Dear Dave, You are not alone. Yesterday I had a temp working for me. At the end of the day, he came into my office to talk. During this time, I saw him looking around my office, and when there was a pause in the conversation, he asked me, "Are you a goth girl?" If it's possible to cough and splutter in your thoughts, that's what I did. "No, I'm not," I managed to answer calmly. Unfortunately, I was too startled to ask him what had given him such an impression. There is nothing goth about my office nor about my person, and we had been talking about the art of Frederic Church, a most un-goth painter. But, anyway, Dave, now it's not just you who has picked up on these mysterious goth vibes I must be sending. This bears investigation.

for me, it's like you're a true goth. not just a dress-up, wannabe. you'd be goth in dockers and a polo shirt listening to faith hill in your eurovan on the way to home depot to pick up a couple gallons of pale yellow paint for the kitchen. you'd be goth doing the hippie dance at a phish concert. at first, it was your pen name and your taste in brooding music. then you became more public about your religion, which might just be the most goth religion in the world. then, i think you said once that you have black hair and pale skin. it just fits. it's not a criticism, but it is cute the way you fervently deny it, which is why i like to bring it up occasionally. btw, you never answered me about the nick cave album. did you get it?

Whoa, that's pretty penetrating. You may be right. As for Nick Cave, no, I haven't, and let me tell you why. I haven't gotten the album you recommended (which was the Boatman's Call, right?), because I have heard conflicting things about that album from others whose tastes I trust. I trust you, too, which leaves me confused. I know: give me the names of a few songs I could download from the album and then I can make up my mind after that.

howzabout i post a link to the whole damned thing? i'll do it tonight or maybe tomorrow. i'll recommend a few to sample first. do you have a cd burner or access to one?

I don't, but my brother does... Thanks, Dave! This is cool.

one more thing: do you want big, fat, high quality files or smaller files that won't take so long to download? personally, i think it's one of the best albums of the last decade. definitely a mood piece. i just hope it lives up to my hyping of it.

i second that statement. it's an amazing album, one of the sort that creeps up on you, rocks your socks off, and gives you a wedgie in parting.

Smaller files, please. My speakers are bad, so high quality files would be diluted anyway. Is it anything like Murder Ballads? Because I didn't like Murder Ballads. I really like the Birthday Party and the NC&BS song "Papa Won't Leave You Henry," though, so I'm under the impression that Nick Cave is talented but erratic. Let's see how he falls on this album.

Point noted, Agatha.

You three. Get a room!

Jealous? Join in! Recommend me a good Nick Cave album.

http://puissance.web1000.com/cave.htm

Dave, that got smacked by my adult filter at work! That thing is so oversensitive...it probably thought puissance was a dirty word. I'll wait till tonight to try again, if I can.

nah, that domain hosts all kinds of naughty stuff. it's probably pre-loaded by default on most content block lists. i didn't even think about that. sorry, don't get fired!

i bought that boatman's call cd on your tip and i'm going to have to listen to it a few more times before i can say i don't like it for sure.

like i said, it's a mood piece. i like the lyrics, the understated musical arrangements, and the mood. you may never like it but you're not a goth chick, either. i added a video of "into my arms". it's pretty crappy quality but i only had about a meg of space left so i converted it from mpeg to real media. you might need to right click - save to your hard drive.

i keep forgetting i'm not a goth chick.

Into My Arms is a beautiful tune. Can't remember where I heard it, but I've been meaning to get the cd just on the merits of that song alone.

That's not the same Robyn Hitchcock "Into My Arms," is it?

Sorry, that's "Arms of Love." Forget it.

nate, if you decide you don't like it for sure you should send it to Spider. heather told me the cd i sent her was confusing.

not to me, silly

oh i know. i guess i was talking to nate. you probably thought it was funny.

Dave, I'm very sorry to say that I couldn't download the songs because they appear to be infected with a virus. However, I did get to view the video clip. I'm going to the record store to buy my own copy. Right now. Cross your fingers that it's there.

there's no stinkin' virus. is your security software set to paranoid or something?

I don't know, dude, but someone didn't cross their fingers. The Boatman's Call wasn't at the store, and I was afraid to buy any of the other albums without guidance, so I got their Best Of... instead. I'm listening to it right now ("Nobody's Baby Now" is playing). I'm reminded of Tom Waits, in a way, which is good. I feel bad that you did all that work and I can't do anything with it. I'm going to tell my brother to try downloading the songs from your site and burning them onto CD.

okeedoke. let me know if you want me to make a copy and mail it to you.

Dear Dave, After repeated listens to my "Best of Nick Cave" CD, I have determined that I like the following songs the best: 1. Red Right Hand 2. Stranger Than Kindness (which is *so* goth, and I understand they didn't write it themselves) 3. Do You Love Me? 4. The Carny 5. The Weeping Song 6. From Her to Eternity 7. Nobody's Baby Now I strongly dislike: 1. Deanna 2. Straight To You 3. Where the Wild Roses Grow (but that's off Murder Ballads, so I knew that already) What do you make of this? My bro. is downloading a song a night from your webpage and will burn them all onto CD when he's done.

Oops, I forgot -- I like "(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?" too.

red right hand and do you love me? are probably my favorite nick cave songs. in the other order, though. this may be why i was initially disappointed with the boatman album. but on further listens i like it. it is quite good.

i like the weeping song. that's from the good son, which is also pretty good. are you the one. . . is from boatman calls. it's a good song, too. i pulled those songs before i ever read that post about your bro. if you want, i can just copy the cd and mail it to you. guaranteed free from virii, real or imagined. i thought murder ballads sucked, too. i haven't listened much to the new one. agatha says it's good. i've been listening to a lot of system of a down and not much else. i need somebody to put out something fresh and new that kicks my ass but the older i get, the less likely that becomes.

Find some Shihad. Cept I think they're called Pacifier now.

someone tipped me to these chicks. kind of early devo/cibo matto. better than anything else in this town these days. once again, dykes rock!

oh yeah, tracy and the plastics! i saw them a few months ago, the projector broke down in the middle of their set. it was sad. tracy had her face painted with all sorts of squares, almost minimalist face. and her music was almost scary. they're good, but i have to confess that i liked the all-girl-cyndi-lauper-cover-band better.

Dave, I got The Boatman's Call! I got it last night. I just started listening to it now. I took a quick auditory peek at "Green Eyes" to see if it was bad like you said -- you're right. I do like "Lime-Tree Arbour."

Re: something new to kick your ass. There's a band called Macha out of Athens, GA, that plays mostly instrumental music that's inspired by Indonesian folk music. That probably doesn't sound exciting, but it is. I saw them a few years ago, and I was reminded of the Dirty Three. They have 2 albums -- one self-titled and one called "Come See It Another Way." Look for a song called "Visiting the Ruins" off the first album, and "The Nipplegong" and "Submarine Lover" off the second one.

be on the lookout for "Black Love' from Athens. My greatest pal from GA and former bass player. and new band of his. i wanna say spider, they may have played recently with Macha. i could be wrong.

PS. I notice that the Dirty 3's Warren Ellis plays violin on this NC album. That's cool. Dave, this is a really good album. Thank you for recommending it to me.

sure thing. i'm already bored with tracy and the plastics. i did discover this stuff recently and i'm way into it. it's classsified as idm or intelligent dance music. or headphone techno. i don't know about the "dance" part unless head bobbing is dancing. nice, mostly downbeat, layered ambience and no vocals. damn, i'm tired of vocals.