My grandfather used to go on all the time about how fascinating America was. His chief fascination was, “all the ways one can make money!” He didn’t just revel in the idea of the bazaar (a thousand shops, Sahib!). No, what got his juices really going was the creativity. He thought that when a guy came up with a particularly unique business idea? His quote: “Now that’s creative!”

(OK, so he didn’t live to see derivatives trading. I wonder what a guy without even a high school education would’ve thought of that kind of “creativity”. (My rule of thumb? If you don’t understand this kind of derivative? You’ve got no business dealing the financial kind.)

But that sub-rant aside, there are a ton of creative ways to make a living. But what my grandfather really meant was not so much the execution as much as coming up with the idea. “He thought it up and figured out how to get people to pay for it!” Right. […]

OK, so we’re all doing it Gangnam Style this week.

There was an expression amongst jazzers years ago, ‘All the good notes are taken’ to explain why older tunes were more memorable. I was told that Duke coined it. Even if that isn’t true, it’s something he could have said so I’ll go with it. The melancholy in that sentence is something I feel keenly. Duke was a guy who went from nothing to great success to being forgotten and then reborn to fame and then finally recognised as a national treasure. I always admired the man even more than his music because he just kept going out every night with a quiet dignity regardless of the latest fashion. He wasn’t truly appreciated until his passing, but those who knew him always realised that he was the coolest man in any room.

There have been a number of articles and books out lately about […]

I’ve reached the age where I’ve noticed the lying about one’s youth really begins. I’ve played a lot of crappy sideman gigs over the past two years trying to get my chops back together and boy to hear people my age talk!

Prog Caused Punk. Punk Killed Prog

First of all, I wanna dispel a very common myth. Prog did not cause punk. Prog was self-destructing in ’77 when punk happened. In fact, I got into punk because it was the only alternative to the prevailing pop music of the era, which was awful. What was the biggest selling group back then? Abba. Punk was simply the body’s natural reaction to being suffocated to death. In such situations, you begin thrashing about just to survive that feeling. And Abba? Elton John? I’m having trouble breathin’ just thinking about that crap.

Because Abba was never cool. You’d get yer ass kicked for liking Abba. And Elton. And all those totally gay, over-produced, late ’70’s pop groups.

Prog was already dying by the time ‘Never […]

So Jonah Lehrer plagiarizes himself. How novel. Not.

Artists and authors of all stripes have been re-purposing and re-using their own stuff for millenia. Hell, 2/3 of Picasso’s oeuvre is largely the same. (Well, Paloma, time for Daddy to go to work. Different day, same naked fat chicks on the beach. C’est la vie!) Of course, ‘journalism’ is different. One must not re-use any material without proper attribution, of course. So his crime is one not so much of copying as in not informing people that he was copying.

Now I have really enjoyed Lehrer’s work. He has some great ideas on how humans ‘operate’, including his recent book on ‘creativity.’ I don’t condone this failure, but as Dr. Manhattan might say, “I understand, without condoning or judging.” Ironically, some of his best writing has been about the affects of technology on how we think. And I believe he has been hoisted on his own petard.

Point Number One: Look, it’s a cut n’ paste world. You know that. Even though […]

Some people are just head and shoulders above the rest in terms of execution; the Michael Jordans. John Williams and Steven Spielberg are like that in movies. I’m not saying everything they do is ‘the best’ every year but, like His Airness what they do is of such a consistent quality that over time, they just dominate. They are the U of M ground game of movies.

Warhorse

And ‘War Horse’ is another example. It’s not the best work for either, but again, the execution is so damned good that you watch the implausibilities go by and feel your emotions being manipulated like a Swedish masseur and you give into it because, hey… it’s a fuckin’ Swedish Massage.

What makes Warhorse at the top this year is not that John can write in any style he wants and it’s gonna sound great. He may be the last guy who can really write a truly post-romantic score. (People forget that the guys who laid down the law in Hollywood’s Golden Age were largely […]