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Hom e Wednesday, October 26, 2005, 10:39

Contact Me Welcome to the Minor Notes archive!
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About This Weblog Because of persistent technical problems w ith the host of this site, Minor Notes has m oved to a
estrogenius dot net new location.
Estrogenius Live365 Station Page
The NEW Minor Notes blog Be sure to visit the NEW Minor Notes at http://estrogenius.blogspot.com .

Login I w ill be keeping this page up as the Minor Notes archive for as long as the host remains in business,
w hich, judging from their past performance, may not be much longer. Feel free to peruse these entries
for glimpses into my past mindset (w hich admittedly isn't much different from my present or probable
Archives future mindsets).

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VERY New Artist: Sara Oliveira
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Wednesday, October 19, 2005, 13:31
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Wednesday, May 30, 2007, 15:54 Sara Oliveira and fan

Monday, May 28, 2007, 22:33
Sunday, May 27, 2007, 21:58
I recently received a submission from Sara Oliveira, a young artist from central California. Thanks to
the w onders of the internet, it is now possible to follow an artist's career from nascency to
superstardom, and Ms Oliveira's Myspace page (click on her name above) gives us a glimpse of a girl at
the beginning of w hat w ill hopefully be a long and successful career.

Because I am fascinated by the creative process (having no such processes myself), and because
Sunday, May 27, 2007, 18:08 one of the missions of ESTROGENIUS is to provide exposure for independent female artists, I could not
resist giving Sara Oliveira a moment in the spotlight.

Sunday, May 27, 2007, 12:30 I added her song "When it Comes to Living" to the playlist, and w hile it does have a bare-bones musical
arrangement (including drum machine), the vocal arrangement is impressive. Ms Oliveira's voice is
surprisingly low , w hich immediately distances her from the typical pop princess (okay, so Britney 's
voice is about three octaves low er than before she hit puberty, but it's also a question of style.) The
Most Recent harmonies are w ell done, and stand out w ith their professional sound. Plus, they're pretty.

The Minor Notes Archive I can see "When it Comes to Living" having a lot of appeal w ith the teenage and young-adult

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VERY New Artist: Sara Oliveira
New to the Playlist: Sarah
Cracknell
Squeaky F-w ord Gets the Grease
Here's A Cogent Thought: Fuck!
New Pick!
Plus & Minus
Handling Shipping
Dow n With Irony
Jenae: Flow er in the Frost
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Minor Notes - the blog of ESTROGENIU…
demographic; but unlike the Hillary Duffs of the w orld, it has the advantage of being REAL. It w asn't
w ritten by a collective of professional songw riters, it w as w ritten by the 17-year-old w ho's
performing it.
In that respect, Sara Oliveira has more in common w ith Em m Gryner, or perhaps one of the Emo
bands that she cites as influences. In any case, it's unlikely that you w ould mistake her music for that of
a typical teenage pop artist, and she w ill only get more mature from here.
But never mind w hat *I* think; Sara Oliveira has invited commentary on her Myspace page, so give the
songs a listen and let her know w hat YOU think (and I don't have to remind you to keep it constructive).
Her site says that a full-length CD is coming soon, and I'm guessing that it w ill be more polished than the
three preview tracks on Myspace. I look forw ard to it.
Good luck, Sara!
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New to the Playlist: Sarah Cracknell
Monday, October 10, 2005, 15:03
While new to the ESTROGENIUS playlist, Kelly's Locker, the solo EP by Saint Etienne vocalist
Sarah Cracknell, is not a new release. It actually came out in 2000, the same year as her full-length
album Lipslide. But sadly, Amoeba Music didn't have Lipslide in stock w hen I w ent there, so I picked up
Kelly's Locker as a lovely consolation prize. I DID also get a Saint Etienne album, but I'll w rite about that
at a later date.
Enough scintillating backstory, here's the skinny on this EP.
I've been a fan of Saint Etienne since they singlehandedly invented their genre, British Retro Trip-Pop
(that's not w hat it's actually called, but that's the nearest description I can come up w ith), w ith the
release of their first full-length album, 1992's Foxbase Alpha. Other bands and projects have since
made their ow n contributions to this style of music, many of them quite successfully, but I'll alw ays
have a soft spot for Saint Etienne.
Sadly, I lost track of Saint Etienne for a w hile, and let a couple of their more recent albums fly under my
radar -- as did this solo effort from their lead vocalist. (Interestingly, Saint Etienne's breakout first single
and biggest US hit, a cover of Neil Young's "Only Love Can Break Your Heart", featured guest vocalist
Moira Lambert; but since then, it's been all Sarah Cracknell, all the time, and I'm fine w ith that.)
Kelly's Locker has most of the familiar hallmarks of Saint Etienne, obviously including Cracknell's
delicate, high-pitched pop phrasing; but w ithout the contribution of her usual bandmates Bob Stanley
and Pete Wiggs, w e are able to get a glimpse of just w hat she brings to the table as an artist.
Interestingly, the most mellow and w istful tracks are the tw o that w ere w ritten solely by Cracknell. So,
now I know w ho's primarily responsible for the similar-sounding tracks on all the Saint Etienne albums!
How ever, those tw o tracks -- "Judy, Don't You Worry" and "Sea Shells" -- w ere probably my least
favorite on the EP. Sorry, Sarah, but I just dig those uptempo arrangements for w hich Saint Etienne are
famous. Still, I do love the narrative style of her songw riting, complete w ith its casts of colorful
characters.
"Taking off for France" is probably the closest thing to a pure Saint Etienne song on Kelly's Locker,
given its retro (yet still synthesized) arrangement and "make the best of a bad situation" subject matter.
If you like anything from Saint Etienne's first few albums, then this w ill put a smile on your face.
"How Far" is the most upbeat track on Kelly's Locker, although it has a bit more of a conventional
techno beat to it, as opposed to something that Wiggs and Stanley w ould have created. I enjoyed it
enough to put it on the playlist.
"Penthouse Girl, Basement Boy" is the other track I added, and it's another upbeat song w ith a slightly
more modern sensibility than a standard Saint Etienne song.
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You're probably getting the picture here: If you like Saint Etienne, then you'll certainly like this confection
from Sarah Cracknell. Stay tuned for more updates on new music being added! (Don't w orry, the music
is being added much more rapidly than this blog is being updated.)

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Squeaky F-w ord Gets the Grease

Monday, October 10, 2005, 08:49

Apparently my last post spurred the right people into action. Or something.

My tech support email to Cogent, sent last Wednesday from my w ork email account, w as finally replied
to on Friday afternoon -- after I'd left for the w eekend. So I didn't get it until Monday morning. The email
had a link to Cogent's status page, w hich explained w hat the hell's been going on.

Apparently it w asn't all Cogent's fault. This story at ZDnet puts the w hole saga into layman's terms,
but I'm left w ondering w here the hell these new s items w ere w hen I w as searching for them last
w eek. Not that it w ould have fixed anything.

Cogent states that they do not know if this situation -- everything w orking properly -- w ill be
"permanent". But I'll carry on under the assumption that it is, and hopefully things w ill get back to normal
around here.

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Here's A Cogent Thought: Fuck!

Sunday, October 9, 2005, 20:28

Proving that seven or eight bad turns deserve another, this site is experiencing more technical
problems. But this time, the difference is that it's someone ELSE'S technical snafu that's causing the
problem.

For some reason, Cogent Com m unications -- operators of one of the w orld's largest IP netw orks --
has blocked access to all domains controlled by my w eb hosting company, Aplus.net.

In other w ords, the people w ho control a big chunk of the internet have blocked their users from seeing
my w ebsites. I don't know w hy, Aplus.net doesn't know w hy, and I strongly suspect that Cogent
doesn't know w hy, either.

I found out about it the easy w ay: Starting last Wednesday, I w as no longer able to access my ow n
w ebsites from my ow n PC at w ork. Yep, it turns out our building is on the Cogent netw ork. That may
give my boss some pleasure (and no, it w asn't my boss w ho blocked the access), but it's REALLY
inconvenient for me. And for of the thousands of internet users w ho are suddenly blocked from
view ing my w ebsites, w ithout know ing w hy. Not that I HAVE thousands of visitors, but some of my
current visitors may be Cogent users, too. Aw w , you know w hat I mean.

Obviously, if you're reading this, then you're not affected. And the Live365.com domain w as not
blocked by Cogent, w hich means I can go on adding all of this new music I've acquired, and you can
keep enjoying it.

How ever, until I get more of an idea how long Cogent w ill be unilaterally denying my sites of visitors, I
don't think I w ill be posting review s, pictures, or anything else that takes a lot of w ork, on the main site
or this blog. If you hate the idea of that, then (1) Thank you! and (2) Blame the idiots at Cogent.

You see, this isn't the first time they've done this. A few w eeks ago, Cogent blocked another modest
little site that nobody ever goes to: Yahoo.com.

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