Dunkin Donuts, Live Nation, and Rock Photography?

I am an avid consumer of Dunkin Donuts coffee. At least once maybe two times I am stopping at a mid-town Dunkin Donuts getting a latte or iced coffee with coconut. In the winter it is coffee with Hazelnut. Never do I want any sugar. Granted there is a Starbucks on every corner, I would rather search out the Dunkin. It is cheaper, it is faster, and in the end the coffee is just as good.

And a week or two back my receipt and perhaps cup, maybe a flyer in the store announced that Dunkin Donuts had partnered with Live Nation. In a nutshell. They were offering up some various concert tickets if you go online and register. I rarely go to big shows these days but I figured, why not? Give it a shot.

So I went online and gave them all the required details, my email of course, my address, my full name, etc. At least there was no request for dates of birth or Social Security numbers. No demands for credit cards or anything. So nothing too crazy and I left it at that. Five minutes wasted - no harm done. I finished thinking i am truly a sucker for Dunkin Donuts.

So a few days pass and and I am informed that something is happening and i am possibly a winner. I need to respond or do something in 48 hours. So I go to their site and acknowledge that I am Robert Schaffer. Easy enough - a few clicks done. I am curious if I will see anything from them after this.

Well another day or two pass and I am informed that I have not won any tickets or anything so nice.

Rather, it says, "Thank you for entering the Dunkin' Rocks Summer Sweepstakes. Congratulations, you have just won one (1) Rock Paper Photo Digital Fine Art Print!"

That sounds ok. It is not tickets to a show at the Garden but something. But then you click onto the next page and you realize that it is a digital print. They are not going to mail you some actual glossy of a rock star past or present, no they will allow you to download on picture of such a star. Oh they had a fine selection: Beyonce and Shakira, the Rolling Stones, Kiss, the Who and the list goes on but the deal is they are offering me a JPEG.

Oh yes, so after selecting my Fine Art Print, I quickly look at the specs on it and it is a 9 inch by 13 inch JPEG. I have selected a lovely photo of the Who with Pete Townshend airborne center stage. Cool but I could easily find hundreds of photos of Pete and the Who online. Further, it is 72 pixels per inch. Which tells me this is aimed at the web, not a glossy photo display that you can hold in your hand. So it is not even ready for me to go to a rite aid and ask them to make a print of this.

Oh well, such is consolation prize I guess, but really why bother. A simple email saying,"Better luck next time." would have been much simpler and less costly. It certainly does not makes sense to give folks reasons to not frequent your shop, especially when those reasons do not involve your actual goods. No you just annoyed your customer. . . Ughh!

Anyway, This did make me wonder how easy it would be to find jpegs from actual photographers and shops that might just sell them to you ready to print or imagine this actually printed!

See the links below:

The place that comes to mind is Wolfgang's Vault (www.musicvault.com ) in case you are looking for those classic rock pictures. Wolfgang's Vault is just a neat place in light if it's history and affiliation with the late Bill Graham.

Others include:
http://www.rockarchive.com/
http://www.rockpaperphoto.com/ - who in fact partnered with Life Nation, and Dunkin Donuts, but they do got the legitimate pictures and prints.
http://www.newfineartprints.com/#/page/home/ which is the site of a rock photographer - Chester Simpson.

http://www.rockpaperphoto.com/the-who-by-paul-kasko is in fact the shot I selected and is listed for $500 but I am sure they are sending over something in a frame at least and so forth,

Two folks come to mind who while we are on the topic should have there link here too:

http://www.alanrandart.com/ - which surprisingly belongs to Alan Rand, an artist and photographer who has been snapping pictures of bands for years and focused primarily on those acts local to NYC,

Lastly. . .

http://www.jimfitzpatrick.com/thin-lizzy/ - which belongs to Jim Fitzpatrick, who does some rock photography but more importantly is the artist responsible for most of the Thin Lizzy album covers.

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Barnstorming the Bowery - A slightly different approach

Barnstorming The Bowery is one of the shows we have listed and is a good one. It happens tomorrow night-Thursday, August 21^st at the Bowery Ballroom. It is a cool roster of acts, including Ten Ton Mojo, Mother, Liza Colby Sound, Killcode and the list goes on. It is in a cool venue – one of the best in city.

Further you are getting this roster – seven acts performing in one night. Each of them is pretty damn good. Now here is the interesting part, each will have 20 minutes, kind of a quick set but still enough, and there is no schedule. Who goes on when will be determined via a lottery – pulling names out of a hat. So no idea who will go on first and no idea who will go on last.

Regardless it will be a good night!

Below is a snippet from the Bawery Ballroom website.

Bands listed alphabetically. Order will be chosen by lottery that night!:

The Dirty Pearls

J and The 9s

Killcode

LizaColby Sound

Mother

Ten Ton Mojo

The Threads

Thu, August 21, 2014

Doors: 7:00 PM / Show: 8:00 PM

The Bowery Ballroom

New York, NY

This event is 18 and over

$15 advance / $18 day of show

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Two Gigs that We Missed

I already noted here in my last post that we had a series of shows to check out. That said, I missed Friday night. I did not highlight any show for last Friday, August 15th. And in the process missed two shows that I am sure were worth checking out.

The first of these was down at the Mercury Lounge on Houston featuring Eva and Her Virgins, Snake Canyon, and Cracked Alice, among others.

Eva and her Virgins is a dark electro-pop band with stylings ranging from Electronic Rock and Pop Punk, to Hip Hop.The new album, “Killing Liittle Humans Inc.” was produced by Jabbath Roa and mixed by the Mix Factory.

 And then you have Snake Canyon, featuring some folks who have been at this for awhile. This includes Morgan "SuperMorgan" Liebman on vocals and whose previous credits include Supervillain and the Steel Fucking Morticians. Another guy you might know is Texas Clamp who is known largely for his drum work with Banana Fish Zero. If you missed him there, you might have caught him with The Situationist International (TSI) and then for awhile he was with Karen Curious' New Professional.  

Cracked Alice, another act on the bill, has been at it for the past two years. They released an EP, Contents Under Pressure, last year and they are planning their sophomore release this summer, though time is running out on that front. 

For some sampling of music do check out the above links and for pics do go to either Alan Rand's photo albums on Facebook, or Dave Brooks photo album of the show and again on Facebook.

That was the first show. The second was Robert Gordon  at the Bowery Electric. Man I saw Robert Gordon way back, ages ago. He was and is doing Rockabilly. Forget the Stray Cats. It is nice to see him still at it! The man has a story, a biography, but more important is his music and his shows. For a sampling check out this Youtube clip.

Next time.

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What is Going on Here?

The next week or two in regard to local NYC Music looks pretty damn good. No doubt i am focused on the rockier, louder stuff, but in general it looks like a series of shows to check out.

This is right from the Wild West listing of shows, but such is life. Here I am a night or two later checking out some of these bands and just realizing we got some good stuff listed.Once in awhile it happens,

Here is the listing:

Thursday, August 14th it is The Liza Colby Sound at the Bowery Electric.

Saturday, August 16th at Arlene's Grocery it is The Purslaines and Black Satellite among others.

Wednesday, August 20th at Arlene's Grocery it is Brand of Julez and Bodyface among others.

Thursday, August 21st it is Killcode, Mother, The Dirty Pearls, The Liza Colby Sound, and Ten Ton Mojo among others all at the Bowery Ballroom.

Friday, August 22th at Arlene's Grocery it is Pam Purple and the Flesheaters and Electric Black Horse among others.

One of the ones that I did not list but I find having a very cool sound is Cold Blood Harmony.  No doubt a little mellower than my usual fare, but still with a nice beat, some cool harmonies and just some nice vocals and tunes. They are with the The Liza Colby Sound at the Bowery Electric this Thursday, August 14th. 

What is really cool is that this is the same Liza Colby Sound that played with LA Guns again at Bowery Electric back last year. And the same act that routinely is with Jane Lee Hooker on various NYC stages. 

Now the question becomes which if these will I catch?

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Just An Interesting Moment

One of those bizarre moments where you are left wondering what was that? Perhaps the appropriate phrase is "What the Fuck?"

This one took place in a Barnes & Noble restroom. Not the cleanest rest room but not a dump. It really did not matter, Just a typical restroom in typical restaurant/ retail outlet in New York metro area, in the north-east and beyond. Into such a room I walk in and over to the urinal, unzipping my zipper and proceeding ahead.

The interesting part in all of this is the young man in the stall next to me. I would guess in his twenties. I could not really see him. That is not really important either. No. What is interesting is that he is on his phone. He is having a conversation and it is obviously with a lady friend. A snippet of the conversation follows:

Guy: Hey. . . What are you up to?
Other party: . . .
Guy: Nice. . . Yeah i am just in White Plains tonight. Nothing too exciting. Hanging out.
Other party:. . .
Guy: I am wondering if you want to go out next weekend. It would be nice. There is a place in Queens I think you would like. Yeah it is pretty cool. . . Nice crowd. some good food!

This conversation goes on as he is finishing up, standing in front of the bowl. He is zipping up. He even flushes. I am not sure how she did not hear that, Did not ask or question.

By the time he is telling her about the place I am washing my hands and heading out of the rest room. I did so want to stay and take in the rest of this conversation but no.

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