Category: Entertainment

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San Diego Zoo

During our recent vacation out west, we spent a day at the San Diego Zoo. The world famous San Diego Zoo. The internationally renowned San Diego Zoo. The zoo that provided all the animals for Joan Embry’s visit to Johnny Carson’s show.That zoo.

I don’t know; maybe I expected too much.

We started out on the bus tour, since our tickets included that and unlimited bus rides. Yes, the zoo property is so big you just about have to think about taking a bus from one area to another. Even in the mild 74 degree weather at the beginning of August, the sun beats down on you and makes it hot.

The bus tour takes you through the major areas of the park, and the tour bus driver gives you the rundown on the animals. You don’t see all the animals, but you get a good idea of where you’ll need to trek on foot after the bus tour. After we finished the bus tour, we pretty much just started walking around the perimeter. The map they give you must have been drawn in the monkey house; it was confusing at best.

One disappointment was that a lot of the animals had been moved to the Wild Animal Park several miles away, in preparation for a new exhibit. At a zoo, you’d think it would be for live animals, but here they decide to move live animals to another place (which you have to pay to see) and replace it with a display of dinosaurs. Guess they needed to drive traffic to the new site.

I guess overall the zoo was ok, but as I mentioned above, I probably expected too much. We did get to see some animals that we’d never seen before which was interesting.

I’d say that if you had to choose between the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park, having never seen the latter, I’d still recommend it; you’re more likely to see “wild animals.”

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Music Listening Ettiquette

We went to see Rachel Williams Wednesday night at 3rd & Lindsley. She was celebrating the release of her new CD, Lonely At The Bottom. The place was packed.

I liked the music (especially since our friend, Vickie Carrico, was singing background). The crowd was full of Rachel’s fans. So you’d think that they’d have given her the respect someone on stage deserves by being quiet during the songs.

As usual, I was wearing ear plugs just in case the sound level was too hot (we were sitting in one of the tables next to the stage). There was a table right behind us, and they were talking so loud that I could barely hear the music.

For her encore, she sang a song with acoustic accompaniment, and she specifically asked the crowd to quieten down. But there were folks who were still trying to have a conversation over her music.

I don’t get it.

If you’re a fan of an artist, why disrespect them by a) not paying attention to the music, and b) trying to have a conversation during the music, such that you have to talk so loud it disturbs the folks at the table next to you?

The Bluebird Cafe is famous for shushing people who talk during their “in the round” shows. Maybe it’s time other venues started doing that.

Anyway, the show was good. Before Rachel took the stage, she had a few songwriters do some self-accompanied songs. Marcia Ramirez, Karleen Watt, Wood Newton, Austin Cunningham, Karen Staley, and Lisa Carver all did two or three songs that they’ve written or co-written. It’s really great to be able to hear the songwriters sing their own songs, to get a feel for the song as they intended it to be heard.

Rachel took to the stage with her band, and they did about a 60 minute set of songs from her new CD. I think I liked “Firestarter” best. Here’s a little sample of a show she did at 3rd & Lindsley back in February.

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Digital Music

So, the Spice Girls had to go to the studio and record their “perfect” parts before their appearance at the Concert for Dianna? Seems they felt they were a little rusty in the vocal department, and decided to use some computer technology to “help” them out.

In a nutshell, what they did was record the vocals as they should be, and then during the live performance, the software compares what’s coming out of their mouth with this pre-recorded “perfect” sound, and “fixes” the resulting audio, all within a split second, so there’s no visible delay.

What the Daily Mail article doesn’t mention is whether or not they used vocal “sweetening” in the recording process to get their perfect sound. Nowadays, you can take an off-pitch vocal and, with the right software, make it pitch-perfect. It’s possible then that the “perfect” vocals will be based on already-processed vocals. Seems like it’d have been easier just to lip sync their shows.

You have to wonder how many other acts are using this technology, both live and in the studio? I’m sure the studio use of this technology is widespread, and I’d guess the live application will give some American Idol alums a longer touring life.

But shouldn’t there be some sort of “truth in entertainment” law? Music fakery has been happening for decades. As I wrote about yesterday, “bands” have been created to be nothing but pretty faces for the public to see. Probably the most glaring example of this is Milli Vanilli. Unlike Ohio Express, those guys didn’t even try using their own voices on the records.

I believe we’re going to get to the point where you can’t really trust what’s on the CD package (you already can’t trust the record labels). Technology is only going to make it easier for these kinds of frauds to be foisted on the public.

Hat tip: Taxing Tennessee

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Record Label Shenanigans

I just finished reading this post about a band called The Ohio Express. In my book, record labels are one step above loan sharks, but this story takes the cake.

In a nutshell, the one big hit the band had, “Yummy Yummy Yummy” wasn’t even recorded by them. It was done by session musicians, but the band was expected to go out and act as if it were their song, ie. perform it live, and lip sync it on TV.

The record label took advantage of a bunch of naive kids. They basically said “here’s the deal, take it or leave it.” The group took it.

They’re still reportedly owed a bunch of money for the live shows they did. They were being paid a weekly amount, with the rest being put in escrow. The band never saw the money that was supposedly put in escrow.

I’ve had my own experience with a record company here in Nashville. I was contracted to write a royalty program for one of the independent labels. As I got further along into the project, I realized that what they were doing wasn’t ethical. It might have been legal, but I wasn’t comfortable with it.

When a band signs with a record label, they’re given an advance. That money is used to record the album. The label recoups that money from the sales of the album. The artist is also charged for marketing, packaging, and other items that come out of the royalties they’re entitled to. You could say that the record company is a loan shark. Although they’re not charging interest to the band, they make sure they get their money back, and in some cases, they make sure they make a profit before the band does.

As albums are sold, the record company collects the money and distributes it to all the folks who have a piece of the pie. In order to protect themselves, they withhold a percentage of the sales “in reserve.” That is, if a band has a contract with 10% reserves, the record company will only pay them 90% of the royalties due in the quarter. The next quarter, that 10% is supposed to be paid to the artist. What I found unethical with the company I was dealing with was that they added that 10% back into the gross sales. In effect, they were going to withhold money from sales they’d already withheld reserves on. That could theoretically go on forever, with the band not getting credit or royalties for all they’re due.

I ended up buying my way out of that contract. If I’d known what slime balls they were going into it, I’d have never agreed to do the program.

One other thing record companies do is to retain ownership of the music. That is, even though the company recoups the cost of recording, the record company claims ownership of the masters. So what happens if the record company goes out of business? The masters end up being part of their assets, and in the best case scenario, those masters end up with another company who’ll reissue them. In the worst case, the masters just disappear.

Congress should enact a law that would require any “abandoned” recordings be given back to the artist who made them. If the company goes out of business and the new owners don’t have any interest in the masters, the artist should get them back along with full rights. Or if the assets are acquired by another company and that company doesn’t have any interest in putting out or reissuing the album, then the artist should get the masters.

I keep reading about the plight of the record industry. They’re claiming that online piracy is keeping CD sales down. As usual, the record labels must think the public is stupid. They’ve conspired to keep CD prices high while at the same time they put out garbage. It’s no wonder demand is low. The record companies need to wake up and realize they’re in the 21st century. Instead of suing 6th graders, they need to revamp their business model.

So, as you can see, I don’t hold record companies in very high regard. I think if they were marketing any other product, they’ve have been under investigation for RICO violations a long time ago.

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The Sopranos Anticlimax

I missed pretty much the first season or two of HBO’s The Sopranos. I’d gotten into watching Oz and was ticked off that they took one of Oz‘s actors, Edie Falco. She played a prison guard in the show. Anyway, I eventually got interested in it and over the last three or four seasons made a point to watch the new episodes.

So last night was the big series finale. After all the blood shed last week, the consensus among show watchers was the Phil was going to be successful in getting rid of Tony. The show kind of just plodded along until Phil got hit, then started plodding again. All the time you’re watching and waiting for Tony to finally get his due.

Then at the end, the screen just goes black. That’s it. Tony and his family are at a restaurant about to eat dinner. All through the final scene you’re teased with all these ominous people in the restaurant, just wondering which one has been hired to kill Tony. As it turns out, the only suspense was whether or not Meadow would figure out how to parallel park. Then you hear the bell on the door ding, and nothing. No ending music, no resolution, nothing.

So, I guess the “moral” of the story (a story about characters with no morals) is that life goes on. Maybe crime does pay after all.

All I know is, I’m canceling HBO. No, not because of the way The Sopranos ended, but primarily because it did end. There’s nothing left on HBO I’m interested in watching. They canceled Carnivale and Deadwood, which were two really great shows. So I’m finished with HBO. They may have some great original programs, but it’s not worth my time getting into them just so they can cancel them later.

UPDATE: Called Comcast and had a very weird experience. The first call, I pushed 1 for English (this is America, I shouldn’t have to do that), then plugged in my 10 digit phone number, and was then told someone would be with me shortly. Fellow picked up, I said “I want to cancel HBO” and he asked me for my phone number and address. Then said he wasn’t the one who did that, and couldn’t transfer me to the one who did. I actually had to call back. The lady I spoke to on the second call was able to cancel HBO just fine. Strangely enough, she wasn’t even interested in knowing why I canceled. Anyway, it’s going to save me $144 a year, so it was worth it.

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Jericho Battle Won (Sort Of)

At the beginning of the fall TV season in 2006, I started watching Jericho. I was intrigued to see how they’d handle the “end of the world” scenario. Much to my surprise, the show seemed very realistic, and the reactions of the characters in the show were very believable. The only “suspension of disbelief” that was necessary was the assumption that several US Cities were victims of nuclear explosions.

Over the course of the first half of the season, several plot lines emerged: can the citizens of Jericho avoid anarchy; is there still a United States of America; who’s in charge of the government; who was responsible for the bombing.

Then CBS made a stupid mistake. They took Jericho off the air for a couple of months; a mid-season break that seems to be popular these days.

The show resumed in mid-February with a synopsis of the first half of the season. Since I had the series set up to record on my DVR, I ended up watching that episode a couple of days later. Things happened, and I wasn’t able to keep up with the shows as soon as I’d like (but I still had them on the DVR). Then I discovered that Jericho was available via Comcast’s On Demand service. They had the whole first half of the season available, so I took the opportunity to watch it again. I didn’t catch up to the current shows until a couple of days after the season finale had aired.

Which brings me to my next point: Network television needs to realize that the traditional “watch it when we air it” paradigm is way outdated these days. Just going by the Nielson ratings isn’t enough. TV networks need to be able to monitor on-demand viewings (from both cable providers and their own web sites). Surely Comcast reports to it’s content providers how many times a show is watched on demand…?

Anyway, after over 20 tons of nuts were delivered to CBS, they cried “uncle”, sort of. They’ve ordered 7 episodes of Jericho for the mid-season next year. The producers have said that they’re not going to use the 7 episodes to wrap up the series, but will proceed as if they were going to be on the air for the foreseeable future.

What that means is that if Jericho’s ratings (by whatever measure) don’t improve, we could be in the same boat again next year, with Jericho ending on a cliffhanger and its fans left out in the cold.

So if you’re a fan of Jericho, you need to get a bunch of folks interested in the show. If you’ve never seen the show, CBS will be rerunning it this summer, so watch those episodes to get up to speed. It’d be a shame for the network brass to cancel it next year after all this effort went in to saving it.