It’s that time again! It’s the moment where we review on how this newsletter stands among you readers, as well as what we have “up our sleeves” in terms of the progressing we plan to create.
Normally, we start out in our report giving boring yet important facts and fixtures of how we did in the previous fiscal year. We tend to rattle off such stats as what our circulation was, how many readers “hit” our web site in a given period of time, what kind of readers we impress and so on. However, although those number are indeed criterial in what we do, those same stats are relatively dull and boring to you the readers. A few don’t even give a hoot in hell in knowing how many adults we reach and its impact to those adults. Those numbers are only for our advertisers that know how much ad space to buy. However, we fool ‘em right then and there since we don’t carry ads in the first place! And even if we did, would you really tend to care how much we advertised to place an ad somewhere? Unless you are interested in buying up ad space, that news would be all for naught.
Now that you know what we won’t report on, we will emphasis on what we will. And that news consists of what we plan to serve up within our “pages” in the next year. So pull up a chair and soak up on all the news! You ready…?
First of all, we will continue to report on the usual subjects such as film and theater reviews, as well as elements associated with the media. Also, we will occasionally open each issue on a topic that is connected to the media at large, be it from a wide prospective, or those that connect to subjects that are found through a mass scale.
However, it appears that other sources that are related to what we provide in terms of journalism are covering the same notions. This is a fact that we have been experiencing within the last few years. Social media is also expanding as well. It appears that if one desires to get the information they are looking for, those parties do tend to turn to social media. (You already know who the players are, so we won’t wast our space reminding you on who or what they are!) There are other places where folks find these facts. Not so much to discover second (or third) opinions, but to find out what is real news and what is anything but!
One type of topic we have discovered that tends to attract more readers per issue is when yours truly write about a subject that is more of a personal antidote than a hard news item that’s full of facts, figures, and boring statistics. When a topic is discussed that starts out from an experience this writer went through, more readers tend to gaze upon the story.
To give you an idea, we here at Accessibly Live Off-Line subscribe is a service conducted by a media analysis firm that can register how many “hits” one receives through a specific web site in a given period. Those hits vary each week and on each issue. This form of measurement is used to impress ad buyers proving to those same buyers that their ads will be seen per a given time cycle. Generally speaking, the more hits a website receives, the more the web site can charge for ad space!
When going through our audit for the previous yearly quarters, (January-March, April-June, July-September, and October-December), we have noticed that when the main article–the one that begins each issue per week-speaks about a personal story or topic that is based upon the day in the life of yours truly, the amount of hits spike upward. When the lead story is about a topic on, let’s say, how those engaging in media are affected by such use, there are not as many hits for that issue. In other words, when the subject is semi-autobiographical, the circulation rises. If the head topic is more of the generic variety, the circulation remains steady or even falls. This was especially true last year when this same humble writer composed a multi-part essay about what I did during my summer vacation. Those issues’ circulation increased by as much as 25% compared to over the previous quarter. It was in fact the most read article(s) we posted during the 2018 calendar season.
For those that desire to catch up in our recent back issues and to (re)read the articles itself, please referrer to Vol. 23-No. 32 through 34. Our readers love ‘em, and perhaps you will too!
So this means for the next fiscal year, Accessibly Live Off-Line will concentrate on those personal stories, and limit ourselves to the boring yet important matters. If by chance there isn’t an antidote to note, we will skip the head article and get into the reviews. Those same reviews tend to become read more than its lead story, but not as often as an issue that starts off from the secret files of this humble writer.
In the mean time, we do wish to take a bit of time to thank you all for having us be a part of your domain each and every week! We are honored to have connection of your company, and we look forward in serving you for the next few seasons to come!
-Enjoy and ride, and we will talk to you later!!
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NEWS AND REVIEWS
The Glendale Centre Theatre presents ELVIS ’68, a musical presentation on how a king regained his throne to rein within the kingdom and rock and roll while performing in front of millions of his loyal subjects!
In the latter days of the year 1968, a TV spectacular was going to air starring a hillbilly cat from Memphis named Elvis. (Casey Marshall) The idea was to feature him in a concert that would show off his real talent, something that became missing within his career for quite a while. His only public appearances were through a string of movies that were just “ok”–full of semi-forgettable songs with very thin plotlines to boot. TV director Steve Binder (Robert Downs) was on helm to showcase a man who was misunderstood by his acting, but to prove that he held genuine musical talent. So with a trio of musicians to back him up along with another trio of back-up vocalists, this one time only TV program titled “Elvis”, would wind up as his comeback–a return that was long in the making!
This stage production, written and directed by Brian Newell, was based upon an actual program that aired on NBC in December, 1968 under the title Singer Presents Elvis. (The “singer” in this case was the name of the company that bought ad time for the TV production–Singer sewing machines!) In the GCT version, the stage set resembles that actual set as seen on TV. The set itself is just a small stage platform with a mic on a mic stand and enough space for The King of Rock ‘ Roll to do his thing. Donning a black leather outfit with matching shirt and pants. Casey Marshall as Elvis performs a selection of tunes The King made famous–Jailhouse Rock, Love Me Tender, Blue Christmas, and a host of others! Robert Downs as Steve Binder steps into his character between numbers telling the audience a few behind the scene stories on how this program was created, and how it relaunched Elvis’ career that continued from that point on until his death some eight years later. Although the plot in this show is minimal, the music and talent fully fills the bill. Backed with a band that features Jack Majdecki on guitar, Mark Davidson on bass, and Tom Zygmont on percussion, along with Christa Hamilton, Kristen Hamilton, and Andrea Valazquez on back-up vocals, this stage program is a real treat to experience on GTC’s theatre-in-the-round setting.
Many of the regulars that have been involved in past GTC shows also make their mark in this stage production, from Angela Manke’s costuming and Steve Applgate’s musical direction. These talents provide a very enjoyable and informative set that demonstrates that Elvis was indeed, Elvis!
And for the record, one can actually view this TV special at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. But for those that desire their live theatre, ELVIS ’68 will fit that bill! Elvis himself may have long left the building, but his music and image does live on! Thunkyaverymuch!
ELVIS ’68, presented by and performs at The Glendale Centre Theatre, 324 North Orange Street, Glendale, until July 27th. Showtimes are Friday, and Saturday nights at 7:30 PM, Thursdays, July 11th, 18th, and 25th at 7:30 PM, with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 PM.
For more information and for ticket reservations, call (818) 244-8481, or via online at
http://www.GlendaleCentreTheatre.com
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YESTERDAY (Universal) stars Himesh Patel as Jack Malik, a humble yet struggling musician living in a small town off the coast of England that plays gigs when he can get them when not working at his real job in a big box store placing goods on the shelfs. His manager Ellie Appleton (Lily James) and part time girlfriend tries to get his gigs that actually pay something when she isn’t working her real job as a middle grade school teacher. He lives with his mum and dad, and has his best friend Rocky (Joel Fry) to fall back on. Things begin to change when while riding back to his house late one night on his bike, a strange event occurs. The entire world’s power goes out for a few seconds. At that same moment, Jack gets hit by a bus. When he comes to, everything seems to be the same. After he recovers, his friends give him a new guitar since his old one got destroyed from his accident. He tries it out by playing the song “Yesterday”. His friends never heard the song before. Thinking that their lack of knowledge of a Beatles tune was a joke, he discovers that The Beatles never existed! So he hatches an idea. What if he learned all of the Beatle song catalog and takes it as his own? He plays their songs as his own works and becomes popular, even taking on a following of fans! Soon he teams up with a high power L.A. based manager Debra Hammer (Kate McKinnon) who sees his talent and the money they could all be making. But fame has its own price as Jack realizes that, although he could get away with what he is doing, he feels that he is losing out on what perhaps could be the real love of his life.
This latest feature from director Danny Boyle, who in the past has helmed movies that features characters that become situated in places and spots due to rather direr circumstances, presents another feature that has a meek yet lovable protagonist of Jack Malik as played by Himesh Patel, and places him into a conflict where he can hardly take it all, although what he really wants is no longer available to him–in this case, it’s his first manager and almost girlfriend Ellie as portrayed by Lily James. Although this film is very British in flavor (or is it “flavour”?), this geographic location only makes this movie much better, or at least for an American audience! (Since the Beatles are from the British empire, why not this movie?) Richard Curtis’s screenplay with story by Jack Barth and Curtis is also very British where the characters use some minor British slang names and phrases within their speech. However, one would have to listen for those names and phrases to make any difference which in this case, it doesn’t matter much!
Of course, it does feature many of the tunes that The Fab Four made famous as performed by Himesh. In addition, many of the people that appear in this feature are lesser known to American audiences! (Himesh Patel is best known as a regular character in the long running English TV soap opera The EastEnders.) Having a movie that does not feature will-known names (to Americans at least), doesn’t distract much of the plotting and to the characters it presents. Although two people the movie features, musician Ed Sheeren and TV talk show host James Corden appear as themselves, the rest of the cast hold on to their merits as they would be rather set for their names in moviedom.
As expected, this movie may cater toward an older crowd who tend to stay away from super hero action features, all-ages (i.e. “family friendly”) animation titles, bloody horror flicks, or whatever Hollywood will churn out during the summer (and money making) months. For that demographic this reviewer speaks for, YESTERDAY will fit that bill. Then again, many of the younger set has discovered Beatle music over time and tide from others that “were there” when Beatlemania made its hit, or perhaps through their discovery on their own. Vinyl has made a comeback over the recent years, proving that she does love you. (Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!!)
This feature is rated “PG” for mild cussing and for accident related bloodshed. Now playing in all of the usual set of multiplexes nationwide.
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