The Louisiana International Music Exchange
Festival International de Louisiane
Acadiana Center for the Arts
Jefferson Street, Lafayette, Louisiana, 70501
Friday, April 29, 2011
The Louisiana International Music Exchange event on Friday afternoon is a big deal. The goal is to connect Louisiana musicians with concert and festival presenters from around the world, across the country, and right here in Louisiana.
Since this is the biggest Francophone festival in the USA, musicians like Les Freres Michot, Red Baraat, Marie de Barros, Grand Baton, and Myelle are spread amongst the Louisiana musicians at the presentation tables all the way down the main hallway of the Acadiana Center for the Arts in downtown Lafayette.
I am in luck. Janine Dugas (talking with MaryEve Aubrey, Myelle's agent), who I met last October at the Giant Omelette Celebration in Abbeville, books the entertainment for that annual event – and she’s offered me an extra ticket to this private event.
One minute inside, I spot Leroy Thomas, several members of the Pine Leaf Boys, Steve Riley, and David Greeley (names familiar to any Cajun or Zydeco dancer).
The place is humming. Musicians and their agents stand on one side of a long line of tables and promoters and presenters wind their way past on the other. Names are dropped, common musical interests explored, thirty-second elevator speeches reeled off with varying degrees of polish. Promotional CDs, publicity packets, and business cards are changing hands.
Musicians and promoters at the "Meet and Greet" session.
Many performers are young, emerging artists. For them, this must feel like a casting call. The people on both sides of the tables never know when lightning will strike. One gig might lead to a breakout performance and set a career on a trajectory dreamed about for years.
Janine, who’s worked in advertising, had her own radio program, taught dance, and founded Lafayette’s Krewe de Canaille, knows just about everybody in sight.
Over the next two hours, she introduces me to Steve Riley; Kathy Richard, who runs the Richard Sale Barn in Abbeville; Sam Broussard, awesome lead guitarist of Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, Mark Falgout, owner of The Blue Moon Saloon in Lafayette; organizer Mary Beth Lowry; Jon Bertrand, fiddle player with the Pine Leaf Boys; Lisa Stafford, who books the bands for the festival; and Valerie Broussard, the bi-lingual young woman who announces each of the six “Showcase” bands who play brief sets in the new building’s beautifully outfitted performance space.
Oh, and I have a new identity… Ron Bumpus, the name of Janine’s friend who was supposed to be her guest before a business emergency derailed his plans and opened the door for me.
By now, I’m ready to drop a few names myself.
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
The Pine Leaf Boys and Leroy Thomas, two of the "Showcase" bands
David Greeley with his band GumboJet, pt with Pine Leaf Boys Jon Bertrand, whose card is a guitar pick! Note pt at large's name tag... Ron Bumpus for today!
Musician Grand Baton and Steve Riley and Vagabond Swing talk with promoters
Sam Broussard, legendary guitar player with Steve Riley and The Mamou Playboys; Valerie Broussard, who has her own radio show on www.KRVS.org on Thursday nights at 9 PM. Valerie, who introduced each Showcase band in the French language she was born listening to, is finishing a PhD in Francophone studies at The University of Louisiana in Lafayette.
Apple Stores: Gigabytes Of Service, Every Time
The Apple Store in Chestnut Hill, MA: The Ultimate Customer Service Experience
One week later, I toted the new machine back to the store. A CD I had inserted failed to be coaxed out of the CD drive. After a quick inspection, the fellow at the Genius Bar says, “We’re going to exchange this for a new one.” And did. I waited for over an hour while he managed to have the data migrated once again and left with the model I’m typing away at right now.
A few feet away, Kevin, who’s been chatting with another blue shirt, greets me with a smile and firm handshake, asks me again what I need and off we go to a display area loaded with adapters and cables.
And you wonder why stock in Apple has tripled in the past three years?
Note: I’ve been using an Apple computer since the ancient Apple IIe’s were introduced into the Brookline Public Schools in the 1980s, Three years ago, I bought a handful of shares of Apple Computer at around $100 a share. I wish I had bought a wheelbarrow full.
The quality of Apple products and the prices they command speak for themselves: iPhones, iBooks, iPads, iTouches… aye aye aye. And mastermind Steve Jobs knows how to create a customer service experience as seamless as the products his company thinks up.
Let’s talk about service. It is possible to enter an Apple Store and spend a fortune and go ca-chinging out the store with a smile on your face. Happened to me when I bought a new computer five weeks ago.
An Apple Store reminds me of a beehive, except the worker bees are all wearing blue, not yellow, and have easily readable nametags. Every single one of them knows his/her stuff. Some are deeply knowledgeable about specific topics.
I spent one morning talking to one of the blue shirts about the prospective purchase, came back the next day with my “old” G5, bought a lustrously new Apple 3.06 Intel Core i3, and returned that afternoon to retrieve both computers.
As agreed, the tech crew had migrated every single bit of data from my G5 to my new 3.06 Intel Core i3. When I opened the hood of the new model, one of the fellows at the Genius Bar patiently answered a list of my questions, helped me set a few new preferences for email, ran it through its paces, and I was good to go.
My desktop and its contents were all in place, in a sleeker machine that can run the applications I rely on faster and with gorgeous color. For the record, it cost several hundred bucks less than the desktop I bought in 2006.
They have the best customer satisfaction driven business model on earth. Every time I walk into the store in the Chestnut Hill Mall, I’m greeted by a friendly concierge. “Hi, how can we help you today?”
Last week it was, “Well, I need an adapter to connect my laptop with my TV so I can stream movies onto it. And I might need an HDMI cable to connect the adapter to the TV.”
“Sure,” says the young lady concierge, “Kevin can help you with that…Kevin, this gentleman wants to talk to you about connecting his laptop with his TV.”
“This is the adapter that you need to connect your MacBook Pro to the TV,” Kevin says after asking me a few questions about the TV.
“Look, Kevin, I might be able to buy the HDMI cable for a lot less at Best Buy so I might wait on it,” I say.
Kevin takes an iPhone out of his pocket. His fingers do some prestidigitation on it and shows me the screen. The cost is comparable.
Onto the pile it goes.
“And oh, when the friend who showed me how to do this used her adapter and cables on my TV, the sound came from her laptop but didn’t come from my TV.”
“When did you buy your MacBook?” Kevin says. Another round of prestidigitation on the iPhone.
“The later ones can send the signal to your TV. If yours was made before around June 2010, you might have to buy cables like these (as he walks me to another display) that you plug into the audio jacks on your TV and you’re good to go.”
You might be able to conduct an air campaign in Libya with this iPhone.
“What credit card would you like to use?” Kevin says.
He swipes my credit card on another gizmo he retrieves from his pocket. “Would you like a printed receipt or one sent by email?”
“Both.”
Kevin reaches under a nearby table to an unseen printer, hands me a receipt to sign, puts my purchases in a nifty plastic bag and I’m done.
On my way out, I pass blue shirts and customers engaged in one to one tutorials, information gathering sessions, and demonstrations. Several people are conferring with young men or women at the Genius Bar – that’s the place I set up an appointment online when my first Mac hit the CD problem and was replaced on the spot.
I also pass the concierge who directed me to Kevin. “How did it go?” she asks. The smile on my face was a dead giveaway. So is the price per share of Apple Computer. I sometimes think that the “i” prefix on most every Apple product relates to the “I” as in “me.” The more they keep us ‘i’s happy, the higher the stock will go.
Nice goin’, Steve.
April 03, 2011 in Commentaries | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: Apple Stores, Chestnut Hill MA Apple Store, Steve Jobs