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May 2009
Poor Conan O’Brien goes mainstream
Actually, I’m feeling a little sorry for Conan O’Brien.
Why, you ask, when he’s on the verge of the greatest moment in his already interesting career? When he’s about to stride on Monday onto “The Tonight Show” stage, the grandest in his business?
Because to stay there, he will have to stop being Conan O’Brien.
At least, he will probably have to stop being the Conan O’Brien who got the job. Pressure to keep a big audience will nudge him to give up the quirky, weird, self-deprecating, sophisticated, risky and often raunchy stuff that has been his stock in trade as he’s pleased his hip, tiny audience in the wee, small hours of the morning. Triumph the Comic Insult Dog won’t play at 11:30 p.m.
In short, we are about to witness the blanding of Conan O’Brien.
Mind you, this isn’t his fault. It’s just what happens, in a process we’ve seen a million times before: A performer starts out on the fringes of the vast and roiling entertainment world, where new voices are able to be heard. They find a niche, the niche grows, the niche gets noticed by the mainstream, and eventually the mainstream comes calling.
But the price of mainstream success is offering up what the mainstream wants and can safely, happily digest. That, ironically, is usually not the stuff that played so well on the scrappy edges.
O’Brien knows this, obviously, and may even be telling himself that he’s different, and that this won’t happen to him. We’ll see. Lots of folks, no doubt, will be tuning in to see if the hot new guy flames out in a Couric-like implosion, like hockey fans mostly there for the fights. Either way, we’ll definitely be watching — which, after all, is what they’re counting on. I’m not sure the network cares why we do, as long as we do.
Speaking of mainstream: There are acts and artists who do indeed manage to maintain huge long-term popularity without losing the scruffy outsiderness that made them worth noticing in the first place. Green Day comes to mind as one of the most surprising in a while.
The trio’s new CD, “21st-Century Breakdown,” is a tight, punchy set of very punky songs, the band’s second album in a row that follows a set of young people trying to find their way through the strange and contradictory political, economic and cultural waters of our day. It’s about the biggest album in the country at the moment, deservedly so, but what’s most interesting about Green Day is that they are the very last band standing from the crowded, heady, safety-pinned days of 1980s punk. Considering what zit-faced goofballs they were when they got started, few would’ve picked them to become elder rock statesmen with a message. But there you go.
Still speaking of the mainstream: If I’ve seemed to sniff at the middle of the road through all this, that hasn’t been my intention. One of the most interesting things I read last week was an essay of appreciation in The New Yorker about Victor Fleming, the director of 1939’s “Gone With the Wind” and “The Wizard of Oz.” Said the writer, “The auteur-theory critics who, in the 1960 and ‘70s, went wild over Cukor, Hitchcock, Preminger … ignored Fleming, though … his two super-productions of 1939 are very likely the most widely seen movies in American film history—not just good pictures but films that have entered the unconscious of generations of moviegoers.”
Good point, and one I hadn’t considered. Today’s lesson: you can be just as creative in the middle as you can be on the fringes, if you know and love your audience and learn to balance flexibility with remaining true to yourself. Maybe it’s never easy — but who said it should be?
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A hug is just a hug is, um, just a hug?
Or, maybe not.
Here’s the latest from the adults-bewildered-by-teens front, courtesy of the Times.
Personally, seems to me that a world in which kids want to hug each other more than smack each other around, which was what we had when I was in junior high and high school, is probably a good thing. What’s the big deal?
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Wild and wacky White House walls!
Well, when we were voting for change, I never quite imagined this, though I’m plenty happy to hear it….
Diebenkorn? Imagine…
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Overhyperstimulated???
Interesting piece from New York mag on the costs, and even a few of the benefits, of living in our hyperactive world.
It’s long, but worthwhile.
Of course, I took a break in the middle to check my Facebook page. Heh, heh, heh.
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Confused about local arts? No need…
The confusion, I suppose, is understandable.
A newsroom colleague and I were discussing all the activity, entertainment and people filling the streets and sidewalks of downtown on Friday, May 15, during the most recent “Urban Nights” festivities.
“There’s the Dayton Circus, the Dayton Dirt Collective — I can’t keep all these groups straight. Who are they?”
Now, the person in question is reasonably well tapped into what’s going on around here, and so I realized that if she can’t distinguish between all the small arts groups popping up these days, she might not be the only one.
Herewith, then, your humble scribe will attempt a brief disentanglement, and see where it gets us.
The Dayton Dirt Collective: This is a relatively new music venue with a cool name, billing itself as “an all-ages, drug/alcohol/hate-free show space committed to keeping DIY alive in Dayton.” The Collective is unlike anything we’ve had in town before, as far as I’m aware — a members-based club that puts on hardcore and punk shows on a regular basis, simply to provide a stage for the kind of edgy music the members like. The space is at 144 E. Third St., a storefront that was last a gallery. You can’t miss it, if they’re running a show — the sidewalk outside is full of tattooed young people, and you don’t need to be inside to hear the music. The Collective has kept this going for more than a year — congrats, by the way — and you can learn more at www.daytondirtcollective.org. Lots of shows coming up.
The Dayton Circus: The Circus is a bit more complex. It’s a group of artists, musicians, performers, fans, and thinkers who tend to be young, or youngish, and whose main goal is to be to accomplish interesting things they believe somebody should be doing.
“It’s a grassroots arts group,” says member Kate Ervin, “with a commitment to downtown Dayton. It’s loose, with no real hierarchy. People come up with projects they’d like to do, and enlist other people to help.”
The Circus (www.daytoncircus.org) started about three years ago as an outgrowth of an annual alternative art and rock festival called The Sideshow, the fourth of which happened at the old Unicorn bar at Third and Jefferson streets during Urban Nights. “The idea was to make Dayton more attractive and creative by seeing things nobody else was doing, and then do them in a community-building kind of way, with artists networking with each other who might not have been able to before,” says Jeff Opt, another member.
About 20 main organizers keep it running. Current projects include the creation of the new Community Garden at Fourth and Wayne, between the Cannery and the Oregon District — a once-weedy vacant lot the city turned over so that it could be transformed into a performance and gathering space full of sculpture. The Circus is working on producing a local arts magazine, and works very closely with our next group….
c{space: This is the crazily painted, graffiti-covered big room at 20 N. Jefferson St. — a former bank building that sat empty for years until it was reclaimed as an arts incubator that’s open for any and all community groups who need a space for dances, exhibitions, performances, meetings and the like.
The Dayton Creative Incubator group did it, working with the landlord, as part of the larger DaytonCREATE group (daytoncreate.org) that was formed in spring 2008 to start up several new initiatives with the same mission as that espoused by the Circus — to make this a cooler, better, more interesting place to live.
So, wait a sec … three relatively new arts-type groups, all with the same goal? All working together, or in closely proximity?
It feels as though there is a genuine, live-wire vibe running through the community lately, powered by people on the fringes who have suddenly found their voice; people who perhaps aren’t part of the larger arts establishment, popping up to fill niches, holes and voids that previously went unnoticed. And they’re getting stuff done. Soon, they’ll morph into some new kind of establishment, or stand aside for somebody new.
Sound confusing? Maybe. Or cosmopolitan. And isn’t that what we’ve been shooting for?
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Highlights, lowlights and night lights…
Hmmm… Sorry I’ve been away for a few days… Been busy! But here are a few highlights, lowlights and just plain old light lights from the last week or so on the arts scene…
Onward and upward, Charles: If there were an orchestral version of a Viking Funeral, this would’ve been it.
The Schuster Center stage was packed on Tuesday afternoon, May 12, with nearly 100 musicians from two different symphonies. The Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and the Miami Valley Symphony Orchestra — one professional and seasoned, one composed of passionate, talented amateurs — joined forces to pay tribute in a public concert to a common leader who had left their midst.
Maestro Charles Wendelken-Wilson died two weeks ago at age 71, having left a deep and abiding imprint on Dayton arts and music. He bridged the DPO from its community-orchestra beginnings to the tight professionalism it boasts today, and later went on to provide the MVSO’s players with the on-task drill-mastering they needed and craved. He ran the Dayton Opera’s orchestra, spun classical music on WDPR-FM and affected countless lives and careers as the flinty, demanding taste-maker who undergirded the local classical community for more than four decades in the adopted city he seemed to love.
A few years ago, I got the chance to work briefly with him when I emceed the Dayton Opera’s “Opera Goes to the Movies” program. Charles calmed my nerves with good humor and grace, and later gave a lesson in how it’s done as he put the orchestra through its rehearsal paces — singing the soloists’ parts himself, insisting on getting everything right, and rarely, if ever, needing to look at the music. I realized I was getting a rare, up-close glimpse of a master at work.
The DPO-MVSO memorial show was moving and strong. No doubt he would have approved. As a listener, I’d like to see the two entities find another, less-tragic, time to play together.
That sinking feeling: Speaking of tragic, there were a couple of moments when the student cast who performed Wright State’s “Titanic: The Musical” got the show so right that you couldn’t help but have a bit of a lump in the throat.
The show premiered Thursday, May 14, and was neatly done — the singing was fine and the staging impressive, especially with conveying the sense of the tilting, sinking ship on a stage that never moved. Actually, the WSU crew might’ve been more entertaining than the source material, which struck me as a bit underwhelming compared to the energy and grit they brought to it.
Um, just ‘fess up: Speaking of underwhelming, the Dayton Art Institute might’ve done a little better on releasing the news that it had canceled a big show of Georgia O’Keefe and other modern women artists because of the financial downturn. The museum sat on announcing the decision for nearly a month before folks started figuring it out.
Hello, a month? Note to struggling local arts groups: Everybody understands things are tough, and that you have to make changes. When you hide ‘em, or seem to, it just looks bad. Think about it.
Speaking of timely announcements: Kudos to the up-and-coming Dayton Literary Peace Prize, which in its fourth year received more than 60 nominations from publishers around the world who want their titles to be considered for the award — the only prize in the United States that recognizes literary fiction and non-fiction that examines the idea of peace. And all right here, done by volunteers. Bravo. Visit daytonliterarypeaceprize.org.
And speaking of surprises: We were pleasantly surprised to get nearly 400 entries to the “Light Up Dayton” photography contest, in which the DDN, the city and the Downtown Dayton Parnership sought pictures of the lit-up skyline on May 1. It was cool to see our city viewed and interpreted through so many different eyes that see the best the place has to offer. Cool.
Watch for the contest winners to be published in this section before the end of the month.
And speaking of contests: We got about 600 entries to the DDN’s Short Story and Poetry Contest this year, the 13th. Takes a while to read all that. Watch for winners in July.
Finally, hope you make it to Urban Nights tonite! Hard to decide what to see, this year. Tons going on. Seeya there.
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FilmDayton Festival offers something for everyone
Hey, film fans: the very first FilmDayton Festival of Dayton-centric movies is coming to the Neon this weekend.
Here’s the story on ActiveDayton.com that tells the details, and you can of course buy tickets now online at filmdayton.com.
Here’s what you can see and do next Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The films all weekend are either made in Dayton, made by Dayton folks or have the Dayton area as the theme.
You want drama? There’s “The Speed of Life,” an award-winning coming-of-age tale by Ed Radtke, formerly of Yellow Springs.
You want comedy? “My Mummy” was shot in New Carlisle and Dayton by J. Todd Anderson, the local man-about-town who draws storyboards for the Coen Brothers. It’s like a cross between a Marx Brothers flick and a Mel Brooks movie.
You want a history-making family drama? There’s “Daughters of the Dust,” starring Dayton actress BarbaraO. It tells the tale of an African-American family that is still dealing with the legacy of slavery in the early part of the 20th century. It’s a powerful film, and was entered several years ago into the US National Film Registry of significant films.
You want whimsy? “Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie” is about two guys in Southern Ohio who are professional Bigfoot hunters … something that can truly test a friendship. It was made by WSU grad Jay Delaney.
You want cool, cutting-edge short subjects? Try out the Big Lens films from Wright State’s film-school graduates. They’re something to see.
You want a look at life in small-town Ohio? You need to see “45365,” a documentary that looks at how things happen in Sidney. A film by Bill and Turner Ross, who grew up there, this was one of the hot films at the most recent SXSW Festival in Austin.
There’s more, of course — including workshops and classes on how to get started in filmmaking, and even a panel event at which you can pitch your own original movie concept at a group of professionals from the business.
Films run Friday night, Saturday and Sunday all day and night — $10 per show, $7 for students. Workshops are just $5.
Oh, yeah — I mention the after-parties?
Come on down to see and support films all about the place where you live. I’m one of the folks who’s helping put this shindig on, and I promise you’ll have a good time.
Watch the blog all week for more info. And visit www.filmdayton.com for more info and to buy your tickets!
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Less jazz on our airwaves
You probably heard by now that Clear Channel swapped the soft jazz on 106.5 FM to yet another country station…
I got a note from a jazz fan expressing remorse that seemed worth sharing…
Mr. Rollins,
In case you weren’t aware, Clear Channel has switched the Dayton Smooth Jazz station 106.5 to a country music format. This occurred on Friday May 1 and this station is now known as The Bull. I say BS!
My wife and I are extremely disappointed with Clear Channel’s decision, as we thoroughly enjoy smooth jazz music. I’m sure other loyal listeners of WDSJ feel the same way. Besides, don’t we have a sufficient number of country music stations in this market?
Thank you, Larry, Bellbrook
OK, I admit that I only listen to smooth jazz every once in a while, and usually only at night in the car. I’m more a jazz-jazz guy, if you know what I mean, and like what I get on WYSO-FM, though that’s only Tuesdays.
So, it’s worth asking: What do you think of the change? Have you had a chance to listen to the new country station? Will you miss WDSJ?
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What? Dying? Us? Not till we talk about it…
Good news on our site from reporter Khalid Moss, who writes about a very cool idea: A couple of local guys hosting a weekend symposium in August that’s designed to let people react creatively to Forbes’ now-infamous (well, around here, anyway) inclusion of Dayton on the “fastest-dying cities” list…
Seems like a good way to get people talking about fresh ideas and new thinking that can help change the character of the city in a positive way. At least, it’s worth a try.
Here’s the story… What do you think?
Personally, I say if our city dies, it should be because we talk it to death. Start the conversation!
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Canary in a Chinese coalmine?
Interesting piece from the Times today about how American media companies are moving away from doing business in China because of the slowness of its bureaucracy, piracy concerns, etc.
And where are they turning for a new Asian market? Why, India, of course. Isn’t it always easier to do business in a democratic, open society — especially when the exchange of ideas and information is your business, as in the case at hand?
Note that this does not mean a diminishment of Chinese interest in U.S. media culture and products. If anything, apparently, Chinese consumers are as interested as ever in what we produce. It’s just that the companies involved don’t think slaking that thirst is worth their while.
The reason this caught my attention, though, was that I wondered if this is a sign of things to come … one of those stories that is ahead of a larger trend. If AOL moves from China to India, who might be next?
Anyway, have a look at the story and see what you think….
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Music, finances, concerts and cuts…
So, Bob Dylan will be bringing his age-worn musical croak to Fifth Third Field in July, the latest big annual summer concert at the venue. Nice choice, especially since he’ll be playing with the at-least-somewhat-smoother-voiced John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson.
My question is, who’s the main draw on that bill anymore? Sure, nobody bumps Dylan from the head of a program, but his last show in the area, two years ago at the Nutter Center with Elvis Costello, drew poorly. Anyway, it was still a terrific concert and Bob is Bob — so in other words, he’s somebody you should see while you can. And the ballpark is a great place for a show.
Meanwhile, elsewhere this week…
Beep-beep, beep-beep, oh, no: I know times are tough, and that that forces unpleasant decisions on people who hold corporate purse-strings, but I feel the need to say I’ll really miss hearing Ann Stevens’ warm, cheerful voice and fan’s passion during “Breakfast With The Beatles” on WTUE-FM on Sunday mornings. She was a victim of Clear Channel’s nationwide budget cuts last week. She’s always been a friend to the paper, and is something of a community institution. I thought it was telling about the times we’re in when a reader of our website commented that Ann should create her own online Beatles program and forget about broadcasting; didn’t sound like a bad idea, actually….
Speaking of starting over: If you find yourself in the Schuster Center Wintergarden soon, be sure to take a look at the large posters showing off the snazzy, radical redesigns offered by local architects of 10 key downtown structures. Downtown proponents and planners asked the firms to reimagine the looks and uses of the buildings, which range from the Price Brothers clothing store to the old KeyBank Building on Main Street. What they came up with is eye-popping and original — and while it’s hard to imagine some of them coming to pass, with or without the necessary funding, it’s fascinating to peer into 10 possible futures for downtown. Who knows what could happen? My favorite: The multi-colored dance party that Lorenz Williams proposes for the staid, concrete Lehigh Building at Second and Ludlow. Visit www.downtowndayton.org for the drawings.
Bravo, bravo: Speaking of the Schuster, Thursday night’s concert by the Dayton Philharmonic was a stunner, as Neal Gittleman led the crew through an intense and perfectly rendered performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 6. It’s a stirring, emotional piece written in response to Stalin’s purges of the late 1930s — hard to interpret and difficult to take in, yet completely engrossing. The DPO nailed it, too. Let’s hear it for the woodwinds; they were brilliant. Smart, by the way, to put solo violinist Stephanie Chase and the Beethoven at the end, so that folks didn’t skip at intermission. Yes, we’ve seen you do it….
And finally: Gittleman’s remarks before the DPO show included a word to the audience about the tough times the orchestra is facing during the awful economy, and he made a gentle but insistent plea for financial consideration in order to keep things running. We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again: He’s right. Do your best, if you’re able, to remember the hard-working arts groups that are trying to make our community a better place to live, and are doing so under increasing budget stress. If you can afford to write a check to your favorite, do.
Now write one to your next favorite, too. You got the idea.
