The Oppenheimer Report - 3/30/15

Jon Brooks - Photo by Shauna Leigh Taylor

Now four shows into this radio host experience, I find this challenge both exhilarating and humbling. Not only have I gained a great deal of respect for all the other volunteers who host their own unique music shows on Hunter’s Bay Radio, but I have also begun to accept and begin to address my relative ignorance on the subject of songwriting. As I begin to research artists – and really only North American artists so far – I have come to realize how little I know about so many great writers. People are coming out of the woodwork to edify me, and I am learning a great deal from my musical friends. That includes Bob, my best friend in Buffalo, who early on exposed me to some of my favorite bands, and who seems to know as much if not more about Canadian artists than I do. So many good songwriters are not receiving the attention they deserve, perhaps because the field is far greater than it was thirty years ago. This became ever clearer Friday night when Shauna and I drove up to nearby Sundridge to hear Toronto singer-songwriter Jon Brooks perform. We went largely because our friend and songwriter, Gina Horswood, was opening up for Brooks, and we had no idea who he is. Brooks is a remarkable wordsmith with a distinctive percussive guitar technique, and his set left me so “gob-smacked” that I bought all four of his CDs. His songs are edgy, and clever, and just plain intelligent, and I now find out that he is no secret to the international songwriting community. I left the venue reminded of all the talent I have yet to discover. Brooks is a refreshing antidote to so much of the mindless, homogenized, synthesized, auto-tuned pop crap that passes for music and lyrics today, and his talent puts my songwriting skills waaaaay down the list. Here I want to touch upon two points.

In last week’s show I discussed my aspirations for my radio show. I hope that I might learn something, or be pleasantly surprised by something unfamiliar learned about an unexplored songwriter. Admittedly, some of the songs I air are not for everyone, but if I can open up a mind or two, then I will have succeeded. I spoke about the hundreds of open mics I’ve played over the years. What I finally took away from all those open mic nights is that, not only are there a LOT of people who do this well, and certainly better than me, but if I actually got my head out of my ass and listened to some of these artists, I could improve myself. The more I listen, the more I open myself up to new styles, and the better I get. In the recent concert I attended, Brooks eloquently stated another important point about songs and songwriting: they can touch on the human condition, and they can unify. To explore the human condition in song is one way to chip away at the cynical, divisive direction our cultures and governments are heading. Brooks eschews “protest songs”, and instead uses dark humor and sarcasim in his songs to convey his messages. He’s not telling us what to believe – he’s just opening up the dialogue and asking us to think, to believe something. As polyanna-ish and naïve as this may sound, I believe some music can improve the human condition.  I want to be one cog in that wheel. In my opinion music should not be about fame or celebrity, it should be meaningful, and insightful, and it should implore us to examine our lives in some pro-active way. Ever my biggest supporter, Shauna wants me to toot my own horn more, and to use the show to promote my music. Thanks to Hunter’s Bay Radio, I am getting plenty of exposure, perhaps more than I deserve. I am plenty full enough of myself, but when I see a guy like Jon Brooks sing his songs, I am reminded that I am still in the foothills. This radio show is causing me to open my eyes and ears a bit.

 

Early last week a Germanwings airbus crashed in the French Alps, killing all 150 aboard. We are force fed news paranoia about the omnipresent terrorist threat, but to this phobia we can now add suicidal pilots to the list. It’s disturbing enough when someone in crisis snaps in public and “goes postal”, but what about the mental health of the people who routinely ferry large amounts of people around the world? Look at the mess the incompetent captain of the Costa Concordia caused.

 

Like me or not, I leave a good story,

The women are busy, and the men are boring,

And the only good thing, the only good thing,
The only good thing, is an old dog.”

 

The reader can have no idea what this song is about from the above four lines, but If you want to find out why I love this song, you should check out Jon Brooks’ latest album The Smiling and Beautiful Countryside. Excellent song writing in my humble opinion.

 

Written by Jamie Oppenheimer  c 2015  All Rights Reserved

The Oppenheimer Report -3/23/15

My rant du jour is about our wasted tax dollars. Several months ago, and largely through the efforts of a citizen of Huntsville and our community radio station, we learned of plans to cut back services at the Huntsville Hospital. The first cut they are proposing is to the surgical services, followed by the emergency room, and who knows what’s next. There is the very real possibility that eventually, the Town of Huntsville will no longer have a hospital, and people from here and points north and east will have to travel an even longer distance to receive health care. For elders living in remote locations, this becomes particularly troublesome. Of course, had there not been some squeaky wheels in the community, all of this would have been done out of the public eye. I understand the Ontario government even hired a consultant to explain why this is necessary, a kneejerk reaction to the negative reaction of the locals. I wonder what that consultant is being paid. Somehow, there was funding for a multi-million dollar sports complex and summit center,  why aren’t there sufficient funds allocated for a hospital that services the health care needs of over 2500 square miles of full time residents, not to mention the huge influx of seasonal residents?  I’m told the problem is in how the Province of Ontario allocates hospital funding, but whatever are the political and economic factors causing this to happen, the whole thing makes me bristle. It seems sometimes governments have their priorities wrong. Why is it we the private sector are obliged, sometimes mandated by law, to act in a financially responsible way, but governments are notorious for mismanaging funds? Who is it, for instance, who decided to build that Ontario power plant and then scrapped the project, at a cost of $500 Million?

It all reminds me of my dealings with the Town of Fort Erie, across the border from Buffalo, and a municipality in which I used to reside during the summer months. It is also a Township that had what I consider to be ridiculously high real estate taxes for the services rendered.  I am very thankful to no longer own real estate in Ft. Erie, because the guys who run that town are not particularly good with money. For years, owners of waterfront property just west of Ft. Erie were largely summer residents from Buffalo and Western New York. The town had for decades tried unsuccessfully to wrest control of the privately owned beaches, claiming that making these beaches public was in the public interest. The town fought unsuccessfully to expropriate this land, but for years the private residents fought back, and finally won. Never underestimate the machinations of a town government. Then, as a sort of spiteful end run, the town fathers decided that, to raise the tax base, it would be a good idea to pass legislation essentially setting aside deed restrictions which prohibit the subdivision of waterfront lots for development. Needless to say, this decision was controversial and had a serious potential to impact on property owners in the area. It should have been made with adequate public notice to property owners affected by the proposed changes, but it was not. Required public notice was made a little over two weeks before Christmas, and the meeting to pass the proposal was snuck in before the holiday, essentially assuring that dissenting interests would not have a chance to present a successful opposition. Most of the affected property owners were not even aware of the change until after it had taken place. This is one of many reasons I don’t have any love lost for the Town of Ft. Erie. They are in my opinion sneaky bastards. In recent years, there has been a controversial effort to develop a high rise complex on the site of the former Crystal Beach Amusement Park, which would substantially increase the population density of the area. This may or may not have been a good thing for the community. What was decidedly not a good thing for the community was the fact that a Ft. Erie councilor had a substantial financial interest in this development, representing an atrocious conflict of interest. While the project is now on hold, I doubt it has much to do with the rights of the property owners.

So I went to the hospital rally, and I listened to all the well-reasoned arguments for not cutting back on Huntsville’s hospital services. The turnout was good, and reams of petitions have been signed to let the Ontario Minister of Health know how adamantly we are all oppose to this. Nevertheless, I think this is a bit like Sisyphus pushing a rock uphill. We are not going to solve the provincial funding problem anytime soon, and essential services will suffer. That money allocated to this hospital has already been spent, on Pamela Wallin’s private travel expenses, on Stephen Harper’s war chest, and on an Ontario power plant that never got built. The time has come for me to take matters into my own hands. I’m thinking of auctioning off a kidney.

 

Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Oppenheimer Report - 3/16/15

"Puddlejumping"
 

Today, Sunday, I went for my first walk of the season on our frozen lake. It’s something I like to do, but this winter has been so particularly cold and harsh that I just didn’t feel like venturing out much. Besides, since late December, our front lawn has been under about four feet of snow, and it’s a bit of a wade to get down to the shore. So, I went out for that walk today. It was relatively warm, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, the lake was a vast moonscape of snow-covered ice, and I walked about a half mile down the shore and back. Over by the mouth of the nearby Magnetewan River, where the water never freezes, there was a crowd of people and a bunch of snowmobiles. Some of the people were wearing orange vests, and my immediate assumption was that someone, either on a machine or on foot, had fallen through the ice. I figured I was watching some kind of rescue operation. Then, I heard the high pitched screaming of snow machines, and realized that this was a puddle-jumping rally. Puddle jumping, for those of you who do not know, is the practice of driving snowmobiles over open water. Having built up enough speed, one can hydroplane over open water with a snowmobile. I suppose this is a thrill, as long as one’s snowmobile does not conk out midway. I am told that there are competitions involving this practice, and that the some or all of the snowmobilers attach ropes and buoys to their machines so as to have something with which to retrieve them when they sink. This is the part that particularly puzzles me. I’m not exactly sure what the driver is supposed to do, now relieved of his or her “floatation device” and bobbing around in open ice water, but perhaps they wear wet suits  and life jackets underneath their winter wear. People tell me that some of these daredevils travel long distances over open water, sometimes many miles. Perhaps this is some kind of weird right of spring around here. On one of my ice walks a few years ago, I came upon a party at the one ice fishing hut out on our lake, and there were quit a few snow machines parked there. One guy had an ATV with tank treads mounted instead of wheels, and I remarked to the owner that it must go through any kinds of rough terrain. His answer surprised me: it will travel through almost anything, but slush. On my walk today, the surface was exactly that, slush.

Last Thursday night, I hosted my second edition of Lyrical Workers, my radio show on Hunter’s Bay Radio about songwriters and song writing. This one went a little smoother than the first one, and I was a bit more conversant than I had previously been. I had a little practice, because, on the Wednesday before, my producer and collaborator Juan Barbosa and I did an interview on the HBR live show Talent on the Bay, hosted by fellow songwriter Sean Cotton. We talked about my upcoming album, and my new radio show, and about the novelty – for me anyway – of recording an album of songs in a studio. Oddly enough, these live radio interviews and performances do not make me nearly as nervous as does being in the studio alone and hosting a three hour show. There, I am responsible for manning the mic and the equipment, and without elaborating, there is much that can go wrong. During the day, there are people on site to assist, but starting in a week or so, I will be on my own for this evening show, and that terrifies me. Just another cliff to jump off; it’s getting easier.

Final notes …The beginning of this week marked International Women’s Day, wherein the world acknowledges and promotes the achievements of women throughout the world. I read a disturbing article in the New York Times over the weekend about women’s shelters in Kabul, Afghanistan, and about honor killings in that country. We in North America are slowly working towards gender equality, but it is still inconceivable to me that other cultures still consider it permissible and acceptable to disfigure, torture, and kill a woman on the grounds of infidelity, and many other "offenses". My acceptance of other cultural practices stops when it includes enslavement, torture, or murder. And that morally repugnant cultural aberration is practiced in North America. Apple introduced its new computer watch thingy, and perhaps that is the next big thing, but I can’t see it. Then again, Luddite that I am, I never thought I would use my phone to access the internet, but I have done so  on occasion. The Juno Awards took place last night and Canada's music elite assembled in Hamilton, Ontario for the event. Hamilton's own The Arkells were big winners, and  80 year-old singer songwriter Leonard Cohen won Best Album ( Popular Problems), beating out rock band Nickelback. I'm a big Cohen fan. Nickelback, not so much.

Spring is almost here!

Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Oppenheimer Report 3/9/15

Shauna's promo for my first show -I'm  lucky to have such a good publicist!
 

I had my “shakedown” show on Hunter’s Bay Radio (CKAR 88.7 FM) last Thursday night, and I was petrified. Luckily, the station manager was there to walk me through that first night. Having heard scare stories about other DJs deleting the entire playlist for the day, I was trembling with each click of the mouse I made to load my music into the system. When the mic turned on and I spoke my first words, I felt a little like King George VI, the subject of The King’s Speech. I went into the show prepared with my playlist, but for the first hour or so, I was trembling every time I turned on the mic. This is community radio, and they want their DJs to talk. We are supposed to be providing an informative show, and my intention is for my show to be an exploration of the art of songwriting. I have many thoughts on the subject and am eager to impart them, but somehow my fear got in the way. Shauna taped my speaking segments for this first show, and my very first time at bat was hard to hear. I counted fifteen “ums and ahs” in the first minute. Like anything else that frightens me to do, practice will make me better. By the end of the night I was no longer shaking when I hit the mic button, and I suspect everything will be a little easier for this upcoming Thursday’s show. I am told I need to enunciate a little more. If anyone had told me that I was going to have my own music show on an FM radio show, I would have laughed in their face. Then again, I was petrified to get up and play live on air, and I have now done this three times in the past year. What I have finally realized is that nobody’s perfect, and it’s quite a rush to finally do something that terrifies me. Once I get over the home room jitters, I think I will be a little better.

 

What I hope to do is to approach the art of songwriting from the perspective of an aspiring songwriter. There are successful writers who host shows – Randy Bachman and Kim Mitchell come to mind immediately – but they are already established writers. I am still unrecognized. Who are the writers who have influenced me? What is it about the song that hooked me? My influences go back fifty years, from songs like “Venus” sung by Frankie Avalon, to “White Room” by Cream, to “Blinded by Science” by Thomas Dolby. People have told me that my song writing style is varied, and this is because I like all kinds of music. I am very interested in the songwriter’s perspective. What does the writer sound like singing his or her own song? Last Thursday, I played the brilliant Cole Porter singing his bare bones version of his song “Anything Goes” on the piano. So many famous artists have covered that song successfully, but what is particularly interesting, to me anyway, is to hear the writer perform the song. While many writers are singer songwriters, just as many are not. There are far more artists and musicians out there who are not the best writers, and I want to remind people that a good lyricist is invaluable. A good lyricist who also has an ear for unique melody lines is even rarer. I will have some Harry Warren in the mix, Irving Berlin, Gershwin, Hammerstein, as well as John Prine, Leonard Cohn, and a whole list of obscure writers who have caught my ear over the year. While most radio shows will try to mix the selections thematically and melodically, my approach will likely be random; you never know what will pop up on my show. There will be novelty songs, live performances no one has ever heard before (with the permission of the performers of course), and my anecdotal two cents worth. Most of all, I intend to learn something, and I already have learned a lot from research for the first show.

 

Mysteriously, Boris Nemstov, one of Vladimir Putin’s staunchest political opponents, was recently shot to death, not far from the Kremlin. Putin was quick to take over the investigation, the fox guarding the henhouse, and of course he immediately found the murderers … Chechens, of course. Vlad is all about law and order. Nemstov, was reportedly close to proving Russia’s involvement in the Ukrainian conflict, something Putin has categorically denied since the conflict began, so the timing of Nemstov’s murder is curious. I would say join the bandwagon of quips about Putin’s stupid bare-chested photo ops, but then we have the un-presidential video of Obama, taking selfies and talking to himself in the mirror. I guess this is the new normal: promotional videos for presidents. Actor Harrison Ford was involved in a plane crash last week when the vintage airplane he was flying crapped out shortly after takeoff. He’s banged up but he’ll live. I’m sure there will be s few Han Solo jokes about that, but he did manage to land an unpowered plane, and not kill anybody in the process, so perhaps he IS a good pilot. Wish me luck on Thursday, and thanks to those of you who listened on the internet!

Who wrote the song “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, I Got Love in My Tummy?”

 

Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Oppenheimer Report 3/2/15

Last Friday night, while attending the monthly Burk’s Falls open mic, I got to talking with Jeff Carter, the head honcho over at Hunter’s Bay Radio. He asked me if I would like to host a radio show and, without thinking twice, I said yes. I can’t even blame this ill-considered decision on too much beer anymore. Thursday nights from 8-11pm I will be hosting a music show on HBR, broadcast locally at 88.7 on the FM dial and also on the internet. I have no idea what it will be about yet, but as Jeff and I were talking about all the recordings I have made of local performers, we both thought it might be interesting to incorporate these into the show. As well, I want to in some way explore the art of songwriting, perhaps by airing some of my favorite songs, and occasionally putting in my two cents worth, while avoiding most of the big hits. I need to brush up on my Canadian song writers, as I will need to comply with Canadian content broadcast rules. I am petrified of doing something which is entirely out of my wheelhouse, but this is all part of my master plan to scare myself, and to become a better song writer. I will learn a lot about other artists in the process of airing this show, and I’m looking forward to the opportunity. When I was an arrogant music snob in my 30s, I thought I knew a lot about music. In truth I know next to nothing, especially when compared to some of the radio hosts at HBR, and other artists in the area. Time to up my game!
 

Probably best known for his role as Mr. Spock in the TV show Star Trek, actor Leonard Nimoy died last week at the age of 83. Hard to believe that show was only on for three seasons, because it has aired long since in syndication. While I never became a bona fide Trekkie, or dressed up like a Vulcan, or learned to speak Vulcan, or wore the pointy ears to attend conventions, I did like that show a lot. I find it amusing that Nimoy wrote a book in 1977 entitled “I Am Not Spock,” and then another one in 1995, entitled “I Am Spock.” Are you or aren’t you? I just read an article describing some of the events in his long and fruitful career as an entertainer. Obviously, that first book was written to remind his fans that he was a multi-talented person, and not just the character he played in one show. It must be strange to be so widely recognized for one role. Perhaps it’s a little like being a one hit wonder in the music business. Name one other hit song by Iron Butterfly, besides In A Gadda Da Vida. I did not know that, on top of being an actor, Nimoy was also a noted and published poet, as well as photographer. I also did I know he had written one of and directed several of the Star Trek movies, and was the director of the movie Three Men and a Baby. There was one other fun fact that I learned the other day. Nimoy came from a family of Ukranian immigrants who were also orthodox Jews. The now famous Vulcan split finger salute was Nimoy’s idea, and was derived from a Jewish blessing, a hand gesture representing the Jewish letter shin. Who knew?

 

Technically, Spring is right around the corner, but I’m not really feeling it just yet. Looking out over the lake this morning I see another band of snow blowing in, and I’m still trudging out to the propane tank twice a week to monitor the usage. The roof rake is still on active duty, and I know it’s been a cold winter when I take Jasper out for her morning bowel evacuation, and it feels appreciably warmer because the mercury has shot up to 15 Degrees F. Ugh! One of my Buffalo friends posted a video to his Facebook page which made me laugh. You will find it on my FB page if you have embraced the great Satan of social media (I still don’t Tweet. Yet). What you see when you click on it is a guy, somewhere in the Maritimes, sitting on top of a mountain of snow which almost completely buries a huge excavator. It is a music spoof of some Christmas song and it includes a lot of swear words to describe what most people feel about this harsh winter.

 

I understand Shatner is Jewish too. Maybe they should have named the show Star Schlep.

 

Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED