where's the love?

I am a big magazine fan. Always have been. General interest or something esoteric, love 'em all. At one point I think I was subscribing to about 25 magazines! Yeah , too many. Way too many. Especially when you add to that the fact ,that when it comes to books and magazines ,I am a bit of a pack rat. I used to live in a lovely little cottage down by the beach and every square foot that wasn't filled by me ,was filled by something printed.

I have reformed, promise. Right now I have 4 subscriptions and when I finish reading, boom!, right into the garbage. (unless there is an article or a photo I need, then I'll just clip those out and.. put them... in a pile ...on the table. No, really I'm better now I swear.)

So, I'm looking through a magazine today and I come across an ad for a Broadway Show. It's not necessary to name the show (it rhymes with Mom Ah Me Ah) , but a big full page , color ad. Here's the Tag line- "You Already Know You're Gonna Love It" ......okay.

You're gonna love it because you've heard every song a zillion times and you probably saw the movie. You love the songs, you love the movie , so odds are, you are gonna love the show.

I understand, going to see a show these days is a big commitment, lots of time and money involved. If you are going to go, doesn't it make sense to know you're going to like it going in? sure!

I get it. I understand, but are we all happy with this? Do we have to LOVE everything? Does every show we see have to get a standing ovation? Isn't it alright to be disappointed every once in a while? We need to be challenged a bit, don't we? We should step out of our comfort zone every once in a while , right?

I was thinking about this last week during the whole Steve Martin at the 92nd St Y, donnybrook. Basically, he was being interviewed about his new novel, which is set in the Art World. The conversation (logically?) was mostly about the art world, the setting of the book, and a culture that Martin himself has been involved in for years.

Some people in the audience wanted the conversation to be about his career in comedy, a subject he has dealt with at length in the past, as a matter of fact, his last book was about that very subject. So. a note is passed to a "Y" person who gives the note to another "Y" person who then walks on stage to deliver the message that the audience isn't happy.

Tough. As far as I'm concerned, sit back and listen to the talk, If you don't like it, whine about it later while you're having coffee and pie. You're bored? Tough. He's not talking about what you want to hear? Invite him over to your house and you can talk about whatever you want. The guy wrote a book about art and he wants to talk about art, sounds reasonable to me.

A few years back my nephew and I went to see Brian Wilson at Jones Beach. The idea of the show was that Brian and his band were going to play the "Smile" album in it's entirety, from start to finish. That's how the concert was billed, "Brian Wilson Plays Smile" pretty straightforward if you ask me.

The show starts, he plays a full set of Beach Boy hits, sounds incredible, his touring band is awesome. They take a break and now they come back to play "Smile", without question one of the most legendary albums in rock history, finally finished after almost forty years! Thrilling!

After about 15 minutes people start to leave, not just a few, a lot of people are leaving. What the..? Where are you going? Why did you come? Is the music unfamiliar? Challenging? Wait a few minutes for god sakes, Heroes and Villains , Surf's Up and Good Vibrations are all part of Smile. Here is a piece of music thought to be lost being played, brilliantly, live by a legend and you re leaving? sheesh.

What does a guy have to do to get some respect? IT'S BRIAN WILSON, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! You can't give him a few minutes to listen to something you might not already know? He already played 45 minutes of hits! He's gonna come back and do 30 more minutes of hits. Boy oh boy, I'm all worked up now.

A few more years back my pal Tony and I went to see Neil Diamond at the Coliseum. Now on my own I would have never gone, but Tony convinced me it would be fun. You knew every song, the crowd was singing along having a grand time. Even I, not a fan, was amazed at all the songs he wrote, "OH! I forgot about this one! OH , he wrote that?!!!" For me the highlight of the night was when he played , "Red, Red, Wine" (yes , he wrote that) but he used the UB40 arrangement, genius. About three quarters of the way thru the show he announced, "Now, we're going to play three songs from the new Album." At which point half the audience left to go to the bathroom, oh they came back, and the three new songs gave everyone enough time to go and come back for more hits. Some stayed though and listened, hey he's Neil Diamond, he deserves a chance.

So make a deal with your self, for every three things you go see ,knowing that you are going to love them, go see one you're not sure about.

it's okay to be bored, gives you something to talk about over coffee and pie