Posts Tagged iTunes
Figaro, Figaro, Figaro
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Music, Technology, That's Life on February 8th, 2010
A Saturday night at Opera Colorado’s performance of The Barber of Seville was helped along by an ingenious iPhone app. Almost any event held at Denver’s Ellie Caulkins Opera House both benefits and suffers from the features of its seats, to wit, the incredibly uncomfortable seats (which could only have been selected because the folding chair manufacturer was out of stock) along with the clever electronic seatback titling system called, appropriately, Figaro. Since few of Denver’s opera fans are either fluent in Italian (or French and German) or have an intimate knowledge of the sung libretto, the English translation provided by the pale blue OLED displays makes the performances much easier to follow. Such translation titling in America’s opera houses was once viewed as hayseed – a reflection of the lack of sophistication of US audiences – but has grown to be adopted by other country bumpkin facilities in Milan, Barcelona, London and Vienna.
Figaro Titling at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House
Suffice it to say that none of row D’s occupants had working Figaro’s to accompany Figaro, creating a less than optimal experience and quite a bit of griping to the helpless ushers during intermission. Having seen Barber staged, albeit close to 20 years earlier, I recalled that Act II has a large amount of sung character narrative that propels the action; in other words, it’s pretty hard to follow what’s going on without some type of libretto. So what to do? In the age of the iPhone could there be an app to bail the casual opera fan out? Indeed there is. A quick search of the App Store revealed that the good folks at Intermundia had an app that contained not only an English/Italian libretto, but an adjustable slider that would allow the text to move at a speed consistent with the performance – brilliant. So while the rest of my row scratched their heads through to the conclusion, I was more able to enjoy the chaos of Rossini’s comedy.
Opera App Saves the Evening
As to the performance? Opera Colorado’s production of one of music’s most beloved comedies turned out to be great fun. Director David Gately has staged this warhorse 30 times before utilizing a broadly comic reading that includes plenty of sight gags, cartoonish versions of the Bartolo and Basilio characters and a silly slow-motion brawl that ends Act I that would make fans of The Matrix proud. Rosina was beautifully sung by Isabel Leonard (remember that name as she may the next great young mezzo-soprano), her debut performance in the role. The opening night “talk back” session held by General Director Greg Carpenter and Director of Artistic Planning Brad Trexell was a welcome chance to gain insight into the production planning and thought process of the company.
A hearty Bravo to the cast – and to the inventiveness and ingenuity of the iPhone app.
No Atheists In This Foxhole
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Music, That's Life on January 29th, 2010
Patty Griffin's Downtown Church
Patty Griffin has built a fascinating body of work over the past 15 years. Her music has held the torch for traditional folk, brushed up against punk, and been recorded by some of Country’s biggest stars (The Dixie Chicks and Reba McEntire) although she is almost never played on popular mainstream radio. She may be this country’s finest singer-songwriter, consistently recording thoughtful and original music infused with a wide variety of American musical influences. Among the strongest recent influences in her last several albums has been the gospel and soul music of the American church.
Last year’s gospel collection “Oh Happy Day!” featured Griffin’s duet with the legendary Mavis Staples on “Waiting For My Child To Come Home” and proved to be a harbinger of the musical things to come. Griffin lists The Beatles, Aretha Franklin and the Staple Singers as the primary musical influences of her childhood in a recent NY Times review of the new album. Although she has dipped her toe into gospel music recently, the new release is a full-out cannonball into the deep end of the gospel musical pool. The album is a mix of traditional favorites (“Wade In The Water”, “Move Up”, and the utterly breath-taking “All Creatures of Our God and King”) and originals performed by Griffin and an ensemble of folk and gospel artists that include Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, and Regina McCrary. Produced by Buddy Miller (best known for his association with Alison Krauss and Robert Plant’s Grammy winner “Raising Sand”) the music stays true to its roots. Alternately meditative and foot-stomping, Downtown Church is Griffin’s vehicle to exposing the pop and folk audiences to what she believes is an under-represented and misunderstood piece of our musical heritage. Through it all, Griffin’s magnificent voice soothes, shouts, growls, trembles and inspires.
Whether you are in the Christopher Hitchens/Richard Dawkins camp or a regular attendee on Sundays, the music here is pretty transcendental of your philosophical grounding. Art may be inspired by faith or grow from its rejection – either way Griffin delivers a vibrant tribute to this part of America’s musical family tree.
Pepsi’s Amp App Apoplexy
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Business, That's Life on October 15th, 2009
Amp Up
The marketing and advertising world is running around with its hair on fire in response to a new and tasteless iPhone app. To paraphrase Casablanca’s Captain Renault – “I’m shocked, shocked to find that sophomoric sexism is going on in advertising!” Continuing in the fine tradition established by countless beer, cigarette and fashion advertisers, Pepsi released an app called “Amp Up Before You Score”. The idea, that must have been cooked-up sometime between lunch recess and 8th grade algebra class, is to provide helpful hints to the average energy drink consumer on how to “score” with women. Upon selecting “Married” you’ll find this valuable set of tips – “Be careful with this one. The married woman could bring both pleasure and peril. But tread lightly, because a shotgun-bearing husband may not be far behind.” Providing timeless (and no doubt effective) pick-up lines like “Do you have a lot of divorced friends?” and “Do you believe an open relationship can work?” Where was this app when I needed it?
Heaven knows that after downing a few of these caffeine and sugar-laden energy beverages a guy could use a few helpful tips on what to say to the wide variety (24 types, including the “sorority girl”, “tree hugger”, and “rebound girl”) of women that are anxious to hook-up with an Amp swigging winner. Even better is that the app allows you to report your success on Facebook and Twitter – sweet use of the API, dude!
The folks at Pepsi are probably scratching their heads over whether all of the publicity and web searches for “Amp” is an enormous public relations fiasco or one of the best examples of the old adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Whether we’re talking selling drinks, food or sports, sex has always been the easy and effective path to the wallets of the average American male. The surprise isn’t that sex continues to sell all types of products – it’s more the abject stupidity of whoever gave this bit of crassness the green light. Not surprising, just not very inspired marketing.
More Cowbell = More $$ at iTunes
Posted by Bob Kumagai in Business, Music on April 8th, 2009
Apple has quietly rolled-out its new pricing for digital downloads in the new iTunes 8. Instead of the 99-cent for all songs model, the new tiered pricing more closely resembles what music buyers may recall from shopping in a retail CD store (remember them?). New hit songs are $1.29, older back catalog runs 69-cents and the majority of the music remains at just under a buck. So if you waited to buy the new Black Eyed Peas single “Boom Boom Pow”, you’re two thousand and late (it runs $1.29).
At least the DRM protection has been removed from the music downloads so the restrictions on number of computers and the need to jump through hoops to play iTunes files on other devices has been eliminated. Of course Apple owns almost 80% of the market for MP3 players so I guess Steve Jobs proved his point.
On the other hand, if you’re looking for some 80’s era Loverboy or Cheap Trick – the lower pricing is yours. Oddly, some of what you would think would be at the cheaper price point is actually at the premium price – “More Cowbell” equals more money for Apple