ENTERTAINMENT
Saturday, March 21, 2020
East Oregonian
B3
Musicians find ways to perform during pandemic
By TAMMY MALGESINI
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Inde-
pendent musicians are tap-
ping into their creative
energies to find ways to sur-
vive financially while pub-
lic gatherings are restricted
because of COVID-19.
Thomas Paul, a Boi-
se-based musician who
often is invited to perform
with Pendleton-based James
Dean Kindle & The East-
ern Oregon Playboys, took
to Facebook in recent days
to ask for help. Paul, who
also serves as a counselor
for Pendleton Center for the
Arts’ annual teen Rock ’n’
Roll Camp, is referred to as
the Playboys’ unofficial fifth
member.
Paul asks that people
send him direct messages
(his Facebook account is
www.facebook.com/thom-
aspaul117) with a song
request. He suggested it
could be a favorite song or
a request to sing “Happy
Birthday” to someone spe-
cial or a song dedication.
“If you are so moved to
do so and able, you can then
consider making a donation
to me in an effort to replace
some small amount of my
lost income,” Paul wrote in
a March 16 Facebook post.
Paul also encouraged
people to reach out for
friendly chats or if they just
needed to talk.
“People care about you. I
care about you,” he said.
Fluff and Gravy Records,
the label for Bart Budwig’s
“Another Burn on the Astro-
Turf,” recently put out a plea
requesting assistance. Bud-
wig, who is the sound engi-
neer at The OK Theater
in Enterprise, was in the
midst of a four-week tour of
Austria and Germany when
shows kept getting canceled.
According to Fluff and
Gravy, Budwig, who was
traveling with his entire
band, was still trying to
make travel arrangements
on March 13 for everyone to
return to the United States
— at the tune of nearly
$9,000. People were encour-
aged to make donations or
EO file photo
Thomas Paul performs at the Boise Contemporary Theater during the 2017 Treefort Music Fest. The Boise-based musician is looking at ways to continue
performing during the restrictions on public gatherings.
EO file photo
Contributed photo
Bart Budwig plays during the June 2019 Jackalope Jamboree
in Pendleton. The Enterprise man was in the midst of a four-
week tour in Austria and Germany when show cancelations
forced him and his band to scramble to make expensive trav-
el arrangements to return to the United States.
Portland-based musician Pete Krebs recently launched the
“Pete Krebs Jukebox,” playing requests on his Facebook
page. Listeners have several options to provide tips to help
the performer.
purchase the musician’s
albums.
“I am blown away by
all the donations/album
sales coming in to help me
out with my tour and travel
losses,” Budwig said in a
Facebook post two days
later. “I’m tearing up just
writing this post. I am feel-
ing the love.”
Budwig is a musician’s
musician — often shar-
ing the stage and spotlight
with musicians across the
Virus-shocked Hollywood gets break with streaming services
By LYNN ELBER
AP Television Writer
LOS ANGELES —
Sports are on hold, theaters
are closed and so are amuse-
ment parks, a disaster-movie
scenario that has Hollywood
reeling. But Americans held
captive at home by the coro-
navirus can turn to Netflix,
Amazon, Hulu and other
streaming services, outliers
in an entertainment industry
brought to an unprecedented
standstill.
The recent launch of Dis-
ney and Apple services and
the upcoming arrival of
NBCUniversal’s
Peacock
and WarnerMedia’s HBO
Max unleashed speculation
about winners and losers
in an increasingly crowded
field. With self-imposed or
required isolation the abrupt
reality, emerging and niche
streamers could draw new
subscribers — gains that
may even outlast the corona-
virus crisis.
The viral outbreak “has
caused so much pain across
industries globally,” said Dan
Ives, an analyst with Wed-
bush Securities. “Yet on the
streaming side, the demand
for those services is going to
increase exponentially over
the next three to six months”
as consumers around the
world remain stuck in place.
Up to a 20% increase is
AP Photo/Chris Pizzello
Pedestrians walk past the closed Laugh Factory comedy club
on Monday in Los Angeles. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti
on Sunday ordered all of the city’s bars, nightclubs, restau-
rants, gyms and entertainment venues to close in order to
prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
likely in the amount of time
subscribers spend watch-
ing streamed fare, and mil-
lions of new customers will
hop aboard worldwide, Ives
predicted.
Pay TV channels could
benefit as well as more
people become shut-ins
and reconsider cutting the
cord, slowing an accelerat-
ing trend, said analyst Jef-
frey Wlodarczak of Pivotal
Research Group. Broad-
cast networks facing rat-
ing declines also could see a
boost in viewership, he said.
Streaming
companies
are reacting to the moment
in varied ways, but always
carefully. Media companies
want to be seen as good cit-
izens who are serving up an
antidote to anxiety over the
virus and housebound bore-
dom, not capitalizing on a
disaster.
For most people, the coro-
navirus causes only mild or
moderate symptoms, such as
fever and cough. For some,
especially older adults and
people with existing health
problems, it can cause more
severe illness, including
pneumonia. The vast major-
ity of people recover.
Netflix, sitting comfort-
ably in the front ranks of
streamers, emailed custom-
ers with a gentle nudge to
“Rewind. Replay. Rewatch,”
followed by suggestions of
previously viewed titles, such
as “The Crown,” “Schitt’s
Creek” and the 2012 movie
“Frances Ha” starring Greta
Gerwig.
The Walt Disney Co. put
the box-office hit “Frozen”
on its Disney Plus stream-
ing service three months ear-
lier than planned, “surpris-
ing families with some fun
and joy during this challeng-
ing period.” The animated
film became available in the
past few days on the service
in the U.S., Canada, Holland,
Australia and New Zealand.
Hulu, controlled by
majority owner Disney, is
relying for now on such
high-profile programs as the
newly released Reese With-
erspoon-Kerry Washington
series “Little Fires Every-
where,” based on Celeste
Ng’s bestselling novel.
For Disney, streaming
is the outlier in a corporate
portfolio otherwise slammed
by the coronavirus: The sus-
pension of theatrical and TV
productions and delays in
new movie releases, includ-
ing its long-anticipated
“Black Widow,” but also the
closure of Disney resorts in
the U.S., France and Asia
and the sports lull’s impact
on its ESPN channels.
Disney and the other
major streaming services
didn’t respond or declined
requests for comment for this
article.
ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR ON HOLD
East Oregonian
With the restriction of public gatherings because of
COVID-19, the entertainment calendar is suspended
until further notice.
If musicians, authors and other artists are doing
something special on their websites or social media
pages that others might enjoy viewing, shoot us an
email. Please include all relevant details, includ-
ing a brief description of what you are doing, a little
biographical information about you and your music/
art form, contact information and your web address
(or social media account URL) where people can find
you.
The current deadline for entertainment page infor-
mation is Wednesdays at noon. For more information,
contact Tammy Malgesini at community@eastorego-
nian.com or call 541-564-4539.
region and beyond. He has
taken the stage in Pendleton
numerous times. For more
about Budwig, search for his
social media pages or visit
www.bartbudwig.com.
Another musician that’s
reaching out across social
media platforms is the front-
man of Pete Krebs & the
Rockin’ K Review. A two-
time inductee into the Ore-
gon Music Hall of Fame,
Krebs has been a part of the
Portland music scene since
the late 1980s.
Known for his explo-
ration of everything from
punk rock and gypsy jazz
to traditional country and
western swing, he recently
launched “Pete Krebs Juke-
box.” He’s playing requests
and dedications on his Face-
book page (www.facebook.
com/pete.krebs.52)
and
offering listeners a variety
of ways to provide help to
him as a performer. People
can make a donation via a
PayPal tip jar on his website
at www.heypetekrebs.com.
———
Contact Community Edi-
tor Tammy Malgesini at
tmalgesini@eastoregonian.
com or 541-564-4539.
BRIEFLY
Country singers
to perform ACM
special from home
NASHVILLE, Tenn.
— The Academy of Coun-
try Music had to post-
pone their upcoming
awards show because of
the spreading coronavi-
rus, but CBS will air a new
television special featuring
country stars performing
from their homes.
The
academy
announced Thursday that
in place of their post-
poned awards show on
April 5, “ACM Presents:
Our Country” will feature
conversations and at-home
acoustic
performances
from country artists.
Many A-list touring art-
ists who have had to can-
cel or postpone tours have
participated in online con-
certs as the world contin-
ues to practice social dis-
tancing to slow the spread
of the virus.
Performers have not yet
been announced for the
8 p.m. EST special, which
will also feature clips from
previous ACM awards
shows. The ACM Awards,
which was scheduled to be
held live in Las Vegas, was
postponed to September
at a date and venue to be
announced.
Conan O’Brien to
return to air, with
an iPhone
NEW YORK — With
iPhones and Skype, Conan
O’Brien is going back on
the air.
The late-night host said
he will resume putting
out new episodes of TBS’
“Conan” on March 30. His
staff will remain at home,
AP Photo/Jordan Strauss
In this April 7, 2019, file
photo, Keith Urban poses
in the press room with the
award for entertainer of
the year at the 54th annual
Academy of Country Music
Awards in Las Vegas.
and the show will be cob-
bled together with O’Brien
on an iPhone and guests
via Skype.
“This will not be pretty,
but feel free to laugh at our
attempt,” said O’Brien on
Twitter.
The late-night shows
have all shut down produc-
tion due to the coronavi-
rus pandemic to avoid con-
gregating live audiences
and large TV crews. Some
hosts have pumped out
web videos.
Jimmy Fallon has pro-
duced 10-minute “At
Home” shows for NBC’s
“Tonight.” In one epi-
sode, he did a video chat
with Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Jimmy Kimmel and David
Spade have given mono-
logues from their homes.
On Monday, Stephen Col-
bert delivered a 10-minute
monologue from his bath-
tub in a segment that was
added to an episode that
was otherwise a rerun of
CBS’s “The Late Show.”
O’Brien, though, is
the first to try to remotely
mount a full broadcast
from home.
“The quality of my
work will not go down
because technically that’s
not possible,” O’Brien
joked in a statement.
— Associated Press