Keeping It Real

Last week I read an article about a 14 year old girl who wrote to Seventeen Magazine and asked for the models to be “real” girls. In this day and age it’s sometimes difficult to recognize what’s real and what’s not.

Take a photo for instance. Any photo can be tweaked. Want your teeth whiter? Want to be 10 pounds or maybe 20 pounds thinner? No problem. We can just photoshop the pounds away. Easier than liposuction. No pain. Want to erase the old boyfriend from that stunning photo of the two of you in Mexico? Easy.

Flipping through the pages of fashion mags gets me to wondering. There is NO way these women have completely flawless skin, zero tan lines, no wrinkles in sight and perfect teeth. I decided to do a little detective work and asked my expert photographer husband (yes, that’s his job) to show me how extreme beauty is created on a less than perfect subject. Voila. And not only does it work on people pics, but I applied this knowledge to other subjects as well. Make the sky bluer. Make the entire pic vintage looking. What you see is not what you get.

Want real? Sit at an outdoor café and watch people. Study people. The young man over there with a cigarette and a coffee checking his cell phone every five seconds. The woman walking past pushing a stroller with a crying toddler strapped in it. This is real.

Listening to live music is real. Or is it? In large stadium venues many pop singers are syncing it to a track. It’s almost expected. Who can sing live with all that running around? I’d be screaming oxygen.

The best places to hear live sound are in small intimate venues. OK…I am a bit biased. I really love performing in small intimate venues where I can make eye contact with the cute guy nursing his beer. That’s keeping it real. My band behind me is as real as it gets.

And what about recordings? Is it live or is it Memorex? Some of you may remember that ad. Used to be you’d stand in front of the mics and record. You screw up, you do it again. Nowadays it’s all about the mixing. I’ll admit I love that process. But even for those “singers” who can’t quite carry a tune, a little tweaking and look at that…a new pop singer is born. That to me is major scary. I’ll bet if you asked a few of those one hit wonder pop stars to sing something live they would run screaming.

Go find real. Go to a little club and listen to an outstanding jazz band. Or a rock band. Or a folk artist. Acoustic. Go to a museum and look at art. Real art created by hand and not by a computer. Sit somewhere and have a coffee and watch the world stroll by.

Keep it real people and have a great week!!