Archive for category TGIF
9-Minute Heartbreak
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Business, TGIF, Technology on June 5th, 2009
For those unfortunate souls that toil as marketers or advertisers (I know – we don’t have souls either) – here is a brutal musical tone poem on the end of media as we knew it. Don McLean would be proud of this send-up of the classic tune “American Pie” that provides confirmation that much of what we have read, written and worked on for both clients and our own companies is gone and is not coming back. Thanks to Bruce Dorskind for providing a good laugh.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CqRcCHk_Pc
3-Minute Mental Health Break
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Music, TGIF on May 29th, 2009
It’s Friday – the weekend is almost in sight but there’s still a lot of work to get through. Take a break for 3 minutes to regain your sanity and push through to the end of the day.
This video clip from our friends at PlushMusic is the Courante from Bach’s Suite No. 3 for Cello performed by Claudio Bohórquez.
Watch JS Bach: Cello Suite No. 3 – Courante on Plushmusic
4-Minute Heartbreak
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Music, TGIF on May 8th, 2009
“There are two kinds of music. Good music and the other kind.”
Duke Ellington
Country music is the comfort food of American popular culture. It’s often said that it doesn’t burden its listeners with themes much deeper than lost love, drinking, and cars. This means that the vast majority of the genre is no different from hip-hop or rock in its shallowness. The fact shouldn’t be lost that the level of musicianship is almost certainly higher than in any other classification of music, save for jazz and classical.
Storytelling is something that country music seems to do better than any other “kind”. The art of delivering a narrative of love, loss, redemption or failure in a 3 or 4 minute package is no small feat. This type of short story is a cliche of the country song and one of the primary reasons that the category resonates so strongly with listeners. Despite the over-abundance of “Your wife leaves you — and takes the house, the kids, the dog and the truck…”, there is always a jewel amidst the pile of manure.
Submitted for your approval is Carrie Underwood’s recent cover of the classic “I Told You So”. Randy Travis scored a #1 hit with this diamond back in 1988 and in the 21 years since its release, few songs have captured the ache and uncertainty of whether asking your former flame to take you back will result in the welcome mat or the head-slap. Her 2007 album, Carnival Ride, features a solo cover, but it doesn’t come close to the more recent duet version with Travis.
The leather-lunged Underwood can never be accused of self-restraint with her huge voice – I suppose if you’ve got a Ferrari it’s hard to not to drive it at 120 mph, even when it’s in a school zone. Randy Travis returns both the warmth and tension to the lyric that got lost in Underwood’s solo pyrotechnics. She has yet to attain the musical maturity that Reba McEntire or Martina McBride bring to country – but it took those singers over 10 years to understand the importance of easing-off of the throttle to sound more human and therefore more believable. Perhaps this is the start of the maturation process for Underwood.
Here is a video of Underwood and Travis – try to ignore the ridiculous hair ornament – and take a listen to a 4-minute heartbreak.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvTwFl6OIAk
New Music Friday – The Greencards
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Music, TGIF on April 24th, 2009
It’s always a tad deflating to look at your playlists and realize that you’ve been listening to the same music for weeks. OK, maybe for months. I go through phases of intensive focus on some genre or artist but find that discovering something new is a chore that requires some guidance. The good folks at Paste had a brief review of a new recording from The Greencards. Interesting – sounded a little bit like Nickle Creek but the vocals had a more detached quality that was, well, interesting. John Taylor’s review gives more direction:
Bluegrass is an obvious starting point, but the band’s canvas is broad, with elements of traditional folk and hints of world music woven seamlessly into the tapestry. And rather than simple tunes supporting written words, compositions here tend to sound fully integrated, the music and the lyrics seemingly part of a single, considered whole.
The band consists of two Australians and a Brit and this allows them to take a somewhat different approach to the songs. There aren’t many catchy hooks – the melodic line comes in fits and starts – a little like listening to someone thinking as they sing and play. Still, it’s good stuff – and worth a listen.
Time For A Buena Vista?
After nearly 50 years and 10 U.S. Presidents, it appears that the Obama administration is taking steps toward thawing the 90 miles of ice between America and Cuba. As one of the last relics of the Cold War, the trade embargo that President Kennedy instituted in 1962 may be heading toward the same scrapheap that contains the statue of Lenin and pieces of the Berlin Wall. Both Raul Castro and BHO are floating the idea of an open conversation around the issues that have been (and will continue to be) so problematic between the two nations. No doubt there is much for Cuba and its regime to gain by re-entry to the OAS, not the least of which is investment dollars flowing into the jalopy of an economy that the Cuban people have suffered under. Let’s hope that there is a pragmatic resolution to this policy dinosaur.
That an end to el bloqueo may be within reach got me to thinking of the great Cuban musicians of The Buena Vista Social Club and how they were largely unable to perform in the U.S. You may recall that in 1996 American producer Ry Cooder assembled a collection of some of Cuba’s greatest jazz musicians of the pre-Castro years for a recording that returned them to international prominence. For most of us, it was an introduction to names like Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo, Ruben Gonzales and Guajiro Mirabal. Largely forgotten in both Cuba and abroad, the recording resulted in the burnishing of the legacies of these great musicians. Many of them have since passed away; Ferrer, Gonzales, and Compay Segundo won’t be around to see the day that Washington and Havana start speaking to each other again.
I watched the Wim Wenders documentary the other night and was struck by the scenes of the decaying buildings and 50’s era automobiles – Havana looks a bit like an elderly lady wearing an old party dress. Here is a clip of “Chan Chan”. Enjoy
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoQNj2tlZhg
Chuck vs The Ratings
Posted by Bob Kumagai in TGIF, That's Life on April 10th, 2009
One of the bitter ironies of modern living is that the mindless junk that comprises most of network television content is more far more popular than the rare nugget of really clever, well-performed entertainment. This is hardly news to anyone that has watched (and endured) television shows over the past 40 years. Really good shows have been canceled due to really lousy ratings (see “My So-Called Life”, “Sports Night”, even the original “Star Trek” was axed due to lack of interest) for years. After all, network TV operates on a for-profit model, so if “Dancing With the Biggest-Loser-Top-Model-Icon” pays the bills, so be it. That said, the proliferation rate of reality shows is akin to watching cockroaches come out from the floorboards. Surely, there is something better out there.
Submitted for your approval is the current state of renew or cancel for NBC’s Monday night spy comedy, “Chuck“. Imagine a smartly-paced comedy that is actually funny with characters that are quirky and worth investing an hour of your precious time with each week. Sounds like a winner for ratings doormat NBC. Think about it; they are reduced to putting Jay Leno on 5 nights a week because everything else has bombed. Think again – saddling “Chuck” with a time slot that ensures that it will get stomped by ratings monster “Dancing With the Stars” guarantees failure.
A multitude of ‘Save Chuck’ sites have popped up including Be a Nerd…Join the Herd, a site with custom twitter avatars – with the hope of propelling enough viewership to save the show for a 3rd season. If you haven’t watched it, it’s worth a look.
Oh Happy Day – Patty Griffin & Mavis Staples
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Music, TGIF, That's Life on April 3rd, 2009
One of things that I really enjoy about Twitter and Facebook is the occasional tweet or update that reminds me of something, or someone, that I hadn’t spoken with or thought about in weeks. Maybe months. OK – years. The other day I saw a FB update from a former work colleague that mentioned a new album from Patty Griffin – one of America’s best-kept secrets. (In the interest of full disclosure, I owned a retail music store called Disky Business back in the 90’s and have always been a music geek). You can read more about Griffin’s unique blend of Folk/Americana music at PattyGriffin.com. She’s been one of my favorite singer/songwriters for years.
Turns out that there is not a new Patty Griffin album but rather a new song on an all-star gospel album, Oh Happy Day: An All-Star Music Celebration, that lets artists as varied as Joss Stone, Queen Latifah, Angelique Kidjo and Jon Bon Jovi play gospel stars for a day. The physical CD is only available at Walmart, but should become available as a digital download on Amazon and the iTunes store soon. My regard for Ms. Griffin is such that I found it necessary to do the unthinkable; set foot in a Walmart and buy a CD. Let me just say that the song “Waiting For My Child To Come Home” with Griffin and the legendary Mavis Staples, is worth the $10 alone.
Watch a promo video of Griffin and Staples recording “Waiting For My Child to Come Home”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT9oNz1VaTE
Listen to snippets of Patty Griffin and Mavis Staples