Tracy Reese planning more footwear and greater consumer interaction
A creation by designer Tracy Reese
Reese's eponymous label, as well as Plenty by Tracy Reese and Frock! by Tracy Reese, all come under T.R. Designs, with WWD reporting January 10 that the firm has appointed a new CEO, Karen Castellano, to oversee the development.
"This is an amazing opportunity to take a beautiful brand, this gem of a company, and expand the product categories and distribution," revealed Castellano, adding Reese is planning more accessories and footwear for her namesake label and Plenty.Castellano also divulged plans to make the Tracy Reese e-commerce site "more modern, more fun and more interactive."
This follows in the footsteps of fashion houses including Moschino, which last month revamped Moschino.com to place more emphasis on an interactive shopping experience. Along with easy access to lookbooks and runway videos, the updated site features additions such as Pic Me, allowing fans to customize their own photos with iconic Moschino-inspired motifs.
Other web-savvy designers including Burberry, Kate Spade and Coach have all learned the importance of interacting with consumers via social media as well as their websites, appearing on digital innovation blog L2's "2011 Digital Geniuses" list.
E Street Band's Nils Lofgren: 'Life is grand'
In this May 6, 2011 photo provided by John Cavanaugh, guitarist Nils Lofgren performs …
In this May 30, 2004 photo, Nils Lofgren plays guitar on stage at the Stone Pony …
NEW YORK (AP) — There ain't too many of us left.
For Nils Lofgren, who's using the familiar refrain as a song title, it's both a call to arms for old friends like Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Sam Moore — and a goodbye to lost brothers like sax player Clarence Clemons.
What it's most definitely not: the last gasp of a dying breed. Lofgren — who proudly titled his new album "Old School" — has surpassed his 60th birthday with the vigor of a much younger man. He's pain-free after hip replacement surgery and is eagerly awaiting an upcoming tour with Bruce Springsteen and the other members of the E Street Band.
But first things first: Lofgren's album is dedicated to his late comrade, Clemons, who would have turned 70 on Wednesday.For 27 years, Lofgren stood alongside the Big Man, two friends sharing the spotlight and a shenanigan or two. The personal and professional aftershocks from Clemons' sudden passing in June have not subsided. His sax was a pillar of the E Street sound; Clemons also was the band's spiritual center.
Though eagerly anticipating the tour, Lofgren is also "dreading the journey to get up to speed without Clarence."
He'll miss their "whispering dialogue in the dark" ... helping each other with "the next surprise song" ... popping into Clemons' dressing room before shows. They talked every week between tours.
Springsteen's struggle with the "ominous, complex issue" of how to musically fill the Clemons void is "a rough one" that Lofgren doesn't envy — but whatever the decision, he backs his Boss "a thousand percent."
Despite the lingering heartache, Lofgren is brimming with hope and humor. "I look at the people standing," says Lofgren. And performing.
After decades of honing their craft before huge live audiences, E Street musicians can "play songs we've never played before, figure out how to cover for each other," communicate with hand signals.
They can "work on an arrangement 30 seconds onstage while the teleprompter guy frantically searches for a lyric from a sign Bruce has thrown down like a Frisbee at him."
Besides musical adaptability, physical fitness is crucial.
"God willing, we'll all be up for it," says Lofgren. "I certainly am counting on that."
At her recent recording session, E Street's Patti Scialfa and her husband, Springsteen, "were in great shape." But Lofgren sheepishly admits that he's working off a "15-pound tire."
On the road, he's "very disciplined." Performing is "a big workout" in itself; he also hits the gym. At home, though, he's "truly a sweet junkie." While glued to a football game, he's been known to polish off a pint of vanilla Swiss almond ice cream, buried beneath a mountain of chopped white chocolate and even more nuts.
He dryly advises adding "a couple of hits of skim milk to keep it low-fat."
And don't even get him started on the cookies.
Once a gymnast, Lofgren has long been known for his stage stunts as well as his instrumental prowess.
The double-hip replacement three years ago eliminated his pain for the first time in 15 years. Wear and tear had finally gotten the best of him: "too much city court basketball, and back flips on my trampoline, and jumping off drum risers for four decades onstage."
During the excruciating post-surgical period, Amy Lofgren propped the phone to her husband's ear as Neil Young, his lifelong mentor, sustained him.
"I'll never forget: At the end, he said, 'Hey, you know, heal up and get well. ... Need you around. There ain't too many of us left,'" recalls Lofgren.
"Right then, through the haze of pain meds, I recognized that as the potential to be a great song."
He was thrilled to stand "eye to eye" with Moore, his longtime friend and idol, while recording the high-octane duet.
Lofgren marked his milestone birthday while making the album. When he sings about "The New 18," his 60-ish character is "lost" but determined to "claw back to some dignity."
"There's a lot of people my age that are unemployed; they're losing their home; they're losing their spouse; their kids have turned on them. ... It just takes one wrong turn or one wrong circumstance to throw your life into chaos — at any age."
His own top priority is a healthy mix of family and work. But concerts with the E Street Band involve a certain kind of managed chaos.
"Last tour with E Street, I think we had something like 53 instruments on the road," he recalls.
Lofgren observes which instruments Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt are strapping on, then instantly decides what sound will best complement them.
"It's very organic," says Lofgren. "Sometimes Bruce ... won't say anything. He'll start playing something and you pick up what you hear and it'll work. Other times ... he'll look back at me and point" — sometimes at the pedal steel, a stand-mounted, 10-string guitar with foot pedals and knee levers, played with a round, metal slide bar.
Lofgren has always been an extremely quick study. When he was 18, Young insisted he learn to play piano for the "After the Gold Rush" album.
After the last E Street tour, he was summoned to record with yet another Rock Hall inductee, Jerry Lee Lewis, on lap steel, a 6-string guitar with Hawaiian origins that's played flat on the lap, with a grooved metal slide bar.
Lofgren's glad he "shut up and said yes" instead of emphasizing his lack of experience. During one "funky" passage, Lewis shouted out: "Play that steel, killer!"
"In my mind, I went, 'Are you talkin' to me?'" Lofgren says gleefully. "And I realize I'm the only steel player in the room."
He also revels in a wildly creative group called "The Whack Brothers," which hangs out at the Springsteen homestead in New Jersey. They got their name while recording with Scialfa at the home studio. Lofgren — inspired by the uninhibited, super-artistic vibe there — was "lettin' my freak flag fly ... comin' up with some crazy part I was hearin'."
"Man, Nils," observed Springsteen, "that's pretty whack."Soon, the muse was striking left and right: "We all came out with whacked out parts."
"If you have musicians of that caliber, there's no point in tying their hands," says Lofgren. "And if you're smart, you put 'em in an environment where they have some time to explore ideas."
It could be a lesson for just about any walk of life."...Amidst the whacked out parts that don't work," says Lofgren, "you come up with some extraordinary stuff."
And when that happens, "Life is grand."
Steven Tyler to Supreme Court: Watch the language
American Idol judge Jennifer Lopez reacts as fellow judge Steven Tyler, left, of …
From left to right, Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez, Randy Jackson and Ryan Seacrest …
"There's a certain charm and passion and magic in not showing full-frontal nudity" or using constant profanity, Tyler said, as the high court prepared to take up a First Amendment case on the regulation of the airwaves.
"It's really hot when you only show a little," he said.Granted, the Aerosmith singer tossed off a bleeped strong expletive or two on Fox's live "American Idol" after joining it as a judge last season.
"I have (cursed on air) a couple times, because it is 2012," Tyler said. But an occasional swear word is different than a stream of them, which he suggested could happen without rules and wouldn't be something he welcomes.
"If you start surfing channel to channel and you're on NBC and it's (expletive) and channel 4 and it's (expletive) and channel 7 and it's (expletive), it wouldn't be fun to surf," he said.
Besides, he said, where's the creativity? A pun about an "American Idol" contestant's revealingly short outfit may be fun — "Here's to looking up your old address," offered Tyler — but the use of blunt language "turns it into something crass."
"Why would I say that? I would say it to show off, I think," he added.There are pejorative terms, such as those involving race and gender, that never should be heard on TV, said Tyler. He returns to "Idol" with fellow judges Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson for the singing contest's 11th season, starting Jan. 18.
The Supreme Court case set to be heard Tuesday could reshape the regulation of broadcasting.
In 2010, the federal appeals court in New York threw out the Federal Communications Commission's rules affecting the hours children are likely viewers. That includes a ban on the use of even a single curse word on live TV as well as fines against broadcasters who showed a woman's nude buttocks on a 2003 episode of ABC's "NYPD Blue."
The Obama administration has objected that the appeals court stripped the FCC of its ability to police the airwaves, and the commission is appealing the ruling.
The FCC's policy against fleeting expletives was set after a January 2003 NBC broadcast of the Golden Globes awards show, in which U2 lead singer Bono uttered the phrase "f------ brilliant."
The FCC found its ban was also violated by a December 2002 broadcast of the Billboard Music Awards in which Cher used the phrase "F--- 'em" and a December 2003 Billboard awards show in which reality show star Nicole Richie said, "Have you ever tried to get cow s--- out of a Prada purse? It's not so f------ simple."
The commission's stepped-up broadcast indecency enforcement in recent years, including record fines for violations, was spurred in part by public outrage over Janet Jackson's breast-baring performance during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show.
TV networks — including Tyler's home base, Fox — argue that the FCC's policy is vague, irregularly applied and outdated, affecting only broadcast television while leaving unregulated the same content if it's delivered on cable TV or over the Internet.
Tyler predicted Monday the Supreme Court will allow "certain words, and that's that."
Dolly Parton Stuns at ‘Joyful Noise’ Premiere
Photo by Jason Merritt/Wireimage.com
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