Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (10/30/90)
Really-From: katefans@world.std.com (Chris'n'Vickie of Chicago) Vickie here. Steve Williams says: > Leaving aside religious vinyl vs. CD debates, what do people think is > the way to go as far as "collectability" goes -- records or CD? Again > skipping the religious aspect, which way as far as *sound* is > concerned? Is anyone (besides myself) crazy enough to consider > getting the box set in both formats? Well, even though our finances are in major league "ouch" mode because of the convention, all the great upcoming concerts and other things (oh, like bills & such) we ARE getting both the album and the CDs. We'll buy the albums before we go to England and the CDs in a couple of months, unless we find we can get the CD set cheaper in England. The album set is GEORGEOUS! I saw mine last night. I went to the store where they're holding it for me and the manager (also a Katefan) let me see it. I bought some of those handy plastic album sleeves and put every- thing (even the booklet and the stickers) in them. I couldn't actually buy the set because I don't get paid till next Wednesday and we have about $10.00 in our checking account. It was painful to give it back to him, but soon it will be in our possesion. The album set is ***GEORGEOUS***!!! I'm buying a pair of gloves to keep in the box and I'm not letting anyone touch the booklet or albums without wearing them. Fingerprints will be a MAJOR problem unless people are very careful. When you try to wipe them off scratch marks appear no matter what you use--paper or cloth. Thank goodness I had my gloves with me and I put them on as soon as I realized what was happening. It's hard to explain why I feel the need to buy both sets. I badly want the CDs to be able to easily play the b-sides. That's very important to me because our singles and 12"s are getting worn. It will be nice to hear them without the pops and ticks. The CDs are an absolute MUST to own. Why the album set too? Well, for one thing, I do support vinyl and this will be one of the last MAJOR things to appear on vinyl. That alone will make it a collector's item. That's not important to us though because we only buy things for our own collection and wouldn't ever sell anything we have. We usually buy two of everything we get in case Chris & I should ever break up (highly unlikely though) but rarely buy more than two. So, since we're not "collectors" we'd just consider it a personal rarity. Also, this may seem minor to some but to us it's very important: The booklet is full album size and if I had had any doubts about buying both they were cleared up last night when I compared the LP booklet with the tiny CD booklet. The photos are glorious and beautiful and their impact is definitely diminished when looking at the CD booklet. The full size of the color "Dreaming" cover alone was enough to take my breath away. Bill at the store was highly amused watching me and hearing my "OH MY GOD!!s" and "AH JESUS!!!s" while looking at the LPBS booklet. So I suppose I'm paying $149.00 for one booklet. Yeah, I guess I am. Stupid? Maybe, but in a couple/few years we won't have the regrets of passing it up. We're willing to feel the temporary financial pinch now for things that we'll have the rest of our lives. That's the way we look at it anyway. As far as which will be more "collectable"---definitely the albums. As far as which "sounds" better---definitely the albums. As far as which are cheaper---definitely the albums. More compact? The CDs. More convienent? The CDs. More durable? The CDs. Quieter? The CDs. It's a tough one. Most people aren't crazy enough to buy both formats. Hey, at least we're not getting the cassettes too! We're crazy but we're not completists. OK, I will admit that I'm a tiny bit disappointed about a few things. 1) The butchered version of "Be Kind To My Mistakes" is included instead of the original. In the front of the booklet Kate writes: "I hope you will Be Kind To My Mistakes--because I'm not." I'm willing to forgive her almost anything but that's one mistake that I just can't deal with. 2) All the albums have lyric sheets, but it's a darn shame that the lyrics to the b-sides were left out. 3) Too bad about the missing tracks. ESPECIALLY "Dreamtime", one of my all-time favorites. 4) Too bad a biography wasn't included. If it was left out because it was assumed that people buying the set already knew her background then why wasn't it assumed that those same people already had all the regular studio albums too? Even for those who DO know all the background info it could have been written up and presented in a very nice and classy way. It would have made a nice addition. 5) Though I LOVE most of the photos, I could have done without the stills from the videos. They're not even identified so what good are they to people who've never seen Kate's videos? For those of us who have seen the videos they're useless. If I want to see a scene from "The Big Sky" all I have to do is pop in TWS video and still-frame a particularly nice section. Besides, if she were going to include anything from TBS I wish it had been the one where she's standing with the Falcon and the fire is in the background. Nitpicking, yes, but the video shots take up space that could have been used for even MORE of the photos we're not familiar with. 6) An interview disc would have been nice but then so would a lot of other things that were left out. Even with my minor nits, I still am awed by the BxSt and am waiting with impatient anticipation until I can bring that baby home. Btw, the album of Lionheart in the set is NOT exactly like the original English copy we have. On the TWW version there's the word "fame" up in the top right-hand corner. Bill says that Fame was/is? a discount distributor in England. That was the only thing I noticed immediately. I'm sure a thorough side-by-side examination/comparison would reveal more differences. Not that it really matters. Unlike the Singles File Box Set, it's highly doubtful that anyone would break open a TWW Box Set to sell albums individually. Vickie (one of Vickie'n'Chris) katefans@world.std.com
Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (11/03/90)
Really-From: nrc@cbema.att.com (Neal R Caldwell, Ii) > Really-From: katefans@world.std.com (Chris'n'Vickie of Chicago) > > Vickie here. > The album set is ***GEORGEOUS***!!! I'm buying a pair of gloves to keep > in the box and I'm not letting anyone touch the booklet or albums without > wearing them. Great! Now if I only knew what georgeous meant. :-) Sorry, I couldn't resist. Good idea. We are now the proud owners of the CD box and we hope to be able to buy the album set eventually as well. The CD Box will be the only set that is played while the album set will serve as a collectors item and will only be opened to enjoy those gorgeous photos in their full sized glory. > The photos are glorious and beautiful and their impact > is definitely diminished when looking at the CD booklet. The full size of > the color "Dreaming" cover alone was enough to take my breath away. Definately. I never imagined that picture could look any better but color certainly does enhance it. This is as opposed to the color print of the "cover" of _The Ninth Wave_ which looks better in B&W. I was surprised to note that KT symbol does not appear in _The Dreaming_ print. Am I the only one who thought this was written on her sleeve rather than added to the photo? I note with more amusement than disappointment that the pink leotard photo is included but considerably cropped. :-) No doubt about it, this booklet contains some of the best photos to appear in print in some time, beating out Sherilynn Fenn's appearance in Playboy by wide margin. > As far as which will be more "collectable"---definitely the albums. > As far as which "sounds" better---definitely the albums. > As far as which are cheaper---definitely the albums. > > More compact? The CDs. > More convienent? The CDs. > More durable? The CDs. > Quieter? The CDs. I have to comment that the albums may sound better, but only if you have a good quality turntable and only for the first N plays (where the value of N depends on how you handle your albums and how good your equipment is). You may consider the problems that arise on the {N+1}th play to be "noise" rather than "sound" but it all winds up in the same place. I hope we can afford to buy the album set but we will never play them. (Did I hear a chorus of "Oddball."?) > 4) Too bad a biography wasn't included. If it was left out because it > was assumed that people buying the set already knew her background I suspect that the ommission of a bio could be explained by the title of the anthology, _This Woman's Work_. Kate might have felt that a bio would focus too much on herself rather than her work. If this is the case I would have liked to have seen a page or two of her thoughts about each album. Maybe she feels that in the end the music will have to stand on its own. > 5) Though I LOVE most of the photos, I could have done without the > stills from the videos. They're not even identified so what good are > they to people who've never seen Kate's videos? For those of us who > have seen the videos they're useless. If I want to see a scene from > "The Big Sky" all I have to do is pop in TWS video and still-frame > a particularly nice section. Then why not complain about the color versions of the album covers? You may be able to freeze frames from the video but that will not give you the resolution of these photos. More importantly, Kate has apparently chosen these stills as being representative of her work and not whatever frames you may chose to freeze for your own viewing. No matter what we may think of the individual photos (there are a few I don't care for, either) Kate has for some reason chosen them to represent her work and before we criticize her selection we should consider her reasoning. > Even with my minor nits, I still am awed by the BxSt and am waiting with > impatient anticipation until I can bring that baby home. My only regret is that they did not chose to package the CDs in the same type box as the albums, allowing them to include the full size booklet and full size copies of the album art. It's a shame that CDs are destroying album art. "Don't drive too slowly." Richard Caldwell AT&T Network Systems att!cbnews!nrc nrc@cbnews.att.com