Strikes

I haven’t really been deeply researching the motives behind the recent strikes, but in my limited knowledge:

I sympathize with the writers

but the stagehands can eat a dick.

Every since I began playing in the larger halls in NYC, the only real culture shock (a la “you’re in the big leagues now boy, get used to it!”) has been dealing with the stagehands. They are the most joyless, spoiled, bureaucratic stagehands I have ever met. Each time I play a venue outside of New York I am shocked at how down to earth and easy to work with the stagehands are. I have gotten used to the mentality of not being able to move your own stand and speaking through 4 people to get anything done, not to mention the surly attitudes and the fact that there are always extra stagehands present at almost every gig getting paid to literally do nothing.

But not to unfairly disparage the production level of things, the musicians union is nearly as bad. There I said it.

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Filed under local 802, stagehands, strike, writer's strike

Recursive hypocrisy

Gurf tipped me to this curiously meta posting on Alternet featuring video of Keith Olbermann criticizing Fox News and Bill O’Reilly on his show for showing somewhat explicit images under the guise of denouncing it, whilst obviously using the material in a sensationalist manner. Well yes, Fox News is really no better than those hilarious, in retrospect I’m sure, exploitation films from the 30s. But, Keith Olbermann shows the same material in his segment that criticizes O’Reilly for showing it. Couldn’t one argue that he is just exploiting the material under the guise of denouncing O’Reilly. And perhaps I am just exploiting the material under the guise of denouncing Olbermann’s hypocrisy. Quick, someone jump on the meta-wagon and denounce me for some reason as an excuse to link to the sexy material which shows, for example, sexy spring break footage during a story about a serial killer. See? Don’t you wanna check out the story now?

Hey maybe plenty of people will be interested in my recursive-hypocrisy idea and will start reading my blog more. Then I can be accused of exploiting my own idea for the goal of receiving more hits on my blog. And if all goes as planned someone will denounce the accuser for trying to leach onto my success. Then I will criticize that person for being overly cynical under the guise of appearing open to criticism, but my sinister motive will be that I really just want to appear open-minded, when all I really want to do is gain enough hits so that I can start featuring advertising on my blog to receive some revenue. I’ll decide that the quickest and dirtiest way to get some cash will be to feature ads for pornographic material. I’ll be featured in an O’Reilly Factor segment on bloggers who try to cash in on their success by featuring explicit ads, banners, and pop-ups on their blogs. The segment will be called exploitative by Keith Olbermann.

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Filed under keith olbermann, o'reilly factor

Road with a tune

Only in Japan.

-via Presurfer

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Tin Man

I took a closer look at those Tin Man posters in the subway and noticed some familiar faces: Zooey Deschanel, Alan Cummins, Neal McDonough… It looks pretty interesting actually, a re-imagining of OZ by the Sci-Fi Channel for a mini-series. I’m going to keep my eye on this. The last time Sci-Fi had a re-imagining mini-series with a stellar cast we received the incredible new Battlestar Galactica.

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Up late thinking about Southland Tales (among other things)

Wow. That’s all I can really say right now. I saw Southland Tales at the Angelika tonight. Hardly anyone was there, I’m pretty sure it will turn out to be a financial flop. It’s too bad but honestly, it is one of the strangest, most mind-boggling films I have ever seen, and if you know me that is saying a lot. I really believe it is way too far out for its time. I came into the theater with several years worth of intense expectation, which is usually a bad thing, but it exceeded my expectations. It was more of everything that I hoped, and worried, it would be. It is lamentable, bbut unsurprising that so many critics fail to see deeper into the film. It is definitely convoluted, but it reaches plateaus of expression and spectacle that even the most experimental Lynch film cannot. It’s somewhere along the lines of Lynch meets Korine meets Waters meets the fucking Disney Channel. And even that blunt comparison fails to adequately describe it.
My persistent worry is that Southland Tales will become Richard Kelly’s Heaven’s Gate, that the debacle surrounding the movie will discourage producers from working with him. If he can reign in some of his vision he could be making truly monumental work.
I’ll post a thorough review tomorrow. One thing I’ll say though. I believe you can only really appreciate this movie as a media-saturated, sarcasm-bred American young adult.

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Filed under Richard Kelly, Southland Tales

Stage Presence and the Halo Effect

All performers, especially soloists, need to be aware of The Halo Effect. It has always been a struggle for me to maintain an air of confidence, especially when a performance is going less-than-stellar. This provides a psychological reason for why you should never let your body language or facial expression betray your inner fears, doubts, or regrets during a performance. People will enjoy a performance more if they are comfortable with what they are perceiving visually.

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Filed under performance anxiety

It’s Terminatin’ time!

This and then this. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

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Filed under Sarah Connor Chronicles, skynet, terminator

Le Écouter de Suzy

Hey check out some photos of my Sis and Robert’s amazing house on their designers’ website: Woodson and Rummerfield. They have the kind of dream home that I’ll never have the patience to create for myself! It’s very classic Hollywood, fitting since they live in that bastion of old Hollywood – Laurel Canyon.
Here are a few pics, which feature Suzy and her hubby Robert:

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Image and video hosting by TinyPic

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

And hey, I’ll include a shot of my own crafty design work. You can judge for yourself who’s got the style in the family:

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The dinosaur is named Louie.

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Filed under suzanne marques, woodson and rummerfield

Morning Caffeinated Nonsense Part 2

I’ve blogged before about my annoyance with the inspiring messages on cups at Starbucks. Well apparently I’m not the only one. Back in 2005 the Concerned Women for America (sounds like a group you wanna party with don’t it?) staged a minor campaign against Starbucks for their liberal agenda, specifically for promoting the “homosexual agenda”.

The group believes corporations have a responsibility to reflect the diversity of their customers by taking a balanced approach — or staying out of divisive social issues altogether.

And while the group is not calling for a boycott, its position nonetheless raises questions about what role — if any — corporations should take on potentially sensitive matters, especially at a time when the nation is divided, largely along religious lines, on issues such as gay rights.

Look, Starbucks is a private company. They can say what they want, no matter how right or wrong, inspiring or aggravating. They are doing this whole campaign so they can be seen as slightly more maverick to their core consumers, urbanites and left leaning people across America. What’s odd is that the CWFA cites the Boy Scouts as an organization that Starbucks could contribute to in order to appeal to conservatives and “people of faith”. Ironically, the argument that kept gay scoutmasters out of that organization was that it was a private organization. I agree with the ruling, if I lament the organization’s discrimination of gays.

Also ironic is the apparent willingness of the CWFA’s numerous appearances on Fox News. The cable channel is obviously one of the clearest examples of the bias of a private company. But, like everyone I rail against, left or right, it only bothers them when the other side gets a break.

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Filed under Starbucks

Zs on Howard Stern!!

Wow! I just listened to my friends in Zs on the Howard Stern show!! Howard and Co. are completely ignorant and full of shit of course. Zs is some intense shit and they really have no idea what is going on in the music. It’s rhythmically complex so Howard ‘n’ friends seem to assume it is just free or improvised. Far from it. It’s really intense, beautiful music.

More importantly, it is AWESOME publicity for Zs! Anyone with any sense of good music will hear them on the show and be like, Damn! This shit is kinda sweet!

You can listen to to the show HERE.

And check out this youtube video of their performance a year ago in Oakland, California. If you look in the back, you can see me bobbing my head like it’s about to come off!

PS double thanks to Ian Antonio, the drummer for Zs, who coincidentally lent me the parts for Scelsi’s Khoom!

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Filed under zs