Conservative actor James Woods, talented but outspokenly right wing, has been dropped by his Hollywood talent agent.
Woods says his agent, Ken Kaplan of the Gersh Agency, dropped him via a short email yesterday. Kaplan represents a lot of actors who probably didn’t appreciate Woods’ views, including Winona Ryder and Kristen Stewart.
Yesterday, of course, was Independence Day. Maybe Kaplan had just had enough of Wood’s right wing rantings.
Tonight at Guild Hall in East Hampton, the much anticipated Master Guitar series begins. These are live concerts featuring Andy Summers of the Police, legendary Richard Thompson, G.E. Smith of the original “SNL” band, and more.
Two weeks ago, Guild Hall hosted a pre-concert on the lawn at Tick Hall, Dick Cavett’s famed home in Montauk. Erudite talk show impresario Cavett has resided in Tick Hall since 1966, restoring his historic home with its waterfront views to exacting original detail shingle by shingle, even down to the fireplace tiles from Shropshire, England and including charming imperfections: a creak in the stairs and slight sag in the porch, after a fire in 1997, all done from memory or photos.
One arrives at this exclusive, remote, and stately house journeying along Ditch Plains over a long gravel road past a trailer park, itself beachfront prime real estate. Offered a house tour, guests could not resist the charm of Victorian era rooms looking to sea vistas, Montauk’s historic lighthouse, and an expanse of lush green.
“It’s the only one of the Seven Sisters with oceanfront because in the 1920s, then-owner Harrison Tweed bought all the available land down to the ocean and some behind the house,” said Cavett who was not present, but interviewed last year on the occasion of his putting the property up for sale for $62 million, the first time in its 135-year history. “His friends thought he was mad to squander five dollars an acre, saying ‘who will ever come out this far on Long Island to this “wild and inconvenient” place to bother you.’ True then, Tweed’s smart move became the envy of the less visionary. The property is now nearly 20 acres, surrounded by conserved land.” When it was built, it was called ‘a summer cottage.’ But it struck me as majestic, romantic, a storybook house by the sea. It made me gasp.”
Surely Cavett’s guests over the years have felt the same: among them, Montauk neighbors Andy Warhol, Edward Albee, and Percy Heath, and others from the worlds of theater and culture: Tennessee Williams, Mick and Bianca Jagger, Mary Tyler Moore, Dustin Hoffman, Lauren Bacall, Alec Baldwin, Javier Bardem, Christine Baranski, Robert Redford and Muhammad Ali. When Woody Allen, an unlikely admirer of such beauty in nature, visited, he said, “Cavett, this is a storybook setting.”
Guitarist G. E. Smith said he could while away the day on the wrap around porch, a listening perch for some. Others lazed on a grassy slope to hear Eric Clapton sideman Doyle Bramhall II (also FYI boyfriend of Renee Zellweger) cover the Beatles’ “Two of Us,” some tasty Muddy Waters, and with Adam Minkoff, his own “Mama Can’t Help You No More.”
Andy Summers and Ralph Gibson kick off the series tonight — just as the heat outside is dissipating it will be roaring like a fireplace in Guild Hall. And maybe Dick Cavett will come by, too.
Best Buy is not stopping sales of CDs, contrary to rumors from last winter.
Even though CD sales have been minimized by downloads and streaming, the silver disc will live on a little longer at the retailer.
A spokesman sent me this statement: “The way people buy and listen to music has dramatically changed and, as a result, we are reducing the amount of space devoted to CDs in our stores. However, we will still offer select CDs, vinyl and digital music options at all stores.”
There are still hundreds of CDs sitting in Best Buy stores. And there are lots of great values at Best Buy’s website. (I’d stock up now.) The footprint in the stores may shrink, but at least we’ll see some stands everywhere.
I don’t understand what’s happened to CDs. Sure, streaming is just convenient, and downloads are too. But a properly mastered CD played on a good player (Denon, Marantz, Cambridge Audio, Creek) offers glorious, uncompressed sound that is far better than anything you can get on a phone or MP3 player or iTouch (if they still make it).
A lot of the music popular now on streaming services is so badly made, I can see why the acts don’t want CDs. They would reveal the poor production. Listening to music on CD or LP will show the real qualities of a recording– or its failures. Constantly listening to music through ear buds is less rewarding than playing a 45 rpm single on a plastic record player.
The times they are a changing: the austere and respected Nobel Prizes are in a bit of chaos this year. They’ve just announced that there will be no annual concert this year for the winners. The concert has always been a big deal.
Last year, John Legend was the headliner and Sting in 2016. Patti Smith performed for Bob Dylan in 2016 but that wasn’t at the concert but at the actual prize ceremony.
On top of that, the award Dylan received this year– for Literature — will not be given for the first time ever in 2018. The Nobel committee says they will wait to give it again in 2019. The last winner in literature was Kazuo Ishiguro, author of “Remains of the Day.”
The Nobel Prizes are given by the Swedish Academy in accordance with Alfred Nobel’s will. But the Academy has been mired in scandal for the last year with issues relating to financial problems and sexual harassment.
According to a press release: “The crisis in the Swedish Academy has adversely affected the Nobel Prize. Their decision underscores the seriousness of the situation and will help safeguard the long-term reputation of the Nobel Prize. None of this impacts the awarding of the 2018 Nobel Prizes in other prize categories.”
The Nobel Prizes says it will give two literature prizes in 2019. One of them should be posthumous, to Philip Roth. It’s absolutely ridiculous that Roth never received a Nobel Prize before his death this year. Frankly, I don’t care what the Swedish Academy’s other issues are. Shunning Roth completely devalues their prize.
The Nobel Prizes will be announced between October 1st and October 8th.
PS If you’re thinking that little by little everything good has been ruined since Donald Trump took office, you are correct.
Don’t be fooled by Janet Jackson’s Instagram photo of her and late father Joseph. No one is smiling in this picture, least of all Janet. She looks like she’s a hostage.
Janet’s rise to fame had nothing to do with Joseph. It was family friend John McClain who got Janet to A&M Records, far from her father’s reach, and to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis as producers. Janet hated her father. He was very abusive to her, which has been noted over and over. She once famously helped her mother beat up one of her father’s girlfriends.
Whatever peace she’s made with her father is great, but the reality is she knew what he was capable of. Family friends who knew the Jacksons quite well circa 1980 say Janet once appeared in their kitchen asking for a butcher knife to use again Joseph. The elder Jackson was also responsible for her separating Janet from her high school sweetheart and forcing her into the marriage with James DeBarge.
Donald Trump is boasting about his writing skills. He says he’s written many books. This is false, he’s used ghost writers always, most famously Tony Schwartz for “The Art of the Deal.”
Trump says the Fake News (he’s made up this rubric) likes to “pour” over his Tweets. He means “pore” over the Tweets. The pour he’s used to is pour liquid, to dispense.
Finally, the grammar is wrong in his Tweet and doesn’t track. It’s a mess. He would get an F in any grammar class. His whole long first sentence is a run on, and when it comes to the first comma, what follows is a mess. “…it should be noted…” etc cannot come there. He’s referring to himself, he’s priding himself, so it should be noted that “…I…” do something.
The President of the United States is illiterate. He’s a lot of other things, but this is sad. He has very poor writing skills, which is another example of a word that sounds like pore or pour. Maybe he can learn something since he hates poor people and is trying to torture them.
After having written many best selling books, and somewhat priding myself on my ability to write, it should be noted that the Fake News constantly likes to pour over my tweets looking for a mistake. I capitalize certain words only for emphasis, not b/c they should be capitalized!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 3, 2018
The Scorpion is stinging everything else on the pop charts this week.
Drake’s new album, “Scorpion,” is a massive hit far surpassing Kanye, his minions, Bey and Jay, everyone.
“Scorpion” is on track to sell 740,000 copies by Thursday night. That number is almost all from streaming. Paid downloads on iTunes and amazon will come only to around 150,000.
Every song from the “double album” set is on the Streaming Hits chart, as well. Every single track is in the top 20 or top 30. That includes songs Drake sampled with Michael Jackson (his estate should be happy) and Mariah Carey (her sample comes from a song she sampled largely from Maurice White, late leader of Earth Wind & Fire).
Money is just pouring. “Scorpion” is number 1 everywhere. And that’s good for the kid Drake admitted to fathering on this record. The mother is former adult-film star Sophie Brussaux. She and the kid can relax in the South of France forever.
Will “Scorpion” be in the Grammy mix? Undoubtedly. You can already expect it to win Best Rap Album and probably in the general Album of the Year category.
In case you’ve been living under a rock, Aubrey Drake Graham is Canadian, He turns 32 this fall. His father is black, American, Catholic raised in Memphis and is a well known studio drummer. Drake’s mother is Jewish, from Canada. Drake, a dual citizen, was Bar Mitzvahed.
Every record this guy puts out turns to gold immediately. His biggest hit is “Hotline Bling,” with the refrain ‘you don’t call me on your cell phone’ set to the beat of Timmy Thomas’s “Why Can’t We Live Together.”
Rolling Stone magazine still gathers no moss. Recently purchased by Penske Media (Variety, Deadline), the once premier rock mag is cutting its annual number of issues in half — to 12– and going monthly. Previously, Rolling Stone was bi monthly, as in twice a month, for most of its 50 year run.
The new annual subscription price has been set at a whopping $59.99, with individual issues costing $9.99. That’s up by 10 bucks a year.
To make Rolling Stone competitive, Penske has hired a lot of new people. They’ve also published their first new issue with a photo of a pregnant, tattooed Cardi B receiving a loving kiss from her husband, Offset. (If a Rolling Stone reader from 1975 stumbled on this story a la “Back to the Future” they’d be laughing harder than Marty McFly.)
Rollingstone.com, which is eminently readable, has had a little uptick in clicks since April. and it’s ranked 485 on alexa.com, which is very good. So the website is getting traffic, it has a clean look, and record companies– what’s left of them– still like to debut videos there since there are no other music magazines except Billboard (owned by Penske’s rivals, and more tipped to the trade).
So on Rolling Stone rolls. The days of Chet Flippo, Ben Fong Torres, Timothy White, Hunter S. Thompson, et al is long gone. The trick now is to try and create a new gestalt for the 2020s, if there can be one. That means walking the fine line between worship to classic rock and awareness of the new stars. The Cardi B cover looks like a step in the right direction. (Not to mention that Vanity Fair has Kendrick Lamar on its cover. It’s a good ne world!)
I’ve been bracing myself for the idea of Paul Simon, who is 76, playing his last shows this summer. He will make a career finale in Forest Hills on September 22nd after two nights at Madison Square Garden. It seems much too soon.
At the same time, another Paul is just gearing up for another arena tour. Paul McCartney, also 76, just announced four dates in Canada. They are quite literally at the same time as Simon’s farewell shows, although McCartney does have September 21-27 off on his current schedule. He could show up in Forest Hills.
With McCartney, anything is possible. The Canada dates kick off the “Freshen Up” tour for his new album, “Egypt Station,” due September 7th. And even though McCartney just played several dates in the New York area last September, you know he will fill up MSG, Barclays in Brooklyn, Prudential Center in Newark once again without any difficulty.
For McCartney to slide into MSG, his bookers will have to deal with not only Simon, but the monthly Billy Joel (only 69) and several Elton John dates. Elton, 71, is on his own farewell tour that goes on well into the year 2020.
Will McCartney ever retire? I don’t think so. He has some kind of cosmic challenge going on with Mick Jagger (turning 75 this month), who’s also touring this summer with the Rolling Stones. And Ringo Starr (turns 78 this week) is out there with his band. Beatles vs. The Stones. It’s the Yankees and the Red Sox. It will just go on and on.
Famed R&B star “Soul Man” Sam Moore is the latest member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who is furious with Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden. The reason is that Wyden may screw up pending legislation now called The Music Modernization Act (S. 2823), which includes the “Classics Act.”
Currently, music artists who made records before 1972– which is all of classic rock, pop, R&B, country, etc– are not compensated by digital or satellite radio. The Music Modernization Act, endorsed by Barack Obama while he was president, is also supported by two dozen or more US senators and huge numbers in the House of Representatives.
The Classics Act protects not just big stars like the Beatles or Rolling Stones, but huge numbers of R&B stars from labels like Motown, Stax, Atlantic– i.e. all the stuff you love to dance to at parties (Aretha, James Brown, Temptations, Sam & Dave)— who get nada, zip, zero now from millions of plays on various services from Spotify to Sirius, Pandora, AppleMusic, et al.
Wyden has suddenly weighed in with his own legislation that would not only water down the Music Modernization, but take away rights these artists already have! Billboard’s Robert Levine recently observed: “Wyden’s bill also calls for all pre-1972 recordings to lose all of the protection they currently have under state law. Under current law — and the Music Modernization Act wouldn’t change this — all state law protection expires no later than 2067, although in some jurisdictions it could run out sooner. It also says that works recorded between 1923 and 1930 will enter the public domain if they’re not used, and it offers a three-year window from liability for statutory damages in some cases.”
Wyden’s legislation, called ACCESS, must be stopped. Sam Moore posted on Facebook this week: “Stop Sen Wyden from devaluing and stealing from me and all of my peers who recorded our biggest hits before Feb,1972! The idea that he thinks that he can minimize or devalue my talent and my peers talent is about as offensive as offensive can get!
Don’t take our legacies away from us! Don’t take our ability to care for our children and our grandchildren and our great grandchildren
You are just plain wrong and you just don’t have that right Senator. It’s embarrassing that a 70-year-old man, a Democrat, no less, would put himself above all of us! (I’m betting his you know what stinks just as bad as mine does how dare he!) “
Moore notes that Wyden’s local NAACP chapter in Oregon is also railing against his proposal as hundreds of the artists are black.
Yes I’m sick and tired of any senator or congressman who feels that they can play God over us artists because they’re getting there you-know-what’s kissed by special interest and lobbyists and I don’t care which party they are in!
ENOUGH!
Hope you have a Happy Independence Day Senator Wyden! “
MusicFirst, a coalition that represents music artists’ digital rights, also has chimed in:
“Wyden’s bill also calls for all pre-1972 recordings to lose all of the protection they currently have under state law. Under current law — and the Music Modernization Act wouldn’t change this — all state law protection expires no later than 2067, although in some jurisdictions it could run out sooner. It also says that works recorded between 1923 and 1930 will enter the public domain if they’re not used, and it offers a three-year window from liability for statutory damages in some cases.”
Me, personally: I can’t figure out how a Democrat who considers himself a friend of the arts, and a progressive, wants to limit the rights of these amazing artists. Maybe it’s time to take a deeper dive into Wyden’s motivations.