Ringo Starr Remembered

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I of course am aware that many may not know who Charles Coleman is and it is for those that do not that I have chosen to write this article as he was the man, who in part is responsible for my love of opera and classical music that even lead to the creation of my first book “New York’s Opera Society”. Naturally when referring to Charles Coleman, I do so regarding the New York composer who way back in 1985 was a schoolmate of mine at “The Tutoring School Of New York” and not others with the same name; such as the one who was executed in the state of Oklahoma for murder back in 1990 or the noted English painter.

For the Charles Coleman I make reference to is the one who has given us many compositions among which are included “Deep Woods” and “Redemption” along with orchestrations of songs such as Jimi Hendrix’s “Manic Depressant”, Frank Zappa’s “Uncle Remus”, The Beatles’ “Come Together” and several others. Charles Coleman, apart from displaying talents in both composition and arranging did so as a singer of merit; as he at a very early age sang soprano at the Metropolitan Opera, performing many child roles including the one of “Feodor” in Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov”.

As for the friendship which developed between Charles and myself, this started in the fall of 1985 at the start of the school semester, in what was my senior year and Charles’s junior; given that he was and still is one year younger them myself. Charles and I at first did not really have a lot to say to one another, though we knew of each other given the fact that ours was a very small school with only 80 students and we were in the same European history class. History by the way being one of the few subjects in school I was good at as it had always fascinated me and still does to learn of events from the past with effect the reality of today.

It all started one day, and though I recall it being almost at the start of the school year I do not remember precisely if it was in the month of September or October that our history teacher, was speaking very loudly to us during the class. This not being something he usually did, which even he caught himself doing and explained that the reason he was doing so was because there was a girl in one of his classes who was hard of hearing. I jokingly at the time suggested he should get a bullhorn, like Jimmy “the mouth of the south” Hart from the W.W.F. (World Wrestling Federation), who as a manager in professional wrestling would use one to shout instructions to those under his guidance.

It turned out that Charles Coleman, like myself at the time was a fan of the W.W.F., which at the time was going through perhaps its biggest moment with regards to popularity, it even having a cartoon version which featured many of its stars at the time like “Hulk” Hogan, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, Andre “The Giant”, the Junkyard Dog, Big John Stud and many others. Charles and I, after that class got to talking about wrestling. Something which we would often do when ever time allowed, with him being more a fan of the so called “good guy” wrestlers while I preferred the “bay guys”. The likes Piper (real name Roderick George Toombs) who was hailed as be&#10
5;ng from Glasgow, Scotland and even wore a kilt in to the ring along with playing the bagpipes. All this in spite of his having been really born in Canada.

Many would be our discussions over wrestling, Piper’s Pit, and who was better or what not and I do even recall, Charles being the nice guy he was lending me a video tape of “WrestleMania I”. This being a kind gesture on his part despite the fact that the tape he gave me was in VHS form and the VCR I had at the time was betamax, which meant that I was not able to watch it but it is the thought that counted. Actually such was our fascination with professional wrestling that I started calling Charles “weasel”. This not due to his personality but his resembling the then W.W.F. manager by the name of Bobby Heenan. Heenan also referred to as such in the world of professional wrestling along with his other often cited name; “the brain”.

It was through our conversations that I would find out that Charles apart from being a fan of professional wrestling and yes, we both knew it was fake but this mattered not as we found it entertaining despite its lack of authenticity which we were constantly reminded of by our fellow schoolmates, was a composer of orchestral music. Charles however was a quit person in those days and probably still is, who did not talk very much about his talent. This being the case though I do remember seeing him one day in the garden, which was located in the back of our school, taking notes. When I approached him on that occasion to see what he was writing, I found out about his love for classical music as it was precisely music which he was putting down on paper almost as easily as one writes down words.

By the end of the year 1985, I could say Charles and I were what could be labeled as school friends though little else; given that we did not have any contact with each other outside of “The Tutoring School”. Personality wise I remember Charles as being soft spoken as opposed to many in our school, perhaps myself included who were anything but as he did not talk much specially in the company of many though he always had an opinion over many an issue on the many times we engaged in discussions. Some of them diverting from the subject of professional wrestling to include politics. This being a subject which we almost never saw matters eye to eye on, as my views on many of the topics we talked about were closer to then president Reagan’s while his given his family tended to be more liberal. In all that we discussed however we did respect each other’s point of view even if we more often the not disagreed, as was the case for the right to burn the flag which strangely enough he was against while I in favor of.

With regards to our connection with opera and classical music, this started one day (in January of 1986), on which Charles mentioned and I do not even remember what brought it up during our history class that he had tickets for that very evening to go see Luciano Pavarotti at The Metropolitan Opera. It was two tickets that Charles had to see Pavarotti in the role of Mario Cavaradossi in the opera “Tosca”
by Puccini, with no one to use the second ticket. I, at the moment not really being an opera fan asked him if he would care to let me use the second ticket which he agreed to. For my part though I was not the great opera fan that I am now accepted to go given first that I knew who Pavarotti was as his name and Domingo’s were among the most heard in opera. I also went because many years before during what would be my grandmother’s last visit to the states, I had heard her tell me of the wonderful qualities of Pavarotti’s voice which she had even pointed out to me while he was singing on TV. I even mentioned this particular episode of my life in another article of mine entitled “Pavarotti, You Are Gone But Not Forgotten”, which like this one is also available on the net.

Once settled that Charles and I would go to the opera we agreed to meet at my apartment, for the simple reason that it was closer to the Metropolitan Opera then was his parent’s downtown apartment. Charles, arrived on time as I expected he would that evening and slightly more elegantly dressed then he normally did in school while I wore a jacket and tie though not a suit. Charles on that occasion met a cousin of mine who was very young at the time, nine years old to be precise who found him very friendly who even said so as we departed for the opera.

Once Charles and I were outside my building, Charles suggested we take the subway but I said rather then take the subway we should take a cab. A cab which I gladly paid for since Charles was the one who was providing the tickets for this evenings outing which though never told of their price I could imagine was much higher then the cost of taking a taxi from the Eastside of Manhattan to the Westside. It was actually while in the taxi that Charles took the time to explain to me what the opera was about which we were going to see, telling me its synopsis which seemed interesting. Charles, I could tell had seen this opera many times and yet seemed to want to see it again as he held a true love for opera, which I would eventually acquire though for what concerned that night I was just getting to know.

Charles and I enjoyed the opera, though since I was hearing it for the first time, there were moments which my ear found hard to follow. This being the case though several parts stuck out in my mind like the one in the first act in which Pavarotti sings “Recondita Armonia” or the one in the 4th act in which he sings “E Lucavan Le Stelle”. It was these two arias, which really helped me to notice the true power and grace of the tenor, as notes came so much alive in a way, I had never noticed before. All of which letting me see what opera really was. As for the rest of the opera, I found it nice and looking back on it, more then twenty years later I know it inspired me to listen to more opera. Charles and I after that unfortunately did not go to any more operas together and even lost contact with each other; &#9
7;t least for the next three years.

By then the year was 1989 and a friend of mine by the name Rick Page, who even resembled his more famous and older cousin Jimmy Page (from the rock band “Led Zeppelin”) had invited me to his recital at the New York School of Music. Rick being a piano player who I had met while working at a place called “The Town Club Of New York” located on 85th street between 5th avenue and Madison avenue, who happened to be studying composition in the above mentioned school. This also being the school attended by the fictional characters from both my books “New York’s Opera Society” and “What Should Not Matter”.

With my memory serving me well I recall it was sometime in the month of May when I went to see a performance of Rick’s music in the society of a female German friend of mine, who apart from her nationality and gender I remember very little about other then the fact that ours was what could without doubt be referred to as a plutonic friendship. Upon arrival at the hall were the concert would be I was greeted by my friend Rick, whose German was as fluent as my friend’s, who had come with me. This leading to them starting a conversation in German which I understood very little of but it was while Rick and my friend chatted that I heard someone near me say “I can’t believe Charles Coleman’s piano player didn’t come”. I then suddenly in my mind put what could be consider two and two together thinking in the following manner Charles Coleman was a guy I went to school with, he studied classical music, this is a school for such music so maybe the Charles Coleman this person is referring to is the same one I used to know as weasel from “The Tutoring School of New York”. I quickly after all that had gone through my mind turned to the person who had said this and asked “Did you say Charles Coleman?”. This person, a man looked at me with some surprise and said “Yes, I did” to which I asked him if he could point Charles out for me, which he did and it was at that moment that I saw again after a long time “weasel” from high school.

Naturally, I went over to Charles and said hello and talked about old times, and I must admit it was nice to see him, not only because he was somebody from my school but I still held found memories of those days when we talked about wrestling. The concert went well though I did not hear any of Charles’s music but I did get a chance to hear Rick’s music after which Rick and I along with several of his friends went over to a bar. Charles and Rick were friends however on that particular evening Charles opted not to join us for a drink; for a reason which I know not of.

The name of the place we went to I do not remember though to be frank I did not pay it any mind as it was a place I was taken to. Many of Rick’s friends were there however the one who made the biggest impact on me was a Colombian who at the time was studying to be a conductor, and though his name I did not pay attention to I did regarding what he had to say about opera. Him telling me that contrary to what I had thought in the United States cultural events such as opera were not exclusive to the rich as one could get a &#
108;ast minute ticket for more or less the same price of going to the movies and getting a greasy burger afterwards. Actually such was the impression this Colombian gentleman made on me that I based my character Arturo Gomez from my book “New York’s Opera Society” on him. As for the rest of the evening, this went by nicely enough as we listened to my friend Rick get up and sing “Wind Beneath My Wings” along with some of his other friends who also interpreted songs.

As for Charles and I; we would continue are friendship though rarely did we meet given our limited time, me with my studies in French and photography while he with his music. Charles would also be the one I would call every time I had made the purchase of either a classical music CD or opera, to ask what his opinion was on the music. I was always astonished how he always managed to know which performers were on the CDs I bought as he knew them all personally. Well what could be expected from a man whose ear was so refined that he could not only recognize every classical piece he heard but which philharmonic was playing it.

I for my part would go on to attend performances of Charles’s music, the following year in 1990 and in 1993, which I found to be more to my taste then Rick’s music though I can not claim to be a particular fan of either one, even if I do admire both of them for being good at what they do. Charles and I, that evening in 1989 were reunited and though we again have lost contact with each other I will never forget the times Charles and I had. For instance their was the time he came over to my place to bake cookies or the times we spend in “The Tutoring School of New York” or specially the night on which Charles helped introduce me to the world of opera.

The last time I saw or spoke to Charles Coleman by telephone was in 1993 as time and travels have separated us though I hope not for good as I would not mind seeing Charles again however for those who wish to know more about Charles I recommend going to www.charlescoleman.com . It is there where they will be able to read more about this most talented composer, though with no offense intended to him not much of a piano player. I in later years would go on to develop a short friendship with the Polish composer Piotr Rubik. Him being my neighbor and student at my English School, whom I would once invite for Thanksgiving dinner at my house with the lady who at the time was his girlfriend though her name escapes me at present.  

There was a time when music and lyrics, called jingles, would be specifically written for products advertised on TV.  Although there are still advertisers who hire songwriters to write specific music and lyrics for their particular product, many have switched to licensing popular songs to use in their TV ads.  This is because many people are already familiar with the music and lyrics of these songs, so an instant, pleasant association is created with the products being advertised.  These are a few of those songs.

“Rock and Roll” – by Led Zeppelin

Commercial:  Cadillac

When Led Zeppelin sold this song and its classic lyrics to Cadillac, many die-hard fans screamed, “SELLOUT!”  Especially because, until that time, Zeppelin had a strict anti-licensing policy regarding all of their songs and lyrics.  It was rumored that singer Robert Plant opposed licensing the song to Cadillac and was outvoted by guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones, although he stated in a Chicago Sun Times article that he thought the ad would be a great medium for exposing the song to a generation of new listeners who never tune in to classic radio.  Still, there are very few Zep fans who don’t cringe when some kid refers to “Rock and Roll” as “The Cadillac Song.”

“Revolution” – by The Beatles

Commercial:  Nike

“Revolution” was one of the first songs to set off the widespread licensing of song lyrics and music for TV commercials, and it also set off a huge uproar among Beatles’ fans, who felt it disrespected John Lennon’s memory, and his political beliefs.  Unfortunately, the surviving Beatles could not control their song performance rights, which were held by Capitol Records, or the rights to their lyrics and music, which were held by Michael Jackson.  Still the controversy was so fierce that Nike ditched plans to use Beatles songs in future TV ads.

“Lust for Life” – by Iggy Pop

Commercial:  Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines

A cruise line that advertises itself with the music and lyrics of a song about heroin addiction?  Now, that’s REALLY freestyle cruising!  Royal Caribbean wanted to be associated with the song’s upbeat tempo, and the lyrics of its chorus, which emphasize living life with gusto.  But it definitely didn’t want to be associated with any questionable lyrics.  So the version used in the commercial begins with the lyrics, “Here comes Johnny Yen again,” skips past “With the liquor and drugs/And the flesh machine/He’s gonna do another strip tease,” and jumps right to the chorus, “Lust for life.”

“Baby Come Back” – by Player

Commercial:  Swiffer WetJet

The music and lyrics of this 1978 #1 hit were given new life in a Swiffer WetJet commercial.  A lover’s lament, those lyrics, “Baby come back/You can blame it all on me/I was wrong/And I just can’t live without you,” are now being sung by mops that are apparently stalking women who’ve ditched them for the dapper and dashing Swiffer WetJet.  The mops try to woo the ladies back by crooning this song’s lyrics, and sending them flowers and candy.  They may be housewives, but c’mon–they’re not desperate!!

A jackboot is a type of combat boot that rises to at least mid-calf, has no laces, and typically has a leather sole with hobnails and heel irons.The term probably originates from association with the word jack or jerkin, as a common garment worn by the peasantry.

<a onClick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://www.himfr.com/buy-jordan_13_shoes/”>jordan 13 shoes</a>Although dating from before Napoleon, since the twentieth century jackboots have been strongly associated with totalitarian motifs. The word is commonly used in Britain as a synonym for totalitarianism, particularly fascism, although jackboots and similar types of footwear have been worn by various British regiments since the 18th Century. Following the 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared that the democratic rights of the Falkland Islanders had been assaulted, and would not surrender the islands to the Argentine “jackboot”.

The term is perhaps less used in America, although in 1995, National Rifle Association (NRA) president Wayne LaPierre sparked controversy when he referred to overzealous federal agents as “jackbooted government thugs”; the comment caused former U.S. President George H.W. Bush to resign his lifetime membership in the organization. The resignation of so public a figure as Mr. Bush prompted an open letter from the association to the former president to be published in major newspapers; the letter included a litany of alleged and settled cases of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms abuses and an assertion that LaPierre and the NRA were merely borrowing a well-worn phrase uttered by other public figures in their calls for reform of the agency, among them Representative John Dingell of Michigan.

The boots are connected to fascism, particularly Nazism, as they were issued by the Wehrmacht and SS during early phases of World War II before Germany encountered leather shortages. When goosestepping on pavement, the large columns of German soldiers marching in formation created a distinct rock-crushing sound which came to symbolize German conquest and occupation.[citation needed] The same style of boot had been in use with German armies in World War I and before.

Jackboots can also be associated with the armies of the former USSR (called sapogi) and East Germany. Jackboots are still a part of the modern parade and service attire of the army of Russia, and several other former Soviet states.

The “Jackboot of Oppression” is sometimes referred to as the policy of zealous computer network administrators who lock down their systems tightly.

The Beatles’ “Polythene Pam” lyrics mention “jackboot and kilt”; while “Happiness is a Warm Gun” mentions “hobnail boots”.

The Motrhead protest song, “March or Die” features the lines “Sword and shield and jackboot heel” in reference to its use by fascist military.

The Smashing Pumpkins have a song entitled “Jackboot” that is included in “Pastichio Medley” from the Zero single. It can also be heard at the end of “Silverfuck” during Siamese Dream era concerts.

The Barenaked Ladies song “Another Postcard” includes the line “some chimps in jackboots.”

The Minutemen song “If Reagan Played Disco,” which mocked the far-right politics and faux-populism of Ronald Reagan, included the lyric “he’d shoot a ton of shit/ you can’t disco with Jackboots.”

The song “Red Dress” on Dear Science, TV On the Radio’s 2008 album, uses the term pejoratively.

Jackboots and Effingham style boots were at one time frequently used in science fiction movies as part of the generic futuristic footwear or space boots. This was mostly because they were readily available from costume suppliers and it is considerably cheaper to redress existing costumes which are usually rented by studios. This spaceboot look has mostly disappeared after Star Trek: The Next Generation introduced a new sensibility into futuristic fashion.

My sixteen year old daughter is a typical teenager – sometimes she’s rude and arrogant, but most times she’s just asleep or grooming herself- If only she worked at math like she works on her hair.  Like mostteens she loves music. I have tried to broaden her appreciation of different genres by submitting her to music she wouldn’t normally listen to. I’ve had some success with Billy holiday and Louis Armstrong and even some classics like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.

As well as musical appreciation I have also tried to give her an appreciation of ethical behaviour, and even though she exhibits none of her own, I think she gets the concept on the whole. Yet when it comesto downloading and file sharing, it all falls apart, after all ‘sharing is caring’ – what can you say to that? I tell her that she wouldn’t steal a CD from a friend. She tells me no but she would borrow one. I don’t reply because I can’t even remember if that’s legal or not. The way she sees it is that she’s simply borrowing music from other peoples files and not making a CD, and again I don’t know if that’s legal or not.

Now I’m trying to tell my kids to behave ethically but I cannot understand the technology and the legal implications. I’m beginning to appreciate the annoying piracy ads on DVD’s – at least you know where you stand. It’s hard to keep up with the changing technology and now it seems to be changing again. Now we have so called legal free download sites.

I know I’m stretching things when I ask my sixteen year old if she’s worried about artists maintaining their artistic integrity if they are being paid not for their work but instead for selling ad space on the internet. A little, she admits, well that’s something I think. But then she continues I don’t really care; I just want to relax and listen to some music. What about the message in the music? But I’ve already lost this one, and I don’t even understand the argument myself.

Not only that but I feel like such a hypocrite having enjoyed a few downloaded movies with the kids – it seemed too innocent at the time. OK I concede, let’s just try stick to the legal download sites, at least to avoid viruses.

The Beatles Yesterday is one of the most persistent songs in their entire catalog.  Over 3000 different versions of this track have been recorded by a huge variety of artists.  The song had humble beginnings inside the mind of Paul McCartney – more specifically, inside a dream he had one night.  With a fair number of McCartney’s musical compositions resulting from dreams, this shouldn’t be much of a surprise.  Perhaps due to the otherworldly manner in which the song had appeared to him, after his initial demo recording of the song he became paranoid that it was actually the property of some other songwriter.  He feared that he had merely heard it somewhere else and had the suggestion of its tune planted in his subconscious.  Gradually, over a period of several weeks, and through the assurances of everyone he played it for that it was indeed original, McCartney set out to complete the song and lyric.

The words to the piece were quite difficult to pin down for the talented songwriter.  He had given the song the temporary title of ‘Scrambled Eggs’, and it became an ongoing joke in the band.  After the filming of ‘Help!’ in 1965, McCartney took a vacation in Portugal and in transit he managed to come up with almost the entire rhyming scheme for the track, as well as the final title.

In the studio recording of The Beatles Yesterday, only one member of the band is actually playing an instrument.  Paul decided to accompany himself using only an acoustic guitar, although producer George Martin fleshed out the rather bare arrangement with a string section before the track was released.  Rather bizarrely for a band that would develop such a reputation for experimentation, the three other members of the band fought McCartney tooth and nail when he proposed releasing ‘Yesterday’ as a single.  Their argument was that the song represented too great of a departure from the band’s current sound and style.  Eventually, the American market got to have ‘Yesterday’ backed with Ringo Starr’s cover of country song ‘Act Naturally’ on the B-side, as it was hoped that Starr’s popularity in that country would carry the day.  McCartney, of course, had the last laugh, and the song performed very well on both the American and later the British charts.  Sometimes, even when you are part of a band as successful as the Beatles it is important to go against the grain and listen to the passionate arguments of the lone dissenting member.

Susur Leeâ??s Magical Mystery Tour
Wrinkled parachutes cast a rosy glow on circle booths at Shang. Photo: Steven Richter

It says a lot about the souped-up speed of gentrification in New York and even more about Susur Lee that he was willing to close his rocking hit restaurant Susur in Toronto for Shang, a hotel dining room above Orchard Street. It must have seemed quite a lure at the moment of commitment: The Thompson LES hotel with a world class restaurant in Manhattanâ??s hottest new zip code. Now, with escalating financial wipeouts and even crazed nocturnal nomads pinching dollars, thereâ??s more riding on Leeâ??s back than just his ponytail.

Every country has its own Chinese food flourish: Chef Lee honors that fusion. Photo: Steven Richter

Yes, he looks like a movie star and talks like a poet, flashing briefly through the dining room with its big round booths and giant crushed fabric parachutes casting a rosy glow. Lee clearly knows itâ??s his to lose. From the look of the Saturday night crush in the dining room â?? the preferred age group, vogueish but not slavishly so, masters-of-the-universe-in-waiting, still dancing on the edge â?? Leeâ??s already got an audience that could build a buzz. Two longtime veterans of hip, one from Nobu, one from Matsuri at the entrance obviously have the required Rolodex. Tonightâ??s early responders are not just peripatetic first-nighters but also Saturday daters and even locals, a good-looking stew skewing young that might build the vital word of mouth if they like the food as much as we do.

What is it like? “What are the Beatles like?” you might have asked before hearing the Liverpudlian four. Like no one, would have been the answer. Susur Leeâ??s magical tour has taken him from Hong Kong, to Toronto, to Singapore with its triangle of influences â?? Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia â?? back to Toronto and now he hopes to woo New York with these lyrical inventions. His food is unique, unlike anything I have tasted here, often thrilling, endlessly inventive, whimsical and traditional in the same dish, daring and delicious. His passion for design almost never overwhelms his mastery of texture and layered flavors. He counts on a trusted second from his days in Singapore as he drives the kitchen to his astonishing tune, is his own pastry chef (and also fields room service). Be warned. Come with friends you like. In this first ten days, the kitchen can be slow.

Caramelized wild sablefish with mustard green relish and salmon roe. Photo: Steven Richter

You donâ??t have to know that the chef wants to honor the Chinese Diaspora. â??Wherever Chinese food goes, it changes with each country. I want to honor that tradition.â? Call it fusion, I suppose, but look for more at Shang. From time to time, a notion seems totally Chinese.  Crispy taro puffs â?? four of them lined up without embellishment on a plate â?? are a dim sum you might encounter in Chinatown, except for that velvety surprise of curried egg salad inside. (Taro is a special weakness of mine that not everyone shares.) A big tangle of chickpea sweet onion fritters on puddles of ginger-mango chutney and minted yogurt â?? orange on one side, green on the other â?? links to India and possibly Japanese tempura. Splendid lobster croquettes filled with salty duck egg, lemon balm, shallot and the tang of chili-lime juice is a generation removed from China, reminiscing.

Nineteen ingredients and toasted hazelnuts give Singapore slaw its crunch. Photo: Steven Richter

Leeâ??s signature Singapore slaw is the perfect opener (one order is more than enough for four, no matter what your

Celestial seafood tofu. Photo: Steve Richter

server says). Toasted hazelnuts and a puckery taste of sour plum dressing add to the crunch and flavor of 19 ingredients. Sashimi of madai with pickled daikon, celery sprouts and lemon purée, plus caramelized wild sablefish, then lobster-shrimp croquettes with Malay black pepper sauce have us raving on our first visit. Dishes arrive two or three at a time with a clean round of rectangular pl
ates for tasting, white with a tiny red rabbit on the rim â?? the chefâ??s astrological sign. Iâ??m a fool for turnip cake, including this one, rife with eggplant, Cantonese-preserved black bean and shiitakes. With so many exotic notions, it would be easy to overlook steamed potato dumplings. They sound so ordinary. Donâ??t be fooled. Carved away with a triangle of their almost-veil-thin crust attached, the dumpling is marvelous and full of surprises. Crisp-skinned young garlic chicken with sweet-and-sour onion marmalade is remarkably juicy.

The young garlic chicken is crackly-skinned, moist within. Photo: Steven Richter

Less thrilling is the Beijing cucumber salad, a too thick-skinned oxtail soup dumpling in chicken-coriander broth, and coin-like slices of octopus with tomatillo and tomatoes. Cardamom-scented carrot and chili-mint chutneys plus glazed bananas canâ??t save bland Mongolian lamb chops. But the triumphs blur the flubs. And even though weâ??re all groaning from the excess, our host, a legendary gourmand, canâ??t stop ordering. I am still able to appreciate the saving grace of orange and lemongrass granité on lemon curd with passion fruit gelée and bitter orange sorbet. I didnâ??t really need the lemon tart with lemon parfait and raspberry coulis in tea sauce or the coconut crème caramel with Chantilly and black rice pudding at the bottom, but I tasted â?? loved them both â?? and survived.

The chefâ??s dessert range:  granité, warm tong yuan, and lemon tart. Photo: Steven Richter

I canâ??t wait to share this revelation with Chinese friends and taste more dishes even though it costs $30 one way and takes forever to creep and lurch through traffic from the Upper West Side. Itâ??s my second visit this week. We must repeat the slaw, the potato dumplings, the taro puffs and my favorite dish of all â?? steamed tofu custard with crab, shrimp, lobster, baby mussels and air-dried scallops in Tanjin bouillon, a superior stock of duck, pork and ham â?? sheer umami. The black hairy stuff is desert moss (not â??dessertâ? as typoed), a green that grows outside Beijing. Thin slices of pork loin wrapped around green beans with mustard and almonds should provide safe haven for tofuphobes and finicky eaters but I wonâ??t waste my calories again. I love squab and foie gras in wrappers imitating Peking duck but the lotus crepes are leathery by the time they reach our table. Spicy slow braised beef cheek, fatty and luscious, is perfect. Served with soft brown rice and olive preserved vegetables, one portion is enough for four to taste, especially, if like me, youâ??ll eat too much anyway. And with so many options $12 or less, and everything else (except Kobe beef) $25 or considerly cheaper, you can spend a little or a lot. Include a $3 order of mantou whole-wheat Chinese bread to sop up sauces, and you probably wonâ??t want to stop for a burger on your way home.

187 Orchard Street. 212 260 7900. Closed Sunday. To avoid a steep flight of steps at the Orchard Street entrance, enter through Hotel Thompson LES at 190 Allen Street. Take the elevator to 2.

Copyright Gael Greene 2008 www.insatiable-critic.com

Concert ticket stubs are excellent collectible items. Items like show flyers, handbills, and movie posters, football programs and other rock memorabilia, especially are old concert tickets are colorful, fun and reminders of musical milestones in our culture. Some people like to paste them into scrapbooks as memory anchors of a favorite concert. Others throw concert tickets away as soon as the show is over. Of course both approaches help to establish the rarity of the concert ticket collectible and of course its price.

How is the concert ticket stub market? How much would you be willing to pay for a 20 year-old ticket stub from a concert by your favorite rock star? This of course is one of the key things that determines the price of those used concert tickets

Like all rare cultural artifacts, the popularity and scarcity of concert ticket stubs will impact the price. Who is the artiste? How often did they tour and how big were their audiences? Concert tickets for the ‘Hall of Famers’ such as The Beatles, The Mammas and Pappas, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, are highly prized. Concert tickets for the sound track of the baby boomer generation are rare treasures that can only gain in value with time.

All those baby boomers should be advising their concert ticket buying offspring to put the present day tickets in their own scrapbooks and memory boxes. For sure they will want to look back on and pay for Green Day or Shania Twain concert ticket stubs in 20 years time.

Of course the way the modern youngster acquires their concert tickets could not be more different from that of their parents. The Internet has revolutionized the concert ticket buying process as it has revolutionized so much else. No more sleeping bags and tents for overnight stays to be sure of first place in the queue at the box office. Live music fans these days have the whole world of concert tickets on offer at numerous online concert ticket sites.

In terms of concert ticket collectibles some key factors are. How old is the concert ticket? The earlier in the artist’s career the more desirable the ticket is. Everybody wants to be able to say they were there at the beginning.

What is the condition of the concert ticket? Is it faded to illegibility, stained or crumpled? Are the corners sharp or rounded? Does the back of the concert ticket have sticky residue from being pulled from a scrapbook? Has the ticket been written on? An autograph is good but a love note to your ex is not.

Sometimes the venue for the concert ticket can determine the price. Tickets from events at CBGBs, The Fillmore or The Whisky A Go Go can bring something extra to shows by the same artist in the same year at lesser locations or even larger arena type venues.

“Picture” concert tickets are better than pure texts. These are tickets that show a likeness of the artiste or the venue on the front of the ticket. These are more common in Europe but there is a famous one of Woodstock in 1969.

When people discuss A Day In The Life Beatles producer George Martin is often the centerpiece of the conversation. Referred to as ‘the fifth Beatle’, Martin was instrumental in helping the Beatles achieve the ever-more complex soundscapes that filled their heads towards the end of their time together as a band.

The culmination of their fascination with pushing the recording studio to the very limits of the possible was the ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ album, which presented the Beatles in full-blown psychedelic regalia. The record employed everything from harpsichords to backward-masked lyrical tracks, and it is regarded as one of pop music’s greatest masterpieces of all time.

For the final track on the album, A Day In The Life Beatles members Paul McCartney and John Lennon pulled out all of the stops. Together with Martin, they constructed what can only be described as a song in 2 distinct movements linked by noisy, urgent crescendos. The two Beatles had written a few short verses independently of each other, and as neither of them had found a way to create a full song out of what they had recorded, they decided that the best thing to do would be to incorporate the two into a single track.

The transition between the two different parts of ‘A Day In The Life’ proved to be an early sticking point while recording. As can be heard on the Beatles Anthology, a simple piano bridge was initially inserted, along with the voice of a recording technician counting out the bars that the projected interlude would last. George Martin, at the request of McCartney, wrote a hasty orchestral score and presented it to a 40 piece group to record the 24 bars necessary to make the song whole. In order to make the orchestra sound larger than it actually was, their part was recorded and overdubbed 4 times, creating a cacophony of sound that to this day is enough to disturb the peace.

The raucous final crescendo was capped off by a single piano chord, reverberating into silence. The song is followed by what was originally the run-out track on the record, a mish-mash of Beatle-talk that was cut up and re-arranged by Martin into complete nonsense. Compact disc and cassette releases of ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ tacked this track onto the end of ‘A Day In The Life’, and faded it out into eventual silence.

During The Pirate Bay trial, the music industry placed the blame for the decline in their revenues squarely on the shoulders of file-sharers. Their logic is clearly flawed, but it could sway the verdict if no alternative explanation is presented. So, if piracy isn’t to blame, then what is *actually* killing the music industry?

According to Per Sundin, CEO of Universal Music, the decline in music revenues in the past 8 years can be fully attributed to illegal file sharing. If this were actually true, many of us might even respect his decision to go after pirates as fiercely as the music industry is doing right now. However, the past 8 years have seen a lot more changes in the landscape of home entertainment than Per Sundin would like to admit, and some of those changes have had a massive impact on music profitability – much more so than any amount of piracy.

Let us refresh our memories and take a look at what actually happened during and just before the past 8 years:

1. First, the explosive rise of computer and console gaming. This competitive ‘third element’ has appeared in the entertainment landscape, beaten both music and movies to the curb and taken a huge cut out of the music industry’s revenues. Consumers don’t have infinitely-deep pockets, and billions of ‘recreation dollars’ that used to go almost exclusively to music, are now going into gaming.

2. International trade agreements have allowed consumers to buy their music across borders, rather than accepting local prices on music based on the ‘relative wealth’ of nations, rather than the actual value of the product.

3. New forms of distributable media, most notably MP3s but also CDs, have become mainstream. These new media don’t degrade over time and rarely break at all, making music rebuys a thing of the past, and allowing the second-hand market for music to thrive and expand – both of which take a cut out of the music industry’s former revenues.

4. Radical technological innovation has taken place in the field of music creation, processing, mixing, and mastering. Recording hardware, CD burners, music software, and media encoders have evolved to the point where most artists can actually afford decent-quality equipment to do their own recording and producing. Furthermore, this has fostered literally thousands of smaller, specialized studios that are challenging the ‘Big 4? with lower prices, better terms for artists, genre-specific expertise, etc. Successful artists can now leave the big labels and start their own recording outfits on relatively modest budgets. Naturally, super stars like The Beatles or Frank Sinatra have always had this option, but the recent technological advances have lowered the bar drastically. This development is depriving the ‘Big 4? of many of their former cash cows, who now use the major labels for their advertising and distribution infrastructure alone.

5. The World Wide Web has become an omnipresent force in the world, allowing cheap, end-to-end distribution of digital music, increasingly cutting out the corporate music distributors, who deal in trucks and CD covers, rather than bytes and bandwidth. With iTunes leading the way (very successfully ‘competing with free’, I might add), billions of songs are now purchased digitally rather than physically, no longer necessitating the big labels’ distribution networks.

6. The total number of radio stations, music television networks and other ’streaming’ sources of music has grown exponentially, giving music fans a huge selection of free (and legal) music options. Satellite radio, DAB, and internet radio broadcasts have made it trivial for consumers to simply tune into a channel broadcasting the exact sub-genre of music that they feel like listening to (they can even have a stream created for them dynamically, e.g. on Pandora), making the *purchase* of music entirely optional for the casual listener.

7. A massive selection of entertainment alternatives (home computing, console gaming, mobile devices, etc.) have appeared in the home, effectively marginalizing music
as an activity. 15-20 years ago, youths would regularly visit each other just to listen to music together; today, that is virtually unthinkable without some form of activity involved, such as playing Guitar Hero or Rock Band, or dancing at a concert.

8. And finally, the music industry itself has embraced the opportunities of digital media, at last letting consumers buy *single* tracks at a time rather than forcing entire albums full of ‘fillers’ on them. Looking at the RIAA’s own sales figures for the past 10 years, there is a *direct* correlation between the break-off in album sales and the introduction and increase in single track digital sales. Looking at the actual numbers, it is abundantly clear that the vast majority of consumers never wanted to buy full albums in the first place, but were merely forced to by the lack of affordable single-track media. Now that the digital revolution has arrived, countless millions of 16-track album sales are being turned into 1- or 2-track sales, *decimating* the former revenues on music. THIS is the real reason why the music industry is hurting.

In other words: The “it’s common sense” argument that the music industry is peddling in their attempt to tie the declining revenues to piracy, simply doesn’t hold. It is not as clear-cut as the industry believes; the true reason for the decline is something they are still unwilling to face, but will have to face sooner or later:

The fact is that the music industry’s revenues have been artificially inflated for decades because of limited consumer options. The last 15 years of innovation have lifted those limitations, effectively leaving the music industry with an obsolete, defective business model of monopolized production technology, forced album bundling, and almost nonexistent competition in the realm of home entertainment. What is happening now – the decline of music profits and the piracy witch hunt by the music industry – is merely the panicked struggle of a dying business model, a complacent industry’s refusal to accept its diminishing role in a digital world. The pirates are not the reason, and the decline is the not the disease. It is the cure.

This is a guest post by Jens Roland. Jens is a computer scientist by training, but a technology forecaster by trade. He has worked at international think tanks as a consultant and researcher in emerging technologies and has written more than 300 articles and a book on the subject.

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DATA: Net value of shipped music, in billion dollars

1991 7.83
1992 9.02
1993 10.0
1994 12.1
1995 12.3
1996 12.5
1997 12.2
1998 13.7
1999 14.6
2000 14.3
2001 13.7
2002 12.6
2003 11.9
2004 12.3
2005 12.3
2006 11.8
2007 10.4

(source: www.ayubs.weebly.com annual reports)