4 posts tagged “vox”
This is the second in post on my efforts to assist a singer-songwriter in Brooklyn.
Sarah Lentz now has a new website. You gotta click it to check it
I'm pleased. It's a total DIY job, but effective, short and at least one bit of strange copy. Communion with candlelight? That's funny. But, it gets the idea across. And, it's going to be up for all of a month. Tops.
And, I've spent some dough on a Google Adwords campaign as well. That's good practice, me thinks.
I can see me spending some real dough on Adwords. Next up, I guess a campaign for my wife's blogs. Yeah, blogs. She does it professionally and personally.
An Article in The New Yorker,The Darkening Sea by Elizbeth Kolbert, is about the destruction of the ocean. Did you know that most of the CO2 emissions end up in the oceans? Yup. Did you know that the damage it's doing is already evident and in fifty years there is likely to be the complete destruction of the reef systems and the end of the million or so species that rely on the reef system? Again, yup. Is there anything we can do to stop the complete destruction of the oceans in our lifetime? (insert that cricket sound here).
Some have asked what I mean by saying that hegemony is the opposing force to environmentalism. It's simple, we have consciously elected people to government whom we are sure will take care of us. We are not going to elect people who are going to tell us to stop what we're doing and reconsider the way we live to end the eminent destruction of the planet. We, as voters, will ALWAYS elect, so to speak, to take the path of least resistance. In the case of the last president, 43, that path ran straight through Afghanistan and into Iraq, turning the gravestones of some 700,000 people into the pavement of our road to the future. (d'you like how I kept up that metaphor?)
ON reading the latest issue of The New Yorker, in an article titled, The Darkening Sea by Elizbeth Kolbert, I was inspired to begin a series of articles on Hegemony v. Environmentalism. I have a pretty decent archive of articles I've saved at publications. And thought that, if anyone's out there who's interested in the competing ideas of hunger for American Power versus the destruction of the environment as the two major forces at work in the world today, they could follow along. It's interesting. I'm a bit detached in that I don't find the results of hegemony anything I could control and have really no intention of doing more than recycling paper and cans for the sake of the environment. I can talk a lot about doing more, as many people do. But, in truth, I'm going to sit back and watch and I might as well get used to that idea.
The principle idea behind the series is one of, here's something you can read about American Hegemony versus the idea of Environmentalism as the two opposing paths of the future. We all know how it's going to play out. So, I guess the idea behind the series is one of mental preparation. You and I, not our children, nor our grandchildren, are going to face the severe consequences of the winning idea - hegemony. We may, at some point in the future, fall victims to severe conservation efforts, but those will be the effect of continuing towards power at all costs for America. When I say power, I mean, capital-P Power.
My wife likes to think of it as 'Peak Oil.' I like to think of it as the frustrated lives of scientists standing on the shore and waving about frantically as they point to the oncoming hordes while everyone keeps whistling their favorite tune. I have yet to come up with anything shorter. Whistlingism? Ignoramusness?
I have a very good friend, Sarah Lentz, who is struggling mightily with being a singer-songwriter in NYC. She's been at it for years, through school in (redacted), a trip to Nashville, and two or possibly three self-produced, self-financed CDs. There are many things that she sees as the problem - that she's becoming older in an industry that is youth-driven, that she has had little success to keep her motivated, that she needs to help support her family. (At this time, it's just her and her husband, Brent.)
Here's what I see- a young, smart, vibrant songwriter who's about to quit for no good reason. And, let me add, if she quits, she and Brent are going to leave NYC and I've had too many friends up and quit NYC lately. She's got those two CDs and they're fine. Some real gems on them in fact. But, they pale when compared to the stuff she's writing now.
It's smart, literary, pop-angled stuff and it will attract attention. So, the problem is obvious.
How to attract attention? That's daunting. Here's a smart singer-songwriter. Look! Nope, that didn't work.
So, I'm here to help. And it starts with posting videos and a log of what I'm doing and if it's working. So, if you're interested in smart, funny, literate songwriters, keep checking in.
She's putting on a Christmas Show on December 9, 2006 at Carroll Gardens Baptist Church at 199 Carroll St. in Brooklyn. Donation only show. Check out the site for that show here - Christmas with Sarah.
Here's what I've done so far;
- Bought the domain name for the Christmas show.
3. I'm making a CD of her last live show and am going to offer that for sale at the show.
4. I've aided her on her myspace page by adding other artists and the like as friends and invited them to come to the show.
5. I've encouraged her to make flyers and what-not and offered to get them to the right people.
THE GOAL: To get her signed and to have her sell songs.
That's two things.
Emails sent. three days later, no response. Already too big for their britches... So sad, even YouTube only takes 2 days.
UPDATE: Rachel came in and saved the day. That being said, feedback system has some holes, to be sure.
