Fo'shizzle

I hate advertising! Granted, since I have a product (my book) that is forced to compete with thousands of other products (other books), I am forced to find creative ways to position what I have and cut through the ever-increasing clutter of the marketplace.

I find most advertising insults my intelligence. I also understand that I don’t fit the demographic or the IQ level of who most ad creators are aiming to reach. That being said, I’d love to be able to watch what little television I do without being pitched to incessantly. Lately, rather than channel surf, I’ve been paying attention to some of the commercials (as painful as that sometimes can be), trying to figure out what and who the demographic is and what exactly the strategy is behind the pitch.

Take for instance the new Chrysler ad pairing hip-hop icon (and Girls Gone Wild pitchman) Snoop Dogg and the elderly business tycoon, Lee Iacocca. Set on a golf course and featuring a modified Chrysler-styled golf cart, the 70-something Iacocca obviously seems confused by Snoop’s slangalese, such as “Fo’shizzle, I-ka-zizzle,” replies S’Dogg to his geriatric golf partner.

Iacocca, who has regularly starred in his company’s commercials promoting Chrysler products, is known for his famous pitch, “If you can find a better car, buy it”. Apparently, the ad is designed to reach a younger audience, as Snoop ads his own spin to the phrase, modifying it to, "If the ride is more fly, then you must buy," Snoop Dog says.

I find it interesting that probably many of the courses that wealthy white seniors, such as the kind where Iacocca might play, are probably closed to many blacks, other than to caddy or perform other menial tasks. Granted, Snoop Dogg has now attained a measure of status (read, a fat bank roll), which makes that point moot for him.

I don’t know, maybe it’s me, but I see the commercial somewhat in the vein of the old vaudeville acts, where the blacks were exploited and provided a prop for white audiences to laugh at and have fun with. While a number of African-Americans have risen to positions of leadership running record labels in the hip hop and rap music world, most of the top spots and positions of power are strangely held by white males?

Despite all the angst-filled rants of gangsta rappers, it isn't long before they manage to accumulate the accoutrements deemed appropriate by their white handlers. It’s like Thomas Frank and a handful of social critics write about in the pages of his books and publications like The Baffler; there will always be a certain measure of market-driven rebellion, outfitted and marketed by Madison Avenue. Real rebellion and god-forbid, true revolution, however, will never be tolerated by the puppet masters, moving the strings. As they say in the capitalist biz, the more things change, the more they stay the same!

Mark Edwards/MDID is alive!

Seeing that I wrote a music-related post yesterday, I thought, hell, why not do it again? I spent most of yesterday in a sleep-deprived haze of work. Of late, I find myself listening to music again. For much of the difficult production and pre-press phase of When Towns Had Teams, I didn’t pay much attention to music in my life.

Before my son left for college, he uploaded most of my CD catalog onto his hard drive. In the process of doing that over his final few days of being home, I was aware of a lot of stuff I hadn’t listened to for awhile. Yesterday, with Mark off at college, my wife on the road and having the house to myself, I started digging out some of my old vinyl. I have a bunch of albums from my mid-90’s musical phase, the most cognizant I’ve ever been of new music. It was during that time that I was doing a radio show at Bowdoin’s WBOR and I accumulated some great stuff.

While a lot of the music from that period no longer interests and captivates me like it once did, a handful of bands and artists still seem as fresh today as they did a decade prior. One such musician is former Cleveland rocker, Mark Edwards, better known to his fans as My Dad Is Dead. Certainly, this moniker sealed all inclinations for any commercial success that Edwards might have envisioned. I wouldn’t be surprised if this wasn’t his own way of ensuring that he never joined the ranks of lame play lists on so-called “modern rock” stations.

Years ago, before blogging took hold, Edwards used to post his thoughts and and “rants” for fans to read on his website. I enjoyed reading his thoughts, opinions and views about life, music and other topics and looked forward to his irregular postings.

Listening to Edwards’ MDID album, Out of Sight, Out of Mind yesterday, I made a mental note to look up Edwards on the web. I thought he might have a blog, based on his previous penchant at posting his thoughts. As is common of late, my intentions often get sidetracked by my avalanche of pending duties, related to running an independent press and trying to work part-time to keep myself afloat, financially.

This morning, three hours into my morning, which began at 3:55 A.M., I found an interview done with Edwards by a blogger with similar musical tastes. Frequency Squared is a neat music-related blog and the writer is obviously a fan of Edwards. He conducted an interview, which led me to Edwards’ own site and blog. A reward of my search is that I am now aware of a new record coming out by Edwards, as well as finding out that he’s put his entire catalog up on his website.

He’s also got some tracks up from the new record, which sound might fine. Not a huge departure from his prior work, which I’m happy about. I always liked his distinctive vocal style, as well as his own unique guitar playing.

Stumbling across Edwards and his new record feels a lot like running into an old friend. For the uninitiated, I’d urge you to check out some of his stuff. If you like it, don’t hesitate to pick up a CD or two—the investment will reward you with hours of listening pleasure, plus you’ll be supporting an independent artist operating in the finest DIY tradition.

Here's a Pitchfork review of Edwards' previous record, Engine of Commerce, as well as an Eric Davidson (New Bomb Turks' frontman) snippet on Edwards from a Cleveland online publication, Clevescene.

Space for music

The old adage claims that “all work and no play, makes Jimmy (?) a dull boy”. For what it’s worth, I’ve been working my ass off for longer than I can remember. Work is not bad—it seems to be the lot handed to anyone daring to wear the uniform of an entrepreneur, or DIY aficionado.

I’ve mentioned my friend, Jose Ayerve, on these pages before. For the uninitiated, Jose is a great musician and fronts the immensely talented and soothingly melodic, Spouse. He is also someone who I admire for his work ethic, entrepreneurial skills and ability to keep going, despite receiving insufficient attention from record labels. In some small way, my foray into publishing via RiverVision Press, is in part fueled by music predecessors such as Jose.

Of late, he’s been managing the tour of friend and fellow musician, Joe Pernice, of Pernice Brothers fame. The Pernice Brothers tour wagon rolled into Portland’s Space Gallery last night, on the second leg of their U.S. (and Canada) tour. Sparing readers the details, Jose’s continuance in running the show hinged on receiving some opening slots on this second part of the tour through October.

Obviously, having him open the Portland show was a wise move, as Jose and band used to be based in Portland. Space was more crowded than I ever recall for an opening act, when Jose walked on stage with just his new custom electric that he picked up for $75.

A number of recognizable scenesters and fellow musicians were in the audience for Jose’s set of about 8 or 9 songs, many of them, solo treatments of Spouse numbers from their latest record. If you have an appreciation for melodic rock, with solid songwriting and a penchant for pop sensibilities, then you need to add Are You Gonna’ Kiss or Wave Goodbye to your collection.

It was tough to talk much, but Jose was his usual gracious self, between all his responsibilities of making sure that everything was taken care of, on top of performing ably.

The second band on the bill, The Cloud Room, hailed from New York City and were much better than I anticipated. I might even say they impressed the hell out of me and I’m usually not that easy to impress when seeing bands for the first time.

Here’s a bit of the buzz about the band, that I was blissfully unaware of until I looked them up this morning:

"NYC buzz band the Cloud Room has a winner with this euphoric song, which has a perfect summer singalong chorus and recalls the glammery glittery goodness of Ziggy-era Bowie." - Salon.com (on "Hey Now Now")

"[Hey Now Now] is a genuinely brilliant single, up there with the Killers' "Mr. Brightside," the Kaiser Chiefs' "I Predict A Riot" and the Decemberists' "16 Military Wives" as one of the great alterna-pop singles of the first half of 2005."- All Music Guide

"Catchy." - National Public Radio, "All Songs Considered"

"[Hey Now Now's] fit-for-iPod-commercial groove thankfully isn't the only thing working in the band's favor."- CMJ

It’s always nice to see a band for the first time and have your initial impression validated.

If you like reading about new bands, here’s one last link to check out, in addition to their website.

Let me say that the lateness of the hour and the stiffness in my back was taxing my will to hang around for the Pernice Brothers. Not that I was unaware of their headline status, as well as incredible street cred preceding them; it’s just that at my advanced age, a midweek gig with a band arriving on stage at 11:15 is tough on my constitution.

The wait and aching lower back were well worth the wait. Joe Pernice is one of indie rock’s top troubadours. His literate songwriting, genuineness and incredibly lush pop (where pop is a term of endearment), made the lateness of the hour well worth it.

It was gratifying to see a midweek crowd approaching 100 people turn out in Portland, to catch some underappreciated musicians, all of whom are firmly entrenched in the independent, to-hell-with-the-fickle-winds-of-corporate-rock world, camp.

Was it just me, or does Pernice do a dead-ring impression of early era (Devil Between My Toes, An Earful O’Wax) Guided By Voices, and the songwriting duo of Robert Pollard and Tobin Sprout? Not being a hardcore fan and having merely a surface knowledge of Pernice’s music with his latest incarnation, I couldn’t help but be swept away with the infectious, hum-along qualities of tune after tune.

If you like music that leans to the independent, and even experimental side, then do yourself a favor and check out Space’s monthly calendar. You’ll be happily rewarded by catching some great bands making their way to our isolated corner of rockdom.

When our oil supplies are cut off

I continue to follow the news and reports regarding peak oil, quite closely. This morning, there was an interesting story on the front page of my daily newspaper, by Jim Krane of the Associated Press.

Apparently, saboteurs triggered a cascade of power blackouts that dramatically curtailed oil exports from Iraq. This brief disruption cost the country nearly $60 million in lost exports and consequently rattled world commodity markets.

The recent dramatic increases in gasoline and oil prices have made many Americans sit up and question what is driving the price of petroleum. Our dependence on foreign oil has made America increasingly vulnerable to any variations of scenarios similar to what happened in Iraq.

A mock exercise called Oil Shockwave was recently conducted to simulate various global events that could dramatically impact and curtail American supplies of oil. This bipartisan exercise involving members of America’s energy, military and intelligence communities revealed some shocking possibilities should major disruptions impact our access to foreign oil.

In this exercise, by removing only 3.5 million barrels of oil, from a global total of 83 million barrels resulted in:

• Gasoline prices of $5.74 per gallon;
• Global oil price of $161 per barrel;
• Heating oil prices of $5.14 per gallon;
• Fall of gross domestic product for two consecutive quarters;
• Drop in consumer confidence by 30 percent;
• Spike in the consumer price index to 12.6 percent;
• Ballooning of the current accounts deficit to $1.087 trillion;
• Decline of 28 percent in the S&P 500;
• Aggressive pressure on the U.S. from China to end arm sales to Taiwan, and;
• Demands from Saudi Arabia for changes to U.S. policy regarding the Mid-East peace process.

Obviously, our dependence on foreign supplies of oil, as well as our administration's continued lack of an energy policy that addresses this, imperils all Americans and our futures.

With the very real possibility of a future that could be dramatically different than our current auto-centric daily lives, Americans continue to sleepwalk through their daily trips to the mall, Wal-Mart and lengthy commutes, oblivious to what the future may hold for them.

FMI about the Oil Shockwave exercise, you can read about it here:

You can also visit the site for Securing America's Future Energy to learn more.

NPR also carried a program that I was less impressed with, particularly due to some of the "players", particularly oil company shill, Daniel Yergin. Still, the program gives an overview of the issue, albeit with few if any real solutions.

For slightly more provocative views regarding peak oil, might I suggest the Oil Empire site.

The proof is in the pudding

Yesterday, I drove to Augusta, to pick up my proofs from the printer. It was a strange, but exhilarating feeling, holding that which will be my book.

The proof is basically the actual cover, which is loose, and sections of the book, in page order, stapled together in sections (in my case, 10 seperate ones). It really helps the author to see how the final product will look.

I had a few concerns about how my actual font was going to look and about my photos. Other than two, which are a little dark (the original resolution wasn't high enough), they reproduced very well. The text looks great and other than a few minor typos that I'm finding, things are shaping up for the book's release.

I haven't received my printing date as of yet, but the target for me to return the proofs is Friday and I know that I'll have it back to J.S. McCarthy (my printer) before that. The folks at JSM have been absolutely fantastic! I could have gone with a cheaper printer (although their estimate was in the ballpark with some of the bargain printers), but I would have ended up with a book that was inferior. Their customer service and attention to detail has been reassuring. Being that When Towns Had Teams is my first go-round at publishing, having the extra support was beneficial.

I think it's safe to say that I'll have books in early September and those who have placed orders should be receiving books in about 3-4 weeks, if not before that.

Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty stoked right now!