A Conversation with Mark Tremonti

Mike Ragogna: Mark, let's talk about Cauterized. Recording artists often title albums, not just because it's a key track or because it sounds like a cool title, but the title makes a statement about the project. It ties-in with a message the album is supposed to be achieving. Does that apply with Cauterized?

Mark Tremonti: You know, to be honest, I fell back on Cauterized. I wanted to name the record Providence at first, and then I seemed like the only one who thought that was the strongest title. So I kind of went back, went through every lyric in the album, went through every song title, and kind of made a list of maybe 200 possibilities and I went over and over that list and then finally went over it with my brother Dan and we kind of focused on Cauterized. We thought it would be a good word; it's not your most typical. I have never heard of an album called Cauterized before or a song or a band, so I figured it would be a good, nice, unique name.

MR: Providence a contender?

MT: I thought Providence was a good classy name for the album and that song is kind of the anchor, epic song, the last song on the album, a very important song for the record. I just thought it was very fitting. But again, it was my opinion and I had seemed to be the only one in the band and within all of our big group of friends that thought it was the best title, but I was wrong! [laughs]

MR: How do you feel you've progressed from the first Tremonti album to this one?

MT: Other than the simple fact that we added a band member on the bass, Wolfgang Van Halen, the biggest change for me was that this was the first time I recorded an album after being a professional singer. The first album I recorded was the first time ever in a studio as a singer and after recording the album I went and toured for a year and a half. When you're out there on tour you develop your skills, you develop your voice so much more than if you were sitting in your room practicing vocal warm up tapes or vocal techniques, or taking vocal lessons. It made a humongous difference in the way I look at singing and I came into the studio with a new confidence, much more confidence this time around.

MR: There had to have been some angst going on where you were like, "Ugh, is this working? What's going on here?"

MT: You know I had been a songwriter for so long, since I was a kid, but it was something I just wanted to do to get a lot of ideas I knew would never see the light of day on tape or recorded, because I have this fear of being this old man who's upset that my life's work just kind of went unknown because I never released a lot of these ideas that I loved. A lot of these heavier ideas that I had loved just never quite fit the bands that I was in so this solo project started as just an outlet for me to get material that would never get out there out there. It's developed into something where, on this album, has turned into something so much more. Something where we saw the potential in the band in the first record, and now we're pushing our limits as hard as we can and making the most of it.

MR: Now creatively, you kept using this as the vehicle for getting out things you really couldn't get out with Alter Bridge and Creed, but what are the things that you think are the biggest changers? What is the spot light mainly on, beyond your voice, that separates you more out, that takes you more out from Creed and Alter Bridge?

MT: It definitely gets more of my roots into this band. When I was younger I was into speed metal, heavy of all kinds and punk and the other guys that I work with weren't really into that. With this I've had so many riffs and parts that I've written in that kind of heavy metal side of things that just never fit and I really wanted to make sure that that side of me got out on this project. But, at the same time to keep that melody the core of sort of the most essential part of the song- which definitely has to be the melody.

MR: How do you see yourself evolving as Tremonti? You've had a lot of musical success, and many other artists would keep the formula going, yet you're sort of evolving from that. How do you see yourself evolving even further? Do you have a goal? Is there a mission plan?

MT: No, the only goal ever is to improve on what you've done in the past and not repeat yourself, to still have the melodic approach. I think going forward we'll try and get a little more progressive, but not progressive to the point of loosing the core of what people like about a song, but to add more progressive elements to it. I feel as if there are a lot of bands out there that are doing things that we've never heard before that I really appreciate. I want to pepper those kinds of ideas within our music and make it more interesting, give it some more depth, but not loose the essence of what the song is.

MR: The reason why I'm asking that question is because you did have a mission statement with Creed. It may not have been a conscious one but you ended up making a statement with that group. With the album Providence, that word seems to be the big statement song of the album. So how far do you dig into a song when you're writing it? Do you have layers of "that's not good enough"? How do you approach things creatively these days?

MT: The same way I always have. I will write ideas and I think most songwriters will write ideas they get really excited about and they'll try to finish that song before they move on. I will write an idea and try to write similar parts to fit with that idea until I'm not inspired anymore and I'll immediately go and start writing something completely different. Then I'll go back sometimes months or weeks later, and go and organize my ideas and if a part has been there for sometimes ten years, I'll wait until it's married to another part that I feel is as strong and fits the mood. Some songs it takes years and years and years to develop because I don't try and force a song to be finished. I let it happen naturally and that's what I've always done. That's what makes it easy working with Alter Bridge and Myles [Kennedy]. I never approach Myles and say, "Here Myles. Here's a song I wrote. Sing it." Myles and I both do the same thing. We'll say, "Here's a part I really like. Do you have a part to put with it?"That way we both feel each song is special to us because we've added something to that song. If Tremonti goes, "I just wait for a part to match another part," and I will sit with the guys in the band and I will play them all my individual parts. When they like an idea I'll mark it and then we'll go back and work through those ideas until we find matching parts. I don't like to have songs that have a forced section of the song where you've got great sections and then all of a sudden the bridge is lacking because you tried to push it. But, sometimes it works where you try and write in the moment like in pre-production. On the song "Providence" for example, most of that song was written in one day. But you never know when that inspiration is going to happen. I just try not to force it.

MR: What songs do you think best represent what you're about these days?

MT: I can tell you the songs I was most excited about. "Flying Monkeys" early on when that came together and when we finalized that song in pre-production I was very excited about it. It did everything I wanted to do within the song. I liked the fact that it didn't have a traditional guitar solo, and the mood it set and how heavy it was without being fast. It was just a very important song for me to get finished. It's funny, the first single Another Heart was not really a very important song to me through the recording process, but it became more important as it went on. It was kind of one of those songs where I felt the verse could have been better, but now that I've lived with it I think "You know what this is the perfect verse for that song." It just took me a little time to realize it. Like I said when I try and put parts together I want to make sure the perfect parts are fitting with one another. The rest of the band and Elvis were all like, "No it's a great verse for the song," but I doubted it until I actually heard it. That's what's good about this because five heads are better than one. That was one that we really worked on very hard. Everyday we'd come in and try and better it. There were points where we were satisfied where it was but we just kept on digging in and made it better each time. It seems like a new sound for us, that song, and we're very happy with it.

MR: You're at that point where things keep getting better. What are the experiences of the band when you're on the road? You've been touring since April, and you're going to Europe now, by the end of a tour it seems like a lot of bands feel like they really know the material. A lot of times unfortunately the tour happens after the record has been released. Do you ever have that experience where towards the end of the tour it seems like, "Oh man, now I get what that song is about?" It's not second guessing so much but do the songs significantly take on more of a personality or light because of what's being discovered about that song on the road?

MT: Sometimes when you're out there singing live you get so much more experience when you're doing it in front of people. Just yesterday when I was running through songs, I have to make sure I'm pushing my voice at home or else I'll loose my voice in the first show, so I'm singing through some of the songs and I'm singing them differently than when I recorded them because I'm placing the vowel sounds differently, or putting a breath here differently just because of the way I've been doing it live. Sometimes I wish I could go back and re-record the way I hit that word. But, that's only stuff you can learn after touring for a month. When you're in pre-production you're only singing these songs for a few weeks. Lyrics are usually the last thing that comes together because of that you don't have a ton of experience singing them before you track them.

MR: What about technique? Has someone taught you how to save your voice on the road? Have you had voice lessons or are you doing anything proactive to protect it?

MT: I'm going to knock on wood but I haven't had any problems, so far. Myles is very protective of his voice but he sings much more than I do. He's non-stop out there. We sing very differently. I sing very very loudly. For high notes, I push really hard and I know I'm not singing completely correct, but at this point I have never felt like "uh-oh" I'm going to have to cancel a show or sing a less song. I've felt like it's been strong, it's been there. I think everybody's genetically different. Some people's voices give out easier than others, and so far mine has hung in there. I think as long as you don't get a cold or a virus it's good.

MR: You have a companion album to Cauterize, Dust, that's coming out next year. You recorded a lot of material but again, songs may be evolving on the road. Dust was completed in 2015 yet coming out in 2016. Might exploring that album's material on the road change how you'll eventually feel about Dust's recordings?

MT: I didn't even think ahead. I just said I want to record as many songs as possible, and then I got with Elvis our producer and said let's put together a package for the most amount of songs we can do and we decided on twenty. So I put together twenty-five songs and then we got together for pre production and cut five of them out and recorded the top twenty. It wasn't until almost mixing time that we started to say how the hell are we going to release these twenty songs. I think twenty songs at one time is way too much. If a band releases fifteen songs, I don't know if it's just because I'm older now, but if a band releases fifteen songs I'm going to quickly breeze through it and have four or five songs that I like and I'm going to forget about the other ten. I don't want that to happen to this album but at the same time I thought ten songs I grew up on ten songs, I grew up on less than that, I grew up on eight song albums. Metallica records and Judas Priest records and old school records had four songs on a side. I kind of thought this ten song record idea is going to work well. I think it's easy for people to digest. I'm just going to wait until everybody really gets this record and they're eager for the next one before the next one comes out. Twenty songs at once is just way too much.

MR: When Dust comes out, it's going to sound, well sonically it has the same players so it's going to be beyond a companion piece but sort of like part two.

MT: It's just the sister album. If I looked back at the 20 songs I didn't want it to be the ten heaviest songs and then there's the campfire ballad, and I didn't want it to be the ten good songs and the ten not so good songs. I took it and looked at it and said ok if there are two mellow songs - ones going to go on the first record and one's going to go on the second record - I mixed them up as good as I could. I'm not going to lie and say that maybe some of my favorite songs didn't make the first record because the first impression is always the most important, but the second record is not going to be far off from the first album as a whole.

MR: One of the songs, "Arm Yourself," how did that come about?

MT: I had the idea for that chorus for a while and I remember at the last Alter Bridge writing session, Miles was really loving it and I always loved it. I just tried to really work that into the song and when we went into pre-production I remember Elvis saying that was his least favorite song. All of us as a band were like well it's one of our favorites just cause I think it's the heaviest song in the record, and once we got it done and it was time for vocals I remember Elvis going, "This is a fun one man, this is a great one." And I'm like, "See, told ya. Just give it time." That's why always the five heads are better than one kind of thing. It always works for every individual whether you're a producer, a guitar player, drummer, everybody's opinions count but it's just a good energetic song and just one of the band's favorites.

MR: You have participated in bands that have sold over 42 million albums, so how do you keep perspective after that kind of success?

MT: The only goal I ever have or perspective I ever have is the last record. This record has to be better than the last, and when that happens I feel good about myself. If that doesn't happen I feel like it's time to retire. I never rest on my laurels. I never sit back and wait until the last minute to do anything, I always like to be over prepared and work my hardest. If you're not getting better, you're only getting worse. I think that jumping back between Alter Bridge and Tremonti keeps each band excited, keep you learning new skill sets and it keeps you challenged. I think that's kind of what's helped. I think that's why Miles and I especially keep doing what we're doing.

MR: What advice do you have for new artists?

MT: It's all about the songs. I've always said that from day one. If you write a great song nobody's going to be able to successfully follow that great song. I get tired of gimmicks. There are some gimmicks that are great, some bands do it well. But I think at the core, the songs are the most important things. That's it. Focus on your songs.

MR: Where do you go from here? Dust is in the can and you're going to tour. I asked you before what the game plan is as far as Tremonti but what about you personally? What's your goal at this point? You've had so much success, what do you do now?

MT: Songwriting has always been such a big part of me; my goal is to be able to do this as long as I want to. I don't ever want to all of a sudden not be able to do this if I'm still able to be here to do it. Songwriting is still a huge part of me. My goal is to make Alter Bridge and Tremonti both comfortable bands to tour in so that I can bring my kids out anytime they want, have my wife fly to Poland if she wants and whenever she wants. Right now Tremonti is at this state where we're starting from square one again and so it's kind of an uncomfortable touring situation. It's exciting to get on stage but everything else is kind of dry because on our days off we share one hotel room. Everybody - the crew and band share the same shower and we're starting in clubs again. So it's back when you first start your first band and it's like camping and it's like fun and you're having great experiences. But this is the third time I've done it. My goal is to get to that next step with this band as soon as I can so I can have my kids visit me whenever they want without having to keep twelve other dudes on the bus.

MR: Creed has been traditionally kicked around a lot. Does that hurt your feelings that something like that would have happened to something precious to you?

MT: I think it had to do with a lot of things. The first was when we were new and we were the underdogs everyone wants you to succeed, but even when you look back at Creed, its not the most original sound. There are a lot of bands that sound similar. But when you look back when we first came out we were the only band that sounded like that. Everything else was kind of a Third Eye Blind kind of sound. It was a happy pop-y kind of rock scene. We were the band at that time that came out with the more somber, more moody stuff, and Phase the New were the two bands that kind of had that sound. I figured that just because we sounded different from what else was going on, I know a lot of people compared us to the whole grunge scene, but still it was a different more moodier kind of thing we had going on. I think that's why people connected with it first. People connect with it and it starts getting bigger and then when it got completely massive that's when people were like, "Hey wait a minute. This isn't as cool as I thought it was. It was all over the place. I've heard this song a billion times." Then things stated getting out of hand with certain band members' behaviors and that's when the gloves came off with critics. I think I read a quote by Michael Jackson once, he said if you want millions of fans you better get prepared to have millions of people that dislike you. It's just part of the game. I'm lucky enough to have had a very successful band that sold lots of records and played sold out arenas, but then I was also very lucky to have a band like Alter Bridge that was critically approved, that the critics approved of and other bands dug and kind of live both worlds.

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PANDA ELLIOT'S "LOVESONG" EXCLUSIVE



Panda Elliot is an Argentine singer-songwriter whose new album, Forastera, will get a US release in late August. Her new cover of The Cure's "Lovesong" will be included on the US release."

Panda adds...

"Lovesong was the first song I ever felt comfortable with singing, it represents a real turning point in my life. I wanted to record a laid back version that cut the song to its core and that was the inspiration for the music video, simple and timeless."

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A Conversation with David Anson Russo

Mike Ragogna: David, to this point, your career has embraced performance art, film, video, writing, and music, which you're currently focused on due to your connection with the non-profit, Little Kids Rock, its mission to bring music back into the education system. When did the issue of disappearing music programs in formative education come to your attention?

David Anson Russo: I have 4 grown kids and as a father, have watched the removal of the arts programs from schools across the country, and coming from a family of artists, its a big issue. That is why we desperately need foundations like Little Kids Rock in order to deliver its music program to kids who would normally not have access to music lessons and instruments. The reason LKR is as vital as math, science, or learning a trade is because there are so many rewards through the process of learning an instrument; self esteem, pride of accomplishment, developing a life-long passion, a possible career, etc. it's a gift to a child something that will deliver value throughout his or her entire life.

MR: What is Little Kids Rock's history, how does it function as an entity,and  what age groups does it assist?

DAR: The best way to answer this question is right out of the LKR agenda - What makes Little Kids Rock different is that they do more than just donate instruments like guitars, drums and keyboards; they build lasting music programs that focus on teaching kids to  perform, improvise and compose the popular music genres that they already know and love, like rock, pop, blues, hip-hop, country, reggae and R&B. Little Kids Rock also trains public school teachers by donating the instruments, curriculum resources, and support ,aterials they need to ensure that their kids have all the tools to rock! Any full-time public school teacher in one of their 29 current cities is eligible to apply for the next Modern Band workshop in their district. Applicants don't need to have advanced abilities on all instruments, but only a basic proficiency on the guitar. Upon completion of the workshop, teachers can get a program up and running in their school quickly and at no cost to themselves or the school.

MR: What is its ultimate goal and how will it ideally succeed?

DAR: The goal is to provide musical education to all children living in areas without access to music programs. It's about offering musical education during their important formidable years so they grow up with and nurture skills, talents, accomplishments, and build self worth through a rewarding creative passion. Remember, ours is a creative culture and society, everything you see is art, design, fashion style and we are all driven and connected by music. Music scores our lives, and it is very important that we all think of it as important.

MR: Do you think it's purely economics or something more that led to the United States de-emphasizing musical education?

DAR: When the country is hurting economically, as we all experienced due to the collapse in 2008, programs were destined to get cut. Schools must operate on less revenues. There is trickle down effect and the kids are the innocent victims. People make drastic choices and hard cuts that in hindsight, may not have been the best choice ultimately. The good thing is that organizations like LKR enter into the picture to rescue music programs and attempt to restore programs. If you take music, the arts, sports, class trips, out of the school system, kids have an awful lot of free time to experiment with other things that may not be good for them. It's important to mentor kids by filling their minds, hearts and soulswith productive and enriching experiences, like learning a musical instrument.

MR: What are some of Little Kids Rock's achievements?

DAR: You would really have to go to their web site to read about how they have significantly impacted children's lives across the country and the incredible system they have built to bring their wonderful programs to those who stand to benefit the most. I think their achievements are obvious looking at every kid who has learned a new musical instrument or music related skill set and talent. This strong positive influence will continue to grow as LKR grows, hence why it is so important to help them out now.

MR: Beginning today at 11am, you will be performing in a Saks Fifth Avenue window to bring awareness to the cause. Several of the young  LKR students from an under-served LA school will be performing at this kick-off "window reveal" event as well. Can you go into the specifics of the entire three-day event?

DAR: On June 9, 10, 11, I will be painting for the LKR charity in the windows of Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills (9600 Wilshire Blvd) for all to see. Please stop by and say hello. One huge front window at Saks will be my fishbowl art studio where I will be creating one large, acrylic on canvas painting a day, for three days. The second window will serve as the art gallery for 14 completed original works of art that will be auctioned off at the on-line Charitybuzz auction and at the private live auction the evening of June 11th inside Saks. https://www.charitybuzz.com/littlekidsrockThe event culminates in an invitation-only live auction where I will donate 100% of the proceeds from the sale of 14 original paintings, 3 created "live" in the window, and a dozen limited edition fine art prints to The Little Kids Rock Charity. The charity is chaired in LA by notable motion picture producer Cindy Cowan, who will host the auction for Russo's works with Saks.

I had successful book tours with Simon & Schuster in the 90's where I painted in the windows of some of the most prestigious book store windows on Fifth Ave in NYC. Based on these positive experiences I decided to do it for charities. Over the past few years, I have appeared at about seven different charity galas, where guests watched the paintings come to life over the course of the evening and then each painting is auctioned off during the live auction at the end of the night. I have been honored to help many different charities - JDRF New England, BJA Lung Cancer Foundation, APLA for AIDS research, CUN benefiting foster kids, and more - through my art. It has been working well because people I've spoken with seem to like the whimsy and inspirational messages inherent in my new art style, called What a Great Life. The art has raised significant sums for each charity, with all proceeds being donated to the charity. I have been working with Saks Fifth Avenue for the better part of a year to create a window event where I paint live for charity in their expansive windows. The Saks creative charitable initiative is about helping others through art.

MR: At its conclusion, how will you determine if the Saks Fifth Avenue event was successful? And what do you think the kids ultimately will take away from their experience?

DAR: The most important thing is to create funding for this great charity. All that matters to me is that the art sells for high prices to art lovers who are charitable of heart, love kids, and love music. This is more about helping LKR than buying art. Your take-away gift for your caring charitable contribution is a beautiful work of original art, but the donation you provide will help so many kids, and this is the primary focus.

MR: It's interesting that you'll be combining performance art with music at the event. That must be very satisfying for you personally.

DAR: Its incredibly satisfying to be able to create an image that can be turned into revenue to help those less fortunate. You mean, I can draw a picture and it can help! I'm in! This is an artistic creative event! Visual arts, music, fashion, and style, are all a part of this event. If you look at the work I am creating for this event, you will immediately see what I mean. In addition, all my work is created to music, primarily jazz and sometimes I will even include music links with the art on social meida so fans can listen to the music that helped inspire the art's creation. The music is a part of my work as much as the paint. For this event, I am combining "music" elements for LKR and "beauty" elements for Saks.

MR: What was your own musical education like, what are your favorite works and who are your favorite artists?

DAR: I played the tenor banjo when I was little and went to lessons regularly, but cannot play anymore. I can sing a bit and play my steering wheel pretty well. We have a few well know singers in our family. Perry Como was my grandfather's second cousin. Opera singers Richard Tucker and Jan Peirce are family members. My music interests are very eclectic. I grew up in the 60s/70s so it ranges from Robert Johnson and Benny Goodman to classic rock and everything in between. Currently, classic and cool california jazz - Chet Baker, Charles Mingus, Stan Getz, Bird, Joni, Hendrix, Johnny Cash, etc.

MR: What else are you working on lately?

DAR: My primary focus is building this new art brand we are calling What a Great Life or WAGL, which is an inspirational brand, based on the exact style I am using for the event. My FB fan page shows all the art and includes famouse insirational quotes as well. People have coined it as whimsical, romantic, wildly inventive, and out of the box, like Dr. Seuss meets Yellow Submarine. We are focused on applying all the art and fabric designs to created beautiful high end products; apparel, beach towels, silk scarves, bags, shower curtains, and more. The most important part of our goal now is creating our animated e-greeting card company, and webisodes with the art/characters and invented world of WAGL. My awesome animation team just created our first animation and over the next year will be creating a wide variety of animated greetings for the public, unlike anything you have never seen before. In addition to being an artist and author for most of my life, I have been a television series creator and executive producer for the last two decades with a few new series in the works as well. As you can see, there is a lot in the works, art related, joyful, and life affirming. What else is there?

MR: What is your advice to new artists?

DAR: First, read the poem "IF" by Rudyard Kipling. Live and embrace your passion, fully and completely. Be a unique voice and reveal to the world what you are thinking. If you have something important to contribute, they will pay attention only if you deliver your pure self to the work, then your contribution will be rewarded. The world has everything and eveyone else but you and your uniqueness. It needs you.

MR: What 's next on Little Kids Rock's agenda?

DAR: I know they have a great deal going on and they do a big event in October in NYC so maybe I will find my way there to do another painting for them. Meanwhile, they infuse children with the joy and love of music and that is a daily ongoing occurrence.  Namaste!

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SONGS OF WATER'S "11 MILES" EXCLUSIVE


photo credit: Sallie Mosely

According to Songs Of Water's Stephen Roach...

"11 miles is a bit of a surrealist 'Mono Myth' or what Joseph Campbell would call a 'Heroes Journey,' only in this instance, the hero is literally being strung along by his own sense of calling. The concept for this video borrows imagery from Asian folklore as well as details from a personal dream. Ultimately, I think '11 Miles' is best described as an ascetic love story."

For more information:

http://www.songsofwater.com
https://www.facebook.com/songsofwater
https://twitter.com/songsofwater

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THE FLUDES' "ROLLING FIELDS" EXCLUSIVE


photo credit: The Fludes

According to Dawn Flude...

"'Rolling Fields' is from our first album Ancient Tales. This set of songs & narration chronicles the life of Dawn from a Knights Lady to Immortality in the Kingdom of Haddon. As the story unfolds, her Knight leaves Haddon for war and to fight for the Warrior Queen and wage epic battle. Meanwhile, Magic, especially black magic should never be toiled with. A terrible curse had been placed upon the land, the witches spell true to her words, had taken grip. The Haddonites looked to the skies in horror, as their moon rose the color of bloodfire. Each of our lovers gazed upon this dreadful sight, the smell of death began to fill the air around them and now more than ever, they wished to be together once again. So they perform a duet, although far away, 'Take me back to the "Rolling Fields" where the grass is greener and the world is real.'

"Little do they know that what is to follow will force them to make momentous decisions. Does our Knight desert his Queen and be branded a traitor after news that his family are dying? Does Lady Dawn loses Faith when the cursed plague comes to take her children? 'Oh God, your choir is dying.' 'Rolling Fields' will take you on a journey to the centre of your heart."

The story of The Fludes' Lady Dawn, The Enchanter and Father, can be found with maps and ancient scrolls in the Kingdom of Haddon at http://www.dawndiamonds.co.uk.

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Nadine Labaki photographed by Ammar Abd Rabbo

If there is one film that changed my life, it's Nadine Labaki's Caramel. It is the kind of movie I can watch again and again, and still find hidden within it new gems of wisdom and insights. If you've ever asked me what to watch as your first Arab film, I'm sure you remember my answer as being, without hesitation, Caramel.

Then came Where Do We Go Now? Another masterpiece by Labaki, who courageously tried out a new concept of incorporating music as a character, in a film that deals with serious themes. Women who find a way of solving the religious conflict created by the men in their town, by switching faiths and hosting some Ukrainians. Brilliant.

So it's no surprise I was very eager to catch up with Labaki once again in Cannes, since I've not had the pleasure to interview her in a couple of years. I find filmmakers true trendsetters and look to them as prophets of things to come. But even more so when it comes to women filmmakers.

Sitting across from the beautiful, sultry-spoken Labaki in her white suit, while on a sunny lawn overlooking the Croisette was a welcomed luxury, a short holiday away from the hustle and bustle that is the biggest film festival in the world.

The question on everyone's mind, when is your next film coming out?

Nadine Labaki: I'm actually in the middle of writing my next film. You know, I've had a lot of opportunities to make other films and to work on other scripts but I feel the need to write my own things. That's why it takes so long for me between each film. Even though it's really tempting, I receive a lot of scripts from different people all over the world but if I want to be on that kind of an adventure, I'd rather do it as an actress than as a director, because it's a lot work. Making a film is like two or three years of my life and it needs to be really worth it. It needs to be something I feel the need to say. In the meantime, I've been acting here and there. I don't consider that I've played the part of my life, I'm still waiting for that one director who is really going to explore who I am.

What is your favorite part of acting and your favorite aspect of directing?

Labaki: My favorite part of acting is actually experiencing different lives, living different lives. Maybe it's something that a lot of actors feel, that's why they act. It's a way of escaping your own personality and escaping the routine of you, of who you are. How you behave, how you talk, your voice, even your physical appearance, everything. It allows me to explore my different natures, because I truly believe that every one of us has different natures. And because of the pressure of society we tend to become just one and act the same way because otherwise we'll be labelled as crazy. So acting really allows me to do that, it's why I like it and why I'm always looking for that director who is going to see something I don't see, or see something that pushes me further away from my personality. It's the best job in the world, being an actor.

Directing allows me to create different realities, different stories and I think that cinema has a big mission. It has a higher mission than just telling a story or entertaining us. I truly believe in that mission.

I love you for saying that, because I believe cinema has a lot of power!

Labaki: It has so much power! For me it's one of the most powerful means of change and I am aware of that. I'm aware of this mission and I want to be clever enough to embrace it and take it as an opportunity for me to do something, to have an impact. So I give it a lot of responsibility which is why I take a lot of time between films because I really need to become obsessed with a theme.

For women it's like a cry for help, cinema. It's like you're shouting out loud something that you are feeling deep inside, it's not just about telling a story. It's about really expressing yourself and trying to make a change because everything needs to be changed, nothing is going the way it should be. I really believe in alternative thinking and an alternative society and a new way of exploring things, and through the opportunity of cinema I explore that.

Maybe cinema is true freedom for us women, even as an audience member, films like Caramel or Where Do We Go Now? are freedom. You watch them and you finally find women who express some of the things you may never be able to express.

Labaki: I agree, it's a lot of freedom. I mean, you can say these things over dinner, you can express yourself in that way. But first of all, who would listen to you? And second, I think it would be very limited. It would be maybe three people who would hear this talk and maybe one would listen and the other two would engage in other conversations. When you make a film about it, you are engaging all these people, at the same time, in one movie theater, on the same wavelength, listening to something that you have to say -- and that makes a lot of difference.

Martin Scorsese once said something about the audience being active participants, in a film, involved while sitting there in that dark theater. Watching a film is not a passive sport.

Labaki: Absolutely. I mean, I make films for people. I don't make films because I want to enjoy them, I make films that are accessible.

We live in this world where someone is invariably labelled "the Other". Is cinema a way for us to understand and appreciate other cultures?

Labaki: Absolutely. I've been exploring and experiencing that more and more. When I go to festivals and I'm on a jury, it's like a lesson in anthropology. You learn so much, about different cultures. Like a window to other cultures.

And what a jury you are on, this time around in Cannes!

Labaki: Yeah. First of all it's an honor to be with Isabella Rossellini, I admire her so much. This woman is for me the definition of grace. Of "délicatesse," of generosity, of intelligence. And everyone else, Tahar [Rahim], and to be with Haifaa [Al-Mansour], I'm learning about her more and more. And Panos Koutras. All of us are talking about films all day long.

If we hired filmmakers to be politicians we'd be so much better off, don't you think?

Labaki: I've always said that. Someone asked me one day, what would be your wish, if you had one wish? And I said I would switch politicians to artists. And I think the world would be so much better.

Photograph of Nadine Labaki courtesy of Ammar Abd Rabbo, all rights reserved and used with permission.

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Rehearsal for the final show, May 20, 2015           photos by Walter Kim

When someone dies it's such a private time and yet so very public. That's how I'm feeling about the loss of my job. We didn't sit shiva only because CBS kicked us out so fast. (I did get some flowers.) I'm going to guess most of the time the entire world doesn't hear about your job change; maybe you can fake it for a few weeks. I don't have that option since my boss left on national television. Yesterday when I dropped my son Simon at school, some parent I'd never met asked "What are you going to do next?" I said, "Get a haircut." He laughed and I thought, no, really, that's all I have on my schedule for "next."

Wednesday I'll be 58 years old. I am wife to another woman and Ema (Hebrew for mother) to an 8 1/2 year old boy. I am a New Yorker, sober, a Jew, constantly struggling with my weight, a Democrat ... but more than anything I am an ex-employee of Dave Letterman. My mother Sophie, may she rest in peace, told me I was too sensitive to work in television and maybe she was right, but what else was I going to do with my life? I was not exactly astrophysicist material (ha ha ha, I'm killing in my head).

I started as the receptionist in pre-production on what we all called "the morning show" (really The David Letterman Show) on May 21, 1980. I worked for Dave for 35 years to the exact day. Reporters kept asking us why we all stayed so long. We stay because Anatevka is our home (What? You don't know Fiddler on the Roof?). We stayed because we are all in some way part of the land of misfit toys. Some more misfit than others. One of us had to touch every single guest that went out on stage, another (sometimes, maybe if no one was looking) licked Dave's make-up mirror. But mostly, we were the ones who didn't enjoy high school.

I was promoted from receptionist to production assistant when Jude Brennan (who came back and eventually became one of the Executive Producers at the Late Show) quit because she couldn't get up that early. She took one of those yellow legal pads and hand-wrote out how to do the job on 15 pages which I kept until our beloved cleaning woman Bea Clark accidentally threw them out.

The morning show lasted 18 weeks. A year later, I was working on the NBC sitcom One of the Boys (which starred Mickey Rooney, Dana Carvey and the great Nathan Lane) when, walking in the halls of 30 Rock, I saw Dave. "Hey Gaines, how come you're not working on the new show?" he asked "Yeah", I replied, "How come?" I got the call to start pre-production on Late Night with David Letterman that night.

One day early on at Late Night Dave made a comment on air and I screamed a correction from backstage. I was normally pretty shy, but I just couldn't help myself and I sat right behind his desk. Shouting during the taping became something I ended up doing quite a lot. (Back then I thought if I could remember anything I would call my memoir Screaming from Backstage.)

Toward the end of Late Night I was in a recurring segment called "How's the Weather?" Dave would riffle through a phone book and I would randomly point at a number and then we'd call a stranger and ask "How's the weather?" We did this when we had nothing else and it only worked a third of the time. The last time we tried it no one was answering so we called my mother in Pompano Beach and she asked Dave if I was wearing my father's sweater. Before he could could answer, she said I wore his clothes because I was fat. "Put her on a diet Dave!" That ended random calling.

The most joyous time of my career was sharing an office with Barbara Sheehan when we worked on Late Night at NBC. I had enough responsibility to be in the inner circle but not enough to worry about the show on weekends. There was no funnier office mate then Sheehan. She threw my favorite hat down the air shaft & then ordered a fishing pole from props to retrieve it. She talked me into giving John Chancellor a low hug and singing "Dirty Boulevard" to Lou Reed. Sheehan and I continued to share an office when we moved to CBS in June, 1993, until she got hold of her senses and eventually left television. As you know by now, I stayed.

When we went from 12:30 at NBC to 11:30 at CBS, we went from four shows a week to five, and a studio to a theater. The Ed Sullivan Theater has amazing history (I mean, The Beatles!), but call it "Studio 50" all you want, it's a Broadway theater not a TV studio. Besides being filled with rats the size of Smart cars, the control room was nowhere near the stage which was a challenge for production. And though I can't speak for everyone, the move made things harder than we would admit.

All I ever wanted was to put on a show and in that respect I have been the luckiest girl in the world. And, of course, receptionist-me dreamed of becoming a producer and winning an Emmy award, and at the Late Show both those things came to pass. I (clear throat) won five.

But, the more responsibility I got, the less fun I had. In 1996 I became a producer; in 2000 an executive producer; and then in 2002, the show runner. The nine years I was at the podium running the show were the most stressful of my life, and maybe took nine years off. The first day in 2002 that I was at the podium Dave said, "Don't worry Gaines, this hour that we tape the show will be you and me." A few shows later I asked a question in the commercial break and he said, "I don't know, I'm not the producer." Suddenly, I was on stage alone.

In 2011, when I decided to leave the stage I loved so much, our director Jerry Foley welcomed me to end my career in his control room. (Nancy Agostini took over the running of the show.) During my second week down in the booth, Dave was talking and talking and not throwing to the clip. I wasn't used to being able to speak out loud during the show since I'd been on the floor all those years. I screamed at the monitor "Roll it!" Jerry rolled it, and jumped Dave's cue. I said, "Why did you do that??" and he replied, "You're the Executive Producer." And I thought "Heyyyyy...."

So from typing TelePrompTer script in 1980 to the puppet master in 2011 -- oh no, sorry that's not true, I thought, I don't know, I was in a dream for a second, there is no puppet.


We planned the last 28 shows on a board on my office wall

Two or even three years ago, before Dave announced his retirement, Dave and I talked about how, when the day came, we would need a montage to end the show. So we hired a big shot to work on it. I was happy to give it to an outside professional since I figured he'd have a different "take" on us, something fresh and interesting. And of course there's always that self-hating hope that someone else will make something more special than the misfits.

So all this time he had been working. I didn't give it a thought until Dave actually announced. I asked to see it, and well... it was clear he didn't get us. I never showed it to Dave. Dave decided to trust my opinion (after a half dozen people agreed with me) and said, "So what are we going to do now?" I said, "I'd like to try it." He looked at me and said, "You?" Granted, my job at the show had never been a creative one. I edited every night but I took things out, I didn't piece them together. I said, "Yes. Me. Give me a couple of months. If I see I can't do it, I'll hand it over to a writer."

So, on a Friday last October, I went into the edit room with Associate Director Randi Grossack and Senior Editor Mark Spada and started cutting. We called it "The GRIM project" for Gaines, Randi and Mark. One Friday after we started, I was speaking to Dave on the phone and I said something about using a Joaquin Phoenix bite and he said "I thought we talked about this being stills?" and I said "What? No? I must have.... Oh no." So back to the drawing board Randi, Mark and I went.

I, of course, was thinking Dave had no idea what he was talking about, television is moving pictures - why would we use stills? What a pain it will be to take freeze frames off of all those shows. We began the painstaking process of picking a show, freezing the frame, deciding the order, and editing it all to the Foo Fighters' "Everlong." Around version 8, I thought, "Okay, the stills are working. I think I have something here." I gathered the producers and showed them what I had. They said varying versions of "That's nice," "You can't end the show with this" and "Oh, look what you made." I knew I was in trouble.

Dave kept asking how it was going and did I have something and I just wasn't ready to give up. The months were ticking by and we were getting closer to May 20. We'd only been working on the montage on Fridays, the one day we we didn't tape a show, because although I was thinking obsessively about the final weeks, we were still producing daily shows. The GRIM team started working vacation days and constantly exchanging emails.



Finally, at version 19, I showed it to everyone again and people actually cried. I knew we were there. Version 21 is what aired on the last show. It was one of the proudest moments of my time at the show. (The other was accepting the Emmy Award on behalf of the program in 2002.)



The last day at rehearsal, when Dave Grohl and his Foo Fighters played live to those 560 or so images for the first time, I got so excited I ran up on the stage and hugged him. Dave Grohl does not know me, but being the nice guy that he is, he hugged back.

During the final six weeks of my job I was so consumed with the last 28 shows that I didn't have time to think about what would happen after. Well, lookie, lookie here it is. It's utterly bizarre to no longer be lying awake thinking about freeze frames and what's missing and the order they should be in. And to no longer be making my daily way to 53rd & Bway.

After 35 years working with the most devoted and hardworking staff and crew, I have learned one thing for sure: I'm not the craziest person in the room, but I'm definitely in the room. In 1980 when I was on the morning show, Dency Nelson (the cue card guy at the time before he became stage manager to the stars) once told me "Stop thinking the most interesting thing about you is what's wrong with you." So I grew to think the most interesting thing about me was working for Dave. And now that's what's wrong with me. I guess I have to start looking for another room.

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By Ann Friedman

I wasn't expecting cinematic greatness from "Pitch Perfect 2," which I saw last weekend at a mall in suburban Los Angeles. The New Yorker had warned me that the sequel to the 2012 hit about a college a capella group "falls apart at the level of the script, before it ever gets to the camera." But I'd loved watching the original with my girlfriends, I'd reblogged many a GIF of Rebel Wilson as Fat Amy, and so I paid my $11.75 for a matinee ticket. I am not embarrassed to tell you that I laughed and I cried -- specifically at the final a capella number, a choral rendition of Beyoncé's "Run the World (Girls)" mashed up with a Jessie J song. The New Yorker wasn't wrong about the plot, but I didn't care. Which puts me in good company.

Despite lukewarm reviews, "Pitch Perfect 2" is killing it at the box office and on the pop charts. Its star, Anna Kendrick, recently told the Times that she chooses roles based on whether "this is something that the 15-year-old me would be excited to do." While that once might have sounded like faux modesty, after "Pitch Perfect" it seems to be a solid career strategy. The sequel is outselling big-budget summer blockbuster "Mad Max: Fury Road." This is thanks to girls -- and women like me who remember what it was like to be one. "Hollywood may have finally cottoned on to something the music industry has known all along: tween and teen girls are a loyal audience," writes Forbes.

The "girl movie" -- younger sister of the much-maligned "chick flick" -- has long been a derogatory label at worst, and a narrow niche at best. Most of the venerated films of the girl canon received withering reviews upon their release. "Despite its literary quasi-pedigree, "Clueless" doesn't have much more than these scattered gags to keep it going," sniffed the Times in 1995. Of cult cheerleading classic "Bring It On," moviegoers were prepared to expect "a slice of diet cheesecake, a 'Coyote Not Quite So Ugly.'" "Mean Girls" fared somewhat better among critics -- The New Yorker called it a classic in 2014.

Not that girls really care. The movies that teen girls love become classics because they are so much more than films: They are bonding opportunities. Girl movies inspire such fervent fandom because they are seamlessly woven into young female friendships with each reblog and sleepover screening. Girl movies play by a different set of rules.

The traditional definition of a "chick flick" is a romantic comedy about a relationship. The girl movie has women at the center. (In this way, some movies marketed at adult women, like "Bridesmaids," are really girl movies at heart.) While there's often a love interest thrown in, the plots of girl movies primarily explore the support and competition and nuances of friendship. In "Pitch Perfect 2," Kendrick's character grapples with balancing her burgeoning career with her devotion to her a capella friends. Her boyfriend is a cardboard cutout in the background. This is surprisingly rare in mainstream movies. We crave girl movies because female camaraderie -- with all of its complications -- is rich and underexplored cinematic fodder.

While most girl-movie protagonists are aware of feminism and want to do well by other women, they can be confused about the ideology's real-life applications. Aren't we all? "Mean Girls" plays this for laughs: "Ex-boyfriends are just off-limits to friends. I mean, that's just, like, the rules of feminism," one of the Plastics says. But trying to do well by other women while also doing right by yourself is complicated. Perhaps this is one reason why girls like to watch together: to see their group dynamics reflected onscreen. Indeed, at Pitch Perfect 2 screenings, "Young women arrived in groups of five, seven, or more, eager to see a movie made by women, about women, starring women," Fusion reports.

All of the classic girl movies push back against the various pressures young women are subjected to, from relentless perfectionism to slut-shaming. Fat Amy announces in the first "Pitch Perfect" that she has given herself this name "so twig bitches like you don't do it behind my back." The sequel reverses the trope of the #foreveralone fat girl. When her casual hookup tries to make her his girlfriend, she refuses, saying, "I'm like a wild pony! I can't be tamed." Sometimes girl movies skewer class divides and body image in a single line. Says a salesgirl in "Mean Girls" to a queen bee who's recently put on weight, "We only carry sizes 1, 3, and 5. You could try Sears." It's a joke about how the mall makes you feel bad about yourself -- not a joke at the expense of girls who can't afford or fit into designer clothes. But of course it's not all harmonizing and shopping. The modern girl movie does not shy away from period references and scatalogical humor. Yes, girls laugh at dick jokes. Yes, girls say "fuck."

"Having more female-driven film has gone from being a trend to being the norm," reports the Los Angeles Times. I wouldn't go that far. There's still plenty of room for more -- and better -- girl movies. Both "Pitch Perfect" films feature some lazy racism, and for all their transgressive plot points and dialogue, girl movies on the whole have been dominated by straight, white, skinny characters. As Anthony Lane wrote in his 2004 "Mean Girls" review, "It's all very well to satirize perfect white females, but if you're sick of their attitudes why single them out as protagonists in the first place? What happened to the Asian Nerds? Or the Unfriendly Black Hotties? Or the tired teachers? Why can't we see a movie about them?" Now that there's a proven formula for captivating teen girls, Hollywood should feel free to appeal to an even wider swath of girl culture.


More from The Cut:
When Police Brutalize Pregnant Women
That Dark, Perverse Stare: Sex and Shame After Abuse
Why Don't More Men Take Their Wives' Names?






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There's been a lot of talk about the place of women in country music lately, so it seems like the perfect time for two women to host the 2015 CMT Music Awards, and with any luck whatsoever, that is what we intend to do this Wednesday night on CMT. In recent weeks, "Saladgate" broke out in the Country world when a prominent radio consultant gave an interview saying, "If you want to make ratings in Country Radio, take females out." Somehow in the process of making his point, this gentleman compared women in Country Music to tomatoes, and men to lettuce. We didn't believe it either. Here, then, are ten reasons we politely suggest you all watch the CMT Music Awards whether you're a man, woman or child; lettuce, tomato or even crouton.

1) Erin's blonde obsession Carrie Underwood will perform live onstage for the first time on TV since she gave birth in February, and as we saw during rehearsal, she's never looked or sounded better. Which is SO impressive. And just the slightest bit annoying.

2) Against all odds, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom Arnold will rekindle their True Lies romance in ways you might never expect.

3) One way or another, you'll find out why we are hosting the show. It will make sense that we're here. We think.

4) Eric Church will sing "Wrecking Ball," but no twerking is currently scheduled.

5) Joe Dirt and Billy Ray Cyrus will both be on the show. Will this finally become the musical salute to the mullet that America has been waiting for?

6) Florida Georgia Line may FINALLY confess they're from a rather tony section of Connecticut.

7) Performances by everyone from Keith Urban to Kenny Chesney to Kim Jung Un, though one of them might drop out. Please don't hack our email.

8) Reba will sing. That is all.

9) You'll see Little Big Town, Darius Rucker, Maddie & Tae, and Norman Reedus who is apparently excited to hang out with the living for a night.

10) What do Justin Bieber, Steven Tyler, Kristen Bell, Hunter Hayes, Zedd, Alan Jackson, Rick Springfield, James Cordon and us all have in common? Tune in for the first ten minutes of the CMT Music Awards and find out.

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You know what Mickey Mouse looks like, right? Little guy, big ears?

Truth be told, Disney's corporate symbol has a lot of different looks. If Mickey's interacting with Guests at Disneyland Park (especially this summer, when the Happiest Place on Earth is celebrating its 60th anniversary), he looks & dresses like this.



Or when he's appearing in one of those Emmy Award-winning shorts that Disney Television Animation has produced (EX: "Bronco Busted," which debuts on the Disney Channel tonight at 8 p.m. ET / PT), Mickey is drawn in a such a way that he looks hip, cool, edgy & retro all at the same time.



Looking ahead to 2017 now, when Disney Junior rolls out "Mickey and the Roadster Racers," this brand-new animated series will feature a sportier version of Disney's corporate symbol. One that Mouse House managers hope will persuade preschool boys to more fully embrace this now 86 year-old character.



That's what most people don't realize about the Mouse. The Walt Disney Company deliberately tailors Mickey's look, even his style of movement, depending on what sort of project / production he's appearing in.

Take -- for example -- Disney California Adventure Park's "World of Color: Celebrate!" Because Disney's main mouse would be co-hosting this new nighttime lagoon show with ace emcee Neil Patrick Harris, Eric Goldberg really had to step up Mickey's game. Which is why this master animator created several minutes of all-new Mouse animation which then showed that Mickey was just as skilled a showman as Neil was.



Better yet, let's take a look at what the folks at Avalanche Studios just went through as they attempted to create a Classic version of Mickey & Minnie. One that would then allow this popular pair to become part of Disney Infinity 3.0.

"I won't lie to you. We were under a lot of pressure to get the look of this particular version of Mickey -- he's called Red Pants Mickey around here -- just right," said Jeff Bunker, the VP of Art Development at Avalanche Studios, during a recent phone interview. "When we brought Sorcerer Mickey into Disney Infinity 2.0 back in January of 2014, that one was relatively easy because ... Well, everyone knows what Mickey Mouse looked like when he appeared in Fantasia."



"But this time around, we were being asked to design THE Mickey & Minnie," Bunker continued. "And given that these Classic Disney characters have been around in various different forms for the better part of the last century ... Well, which look was the right look?"

Which is why Jeff and his team at Avalanche Studios began watching hours & hours of Mickey Mouse shorts. As they tried to get a handle on which look would work best for these characters in Disney Infinity 3.0.



"And we went all the way back to the very start of Mickey's career. We began with Steamboat Willie and then watched all of those black & white Mickey shorts that Walt made back in the late 1920s & early 1930s. From there, we transitioned to his Technicolor shorts. Which is when Mickey went from being this pie-eyed, really feisty character to more of a well-behaved leading man," Bunker recalled. "We then finished out our Mouse marathon by watching all of those new Mickey shorts that Paul Rudish & his team have been creating for Disney Television Animation. Those cartoons really recapture a lot of the spirit and wild slapstick fun that Mickey's early, black & white shorts had."

But given that the specific assignment that Avalanche Studios had been handed was to create the most appealing looking, likeable version of Mickey Mouse possible ... In the end, Jeff and his team wound up borrowing bits & pieces from a lot of different versions of the world's most famous mouse. So that Classic Mickey would then look & move in a way that best fit the sort of gameplay which people would soon be able to experience with Disney Infinity 3.0.



"That -- in a lot of ways -- was actually the toughest part of the Classic Mickey design project. You have to remember that one of the key creative conceits of Disney Infinity is that all the characters which appear in this game are toys," Bunker stated. "Okay. So they're beautifully detailed, highly stylized toy versions of beloved Disney, Pixar, Marvel & Lucasfilm characters. But they're still supposed to be toys. So our Classic versions of Mickey & Minnie have the same sort of thickness & sturdiness to them that toys have. So that they'll then be able to fit right in with all of the rest of the characters that Avalanche Studios had previously designed for Disney Infinity."

And then there was the matter of coming up with just the right pose for Classic Mickey & Minnie. Which -- to hear Jeff tell the story -- involved input from a lot of Disney upper management.



"Everyone within the Company seemed to have an opinion about how Mickey & Minnie should be posed. More to the point, if you Google Mickey, you then discover that there are literally thousands of poses out there for these two. Though -- truth be told -- a lot of those kind of play off the way Mickey poses when he's being Disney's corporate symbol," Bunker said. "But what I was most concerned about was that Mickey's pose had to work with Minnie's pose. Because we were bringing the Classic versions of these characters up into Disney Infinity 3.0 at the exact same time. And we wanted to make sure -- especially for those fans who like to put their Disney Infinity figures on display -- that Mickey's pose would then complement Minnie.

Which is why Jeff & the crew at Avalanche Studios decided -- when it came to Classic Mickey & Minnie's pose -- that they should go all the way back to the beginning. Which is why these two Disney icons are sculpted in such a way that it almost seems as though you're witnessing the very first time Mickey set eyes on Minnie.



"And what was really great about that was -- as soon as we began showing people within the Company this pose -- everyone at Disney quickly got on board with the idea. I mean, the Classic Mickey that we sculpted for Disney Infinity 3.0 is clearly a very playful, spunky character. But at the same time, he's obviously got eyes for Minnie," Bunker concluded. "So in the end, we were able to come up with Classic versions of these characters that will work well within the creative confines of Disney Infinity 3.0 but at the same time please those Disney fans who just collect these figures because they like the way the Disney Infinity characters look."

So now that this particular design project is over, does Jeff regret that Mouse House upper management was so hands-on when it came to making sure that the Classic versions of Mickey & Minnie were specifically tailored to fit the look & style of gameplay found in Disney Infinity 3.0?



"To be blunt, we go through this every time we add a new character to the game. The folks at Lucasfilm were just as hands-on when we were designing the versions of Darth Vader & Yoda that will soon be appearing in Disney Infinity 3.0," Bunker laughed. "So in the end, if the character's creators AND the fans are happy, then I'm happy."

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A week before the June 9 release of honeyhoney's third full-length album -- a winning number appropriately titled 3 -- the hot-blooded duo was 75 minutes into its biggest headlining date in Denver when lead singer Suzanne Santo let loose:

I am yours to bear
You're mine to share my days with
I am yours to bear
You're mine to share my days with now

Though "Yours to Bear" is one of 12 songs on the new album, the acoustic ballad that costars Santo's searing vocals is not new. But after hearing it a number of times at previous shows, the pensive message took on a deeper meaning that night.

Their words were particularly compelling after listening earlier in the day to the self-described "passionate woman" and multi-instrumentalist Ben Jaffe, honeyhoney's man for all reasons, go where they've never gone before publicly -- to lunch at the Buckhorn Exchange.

Many who watch their concerts and buy their records probably wonder if there's more to the platonic love connection that a midwestern daughter and New England son made to become Los Angeles-based professional musical partners in 2006.

"God, we've never ever talked about this," Santo said when presented the question near the end of the meal on June 2, several hours before she and Jaffe would take the stage at the crowded Bluebird Theater (capacity: 550) on Colfax Avenue. "Ever," she emphasized, "with anybody like this."

The animated Santo, who plays banjo, violin and acoustic guitar while commanding the attention of guys and dolls in a concert hall with that powerful and sensual voice, followed up with a slight laugh. Yet it was nothing like the boisterous bombs she set off earlier while hilariously depicting the dangers of Nashville during their two-year stay there, then playfully taking on Jaffe for his misguided fashion choice a few years ago with one act of athletic betrayal.

Turning reflective and sounding almost relieved, she let Jaffe do most of the talking about their status and its fluid (sometimes on/sometimes off) nature. Meanwhile, hardcore fans at shows can keep asking -- "Are they or aren't they?" -- while watching the pair stare intensely into each other's eyes as they display a charismatic chemistry usually reserved for head-over-heels lovers.

"Our relationship is crazy," offered Jaffe, a virtual one-man band (guitars, vocals, piano, percussion and more on 3) whose scorching licks on his Gibson might be the only thing that matches their electrifying stage presence.

"It's two people, her and I, with some incredibly similar passions and energies. Especially when it comes to humor. When it comes to just like ... I don't know, there's a similar vibration that we share. And then we go through all ... the result of that, of those similarities in our relationship, has been our band. Our band is the result of our relationship. And the consequences of those results is a huge spectrum.

"Sometimes it's fucking amazing. Sometimes we're in Paris, France, and we just played a show at L'Olympia and we're getting to tour the world and we're doing these incredible things and sometimes people pay us a lot of money to do things. So we have that end of the spectrum. And then at the other end, it's kind of like a crushing pressure. One, to keep things going to somehow find a way to agree enough. And that pressure bares open some of the sides of ourselves that aren't as similar. We're forced to confront a lot of our differences through this pressure, which is natural. But it's difficult."


Ben Jaffe (left) and Suzanne Santo of honeyhoney at the Buckhorn Exchange.

On the menu

Making an album or ordering a buffalo burger are decidedly less complicated than sharing details bout your private life. Yet, at the historic eatery that harkens back to the Old West, it was the polite but curious Santo who, after enthusiastically choosing the grilled salmon lunch special and a cup of tortilla soup, had the first significant question of the day -- for the waitress:

What's a Rocky Mountain oyster?

Talked into trying a half-order, Santo feigned nervousness while still wondering what part of what animal this "land oyster" came from -- "Is it a squirrel? Is it a prairie dog?"

Finally told they were breaded and fried bull's testicles, she said, "You know what, I could stand to be a little more ballsy these days."

That's never seemed to be a problem for honeyhoney, which is clearly on its way to becoming HONEYHONEY -- an upper-case designation that Jaffe and Santo seemingly enjoy seeing on a festival lineup as much as when Dirk Diggler envisioned his porn name on an exploding movie marquee in Boogie Nights.

Musically, honeyhoney continues to capitalize on its rock-in-a-hard-place skills, even when Santo classes up the joint by wearing a slinky pink gown while strum-jamming alongside Jaffe.

Promising not to abandon the banjo like Mumford & Sons did on their latest album, Santo's huge appetite on this afternoon carries over to her taste in assorted genres.

"Something that is really fun about the records we're making is you kind of have the whole menu for you," she said. "We'll have rock 'n' roll, we'll have some more intimate ballads, we'll have folk music, we'll have a little more country."

Such a wide-ranging direction has been on honeyhoney's GPS while maneuvering some rough terrain. After departing Ironworks (2008's First Rodeo was their debut), Jaffe and Santo got lost in the shuffle with Billy Jack in 2011, the unappreciated gem that was the last release by Lost Highway, the alt-country branch of Universal before it met its demise.

Still standing, they seem hungrier than ever to make it.

After borrowing money from their parents and attempting three times to deliver the goodies -- recording an album in its entirety once over a two-week period in Los Angeles during the summer of 2013 -- Jaffe and Santo weren't satisfied with the product.

"We would never release a subpar record, especially at this juncture," Santo said. "It's like, 'We've been in the shadow for a while; we should come back with something that we're proud of.' "

In the past year, they have gone from supporting act to headliner, hired a new manager (Jon Leshay), signed on with reputable Rounder Records and tracked down one of the hottest producers in roots music to up their already high-stakes game. Now, as Santo put it before a raucous Bluebird crowd on what was then Denver's toastiest day of 2015, honeyhoney is offering a variety of deliciousness "like a buffet at a casino, like the good kind."

Revenge of the nerds

It was at the end of last summer when the duo got on a conference call with Dave Cobb, who already has worked wonders as producer for artists like Jason Isbell, Stugill Simpson and Houndmouth.

"We just nerded out about music," Santo said. "He literally knows everything about music. And he's just like an encyclopedia. Anywhere from gear to artists, the man is just brilliant."

Added Jaffe: "He's the most freakishly confident person I've ever met."

While they didn't agree with everything Cobb suggested (Santo said the tempo on "Bad People" was sped up so fast "that I honestly couldn't sing"), honeyhoney benefited immensely from Cobb's presence, even when it involved one chord change on Santo's "Whatchya Gonna Do Now" that they said affected the entire tonality of the song for the better.

Real strings layered on top of Jaffe's mellotron on tunes like "Burned Me Out" and "Back to You" provide an elegant touch, but the signature sounds of Santo and Jaffe remain, bolstered by a studio rhythm section that included Adam Gardner (bass) and Chris Powell (drums). (See honeyhoney's live performance of "Big Man" in the video premiere below.)

There was so much respect and trust for one another in the room," Santo said of the recording sessions in Nashville. "I don't think we've ever recorded with such support and excitement and fun without an ego in the room. Like everybody was there just to make good music and appreciate each other and ...

"Drink," Jaffe interjected.

"We drink a lot," Santo said, laughing. "But when you record sometimes you get ... people want to come up with the idea or something. But we didn't have that. It was really cool. It was an even playing field."

Life is a lost (and found) highway

Only a few weeks into a torturous road schedule that takes them cross country until at least Aug. 1, the honeyhoney couple have upgraded their mode of transportation, too. And they've taking tour drummer Conor Meehan (introduced to the Bluebird audience as the "Rocky Mountain oysters of this band") and videographer/sound man Sage Atwood along for the ride.

Both were friends of Jaffe in western Massachusetts during his soccer-playing days (class of 2003) at Mount Greylock Regional High School, which indirectly gave honeyhoney's career a kick-start.

As show openers for about eight years for artists including Sheryl Crow and, more recently, James Morrison, Jake Bugg and Trampled by Turtles, they got the needed exposure, but 30- to 40-minute sets left fans with just a little taste of honeyhoney.

After leaving their previous agents and management, "We were totally on our own," Santo said. "It was a scary place. We were selling haikus (on Etsy). And we were like, let's book a tour," the impetus being a fundraising event for the Mount Greylock arts program that included a concert with the school's symphonic band.

That was certainly gratifying, but it was an April 2014 date at the Beat Kitchen in Chicago that turned out to be what Santo called "a seminal moment" for honeyhoney -- a sold-out house that demanded an encore.

"You don't get encores as an opener," she added. "

That's not part of the protocol. And I remember kind of feeling caught off guard and we played our song 'Don't Know How,' and the whole room was singing the song. Like I couldn't believe it. It's making me tear up.

It was just a moment of like, 'Holy shit! We can still do this. It's not like we have to wait for something to happen.' And it was really important for us to be reminded of needing to get back to work instead of waiting for the next opening set.

And since then, it's gotten bigger and bigger and more sustainable and it's still something that ... every time we get an encore, it feels so good."

That makes the ride in their used 2007 Cadillac Escalade even comfier, though Santo had to give up her Toyota Camry to make ends meet. But when the easy riders found out the Escalade's previous owner was Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of SpaceX, they got other ideas. Here's the first of several Ben-Suzanne 1-2 combination punches:

Suzanne: "We're hoping two things. One, the genius residue will wear off onto us and also maybe he'll design our first electric bus. We just call him up. Let's call him."
Ben: "We have his address! (both laugh) We'll just knock on his door."

Team players

A much more feistier interplay between the two occurred while they volunteered some fun (and perhaps fictitious) facts about themselves before getting to the nitty-gritty:

Jaffe -- "I can squat about 300 pounds."

Santo -- "34B ... on a good day."

Anyone who follows honeyhoney on Twitter already is aware that Santo is a rabid sports fan, particularly when it comes to the pros in Cleveland, her hometown. And even though the local NFL team hasn't played in a Super Bowl yet ("The Browns have put me in deep depression for days at a time," she said, laughing), the 30-year-old can tell you who played in Super Bowl XIX on Jan. 20, 1985, the day she was born.

"If I were a boy, I would have been named Joe after Joe Montana," she said of the winning quarterback who led the 49ers past Dan Marino's Miami Dolphins 38-16 that day.

This month, though, her attention has turned toward LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, who need to beat the Golden State Warriors to win their first championship. Trying to watch the NBA Finals while touring can be difficult, but Santo doesn't seem the least bit concerned.

"I've had this really interesting demeanor that's come over me, which is I'm losing my superstition," she said. "And I just feel really comfortable with being so excited that they got this far. ... I feel so proud of the town for how they came back together after (James) came back to town. And I think either way I'm excited. I'm not freaking out. But I think they're gonna win."

That led to talking about the time Santo busted Jaffe's basketballs for buying a LeBron James jersey at the Salvation Army in Strongsville, Ohio -- after the NBA star jumped ship in 2010 to sign with the Miami Heat as a free agent.

"She was livid with me," Jaffe said, attempting to explain his hoops obsession while Santo ranted, "I was still broken. I was still broken."

Let the Jaffe-Santo comedy hour continue:

Ben: "And I bought it, 'cause it's awesome."
Suzanne: "And he put it on and I was like, 'What are you doing?' "
Ben: "And she was actually really upset with me. Like she was pissed off."
Suzanne: "That would be like me toting around my ex-boyfriend's outfit."
Ben: "No, nothing like that."
Suzanne: "Yes it would be."
Ben: "You've never been with LeBron James."
Suzanne: "You don't know that." (laughs)
Ben: "Yes I do. I know that for a fact because if you were, you wouldn't have stopped talking about it up till now."
Suzanne (laughing): "OK, fair enough."


Ben Jaffe (left), Conor Meehan (center) and Suzanne Santo
perform at the Bluebird Theater in Denver.

Getting it together

If this were a TV sitcom like Mike & Molly, the couple would hug it out in the end to canned applause after butting heads. But there are more personal songs to write, rough patches to smooth over and a number of other land mines to avoid while trying to keep honeyhoney moving forward.

Choosing another glass of water over the Buckhorn's deep dish apple pie, Santo said, "We're best friends," when first asked to describe their relationship before later adding with a laugh, "It's a bit of a roller coaster. And we're just kind of going with it."

Jaffe, who will join the dirty 30 club on July 6, continued:

We have these things that we want to do, these things that we love. Each other being among those things. ... We go through these situations where we travel intensively together. We create intensively together.

And we also represent each other and do it all publicly. Not to a huge degree but to a certain degree. Yeah, so we're constantly having to figure out new ways to support each other without ... 'cause we don't want this to fall apart. We love this thing. And I think that's really important.

It has to do with integrity, for what we're going out for, too. We made this thing that we fucking love, so let's not have it be destroyed in some ugly way. Let's figure out a way to continue and have it be something that is beautiful, which I think it is.

Just for the record, though, they say their ambiguous relationship got personal -- "You mean, when did we smooch?" asked Santo -- about four years ago.

"We can talk about it as much or as little as you want, honestly," Jaffe said, addressing his soul mate/band mate.

But to me this is a big part of our band. ... If people are following us and like what we do, things like that, I think it's valuable to know what goes into it. Honestly, most of the work is between us. It's not the music. The music can be the easy part.

All in the writing

Irreverent as ever (if there's any doubt, check out their appearances on Joe Rogan Experience podcasts), Jaffe and Santo are cautiously sharing more personal details as they get older. Many who already knew they were wise and witty might not have seen their tender and timid sides.

Opening up through music -- and interviews -- just might be another sign of growth.

"This is definitely, the whole batch of songs are pretty visceral and pretty ... from the depths of where we've been and what we've experienced together," Santo said.

Songs from 3 like "God of Love" and "Father's Daughter" -- neither of which were among the eight from the album performed at the Bluebird -- allow listeners to get a deeper look inside.

Admitting he often won't go there since "I write from a little different perspective than Suze, generally because I'm not singing lead," the fast-talking Jaffe slowed down before carefully explaining why "God of Love" is the most personal song he wrote for the album.

"What I'm trying to think of is where is there a vulnerability for me, really," he said.

Do I feel vulnerable saying any of this stuff? For the most part, I don't. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that I'm not singing it. I'm not actually the one saying the words. But with 'God of Love,' it is like a poetic song.

At least for me, I felt like I was writing in a way ... I felt like I was going out on more of a limb -- this is gonna sound douchey -- like from a literary perspective. I was going for shit. Writing what I thought might be more poetic.

Santo had no trouble selecting "Father's Daughter" as her example, but choked up during her response. Calling herself a "late bloomer" to music who learned a lot from Jaffe, she took a "real leap" to write the song years ago, then sent an acoustic version to get her dad's blessing, which he gave, to include it on the album.

"You know I think it's important sometimes to put material out there and let it be for the listener to have the relationship to," she said.

And also, maybe that's me being a little guarded, too. I don't want to show all my cards all the time. But this song in particular ... it's very personal. And Ben really kind of gave me confidence with that being an important song that we should put on the record.

I always had it and I could play anything for him. But I was really afraid to put it out there.

Then there's "Yours to Bear," the first song they performed at the first honeyhoney concert I saw (Fox Theatre in Boulder on May 8, 2012) and one of a number of tunes Jaffe and Santo have written together.

Oh I didn't want to make you cry
And use my faults as an alibi
Say you're not when I know you're tryin'
Use the past like it's enemy fire
No I didn't want to make you cry now

"'Yours to Bear' was the purest collaboration that we've ever had in the sense that we came with nothing to writing and came out with pure improvisation between both of us," Jaffe said.

Among other songs that landed on the album, they cowrote "You and I," "Back to You," "Numb It" and "Sweet Thing," but the kindred spirits don't map out a strategic plan to collaborate.

"If we're gonna be totally candid, it's a lot easier to write together when we're in a really good place emotionally," Santo said.

When we're not, just don't even bother trying to write together. It's not fun. It can be painful even. ... But it's also, really, I feel this, even if I wrote the song or Ben wrote the song, we still have one voice.

So with the plates cleared and a soundcheck awaiting, there was time for one final honeyhoney question:

Which song from the album best sums up your relationship?

Suzanne: "Oh, I don't know. Ben?"
Ben: "'Bad People'?"
Suzanne: "Shut up! C'mon. 'Marry Rich?' Definitely not. (laughs) I would say 'Yours to Bear.' "
Ben: "Yeah, it's kind of on the nose, I guess."

Spoken like a couple of besties who just might like to keep everybody guessing. Still, if CBS ever needs that replacement for Mike & Molly ...

Photos of honeyhoney by Michael Bialas. See more from the concert at the Bluebird Theater on June 2, 2015.

See honeyhoney's video premiere of "Big Man":

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There's busy, and then there's Jesse Eisenberg busy. In an era where tent pole summer blockbusters provide meal tickets for any movie star cast to wear a cape and cowl, the pinnacle of a Hollywood career is now found in a superhero costume.

Of course, some actors sustain more varied careers and leap over genres in a single bound.

In The Social Network, Eisenberg received an Academy-Award nomination for his depiction of Mark Zuckerberg's social hang-ups that led to the founding of Facebook. He survived Zombieland and got the girl in Adventureland. He's played a wide variety of dysfunctional, damaged schemers. Soon he'll go from conniving to diabolical in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, where he'll play Lex Luthor -- a super anti-hero of the first order.

One of the finest film actors of his generation, Eisenberg has largely stayed clear of big budget movies. Yet, he has proven to be both durable and bankable, with a range of talents that places him in a category all his own. There are the occasional humor pieces he writes for the New Yorker, and the three Off-Broadway plays he has both written and starred in. His most recent one, The Spoils, produced by The New Group, is now playing at The Pershing Square Signature Center through June 28.

Eisenberg plays Ben -- the pot-smoking, acid-tongued roommate from hell. Needy, callous, manipulative and destructive of both self and anyone within his emotionally exhausting orbit, his most accommodating victim in this poignant tragic comedy is his Nepalese roommate, Kalyan (Kunal Nayyar, from TV's The Big Bang Theory). Ben has either squandered or insulted every opportunity that has come his way. Kicked out of NYU's film school, he does little but disparage a career he has never begun while dashing Kalyan's hopes of fulfilling his own ambitions as an immigrant in America.

Ben feels cheated by life and denied a happiness that he wants desperately but has no idea how one goes about acquiring. Kalyan props up and makes excuses for his roommate, masking an unspoken bewilderment over America's privileged, ungrateful screw-ups. Kalyan is angelic but naive; Ben is rich, entitled, self-absorbed, and angry at the world and all of its inhabitants.

This is an Oscar and Felix co-habitating, co-dependency on steroids.

There is a fine cast of former friends and girlfriends that add to the play's healthy mix of New York strivers gleefully keeping pace on the city's warp speed treadmill. Of course, this is nothing compared to Ben's rapid fire, caustic self-hatred directed at others. He serves up a toxic mix of deep insecurity poured into a bottomless black hole.

Ben is as far away from a likeable character as there can possibly be, but Eisenberg uncovers layers of hurt underneath all the anger, and delivers a curiously endearing performance that elicits sympathy for an otherwise cringe-worthy character. Of course, finding ways to humanize twitchy, nakedly insecure men who lack either the resources or charm to knock those giant chips off their shoulders is one of Eisenberg's great specialties.

He's going to make a great Lex Luthor, but for now, go see a super performance in The Spoils.

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American guitarist Les Paul would have turned 100 years old this week. Born in Waukesha, Wisconsin on June 9, 1915, Paul became one of the most important figures in popular music during the middle decades of the twentieth century. As part of a pop duo with Mary Ford, he enjoyed a string of hit singles in the first half of the 1950s that were the envy of the industry -- songs such as "How High the Moon," "Mockingbird Hill," and "Vaya Con Dios." Paul is widely credited with playing a crucial role in the development of multi-track recording as well as in the introduction of the electric guitar. He passed away in 2009 at age 94.

As impressive and significant as Paul's music, performing, and technical innovations were, his career path is perhaps even more interesting in understanding the history of American pop in the twentieth century. His journey parallels the development of American music and entertainment in fascinating ways.


Les Paul and Mary Ford, "How High the Moon" (1951).

Les Paul got his first professional break playing country music. Heading to Chicago in 1934 (at the age of 19), Paul ended up performing on the radio under the name Rhubarb Red. WLS in Chicago was home to the National Barn Dance, one of the premiere radio shows of the time; along with the Grand Ole Opry, the program showcased country music for a national audience. Les first met Jim Atkins at a Barn Dance broadcast and Atkins (older half-brother to Chet) would subsequently join Les's jazz trio. Les was happy to make the money that came with being a country entertainer, but his real love was jazz. During the time Les was in Chicago, he honed his chops in the city's jazz clubs in the company of figures such as Art Tatum, Louis Armstrong, and Roy Eldridge. He would sometimes have to duck out of jazz gigs to do his radio performances. He lived in two worlds: jazz developed his musical abilities, and country increased his professional and entrepreneurial skills.

In 1938, Les made a commitment to jazz and moved to New York. He would return to his Rhubarb Red act at various points, and the vaudeville elements of country performing would stick with him throughout his career. (In fact, Les and Jim defrayed the costs of moving by joining the Barn Dance tour, which eventually rolled into New York.) Through dogged persistence, Les got his trio a gig with Fred Waring, who also had a radio show. As he had done in Chicago, Les headed to the jazz clubs when he wasn't working, meeting and playing with figures such as Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Christian. Again, Les was at the center of one of the country's most vibrant music scenes.


The Les Paul Trio, "Blue Skies," recorded in 1946.

Les's next big move was to Hollywood, and by 1943 he headed west (after a short stint back in Chicago). He liked to say that his goal was to perform with Bing Crosby, one the most popular singers of his era. Les soon got his new trio working regularly at NBC but by the end of year he was drafted. He ended up staying in Los Angeles to perform and produce radio programming for the Armed Forces Radio Service, a job that spread his name and music to soldiers all over the world. Discharged in 1944, Paul contrived an "accidental" musical meeting with Crosby, who had proven to be tough to corner. Les booked Bing's favorite rehearsal space at Bing's usual time and the singer walked into the room as the group was playing. Les was once again on a radio show, but this time it was the Crosby's Kraft Radio Hall -- the biggest show in radio.

As the war ended, Les enjoyed his first hit record: "It's Been a Long, Long Time" went to number one on the U.S. charts and featured Paul in a duet with Crosby, with an extended guitar solo thrown in. Les and his trio then began working with the Andrews Sisters, once again producing a hit single, "Rumors are Flying." While on the road with the Andrews Sisters, Les's mother heard someone she thought was Les playing on a Chicago radio show. It turned out that the guitarist was George Barnes, and the misidentification by Paul's biggest fan got him thinking he needed to develop a sound that was so individual as to be uncopyable.


Bing Crosby and Les Paul, "It's Been a Long, Long Time" (1945).

Les had always been a tinkerer and inventor. All along he had been experimenting with radios and electronics, as well as with guitars. The challenge of finding his distinctive sound sent him into his garage studio, where he developed an approach to recording that would soon be dubbed the "New Sound." This new approach was focused on a process of recording layers of music -- overdubbing -- to create recordings that soon featured only Les's guitar. Paul achieved this by recording a track onto a disk-cutter, then playing that track back while recording a new track onto a second machine. Working in this way with two disk recorders, he also added speed effects (achieved by recording at half speed and then playing back at full speed) and some distinctive echo. The resulting tracks sounded like nothing before them. Les's New Sound produced instrumental several hits, including "Brazil," "Lover," "What Is This Thing Called Love," and "Nola."


Les Paul's "New Sound": "Lover" from 1948.

In the late 1940s, radio was on the wane and television was on the rise, and most of the action in the TV business was in New York. By 1950, Les Paul was back in New York, though he returned to town with a new act. Les recruited Mary Ford from the Los Angeles country scene (she had been singing for Gene Autry), initially because he wanted a female singer as part of his revived Rhubarb Red act. But Mary would soon become much more than that; she was an accomplished rhythm guitarist, had a fantastic voice, and possessed an exceptional gift for vocal harmonization. Les also had a new recording device -- a special Ampex tape deck that had been a gift from Bing. Les had ingeniously modified it to allow for overdubbing. The fidelity on the new unit was much improved from his previous system, and the tape set-up was portable. Many of the subsequent sessions for Les Ford and Mary Ford records would be done in hotels while on the road.


Les Paul has fun demonstrating his recording techniques in 1953.

As with his previous locations -- Chicago of the 1930s, pre-World War II New York, and '40s Hollywood -- New York of the early 1950s was the center of action in popular music and entertainment. In the days before television migrated to the west coast, New York was the place to be and Les Paul was there. His instincts and ambition always seemed to lead him to where big things were happening. With a string of hit singles in the first half of the '50s, plus a radio show and later a series of television episodes, Les Paul was one of the top figures in American popular music. This is where he made his most lasting mark in history. And in many ways, following Les Paul's career migration through the 1930s, '40s, and '50s is one method of tracing the development of American popular culture during those days.

One key to Les Paul's success was that he had a keen sense of how to combine things to create something distinctive. He was not the first person to overdub sound; but he found a way to do it with such remarkably increased fidelity that he baffled the experts. He was not the first person to play an electric guitar, though he was among the first to develop a solid-body electric guitar. Les's use of the electric guitar -- almost always his own hot-rodded instruments -- did much to popularize it. His endorsement agreement with Gibson guitars produced the Les Paul model; it is sometimes touted as the biggest endorsement deal in the history of electric guitars. Many players who play these guitars do not even know that Les Paul was a real guy: for decades now, the guitar has been more widely known than the man.

Even the Les Paul and Mary Ford duo can be seen as a combination of previous elements. Take the pop appeal of Bing Crosby, the vocal stylings of the Andrews Sisters, and arranging practices of Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians (plus a heavy dose of big band), add to it the New Sound of Les's recordings and the husband-and-wife vaudeville charm of George Burns and Gracie Allen (with whom Les had worked), and you have many of the key components to what made Les Paul and Mary Ford so successful. As with his inventing and tinkering, Les took the parts he had at hand and creatively crafted them into something distinctive and astonishing--and something very American.

Further Reading

Robb Lawrence, The Early Years of the Les Paul Legacy, 1915-1963 (Hal Leonard, 2008).
Les Paul and Michael Cochran, Les Paul: In His Own Words (Gemstone, 2009).
Mary Alice Shaughnessy, Les Paul, An American Original (William Morrow, 1993).

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As an accident of life, I found myself in 2010 becoming CEO of first, an emergency relief organization, and ultimately one whose focus is development in Haiti. Now, nearly six years later, that organization, J/P HRO, employs roughly three hundred full-time Haitian staff (a number that vacillates relative to funding). We are involved in many sectors including health, engineering, education, housing, and relocation. To varying degrees, we have worked in psycho-social assistance, prevention and education on violence against women, and an assortment of other needs expressed to us by thousands of Haitian men and women from all walks of life and leadership. And yes, foreign consultants as well.

The very concept of aid is, and I believe should be, a constant exploration of societies and self. For foreigners working to supply aid outside of their own countries, not to mention outside of their own homes, or in the mirror itself, it is a constant struggle. It is not the purpose of this piece to supply statistical debate, defense, or criticism. More, it is one practitioner's most current sense of the above mentioned exploration.

I am provoked by the recent criticism from ProPublica's Justin Elliot and NPR's Laura Sullivan of the American Red Cross' activities and expenditures related to their response to Haiti's 2010 earthquake through this day, in a June 3rd, 2015 article headlined "How the Red Cross Raised Half a Billion Dollars for Haiti and Built Six Homes." Full disclosure: My own organization J/P HRO has been formally supported with Red Cross funds totaling $2,987,000. This number is in no way reflective of the greater and more sustained support The American Red Cross has provided J/P HRO beginning with the supply of thousands of tarps simply to provide dry shelter from storms in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake for families so tragically displaced, and in countless ways since then that are also reflective of resources, financial and otherwise. The American Red Cross has offered numerous organizations largely unrecognized support as they did with the tens of millions of dollars financing the World Food Program's distribution of food goods to displaced Haitians that immediately followed the earthquake. That list could go on and brings us full circle to where we are factually today, and where we might be in spirit were it our choice to engage in international aid.

Haiti is, in so many ways, like anywhere else in the world. Where it is poorer, it is more resilient, and perhaps, more imaginative. Where it is corrupt, its anti-corruption is heroic. Where it is bitter, it is a judgment only to be cast upon itself. And where it is hopeful, it is deserving of care, brotherhood, sisterhood, compassion and respect. Like other places, it is ultimately rewarded and denied. Outside of my own personal and familial relationships, it is Haiti and Haitians who have touched and taught me most. Yet still, life and aid remain an exploration. Like in all aspects of life, transparency itself becomes a balance of perception and survival. Identity and agenda. Strategy and will. Yet whenever those things are reliant on dollars and cents, media embrace or oversight, the checks and balances are in the hands of such a varied assortment of personal, institutional, and societal narrow-mindedness, that we rely more than with our own hearts and minds on what has become, on what is, the perception most trending. How can we defy that? How can we rise up? First, with self-reflection and gratitude.

I've been working on the ground in Haiti with people who are heroic to me. It has bred this reflection. What my eyes have seen make me grateful to them. What my eyes have seen make me grateful to the American Red Cross. By its detractors, I will certainly be accused of things I will not speculate upon here. By its beneficiaries, I stand in solidarity. My hope in writing this is that those who choose to invest outside their own homes, whether of their hearts, their minds, their bodies, or their wallets, that this may serve more importantly than the targeting of its writer, or a defense of any other person or organization, rather as a simple encouragement to look very deeply into what remains more of a question than an answer.

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Look at the bottom of this post and you'll see the images of two teenage lead actresses in recent horror films: one is the star of Insidious 3; the other, the star of It Follows. Both have reason to fear.

That's just about everything these two films -- one a triumph, the other trash -- have in common.

Let's start by throwing out the trash.

What's most insidious about Insidious 3 is that a movie producer green-lit and expects audiences to pay to see one of the most boring and lazy horror movies in recent memory, especially when you consider the general high quality of the Insidious franchise. The story centers on a pretty girl who somehow gets herself haunted by a spirit who enjoys pushing, grabbing, dropping, pulling, dragging and all but drop-kicking her. Oh, and she's really, really dumb.

There's no point in saying much more than "Don't Go!", but don't hold it against Insidious 1 and Insidious 2, which were actually inventive, spooky flicks with solid narrative backbones. They were directed by the seasoned James Wan and written by Leigh Whannell, who teamed up to bring us Saw.

Insidious 3 was helmed by Whannell alone -- in his directorial debut -- and the inexperience shows. In the only measurement that truly counts, I3 is about as scary as a Halloween candy commercial, but not nearly as entertaining.

Way on the other end of the quality spectrum -- though released last March, so you'll probably have to catch it on cable -- is It Follows, David Robert Mitchell's well-crafted and award-winning horror film about a demonic entity following a pack of teenagers one at a time, in the guise of various slow-moving but menacing strangers.

That description makes the film sound hopelessly cheesy -- especially considering the "curse" is transferred from teenager to teenager sexually. But the scares are patiently and expertly staged and, even more importantly, Mitchell manages to inject an extreme sense of spooky desperation and paranoia that makes the entire 100-minute experience creepy and compelling from beginning to end.

Basically, take that sinking feeling that a stranger is following you down a dark and isolated road, multiply it by a hundred, and buckle in. Extra points for cinematography and music that deliberately makes the film seem like a grungy thriller from the 1980s, and complex, realistic characters who aren't all either virtuous saints or wise-cracking jerks, as we've come to expect from this genre.

An ambiguous ending makes this movie all the more unpolished and un-Hollywood - which amps up the creepiness even more.

As a horror fan since I was a little boy, and a horror screenwriter myself, I can boil it down to this: Insidious 3, like so many films, fails because it sells horror as the cause of fear. It Follows succeeds because it presents fear -- not knowing what to expect, yet expecting it nonetheless -- as the cause of horror.





A nationally-published essayist, Joel Schwartzberg is the author of the award-winning "The 40-Year-Old Version: Humoirs of a Divorced Dad" and the recently-released "Small Things Considered: Moments from Manliness to Manilow".

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Details: The Hollywood Reporter.


Visit my website (jhandel.com), follow me on Twitter or friend me on Facebook or LinkedIn. 

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Ozric Tentacles

Perpetually living in a sunny California bubble can be warm, but blinding at times. Though there are so many events within a 100 mile radius, geysers of festivals exist beyond my bubble that I am slowly discovering. Having ventured out to a few international festivals, the Midwest was an unlikely locale to explore. Discovering the Midwest fest of Infrasound Music Festival in Black River Falls, Wisconsin has changed my life and my entire perception of music festivals.

In the lush and dewy forest of Camp N.C.N. (No Clothes Necessary) dwells a cozy little festival called Infrasound. A small, swim-friendly lake equipped with rowboats, paddleboats, a small dock and fish who love to be fed Wonderbread, shimmered under the sun and wore a velvety shawl of mist in the mornings. With three humble stages, Meadow, Mendi's Beach and Bend, Infrasound brought me back to the true roots of a music festival: the music. There were no towering art installations, nor were the stages embellished in elaborate adornments. With simple designs and projection surfaces, the music itself painted a vivid enough image that no amount of adornments, embellishments or structures could imitate.



The modest setup of the festival is a representation of ego, or lack thereof. When removing the ego of grandiose facades, you are left with something pure and genuine. The spirit of music needs no decoration to inspire the hearts of its admirers. The festival's humble veneer, however, in no way means that it was without extraordinary art, lights and kaleidoscopic projections.

The live art and installations that were present had to be discovered through exploration. The campgrounds were peppered throughout a fern-floored forest with air that smelled of rich soil and chlorophyll. As I traversed deeper into the woods with mud on my feet and stars in my eyes, I discovered an intricate web of interconnected neon yarn that formed a delicate grid all around me. Following the grid, I watched it weave itself in perfect harmony with the trees which upheld it. The yarn was straight and mathematical, a series of intersecting vectors creating lines and right angles in an organic world of curves and chaos. A beautiful metaphor for the duality of nature. One of the simplest, yet complex, art installations I have yet to see.



The theme of weaving continued with a live artist I gazed upon at the main stage. Vibrating directly in front of a giant stack of Funktion-One speakers, custom built frames with protruding pegs lining its surface were woven with brightly colored plastic string in hyperbolic geometric patterns. Watching a live artist work with string instead of brushes was a very unique, tactile experience. As his spools of plastic string lay in a pile beneath his easel they resembled a smattering of paints on a terranean palette.

For those who enjoy the sensual strokes of paint on white, the Mendi Beach stage began as a simple white pyramid with a high slit that barely revealed the performer inside. As the festival progressed, I realized this was not just a stage but a canvas. A live artist glided across its surface with Technicolor paint pens. The end result was a civilization of dripping, morphing creatures who watched with amorphous eyes as the dancefloor breathed and bounced in unison. Benga, Bentone, Unicorn Fukr, Tsuruda, and even someone called Slayer performed at Mendi, rattling our teeth with bass, dubstep and more.



Even the rain could not stop our need to worship live music. While Mendi's Beach stage had sand, and therefore the driest dance floor, the Bend and Meadow stages did not. Donning plastic rain-ponchos in a vivid array of colors, people danced beneath the falling water as the mud became deeper and goopier. While some chose sandals, boots or sneakers, many chose to mob it like a hobbit, feeling the silky mud engulf their bare feet.

The Bend Stage hosted Kompozart, Atyya, Goopsteppa, and Bil Bless, to name a few. Kompozart controlled the rain sending viscous sound-thoughts into the stratosphere. Cosmic music he created while the sky precipitated. "The contagious loving vibe inspired me to intimately express more love in my music production so others can feel what we shared," Kompozart described when I asked him about his Infrasound experience.



While the rain exponentially poured during Atyya and through Goopsteppa's set, the dancefloor had no intention of dispersing. Puddle stomping and muddy squishing became integrated into everyone's dance routines. A bubble fairy waved her magic wand and materialized floating, iridescent orbs, a pristine vision of color amidst a muddy debacle.

The Meadow Stage, or main stage, housed some of the most epic artists in the underground. Among the many were Mr Bill, Orphic, Youngsta, Bogtrotter, Ott, Freddy Todd, KLL SMTH, Thriftworks, The Widdler, Bluetech, Perkulat0r, Mumukshu, Russ Liquid, The Opiuo Band, Ozric Tentacles, and fan-favorite, the legendary Tipper playing two sets: an uptempo set at Meadow and downtempo sunrise set at the lake. All of these artists shook our souls from our wet feet to our third eyes. The energy radiating from the audience to the stage was powerful enough to reignite a dwarf star. Mumukshu slathered our souls in bass, The Opiuo Band kept us warm and dancing, master of brass Russ Liquid wooed the audience, psychedelic jam band Ozric Tentacles hypnotized spectators with a commanding presence, and Tipper... well...

Mr Bill

Unlike most music festivals, Infrasound ran from Thursday to Saturday with no Sunday lineup. The crowning Chakra on a perfect weekend was Tipper's lakeside sunrise downtempo set. As we paddled out on a rusty boat with Jerry-rigged oars constructed of pipes, plywood and duct tape, mist rose from the water like tufts of cotton. At 4 a.m. and near freezing temperatures, loyal patrons lined up stadium style with chairs and air mattresses as Tipper's custom lakeside setup was being assembled. Upon his first drippy bass drop, lighter's sparked and clouds of pineal paradise tickled my taste buds. As Apollo's light crept towards us across the lake like a sundial, Infrasound ended not with a bang but a bloop.

Alex, David, and I are truly blessed to have so much support from the underground scene, artists and fans alike. It's a beautiful thing to bring people together for the purpose of spreading love through music. We are forever grateful to everyone in the Infrasound community.

-- Taylor Winum, co-founder of Infrasound

In addition to an otherworldly lineup and one-of-a-kind art, I felt a warmness from the festival founders that I have not felt at any other festival. While I am usually swallowed in a sea of media correspondents, Taylor Winum, Alex Heiligman and David Liberman made me feel warm, welcomed, and appreciated. Ego-free and happy as can be, the festival is a reflection of their passion for life, not profit. A rarity in the entertainment business. So I thank you Taylor, Alex, David and the many other hard working, always-smiling, staff for creating such a glorious place for us to play. Infrasound taught me to appreciate the complexity of simplicity and the simplicty of happiness. As long as I have music, not mud nor rain can sully my joy.

Stay tuned for more information about Infrasound Equinox on September 17th-19th, 2015!



For more photos from Infrasound Music Festival 2015, visit Miles Najera Design & Photography

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For SJS
I'm not ashamed to say it - I was a "Debhead." Back in the 1980s as my sister was hanging up "pin-ups" of Rob Lowe and Ralph Macchio, I was hanging up my Debbie Gibson Tiger Beat tearsheets on my wall. Gibson made for an eclectic wall mix that also included "The Bash Brothers" Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco, Hulk Hogan, and a poster I got when I purchased M.U.S.C.L.E. figures. Oh, and I also bought my sister "Electric Youth" perfume for no reason at all.

It goes on. I saw her in concert numerous times, nearly burned a hole in her smash records Only in My Dreams and Electric Youth, and caught her in Les Miserables on Broadway even though I had already seen the show six times in five years. Needless to say, for me, the 80s pop icon was a big deal.

Let's move on. Last month, the singer/songwriter/actress performed her hits ("Out of the Blue," "Foolish Beat," to name a few) with Jessie's Girl at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, and this Debhead snagged an interview. Before we get to it, let me jump in my DeLorean and tell the chubby teenage me that life indeed will get better. Speaking of which, I've aged and she apparently hasn't. Anyway, watch the interview in Gibson's dressing room (sorry about the lighting) below:



It's a new month, which means another installment of A-Sides' "5 for Fighting with...Five for Fighting." Each month, the one-man band John Ondrasik sits down (although since it's via email it's quite possible he's standing - who knows) with this guy (I'm pointing to myself right now), and fields silly questions like soccer balls. I have no clue what that means, but it doesn't matter. Read on, learn something, and thank me later.

You're going to go out on tour in the fall. Why aren't you touring much over the spring? Can't the beach wait?
Sorry, I'm developing a TV show, writing a musical, producing three artists, doing symphony, private, corporate and speaking gigs while juggling teenagers, a family manufacturing business, and my wife's shoe obsession. Luckily, I'm trapped in a midlife crisis gravity well or it could be debilitating.

I know the feeling only not really. Which song is simply not appropriate to blast with the top down on the 405?
"Dixie Highway" by Journey. That said, when cruising the 65 Mustang down the 405, I only listen to "Traffic". (Apologies)

Summer blockbuster movies are popping up each week, which one are you most excited about and which franchise would you like to write the theme song for?
Funny you ask! I have a song on hold for a HUGE Oscar Worthy Blockbuster coming soon to a theater near you. That said, if they blow me out, it's more Ishtar meets Waterworld. I enjoy writing for film and TV because if the film tanks its not because of me, and if the film is a smash...well it's still not because of me.

Moving on, what's the worst experience you've ever had with sun burn or sideburns. Pick only one.
Sideburns profligate only positive karma so I'll take sun burns for $600, Alex. Did you know Five For Fighting was twice an answer on Jeopardy? I wager $10,354 you did not know that. Daily Double envy I imagine.

I did not know that, but I have to ask, can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars?
When did you start writing for Bieber? Can I get in on that?

About A-Sides with Jon Chattman:
Jon Chattman's music series features celebrities and artists (established or not) from all genres performing a track, and discussing what it means to them. This informal series focuses on the artist making art in a low-threatening, extremely informal (sometime humorous) way. No bells, no whistles -- just the music performed in a random, low-key setting followed by an unrehearsed chat. In an industry where everything often gets overblown and over manufactured, Jon strives for a refreshing change.


Stay Connected:
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Maya Forbes' autobiographical film, Infinitely Polar Bear, about her family coping with her father's bipolar disorder, is set in the late '70s, a time when few understood the impact of this mental malfunction. This smart feature may coincide with a hot topic in the Zeitgeist. Particularly as portrayed by Mark Ruffalo, there's no question that Cam Stuart was infinitely charismatic and fun to be with, at the same time, questionable as a stay-at-home parent. Maya Forbes' daughter Imogene Wolodarsky plays Amelia, the daughter most like her mother. When their mother Maggie (Zoe Saldana) goes to business school in New York, she leaves Amelia and little sister Faith (Ashley Aufderheide) with dad in charge in Boston, and all hell breaks loose in this very winning comedy.

It feels real because it is real, except that, as Forbes told me at the premiere at Above Sixty, she distilled a lot of the drama. So, you have to wonder about a man so delusional that he stays out in the cold wearing a bathing suit, or insists upon helping a neighbor to the point that he does not realize how menacing he appears to her. He has some good ideas too, like inviting the neighborhood kids over to their shabby, junk filled apartment, and entertaining them to the max. The girls come to realize just how special this man is. Fortunately the menschy charisma carries over to the real Mark Ruffalo. Many friends came to see him in the movie and party afterwards on Monday night, including Wes Anderson, Lena Hall, Kate Barker and Thomas Froyland, Josh Hamilton, and Bennett Miller who directed him in last year's superb Foxcatcher. As Sony Picture Classic's Michael Barker said in his introduction, Maya Forbes is a filmmaker to watch. The LA-based director is now developing a film to star Jack Black.

A version of this post also appears on Gossip Central.

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I love a good biopic. Watching the ups and downs of a real person's life is intriguing, and gives me a glimpse into another world.

Biopics are often the critics favorites as well, frequently proving themselves as Oscar and Golden Globe contenders. Plus, given the variety of biopic categories, there's something on the menu for everyone.

More than likely, the biopics I like feature my favorite actors and directors working together. For instance, the movies Apollo 13 with actor Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard, or Schindler's List with Liam Neeson directed by Steven Spielberg, were two outstanding collaborations.



I especially like films about the "little guy" finding out about cover-ups and taking on big bureaucracy. In Erin Brockovich, Julia Roberts and Albert Finney discover a deadly cover-up by a California energy company. Similarly, All The President's Men with Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford is a riveting tale of how the Watergate scandal was uncovered.

It's easy to appreciate films about educators who are dedicated to their students. Films like Lean on Me with Morgan Freeman, Dangerous Minds with Michelle Pfeiffer, or Freedom Writers with Hilary Swank make me want to go out and hug a teacher.

Then you've got your sports films, where you're rooting for the underdog. I don't especially like hockey, but boy was I a fan when I watched Miracle with Kurt Russell. The same was true of A League of Their Own, when I held my breath to see which all-women's baseball team would win the series.

Films about scientists are always intriguing because their victories, rather than being shining moments of glory, may take months or even years to achieve. Recent films like The Imitation Game with Benedict Cumberbatch, or The Theory of Everything with Eddie Redmayne, illustrate the dedication such scientists have to their fields of study.

For some reason I have a particular interest in biopics that take place in England. Whether it's The Queen with Helen Mirren, Becoming Jane with Anne Hathaway, The King's Speech with Colin Firth or, Emily Blunt's The Young Victoria. I fully admit I enjoy a good British accent.

Movies about entertainers make great biopics. The becoming-something-when-you're-nothing kind of stories are very revealing. A Coal Miner's Daughter with Sissy Spacek, La Bamba with Lou Diamond Phillips, or Walk the Line with Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, all give portrayals of the lives of entertainers who made it big, but also show just how tough that life can be.

War-related films, like American Sniper with Bradley Cooper, or Zero Dark Thirty with Jessica Chastain, are sometimes gruesome and hard for me to watch. Nevertheless, because they are based on true events, I find them to be gripping stories that take me on an emotional roller coaster.

More than anything, what I gain from watching biopics, even when there is a tragic or sad ending, is a sense that the human spirit can soar. It can overcome obstacles, achieve amazing feats, and turn challenges into opportunities. That's what keeps me going back for more.

Shannon Wrzesinski is a Southern California native mis-planted in the Midwest. Two kids later, this mom is reconnecting with the touchstone of her SoCal life, movies. She is not a movie expert, but a movie fan who shares stories about how movies intertwine with her life. Sign up for her MySisterLovesMovies.com blog here.

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You've all seen Mean Girls, right? If you haven't, please exit this blog immediately, call in sick to work and watch it on Netflix.

If you have watched it... how many of you have felt personally victimized by Regina George? She was the ultimate mean girl, and you wonder what we could possibly learn from someone like that? A lot, actually! Here are some lessons to take away from the Queen Bee.

1. It's OK to not call or text someone back immediately. We all have lives and are busy! We shouldn't feel guilty about not being reachable 24/7.



2. Be confident in your own style and others will follow. When Regina had holes over the nipples of her shirt, people weren't shocked. Instead, every other girl cut holes over the nipples of their shirts. Don't second-guess yourself; confidence is the sexiest accessory a woman can wear.

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3. It's OK to ask someone to stop doing something incredibly annoying. Especially the guy on the plane who keeps talking loudly on his cell phone.



4. Know your food. Learn about nutrients and food labels so you can have a healthy diet instead of gaining 20 pounds by accidentally eating Swedish carb bars.



5. It's never really safe to eat at Taco Bell.



6. Not everybody in life is going to like you, especially if you're popular or successful. Just do you, and realize that when people hate on you, it most likely only stems from jealousy. You can't please everyone, so be fabulous for yourself!



7. Learn productive ways to deal with your anger. It's OK and even healthy to express anger and frustration! Just make sure you're not taking it out on your loved ones and are dealing with it in a positive way.



8. Some days, you just need to give yourself a break.



9. Retail therapy is totally a real thing.



10. It's OK to have fat pants, and to have fat days. Or weeks.



11. Know how to take a compliment. Stop putting yourself down and arguing with people when they say something nice to you! just say "thank you," and fight the urge to say something negative.



12. It's OK to have an emotional moment and a good cry. We can't have it all together all the time -- having feelings makes us real people!



13. You can only wear your hair in a ponytail once a week. Also, you can only wear sweatpants on Fridays. Really, ladies! Take care of yourself and your appearance. Dress for the occasion, wherever you go. Yeah, sure, beauty may be skin deep or whatever, but a first impression can go a long way. Take pride in taking good care of yourself -- it will make you feel purty and good about yourself!



(OK, rules are meant to be broken -- you can swear sweatpants whenever you want).

14. Being a leader sometimes means people won't like you. But it's better to be a leader than a follower! Be confident in your abilities to inspire and lead people, and don't get discouraged when someone criticizes or isn't a fan of your work.



15. There is power in numbers! You know I believe in this one (hence you know, starting this blog). Being a leader that is all inclusive and encourages others without being clique-y, is a sure way to achieve success!



Every girl has dreamed of being Regina George at one point or another. Being the "good" version of her, and not the evil, is actually a pretty good idea. She had a good side to her, and we can all learn at least one lesson from her powerful ways.

Love ya!

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Sadly, the words honor and sport rarely show up in the same sentence these days. Last week's revelations about corruption in FIFA came right on the heels of Tom Brady and Deflategate.

In all of the recent turmoil, the thing that has saddened me most is the attitude taken by so many people in professional sports. This is what I keep hearing:

• "Everybody cheats."


• "A real competitor will look to every possible advantage."


• "If I don't cheat, the competition is going to get an unfair advantage on me."


• "It's as American as apple pie."

When you look at the history of sport, you can't help but acknowledge the truth of some of these sentiments.

From the Black Sox scandal of 1919 to the point shaving scandals of the 1950s in college basketball to the recent performance-enhancing drug use in everything from cycling to football, it seems that most every sport has its share of dishonorable behavior.

While this troubles me, it also makes me think of how proud I am to be associated with the most honorable sport of them all: Golf. It is the one sport where players -- including those at the highest levels of the profession -- are called upon to police themselves. Violations of even the most arcane rules are enforced and penalties are assessed, even in cases where the infraction does nothing at all to provide a competitive advantage.

The history of golf has seemingly endless examples of players who have penalized themselves for accidental violations that were seen by no one else and that would never otherwise have come to light.

Perhaps the most shining example of this took place at the 1925 U.S. Open when the legendary Bobby Jones (no relation) assessed a penalty against himself that would eventually cost him the title. As Jones was addressing the ball in the rough, the ball moved almost imperceptibly. Walter Hagen, playing with Jones at the time didn't see it. The spectators didn't see it. Neither caddie saw it.

But Jones saw it.

He assessed himself a one-stroke penalty. Without the penalty, Jones would have won the Open by a stroke. With it, he ended up in a 36-hole playoff, one which he would ultimately lose.

When a reporter wanted to interview him about this selfless act, Jones wanted no part of it.

"You might as well praise me for not robbing banks," he said.

Just last year, Cameron Tringale, a young and talented golfer, finished in 33rd place at the PGS Championship. After the 72nd hole, he signed his scorecard and took home a check for $53,000.

On the final hole of the tournament, Tringale just needed to tap in a three inch putt to finish his round. While approaching the hole to tap it in, the putter may or may not have swung over the ball. Since this was not an attempt in his mind, Tringale did not record it as a stroke.

When he returned home though, Tringale couldn't escape the nagging doubts -- could he have possibly violated the rule? If there was even a hint of doubt, Tringale wanted no part of it.

Based on the fact that there "could be the slightest doubt that the swing [was] over the ball" Tringale informed the PGA of America that a penalty should be assessed. Because he had signed an improper scorecard, the penalty effectively disqualified him from the tournament.

He apologized to the PGA and gave back the check.

These are just two out of countless instances of golfers doing the right thing. It's just the way the game is played. Parents teach their children much more than just a game when they put a golf club in their hands. They teach patience, diligence and most of all, honor.

All of this brings me back to Tom Brady and Deflategate. Brady, at least for now, is slated to miss the first four games of the year. Investigators found "substantial and credible evidence" to conclude he was aware of what was going on.

The hue and cry following this report was enormous. Brady was attacked on all sides and was relentlessly pursued by the media.

So what did Brady do to get away from the furor? He played a round of golf with Michael Jordan.

When I heard about this, the wheels in my brain started to turn. It was a hope -- more of a fantasy really.

I imagined that sometime in the middle of the round Brady accidentally causes his ball to move ever so slightly. In my fantasy, the golf gods look down upon Brady and he has an epiphany about sports, honor and character.

In my mind's eye, Brady calls the penalty on himself, returns home from the course, provides the NFL Commissioner with a complete mea culpa and takes his punishment like a man.

Of course that's just my fantasy -- call it Brady's Moral Mulligan. Not going to happen, of course. But the fact remains that the ancient game of golf has something important it can teach the men and women of modern sports. Let's hope more of them start learning the lesson.

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Nostalgia is not history. Like any effort to cram a decade's worth of noteworthy events into eight hour-long segments, CNN's "The Seventies," (9 p.m., Thursday) is as remarkable for what it neglects as what it remembers.

It's first hour, "Television Gets Real" is a good example. Employing an impressive panel of TV producers, critics and columnists, it wastes little time recalling the major trends of the time. It discusses the provocative political and social satire of "All in the Family"; the strident, funny women of "Maude" and "Mary Tyler Moore" and the rise of PBS as a serious source of historical miniseries, innovative children's programming and an offbeat British series from the Monty Python troupe. It soldiers on through the cult of "Monday Night Football" and "SaturdayNight Live"; the importance of sports in cable's rise; the advent of the network miniseries and that most Seventies of all genres: "Jiggle TV."

In shoehorning so much into any one hour, "Real" trades in some accepted wisdom about the period that could stand reexamination.

"The Seventies" repeats the common assumption that "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was essentially a reflection of the burgeoning Feminism of the period.

Sometimes such casual surveys forget to remember the past has a history of its own.

Yes, "Mary" seemed to mirror the lives of many women just entering the workforce in the 1970s. But, like many of Rhoda Morgenstern's outfits, it also reflected nostalgia for the 1940s, a time when women, bereft of men away at war, defined themselves by their work and their sisterly solidarity.

The network audience for "Mary Tyler Moore" was broad enough to contain baby boomer would-be female professionals as well as their mothers, women who had watched Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Carole Lombard and Eve Arden trade in smart sassy dialogue while projecting an effortless style -- not unlike Mary, Rhoda and Phyllis.

To this day many conservatives depict 1970s Feminism as a destructive cultural revolution that attacked the family and challenged the "normal" way of life. And that makes some sense if you accept the Feminism of "Mary Tyler Moore" as completely new and disruptive, something that announced itself between "The Mothers-in-Law" and "One Day at a Time."

But if one sees the show as a reconnection to the lost "Women's Pictures" of the 1930s and the Rosie-the-Riveter culture of the World War II era, then "Mary Tyler Moore" seems as much conservative and nostalgic as revolutionary. And in that light, the 1950s -- the cultural right's favorite decade, symbolized by submissive suburban wives -- begins to look more like an aberration than the norm.

"The Seventies" does acknowledge that after some of the more challenging series of the early 1970s, the audience clamored for calmer fair, often bathed in warm nostalgia. Viewers returned to the Eisenhower era with "Happy Days," and with "The Waltons," even seemed to prefer the Great Depression to the era of Watergate, Vietnam and gas shortages.

But "Television Gets Real" all but ignores other developments that would reflect and even further conservative agendas. We learn about the development of ESPN in 1979, but not about the launch of The Christian Broadcasting Network in 1977 or that the decade witnessed an explosion in nationally syndicated televangelism.

Most curiously of all, "Television Gets Real" neglects to mention "Dallas," one of the more popular and pivotal shows of the decade.

More than any other series, "Dallas" made being rich sexy. And that was a major departure for television in 1978. The smash success of "Dallas" would pave the way for the camp glitz of "Dynasty," and "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," touchstones of the 1980s, a very different decade.

"Television Gets Real" talks about TV's radical introduction of black families, gay characters, working women and other topics. But it never mentions the taboo C-word: Class.

That's particularly strange, as nearly every show recalled in this special extolled an embrace of averageness that, forty some years later, seems downright radical. From Archie Bunker's shabby living room to Rhoda's uninsulated Minneapolis garret, to the brewery of "Laverne & Shirley," the "Sweathogs" on "Welcome Back Kotter," and the "Taxi" garage, sitcoms asked viewers to associate with blue-collar-to-middle class characters.

Lou Grant and Mary Richards felt uncomfortable crossing a picket line when their non-management colleagues -- even Ted -- went out on strike. Some years before the term "yuppie" had been coined, childless working professionals on "The Bob Newhart Show" seemed rather proud of a modest and minimal Chicago apartment. An obsession with money, possessions and status seems curiously absent on many 1970s series.

"Dallas" changed that. And in a hurry.

Just ask Karl Malden. Viewers who loved him as a detective on "Streets of San Francisco" from 1972-77 did not migrate to a 1980 drama in which Malden starred as a middle aged Union steelworker from Pittsburgh. It was cancelled after six episodes, teaching networks that blue-collar storylines had become toxic. Its title, "Skag," probably didn't help.

Perhaps the sunbelt riches celebrated on "Dallas" were merely reflecting changes already under way and that would announce themselves with a wallop by the end of the decade. In the mid-1970s, Presidents Ford and later Carter would go out of their way to demonstrate their average-guy status. Recoiling from Nixon's "Imperial Presidency," Ford let us know he made his own toast. Carter carried his own luggage. Both men would be challenged and eclipsed by Ronald Reagan, a wealthy movie star and Beverly Hills resident who seemed much more likely to have cocktails with the Ewings than with the Jeffersons. To Reagan, the pursuit of the average was not the American way.

"Dallas" did not banish lower-middle-class comedy from the dial. It would return, and with a vengeance, just as the Reagan era was ending. But after ten years of the Ewings, the Carringtons and the Huxtables, the blue collar families of "Married ... with Children" (1987), "Roseanne" (1988) and "The Simpson" (1989) were not seen as a return to TV traditions but as something offensive and subversive. Even dangerous. Perhaps because they seemed to be saying that as the 1990s approached, an average working stiff's pursuit of the American Dream had become a crude joke.

It takes more than TV nostalgia to explain how a culture and a country migrated from Kent State to Reagan in ten challenging years. And "The Seventies" has seven more hours to document that transition. Shelves of books have been written trying to explain how Ronald Reagan built a landslide majority by appealing to the love of wealth and to Christian piety -- both at the same time. Perhaps it took a medium as powerful as television to help "The Great Communicator" thread that proverbial camel (Matthew 19:24) through the eye of the needle.

Kevin McDonough is a nationally syndicated television columnist for Universal Syndicate. He is the co-author, with Andrew J. Edelstein of "The Seventies: From Hot Pants to Hot Tubs."

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