Home Page

Be Perfect

July 16, 2012

by:

Joe Patti

One of the ideas I have occasionally touched upon here is the idea that perfection is expected in the arts. That line of thought really started for me with an entry I did in 2006.

Audiences expect a sublime experience for what they paid. Funders expect that everything met or exceeded expectations, a mindset Andrew Taylor suggests arts organizations created and reinforce regularly.

Artists are expected to be exceptional always, yet musician openings at orchestras still frequently go unfilled despite many highly qualified people auditioning.

Come to think of it, that sounds similar in many senses to the current situation where we currently have thousands of jobs going unfilled in manufacturing because employers expect the perfect worker and are generally unwilling to provide training to close the perceived gap.

General Musings

No Comments

Last Of The Great Pretenders

July 11, 2012

by:

Joe Patti

Last month when I heard that Herb Reed of the Platters had died and was reminded that he had waged a fairly protracted legal battle over the use of the Platters name, I thought back to an entry I did about the question of who owns a band’s name.

At the time, there were over 80 groups listed performing under the Platters name and a number of people, including Reed claiming ownership. There was a push for truth in music laws to keep imposter bands but as noted in my entry and the NPR story I link to, it isn’t always very easy to determine who has the most valid ownership claim.

As something of a postscript to my original entry, Reed was ultimately successful in exerting his claim as the sole original member.

Legal Topics

No Comments

Do U2 Fans Like Ballet?

July 10, 2012

by:

Joe Patti

Back in 2006 U2 was supposed to play here in town but had to postpone because of an illness in the Edge’s family. We had a dance performance schedule for that day and I got it into my head to target U2 fans to attend the show with a “Does Bono Like Ballet?” ad campaign.

You can read about my rationale for attempting this and what the results of my little experiment were.

It was difficult to actually identify how many U2 fans came, though we had a good number of people buy tickets using the discount phrase according to the sales records.

Just for the record, the band did reschedule to just before Christmas. I went to the concert and had a great time.

Marketing/PR

No Comments

Still Cool As Hell After All These Years

July 9, 2012

by:

Joe Patti

Today I am going to point you back to an interview Michael Rice of Cool As Hell Theatre Podcast did with playwright Paula Vogel.

Michael stopped doing his podcast a few years back but keeps the site working because, you know, he is cool as hell.

It is worth listening just to hear his customary lead in, but as I observed when I first wrote about the interview, Vogel has some interesting things to say:

“She does say some interesting things about the messages artists are getting these days. Among them are her feelings that “Darwin and captialism are very bad models for art” (3:15) and art begets art.

I was also intrigued by her idea that even though she was a klutz, she had to learn to play sports and as a result, all athletes today, artists of the flesh she calls them, speak for her inner athlete. She hopes for the day that every creative artist speaks for the inner artist housed in everyone.

[…]

She does present some quotable moments like “art is a dog that you feed that bites you” (7:05) when arguing that art should challenge society but the agenda of arts funders is to make art palatable and devoid of challenge.

Advocacy, Art(ist) Education, State of the Arts

No Comments