Whitney…laid to rest.

I didn’t watch Whitney Houston’s funeral, I’m sorry to rain on anyone’s parade but parade really is the operative word….. to me it was going to be a media circus and I’m a little long in the tooth for that. I made my living from working with the media but they’re still allowed to piss me off at times. Media crazed events have the opposite effect on me, I stay away. But of course today we are conditioned to live in that ‘you can never stay away’ zone. Everything is forced on you, if you don’t want to listen you are told anyway.

I didn’t watch the funeral but I felt I was there.

Let’ s backtrack a little. In the day my ex wife Nancy calls me and asks me what I think Kevin Costner will say at the funeral and will I be watching it. ‘I’m not interested and no,’ I offer by way of an answer, secretly hoping I can discuss the predicted rain and should I dare risk a bike ride. The day goes by and, as expected the televised funeral happens. Everybody in the world has seen it except me. Last night I go out and have a really nice evening, none of which involved talking about Whitney Houston. You know the one, a few beers and normal chat…..well maybe not because heard at the bar and in the restaurant people were talking about the funeral. I come home and, being of that acceptable age I was ready to nod off. I’ll just check Facebook, I thought and see if anyone has posted any cool music videos, had some funny episodes of life etc.

Bad move. I may  not have seen any news coverage, watched any television but social networking takes no prisoners. I now know more than I ever needed to know about the funeral. I went to bed later than expected after engaging in a few back and forth comments on my friend Richard’s post about…….

Fifty three posts later I did finally climb in to bed.

I wake up this morning at 4.10am, my friend Sally sends me an instant message, ‘Are you going to write a blog about Whitney’s funeral?’ She tells me stuff I don’t need to know, she prompts a reaction. More about the media and social networking than anything about who/what Whitney Houston meant. I mean this must be the most blogged subject since… yesterdays blogs about Whitney. So after 45 minutes back and forth I get an email from my ex Liz in the UK. Subject: ‘Did I watch Whitney Houston’s funeral.’ I get a note from Sally in Portugal again. By now I am cyber  swearing at Liz as she is telling me about the funeral, the one I didn’t see, didn’t want to see and now feel I was attended. She uses the word, ‘real.’ She felt it was very real. I’m going slightly mad, I react , I send another note. I’m talking about my observations, from a distance but still feeling like I was at the church in New Jersey.

I pick up my cell, I frantically text my dear friend Annie in Orlando. I’m screaming at her to call me. She responds instantly, I think she feels I was about to commit a crime. Worse I share my feelings why I’m madder than she even thinks I am and about how I have been up for four hours, had an agenda, a bunch of things to do and I why I am way behind schedule because everybody iOS talking to me about Whitney Houston. So we talk about Whitney’s Houston’s funeral and I become further behind schedule.

And now I’m writing a blog about the last twelve hours and the only thing I am not discussing is the fact I did not dream about Whitney Houston’s funeral cos I didn’t watch it even though I was there…..

Forgive me, I have some things to do but tomorrow is another day. I have some observations and some comments I’d like to share but I really need to sit down and then get maybe some work done. Facebook today we are not friends. People, don’t call me, text me or e-mail me, it could get ugly. And if you come round please understand if I scream, jump on top of you and beat you to the ground before you even your mouth. I know what you want.

And I wasn’t interested but curiosity killed this cat.

 

 

Published February 19th, 2012 Category News, Video, Whitney's funeral Tags: , , , Comments 2 Comments »

Whitney and those who always loved her

Whitney Houston was an immense talent. Like so many I was blown away when I first saw this beautiful young talent tearing down the stage and singing ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody.’  A gorgeous smile and a voice so perfect, she was definitely going somewhere.  ’I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ was the perfect pop song, if you didn’t dance it got you up on the floor. Whitney Houston provided that moment and the rest, as they say is history. And with history comes battles.

She reigned supreme throughout the 80′s and into the mid 90′s. Whitney Houston’s record sales of close on 200 million are quite staggering when you think she released only seven albums in those twenty two years.She was a true superstar but after achieving that staggering success things began to change and a gradual decline went in to free fall. Most will blame her marriage to Bobby Brown in 1992 as the beginning of the end but who knows where it all began. Personally I think it came from within, Bobby might not have been the right person but they certainly loved one another. Love hurts, love scars.

Whitney Houston had demons, she could never handle not being a superstar. The Queen had lost her crown and the decline was public and painful. Even the industry power that is Clive Davis and all the talent and money he threw at her was to prove to no avail. Whitney Houston’s final decade was a never ending dance with the devil. Her death is as tragic as that of Michael Jackson. Too many similarities of fame, fortune and then the slow slide down where people just aren’t as interested in you. No one is there when you are no longer making them money, they have moved on to their new star. The music industry is no safe haven when this happens. I’ve written less than complimentary blogs about Whitney Houston over the years, emotional outbursts first and foremost as a music fan. They were spawned from Clive Davis’ obsession with her and the vast amount of money he was investing in an artist who had clearly passed her sell by date. Not a personal vendetta just me saying the million dollars he’d spent trying to kickstart her career could have been better spent nurturing new talent and have done more to save an industry in decline. He clearly knew there was more to it than that and was doing what he could to save an artist sliding rapidly into self destruction. He was giving her some purpose as she had lost ability to deal with what was happening to herself. The drugs and erratic behavior were becoming more the norm and Whitney Houston was being forced to wash her dirty laundry in public. She had become a shadow of her former self. She didn’t even look like herself anymore. The person everyone had loved had gone. I cannot imagine what Clive Davis is going through right now. Whitney Houston was like a daughter to him, probably the closest he has been to any one artist in his long and illustrious career.

Another tragic, sad and lonely tale of a superstar falling from grace. No one teaches you how to handle fame in the music business which means not a soul is there to save you from the slide to ‘relative’ commercial obscurity. You crash and burn and it isn’t pretty. Whitney Houston fell from a very high place, the biggest female artist we’re ever likely to see, it just wont happen again. She slid off her throne and was forced to watch Beyonce, Rhianna etc leapfrog over her  in the popularity stakes. She wasn’t ever really able to handle that and her only way of dealing with it was her path to self destruction. And finally when the voice could no longer handle the damage that had been inflicted upon it I suppose the will to live went with it.

I’m writing this while there is still no cause of death or no official statement other than she was found dead. I wonder if anyone was there when Whitney Houston died?

Think Marilyn Monroe, think Michael Jackson and now think Whitney Houston, gone but never forgotten. All in that safe haven no one could give them here. And tragically there will be more.

 

 

Published February 12th, 2012 Category News, Video Tags: , Comments 3 Comments »

Ziggy Stardust and the rebirth of cool.

David Bowie landed on this planet sixty five years ago. What better way to return to the world of blogging, wake up and smell the space age coffee of one man so far ahead of the pack and in a class of his own.

At the beginning of the month I was invited to open a series of tribute concerts to honor David Bowie’s birthday. A cornucopia of bands all doing covers of their favorite Bowie songs culminating with local Tampa Bay heroes Barely Pink finishing off the show with Ziggy Stardust in it’s entirety. As I prepared my talk I became excited at rediscovering just how David Bowie’s influence on me then was just as strong now. I was older and I could understand, I had something to compare Ziggy Stardust to…but I couldn’t. There just isn’t anything that touches it for it’s originality, it’s danger and it’s utter razzmatazz.

When I grew up rock music was about rebels, it was about excitement and creating mayhem. It was something your mother would never like and your father would cast stones at. We were never meant to grow up this way, rebels don’t fit, they never will but they never want to anyway. They do it their way, they are the misfits of society and they change people lives. I didn’t have age on my side then, I just embraced it for what it was. At eighteen I was smitten, forty years later I haven’t seen anything fit to lace those iconic red boots. Ziggy changed our lives in a way no other ever will. I almost feel qualified to pass judgement, I loved him as a fan but had no idea my entire life would be surrounded by rock, pop and everything in between. I’d no idea my job was to become my hobby. I’ve seen literally thousands of acts pass along the decades of my life but nothing compares. I have never been rocked in a way that makes me think anyone could roll Bowie away.

I’ve been lucky all my life. Back in 1972 I was blessed beyond belief by witnessing one of the greatest stories rock has ever told, the birth, adolescence and death of the magnificent Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.  At the time I was 18 and already way too excited with rock music and the many delights it had already brought me. I’d experienced Hendrix, got dazed and confused  with Led Zeppelin and meddled with The Pink Floyd. David Bowie was different.

Bowie had been around a while but was never one to be content with obscurity. He was never the type to be content with second best. He never had any doubts, he knew he was destined for stardom but wanted it on his own terms. He had actually said he’d be a millionaire by the time he was thirty and he was. David Bowie is influenced by the books he reads, the pictures he paints and the music he makes. David Bowie was always a genius, always pushing out ,the epitome of a rock star. Music afforded him his every indulgence. He just about invented the word.

Ziggy Stardust  changed the way we looked at rock stars and how we listened to music. It grabbed you buy the throat, it forced you to pay attention. At the time of Ziggy’s birth, Bowie was nobody. He’d been around for years and apart from Space Oddity being a hit, everything else he’d put his mind to had failed. When David Bowie’s alter ego first set foot onstage he was the complete star way before we made him one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published February 7th, 2012 Category News, Video Tags: , Comments 3 Comments »

X Factor….or not?

And so we have it, the return of Mr Cowell. For all the furore and madness sounding the Return of the Gedi it looks, from the media’s perspective like it was too many bells and whistles and not enough of what people want.  And when we had the Neilson ratings the public voted with their eyes…. and there weren’t too many of them! It seems X Factor’s ‘sensational’ beginning had two million viewers less than Modern Family which is about right as they are more Rock Star than X Factor will ever be. Worse of all was that the last series of American Idol with the Lopez/Tyler addition culled an audience of over twice that of X Factor. Urrrgh, the horror of it all but more than that, how will Simon handle failure in the first time in over a decade. Even by his own admission an audience of less than  20 million would be considered a failure so an audience of around 12 million is looking pretty grim right now especially when the curiosity factor alone should have been a ratings winner.

So what now? Next week’s show will be lambs to the slaughter if they don’t show a rapid increase in viewers but the reality is where will that audience come from? If they didn’t want the first why would they watch the second?

We live in age where people’s attention is minimal. Everything moves so quickly that in some people’s minds Simon might be last years thing. Once you fall from grace it becomes doubly hard to regain your throne again, at least not quickly. It’s going to be a very difficult time for the boy Cowell and very damaging to his image. Moving away from American Idol was right but I think the real winners were American Idol. They changed and Simon didn’t. They revamped the show and it worked, they didn’t replace Simon they replaced the whole look and feel. Simon and Paula sat side by side is ten years old, we’ve seen it all before.

There’s more but I’m waiting until tomorrow’s show…

Published September 28th, 2011 Category News Tags: , , Comments No Comments »

Clarence Clemons and The Edge of Glory.

It’s been over a week now since the passing of the E Street Band’s sax player, the great Clarence Clemons but the sadness still lingers. I had wanted to write my own obituary but last week didn’t seem right, first my birthday celebrations and then becoming a grandad. It was on the the Saturday I heard the news and at first I didn’t want to believe it.  Surely it can’t be true, not Clarence? Although it deeply saddened me it also it brought back fond memories of some truly spectacular shows. Hearing Bruce’s eulogy at the funeral brought a tear to my eye and for the moment I thought of how he must have been feeling at the loss of his gentle giant, the man he came alive with on stage and in person.

I never met Clarence Clemons but he was that larger than life character you felt you knew. At every Springsteen gig I ever attended you’d hear The Big Man’s saxophone fill every inch of the stadium and the higher notes probably traveled even further to some downtown smoky bar. He was such an integral part of, not only the band but Bruce’s life too. It was very simple, he met him in a bar in New Jersey, they hung out and he never left. Until now. Those are always the greatest love stories, the ones where you just ignite from the first moment together and you feel that this time it’s going to last. Clarence was a powerhouse of a performer, Bruce knew that, we all did. Clarence Clemons never allowed Bruce a night off, he’d force him to be on top of his game. Bruce was more than capable but Clarence took him to the pinnacle of excellence, the point of perfection. The classic cover of Born to Run where Bruce just leans on the big man says it all. ‘We’re in it for the long haul, man’

He was there for every moment with Springsteen. He would glance over  with his sax gripped firmly to his mouth and you could see the elation all over his face. Here was a guy with the best job in the world, and that stage was his world. To be loved and appreciated from the leader of the greatest live band we’ll probably ever see was everything to him. People talk of U2, the glitz and the glamor and the sheer enormity of the spectacle but it’s isn’t Bruce Springsteen and the E Steet Band. And it never will be.

Every music fan will be sharing the same grief. Lady Ga Ga is utterly devastated, Clarence’s swansong was a guest appearance on her latest single, Edge of glory. Indeed, Born to run and now laid to rest Clarence. Your train was bound for glory the moment you climbed aboard.

 

Published July 1st, 2011 Category News Tags: , , , , Comments No Comments »

Earning A Reputation

One word can say so much and  some words like ’reputation’ take on a whole new meaning depending on the context. Just think of something as simple as ‘she’s got a reputation’ which implies either she’s a bit of a slapper or she’s to be heeded. Either way it’s not good but then when you hear someone say  ’he/she has survived on reputation’ it takes on a whole new meaning. It describes someone who is both worthy and deserving, someone who has has earned something on merit.

I was looking back over the years at the people I’d worked with and those who I’d enjoyed the best relationships with. Without question it was those I respected that I liked the most. They were the types who were comfortable with themselves and whose behavior both professionally and socially were admirable. Each time you met them they were the same and when you spoke to others you’d hear the same remarks, ‘Good guy, nice girl, I like them’ and where people were uncomplimentary it was probably because they were jealous. They wished they could be more like them and hated the people who gave them accolades and to retaliate they’d be insulting or sarcastic.

These are people who earned a reputation, it’s not something that comes easy and it isn’t something you can force on people. It’s there because of the constant way you conduct your life and your affairs. People can rely on you, they know what to expect and they’re understanding when things don’t go quite the way they should. They respect you because of a consistency in the way you are, they sort of feel safe with you and at ease. You show the basic human ingredients that so many lack nowadays. Reputable people are trustworthy, loyal and have standards they live up to, not because they want to show off but because they want to do something to the best of their ability. They want to do everything in their power to do whatever they can to make it a  success.

Nothing is of any value  unless you earned it. The music industry thrived for so many years because of the sum total of it’s parts, not just the artists but the whole infrastructure. It was a business where people collaborated with one another and where each contributed to the end result. They made it happen, they made it a success. They didn’t wallow in their own glory and when one project was over they moved to the next with the same belief and with the same determination. It was done in perfect harmony. Your work colleagues were your mentors,they mentored you and you, in turn mentored them. If you worked with someone who had a reputation of being successful it drove you to reach those heights, you wanted to be as good at what you did as they were at what they did. It was a natural human instinct, no self respecting person employed to do a task with others wanted to lag behind.

Reputation is born out of pride and integrity , groomed from respect and deserved through merit. If you do something long enough and you do it well then recognition is the ultimate reward. No one need utter words of congratulations if you are true to yourself and know you tried your hardest. When you know what you have achieved and when you can see how others have benefitted from the results it’s safe to reflect in the gratification. And to know your reputation is something that you have earned.

 

Published June 20th, 2011 Category News Comments No Comments »

Tampa Bay’s Media Talk: Engine Room Insights: Tony Michaelides

Published June 10th, 2011 Category Video Comments No Comments »

TM real rock stars

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TM U2 Part 1

Published June 10th, 2011 Category Video Comments No Comments »

Welcome

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