++++ Breakdown Newsletter 4.0
+++  1 October 1998
++   Breakdown: http://www.the-fringe.com/brook
+    Discussion: http://www.egroups.com/list/breakdown


++++ In this issue:
+++  Breaking News
++   Survey & An Accompanying Rant
+    Current List Membership


+++  Breaking News

The new Djivan Gasparyan / Michael Brook album Black Rock will be released
in the US on October 20, distributed by EMD/Virgin/Narada.

Caoline.com seems to have taken down their Real World US pages. So, it
would seem that Caroline is no longer distributing Real World Records in
the US.

CDnow (and probably other online music stores) is currently accepting
advance orders. (This is not an endorsement! CDnow may be the Starbucks of
the Web, but just as Starbucks makes utterly scrumptious Mocha Frappuccinos
...)


++   Survey & An Accompanying Rant

One thing I didn't expect when starting this list was to find such global
diversity in its subscribers. Scanning through the list, I've noticed email
addresses from the UK, Moscow, Norway, Japan, and many other interesting
places.

I'd like to take a tally of where you Breakdowners are coming from. If
you'd rather not say, that's fine. But I thought it could give an
interesting perspective on who is attracted to Michael Brook's music,
particularly in its corss-cultural respects. Please send your city and
country to clo@fringedigital.com, and I'll compile the results and post them to
the list.

Let me try to articulate where this is coming from:

I've been a little worried recently about American culture. We have
problems far beyond obsessing over psycho football murderers, presidential
oral sex, and other cultures' royal families. Our model for arts and
culture now seems to be: if it can't be sold to millions, or for millions,
it doesn't exist. We don't have "arts" anymore; we have "entertainment."
Thus we foster prefab poseurs like Nine Inch Nails and opportunist
chameleons like Madonna.

US record shops resemble warehouses, stocked with pop music. The
interesting stuff dribbles in months after release, if it comes at all.
Many of you already have Black Rock. I'm still waiting.

I recently bought an issue of the UK magazine Wire, and was stunned to find
a publication that addresses so many kinds of music I'm interested in:
electronica, jazz, world, etc. In the US, the best we can hope for is that
Rolling Stone will put a musician on the cover and not a half-naked
television actress.

The Breakdown discussion list, although still rather small, clearly has a
more actively international cast than other lists I'm on, including even
Nerve Net (Eno) and Elephant Talk (Fripp). Why is this? Discuss!

Or am I just a terrible snob?


+    Current List Membership

The Breakdown discussion list currently has 55 subscribed participants, up
from 52 as of the last Newsletter. Warm welcomes to the three new folks.
Please, invite your friends!


Regards, Chad
__________________________________
Chad Ossman
home: clo@fringedigital.com
work: chado@weblab.org
web: http://www.the-fringe.com