Copious Notes

President Barack Obama speaks during the Organizing for America National Health Care Forum, an event touted as reconnecting him with grassroots supporters, in Washington Thursday. AP Photo by Alex Brandon.

Yet another evening of ­kvetching about the health care debate was winding to a close Tuesday night on The Rachel Maddow Show when guest Bill Maher made a great point about President Barack Obama’s inability to get his message across.

“Where are all Obama’s people to help him with this, by the way?” Maher asked. “You know, I mean, he is Michael Jordan on a very, very, very bad team. Where are all the people who were so enthused during the campaign? You know, that was the fun part, the election.

“Now comes the hard part. You know, where’s Oprah? Where are all of the people who were out there on the campaign trail? We need them now. This is the actual hard work of government.”

It’s a valid point.

Could it be the Obama ­administration just hasn’t stayed in touch?

Remember the summer of 2008? That was the campaign summer, when candidate Obama was the king of all media, ­particularly new media.

One of his flashiest tricks, though, fizzled: the attempt to alert supporters and anyone else who was interested of his choice for running mate via text message, before traditional media broke the news.

It was surprising to get word through — egads! — this newspaper in my driveway. The traditional media broke the story right before it was time to put the papers to bed and about three hours before the text announcing the choice of Joe Biden.

But it soon became clear what that ploy was all about: mobilizing supporters.

The Obama campaign had succeeded in getting scores of text and e-mail addresses, and they were going to use them.

During the Democratic National Convention, there were messages to make sure to tune in for speeches by Obama’s wife Michelle; Biden; and the man ­himself speaking in a football stadium. As the campaign went into the fall, there were more text and e-mail appeals to watch, to campaign and, of course, for money. In the final weeks, there were even geographically ­targeted ­appeals to get to our ­neighboring swing states, Indiana and Ohio, to help on the ground.

If you had signed up, whenever your text chime went off, you almost ­expected it to be the Obama ­campaign, and it was a safe bet there was something in the in-box, too.

When the campaign was over and Obama won, we were told that the e-mail and text addresses would be kept to help relay information and mobilize people to help support the administration’s initiatives.

But Barack and Joe don’t seem to write anymore.

The campaign that was built on a mastery of new media has taken a ­traditional ­approach to getting the message out. ­

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Adam Lambert and Kris Allen with American Idol host Ryan Seacrest on the May 19 final competition show. Frank Micelotta | FOX.

I’m going to take a quick lunch break here to join my fellow entertainment scribes out on a limb and make an American Idol prediction. It is a bit of a limb, because apparently this race is just too close to call. The website Dial Idol even says that, saying only 1.1 percent separates Kris Allen from Adam Lambert in their survey of busy signals for both contestants — a first in the site’s history.

And these are two very different cats, Lambert the flashy SoCal guy with a voice made for Broadway or glam rock and laid-back Midwesterner Kris.

One thing I hate seeing is this being boiled down to a Red State-Blue State thing, the presumption being the more conservative “red staters” will like humble Christian Kris and “blue staters” will like flamboyant Adam. It’s superficial and not fair to either contestant or Americans in general. Need we remind you of Barack Obama’s 2004 Democratic Convention speech. The Red State-Blue State thing is getting old, and it’s a lazy way to think.

Anyway, a matter of musical taste does drive my prediction: Kris Allen will win.

I pick him subscribing to the logic that Danny Gokey voters will naturally gravitate toward Kris. Yes, Gokey was a bit more of a vocal acrobat in an Adam tradition. But his overall vibe tracked much closer to Allen.

And Allen has been building momentum while Lambert has had a fan base for a while. Allen just feels like something of a Mine That Bird of American Idol, coming from the outside to overtake the front-runner at the end. Using that anology, will this be a Kentucky Derby or a Preakness for Allen? Remember, my limb is in the Bluegrass State.

I’d like to see Lambert win, as I have said before. He’s an amazing artist both as a stage presence and a creative force. And in the current pop landscape, Lambert is a true individual. Allen’s growth and artistry — particularly last week’s re-imagining of Kanye West’s Heartless — have been wonderful to watch. Neither of them would be an embarassing winner, but Lambert’s overall talent is still several shades beyond the rest of this year’s competition.

In the grand scheme of things Allen may be better served with the Idol victory, where Adam may do best if he’s a bit more free to chart his own course. And really, considering the Idol will be stuck with that horrendous No Boundaries song Kara DioGuardi co-wrote, the loser may be the real winner.

• For a second opinion, check Phil Stacey’s blog.

Bill Buchanan (James Morrison) and his security team work to secure President Taylor (Cherry Jones) to safety when the White House falls under attack on'24.' Photo by Mark Lipson | Fox.

After Barack Obama was elected president, we were treated to plenty of stories about presidential security.

The accounts included that the public couldn’t get within blocks of Obama’s Chicago home, that a date for Barack and Michelle Obama involved several dozen Secret Service agents, and that security measures caused hours of delays at the inauguration.

When I was in Washington for the performances of Our Lincoln, a week after the inauguration, we were advised that if the president had announced in advance that he was coming to the show, the Kennedy Center would have been locked down for three days.

Now, with all that real-world information, we watch 24 and have to suspend disbelief as much as if we were watching a show about space aliens.

Some of the first “wait a minute” moments involved First Dude Henry Taylor (Colm Feore), the husband of the new president on the seventh season of 24, Allison Taylor, played by Cherry Jones. Trying to uncover the truth about his son’s death, he was running around Washington, having meetings in wide-open parks while guarded by a total of one Secret Service agent. That agent turned out to be a rogue operative who tried to kill Taylor as part of a conspiracy.

Throughout these scenes, you had to be thinking, there’s a reason the first family has more than one bodyguard.

It was implausible.

But implausibility reached new heights with last Monday’s two-hour episode. Read the rest of this entry »

Folks with a keen ear toward Washington have probably heard the National Endowment for the Arts and the arts in general mentioned in discussions of the stimulus plan currently being debated by the Senate. The initial bill, passed last week by the House, included a controversial $50 million for the NEA. Opponents of arts funding in the stimulus contend it’s pork barrel spending that could be better used for additional spending on roads and other construction projects, while proponents say arts funding creates jobs, just like other projects.

LexArts President and CEO Jim Clark has weighed in on the issue with an open letter to the Lexington Arts Community on the arts umbrella group’s Facebook page urging people to lobby city, state and national lawmakers to favor arts funding. Clark writes:

Jim Clark. Photo courtesy of LexArts.

“We all must participate in dispelling the idea that the arts are a luxury . . .

“The NEA puts it simply by saying ‘The arts and culture industry is a sector of the economy just like any other with workers who pay taxes, mortgages, rent and contribute in other ways to the economy.’ Many major arts service agencies, including Americans for the Arts (AFTA), the NEA and Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) have stressed the importance of focusing on the passage of the Stimulus package prior to this amendment. It is our responsibility as citizens to inform our representatives in Washington, Frankfort and here in Lexington exactly how important the arts are to the social and economic welfare of our community.”

Clark goes on to detail several arts oriented projects contained in a proposal Mayor Jim Newberry’s office submitted to President Barack Obama’s transition team, including renovations to facilities such as ArtsPlace, the Expolorium and the Kentucky Theatre.

Click “read the rest of this entry,” below, or, if you’re a Facebook member, the link above to read Clark’s note in its entirety.

Read the rest of this entry »

UK Voice Department graduate Gregory Turay, now an internationally acclaimed tenor, compares notes with UK vocal coach Tedrin Blair Lindsay at a rehearsal Sunday evening in Washington D.C. Photo by Jonathan Palmer.

If President Barack Obama comes to Monday night’s Our Lincoln performance at the Kennedy Center, it would be a dream come true for seemingly everyone involved in the production. It would also be a logistical nightmare for a show that has already had its share of logistical nightmares.

Last week’s ice and snow in Lexington scuttled one rehearsal for the show and made getting others together problematic. And those rehearsals were needed because Our Lincoln has changed significantly from its debut last February, with several new works and performers, including a whole new orchestra with the University of Kentucky Symphony stepping in for the Lexington Philharmonic.

Production director James W. Rodgers finally sees an opportunity for a full run-through rehearsal Monday afternoon at 2 at the Kennedy Center. But if Obama comes, the theater has to be cleared at 4. That could mean the show goes off at 7:30 p.m. with no complete run through, and some participants possibly not even rehearsing before the real thing . . . in front of the President.

If that happens though, Rodgers says the crew will make it work.

“This is a once in a lifetime event,” Rodgers says. “We’ll rise to the occassion.”

One person in this production who does know what it’s like to sing for the President is UK graduate Gregory Turay, a tenor at the Metropolitan Opera and on many other stages around the world. In 2006, he sang in the Kennedy Center Honors, attended by President George W. Bush.

“It’s people you see running our country and, yes, it’s intimidating,” Turay said after rehearsing his piece, a musical setting of The Gettysburg Address with the Lexington Singers and UK Symphony. “You go through the nerves you haven’t had in many, many years, maybe since college or high school. It’s an honor, and it’s exciting.”

Participants in the Our Lincoln production boarded a bus in Lexington early Sunday morning for a daylong trip to Washington D.C. Photos by Jonathan Palmer.

It’s not like the Lexington Singers don’t have experience singing in storied concert halls.

Singing at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Monday will add to a distinguished list of venues for the singers including Carnegie Hall in New York and the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.

Ginny Smith has been along for the ride since the singers went to Romania in 1974.

Ginny Smith, a 37-year veteran of the Lexington Singers, on the bus to Washington D.C., Sunday.

“Most of our trips have been flying,” the 37-year Singers veteran said Sunday morning, settled into her seat on a Bluegrass Tours bus, tooling through snow-blanketed Eastern Kentucky on the way to Washington D.C. “They’ve all been great — Romania, Italy, Paris.”

This time, the Singers, as well as several other groups and individual artists are traveling to the Nation’s Capitol to present the Our Lincoln concert that premiered in Lexington last February.

Despite being a well-traveled singer, Smith was excited by the same thing that had most of the Singers buzzing: The prospect of singing for the President.

Barack Obama has been invited to the performance of Our Lincoln Monday night, though organizers do not know if the newly inaugurated President will attend. Information has been collected from all participants in the concert for security, and the productions directors have been advised what the logistical changes would be if Obama came. They have been told they may not know until the very last minute if he’s coming.

It would be the first time Smith, or the singers, for that matter, have sung for a sitting president.

But new Singer Jeanne Sallee had an experience to put the prospect in some perspective. She was the music director at the the Cathedral of Christ the King when the church’s choirs traveled to Rome and sang for Pope John Paul II.

“It was a moment you just kind of go wow,” Sallee said. “It was more special because he was the head of the church, and so it seems you’re doing it for your church and your faith.”

Even if Obama does not come to the show, the performers are still stoked about getting to sing in the Kennedy Center.

“The whole prestige of the place and the city has an air of accomplishment with it,” said UK Symphony percussionist Tim Wilburn, as he was getting off the bus in Washington. “I will be able to say I performed here. It’s a great resume builder.”

University of Kentucky symphony percussionist Tim Wilburn surveys the Holiday Inn on Rhode Island Avenue NW in Washington D.C. on Sunday.

Dear President Obama,

During your campaign and since your election, you have talked extensively about Abraham Lincoln and boosted the arts as a way to share our culture and tell our story.

Has Kentucky got a show for you.

Mark Golson and Denisha Ballew in a scene from Jospeh Baber's forthcoming opera, River of Time, about Abraham Lincoln's Kentucky years, at the Our Lincoln event in February 2008. Copyrighted Herald-Leader photo by Joseph Rey Au.

This weekend, approximately 375 musicians, actors and other artists are making a journey from the Bluegrass State to Washington D.C. to present Our Lincoln, a show that tells the story of the life and legacy of the 16th President in music, theater, poetry and other disciplines. The performance is at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Monday. You have been sent several invitations to this event, and everyone connected with the program seems to understand they may not know if you are coming until the last minute, and there are a lot of people and events vying for your attention.

Generally, I would not be so presumptuous as to offer the President of the United States advice. But as an arts journalist who is often asked by people if I think they’d like something, I can honestly say, I really think you’d like this show.

I was part of the audience of 1,500 people who saw Our Lincoln in Lexington last February. As it was being assembled, it was billed to me as a “Kennedy Center Honors-like show.” It seemed ambitious, and like any sort of ambitious project, there is an element of risk. There were a lot of moving parts to the production that seemed like they could implode.

But the Our Lincoln soared, truly becoming one of the most unique and inspired productions I have seen since becoming the arts reporter here in 1998.

There are a number of things about Our Lincoln I think you’d dig:

~ A lot of great music, including Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, which will be performed by the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Washington regular John Nardolillo and narrated by Nick Clooney — you may have heard of his kid. There are also quite a few ensembles and soloists that I will not enumerate at the risk of having someone say, “You didn’t mention me in your open letter to the President!” But they are outstanding talents that belie the less-flattering Kentucky stereotypes.

~ One act I will mention is the American Spiritual Ensemble, a group of distinguished singers dedicated to preserving the spiritual as an important element of American History. They are as interesting as they are stirring.

~ There are excerpts from River of Time, a forthcoming opera by University of Kentucky composer Joseph Baber about the early years and motivations of a young man who would become President. Thought that might interest you.

~ The lawyer in you would probably also be intrigued by the excerpt from One Man’s Lincoln, Wade Hall’s play about Lincoln’s law partner, Billy Herndon, from Kentucky Repertory Theatre.

On display through all of this is the power of the arts to enlighten and enrich us, something you have spoken about on several occasions. It is hard to imagine a more appropriate show for you to see so early in your historic administration.

Respectfully,

Rich Copley

Watching U2’s performance of Pride (In the Name of Love) at the inaugural celebration Sunday afternoon, I was reminded that while the powerful anthem was the band’s huge hit, they also penned the gorgeous MLK. It’s a simple tribute:

Sleep, sleep tonight

And may your dreams be realized

It may be stretching it a bit to say “The Dream” is being realized by the events of the next few days. But certainly the vision of the man we celebrate today will take a huge step toward reality with the inauguration we will witness tomorrow.

Highly recommended: Performance Today has its annual broadcast of the King Memorial Concert in Atlanta, featuring the Atlanta Symphony. It’s always a stirring performance. Locally, it airs at noon and 8 p.m. on WEKU FM-88.9.