Justin and Britney Back Together?

The late 90s and early 2000s were a different time for music, one filled with pop princesses and boy bands, devoid of Twitter feuds.  It was an era when people relied on MTV for their music videos.  It was also a time when Justin Timberlake was still in a boy band, and in a high-profile relationship with Britney Spears.  In the 14+ years since they said bye bye bye to each other, Justin brought sexy back, Britney brought us Kevin Federline.  While it seems unlikely that Justin and Britney will get back together as a couple, Justin and Britney as a collaborative team might not be nearly as farfetched as we thought.

When asked during a recent fan Q&A which producers she’d like to work with, Britney listed off various names: Aerosmith, Gwen Stefani, and none other than her former flame, Justin Timberlake.  Several nights ago, E! News asked Justin if he’d ever consider working with Britney on a song; Timberlake hadn’t heard of Britney’s recent Q&A, so he was a bit taken aback by the question.  Nonetheless, he said that he was excited about the prospect of collaborating with her.  If they would do duets, he would produce, maybe both, was unclear.

While Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears’ relationship is old news, this isn’t the only video getting fans excited about a potential reunion.  Back in May, Justin did an interview at Cannes alongside Anna Kendrick, in anticipation of the “Trolls” movie.  When the interviewer used the word “pinky” (Justin’s old nickname for Britney), his face fell.  This raised the question: is Justin still in love with his old fling, even though he’s now married and has a baby?  Is his rocky relationship with Britney a touchy subject, even after all these years?  Probably that, but it doesn’t rule out the possibility that he and his ex might do it again, make a song together and bury the hatchet.

Stricter Laws For YouTube

YouTube has long come under criticism from the music industry for failing to pay enough for content.  In response to such criticism, European copyright laws will make sites such as YouTube pay more to musicians and record companies.  This draft directive will also require publishers and producers to tell artists what profits their works have generated.  This will also be the first time that new publishers will be recognized as rights holders.  Under this same directive, portals such as Google News would need to pay newspaper publishers a fee when using small extracts or snippets of news stories.

Although the European Commission wants artists to be paid fairly for their work, it has yet to detail how it would force sites to pay more to artists.  The plan will also be calling for easier access to online content across all EU countries, as well as reforming copyright rules for research and education.  The proposals, which will most likely be challenged by lobbyists, must go to the European Parliament and EU states for approval, a process which could take years.  Not surprisingly, Google has spoken out against the reform law, stating that there’s most likely a “better way” to handle the issue.

Earlier this year, more than 1,000 artists that included such names as Lady Gaga and Coldplay signed a petition calling on the Commission to take steps to address what they called the “value gap”.  Unlike streaming sites like Spotify, which pay record companies a small sum each time a song is played, YouTube makes money by selling advertising, then divides profits among rights owners.  According to the petition, this is “unfairly siphoning” value away from the music business.  A large number of videos on YouTube are songs, and it’s unfair that they can get away with streaming such content and only pay a fraction of the royalties.  Lawmakers throughout Europe are excited about the new law, which they feel will provide framework for legal clarity.

Eddie’s Sweet Shop

With its old-style buildings and picturesque streets, it can be easy to forget that Forest Hills is in New York City.  It’s the exact kind of place you’d expect to find an old-style ice cream parlor, and that’s exactly what you can find here at Eddie’s Sweet Shop.  A true institution, it’s been drawing visitors since it was first opened in 1909.

Previously known as Witt’s Ice Cream Parlor, Giuseppe Citrano purchased it in 1968 and renamed it “Eddie’s”.  Funny enough, he didn’t name it after anybody he knew; Citrano didn’t want any criticism to be directed at a real person.

The interior of Eddie’s Sweet Shop is a throwback to a bygone era, most of the decor remaining exactly how it was 50+ years ago.  Giuseppe’s son Vito, who currently owns the business, maintained that doing so takes a lot of work because most of the things there aren’t made anymore.

But the main draw to Eddie’s Sweet Shop is the ice cream.  There are over 20 different flavors, all of them names you’d recognize rom a menu 50 years ago.  Virtually everything is made with fresh ingredients on the premises: hot fudge, caramel, butterscotch, strawberry syrup, coffee syrup and whipped cream.  These are then shaped into classic concoctions like ice cream sodas, sundaes, milkshakes and banana splits.

The neighborhood has recently experienced a second wind, thanks to the recently-revived Forest Hills Stadium, and has served as the hometown to an impressive list of New Yorkers ranging from the Ramones to Donald Trump.  There’s a good chance that many of those famous New Yorkers visited Eddie’s once upon a time, but Citrano doesn’t like to talk about it; he prefers visitors to come in as regular people, and the parlor doesn’t have a wall featuring pictures of celebs who have visited.  Indeed, treating celebrities like regular people is the New York way.

If you’d like to learn more, you can click here, or look at this video:

Goodbye Jersey Boys

Since it opened in late 2006 to critical acclaim, smash hit Broadway musical “Jersey Boys” has charmed countless theatergoers with its great songs and compelling story.  It’s won Tony Awards, was adopted into a movie and lasted for more than 40 seasons on Broadway.  While nobody ever thought that it would close, it looks like that day is finally coming.  January 15, 2017, to be exact.  There’s still some time to catch the show if you haven’t seen it yet, but that ending date reminds us that even the most popular shows don’t last forever.

By the time it ends, Jersey Boys will have played 4,462 performances, making it the 12th longest-running Broadway show of all time.  Although four longer-running Broadway shows are still playing (Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, Lion King and Wicked), that’s still pretty impressive, especially when you consider that more than 400 Broadway shows have opened and closed during Jersey Boys’ tenure.  Not only that, but as one of the first (and arguably best) of Broadway’s “Jukebox musicals”, it’s also incredibly influential.   Presented as though the Four Seasons were singing in concert, it breaks one of the fundamental rules of musicals: that the songs need to express the inner thoughts of characters and/or drive the plot.  Yet despite breaking such rules, or perhaps because of it, the show worked, and set the standard for every other jukebox musical since.

Before “Beatlemania” hit the shores of the US, the Four Seasons were the most popular band in the US.  Featuring a group of blue-collar Italian-American kids from New Jersey, they took the country by storm when they were first founded in 1960, with hits such as “Sherry”, “Walk Like a Man” and “Who Loves You?”.  Jersey Boys chronicles their story, from obscurity to superstardom, then from falling out of fame to getting their groove back.  It’s a great story and a great show, filled with great songs and wonderful pageantry.  If you haven’t seen it yet, then you don’t want to lose your chance!

Business Lessons From Rock N’ Roll

As “School of Rock” taught us, music can teach us valuable lessons.  Yet those lessons evolve beyond playing guitar at a prep school.  For all the talk about “selling out”, rock n’ roll, at leas if you want people to listen to what you have to play, is a lot like a startup.  I recently came across an article that compares the formation of successful businesses into making it “big” in the rock scene.  Nearly every successful startup has three things in common with a successful rock artist: they’re dramatically different from everything else, thrive on collaboration and never stop learning.

Kiss, who understood that standing out is more important than pleasing everybody

Back in the 1970s, Wicked Lester was just one of many struggling glam rock bands around New York City, and a lack of success was threatening to break them up.  But then they decided to come up with a new look, name and stage persona.  Within two years, the band “Kiss” was headlining world tours.  This wasn’t because Kiss was better, it was because they knew what they needed to do to stand out.  And nothing helps you stand out like facepaint, elaborate leather costumes and platform heels.  A lot of startups are afraid of alienating potential investors and customers, but indifference is a lot more harmful to startups than rejection.

When he was a little boy, David Crosby went to an outdoor symphony performance, where the perfect harmony of the various instruments left a huge impression on him.  Later on in his career, Crosby created perfectly harmonized hits whether it was as part of the Byrds or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.  He never sought much recognition as a solo artist, but instead collaborated with various different musicians.  This allowed him to add dimensions to his music that would ultimately not be there if he was working on his own.  Collaboration is the secret sauce to making startups incredible, with different artists working together.  Whether it’s creative or financial, collaboration allows all of those involved to create something greater than the sum of their parts.

A lot of those rock stars from the 60s and 70s who somehow survived all of the drugs they did have been content to sit on their laurels and stop trying to be on top.  As their egos are outweighed by the fact that they haven’t done anything innovative since your parents were in high school, they quickly become caricatures of themselves.  One band that didn’t let that happen was U2; when their sound got off track in the late 90s, Bono announced that the band was “reapplying” to be the “best band in the world”.  When they released All That You Can’t Leave Behind, it was hailed as a masterpiece and won three Grammy awards; their reapplication was successful.  Like Bono, entrepreneurs need to constantly be adapting to the world around them if they want to stay on top of their game.  You can be on top of your game in the cassette business, but if you can’t change after the CD comes around, you’ll quickly be reduced to a footnote in tech history.

The Hidden World of Kpop

Although Psy is far and away the most well-recognized name in Korean pop music (Kpop), he’s hardly the tip of the iceberg.  While Psy himself is a man in his late 30s, Kpop is predominantly filled with girl groups.  Industry suits churn out girl groups like it’s the early 60s, all of which look and sound the same.  It’s hardly surprising that there’s a dark side to this; I recently read an article that discusses the ugly part of this industry.

For an industry where girls make up the largest part, Kpop is surprisingly hard on women.  Park Boram, viewed by many as the psoter child of the Kpop ideal, went through a grueling four-year training process that included singing and dancing classes and a diet (or lack thereof) that caused her to drop 66 pounds.  The title of her debut single literally translates to “I became pretty”, and the accompanying music video shows the young starlet working out and weighing her food.  While Park seems to have accepted the hurdles she went through to get to where she is, a lot of people have raised concern that Kpop companies are promoting an unhealthy image to fans of the genre.

Modern Korean culture places a heavy emphasis on looks, possibly due to the large influence that modern technology has on Korea.  South Korea is home to one of the fastest Internet speeds in the world, and there are officially more cell phones in the country than there are people.  Traditionally, Korean culture is highly collective, so there’s a lot of pressure to fit in.

Within Kpop, certain names have been fighting against these trends, such as Sophia Pae, who went from starring on a reality show to getting full creative control to her sound.  Yet whether or not names like Pae can make their voices heard above the chorus of girl groups churned out ad infinitum by Korean music executives remains to be seen.

Davy McConnell Drum Clinic

A street musician in Tennessee, possibly Davy McConnell from his youth.

The Barabanoff Drum Shop in Queens is pleased to announce that they’ll be hosting a free drum clinic on August 15th at 1:30 PM, run by the most legendary drummer you’ve never heard of before: Davy McConnell.

In the early days of country music and rock n’ roll, drummers were often looked down upon.  Up until the 1970s, the Grand Ole Opry didn’t even allow drums on their stage!  Nonetheless, many of the musicians from the 1950s loved the sound of drums, so they would hire a drummer and put him in the recording without actually giving him credit.  These “ghost drummers” would get producing credits for the songs so that they could collect royalties, but their names would often go unsung.  One of the tragically forgotten names from this era was multi-instrumentalist Davy McConnell, one of the great unsung heroes of early rock n’ roll.

Davy was born in Longview, Washington, in 1936, to a family of Dust Bowl migrants.  He dropped out of school at the age of 15 so he could work to provide for the family, but quickly grew to despise the working life.  So he picked up a guitar and a pair of drumsticks, kissed his parents goodbye, and left the next morning for Tennessee to start a career as a professional musician.

In the conservative world of Nashville country music, Davy’s mixed race (his maternal grandmother was Cherokee) meant that he suffered a large amount of discrimination.  He became a session musician at Sun Records, recording for Johnny Cash, Charlie Feathers, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley, among others.  Davy’s work as a drummer earned the attention of promoters, and he was hired to perform for a leg of the fateful “Winter Dance Party tour” of 1959.  This venture was cut short, however, when three of the headers for the tour died in a tragic plane crash.

Disillusioned with his work as a session drummer, Davy moved to New York City, where he was involved in the Greenwich Village folk scene.  While he recorded a handful of albums during this time, none of them had any commercial success, and Davy instead chose to open a music store in the East Village, which served as a popular stop for musicians, including Kiss, the New York Dolls and the Ramones.  Yet in the famed 1977 blackout that hit New York City, Davy’s store was looted, and he was forced to start over again.

Hopping in-between ventures that ranged from dive bars to exotic animal dealerships, Davy has yet to leave New York City.  He’s lived in the East Village since 1969, where he’s often found at music clubs mentoring young musicians.

Simone Biles Clinches All-Around Gold

Biles, already considered the world’s greatest gymnast before the Olympics, emphatically confirmed her standing by winning the women’s individual all-around gold medal.

from NYT > Home Page http://ift.tt/2aP4edf
via Richard Aquilone

Hear Unearthed White Stripes Song ‘City Lights’

Hear Unearthed White Stripes Song ‘City Lights’

Jack White shared a previously unreleased White Stripes song, "City Lights," set to appear on Jack White Acoustic Recordings 1998 – 2016, a double LP rarities collection out September 9th via Third Man Records/Columbia Records.

<wm:…

This article originally appeared on http://www.rollingstone.com: Hear Unearthed White Stripes Song ‘City Lights’

Australia’s Immigration Minister Plays Down Claims Of Abuse On Refugee Island

Peter Dutton was reacting to a report in The Guardian newspaper that found shocking allegations of abuse against children on the island nation of Nauru.

from News : NPR http://ift.tt/2aN4i7e
via Richard Aquilone