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February 28, 2009

SOCIAL NETWORKING

Well, the delights of Twitter have kept me somewhat amused this week. Who knew that a status update would be so enthralling. I think it's the immediacy of it all. And the access. The whole social networking thing is just insane...Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Vimeo, Flickr, YouTube.... I watch people sitting in the same room have BBM conversations with each other! How much do I really want to interact with the world at this level? The answer for me is, I'm not sure. I love the idea of having direct and personal access to people who find my creative side interesting. People who want to know about music, film, art and words that I create. Following that, being able to introduce and share other creative forces with each other is fantastic. "If you like Banksy's art, you should check out Russell Young"...... "If you thought the last Oasis album was good, try listening to The Beatles".....haha! Well, you get my point. Interacting and sharing common creative thoughts and ideas is good.

But I find myself caught up in sharing with the world what I eat. Where I am. Wondering what other people are drinking right now. It's interesting that Facebook has been blocked in a lot of companies for 'timewasting' - employees drifting through four hours of aimless texting instead of actually doing their jobs! And the scary thing is that I get it! I can EASILY get lost in it all. And I'm not yet sure that I don't think its a good thing. We all need to connect, right? But where does it end? I drove past a woman on the 405 freeway the other day. This is a FREEWAY, ok? Everyone is doing 70+mph. The woman is in the middle lane, doing 22mph and TEXTING!!! Looking down at the phone, drifting across two lanes of traffic and TEXTING. Is the message that important? Are we all going to turn into a nation of people that stop in the middle of having sex to answer a Facebook alert on the Blackberry?....."hold on Luv, wait there....don't move.....I just wanna find out if Michael's left the bookstore yet...."

It's an interesting phenomena - and one that I am somewhat involved with....not on Facebook for that very reason, but MySpace and Twitter, and of course, this blog. So think about it, respond, or don't. It doesn't bother me - but I hope I have stirred up SOMETHING inside you if you read this. Because if I haven't, the chances are you are too far gone from years of staring at the "LOL OMFG LMFAO" messages that dominate your life. That's it. Have a good day. I'm off to post on my Twitter site!!!!

Billy

(CLOSED)

Posted by vivelerock at 08:33 AM | Comments (16)

February 23, 2009

2001 A CULT ODYESSY

Posted by vivelerock at 09:07 AM | Comments (7)

February 19, 2009

SUNSHINE FOR THE SOUL

It's beautiful this morning in Los Angeles. This is the sort of morning that makes me think about a few things. How lucky I am to be here. How I very nearly fucked everything up. The sunshine does things to me that I obviously need - isn't there a name for that shit? Like some kind of chemical imbalance or something? Whatever, I don't really subscribe to all that. Whatever it is, I am feeling grateful and positive today. The Camp Freddy gig in OC was a lotta fun - Fred Durst closed out the night with three songs (Sedated, You Really Got Me and Rock N Roll All Nite) and blew everyone away! Steve Stevens and Steve Jones provided guest guitar duties and Mark McGrath joined our own Donovan Leitch at the mic throughout the evening. Navarro astounded me personally with a solo in "Round And Round" that lit the place up....I have to say that the way Dave plays is pretty fucking special. The show was at the St Regis hotel which, although being really nice, proved a little too stuffy and up it's own arse for me. Jen and I were going to stay down there an extra couple of days and just chill out, but we couldn't take the 'high end golfing' vibe and split yesterday lunchtime! But she got a few nice pics of the gig so when I get around to it, I'll throw a few up here.

I've joined the hideously named Twitter brigade! Shit name, kinda fun though. Not a lot to it - another form of social networking through status updates and instant message type communication. I have it on the MySpace profile so go check it out. I am sure I'll get it up here as well once I figure out the coding. Click on the "FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER" text to join in and follow/be followed. Its a fun way for me to drop where I am and what I'm doing, as well as follow other people in what they are up to.....not essential for a days work, but a sign of the times (and very addictive!). I am still holding out on FaceBook though - not for me right now.

Camp Freddy are working on plans for the next few months - the joy of Freddy is that if one of the guys gets busy and disappears for a couple of months, we have the revolving door of friends and family and can continue to rock. So expect a steady stream of stuff from us throughout 09. Right now, though, I need to get out on my balcony with my fifth cup of colombian this morning, and drink in the sun. I think today might be a writing day. Enjoy, wherever you are, and try something different today. You never know unless you try.

Peace

Billy

(CLOSED)

Posted by vivelerock at 08:49 AM | Comments (9)

February 14, 2009

THE ST VALENTINES DAY MASSACRE

Today was designed specifically by Hallmark, to generate millions of dollars in revenue, and by default to make people feel inadequate, pressured, cornered and sorry for themselves. If you have a significant other, the pressure is on to get the card, the flowers, the sentiment that you maybe haven't shown enough of recently. If you haven't got one you feel alone, apart from, a loser. Now I'm sure that someone will post a Wiki entry discussing the true origins of the day, thereby showing me how opinionated, misinformed and just plain wrong I am.....but where's the fun in that? Personally, I tell my wife I love her every day, I make sure that she gets flowers on days OTHER than Valentines day (surely a well chosen bunch of Cali Lilies on a random day means WAY more than a dozen red roses today?) and I go out of my way to ignore the prefabricated red plastic hearts, balloons shaped like hearts, cards shaped like hearts and the inflated restaurant prices that Feb 14th seems to manufacture. End of rant. Back tomorrow.

Billy

(CLOSED)

Posted by vivelerock at 08:49 AM | Comments (11)

February 07, 2009

MUSICARES AND NEIL DIAMOND

Shirts unbuttoned to the waist, sequin-covered suits, panty throwing and fainting middle aged ladies. These are the things that come to mind when one mentions Neil Diamond....along with a 40 year career, some amazing songs and a fantastic voice. So when I got the opportunity to attend the Grammy/Musicares held event to honor Neil as Person Of The Year, I jumped at it. Last night at the LA Convention Center, we were treated to Kid Rock, the Foo Fighters, Jennifer Hudson, Coldplay and others all covering a Neil Diamond song. We were also treated to the Jonas Brothers murdering the classic Diamond track, "Forever In Blue Jeans", but the less said about that, the better. All in all, it was a great night, with a lot of money being raised to help the wonderful organization that is Musicares.

I have been busy with my studio set up (which means cords, cables, upgrades and a lot of cursing!) to get it upgraded. And I intend to start writing some music next week - I have two or three possible outlets for new music this coming year, so I want to try something a little different and just write and record the songs first, with NO thought as to what they are for ... and then see which scenarios present themselves. That way, the music will be ready and I can pick and choose what tracks end up where. I'm excited to do this, and will be writing with a few different people during this process. I already have the tracks I did with Patrick Cornell last year and I'm sure we will write some more together.

Camp Freddy will be down in the OC on Feb 17th for a private show, as I said previously, and we will be hitting a rehearsal room (good GOD I hear you cry!! Rehearse?? Camp Freddy??) so that we can add some new songs for 2009. Other gigs are in the works along with more fun stuff. And I will be busting THIS out at next weeks show.....the guys at RS Guitarworks did an amazing job on the finish. Thanks to everyone there for giving me this fantastic custom paint on one of my LP Standards. As Paul has correctly figured out, the Music Rising guitar is a part of a relief effort aimed at the devastation caused by the hurricanes. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO ON MUSIC RISING.

I gotta get back to some writing here (the other kind of writing - I have been working on screenplays with Jennifer in my spare time......spare time? what's that??) - the first two have been well received and we are beginning work on our third. It's fun and keeps me off the street.....and outta trouble. Oh yeah, and I'll be celebrating my birthday on Monday and just to clear up any confusion - on the MySpace site, it's some random date that is not correct.

Back next week. Peace.

Billy

(CLOSED)

Posted by vivelerock at 04:38 PM | Comments (18)