Apr 25
This is one of the best stories I’ve heard of in such a long time. This guy Sixto Rodriguez is incredible and the fact that he’s finally getting the appreciation that he was denied since the seventies is just truely remarkable. It gives hope to every frustrated artist out there. Listen to his music and go read his story. I promise you you’ll enjoy it.
Read the article: ‘Searching For Sugar Man’: The Unbelievable True Story Of Rodriguez
Listen to his music:
Sep 25
George Lucas, the creator of the “Star Wars” saga, is at war. Not with Imperial Storm Troopers or aliens from a galaxy far, far, away. He’s at war with his fans. Those rabidly loyal geeks that put the billions of dollars in his coffers are turning on him by the thousands. Why?, because he has this unbelievably annoying habit of messing with the re-releases of his films.
According to the fanboys, his latest sacrilegious act of vandalism occurs in the new Blu-ray release, “Star Wars: The Complete Saga”. Besides peppering little added effects throughout all six movies, he added dialog to the climactic scene of the death of the emperor in “The Return Of The Jedi”. A thunderous “NOOOOOOOOOOOO” is yelled by Darth Vader as the emperor is killing “Luke Skywalker” for refusing to join the “Dark Side”.
It all started back in 1997 when he gave the three original films – Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983) - a makeover.
Not only did he clean up and repair the original prints; he also made several additions and alterations. Since then, an air of animosity between followers and guru has been brewing. He argued, as quoted in the UK Guardian, that “films never get finished, they get abandoned” and that he thought it the “director’s prerogative to go back and reinvent a movie”. Which appears to mean replacing the old version, not adding a new one to complement it and adding dialog that didn’t exist before.
The main focus of their fury towards Lucas is his “Orwellian” practice of not making the films available at all in their original form. Lucas is quietly waiting for all of the copies still out there on tape to eventually deteriorate and disappear, like they never happened. He has stated this desire in numerous interviews and doesn’t care in the least what the fans want.
This unfolding drama leads us to the question, is the artist who created the art responsible for its success? Or, is it successful because the public deems it so?
Marcel Duchamp said, “Let us consider two important factors, the two poles of the creation of art: the artist on the one hand, and on the other the spectator who later becomes the posterity.”
The law will say that the fans have no right to dictate anything to George Lucas because he is the sole owner of all the rights to the franchise. This will not make the fans happy but it is the law.
If you want to see just how unhappy the fans are with this release, click on over to Amazon.com and read the reviews. As of this writing there are over 1500 and the average is two out of five stars. The majority of the reviews are one star. Boy are they mad.
Sep 06
I don’t know if I’ve told this before but I’m very interested in the arts. I like them all, fine art, music, dance, literature, all of them. When we first had children my wife and I had a strong desire to expose the kids to as much of the arts as possible. And, early on, we noticed that they always liked dance. What toddler doesn’t like to dance. So, when they were five, we signed the triplets up for ballet classes at Riverside Ballet Arts.
For all of the jokes I make about living in Riverside California, the one shocker is that it has an extremely good ballet school. It’s nationally recognized and many of their students go on to very successful careers in dance.
Joseph and Michael immediately got attention because, well, they’re boys. You don’t get a lot of boys in the ballet classes. The ratio is about 20:1. There are many reasons for this, the main one is that ballet is still considered pretty much a female thing to do. When they have productions it’s pretty much a slam dunk that if you are a boy you will get a part.
Last year, when they were just starting “the Nutcracker” for their 2010 Christmas season, I was standing around holding my 3 year old, Matthew. He had just finished a toddler dance class when the director passed by on his way into rehearsal.
He looked at me and said, “We are going to start now, bring him in. ”
“He isn’t in the show,” I said.
“What?!” was the reply.
Another teacher, Miss Alex, came quickly forward and said, “He’s in the toddler class, he’s just three years old.”
The director looked at her, then me, then Matthew and after a moment said, “But he’s too cute! No, no, no, bring him in.”
And that’s how Matthew started his first ballet production. Like I said, it’s a lot easier for boys.
Now Rose likes ballet. She likes to watch the DVDs we have and watches the whole spectacle in awe. But, she’s also shy, a perfectionist and a girl. When she does anything, she wants it to be perfect. If it isn’t she gets upset. There are a lot of girls at the school and many started before she did so they are much better than her. She’s still too young to understand that in time she can catch up.
Last year she didn’t even audition for “The Nutcracker” because she was scared, intimidated by the whole process and there were so many girls she was sure she wouldn’t make it. Then, she broke her collar bone and that was that. This year, as the auditions approached, her anxiety level increased to the point where she insisted that she no longer liked ballet and wanted to quit.
I knew she was scared and I also didn’t want to be one of those parents that lives vicariously through their children. I just wanted her to give it a fair shot and not give up without really knowing what she was capable of. So I told her that if she tried out for the show and didn’t make it she could drop ballet. If she did make it, then after the show was done, if she still wanted to, she could drop ballet. If she liked it, she could stay in.
So, the auditions came and went, days passed and then we finally got four letters in the mail from the production. I had all four kids sit on the living room couch to hear the letters. I asked Rose if she wanted her letter read first.
“I want mine read last”, she said.
I opened Matthew’s and read, “Dear student, we are very proud to tell you that you have been accepted into this year’s blah, blah, etc…”
Matthew was in, then came Joseph, then Michael. They all made it. They were very happy. Rose was looking around the room trying not look interested but every time a letter was read and it came to the part where they were accepted or not, she looked out of the corner of her eye with interest. Then it was her turn.
I told her to sit up straight and look at me. I told her I wanted her to pay attention. So she sat and waited. I opened the envelop and read, “Dear student, we are very proud to tell you that you have been accepted into this year’s blah, blah, etc…”
Her jaw dropped and her eyes bugged out! The boys all smiled and looked kind of surprised. Then I noticed that her eyes were starting to water up.
“What’s the matter?”, I asked.
“I don’t know!”
“Aren’t you happy?”
She vigorously shook her head yes.
“Then why are you upset?”
“I didn’t think I would get picked. I didn’t think I was as good as the other girls!”
I got close to her, looked her in the eyes and said, “I don’t want to hear you say that ever again, because right now, there are a lot of girls reading their letters and they didn’t make it.”
Then her look changed from shock to one of WOW! And I knew, then and there, that she really understood what I had just said.
The next day she had ballet class and I peaked in the classroom to see her totally engrossed in what her teacher was saying, standing beautifully erect and all smiles.
I don’t know if she’ll still do ballet after the show is over, but I do know that she knows she can do it.
Sep 01
OK people, I’ve finally found it again! This song is from the category of what I’ll call “Cold War Rock N Roll”. It was an underground classic that never hit the main stream. You gotta listen to this. It’s great!
Aug 31
Two of the superstars in American music died on the same day, August 22, 2011. Though their names might not be as immediately recognizable as the musicians they wrote for, both had an impact on American and global culture that will never truly be appreciated. They helped lay the foundation of what the world thought of as American music and how people viewed America during some of its most turbulent times. They were songwriters Jerry Leiber and Nickolas Ashford.
Jerry Leiber was half of the songwriting team of Leiber and Stoller. They set the standard for blues and jazz influenced Rock N Roll. Nickolas Ashford was part of the songwriting team of Ashford and Simpson. They were the Motown sound of the late 60′s and early 70′s. Both were responsible for so many hits in the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s, their influence on music so vast, it would take forever to properly eulogize their life achievements. Some of the more popular pieces they wrote include:
Jerry Leiber
Nickolas Ashford
The true testament to their genius lies in the fact that after so many years their music still lives on and is enjoyed by so many, while music written in the past ten to twenty years had a shelf life of a few weeks and is now mostly forgotten.
We owe them so much. Gentlemen, good night, rest in peace, and thank-you.
Loading tweets...