All posts by Kev Brock

I'm a musician, singer/songwriter, blogger, writer, poet, bodybuilder, movie lover, music lover, video gamer, history/political buff, conservative/republican, etc. I like to do a lot of things.
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Honestly, my personal facebook page seems to be more popular than my blog…

With the popularity of social networking sites like facebook, my personal facebook page seems to be getting more recognition, than my blog here these days. People are always coming up to me in the town of Greenwich, saying how they are so entertained how I use my personal facebook page. I have people that like everything I do online, and there are some out there who think I’m a complete lunatic. Usually, my web presence online, is mixed. You either love me or hate me, I’m good with either.

I like to use my personal facebook page just the same way I do here. Talk about the entertainment industry. I don’t use my personal facebook page to put my personal life on it like many do.

So to those certain few out there who keep criticizing my web presence, saying how I’m controversial, dark or negative or it destroys my reputation, I don’t believe that shit for a second. I get people out there who find nothing wrong with me. So you’re entitled to your own opinion. Stop thinking that you have control of how I post online ’cause I hate people like that. I’ll post how I want to.

Like I said before, I’m the type of guy that likes to speak my mind without any fear. I like to discuss things, no holds barred, anything goes. I don’t really care how offensive things can get, ’cause the truth needs to get out. Swearing and dirty talk, whatever, get what’s off your mind. I never found that stuff offensive.

My blogging will not hurt my chances of a good music career at all. So for those who say that, is full of shit. I’m done explaining myself for now.

Kev

Local music

There are ways to make my music more recognizable than my blog, I have a plan to get there…

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I’ve always known that my blog is more well known than my music, but I have a plan to change it the other way around. Not only that I need to market and promote my music, a little better, I also need to make my songwriting as best as possible. If I want to get a lot of online plays and get even more fans for my music, I need to make my songwriting skills better. I’m trying the best I can. Which is why I’m trying to improve my singing and guitar playing. Practicing guitar more, trying to get a better sense of timing and rhythm with a metronome ’cause people will take your songs more seriously if they are played in time. People would also take your songs seriously if you took your time with them and if they are perfectly crafted. I try to improve my songwriting anyway I can and am getting a little better, as you can see.

Good songs don’t always have to be catchy pop songs you can’t get out of your head, that will get the girls dancing. I never really wrote songs like that. I’m about making the art. I was never a hit radio single kind of guy like so many local musicians appear to be. I just wrote songs, simple as that. From this point on, I plan to take songwriting a little more seriously. It’s the good music that matters, no matter how much you promote yourself. As long as your music is good, people will support it.

I do have plans to promote myself to the next level though, by marketing myself as heavily as possible. I see how other musicians do it, so I can look at them for inspiration. Making professional ad flyers, promotional videos, and things like that. I’ll have a plan that I could get myself out there in a big way. I’ll make more people want more music from me somehow, just wait.

I’ll never stop the blogging though ’cause I always felt it was important that a musician needs to express himself, other than the music, which is why I enjoy talking about other things like movies, fitness, the entertainment industry, etc. It shows the world that you can be real, and human.

Kev

Random/off topic posts

Amanda Todd teen bullying and suicide thoughts…

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I didn’t really want to reply to my thoughts about this news story, but I thought I would reply to this, just once, and that’s it. The Amanda Todd story is pretty huge on the internet, everyone’s talking about it everywhere. Opinions on the story are mixed. Some feel sympathy for Amanda and some say she deserved it and she had it coming. Before I give out my thoughts, lets talk about what’s going on here. Amanda was talking to some stranger in an internet chat room, and he asked her to flash her boobs on camera. She decided to go for it, and a year later, her topless photo has been landed on facebook with her photo as a profile pic. Her topless photo circulated facebook, then she made a 9 minute youtube video using flash cards, talking about her problems. On Oct. 10th, she killed herself.

So here goes. If this was my daughter, I would be sure that something like this wouldn’t even happen. I mean, she was 15. Too young to be using the internet on her own. If that was my daughter, I’m not saying she won’t be allowed to use the internet, however, I would monitor everything, she does online. EVERYTHING. Just to look out for her safety and protection. How come her mother wasn’t doing that, at the time? Was this Amanda’s and her family’s fault? Part of it was, you can’t deny that. She’s too young to be flashing herself online to strangers she doesn’t even know. If you don’t want kids doing something like that, you need to teach your kids of what’s right and what’s wrong. Don’t allow her to go into chat rooms that young of age. When she’s alone using the computer, there are ways to block those sites where, she won’t visit them.

I’m not saying she deserved it, and she had it coming, but once again, part of this was her fault. She should have known better and family should have taught her better. When you have a child, you need to teach them these things, so they won’t do anything risky in the future. Teach your child that, if they plan to use the internet, teach them that they should talk to people online only if they know them. It’ll take them a while for them to understand, but it’s worth it. I’m not saying her mother is bad at parenting, but she should have protected her child more. If I had kids, I would do anything to protect them before they get into depression and before they go making suicidal notes in youtube videos.

Being a parent (which I’m not yet, but just saying), takes a lot of learning and responsibility.

Teen suicides are horrible, and teen bullying is horrible. I’ve experienced getting bullied in school when I was a teen myself, so I know what it is like, for sure. Which is why I am against bullying of all kinds. It is pretty inappropriate to bully people, no matter who they are, whether it will be for their orientation, their disability, their weight, their appearance, etc. People shouldn’t be bullied what so ever. I still get bullied by people to this day, but I learn to rise above it all and be a tough son of a bitch.

You’ve got to teach your kids that too, which is what I plan to do if I ever get kids someday. Teach them to be tough and teach them how to defend themselves when getting bullied. Teach them karate class or teach them how to fight, and teach them to fight back for self defense only. If you got a kid, who is driving themselves into depression and suicidal, then there must be something wrong with your parenting skills there. It takes a lot of skill as a parent to make your child safe and happy.

My heart and condolences goes out to Amanda’s family & friends, it’s just that suicide is not the answer. If you know a kid that is in trouble, you need to seek them professional help, before it’s too late.

Kev

movies

The Brock’s Horror Film Pick #19: Black Sabbath (1963, w/ Boris Karloff)

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I just watched this film on Netflix last night. An Italian horror film titled, “Black Sabbath” released way back in 1963. The film was directed by Mario Bava and stars Boris Karloff. The film has three short stories titled, “The Drop of Water”, “The Telephone”, and “The Wurdalak”. While Boris does the intro for each of those stories, he does play a role in “The Wurdalak”, which is a vampire story. It is in color, not in black and white. The only story I didn’t care for was “The Wurdalak”, the vampire story which was pretty weak but other than that, the other two stories were the best part of the film. “The Drop of the Water” and “The Telephone” were both scary as hell. Both of those stories has a sexy woman playing the leading role. The film does have hot women all over.

Yes, this is the film that indeed inspired the band, Black Sabbath with Ozzy Osbourne. They wrote the song, “Black Sabbath”, named after the movie, and later they changed their band name to, Black Sabbath. The movie also helped inspire the band who invented that dark heavy sound. This movie is streamable in Netflix. Definitely check it out! This is a perfect Halloween movie.

Kev

movies

Film Review: Paranormal Activity 4

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Starring: Katie Featherston

Directed by: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman

Today, I’ve just seen, “Paranormal Activity 4”, and here is my review.

Plot/synopsis: This film is set 5 years after the events of the first two films. This film focuses on a new family who has an adopted son, named, Wyatt. A child named, Robbie, stays with this family for a few days while his mother is away at the hospital. So Robbie and Alex becomes friends. Ever since Robbie has been staying with the new family, strange things starts happening around the home, while Alex (the blonde girl in the film) who is Wyatt’s adoptive sister, and her boyfriend Ben, videotapes everything that goes on around the home.

You either love the series or hate them. A lot of people like to see these films as nothing but typical, “scares”. The way I’m looking at these films, it is way more than just, “scary ghost scenes”. If you pay close attention to the films, they have a story, and an actual plot to follow. You have to follow the 4 films of “Paranormal Activity” in order. If you watch the films, out of order, you’re going to get confused with the story.

I’m sure most everyone out there have seen the first “Paranormal Activity” movie, but you didn’t care to see the rest of ’em. Why? Don’t you want to find out how Katie Featherston turned out to be at the end of the first one? The sequels will tell you. The story of the sequels progresses, giving little information on the mystery surrounding with Katie. That’s the main idea with the story. What’s going on with Katie? Why did such an innocent young woman do something mysterious and then she disappears with, Hunter, who was Kristi’s son? There’s a mystery surrounding the story, and the writers want you to solve it yourself. The question you have to ask is this, is Katie really alive or dead? I’m not saying anything. You have to see the film for yourself. Just giving you a tiny hint, I can say for sure, that Katie does return in some form. That’s not a spoiler ’cause the trailers have already been teasing it.

As for the scary ghost scenes, they seem to be getting better every sequel. Throughout the entire film, as the characters are doing their scenes, you’re always looking around the screen everywhere ’cause you never know what may happen. That’s another thing, that makes these movies so fun. In this film, you get to see the actual ghosts which the previous films didn’t, and that made the movie even more interesting. I think the goal with these movies, is that they want to show people what it would be like if the supernatural were real. What it would be like if these things actually happened. They are doing a good job making it believable.

As for the acting goes, they are not Oscar worthy performances, which they don’t need to be. They went for unknown actors without any experience, ’cause the film makers didn’t want perfect Hollywood style acting if you know what I mean. They wanted people in the film to act like real people, like us. So the acting, really doesn’t bother me. They wanted the acting to be simple and normal.

The thing is, this was a very intense movie. The first half of the movie felt like a feel good family film, then the movie got darker and darker as it went along. I was at the edge of my seat toward the second half of the movie. The ending was so crazy and out of this world, I was sitting there speechless while the end credits rolled. The ending was very powerful. It’ll leave you thinking, “WTF just happened”? Again, I don’t want to give any major spoilers. Maybe I’ll do this in a spoilers post, but I’m going to wait for another week or so until the movie goes out, then I’ll do the “P.A. 4” spoilers post to discuss the story.

With all this being said, I was pretty blown away with, “P.A. 4”. The ending did scare me a little, and that rarely happens. I’m usually never scared watching horror films ’cause I’m used to watching ’em, but this one pretty much did it to me. I don’t see how people can’t like these movies? Maybe they just don’t understand the story well ’cause there’s some pretty serious stuff in there, again, I don’t want to reveal anything. Of course, this movie left open for “P.A. 5”, and the next movie will probably reveal everything of what’s going on. They are getting closer to what’s going on.

Gives these movies a chance ’cause they do mean something. This was the best film of the series and possibly one of the best movies of 2012. To hell with those critics out there, they’re totally misinformed anyway.

Score for “Paranormal Activity 4” = **** (4 stars as in “excellent”)

Kev

Local music

How venues can be unprofessional about the booking of shows…

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I’ve dealt with it all and I’ve seen it all. So I know these things with my past experiences of trying to get gigs. So you’re a band or a solo acoustic artist, trying to get gigs at venues around the scene and having a hard time trying to get gigs? There are several reasons why this could be.

1) You don’t have a large enough fanbase – (if you don’t have enough draw, you don’t get a gig. The only thing venues care about these days are pulling people in ’cause all they care about is making money. They don’t care whether you’re good or bad at playing music, they won’t book you unless you have a big following)

2) Their egos and bad attitudes can get in the way – (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve dealt with this, when asking for a gig. I’ve gotten really rude responses back by some of them, sometimes tempers even flare in a back and forth e-mail chat, when all you wanted was a gig, and they seem to enjoy giving bands a hard time ’cause a booking agent at a venue wants to think they are better than us)

3) They are amateurs about booking bands and don’t have much experience or knowledge dealing with them – (Bands & musicians are more professional acting than anybody, but the way some of these guys book bands at the venues are absolutely horrible. Disorganized, unprofessional and half of them don’t even know what they’re doing)

4) A lot of them focus on the popularity of a band/artist, rather than the talent – (As explained in No. 1, this one is a little different. The talent of a musician or band is usually ignored. There are so many unpopular talented bands & artists around here who struggle to get gigs. Just because a band isn’t popular doesn’t mean they suck. Remember that. There are venues that are appreciative of music and will book bands & artists ’cause they are talented, but we need more of that around here)

5) They are usually terrible at giving information on things (If you want to know stuff about payment, whether they provide P.A. System or not, how long your set is, directions to the venue, etc. They usually get too confusing about this stuff. If you’re going to be in charge of the booking at a venue, and you don’t know this stuff, then you’re not qualified to be in charge of booking, SORRY!)

6) They are getting strict on handling booking online or by phone these days (Since the internet is getting so huge and wide today, the venues try to do whatever it takes to avoid a flood of booking requests. I’m sure they get overwhelmed by the large number of phone calls or e-mails they get. They only answer phones at a certain time and most of the e-mails, don’t get answered)

I can keep going but those several is what I can come up with. I’ve had a hard time booking gigs over the years, as I’ve been turned down by plenty of venues. The way I always get gigs, is that either I would ask for a band to get on a show, or they would ask me to play on one. That’s how I usually continue to play the same venue that way.

There are a few venues that actually accepted my request to book a show with them, though, like Slow Jed’s, Lena’s and maybe a few others, but most gigs I either asked to be on or I was asked to be a part of it.

The booking around here is bullshit, for sure. Can’t deny that. Although, I have a feeling that when I start getting back out there playing live, I’ll start experiencing these things again.

Kev

music

David Bowie, spotted out publicly recently in New York City…

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While David Bowie, still wants nothing to do with the music industry anymore, the man is still alive and well. He was just spotted in NYC walking the streets, all smiles. Wearing a flat hat, wraparound glasses, and a hooded sweatshirt so he wouldn’t get recognized by rabid fans and paparazzi. The man is a full time resident in NYC, the big Apple, and it appears that he still lives there.

Read this interesting article, on David’s so called retirement from the music business, here.

Whether he is retired or not, I’ll support him on whatever he does. I still have hopes that he will come out of retirement for new album and tour. He is looking really good, though.

Kev

Celebrity news

Report: Howard K. Stern’s acquittal on the Anna Nicole case, overturned!!!

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I remember being very disapponted that Howard K. Stern, was acquitted to control Anna Nicole Smith, into using drugs that would lead to her death, back in 2007. A lot of people would like to blame Anna Nicole, that she brought her death upon herself, that she was a trainwreck, and an addict, but it is possible that someone can manipulate someone else to become an addict to prescription drugs. Get with it people. That son of a bitch, Howard K. Stern, murdered Anna Nicole and got away with it. Hope they do the right thing and put that asshole away for life! Justice for Anna Nicole!

TMZ, reports.

I’m a fan of Anna Nicole. Yes, she was a plastic blonde barbie doll, like all the others, but I admired and respected her legacy with, Playboy. She was a great supermodel. I respected her for that, not for her reality show.

Kev

movies

The Brock’s Horror Film Pick #18: The Strangers

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Time to do a newer film here called, “The Strangers”, starring Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler (Steven Tyler’s daughter). The film is about a couple coming back from a wedding reception, and they stay in an isolated vacation home. Of course, they get visitors by 3 masked people. Sure enough, they aren’t very nice people and violent. What I loved about the film, is that it has no gore. It concentrates on the scare, and that’s what the film does the best job at. Who ever the writer is, must know how to scare people ’cause it was a pretty freaky as hell movie. I was pretty impressed with the film, and plan on re-watching it sometime before or on the day of Halloween. I plan to start my horror movie marathon soon. Maybe this weekend.

Kev