Sevärdheter London

Monday Inspirations—Here are 3 weekly ideas for song lyric, poems, instrumental titles, photos, video, short story or anything they inspire you to create.  Use the title if you like & make something!  It is yours for free.  A gift. 

88.  Fat Dog
After reading an advertisement in a magazing about a drug you can buy to give your overweight dog so it will lose weight, my dog started looking fat. :-)  He doesn’t look fat when he’s playing.  But when he begs for my food he looks fat.  Fat Dog.

89.  CHECKLIST
The sound of a hard K gives a word power.  I am reminded of the main character in the novel/movie The Bridges of Madison County - Robert Kincaid.  That name is pronouned with vocal force - 2 hard Ks - Kincaid.

So CHECKLIST makes a great title and is easily pronounced.  I’ve got a checklist for you baby.  One - you’re beautiful, two - you give me chills and thrills and three - you’re all I see tonight, you top my checklist.

90.  Noticeably Quiet
A poetic singer-songwriter lyric title or can be a title for an instrumental piece or a piece of art/photoography/video.  Noticeably Quiet shows how an object can have impact and at the same time be subtle.  A huge redwood tree can be noticeably quiet.  So can a mountain, so can a snowflake, so can a lover sitting across the bed as he puts his shoes on.

Composers and lyricists make pitch to join TeamstersSeeing demand for movie and TV music growing and take-home pay shrinking, about half of a group of 400 sign up to band together with an unlikely ally.

Alan Elliott, from left, James DiPasquale and Bruce Broughton, shown in Broughton’s home studio, are among those working to organize TV and film composers and lyricists. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times / November 10, 2009)

David Carbonara has a gig many of his peers would covet: He writes music for the critically acclaimed AMC show “Mad Men.”

A former jazz trombonist, Carbonara loves his job and is grateful for the work. Yet even after he labors on 13 episodes for a full year, he says he won’t earn enough to support his family. A one-hour basic cable TV show like “Mad Men” pays $7,000 to $13,000 an episode, but at least half of that goes toward hiring musicians, paying for studio time, copying music and other costs that composers like Carbonara increasingly absorb as studios look to lower their expenses.

“You have to work 26 shows in a year to earn a living,” said Carbonara, a graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston who recently began work on an ABC drama without any idea as to when, or how much, he would be paid. “People don’t understand what we go through.”

Unlike most other workers in Hollywood, Carbonara can’t complain to a union about his pay rate or working conditions. That’s because he doesn’t have one.

In a heavily unionized industry, composers and lyricists are an anomaly in Hollywood. Along with production assistants, theirs are among the few remaining crafts not covered by a union contract.

Although conductors and orchestra musicians are covered by the American Federation of Musicians, composers and lyricists for television and movies are not represented by the AFM or anyone else. A group of them is determined to change that and is hooking up with an unlikely ally: the Teamsters.

About 400 composers and lyricists met in Burbank this week for an “information meeting” about joining Local 399. Artsy composers and lyricists would seem to have little in common with the brawny Teamsters, better known for representing studio drivers, location managers and, most recently, casting directors.

The tunesmiths had tried to join the Writers Guild of America a few years ago, but the union was then preoccupied with organizing workers in the animation and reality-TV sectors, and it suggested to its writing cousins that they approach the Teamsters, who are regarded as having more bargaining clout than the AFM.

“We are here to take advantage of a once-in-a-generation chance to rebuild our community and to redress the long-term health of our individual selves, our community and the craft of music for television and motion pictures,” Alan Elliott, a veteran composer and one of the key organizers of the union push, told his peers Monday night.

The Society of Composers and Lyricists, a nonprofit trade group that represents 1,200 composers and lyricists in the industry but does not have the authority to negotiate contracts, has not taken a position on the union drive.

Some composers and lyricists acknowledge that the proposed marriage with the Teamsters might appear odd. “We thought of the Teamsters like Jimmy Hoffa and crooked noses,” said James DiPasquale, a former president of the Society of Composers and Lyricists and a longtime TV music composer.

“We’re artists. Why do we want to be with that? We realized this is not your father’s Teamsters anymore.”

Although some at Monday’s meeting questioned the timing of the effort and whether it would succeed, half of those in attendance signed cards to join the Teamsters, the beginning of a process that could take at least a year. Two-thirds of working composers must agree to join the union before the Teamsters will take up their case. If employers dispute the claim, the matter could ultimately go to the National Labor Relations Board.

The board had previously determined, in 1984, that composers were “independent contractors,” blocking efforts to revive the former Composers and Lyricists Guild of America, which negotiated contracts in the 1950s and 1960s but dissolved after a disastrous strike in 1971 and a protracted and costly lawsuit by composers seeking greater control over their music.

“This is not going to be easy, but these people make such an important contribution to the making of motion pictures and television shows, and what are they asking for?” said Steve Dayan, business agent for Teamsters Local 399. “What everyone else gets on the set: health and welfare benefits and some sort of minimum pay standard and some basic working conditions.”

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which negotiates labor contracts on behalf of the Hollywood studios, declined to comment.

Although demand for music has actually grown in the last three decades, since synthesizers and later computer technology have made it much easier to score music, composers and lyricists are taking home less money as a consequence of shrinking music budgets and a change in how they are paid.

The average amount of music in a one-hour prime-time TV show has doubled from 15 to 30 minutes per episode over the last three decades. But the total music budget per episode has been cut by more than 50% to $14,000 from $35,000, Elliott said.

Compounding matters has been the rise of so-called packages that became more pervasive in the 1980s and 1990s, in which studios began to ask composers to cover costs they previously absorbed, dramatically shrinking their take-home pay.

That has made it tougher for composers to earn a living in the business, says Alf Clausen, composer and songwriter for “The Simpsons,” who says the show is one of “the few remaining TV shows that picks up all of my costs and that treats composers with that old-time dignity. . . . I’m more worried about my son and all the young composers out there.”

Source: LA Times

When you are inspired by some great
purpose, some extraordinary project,
all your thoughts break their bonds;
Your mind transcends limitations,
your consciousness expands in every direction,
and you find yourself in a new, great
and wonderful world.
Dormant forces, faculties and talents
become alive, and you discover yourself
to be a greater person by far
than you ever dreamed
yourself to be.
                     Patanjali
                     (C. First to Third Century B.C.)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Pick one thing, a song, poem, video, painting, photo - and put yourself into the moment of creating that art.  Slowly, with great spirit, attached to your piece, inspired.  And this littlest of projects, to the most extraordinary project = will blossom under your touch.

Monday Inspirations—Here are 3 weekly ideas for song lyric, poems, instrumental titles, photos, video, short story or anything they inspire you to create.  Use the title if you like & make something! 

13.  Menopause Relapse - This goes into Adult Contemporary about a woman who thinks she is grown up but suffers a menopause relapse and makes adolescent choices that reek havoc on the world.
14.  When Dreams Get Ugly - The other morning I woke & told K. - “Wow, I was just dreaming my dead mother was chopping off the sunflower heads with a nail file and the devil was collecting them and laughing hideously as he ate the seeds and spit the shells at me.”  Well, it wasn’t quite like that but then I said “I’d rather be in this world than that world” and I got up.

15.  3 Forevers - A special love gave me this one.  She said it will take - 3 Forevers - She used it as a measure of time.  I wrote her a poem and titled it 3 Forevers.  You’ll be my friend for - 3 Forevers.  I love you BRR~ 

Introducing a new songwriter to the Songs2Share community. 
His name is David Mac Mullan and he currently resides in Switzerland.  He sent in a photo of himself singing “New York New York” which he says goes over well with his European audiences.

His song titled You’re Going To Break My Heart is in the music player on our home page.  It is a very good mood piece for film, as well as a good performing piece with guitar and vocal alone or orchestrated. 

Whenever we hear of our songs being performed live - on-stage, we get giddy.  Clare phoned and advises she’s put together a band and choir to perform our Song Of The Earth at St. Anne’s Pumpkin Festival in September in St. Anne Illinois.  If you’re in the area, come say HI! 

We are prospecting to videotape the performance.  The organizer of this event wants to record and send the song to Al Gore because of his work with the environment.  It is a very moving piece.  We have a simple demo in the music player at our main MySpace.  Please give it a listen.

If you perform one of our songs, please advise us.  We want to videotape you and build our music video catalog.

Peace & Green days. 

www.Songs2Share.com

Here is a recent e-mail I sent off:  

Hi Terry, I am in receipt of your current MP3 for Make A New Start.  After listening, my first comment is this melody is very different from the other one.  I’m sending it to Guilherme for review.  I’ll get back to you when I hear his comments.  I have my own and am curious what he will say. We had a rehearsal in my front room this afternoon.  We are recording vocals in the studio soon, over the .wav piano track of The Graduate Cheer which Guilherme & I co-wrote, and he sent over the Internet from Brazil.  I want to have a fuller vocal recording for the Songs2Share debut CD.  It was really a good time.  Matthew, who was coming over to sing harmony brought his guitar.  Tia, who was tuning our guitar broke the g string.  When Matthew got here, he couldn’t practice the song until he put a new g string on our guitar. Somewhere in the rehearsal, Tia asked Matthew to play some riffs for her song.  She proceeded to play Two Left Feet on the guitar, singing while Matthew played percussion on his acoustic guitar, and then he played lead or embellishment.  It’s a good song.  S2S will help Tia get a good recording of her song.  I had a great time.  I am determined that when we move next month into our own house, I’ll be able to get up some musicians to visit and work songs in our front room regularly. Keep on that piano.  I’ve still got You Can Be Anything sitting in the files. Cheers ~ Robertawww.Song2Share.com   

“Interviewer:  When did your interest in music begin?

Art Garfunkel:  Music came to me because it was around the house.  My             parents sang; we had a wire recorder in the Forties; so I just sang because I had a voice, and realized it at age four, and because I had the example of harmony from my parents.  I would sing to myselfas I was walking to school, and I would sing as if I were preparing to be a singer.  I remember singing a song and doing it again in a higher key, walking to school in first grade.  I must have been working on getting my range higher.  I would sing songs by the Crew Cuts, or the inspirational ones like “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”  I guess I was waiting for rock ‘n’ roll to happen, which hit the radio when I was thirteen.  I had just become friends with Paul Simon, my neighbor; we were in school together, so we both jumped on singing and listening to rock ‘n’ roll.I:       How old were you when you first performed:

AG:   I first performed in talent shows when I was a fourth grader; I must have been nine.  As I formed a friendship with Paul in junior high school we would sing in school, and we started doing the songs we wrote.  Then we would go into the city and make demonstration records of our songs.

I:       Did you ever envision that you would be well known?

AG:   When I was around eight, the idea of being famous seemed like a big kick.  And I knew I had a voice, and that it was a good voice.  When I was in my early teens and heard records on the radio that Alan Freed was playing, I thought, I can do that; I can compete with that level of tightness … And I practiced constantly with Paul with a competitive instinct.  By the teens I knew I had a shot at the charts.  So, in my early years I must have wished to transcend the neighborhood; to justify my “weirdness” in the neighborhood.

I:       You mentioned finding the perfect place for a good echo.

AG:   This is a complex notion.  Singers love the reverb, or the bounce-off-the-wall echo effect; it puts sustain on your notes.  The modern era of the recording industry, since “Vaya con Dios,” is largely about playing with echo and reverb.  So I’ve worked with echo as if it has been my singing partner as early as I can remember; I’d sing in a stairwell, or any bathroom with tiles. 

Recently I was singing in Central Park under one of those viaducts, and as I centered myself along the axis of the tunnel I realized there was a remarkable echo if one was lines up right in the meddle.  Then I started to think that possibly the shape of the sounding chamber in the throat and mouth was repeated in the roof of the tunnel, so you were producing a sound from vocal cords to mouth chamber to tunnel chamber, and the shape was a repeat on a larger scale.  I thought possibly that was the reason why the tunnel gave such a good echo.

I:       You mentioned that in your trip to Japan, the best part of the day was being able to sing as loudly as you wanted, with no one around to hear.  Is it a relief not to have to perform when you sing? 

AG:   I sing because it gives me pleasure to hear it when it’s right.  I always bring a kind of shyness to the experience when I sing in front of people, because I’m more comfortable as a singer producing a sound that my own ears enjoy.  If others want to listen to it, they may, but I’m not altering my posture toward them.  This is why a recording studio is ideal for me:  you perform in front of a mike with no one around, against your own standards.  That to me is a more comfortable thing than stage work.  Privacy goes with singing.I:       You say that you bring shyness to your music.  How difficult was it to decide to publish your poems, and was there anything that made you start thinking along that direction?

AG:   At some point I was bitten by the inspiration to write.  You keep doing it; it takes hold of you.  There is no ulterior motive other than that an idea wants to get expressed.  So the initial impulse has taken care of itself.  But at a certain point, you say, “Who am I writing this to?”  Since I had the initial inspiration and finished it, who was that for?  Was it the therapy of getting something out that needed to be said?  Or is it simply, I am seeing who I am, or what’s going on in me, crystallized on paper?  You realize you’re writing to someone, even if it’s to a soulmate you’re hoping to find.  Then you realize:  Okay, I’m wiring to others.  But you think, Which others?  How many others?  So you think:  Okay, I’ll send them to friends of mine, so they can know a little better what I’m about.  Then you think, I’ll send them out in general.         In childhood, the music was born out of the fact that I can sing.  With writing, I just had to write these things.  With encouragement of various people, I have dared to put them out.  Write the poem out loud.Authorize the  heart. Burn the Bridge and Be the work of art!                                                                                       New York City     January 1984”                            

Excerpt from Martin Scorsese’s Film, The Last Waltz.

Robbie Robertson – It’s where the music would take you.  I     mean otherwise you would never go to such a situation.  Because of the music, it took us to, it took us everywhere.  It took us to some strange places.

Martin Scorsese – Physical and spiritual.

Robbie -   Physically, spiritually and psychotically.

Martin -   Even though you were on the stage.

Robbie -   Even though we were on the stage.