Some filmmakers are "using Sundance not just as a sales tool but also as a platform for immediate digital delivery," reports Brooks Barnes in the New York Times (1/25/10). Their reasoning is largely based on hard numbers. Of the $3.7 billion worth of films submitted to Sundance Festival this year, "only about $120 million worth make the schedule, and of those less than $30 million worth will find their way to market through the traditional system." So, for a film like "One Too Many Mornings" (trailer), which cost about $50,000 to make, it's a no-brainer to try something non-traditional.

Michael Mohan, the film's writer and director, is making it available for download for $10 and is selling DVDs for $20. "For $35, customers get a DVD, a poster and a piece of the sofa featured in the film." Michael is also offering theatrical rights via his website for $100,000. "Forget a bidding war," he says. "Whoever gets to their laptop the fastest gets it." Michael doesn't see any downside to his approach. "There's no reason it can't go to theaters after it's available online; it's two different groups of people," he says.

But this probably wouldn't work for a more expensive film. "If you've made a movie for $5 million and you're only doing a video-on-demand deal, your investors are getting killed," says Jay Cohen, an agent. Indeed, the average Sundance candidate cost about $1 million to make. But some think a hybrid distribution strategy like Michael's might have a future. "It probably does send Hollywood some signals," says Joshua Sapan, ceo of Rainbow Media, a Cablevision subsidiary that, among other things, owns the Sundance Channel. However, he cautions that specialty films generally don't "have broad commerciality as a goal."

"The Doors were a blues-based band with literary aspirations," says Ray Manzarek in a Wall Street Journal article by Jim Fusilli (12/2/10). This may or may not come as a surprise to those who remember the Doors for AM hit singles like "Light My Fire," "Hello, I Love You" and "Touch Me," or even FM hits like "Riders on the Storm" and "L.A. Woman." But, in the early days, as Ray, the band's keyboardist, recalls, the Doors had to fill their shows with something and so they filled it with the blues.

"We had to do four sets a night, maybe five on the weekend," says Ray. "That's a lot of time to kill. So we started to play the blues." Both he and the rest of the band "admired Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker as well as groups like ... Paul Butterfield Blues Band with guitarist Mike Bloomfield." But their blues roots were soon upended, recording just one blues standard, Back Door Man on their first album, but no others on the next three.

"We had our own material," explains Ray. And when the Doors played live, they just played the hits. But on their fifth album, Morrison Hotel, the Doors began to return to their roots, with some original blues compositions. A subsequent album, "Live in New York" recorded over four shows at Madison Square Garden's Felt Forum, featured plenty of blues. They even punched up their hits with a more bluesy edge. Alas, just as the band was getting back to its roots, Jim Morrison died. Fortunately, a new, six-disc box set (link), captures the band's final live performances, suggesting what might have been.

When the Tower Records on Sunset Strip closed, Nic Adler feared that the Roxy Theater might be next, reports Tricia Romano in the New York Times (12/6/09). It had been 36 years since Nic's father, Lou, opened the Roxy in partnership with none other than David Geffen. So hot was the Roxy that they really had no competition. But the days when John Lennon was a regular and Guns N' Roses made its name there were long gone.

Lou blames Seattle grunge for ending his party: "It became uncool to wear latex," he says. "And instantly, we had lost a whole scene, just like that." The "scene" has since moved about six miles east of the Strip, to "the hipper Silver Lake and Echo Park" areas. Nic understood the magnitude of the challenge: "We had built such a perception on the Sunset Strip that we were so passé ... It wasn't going to be like, we're Twittering, so now we're cool."

Nic's first move was simply booking hipper, indie acts like D.J. Steve Aoki and Them Crooked Vultures. He softened the club's attitude, allowing customer to take pictures during performances, for instance. And, yes, he started using Twitter, @theroxy, both to announce shows as well as monitor customer complaints, "leaving free drinks for people under their Twitter handles." He even attends city council meetings and joined the local business association. "I was handed a legend," says Nic, "and I am expected to continue that legacy."

"The minute that eight people walk onstage with ukes, you're winning already," says Will Grove-White in a New York Times piece by Sarah Lyall (9/30/09). Will speaks as one of eight members of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, which recently performed its kooky-ukey repertoire of heavy metal, punk, funk and classical tunes before a sold-out crowd at the Royal Albert Hall, and met with rave reviews: "They have grown into a much-loved institution," wrote the Observer of London. "The country would plainly be a happier place if more of us played the ukulele," wrote the Evening Standard.

The Observer also praised the sophisticated sound they make as both "hilarious and heartfelt." The idea is "to get the ukulele to produce noises that are nothing like ukulele noises at all." As Will explains: "It's good having this somewhat poxy instrument that can't do much because ... it forces you to think imaginatively about how to create sounds and rhythms." They've figured out how to approximate the sound of a wah-wah pedal, and, poking "fun of songs full of flamboyantly long notes, the orchestra plays rapid successions of short plucks with their strings."

Orchestra member George Hinchliffe comments: "One of the things that we feel about pop music is that while we're very fond of it ... at the same time we recognize the ludicrousness and pretentiousness of it." As for the ukes themselves, "People love them like puppies," says Dave Suich, who stars in a uke rendition of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit (link). And, says George, "You can do an entire world tour while carrying only hand luggage." That's a good thing, because the orchestra makes most of its money playing about 150 dates a year. Their recordings are also available on their website (link).

Sophie Tucker was both the last and the first of the "red hot mamas," reports Will Friedwald in the Wall Street Journal (10/15/09). This was because she called herself the "Last of the Red Hot Mamas." That was one of her songs and it was her brand. But, in fact, Sophie Tucker was really the first of the red hot mamas, being "among the first to present a distinct personality in the early recorded medium, one that would have a profound effect on the subsequent development of popular songs and singers."

She certainly had an effect on the Beatles. Paul McCartney used to introduce, "Till There Was You" as a song by their "favorite American group, Sophie Tucker" (link). This referred to Sophie's "iconic stoutness," which she liked to joke about herself. But it was perhaps also a nod to the fact that, before Sophie and a few others came along, singers were deemed less important than their songs, and "a great many discs and cylinders were released of generic tenors and sopranos." But Sophie cut her own image.

She rejected the "blackface" style of the day not to promote racial harmony, but because "she was more interested in wearing a mask and persona of her own invention." She also was among the first to make a song written by an African-American, "go mainstream." The song, "Some of These Days," combines "syncopation ... associated with African-American music" with "moans and cries of the Jewish cantorial tradition ... creating an Afro-Semitic stylistic alliance." A retrospective of Sophie's work, "Origins of the Red Hot Mama," is now available at Archeophonerecords.com.

Disney Stores Worldwide will soon launch what is essentially "a mall-based television channel," reports Brooks Barnes in the New York Times (10/13/09). The new stores, which Disney might call "Imagination Park," represent a dramatic makeover, costing "about a million a store to redecorate, reorganize and install interactive technology." Among other things, the stores will feature theaters where children can "watch film clips of their own selection, participate in karaoke contests or chat live with Disney Channel stars via satellite."

Packages will be embedded with computer chips, so that if you walk past a "magic mirror" with a Princess tiara, "Cinderella might appear and say something to you." If "A Christmas Carol" is "playing in the theater, the whole store might suddenly be made to smell like a Christmas tree." The stores also borrow touches from the Apple Store (the theater "is an extension of Apple's lecture spaces," for example). That's no coincidence, as Steve Jobs "and his retailing team at Apple" have been helping Disney, reportedly urging them not only to think different but also to dream big.

Some Disney board members actually are worried that it is "so lavish that parents would try to use the stores as day care centers." But Jim Fielding, president of Disney Stores Worldwide, says the ideas is to create "the best 30 minutes of a child's day." He adds: "The world does not need another place to sell Disney merchandise -- this only works if it's an experience." Currently in prototype in an unmarked warehouse in Glendale, Calif., the new format will debut in May in Southern California, Madrid and Long Island, with a flagship Times Square store in the works. Eventually all 340 Disney stores in the U.S. and Europe will adopt the new look.

The first thing James Brown said was, "This smells like a music store," reports Ralph Blumenthal in the New York Times (10/13/09). Richard Turk, whose father founded the Colony Record and Radio Center in the Brill Building, still isn't absolutely sure what James meant. "I guess he meant you could feel the history, the presence of great musicians of the past." Richard has a half-century's worth of such memories.

When he was just eight, he remembers seeing Miles Davis playing trumpet outside the store. He'd see Irving Berlin, standing across the street, with a cup of coffee and a cigar. He remembers Jimi Hendrix coming into the store, needing rent money, and cashing out his turntable for $30. "I still remember it," says Richard. "KLH." Back in the 70s he's open the store exclusively on Sundays for Elton John. "He walked around with Mr. Universe as his bodyguard," says Richard. Michael Jackson "loved hanging out, buying tchotchkes."

Richard says his top sellers are "vinyl and sheet music" and that he sells "more sheet music than records." He doesn't have a big staff, but when he hires he looks "for personality, then knowledge." One employee is 40 years old, knows everything about Sinatra, and lives with his mother. "That's the guy I want," says Richard. His biggest complaint is that "megastores put the character stores out of business ... You ask for Billie Holiday," says Richard, "and they show you the male vocal section."

This grand old gospel song has been sung for generations in the southern United States, says Roger McGuinn in The Folk Den. (listen)

Over the past three years, a pair of fifty-something amateur musicians have staged 11 benefit concerts, raising $300,000 for local charities, reports Jan Ellen Spiegel in the New York Times (9/6/09). "This is not an original idea," says Jerry Vigorito, 51. "Bob Geldof did it back in the day, you know? We're just using local musicians to raise funds for local charities." Rob Fried, 50, says it's all about giving back: "You get to a certain age where you've taken care of your family, you've had your first foray in your career and you start to look outside, and you wake up to your community and the world."

Jerry and Rob, who have been playing together since their high school days in Fairfield, Connecticut, have recruited a rotating lineup of some 80 musicians for the group, which they call "Band Together." Their first show benefitted Habitat for Humanity's Youth Project House, and was held at a 120-seat venue they had rented for $100. Their most recent event was decidedly more upscale, at the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University. But Jerry says he and Rob are careful to maintain a homespun sensibility: "Each move that we make is very well thought out, without losing our roots and our core," he says.

The Quick Center show benefitted the local Red Cross and the Connecticut Burns Care Foundation's Children's Burn Camp. Frank Szivos of the foundation says Band Together has raised $25,000 for the charity in two shows. Jerry and Rob, who also "continue to play with bands for pay," say they have a waiting list of musicians who want to participate. "We can all go out and play benefits -- that's no big deal," says Jay Stollman, a Band Together member. "It's the energy these guys have created." Band Together's most recent event included Joe Bouchard, formerly of Blue Oyster Cult, and benefitted Pilot House, which helps children with special needs.

Norman Lear didn't exactly see dollar signs when he first heard a bunch of pop-music chestnuts sung by a group called Playing for Change, reports Mark Guarino in the Christian Science Monitor (9/21/09). "There's no young person or big stars, the songs you've heard before," says Norman, who these days runs Concord Music Group, a record label. "So I didn't look at it and say, 'there's a big buck to be made.' I thought, 'this can be very good for our label because it's so good and so healthy and so deeply touching.'"

That's exactly what Mark Johnson, a recording engineer had in mind. Over a period of about four years, he traveled to 15 countries with his recording equipment in tow. He visited "South Africa, Ghana, India, Nepal, the Middle East, Russia, Brazil and Ireland," and recorded local "instrumentalists, vocalists, choral groups, youth choirs and subway performers, each contributing individual parts to familiar songs by Bob Marley, Sam Cooke, Peter Gabriel, and others. The result was both a CD and DVD -- and a YouTube hit video of "Stand By Me," the "Ben E. King chestnut from 1961." (video)

Mark says his idea was to "show all different cultures and races and political points of view coming together to do something positive." All of the recordings were done "outdoors to capture the environment of each particular location," and "each musician wore headphones, which ... allowed them to contribute their parts in accordance with what was needed." The CD and DVD were distributed through Starbucks and now a tour is planned, featuring "a band of 10 musicians from the recordings, many of whom don't speak the same language, just music."