smithsonian channel rocks out

The Smithsonian Channel has got its groove on this March with some great music documentaries. This Friday, March 21 (10 p.m. ET/PT) is the premier of "Blondie's New York," featuring the pioneering New Wave band. The program focuses on their breakthrough album, Parallel Lines, and the band's transition from underground punk recording artists to punk/rock/pop superstars. Featuring interviews with all the band members and the influential album producer Mike Chapman, "Blondie's New York" takes each song, track by track, and shows not only how it was created, but the collaborative process behind them.

The band members of Blondie include:

Deborah "Debbie" Harry on vocals
Chris Stein on guitar, 12-string guitar, E-bow
Clem Burke on drums
Jimmy Destri on electronic keyboards
Nigel Harrison on bass guitar
Frank Infante on guitar

Lead singer Debbie Harry was a triple threat — a brilliant lyricist, great singer, and beautiful girl who became a fashion icon. She and partner and Chris Stein were at the height of their romance while making Parallel Lines, which is reflected in songs like "Picture This" and Pretty Baby." Not only do viewers get to hear the stories behind these songs from the creators, but get a tour of the downtown New York punk scene which spawned the group. Clubs like CBGB were a training ground for the group, who were finding some local success, but nothing like what was to come. Chrysalis records executive Terry Ellis, after catching one of Blondie's downtown gigs bought out their their current recording contract and paired them with producer Mike Chapman, whose attention to detail  and relentless perfectionism helped craft Parallel Lines and pushed the band to experiment with new sounds like the disco dance beat that dominates "Heart of Glass." As Harry recalled in The Guardian,

" ... in 1978, we got this producer, Mike Chapman, who asked us to play all the songs we had. At the end, he said: "Have you got anything else?" We sheepishly said: "Well, there is this old one." He liked it – he thought it was very pretty and started to pull it into focus. The boys in the band had got their hands on a new toy: this little Roland drum machine. One day, we were fiddling around with it and Chapman said: "That's a great sound." So we used it.

Back then, it was very unusual for a guitar band to be using computerized sound. ..."

Narrated by Kim Cattrall, "Blondie's New York" features some great music and even greater interviews with Harry, Stein, and the rest of the band. Blondie fans will want to dig out their old CDs and vinyl and listen one again to some great songs from Parallel Lines, like "Hanging on the Telephone" and "One Way or Another."

The Smithsonian Channel also has two other music-themed specials which have already aired. "Amy Winehouse: One Shining Night" follows the late singer on a visit to the Irish fishing village of Dingle, where she performed some of her biggest hits in a small 200 year-old church to the locals. The intimate performance captures Winehouse at the top of her form, shortly after the release of her 2006 awarding-winning album Back to Black. The film features excerpts from an interview with the singer, who talks about her passion for music and her influences, like soul singer Carleen Anderson, Thelonius Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, and Sarah Vaughan. Winehouse also was influenced by '60s girl groups like the Ronettes and the Shangri Las.

It is wonderful to hear the singer talking about her work and do what she does best — sing — in "Amy Winehouse: One Shining Night," but it is also bittersweet, as one can't help but wonder what other wonderful work we will miss out on from a woman who died too young, at the age of 27. But fans of her wonderful jazz-inspired vocals will really enjoy these renditions of "Back to Black," "You Know I'm No Good," "Love Is a Losing Game" and other songs. A third music documentary, "Rocking the Opera House: Dr. John" can also be viewed. The Smithsonian Channel is rocking out!

michael, whitney, amy ...

I have been wondering from time to time why the passing of Whitney Houston seemed more like a blip on the radar to me than the death of Michael Jackson, which at times, still seems surreal. Or even Amy Winehouse, while though not unexpected, seems tragic. One doesn't want to show disrespect to the recently deceased, but I can't help but feel that the end to Whitney's story was inevitable.

Author Nury Vittachi explored the same questions in an irreverent way on his blog, The Curious Diary of Mr. Jam. Some will undoubtedly be offended by his juxtapositions of "facts" such as:

5) Her place in musical history.
New, approved factoid:
“Fans will never forget her concerts because they were so uplifting.”
Inconvenient original fact:
“Fans will never forget her concerts because she often failed to show and you had to queue to get your money back.”

Whitney's problems with drugs were so well-known that her death was not only not a surprise, but became almost an anticlimax to a career that she had been trying to kill off for years. I have complete sympathy for her daughter, for all she must have gone through with a mother with such problems, as well as for what she must be going through now. But Vittachi is right on when he critiques the media and the rest of us for our automatic lionizing or revising of a departed star's status. He takes this idea even further in a post about John Lennon and Princess Di.

Like Whitney, the undeniably talented Amy Winehouse was a fresh and welcome voice on the music scene, but her music came from the place of her demons, and her public trials were too well-documented to hope that her story might have a different ending. With all of the singing shows on television and all the starry-eyed hopefuls desirous of a music career, no one seems to be holding up these talented ladies as a warning.

Which led me to question myself and why I still feel a little sad, even surprised, about how Michael Jackson's story ended. Certainly part of the reason, if I'm truthful, that I am inclined to be more sympathetic to Winehouse and Jackson is that I prefer their music to Houston's. I have always loathed the kind of power pop "diva" singing that Houston popularized. Sorry Celine, Mariah, etc. Having to re-listen to Houston's songs on the radio is not something I look forward to. Or the endless tributes by shows like Glee and American Idol. Houston is responsible for a certain kind of female singing, with endless vocal runs and flourishes, that may have been impressive to some once upon a time, but I think has tainted pop music. It's de riguer for young female singers to try to out-Whitney a song. Bleccch.

So what about Jackson? His whoo-hoos and panting and grunts became just as much of a vocal crutch in his songs as Houston's trills. Is it because, despite all of his controversy and eccentricities, his death still seemed unexpected? He, like Houston, had been virtually ignored on current radio until his death. Now it seems like a day doesn't go by without some contemporary mix radio programmer slipping in a Jackson song like Man in the Mirror or Rock With You.

What made me realize how seriously Jackson took his music was catching the documentary Michael Jackson's This Is It on demand. The concert film, directed by Kenny Ortega, was originally intended as documentary footage of the creation of Jackson's This Is It tour. Ortega claims that the footage was never intended for release, but the quality of some of the filmed sequences suggest there was always an eye to use them for some purpose other than merely reference. The film follows Jackson through the staging of many of his most famous songs, such as "Black or White," "Human Nature," and "Thriller," showing him to be clearly in creative control, as well as a perfectionist. We see that he is human too, with a sense of humor, but the camera always keeps a polite distance, never getting too close to him.

Maybe besides the talent of these people, what still makes the loss of Jackson more poignant is that he was always a bit of a mystery. His private life was not only very private, but at times incomprehensible. His story remains a mystery. Why did it happen, how did it happen? What happened to Amy and Whitney and so many other talented people like them is all-too-familiar. There is nothing mysterious about their endings, just depressing predictability.

who CARES about these people?

Unless you've been living under a rock lately, you have certainly seen the John McCain/Britney/Paris ad and all the ensuing criticism. Now don't think this is going to be a "political" post. I'm not really bothered by what this ad may or may not do to either McCain's or Obama's campaigns. What really gets me is that a presidential candidate (or more correctly, his flacks) have fallen into the celebrity hate/worship culture, which simply needs to stop. Now.

Why does anyone find these "celebrities" interesting? I understand the trainwreck principle. For some reason, humans get off on human suffering. This is nothing new. Public floggings, hangings, stocks, etc. But the endless paparazzi coverage of a lot of twenty-somethings whose only claim to fame is the result of Disney machine marketing or Daddie's bank account is puzzling. Why do we want to see Britney buy her 10th Starbucks coffee of the day? Why do we want to see Paris do anything? And when someone who has some actual talent self-destructs (Amy Winehouse) do we need to watch it moment-by-moment? This is a sad, but all-too-common tale.

I understand why we like to buy magazines and check out sites that show the rich and famous, Brad and Angelina's cavorting and adopting, etc. I wanted to hear what crazy name the babies were given, too, but I hardly cared when they were actually born or needed to keep vigil. Magazine culture has changed. The Internet is a huge factor. Supermarket tabloids can't keep up with the 'net's ability to post almost immediate updates on these folks traipsing through Hollywood. And it allows the rest of us to post at will our opinions of those coffee-buying excursions.

This is for me the most disturbing aspect of the hate/worship culture. Most gossip sites seem to be outlets for folks to vent and post, mostly in obscene terms, their opinions. Is everyone in the world really so angry or jealous of these twits? Sure, most celebs may very well be undeserving of their fame. But if you don't like it, don't watch. Paris Hilton understands that there is no bad publicity, just publicity. So if you are sick of her, then stop cruising sites to see her latest move. I love pop culture, but I am sick of the negativity, the vulture-like waiting for the next celebrity disaster, the posters who all claim to "know" someone that can prove that so-and so's preferences lean this way or that. The Internet can be a great connector, but it also allows everyone to sink to the lowest possible level. I don't care what Paris or Britney are up to. Join me and we can not care together.