A new episode of The Jason Crane Show — titled “Shave Your Head And Join The Union” — is now available at thejasoncraneshow.com. In it, you will learn how this happened:
Enjoy!
Comments closedJason Crane Posts
In 2000, I worked for Nikkei News Bulletin in Manhattan as a copy editor. It mostly sucked, but I rediscovered one bright spot while looking through my hard drive tonight. Here are two ads I wrote for a product line I was envisioning called People’s Republic of Food:
V.I. Lenin’s Russian Dressing
First TV Ad
SCENE: Camera enters room through doorway. In room we see a John Lennon look-alike with his back to the camera. He is seated, playing a grand piano. Lennon’s song “Imagine†plays on the soundtrack. Camera slowly closes in on man.
VOICE-OVER: Years ago, a great man told us to imagine a different world.
Song continues. Camera continues to move toward pianist.
VOICE-OVER: A world of choices. … A world of freedom.
Song continues, as does camera’s slow forward movement.
VOICE-OVER: He was a great man, and his name was Lennon.
Camera speeds up, shoots over man’s shoulder to show jar of V.I. Lenin’s Russian Dressing sitting next to a salad or sandwich. Sound of needle scratching on turntable, song stops as voice says…
VOICE: No, not that Lennon, V.I. Lenin.
Pianist’s hands open bottle of dressing, which he pours on salad/sandwich.
VOICE: V.I. Lenin’s Russian Dressing. From the People’s Republic of Food. Join The Taste Revolution.
Chairman Mayo
First TV Ad
THE SCENE: A group of people marching along a nondescript road on an overcast day. Gloomy martial music plays in the background.
VOICE-OVER: For years, people all over the world have been caught in the steel grip of two industry titans. They eat the same things every day in a world without choice.
Close-up of people in the crowd eating sandwiches with looks of distaste.
VOICE-OVER: But a revolution is beginning. A revolution in taste, and in the way people make something that none of us can live without…
Music swells slowly as camera pans in on face of man and woman in front of crowd. A shaft of light hits their faces and brightens as they look up. Camera pans to horizon, where sun is rising.
VOICE-OVER: Something you never think about, but that millions of people use every day…
Sun rises fully in the sky. Jar of mayonnaise appears in center. Music becomes triumphant.
VOICE-OVER: Mayonnaise.
Chairman Mao’s face appears on label. Cut back to shot of man and woman as smiles break over their sun-bathed faces. Then back to jar.
VOICE-OVER: Chairman Mayo. The new spread from The People’s Republic of Food. Join the taste revolution.
Comments closed
Jazz trumpeter and composer Malachi Thompson has died. Read a tribute to this musical pioneer.
Comments closedSo we are. JasonCrane.org is up and running, the first episode of The Jason Crane Show is on the site and on iTunes, and things seem to be humming along quite nicely, thank you.
What would any rational person do at a time like this? Make things more complicated, of course. And we all know I’m rational — it says so right next to my photo.
Here’s how my brain is working. I think that the podcast should have its own site, like it used to when it was a radio show. And like it will if it’s a radio show again someday. So I’ve revived thejasoncraneshow.com to serve as the online home of the podcast. I’m still working out how to revise the technical details for iTunes and the other listing sites. While I’m working that out, I’ll keep the shows at this site, too. But please head over to thejasoncraneshow.com to look for podcasts. Within a day or two, I should have all the feeds and iTunes subscription buttons up at that site, too.
Thanks for your patience while I work all this out.
Comments closedIf you look along the right side of this site, you’ll see a number of feeds listed, including an RSS feed for the podcast, and an iTunes subscription link. Below those is this:
That’s a one-click iTunes subscription button. If you click on it, it will open iTunes, subscribe you to The Jason Crane Show, and start downloading the most recent show. Cool, huh? (Thanks to Dan Klass for the tip!)
Comments closedWhat a difference a good copy editor makes. This New York Times story on the Zinedine Zidane head-butt incident contains a photo with the following caption:
As Italy celebrated, France wondered why Zinédine Zidane, with President Jacques Chirac, head-butted an opponent.
Unless the secret agents of a shady global conspiracy edited out the footage of Chirac joining Zidane in his whacking of Materazzi, I think that caption may need a little tinkering.
Comments closed
The Jason Crane Show is now available via iTunes. Just use this link, which will open iTunes and take you to The Jason Crane Show page, from which you can subscribe to the feed. Enjoy!
One more thing: You can listen to the show right now using the snazzy PodPress player right in the post. Clicking on the Play button (the triangle) will start the show. You can also download using the Download link. Cool, huh?
Comments closedPlease note that this show is now available at thejasoncraneshow.com.
Comments closedPodcast: Play in new window | Download
From the producers of Traffic Jam on Jazz90.1 and The Jason Crane Show on NewsTalk 950 comes a bold new podcast…
The Jason Crane Show! (OK, I kept the old name.)
This show will feature interviews, reviews, and my views on a host of topics from politics to science to the arts. The pilot episode is now available. To listen:
- Use your podcast catcher (iTunes or iPodder) to subscribe to my podcast feed.
- Click on Show #1: Showering Stitches to listen in your browser (or right-click to save to your computer).
I hope to have The Jason Crane Show available at iTunes soon. Please give it a listen and let me know what you think. Thanks!
Comments closedDuring the recent Rochester International Jazz Festival, I sat down for an hour with guitarist, arranger and songwriter Joel Harrison. The interview is now available at All About Jazz.
Comments closedAs you can see, I’ve made a few changes around the old place. Thanks to Erik Telford for pointing me to the excellent hosting site dreamhost.com, where this site is now living. They have a very simple one-click install feature for setting up WordPress blogs. Here’s the 10-cent tour:
As James Brown says, let’s take it from the top. The photo is of the Hagyard Building on Main Street in my hometown — Lenox, Massachusetts. This building is where I lived with my mom and grandparents when I was first born. My grandparents lived on the floor with the bay windows, and my great-uncle and his wife lived upstairs. The first floor was the Hagyard Pharmacy, thus the name of the building. Clicking on the photo will always bring you back to the home page.
Right under the photo is the navigation bar. You can get to my bio and resume, the home page and the links page from here. You can also send me an e-mail using the link that says … wait for it … SEND E-MAIL. Tricky!
On the right side is the other navigation bar. You’ve got the basics repeated there, plus two other snazzy features: Categories and Archives. You can pick a subject area from the category list, and you’ll see all the posts that fit that subject. For example, if you want to read everything I’ve written about the Rochester International Jazz Festival, just click on the RIJF category. Similarly, you can read all the posts from a specific month by choosing that month from the Archives list.
Underneath the archives is the search box. You can search for any word or phrase on the site by entering your text into that box.
Under the search box is the mailing list subscription box. Just type your name and e-mail address into the boxes, and you’ll receive periodic e-mail updates about the site.
If you look way down at the bottom, you’ll find the RSS feed. You can plug that link into your news reader or other RSS reader and get the updates delivered right to you every time I add something new.
Soon, I’ll be adding more multimedia files, including the new Jason Crane Show podcast.
Drop me a line to let me know what you think of the new site, and thanks for stopping by!
Comments closedMy review of the 2006 Rochester International Jazz Festival — written as a track list for a mixtape — is now at All About Jazz. Enjoy!
Comments closedNew York shot down gay marriage rights today (read the New York Times article). In response, Rochester’s progressives met in historic Washington Square Park downtown to grieve, shout and plan for tomorrow. Here are two images from today’s events:
I watched the documentary Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue tonight, having seen the first half two years ago at the Rochester International Jazz Festival. About 25 minutes in, percussionist and Miles sideman Mtume drops this:
You cannot create new music without access to new colors. Unfortunately, jazz — to me — stopped developing when the premier jazz creators did not want to accept the reality of electronics. Look man, when the piano, the tempered scale, was created — the 440 — that was the synthesizer of its time. I’m sure there were some harpsichord players walking around talking about “they’re not keeping it real.”
Comments closed
I found a link to World Jump Day on my friend Josh Rutner’s site. The idea? To have everyone in certain parts of the world jump at the same time, thus altering Earth’s orbit and stopping global warming. It’ll also make the weather nicer.
Looks like Van Halen were right.
Comments closed