Al Gritzmacher’s Blogosphere

Please take a moment and say a prayer for my friend Gabrielle Bouliane, who passed away today of biliary tract cancer. She had only a few months from the time of her diagnosis and left us far too soon. Here’s a video of her at a poetry slam, one of her favorite projects, shortly after she had become ill:

I met Gabrielle while I was doing my music podcast. Her interest is film-making and music brought her to many of the same shows I was attending. We were usually right in front of the stage, her with a video camera, me with my still camera. We both were avid fans of Buffalo Celtic-Rock band, Jackdaw, and often were at their shows. Continue Reading…

You said hello to me in the supermarket. It wasn’t just hello, it was more like you were just that close to running up and hugging me.

I hope I didn’t offend you. I circled back around hoping to find you again and apologize for not being able to place you, but it was too late, I didn’t see you again.

Was it a case of mistaken identity? Were you someone I should have known? Now, it’s 4am and I’m posting this on the internet instead of sleeping. I guess I’ll never know who you were…

I was reading a blog on music, the Twang Nation site, which had an article Hating on the CMAs which pretty much says what I’ve always said about “Country Music.”

I like country music, but what most people call country music isn’t, so I usually don’t admit to liking it.

After again watching the Country Music Association Award ceremony last week I was again left with the feeling that I had sat through an hours-long infomercial. I mean is Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney really the rightful heirs of Loretta Lynn and Johnny Cash? Of course they’re not.

But they are the heirs of a a finely tuned trade organization whose job it is to perpetuate brand and maximize profits. Nothing to do with crafting great and memorable work. Swift and Chesney are not Lynn and Cash, they follow in the gilded footsteps of Shania and Garth.

I’ll say it right out, mainstream pop-country is crap. It’s not crap because it sells zillions of units, but because to hit numbers that high the product typically is as brain dead boring. Innovation is risky and costly. Mediocrity and homogeneous product maximizes profit by drafting on an already proven brand.

The best part was at the bottom of the post, where the Related Posts gives links to five similar articles that pretty much say the same thing. Maybe people are waking up and realizing that what they’re being sold isn’t music, it’s a manufactured product with little art or life in it.