Jewel's debut album, Pieces of You, is a haphazardly put together collection of music which resulted in an absolutely beautiful product. Most songs recorded on it are taken from previous recordings of live playing, and the cuts between tracks are poor in a couple of places, but the result is to provide an album with far more integrity than most releases, aimed at studio purity. All three hit songs from this album, You Were Meant for Me, Who Will Save Your Soul, and Foolish Games, were re-recorded prior to single release, and the preferential version of all seems oddly to be the re-recording.

Jewel is a highly spiritual, highly beautiful person who, though seemingly innocent in tone and subject matter, has an astonishing level of reality in viewpoint; she possesses a Christian leaning, but tempers it with a solidly grounded perspective which is uncommon among Christian artists.

KANJI: GYOKU tama (jewel, gem, ball)

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Character Etymology:

From a pictograph of a string of beads, most likely originally jade discs. Ball is an extended meaning. The extra point _` was added to distinguish the character from the character for king, but it is dropped in the radical form of this character.

A Listing of All On-Yomi and Kun-Yomi Readings:

on-yomi: GYOKU
kun-yomi: tama tama- -dama

Nanori Readings:

Nanori: ou dan

English Definitions:

1. GYOKU: jewel], gem, precious stone, jade.
2. tama: ball, bowl, sphere, bulb; lens; gem, jewel, bullet, shot, shell; billiards; tool, cat's paw; pretty girl; person; margin (in stocks); testicles.
3. tama-: beatiful; round.

Character Index Numbers:

New Nelson: 3620
Henshall: 102

Unicode Encoded Version:

玉

Unicode Encoded Compound Examples:

玉子 (tamago): egg; spawn, roe; (an expert) in the making. (note, also: just 卵)
玉手箱 (tamatebako): Pandora's box; treasured casket.
玉虫色 (tamamushi iro): iridescence.
玉杯 (gyokuhai): jade cup.
玉突き (tamatsuki): billiards.
目玉 (medama): eyeball.

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i haven't listened to jewel's music or read her poems for over a year. but upon finding this node, i remembered her. to begin with, i thought jewel was ultimately dicky. her music was pretty country, she had the whole cowgirl, tassles and 'back at the ranch' vibe. but then after a while, after the songs "foolish games" and "little sister" and "who will save your soul?" i guess she grew on me, her chesty voice, her crooked teeth, her flaxen hair -- she even glorified blondes for me. she un-oprahfied the word spirit for me and made me appreciate poems for the stark little portraits they are, rather than meaningless splattered words that don't even sound good. (essentially, she set me up to appreciate rainer maria rilke, samuel taylor coleridge and sylvia plath). in "a night without armor" she writes about alaska, the fading of passion, intimacy. divorce, domestic matters, friendship.. and then there are the images of the road, the people, the bars, the planes, the loneliness, and the exotic and the boring places.

her words seem very immediate and at times her imagery is unmatched, although i find it ultra-annoying the way mindless little teenage drones (like an old friend of mine) just luuurved to cut out the lyrics of her songs about 'bones' and fat girls and 'envy' and them paste them all over tacky, unsinspired collages. i feel like her message was being lost. for example, in her poem 'too many nights' she writes "it's been/too many nights/of being with/to now be suddenly/without." of course, teenage girls attach this to mean something soooo positively deep about the last boyfriend they broke up with. (shudder).

jewel's poetry was embarrassing at times, very amateur, but that's the way she wanted it, and i like that. i like the way she didn't polish. i like the way she didn't need it to be perfect. she explains this rawness, and other things, more so, in the preface to her collection of poems "a night without armor".

A supermarket chain located in the Midwest U.S., particularly in the Chicagoland area, where it can seem like one of their stores is always in sight.

Jewel began in 1899 as the Jewel Tea Company, selling coffee and tea from the back of horse-drawn wagons. The company gradually expanded its product line and moved into brick and mortar stores.

The chain eventually fell under the ownership of American Stores, which also owned Osco drugstores. As a result of the partnership, the larger Jewel stores with a drugstore section were given the name Jewel-Osco. Now that most of their older stores have been renovated and enlarged, most if not all Jewel stores actually have the hyphenated name.

American Stores was merged into Albertson's in 1999, but the Jewel-Osco name remains on the stores, and the "Preferred Card" loyalty card program was not eliminated in favor of Albertson's Bonus Buy concept.

In the early-to-mid 1990s, Jewel's advertising jingle was "Take a new look at an old friend -- Jewel," which would be a great slogan for a record company to use if the aforementioned singer ever puts out a radically different type of album.

Jew"el (?), n. [OE. juel, jowel, OF. jouel, juel, joiel, F. joyau, dim. of OF. joie joy, jewel, F. joie joy. See Joy.]

1.

An ornament of dress usually made of a precious metal, and having enamel or precious stones as a part of its design.

Plate of rare device, and jewels Of rich and exquisite form. Shak.

2.

A precious stone; a gem.

Shak.

3.

An object regarded with special affection; a precious thing.

Shak.

4.

A bearing for a pivot a pivot in a watch, formed of a crystal or precious stone, as a ruby.

Jewel block Naut., block at the extremity of a yard, through which the halyard of a studding sail is rove.

© Webster 1913.

Jew"el, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Jeweled (?), or Jewelled; p. pr. & vb. n. Jeweling, or Jewelling.]

To dress, adorn, deck, or supply with jewels, as a dress, a sword hilt, or a watch; to bespangle, as with jewels.

The long gray tufts . . . are jeweled thick with dew. M. Arnold.

© Webster 1913.