can t you hear me?
I am calling you
A hot dry wind blows right through me
The baby s crying and I can t
sleep
But we both know that a change is coming
Come in closer, sweet release
CHORUS:
I am calling you
Can t you
hear me?
I am calling you
Desert road from Vegas to nowhere
Everyone have a GREAT holiday!!
Tina Stem
***************************
DeniseMarchant-at-chemsystems.co.uk
writes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Amanda - an excerpt from a UK Newspaper Tuesday
17 December 1996:
George Michael has splashed out #30 000 on Christmas gifts for this closest
friends.
The generous
singer has bought 30 luxury festive hampers from Harrods - each
one a foodies dream.
His astonishing order accounts for
almost half of ALL sales of the top
people's store's much prized wicker food baskets.
(Trust our George. AG)
Not that
he is short of a bob or two (money for readers unaware of English
lingo!). George's wallet is stuffed full after the success of
his album
'Older' and last year's #25 million recording deal with Virgin.
The big-hearted star's habit of sharing his
fortune with his friends is
legendary. Last month, we revealed how he has paid thousands for this
driver, Makis Pittortou, 31,
to be treated in a private hospital after he
suffered serious injuries in a car crash.
(How is Makis doing? AG)
Earlier
this year, he treated nine mates to a night at a casino, giving them
#1,000 each to play with. He thinks nothing of sending 100
red roses to a
pal, or buying a leather jacket for every crew member on a tour. In 1989 he
bought watches and expensive
jewellery for his family in another Harrods
shopping spree.
Naturally, the store wouldn't comment on his generous gifts. A
spokesman
said "We never reveal what our customers buy. We have to maintain their
privacy".
Happy Christmas
Love
Denise xxx
(Thanks Denise! Now how do I go about getting on his shopping list? Hmmm...
AG)
***************************
shandrew-at-indiana.edu
(shelly renee andrews) writes:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is
finals week here, I've been busy. Nothing much to say, except to
thank James Robinson publicly for the recognition of my
unplugged peice..
Glad to hear many of you saw the same level of greatness I did in the show.
And Mr. Martin Haley. I'll go
on record as agreeing with you on most of the
things you said (I only say most because I don't remember everything)...I
thought
from the first few times I heard Older, that it was a theme album.
There is progression definatly, and the order the songs are
placed in
perfectly illistrates that. I can see that you are a very perceptive
listner. Do you think ever, that maybe it isn't
a hint of shame that keeps
him from a ful fledged public disclosure, but instead it's the desire to keep
from being
piggeon-holed?
And I've got to tell you, I'm glad he hasn't because I have a very low
respect for entertainment journalists
(I used to think I'd be one) --the
press has a way of cheapening anything that is personal and complex.His
comming out
"process"--as you put it, and put it very poingantly, I might
add, would take a route beyond his controlin the press
if
he was ever blatant aobut it. The press has a way of translating
everthing to third grade level comprehension. If it's subtle,
and artistic
(like only thorough the music) the people capable of understanding it as Mr.
Michael would like it interpreated
get it. And along the line he has to put
up with a lot less crap, and gains some respect for not airing his sexual
laundry.
(I
was a music journalist for a couple publications--minor little BS mainly.
And yes, you do become guilty of reducing everything to
the lowest common
denominator. I was guilty of using the term "boys and girls" a bit too much,
and considering I was
a teenager... AG)
You could argue, through, that airing that "laundry" would be great for
promoting tolerance and
being a role model, ect. Role modeling isn't for
everybody, and as he said, where did he get that responsibility. He just
dosen't
want it. He dosen't want the permanent association, and only the
association to exist (as in what is the first thing I think of
when I hear
the name K.D. Lang?). It would discredit the emotions behind the
songs to some, and if I was a songwriter who
believed in my music as art with
the depth that he does, I wouldn't want my personal life to get in the way of
people
connecting to work. I would want to be sepreate from my work, like a
great architect, or a painter, or composer. I see... I like.
I hear... I
like, and (identify with) and nothing else matters.
That's just an alternate view, inspired by your thoughtful
initial
analysis.Most of us here don't feel just about his art, and that's okay, it's
just the way things are nowdays in
enteratinment. But, I do think forgetting
the _him_ is what he would most want--if he could live in his ideal creative
world...
So, he does what he can not to emphasize things about himself that
could be roadblocks to the sences--for some people...maybe?
Regardless,
to him I'm sure it isn't that deep or theoretical, it is just not
something he feels obligated to do for whatever reasons.
And,
Amanda, yes, the soundbites and audio blurbs are fun, I'll admit to the
crush... but it IS sepreate from the reason I respect him
now.
(hey, I thought this was finals week, and I didn't have much to say)
Thanks for providing the food for thought
Martin. Welcome.
Shelly
***************************
To Wrap it Up:
Right, I think I may pass out soon, so I'm outta
here, but before I bail, I
have to tell you that in light of the new name, I have decided to make one
more change, the closing
line. The LWP was one I used in my alleged
journalist career, so it seemed natural to continue with it. But I realize
there is
one George quote I use almost daily, and so to truly wrap it up:
"Never state, what you can't imply."
(George
Michael, 1992)