eu já estou devidamente matriculada nesta turma e vou experimentar bastante a linguagem e a técnica dos tipos móveis. abordagem contemporânea aliada às raízes tipográficas de gutenberg. é disso que estamos falando! vamos criar um livreto coletivo com as composições. resultados em breve!

"To interpret the message, you must first know the author." That sounds like an important quote of prominence from the past, does it not? I believe that it is your right to know a little bit about who I am to justify your continued viewing of this publication - and that's exactly what I'm going to deliver to you first. However, that quote, to my knowledge, is one I recently made up and I don't subscribe to it. The picture leading us off could be saying, "look, I am stylized and have a sense of magical realism to my personality." More likely, I realized that I couldn't get the consumer camera to focus on what I wanted and therefore made up for my error by controlling another element. I think the former has as much truth.

This blog is a social, lifetime-experiment, much of which I'm choosing to rely heavily on the art of photography. In the spirit of photography that is how this first post will enlighten you to the quirks of Doctor Jones. I thought first to exhibit photographs of distaste to my preference, thus you the audience, would then learn who I am by knowing what I am not, or at least what I think, what I hope, I am not. By the sheer explicit title of this page you could probably assume what I am not. Do not assume though, the title is a mere statement that expression is limitless as there are over six billion perspectives in this world alone, and I possess one of those. That supersedes politics, religion and even social interests, though it may enter into those realms. Literature certainly falls into all of those categories and isn't it interesting to speculate on how, as seen in photo above on row 2, column 1, the books following onto the other could symbolize the cyclical nature of things, time and knowledge folding upon itself. Even the colors can suggest additional interpretations. The duality of every action...well, was it Newton who said for every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction? Blowback (that's a CIA term, research it)? The truth lies between the lines and on other pages.

They are, some, representations of what I enjoy. The big hint is they are not what I am not. They are who I am, even when in the past (or possibly the future) I would/will not agree. Naturally, I wouldn't intentionally lead you into discovery of the secretive, shameful things that make up my being (although sometimes people do and those are called, "cries for help"). Don't worry, I'm confused too. As literature has pushed along human existence so has music (at least there would be many who would argue a convincing case). The technology of music, never ceases to amaze me. Can you imagine how excited I am when I start planting the ideas of extra-terrestrials, spiritual energy and alternative solutions to exclude carbon nutrients that can substitute for food that replenish the energy our bodies need (disclaimer: only if we had bodies that were not carbon would this be possible, which brings up another interesting thing to ponder). Oh my. Oh my. As boundless as God can be, I need that structure you often find in spiritual faith. I function, or rather exist often without it, but the older I get the more I strive for it (without, hopefully, becoming brainwashed and enslaved by it).

In lieu of the aforementioned idea behind the blog derived from the title, you might have induced the original thought, that all of these images are basically still life portraits under a controlled environment, by what I like to think of as my own doing. Therefore you could deduce a trait of my own is a desire for control despite it's contradiction of my semi-inferred Marxist title. You might be 25% correct in your estimations, possibly less. I would advise a more open-minded approach. The possibility could lie simply in the fact that I didn't have the equipment quality to catch sudden, un-scripted, occurrences in nature. Now you know that I am a Democrat...or maybe I am a Republican Constitutionalist...or on the verge of Joker like anarchy. I HIGHLY doubt it! For the record...

...this blog exists, simply, for the purpose, as a citizen of the 21st Century, to utilize the web, as other advocates of free expression who came before us used the printing press. Not to say that what good is a right if you don't exercise it (cause lawyers will often tell you to reserve your right), right? The Internet is the market place of ideas. I just hope they don't apply the Stamp Act to the World Wide Web.

All with a smile,
Doctor Jones

p.s. Don't assume this to be the personality of the blog going forward. Never, ever, assume. Only have fun and be serious with intentionality (I don't know what I mean by that).

p.p.s. I feel like being courteous and giving you a bonus photograph to clear up in more ways than one the vagueness of this post. I do not as much employ the idea of vague as a progressive thought process. Being open minded, which is what I am attempting to illustrate, is quite different. Most American elections are vague.

This photograph, taken by Grant Perkins, a good friend of mine who graciously loaned me his camera (ah, a little enlightenment), however, illustrates a most explicit action, don't you think? I am not what I would consider a smoker (not that I haven't ever, ever) but there is a lifestyle behind this photograph. Not necessarily an absolute creed or genre of individuals but no doubt more than it's "message," it's a statement (could be synonymous for message) of artistic beauty from this blogger's perspective. I'll go out on a limb though and say that my position is more educated and less subjective. Yes, subjectivity, if open-minded, has it's limits. Doesn't it? That doesn't stifle perspective, it's more of an elitist principle.

*All photographs (with exception to Grant Perkins snapshot & the photo of the camera which is taken by an iPhone) were taken on the day of this post, September 4th 2008, between the times of 9:45am and 10:15am in the basement of the ACU library in Abilene, Texas.

Gelukkig is er software die deze vormgeving wat kan aanpassen: GutenMark. Die neemt de eBooks en converteert ze in html-bestanden met aparte hoofdstukken, waarbij woorden in andere talen cursief gezet worden, alle fragmenten die volledig in hoofdletters staan terug naar gewone kleine letters omzet, enz.

Haal je zo'n boek door de software, dan wordt die veel gemakkelijker om de boeken op bijvoorbeeld een mobiel toestel te lezen.

GutenMark is gratis, en geschikt voor Windows en Linux; voor Mac OS X zal je misschien toch wat problemen ondervinden.

http://www.sandroid.org/GutenMark/

Birkert has a very hostle attitude when it comes it technology. Birkert states that " i worry not only that the world will become incresingly alien and inhospitable to me, but also that i will be gradually coerced into living against my natural grain, forced ti adapt to a pace and a level with others in certain prescribed ways." Here Birkert is explaining how much he doesn't want to live life with technology. he wants to live life like they did in the past. i'm not to sure if i agree with much of what Birkert has to say. i believe society is doing great with technology. Birkert looks forward to the future with his daughter, but does not look forward to the "lushly animated narrative" called the disney empire. Birkert strongly dislikes the idea of a "narrative created by a team, rather then a single artist." i noticed that Birkert does not enjoy trying anything new. when i first heard we were goin to read a book on The Gutenberg Elegies, i was extremely excited. i expected a lot from this book. i wanted Birkert to explain more of the history of books rather then then how books are the highest technology we should ever need. Birkert explains that he trys to convince his daughter that "books are a place away from routine, a place associated with dreams and fantasies", but Disney is full of dreams and fantasies. its a place where her imagination and sore, and the best way for her to experience these dreams and fanasies are threw movies and technology.

Why does Birkert not like technology? he believes that books are and will forever be the greatest technology ever invented, but what about the machines that type up the books, or the factory machines that produce the books. why can't Birkert just excpet the fact that the world gets higher in technology every year?

Here, he starts to stumble between beliefs and feelings, between modernistic and emotional paths of thought. When he taught American Short Stories at a local college, his passages of Irving and Hawthorne were met with apathy and laziness. Now while this may attest to the literary lack of interest in that area, that should not characterize American literature's hold on imagination.

On one hand, he can not stand that his daughter loves the story so much she reads it repeatedly; he would never want a tale to be over-enjoyed as though it is forced. On the other hand, Birkerts truly loves that his daughter has not fallen to the Bill Gates youth, thriving on neon computer screens. Now, while he argues that the integration of technology into modern life has a negative effect on literacy, he admires a film adaptation a Virginia Woolf novel, and the stellar acting he sees on the television.

Now while he tries to solidify his belief in technology's venomous effect on literacy, he seems to take backward steps anytime he tries to go forward or when tries to make valid points. When he tests the waters with his love of Virginia Woolf, he'll argue with himself about whether or not A Room of One's Own was a better story or film adaptation. Birkerts will complain on how the youth never enjoy reading; instantly afterward, he'll be irked by his daughter's over-enjoyment of a Disney book.

Birkerts seems to be too fearful of his surroundings to fully take stand against commercialism and technology. While he feels comfortable loathing computer screens, he seems to not have a problem with most novels to be electrically printed and sold.

I wonder what Birkerts would do if he had to meet a real writer. His descriptions are drawn out and snobby while his understanding of teenage mindset is almost laughable. I wonder how he would feel nowadays where stories like Harry Potter and Twilight shatter all the records and make billions of dollars.

Now, I am not sure how much of a literary wasteland the 1990's were, but the 21st century is, if anything, an oasis of free thought and publication, where anyone can become a Stephen King, a Tom Clancy, or an Anne Rice.

Ce-ar fi fost daca Gutenberg nu ar fi inventat tiparul?

La ce opinii, de la amuzante la interesante, am avut parte data trecuta, risc sa nu mai am nicun farmec cu ideile mele, asa ca voi fi primul care va impartaseste versiunea sa:)).

Consider ca dezvoltarea civilizatiei asa cum o stim ar fi fost perturbata si toate beneficiile ei, de care ne bucuram astazi (democratie, cultura, rafinament, egalitate), de parca ar fi ceva natural, ne-ar fi fost inaccesibile pentru o lunga perioada, poate pentru totdeauna. Omenirea sau civilizatia europeana, cel putin, ar fi ramas in era in care artele plastice si arhitectura reprezentau principalele mijloace de comunicare de masa. Coehlo ar fi sculptat statui motivationale, iar Sandra Brown ar fi facut goblenuri cu scene siropoase, pe care le-ar fi vandut in targ gospodinelor plictisite si un pic frustrate.

Mio carissimo Alessio,

stamani ero seduto nello stesso caffè dove eravamo qualche settimana fa, quel caffè San Giovanni che ci vide e ascoltò le nostre piacevoli conversazioni storiche. Ed è a proposito di queste che desidero scriverti, giacché il tempo tiranno non ci permise dissertare ulteriormente su quell’argomento che avevamo ben impostato e che tanto appassiona sia te che me: Gutenberg, la stampa, i torchi, i caratteri mobili, i libri.

Tu dicevi che i caratteri mobili del nostro permettevano, correggendo le bozze, stampare libri privi di errori ortografici - salvo eventuali altre sviste - e che la Bibbia a 42 linee aveva inaugurato non solo un nuovo modo di diffondere la cultura, legato all’imprenditorialità e al nuovo e fiorente commercio, ma anche alla nuova forma di comunicare tra i dotti, grazie alla – certamente oggi scontata – uniformità dei testi. Cosicché, la pubblicazione in serie dei libri permetteva ad ogni singolo studioso riferirsi a un determinato testo, uniforme e codificato, indicando, per esempio, numero di pagina, senza rischiare che questa potesse essere diversa da quella di un’altra copia, come sovente accadeva nei manoscritti.

Però, e qui non siamo riusciti a proseguire, a definire un passo - ricordi che erano le 10 di sera e dovevano chiudere il locale? -, un passo a mio avviso importante, però, dicevo, credi che i libri stampati allora, e ti parlo di fine 1400, abbiano preparato il terreno al futuro Martin Lutero? È altresì indubbio che la maggior parte dei volumi editi erano opere religiose, strettamente in latino, erano opere dedicate all’esaltazione della Chiesa, di Dio, libri rivolti per lo più ai dotti, a coloro che sapevano leggere, e costoro non erano molti.

Così stamani riflettevo, sorseggiando un caffè e aspettando che aprisse la chiesa di San Giovanni Fuorcivitas, che non siamo riusciti a visitare perché chiusa in quei momenti da noi erroneamente scelti: anche la devozione ha i suoi orari!

Un abbraccio e un doveroso saluto alla tua dolce metà.

Tuo Rino.

"A recent LA Times article features an interview with Caltech economics professor R. Preston McAfee, who is bucking the trend by offering his students a free, online, open source textbook. McAfee is (rightly) outraged by the prices charged to what is in effect a captive market. This isn't the first time that overpriced textbooks have been highlighted in the media either.

As the ranks of faculty slowly swell with those of us raised in the digital age, there are some signs that suggest hope. Blogs, wikis, and even tools like Second Life and YouTube are gaining traction with some professors as teaching tools that can engage students, and do so without emptying their wallets. Christopher Rice, a lecturer in political science at the University of Kentucky, is one such trend-setter.

In 2006, Rice experimented with a wiki for his Introduction to Political Science class. In addition to online articles, the wiki links to books at Project Gutenberg for older texts. This kept the students' reading list to below $40, an important consideration when tuition seems to go up every year. Students could also collaborate, posting class notes and helping to develop the course."

read more

Maybe online books will never replace paper books: I still prefer touch a book (of course, it depends on the kind of book) when I read it. But in a lot of cases, it is a really good (and cheap) solution to "spread" the knowledge.

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Prior to Gutenberg, most of the books in Europe were the Bible; scribal production was so slow that simply recopying that one book took up much of the available output. After Gutenberg, publishers began experimenting with new forms—novels, scientific papers, periodicals of all sorts.

That is, the kinds of information that effectively counted—that were of sufficient (or potentially sufficient) importance to merit a run on the printing press—expanded rapidly & irreversibly. As Shirky points out, a whole lot of garbage flowed into that vacuum & scandalized everyone.

But we managed, even though the volume of garbage hasn't been reduced all that much. We've learned to identify the kinds of publications that interest us, & we've seen that a lot of the good stuff still rises to the top. Of course, some truly horrible shit still sells well; that's the price you pay when you open up the means of production. But that's been the case since the printing press took off, & trudging through the cesspool still seems infinitely more desirable than being handcuffed to the pre-Gutenberg Church monopoly.

It's worth noting that most of the arguments made against the printing press were correct, even prescient. Readily available translations of scripture did destroy the Church as a pan-European institution. Most of the material produced by the new class of publishers was flyweight. Scribes did lose their social function. And so on, through a battery of transformations including public scrutiny of elites, the international spread of political foment, and even literate women.

The thing I want to point out here—Shirky doesn't take this tack explicitly—is this: while the current Most Loud Wringer-of-Hands (the literary establishment, which is part & parcel with the humanities) doesn't actually need to control the means of literary production, it's going to get itself into some Gutenberg-era Church-style trouble if it continues to insist that it does. The humanities has no good reason, really, to believe that we'll all be out of a job if we fail to prevent the "death of the book." When did we forget that our job isn't to talk about books but to talk about thought & the words that express it?

This doesn't mean that the literary forms to which we're accustomed are going to wither & die. I doubt that people will stop writing novels & stories (& maybe even poems). I also doubt that people will stop reading such works. Will everyone have a filled floor-to-ceiling bookcase? I doubt that, but that's a different question entirely.

What I do know is this: it's altogether too late for the literary establishment or anyone else to enforce this notion that the physical book should be the privileged form for literary output. If we insist otherwise, we're going to be in a fix, because there's nothing we humans like less than being told what we can & cannot think or read. & the literary establishment has a great deal less clout than the Church had when it comes to enslaving people's minds & enforcing censorship. But that's the cast that a great deal of this death-of-the-book nonsense has taken on, & it's really unbecoming.

Here's the other thing: we're supposed to be the least trammeled when it comes to freedom of thought & expression. We like thinking new thoughts & learning new things. Well, new things are happening, & if the literary establishment is going to keep telling us that the things that we're interested in "don't count", then that's too damned bad, but there's a whole lot of really interesting artistic work being done & damned if I'm going to miss it. If the humanities won't have us, we'll take our clever little brains & go someplace that will.

The humanities only has one other choice: to change. As Shirky puts it:

It is too early to tell whether the internet's effect on media will be as radical as that of the printing press. It is not too early to tell that there is nothing that happened between 1450 and now that comes close. It is also not too early to tell that we are in for a significant transformation of intellectual life, and the lesson from the last revolution is that the way to make society better is not to try to preserve the old forms, but to experiment, wildly, with new ones, including hybridization of the book with the web.

These are exciting times. This is, in fact, supposed to be the very stuff that we literary-critical types should be getting all in an excited, ridiculous, hopeful lather about. Technology is allowing us to innovate in ways that have never been possible, & we're lucky enough to be here to watch these patterns emerge. Simple example: we've struggled for centuries with the problem of how to tell a four-dimensional, non-linear narrative within the constraints of the necessarily-linear page. We've seen remarkable solutions to this problem, from Sterne's Tristram Shandy (1756) to Pessoa's Book of Disquiet (which doesn't even have a publication date, really), to Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars (1984, which was published in two versions, male & female). These works aren't going to get any less compelling than they already are; but the internet's virtual nature allows us to remap space & even time with something as simple as a link. Really amazing things could happen in fields like genre or narratology (but that's a rant for another time). For now, I'm just pleased to be here, excited at the prospect of seeing new forms of art & of learning to feel comfortable reading & thinking in ways that currently overclock my mental CPU to even consider.

But right now the humanities can't seem to be able to look past its fearful visions of the upswelling of dross that we'll have to sort through, or how much money we're going to lose in our already-negligible book sales, or the horrifying idea that we might find ourselves, along with everyone else, having to learn how to read again.

I'm sorry, but that's just bullshit.

(Thanks to Jacob from Conventioneers! for linking this in comments.)

I once worked in sales for an office supply company. After working to hone my craft, I discovered that the average person isn't impressed with a technical vocabulary. Rather, the ability to translate it's meaning was far more impressive, as it showed greater skills (and greater sales).

In the church world, due to the pending illiteracy crisis (and yes, I used the "c" word), we will be forced to alter our Christianese, a buzz word for churchy words. Concepts like repentance, sanctification, grace, and even the overused word "fellowship" deserve a translation of their translation. Messages intended to just explain these easily become "heady" to their hearers, who throw in the towel and give up.

It is critical to educate these concepts, as they are foundational. But just as core clock speed is geek speak for how quickly the brain operates a computer, fellowship is actually just hanging out (really - can we retire that word, yet?).

We have a generation with unlimited information available, but its used to browse photos from Saturday's keg stand on Facebook, save Princess Peach on Wii, and learn the lyrics to "I Kissed a Girl" on Youtube. As Christian leaders we must examine this challenge and use it instead of ignoring or doubting it. Gutenberg is being paged - will you answer?

As with all the Eyewitness Books, this one is a visual feast. There are 25 two-page spreads, each illustrated with photographs of museum-quality artifacts. There is a bit of overview text, and then lengthy captions underneath each photograph describing the item in detail. The spreads are titled:

Examples of medieval handwritten manuscript books	There is a fascinating chart on page 16 showing the alphabet family which compares the letter forms from Phoenician, Modern Hebrew, Early Greek, Classical Greek, Etruscan, Classical Roman, and Modern Roman. As you can see from the spread titles above, the focus is on book-making BEFORE the 20th century. There is no coverage of modern book-making machinery or computer typesetting. For those topics, though, there are other books. With its 8 page center section devoted to Gutenberg, moveable type, and his press, this book makes an excellent resource for anyone studying the invention of the printing press. It will give you extensive background on how "books" were created in the ancient world, which helps you to understand the significance of what Gutenberg accomplished. I've scanned three of the sample spreads and placed them to the left here.
This is a reproduction of the Gutenberg press
Gutenberg Bible on the right, Caxton's Canterbury Tales on the left, and an Aldine edition from Venice in the center.

Book, like all the other Eyewitness Books is a hardback, 64 pages, with a price of $15.99. It can be ordered directly from Greenleaf Press by clicking here.

- Rob Shearer
Publisher, Greenleaf Press

1. Don't Give Up! No matter how long it takes, no matter how many obstacles are thrown in your way, no matter how many people tell you you have absolutely no talent (and trust us, a lot of people told us that), never quit! We never did, and now look at us? For the past two weeks, we have performed our labor of love to the adoring, Texan masses, and nothing in our lives has ever been so fulfilling. And we don't want to count our eggs before the raccoon slips into the henhouse and eats them all up, but it's safe to say that someday soon, everyone in the world will be able to come to Broadway and see Gutenberg! The Musical! And someday slightly less soon, YOUR Hit Broadway Musical will be on Broadway, too! As long as you never let go of your dream.

And with that, Bud & Doug will be signing off. Our last show with Amphibian Stage Productions was a heartfelt one to say the least. We want to take this opportunity to thank all of the people who took our dreams and cooked them and made them taste delicious, in particular Artistic Director Kathleen Culebro and our director David A. Miller. You guys are the best.

Love forever,

Doug Simon & Bud Davenport

]]> http://lachenundnachdenken.wordpress.com/?p=498 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 06:40:18 +0000 killerkeks http://lachenundnachdenken.wordpress.com/?p=498 Ein NPD-Funktionär soll an der Mainzer Universität einen anderen Studenten zusammengeschlagen haben. Die Uni beriet über seine Exmatrikulation - und verzichtete darauf. Bald sehen sich die Kombattanten vor Gericht wieder.

Es ist vielleicht die älteste Form der geordneten nonverbalen Auseinandersetzung: das Duell Mann gegen Mann, mit gleichen Waffen. Ob steinerne Keule, Vorderlader oder ganz simpel die Fäuste - am archaischen Ritus von Duellen zwischen echten Männern hat sich, seit Menschen aufrecht gehen, nichts geändert.

Beide schildern den Fall anders, mehr auf SPON

2. Create a Delicious Villain! Now, if you've followed tips 10 through 3, then you probably have a hit Broadway musical on your hands. Now you have to think about how to make your musical go down in the annals of Broadway history as one of the all-time greats. And you can't go wrong with having a bad guy yo just looove to hate. Look at Bernardo and Officer Krupke from West Side Story, or Audrey II from Little Shop, or better yet, Javert from the granddaddy of all musicals, Les Mis. The reason these stories are so memorable is because the obstacles facing our heroes were truly one-of-a-kind. In Gutenberg! The Musical!, our Delicious Villain is the Monk, an evil man who hates God. He is against everything Johann stands for, namely educating the people about God and stuff. But it's how he goes about thwarting Gutenberg that makes him so, well, delicious! Whether it's convincing Helvetica to destroy the printing press or his devillish affection for pencils as deadly weapons, or his falsetto solos that bring the house down, Monk has what it takes to be the cream of the crop. Cream that will never be scraped off, no matter how hard they try.

So, remember Amphibians: Whenever you bring in da noise, you gotsta bring in da Monk!

--Bud & Doug

3. Act I Finisher! When the lights come up for the intermission, your show needs to hit your audience with such force that they are inextricably wedged into their chairs, unable to get out. To ensure those fannies are stuck to those seats, you need to craft one heck of an Act I Finisher.

There are three rules to making a whiz-bang Act I Finisher: 1) Every main character has to be singing. 2) In lyrics, there needs to be some mention of the future. That way, the audience gets psyched for what’s gonna happen next! Just look at the “Quintet” number from West Side Story right before the intermission. Why is it called “Quintet”? ‘Cause there are five parties singing at the same time: Tony, Maria, Anita, the Jets, and the Sharks. In other words, everybody. Also, what’s the link connecting all of their stories, what they’re all singing about? Tonight! In Gutenberg! The Musical! we only have three characters singing the Act I Finisher, but we step it up a notch by calling it “Tomorrow is Tonight.” That’s two future references in the title alone, folks.

Finally there’s Rule #3, and it relates directly to our Be Hip tip from a few posts past: in today’s day and age, your Act I Finisher needs to be totally rockin’. As in rock music rockin’. As in, ' than an actual piece of rock hardened over billions of years of high-heat molding or sedimentation. That way, the audience will feel the rock right there in their laps, and they’ll be unable to move cuz they got a big rock weighing them down with need to know what’s gonna happen!

Good luck,

Bud & Doug

2. Include a Love Story! Question: What would have happened if Tony and Maria never fell hopelessly in love? Answer: A lot of people would have been sitting in their seats wondering why the West Side suddenly turned into Swan Lake. The love story made it okay for the butchest of men to accept the ballet-brawls because Natalie Wood’s sweet Latin lips were at stake. Also, people break into song and dance only when they’re ga-ga googly-eyed in love, like when Bud started spontaneously singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” the first time he saw Fran Drescher on TV. Without a love story, a musical isn’t just boring: it’s unrealistic. That’s why Gutenberg! The Musical! features a tender romance between Johann and Helvetica, a poor, beautiful wench whose love for Gutenberg grows each day. We have a great love ballad for the actress who will eventually play Helvetica. It shows her heart’s deepest desire: to marry Johann Gutenberg. Finally, we believe that Broadway should be an equal-opportunity employer, and without love stories, where are all the female lead roles going to come from?  Gutenberg! is the first step in a campaign to assure women will always be able to play gorgeous, big-breasted women on the Great White Way. Make sure your musical gives women the same empowering opportunities.

Cheers,

Bud Davenport & Doug Simon

Want to see these golden tips in action? See Bud & Doug perform Gutenberg! The Musical! themselves July 11-27 at the Sanders Theatre in the Fort Worth Community Arts Center. Click here for tickets and more information.

American theater is changing rapidly. Just ask any industry insider and he’ll tell you  this ain’t your daddy’s Broadway! Why? Because odds are your baby boomer parents just don’t have enough money on their horrible fixed income from Social Security to go see a Broadway show. That’s why producers are now investing in shows that appeal to today’s young, fresh-faced audience. And regular old showtunes just aren’t going to cut it for this edgy, Gen-XYZ crowd. The writers of Spring Awakening knew that when they wrote "Totally Fudged."

So in order for your show to be hip, you got to make sure to include at least one toe-tapping hip hop song to get the house popping and locking in the aisles. Just look at recent Tony© Award-winning musical In The Heights. Its Latin flava spelled huge success, and it inspired us to write the song “What’s The Word?” for Gutenberg! The Musical! The number revolves around the townspeople gossiping about Gutenberg’s strange late night activities, and the urban beat shows what life’s really like on da streets…of Schlimmer!

Adios, songsmiths!

--Doug & Bud

Want to see these golden tips in action? See Bud & Doug perform Gutenberg! The Musical! themselves July 11-27 at the Sanders Theatre in the Fort Worth Community Arts Center. Click here for tickets and more information.