I didn’t buy too many albums this year in 2013. Music industry gets worse every year so there’s not much good music anymore. Once in a while a good album will come out but not much. Looking through my CD collection, I only bought 7 albums this year. For all those other new albums I wanna hear, I’ll just listen to them all in spotify this week and then I’ll make my picks for the list. If I like the album enough, I’ll buy my own copy on CD. That’s what I use spotify for. If there’s an album I wanna hear, I’ll listen to it in spotify first to see if I like it enough.

I don’t subscribe to spotify… I just listen to the free service. I don’t mind commercials and advertisements. It’s just like listening to the radio, ya know?

I’ll be honest that it hasn’t been a good year for music but the big plus’s are that Black Sabbath and David Bowie both made comebacks. I’ll have this list up sometime at the end of this week.

Kev

… the goal is to ask her out to her face in person… show her you got the balls and confidence to do it in person than over the internet.

Maybe internet dating is a good thing. In these days, it seems that the internet is a big deal. Everybody’s doing it. People are hooking up through paying dating sites and social networking like facebook. I’ve known plenty of couples who just hooked up through facebook. So maybe this stuff does work? As long you’re careful and watching out for scammers, prostitutes, women with STD’s, and all that stuff… internet dating should be good.

Maybe I will give internet dating a try… don’t know.

I just think it would be more fun if I try to score a date with a woman who I just met publicly like out at a store or a band show or the gym or something like that. So I guess you can say that one of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2014 would be try and be more confident with women. Start talking to women I never met before… I need to do that more. I need to work on my conversation skills and it is getting worked on. Talk to people in person like I talk a lot on the computer. Shouldn’t be that hard.

Goal for 2014… try to talk to and meet as many women as possible. I’m 37 now, almost the big 40 and I wanna get myself a nice lady before then.

To be honest, I’m not worried about looks in a woman. It’s the personality that I look for. As long as she’s fun to talk to and you can click pretty well with her… who cares if she’s beautiful or not. It doesn’t mean I’ll date an ugly or an overweight woman, though. I would like a good looking and hot woman but if not, I’ll take a normal woman too.

I can’t see myself being single for the rest of my life and I really need to do something about it. Would like to get married someday but only to the right one.

Kev

I usually start putting up the best of movies and music lists of the year sometime after Christmas or around the beginning of January. After I go see “The Hobbit 2”, “American Hustle” and “Grudge Match” (the new boxing movie with Stallone and Deniro)… I’ll put the best movies of 2013 up on the blog. There are actually three more movies I wanna see this year.

As for the music list, I’ve only heard like 7 or 8 albums this year and still need to hear more. There are still new albums by Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Eminem, M.I.A., Dream Theater, Pearl Jam, and maybe other albums I still need to hear. I just got Arcade Fire’s new album, “Reflektor” on CD earlier this week and it’s a great album (not saying what number the album will be on, though).

It’s still kind of early for these lists to be up but I’m sure you already have an idea what’s gonna be on them, I don’t want to reveal the order. Like every year will be the same. 10 albums for “Best of Music” and 15 films for “Best of Movies” (I’ll also do a short list of 5 worst movies of this year too).

These lists should be up a week or two or more sometime after Christmas. I love doing best of the year lists. This year’s lists should be an interesting one for you.

Kev

While I love finger style guitar on acoustic so much and have been doing a lot of it; however, they really hurt the tip of your fingers finger picking the strings all of the time. Finger picking on acoustic may be fun but you don’t wanna be doing it all of the time ’cause you can get nasty blisters and stuff. I’ve gotten a few before and almost got one right now. That’s why I try to let my finger nails on the right hand grow out a little more ’cause you can use the long fingernails good for finger picking.

Finger style guitar is awesome. People seem to enjoy me doing that too as my finger picking is getting some good feedback. I love finger style ’cause it’s easier to sing over and you can sing over it better.

That Sharon Van Etten song, “Love More” really was tough for me to learn. The secret to mastering a cover song is listening and try to match what you hear on the recording. On the “Love More” song toward the end when the word “more” is repeated that was the toughest part of the whole song as you can tell. That part maybe off key a little bit but it was a challenging song to sing.

When doing cover songs… I LOVE to challenge myself with the singing. I like to pick songs where the singing is difficult to do. I have also been hitting the high notes more as you have noticed.

More cover songs on the way. Next song will be “One” by U2 and “Royals” by Lorde will be coming up as well. I think the main reason why I’m doing cover songs more ’cause it’s my way of trying to sing better and it works. Covers really help you improve.

I’m gonna try some acepella singing as well… try singing without an instrument. I’m real focused on the vocals and taking it more seriously. I wanna sing better.

Kev

Another great video by the PlayerSupreme.

In this video, he gives you the advice on what to do if you have a crush on a girl that you like… his simple answer… “ask her out”. Seems pretty easy, I guess. I think the reason I haven’t gotten a girlfriend yet or haven’t had much experience with them ’cause I’m admittedly shy around women… I’ll confess it but as you all can see,  I really am working on my confidence around them and trying to get better with them. It shouldn’t be that hard to ask her out at all. To ask a woman out you don’t wanna ask her out to dinner at a fancy restaurant right away. Taking her out to a fancy dinner is recommended but not right away. You want your first date with her to be something small like a coffee date or a lunch date at a diner with her or something like that.

I am already starting to have the confidence telling women to their face that they are beautiful/gorgeous and have the confidence to dance with them and stuff but I need to start asking them out. Next time a woman approaches me or I approach them I need to ask them out for a coffee/lunch date or something. I need to ask them out in person… say it to her face instead of asking her out in facebook, ya know? It’s pretty weird that if you meet a girl in person and guys end up asking her out in facebook. Women like it better when you ask them out to their face… they’ll respect you even more that you had the confidence to do that. If you ask her out in facebook instead of to her face, then she’ll immediately think you’re shy around women. Shouldn’t be that hard to ask women out to her face. Gotta learn that women won’t bite at all.

Check out his video. He gives the advice at 13:00, toward the end of the video.

When women talk to me or dance with me at band shows/parties… I’ll admit I had too many missed opportunities to ask her out… next time. Ask her out, Kev, ask her out dammit. Should be that easy!

If she’s not interested and she rejects you all of a sudden… move along to the next girl. Nothing to see there.

Kev

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsVff156_h4

Ya know, your comments can get approved as long as they’re positive, joyful and adding value to the discussion. Trolling is not welcomed here. I don’t accept personal attacks or bashing of any kind. Disagree with my topics all you want to is fine but keep the response respectful.

Every time someone tries to reply here… they’re almost always a negative response. Why? It don’t hurt to be positive and joyful. Try it. I can be a fun and easy going guy if you talk to me how you’d like to be treated.

If you don’t like the way I write on my blog… then why continue to read and reply??? This is my site. I control it and write on it however I damn well please.

If there are people I don’t like, I get them out of my life and act like they’re dead to me. I have better things to do than obsess with the same person for years. I’m better than that. It don’t hurt to be civil.

Kev

I love this advice by the PlayerSupreme. He gives simple advice that when women give you direct eye contact… that’s a clear sign that they are definitely interested in you and I agree. Over the years in my life, I’ve had plenty of women who I had direct eye contact with but never really had the balls to go up to her and say, “Hi”. When a woman is checking you out and she won’t stop… that means she probably wants to date you for sure. I’ll keep that in mind next time.

Check out this guy’s channel. His advice maybe directed at men who are “players” (aka men who date/sleep with multiple women) but still even if I’m not a player and don’t plan to be one anytime soon, I just like to watch his channel as a way for me to be more successful with women. I used his advice to be more confident around them and it’s working. This guy gives the best dating advice in youtube.

Kev

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDb3i89psN8

As expected, I knew I was gonna get a third party notice for some of those Lou Reed videos and I ended up getting one for the “Perfect Day” song ’cause I made the song similar to the original recording. That’s okay, though. I’ll just ignore it and let it be.

I really think musicians should be allowed to put up cover songs for the internet. There should be absolutely no reason at all whatsoever for the music industry to sue people who puts up cover songs for fun. The music industry does this ’cause the only reason it’s a money making opportunity for them. Musicians putting up cover songs or downloading songs for free haven’t been a problem until Metallica came around and sued Napster. That’s when all the “copyright infringement” got started, I believe.

Musicians should be allowed to cover songs legally online. I don’t see anything wrong with it. Cover songs are important to do. They help get musicians recognized and get them out there. Covers are a great way to showcase your musical talent. Famous artists have no problem of us covering their songs as many of them are flattered that their work is being covered by other musicians in the world. This is just how the industry wants it to be.

While bands & musicians love playing music and enjoy what we do… it’s getting harder for us to express ourselves as artists ’cause all the industry does is exploit us for money. I really hate the music industry and hate record labels especially the major labels. They are a bunch of evil greedy bastards. Why would musicians wanna get signed and get controlled by these animals?

I kind of didn’t want to do the Lou Reed tribute at Youtube ’cause I was afraid of third party notices. I could upload videos to my site exclusively but I would need the “videopress” upgrade for that which would cost quite a bit.

Before google bought youtube, there was never a problem of uploading covers to youtube at all. It’s ridiculous. All of it.

I think someday musicians will be allowed to cover songs for the internet once musicians start taking a stand against the music industry… give it time. I can see that happening. The industry is getting worse. The labels are not only exploiting the artists on their rosters… they are even exploiting artists who are not even signed. They think they’re tough. They like to get all over us.

I’ll continue to upload covers for youtube. I’m not worried about getting fined or getting contacted by the labels. Those things happen rarely. Depends on how big your channel gets. I like youtube better in the old days. It’s just getting really bad these days.

Kev

Welp! I’m at the final three Lou Reed songs for the tribute series. I’m having a blast performing these songs for youtube. Could use for more views to those videos but either way… I’m having fun with these songs and they’re getting good feedback too! What are the final three songs for the Lou Reed tribute? I’m not saying as I don’t wanna give out any spoilers this time but they will be big but you may already guess what they could be anyway! I’m hoping the next three songs will get a lot of views as I’m gonna try to make the final three songs as best as possible. I’m gonna concentrate on the singing on them.

After I complete the Lou Reed tribute series… I’ll be off doing covers of other bands/artists.

I would like to cover a song by EBJ at some point… maybe “Ghost Town” or “54 Miles”… I think Adam will be flattered and happy if I did a song by EBJ. I’m sure the band will let me.

Kev

Are you a target of trolls and haters on the world of the internet? Do you get a lot of people writing hateful and spiteful stuff about you online? I know I do. I’m about to explain to you why you do get a lot of haters/trolls and how to handle them.

First off, lets talk about why you do get a lot of haters/trolls. They don’t like you because of the way you write online… they don’t like your honesty or negative postings? Do they make fun of you ’cause you look funny and different? They think you’re weak so they feel the need to pick on you. Those are just a small part of why you get haters and trolls but it’s way more serious than that. The reason that you get a lot of haters/trolls is because I think it’s that they know your web presence is very big online and it’s bothering them. That’s the only reason why I think that is. The bigger your web presence gets… the more haters/trolls you’re gonna get. There’s honestly no reason for any of them to be hating you. They do it in a jealous rage, pretty much. I’ve noticed that people who have a very big web presence usually have a lot of haters. A lot of people with popular youtube channels, they get haters/trolls too. Bands/musicians out there that has big web presences, they’re gonna get haters/trolls. It isn’t you that they don’t like… it’s your popularity that bothers them. That’s what these guys do, you see… they look around for people with big web presences hoping to get more attention to themselves… they try to take their spotlight… that’s what they do it for. Trying to get more attention off of you.

Secondly… about how to handle trolls, haters, negative people or whatever… make sure you have your privacy settings set. Have comments moderated before approving them publicly like I do everywhere online (I don’t do this in facebook ’cause people are usually cool there). If a negative and asshole comment comes in, just ignore it and delete it.

Whenever you see someone bash you online when you have no control of moderating it, they decide to bash you somewhere else… just ignore it completely (or you could try your best to report it). Don’t respond to it at all. Once in a while, I see people in facebook just bash the hell out of me publicly for no reason but I just ignore it and don’t respond. That’s the problem that people have. Responding to people that bash them publicly and it’s bad to do. Best thing to do is just ignore everybody’s bullshit. If you respond to that online bully, they’re just gonna keep at it and things will get a lot worse. The only way to end the drama is just ignore it all, people will get bored of it when they realize that you don’t care and they will stop. This works for me all the time. I used to have a problem of responding to everything that bashed me but I learned from my mistakes over the years.

You need to be tough. Stay above the drama and not care about any of it. There’s nothing wrong with being yourself and being who you wanna be. Just do what you wanna do and say what you wanna say online… and fuck everybody if they don’t like it. Once again, I’ll repeat myself, “You can’t please everybody, the world doesn’t work like that”. You can’t make everybody happy.

When ever people bash me online… it is mostly done “anonymously”. They do it ’cause they don’t want me finding out who they really are but they fail miserably at that ’cause I can immediately tell who they are anyway just by recognizing their writing styles. Their writing styles is very easy to pick up.

I don’t care if anybody hates me or not. Go cry me a river for all I care. That’s the trick there. NOT care about anybody. You are who you are… there is nothing for them to do to change that. If you write stuff online that people don’t like or don’t agree with… just ignore the negative commentary. You have the right to say what you want to say and believe what you want to believe. Don’t let negative people get all over you. That’s what they do it for… they wanna destroy you publicly ’cause they love the attention.

On top of all this, you shouldn’t be upset that you get a lot of haters/trolls. It should be a flattering thing ’cause you wouldn’t be this popular and big online if you didn’t have haters right? Trolls don’t go after people if their online presence don’t matter… they only go after the popular ones. This is pretty much why a lot of local musicians around here don’t like me ’cause it’s bothering them that my web presence is pretty big.

Again, don’t reply to any negative bullshit or bashing… and life on the internet will be much much easier for you. Trust me. It works.

Kev