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.
Health and Fitness, Politics/war

Brock praises Mayor Bloomberg on large soda bans in NYC… *two thumbs up*

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So Mayor Bloomberg made the surprising announcement that he is planning to put a ban on soft drinks that are more than 16 ounces, just in NYC only. They’re putting a ban on that in restaurants, fast food joints, movie theaters, stadiums and arenas. Do I think it’s a good move? Absafuckinglutely!

Soda is evil. It’s not good for ya, and whether you like it or not, it is part of why obesity is a huge problem in America. Before I got into fitness & bodybuilding, I was pretty addicted to soda. Drank so much of it, and it does indeed make you fat. I had to give up soda completely. I haven’t touched any soda at all ever since I started bodybuilding.

Then of course, people on the internet are mad about this. They’re in facebook right now going, “Oh no, the gov’t is taking away our freedoms and rights. We should be able to drink all the soda we want to”. Boo Hoo… you know what? Mayor Bloomberg probably already knew that this move was going to upset a lot of people. Maybe that’s the whole point? It’ll teach people a lesson. Get them thinking first before drinking bad beverages or eating bad food, that they shouldn’t consume. Soda made me fat before I started bodybuilding.

Now that I gave up soda and most junk food, look at the change it got me. I am now more fit than ever before. I have muscle and decent visible abs. This is the goal that Mayor Bloomberg wants for everyone. He wants everyone to get healthy. Stop the junk food addiction and get fit, just like I did. Soda should be banned everywhere, not just NYC. Soda is poison.

Kev

 

Local music, music

Think about it, all musicians are crazy as hell, and that goes for me as well…

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Why is it that musicians have crazy and weird personalities? We all have crazy and mixed personalities. Everything from short tempers, bad attitudes, weird sense of humors, some of us can get upset easily over the smallest things, etc. No matter if musicians are good or bad, we are all weird. A lot of us can also be delusional people, and we are all living in our own worlds. Not just me, everybody.

Musicians aren’t perfect even though they want to appear “perfect”, when they put themselves out there. Nobody is perfect. The whole world of music can be pretty insane. Just admit it now.

Kev

music

The mysterious disappearance of David Bowie, why won’t he release a new album?

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So why won’t singer, David Bowie, ever release a new album? Why did he leave people wondering if he’ll ever release a new one or not? This could explain it! Like I said before, he’s definitely not retired from music ’cause over the years, he kept releasing live albums and re-masters/re-issues of his classic albums. The reason he left so many people wondering if he’ll ever release something new is that back in 2001-2002, he was going to release an album called, “Toy”, but Virgin records rejected the album. It’s not that Virgin didn’t like the album, I’m sure they loved it, but the reasons they didn’t release it is because of contract disputes, rights issues,  lack of popularity, and due to David starting his own record label. The songs on “Toy”, were supposed to feature 4 new songs and the rest of the songs were re-works of his classic songs.

Last year in 2011, this album, “Toy” was leaked on the internet. The album was getting very positive reviews by the listeners. So far, I haven’t seen anything negative said about the album. So I listened to some of it myself, and I’m like, “Damn, this is really good stuff”. It is a really good album. For some reason, David never bothered to find a different label to release this album on. This album have never found it’s release. It’s a shame since it sounded like it could be one of David’s best albums.

Why is David holding out on this album? Does he still plan on releasing it in the future? Or will he scrap it (since so many people heard it already) and come out with a totally different album. Like I said he’s definitely not retired from music completely ’cause he’s still doing other side projects for other artists (most notably his collaboration with Scarlett Johansson). I’m looking at forums and youtube, and fans are still wondering to this day if David will ever come back. I’m hoping the same thing.

Well, David doesn’t need to work too much anymore ’cause he’s made so much money from his earlier career and his movie career. Plus, the man has health problems as he had a heart attack in the past and other things. He’s also a family guy, so I can’t blame the guy for wanting to slow down and take it easy.

I’m sure Bowie will be back. Maybe he’s just waiting for the right time?

Enjoy the album, “Toy”, below in it’s entirety.

Kev

Local music

Signs on how you can tell a musician is not an actual musician…

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There’s a lot of musicians around here that like to call themselves, “musicians”. Are they really? With my own playing, I never considered myself an actual musician. I just play for the love of it, a hobby kind of a thing. I never considered myself a professional, but that is the goal that I want. I someday, want to be considered an actual professional, if I keep practicing and learning. How can you tell if someone is not an actual musician that they say they are? I’ll go down with the list here…

  • They don’t understand music theory –If you talk to other musicians about music theory, like what notes are there in a chord or a scale, key changes, etc. They don’t understand what you’re talking about and they get lost in things.
  • They don’t have a good ear, in other words, not good at improvisation – You jam with the musician and they don’t know what the hell they are doing or what you are doing, they just stand there watching you, trying to figure things out.
  • They don’t have a good sense of timing and rhythm – There are too many that don’t play in time.
  • They don’t have professional enough music gear – I’m not talking about piece of shit instruments you get from a trading store or yard sale. I’m talking about expensive gear you get from the music store or catalogs. If you want to be a respected musician, having the best sounding gear is important.
  • They don’t have enough musical influences – A professional musician would know a lot about their favorite band or artist they look after. They would learn as much as possible about music. You must know your shit. Not just liking the bands in the mainstream, you also must know a lot of underrated bands/artists that not many people know about.
  • They don’t know more scales than just the minor pentatonic scale – Professionals would know a wide variety of scales. From modes to unique scales nobody’s ever heard of.
  • They don’t jam with as much musicians as possible – A professional musician would have LOTS of experience jamming with a variety of musicians all over.

I could keep going with the list but you get the idea. I’m trying to work on all these above, so I can hopefully one day be considered an actual musician.

Kev

music

Hear David Bowie’s “Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust” 40th Anniversary Re-master here…

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As some of you know, I’m a huge fan of David Bowie. Love the guy’s work, and this is one of his best albums other than, “Hunky Dory”. I’m getting this ’cause I don’t have this album yet.

Enjoy it, here. I just listened to it today and it sounds great like always

I wish he would quit re-releasing his classic albums and wish he would put out a new album already! He’s not retired from music, he just doesn’t need to work much anymore since he made so much money from his earlier career.
Kev

TV

Why took “Game of Thrones” this long to make one of the best episodes of the series…”Blackwater”…was incredible…

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I missed “Game of Thrones” last Sunday, ’cause I was becoming less interested in this Season. This Season of “Game of Thrones”, hasn’t been that good. Why? Because this Season has been changing so much of the stories from the books. Altering the characters, and leaving important characters out from the books, lots of other things. They’re following the Tyrion vs. Joffery feud pretty well, but everything else they’re changing around. They even changed the Arya story a lot too.

Somebody told me that last Sunday’s episode of “Game of Thrones”, the “Blackwater” episode was one of the best episodes of this Season. After watching the re-run of that episode on DVR, I agree! The “Blackwater” battle was the best episode of this season.

Why is “Game of Thrones – Season 2” kind of boring this year? Well the pacing of the show is kinda slow this season. There’s not much violence and gory stuff. “Game of Thrones – Season 1” was very violent and gory. Season 2 didn’t have much of that, up until the “Blackwater” episode. The “Blackwater” battle was pretty epic, felt like a movie on the big screen.

Tyrion is going to be much uglier now, after what happened to him during the battle (Minor spoiler: Getting half of his face, chopped off). Don’t get me wrong, I still love the “Game of Thrones” franchise, it’s just that the books are way better, of course. I wish they would do more with the Brienne Maid of Tarth character, ’cause that’s a good character that doesn’t get too much screen time.

In other news, I also DVR’d “Hatfields & McCoys”, the western mini series on the History channel with Kevin Costner and Bill Paxton, I DVR’D both parts, and I’ll start watching them today. I’ll review “Hatfields & McCoys” later this week. Looking forward to checking it out. I missed the first part ’cause I forgot it was on, so I DVR’d the re-runs on the History Channel.

Kev

Local music

Why local music fans suck at supporting bands…

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People suck at supporting bands & musicians around here, and no, this is NOT me being jealous that they support other bands more than my music. I don’t care if other people don’t support me or not. I’m just going by how fans support local music in facebook. The way they do it is horrible, in my opinion. Again, this is not a jealousy kind of thing, just me being real.

The trouble is, that fans would almost be positive and happy at almost everything that the band does in their career. Whether you disagree with what the band does in their career, fans would support them no matter what they do. It doesn’t matter if the band is about to play some shit hole venue you don’t like or they’re about to do another stupid radio contest, fans would go along with everything they do. I understand fans want to see their favorite local band move forward and succeed, but how is being positive and happy happy joy joy all the time going to help make them succeed? Where is the honesty? We need more people being real about things.

Music fans can also be pretty childish and crazy, at times too. We need more fans supporting all local music more and not just them supporting the music that they like. There is also too much drama and soap opera with them. If regular music fans would understand how to support local music better, we could have a better music scene. It’s just that a lot of them don’t understand how music works. They’re not really musicians, that’s why they are what they are.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bashing fans, I’m just bashing their terrible communicating skills of how they’re supporting them.

Some of them can support music the smart and intelligent way, we just need more people like that. That’s what I’m trying to say in this post.

Kev

music, Politics/war

Report: Bob Dylan is honored by the President with Medal of Freedom and it’s about time too!

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While I’m no fan of President Barack Obama, I’ll give him respect for this one time. He did a good thing honoring Bob Dylan. Whether you’re a fan of Bob Dylan or not, he deserves this. Bob Dylan, did change American history with his music. Bob did so much over the years. Bob is still going in music to this day. He is still releasing records and touring. Still doing his thing at 71 years old.

When will Springsteen and Neil Young ever get honored by the President? I’m sure they’ll get their chance ’cause they contributed a lot in American history too and made a difference. Neil Young maybe a Canadian but he did so much in the US.

Congrats to Bob and well deserved. Bob looks emotional in the pic from this article. He does look sad and happy at the same time. I’m pretty sure Bob didn’t think he would ever get something like that, he just did his thing over the years, make music and write songs.

Kev

Celebrity news

Brock defends Justin Bieber, YES, I’m defending him, I said that right!

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I’m sure some of you are wondering my thoughts, on Justin Bieber getting into a fight with a paparazzi, for allegedly harassing his girlfriend, Selena Gomez. The singer was wanted for questioning by police, and he could get charged. When the news was reported that Justin Bieber is wanted by police, I’m sure that got all the Justin Bieber haters all excited. I’m sure they’re all calling Justin Bieber an asshole for punching that guy for trying to take a picture. The haters are all hoping that Justin Bieber, would get some jail time for this. I’m siding with Justin Bieber on this one.

Why? Because his privacy was invaded and he didn’t deserve it. There are no privacy for celebrities anymore. The paparazzi’s job is to go out and take pictures of celebrities out in public, mostly in the Los Angeles area where they all are. These photographers actually get paid a lot of money for this stuff. They take these photos for crap tabloid magazines and gossip websites like TMZ and many others. Whenever a celebrity wants to go to a store, go shopping or eat at a restaurant in town or go see a live sporting event, the paparazzi will be waiting outside for them. As soon as they walk out, the celebrities will walk up snapping pictures without asking. That’s what those idiots do.

Justin Bieber wasn’t the only celebrity to get into a confrontation with them. Sean Penn got violent with the paparazzi many times. Remember Chris Martin of Coldplay? Why did you think Britney Spears shaved her head? Remember actor, Matthew McConaughey got into a fight with a group of paparazzi when he was out enjoying surfing with some friends? I’ll never forget that video. I also remember, actor Woody Harrelson, attacked a TMZ photographer.

Not only that celebrities got into fights with the paps, some of them got into car accidents when their cars were surrounded by photographers. Most notably Tori Spelling from last year.

Can you blame celebrities for fighting back at the paps? I sure can’t! The paps are scum. Bunch of losers. Justin Timberlake was right on the money and had every right to say it when he took to his twitter to say, “Photogs need to find a real job”, when they went out and took a photo of him and a female friend in a car. Celebrities have every right to fight back at the paps. If you become a paparazzi and you get obsessed with taking photos of celebs in the public, don’t be surprised if they get pissed off and they could punch you in the face.

With all this being said, Justin Bieber did the right thing. Sure, all these celebrities are putting themselves out there with their careers, but still doesn’t mean their private lives can be invaded. When these celebrities fight back, it just goes to show that they don’t care about the fame. They do music, movies, sports, etc. ’cause that’s what they do for a living.

Back in 2009, Arnold signed a new law where the paparazzi will get fined if they’re caught snapping photos of celebs without permission. The “Anti-Paparazzi Law“. You can hate Justin Bieber all you want, but the kid is a human being, he didn’t deserve his privacy to be invaded. This is part of the reason why a lot of celebs don’t go out too much ’cause of this going on. Celebs just want to live their lives, and be human like all of us.

I predict Justin Bieber won’t get charged, and he won’t get jail time. They’ll let him go. Justin is innocent, no matter what you think of him.

Kev