feel the groove
Ah, summer. Life finally slowing down for a bit after a rather manic spring season. And, I’m thinking it’s time for a change in terms of this blog. I’m trying out some new stuff tech-wise; starting spaces over on tumblr and typepad, which bills itself as a slightly more professional wordpress kinda thing. So far, I find it a bit more difficult to deal with, though that’s probably due to my familiarity with wordpress more than anything else. I also started to dabble around with google + (I was lucky enough to get an invite from a friend), and so far, it looks pretty cool.
First of all, both Google + (GP) and tumblr are minimalist compared to Facebook and WordPress. Google + has a cleaner overall interface, which I like. I also like the way GP organizes by ‘circles’. I refrain from posting certain things to my current FB page – because I don’t want everyone I’m ‘friends’ with on FB to see it. With GP, I can control who sees what. To be fair, FB has the ability to direct posts too, but the process is a bit less streamlined.
Tumblr is a blogging web space. Again, clean, simple, and good design are built in and easy to get started with. I like the fact that I can upload photos up to 10MG in size – something you cannot do on FB. I also like the link-friendly way tumblr allows users to share photos and other content. It allows for a more seamless posting experience, which is nice. Sometimes I spend way too much time adjusting photos/text alignment in wordpress…it’s frustrating. On the downside, I can only post one audio file per day, which could be troublesome if I began hyper-producing audio pieces again.
Both GP and tumblr reflect the changing digital platform space for content delivery. It will be interesting to see how they fare.
Stay tuned…and in the meantime enjoy some Plej:
One of my favorite U2 songs ever is ‘Bad’. It’s the song that made the band famous in the glorious days of the mullet, which Bono showed off quite well at Live Aid in 1985. It’s a song about heroin addiction, which was a bit of an issue in the economically depressed town of Dublin, Ireland at the time.
It’s made me think of how we as a country have been addicted to the drug of fear for the past decade. And now, the person who was the face of that fear is gone. Leaving us to struggle along without an object to vilify or blame.
If I could, through myself/Set your spirit free
I’d lead your heart away/See you break, break away
Into the light/And to the day
Maybe I’m way off here…but those words remind me a little of the Gethsemane prayer of Jesus. In my head today, I’m thinking this is what God might pray for us:
If you should ask then maybe they’d
Tell you what I would say
True colors fly in blue and black
Blue silken sky and burning flag
Colors crash, collide in blood shot eyes
If I could, you know I would
If I could, I would
Let it go
This desparation
Dislocation
Separation
Condemnation
Revelation
In temptation
Isolation
Desolation
Isolation
Let it go
Best version of the tune is this one, IMHO. Here’s the Live Aid performance:
It really doesn’t matter what you write for. I’ve written or radio, web, and print…and the obsession is the same.
It’s part of the reason I haven’t blogged nearly as much as I would like – nor as often as reasonably good ideas come to me. Stories are everywhere, after all, if one pays attention.
Since I am in confession mode – here’s the other truth: I am a person of faith. A follower of Jesus Christ – or at least I try to be. I have hesitated to share that faith in this space, but that is something I’m going to try to change.
Music. Faith. Creating stuff. This is who I am and what I’m going to be more faithful in writing about.
I hope.
Wow. Nearly a month since my last post. I guess my head just hasn’t been in the right place for blogging.
It’s been busy. In early March, I went to the Duke Center for Documentary Studies to learn how to make audio slideshows using still photos and well, audio. Big Shed, a group of media producers I remember well from my pub radio days partnered with CDS to do the training.
I purposely chose photography, to work on an area of weakness I’m falling in love with. My partner, Krissa, did a great job gathering the audio for our piece. Then, we sat down and put the final product together.
We were told our piece had to be 60 seconds long. I took nearly 500 photos on the shoot, Krissa had about 30 minutes of tape.
Whittling it down to a minute was tough, but it forced us to really think about the heart of our story, something any producer/writer knows is maybe the toughest part of creating this kind of content.
The applications of this form of story-telling for the church (and just about anything, are infinite). I’m excited to apply and share what I’ve learned with others, especially young folks in the church.
The best part of the weekend for me is that I went to play and learn. I wasn’t worried about being the best – or worst – at the stuff we were learning. It was liberating to learn something that brought together skills I already have (writing, audio) and developing new ones (photography).
Play more. That’s what I learned.
If you haven’t seen the King’s Speech yet – go, and soon. It’s proof that true stories beat fiction anytime.
Granted, George VI (or Bertie) was born into a life of privilege, he was the son and brother of a King. That life allowed him success and wealth in spite of a speech impediment that would have left a common man with a grave disadvantage in gaining either. It’s hard to pity a rich man, right?
Yet, George VI knew a thing or two about duty. The King and Queen never left London during the German Blitz, even after Buckingham Palace was bombed. In fact, it was reported that Queen Elizabeth (the current Queen’s mum) said: “I’m glad we got bombed. Now I can stare east London in the face.”
The King and Queen survey bomb damage, Buckingham Palace, London, WWII, 1940.
But this is not a post about the royal family (I’m not a huge fan of the idea of royal families).
It’s about the brilliant use of music in this film, particularly the scene when George VI gives a radio address to the British Commonwealth on the eve of WWII. David Stabler wrote a great piece in the Oregonian about it last month, and I think he’s right on.
I’d like to add another thread to the conversation.
By the summer of 1811, Beethoven could barely hear. Eventually, he couldn’t play concerts anymore, which was personally and financially devastating. Yet, he managed to write brilliant music, including his seventh symphony, in spite of the most crushing disability a composer and musician could have.
In the pivotal scene of the King’s Speech, Bertie steps up to the mic to address millions of people on the eve of war. He’s scared as hell. And then, the opening chords of the allegretto movement of the seventh symphony come in.
In my head, when I watch this scene, I imagine Beethoven saying to the man who never wanted to be King “I’ve got your back, old boy, you can do this.”
It inspired me so much that I found the original speech and layered it over the music, just for fun (and to learn Hindenburg, a new audio editing software package). You can listen to it here. It’s still a little rough – I need to clean it up in Audition, where I’m more comfortable. Call this my first draft.
Last week, I wrote a couple of posts about classical music and relevance. One typical argument in the classical music radio world would be that it’s practically sacrilegious to play anything less than an entire symphony on the air.
Here’s the thing, people don’t sit in front of their radios, waiting for an entire symphony to play. It’s just not how radio is used. The phone calls one receives from 3 or 4 music experts are not representative of the audience. They are but a sliver of it, and very vocal. It’s a mistake to let those voices dictate programming.
Here’s an idea. Many classical music shifts happen right before news programming begins. At about 10 minutes before the post, a producer cues up the allegretto movement, along with a well-constructed break summary of the story. Maybe, they even play the original speech layered over the music.
It’s right before the news, when the music/talk transition begins, so some of the folks tuning in for the news, hear this and start tuning in a little earlier, because, maybe this classical music has something that will add value to their lives, presented in a way that’s relevant to them.
If you’ve really done your homework, you do this the day before or after the Academy Awards, when perhaps said news program is doing a segment on the nominees/winners. The segment I just mentioned then becomes a forward-promote opportunity for the news.
As a PD, that’s how you build your AQH (average quarter hour) audience. Which leads to a bigger cume, which leads to better numbers for the station. Which leads to more underwriting and pledge drive contributions.
And, it’s just good radio.
A bit of 80s nostalgia today, courtesy of Echo and the Bunnymen. Full disclosure only seems fair here – I have liked crappy music in my time. This has largely to do with teenage girl-crush-on-a-guy angst, which means groups like Air Supply, I’m sad to say, weaseled their way into my heart.
We all make mistakes…
The only ETB song I knew well was Bring on the Dancing Horses, the only pop-ish type tune that gained traction in the U.S.; it was on the wildly popular (and much bootlegged) soundtrack for Pretty in Pink. Here’s my favorite tune by them, I think.
Last week, I dug on an old ETB song called Over the Wall…and then Pandora cued up a group that falls right in the Bunnymen-angst-ridden-pop-ish-guitar wash of sound continnum: Editors. Not ‘the Editors’, just ‘Editors’, which is kind of funny when you think about it.
I like the name for many reasons…and I dig their sound…so without further adue, Editors: ‘Blood’:
Kay. I’m going to go watch a Kiefer Sutherland vampire movie now and put on my legwarmers, just for old times’ sake.
Before I do, an observation: as much as 80s pop has the ability to get on my nerves pretty badly, I do think bands like ETB were prescient. The idea of layering electronics with traditional rock instrumentation is something guys like Thom Yorke have gone on to master. The production is primitive compared to what Yorke and guys like James Blake do, but the thread is there.
Caught James Blake’s new album last week via NPR Music, but it turns out “Limit to Your Love” was a huge hit last fall in the U.K.
It’s easy to see (hear?) why. Blake’s voice is grainy and soulful. He teases with a great black gospel-sounding piano riff and mixes in electronics at just….the…right…time. Remarkable layers and a great arrangement…restraint is sexy.
Blake’s vocal talents are obvious on “Limit”, but he’s been known for a couple of years now as a great producer/arranger when it comes to mixing beats and electronics (check out ‘Dubstep’). That deft hand shows throughout the record.
The entire album is available from iTunes of course…and it’s been reviewed this week by Rolling Stone.
played music in coffeehouses
First day of music school, freshman year. There are more than 300 of us crammed into a choral/lecture space waiting to be split up into separate classes. It’s a room full of nervous teenagers bent on proving that they just might be the next great thing.
Suddenly the song ‘Fresh’ by Kool and the Gang (for the record, I DO NOT LIKE THIS SONG) booms from the immense speakers in the front of the room. In bounces the first music professor I met besides my instrumental instructor. He’s wearing a J.S. Bach-style pink wig. He sits at the piano bench and starts playing along.
The room is his, because we are pretty much laughing our a#$%es off.
The music stops. “If there’s one thing I want you to learn while you are here,” he said. “It’s that classical music is alive today.” Collective eye-rolling ensues. I mean really, the room is full of classical music nerds intent on defending the art until the bitter end. Plus we were 18, clearly we knew this already. We didn’t need bad 80s pop to reinforce the idea.
“The chords in ‘Fresh’ are the same as the chords in this piece,” he said, and turned up the volume on the Pachelbel Canon.
Shocking.
Granted, the Canon is maybe the most known piece of classical music on the planet. It’s right up there with the opening chords of Beethoven’s fifth symphony. I’ve never been wild about it, but still, this news was humbling.
This great art form, this classical music, the same in some way, as Kool & the Gang?
The whole experience was a bit corny and melodramatic, but somewhere in my mind, something clicked. Music is not divided into type or genre.
It just is.
And everybody has a part to play.
played music in coffeehouses
This is not an original idea. Talk to almost anybody who loves music, and chances are they like a little bit of everything.
And yet, the presentation of classical music in the symphony hall and on the air continues to struggle with this idea of connection with everyday life. Part of the issue may be that for too long, we who presented and performed this music worked in a bubble.
We only heard from the experts, from those who had spent their lives studying and appreciating classical music. After all, they are the ones who come to concerts. They understood cataloging systems, proper pronunciation, and the importance of preserving the high-art form of classical music.
Or at least, they worked hard to cultivate the ‘expert’ moniker, true or not.
Trust me, as a music host, the complainers are those who deem themselves experts. They get apoplectic over their opinion of proper pronunciation. It’s easy to start serving them instead of the audience.
The real thing to gauge and monitor are not phone calls and emails from ‘experts’, but rather your audience numbers. If your audience is growing, people are being reached.
I digress.
For a long time, the bubble was enough. Then, the world changed, and access to music exploded, first through records, cassettes and CD’s. Then, it went digital, and became self-programmable.
Music education changed, or rather, went away. I can still remember singing Beethoven (ode to joy) and Woody Guthrie (this land is your land) in 3rd grade music class. In fifth grade chorus we sang ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’, and ‘Sheep May Safely Graze’ in the same concert. Sadly, this just doesn’t happen anymore in most schools.
We forgot that music is community, and that communities have all kinds of people in them.
Classical music is not the only institution experiencing a dramatic shift in how the larger culture relates to it.
My current gig with the Church is going through something very similar. For both, I think the idea is the same: everyone has a voice, a role to play.
The question for us is: are we willing to change to hear those voices and include them?
Will we break the bubble?
, originally uploaded by laura_h_allen.
I decided to go out and play with the new camera yesterday. Used a macro lens for the first time and found it wonderful and challenging.
This picture is from our lovely neighborhood/walk-through, Arlington Court.
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