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.

How to make this area a better music scene? I have some ideas!!!

So a lot of us like to talk about how terrible the Albany Capital District music scene is. How can we make it better even though I know you all won’t follow it? I have some ideas here. I’ll list ’em. Feel free to add some suggestions in the comments below.

Ways to make the music scene better…

  • More venues to play – Seriously, bands & acoustic acts don’t have to be stuck playing crap hole bar rooms all the time. If you have a business degree, I’d like to see some people open up more venues with a stage for local bands.
  • Make the booking less difficult – I think it’s idiotic and stupid that a lot of venues want you to play one of their open mics first before booking you. That’s how a lot of venues seem to be booking here lately. The better way venues should book bands is, if they like your music, they should book you, no matter if you have a big following or not. This is just local music, all acts deserve a chance to gig.
  • Leave your egos & bad attitudes out the door – I don’t want any of this, “Lets make fun of this guy because he’s funny looking”, “Your music is crap and you need to quit playing”, etc. You get the deal. No bashing other musicians & bands and no acting like you’re better than others. A positive attitude would make a good music scene. Just shut up and play the music, simple?
  • Act like a total professional – Being polite, courteous and respectful to everyone at all times but nope, we don’t get any of that. I sometimes see facebook drama with other musicians and in craigslist, it’s pathetic really.
  • Concentrate on the music only – There are too many so called musicians around here that concentrate on other people and other things when they should be worrying about their music alone.
  • Respect all talent and their music, even if you don’t like it – Keep your negative opinions to yourself. I actually respect all music and what you play. If you want this to be a good music scene, you must respect all musicians. There are too many people who are critical of other talent and I just wish people would shut up and let us do our thing.
  • Promote yourself more and get people out to your shows – I love how bands complain and whine they only play in front of a few people at a gig. Wanna know why that is? It’s probably because they aren’t promoting themselves hard enough. Bands don’t do any promoting around here. Maybe facebook but that’s about it, you must do more than that. Having more people at your gigs would make a great music scene.
  • Just enjoy and have fun!!! – If you’re not having fun, then why bother doing this?

That’s it, enjoy.

Kev

RIP: Bubba Smith 1945 – 2011

Bubba Smith, who is the former NFL star and actor most famous for his role as Hightower in the “Police Academy” comedy series has passed away. He played for the NFL from 1967 – 76, then he retired to become a full time actor. Bubba was found dead in his home in Los Angeles, he was 66 years old.

Damn, a sad loss in the movie industry. I love all the Police Academy movies and Hightower has always been my favorite character. Sad.

Kev

Report: George Clooney is dating former WWE star, Stacy Keibler? Yes, seems that it’s for real…

I usually hate celebrity couples and celebrity gossip like always but I have to write about this one, since I like George Clooney as an actor and Stacy Keibler is one of my all time favorite, WWE stars. It seems that George found himself a new lady already. George and Stacy both flew to Lake Como, Italy where he has a home there.

See the full story, here.

Even though Stacy or George haven’t confirmed this pairing yet, Stacy have been dropping hints about it on her twitter page. She wrote that she went to Cannes film festival and she has nothing to do with movies, I bet George took her over to Cannes with him.

If this pairing is true which I’m sure it is, I actually like this couple. Stacy is hotter than hell, she has the most amazing legs I’ve ever seen. She’s a pretty tall woman too and I’m sure she’s taller than George.

Stacy hooked up with George Clooney before he got someone else. I’m sure plenty of women were after him. So the question you have to ask is this. Is George a fan of professional wrestling? Who knew.

Kev

In defense of Laurence Fishburne as Perry White…

Yesterday, when Laurence Fishburne was announced that he is officially on board to play Perry White for Zack Snyder’s Superman “Man of Steel” film, this news got mixed reactions of course. Some love it. Some hate it. For those who hate it, just don’t like the idea of a black Perry White. I’m reading other blogs and message boards with fans giving feedback on this news, and I’m seeing so much hateful and racist postings about this news.

Seriously people?  This isn’t the first time the Superman movies experimented with a black character. Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) from “Superman III” anyone?

I think turning Perry White into a black man is a great idea. It’ll bring in a whole new audience and will bring in more black people to see the movie.

Jackie Cooper as Perry White was pretty good, but he wasn’t mean and aggressive enough. In the comics, Perry is supposed to be a mean and tough guy to get along with. I think Laurence will fit the mean and tough guy role just perfectly.

The new “Spiderman” comics just turned Spiderman into a black and bi-sexual guy after Peter Parker was killed. I’m sure other comic book superheroes experimented with black characters too. So there’s nothing wrong with turning Perry White black. Keep in mind that Perry White wasn’t a very big character. He was just a supporting character. You can make changes with other characters, all you want, but you can’t change Superman himself into a black person.

Perry White have been the same character for over 30 years, so it don’t hurt to change him around a bit. I think Laurence would give the Perry White role a powerful performance that might be good enough for an Oscar nod, possibly.

I mean, this isn’t the first time Zack Snyder “Man of Steel” has been making changes with the other characters in the Superman franchise. Like Ma and Pa Kent for example. Ma and Pa Kent were meant to be an elderly couple, but Snyder hired Diane Lane and Kevin Costner to play them who are both a little younger. Lois Lane is not a redhead, yet they got Amy Adams to play her. Henry Cavill is a British actor and yet Christopher Reeve/Brandon Routh were both American actors to play Superman. See? They’re making changes with all the characters, not just Perry White.

When they cast Jimmy Olsen which I assume which will be next, don’t be surprised if Jimmy could be black, Asian, Mexican, etc. Jimmy could even be much older too. He could even be a little teenager.

I bet they just want this Superman movie to be more realistic so it can feel real and believable. I think Laurence Fishburne is fine casting. I really love the casting to this movie so far. I haven’t been disappointed with any of them yet. Hopefully they cast someone good for Jimmy Olsen.

Kev

Feuds with people online…

In the past, I used to use this blog to call out people by full name who would start bullshit with me, but I learned it was a mistake in my part. I am adult enough to learn from my mistakes. I learned what karma was all about. I could have continued that if I wanted to, talk about people however I wanted, but I stopped doing that a long time ago. Simply because I didn’t want to be known as an internet badguy. It kept getting me in trouble, that’s karma. I am a better person than to be an internet badguy. Even though I quickly changed my internet personality to a better person, there’s always going to be some people who still think I am an asshole, right? Who the hell cares. I can’t please everyone on this planet.

The point of this blog post is when you put yourself out there for the world to see, becoming a public figure, you’ll get a mix between love and hate. You respond to all the haters, and defend yourself at everything, your life will be nothing but negativity even more. That’s why it’s best to let all negativity of any kind, slide right by and ignore it all.

That guy with the plastic bag on his head (not naming his name but you know what I’m talking about), one day karma is going to get him really badly. When he feuds with everyone like that, he is doing that for the attention of himself. He’s an attention whore, that’s all he is. He just does it as his way of promoting himself and his stupid TV show. He’s never going to change to be a better person. He’ll be like this ’til the day he dies. I just hope one day he goes to prison or goes to the mental hospital, so he won’t be on the streets hurting people on a video camera.

Kev

Exactly how built do I want to get???

I haven’t wrote about fitness here in a while so I thought I would do that now. Some of you may ask, how much bigger do I plan on getting? This is my 3rd year doing fitness now, yes, that’s right, 3 years of bodybuilding and already off to a great start. I’m getting great results so far, I think. The only things I need to get improved on are the pecs and obliques, and I am working on both. I used to never want to get big as possible, just a medium sized built, but now I’m thinking I’m going to get as big and muscular as I possibly can. It’s going to take me years to do but I’m going to do it I think.

I will never compete in a bodybuilding competition ’cause I don’t want that kind of ego. I believe I can do it. Get the Sly & Arnold look that I am hoping to aim for. Two guys that inspired me to get into this in the first place. Become the best shape of my life sometime in the future. I will never give this up. This will be a lifelong commitment. I just want the look for myself. Be happy, healthy and getting a better life.

I’ll post end of the summer progress pics soon.

Kev

Report: Gemma Whelan is Asha Greyjoy for “Game of Thrones – Season 2″…

HBO’s “Game of Thrones – Season 2” has made another major casting. They found their Asha Greyjoy, and she will be played by a young actress named, Gemma Whelan who can be seen in “The Wolfman” and “Gulliver’s Travels” remakes. Asha Greyjoy is one of the important characters in “Clash of Kings” the second book. Asha doesn’t become a POV character until “Feast for Crows”.

More on the story, here.

The casting for Season 2 is looking really great so far. I really can’t wait. I absolutely love “Game of Thrones” series, both the books and the TV show.

Kev

Cool Photo: First look at Henry Cavill as Superman? Eh, sort of…

First pics of Henry Cavill as the Man of Steel? Not really. It’s just Henry himself walking down the street with the Superman hairdo, he’s got the “S” curl and everything. To be honest, I’m not too thrilled yet, but I’ll make my opinion whenever we see Henry in the actual Superman suit, which we hope to see pics of that soon.

See the pics, here.

Kev

BREAKING NEWS: And the new Perry White for Zack Snyder’s “Superman: Man of Steel” is???

Hmmmm, what’s funny is that I just got done watching “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace” on Blu Ray and a new Superman casting has been announced for Zack Snyder’s “Man of Steel” film. Perry White has finally been casted! Laurence Fishburne will be the Daily Planet boss.

Read more on the story, here.

So they’re going for a black Perry White this time? Interesting! I like the casting. I’m sure Laurence will kill it!

Kev

 

I still say “Superman IV: The Quest For Peace” is the worst Superman film ever…

I just got done watching “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace” on Blu Ray, the final Superman movie starring Christopher Reeve. Yep, I still say the film is the worst Superman film ever made. I had to stuck through it just to make the money’s worth for the Blu Ray set.

The film is not all the way bad, however, there were just a few good scenes. For example, I loved the scene where Clark goes back to his Smallville home where Jonathan and Martha Kent used to live. I also actually liked how Superman showed the emotional side of him when he refused to respond to Jeremy’s letter on getting rid of Nuclear arms. Plus, Lex Luthor’s nephew, Lenny (played by Jon Cryer) was actually a good character and funny too. Those are the good things I can say about “Superman IV”.

Everything else is just really bad. Too many plot holes, terrible special effects, some of the action scenes were very silly and plus, Nuclear Man is just a horrible villain. I’ve read somewhere that Christopher Reeve was the one who created the Nuclear Man character ’cause Chris had a hand in the writing part for “Superman IV”.

I find it really sad that “Superman IV” had to be Chris’s last Superman movie. I just wish Chris could be around to make another one. RIP Chris Reeve.

The Superman Blu Ray set is really nice so far though. I’m loving it so much! I’ll watch “Superman: Returns” on Blu Ray later this week.

Kev