Assorted ramblings from the world of entertainment:
• The Butler Institute of American Art will unveil its Vincent & Phyllis Bacon Grand Gallery this weekend, and the man who designed those walls also will have art hanging on them.
Coinciding with the unveiling is a watercolor exhibition by C. Robert Buchanan, who is the architect responsible for many of the expansion projects at the Youngstown museum, including the Bacon Grand Gallery.
According to Buchanan, “I paint for the pleasure of it. I like to pick a subject or object and develop a design with color and composition. There’s no scholarly approach to it, just plain enjoyment.”
Louis A. Zona, executive director of the Butler, called Buchanan, “One of the most talented individuals to hold a paint brush or handle a T-square.”
Buchanan’s watercolors will be on display in Butler North through July 2.
• Metallica certainly isn’t my favorite band, but it may have supplanted KISS and the Grateful Dead as the smartest one.
While the latter two bands have radically different sounds, both were / are masters of marketing their brand. Metallica made a couple announcements recently that show James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo also are forward thinkers when it comes to controlling and expanding their market.
Last month, Metallica announced it was buying Furnace Record Pressing, a record plant in Alexandia, Va. Vinyl is the one area where physical media sales are improving, and demand outpaces current production capacity.
Many acts, from local bands to national artists, have had to delay the vinyl release of their music because of the backlog at pressing plants. Metallica, already one of the top-selling acts on vinyl, now has the ability to get its releases out whenever it wants, which is a nice luxury to have.
For example, last year Wilco decided to delay the project it was working on and release “Cruel County” before its Solid Sound Music Festival instead. While the music was on streaming services in May, the vinyl didn’t arrive until this January. I don’t know how well the physical release sold, but I bet it would have sold more copies when the band was getting the national press that coincided with the digital release.
Owning a pressing plant seems to be a good investment, at least in the short term.
This week’s Metallica announcement was a real surprise.
To coincide with the release of its 12th album “72 Seasons” this week, the band created the Metallica Marching Band Competition.
Who knew the “metal” in the band’s name was brass?
Marching band charts have been created for “Enter Sandman,” “Master of Puppets,” “One” and 10 other Metallica favorites provided by Hal Leonard via sheetmusicdirect.com.
Marching band directors are invited to create programs built around Metallia’s music and submit video of the performance. Professional judges will pick five finalists in each category, and Metallica will pick the winners and also allow fans to pick their favorites.
In the collegiate category, the top Division I school will win $75,000 in prizes and the top Division II school will receive prizes valued at $40,000. The top high school gets $15,000, and the two fan favorites (one college, one high school) each get $10,000 prize packages.
Think of how many people see the halftime show of The Ohio State University Marching Band each week during the football season, either in person, on television or online. Other collegiate bands have huge followings, and thousands turn out locally and around the country to watch their high school teams play and their bands perform at halftime and for band nights.
The deadline for bands to submit their performances is Nov. 16, and complete details are available at www.metallicamarchingband.com.
Andy Gray is the entertainment editor of Ticket. Write to him at agray@tribtoday.com
