Funny: The Keatons

David Misch is the author of Funny: The Book.

“FUNNY: THE KEATONS”

– One of the most amazing, dangerous, and copied stunts in comedy history: 3 inches clearance on each side.  The camera operator was sure Keaton would be killed and left the set; Keaton turned on the camera himself.

– Jackie Chan does it with paper.

– “Weird Al” Yankovic does it Amish-style.

– Johnny Knoxville does it off-key.

– “The Simpsons” do it together.

Funny: The Book

Funny: The Book is an entertaining look at the art of comedy, from its historical roots to the latest scientific findings, with diversions into the worlds of movies (Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers), television (The Office), prose (Woody Allen, Robert Benchley), theater (The Front Page), jokes and stand-up comedy (Richard Pryor, Steve Martin), as well as personal reminiscences from the author’s experiences on such TV programs as Mork and Mindy.

Revolver Excerpt

Robert Rodriguez is the author of Revolver: How the Beatles Reimagined Rock’n'Roll. The following is an excerpt from the book.

With so many peers in rock reaching the height of their creativity in 1966, it was impossible for all of them to not listen closely to what everyone else was doing. (Ray Davies grandly suggested that the Beatles were waiting for the next Kinks album to arrive; perhaps to provide an early clue to the new direction.) No one was listening more closely to the Beatles’ latest than Brian Wilson. He felt that with Revolver, Pet Sounds had been effectively one-upped, taxing his creativity to the limit. (It had not been a robust seller in the U.S., peaking at number ten and then only briefly, prompting Capitol to issue a Best of the Beach Boys compilation two months later, as if to erase the taint of such an unrepresentative work.)

Pet Sounds did much better across the Atlantic, peaking at number two and garnering rapturous reviews from people not steeped in surfing and hot-rod culture. Indeed, for the only time during their recording career, the Beatles were bumped from the top position in the year’s end NME poll, second to the Beach Boys as Top Pop Group for 1966. Also for the first time, NME announced a tie for Album of the Year between — naturally — Pet Sounds and Revolver. Luckily, Wilson had a potent arrow in his quiver, one originally intended for inclusion on Pet Sounds. “Good Vibrations” was judged not to fit the album’s overall arc and was held back. The product of seventeen sessions, four studios, and a reported $50,000, it was released as a single two months after Revolver.

The ambitious 3:35 recording, featuring stacked vocals, cellos, and, most distinctively, the Electro-Theremin — an eerie-sounding electronic instrument heretofore heard mostly in science-fiction TV shows such as My Favorite Martian — quickly shot up the charts, reaching number one in the U.S. in December for one week only (briefly displacing the idiotic “Winchester Cathedral” by the New Vaudeville Band for the top slot during its two-week run) as well as the U.K., where it reigned for two weeks.

Keep reading on Something Else Reviews!…

Revolver by Robert Rodriguez

The making of Revolver – hunkered down in Abbey Road with George Martin – is in itself a great Beatles story, but would be nothing if the results weren’t so impactful. More than even Sgt. Pepper and Pet Sounds, Revolver fed directly into the rock ‘n’ roll zeitgeist, and its influence could be heard everywhere: from the psychedelic San Francisco sound (Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead); to the first wave of post-blues hard rock (Sabbath, Zeppelin); through movie soundtracks and pretty much everything that followed it – including every generation of guitar-based pop music and even heavy metal. More than any record before or after, Revolver was the game-changer, and this is, finally, the detailed telling of its storied recording and enormous impact.

Listen Hear: Protecting Your Most Precious Sense: Part 1

Guest Blogger: Janet Horvath is the author of Playing Less Hurt. Here is a piece from her blog on Interlude.

Without music life is unthinkable. Audience members and musicians are passionate about it, yet few people realize that decibels can be dangerous! Our world is toxically noisy and our hearing is jeopardized on a daily basis. The majority of cases of hearing loss and injury occur due to loud noise. There is no escaping the constant barrage of sound in our lives.

It’s not just “old people” who suffer. According to the American Medical Association, one in five teens are losing their hearing and cannot hear whispers, raindrops or consonants. Among college freshmen, 61% have hearing injuries.

This increase could be caused by frequent use of ear buds and headphones. We use them to hear the music we like to hear and to block out unwanted sounds. Unfortunately, we tend to crank the volume well above safe levels.

Musicians are at particular risk. We expose ourselves to very high volumes of sound multiple times a day. Sound exposure is cumulative, and over a career, it can cause permanent hearing injury. Among musicians, producing a huge sound is a goal in itself. We’ve all heard the adage: Fast is good, loud is better; fast and loud is best!

The ear has 20,000-30,000 hair cells, which are nerve endings responsible for carrying the electrical impulses through the auditory nerve to the brain. These delicate receptors bend or flatten as sounds enter the ear. Most often these hairs spring back to normal in a few hours, or overnight. Initially, loud sounds cause only temporary distortion of cells, but over time, damage occurs as hair cells lose their resilience. Frequent, and intense exposure will cause these receptors, to flatten down, stiffen, and eventually break. High frequency sounds are the most damaging.

Keep reading on Interlude…

Playing Less Hurt

Playing Less Hurt addresses this need with specific tools to avoid and alleviate injury. Impressively researched, the book is invaluable not only to musicians, but also to the coaches and medical professionals who work with them. Everyone from dentists to orthopedists, audiologists to neurologists, massage therapists and trainers will benefit from Janet Horvath’s coherent account of the physiology and psyche of a practicing musician. Writing with knowledge, sympathetic insight, humor, and aplomb, Horvath has created an essential resource for all musicians who want to play better and feel better.

Closer to CLOSER: Final preparation

Guest Blogger:Andrew Gerle is the author of The Enraged Accompanist’s Guide to the Perfect Audition. Below is an excerpt from his blog on Theatre Music Directors.

In the performing arts (and I’d say most of life in general), the quality and quantity of time spent in preparation for an event is more than 75% of what goes into its being a success. As with the casting process, being fully prepared going into rehearsals can make the difference between struggling to get your job done and participating in a dynamic collaboration. Identify your musical needs, articulate your musical-dramatic vision, and learn not just your music but everyone else’s as if you were going on tomorrow in each role.

I begin preparing a score for rehearsal with my piano part. I know that I have to be not only comfortable playing the notes, but also know it so thoroughly that I can also listen to the actors as they’re learning their notes and starting to make musical and acting choices. I can’t be worrying about my accidentals and rhythms and keeping an ear on the actors’ as well. And my first priority is to the actors – I can always perfect my part at home after rehearsal, but for actors who don’t have great musicianship skills and/or don’t have a keyboard at home, they are depending on me during these short rehearsal hours to give them what they need to get their parts under their belt.

In learning the piano part, obviously I start with the notes, the technical learning of the score. This means having a pencil handy as I practice, circling chords that always take me by surprise, writing in fingerings, practicing page turns (and Xeroxing and making fold-outs whenever necessary), reassigning hands if stretches or middle lines are hard to reach, and beginning to think about endurance if the score is particularly athletic (like Closer). I don’t want to feel like I’m merely reproducing the notes when I get to rehearsal; I want the music to be a part of me. I don’t want to think about what I’m playing, I want to be able to think about why. This is what makes a song come alive and become part of the active storytelling, and this is what helps actors create vivid and truthful performances.

For more please visit Theatre Music Directors.

The Enraged Accompanist’s Guide to the Perfect Audition

Award-winning New York theatre composer and pianist Andrew Gerle pulls no punches in this irreverent, fly-on-the-wall guide to everything you’ve never been taught about auditioning for musical theatre. From the unique perspective of the pianist’s bench, he demystifies the audition process, from how to put together your book and speak to an accompanist to the healthiest and savviest ways to approach the audition marketplace and your career. By better understanding the dynamics of professional auditions, you will learn to present yourself in the strongest, most castable way while remaining true to your own special voice – the one that, in the end, will get you the job.

Funny: The Sitcoms

David Misch is the author of Funny: The Book.

“FUNNY: THE SITCOMS”

 – Art Carney takes his time; Jackie Gleason is not amused.

– Dick Van Dyke searches for a hidden birthday gift and gets back in time for chicken.

– Archie Bunker’s foreign policy.

– Hawkeye Pierce’s gun control.

– Mary Tyler Moore’s Chuckles control.

– Micheal Scott’s bladder control.

Funny: The Book

Funny: The Book is an entertaining look at the art of comedy, from its historical roots to the latest scientific findings, with diversions into the worlds of movies (Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers), television (The Office), prose (Woody Allen, Robert Benchley), theater (The Front Page), jokes and stand-up comedy (Richard Pryor, Steve Martin), as well as personal reminiscences from the author’s experiences on such TV programs as Mork and Mindy.

Bob Dylan’s Bassist, Q&A with Jerry Scheff

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Boomerocity interviews Jerry Scheff, the author of Way Down, who played bass with Bob Dylan. (Happy birthday, Bob!)

Randy: Many authors, after completing a book, will often second guess what they should or should not have included in their books.  One clear image of Jerry Scheff that I gleaned from Way Down is that, whatever he does, he does and moves on.  That said, I still asked him if there was anything he wished he had or hadn’t included in his book.  His answer was short, direct and to the point.

Jerry: Being that I wrote the book as a musical history of my life I am satisfied with everything as it is.

Randy: Jerry is a monster talent and has played with and for some monster talent.  With such a long list of musical dignitaries who he has supported over his distinguished career, I was naturally curious who he wished he could have played with before they passed away.

Jerry: There isn’t enough disk space in my computer to list everyone I wish I had played with. Where would I start? Probably Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Chopin, Louis Armstrong, etc.

Keep reading at boomerocity.

Way Down

In this candid and perceptive memoir of his 45-year career, bassist Jerry Scheff takes us onto Elvis’s private jet, on tour with Bob Dylan, and into the studio with The Doors. A stalwart presence behind some of the greatest names of popular music, Scheff has also played with Roy Orbison, Elvis Costello, the Association, Neil Diamond, Johnny Mathis, the Everly Brothers, John Denver, and Nancy Sinatra, to name just a few. Eschewing hype, Scheff provides a behind-the-scenes perspective, from having worked sleeves rolled up, side by side, with the great artists in their factories.

Audience Antics

Guest Blogger: Janet Horvath is the author of Playing Less Hurt. Here is a piece from her blog on Interlude.

Musicians love audiences. The more of them there are, the merrier. Little do they know that they are as visible to us as we are to them. Audiences think that musicians are so immersed in their playing that we don’t notice their idiosyncratic behavior.

Audiences have personalities. In Minnesota perhaps in contrast to the harsh winters, audiences are nice. “Minnesota Nice” we call it. They applaud politely and unfailingly offer us an affable and self-conscious standing ovation. New York audiences are discerning but brusque. They listen with critical acumen; applaud with haste and then they dash out of the hall – a standing evacuation.

Audiences have their quirks. I recall a concert in the days when the cello section sat on the edge of the stage. The audience was to my left. I was playing principal cello. Right in front of me stood the conductor. We were playing the lovely but not often performed Elgar Symphony No. #1. Sitting right under the nose of the conductor, one has to concentrate very hard to watch both the conductor, the music and to relate closely with one’s colleagues. This is of course doubly important in a work that is relatively unfamiliar to the orchestra. The maestro could hear every note I played all the time!

The symphony opens very softly. Soon I could hear an irritating clicking to my left especially in the softest spots in the music. What could this sound be? It was certainly distracting. The first movement gains momentum very quickly, as the tempo and volume increase. Then there is an exposed cello section solo. I really couldn’t take my eyes off the music for a second so I had no opportunity to look over my left shoulder for what seemed an interminable number of minutes. Then finally, there were six and a half bars of rest. I glanced out of the corner of my eye. The first thing I noticed was a large wicker basket open on the floor between the first row and the edge of the stage. There, comfortably curled up in the first row, was a woman wielding knitting needles.

For more please visit Interlude.

Playing Less Hurt

Playing Less Hurt addresses this need with specific tools to avoid and alleviate injury. Impressively researched, the book is invaluable not only to musicians, but also to the coaches and medical professionals who work with them. Everyone from dentists to orthopedists, audiologists to neurologists, massage therapists and trainers will benefit from Janet Horvath’s coherent account of the physiology and psyche of a practicing musician. Writing with knowledge, sympathetic insight, humor, and aplomb, Horvath has created an essential resource for all musicians who want to play better and feel better.