Bryce Zabel's FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH

The Skies Just Keep Getting Darker!

After "Dark Skies" went off NBC in May of 1997, it went into a very heavy rotation on the Sci-Fi Channel, stirring up a whole new set of fans who, frankly, had more going on in their lives than to stay home on Saturday night to watch a TV show. This was before TiVO, you have to understand.

Around 1999, though, "Dark Skies" went into hibernation. Last week, it reared its paranoid, conspiratorial head again when "The Path to 9/11" started publicizing that mini-series with an ad campaign that looked about two shades past "homage" from the original "Dark Skies" campaign. This was duly noted on the Internet from everybody from The Huffington Post to Defamer to Salon. It was a real Roswell in a rainstorm...

Now there's word that it's coming out as an anniversary CD! Here's what they have to say about the release on the Intrada web-site that's selling it:

Original music from TV series set during 1960's, featuring conspiracies, cover-ups, the FBI, extra-terrestrials, other sixties icons, created by Bryce Zabel, Brent Friedman. Michael Hoenig scores with assist from Mark Snow on un-aired pilot. Hoenig anchors with main title theme blending lonely "Americana" trumpet with furtive string, keyboard rhythms. Bulk of score creates tension through plethora of piano rhythms, synthesized string figures, other bristling activity. In contrast are quiet ideas with meld of mystery, menace. Given limited scope of instrumental timbres, Hoenig works variety of material well, brings everything to a quiet, satisfying close. Snow gives unaired pilot score similar color via electronic string effects, keyboard ideas but highlights with interesting jabbing rhythm for synthesized brass, then balances with haunting minor-key theme for high strings over delicate piano arpeggios. Nicely-packaged with generous booklet offering notes about production, scoring. CD is packaged as "The 10th Anniversary Limited Edition Original Television Score".

It was an interesting musical start. Mark Snow, who was also working on "X-Files," scored our pilot originally and that version aired around the world in early 1996. But Chris Carter, as I understand it, was not enthusiastic about Snow doing his show and our show, so Snow had to depart our project. In came the incredibly talent Michael Hoenig as his replacement and the pilot was even re-scored before it aired on NBC in September of 1996 (ten years ago). And, for those "Dark Skies" fans out there (and I mean real fans), here is the rundown of what's on the CD.

1. Gary Francis Powers (2:24) 2. Dark Skies Main Title (0:48) 3. Project Bluebook (1:37) 4. Idaho Crop Circles (2:35) 5. Mesmerized By Light (3:43) 6. Moving Targets (2:25) 7. John's Escape (2:13) 8. Roswell, New Mexico (2:36) 9. Mission Control (1:50) 10. Mercury Rising (3:44) 11. majestic Headquarters (1:28) 12. Dreamland (3:27) 13. Meeting RFK (1:21) 14. Child Abduction (2:40) 15. Bach's Command (1:37) 16. John's Vision (2:59) 17. Majestic Takes Control (1:40) 18. Juliet, Dubious Ally (1:04) 19. Majestic Checkpoint (0:49) 20. Hoover In Louisiana (1:33) 21. A Grey Seeks Help-Kim Taken Over (2:35) 22. Kim Touches Light (1:35) 23. Steel (0:35) 24. Abort the Mission (2:25) 25. Epilogue (3:21) 26. Suite from "The Pilot" (Mark Snow)(12:30)

The thing is, I remember all these songs because I was there and editing with them, etc., but I am really looking forward to hearing this CD. Especially since, I think, I'm quoted in the liner notes. But I'll never forget that, in addition to our sophisticated and memorable musical score, we also budgeted for the use of a lot of period music. Our pilot, for example, ended with John Loengard and Kim Sayres on the run, after the Kennedy assassination they helped cause, as we heard the first strains of "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield. Now you know a bit about where this blog title came from. And, for the fans who to this day criticize that song as being out of time order, I offer the real explanation. We were scrupulous about matching song release to actual story points through the series, and "For What It's Worth" (released in 1967) was used -- ON PURPOSE -- because we wanted it to be a precursor of the paranoia that existed for our characters on the road ahead.

Now, if only SONY would take heed here. We've had the "Dark Skies" poster re-exposed to the national audience in the last week, now we have a CD of the music out. Maybe -- just maybe -- it's time to put the series itself out on DVD so people can actually watch it again.

Just a thought, guys. For what it's worth...

Tim McGraw & Faith Hill: Oh, Say, Can You Hear?

Friday night, about 15 of us crammed into an extremely long white Humvee stretch limo and went to Staples Center to see country's royal couple Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. Destination: "Soul2SoulII" concert.

We had one of those exclusive suites with the jumbo shrimp and carameled apples cut up for dessert. It was all the treat of our friends Jerry & Elizabeth who bought the whole package a few months ago at one of those school fundraisers that keep the private education system afloat out here in Los Angeles.

The truth is, I didn't know much about Tim & Faith except for the fact that they're famous for both being country music successes in their own right, but they're also married, and this was one of those rare occasions when they come together musically. One of the comments in the paper today put it this way:

With all of the cynicism today about family, values, marriage, and politics, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are leaders and role models for us all. Not only are they both extremely talented performers but they are genuine and sincere about each other, about living life and what counts.

"The Los Angeles Times" review says it's the first time they've toured together since 2000. The review also pointed out that the stage, which looked like a ceiling fan sitting in the middle of floor with its four wings, might not have been the best choice.

Instead of creating intimacy, the structure encouraged distance and isolation, with band members separated by the central platform and the vast span of extensions prompting the players to position themselves in what could have been different zip codes.

I was surprised that I knew as many of their songs as I actually did, given that I never had bought any of their songs until a few hours before the concert when I downloaded a couple of albums off of iTunes. But Faith Hill's "Breathe," for example, had already been long seared into my brain through other encounters, I'm not sure when or how. The same goes for Tim McGraw's "Live Like You Were Dying."

Here's my beef with the concert. Staples Center is supposed to be state-of-the-art. And a tour of this magnitude is obviously employing the best people using the best equipment. So why is it miked and amplified in such a way that nobody I was with could understand  more than a few words here and there? Isn't one of the attractions of country music that you can actually understand the words and feel an emotional connection to them? When the songs become just loud amplified power rock hasn't something been lost?

A lot of people in that audience already knew the songs so their connection was that they could sing along because they'd heard them a million times. For the rest of us, we were left out of that party. Listening to them now on iTunes, there's a lot to like. Too bad I never heard them at the concert.

Trivium Rocks My World! (Literally)

Right now, it's 4:40 a.m., and they're making a music video for the heavy metal group, Trivium, in my back yard.

It all started on Tuesday, I think, when a location manager came knocking at our door saying they were looking for a house with a great pool and a view. I guess we passed the test because, baby, here we are!

They've been at it since 2:00 p.m. this afternoon and all I know is they are not likely to be done until the sun comes up. Between now and then, the moment that we've all been waiting for is due to happen -- they plan to set my pool on fire with propane being blasted out of a pipe of some kind. And, yes, there is a fire marshall on the scene. Here's how they put their call for extras on their own web-site:

The band will be filming a video for the song "Anthem (We are the Fire)", off their up-coming album The Crusade (in stores October 10th), in Los Angeles this Friday, August 11th, and are looking for volunteers to join them on set!

We're looking for extras in what will be an over-the-top shoot, where the band and it's loyal fans crash and take over a lame house party...bringing their huge metal show (complete with pyro, flaming swimming pool, and fire cannons) and showing the world how they ROCK.

I knew nothing about Trivium when this started but they've got a web-site, passionate fans and even a decent Wikipedia write-up. Of course, they also have a MySpace page. Plus, they all seem to be awfully easy going, considering, and unspoiled by their metal fame.

We've already had the police out here to tell us that the music playback is too loud. That happened around midnight, I think, but the city permits were in order so it all worked out.

So far my son left to avoid the shoot, my wife went to bed, my daughter hung-in as an extra but finally just crashed... but, me, I'm still at it because if they can light a pool on fire, man, I want to be there with a fire hose near the house!

{UPDATE: The pool-on-fire gag was stupendous! The image of fire emerging from water is such a contrasting one that it really compels your attention. Will try to get a picture or the video up after getting some sleep. The crew is wrapping now and the sun is peeking over the hills.}

Hollywood Bowl Sings "The Sound of Music"

Last night I got a chance to see the first night of a three-night run of "The Sound of Music" from the front row, "Pool Circle" at the Hollywood Bowl. This is the kind of seat that you would get if you were King. It was so close that our friends who invited us said that last week when they saw Tom Jones there they were constantly dodging sweat flung from the stage.

It was a warm night at the Bowl Friday, but we were hit by no projectiles. Instead we were treated to an extremely up-close viewing of the final Rodgers and Hammerstein play. "The Sound of Music" hit Broadway in 1960 and became that blockbuster film with Julie Andrews in 1964.

We had seen a similar production of "Camelot" last August at the Hollywood Bowl. With similar great seats with different friends. Anyone reading this with Pool Circle, please get in touch. I'm kind of getting used to this, and I won't eat much.

Anyway, I won't review last night's play except to say that it succeeded admirably at being a good time even if the years and the casting have stripped it of its once intense view of being on the wrong side of Hitler's invasion of Austria. And yet, the thrills were still alive...

John Schneider played Captain Von Trapp and he was very good. John is remembered mostly for "Dukes of Hazzard" and, most recently, "Smallville." Still, he's an excellent singer (a baritone) and even if his version of "Edelweiss" sounded like the country-western version, who cares, he was terrific. John has a warmth to him that is very appealing and everybody I saw responded to it. He's a Hollywood star who comes across as a decent regular guy and, I think, the secret is that he really is.

Oddly, I remember John for another reason. Nearly twenty years ago, when he was engaged to local TV anchor Tawny Little, I directed a segment for Tawny that he came along to. It was a seance at the home of Ramone Navarro. Now there's a bonding moment, spending hours in the home of a Hollywood legend, with a bunch of people who are trying to contact his dead spirit for the TV cameras.

We also see John from time-to-time at our local movie theater. My son can't believe his eyes.

Another fine actor who I've worked with before is Jeffrey Tambor, who played Max in last night's performance. Jeffrey is today best known for "Arrested Development" but we met on the ABC series "Studio 5B" which is probably best known for being cancelled after only two episodes aired. Still, I remember that every scene he was in was a gem. Jeffrey can read an obituary with a twinkle in his eye. I love this guy.

Finally, Melissa Errico played Maria and she seemed excellent to me although, as I say, reviewing musical productions is not something I do a lot of. Haven't worked with her but she seems to be doing just fine without that particular blessing.

When He's 64: McCartney's Day Has Come

Paul McCartney actually turning 64 used to have the same resonance with me as waiting for 1999 to roll over to 2000. It seemed so impossibly far in the future that it was almost silly to ponder since it would never happen. Then the millennium rolled past me and now Paul is 64 on Sunday.

Paul was just on the cover of AARP magazine, if you can believe it. His face shows his years now, but whose really doesn't when they get to their 60s, I suppose. Of all the tributes you'll probably read, I found that oddly enough, this AARP section is quite good, especially their life timeline they put together for him. Here's USA Today on McCartney, if you prefer.

Even though it's a drag to getting divorced as Paul is from Heather Mills at such a time, and surviving John Lennon, George Harrison and his first love Linda McCartney, Paul has still had one of the most charmed lives of anybody on the planet. He's still vital, worth $1.2 billion, makes $20-million a year off Beatle royalties alone.

I remember my sophomore year of college, living with three other guys in a house, and each one of us taking on the character/stereotype of one of the Beatles. Jim was our cynically political, drug-taking John. Taylor was our Tai-Chi mystic George. Jay was our fun-loving people-pleaser Ringo. This left me as the commercial mainstream Paul.

I guess, even though I've enjoyed all the Beatles as men and musicians, Paul really was my favorite. At the very least, I've spent more time with his music than the others. Here are five McCartney songs that never end up on lists (because he's had so many hits) that I've always enjoyed a lot:

1. Freedom
2. Young Boy
3. Picasso's Last Words
4. The World Tonight
5. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five

Saw Sir Paul last year here in Los Angeles at Staples Center. It was a good concert, even though I practically needed bottled oxygen from where I sat. I particularly enjoyed Paul reaching deeper into both his and the Beatles' songbook for some tunes that played as fun surprises like "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" and "I Will."

This was the fourth time I've seen McCartney in concert.  A few years ago, also at the Staples Center, I had some phenomenal close, near floor seats. About ten years earlier, I'd seen him at the Inglewood Forum. That's a concert I'll never forget because it was the first time I ever heard him perform a Beatles' song "live." It was pretty much a blow-away to hear "Sgt. Pepper" for the first time that way.

But the one that will always stand out takes me back nearly thirty years. It was 1976 and I was working the morning shift at KZEL-FM in Eugene, Oregon as a news man. We were the counter-culture life-line to the city (and sometimes the region) back in those days so if anybody was wired into what was happening, we were.

1976 was a time of rumor concerning the Beatles. Everybody hoped and prayed for a re-union and a rock promoter named Bill Sargent had just offered $50-million dollars for a single re-union concert. Against this backdrop, Paul was on tour with his own band, Wings. My program director dropped into what we affectionately called the "News Cave" after I'd finished the morning news and laid this bombshell on me.

"If it's going to happen, it's going to happen tonight in Seattle."

He handed me a couple of tickets to McCartney's concert and told me to get on the road fast and to be ready to go "live" as soon as it was over. It's a nearly six-hour drive from Eugene to Seattle, as I recall, and I made the trip in my rumbling '65 Mustang beast in record time. All I remember is being on a natural high the entire way. I was getting paid barely minimum wage at KZEL, but this was going to more than make up for it. In the Time magazine you see here, McCartney had been quoted thusly:

"The only way the Beatles would come together is if we wanted to do something musically."

That sentiment, of course, left the matter open, despite the fact that all three of the other Beatles steadfastly refused to say anything on the matter.

The concert took place at the Seattle Kingdome which has since been destroyed (there was some phenomenal video a few years ago of them blowing up the place). I'm not sure how many people in the crowd actually knew what I knew. It felt like an incredible top secret.

McCartney came out that night and he was wonderful, of course. But as the concert continued, it became more and more obvious that there would be no full-fledged Beatles re-union. Still, I kep hoping that, maybe, John would pop out on stage like he'd done for Elton John around the same time during a New York concert. No such luck. No John, no George, no Ringo. It was an incredibly odd feeling. I was seeing a Beatle, for God's sake!, and yet I was feeling let-down and deflated. It didn't help that Paul stubbornly refused to embrace his Beatles past and played not a single tune from the Beatles; only his solo and Wings work made the cut.

It could have been the most magical of nights, but it wasn't meant to be. With John dead 25 years now and George gone five, it will never happen. Maybe it was never meant to happen at all. Maybe John and Paul were wise to never give in to that temptation, knowing that the reality could never be as good as the expectation.

Still, when McCartney opened his last concert with "Magical Mystery Tour" I had a flashback to what might have been. Man, that would have been something...

For now, though, it's time to give McCartney his due. He was always just as talented as John, he managed to keep a family together and sane even on the road as a rock-star, he's dealt with tragedy with grace and made an example of how to move on and still keep memories dear and, now, he's showing us you can grow old and still be cool. Well-done, Paul, and happy birthday!

A Prairie Home Companion (2006) -vs- Nashville (1975)

The Smackdown | Both our films are dramas with lots of music, directed by Robert Altman, with fine performances by Lily Tomlin. Separated by thirty years.

The Challenger | "A Prairie Home Companion" is the name of the radio show that Garrison Keillor's been doing for, oh, about as long as it's been since "Nashville" was in the theaters. Only in this movie, the real-life Garrison Keillor plays G.K. (also referred to as Garrison Keillor) who is doing a show that is also called "A Prairie Home Companion" but, in the movie world, the show is being shut down by a character named the Axeman, played by Tommy Lee Jones. Is that clear? It doesn't matter. The movie is chock full of celebrity actors including Meryl Streep, Lindsay Lohan, Kevin Kline, Virginia Madsen, Lily Tomlin, Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly. Plus, with the exception of Kline and Madsen, they all sing. It's way more than a performance show -- like recording Keillor's radio show the way they recorded "Woodstock" -- and is really a moving euglogy to a time that is fast leaving us.

A tribute to a real show that's still on-the-air about it going off-the-air. Got it?

The Defending Champion |Altman made "Nashville" three decades ago and it really began his reputation as a director who sees movies differently than other directors -- less emphasis on story, more on a collection of characters in a particular place just living their lives. There are nearly two dozen characters in this film and no real star. There are stars in it, to be sure, but none of them can really lay claim to the film being their vehicle. It's hard to describe the plot. There's politics involved, even a potential assassination, but it's more about a few days and nights in the lives of these Nashville visitors (and some locals) all of whom are obsessed with country music.

"How did I get in a movie with a bunch of Shriners?"

Scorecard |"A Prairie Home Companion" is a great movie if A) you're an Altman fan and B) you're a "A Prairie Home Companion" fan. It's whimsical in a way that still leaves it imbued with meaning and, when it's done, it does feel like you've learned something about the human condition. But it's still pretty much cotton candy with some nice gentle humor, fun music and distinct characters. "Nashville", on the other hand, has all that going for it, but it also feels like an important film and has only grown in its stature over the years between the two.

The Decision |If you have never seen "Nashville" then that's your pick. Go get it and watch it and see Robert Altman doing what he does best. If you're one of the people who just has to go see "A Prairie Home Companion" while it's out, then you know who you are, and it doesn't matter which is the better film. But, for the record, that's "Nashville."

{To read more of these MOVIE SMACKDOWN! reviews, CLICK HERE.}

The Price of Free Speech

Word now in today's Los Angeles Times that the Dixie Chicks really may have ticked off enough fans to impact their popularity. Early sales of tickets have been so slow in several cities on the group's imminent Accidents & Accusations tour that the tour is being significantly revamped, resulting in the cancellation of some shows and the addition of others.

"Initial sales for Chicks shows in more than 20 markets, most in 10,000- to 20,000-capacity sports arenas, are averaging 5,000 to 6,000 in major metropolitan areas and fewer in smaller markets, according to Billboard."

You remember the controversy. In a nutshell, in 2003 on the eve of the Iraq War, while they were in London, Natalie Maines said that she was ashamed that the President of the United States was from Texas. This irked a lot of people not just because of the content but the fact that it was delivered overseas. In any case, Maines never backed down, or apologized and, in fact, the single from the groups' latest CD is "Not Ready to Make Nice."

Well, ladies, guess the fans aren't ready to make nice yet either...

The thing that I find odd here is the discussion in some media that makes it sound like fans and radio programmers are somehow infringing on the Dixie Chicks free speech rights by boycotting their CDs or their concerts. This is plainly nuts. The constitution hardly protects an artist from facing the logic of the marketplace.

Free speech means that Natalie Maines has every right to say whatever she wants about our political leaders, and even in whatever country she wants to say it in -- without fear that she will suffer the loss of her liberty by being arrested or jailed. It's the same right Jane Fonda exercised when she went to North Vietnam and trashed the U.S.

Free speech does not protect CD sales, or concert ticket sales. In actual fact, free speech has consequences. If you exercise it in a way that is offensive to some people, those people have the same protected right to be offended. If the Dixie Chicks want to take sides in an election, trash-talk the Commander-in-Chief on the eve of war, and write songs that showcase their continued strong feelings, they're absolutely free to do so. But it also means they may suffer some loss of support among their fans if their views, or the way they express them, are at odds with the people who like(d) them.

This is the way it is. We have a great country in that our government doesn't get to tell you what to say or to punish you for something it disagrees with. Nobody can protect you from fans who may not want to hang around with you because they scorn your political views.

In any case, it seems the Chicks' new album, "Taking the Long Way Home" is in its second week at the top of the national sales charts, having sold 800,000 units so far. Maybe some people like the music better than the musicians.

*****

There are cases, and there are cases.

I'm researching a film to be based on the life of Julian Bond, the current chairman of the NAACP. We had lunch together in Washington, D.C. back when I was chairman of the TV Academy.

Bond was elected to the Georgia State Legislature in 1965, but had spoken out against the Vietnam War. The legislature voted 184-12 to exclude him because they didn't like what he said. He had to win election twice more and win the case before the U.S. Supreme Court before he finally could take office.

The Supreme Court, rightly and decisively (and unanimously), said that Bond's free speech rights had been violated. That's what free speech is about, not radio or concert boycotts.

Springsteen/Seeger: Music to Overcome By

This was a hard week for one of my good friends. He had concert and plane tickets ready and was completely psyched to attend the 37th New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. He knew that Bruce Springsteen was going to play the music from his new CD, "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions." Then my friend's sister died. When the review in the Los Angeles Times came out on the day of the funeral, the critic said that in his 40 years of reviews this was the best live performance he'd ever seen. Sometimes life makes no sense...

So when I saw him yesterday my friend hadn't even had the time to listen to this remarkable new album -- it had only been released just days before the New Orleans concert. Thanks to that timing, though, this allowed all these great songs from America's folk tradition to speak directly to the effect of Hurricane Katrina on the region's people. Apparently, the Boss opened with the spiritual "O Mary Don't You Weep" which is my favorite song on the entire CD.

"Brothers and sisters don't you cry / There'll be good times by and by."

I don't pretend to be a music critic. Those people have an entire vocabulary at their disposal to describe in words things they hear and, mostly, that skill eludes me. I do, however, know what I like.

I really, really like this entire CD. I'm sure some of his hard-core fans were looking forward to this about as much as a collection of show tunes, although it sounds like those who saw the concert liked it just fine. All of the songs were popularized by folkie legend Peter Seger who had the distinction of being blacklisted in the 50s. He was summoned before the House Committee on Un-American Activities as it investigated subversive influences in entertainment. He refused to cooperate. Back in college, I had a vinyl album of Seeger music that was played so much on our home's record player that we wore out the grooves. Yes, this was before CDs...

The upbeat songs really rock in a very unique way. In particular, besides "O Mary Don't You Weep" I really love the 1800s protest song "Pay Me My Money Down," and the classic "Jacob's Ladder." When he slows it down, there's nothing to compare with his version of "We Shall Overcome" which Bruce calls "the most important political protest song of all time." I've never heard it so right.

Here's where the words start to fail me. There's a lot of things in here that sound, I don't know, New Orleans-like. Probably that's the horn section because New Orleans is supposed to be the brass capital of the world, right? There's also banjo, accordion, fiddles, Dobro and steel guitar. Whatever the blend is, it works for me. I've heard the whole thing nearly ten times so far since downloading it from iTunes last Friday.

Every tune was recorded in three one-day sessions in 1997, 2005 and 2006. No rehearsals, no arrangements, no overdubs. Apparently, he's taking the Seeger Sessions band on tour with this material before getting back to writing for the E Street Band.

Springsteen always surprises. The Rising also immediately hooked me with its songs after 9/11. If it had been an album, it, too, would have had no grooves when I was done with it. As it is, it's still in my iTunes and gets revived often. But when it came out, I thought it was really caught the emotional aftermath of 9/11 better than anything else that came from that horrible event. Now he's gone someplace completely different.

You want to know what else will blow your mind? It's been 31 years since Born to Run. Watching the evolution of Bruce Springsteen as an artist has been such an involving experience.

Anyway, at the gathering after my friend's funeral, we talked about the concert he missed (his sister loved Springsteen, too). We talked about that CD that he still hadn't found the time yet to listen to, and how those songs are about finding redemption through faith and the resilience of our spirits. Springsteen's best work never dodges the fact that hardship happens to most of us, but we carry on.

My friend will get a chance to listen to these songs now. He'll hear the message. We shall overcome.

Something's Happening Here...

Welcome to the FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH blog, formerly NEWS! VIEWS! SCHMOOZE! Up top you'll see a new banner with the new name. You may recognize the title as the famous Buffalo Springfield song about paranoia in the 60s, but they got it from a common expression people have used forever.

There's something happening here.
What it is ain't exactly clear.
There's a man with a gun over there,
Telling me I got to beware.
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going down.

Oddly, the title For What It's Worth appears nowhere in the lyrics to the song. I take that to mean, possibly, that the worth of the opinions expressed in the song by Stephen Stills' are best judged by the listener. Right or wrong interpretation, my blog incarnation is offered in that spirit. What's interesting is that I didn't start out to re-name it, but to fix the banner, and it just kind of happened.

The banner to my weblog has been the thing that's always bugged me most about the overall look. First, there was the crappy, generic TypePad banner which was basically a font on a color and nothing more. I don't even have a copy of it, but if you'll click to my "About Page" you'll get an idea of what it looked like. One step below plain vanilla.

I tried to fix it using the TypePad program but it involved learning something called CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and/or HTML and I honestly could never quite get anything that looked marginally acceptable despite the fact that TypePad calls CSS "a simple method for adding fonts, colors and layout to Web documents." Not to me, anyway.

Finally, I settled for a fairly lame work-around by creating something on Microsoft Paint, importing it into a blog post that I kept only as a "draft", then laying it in the "Configure" zone of my blog's "Description" (which usually is a phrase like "Dispatches from the Culture Wars") as HTML.

It didn't look all that hot, but at least it allowed me to put a different font up without tearing my hair out. I asked my old college friend Fred Graber of the Texas-based i2i Group who does this design stuff for a living to take a look and, well, he was no more impressed than I was.

The banner for your blog is a mouth full. The color scheme works but the type treatment could use an update.  Possibly, an icon could be developed which would anchor the banner.  The type would be reduced in size a little to accomplish the extra space we’d need for the icon but I don’t think that would hurt the readability one bit.  Another avenue – bring backgrounds into the green banner space.  The backgrounds could be stylized treatments of entertainment and technology.  This could help make the banner more 3-dimensional.

At the same time I was wrestling with these frustrations, I also got my new iMac, which came with the Comic Life program. This was my first attempt, using that program.

I used their default style for lettering, moved by photo which was always on the side up into the banner and so on. I don't know if it was an improvement but at least it wasn't quite as deadly dull. I decided to teach myself fonts from colors to shadows.

This one at least started to look more professional (although the color scheme of the letters looks like the USC scheme to me now). My wife called it "cartoony." I think she was right, but I did actually put this up and like it for about half a day. Then I wondered if maybe the whole name was "cartoony." She said she wanted the lettering to have more "class" but I wondered if it went beyond that. So I experimented with a new name.

It started to grow on me. It's still cartoony, I guess, but in a polished way. This was getting closer. It also let me look at the title and roll it around in my head to see if I liked it . Anyway, here's the latest version.

I'm sure I'm not done. I'm sure my friend Fred probably thinks I should keep working, too. So there'll no doubt be a new, improved version someday soon. I may even change the name back to News! Views! Schmooze!, who knows? This is a bit like a test market situation. I want to have it up for a few days see how it hits me. For what it's worth, let me know what you think.

Beatlemania Anniversary!

February 9th marked the 42nd anniversary of the Beatles' arrival in America and the first of those three landmark appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show. We think of this as a seminal event now but for as influential as the Beatles were to pop culture, to music, to people's lives, it's truly amazing how little coverage they got in the nation's newsmagazines. At least Newsweek managed to give this cover to the Beatles during the week that Beatlemania arrived in all its exhuberance less than three months after JFK was killed, setting off a national downer.  Time didn't get around to a cover until three years later when they featured them in their Sgt. Pepper regalia as distorted puppets.

Bugs About Beatles
February 24, 1964

Here's one weird anamoly to start with -- the article inside about the four musicians we know as John, Paul, George and Ringo is called "George, Paul, Ringo and John."  Go figure.  And, boy, did Newsweek just not get it.  They started that article like this:

"Visually they are a nightmare: tight, dandified, Edwardian-Beatnik suits and great pudding bowls of hair.  Musically they are a near-disaster: guitars and drums slamming out a merciless beat that does away with secondary rhythms, harmony, and melody.  Their lyrics (punctuated by nutty shouts of "yeah, yeah, yeah!") are a catastrophe, a preposterous farrago of Valentine-card romantic sentiments."

It's hard to believe, isn't it?  The Beatles generation became so mainstream that nobody can imagine that people felt that way, but Newsweek wasn't just being stuffy, they were representing the overwhelming feelings of the vast majority of people over, say, twenty.  I remember watching that Ed Sullivan Show where they performed for the first time.  My father, not much of a music fan to begin with, dismissed them by saying he couldn't understand how anybody could stand to listen to "that goddamned caterwalling."  Being part of the status quo, he just didn't get it any more than Newsweek did.  They ended their article with:

"The big question in the music business at the moment is: will the Beatles last?  The odds are that, in the words of another era, they're too hot not to cool down, and a cooled-down Beatle is hard to picture.  It is also hard to imagine any other field in which they could apply their talents, and so the odds are that they will fade away, as most adults confidently predict."

Last November, I went to see McCartney play a sold-out show at Staples Center.  Somebody should have told him.

By the way, one of the greatest nights of my career in television came during the Dark Skies TV series. We wrote an episode, "Dark Days Night", that tied the Beatles appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in with the entire alien invasion of the Hive. Best of all, we re-staged that show in downtown LA with a Beatles tribute band. Not quite the same as being there, but when I closed my eyes...