The Reminder

While driving from Ohio back to Nashville with my father the other weekend I was scanning through the many XM Radio stations when I decided to conform and allow Starbucks to control both my beverage intake as well as my listening behavior. See, this is a tough decision for me. The odds of hearing quality music on XM's station 75 is rather high, but yet it goes against every grain in my body to allow them to highlight (read: discover) music I myself did precious reading and research to track down, only to be prompted to buy a sampling of it for $18.99 upon my next store visit for what is already an overpriced mocha. Alas, I caved, and with good fortune. Right when I stopped the dial at Hear Music, an Artist's Choice interview was just starting up with the very talented, and as I would soon discover, very personable Leslie Feist. Known simply by her surname to adoring fans who have followed her career from Broken Social Scene and earlier, Feist (in part to promote her upcoming album The Reminder) spoke of the life events and artists that shaped her musicianship.

(c) Tim Leyes for The New York Times

Through this interview, Feist actively promoted her new album (indirectly) a good month and a half in advance of her next CD release. This is incredibly smart. I say indirectly because her presence on the radio alone is enough to prompt even her most casual fans to check and see if she has a new album on the way, simply because it feels as though it's time. I say indirectly also because she never (from what I recall) actively pitched or promoted the upcoming work, but rather let the focus hinge on her stories and career, inherent assets to push a new album without much self-proclamation.

Her second solo album Let it Die -- an album in which iTunes described her as re-inventing herself with every song -- was released three years ago in 2004. In the interim, she released Open Season, a collection consisting of mostly remixes including the notable Postal Service collaboration of "Mushaboom," as well as a rendition of "Tout Doucement" best described as fun, and a romantic yet subtle duet "The Simple Story" with Jane Birkin. Despite these gems, the album, whether it exists in your collection on a physical shelf or in a digital library, presumably does not get many spins all the way through, at least not in the way Open Season called you to do so.

Therein lies the beauty of doing an interview with Hear Music six weeks prior to the release of an album that most likely will be the album for Feist (at least until her next release). Most fans haven't seen her on tour since 2005 (she did not tour with BSS last October), last year's album was an attempt to circulate buzz off of some smart collaborations, and with recent breakthrough albums from artists like Regina Spektor, Feist simply has to deliver with The Reminder. One quick glance at her profile on Virb confirms she's not only up to the challenge but is willing to meet it with confidence, from her choice in the iconic direction of the album art (a design seemingly better served for a vintage album) to the arrangements on her first two singles, "My Moon My Man" and "1234."

Appropriately, the Hear Music commentary and the Virb profile serve as exactly what the album promises to do: remind us as to why her performances -- be it live or in the studio -- are so natural and infectious. Here's The Reminder: how a young woman touring with underground bands in Canada found her voice -- and timeless style -- and is back to charm audiences everywhere.

Untitled #3

This is a song I wrote not too long ago.



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In any real city, you walk, you know?

I watched the movie Crash the other night. The opening remarks set the stage:

Graham: It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.

Digital Music: Coming to a Landfill Near You

The Impact of Music on the Environment

Larry West:

New Technology Holds Promise of Eco-Friendly Music
Meanwhile, some groundbreaking new CDs, one made from corn and another partly from paper, are on the horizon. Sanyo has teamed up with NatureWorks (formerly Cargill Dow) in the production of “MildDiscs” made from corn (one ear of corn can make 10 CDs). And Sony has developed the “Blue-Ray” disc that is 51 percent paper. It can be cut with scissors and can hold about half the data of a computer hard drive.

But until such innovations become de rigueur, environmentally conscious CD buyers will have to be content passing on their old CDs to friends, selling them to used record stores, or sending them out to recycling centers set up specifically for e-waste, such as the Washington-based GreenDisk.

Who Killed the Electric Car?

This movie is worth renting:





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LeBron and Co. to win the E. Conference finals in 2007

A month and a half ago I said:

"LeBron is slowly (or quickly) becoming the best player that has ever played the game. He has the Cavaliers playoff-bound in only his third season with a 43-29 record. I am predicting the Cavs to beat the Wizards in the first round and give the Pistons a run for their money in round two."

Well, today I say that LeBron and company will be seeded number two in the East for next year's playoffs, beat the Bucks 4-1 in round one, beat the Heat 4-2 in the Semis and beat the Pistons 4-3 in the Eastern Conference Finals. This possibility will be due to the new playoff formatting likely to take effect before next season.

The Cavs will square off against an able Mavericks team in the NBA finals and LeBron will take a game-winning shot in the seventh and final outing. Outcome yet to be determined.

This will be the beginning of the LeBron dynasty.

Transcendent Characters

A person’s identity must be strong and unique to stand out from the common crowd. Likewise, a good playwright must develop traits within his or her characters that are distinctive and exceptional, yet maintain elements of human connection to which an audience can relate. Further, characters should borrow upon the successful traits of beloved characters that precede them. Playwrights and composers, after all, are attempting to examine human interaction, whether to make liberal statements about social life and values or simply to portray the beauty of love. Therefore, common elements will be found amidst characters that defy genres, from Shakespeare’s comedies to Lloyd Webber’s musicals to Ibsen’s dramas. Thus, there are common traits found within the characters of the many current performances in London. However, for a play to develop its own voice, the characters must move beyond simply mimicking the thoughts and actions of characters past, so, to an audience’s benefit, there is contrast found among these characters as well.

Malvolio, a simple, stiff puritan from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night envelopes many of the same qualities as Fergus Crampton from Shaw’s You Never Can Tell. Both characters are formal and set in their ways about how things should operate. Both men are rigid and powerful and demand attention as presupposed by their prestige. The contrast exists in the fact that Crampton adapts to the changing times at the end of the show, thus accepting love and having love accept him, whereas Malvolio is contented only by self-knowledge that he is sane, as “at the close of the play, he is brought out of the darkness into a celebration in which he has no part, and where no one seems willing to offer him a real apology” (Spark Notes). Despite formality and rigid behavior toward the beginning of each play, each character adapts differently and thus receives a different outcome.

Analyzing the same two productions, Shaw’s character of Valentine shares similar attributes as Shakespeare’s Viola, both possessing the courage to make more from their life. Viola, the play’s protagonist, assumes the identity of her twin brother when her ship is wrecked in a storm. The assumption of a new identity to further her life is similar to Valentine’s eagerness to progress his dental practice, despite his lack of clients and resulted lack of income. Viola suffers from what she believes to be unrequited love with her infatuation for Orsino, finding “that her clever disguise has entrapped her: she cannot tell Orsino that she loves him, and she cannot tell Olivia why she, as Cesario, cannot love her" (Sparknotes). Valentine on the other hand faces outward unrequited love with Gloria due to complications between social upbringing and a general misunderstanding. Valentine is a character that benefits from intelligence yet suffers from his strong passion to be an earnest suitor. Both characters are young and are in search of love and more understanding to life, but due to different circumstances, both face adversity in claiming their hearts’ true desires.

In A Man for All Seasons, the character of Sir Thomas More “refuses to sacrifice his self, which he defines by his moral conscience, even as he sacrifices his life,” while The Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera behaves similarly, refusing to sacrifice love while continuing to haunt a place in which he does no longer belongs (Spark Notes). More sacrifices his own happiness and the happiness of his family by refusing to back down on his moral stance, resulting in self-imprisonment and hindered self-evolution. In contrast, the Phantom in many ways imprisons the one he loves, Christine, by refusing to let her love and exist in her own world, the world in which she belongs. The Phantom’s mask and More’s cross become symbols of restraint and personal imprisonment. However, the characters contrast as “More’s reverence for being practical…is rooted in his love for the law,” while the Phantom’s actions are rooted in his love of love (Spark Notes). More is rigid due to personal beliefs, while the Phantom is rigid due to jealousy and anger. More’s refuge is his home, his bible and his cross, while the Phantom’s refuge is underground lair, music and his mask. Both characters are resistant to change and thus face harsh consequences in a life that is filled with little love.

All four of these productions have withstood history and changing times and discerning audiences worldwide largely in part for developing characters who have moral objectives yet retain enough human qualities to remain relatable and common. Though each character borrows from the traits of many before them, they are all instilled with a voice unique enough to stand alone. Built from qualities essential to human existence, the characters who break the mold of the common stock envelope a sense of new and a sense of specialty, managing to communicate very large and profound visions to the simplest of individuals in an understated way.

Webber's Longevity: The "Phantom" PR Machine

“Hit Me Baby, One More Time,” sings Britney Spears on her 1999 debut single “One More Time” from the album of the same name. When it comes to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, the more appropriately named title track would be “Watch Me Baby, One More Time.” A musical that debuted at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London on 9 October 1986, is still selling out performances worldwide, and just became the longest-running Broadway musical ever is now part of any theatre-attendee’s common vernacular (Her Majesty’s). And to sustain such a long run, it can be asserted that many people filling the seats are repeat viewers. But the true cause of this success is arguable: is it the art of its compositions that has catapulted its popularity, or has publicity, marketing dollars and a gigantic production budget maintained its longevity and superstardom? Marketing hype, combined with the publicity garnered from Lloyd Webber’s prior prestige is responsible for the majority of the longevity of Phantom of the Opera.



On the walk to see Phantom

As stated in the program from Her Majesty’s Theatre, in January 1986, nine months before the London opening of the show, the title track was released as a single to gain publicity and speculate interest. This is a technique not fully embraced by American pop artists until many years later, and one that is still being expanded today through the use of various types of media releases in a digital world. Utilizing a technique like pre-releasing a physical product many months before the show’s debut is pure publicity, and the stunt utilized Lloyd Webber’s name as the “brand leader” to market the new category: a grand scale, operatic and romantic night out. Take a publicity move, cast a few star actors, and the producers are left with a winning combination to fill seats for the opening – and apparently for twenty years thereafter. Successful marketing consultants Al and Laura Ries maintain that “leadership alone is one of the primary objectives of any marketing program” (Fall 202). They continue, “It’s why you want to create a new category (so you can start the brand from day one as the leader),” and this is the technique first utilized in 1986 and still driven home today with Phantom (Fall 202). Essentially, there has been no production to follow Phantom that contains the same formula, mainly because for a show to supersede Phantom, it would have to be written in a different style so it too can be a market leader. Simply copying the magical formula of Phantom would result in a number of difficulties, from securing enough funding to produce a similar show in quality to gaining attention while not being remembered simply as Phantom’s successor.



New Year's Eve, Just after curtain call

The show is a high-budget dazzling spectacle that cannot be equaled by smaller stages which creates further demand to see the big production on the grand stage. Conversely, a show like Les Miserables could be performed effectively utilizing a unit setting or limited hand props and fourth-wall convention. It would be extremely difficult to portray a crashing chandelier on a community theater budget. Thus, Phantom has created a niche in the market, such a large production value complete with intricate effects unable to be replicated without the properly funded production to implement them, let alone a staff trained to handle such complexities. Even a cast filled with talented actors and vocalists would come across as performing a bare rendition of Webber’s score, which brings forth the interesting argument that without the million dollar budget and intense spectacle, the show would not stand on music alone. Further, the music is so accessible in the package that it is presented, that it can only be presented as a large-scale performance at prestigious theaters; otherwise the romantic appeal is lost on the audience.
In a 1998 article for WeeklyWire.com, Dalt Wonk echoes the need for the spectacle to accompany the content of the show, claiming that it is the production that enchants the audience:

I can't help thinking of the character "Chorus" in Shakespeare's Henry V, standing alone in the Globe Theater, asking the audience to use their imaginations to fill out "this unworthy scaffold ... this wooden o" -- the empty stage on which the play would unfold. Lloyd Webber and company have taken the exact opposite approach. Their promise is that no imagination will be required. The audience will be swept up in a seamless miracle of stagecraft, a total illusion. Phantom sets out to incarnate in three dimensions the magic one has come to expect in films. It is a phenomenal challenge. And to a remarkable degree, Phantom reaches its goal (Wonk).

And, so, the audience is swept up in magic. Not an incredible score or life-changing dialogue, but, rather, the magic of seeing a show that many have seen before. The magic of marketing hype, publicity, word of mouth advertisement and the magic of millions of dollars in costumes, lighting and scenic design. Arguably, this is the same magic that millions of teenage concert goers witness when they attend a Britney Spears concert. Spears' material is definitely not art, and definitely not suited for a jazz club filled with a discerning audience. Yet, Spears material has become “Pop Art,” and so has Lloyd Webber’s – work recognized as art due to its popularity. The popularity of Lloyd Webber’s Phantom was propelled thanks to clever publicity, marketing a new “category” of theatre and incredible word of mouth promotion from novice theatre goers that were wooed by the production value. Evidence of the lack of art in the show is magnified by the soon to be introduced 90-minute Las Vegas Casino format. Phantom is about spending marketing dollars to make more on the return, as any good business should be concerned with, but an artistic production would fight any push to condense material to simply make money, which is clearly not the case with the content of Phantom. Within five years, one should expect to see a discontinuation of Phantom and an underground publicity campaign that reestablishes the show as the “greatest spectacle of the Twentieth Century,” which will spawn another twenty year run promoted by millions of dollars and performed with the help of millions of dollars.