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November 27, 2005
Thanksgiving 2005!
The most important ship that you board is in life is called a relationship! Thanksgiving 2005 was an amazing and beautifu day that spread through out the whole weekend. Our request at What's Out Next is that you go up to those you love and give them a hug.
If you can't, pick up the phone now and give them a call! Whatever you do, remember, it's all good!
I always get a peaceful easy feeling that we all get some special time with our loved ones!
Posted by mitchsantell at 06:39 PM
November 16, 2005
It's All On The Tape!
Music has an amazing way of taking you back to another time. When Fleetwood Mac was in the studio back in 1976 working on Rumors released in 1977... they had no idea what a blockbuster the album would be. Going through an unbelievable amount of pain and drama, Fleetwood Mac would go on to produce an album that had so many hits on it that some Executives within the music industry simply wanted to call the album "Fleetwood Mac's Greatest Hits!"
What most of you don't know who are out there in the digital music space is this amazing fact. Rumors was recorded on good old Ampex 456 Tape. Two inches wide and a standard for 16 and 24 track recording, the feel off this tape had a warmth that is hard to match today.
Here is a little known fact about that album. Ready? Back in 1977 when Rumors was recorded they had a "safety back up" of the drum tracks. (This was also on 456 tape). By the time they got down to the final mix of the album, they noticed that all of the "high end" on the drum tracks including the high-hat could no longer be heard. It had rubbed off of the tape.
Lindsey Buckingham and Richard Dashut, the producers on the record knew they had a huge problem on their hands. What did they do? Using two multi-track recorders they had the original safety track playing in one ear and the original finished track in the other. This was painstaking work as they had to match the finished track with the safety in order for the tracks to work.
At What's Out Next, we know what dreams are made of and we are still in awe of the magic that was created. Now that is magic to our ears!
Posted by mitchsantell at 02:31 PM
November 12, 2005
The Last 100 Million Dollar Movie!
Technology may soon spell doom for the big blockbuster, predicted the king of blockbusters himself -- George Lucas.
We all see the changes coming in media and entertainment. What once cost a dollar, now costs a dime and will soon cost a penny. According to our dear friends at Wired Magazine and speaking at the new Letterman Digital Arts Center, Mr. Lucas made very specific and forwarding looking statements in terms of the movies, film in general and the advent of technology.
Theatrical and licensing revenues from the six-part Star Wars series have topped $13 billion and continue to grow, but Lucas believes the days of such high-budget epics may soon be over. "I'm not doing $100-million movies anymore," Lucas said on Saturday. "I'm more interested in smaller ones. Each time you do a $100-million movie, the chances are greater that you're not going to make your money back." He added: "Box office numbers have been going down since World War II. They're on a slide and will continue to be. The profitable areas are now television and DVD, and the entire paradigm is shifting dramatically," Lucas said. "People will always go to theaters, because they will always like a social experience, but I don't think it's going to be as big as it is now."
"The big tent-pole movies will be the first victim of the rapid technological changes we're seeing now," he predicted. "We're just not going to see those being made anymore." The shift from big-screen epics toward television and mobile devices is also inspiring an aesthetic shift, Lucas said.
"There is a difference between how you make things for big screen and small screen. When you're designing for DVD, you tend to end up with more close-ups, and your wide shots aren't so wide. I don't subscribe to that stylistic shift, but a lot of kids making movies now grew up on TV and DVDs -- not films in theaters -- so that's how they make movies. I prefer to make them for the big screen, and they tend to work out alright."
Speaking just two days before the Supreme Court's landmark MGM v. Grokster decision on file-sharing technologies, the longtime proponent of all things digital said Hollywood must figure out how to sell its wares online.
"We're in a transitional period with delivery of material on (the) internet, and piracy is (a) huge factor," he said. "Why pay for something when you can get it for free on opening day? There has to be an international effort. If they don't solve this problem of how to sell over the internet, the business is going to shrink, and what's produced will be more like TV movies. They'll be low budget, and there won't be as many of them."
When asked whether he believes that government should take an increasingly assertive role in legislating filesharing, Lucas pointed to the need for better ways to deliver content in fee-based systems online.
"This is bigger than a question of the role that federal government should take in antipiracy -- it's a social issue," Lucas told Wired News. "We need to convince people that creatives need to get paid or they can't create, and we need to short circuit the idea that all the money goes to corporations. This is an international problem that involves international governments, but also a cultural shift."
Built on the site of a demolished military hospital, Lucas' 865,000-square-foot Letterman Digital Arts Center will be home base for the mogul's electronic game, licensing, promotion and online ventures.
Lucas said the new site will allow workers at Lucasfilm, Industrial Light and Magic, and LucasArts to collaborate more seamlessly.
More than 1,500 people will work at the center, connected by a high-speed fiber optic network that will allow fast, simultaneous collaboration. And while a lot of Lucas' staff will soon be working at the new headquarters, Lucas won't.
The Marin County resident prefers to avoid the pain of the clogged trans-bay commute, and will instead remain ensconced at Skywalker Ranch, where he's currently working on the Indiana Jones sequel and Red Tails, a feature about black fighter pilots in World War II.
"I'm going to spend the next 18 months squaring things away and producing projects I haven't had time to look at for the past few years," he said. "Then I'm going to go off and direct my own little experimental films that won't have anything to do with this company."
At What's Out Next we say "hey man it's Star Wars! What about George Lucas? He's the man!
Posted by mitchsantell at 12:31 PM
November 10, 2005
What The Bleep Do We Know?
While What's Out Next is dedicated to Music, Technology and Buzz, form time to time we come across something different. Coming form an entertainment family and being in that business myself, I must admit that I have always believed that we create whatever reality that we want!
For those of you that don't believe me, simply go out and rent the movie "What The Bleep Do We Know?" Thanks to my son Michael I was able to see the film this morning and it had a profound and positive effect on me.
What's my take on it? I figured out why my sister-in-law has to take pharmaceutical drugs like ritilin and paxil. My Aunt Shirlee never emotionally recovered from her parents divorce. Why? It all has to do with how we see the world and how we think. As David Ickle likes to say "it is the silence between the thoughts." Why causes this grief? It has to do with people who do not live in the moment. People who are trapped by their own past or live in the past and can't get on with it. Make sense?
In the music business why is it that an artist like Sheryl Crow will produce album after album of hits while other artists like Duncan Sheik will only be a one hit wonder? It all has to do with how we view the world.
When you do your dream in the music business and you start out with an idea on a napkin most people will tell you....your nuts! Then if you stick with it all the things that you create start to take on a reality all of their own. Life is about living it as a fully integrated person.
Hey you must rent this movie! The change will do you good!
Posted by mitchsantell at 11:55 PM
November 08, 2005
The Legacy Of Capitol Records!
Songwriter Johnny Mercer created Capitol Records in 1942 with Hollywood music store owner Glenn Wallichs and movie producer Buddy DeSylva. According to Stephen Fratallone's 60th anniversary tribute article, "Like Mercer's musical genius, Capitol Records was new, fresh and revolutionary. He wanted to form a record company where music that was recorded and the artists who recorded it were treated differently. He wanted to give new artists and veteran artists alike the freedom to grow and to expand their artistic palette. Capitol Records provided a competitive alternative to the three major record companies of the day -- Victor, Columbia and Decca -- all established in New York. With his new record company, Mercer helped to change the sound of American pop music and the way it was made. In her autobiography, It Might As Well Be Spring, singer Margaret Whiting, a close personal friend of Mercer's and one of the first singers to record on the new label, wrote that he "was a man bursting with talent and always looking for a place to channel his energies. This idea of a record company seemed ideal." Mercer took his idea to one of his best friends, Glenn Wallichs, the owner of Music City, the biggest record store in Los Angeles situated across from NBC. Wallichs loved the thought of being a part of such a venturesome endeavor. It was agreed upon that Wallichs would run the business while Mercer would find the artists and supervise their artistic output. All that was needed to set Capitol Records into motion was financial backing. Mercer looked to Buddy DeSylva, who, besides being a great songwriter in his own right, had become head of production at Paramount Studios. He had hired Mercer to do the score with Victor Schertzinger for The Fleet's In, a musical with William Holden, Dorothy Lamour, Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton. DeSylva was also excited about Mercer's new project and quickly wrote him out a check for $25,000. Capitol Records was now in business."
By 1946 Capitol has sold 42 million records and was established as one of the Big 6 studios. In 1950 Capitol built its own studio on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. In 1955, EMI acquired Capitol Records for $8.5 million. The Electric and Musical Industries (EMI) company was created in Britain in April 1931 by the merger of British Gramophone Company and the Columbia Graphophone Company. In November 1931 it had opened one of the world's great recording studios in North London at 3 Abbey Road. By 1955 Capitol was the fourth largest American record company, emphasizing popular music with Nat King Cole, Stan Kenton, Peggy Lee, Dean Martin. Frank Sinatra made 19 albums with Capitol 1954-62, with arrangers Axel Stordahl and Nelson Riddle. EMI decided to build a new studio in Hollywood that would be state-of-the-art equivalent to its Abbey Road studio in London.
The present Capitol Tower building was constructed in 1956 at 1730 Vine Street near Hollywood Boulevard. According to James Bayless, "In February of 1956, Capitol Records reached a long planned-for goal when West Coast operations were consolidated in a new combined studio and office building in Hollywood. The building is unique in a number of ways. It has already become a Hollywood landmark as it is the world's first office building in fthe form of a round tower. Now widely known as the 'Capitol Tower', the building was designed by Welton Becket, noted architect, and is a modern, striking, earthquake-resistant reinforced-concrete structure. It is 13 stories tall and 150' high, the maximum building height permitted in Los Angeles. The decor is in keeping with the outward appearance of the building. The ground floor, the only rectangular part of the building, is actually a separate structure which surrounds the tower and was joined to it after the entire tower was completed. It houses the Recording Department offices, tape-to-disk dubbing rooms, and three recording studios which were designed to be as modern and striking as the building itself."
I had to good fortune to watch Nik Venet, my mentor and partner produce The Chicago Conspiracy Trial at Capitol Records in front of a live audience. Those were the days!
Mary Hopkin's first single was Those Were The Days, released on Apple Records on August 30, 1968
Posted by mitchsantell at 04:23 PM
November 05, 2005
Missing Luther Vandross!
Back on July 1st this year the world lost what J Records Chairman Clive Davis described as "the best male R&B Singer in the world! In the world of contemporary music, there are just a handful of superstars whose first name alone brings instant recognition. Check Aretha, Whitney, Mariah, Diana and Dionne. But when it comes to male vocalists, the list is far shorter. One name towers above the rest in any discussion on black male singers whose impact and influence has been unparalleled. Say the name 'Luther' and record buyers the world over respond immediately. The fact is, Luther Vandross will remain even after his recent passing, the pre-eminent black male vocalist of our time. The five-time Grammy winner, whose cumulative global sales top over 25 million copies continues to set a standard that few can match.
Luther Vandross was one great artist with two personalities. There was the "fat Luther" and the "thin Luther." Throughout his 30 year career his weight moved up and down from 320 pounds to 190 pounds and back again! The Vandross family had been plagued by health problems. In addition to Luther losing his father at an early age, Luther's three other siblings died before he did.
His final album, Dance With My Father, in 2003, was his first to debut at Number One and earned four grammies. According to Smokey Robinson "there are vocalists and there's Luther!"
How did we know that when Luther released "Dance With My Father," it would not be his "next chapter," it would be his "last chapter." We miss you man!
Earlier today I saw the last picture taken of Luther Vandross at John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey. Out of heartfelt consideration to his family and because of our respect for him as an artist we decided to not post it on the site. Instead, we decided to leave you with two of my favorite Luther tracks... Stop To Love and the See Me!
Some people make music and it changes people. Luther wrote, produced and sang music that forever changed the music business. The music buyers, the executives and other star talent. God bless you Luther, you are one smooth dude! We won't ever forget you!
Stop to Love and See Me are both from the 1986 release of Give Me a Reason!
Posted by mitchsantell at 12:22 AM