Web Design Pet Peeves (continued)

So where was I when I was so rudely interrupted by technical gremlins? Oh yes, I was commenting on the pet peeves study. Here are my thoughts on the last seven items:

Music or other audio that plays automatically – this doesn’t bother me personally, because my speakers stay turned off until such time as I want to hear something. I do this not so much because of web site audio, but so I don’t have to hear all the audio responses of the various programs I use. (Yes, I know I can turn off the sounds by setting the options of each individual program, but it’s so much easier to just keep the speakers “off.”) The bottom line is that I prefer web sites that give me the option to proceed with or without sound, or even better, to click on a link if I want to hear something, be it a single clip or streaming audio.

Inability to use the browser’s “back” button – this makes me mad. If I choose my browser for the features it provides, no web site should invalidate those features, particularly something as basic as moving forward and backward between web pages I’ve just visited.

Ineffective site search tool – If you do any kind of research, search tools are invaluable. I believe that sites with a lot of content, be they static or ever changing and growing blogs, should provide a search tool specific to that site. On this blog, for example, you can search for Luther Henderson and see a listing of only those posts in which his name appears.

Overdone sites with unnecessary splash/flash screens or animation – Know your audience! For me, “unnecessary” says it all, but I guess if your target audience is young and lots of movement, fast cuts, short takes etc are in vogue, then perhaps it is necessary. Still, I prefer to be inclusive, so I recommend giving visitors a choice right from the beginning.

Text that moves – Annoying! Perhaps with an exception for small changing messages, news flashes and such. It is effective to getting the viewers attention, but the message should be quick.

Opening a new window for a link – I never thought that viewers would find this annoying. You may have noticed that all the links in my blog open into a separate browser window. That is deliberate on my part so that you can check out the link without loosing your place in my blog. It’s true that with newer browsers, the ones that support tabs (i.e. separate pages inside a single browser window with tabs across that allow you to move between web pages), the person viewing can choose whether to view a link in a separate tab. However, of all the people I know, only the real techies take advantage of this option.

Poor appearance due to colors, fonts, format – these things are, for the most part, in the eye of the beholder. Still, certain there are some basic design principles that should be considered, first and foremost that the text be legible with sufficient contrast between text and background. The combination of text color and background color should also be easy on the eyes. Text size used to be an issue, but no longer as most new browsers allow users to increase and decrease text size to suit their own preferences. But again, it all goes back to knowing your audience.

There was a period (mid 1990s) when I was really up on these things. Back then I wrote a whole bunch of computer trade books, including Build A Web Site: The Programmer’s Guide to Creating, Building, and Maintaining a Web Presence, but I have not stayed current. Hopefully, some of my web savvy friends will chime in on this topic and I can post their emails.

Unbelievable

If I had not experienced it myself, I would tell you that it is not possible – it just doesn’t make any sense.

My web browser – make that browserS, because it happened with Foxfire and Internet Explorer – were unable to connect to devradowrite yesterday. I could go elsewhere on the net, but every time I tried to get to devradowrite I got one of those maddening ‘server not found’ or ‘timed out’ messages. Maybe the host was having server problems? No, can’t be that because my other sites (devrahall.com and lushlife.com) are on the same server and I can access them without problem. Immediate panic set in as I assumed that some catastrophy has beset my SQL database full of content (one that I admit I had not backed up in way too long). I called my neighbor/web expert.

“Can you see my site?”

“Yup, no problem. Maybe it’s a DNS problem with your ISP.”

Well that didn’t make sense to me because the Domain Name server was converting every other site name into the necessary numeric IP (internet protocol) addresses and serving up every other site I asked to see, but I was told that it could just be one DNS server section covering names that begin with DEV, for example, that was malfunctioning.

I called my Internet Service Provider (my local cable company) and after only eight minutes on hold I was speaking to a young man with an Indian accent who nevertheless said he was just down the road in West Covina. For more than half an hour we went through the required (scripted) troubleshooting steps, power down, reset your registry, try a different computer…..

Finally, I bypassed the router (a gizmo that connects all the household computers to our single cable modem) and suddenly – problem fixed.

So then I had to troubleshoot my router, a lengthy task my neighbor/expert helped me with. It was long past his dinner time when I was back up and running. He left to eat and I turned off all computers, switched on the tv, and promptly fell asleep.

So there you have my excuse for yesterday’s absence. I’m off to physical therapy (whiplash still giving me the blues), but when I get back I will finish the comments I started the day before about web design.

Web Design Pet Peeves

I subscribe to a slew of free online newsletters and reports, most outside of my normal purview, because I never know what I might come across. This morning’s Research Brief — a free daily newsletter from The Center For Media Research (For Planners and Buyers of Advertising Media) — was about things that make consumers unhappy with web sites. Their data from a survey conducted for The Hostway Company, listed fifteen web site characteristics that people might find annoying. They asked respondents to rank their level of annoyance on a scale of 1(not annoying at all) to 5 (extremely annoying). The characteristics, from most to least annoying, are:

Pop-up ads
Requirement to register and log-on before viewing the Web site
Requiring the installation of extra software to view the site
Slow-loading pages
Dead links
Confusing navigation – hard to find pages, too many clicks
Content that is out of date
No contact information available
Music or other audio that plays automatically
Inability to use the browser’s “back” button
Ineffective site search tool
Overdone sites – unnecessary splash/flash screens or animation
Text that moves
Opening a new window for a link
Poor appearance – colors, fonts, format

The first three seldom apply to blogs, but the others should be taken into consideration for all web sites. Why? Because when encountering a pet peeve, over 70% of site visitors are likely to then:

Refuse to visit the site again
Unsubscribe to promotions or messages from the company
Refuse to purchase from that Web site
View the company in a negative way

Here are my thoughts:

I personally abhor pop-up ads, so you will never find them on one of my web sites, not even to flog my own books.

If you are asked for more than just an email address, the downside of registration for the visitor is the loss of anonymity. (Many people have email addresses that do not include their real name.) Of course, when you give out your email address, identifiable or not, to people you do not know, you have to consider whether that party is going to sell it and/or deluge you with spam. Still, asking visitors to register or log-in can have value for both the site owner and the visitor. Some sites provide registered users the ability to select certain viewing preferences and the site implements them when that person logs-in. And if the visitor shares common interests with the site and wants to receive notifications of any sort, registration is necessary. I know of a few bloggers who send out a weekly recap newsletter containing the first few lines or topics of their week’s postings, complete with links to each. The recipient doesn’t have to visit daily to see what, if anything, is new, and can click on any one or more of the links in the newsletter that are of interest…or none and hit delete.

There are some add-ons that I think are normal to expect, such as Adobe’s pdf reader and an audio player. Still, it should be optional. If you don’t want to play an offered audio or video clip, that should not deter you fro reading the rest of the site. Flash sites annoy me, but those sites that offer a first screen allowing me to choose win my appreciation.

Slow loading pages are a drag — I hope nobody is experiencing delays with my blog or website pages. I try to keep my graphic files small and I don’t use a lot of technobells and whistles.

Dead links are, well, deadly. Still, you can’t control other people’s content, and when you maintain an online archive of past postings it’s way too time consuming to re-visit every single link you ever posted. (There may be some nifty software tools that check every link on your site, and perhaps one of my savvy readers will tell us about it.)

Confusing navigation – I hate it when I can’t find what I’m looking for on a web site. The links should be clear and placed in the same location on each page. This is less an issue for blogs, as visitors generally read down from the top, but I do appreciate sites that have a search feature and for bloggers, such as myself, who write about a few different topics, having categories can be handy for the visitor that is only interested in particular topics. I’m not yet convinced that my categories are the most useful for my visitors…you’ll have to let me know.

Out of date content – well I believe bloggers should post on a regular schedule, be it daily, weekly, or monthly, as long as your visitors know what to expect and are not disappointed too often. Some bloggers can get away with posting a message that they can’t come out and play today, but others will lose their following if they try that too often. I am still in the latter category so I will do my best to keep posting something every weekday.

Contact information should be available, crucial for doing business, but just as important for bloggers. And yet I have not put my email address on the blog site yet. Why? Because the spammers have automated programs that troll for character strings that look like email addresses, grabbing up anything with text@moretext.com. Occasionally in a posting I have mentioned my email address, but I am not getting as much viewer mail as I would like, so sometime this week I am going to make a change and post it permanently on the blog site.

To be continued…

Brick Fleagle

Born August 22, 1906, Brick Fleagle would have been 99 years old today. Before beginning research on Luther Henderson’s biography, I knew of Fleagle only as Luther’s friend and chief copyist. I didn’t know that he started out playing banjo, then switched to guitar and worked with trumpeter Rex Stewart. I didn’t know that he was also an arranger who penned charts for Stewart, Chick Webb, Jimmie Lunceford, Fletcher Henderson, and Duke Ellington. I haven’t yet documented when Luther and Fleagle first met. I have read that Fleagle did a lot of music copying for Ellington, but was that in the 1930s, the 1940s, or possible even later? Did Luther ever go to hear Fleagle’s group at the Arcadia Ballroom in the mid 30s? Did Fleagle hear about the kid who won an amatuer contest at The Apollo Theater in 1934? Fresh out of Julliard in 1944, Luther was working for Ellington — was Fleagle already on Duke’s payroll then? Did Luther hear the tracks arranged and recorded in 1945 by Fleagle and his Orchestra for H.R.S.? [These can be heard on Mosaic’s reissue of The Complete H.R.S. Sessions and include The Fried Piper, When The Mice Are Away, Double Doghouse, among others.] Did Luther read the July 30, 1945 review, “Brick’s Boys Go Riding,” in Time magazine? All I know so far is that Luther and Fleagle worked closely together for many years, and that when Fleagle died, he left his belongings to Luther, who, in turn, later donated the wonderful collection to The Peabody Institute. I expect to learn more about that later today when I interview David Alan Bunn who was a protege of Luther. Mr. Bunn, who is a conductor, composer, arranger, and pianist for Broadway, recordings, and television, is also the founder of the Jazz Studies Department for the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. Oh yeah, there’s also a great story about Luther visiting Fleagle in the hospital and bringing a voodoo woman with a live chicken for sacrifice…you’ll have to read the book when it comes out.

Why They Write

Thomas Wolfe from Of Time and the River:

“At that instant he saw, in one blaze of light, an image of unutterable conviction, the reason why the artist works and lives and has his being — the reward he seeks — the only reward he really cares about, without which there is nothing. It is to snare the spirits of mankind in nets of magic, to make his life prevail through his creation, to wreak the vision of his life, the rude and painful substance of his own experience, into the congruence of blazing and enchanted images that are themselves the core of life, the essential pattern whence all other things proceed, the kernel of eternity.”

Joseph Conrad in his famous preface to The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’ (1897):

“My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you feel it is, before all, to make you see. That and no more, and it is everything.”

Attributed to Albert Camus:

“The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.”

Lord Byron from Don Juan:

But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew, upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.
‘Tis strange, the shortest letter which man uses
Instead of speech, may form a lasting link
Of ages; to what straits old Time reduces
Frail man, when paper – even a rag like this – ,
Survives himself, his tomb, and all that’s his.

Here’s To Life

Call it coincidence, or the work of spirits, but a few hours after I posted yesterday’s blog entry, Shirley Horn’s husband had his California friend to call John again. Shirley is indeed conscious, aware of what she sees and hears, even though she is unable to speak. John was able to call and speak to her while her husband held the phone to her ear; “she smiled when she heard your voice,” he told John.

The voice, whether used in speech or song, is a powerful instrument. When I was in the hospital with a breathing tube that rendered me speechless, the voices of friends calling from the opposite coast were comforting, but the most uplifting call of all was Joe Williams singing Here’s To Life a capella over the phone. I wish Joe were still here to sing it to Shirley.

Here’s To Life is a beautiful song by Artie Butler* who originally intended the song for Sinatra. Ol’ Blue Eyes passed on it, so Artie gave it to Joe, who performed it many times in concert, especially when accompanied by an orchestra. Joe wanted to record it, but only if he could do so with strings. The record company didn’t want the expense and so when Gitane came up with the money for Shirley to record with strings, Shirley called Artie, Artie called John who then called Joe, who, being his gracious self said, “but of course Shirley can record it.” Shirley’s CD, “Here’s To Life” was released by Polygram in 1992. Two years later, Joe recorded in England with Robert Farnon’s orchestra, and his “Here’s To Life” CD was released by Telarc.

Shirley is a fighter, and your prayers and well-wishes will give her strength. Cards and flowers may be sent to her at:

Gladys Spellman Specialty Hospital and Nursing Center
2900 Mercy Lane
Cheverly, MD 20785

*lyrics were written by Phyllis Molinary

Difficult Discussions

A month ago my husband got the call: Shirley Horn is gravely ill and not expected to live much longer. The caller was not someone John knew, but the man said Shirley’s husband had asked him to call and tell John that Shirley was brain dead and on life support that might soon be stopped. John called Shirley’s husband and daughter repeatedly, but there was never an answer; and so we’ve been waiting for news. For the past two days, a single email message from singer Gail Marten has been circulating and it says that Shirley is conscious. I don’t know if it’s true, but I hope so…or do I? What does Shirley want? To me that is the only question that matters. We don’t often talk about one’s quality of life; the brief flurry of discussion caused by Terry Shivo’s case having died along with her.

In some ways, I feel it to be a simple matter, albeit one that can only be defined on an individual basis. One feels his or her own quality of life either to be, or not to be, up to a tolerable level. But defining that level is not something you can really do in advance. We think we know today what we consider to be minimal quality of life, but unless you have experienced a truly serious illness, you simply do not understand how profoundly your views and opinions about what is important can change. What you think would be intolerable today may feel to be only a minor nuisance tomorrow.

I believe we must think about such things, and plan as best as possible, but the best plan is an ongoing dialogue with those you love. A slip of paper in your wallet can help with the legalities, but you should re-read that directive often and and re-write it as needed. Those who find it to be an easy discussion probably should think again. It may seem simple today, especially if you’re talking about what you want for yourself, but it may not feel that way later. It is a discussion that fits hand in hand with the right to die, and letting a loved one go is never easy.

Joyce Alexander Wein: October 21, 1928 – August 15, 2005

The following announcement was released today and I share it with you courtesy of publicist Sue Auclair:

Joyce Wein, wife and business partner of jazz impresario George Wein, passed away quietly Monday, August 15, at New York Presbyterian Hospital following a battle with cancer. She was 76.

Joyce Alexander Wein was born in October 21, 1928, in Boston, Massachusetts, the sixth of seven children of Columbia and Hayes Alexander. Her mother was the youngest of thirteen children, two of whom were born into slavery. Joyce attended Girls Latin School and at the age of 15, entered Simmons College, where she graduated with a major in chemistry in 1948 at the age of 19. After graduation, she started her career as a biochemist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and later in New York at Columbia Medical School.

In 1959, Joyce Alexander married George Wein, founder of the Newport Jazz Festival, and gave up her career in biochemistry. Mr. Wein, an internationally known impresario, leaned heavily on her advice and partnership in the Newport Opera Festival and Newport Jazz Festival, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the Hampton Jazz Festival, and the Grande Parade du Jazz in Nice, France. In 1963, Mrs. Wein joined her husband and Pete and Toshi Seeger in founding the Newport Folk Festival, a major engine of the 1960s folk revival; her tireless work behind the scenes was critical to that event’s success.

A woman of great intelligence and tremendous dignity, she was a renowned art collector, extraordinary hostess, devoted friend and avid supporter of the arts.

A founder of the New York Coalition of 100 Black Women, the forerunner of coalitions around the nation, Mrs. Wein has been deeply involved with philanthropy and the arts. She was responsible for establishing the Joyce and George Wein Professorship Fund in African-American Studies at Boston University, and recently set up the Alexander Family Endowed Scholarship Fund at Simmons College. She has served on the Board of the Studio Museum in Harlem for ten years, and has partnered with her husband in amassing an important collection of paintings and drawings by African-American artists. (The George and Joyce Wein Collection of African-American Art will be shown at an exhibition at the Boston University Art Gallery from November 18, 2005 through January 22, 2006.) For the past ten years, she and her husband have partnered with Kenneth and Kathryn Chenault, the CEO of American Express and his wife, to host an annual dinner for Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children’s Zone, raising over $500,000.

In addition to her husband, Mrs. Wein leaves two sisters, Eugenia Manning of San Francisco, California and Theodora McLaurin of Hingham, Massachusetts and many nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews.

Funeral Services will be held on Friday, August 19, at 11:30 a.m. at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel, 81st & Madison. Interment following service at Woodlawn Cemetery. Donations can be made in her name to Studio Museum in Harlem, 144 West 125th Street, NY 10027.

Frank E. Campbell The Funeral Chapel
1076 Madison Avenue at 81st Street
New York, NY 10028
Telephone: 212 288 3500
Toll Free: 800 423 5928
http://www.frankecampbell.com/

[Photo of Joyce & George Wein in Newport, 2004 copyright Sue Auclair]

A Reviewer’s Nightmare

It was a sad night. Sad to see an old friend who no longer has what it takes, surrounded by second or third rate musicians. He wears a suit jacket that looks slept in and no one on the bandstand smiles. He wanders on stage alone, and starts to play. I wonder if he begins his program solo, then works up to duo and builds on – then I realize he’s just warming up almost as if unaware he’s on stage. The pianist arrives, as does the sax. The drummer gets seated. He counts off and they begin just as the bassist walks on stage. They’ve begun anyway.

We hear the pop when the bass connects to the amplifier. What happened to “the presentation”? Why no announcement, no disembodied voice of introduction, no reverence, no respect. And now the flash bulbs are popping as Japanese and German tourists take pictures of a relic. The drummer is too busy, his licks inappropriate. The first tune ends and the voice finally says “Ladies and Gentlemen please welcome the Quintet.” He nods and then they hit, sounding more like they should have to start with. Maybe we can all forget the preamble?

They overplay, as if to cover up for him – instead they should provide a simple swinging support in which he could shine. Here he scuffles. The sax is masturbating and even he doesn’t get himself excited. The pianist doesn’t know the right chord changes, or maybe he just can’t find the right voicings. Everybody looks independently bored. He plays a ballad accompanied at first only by the piano and then the trio joins in – you can hear the poignancy and lyricism that marked his playing for all these years. Even if not all the notes are perfectly hit.

I would hate to have to review this show! What would I say? That he should have retired? That’s a death sentence. What would he do then? It’s like not wanting to see someone in the hospital, preferring to remember them in their better days, but now is when they need you.
The audience has no idea what it’s hearing – no clue as to whether it’s good or bad musically. Volume and velocity elicit the only major reactions. There’s no music education, no basis on which to form a discerning opinion. Perhaps, on nights like this, that’s a good thing.

Why him?

Luther Henderson is not a household name, not even a B-list celebrity in the eyes of the general public. Finding a publisher for his biography has been a lengthy and difficult process, but I am pleased to say that I have been offered a contract, am in negotiations right now, and hope to announce the signing very soon. Meanwhile, people are asking me “Luther who?” and “Why him?”

I was unaware of Luther’s accomplishments when I first met him. I do not remember how that first meeting came to be. He was close to many people who are, or were, important in my own life. Still, I don’t recall any one of them making the introduction. My earliest recollection is of a planning meeting in the mid-1970s for the annual Jackie Robinson fundraiser, “An Afternoon of Jazz,” held outdoors on the grounds of Robinson’s home in Connecticut. Someone had recommended me to assist jazz pianist Dr. Billy Taylor with booking the artists, and I was in Marion Logan’s living room with Rachael Robinson, Luther Henderson, Billie Allen, and a few others. I may have grown up as a liberal, supported Rev. Martin Luther King’s work, and taken part in the March on Washington, but back then, I was unaware that Mrs. Logan was married to Arthur Logan, Duke Ellington’s doctor, and that they were close to Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. I knew that Mrs. Robinson’s husband was a famous baseball player, but I did not know that it was he who broke the league’s color barrier. (Not being a sports fan, and not yet born when it happened, I guess that was understandable, but they really should have taught us about it in school.) There was no reason for me to know that Ms. Allen was an actress and stage director, or that Mr. Henderson had graduated from Julliard in 1942, but had he been properly credited on recordings, being a jazz fan, I might have known that he had written orchestrations for Duke Ellington. They didn’t seem to mind my ignorance; I was just a college kid there to do a job.

Over the following years, I would return on several occasions to the annual summer concert at the Robinsons’, no longer as naive booker, but as guest. One year I went with saxophonist Jerome Richardson, who I was dating at the time. Jerome and Luther were great friends, and Luther hired Jerome to work on his projects whenever possible. While living in New York City, I got to know Luther’s third wife, Margo, and we would occasionally shop together or have lunch at Café Des Artistes. I soon moved to California with Jerome, and we saw Luther on many occasions, most often during the productions of Ain’t Misbehavin’ in California and France when Jerome was in the band. After a lengthy run close to our home in Los Angeles, the show ran for six months in Paris, where I joined Jerome for a month that included Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Margo had died two years earlier, and Billie Allen flew to Paris to spend the holidays with Luther; just after New Year’s they announced their plans to marry.

By the time they married, Jerome and I had split up. The new man in my life was John Levy, later to become my husband. John’s client, jazz singer Joe Williams, introduced us, and both Joe and John were old and dear friends of Luther’s. I was to return again several times to the Robinsons’ with John and with Joe (by then I was Joe’s publicist), and there, while the crowd enjoyed the music outside, we would always steal a moment in the gracious Robinson living room to catch up on the latest Henderson news.

Distance makes it difficult to stay connected, and we lived on opposite coasts, but whenever John or I went to New York, or whenever Luther or Billie would come to Los Angeles, we would get together. I had been in New York to see Black and Blue when it opened on Broadway, and John and I both saw Jelly’s Last Jam, first in Los Angeles and later in New York. We knew that Luther was ill; we knew that he had cancer, but we thought he had beaten it. We would hear that Luther was very sick, and then we would talk to him and he’d tell us about a new project he was working on. This happened more than once. When the end finally came, we were blindsided, and unable to get to New York in time to see him. At least John was able to say a few words to him on the telephone during that last week when he was in hospice.
Later we learned that just a few weeks before Luther went into hospice care, Billie told him that he was to receive a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Fellowship, an honor that pleased him greatly. She said that he responded with just one word: “Recognition.” He had little energy to say more, and died not long thereafter. John and I were not able to attend the New York memorial service, but we were there in 2004 when Billie Allen Henderson, accompanied onstage by Luther’s son, Luther Henderson III, and his daughter, Melanie Henderson, accepted the NEA Jazz Master Award in his memory.

As I watched the video montage of Luther’s life, I realized not only how little I really knew about this man and his legacy, but also how few of the three thousand people sitting around me in the immense ballroom of the Hilton hotel had even heard of him. I knew it was a situation I wanted to change.