Hi all, here we are at issue #88, my lucky number, so this one's kinda
special...
Lots of RELEVANT rambling in my comments here, so read them so I
don't have to deal with questions later that I already gave
answers to...
Anyway, you will recall that a contest was recently run, and to the winner
would go a copy of the Spinning
the Wheel EP. Around 20 entries came in, and
I must admit, it was a hard task to pick the "best". But using a judging
panel
of 3--Alicia, my non-cyber friend Michelle, and myself--and top 5
lists, we found one that made everyone's list, and was #2 on 2
of them, and
#1 on a third. And so the new owner of a Spinning the Wheel EP is Denise
Marchant! Denise, contact Meg
(kinzebee-at-juno.com) to arrange for your prize.
My thanks to all who entered, they were great! Of course, we all know that
the
correct answer was "Hey, you're that dude Amanda keeps raving about!"
which was offered by Zoe in Australia, who is
being rewarded out of my
personal collection for the early morning laugh she provided me with... A
special contest answers
issue will be going out in a couple of days. Oh, in
case you were wondering, here's the contest winner:
***************************
DeniseMarchant-at-chemsystems.co.uk
writes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Amanda,
I think apart from a split second
of complete disbelief and amazement I
would then blurt out something like:
"Oh my god ..... George er hi, um sorry to
ruin your song" smile, smile.
To which he replies with a gorgeous smile: "No problem - it's nice to hear
that
you're enjoying it"
ME: "Oh yes - I think your music is so good" (not too over the top eh? be
cool, be
cool!)
G: "Are you holidaying in Cyprus?" (which is where the plane is heading)
ME: "Yes - I really need
a nice relaxing break, with sun, sea, food and
wine - you know the kind I mean"
G: "Yeah I do. And that's exactly
what I'm doing. I've been fairly busy
this year. Look, Cyprus isn't that big a place - can I give you a lift to
your hotel
when we land?"
ME: "Oh - are you sure - that would be great"
G: "I've always like meeting people who
appreciate my music. Come and
have a drink in First Class with me."
You will then hear about our wedding in the
international press!!!
I can dream anyway - bye for now - Denise
***************************
REGARDING DUBBING:
Have
I promised product to anyone who has already paid me and who hasn't
heard back from me? If so, let me know, I'm hoping to catch
up with the
dubbing next weekend, and need to know what I need to buy material wise.
Now since this kind of posting always
leads to new dub requests, feel free to
send them, I'll forward those interested an updated rarity list.
But fair warning, I
HAVE JUST DECIDED TO RETIRE MY AUDIO CASSETTE COLLECTION!
I am currently dubbing, and have noticed the tapes are wearing down, so
I
will now only dub from CD so as to not kill my own collection while building
up yours...
One question though, does anyone
have Fantasy on CD that they could dub for
me? I love that song, but my tape is about to up and die on me.
About the Reply
To All option: DON'T USE IT!! As the welcome letter shows,
postings should be sent to me ONLY. Replying to all will not reply to
everyone
anyway, there are 4 lists that go out.
When sending me e mail: If you don't want it in YOGMAEL, put "Personal" in
the
subject heading. If you are posting, bear in mind there is a week delay
at the moment, so please be patient, you don't need to
send me the same
posting 4 times. If you have an air or release date, then title it "URGENT"
and I'll send it out
right away.
Lastly, I got some very appreciated mail over the last week, a photocopied
Wham! book from Jennifer
Mitchell--THANKS A HEAP!! I'll drop you a personal
line as soon as I sca
last issue--Cheryl--it had to have been available in
the UK, that's where my
copy came out of.
OK, I think that covers it, let's hear what you have to say then, but due to
the
intervview at the end, and my ramblings at the beginning, this will be a
short issue.
AND AWAY WE GO...
***************************
avril-at-UDel.Edu
(francie, barbie's modern cousin) writes:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
hi
all yogmael members!! i was so glad to find this list, having been a gm
fan since preteenhood in '84, but having never found good
internet info...
until now!
i have some questions or points of discussion for you all.
the first is concerning sexual
orientation. now i am sure this has been
discussed before but i am new. here is my perspective on the issue. when i
was in
middle school and high school, during wham! and faith, every
indication to me was that gm was straight as could be. he always
said that he
did not want to discuss it because to deny being gay would imply that he took
it as an insult. i always saw this
as simply a noble gesture in
alliance with lgb people but never an indication that he was hiding anything.
i must add at
this time that i have had many, many very close gay friends and
have always fought for and attended events for their civil, legal
and basic
human rights, at odds with my family and community. though i am straight
myself, the issue is of deep personal
importance to me.
anyway, since the release of OLDER, there have been many insinuations by the
media and my own friends
that gm has been closeted all this time. so i was
wondering, have any of you noticed these signs? what is your opinion? if gm
is
indeed bi or gay, do you think he will ever come out? he has always had a
loyal lgb audience and i think that if he did come out
it would boost their
morale and his own popularity within a niche.
(Not an appreciated topic of discussion around here...
Hit the archives and
see what we've said before. As for "boosting morale", I strongly advise you
sit down and give
the Absolute George Michael MTV interview a listen, or read
any of this recent interviews... AG)
i have other more trivial
questions, about remixes and videos and such, but i
will ask them later. thanks for reading my rambling and i hope i haven't
raised
any bad feelings toward me... i am very glad to be part of the list.
sincerely,
april in delaware, usa
***************************
freyes-at-kmi.com
(Frank Reyes) writes:
---------------------------------------------------------
HI ALL!!!!!
Wow! What a response I got for
a list of all of the Wham! and
George Michael stuff that I have for sale. Please be patient and I
will have a list going in
the next issue of Yogmael. I have to type
up a list and then you can do all the browsing you want. It will all
be on a first
come first serve basis, okay?
Thanks for all who e-mailed me for a list.
Your buddy,
Frank Reyes
***************************
leighs-at-wam.umd.edu
(Sariane E. Leigh) writes:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Is there an studio version
of Blue? If there is please mail me, or another
version of Blue that is different than the album, Same for A Different
Corner,
also does anyone know if GM has ever done a live version of Kissing a
Fool and Cowboys and Angels that
is circulating on tape
or Disc.
(Yes, there is a studio version somewhere. A Different Corner live is on a
couple of bootlegs. As for KAF and
C&A, I have never heard of live versions
of either. AG)
Sari
***************************
shandrew-at-indiana.edu
(shelly renee andrews) writes:
----------------------------------------------------------- ***************************
DcyaleNU-at-aol.com
(DC) writes:
-----------------------------------------------
Hey, I am a bigger fan of his older music...not from the album
"Older" but in
terms of Wham, and the first two albums (Fastlove is good, but have not
bought OLDER yet)....I grew
up listening to Wham and "Faith" and "LWP" Vol I
(as a little elementary schooler and junior high
schooler)....I am interested
in joining for some newsletters...please send me the details....Thanks....
(You have not yet
bought Older? I have just heard the audible gasp that will
be voiced by all as they read that... Go grab a copy at a used shop,
it's
worth it. AG)
DC
***************************
aketch-at-map.com (K.) writes:
-------------------------------------------
Hi,
what do I need to do to subscribe to Yogmail? Or is this simply enough?
(If I had a brain, this would have been enough when
you sent it a week ago...
I owe you a week of back issues. Sorry. AG)
I have two questions after visiting Bo Anderson's
board. Who is Tanja? And
what is her last name.
(I have no idea. Anyone? AG)
2. Who is Jo Bryant? And why is George
producing her album?
(Jo is a female vocalist who is featured on Older, appears in the Spinning
the Wheel and FastLove
videos, and the Unplugged. I would assume George is
producing her album because she has such a great voice. She was one of the
first
to be signed to his new label AEgean. AG)
Thanks much.
Kira
***************************
wombat-at-twics.com (Sanae)
writes:
----------------------------------------------------
Hi there, my name is Sanae and I'm Japanese.
I've been a
devoted fan of GM for the past 12 years. I'm not very
computer-literate so my (Australian) husband subscribes to your newsletter
and
prints it out for me. Then we both go over it together and he explains
any of the nuance which escapes me.
(My thanks then
to your husband, because I can assure you, that if I had to
write in Japanese, YOGMAEL would escape me totally... AG)
This
is my first time to write to Yogmael.
Hi Amanda!
(HI SANĘ! AG)
You and all the contributors do a great job.
(Thank
you. The contributers are my lifeline. AG)
The George Michael TV Special was broadcast on the 14th of January on one of
the
Japanese satellite TV stations. It was a 90 minute program and consisted
of his
latest interviews and a live show (from
Unplugged) plus some video clips. He
sang one song called "I can't make you love me" which I've never even heard
of.
Is this his song or is it a cover of someone else's work?
(Yes. The song was first sung by American blues great Bonnie Raitt.
AG)
The GM Special included an interview for his Japanese fans. I thought you may
be
interested in it so I transcribed
it.
(THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! AG)
Anyway, here it is!
***********
Interviewer: I don't know if you're aware
but in Japan Christmas is a
cultural thing and
Christmas is entirely different over there. And "Last Christmas" in
Japan
epitomizes the atmosphere of Christmas and hits No.1 every single year. How
do you feel about things like that?
GM:
I think that's wonderful. I mean "Last Christmas" is very good example
for me of
writing something with a view to
the future, you know. I thought if I was
going to write a Christmas song...I wanted to write something which is
exactly
that... the kind of (song which) epitomizes Christmas in atmosphere
and sound. I really like the fact that... I mean that (it) is
a really big
radio hit everywhere in the world at Christmas, most years, but for some
reason in Japan they keep going out and
buying it ,which is fantastic, you
know. I think it's really sweet. I'm really pleased about that.
Interviewer: I think in
Japan it's like Bing Crosby.
GM: It is. It's like "White Christmas" yeah, excellent.
Interviewer: Ho mouth
with the hand.) ...Very fast
trains, lots of food with plastic coating on it at the cake
shop...
Interviewer: They don't
eat plastic.
GM: Yeah, they don't eat plastic, O.K. I know that. (another thing was)
people bowing and (me) being very
tall, I suppose. That's about it really.
(See! If he's very tall in Japan, he can't be the 5'8" or so a lot of people
seem
to think AG)
GM: But I think Japanese fans are always very, very, sweet. Very, very
sweet to me and I get lots of very nice
gifts from Japan... A Japanese fan
came to my house a
few weeks ago and gave me a present which was my face. It was this big
(hands
show 50cm x 50cm) and it was my face made up of hundreds and thousands of
tiny little pieces of type. They'd been taken
out of newspapers and every
single part of the picture said "George Michael" and it was all typed in this
minuscule
type. There must have been 2 to 3 thousand letters. Individual
letters! This girl had cut them out and
put them together to
make it into a picture of me. I think that's typically
Japanese... they take a lot of care and they're thoughtful...
(WAIT
JUST ONE DAMN MINUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I REGULARLY PUT TOGETHER TENS OF
THOUSANDS OF LETTERS INTO INFORMATION THAT WE ALL KNOW AS
YOGMAEL!!! SOMEONE
GET AN ISSUE INTO HIS HANDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ok, I think I'm done yelling
now, sorry... AG
Interviewer:
Or obsessive compulsive?
GM: Or obsessive compulsive, yeah. Whichever you'd like to say, yeah, but
anyway it's
very
distinctively Japanese.
Interviewer: And you get lots of furry animals and stuffed animals and
drawings and stuff
like
that?
GM: Very nice things like that.
Interviewer: I don't know if you know or remember that "Careless
whisper" was
covered by (a couple of) Japanese artists.
GM: Yeah, I do remember that.
Interviewer: And it was a
huge hit in Japan. A song like "Careless whisper"
has a melody that tends to emphasize very much (the) Japanese sense
of music
and melody.
Do you think music should be the vehicle that should overcome language,
culture, things like that?
GM:
Oh, I think so. One of the feelings you get when you have a big hit
record in a culture which is far away from your own is that
there must be
some musical way,
there's a translation which is completely musical - there's no language to it
- that is one
thing that is definitely satisfying about Japanese success.
The idea, obviously, in some way to musically communicate on a level
you
couldn't possibly communicate culturally, because the cultures are so far
apart, you know, and music is a fantastic
communicator. So that's a very
important thing.
(Or as a friend of mine once said about Donna DeLory's success in Japan:
"They'll
just buy your album because they like the way you look in your belly
dancer costume on the cover..." AG)
Interviewer:
By the way "Fastlove" is No.1 on 40 radio stations...
GM: Really?
Interviewer: Yes and Japanese fans are very
aware of your new album and would
like to know what you'll be doing in the near future.
GM: Well I'm really not sure...
Right now I know that I wanna keep recording
so that I can give new material with each single that will be released. I
know
that (it's) something I never really did much in the past but what I
really like to do now is concentrating on recording, B-side
stuff. Tourwise,
I really I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I don't want make any promises I
can't fulfill. I really like to
play to people. I have to somehow work out a
way of touring which is going to be... You know, I end up being a lunatic
after 2
or 3 months on a road. I'm completely another person. I've got to
work out a way of doing it and keeping my sanity at the same
time but I would
definitely like to play again. So, hopefully, I'll be able to go out there
soon.
Interviewer: So they
may or may not see you in Japa now, and
they have all been different and brutal! I've had the stomach flu, a
standard flu, and
now a sinus cold. I mean, you have no idea what the last 2
weeks has cost me in headache remedies...
"Never state what
you can't imply"