<br /><span style="font-size: 9px"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mykalcave/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Photo courtesy of mykecave on Flickr</a></span></p> <p>In my <a href="http://www.balderromey.com/2008/07/22/mile-high-music-festival-recap/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">last post about the Mile High Music Festival</a>, I briefly covered John Mayer's performance.  Mayer is an amazing guitar player, and the energy displayed at the show poured into the crowd to greatly an awesome, lively show.  At the same time, I think fans who bought John Mayer tickets didn't get to see what they paid for.</p> <p>When John Mayer came on the mainstream scene at the turn of the century, his sound was a more melodic, pop-based sound - not N'Sync pop, but pop in the sense that the songs were straightforward and catchy.  With hits like "No Such Thing", "Your Body Is a Wonderland", "Why Georgia" and "Daughters", Mayer established that sound. Then he decided to change it, moving from the pop-based going back to a more blues-based. It seemed to happen when the John Mayer Trio got together (Steve Jordan's an amazing drummer by the way), when the transformation began.  It spilled out of the Trio and into his next solo album, <em>Continuum</em>.  When you compare the John Mayer you hear today from his 2001's <em>Room for Squares</em>, it's a pretty drastic change.</p> <p>I'm not saying that artists can't change their sound - it happens all the time. There's also a difference between an artist experimenting (U2's "Pop" and DMB's "Everyday") and returning back to your original sound, or truly evolving your music into a different genre.  Mayer may be experimenting, but I would predict that his sound has evolved and changed and won't be going back any time soon.  </p> <p>When some artists change their sounds, they either start a new project or join up with a band.  However, when your sound changes pretty drastically and you're maintaining the same stage identity, what do you owe those fans that came to hear the music that made you popular?</p> <p>At Sunday's show, Mayer didn't play "Your Body Is A Wonderland", or "Daughters" and his other (arguably) biggest hits, "No Such Thing" and "Why Georgia" were condensed into a medley.  It would be one thing if this was a band like the Rolling Stones that have 70 hits - but if I'm not mistaken - Mayer's only had 3 studio albums out. In addition, he played 3 cover songs on Sunday as well.  It's cool to see big acts play a cover, but when you're playing more than one at the sacrifice of one of your biggest singles, then you probably have a priority problem.</p> <p>I'm not saying Mayer shouldn't keep on playing jammy-blues, but if he doesn't want to play those early hits then he should go out with a different stage name. At least when you show up to hear the John Mayer Trio, you know it's not going to be John Mayer (just like when you go see Gwen Stefani, it's much different than No Doubt).  </p> <p>I feel when an artist is still relatively early in his career (compared to bands like the Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi or U2), then you do have an obligation to play the major singles, regardless of how different they sound.  If you're not happy with the old song's sound, change something in that song to better fit your new style - but you owe it to play the music that gravitated fans towards you, especially if you're using that same musical persona to bring those fans in.</p> <p>I'd be anxious to hear what other fans & musicians think.
Rants
Tailgating not allowed at Mile High Music Fest?
A comment from my last post about Mile High Music Festival made me aware of something significant: According to their web site, Re-entry and Tailgating are listed under “prohibited items” at the Festival. This contradicts what I was told by someone in the Mile High Music Fest Facebook Event – they said they called and were told the opposite. I’m trying to get more information from both sides, but for now I may have to assume the web site is accurate and tailgating is prohibited.
In which case is total crap! You expect people to show up right at 10:30am and file straight into the Stadium for the next 12 hours with only a small soft-sided water bottle to keep them from getting exhaustion and dehydration? You’re just asking for trouble! I realize that this is supposed to stimulate vendor activities, but the vendors are going to make plenty of money regardless of re-entry policies. True, at most sporting events don’t allow re-entry, but most sporting events aren’t scheduled to last 12 hours! Come on Mile High organizers, let us have access to our cars during the festival!
Keeping customers in the loop
Some thoughts to vent a frustrating day:
You’ll have to forgive me for this rant. I’ve pretty much have been eating granola bars all day. My blood sugar is low, because I never had a lunch, thanks in part to lousy customer service.
My car hit the 90,000 mark last week, and I wanted to get my transmission serviced at the standard 90,000k mark (I noticed gears haven’t been shifting as smooth as they were). I made the routine appointment, set for 8:30. After bringing my car in I was told I’d have an ETA of 3 hours or so, no later than 1pm. I got a ride to work and figured I could take a late lunch when my car is finished and I get a ride back to the Stealership.
Noon rolls around and no call, the 1pm ETA time rolls around and still no call. I’m swamped with work so I keep working, waiting for that call. By now it’s well into the afternoon and I pick up the phone to call them. They don’t have a status on my car and the guy who’s handling my work-order was on a call and would need to call me back. Another hour & 1/2 passes and still no call. I finally call them back very irate and angry. I get transferred to the guy handling my work and he unapologetically says that their machine wasn’t working properly and they now just got it to work this afternoon. It should be done about 5pm!
So work that was supposed to take about 3 hours ends up taking all day – I’m fine with that. I understand things come up, machines break down and estimates change. However, when you never call me about it, don’t return my calls and then inform me that circumstances delayed their estimated time after-the-fact – all of that is unacceptable. Might I have been called closer to the estimated time of completion I could have figured something else out for lunch, but to just keep me strung along like I have nothing better to do – that’s classless. I think this is the last time I’m going to the Spradley Barr Stealership for service.
While this was going on I wanted to vent my frustrations to Twitter, only to find that Twitter was down too. If you manage to load the page, you find the following message (ala Techcrunch) “Something is technically wrong. Thanks for noticing – we’re going to fix it up and have things back to normal soon”. A message like that is just insulting. Many Twitter’ers, frustrated with all of the outages have talked about Boycotting Twitter – supposedly Wednesday is the day to not use Twitter. Many are skeptical for the notion of boycotting a free service – but I do understand where they’re coming from:
Regardless of whether the service is free, of if you’re charging parts & labor for your service – you have an obligation to inform your customers of your status and give them timely, relevant details to understand the issue and when you plan to have the service restored. Many people might not care – they didn’t need the car until the end of the day anyway, or they may just reload Twitter sometime in the evening – but they shouldn’t have to go out of their way to understand when you’re going to deliver what you’ve promised.
Whether you’re Twitter or the Spradley Barr Service in Fort Collins: when things don’t go right be apologetic, and keep us updated. Is that too much to ask?
24 & Climate Change: "We’re running out of time!"
I got an email from a really good friend this evening, pointing me to a press release the producers of 24 released about new initiatives in their show to combat climate change.
(From the press release): “24, … will strive to become the first television production ever to save enough energy and reduce enough carbon emissions over the course of a season to render its entire season finale “carbon neutral, it was announced today. In addition to making significant changes to its own production practices, the series aims to educate and inspire its millions of viewers to take climate change and the fight against global warming seriously and personally, before it’s too late”
Let me tell you where I sit before I talk about where I stand. First and foremost, I definitely appreciate the efforts to help the environment wherever they can. I don’t hate the planet and I admire people who can conserve resources. I try to do my part to conserve resources where I can (although I do drive a gas-guzzling Ford Explorer), when convenient opportunities are available. Can I do more? Definitely, but I don’t intentionally waste resources. As far as the “global warming”, I do believe there is a global climate change and acknowledge the possibility that our behavior is contributing to this change, but I also believe we do not have sufficient information to call for drastic changes to our lives.
That said, I appreciate 24‘s concern and efforts to improve their economic impact in the production of their show. However, with the state of the show being what it is, 24 is in no position to shove the producer’s political ideology down viewer’s throats.
The show is basically on life support right now. The Writer’s Strike had the most detrimental impact to 24. After arguably the worst season of the show, 24 disappears for a full year due to their non-stop broadcast schedule of Jan-May. Rumors were percolating that the show could come back for a 1/2 season in the fall (rending the concept of “24” inept), but right now we’re looking at 20 months between 24 seasons. The show would have been canceled if not for winning so many Emmy’s after season 5. 24 has basically become Willie Mayes dropping fly balls in the outfield at the end of his career.
Considering their dire circumstances, they still see fit to allow political environmental ideology to influence and perhaps alter the story line? Maybe the producers are simply in denial about their situation, or maybe they’re of the mindset: “It’s only a matter of time until we get canceled, we might as well do what we want.”
Consider their initiatives:
Introducing the use of biodiesel fuels to power generators and production vehicles;
Great, no issues with this!
Running all on-stage production activities on “green power†(buying from wind, water and solar);
This is noble, but I hope that the more expensive energy won’t force them to cut production and storyline corners.
Rewiring an entire stage to use electric, rather than diesel-generated, power;
That’s the sound of me applauding.
Integrating fuel-saving and low-emission hybrid vehicles into the production fleet;
Again, great! However, we better not see CTU and Secret Service trying to guard the President driving a Prius.
So far so good, but here is where issues start to arise:
Creating a series of PSAs about the issue starring Kiefer Sutherland and key cast members;
Ok, this is really called “Kiefer’s Community Service” for sending Jack Bauer to jail for all of his drinking problems. I appreciate the sentiment, but right now Kiefer’s the last person who’s credible in PSA’s. This will be in the back of my head whenever I see this.
When appropriate, incorporating the issue of global warming and the importance of carbon emission reduction into storylines;
This is where I have beef. I realize there are only so many times you can go the “Nuclear Bomb” route, but don’t tell me we’re going to see <Insert Ethnic Terrorist Group> or Tony Almeda getting their revenge by pumping factory emissions in the air. We don’t need the terrorists threatening to blow up a wind farm, or drop plane-loads of non-biodegradable material a landfills.
“When appropriate” – appropriate for whom? Looking at last year’s plot breakdown, the producers’ judge of appropriateness can’t be trusted.
I realize that virtually all forms of entertainment have political influence by their authors (especially 24), but you usually don’t see it so blatantly announced and forced the way it is. This is what bothered me about NBC’s “Green Week” last fall. Environmental issues are important to discuss, but not because you tell us it’s important. When it’s forced this way, it really just comes across as disingenuous, and you end up alienating the people you’re trying hardest to reach. “Well it’s obvious that we can’t make compelling material to make people love us, so if we tell them we’re trying to save the environment maybe they’ll keep watching our show.”
Expression show-stopper… bummer
I’ve always been extremely interested in what goes on in the Web Design tools space. I remember when Adobe came out with PageMill back in the mid-90’s, making great waves in that direction. I then became a fan of FrontPage when they released their ’97 and ’98 versions. However, FrontPage fell out of favor rather quickly when it became a crutch for people who had no business designing web sites, as well as generating it’s Extension-needed, non-standard, we’ll-wipe-out-your-code behavior. I quickly switched over to Dreamweaver and didn’t look back… until a few months ago.
I became intrigued with the work Microsoft has been doing in the Expression Web space, and was delighted when they made it part of their MSDN Subscription tools. It’s not that I’ve grown tired of Dreamweaver, but more of that “grass is greener” interest. However, my interest abruptly halted when I realized that Expression – for all of it’s touting of standards and non-mucking of code (being the anti-Frontpage) – still doesn’t support one of the most basic features: specifying a virtual path to root in links & references (like a stylesheet or menu). Basically this removes any of the WYSIWYG and interactive functionality, which leads to the question: why would I want to be using this program again?
I can appreciate not trying to duplicate every competitor function, but when other market leaders like DreamWeaver & GoLive both support this function, how have you been ignoring this for so long? This is the second-highest rated bug in their “Connect” feedback site, used to log bugs. What’s disappointing is that MS came out with the beta of Expression 2, but that feature is still nowhere to be found. Moreover, there’s an acknowledgement that it’s not really on their roadmap just being “considered” for a “future version”.
It’s unfortunate to see an application with so much potential be plagued by their inability to incorporate the most essential features to be competitive. It’s too bad, designers may have liked this tool.