27 January 2009

University of New Haven school paper article on Hofstra MEISA Conference

Of course, I'm mentioned. :-)

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Kim Morrell, Staff Writer

As my body seemingly bypassed 2 sugar-loaded cups of coffee, I was kept awake by the blinding sun and the notion of learning something less scary about the music industry. A business that has been foretold as being full of ‘better-than-you, rich-guys-in-suits' and ‘forever-scrubbing-toilets interns'. Our UNH chapter of MEISA (Music Entertainment Industry Students Association) joined members of NYU's chapter at a conference at Hofstra University on Sat. Dec. 6. The conference featured very honest, jeans-wearing speakers from many different departments of the music industry. Panel discussions involved issues such as how to adjust to the ever-changing music industry, what the concert booking and venue business is like, and how to get your foot into the many different doors that line the long hallway of the music business.

Panelists for the first workshop included Neil Gillis, president of S1 Songs-North America, a publishing company, Bernadette Giacomazzo, a photographer and journalist from Akasha Multimedia, and Tom Laskas, director of The Unlabel from Milkboy Productions. An “unlabel” provides label services without contracts,. A major point that stuck out, and later appeared to be a subliminal theme, was that independent labels or publishing companies tend to be happier places than majors. You may not work for the biggest record company in the country, but you might scrub fewer toilets and gain more experience working for an independent company.

The panel collectively advised us to join or sign up for newsletters from as many industry associations as you can. Gillis dropped the names of publishing groups like ASCAP, BMI, and AIMP. They highly recommended familiarizing yourself with basic finance, reading contracts, and even understanding a bit about the film industry. They promoted the importance of educating yourself with all the industry books available like Donald Passman's All You Need to Know About the Music Business. Giacomazzo highly recommends Confessions of a Record Producer by Moses Avalon. Most of all, the message was to not be discouraged by our economy; take risks and create opportunities. Christian McKnight and Sean McDonough of Live Nation got very personal and shared stories of their best moments and absolute failures. They were accompanied by Randy Nichols, manager to The Starting Line, Underoath, Say Anything, and The Almost, who explained that sometimes “no” is the best thing you will ever hear in the business. Getting turned down will help motivate you to turn up the heat and work harder for the next big thing you pursue.

Often times, those who want to get into the music industry don't realize how broad their options may be. The music business isn't just labels, studios, and booking. It's everywhere! Nate Cyphert showed great enthusiasm as he stressed to just be wide open to all possibilities. Cyphert is a Hofstra graduate who now works at Cherry Lane Music Publishing Company. When he said all possibilities, he really opened it up by suggesting a place like Pepsi for marketing and music coordination. He was joined by Matt Kiser, the associate web producer as Spin Magazine. Kiser spoke out to all the prospective rock stars and managers on how to get noticed by a big magazine like Spin. Number one: have a reason to get in touch with the mag – if you're album is coming out soon, or you're having a huge show. Two – make sure you contact and editor who has written about your style of music; metal writers don't pay close attention to rappers. Three – stand out, be interesting.

Some of us at the conference are not exactly planning to be rock stars, and Ben Kammerle, marketing manager for CMJ, had some advice for us. ‘How to get a job in the music industry,' Keep resumes professional and sell yourself in your cover letter. Even humor helps, don't mistake the music biz for a totally laid back place. Present yourself in a professional manner, including outside of the interview (hint, you might want to take those incriminating pictures of yourself off facebook).

Speaking of facebook, it's still good to put yourself out there if you're a band or you're getting into the industry on a business side. Utilize all networking websites out there. (Facebook, myspace, sonicbids, buzznet, imeem, twitter, pure volume, sound click, linked in…) Networking is the number one factor of success in this industry. We all learned a lot at the conference – a lot of less scary things than we often perceive of the music business. Now we're all definitely a little more at ease and more motivated to break in.

25 January 2009

It's Sunday, I'm working...

...and took a break to do some cool surveys.

Your rainbow is intensely shaded red, indigo, and orange.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

What is says about you: You are a passionate person. You appreciate cities, technology, and other great things people have created. Friends count on you for being honest and insightful. Others are amazed at how you don't give up.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.


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The Life Experience Test

Overall, you have partaken in 121 out of 169 possible life experiences.
Your average life experience score is therefore 72%.


The average score is 50%, making your experiences more than 96% of the people who have taken this test.
The average for your age group (26-35) is 53%.

Broken down by category:
Art: 9/17 (53%)
Career & Work: 10/13 (77%)
Civics & Technology: 7/7 (100%)
Crime & Disarray: 8/11 (73%)
Education: 17/18 (94%)
Fashion: 5/10 (50%)
Fitness, Health and Sports: 5/7 (71%)
Life in General: 11/14 (79%)
Relationships: 10/14 (71%)
Religion & Politics: 2/4 (50%)
Social: 19/22 (86%)
Travel: 9/20 (45%)
Vices: 9/12 (75%)
 
Take the test and see how YOU compare


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The Attractiveness Test

Overall, your average attractiveness ranks at 66 / 100 (high).
Currently, the average score is 58 / 100, putting you in the top 90% of women.


Your range of attractiveness is 67 / 100 (high).
Lower scores here indicate that a smaller, selected group of people are attracted to you, while higher scores indicate a broad range of attraction.

Your specific attractiveness is 84 / 100 (very high).
This is a measure of how attractive you are to the type of people most attracted to you.
If, for example, you have a very high specific attractiveness and a low range, this means that most people might not find you too interesting, but there is a smaller group that is very attracted to you.

Your top class of potential suitor is The Social Activist.
Description: A rare find, the Social Activist is very concerned about social and humanitarian issues home and abroad.
Pros: Caring, mature, and independent.
Cons: Not many.

Runner-up: The Professional.

Remember, there are no "right" or "wrong" answers in this test - almost all of the answers are a positive quality to someone. It all depends who's interested.
 
Find out how attractive YOU are!


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Your Life Report Card

Your life grade point average is 3.2 (B).


Your Classes
Social Life: 2.6 (C+)
Friends: 2.9 (B-)
Romance: 2.5 (C+)
Education: 3.9 (A-)
Career: 3.8 (A-)
Finances & Possessions: 3.3 (B+)
Culture: 3.6 (B+)
Art & Creativity: 2.8 (B-)
Home Life: 3.6 (B+)
Athletics & Fitness: 3.0 (B)
Body: 3.5 (B+)
Physical Health: 3.3 (B+)
Mental Health: 2.6 (C+)
 
What's your life grade?


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Are you conservative or liberal?

You are a young liberal.

Generally, young liberals are more optimistic and less confrontational than their earlier compatriots.
 
Find out where you fit in.


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How healthy do you live?

Overall your lifestyle is healthy.

Your diet is good, your physical exercise is good, your mental health
state is excellent, and your supporting choices are good as well.

On a scale from 1 to 10, you ranked as a 7.8.
This means your lifestyle is healthier than 91% of other test takers.
 
How healthy do you live?


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How moral are you?

Morality is a complex subject. Everyone has a different idea about what it means. Many people believe in a God-given morality; that morality is a spiritual issues and standard; that it is absolute. Others believe in a relative morality, and believe it is designed to keep society stable and prevent us from hurting each other.


This test is designed to be a broad, encompassing look at morality. We include anything that a significant number of people believe is a moral issue.


Your ideological morality index is 7 / 10. This is determined by your ideological opposition to various things that are considered immoral. A higher number indicates a higher morality, or an increased opposition to immorality in your personal life. In other words, a higher number means you intend to be more moral in the future.
The average is currently 6.2 / 10, which leaves you 13% higher than the average.


Your practical morality index is 6.8 / 10. This is determined by your actions - what you have done, what you are doing. A higher number means that you have generally lived by a high standard of morality.
The average practical morality index is 6.3 / 10, which puts you at 8% higher than the average.


Broken down, your personal morality is 5 / 10 (medium) - this is the morality that relates to your personal decisions. Your interpersonal morality is 8.8 / 10 (high) - this concerns your relationship to, and decisions that you make concerning, other people.
 
Get your morality analysis.

23 January 2009

I'm working with an OSCAR NOMINATED PRODUCER!

My congratulations goes out to Heather Rae (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0706010), producer of UNICORNS (check here -- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1141702/fullcredits -- and see who's the music supervisor. ;-) ), for her TWO Oscar nominations for Frozen River!

Frozen River has also been nominated for Spirit Awards this year.

In the past, Heather has won a Gotham Award, and was nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize.

Felicidades Heather!

05 December 2008

Catch me at the MEISA/MEIEA Conference Tomorrow!

Yes, I know, shameless self-promotion...

If you're in the NY area, please be sure to catch me at the MEISA/MEIEA conference tomorrow at Hofstra University (my alma mater for my graduate degree).

The Music and Entertainment Industry Student Association is an organization comprised of college and university students with an interest in the music and entertainment industries. Students can gain both experience and the opportunity to network with industry professionals through local, regional, and national activities and events.

The Music and Entertainment Industry Educators Association (MEIEA®) is an international organization that was formed in 1979 to bring together educators with leaders of the music and entertainment industries. The primary goal of MEIEA® is to facilitate an exchange of information between educators and practitioners in order to prepare students for careers in the music and entertainment industries. The purpose for which MEIEA® is organized and operated is exclusively literary and educational as defined in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and its regulations.

03 December 2008

Diplomacy

Today I got an e-mail from an associate, asking me about a former lead singer of a band that is no longer in existence (specifically, what my professional opinion of the guy was).

The reason for his question was simple: said lead singer -- who, I should point out, is 41 years old if he's a day, with two young children -- had been posting a mess of gossip and borderline slander on his personal website about his former bandmates. In his bio, this lead singer described his experiences in two different bands, both of which ended because of some combination of the following: egos, drugs, drama, women.

It's also worth mentioning that this lead singer has atrocious spelling skills.

Now, of course I noticed all this, and I also recall this lead singer's dealings with myself, my colleagues, and my friends. While his erstwhile bandmates were always professional, even friendly, the lead singer was always -- frankly -- a self-righteous, self-centered prick. (Aren't they all..)

But maybe it's my old age that has made me more mellow (BTW, thanks to all of you who wished me a happy birthday on the 29th of November. MUCH appreciated!)...or maybe I just have better things to worry about than the trials and travails of some no-name, no-talent bar band with narcissistic delusions of grandeur.

So I told my colleague the following: while my professional experiences with the lead singer -- and other no-name bar bands -- is irrelevant (since I only deal with major label bands and music industry professionals, A-list celebrities, and major players in the film industry -- I refuse to deal with anything less), I will say that, as a general rule, people who take to their blog/website to write the sort of thing he wrote don't have much to offer in any other department.

As my recent interview with Finespun (I know, shameless plug: http://www.popculturemadness.com/interview/Finespun.html) proves, bands (feel free to substitute "companies" or "people" if you like) who create drama, and thrive off of it, don't have what it takes to make it.

I could sit here and rattle off my list of accomplishments, put people down, and/or lay stake to a claim I'm not qualified to make (beef up my resume, if you will, or claim that I did something that I didn't do to make myself look better). But that would be compromising my long-standing, hard-earned dignity and integrity, neither of which are up for sale. Because in this day and age, it only takes one click of the mouse, one quick Google search, to prove (or disprove) what I'm saying. And, finally (and most importantly): I don't have to take to MySpace (or anywhere else) to tell people what I'm doing, who with, and why. I just simply DO IT, and let the rest speak for itself.

So, the lessons here:
*Knock it off with the drama. Don't give into it, don't create it, don't revel in it. It doesn't make you cool or controversial: it makes you look unprofessional and, frankly, untalented.
*Leave some details about yourself off the Internet. Just because you CAN post what you're doing every minute of every second of every day, doesn't mean you SHOULD.
*Don't claim you did something that you didn't do. If you're really the music supervisor for a movie, you can say so. But you cannot claim to be a music supervisor for a Gucci commercial when it takes one phone call to disprove you (and it could get you and your "company" in a shitload of legal trouble). Besides, people aren't as stupid as you think -- you can fool some people sometimes, but you can't fool all the people all the time (bravo, Bob Marley).

As an example, without naming names, there was a band who were playing for an Alice Cooper after party (of which Alice was not in attendance) that advertised (using a picture of Alice Cooper, to boot!) that they were opening for Alice Cooper. In fact, to add insult to injury, they listed THEIR name first, "AND Alice Cooper," which made it look like Alice Cooper was opening for THEM. (First rule of advertising: the headliner's name goes first. It's Pearl Jam AND Special Guest, not Special Guest AND Pearl Jam.) Well, when Cooper's label found out, they went through the proverbial roof, and called the offending band to let them have it in spades, clubs, hearts and diamonds. (The idiot band's response: "Who told you we were doing this?" It was ME, for the record. I've got friends and colleagues at Alice Cooper's label -- amongst other labels. But the label's frosty reply: "Instead of worrying about who told us what you did, you should worry about what YOU'RE doing wrong and fixing it so you don't get slapped with a lawsuit." Needless to say, that band has been playing the same three bars ever since...)

In closing, consider this blog -- a very subdued blog, methinks; certainly much more favorable in brevity than some of my previous postings -- as a friendly reminder to several people of the following: despite the fact that I have moved on to bigger, better, and greener pastures than those offered by the no-name, no-talent bar band circuit, I haven't forgotten where I came from...in more ways than one.

In other words, I know what skeletons are hiding in your closet, AND I know where to find them. (In some cases, I know because *I* am that skeleton...*I* am the one you don't want people to know about, because you KNOW that what I say will be the cold hard truth about you, and will shut you down permanently) I save every e-mail, remember every conversation, and in some cases RECORDED what I couldn't hope to remember.

And I stored it away.

See, in my old age, I've taken the following tack: don't start no shit, and there won't be no shit. So long as you keep your delusions to yourself, and you post your embarrassing, all-but-pornographic fantasies on your MySpace page and think it makes you look professional...we're fine. You can do one of two things when/if you see me: ignore me (preferred) or simply smile cordially (not so much; I'm not into the whole fake "I like you" shit). Keep doing that, and we're all good.

For that matter, you can claim you wrote the Batman theme...it's all good.

Just don't disrespect me. Don't take to your MySpace and take subtle digs. Don't go running to your boyfriend on the radio (YEAH, I SAID IT) and cry about "negativity."

Remember: for the most part, I'm extremely quiet (on the surface). I'm extremely trustworthy (which means I know your secrets) and extremely loyal. But I'm also extremely OVER IT...which means I don't really care what happens to you as an end result of you starting shit when there needn't be any.

Just some diplomacy...

07 November 2008

Game, Set...

Many, many thanks to Heather and Leah -- thank you for the start of a most incredible journey...looking forward to it all!

CLICK HERE!

In the words of President-Elect, No-Drama Obama...YES I DID!!!

30 September 2008

Last Tango on Tattoine

A total non-sequitor title, but as I'm swamped with work I neither have the time, nor the inclination, to be creative as far as a blog caption is concerned...

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It seems that the latest rumor about me is that I'm some "failed writer/photographer groupie." This, mind you, coming from the mouths of the real groupies -- the pushing-60 "photographer" of bar bands and the whore who had countless bar bands run trains on her and dances like a stripper with Bell's Palsy on anything that remotely resembles a pole.

For the 500 millionth time...
I have over ten (10) years experience as a writer and photographer. My work has appeared in such publications as The Los Angeles Times, Vanidades, Long Island Pulse, The Independent, The Daily Mail, Elle (UK), and The Herald. I have held steady paid gigs as a writer at such places as The Island Ear, The Inside Connection, The Herald, and -- currently -- Pop Culture Madness. Splash News has paid me for my photos on several occasions, and this month alone, they billed over $1000 for four photos that have been sold in Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

And I have yet to break the news as to where I will be at next. Let's just say: it's a very big deal.

This is to say nothing about my gallery exhibitions -- one of which was an Official NYC Fall Fashion Week exhibit, attended by thousands of people, with accolades from people from The Black Book and, yes, Vogue magazine
.

And this is all just the tip of the iceberg. To list my accomplishments here would be the equivalent of a resume...and would take several pages, and time which I do not have, and inclination to prove myself which I do not need to do...all done by my own hand, without (unlike some people) relying on others' name(s) and/or infamy/slight popularity to do so.

If all of my accomplishments in the biggest publications in the world add up to being a "failed writer/photographer," then by Gods, I am proud to be one.
Certainly beats the hell out of ONE VERY MINOR publication credit (which came from MY contact), doesn't it? :-)

Don't get me wrong...a credit (regardless of by whose hand from which it came, or how big it is) is a big deal. But not in comparison to others' accomplishments (i.e., mine), and certainly not when you consider the ugliness of heart and spirit -- and psychosis of mind -- by which said groupie touts her illustrious "career."

*s
heesh*

New Pop Culture Madness article!

My interview with author and reality star Jess McCann can be found
HERE.

More articles coming up, including an interview with my girl Doe Deere!