Tim Wilson
3
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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[Mark Suszko] “Current work mantra: “I used to be disgusted; now I try to be amused””
Genuinely words to live by!
My favorites are his first 5 (through Trust, which is my favorite in some ways) plus Imperial Bedroom and Punch The Clock, but he’s one of the guys I’m always paying attention to, for sure. I loved his talk show, too! He also did a fine job filling in as guest host for David Letterman in 2003, which I’ve always thought contributed to him getting a show of his own.
I haven’t seen him since 2003 or so (a not-great outdoor show on a wet, blustery night that I don’t blame on him of course), but I’d definitely love to again….
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[Mark Suszko] “thanks for mentioning Elvis Costello: he’s my spirit animal:-)”
How did I not know that? Do you have any clips of you and/or your ensemble playing his tunes?
That particular show was remarkable, for reasons I’m sure you can imagine. Nobody knew what to expect from a solo Elvis, and he blew us all away.
Through a series of circumstances too long to recount here, I was a nodding acquaintance of Elvis’s opener, T-Bone Burnett, and a work colleague of the head of security at Boston’s Orpheum Theatre where the show took place. I saw him near the stage after T-Bone’s set, before Elvis started, and asked him if T-Bone was open to receiving guests backstage. Turns out he was, so my then-girlfriend, now-wife and I headed upstairs to the green room.
He told us that we were the first people who’d ever asked to visit him backstage, and he couldn’t have been nicer about it. We’d been chatting for a few minutes when Elvis stuck his head in to tell T-Bone how great he thought his set was (and indeed it was), and while he was clearly surprised to see us, he gave a quick nod as he headed downstairs for his own set. The green room had a huge cutout in the wall looking onto the stage from the wings, a balcony window kind of thing, and T-Bone invited us to stay and watch Elvis’s first few songs from there. (Accidents Will Happen and Stranger In The House — unforgettable.)
The whole night was breathtaking. His solo version of “Shipbuilding” (he played keyboard for this, but it was mostly acapella) might still be the most emotionally intense performance I’ve ever seen, one of 33 tracks that he completely reinvented.
Another weird little sideline to this story. This was in Boston, where I’d very much gotten into the local music scene when I arrived in 1982. My favorite local band was Til Tuesday, who would make a huge splash when they released their first album in 1985, and especially after their video for “Voices Carry”, which led them to win the Best New Artist at MTV, back when that meant something (which you’ll recall it very much did).
While the band had only released a single at this point (a primitive version of “Love In A Vaccuum”), they were gigging like mad, and I’d seen them easily two dozen times by this point, many of them with my aforementioned then-girlfriend/now-wife.
I was gobsmacked when I saw their lead singer/songwriter Aimee Mann walking down the aisle past our seats, dressed in a leopard-skin print suit-dress exactly like Jackie Kennedy’s famous pink number, complete with a LEOPARD SKIN PILL BOX HAT. (Dylan nerds fall out of your chairs.) I remember it like it was yesterday.
Turns out that she spoke about that show with The Telegraph in 2008, to say that it changed her life, and her approach to music. Indeed, up until then, Til Tuesday had been a spiky post-punk dance band (think New Order or Depeche Mode, only groovier), and their first album was produced by Nile Rodgers (dance writ large) and engineered by the fellow who’d brought Wire’s first 3 albums to life, including the legendary Pink Flag (spiky post punk chops galore). After that, Aimee started writing more and more on acoustic guitar, and really dug deeper into wordplay and nuanced vocal interpretation rather than just “singing the words.” I confess that I still miss the spiky postpunk dance band, but she very much became one of America’s finest singer-songwriters after that.
At the time of this 1984 show, Aimee had just gotten out of college (Berklee, where she also fronted a post-punk prog band called Young Snakes that I dug) and was still working at a record store waiting for the band to take off. A few years later, she wound up collaborating with Elvis — she wrote and sang “The Other End of the Telescope” with him for Til Tuesday’s third and final album in 1988.
Depending on how far down the rabbit hole you’d like to go with this, Mark, there’s a stellar audience recording of Elvis’s 1984 Orpheum show floating around. Elvis afficianados tell me it was the highlight of the tour, which I have no way of evaluating, but find easy to believe. Here’s a link to the files, which also includes the setlist. I think you’ll be blown away by just the list of songs he played.
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[Mark Suszko] ” I feel like I’m my Best Self when we’re all playing “in the pocket” and the audience is fully engaged.”
What a remarkable reply, Mark! And thanks so much for sharing your music! I always get a kick out of seeing you play wherever you post it, and am delighted to see your performances once again here in the COW!
Looking at this a bit more broadly, though, it’s not just that one must BE a musician, or even be trained as one. It’s that the lessons of musicians and how they learn can be directly applicable to editors, whether or not they are themselves musicians.
I say that as a rigorous non-musician who became a (if I may say) a pretty terrific editor, but I very much rooted my approach to editing in musical disciplines. That is, I briefly took lessons in piano and guitar, did choir in both church and school, plus the usual amount of musical-ing that comes with being a theater nerd, but I didn’t especially enjoy any of it. I certainly didn’t have much in the way of aptitude, and my lack of improvement after prolonged effort was in marked contrast to results in other areas of my life (book-learning, sport, photography, cooking, etc.) where I could easily see the improving fruits of my labor.
The reason why I bothered at all is because I love LISTENING to music, so I spent my energy attacking it with the same passion and verve that disciplined musicians do. I learned how it works on the consumption side, studied its structures and technologies, listened to masters talking about their craft, read everything I could, and was generally relentless in my quest to get better.
And I do think that that’s on the way toward a plan for successful growth as an editor. Learn how to watch for and recognize good editing. Learn how it works. Understand the tools. Listen to experts. Train. Practice. Make getting BETTER the goal.
[Simon Ubsdell] “For some players [the technology ]often becomes the single question that most obsesses them. If they can just get their equipment choices right, they will become the player they want to be.
Unfortunately for those players, their obsession can easily become a distraction from the many other questions that need their attention.”
I come at this slightly differently. My impression is that most people gravitate toward a choice that seems obvious to them, and argue relentlessly for the rightness of that choice without ever truly understanding why they gravitated toward it in the first place. They need to talk to their therapists a little more before trying to articulate their NLE arguments, because their lack of self-awareness is really the only thing they’re communicating clearly.
As you’ve observed, I’ve seen this even more in music forums than in these parts. Guitarists are worse than clarinetists, because guitars can be customized in so many more ways. Even within, say, a Gibson forum, you can find people coming to blows on neck thickness or pickup placement, without even starting to get into the hostility between partisans in the Gibson and Fender camps.
In general, I find that the worst approach is to choose tools “because it’s the one that So and So uses”, because their use case and yours almost surely don’t match precisely. Sure, if you listen artists talk about the WHY of THEIR tools, you can find insights related to what YOU need, but it almost never has anything to do with preference.
Pete Townshend is one of the people I follow on Instagram, although I’m lately finding him so cranky that I may stop — but seeing him to respond to the idiots yapping at him, I’m surprised at how LITTLE crankiness he displays. Somebody very rudely and angrily told him to “stop effing around with these poopy Fenders” (my paraphrase LOL) and get back to using the Gibson SG, the only REAL guitar.
Pete said, again paraphrasing but not as much as I just did LOL, “Why on earth would I do that? That was the best choice in 1967, but would be the worst possible choice now.” He pointed out that The Who was functionally a 3-piece band with an occassional vocalist, so he needed a sound as massive as the SG to fill the stage, whereas now, The Who is functionally a 10-piece band with three or more guitarists, a keyboardist, and a very active vocalist who’s rarely not singing. One lonely guitar need not carry the weight of the sound across the upper two-thirds of the spectrum anymore. Quite the contrary. It needs NOT to.
Continuing the glaringly obvious metaphor, many guitarists find this sort of conversation astoundingly dunderheaded, as only a handful of the most limited guitarists would want to restrict themselves to a single guitar, or a single sound, or even the range of sounds that a single guitar and a multiplicity of pedals and amps can produce. They’ll pick a handful of favorites, but they might be choosing from among a half-dozen or more in the course of a single evening. Not because they don’t have favorites, but because they recognize the value of each for its best characteristics, they understand the limitations of each, and make the best choice in balancing those abstract characteristics in the particular application of a single song, room, solo, or needs of the ensemble as a whole.
I mean, there may be no more guitarist associated with a single instrument than Brian May and the Red Special he built with his father. He’s played it since 1963, by FAR the longest stretch of any major musician with a single specimen (not just the same KIND of guitar, but the SAME ONE)…but on a song like “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” will use 3 different guitars, including a different one for the two main solos.
(Although, perhaps ironically or not, the most guitars I ever saw on a single stage was 30 or so during Elvis Costello’s first solo tour in 1984. He didn’t use all of them, but he used more than half of them, pointing out that he wanted to be able to play anything that popped into his head without thinking, “Yeah, but I won’t do that because I don’t have the right guitar.” He wanted to always have the right guitar. Not out of an infinite number, but a rather specific number, based on what he was most likely to want to play on that tour.)
Which is a long way of saying that the best musicians I know truly ARE obsessed with tools, and they’ll talk your ear off about them, and they’ll come to blows with you if need be….but they WON’T be absolutist about saying that theirs is right for anyone else. They tend to choose more than one to have in their arsenal, and their favorites tend to change frequently over time.
They’re open to what’s new, but nothing new is exciting because it’s new. It’s only exciting when it makes possible something that’s worth the trouble of the change. This limitation that the new thing is designed to work around, that you find so exciting? The practiced master may not have that problem at all, or found a satisfactory way to address it decades ago.
Their disinclination to follow you to the newest flavor isn’t a reflection of their disinclination to change — they wouldn’t still be in the game if they were disinclined to change — but a deeper awareness of the range of toolsets to address the range of challenges and opportunities that they encounter.
Needless to say, I do find THAT attitude reflected plentifully in these parts. ☺
I’m going to come back around to that fantastic Eddie Daniels video that you included. What jumped out at me in reading the YouTube comments (I know, generally a terrible idea) is the number of musicians who play other instruments who said that they’d be taking his advice. And you’re right, Simon, I think that anyone who wants to get better at anything would do well to take a listen, which is why I’m sharing the video here too. ☺
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[Bob Zelin] “Now – if we make the money that we make, and a new AMAZING Mac Pro is $15,000 – does it really matter in the “big picture” – not really. “
That’s kind of my question. I’ve certainly ranted plenty about Apple, and much of it has been, “What ever happened to the interest in making the BEST computers?” I certainly don’t blame TC for that. Steve was the one pulling the plug on the idea that Apple makes the most powerful beasts.
I know that you remember the Super Computer campaign from 2007 — Apple claiming that their computers were so powerful that the government wasn’t willing to let them fall into the hands of America’s enemies….which was nonsense from top to bottom. Not only was that not any kind of policy, but the G4 was nowhere close to the most powerful personal computer out there, the best bang for the buck, etc…but Apple at least cared about keeping up the myth that they wanted to be perceived as heavyweights.
Since then, it’s been all about being anything BUT heavyweights….until now.
So I’m curious — what exactly is the problem you have with Apple’s plan? That they’re charging more than you’d like? Because I think Apple’s thinking is, if we have a customer who’s even thinking about Puget or HP or anyone else then, then we’ve already lost them. No point in chasing them.
At the same time, people are also finding that iMacs and laptops and Mac Pros from 2011 are doing just fine. No money to be made from old computers, not much margin on iMacs and laptops, so a disproportionate amount of profit HAS to come from the top of the line….where few people are feeling much pain from the price.
[Bob Zelin] ” But you can’t ignore the fact that a Puget System $6000 computer with NVidia RTX-2080ti running Davinici Resolve or Adobe Premiere can do the same thing. “
Not if “the same thing” includes running the Mac OS and/or FCPX, in which case the score for Apple is 100, and the score for any PC vendor is Zero.
Stepping aside from your role as an industry observer, let me pose the question to you as somebody who has put in more systems for more NLEs than anybody in the Eastern timezone, and very possibly more than any individual in the country.
Are your customers asking you to spec out systems from Puget, HP, Boxx, whoever, running Creative Cloud and Resolve, so that they can drop Macs and FCPX?
If not now, do you foresee something changing, say in an NAB-ish timeframe?
Where do you see your customers spending their money?
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Hi Graham,
I’m afraid that this falls under the category of “known issues” for a little longer. Believe me, we’re very aware that support forums depend on uploads for both the asking and answering of questions, and we’re working on it as quickly as we can.
Regards,
TimTim Wilson
Vice President, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW -
Whoops, sorry I missed this one earlier!
[Graham Bernard] “Will you bringing back the option for posting Videos? “
Yes, absolutely! You’re right, uploads are a critical part of a support site, both for asking questions and answering them.
The workaround for videos now is to post them on YouTube, and embed them here. You can make them private there so that you’re not showing up in YT searches, but still use them in the forums. Lots of folks are doing that successfully.
There’s not currently a great workaround for images, alas. Most external hosting sites have shut down, but Google Drive still works if you’re willing to futz with the custom URLs.
Not that we think that any such workarounds are good enough, mind you. We’re working on a very slick new system that will definitely includes the uploads you need!
Best,
Tim -
[Graham Bernard] “Excellent! And not being able to Post Support Graphics is part of this CowShed clean out?”
Hi Graham,
You are correct, sir! There’s a long technical explanation around Javascript that I’ll spare you, and say that the old system (coming up on 25 years old!) is doing shockingly well considering that it predated the standardization of the JPG format. LOL
We really are imminently set to launch another wave of upgrades across the COW, when problems like this will all be swept up at once.
Thanks for your patience!
Tim Wilson
Vice President, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW -
Okay Jim, I looked into this a little more, and it turns out that once you’ve granted permission, even accidentally, the only way to turn the notifications off that I’m aware of is at the browser level.
I use Chrome, so I can tell you exactly where to do it there:
chrome://settings/content/notifications?search=notifications(That link should work for you in your own version of Chrome, but if not, or if you’re not using Chrome, that’s the idea — in your browser settings, look for Notifications. It may be hidden in Advanced settings, so if there’s a way to SEARCH your settings for Notifications, by all means do that rather than dig around.)
Once you’re there, you’ll see a list of websites that you’ve allowed to send you notifications — search for https://push.getbeamer.com:443 to go right to this particular one.
Click on that, and you’ll see a bunch of permissions, almost none of which we use (say, camera). The system really is only sending you the text and images. Just scroll down to Notifications, and use the popup menu to select Block.
I promise that this is easier than it sounds. ☺
Apologies again for any confusion, and for the extra noise during IBC!
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[Jim Miller] “‘m receiving desktop popups from “push,getbeamer.com” when I start the computer. I have no idea who that is, and I don’t want any notifications while I’m a Creative Cow member.”
Hi Jim,
This is the right place to ask. “Beamer” is the name for our notification system, which shows on the front page as “What’s New.” I know that we’ve set the system up to ask for permission to send notifications, which you may have clicked on inadvertently….but I’ll be honest, I don’t know how to opt out after you’ve opted in!
I’m sorry not to have the answer at the tip of my tongue, and regret that you’ll be getting some more notifications than usual during IBC until I get the answer for you…but I’ve started some research on that and will get back to you asap.
Thanks,
Tim -
[Tom Sefton] “Not sure how you can class something as a scam when clients receive a working product. “
Exactly.
Apologies for administrative intervention on this thread, but words have meanings. If a company IS behaving fraudulently — promising one thing and delivering another, or not delivering at all, etc. — then we encourage people to call them out.
But using the “S” word to simply denote stern disapproval (eg, subscription models are a s***) is an explicit violation of our Terms of Service that protect both companies and individuals from namecalling.
As a result, there are a couple of posts I’ve turned off. Sometimes I wind up turning off replies in cases like these, but this time, the replies had such good stuff that I felt it was worth keeping them around.
As usual, please take up any reactions to this either with me directly (if you don’t have my email address, just use the Contact link), or in our Letters to the COW Team forum, rather than on this thread.
Returning you now to our regularly scheduled programming.
Regards,
Tim Wilson
Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW