Fall/Winter 2005 - BMI.com

ed BMI Workshop affiliates
Howard Ashman, David Spencer
and Ms. Ahrens; as well as selections
from forthcoming works
including Sister Act and Leap of
Faith, with lyrics by Workshop
alumnus Glenn Slater.
AMANDA GREEN & TOM KITT
PLAY WITH THEMSELVES
The alumni lyricist and composer
continue appearing on the
cabaret circuit, this time at Birdland
on October 17 with Special
Guest Stars Brooks Ashmanskas,
Jenn Colella, and Amy Spanger;
and featuring Peter Sachon on
Cello and Christian Hebel on Violin.
As described: “Amanda & Tom
perform songs of theirs from various
projects, including Feeling
Electric, High Fidelity, Debbie
Does Dallas and more!”
CHARLES BLOOM CABARETS:
The work of the alumnus composer-lyricist
will be featured in:
Revue #1: Beyond the Music:
The Songs of Charles Bloom.
Director: Michael Cassara. Location:
Don’t Tell Mama, 343 West
46th Street (between 8th and 9th
Aves.) Dates/Times: Monday,
12/12 at 6:30pm: Sunday, 12/18 at
8pm: Monday, 12/19 at 6:30pm.
Reservations (Suggested): (212)
757-0788. Admission: $10.00 Cover
(plus 2-drink minimum). “This
will be the first revue of my work
in NYC since I was in college. The
objective of the revue is multi-fold:
to do a great deal of material
which has never been sung before,
to introduce my work to the crop
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Charles Bloom
of young performers who don’t
know it and, most importantly, to
do a show which gets, well,
‘beyond’ theatre scores.”
Revue #2: I HAVE ALWAYS
DEPENDED UPON THE KIND-
NESS OF STRANGERS. Director:
Andrew Glant-Linden; Musical
Director: Eugene Gwozdz; 2nd
Piano/Synth: David Snyder; Location:
The Triad, 158 West 72nd
Street (between Amsterdam and
Columbus Aves.) Dates: Monday,
1/16/06 at 7:00 pm; Monday,
1/23/06 at 7:00pm. Reservations:
(212) 877-7176; Admission: $10.00
(plus 2-drink minimum).
Charlie’s song, “The Straits of
Magellan” appeared in the
November ASCAP/MAC Showcase.
JILL ABRAMOVITZ AND BRAD
ALEXANDER
were among four featured writers
on Sunday, October 16th at
Any Minute Now’s A Beat Ahead
series at The Triad. They present-
available for
immediate
sale are
flagged “Buy
It Now.”
There is only
one copy of
Making Musicals
up for auction, and its starting
bid is set at $11.51. The “Buy It
Now” price is $12.75. Add in the
$3.95 shipping costs, and—is this
guy nuts Why should you pay as
much as $16.70 for a book you can
get for $11.79
Why indeed
Books are all well and good, but
what of CDs For our example
here, with apologies to Messrs.
Lopez and Marx, let’s choose the
original Broadway cast recording of
Avenue Q, which lists for $18.98, but
is available at Amazon for $13.49.
However, it’s also available there,
“used and new,” from $8. Half.com
offers a “Brand New” CD for $8.88.
And here’s a factory-sealed copy on
eBay with a starting bid of 99¢¢. I
doubt if that bid will win this particular
auction, but while I’ve been
writing this article another factorysealed
copy sold for $7.77.
By now you see the pattern,
which continues for
videos/DVDs—this stuff is out
there, and it is cheap.
Primary lesson: before you buy
anything from any of these sites,
mouse around for the best price. I cannot
stress this strongly enough.
And don’t forget to figure in the
shipping charges, which can vary
wildly, especially on eBay.
One last eBay point—many of
these sellers (like me) run small
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operations where it makes no sense
to accept credit cards. If you plan to
do any significant buying on eBay, I
advise setting up a free PayPal personal
account through the link on
the eBay site. Then you can use
PayPal like a debit card, paying for
your purchase directly from your
bank account without having to
mail a check and wait for it to clear.
Once you’re comfortable with
buying small things, in no time at
all you’ll be fearlessly seeking out
greater savings on the kind of gear
many musical dramatists swear by.
Perhaps you’re a composer who
needs a digital or analog recordermixer
workstation. You’ll not only
find substantial savings on new
models—you’ll find unbelievable
savings on discontinued models,
with no loss of professional quality.
The Roland VS1680 Digital Workstation,
formerly $2,500, can now
be found for under $500; the dedicated
CD burner that goes with it
retails for $300, but you can find it
for $175.
Do you write words rather than
music New computers, peripherals
and other really useful hootenannies
can be had at considerable
savings if you look outside the Big
Box.
While this newsletter would
never encourage anyone to do anything
illegal it should
be noted (just for the sake of curiosity)
that if one were seeking a legitimate,
low-cost “DVD player” that
was both “region-free” and “VCR
friendly,” it might be as close as
typing those three phrases—each in
its separate set of quotation marks,
as shown—into a Google search