More than a hundred thousand people of all ages from over the world flocked to the largest, annual Halloween parade / party west of Manhattan.
The city of West Hollywood attracts a special combination of local Hollywood creative people (such as costume and make-up artists) combined with one of the largest gay communities in America. The annual Costume Carnaval this year featured a black-in-drag send-up ofn Victoria's Secret's angel-winged Christmas models, as well as the 25th appearance of the Tina Turner Revue (in drag) with Peter Constantino, Tim Baker, and Stephen Hennigan - who use Santa Monica Boulevard for "rollin' on the river."
Our on-scene news-video captures a mob of angry townspeople gathered with pitchforks and torches to demonstrate their aversion to the abundance of monsters visiting their town this week.
Monsters invade the City of Angels - 25th annual West Hollywood Halloween Costume Carnival
BlogWorld: William Shatner caricatured by Kevin Pollak's, host of Chat Show
Kevin Pollak emphasized his preference for the creative control he retains creating a broadband online show has rather than a television show. He relates, to host Guy Kawasaki, the story of William Shatner requesting him to teach the definitive way to imitate Star Trek's Captain James T. Kirk.
Ragtime: When media distribution meant player-piano-rolls and song transcriptions
From our "evolution of music distribution" file: RagFest '09: ragtime revival - historical re-enactment of the pre-jazz era.
Fullerton, California, the hometown of the Fender electric guitar, paid tribute to America's acoustic predecessor to jazz, through its 10th annual RagFest on the weekend of October 17-18.
The heyday of ragtime predated the widespread availability of sound recording. Like classical music, and unlike jazz, classical ragtime was and is primarily a written tradition, being distributed in sheet music rather than through recordings or by imitation of live performances. Ragtime music was also distributed via piano rolls for player pianos. (Wikipedia)
"Friends of Jazz" - a non-profit jazz educational advocacy group - marked its 10th anniversary of running its annual RagFest this weekend, filmed herein at the Fullerton Boys and Girls Club.
Authentic vintage era dances, costumes, and music are honored at RagFest. Dancers tripped-the-light-fantastic to the authentic sounds of the Heliotrope Ragtime Orchestra. Listeners were entertained by the RagFest premiere of the vaudeville singing team of Sharon Evans and Rick Rogers. And the finale of "Alexander's Ragtime Band" was led by the musicological advisor to "Titanic's" director, James Cameron, Grammy-winner Mr. Ian Whitcomb.
Richard Chang has the detailed report in the Orange County Register (along with fine photos by Ana Venegas) from RagFest 2009.
Mainstream TV and radio news producers at BlogWorld & New Media Expo will address Future of Journalism
Most Prominent Gathering of New Media Influencers Will Explore Future of Journalism in Panel Featuring CNN’s Don Lemon and Award-Winning Critic and PressThink Author Jay Rosen at Third Annual Event from October 15-17 in Las Vegas
Organizers of BlogWorld have announced a panel to explore the need for standards and ethics in social media, particularly in the area of public journalism and political opinion. The panel, devoted to The Future of Journalism, will feature CNN anchor Don Lemon; award-winning critic, NYU journalism professor and PressThink blog author Jay Rosen; conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt; and Current TV COO Joanna Drake Earl.As online content, developed and published by self-described citizen journalists, has grown exponentially over the past year, it has also established itself as the originator of misinformation, distortions and accusations often picked up and given a wider audience by a mainstream media scrambling to feed a 24-hour news cycle, as well as bitterly divided partisan politicians looking to gain political traction.
Additional information on BlogWorld & New Media Expo, including speaker topics, session descriptions and registration details, is available at www.blogworldexpo.com.”
Please click Left Button to toggle-on captions. (Story & Photos by Scott Jacobs)
A Documentary and Reality TV Conference organized on the West Coast
This three-day event, September 14-16, will bring together preeminent producers, directors, writers, network executives, agents and distributors for insightful and unique seminars, as well as networking opportunities.
WESTDOC will feature two areas of professional interest designated as The Documentary Village and The Reality Village. Attendees and speakers will be able to take full advantage of both these arenas and be able to select seminars from any Village they choose.
The third day of the conference will be entirely devoted to PitchFest, a rousing live presentation for Documentary and Reality producers to pitch new concepts to network and development executives for potential acquisition, in front of a live audience. For info and register please click here
Jazz-cats' gathering synergizes creative talents
Following scheduled performances at L.A.'s Sweet and Hot Music Fest on Labor Day 2009, the synergy among the musicians carried on in through a jam into the wee small hours of the morning.
"I Double-Dare You" at Sunday night's jam featured singer / dancer Jeanne Brei, clarinetist / trombonist, Corey Gemme, cornetist Brad Kay, pianist David Boeddinghaus, banjoists John Reynolds and Tom Marion, tuba C.J. Sams, Andrew Barrett on washboard, and drummer Irv Gershenz.
Sweet & Hot Music Fest showcases America's indigenous, cultural progeny - Jazz!
Over 200 vintage jazz musicians & swing dancers join with contemporary jazz performers before an audience of 1,800 music fans this weekend at the annual Labor Day, Sweet and Hot Jazz Festival at Los Angeles International Airport.
95-year old Herb Jeffries, once the vocalist with the Duke Ellington Orchestra exemplified the timelessness of the performers' spirit. Big-band veteran drummer Johnny Vana led a 17-piece orchestra comprised of big-band era all-stars, who, for a few numbers, accompanied Cleo Feoranzo, a 17-year old tenor virtuoso, performing the music of the veterans' youth.
Pioneer pop songwriter, Ellie Greenwich, 68, ("Be My Baby," Chapel of Love") dies in hospital near Brill Building
Rolling Stone reports: Ellie Greenwich, a songwriter who along with co-writer Jeff Barry and producer Phil Spector crafted some of the biggest and greatest singles of the 1960s, passed away at the age of 68. The AP reports that Greenwich died of a heart attack in New York’s Roosevelt Hospital, where she was battling pneumonia. Among the most famous songs that list Greenwich as a songwriter are the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” and “Baby, I Love You,” the Shangri-La’s “Leader of the Pack,” the Dixie Cups’ “Chapel of Love,” Tina & Ike Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High” and the Crystals’ “Then He Kissed Me” and “Da Doo Ron Ron.” Each of those landmark tracks were listed among Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The history of Ellie Greenwich in the Brill Building is featured in the 90-minute documentary, "Hitmakers: The teens who stole pop music" (Courtesy Peter Jones Productions for A&E Networks' Biography Channel. Excerpt courtesy of Hilton1949).
Greenwich, along with Barry, was inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 1991. A Broadway show dedicated to songs co-written by Greenwich and based on her life called Leader of the Pack debuted on Broadway, where it was nominated for a Best Musical Tony in 1985. Greenwich also recorded her own solo album, Ellie Greenwich Composes, Produces and Sings, in 1968, and often sang backup for artists like Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin and Dusty Springfield. The family asks that donations be made to the VH1 Save the Music Foundation. (Photos & video courtesy of The Brill Building Sound).
To listen to the full collection of songs written or co-written by Ellie Greenwich please click the Menu button to the right of the Play button and select from the thumbnail pictures.
MTV celebrates 28-years since innovating short-form programming
Our MTV celebrates the 28th anniversary of the founding of short-form television. Check out some of the promos, including this one which marketed the channel as a visual extension of your home stereo.
(Courtesy DrFulmore07)
Original VJ's (Video Jockeys) Airchecks
(Courtesy James O'Brien)
Early Sales Promo Tape
(Courtesy Mike Richardson)
Walter Cronkite worried about TV news manipulating society
"The nation whose population depends on the explosively compressed headline service of television news can expect to be exploited by the demagogues and dictators who prey upon the semi-informed." Walter Cronkite in his 1996 memoir, "A Reporter's Life."
"The misfortune with broadcasting today is that all -- even including your network, which is dedicated to the news -- do not take enough time to give us all of the facts and the background." Cronkite in a 2005 interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. — Chuck Ross via TV Week
"Auto-tune" morphs from intonation-tool to new audio-video medium
Fabricated music videos. Transforms photo-shop video to an entirely new genre. Auto-Tune the News' Playlist.
Another blow to the credibility of the mainstream press..
NATPE's Third Annual LATV Fest offers insiders' perspectives on programming development
Key participants include high level television and digital content producers, development executives, agents, advertising and brand executives, software solutions and technology and equipment providers.
Watch highlights from this year's show.
The NATPE LATV Fest kicks off the 2-day event Wednesday with a keynote from YouTube's Jordan Hoffner at 8:30 a.m. at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles. The other panels and discussions offered throughout day at http://latvfest.net/latvfestival/detailed-full-schedule.
First day of LATV Fest with the Innovator Award Cocktail Reception at 6:30 p.m., where television series The Biggest Loser (which challenges and encourages overweight contestants to shed pounds in a safe and recommended manner) is honored with the 2009 Innovator Award. Other award recipients include: Mark Koops, Managing Director, Co-Head of Domestic Television, Reveille; Dave Broome, President, 25/7 Productions; Ben Silverman, Co-Chairman, NBC Entertainment & Universal Media Studios; Todd Nelson, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, 3Ball Productions; Paul Telegdy, EVP, Alternative Programming, NBC and Universal Media Studios; JD Roth, CEO & Co-Founder, 3Ball Productions.
Steve Brennan, The Hollywood Reporter's veteran editor, succumbs to cancer at 57
Steve Brennan, a 20-year veteran reporter and editor at The Hollywood Reporter, died Thursday at Cedars-Sinai Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles following a year-long battle with cancer. He was 57.
Brennan was well-known in the entertainment industry as a tenacious and fair-minded reporter who tirelessly covered the entertainment industry, with a particular focus on the domestic TV syndication and the international beats.
Brennan acted as The Hollywood Reporter's Ireland correspondent before moving to Los Angeles in 1989 and joining the THR staff. He was later named syndication editor until focusing entirely on the international TV marketplace for the past eight years. He covered a number of the international trade shows and festivals for THR, including MIPTV and MIPCOM, NATPE, the Los Angeles Screenings and the Festival de Cannes.
"Steve often dazzled with his colorful style, but his insights were even brighter, and uncannily spot-on," Hollywood Reporter editor in chief Elizabeth Guider said. "He was one of a rapidly disappearing breed of old-school newsmen who had an unshakable work ethic, a global rolodex and a wonderfully wry but affectionate view of the business of entertainment and the people engaged in it."
Two years ago, Brennan published "Emeralds in Tinseltown: The Irish in Hollywood" together with his wife, Bernadette O'Neill. The book chronicled the parade of Irish screen legends who charmed and battled their way through a century of Hollywood history, from James Cagney and Greer Garson to Colin Farrell and Liam Neeson. You can hear him discussing his book in this radio interview with U.S.- Ireland Alliance president Trina Vargos on the history of the Irish in Hollywood.
TV-commercial loudness would become FCC-regulated under proposed Bill
The Federal Communications Commission would squelch ad volumes to the average decibels of the TV show during which they appear.
Currently, TV ads can't be louder than the loudest peak in a show, said David Perry , the chairman of the broadcast production committee of the American Association of Advertising Agencies in New York . Ads often seem louder to viewers, he added, because a program's volume peak rarely comes just before an ad.
"Every time the ads came on they blew me out of my seat," said Rep. Anna Eshoo, D- Calif. , who introduced the bill last June. "It really turns you off, makes you think, 'I'll be damned if I give them any of my money.' "
She's a member of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, which will consider the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, aka CALM. It has 63 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate. The bill would direct the FCC to enact within one year rules requiring that television advertisements not be excessively noisy.
Broadcasters say they have their own plan to lower TV ad volume, which could take effect within a couple of months. Great Britain set similar legal restrictions on loud ads last year.
More: Adweek: Pump Down the Volume by Robert Thompson; WalletPop: Loud TV commercials may be coming to an end; "Loud TV commercials may be forced to a lower volume" from Ethics Soup;
Bob Barker, host of CBS-TV's "The Price is Right," values audience participation in memoir
Bob Barker attributes one of the keys to the success of his programs on effectively utilizing audience participation. His autobiography, "Priceless Memories," addresses his 51-year career. He discussed his start in "interactive media" with Managing Editor, Scott Jacobs, upon his inauguration into the Broadcasters' Hall of Fame in Las Vegas.
Updated Jun 9th: Howie Mandel hosted the Game Show Awards on GSN. The two-and-a-half-hour ceremony, which aired on the cable network June 6, 2009 honored classic and contemporary game shows, with tributes to pioneers Bob Barker ("The Price is Right"), game show producer Mark Goodson, and host/producer Monty Hall ("Let's Make a Deal").
The Price is Right's "Come on down!" won the award for "Favorite Game Show Catch Phrase" and "Plinko" was selected the "Favorite Pricing Game."
International elections illustrate convergence of traditional and new-media
New-media and traditional media journalists converge at the Jerusalem Press Center (established by Jerusalem media-resource service, "TIP"). New-media journalists were able to view and glean perspectives from domestic channels', news-agencies', and international network feeds' coverage of February's national elections - all fed into one central location.
