The Oppenheimer Report - 9/7/15

The other day, I was watching the evening news and learned that, in the interest of inclusiveness, Marvel Comics has contemporized some of its superheroes. Thor is now a female, The Green Lantern has come out of the closet, and another superhero, perhaps Captain America, is depicted as an African American. I wonder who they will pick to represent the much-stigmatized trans-gendered? I always thought Batman’s sidekick, Robin, had a few skeletons in the closet. On a lighter note, Donald Trump is apparently a viable candidate for the Republican nod in the U.S. Presidential race, and this absolutely astounds me. When I started writing this report in the early nineties, I thought Trump was a circus side show. I can’t stand his public (maybe private) image, and I was far more judgmental on paper than I am today, but this guy plays the media like a fiddle. I just saw a trailer for the upcoming CNN Republican debate and Trump is still a sideshow. The ad looked more like a trailer for an upcoming prize fight. Sadly, he has the funds to sell his brand of crazy and one can never under-estimate the intelligence of the voting public.

There was a Facebook post on my wall this morning from one of my high school friends and it was a picture of the shadow of a cyclist. The caption read something like: “Summer has ended and I am just a shadow of my former self.” It does seem as if I was late for the starting gate this summer, and today ,I feel a little under the weather. This has been a strange summer for us in many ways. There has been great satisfaction and joy, especially wherein our involvement with the radio station is concerned. Shauna and I are eager to support the local music scene and the spread of original music (not just mine) beyond our little community. Unfortunately, it is apparent music is not high on everyone’s priority list, and attendance at local music venues has been, at best, inconsistent. A musician friend shared a recent Facebook post, I believe from musician Vince Gill, and it decried the eroding support of many of today’s listeners. Basically it said, a person can buy his song for 99 cents, which is essentially what he got paid decades ago for the same song, and is about the same amount of money one pays for a downloadable phone application that creates a fart sound. Venues are harder to book, and it seems as if, certainly for the lesser known acts, it is getting harder to get people out to fill seats. Clearly, the elusive formula for success is more and more tied to one’s ability to market oneself online. Fifteen years ago, we learned about Australian artist, John Butler, through the internet and I thought that was a clever way to get one’s music out there. Butler had put up a music video on YouTube showcasing his unique guitar style and we were impressed enough to see him when he finally toured Canada. Back then, I had no idea that I was so out of touch and that so many of today’s stars got their start on the internet. It's all about the buzz online.

Juan Barbosa is about to release his third self-produced album, Soulbot 6000, and we have hired a publicist to assist us in marketing the album. Shauna and I think it is remarkably good music, and warrants proper exposure. I am surprised by how much the music industry has transformed in the past 20 years. Yes, one can still buy the CD, but the number of online distribution organizations and marketing tools has exploded. I feel about as left behind technologically as my nonagenarian father did, trying to figure out the TV remote. The irony of all this is that Juan’s new album deals thematically with the erosion of soul and honesty in music. In the album, a robot goes back in time to re-discover and recover what is real and heartfelt about music and what has been stripped from the soul-less, auto-tuned future of drum machines and synthesized voices. I feel that good music is timeless, and it will always be out there for those who listen. As I said, I feel a bit out of step with time today. Maybe I too am a shadow of my former self. On this grey Labour Day I feel like an anachronism; I still speak in complete sentences. I sign off (L)aughing (O)out (L)oud.

                       -  Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED