Love You (This is semi-epic, you were warned)

I've been meaning to write this post for months, but time always escapes me.

Somehow, it's not only the end of the year, but also the end of the decade. I graduated high school 10 years ago and at that point, just wanted to get out of Hartland, WI, with the goal of working in music. I wanted to work in music because I couldn't imagine the idea of doing anything else. I also wanted a job where I could listen to music all day, sleep in, and be required to go to loads of shows. I never could have imagined that ontop of touring the world numerous times, I'd live in Boston (well I guess I kind of knew that, I was headed to college there), New York, London, and Miami before semi-settling in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

I was pretty sure I could retire after Noel Gallagher dedicated "Don't Look Back in Anger" at The Hurricane Festival in Germany in 2005, but amazingly the work I kept doing kept leading to more and more fun, mind-expanding and eye-opening experiences.

When I look at our company and our roster, I have nothing but gratitude for the people whose energy was pooled for all of this to come together. I could not be more thankful and am nothing without the artists, team, and support of friends and family around me.

Three years ago, my best friend (Laura Keating aka Miss Merch) and I were working at Madison House and survived on smart interns who were able to help us with our infinite work loads. One in particular came highly recommended from Jim Anderson, one of my most respected music professors from Northeastern and her name was Lydia Berg-Hammond. Lydia was a lifesaver at Madison House for us and we also adored her infectious positive attitude and sense of humor. But alas, she had to return to school and Laura and I were terrified of getting another intern who we had to explain to who Radiohead was (not kidding). Lydia said she had a friend named Sydney Wayser who had just graduated from Berklee and needed to do an internship to finish her requirements. New intern who came recommended by LBH? Done. In walked Ms. Sydney, whose incredible spirit shone through from day one, even though she was having a hard time adjusting to New York, just like most 19 year olds. Sydney gave her my CD, and I was blown away by her vocals and musicianship. She was an incredible friend during a transitional time in my life and we've remained close ever since. 23-year old Sydney has really come into her own and I couldn't be more proud. When we first met, Sydney would ask me how I thought she could get a gig at The Living Room. Now she is a regular that packs the place out, toured nationally this summer, and is doing her first European tour this spring, while she sets ready to start working on her third album. Beyond that, Sydney has been an incredible friend and I cherish our relationship both professionally and personally. Thank you for everything, Syd!

One of my favorite jobs in college was ripping tickets at The Paradise. It paid me to see shows for free, AWESOME! One day in 2003, I was working at a Juliana Hatfield show and a band from Martha's Vineyard was opening called Unbusted. They were amazing! I remember a frontman that drew everyone in musically and a drummer going crazy (though was also musicially amazing), reminding me of one of my favorite drummers, Animal from The Muppets. After introducing myself to Joe and Sebastian Keefe multiple times over the early months of 2004 as they played around Boston, they finally started to remember who I was. :) I moved to New York in 2005 after graduation and would never miss an Unbusted show, whether it was in an illegal club in the basement of the city with Porsches on the Autobahn or at SXSW. They were amazing! But sadly, Joe and Seb moved away to Los Angeles and we stayed in touch, with them generally showing up when I'd put them on the guest list at LA shows when I was in town ;). On July 27th of this year, Sebastian sent me the following email (the subject is my favorite part):

Subject: Hi emily! Sebastian keefe

Hi emily!
How are you??!! It's been so long! I hope you are well!
I wanted to tell you about the new group that joe and I started. We're called bogie ogreton (myspace.com/bogieogreton). If you take a minute, I'm sure you will like the music.
We will be playing shows through the rest of the summer, the next one being this wednesday downtown (mountain bar). We've been busy with interviews and photoshoots, and there is beginning to be a bit of a buzz-- we haven even played out yet!
Please give the tunes a listen, any and all feedback Is greatly apreciated.
Thanks emily!
Sebastian keefe

Sent from my iPhone

Two days later, I was managing the band (without ever seeing them live!). That sounds insane, but I'd loved Unbusted live and if they were half as good live as their new recordings, I knew we'd be fine. The band's name was changed to Family of the Year and we quickly put together shows with anyone who would have us. Brian Viglione was gracious enough to have the band open for him and World/Inferno Friendship Society at The Great American Music Hall in San Fran as well as a show in San Luis Obisbo shortly after. Family bought a 1986 RV named Rosie and off we went on their first ever tour. Miracuously this has been documented (along with everything since!) by the great Chris Zampas. For me personally, that little trip was easily in my top 3 favorite tours ever. I don't know if I'd ever laughed harder. Beyond my old friends of Joe and Seb, I adored the new Family members: Brent, Christina, Vanessa and Jim and cherish every moment I get to spend with them personally as well as letting my inner-fan girl out everytime they play live. I'm oh so proud of the work these 6 have put in over the past few months and 2010 is only going to get better. :)

Top that off with Emilyn Brodsky and I couldn't have been happier with our music roster. I've known Emilyn for 6 years and she has gone from an annoying teenager that drove me crazy in the tour van to making one of my favorite albums of the year, Greatest Tits. My life wouldn't be complete without Emilyn stopping by my apartment in Williamsburg with various guests snapping secret pictures of me working, making tea, and more. She seems happier than ever and isn't that what we're all after?

As later as November of this year I was very content with all of the above. What more could I ask for? Well, a phone call from Jared Reynolds sure changed that. I'm honored to be managing the incredible Brendan Benson, one of my favorite artists of the past decade. Yes, you all know him from The Raconteurs, but his new album My Old, Familiar Friend is (not shockingly) AMAZING. I'm so excited for what we have planned for Brendan in 2010 and when he comes to your town, you'd be nuts to miss it. The show is a world-class rock n roll concert with stunning songwriting and musicianship. "Jet Lag" from 2002's Lapalco just came up on shuffle which is very appropriate for my life lately and is one of my favorite songs of all time. I am truly blessed.

However, I am nothing without our team and the support of those around me. Keri Smith inspires me daily with her unbelievable work on Margaret Cho, Selene Luna, Kevin Avery, Sara Benincasa, and Elon James White. Our posse of Sarah Martin, Lydia Berg-Hammond, Katrina Bleckley, Becca Rosenthal, Pickles, Shamisa Zvoma, Daniel Schiffer, Kelsey McLaughlin, Carl Carpenter, did incredible work this year and saved my ass daily. Everyone pray for Katrina as she battles through her last 3 law school finals of the semester. I'm truly in awe of her work ethic, dedication, and passion for life.

How do we get all of this amazing music to you? Various ways, but one is through Jesse Von Doom and CASH Music. I'm not sure if Jesse is human. He is possibly a celestial being that maybe only I can see, although he does have an equally as incredible wife and two of the most adorable little girls I have ever seen, so he's probably real. I am beyond honored to be on CASH's board and beyond the groundbreaking technical work that Jesse does, my spirits are lifted every time I speak to this man. He is one of the warmest souls I have ever met, and I'm truly honored to be associated with him.

And who are Whitesmith's biggest fans that help me to get through all of the work at the end of the day? Bob and Ann White are not only everything I could ever need as parents, but have been supporting the indie-rock community in oh so many ways this year. They hosted The Fiery Furnaces, The Wheel, and World/Infero as the bands rolled into Milwaukee and made the trek out to CMJ! So fun. CMJ was like Christmas and my birthday all wrapped into one. I was so excited that my parents were able to see basically our entire roster all in one night and see what my world is like a bit. Little brother Jesse graduates from the University of Minnesota this year and I hope to god he moves to Brooklyn. Thanks for always being there for me, Jesse!!!!!

I continue to feel beyond supported by amazing friends and mentors such as Joyce Dollinger, Elizabeth Freund, Nathan M Lew, BriAnna Olson, Michael Pope, Winifred Chane, Bill Smolen, Mike Luba, Bob Ezrin, Steve Ferguson, John and Frank Raso, and more. Turning up to our shows alone means the world to me.

I'm writing this on a plane coming home-ish from a 48 hour trip to London. I have shows in Nashville and LA before returning to Brooklyn, but I am so grateful for the past two days as well. The hospitality of others around the world continues to astound me. Thank you Ross for bringing me to Royal Albert Hall this week, truly an honor. Thank you Sulinna for putting me up and empathizing with everything that goes into management + inspiring me and encouraging me to keep it up. Thank you Elif and Emma for always making time to get together when I'm in London, love you girls!

I'm looking forward to Brendan's show in Nashville and spending time with Whitesmith West, Sydney, and Family of the Year in LA this week before headed home for one last weekend of yoga teacher training. I owe another blog post about how much yoga teacher training has (literally) changed my life. But the best part of the experience has been the wonderful community that has come out of the group doing the training. I have 30 new wonderful friends in Williamsburg and I can't wait to witness their continued growth.

So basically, I'm nothing without you all, am SO EXCITED for 2010 and hope you all will join us.

Much Love,

Em Wizzle

Why Spotify Is Awesome

I'd read about Spotify and a few UK friends had told me how cool it was. Without examining why, my natural instinct was that streaming was annoying mostly due to inconsistencies no matter what the interweb speed. A short-term problem in the grand scheme of things, but a problem nonetheless. I suppose I felt that way based on attempting to stream Myspace pages unsuccessfully.

Meanwhile, a very trusty hard drive that stored my music (which is backed up elsewhere, but I mean like up-to-the-second additions) was clearly winding down in it's life. Thus, I picked up a Tb harddrive, assuming I could use the other two as back-ups and use the extra space for artist asset management. The hard drive makes my Mac crash (gasp!) and now even using my 200 gig Time Machine hard drive seems to give my computer trouble. Granted I should add another gig of RAM to my machine, but in the meantime, my stored music collection got scrambled some how for the second time this year. I have about 200 gigs of music on there and frequently add discographies to it. But the reality is, that's a lot of content. And all I want to do is have a wide variety of music accessible for work and fun, so pretty much all the time. But it's clearly becoming a pain and waste of time to do so in this form.

The amazing Katrina, who helps me out with Whitesmith NYC commented that it'd be nice to listen to something other than our artists, Edward Sharpe, The Yeah Yeah Yeah's, and The Beatles. I'm just lazy, even though there is loads of music at my fingertips, I just have to take the time to re-organize it again and haven't taken the time.

Well, today I was able to use Spotify. Music snob friends immediately said "yeah, but does it have EVERYTHING." No, of course not. Their catalogue doesn't have The Beatles, Oasis, and anyone or any rights holders who don't want to be on the service. Nor does it have Family Of The Year's live shows or Sydney Wayser's demos. But I do. I love those artists and have those files on multiple Apple devices and backups, including the machine I'm on right now. But Spotify does have a ton of music. And it streams flawlessly, has a sleek interface, correct info, and can be broken down into genre and era. I've had a blast listening to The Spencer David Group and The McCoys tonight while pouring through Sonny and Cher's album artwork.

Thus, I've spent my day and evening using Spotify. There are ads about every few songs. But it was pointed out to me initially, that because it is a UK program, the ads are all from England and are AMAZING. I mean seriously, today I heard one that had a very sensual theme and was from the UK energy department. There are visual ads as well, but I only noticed when I go back to the program to do something. Right now I obviously can't see them because I'm typing in blog land. It's even more fun than downloading discographies because there is artwork and info on the releases as well. NP, more Sonny and Cher. I love it.

Music snobs also need to chill when talking about preferring physical and/or intense high quality. No one is trying to take that away from you. If anything, physical packages are getting more frequent and artists are getting more directly involved with physical releases. I love the NIN box sets I've bought or seen this decade vs. my Downward Spiral CD from 1994.

When I was making dinner tonight (shout out to Williamsburg-Greenpoint CSA!), I was craving newish Oasis, which Spotify doesn't have (yet). So I just flipped over to my iTunes. Not that hard. It just makes me happy that a decade after the thrilling concept of Napster, enough people have finally been allowed to admit that it's a great idea. Eventually some sort of digital music in this form will just plain cover everything and this is a solid step in the right direction. In the meantime, props to Spotify for having Wibbling Rivalry in its collection, which is a recording of Liam and Noel Gallagher fighting in the 90's, that was released as a UK single and charted.

Eventually beyond that, I can't wait till a service like this integrates with what an individual owns and/or creates. ie my asset management system, random live stuff, and eventually eventually film and tv content all in one place/service. A system to upload/filter legit content directly would be amazing as well. I'm sure charging a fee a la Tunecore would do the trick.

A girl can dream.

Back to work?

Love,

Em Wizzle

Whitesmith CMJ Events, Family's Debut & Help Sydney Get To Her Shows

Hello Loyal Wizzle World Readers!

Yes, I know who you are due to Google Analytics. Thanks for the support.

We are SO EXCITED to be throwing our first ever Whitesmith CMJ Showcase and Party.

Wednesday October 21st will feature the far majority of or Comedy and Music clients. Hooray!

The show starts at 7 PM sharp with Emilyn Brodsky featuring Brian Viglione of The Dresden Dolls. Shortly after will be Sydney Wayser (8 PM) as well as Pinky Swear, which are 3 incredinbly talented gals between the ages of 13-15, featuring Rachel Trachtenburg of The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players.

After a production break, the stage will be graced with the comedy stylings of Sara Benincasa, Elon James White and a special guest. Double Hooray!

Post-comedy, Family Of The Year will blow your mind and ease the night into Rachel's dad, Jason Trachtenburg as well as critic favorite, Alina Simone.

MediaVoxNYC will have an installation and a ton of our friends will be there. The show is a one drink minimum and does NOT require a CMJ badge, so come one, come all! (who are over 21 :))

Can't make it? The night before, we're throwing a party at Crash Mansion with our besties at CASH Music. Sydney (9:15 PM) and Family Of The Year (10 PM) will be playing as well as Whitesmith PR client, Invade Rome (7 PM) and old friends Hooray For Earth (12:15 AM). Everyone is thrilled to be sharing the stage with Demander, Sparrow, Morning Papers, and Yula Beeri.

In semi-related news, Family Of The Year's debut EP is out NOW. Pay what you want and spread the word to all you know. We are super proud of them and thrilled that they'll be on the East coast this weekend opening for Ben Folds at Symphony Hall in Boston as well as touring with Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros in November.

And, Sydney Wayser wants to come to your town! We've been locking shows left and right, but she needs to get to you and to do that, Sydney is purchasing her first ever tour van. Help by donating and you'll get lots of goodies.

Much Love,

Em Wizzle xo

YTT Update

Hello All!

Thank you so much to those who donated to my yoga teacher training. Fyi, I raised about $700 though the internet, which doesn't cover the entire program, but offsets it enough for me to definitely be able to do it. Yay!

Last weekend was the first yoga teacher training weekend and it was AMAZING. It's two 25-hour weekends a month through December + a retreat. We of course have to practice everyday and attend class with one of the instructors at least two days week (not a problem as most of the people in the program are regulars).

I entered the weekend relatively stressed, wondering if I'd have time to pull this off + maintain my usual rigorous schedule. Not only did the first YTT almost completely de-stress me, it definitely helped me work out a few things that were going on with work and life in general.

The instructors (Paul Manza, Leigh Evans, and Summer Quashie) are all fantastic and I knew them before the training. I am in awe of Greenhouse Holistic in general. Greenhouse started as a community based studio that wanted to keep yoga reasonable to the community of Williamsburg and have now expanded to 3 locations. I think it's $35/month unlimited for the first month if you sign up with a friend right now. So awesome! The other folks in the program seem great as well, I knew a few of them the studio.

I went on tour in CA last week for Family Of The Year's first ever tour. I'm super psyched to have a deeper yoga practice for traveling purposes, so it was a great test to dive right into a mini-tour sleeping in an RV with 8 of my new favorite people ever. I managed to practice every day, even i it was short and sweet. I have to teach once a week and Brent Freany who plays bass in the band was my first student. You did great, Bubba! :) Fun fact: Brent is a killer web designer. Check out his skillz and hit him up if you need a gorgeous new website: http://www.product01.org/

I have 25 more hours this week and am feeling the same twang of stress about the time commitment, but it's definitely worth it and I know I won't regret it on Monday.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Thanks again.

Much Love,

Em Wizzle

Whitesmith Show Calendar

Hey All!

At our core, we here at Whitesmith Entertainment are massive show geeks.  The lovely and talented Katrina (who also helps run @whitesmithent) has been compiling a weekly show calendar circulated to our team consisting of our community of artists, friends, and suggestions from our tribe of Whitesmithers.

I thought I'd share it with y'all and when we have a busy week (which seems like every week), I'll post this from time to time.  If you'd like to be on our show distro list, please drop a line to katrina@whitesmithent.com

Unfortunately, I'm posting this a day after @SydneyWayser and @EmilynBrodsky's killer show @CityWineryNYC.  We'll have more @WhitesmithEnt produced shows in the coming months and are having a blast.  We'll keep you posted :)

Whitesmith Artists

Emilyn Brodsky
7/6:  City Winery - New York, NY

Jill Sobule
7/7:  The Makeout Room - San Francisco, CA
7/12:  Concert Under the Stars - King of Prussia, PA

Sara Benincasa
7/10:  Theatre 99 - Charleston, SC

Sydney Wayser
7/6:  City Winery - New York, NY

Friends of Whitesmith
Hana Pestle
7/10:  Knitting Factory - Los Angeles, CA

Hungry Hands (featuring Zach and Blaze of @SydneyWayser's band!)
7/8:  Rockwood Music Hall - New York, NY

Jay Brannan
7/8:  Joe's Pub - New York, NY

John Roberts
7/9:  Comix - New York, NY

Luminescent Orchestrii
7/9:  World Financial Center Plaza (River to River Festival) - New York, NY
7/10:  One New York Plaza (River to River Festival) - New York, NY

Rachel Goodrich
7/9:  Hotel Cafe - Hollywood, CA

Suckers
7/9:  Piano's - New York, NY

Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players
7/7:  Harper's Ferry - Allston, MA
7/12 (11:30 am):  Solar 1 - New York, NY
7/12 (3:00 pm): The Beach at Roosevelt Island - New York, NY

Whitesmith Recommends
theSTART (via Katrina)
7/9:  The Roxy Theatre - West Hollywood, CA

Other Fun and Exciting Things

• Our very own Lydia Berg-Hammond turns another year older (and another year lovelier!) today, July 7th at 9:00 PM.
• Sara Benincasa has a new Sarah Palin vlog up that is really really hilarious.  CNN thought so too.
• Margaret Cho's new show, Drop Dead Diva, premieres on Lifetime on Sunday, July 12th.
• Our new favorite venue, Brooklyn Bowl, opens today!

Much Love,

@EmWizzle xoxo

I Need Your Help/You Get Free Yoga & Guided Meditation

Dearest Interweb,

You have treated me well.  My team and I use you as a vehicle to spread the word on the artists we love.  Often this is in the form of giving us your email address, or other times it's a financial contribution for live or recorded music to support the continuation of the artists' creative output for everyone's benefit.

However, this time I need your help.

I started doing yoga sporadically in high school when my dad (who was our swim coach) brought in a yoga teacher for our "dryland" training.  This was in lieu of weight lifting, which was a more contenvential approach.  However, my hippie dad also knew it would benefit our focus, goal-setting, and state of mind when approaching a big race or meet.  My college swimming coach continued that approach, though much to the dismay of my teammates (semi understandable as we trained 20-30 hours a week as is).  However, in hindsight, if I was as flexible and mentally focused as I am now due to studying yoga, it would have improved my swimming (in a sport where every bit counts, it particularly would have taken me to the next level with regard to my core, technique, turns, and starts).  C'est la vie.

After my senior year of swimming, I was free to attend yoga classes semi-regularly.  It appealed to me as a non-competitive alternative to sports, since I had been swimming competitively since literally the age of 3 (there is video proof).

As my career progressed and I began tour managing in college, yoga became a saviour on the road, physically and mentally.  Amanda Palmer got me into the Baron Baptiste CD's.  We would do classes in venue parking lots, grassy knolls in the UK on off days, dressing rooms, in the stands of Red Rocks during soundcheck, on beaches, and even in the narrow confines of tour busses.  

When I retired from tour managing in 2006, I couldn't wait to be fully back in Williamsburg and go to yoga ALL OF THE TIME.  Like every day.  Here's an except from my journal 9 days before my last show as a tour manager/production manager in London:

Go to a home.
Make real human connections for more than a day.  Or make more than 3 of them total.
Have a consistant shower.
Sleep in a bed that's not moving.
Spread out my body.
Be alone.
Be alone.
Work out.
Swim.
Run.
Do yoga.
Ride my bike.
Go to shows.
Have off time in the day.

Ah, the life of a tour manager.  Upon my return to Williamsburg, I tried a few studios, but settled on Greenhouse Holistic, which received bonus points for its location right off the Bedford L.  I went to yoga at least a few times a week throughout 2007.  The teachers at Greenhouse were incredibly educated but also tailored the classes to our lives as young folks in NYC and everything we deal with (@EmilynBrosky sums this up well in her song "Swear To God".  Fun fact: Emilyn practices at Jivamukti). 

It is now 2009 and I continue to go to Greenhouse no fewer than 5 times a week and ideally everyday when I'm in town.  The teachers @ Greenhouse Holistic inspire me to be better at my job and an overall EmWizzle.  In addition, I have seen their influence on my local community and friends, reminding us to be mindful and compassionate to all even in a crazy world.  Anyone who knows me is frequently encouraged to come to class and I've had some wonderful experiences practicing with friends, musicians, and co-workers.  

I come from a family of teachers and coaches, but always wanted to work in music. That has been the primary focus of my life for the past 7 years and will continue to dominate my life as I'd have it no other way. But as our company continues to grow, I continue to take pride in our team and its values. I love bringing the people I work with to class and am stoked for my worlds to to collide at Wanderlust next month (some of the Greenhouse teachers are coming out as well  Yay!).

So, what's the point?  Recently, Greenhouse announced it first ever teacher training program.  As soon as I saw the flier, I knew I had to do it, no matter how busy I am. However, I am also a first year entrepreneur. Every dime I make goes back into our team's projects right now, as it should.  With my income going to building a vision I have set forth with a partner, there isn't necessarily extra funds around to foot the bill for a 200 hour yoga teacher training program.  I was on the fence and considered waiting until another point in my life.  I attended the info meeting with Summer and realized that there were many reasons I should become certified.  Whether it's yoga on our deck, on the road, or encouraging yoga breaks for the folks in our work environment, practitioners are all around me and that is something I want to continue to nurture.  Am I quitting it all to move to India?  Not yet :). Just kidding, but I'm not looking to become a professional yoga teacher.  I am seeking a deeper understanding, experience, and acquisition of knowledge to share with all of the wonderful people who come in and out of my life who are drawn to this practice.

Thus, I am seeking donations to complete this program.  Why should you donate?  To be honest, I hesitated on an doing an open donation. I'm used to thinking of creative ways to raise funds for artists, but not for myself. However, I have been overwhelmed with encouragement by friends and family to do so. Many reminded me that meditation and yoga really do make the world a better place for all. Thanks guys!

The cost is $2800 and I would be honored to offer free guided meditation and yoga to anyone who is willing to donate. I think getting groups of my friends together for yoga sounds like a blast anyway, especially in random places this summer and fall.

I am forever grateful for those of you that donate, no matter what the amount. Think of it this way:  I have 1500 Facebook friends.  If everyone is willing to throw down $2, we all get free yoga.  Who's in?

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti

Namaste 

In to the light we go.

Much Love,

Emily xo

On Quickbooks

Keri Smith and I started a company earlier this year. When setting up a business, advice comes in from everyone from parents to roommates to lawyers, etc especially with regard to financial advice. We take it all with a grain of salt, but most of our advisors suggested we buy Quickbooks for our small business accounting. People rave about it ie "your interns can run it," "it's so easy for your accountant at the end of the year," "the program practically runs itself."

Everyone in our company is relatively tech savvy, so this is a no brainer, right? I picked up Quickbooks for Mac. Upon installing the program, there were a plethora of options, and I'd rather be spending my time managing our artists instead of bookkeeping. Thus the lovely and talented finance whiz Shamisa agreed to handle our bookkeeping for us. Yay.

One of our first tasks was to install the program on a laptop other than mine for Shamisa and also ensure that Quickbooks was accessible for my business partner, who is based in LA (I'm in New York). Easy, right?  Notsomuch. We tried logging in and the password I had set up didn't work.  Hmm, weird, but no biggie, we'll just go through the password retrieval process, right?

It turns out, the password "hint" is "Who is your childhood hero?" I have been inspired by many people throughout my life and tried to plug in anyone that could fit this category from John Lennon to my family to my first grade teacher. Nothing worked, and we've been locked out of attempting.

Ok, whatever, my fault for not remembering what I had initially plugged in as my "childhood hero." I did think it was odd that an accounting program would use a non-quantifiable question for its password retrieval process, but like I said, mybad as the consumer.

I'm lucky enough to have a small army of interns here at Whitesmith Entertainment, and asked that intern cum apprentice, Katrina aka @ladymelisande, call Quickbooks and sort this out so our bookkeeper and LA partner can have access to the Quickbooks program that we purchased and our files.

After over half a dozen calls totaling at least 6 hours (and I swear that is a conservative estimate) on the phone with Quickbooks, we still do not have our password, nor have they reset it for us. They have asked Katrina to upload and send them a file while there server was down multiple times.  They have told us to get a new password it will cost $79.  Yesterday they told Katrina they'd call back with our new password, and no one ever called.  This has been going on for weeks.  Literally.  I kid you not.

We're going to try contacting Quickbooks again today, but our faith in this recommended accounting program has been broken. Not only have they clearly not been helpful with a simple task such as re-setting a password, but Quickbooks is actually hurting our business since every hour Katrina spends with their customer "service" she is not working on our artists.

I have a policy about not posting anything out to the universe that is negative. But, I will make an exception today for Quickbooks as I feel the world has to know this.

If you or someone you know works for Quickbooks, please give us our password or let us re-set one, and no, I don't want to pay you $79 to do so.

To my wide network of friends and colleagues, many of which are opening or running small businesses in this 2009 world we live in: I advise against purchasing Quickbooks if you don't want your staff looking like this:

Although I have not tried these programs, here are some alternative accounting software programs in the meantime, as if I'm going to vent to the universe, I'd like to leave you with options:

http://www.peachtree.com/

http://www.freeaccountingsoftware.net/

If anyone has positive experiences with an accounting software company they'd like to share, lemme know and I'll post the link up to spread the word.

Love,

Em Wizzle

Emily@WhitesmithEnt.com

Ode to Sabra Hummus

I think I started my "anti" brand phase as a Nirvana fan in high school.  But let's face, it, who doesn't want quality out of the products they consume? (typed from my custom Apple set up).

I don't remember the exact moment I discovered Sabra hummus, but I fell in love quickly. As most who are involved with music know, hummus is a beloved backstage rider item. It's the best thing on tour: a vegan/vegetarian healthy spread that pairs with a variety of items ie pita, veggies, fruit, on sandwiches, etc. Everyone is happy, even the drinkers on the bus who eat it with chips in the morning to cure their hangover. It's such an important item, that when I tour managed The Dresden Dolls, we specified the brand on our rider. However, one tub of Sabra hummus, was never enough for the 10 or so in our band and crew, and thus we would always advance two with the venue. Nothing is more of a bummer than rolling into a venue, starving & exhausted and getting stuck with an off brand hummus, it changes the entire meal. So much so, that I also specified brands of hummus that we DIDN'T want.  No need to list them here as I don't believe in putting negativity out into cyberspace, but you get the idea about our love for Sabra.

I am now quasi settled in Brooklyn, and am off the road.  However, Sabra is still a regular item in my fridge, much to the delight of my roommates and friends.  People love it!  They always call it "that kind" of hummus.  ie "That kind of hummus is the best."  Duh, I'm a hummus expert.  Don't get me wrong, homemade hummus and hummus from my local falafel shop is amazing, but I'm a busy gal and there's actually a (semi) point to this.

Today, while going through my RSS feeder, the Obama Foodorama blog (which is awesome) linked to Sabra hummus statues of Hillary and Obama (!)  (as @indecisean pointed out, there was a McCain one, but as OF pointed out 'who cares?':)).  Obvi, I had to tweet this very exciting combination of two things I love to @ least my roommate and office-mates (who are basically my roommates too) who know/understand my obsession with Sabra.

I came home from yoga to find that @Sabra had re-tweeted my post, which was rad because it meant Sabra was on Twitter.  It looks like @Sabra is in its early phases, but I love it already. @Sabra has already made a Seinfeld reference, toured Boston colleges, & a provided a place to declare one's love for jalapeno or indecisiveness on whether combining caramelized onions and hummus is a good thing. Maybe someone will post about Sabra falafel and put me over the edge to buy it.  I've always seen it, but never tried it for some reason.

Yes, Sabra is distributed by PepsiCo.  But do we love MGMT's Oracular Spectacular any less because it's distributed by Sony? If you do, that's lame.

Anyway, thank you @Sabra for finding a hummus lover like me and communicating so directly. What's next?  Sabra pita?  Who knows, but whether it's Orwellian or not (which my mom pointed out to me tonight), I'm sure @Sabra will let me know.

Love,

Heavily Engaged Dipper Em Wizzle

PS - Sabra should put their Twitter link on the top or upper right or left hand corner of their site for max eyeballs :) x

Obama + UK. Yum.

London, Barack giving The Queen an iPod, and Michelle Obama representing America.  There is just so much goodness in the following clips.

In other news, Primal Scream played in Williamsburg on Sunday (!!!!!!!!!)

So so so so so so amazing.  And I connected with a new friend via futuristic, interweb ways.  

xo

34th Street ACE - What's the deal?

Can someone explain to me why the express and local trains run on opposite platforms at Penn Station? Peter Sand?? Anyone??

It has perplexed me for years. Here I am, standing on the express downtown side and TWO local trains have gone by on the other side of the platform. Oh wait, make that 3 now. Either track will take me to the L train and home to Williamsburg, I just always seem to choose the wrong one. Extra not fun as I'm often in this predicament after an Amtrak ride from Boston.

I'm not complaining about travel as it is such a bummer when people do. Traveling is a privilege. Louis CK sums that up nicely in the following clip.  I first saw this on a yoga teacher's FB page, and it's been passed around through a few circles of friends.  I LOVE the wifi on the story.  



But what's the deal with the tracks at this station? Engineering error? Somethinbg I'm missing? Help me people!

Oh, yay, the A train just showed up. At least I get bberry service down here.

Back to Whitesmith land.

xo
sent without wires

SXSW Past and Present

In 2003, I asked Amanda Palmer if I could tour manage The Dresden Dolls on their first "national" tour.  Sans summer of NIN and Europe 2005, that first tour remains my fave.  

Me & AP on said tour @ a SXSW party in 2004.

 

This year, 2009 Amanda was making her debut as a solo artist.  

• The NME dug Amanda @ The Paste Party
  
• A 6th Street pillow fight with Vermillion Lies ended in love
• AP did an impromptu gig with John Wesley Harding to entertain folks in line for the panel she was about to speak on
• Thanks again to @IanCRogers, for having Amanda on "Do A 360 Deal With Yourself"
• I love love loved Amanda's show @ the Central Presb. Church.  It was beautiful, epic, & featured a sit in by Margaret Cho.
• The LA Times wrote all about it.

And our 2009 hair is shorter.

Margaret played about town as well, debuting songs @ the Myspace party, Velveeta Room, Esther Follies, and Perez's party.  I think I can relate to every song she played. :)  Download "Eat Shit and Die" HERE.

I had a blast hanging out with Alina Simone last night.  Everyone should come out to her 5/21 show @ Union Hall.  Alina, Amanda, and Eugene Mirman are a trio Lexington, MA high school friends, and it's a pleasure to witness all of their careers continue to grow.

A lot more happened, but I'm hitting the wall.  Fave non-Whitesmith shows were Graham Coxon @ the Q party & just plain seeing Bobby Gillespie @ breakfast.  Thanks so much to Ja-rone, Kristan, Beth, Lydia, and Katrina for their help this week.  And of course, yay for Keri and Jenny Applebuam hang time.

x 

Introducing Whitesmith Entertainment, Inc.

Hello Wizzle World Readers!

Keri Smith Esguia and I are proud announce the official launch of our company, Whitesmith Entertainment, Inc.

Whitesmith Entertainment is a full service management company based in New York and Los Angeles with consulting services available within all artist rights. Please check out our press release for additional information on our company and artists.

We are honored to manage the following clients, with more to be announced shortly:

MARGARET CHO

• Stand-up comedy legend, working on her debut music comedy album, Guitarded, slated for a 2010 release, and currently writing with Tegan & Sara, Ben Lee, Amanda Palmer, Jon Brion, Patty Griffin, Kaki King, The New Pornographers, Broken Social Scene, and more.
• Filming Drop Dead Diva this summer for Lifetime Television.
• Making her debut to the music industry this week @ SXSW, which she discussed with Time Magazine.

AMANDA PALMER

• Frontwoman for The Dresden Dolls, songwriter, author, internet phenom, actress, yogi, and activist released her debut solo album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer in 2008, produced by Ben Folds (Please e-mail us to request a digital and/or physical album).
• Recently wrapped up a world tour, selling out dates in London, Paris, Dublin, and three nights at the Sydney Opera House Theatre. Check out Amanda's performance & antics on Australian national TV.
• Who Killed Amanda Palmer book to be released in June with text by esteemed author NEIL GAIMAN. The album also spawned a video for each song, which can be viewed HERE and will be released on DVD June 2nd.

SARA BENINCASA 2009 ECNY award winner for her Sarah Palin vlogs, which garnered rave reviews from CNN, BBC, and The New York Times.

• Check out Sara's latest clip, parodying The Reader as requested by Youtube prior to this year's Academy Awards.
• Watch for a lot more from Ms. Benincasa in 2009, who is an MTV correspondent, host of Get In Bed on Sirius' Cosmo Radio, creator of NYC's Gossip Girl Summit, and will be launching her interview series, Gettin' Wet w/ Sara B later this year.

SELENE LUNA

• Selene is the break-out star of VH1's The Cho Show and has been touring nationally doing stand-up, opening for Margaret Cho.
  
• Recent film appearances include My Bloody Valentine 3-D and check out her amazing "Madonna and Child" comedy video, starring as Lourdes Ciccone.

IAN HARVIE

• Ian Harvie is the world's first transgendered comedian and host of The Ian Harvie show @ Largo in Los Angeles.
• Currently writing and developing The Manologues and touring nationally at universities.

Also, for those of you who will be in Austin this week, we invite you to stop by Margaret and Amanda's shows and panel, with info in the attached fliers.

To stay up to date on all things Whitesmith Entertainment:
Become A Fan on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Sign up for our Email list HERE.

Please email us directly with questions and inquiries. We are psyched!

Thanks so much,
Emily, Keri, and Team Whitesmith

Emily White
Whitesmith Entertainment, Inc.
New York/Los Angeles
www.WhitesmithEntertainment.com

Amanda on Good News Week in Australia

So hot.

Love,

Em Wizzle xo

CSA and Net News Wire

Hello All!

As most of you know, I moved back home to Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Awesome!

We will be formally announcing and publicly launching our super rad new company, Whitesmith Entertainment, this week. More on that shortly.

In the meantime, I want to encourage everyone to support their local farmer's market. CSA programs (Community Supported Agriculture) are becoming more popular and my roommates and I just signed up for the Williamsburg-Greenpoint pick up. What does this mean? Peeps like us can pre-order vegetables, eggs, fruits, and flowers in advance from a local organic farm. Yum! It's healthy, mega environmentally friendly, and supports local farms. DO IT!!!!

In other semi geeky news, I thought most peeps knew about RSS readers.  I've been using Net News Wire for over a year to subscribe to about 200 blogs and websites in real time.  So in case you don't have a system in place, I highly recommend New News Wire as an RSS Reader.  Two people told me it changed their life this week after I suggested it, so I figured I'd post it here. Enjoy!

Also, I signed up for Twitter in August but am finally active on the Twitter train: http//www.twitter.com/emwizzle

I will try to to keep Wizzle World updated.  I started this blog when I moved to Miami, to keep in touch with friends and avoid the boredom of not being in NYC.  But now I'm home for good, and am crazed with our company and am constantly at events.  I will try and post about all of these fun things, but life is short.  Feel free to add me on Facebook for brief updates/photos/links/event announcements of all things Wizzle, Whitesmith, and beyond.

Love,

Emily White xo

PS - Off to the ECNY's tonight where Sara Benincasa is up for 3 awards.  In her words, ZOMG SO AWESOME!!! 

It worked!

It's still never too late to donate to Planned Parenthood in Sarah Palin's name:

Alaska State Capitol Building
Sarah Palin
Third Floor
P.O. Box 110001
Juneau, AK 99811-0001

I am so so so happy to be living under the Obama administration, and I'm all about looking forward. BUT, Sarah P is still an elected official, with grandiose visions that are obvious since she put together a PAC.

Ah, memories.



xo

Rad

xo

Let's follow that up with some Positivity

Love,

Em Wizzle xo

i'm here because God called me here.

xo

RADNESS

I love pop music (I am often called out for listening to TLC's first album or Britney on my Adium/iChat.  Someday I will write a long blog dissecting Britney's videography).  I don't dig the Jonas Brothers, but THIS IS AWESOME!  7 year old Wizzle would have died to find NKOTB at the end of a historical scavenger hunt.

Jordan's manager actually wanted to meet with Amanda for some reason a few years ago (yay Boston).  Sadly, I still kinda freaked with giddiness :)

xo

My brother's Dutch ultimate frisbee team

They're called The Nuts and just had a tournament in Ireland.  Jesse is sporting the blue tights.

Love,

Big Sister Em Wizzle xo