Posts Tagged Twitter
Live Rosanne Cash…From Her Living Room
Posted by admin in Music, social media, streaming video on March 5, 2012
Rosanne Cash is a songwriter/musician/writer and (as far as I am concerned) an overall genius. She loves Twitter and loves to interact with her followers. So it was in this case, where she took musical requests via Twitter for a few songs to record in her living room with husband/producer John Leventhal, in a series called “Live From Zone C” for AOL’s The Boot. Below watch one of the videos, Black Cadillac.
Man, the audio production on the video is just exquisite.
Oh boy: Dave is Actually Tweeting! Sorta!
Posted by admin in comedy, late night TV, Uncategorized on January 3, 2012
And yet, there is a familiarity to his Tweets. Consider this.
.@rupertmurdoch Great New Year’s party the other night. I think I left my LMFAO cd at your pad. Need that. Burn it & return it. #watsupdoch
— jimmy fallon (@jimmyfallon) January 3, 2012
Then oddly Dave tweets this
Great New Year’s party the other night.I think I left my LMFAO cd at your pad.Need that.Burn it & return it.
— Late Show (@Late_Show) January 3, 2012
I hope he keeps “jokingly” ripping off his fellow hosts.
Radoslav Lorkovic on His Music
Posted by admin in Music, photography, sports on November 23, 2011
Radoslav Lorkovic
What keeps me coming back to Cayamo is the opportunity to discover different musicians. This past year, one of the new musicians I discovered was Ellis Paul. Part of Paul’s band was an incredible piano and accordion player Radoslav Lorkovic. Over the next several days of the cruise, Lorkovic also turned up jamming with several other musicians. I meant to conduct this interview immediately after the cruise, but life events delayed my intentions. I was glad to finally conduct the email interview this week. Be sure to visit Lorkovic’s Facebook page, as he is indeed an impressive photographer (as we discuss) in addition to his musical prowess. This interview includes a new Talking with Tim milestone, a musician quoting NFL legendary coach Vince Lombardi.
Tim O’Shea: You are currently touring with Ellis Paul, what attracted you to working with Ellis?
Radoslav Lorkovic: Ellis has been a great friend through the years. Music is just a natural part of what is really a great ‘hang’ Being on stage is little different than having a drink at three AM in some ridiculous club laughing. The music, however, is quite serious and precise. It is presented without out the baggage of seriousness. He also plays everything in C sharp–for me the most difficult piano key. It’s a massive exercise in a way.
Novelist Diana Abu-Jaber on Birds of Paradise: A Novel
Posted by admin in Literature on September 8, 2011
Birds of Paradise: A Novel
Article first published as Interview: Novelist Diana Abu-Jaber on Birds of Paradise: A Novel on Blogcritics.
If you are a regular listener to NPR, you likely have heard one of novelist Diana Abu-Jaber‘s frequent essays. Next week (September 6, to be exact) marks the release of the award-winning author’s newest novel, Birds of Paradise [Editor's note: Of course, the book is out as of this past Tuesday]. While I was already aware of Abu-Jaber, thanks to NPR, I did not realize she had finished her new book until an early July tweet by Bethanne Patrick (aka @thebookmaven). Soon after learning of the new novel, I reached out to Abu-Jaber for an email interview–and she was more than happy to entertain my queries. As described by her publisher (W. W. Norton & Company): “In the tropical paradise that is Miami, Avis and Brian Muir are still haunted by the disappearance of their ineffably beautiful daughter, Felice, who ran away when she was thirteen. Now, after five years of modeling tattoos, skateboarding, clubbing, and sleeping in a squat house or on the beach, Felice is about to turn eighteen. Her family—Avis, an exquisitely talented pastry chef; Brian, a corporate real estate attorney; and her brother, Stanley, the proprietor of Freshly Grown, a trendy food market—will each be forced to confront their anguish, loss, and sense of betrayal. Meanwhile, Felice must reckon with the guilty secret that drove her away, and must face her fear of losing her family and her sense of self forever.” In addition to the book, we also delve into her recent mention in a New York Times piece on email manners.
How early in the development of Birds of Paradise did you realize it had to be set in Miami–and what appealed to you in terms of setting it there?
Miami was present from the very first page. My husband and I moved to Miami eight years ago and I knew I wanted to use it as a setting. Ever since my second novel, Crescent, I’ve been very inspired by sunlight and water and I always like to use a strong setting for my stories– like the city of Syracuse and the blizzard that seems to keep blowing throughout Origin, my third novel. Birds of Paradise is a reflection of Miami’s many layers– its outward dazzling tropical colors and beauty, its racial and cultural collisions. I’m fascinated by that complexity and challenged by it. Setting my new novel here gave me a way to reflect on my adopted city and to push myself to learn more about it.
Mike Doughty on Yes and Also Yes
Posted by admin in Music, Uncategorized on August 24, 2011
Article first published as Interview: Musician Mike Doughty on Yes and Also Yes on Blogcritics.
Mike Doughty (be sure to click the pic for a closer look at the Clayton Moore portrait behind him)
My appreciation of Mike Doughty‘s music started much later than most fans, as I first became aware of his work with his 2005 album, Haughty Melodic. When I found he had a new album, Yes and Also Yes, set for release on August 30, I immediately set up an email interview to find out what was in store for fans of his work. If you’ve never seen Doughty live, take a spin around YouTube for a bit and you quickly will realize that you should see him live as soon as possible. To best frame the album in proper context, I quote Doughty himself: “I recorded it in a studio in Koreatown, Manhattan, from July ’10 to April ’11. Produced by Pat Dillett. Notable musicians included my trusty factotum Andrew ‘Scrap’ Livingston on bass, and the pianist Thomas Bartlett, aka Doveman, who basically plays with everybody who’s groovy (Justin Bond, Antony and the Johnsons, Glen Hansard, The National, David Byrne, Yoko Ono). I’m releasing it on my own label, Snack Bar, through Megaforce. I split with Dave Matthews’ label ATO so I could run my own shop and have more control, business-wise.”
I had a chance to listen to the album in preparation for this interview, and I was pleased to find there’s not a bad cut among any of the 14 songs. One song that I hope will garner a lot of attention is “Holiday”, a Christmas duet with singer/songwriter great Rosanne Cash. About Cash, Doughty said: “ I did a show with her, and she said, onstage, ‘I feel nervous playing my new songs, because Mike Doughty is here, and he’s such a great songwriter.’ That blew my mind.” Honestly, to borrow a phrase from Doughty, their duet blows my mind. I am the kind of person that hates hearing Christmas music anytime other than December. But this song has such an amazing hook (as most of Doughty’s songs do), I ended up playing it seven times in a row the first time I heard it. The whole album pulled me in just as much and it was a pleasure to interview Doughty. We also get to discuss another recent Doughty musical project, Dubious Luxury, released earlier this month. My thanks to Doughty for his time and thoughts, as well as Rob Moore for facilitating the interview.
You’re an artist who clearly loves to play live. In developing Yes and Also Yes, how much did you play some of these songs before an audience prior to entering the studio? And did any of the cuts change drastically from how it was initially conceived compared to the final version?
I’ve been playing a lot of comedy shows, around Brooklyn and Manhattan, as a musical guest, and I played “Na Na Nothing”, and “Day By Day By” at nearly every one of them, plus, maybe, “27 Jennifers”. If I play something a lot, before or after recording it, the phrasing will change ever so slightly, so there’ll be a cumulative evolution that I barely notice, unless I listen to a five-year-old version, and then it’s kind of startling. So, I don’t really know.
Noooo!: I Missed Steve Martin on Letterman Last Night
Posted by admin in late night TV, streaming video on March 17, 2011
Man, he had been hyping it on Twitter for weeks and somehow I still forgot that Steve Martin was on The Late Show with David Letterman. I guess I will have to settle for some clips. First up, he discussed working with Paul McCartney.
And then I found this gem, thanks to the Huff Post.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go yell at my Tivo for not randomly snagging this episode for me.
Beth Harrington on The Winding Stream
Posted by admin in Film, Music, streaming video on January 5, 2011
Longtime readers of the blog know how much I love music–and Americana music, in particular, has really grown on me in recent years. So when I found out about Beth Harrington‘s musical/historical documentary in progress, The Winding Stream: The Carters, the Cashes and the Course of Country Music, I immediately sought Harrington out for an interview. As noted at Harrington’s website: “The Winding Stream is the tale of the dynasty at the very heart of country music. Starting with the seminal Original Carter Family, A.P., Sara and Maybelle; this film-in-progress traces the ebb and flow of their influence, the transformation of that act into the Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle, the marital alliance between June Carter and music legend Johnny Cash, and the efforts of the present-day family to keep this legacy alive.” Below is a Kickstarter video about the project. While the initial fundraising goal was recently met, as we discuss in the email interview, there’s additional work that needs to be funded. My thanks to Harrington for her time, as well as her willingness to discuss her own musical career.
Tim O’Shea: How far along are you in the production of this documentary? While you have met your Kickstarter goal, can you estimate how much more you hope to raise to help cover “Editing, sound design, music and footage rights, animation, graphics and titles” expenses?
Beth Harrington: The Kickstarter funds will allow us to film our last several days of interviews and performances if we’re careful. Beyond that we need to raise several hundred thousand more to do all the other things I mentioned. But that sounds daunting and has been counterproductive until now, so we’re trying to deal with the film in chunks. 1) Finish shooting. 2) Refine the edit. 3) Complete the graphics, animation and titles. 4) Deal with the rights issues. 5) Finish sound design and other post production. We’re waiting to hear on a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. We’re also looking for one or more corporate underwriters (sponsors) who would want to be associated with the film. And then there are a couple of possible distribution deals we could access when we get close to being finished. But meanwhile we’re mostly relying on crowdfunding – individual donations – to get us to the next steps.
Tom DeSavia on Notable Music Co.
Tom DeSavia
“Notable Music loves you very, very much.” It’s not everyday that you run across a company with a motto like that. But do a search for Notable Music Co. and that’s a phrase that the company communicates fairly consistently. A music publishing company founded by composer/songwriter Cy Coleman in the early 1960s, Notable Music has been expanding in recent years. Even though Coleman died in 2004, with his widow Shelby Coleman serving as president with Damon Booth as VP/GM and Tom DeSavia as VP/Creative, Notable Music is “as committed to representing new and developing talent as it is in promoting the legacy of what we believe is one of the great independent music publishing catalogs of our time.” DeSavia was kind enough to recently answer a few questions. My thanks to him for his time. Given the shifting landscape of the music industry, after talking to DeSavia, I’m intrigued at the opportunities and successes that Notable Music have achieved and the upcoming projects it has planned (anytime someone mentions a new Sam Phillips project, I’m a happy man). Before jumping into the interview, however, please consider this paragraph from Notable Music: “A few of the artists who have recorded & performed the Notable Music & Portable Music repertoire include: Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, Sarah Vaughan, James Brown, Peggy Lee, Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Isaac Hayes, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Shirley Horn, Sammy Davis Jr., The Jackson 5, Michael Buble, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Liza Minnelli, Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Queen, Fiona Apple, Wilson Pickett, Shirley Bassey, Nancy Wilson, Dusty Springfield, Sam Phillips, Patty Griffin, Madeleine Peyroux, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss.”
Tim O’Shea: Last year when you and Notable Music VP/GM Damon Booth were interviewed at RM64, Booth said: “One of my goals for Notable when I started was for it to be a full-fledged music company. We’re publishers primarily, but if our songwriters need to make a record, then let’s get a record made and find a home for it.” The music industry seems to be changing drastically on a regular basis. How hard is it to expand your opportunities in such a climate?
Tom DeSavia: It’s actually one of the fun parts of the job. I’m always saying it’s 1956 all over again… meaning it’s like the dawn of rock and roll… ‘pop’ music sales, for lack of a better term, is not the massive business it was, so a lot of the financial muscle behind it has lost/is losing interest in music as an ‘industry’… so it’s moving back to a ‘small business’ mentality, and the canvas is blank… the business is being reinvented on what it’s going to be for the next 40 years. You have to do everything – and half the fun of it is making it up as you go along, because most of the old rules no longer apply.
I Usually Dodge Politics Here…
Posted by admin in pop culture on October 9, 2010
I usually dodge politics here and I hope to skirt the line of discussing politics in this instance. If you read my blog, hopefully you don’t know that I’m a liberal moderate. My political leanings may reveal themselves given the folks that I interview here periodically. But this blog is about pop culture and my love of it, not politics. But every once and awhile via Facebook or Twitter, I get exposed to political analysis that drags pop culture into the discussion. I always wince when pop culture carries a blatant political agenda (whether it be one that I agree with or not).
Kevin Byrne, a writer I’ve met through Twitter, recently made me aware of a poorly constructed essay by Jane Gilvary. Gilvary rubs me the wrong way by clarifying what she views a real man to be and how she thinks pop culture is diluting what a real man is or means. Let me clarify, even if her theory was built supporting liberal values I’d disagree with her.
Jennifer Haase on No More Invitations
Jennifer Haase
My musical realm of knowledge continually grows thanks to social networking. Singer/songwriter Jennifer Haase is the latest example, having been introduced to her music via her Twitter account. This September will mark the release of Haase’s latest album, No More Invitations. It was interesting to talk to an artist like Haase, given that she recently walked away from Corporate America to commit fully to her musical career. We discuss that transition, as well as the fundraising effort for her upcoming release and her overall approach to her music.
Tim O’Shea: How long has your upcoming album been in the works?
Jennifer Haase: It was spring 2006 when my record producer Mike Leslie and I shook hands with a plan to start this record together. If we’d known then what we know now, ha! It’s been 4 amazing, enlightening, tumultuous music-making years with him and my recording engineer Robert L. Smith. I told Mike recently that I feel like this project has weaved itself into the fabric of our lives.
O’Shea: Which has been harder, raising the funds to make the album or recording the album itself?
Haase: Making the album has been much harder on me than the fundraiser. The Boys (Mike & Robert) can confirm that I’m sometimes prone to impatience and bouts of self-doubt. With perhaps a teensy hair-thin sliver of perfectionism when it comes to my singing voice. Barely detectable beneath my joyous song-recording rapture, of course. A-hem.
Twitter RSS- talkingwithtim: @j_bacardi love how Wenders explains that the sequel is a film that partially comments on post Berlin Wall Germany
- talkingwithtim: @j_bacardi that is one of my favorite films #LoveSeeingColomboReferencedInSubtitles
- talkingwithtim: @chris_roberson @allisontype :)
- talkingwithtim: @allisontype @chris_roberson That sounds like it could be the title of a failed sequel to 1983's All the Right Moves #AllTheFairPoints
- talkingwithtim: @romenesko Did @NPR issue a correction after reporting on air yesterday (as part of #RobinGibbObit) that #AndyGibb committed suicide?
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