Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] Re: starving for gossip

Heidi Shenk nedkellytheking@hotmail.com
Tue, 05 Aug 2003 01:12:23 -0500


>The planet is a much scarier, uglier place these days and there's no one 
>that can take their place.  Am I the only one having such withdrawal 
>symptoms so far down this road?

I'm still having withdrawal.  This past 4th of July was the one year 
anniversary of my last Oils show.  That was rough enough...and to make 
matters worse, my best friend's 17 yr. old brother and cousin were killed in 
a car accident July 1 (they would both have been high school seniors).  So I 
was at a viewing July 4...definitely not where I would have imagined myself 
a year after when I was in pure bliss at the Oils show.  The Oils have been 
a substantial part of my everyday life since I was 6...so that's almost 14 
years...so yeah...I'm still having major withdrawal and it's weird for me to 
think that they aren't together anymore.

To look at it from the other side...it's the Oils that make me feel better 
and lift my spirits in hard times such as what happened about a month ago.  
I still feel lucky that they were together in the first place and that I 
have such great music with real substance to listen to every day.  And 
yeah...things are rough sometimes, but listening to music, especially 
something so familiar as the Oils is a comfort and has really helped me 
through some of the rougher days in the past month.  The Oils for me are in 
some ways the same kind of nostalgic feeling you get when you think back on 
your free-top-of-the-world days of childhood, and something about all of 
this has made everything in this world just a little bit better every day.

I guess I have learned a lot from this past month that i can apply to the 
whole thing with the Oils...sometimes you don't have to let go of something, 
but rather savor it for as long as you can and really be happy that it 
happened and that you were there to enjoy it.  So yeah...I still have 
withdrawal, but i know I'd rather have withdrawal instead of no Oils ever in 
this entire lifetime.  So I guess I don't see the world as a scarier place 
without the Oils...it's more hopeful to me just to have had them here in the 
first place.

Heidi

P.S.  Sorry if this seems like rambling or somewhat personal, but I guess 
lately the more people I share my experiences with the better I feel.



Every cry is a song
Every song is a prayer
Every prayer must be heard
To fill the air
           -Hothouse Flowers


----Original Message Follows----
From: GrnVillageGirl@aol.com
To: powderworks@cs.colorado.edu
Subject: [Powderworks] Re: starving for gossip
Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2003 22:36:07 EDT

Well, I haven't too much gossip, I'm afraid. Missed my chance to see Bones
while he was recording in upstate New York with the Finns; now he's gone 
back
home. Might have gotten some good dish out of him if a few pints had been 
poured
down his neck first.
But I can say that "Fibromoon" is, IMHO, the best Ghosties album. I really
liked the first, wasn't terribly mad about "Second Skin," but I just love 
the
third. Would highly recommend it to anyone, especially "Neon Garden," which 
Rob
called his attempt at Phil Spector (as a producer, mind you, minus the
insanity and the gunplay).
Wish they'd put out some more music. Frankly, I'm fonder of the Ghosties 
than
I am of the Backsliders. I love blues, but I'm biased towards Chicago
electric, a la Elmore James (original inspiration for Brian Jones, hence the 
early
Stones) and old Delta acoustic stuff. Something about the Backsliders just
doesn't speak to me in quite the same way, as hard as I've tried to love 
them.
I was just watching a video of some Aus TV appearances of the Oils that a
mate had sent me, and I confess I'm still having terribly mixed feelings. I 
find
the very idea that they're no longer extant as a band is upsetting and
depressing. I'm trying to be grateful that we had 'em at all, for as long as 
we did,
but a world without that group intact as a unit seems so much bleaker than 
it
did before. We, or I at least, am in dire need these days of the 
inspiration,
courage, compassion and commitment they always exemplified. The planet is a
much scarier, uglier place these days and there's no one that can take their
place.
Am I the only one having such withdrawal symptoms so far down this road?

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