Every Little Step

I've been wanting to watch the documentary “Every Little Step” ever since it came out in 2008. It captures the year-long process of casting for the revival of “A Chorus Line” that returned to Broadway in 2006, thirty-one years after its original debut in 1975. While I'm no musical theater aficionado, I've always loved “A Chorus Line” and am lucky enough to have seen it a couple of times. What hooks me into this musical is the realism behind the stories of the aspiring dancers who put their entire lives on display as they audition for the chorus line of a musical. These dancers are not vying for the lead roles- they are all (except for one person) looking for their first break via a spot in the chorus. While watching “Every Little Step”, one is struck by the fact that the auditions for this revival are a real-life mirror of the struggles faced by the different characters of “A Chorus Line”. The film cuts back and forth between the casting for the revival to the creation of the original production. In an interesting twist that bridges the past and the present, Baayork Lee, the original “Connie” when the musical debuted in 1975, was the choreographer for the revival version of the show. As a member of the casting team, she's watching young women audition for a role that was based on her true-life experiences.

The story for “A Chorus Line” was created from taped conversations that director/choreographer Michael Bennet held with real-life dancers. “Every Little Step” is interspersed with clips from these tapes that served as the genesis for the characters of the musical. The dancers being recorded were not afraid to be honest about themselves and this realism was transferred to the story. Recent interviews with Marvin Hamlisch (the show's music composer) and original cast members recount the challenges faced in staging the original production. The dancers auditioning for the revival version do not make themselves vulnerable to the same extent that their characters do but watching the year-long process makes clear the amount of blood, sweat, and tears that goes into this vocation.

It's inspirational to watch this group of young people work so hard to fulfill their life-long dreams of appearing on Broadway. One of the things that separates them from the rest (besides their immense talent) is the fact that they are willing to make huge sacrifices and undertake exhausting work. Someone recently told me that most people quit a second too soon. That line reverberates with me as I think about the dancers in this film. When the final cast is selected and celebrated in their triumph, it's impossible not to feel elated as you watch.

Viva La Vinyl With The Vinyl District GPS Record Store App

As the music world gets deeper into technology and further away from the old school, The Vinyl District has brought things back around with its free GPS-based Record Store Locator App for iPhone or Android. As the site claims, it's the only GPS-based record store locator app in the US. It's as simple as pressing the All Stores button in the app and waiting for a list of stores to appear along with addresses and mapped locations.

I've been testing it a little bit and I have to say that so far, it's working rather well. The app was able to find the two record stores on my block as well as all of the shops located nearby around the LES, East Village, and West Village. I'm pretty sure there's nothing missing in the listings for my hood. I've walked around a little bit and whenever I've given the app a spin, it comes up with a reasonable list of results. I'm eager to try this out when I travel and see where it takes me.

I wonder how this app was put together- did someone manually enter every record store into a database? I'd love to know. As I understand it, they'll be adding the UK at some point in time. Eventually, it would be incredible if you could use this app anywhere you happen to be to help you go a'hunting for vinyl. One addition I'd like to see is the ability to enter a zip code, city name, or neighborhood (i.e. Silver Lake) and bring up results. I realize that's not exactly GPS but I think it would be a great enhancement.

As much as I love how technology has changed the way we create and consume music (as written about here and here), I'm really struck by the idea of using current technology to help sustain old school record shopping. As all of these stores are locally owned, this app is a wonderful way to help out our independent record store owners as they try to stay alive in today's music market.

Check it all out here!

Xmas Tree Crew

For the past few weeks, there was a black, beat-up Nissan van parked in the empty spot in the photo above. A handwritten sign in red ink read “Xmas Tree Van”. Around the corner, in front of the Rite Aid was a Christmas tree stand with trees of various sizes for sale along with a tiny office (maybe 4 feet by 4 feet at most) made of wood planks and thick plastic walls. The van had California license plates so I assume that the owners of the van were in town for a few weeks to sell some trees and make enough money for the next adventure.

There seemed to be about 3 guys and 1 or two women working the stand. All of them appeared to be in their mid to late 20s. The one guy that I saw regularly had a pierced septum and wore the same brown Carhartt one-piece coveralls and knit every time I encountered him. I'd say “good morning” to him whenever I passed him during my daily morning dog walk. One time, I gave him a copy of Wired magazine that I was done reading as I figured he might appreciate having an interesting diversion from the van and the stand. While I don't know how these tree sellers passed their time, I walked past the van one morning around 6:30AM to see it rocking from side to side. As the van was a'rockin, I didn't bother knocking as I assumed that even Christmas tree sellers need some loving like the rest of us.

I'm really not sure what the stories were behind the Christmas tree crew but as I passed them one day, one of the guys was talking about moving to Minneapolis for a while as one of the options he rattled off. I found myself fascinated by these folks and really wish I had found out more about them. For one thing, how did they get all of the trees out of the woods and into New York City? I never saw a truck pull up with a bunch of trees. Also, did they have families waiting for them? Were they college students working over their break? Were they all from Portland?

As I've written about previously, I envy those who don't feel tied down to people, places, or things. While the gutterpunks in Tompkins Square Park can be annoying at times, I'm drawn to the way they can carry their entire lives on their backs and live out in the world. Sure, as I type this in a nice and relatively warm apartment, I wouldn't want to be sleeping on the streets right now. Still, there's a part of me that wants to abandon everything – a job I don't really like, financial responsibility- and just float on out of here and experience life.


On Christmas morning, the van was gone. I guess that after midnight on Christmas eve, there's no point in hanging out on the corner selling trees. The crew is probably still on the road if they're making their way back to California. Perhaps they have a different adventure in store. I regret not talking to them a little bit more as I want to fill in all the missing pieces about them. If things work out, I may get my chance next winter. For now, I wish them well on their travels and hope that they were able to enjoy some of the holiday while they were helping others do the same.

Blurb.com: Publish Your Own Damn Book

Recently, I shared some thoughts on how technology has made it easier for people to release music into the ether by drastically lowering the barriers to entry. A recent article in the New York Times about Amazon best-selling author Amanda Hocking made me start thinking about books and how writers have been given the power to release their own works in a similar fashion as music artists. The Times article talks strictly about e-publishing but what about releasing your own honest-to-goodness physical book? Blurb.com has enabled people to put together hardcover or softcover books of whatever they want (I suspect the Terms of Use ban certain types of works). I recently went through the process of creating a hardcover photo book to commemorate the summer my partner and I spent in the country. I'd been snapping pictures all summer and wanted to present her with a nice little gift for our upcoming anniversary.

I had previously tried using a competing site's product but found the process so hard to use that I gave up on a free trial to give Blurb a shot. There are a number of templates to use and it's as simple as uploading pictures and putting them in your template. You can create front and back covers as well as flaps and spines. In less than two hours' time spread out over a few days, I completed a photo book. Most of the book is iPhone pictures (the application will automatically tell you if the resolution is not acceptable for printing but most of my pictures were acceptable). There are a lot of options for paper stock and other enhancements so you can customize quite a bit. After finishing my book and placing my order, my package arrived in less than one week. My creation would not look out of place in a bookstore. I was amazed and psyched that I was able to make a one-of-a-kind gift. I can't wait to see the reaction when this gift is unveiled.

For me, technology is supposed to make it easier for people to do things that once took a great deal of time, effort, and money to do before whether it's in the form of a Gutenberg press, an airplane, or a telephone. If I wanted to create a book like this ten years ago, I'm not sure that any small printing shop would have the ability to print a copy of a book like this. Blurb.com is a game-changer and my mind is still blown two weeks later. With the new means of production and distribution available to us, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find good excuses to squash our creative urges and hide them from the world.