Tampa Calling

I distributed the following memo to the Tampa Creative Loafing staff this afternoon.

In the face of declining print revenues and an according shift of resources to web-first production, Creative Loafing is restructuring its editorial staff. Unfortunately, these adjustments have made it necessary to eliminate the position of senior editor held by CL veteran Eric Snider.
There is no question that CL will be a different place without Eric. He has made a major contribution to the company as a writer and editor, and his style, his street smarts, his charismatic presence and journalistic expertise have added immeasurably to CL in print, online, and in our day-to-day lives.
We will miss having Eric as part of the staff, both as a journalist and a friend. He will continue at CL full-time through the end of this week; after that, we hope to continue working with him on individual projects.
Sharry Smith, Publisher
David Warner, Editor

Nothing much else to say except that the recession sucks, that this was an extremely painful decision, and that it brings to four the number of layoffs we have had to make this year from an already small edit staff. And yet, in spite of everything, I’m still optimistic about the future of this company.

But Eric will be missed.

The new 3-DVD set Streisand The Concerts is being marketed as the perfect Mother’s Day gift, and it’s true that in the two live concerts captured here — “Live at Arrowhead Pond/July 1994,” from a multi-city tour that marked her first public concert appearances in 27 years, and “Live in Concert 2006,” recorded in Fort Lauderdale — there are more than a few moms (and a few gentlemen, too) swooning in the audience. But this package is of interest not just to fanatic Babs fans but to anyone interested in the art of singing.

Because what this set confirms is just how extraordinary a singer Barbra Streisand is. You knew that, of course, but over the years the sheer size of her public persona — the mannerisms, the speechifying, the self-aggrandizement — has tended to obscure the talent. Tracing the arc of her career from the groundbreaking ’60s TV specials (excerpted here on the third DVD), it’s clear that her musical intelligence was not only there from the beginning but has only improved over time. It’s also fascinating to see the development of Streisand the entertainer, from wacky ingénue to ultra-polished diva to the woman we see in 2006 — relaxed, open, wryly humorous. And all the way through there’s That Voice, with its tonal purity, bang-on pitch and astonishing power; even at 64 (her age at the 2006 concert) she can still hold a note like nobody else, soaring up to a big finish that leaves audiences awestruck.

Celine Dion, eat your heart out. Read the rest of this entry »

During her concert last night before an ecstatic near-capacity audience at Ruth Eckerd Hall, k.d. lang sang “The Valley” by Jane Siberry, complimenting her fellow Canadian singer/ songwriter for her combination of “passion and equanimity.” That’s a rare combination, but it’s one that lang can claim, too. As she demonstrated in number after number, including “The Valley,” she can go from soaring to intimate to down-home friendly all in the space of an evening – or sometimes even within one song.
Her voice is better than ever. It’s richer and darker now, yet she can still hit and sustain high notes as pure and lovely as a mountain stream. Barefoot, dressed in a velvet-and-satin vest and baggy trousers, she seemed supremely relaxed. She flirted with the audience on the pop standard “Smoke Rings”(“puff, puff, puff”), and plumbed the anguish in Leonard Cohen’s all-too-familiar “Hallelujah Song.” She found new colors in her mega-hit, “Constant Craving,” breaking up that familiar fluid refrain and smiling wryly on the line “It’s always been,” as if to acknowledge that we’re all victims of love, gay or straight or whatever. And on one of her two encores she broke out a banjo; she started playing it this year, she explained, “because I realized it is a chick magnet.”
The songs from her latest album, Watershed, made a strong impression. There’s a grounded ruefulness to the lyrics — “It’s sad to me how quickly we define what’s wrong with yours is right with mine/ You think that we could learn to let things slide?” But the melodies, and the musicianship of her fine five-man band, kept everything percolating.
“I promised myself I wasn’t going to get political on this tour,” she said at one point. But that didn’t stop her from dedicating a rollicking bluegrassy rendition of “Pay Dirt” to “the boys from Halliburton,” complete with a knee-slapping, butt-kicking jig.
The Halliburton crack (and a few others) was what probably provoked a disgruntled concertgoer I overheard after the concert.
“Shut up and sing!” he fumed. “I didn’t pay to hear your politics!”
He was in the minority, I suspect, when it came to the politics. And, really, lang sang a lot more than she talked. Yet even after 90 minutes and 15 songs, she still left you longing for more of that addictive voice.