Observations Along the Road

Roadkill Along the Information Superhighway

News Chum Stew: Reusing Pens, Disney U, Rerecording Classics, and Herschel

Written By: cahwyguy - Sat May 11, 2013 @ 7:16 am PDT
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userpic=observationsContinuing to catch up after vacation, I’ll take this morning to clear out the links of some miscellaneous articles. Still to come this weekend will be a sample ballot analysis, and (quite likely) a review of Fame at Nobel MS.

  • Disposable Pens. If you are like me, you accumulate pens from conferences and all those places that give them away as advertising promotions. Ever wonder what to do with them? A student at CSUN has an interesting use for them: he has created a non-profit organization called The Power of Pens that distributes writing utensils of any kind to developing countries where these are not easy to come by. The purpose of the organization is to provide utensils that will help educate children and adults who don’t have an exposure to pens or pencils. The organization relies on donors, varying from companies to people, who can spare a pen. Any type of writing utensil in any condition is accepted. They also look for volunteers to distribute the pens. This sounds like a great idea that needs more publicity. According to the article, those interested in donating or obtaining further information on the organization can send an email to thepowerofpens@gmail.com; they also appear to have a Facebook page.
  • Disney U. Here’s an interesting waste of time: An artist has imagined animated Disney characters as university students. I have a number of quibbles with this, most notably that they all wrong to me. All the female characters have this “come hither” look (and the look is especially wrong for Belle), whereas the guys all look like surfers or slackers. What do you think? Do these look like college students to you, and do they look like the Disney characters would look if they went to college?
  • Under The Covers. A really interesting article from Slate looks at the practice of the original artists rerecording classic hits and passing them off as the original. Why is this done? Simple — royalties. In the original days, the artists earned nothing on royalties. Rerecording allows them to regain control of the royalties from the rerecording… which can be significant. This often happens on “Greatest Hits” albums, which I often thought were just cheap reassemblies of songs. Not always, it seems.
  • Seeing the Universe. The Herschel telescope is shutting down, and the Atlantic has posted five of their favorite images from Herschel. A lovely way to close out this post.

Music: Tintypes (1980 Original Broadway Cast): “Rich And Poor – Then I’d Be Satisfied With Life”

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Saturday Night’s Alright, Alright When You’re With Elton John

Written By: cahwyguy - Sun May 05, 2013 @ 9:38 am PDT
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Elton John - Million Dollar Pianouserpic=las-vegasI’ve never been the rock concert type. In fact, I can only recall one rock concert that I’ve been too — in the early 1980s (perhaps 1982), a girlfriend took me to see Dan Fogelberg. Other than that, it has either been concerts at McCabes, the Greek, the Hollywood Bowl, the Universal Amphitheatre, VPAC, or similar venues…  and with artists that are decidedly not rock stars — PP&M, Tom Paxton, Judy Collins, BBVD, or various theatre artists. But when our daughter found out we were going to Las Vegas, she insisted that (a) we get tickets to Elton John at Caesars, and (b) we fly her out to join us for the concert.  As she has me wrapped around her finger, guess where we were last night? Yup. We were watching Elton John and his Million Dollar Piano last night at Caesars… and it was worth every penny!

I’ve always enjoyed Elton’s music. After all, I was in high school in the 1970s when his music was growing in popularity, and my college years were the height of the “Elton John in glasses” persona. I remember the stories of the flamboyant man, his glasses, and his costumes. But at the time, I only had one of his albums (“Blue Moves“). As I’ve gotten older, I’ve grown to like his music a lot more. I’m not a fan at the level my daughter is (but then again, I’ve never been the type to go fan-boy for anything, so it may just be me), but I do now have a sizable collection of Elton’s music, and I enjoy it all — both the older and the newer stuff. I think he is one of the best artists of my generation, and is a truly talented musician. All of this was demonstrated last night — the man and his music were just great. This wasn’t the flamboyant Elton of old; this was a man comfortable with where he is in life and truly enjoying entertaining his audience. It created a level of comfort and family in the concert hall, and led to a perfect evening.

Elton John's PianoLet’s set the stage, at the center of which is Elton and his $1,000,000 piano. This piano is fully visual; it can show live or recorded video, animations and colors that follow the music being played using 68 LED video panels.  It is named “Blossom” after the late jazz singer, pianist and cabaret performer Blossom Dearie. Behind the piano on risers is the rest of Elton’s supporting band and his backup singers. The front of the risers are covered with more LED video panels, and the backdrop for the stage consists of even more LED panels. These all light up during the songs to reinforce the songs thematically, and sometimes all the panels were coordinated to provide stunning visual effects.

Unlike the early days of Elton, the man himself was not a visual effect. By that I mean that Elton did not have a flamboyant costume (just a suit with sequined shoulders, although he entered in a gold cape), nor did he wear outlandish glasses. He has moved beyond the need for such things — his music and lyrics more than make up for the lack of sequins.

The music he chose was primarily a rehash of his hits from the early days. I don’t believe he did any songs from the more recent side of his catalog. This made the audience happy as many of their favorites was there; still it would have been nice for him to introduce the audience to what he is working on these days. My supposition is that this is due to the venue — a concert stage in Vegas leads to a 90-minute intermission-less show designed to please the audience. Vegas — at least in Strip venues — is not conducive to a 3-hour two-act show that provides an in-depth review of the artists catalog, along with new unfamiliar songs. So what songs did Elton sing? Here’s the set list, along with my comments:

# Song Comments
1. The Bitch Is Back The graphics behind this number were an abstract walk down a castle corridor, with never ending curlicues and such. I’m not sure they added to the song.
2. Benny and the Jets  
3. Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going to Be a Long, Long Time) This song had spectacular space graphics.
4. Levon Elton noted that this song was gospel-inspired.
5. Tiny Dancer The background graphics for this song were of a ballerina.
6. Your Song  
7. Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters This was done as a tribute to 9/11, and the background had all sorts of images of people (presumably reacting or survivors).
8. Better Off Dead  
9. Indian Sunset This is a song I like quite a bit; it was covered by Mary Travers on her 1971 album “Mary”. The percussion for this song (by Ray Cooper) was just incredible.
10. Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny) This was one of the songs I hadn’t heard before. It is evidently rarely done in concert. It was done as a tribute to John Lennon and the projections included images of Lennon and the times he played with Elton.
11. Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road This song featured a fantastic back project that summarized Elton’s career (and included hat tips to his Broadway and movie scores). In doing so, it created the sense for me that the point he wanted to make was constrasting his life today with his life on the “Yellow Brick Road” of the flamboyant lifestyle and the drug life. He has put that behind him, and has moved to a new portion of his life.
12. I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues This was one of those songs that had abstract growing background graphics that I just couldn’t understand.
13. Don’t Let The Sun Go Down on Me
14. Philadelphia Freedom This song had spectacular graphics of Philadelphia, it’s people, and animated vinyl records. A very 1970s disco feel.
15. I’m Still Standing This song also had great graphic, providing a good video retrospective of Elton in concert over the years.
16. Crocodile Rock This included audience participation on the refrain, and people dancing in the aisles. The video on the backscreen included live video of the performers and the audience.
17. Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting During this song, Elton invited the first few rows of the orchestra to join him on stage.
18. Circle of Life Stunning graphics (looking like CGI) of elephants in Africa.

Elton was backed by an excellent backing band and singers. The band consisted of Stjepan Hauser and Luka Sulic (who are the group 2Cellos) on cello; John Mahon on percussion; Kim Bullard on keyboard; Matt Bissonnet on bass; Ray Cooper on percussion; Nigel Olsson on drums; and Davey Johnstone on mandolin and guitar. The backup singers were Rose Stone, Tata Vega, Jean Witherspoon and Lisa Stone.

Technically, a lot of well deserved kudos go to the lighting designer, Patrick Woodroffe, and the screen content producer, Sam Pattinson. This is on top of all the technical work that brought the tour together. The linked article provides a detailed description of the set design, its meaning, and how all the elements came together for this particular show.

Elton John The Million Dollar Piano plays for one more weekend at Caesars, and then returns in September and October for more shows. Tickets are available through the Caesars box office.

Lastly, one note on observed theatre etiquette. We come from a background of attending live theatre — musicals, plays, opera, and such. As such, we have one behavior we know in the theatre — we watch and focus on the performance, we applaud appropriately, etc. The concert-goer etiquette appears to be different — there is a lot more screaming at the stage, and (despite the warnings from the ushers) there was loads of flash photography and video recording. As usual, the culture clash can be a bit jarring.

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts:   Currently, the rest of May is relatively quiet. Mother’s Day weekend has nothing scheduled. The following weekend brings “Falling for Make Believe” at The Colony Theatre. The last weekend of May brings “To Kill a Mockingbird” at REP East and The Scottsboro Boys” at the Ahmanson Theatre. June brings “Priscilla – Queen of the Desert” at the Pantages, and (tentative) Sweet Charity“ at DOMA. July is currently more open, with “9 to 5 – The Musical” at REP East in the middle of the month, and “Legally Blonde – The Musical” at Cabrillo at the end of the month. August is currently completely open due to vacation planning. I’m also keeping my eyes open as the various theatres start making their 2013 season announcements. Lastly, what few dates we do have open may be filled by productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411, or discussed in the various LA Stage Blogs I read (I particularly recommend Musicals in LA and LA Stage Times).

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The Digital Disenfranchised

Written By: cahwyguy - Thu Apr 25, 2013 @ 12:32 pm PDT
Posted in news-chum, rant , , , , , , | No Comments »

userpic=verizonA number of articles I’ve read in the last week have highlighted an increasing digital divide in our society. This subject and these articles have been running around my head all week, so while I eat lunch I’d like to share them with you and get your thoughts.

What triggered the subject was Harry Shearer’s Le Show. Its host station, KCRW 89.9 FM in Santa Monica, abruptly yanked the show off the airwaves and moved it to be Internet-only. KCRW believes that growth is going to be on the Internet side, and those that listen to the show will find it there. Now a number of broadcasters have done this in the past — think Adam Corolla or Tom Leykis –but arguably the audiences for those shows is very different than the NPR/Public Radio audience. I think Shearer captured my concern very well:

People are sawing the legs out from under the idea of radio as we speak. Television, when it came to prominence, was supposed to kill radio outright, and it didn’t. The question is: Will online audio kill radio broadcasting? I listen to about 80 percent of my audio content online, and I look at a lot of my video content online, so I’m not a Luddite in any sense of the word. But that doesn’t mean I don’t believe in radio broadcasting.

A lot of people driving in their cars don’t have the facility or haven’t mastered yet getting online audio into their car’s audio system. A lot of poorer people don’t have the wherewithal for broadband everywhere that they might want to hear something, and older people don’t want to mess with that stuff. Radio better be around, because in any kind of emergency, my experience has been the first thing that goes down is the electric grid, and the second thing that goes down is the telephone grid. And if you don’t have a portable battery-powered radio, you are seriously out of luck. People who are trying to dismantle this system are way in front of themselves, and may not be doing the public a service.

I, too, have seen a growing number of articles predicting the demise of terrestrial radio. NetFlix is predicting the death of the TV channel. The problem is that the movement to Internet  based approaches for TV and Radio are not available to all — due to either the financial or intellectual cost of the new technology. Do we have the right to disenfranchise these people?

But the problem is not just radio. Look at music in general. iTunes is turning 10, and there are numerous articles on the changes iTunes has brought. One article notes the following:

The iTunes store dominated by downloads “is on its last gasp,” says Bob Lefsetz, a former music industry lawyer and blogger at the Lefsetz Letter. “YouTube is where most young people listen to music now.” (More than 1 billion people visit the site each month.)

“When iTunes turns 15 years old, we won’t be talking about downloads, because Apple won’t be selling them,” he says.

Here’s another quote from the same article:

Ten years ago, Apple’s most popular iPod was the largest-capacity model with 80 gigabytes of storage. Now the top seller is the 32 GB iPod Touch starting at $299. The entry-level iPhone comes with 16 GB of storage.

“If downloads were still important, we’d all need more storage,” Lefsetz says. “Apple knows which direction this is going.”

Yet again we are creating a community of digital disenfranchised.  Not everyone wants to stream media — they may not know how to do it; they may not be in a location that permits it; they may not have the signal to do it; they may not be able to afford the cost of doing it. Yet the assumption seems to be that it is something the public wants. What this is really doing is hurting the public: no longer can you own a personal copy of your music you can listen to at any time in any place. You become tethered to the (for profit) streaming service, who can dictate if you can listen to your music and where and when. Is this the right direction for society?

We all know technology is everywhere, and in increasing cases, it is not serving to help but to hurt. What used to be broadcast is now exclusively on the web, eliminating as a potential audience those lacking the financial or technological wherewithal to find it. Others are starting to embrace a return to old media.   We need to make sure that in our rush to embrace the latest and greatest technology, we don’t cut off those not quite as nimble.

Disclaimer: Even though I know how to listen to podcasts, I still like the radio sometimes. I like to physically own my music (in fact, I’m looking to buy some LP storage crates and a media center), even as I have over 31,000 songs on my iPod (160GB). Further, I do not have a smartphone. I feel cut-off everytime I see a QR scan-this discount code.

Music: Destry Rides Again (1959 Original Broadway Cast): “Overture” [recorded from LP to MP3 using Roxio Easy Media Creator, loaded into iTunes, currently playing on my iPod]

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Entertainment News to Chew On: Music Spending, Carrie in Los Angeles, Veronica Mars

Written By: cahwyguy - Wed Mar 13, 2013 @ 11:23 am PDT
Posted in news-chum , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Staring at the collected links today while eating my salad over lunch identified two distinct themes. The first brings together a number of entertainment items of interest:

  • Money for Music. Some interesting numbers out of SXSW 2013 provide a picture of entertainment spending: Serious music fans spend over $442/year on music. Specifically, Neilsen has identified three core consumer categories. The “aficionado” is willing to spend more than $422 per year on music, concerts and artist merch, and does so via sites such as iTunes, Amazon and indie outlets. The “digital fan” was determined to spend about $363 per year and views a smartphone or tablet as the entertainment hub. Finally, the “big box” fan shops at mass retailers, is partial to pop and country and spends, on average, $196 per year on music. Those who can be classified as music fans account for nearly 75% of all music spending in the U.S. The bad news? The most avid of fans in Nielsen’s sampling of 4,000 consumers downloaded the most tracks for free, approximately 30 in a year. What’s more, those classified as “music fans” account for just 40% of the music-buying public in America. Based on these numbers, I’m in the aficionado group — about 3-4 times per year, I’ll do a $100+ music buy — usually a mix of used CDs, new CDs, LPs, and digital music. I go to lots of concerts and musicals during the year, but don’t buy that much merch. I also listen to my music — I’ll note my Music playlist on the iPod is at 30,888 tracks, and nearly two-thirds of those tracks have been listened to at least 8 times.
  • Blood on the Stage. This is some exciting news. Playbill has announced that the Transfer Theatre Company will be mounting a production of the musical “Carrie” this fall. Transfer Theatre Company is what used to be known as the Neighborhood Theatre of Palos Verdes. In that guise, we saw truly excellent productions of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “Parade” (the latter even better than what the Mark Taper Forum did). So I’m really excited about TTC’s production of Carrie. The original production was a notorious flop; the revival redeemed the musical’s reputation, and I can’t wait to see what TTC will do with it.
  • Veronica Mars Lives. Now I’m not into TV that much, except for a few guilty pleasures (cough, Dallas, cough, Survivor, cough, Smash). But I have been having fun with Kickstarter lately, so an article in EW about the brief UPN/CW series “Veronica Mars” being revived for a movie was interesting. Why? Because the only way it will happen is if a $2 million, 30-day Kickstarter succeeds. I’ve seen Kickstarter used for lots of things — cast albums, theatre productions, and some specialized movie projects, but this is the first time I’ve seen it for a major-market product with a major studio. It is also a gigantic amount they need to raise. It will be interesting to see if they can do it. [Note: In less than a day, they've raised over $800,000; if this pace continues, reaching $2,000,000 is clearly possible.] [ETA: In less than 8 hours, they are up to 1.84 million. I expect them to reach their goal in under 24 hours. Amazing!] [ETAA: They made it, in less than a day. Expect to see funding efforts for movies like this again.]

Music: The Wedding Singer (Original Broadway Cast): “If I Told You”

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The Dead, The Living, and The Zombies

Written By: cahwyguy - Thu Feb 21, 2013 @ 11:38 am PDT
Posted in news-chum, obituaries , , | No Comments »

userpic=zombieToday’s lunch-time news chum collection brings together stories about life and death:

ETA: Last week I wrote about the piano on the beach, slowly disintegrating. Today’s news brings word that it has been cremated.

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Crossing the Line

Written By: cahwyguy - Sat Nov 17, 2012 @ 1:39 pm PDT
Posted in status , , | 2 Comments »

Well, I’ve crossed the line again. My music playlist on my iPod has 30020 songs; my overall music tracks (which also includes stand-up comedy and spoken word) stands at 30214 tracks. I just did another Amazon Marketplace binge, adding music from all sorts of different artists, from Barenaked Ladies to Seth MacFarlane to Rachel York to Capathia Jenkins to Mumford and Sons to The Dunwells to Louis Prima to The Eagles to Big Bad Voodoo Daddy to Robert Simon to Kate Baldwin to Jerry Lee Lewis to Dolly Parton to the usual cast albums. As always, my iPod is a careening wild ride, and I have no idea what I’ll do if Apple ever stops offering a large capacity player.

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Coming Clean

Written By: cahwyguy - Sat Oct 27, 2012 @ 7:20 am PDT
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I’ve written before about how I love to put music on my iPod. I obtain the music in many ways: digital downloads (usually from Amazon), ripping CDs, and recording vinyl LPs directly into the iPod. I typically do the latter via a process I call “slurp, split, spit” (try saying that fast!). Basically, what I do is play the LP on my turntable with my normal Phono amplifier, and run that into my sound card’s LINE IN. Using Roxio Media Creator (I’m using Roxio 10), I slurp that in as a single WAV file, using the Roxio sound editor capabilities to clean the tracks, repair skips, and such. I then split the file into distinct tracks, and then spit it out in MP3 format (or WAV, if I’m burning to CD).

I mention this all because of (spoiler alert) something I saw in this week’s CSI (“It Was a Very Good Year“). In the story, a vinyl LP is cleaned using wood glue. I looked up the technique… and guess what… it is real. There’s a full and long discussion about the approach at AudioKarma, with a good updated followup as post #507 and #508, although much of what is on page 34 is good (starting at #507).   I’ve even see the technique mentioned on some hip-hop sites. You need to make sure you only do it on vinyl records, and experiment with it first.

To me, this is intriguing. I used to record wet (i.e., cover the record with distilled water), but that sometimes left odd background noises (thumps), although it did reduce skips (I’ll note I’ve never had the problem of “once wet, always wet”). Later, I took to cleaning the records with a mixture of distilled water and 97% isopropyl alcohol. Yes, this can damage things, but once I get a single clean recording, I rarely go back to the vinyl unless there is a problem. Of course, this is just my approach. There are lots of different techniques out there (here’s another discussion). This wood glue technique is something I might try for some of the worst cases — I have some mid-1970s vinyl with almost unrecoverable skips or incredible scratchiness. If they are that bad, what do I have to lose by giving this a try.

 

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Entertainment News You Can Use

Written By: cahwyguy - Mon Sep 17, 2012 @ 1:25 pm PDT
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Today’s Rosh Hashanah news chum brings some entertainment related articles:

  • Bringing Back the 1950s. A couple of years ago, a dear friend, Stuart Schaeffer, introduced me to a group called “Big Daddy“. Big Daddy’s conceit was that they went to sleep in 1959… and just woke up. Their albums of versions of modern songs (the songs from “Sgt. Peppers”, “Like a Virgin”, “Star Wars Theme”) done in a late 1950s style. Really good stuff. They haven’t recorded for a number of years. I recently learned that Big Daddy has a Kickstarter project to fund an album of stage and screen songs. I recently became a backer of the “Now. Hear. This.” CD being done by the folks behind “[title of show]“, so I’m seriously thinking about doing this.
  • Musical on Internment. I’m sure everyone is aware of the awesome George Takei. George’s latest project was just written up in the LA Times, and it sounds fascinating. George is involved with a new musical — potentially Broadway bound — called Allegiance — A New American Musical”. It is currently at the Old Globe in San Diego. In it, George portrays Sam Kimura, an elderly U.S. Army vet who looks back at the internment and how it changed his life and those of his father, grandfather and sister, Kei. The show, which also stars Tony winner Lea Salonga and Telly Leung, follows the Kimuras as they leave their Salinas farm for the barracks and barbed wire of Heart Mountain in Wyoming. Young Sammy (Leung) fights in Europe with the celebrated Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Kei (Salonga) falls in love and sides with internees who resist being drafted. When Sammy returns home and finds out about his sister, he feels he must choose between his devotion to his family and to his country. This sounds like a fascinating story, and given the people involved, is likely to be done well (it would be interesting to see an East-West production of it).  The musical does have a web site, but no cast album yet.
  • Closing of a Legend. I read today in the San Francisco Chronicle that the famed “Purple Onion” club in San Francisco is closing. The club was the starting ground of many famous comedy acts — Phyllis Diller, Richard Pryor, Smothers Brothers &c — as well as musical groups such as the Kingston Trio. We’ve already lost the “Hungry i”; the club closed many years ago and the name was leased to a topless joint. Hopefully those in the Bay Area can do a last visit and remember the Onion’s glory. Alas, I don’t think there are clubs today that have the same impact. Instead, we’re reduced to TV Reality competition programs. It is nowhere near the same thing.

Music: What a Wonderful World (Willie Nelson): Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive

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