Life's a Pitch

Going Rogue

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:58:17 -0500

From the Globe and Mail, headline: "COC Boss Scoops his Own Publicist":

The Canadian Opera Company is usually tight-lipped about its plans beyond the current season. I thought the tradition would continue under Alexander Neef, the diplomatic young German who took over as the Toronto company's general director last year.

Boy, was I wrong. Neef's blog on the COC website is chock full of hints, tips and informal announcements about his agenda for future seasons, including the following...
"He's interested in giving some hints along the way," says COC director of public relations Claudine Domingue, who usually tries to keep the lid on insider tips about the company's plans. "I think he enjoys letting people see a little behind the scenes."
Neef's prolific July entries are sprinkled with names of the eminent singers, directors and talent agents he encounters at lunch or at performances in Paris and London. The name-dropping is often followed by a more or less direct statement of that person's role in future COC seasons.

For Monday, how artist Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, and blogs can cause more trouble than they're worth. As I like to say to one of my clients when we're in public places and spaces, "Lock it down!"

In which I may get fired 2x

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:03:44 -0500

I've been working on two ridiculous things. You know how CD release concerts are usually/mostly boring? Or at the very least, exactly the same as the last one you went to? Right, so, next week and the following week, two people I work for are mixing it up a bit. Both these events are free as birds.

On Tuesday November 10th, Cantaloupe Music is releasing composer Julia Wolfe's Dark Full Ride: Music in Multiples. To celebrate, there will be a series of free performances around Manhattan. Does everyone remember the amazing Angel Project from 2002? This is a gesture toward that. Nobody really works anyway, right? So come for some or all of these 20-minute concerts. We'll all travel together to each performance with Julia and the musicians. Here's the schedule:

11AM - "LAD" for 9 bagpipes
Matthew Welch plays LAD on bagpipe with 8 more bagpipes on tape
Roulette, 20 Greene Street (between Canal and Grand)

12 NOON - "Dark Full Ride" for 4 drumsets
Talujon Percussion Quartet (David Cossin, Tom Kolor, Michael Lipsey and Matt Ward)
Dauphin Human Design, 138 West 25th Street, 12th Floor (between 6th and 7th Avenues)

1PM - "Stronghold" for 8 double basses
Robert Black and the Hartt Bass Band
Chelsea Art Museum, 556 West 22nd Street (corner of 11th Avenue)

2:30PM - "my lips from speaking" for 6 pianos
Lisa Moore, Lisa Kaplan, Blair McMillen, Timo Andres, Kate Campbell, Isabelle O'Connell
conducted by Sam Adams
Faust Harrison Pianos, 205 West 58th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues)

I'm already planning my hilarious out-of-office autoreply for that day.

And now for something completely different, since Cecilia Bartoli isn't touring in the States this season, we're having a virtual (" ") release party for her on Monday, November 16th. The release party, at (le) poisson rouge in (le) West Village, will feature a video recording of Cecilia performing selections from her new album, Sacrificium. The concert was recorded on September 10th, 2009 at the court theater of the Reggia di Caserta. The party will include silly door prizes and a drink called "The Castratini".

Keep in mind both these things could be completely unattended and I will go crawling back to the sell-tickets-to-a-live-concert-to-celebrate-a-release-in-one-place method after pounding Castratinis alone. I'll keep you posted.

Blooper reel

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:06:18 -0500

My client Eric Owens had a recital at Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall last spring. Typically, I was doing seventeen things at once, two of which were working with Carnegie's Creative Services department on Eric's program and e mailing Hilary Hahn a photo of a dog wearing a yarmulke. No particular reason for that latter task.

The person I was working with at Carnegie asked which photo of Eric I wanted in the program. I cut and pasted the URL of a recent photo of Eric from the IMG Artists website and sent it off to him. I received an e mail back saying, "Attached is what we have on file for Mr. Owens. I'm not sure you want us to use the photo below."

That would be...of a dog wearing a yarmulke.

Amanda the Consummate Professional strikes again! What PR prowess. What charm, what grace!

Yesterday, I e mailed someone at Decca a response that was meant for someone else at Decca. Something like, "I just don't think that naked statue photo screams 'party'" as a reply to an iTunes question. On the ball yet again! My own incompetence made me think: a while back, we collected a list on Life's a Pitch of the things that annoy journalists about publicists (here) and that annoy publicists about journalists (here). Now I want a list of everyone's biggest PR bloopers. Come on...publicity is funny!

Comment anonymously or as your proud, mistake-making self here.

Group mentality

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:43:23 -0500

Let me first say that I hope this blog entry doesn't ruin my sister's chances of marrying Jorge Posada.

I noticed these Jorge Posada/Mayor Bloomberg ads on The Awl last Tuesday. "Did they press 'submit' on those ads the as soon as Posada caught that last Rivera pitch on Monday night?" I wondered. Some deft Google work on my part determined that no, the ads had been running since the end of September, neatly timed with the release of Posada and Mrs. Posada's (err...sorry, Aliza) book. New York Magazine reports that jointly, the Posadae endorse our current Mayor--though poor Mrs. P. doesn't get her photo in the banner ads--saying in a press release, "He can hit, throw, field and lead a team, all without missing a beat. We proudly pledge our support to the City's all-star Mayor, Mike Bloomberg." Oh-boy.

I have never worked in politics, but as a casual observer who thinks a lot about publicity, I don't think it's a good idea to have a player from only one New York sports team endorse you. Sure, the Mets were an unmitigated disaster this season, but that's hardly germane to their having many, many fans who are voters. I asked my friend Ben Wyskida, Publicity Director for The Nation (see the **exclusive** Life's a Pitch interview here) for his thoughts:

"The Yankees are Manhattan's team and Bloomberg is Manhattan's Mayor. I'm not sure what a Mets fan would think of this. Also, I wish these ads reminded voters what a horrific stadium deal Bloomberg cut with the Yankees, costing the city millions in revenue and leaving school children in the Bronx playing baseball on Staten Island, instead of on the new parkland they were promised. But they won't. Frankly, I do think in local politics it's good to get sports heroes involved, but you have to get a few, from the different teams."

Moving on from Bloomberg's PR choices, I was thinking about how interesting it is every time a baseball player (orchestra player, ensemble member) is pulled out of their group into the solo spotlight. I don't think I've ever seen Posada on his own; Jeter, yes, all over the place, including in bobblehead form on my desk and in my dreams every night, but not Posada. I spent a good chunk of last week in Utah with my clients The King's Singers. Even when a new member joined the group last year, we didn't concentrate the press on him. Sure, he did a few interviews about "being the new King's Singer," but the focus was on how his joining would affect the group, what the group's process for selecting a new member was, what was ahead for this new incarnation of the group. Watching two of their concerts last week, I noticed that the individual members don't even bow after one has a solo. The soloist may gently nod slightly more than the other members during the applause, but even in performance the emphasis is completely on the group.

On the one hand, I think orchestras, baseball teams and ensembles are significantly more interesting to watch when you know the personalities and interests behind the players. One of the New York Philharmonic musicians, for example, was profiled in Runner's World because he is, you guessed it, a runner. Similarly, one of The King's Singers, Paul Phoenix, loves cars; would his being profiled in Car and Driver help the group reach a different audience? Of course. Would I, as the group's publicist, feel strange about pitching a solo profile of him without pitching solo profiles elsewhere for the other five? Absolutely. I felt weird typing his name just now! David Hurley, Timothy Wayne-Wright, Philip Lawson, Christopher Gabbitas and Stephen Connolly - there! Now I've mentioned them all.

I'm curious to hear how other publicists for organizations and ensembles handle this. Is it more effective to divide and conquer--that is, pitch stories for individuals when and where they come up--or to push a group's image and persons-alities above all else? Individuals are what make the groups, and basically everything in this world, interesting, but the group is what's powerful and, ultimately and presumably, what people want to see and hear. How much stronger would a Yankees endorsement of Bloomberg have been, for example, rather than just a Jorge Posada endorsement?

All that said, let's go Yankees! It is my opinion as a Public Relations Professional that winning the World Series in your new stadium will result in Good Publicity. That's a little free advice from me to you, Joe Girardi.

Metababy 'Media' covered by media

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:49:43 -0500

Maybe I was sleepy, but last night I was actually convinced Mel Gibson had named his new child "Media" and I thought, how amazing is that! Stick it to the press! Upon closer reading, I think ABC News just wrote a bad headline.

Paying attention to (and changing up) the man behind the curtain

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:38:03 -0500

As you may (or may not) have read, I signed up for that coy mistress Twitter a couple weeks back. Here's me, tweeting my life ((career)) away. I joined for the sake of research for this blog, but am actually rather liking it as an information conduit. It's much easier to read than my current Bloglines sprawl, and since I'm fortunate enough to have smart, funny friends, I enjoy their updates throughout the day. In the interest of full disclosure, though, you should know that I've chosen to unfollow my die hard Phillies phan of an ex boyfriend for the remainder of the World Series. (Seriously.)

Poking around the 'sphere, I've noticed a lot of users don't like the news alert-esque tweets from arts organizations. The largest arts organization I follow is The Metropolitan Opera (@metopera), and, surprisingly, I am liking those same basic, personality-less informational tweets everyone seems to dislike so much. For example, I wouldn't have known about the free House of Dead lecture with Esa-Pekka Salonen, swoon, tomorrow were it not for following The Met on Twitter. The same information, of course, could be delivered to me if signed up for their e mail list, but I find tweets less intrusive, and as you've surely read, e mail is dead.

The reason I started following The Met in the first place, though, was because they responded to one my tweets about the donkey on stage in Barber of Seville. They did not respond to my tweet about one of the leads looking like Cogsworth, but no matter. (That's right, donkeys and Disney: my Twitter feed is some high-brow stuff, friends.) It was a personal touch, then, that hooked me. They even said "LOL" in their response to my tweet! Did I actually make The Metropolitan Opera Laugh Out Loud? The Entire Metropolitan Opera? The building?

Obviously not. I (maybe) made the person running their Twitter feed laugh (and I'll take it), but who is that person? Who's running Carnegie's Twitter feed? The New York Phil's? I realize these accounts are meant to represent the organizations as wholes, so perhaps revealing the tweeter behind the keyboard is not in line with their broader "social media" marketing strategy. Not surprisingly, Wired magazine has figured out how to give their Twitter feed a voice---various voices, actually--while maintaining a branded company presence. I've only been following them on Twitter for a couple weeks, but it seems like they have a different reporter or editor run the account every week. They posted this tonight:

Wouldn't it be fantastic if arts organizations did this? Normally, I would advocate for a consistent voice in marketing materials, but with Twitter, blogs and Facebook, personality is the name of the game, and why not own up to the fact that your organization is made up of a lot of different personalities? Having more than one person at an arts organization tweet each week would give the public a sense of the people behind the scenes in a far more natural way than a Q&A or a special feature on the website. It would also, as I'm sure it does in Wired's case, drive followers to their employees' personal Twitter pages, and assuming they're pro-their organization, that can only raise awareness beyond the organization's normal reach. Most importantly, it would allow an organization to have their news curated in a different way each week; maybe what the marketing director views as news is different from what the artistic administrator views as news, so why not embrace that and the diversified followers that come with it?

Fun with Castration!

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:44:18 -0500

I'm working on the US press for the new Cecilia Bartoli album, Sacrificium, which not unlike Michael Jackson's new album, came out this week. Buy it here to support this blog. Just kidding: album sales have nothing to do with this blog, but it's a good album so buy it anyway.

Somewhere along the line we came up with the idea for a "virtual archeological dig," and today the thing actually happened.

SO, La Cieca over at parterre.com kicks things off. Follow the clues to 8 other sites and answer questions to reveal puzzle pieces here. Last clue is at The Iron Tongue of Midnight.

I'm trippin' I'm caught up in the moment, right?

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:32:03 -0500

So this happened: Kanye West mentions (cute and good) Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes on his blog.

Here are the comments:

No one ever comments about "all that coke" on Life's a Pitch. Lame, team. Lame.

Let's just hope this doesn't go to LOA's head. His management probably doesn't want him showing up two hours late to summer festivals.

Second best

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:29:15 -0500

We have this thing "Site Meter"--which is exactly what it sounds like--set up for our ArtsJournal blogs, so we can see how many people are reading us, from where, at what time, so on, so forth.

One of the intriguing aspects of Site Meter is that I can see what people have Googled to get to me. "Amanda Ameer" Google Image searches crop up every once and a while and totally creep me out, but most Google searches that get you to home sweet Life's a Pitch are "how to find a publicist," "classical music publicity," etc.. This one, in addition to the recent Yankees' lead on the TV, really made my night, though:

That's right folks: according to Lord Google, this right here is is the second stop for the Best Publicity in the World. You should all feel quite pleased with yourselves for reading. Clients who are reading: consider this your notice that I'm raising my rates.

2003 called: it wants its emotional moment back

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:25:12 -0500

I carry around big purses a lot, so sometimes I'll see a cute dog on the street and actually think I can scoop him or her up, mush him or her into the bag with my computer, lip plumper and blotting tissue, and continue on my way. These are the things that drift through my head, and for a split second I'm certain I can pull the off the dog heist without getting arrested. If I suddenly stop blogging, it probably means I've actually done it and, in fact, gotten arrested; apologies in advance.

I lugged this white leather and plastic Jill Stuart monstrosity around LA this weekend and had a similar stroke of crazy about Disney Hall and Gustavo Dudamel. They could fit; I'll just take out this map of Los Angeles, ditch the MacBook, move the make-up around...they could totally fit. Disney Hall looks bendable, as does Dudamel's hair. Just come home with me. I love you.

Unfortunately, The Dude was not conducting while I was in town, and instead I sampled the auditory delights of John Williams Conducts John Williams. Even my cold, black heart was warmed by the "Imperial Death March" encore, though getting through the Memoirs of a Geisha suite with applause between all--I think 8?--movements was a challenge. But I've seen Dudamel conduct, and can say for sure that this appointment was not a matter of snagging a cool Dude with great hair from a Foriegn Land That's Not Europe to garner some press and buzz for an American orchestra. This is an excellent musician and a consummate communicator who also happens to be all those other things. As previously mentioned, I think the "Gustavo" marketing campaign is mildly ridiculous, but it was still encouraging to see posters all over town. I mean, all over town. I got lost on Sunset Boulevard ("twisting Boulevard") and thought I could use the blue "Gustavo Awesome-O" or whatever street light banners as my breadcrumbs; big mistake, they're everywhere.

I realize it's silly to write my impressions of Disney Hall almost exactly six years after it opened on October 23, 2003, but you've read this far already, so just come with me. The John Williams Event was at 2pm, so my friend from college was going to drive me around the city and take me to The Grove for breakfast before the concert. The hall was a few blocks up from my hotel, but I hadn't seen it yet, so when we drove by I started grinning and then, oh no, here it comes - crying! If you don't know me, you probably think "crying" means a few tears running down my face dragging clumps of mineral make-up along with them, but sadly no: I really cry. "Wait, are you CRYING?" my friend asked. "Should we pull over??"

How cool, though, that this is where the classical music lives in LA. This isn't a museum or a hotel, it isn't some crazy new apartment building for the rich and famous. This is the Home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and I was overwhelmed. I walked around the garden at intermission and took photos like a Proper Tourist. Of course the sunshiny weather didn't hurt the building's cause, but I would go to a concert every Sunday afternoon there if I could. And most importantly, just like its new music director, inside that shiny, wavy, exciting wonder is a hall that sounds fantastic.

Carnegie Hall Quotables

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:20:57 -0500

Knowing my penchant for quotes, my friend Abigail sent this over this afternoon from Bloomberg News:

[Clive] Gillinson, who came from the London Symphony Orchestra in 2005, made less in 2007-08 than two other New York performing- arts leaders with more complex tasks. Lincoln Center President Reynold Levy made $1.1 million to oversee a 16-acre complex that houses 12 resident companies. Metropolitan Opera General Manager Peter Gelb earned $1.5 million to produce 219 opera performances...
Gillinson oversees management, raises money and develops "artistic concepts" for concerts, according to the hall.

I guess the writer doesn't consider that a legit part of the job? Or like, he does it in the way David Letterman apparently "developed" "artistic" "concepts"?

Life's a Twitch, Part 3 (The Journalists)

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:07:50 -0500

Though many, many more music journalists are on Twitter, these are the people I noticed interacting with the publicists I interviewed the most. Oodles of thanks to @nightafternight: Steve Smith, New York Times, Time Out New York; @anastasiat: Anastasia Tsioulcas, Gramophone, Variety; @gsandow: Greg Sandow, Wall Street Journal, ArtsJournal; and @sethcolterwalls: Seth Colter Walls, Newsweek for their answers.

These interviews were conducted via Telex machine. Just kidding.

___________________

How long have you been using Twitter?
@nightafternight: Since April 2009.

@anastasiat: I just went back & checked my profile--since Sept. 8, 2008. Huh. Had no idea it had been that long.

@sethcolterwalls: Since August 2008.

@gsandow: Six to nine months, can't remember exactly.

Where you motivated by personal or professional reasons?
@nightafternight: The two are largely inextricable in my experience, but personal was probably the initial catalyst. The short answer is that I was frustrated by my inability to keep my blog updated on a reasonably regular basis, primarily as a result of the promotion and expanded workload I took on at Time Out last August. I very badly missed having a personal, interactive outlet for thoughts and observations that didn't necessarily extend from either of my jobs, but wouldn't necessarily exclude them, either, since they're a large part of who I am. The long answer is here.

@sethcolterwalls: My last job strongly encouraged that I take the plunge right around the time I was becoming curious about what was happening on Twitter. So both.

@anastasiat: Both, honestly.

@gsandow: Motivated by curiosity, and then by professional interests.

Life's a Twitch, Part 2 (The Publicists)

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:16:42 -0500

Many thanks to @cjpr: Christina Jensen, Christina Jensen PR; @CarnegieMatt: Matt Carlson, Carnegie Hall; @dotdotdottweet: Steven Swartz, DotDotDot Music; @SarahBaird: Sarah Baird, Boosey and Hawkes; @BklsweetMedia: Amanda Sweet, Bucklesweet Media; @glennpetry, @seanmgross, @PhilipWilder: Glenn Petry, Sean Gross and Philip Wilder, 21C Media Group; and @mlaffs: Maura Lafferty, New Century Chamber Orchestra for their help with this. Now stop Tweeting and answering blog questions and revise some bios!

These interviews were conducted via carrier pigeon, i.e. e mail.

___________________

How long have you been using Twitter?
@cjpr: Since March 2009.

@CarnegieMatt: About seven months.

@dotdotdottweet: Since last winter - don't recall exactly when I started, but it was definitely BO (Before Oprah).

@SarahBaird: I began listening in March 2008 but didn't join the conversation and start tweeting until March 2009.

@BklsweetMedia: One week!

@glennpetry: We began using Twitter last season 2008-2009.

@seanmgross: I signed up for Twitter over a year ago, but I didn't start actively using it until about six months ago.

@PhilipWilder: I began my life as a tweeter about 9 months ago.

@mlaffs: Since April or March?

Were you motivated by personal or professional reasons?
@cjpr: Professional.

@CarnegieMatt: I was initially motivated because Carnegie Hall was planning its own Twitter account (now launched @carnegiehall) as part of an expanded social media effort. So I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. That said, my feed is really meant to be a personal account - I comment on non-musical matters as well, and it's linked to my personal email account. If I could do it again, I suppose I wouldn't have picked @carnegiematt as my handle since it's not reflective of everything you read there.

@dotdotdottweet: Mostly personal - thought it might be fun. Its promotional potential wasn't immediately obvious to me.

@SarahBaird: I was curious about Twitter and I appreciated the ability to see trends and participate in conversations, share experiences. The major impetus for me to join was SXSW. I was heading to Austin and knew that I'd only be able to see about 20 of the thousands of showcasing bands, and meet about 20 of the thousands of interesting people. So Twitter was a way for me to tune into the larger conversation and tweet-up with people who were zipping around to different venues. I'd say it's personal-professional for me. I tweet as Sarah-Baird-Who-Works-for-Boosey-&-Hawkes. So a person who follows me isn't following a company megaphone, but the same person they'd see if they were my colleague, working in my office. None of my personal friends follow me on Twitter (who aren't involved in the industry).

@BklsweetMedia: Professional but just like most things in my life, those boundaries are blurred. I actually sent out a tweet last week about DC Green Works and my great meeting with them about bayscaping in my yard.

@glennpetry: I would say we were motivated by both personal and professional reasons, which is why we maintain both "personal" and "professional" Twitter accounts.

@seanmgross: I use my own Twitter account mainly for personal reasons. I let my friends and "followers" (although I don't like that word...it makes me sound creepy, like I'm trying to be David Koresh) know about a new restaurant that I discovered, an interesting article I read, or something unusual or funny that happened to me that day. However, I don't share anything that is too personal, since my Tweets can also be seen by colleagues and clients. For our company, I oversee a separate 21C Media Group Twitter feed that is one of several ways that the press and public can elect to receive information on our clients (other ways include our website, news release emails, RSS feed, and Facebook page). Each tweet includes a one-line news item and a link to a news release on our company's website. It's not meant to be the most interactive Twitter feed. We encourage our artists to Twitter on their own if they are interested and have the time to commit to it, as this is where the true power of Twitter lies. Our feed is engineered to be more of news feed, like CNN's but with a much more singular focus.

@PhilipWilder: Since I travel tons for work, as well as my life as a "bi-coastal", it initially seemed to be a good way to keep in touch with friends and colleagues. Now, I have a good amount of followers - friends and strangers - and have many discussions with them over Twitter and through email when 140 characters isn't enough. Of course, 21C posts daily Tweets on breaking news about our clients too. Mine are more of an inside view from Behind the scenes.

@mlaffs: Initially, I wanted to get to know the tool and the user base before even considering using it for my company, since I've seen a lot of arts organizations mis-use social media. Since then, the relationships that I have built have offered both personal and professional value.

Life's a Twitch, Part 1

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:41:24 -0500

About a week ago, I had coffee with an arts marketer from out of town. She mentioned going to the opera with a prominent critic, and having--a meal or a meeting, I don't remember--with a prominent New York presenter. She was by no means bragging about these things, just telling me what she had been up to during her trip. No judging, I started, but if you've never worked in the city, how do you know these people? "Through Twitter!" she said.

I've never joined Facebook, and I had no burning desire to join Twitter. It's Thursday at 11:40pm, and I'm watching the Phillies (hopefully) beat the Dodgers, answering e mails and writing this blog post. Point being I work a lot, so the thought of adding personal Facebook and Twitter updating to the mix makes me want to move to Tahiti and sell sunblock. But Twitter for work purposes got my attention (label me with whatever -aholic you must), and I started looking into which publicists and which journalists were active members of the twitterati. More importantly, which publicists and journalists interacted with each other on Twitter. Were stories being pitched? Introductions being made? Contacts being found?

Some things about Christine Brewer

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:47:46 -0500

I went to Christine Brewer's Zankel (Carnegie) Hall recital tonight and now, over a glass of strawberry milk, I will tell you what it made me think about. Spoiler Alert: it's marketing and PR.

1. One of, if not the, best things about working at IMG Artists was getting to meet the clients in a non-formal setting when they came into the office. I'm not sure if he remembers, but I remember Eric Owens coming in and suggesting we rearrange the furniture in the lobby. I was all-too-happy to offer my two...dollars...on the lobby design, as was my friend Mark from the Vocal Division. I also remember washing my hands next to Renée Fleming in the Ladies Room and uncharacteristically trying not to look her in the eye because I was wearing something stupid that day and she was the real-deal glamorous. And I think Hilary baked cookies for everyone at one point? Regardless, it was fun to interact with the artists in the office, because then you'd go to a concert later that night and remember Joshua Bell talking about how he had spent all morning at the Apple Store. I never met Christine Brewer, though she is represented by IMG, so what was amazing about her performance tonight was that I felt like I had met her, many times. I'm not going to say she was "warm and natural on stage" because that is an understatement; I actually felt like she was practicing her recital in my apartment and we'd known each other for a decade. When a mutual friend introduced us backstage, he said to her, "You've met Amanda, right?" I actually almost said "yes"! Can you imagine? I had in no way met this woman and I was almost like, "Oh yeah, we've met. Many times." I write a lot on this blog about how marketing and publicity materials need to make the artists seem accessible, but there's really no substitute for an artist actually being that accessible in live performance.

2. I like a lot of concerts, but I rarely want to hear them again right after I've experienced them. This one, though, I would have bought and could have been re-listening to as I type now. "Bought," you ask? Recently, bands have been selling the MP3s from their live shows right after they happen. I realize this gets more complicated when the music is not written or owned by the artist, but that is something I would be more willing to purchase than a CD, even if the CD was of the exact same repertoire.

3. It is ironic that skinny women get fancy recording deals because, erm, that's when the music is supposed to be heard and not seen? Yes yes, I know all about "the whole package," but that doesn't make it any less ironic.

4. Christine (first name-basis, because as you know, we've met many times before) sang an encore about a review of an opera singer's Carnegie Hall recital at her Carnegie Hall recital! M-E-T-A Meta Meta woooo! ~~Carnegie is going to post the name of the piece and composer tomorrow.~~ The piece was Celius Dougherty's "Review". There was a genius line about the singer's recital partner. It wasn't "able" or "reliable"...but something like that. I'm sure it will be mentioned in the review. Zing!