And they even used the photos I took on tour...of course that's my daughter Julie right in the middle with the bass...and that's Ms. Lauren Pollock singing on the left, and Ms. Julia Ranier on guitar on the right.
(Oh, and in case you missed it and you're new to my blog, if you want to read MY version of the tour, scroll the archives here - I've written over 65,000 words and gotten an entire book out of it)
GRAMMY Magazine - December 27, 2004
The School Of Rock's Unorthodox Lessons
School provides students with the skills and knowledge to rock
Last year, Paul Green watched proudly as select students from his Paul Green School of Rock performed alongside former bandmates of the late Frank Zappa on a stage in Germany. The event was "Zappanale," a weeklong festival in honor of the late Zappa and his complex music. Witnessing his students whip the German crowd into a frenzy, Green recalls feeling delighted…and challenged.
"I'm sitting there watching the show, and all I could think is, 'How do I top this next year?'" Green said while at the School of Rock headquarters in Philadelphia.
Green recently provided the answer to his own vexing question: The Paul Green School of Rock Tour, a 16-day jaunt featuring 24 of Green's best and brightest students, launched this summer at the Knitting Factory in Los Angeles before moving on to Colorado, Utah and Nevada. The tour, which serves as students' post-graduation thesis, gave West Coast audiences a chance to judge the effectiveness of Green's teaching methods.
Green's students, ages 12-17, performed a full two-hour set of hits by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Queen, Yes, King Crimson and others, or a full set featuring the music of Zappa.
Although all of the students are school-age, the School of Rock Tour will not be showcased at public schools. Just like the unorthodox lessons he teaches at his unaccredited school, Green believes the tour is about succeeding on his own terms.
"Schools bind your hands so much," Green said. "It's great not to be tied to other bureaucratic levels. What we have now, the freedom is amazing. We play [the Dead Kennedy's] 'Bleed for Me' and we change the words to Afghanistan. I couldn't do that [in public schools]."
Green's many fans aren't complaining about the maverick instructor's untraditional teaching methods. Erika Flory has two children enrolled at the School of Rock. She says the experience has not only brought her kids closer together, it has also given them an appreciation for excellence.
"I've seen [Green] conduct rehearsals, and it's brutal honesty," Flory said. "He's not going to tell a kid, 'That was really good,' when it wasn't. Paul has said that none of his criticism in rehearsal will hurt the kids as much as a bad performance will, and I tend to agree with that."
Branden King, a 19-year-old drummer from Redding, Pa., drives hours every week to attend Green's school. Initially a fan of modern rock acts like Korn and the Deftones, King credits Green with broadening the drummer's musical horizons.
"I've become a way better musician because of Paul," King said. "I've learned that there's a lot of hard-to-play music out there, and that's helped me and challenged me a lot. I play in three bands now, and I have Paul to thank for that."
The teaching method that has parents and students raving begins when Green assigns new students a private teacher (Green's faculty consists mainly of former School of Rock students). New students are taught scales, chords and how to solo on their chosen instrument, including guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals or marimba — the latter for those tricky jazz-rock Zappa passages.
Though Green dissects and performs songs by groups as diverse as Black Sabbath and Radiohead, a few classic rock acts are referenced consistently. For composition, Green teaches the music of Pink Floyd ("they made records that sound really good…their music is deceptively simple"). Led Zeppelin provides the basis for many guitar lessons ("Jimmy Page's guitar playing is so interesting and diverse"). For vocals and harmonies, Green has students examine the music of Queen ("their harmonies were not only different, they were often weird"). Finally, students learn the music of Frank Zappa for overall rock education.
"Zappa is one-stop shopping," Green said. "There's a little jazz, a little funk. Blues, metal, some classical — it's all there in Zappa's music."
After a mere three months, new students are required to perform at least three songs in front of parents and fellow students.
"If you play well, people will respond and you're never going to forget the feeling," Green said. "If you play poorly, then you'll get a polite but unenthusiastic response and you'll practice better next time. It's the carrot-and-stick approach."
Asked to comment on the unorthodox School of Rock method, a representative at the National Association for Music Education in Reston, Va., said Green's approach to music instruction doesn't sound insufficient or overly extreme.
"A child that did not like [Green's] teaching style would probably not continue at the school," said the Association's Director of Member Programs, Ardene Shafer. "Some kids like the challenge of performing right away, while others just want to learn an instrument for their private enjoyment."
According to Shafer, the School of Rock's unaccredited status does not necessarily invalidate Green's teaching methods.
"In most cases, accreditation probably means that a school has met several standards, one of those being that the instructors have gone to college and are educated in the discipline they teach," Shafer said. "That's not to say that all unaccredited instructors don't have degrees. It just means that their school has never gone through the rigorous process of accreditation and that students may get an education that's more fluid and flexible."
Though Green's approach to music education is somewhat unorthodox, there's no denying its media appeal. Until recently, he toiled in relative obscurity at his self-named school in downtown Philadelphia. But Green was still doing much of the teaching and administrative work himself, and he had to work another job to make ends meet.
But enrollment skyrocketed after the Jack Black comedy became a Hollywood blockbuster.
"I was actually thinking of suing [the movie's producers], but getting the run-off was better karmically," Green said, employing the curious combination of cynical humor and '60s-style philosophy that is his personal trademark.
Green has since become something of a celebrity. His students have appeared on MTV's "Total Request Live," and they are slated to be profiled on the "CBS Evening News With Dan Rather." Green and his school have also been featured in The New York Times, Spin, Tracks, Mojo and Reuters.
The School of Rock is also the subject of a full-length film documentary that had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival this summer. Produced by Sheena M. Joyce and Don Argott, "Rock School" was hailed by the Los Angeles Times and the L.A. Weekly upon its June 18 festival screening, and it was the first film to emerge from the festival with a major deal (Newmarket Films plans to release the rockumentary in 2005).
Green is seizing his moment in the spotlight. He is incorporating the School of Rock and opening franchises in New York and San Francisco. The franchising idea was inspired by Steve Nicolazzi, a Philly-area sales manager with three children and a nephew enrolled at Green's school.
Nicolazzi gained knowledge of effective music education through his own personal experiences. As a teen growing up in the '70s, he found traditional guitar lessons uninspiring. "It was like homework," Nicolazzi remembers.
Now, having watched Green transform his kids into enthused rockers, Nicolazzi has nothing but praise for Green. In fact, Nicolazzi is now a School of Rock staffer.
"Just recently I had some parents come up to me with tears in their eyes," Nicolazzi recalled. "Their son had just got up there and played 'My Generation.' The kid's father just gave me big hug, and said 'I can't believe you did this.'"
(Bruce Britt is an award-winning journalist and essayist whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, Billboard and other publications. He lives in Los Angeles.)
Sunday, January 02, 2005
Saturday, January 01, 2005
Yay! I'm a finalist!
Robin Slick: In Her Own Write
Yay! I just found out I'm a finalist for Best New Blog, 2004! Oh please oh please vote for me - I'm one of ten selected out of like, a zillion other bloggers so I'm freaking out. You can vote right here
Oh man, how cool is this!
P.S. ONCE YOU VOTE, THEY WILL SEND YOU A VERIFICATION EMAIL TO WHICH YOU MUST RESPOND SIMPLY BY CLICKING ON THE LINK. OTHERWISE YOUR VOTE WON'T COUNT
Grrr...
Why, why, why does my favorite on line writing site always go down on holiday weekends.
I think the SYSOP does it on purpose so we all have to spend time with our families, I really do.
We'll get even with you, Ivan. Watch your back!
Three Days in New York City
So here's the background on the publisher of Three Days in New York City:
About Phaze
We are a "Traditional Publisher." We select books based on the quality of writing, story entertainment value, and sales potential. We are open to first-time authors, as well as authors who have been previously published and want to put their books back into print. We are extremely selective about the books that we accept for publication. The quality of the story and the entertainment value are paramount! Our current acceptance rate is around 2%
Book Availability, Promotion, and Advertisement
We register your book with Books-in-Print US and Books-in-Print UK, along with registering it with the Library of Congress.
All of Phaze print titles are available through Ingram's, both US and UK. Your print book will appear in Ingram's catalogs, which are distributed to 20,000 bookstores and libraries throughout the US and Canada, and is always available in the Ingram's database.
All of the online booksellers, such as Amazon.com, Borders.com, B&N.com, Alibris.com, BooksAMillion.com and many more purchase copies for resale through Ingram's. In addition, Baker & Taylor, the largest book wholesaler in the US distributes our print books.
Our print books are being sold at:
Amazon (US)
Amazon (UK)
Amazon (Canada)
Amazon (France)
Amazon (Germany)
Amazon (Japan)
Books-A-Million
Blackwells (UK)
Barnes & Noble
Buy.com
Alibris
Half.com
Powells
PickaBook (UK)
FictionWise
Joseph Beth Books
FetchBook.Info
TextbookX.com
BiggerBooks.com
eCampus.com
Collins Booksellers (Australia)
Chapters.Indigo.ca (Canada)
Wal-Mart.com
VarsityBooks.com
eBookAd.com
FictionWise (coming soon)
Books.OnTheWeb.com
SuperBookDeals.com
Our print books are returnable, so they automatically qualify for ordering by any of the thousands of brick-and-mortar bookstores.
Readers can also purchase your print book directly through the Phaze website. We generally discount books purchased directly from us by about 10-20%. We reserve the right to offer any discount on any of our titles.
Phaze is brand new, and I am one of seven authors under contract. When we signed our respective contracts, we granted paperback, hardcover, and e-pub rights. Because Phaze is so new, they've made the decision to release their entire catalogue as e-books at first in hopes of having all titles in print in the near future.
I've had a long strange journey with this book but I'm glad it's reached a resolution and the people at Phaze are great. I'm currently working on the sequel, which is called Another Bite of the Apple but my publisher has already given it the nickname of "Another Bite" which is very cool.
Anyway, they've published the entire first chapter of the book on their website as a tease, and if you are so inclined...
Friday, December 31, 2004
News from the recording studio...
(Photo of Phil Nicolo behind the mixing board while being filmed by Don Argott for the upcoming DVD)
So yay! Finally I got a few minutes with my son, Eric, who spilled all the gossip coming out of the recording studio this week. I'll also be posting additional pictures of the Rock School musicians in action as soon as I can figure out how to download this freaking camera...grr...where is Julie when I need her.
Anyway, the kids are recording at Studio 4, owned by producer Phil Nicolo. Phil has been telling them stories about the industry all week, and my son shared some of them with me...just great little vignettes. For one thing, Phil told the kids that the Beatles and Frank Zappa are the reason he does what he does. He's a total Beatle maniac, and he talked about what it was like doing the remix for the Lennon/Plastic Ono Band CD.
"It was the call everybody in my business waits for."
He was referring to being tapped to handle the remixing of "Do the Oz" for the John Lennon-Plastic Ono Band reissue.
Nicolo helped produce the 1999 Cibo Matto LP Stereotype A which featured Sean Lennon on bass guitar. From there, he became involved in the still-in-progress second solo album by Sean.
Yoko didn't attend the sessions, but liked the direction in which Nicolo was helping Sean bring his music. Nicolo said that Yoko's in a tricky position with the fans, especially when it comes to John's unreleased stuff. They're really curious, but in that let-me-see - no, don't show me way.
He was working in his studio when Yoko phoned him to tell him that she had rediscovered a track that the Plastic Ono Band had recorded on April 17, 1970. "Do the Oz" was a benefit for a British underground publication called the Oz. Yoko was putting together reissues of John's first and last solo records, "Plastic Ono Band" and "Double Fantasy" - and wanted to include "Oz" as a bonus track. The song had been released previously, but it had been assembled quickly and wasn't fully finished.
The only stipulation Yoko made was that Phil not add anything to the existing tracks which he was assembling from the original session.
Despite what he felt was a major restriction, Nicolo said he got lucky anyway because a horn section, led by saxophonist King Curtis, had been previously recorded that went mostly unused in the original version. John's guitar line was a constant throughout as well.
He put the parts he had into his ProTools computer software and juggled the elements to create a party atmosphere, with Yoko's vocalizations dropped in at -- ha ha -- explosive junctions.
He said that when he first met Yoko to the do the final mix, she began the session by expressing regret that she'd placed any restriction on him. She told him he could start over if he wanted to, using all of the elements and tricks in his bag.
He declined the offer. He told her he was glad she did stipulate no additional material be added, because by being forced to use what was there, he had to be creative in a different way.
And it was all there. Nicolo said he just uncovered the magic.
So that's one little story about Phil Nicolo. Eric's been telling me such incredibly interesting stuff that I can't tell you how excited I am that my kids are being recorded by this man. And the CD will be available everywhere in March, 2005! I mean, like, all over the world. And while they're recording, Don Argott, director/producer of Rock School, is recording them and all of this footage will be released with the DVD of the movie.
Happy New Year indeed.
Thursday, December 30, 2004
This is an amazing book. If you love short stories, this is a collection so brilliant it will take your breath away. If you don't love short stories...well, I suggest you get over it and sit the hell down and at least pretend to be intelligent and have a read because just maybe you'll understand what I'm talking about. Rarely does something come along so special.
Anyway, you can order it on Amazon.com right here
I Wanna Be Sedated
Oh man, do I have the holiday blues.
I walked into work this morning with Julie, who had to take an early train to the recording studio because today they’re laying down the tracks for Iron Man and since recording is her major in college, she’s responsible for doing overdubbing, etc. even though the studio is famous – in fact, they just did the remix of the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band CD and worked closely with Yoko and Sean. Eric laid down the tracks for ten songs and his work is done – Julie will be in the studio for the entire month of January though her four songs are finished as well because she’s a part of the production staff and I think that’s awesome and I’m way proud of her.
But…
All week, every time I asked her a question, she was too tired to answer because I would annoy her when she got home at night. So this morning on the walk in I tried again, only this time she was too stressed because she’s leaving for New York right after the session today where she’s spending the weekend with her boyfriend.
It’s not like I’m this prying parent – I give her total freedom and never bother her. I’m honestly interested to know if she’s heard any John Lennon stories; I know she’s recording Markie Ramone on Monday doing I Wanna Be Sedated…but she bit my head off, leaving me in tears at the moment. She knows what a music nut I am; especially what a Lennon nut– it’s almost like she’s punishing me and for what, I don’t know.
She couldn’t even tell me the name of the hotel in New York where she’s staying this weekend but luckily I remembered it from the first time she told me though I feigned ignorance just to see if she’d talk to me.
I have a cell phone if you need me, she said.
Yeah, but every time I try it, I get your answering machine, I replied.
My phone is on all the time. I get no service. I have a crappy phone, she snapped back.
And so it went on like this for the entire mile, mile and a half of our walk.
This is the first New Years Eve we won’t be together and I know kids are self-absorbed; I know she’s a sophomore in college, but I thought our friendship/relationship was better than that. She’s barely spoken to me all week, and when she has, it’s been ugly.
Oh fuck it. Julie’s a great kid. I guess all parents go through this. My son has been more open with me but he’s been missing in action – he goes out at night after the recording sessions because he has a ton of friends and they're all on holiday break from school.
I guess my real problem is I’m getting older and am having a hard time dealing with it as I’m part of that “Hope I Die Before I Get Old” generation only now that I am old, hell if I want to die but hell if I want to be considered uncool, either; I’m struggling with severe depression; my diet has been just terrible which I know adds to it all…but if I could just go somewhere and really cry right now, I’d probably feel a lot better.
Or, if I could go to a nice tropical beach…
Oh god, that just made me think of the tsunami. Now I feel like a whining bitch for caring about anything else.
Actually, I have some leads for charities to whom you can donate money where it won’t line the pockets of the wrong people. Here's a brilliant idea courtesy of my good friend, author Kay Sexton:
"At the moment, disaster relief is all they need, and that's best done by the local charities, hospitals and churches working with the international teams who are already flying in.
In the longer term, please consider Intermediate Technology Development Group - www.itdg.org - an amazing group that helps find, supply, design or fund appropriate technology for the world's poorest regions. I've been lucky enough to watch them at work several times and they are brilliant at helping communities find ways round problems. In India I saw them create a drip irrigation system that covered nearly twice as much cropland as the old western pump system AND didn't need trees to be cut down to clear the land for the irrigators. In Mali they helped a village create a solar laundry and bath house. If any group can improve the lives of the surviors in the long term, I think it's ITDG. And like most good groups, they work quietly and well and never have enough money. And they design disaster mitigation systems ..."
Also, and this is Robin speaking now, please consider donating to Doctors without Borders. You can access their website here: Doctors Without Borders.
Yeah, as I said in a former post, I'm a bottom line person and I just realized, little tiffs with my equally hormonal daughter are just tiny blips on the big screen of life. I know she loves me and I love her with all my heart and soul. There is real suffering going on in South Asia right now...way beyond the scope of anything we can imagine...and we need to help out any way we can.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Happy New Year, or...
I hate New Years Eve. I don't understand why people love to party that evening and worse, get dressed up in uncomfortable, fancy clothes for it. I mean, it's a total nightmare in the streets -- what possible reason could anyone have for wanting to be a part of that?
A few years before the kids were born one of my friends talked me into a "couples" evening where we had a double date to a show and dinner.
First let me say this. When I die and go to hell...well, I don't believe in hell but if there is one, yeah, yeah, I'm going and they'll be playing Aerosmith or Sting or U2 or the Indigo Girls' music non stop, but for sure in between they'll have me tied to a chair, watching "shows". By shows I mean those wretched Broadway productions such as CATS, or, in the case of my lovely date that night, GREASE.
I remember in spite of smoking a ton of dope and drinking two bottles of wine before we even left the house, I wanted to slash my wrists all during GREASE. I'm trying to remember the so-called "big names" starring in the Philadelphia production but I can't...I'm most likely blocking it out on purpose. Actually, now that I think about it...maybe Sandy Dennis was the star. Bleh. That sounds right. I could check Google I suppose but is it worth my time? I think not.
After the final curtain went down on what was probably the longest evening of my life...I know at intermission I considered bolting but I chickened out...we went to a popular steakhouse. Only on New Years Eve, most restaurants have "special menus" featuring things no human could ever, ever want to eat any other night...made worse by the fact that by the time GREASE ended and we got there, in spite of having reservations we were made to stand like a herd of cattle at a crowded bar for two more hours with drunk morons wearing crooked party hats and blowing horns even though it wasn't midnight yet. When we were finally seated, our waitress, who had obviously been pushed to the max all night, nastily told us they were out of everything but the prime rib.
I don't like prime rib except at the very best restaurants where of course they usually have something way better to order anyway so I avoid it. It's fatty and when mass produced banquet style for New Years...oh god, I'm remembering that "dog" I just ate in New York's Chinatown. But by then we were starved and we had no choice, so another thirty minutes later, the waitress plopped it in front of me with a hard, cold, and here's something even more horrible than gristly prime rib -- foil wrapped baked potato (I always eat the damn foil by mistake and is there anything worse than biting down on that?)
By then it was midnight and now the other worst thing possible occurred - I got kissed by a million sloppy drunk strangers.
Ew, ew, ew.
I never went out New Years Eve again.
This year will be no exception, but I am ecstatic to say that in prior years I allowed the kids...well, I insisted the kids...have a party here so I wouldn't worry about them being out in that madness all night; plus it was fun to cook for them and then hide upstairs with my bottle of wine and CDs, but this year, no one will be home but me. Julie and Matt will be watching the ball drop in New York Times Square (and yeah, I will worry BIGTIME but she's a grown up now and I have to "let go"), and Eric has a party. So I'll still have the wine and CDs, but this time I'm gonna order take-out Thai food or cook up a filet mignon on the barbecue and feel very superior because I have brains and am staying home. I may watch ABC Rocking New Years Eve, but only because Billy Idol is on and my kids, who are recording with him this week, have told me he's been botoxed and has blonde hair plugs in front and, well, that's worth seeing, eh?
Not really. Though I may get wasted and blast Rebel Yell...
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Three Days in New York City
So I have this book coming out next Wednesday...
It's funny. One of my best friends is someone I know from cyberworld - a pretty celebrated, well-known writer -- someone who lives in another country and someone I most likely will never meet in the real world, which is fine. He has a family on one side of the ocean, I have mine over here in the U.S. and we're both content with the way things are. If writers can ever be content, that is. Anyway, we have a two year relationship solely based on web correspondence but as writers, the written word is very intimate to us, even if we're just talking about our kids or our leaking roofs or what music we're listening to at the moment. I think pretty much in our new on-line society this is more common than not - the internet has brought back the art of letter writing and enables us to get in touch and meet people with whom we'd never have come into contact otherwise. Anyway, my friend and I have become dependent on each other - always bouncing stuff and ideas around, not to mention we're a secret place for each other to escape, i.e., cry on each other's shoulders, etc.
So my novel Three Days in New York City sort of takes that idea a step further -- what if two people who never normally would have hooked up, two people from different countries - met on the internet and seemingly fall in love and decide to get together in the real world. Only of course it's very easy to become someone you are not on line...to develop a completely different persona -- and this is what happens to my female character. To say that she has her bluff called would be putting it mildly.
There is very graphic sex in this book for sure, but it's also the story of a woman in mid life crisis with hopefully laugh out loud moments as she agonizes over everything from cellulite and being naked at her age in front of a strange man with whom she's shared intimate thoughts via words on a computer screen to dealing with his rather, err, gourmet tastes in all matters sexual and the huge cultural and economic differences between them.
Anyway, I hope I can entice you to read Three Days in New York City and maybe even enjoy it.
Monday, December 27, 2004
Can I blame hormones?
To anyone who read that last post, I've deleted it. I was churlish, over-tired, and stressed, but even so, no excuse.
Kids making music is an incredible thing and fuck all the other bullshit. There were a lot of highlights in last night's Rock School show. As I've said before, my son is an other wordly drummer. He did a version of I'm a Man that gave me the chills.
I'm a bottom line person and I let go of things that bother me, so...
..the end..
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