Closed For Storm Documentary Is Worth Watching

 

I watch quite a few independent content creators on YouTube. Among the things I enjoy are the urban exploration videos about abandoned malls and other places. I also like looking at the history of things that started out with so much hope and ended up going away. Some of the stories you see are heartbreaking. 

One of the content creators I enjoy is Jake at Bright Sun Films. It was probably through him that I saw a video talking about Six flags New Orleans. It's heartbreaking to see what remains of the place after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans hard back in August of 2005. After the hurricane went through, there was so much devastation. Some people still haven't fully recovered, and it's been 15 years. 

There was a restructuring of the corporation, and Six Flags used the hurricane devastation as an excuse to bail out on the New Orleans location. Maybe that wasn't evident at the time. Only a week before the hurricane hit, the park was open and it was business as usual. It seems pretty obvious now that the corporation behind the theme park was looking for a way out, and the devastation caused by the hurricane was a good excuse. This is only part of the story that is touched upon in this documentary. 

It seems to me that the amusement park was built on a dream and the belief that it would help elevate the surrounding community. The vision was to make it a tourist attraction. The park really didn't have much of a chance. It was only in operation for about five years. The people behind the idea in the first place all went bankrupt of left, and it eventually ended up in the hands of Six Flags. The sad reality is there was no plan for how to proceed after the devastation left by the hurricane.

This abandoned theme park obviously struck a cord with Jake. He does 15 to 30 minute video documentaries on YouTube, and they're quite good. If you check out his page, I'm sure you're going to see one topic or another that would interest you. When it came to making his foray into a full-fledged documentary, he knew that it had to be about Six Flags New Orleans.

This is no expanded YouTube video. The production quality is much better. The camera work, editing and even the soundtrack are very well done. The documentary takes you from the idea of an amusement park in East New Orleans to the realization of the dream. You see actual footage of the park being opened. You hear the story of the original investors pulling out or going bankrupt and Six Flags taking over. You see the optimism surrounding Six Flags being involved with this park.

What I like is that not only do you see the effects the hurricane had on the amusement park, but you get a glimpse of just how hard it impacted the city of New Orleans itself. They make a trip to the park to look at it as it stands now, and It's haunting to see some of those images. From there, we hear what they've been trying to do with this location since the hurricane hit, and it's enlightening. It's amazing how slowly the bureaucracy moves. 

There are so many points I could cover here, but I find it better to recommend viewing the entire documentary. I was moved by the lady who went on a crusade to bring the amusement park back again. They were taking proposals, and after nine years of making her effort, it's sad to see how it all went down in the end for her. You'll see where everything is as of 2020 when the documentary was shot.

I'm in full support of the independent content creators that are out there. This includes people who make entertainment properties via YouTube and other platforms, but also people who make mini documentaries. This is where Jake started with Bright Sun Films, Closed For Storm takes his passion for documentaries to the next level. I hope he continues beyond this project, because he truly has a knack for what he does. I would recommend this documentary to anybody.

 

Closed For Storm Home Page

 

Bight Sun Films YouTube Page

Something To Consider About David Lee Roth

There's a bit of controversy about David Lee Roth being removed from the current Kiss tour. Gene Simmons hasn't come right out and said that Dave can't sing, probably because he'd be opening up a big can of worms regarding the vocal abilities of Kiss. This gives me pause to forward an observation about Roth. 

Billy Idol did an EP prior to releasing his self titled debut album back in the early 1980s. There's a whole interview on one side that he did with Martha Quinn of MTV. He talked about Robert Plant and Mick Jagger, and he said something interesting. I don't recall his exact words, but he said that Robert Plant can sing and Mick Jagger can't. Why does he listen to Mick Jagger? Because he can't sing and he sounds great. 

For long time Van Halen listeners, here's a good question for you. Name the great Roth vocals on any Van Halen song that would hold up against the best vocalists in rock music history? I'm waiting. My answer is he was never a great vocalist. Some might say that's blasphemy, but I'm going to be honest here. 

As a vocalist, he was okay. I'm not saying he didn't sound good enough on many classic Van Halen songs. The bottom line is I can admit Sammy Hagar was a better vocalist than Dave, but I'd rather listen to Dave's Van Halen any day of the week. Basically, I'll paraphrase Idol when I say Roth can't sing and he sounds great, or he did back in those days. 

When everybody was throwing a fit about Dave during his Vegas residency, I listened to his vocals. They weren't great, but they were hardly screechingly bad either. They weren't what they would have been 30 years ago, but even 30 years ago they wouldn't have been earth-shattering. I don't think he butchered his songs, and the people who paid to see him got exactly what they wanted to see.

I know it's not a major revelation here, but people are paying for nostalgia. My generation has the disposable income and will pay more for concert tickets. Many people want to be taken back to the good times in their past, and that's why so many artists in their 60s and 70s are still out there touring and playing the classic hits. Even if they don't have all of the old band members, people will still come out and watch them perform.

You can name the band from the 1970s and 1980s, and if they're still out there touring it's because they're making good money doing it. Record sales aren't going to be that great at this point, and going into the studio to make new music isn't going to make them money. If they do make new music, it's because they feel that creative itch or they want to give their die hard fans some new music to enjoy.

This brings me back to Diamond Dave. The reality is people want to see the spectacle of his show. They want to hear him attempt to belt out those classics from back then, but they also want to see what's going to happen next. Dave was always about the show itself. When you put a microphone in front of him for any given interview, you never know what he is going to say. When he goes into one of his dialogues between songs, people are curious what he's going to say next. 

People might go see Journey because Arnel Pineda sounds reasonably close to Steve Perry and isn't a bad singer. They might go see Styx because Tommy Shaw still sounds about the way he did in his glory days and they'd see Dennis DeYoung in his solo tours for the same reason. When they go to Dave's shows, they're going to be entertained by the overall spectacle of it, not necessarily just his vocal stylings. Most long time fans of Roth's will admit he was never that great of a vocalist to begin with.

Looking Back At The Beginning Of MTV

 Looking Back At The Beginning Of MTV

Music videos were around before MTV ever existed. Bands did them to promote their latest albums and hits, and these videos would play on TV's at record stores, among other places. Some would say The Monkees were doing music videos on their old TV show. In fact, Mike Nesmith was an innovator of the concept.

He produced some music videos and had an executive test market them on Nickelodeon TV. There was positive feedback to that, and the executives started getting the idea that they could make a good 24 hour music video channel for TV. Nesmith was offered a stake in this, but he walked away after being paid for the work he did.

The battle was uphill to secure the money and get cable operators to include the channel once it launched on August 1st of 1981. They brought in five fresh faces to be the first video jockeys, who would introduce the videos. There were technical glitches in those early days, but that wasn't the big problem.

The record companies were reluctant to share videos of their artists, and many markets weren't willing to air the channel. They just took what they could get and built from there. Songs from lesser known acts, such as The Buggles, Bow Wow Wow and Billy Idol, and a few videos from better known artists like Pat Benatar and Rod Stewart played in the early days.

They sent one of their people into the markets where the channel aired to get some positive feedback. The people loved the channel, and record stores reported that records for artists whose videos played on MTV were selling off the shelves despite no radio play.

As for getting cable distributors to add the channel, MTV created the clever "I want my MTV" campaign, which got people to call their cable provider and demand the channel. Getting new and better videos became less of a problem when the big artists started complaining to their record companies about not being on MTV.

Many of those artists were part of the "I want my MTV" commercials that included a who's who of the biggest names of the time. By the mid 1980's, the channel was profitable and growing bigger. They even withstood a challenge from Ted Turner to compete with MTV with a channel of his own.

However, MTV was eventually bought out by the Viacom, which was one of the big cable outlets of the time. Viacom is one of the biggest media conglomerates of today with MTV, VH1, CMT, Spike, Comedy Central and Logo among their many channels. For a while, MTV was still about the music.

Eventually, shows like The Real World aired on MTV, and music videos appeared less and less. Within the last ten years, music videos have faded along with the phrase "I want my MTV." It seems nobody cares about the music anymore, but you can still find people wanting their old MTV back. Forums and YouTube comments are filled with people missing the channel that used to be.

For More On The Story Of MTV's Early Days: www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2000/11/mtv200011?printable=true&;currentPage=allPittman

 

 Old MTV And A Look At Ten Of The Best Videos From The Mid 80's

Back in the 1980's, "I want My MTV" was a popular phrase. They had the brilliant idea of taking songs and making music videos as a way to promote them. MTV would play video after video with music news breaks at the top of the hour. Plus, there were concerts.

The music video wasn't just some new concept from the 80's. Many bands were doing video's in the 70's, which would be played on the TV screens at some record stores to promote these albums. The idea of a music video channel was a joke to some, but that joke became very popular.

The down side was the fact that some popular bands from the 70's couldn't adapt to the new format and faded in the 80's. Some talented artists who didn't have the look fell by the wayside, while some attractive artists who didn't have as much talent flourished.

The original VJ's (Video Jockeys), they were Martha Quinn, J.J. Jackson, Alan Hunter, Mark Goodman and Nina Blackwood.

There were some clever videos and some very good ones too. Bands would hire producers to make these videos as good as possible. Michael Jackson's Thriller is probably the most well known music video of them all. Of course, the "King Of Pop" had other nice artistic statements, such as Beat It and Billy Jean.

There were some good ones and some funny ones. Here's a look at ten I remember. You may recall some good ones from the past too.

David Lee Roth - Just A Gigolo: DLR got the idea of going solo after his success with this video and his version of California Girls. This video pokes fun at other music videos of the time.

Twisted Sister - We're Not Gonna Take It: The perfect song for people fed up with being pushed around and told what to do. Featured the guy from the ROTC scenes in Animal House, as did the band's I Wanna Rock Video.

ZZ Top - Legs: This band had a few videos during that time that featured their red hot rod car and beautiful girls. Very popular at the time.

Aha - Take On Me: This video features a very clever animation scene in it where they are running from the bad guys.

Queen - I Want To Break Free: This one was banned from MTV for the artistic dance segment during the musical interlude. The band was in drag for this video.

Madonna - Like A Virgin: Somehow Madonna singing this song was controversial at the time. She always found a way to stay relevant from the time she came out with I'm Burning Up. Say what you will, but she was very smart with her career.

Huey Lewis & The News - If This Is It: The band was very popular in the mid 80's and had a lot of fun with their videos. This one featured a beach scene with everybody except Huey buried up to their necks on the beach.

Van Halen - Hot For Teacher: Sit down Waldo! This band's biggest hit album was 1984, and this was one of three videos from that album that were very popular from this high energy band.

Duran Duran - Hungry Like The Wolf: The band became popular in the states on the strength of videos like this one and Rio. This one featured scenes in the jungle and on the river, and, like many other videos, had a beautiful woman.

Weird Al Yankovic - Eat It: Weird Al made his career making fun of some of the biggest video hits of the time, including Michael Jackson's Beat It. He was so popular that MTV even gave him his own special, Al TV.