In facebook, I started talking to other people who is big into poetry. They recommend me a bunch of other poets to read like Robert Frost, Charles Bukowski, E.E. Cummings, Emily Dickinson, Alfred Tennyson, Edgar A. Poe, etc. I have already started reading a lot of their stuff. I already have a few poetry books but not by a single author. I have one full book of Alfred Tennyson poems which I already read, and have two other poetry compilation books.

When I told other poets, that I’m just getting into poetry, I told them I wanted to get into it so I can start writing poems of my own. I read other poets so I can see how they do it; however, other poets gave me the advice that I shouldn’t learn how to write poems by reading others. They told me you can write poems however you want to and start now. There are no rules in writing poems. You can write them however you want and how long as you want to. Every poet out there have their own style.

I can start writing poems today if I want to and probably will. I’ve already read enough poetry; that should give me an idea of how they do it so that’s good enough. You don’t need to learn how to write poetry by reading how to books or learning from other poets. You can start right away.

Poetry is pretty inspiring to me. Poetry is becoming addicting to read. I want to start writing poetry not only to help improve my lyric writing but I want to write poetry as a new way to speak my mind. That’s a huge part of why poets write poems ’cause it’s their way of speaking their mind in a different way. Back in the 1800’s there was no such thing as computers so they couldn’t use blogs to speak their mind with so they use it with poetry instead.

I wish I got into poetry a long time ago. When I was a kid in high school, I was heavily into fiction writing but I gave it up and switched to songwriting. Songwriting is very much like poetry ’cause that’s where lyrics obviously originated from. So if you write lyrics for your songs, you already have been writing poetry.

Kev

I have been working extremely hard on my vocals. I’ve been most concentrating on my singing for a while now. I really want to sing better and it’s really working. Anybody can become a great singer, and like I repeatedly said before — it takes vocal instruction and practice.

What I would suggest to become a better singer, I wouldn’t go through all those “how to” videos in youtube or those books you buy from the store. You’re just going to get their style when you really should have your own distinct sound in your voice. Actually, I would recommend you get vocal instruction DVDs/Tapes but with the ones with the vocal exercises that you can practice with. You know the vocal exercises where someone plays the piano and you practice to sing high or lower. I would recommend Metal Method’s “Vocal Power” more than anything. Other tricks to make you a better singer is when you want to have better range and to sing high, you need to get all of that sound out of your mouth. You need to have this buzzing sensation in your head. When you have that buzzing feeling in your head, you got it. Also, you don’t want to over sing too much. All you need is 30 to 40 minutes of practice a day. Your voice is like an instrument in so many ways. I can also compare singing to bodybuilding. You know how when in bodybuilding you lift weights and build muscle? Singing is pretty much the same thing. The more you sing, the stronger your voice gets.

You also need to keep your throat dry when singing like drinking a nice hot cup of green tea, I would recommend. Not coffee ’cause that’s way too hot and green tea would be perfect, in my opinion. Before I practice my vocal chops, I would drink a big cup of warm green tea. Some singers would prefer other drinks that helps their voice but green tea works for me. It takes years to become a better singer just like it takes years to play great guitar.

I still don’t think I’m a great singer but I believe I improved a little bit. I’m singing higher than ever, and didn’t think I could. I’m about to prove it with my upcoming songs too. I didn’t like the low and deep singing voice in my older songs. Time for a change. It is time to be a “singer”.

Yes, there are too many bands and solo acoustic artists that sing and perform but to be honest, a lot of them don’t actually sing. I know a great singer when I hear one and there are only a very few great vocalists around here. The point I’m trying to make here is that a lot of singers sing like if they’re using their speaking voice, not actually singing. Know what I mean? That’s kind of how I sang in the past and I don’t want to sound like that anymore. Time to take my voice to the next level and you’re already hearing that in my recent cover songs. It’s time to take singing a little more seriously if I want to improve my songwriting skills and it’s working beautifully.

The reason I haven’t written songs yet ’cause I just started studying poetry for the past few months and hoping to make my next batch of songs a little more poetic. I think people will appreciate my change of direction in my original songs, next time around. My next batch of songs promises to be something very special. My goal is to perform with a lot of heart and passion.

Kev

I prefer home recording over recording in an over-priced studio. There are too many bands & artists around here who overlook the beauty of home recording. Musicians shouldn’t ignore home recording. I don’t like those local studios where you have to pay hourly. A lot of studios are over-priced. They charge ya so much, it’s ridiculous. The reason home recording rocks so much is that you can make studio quality demos that’ll sound like you just recorded in a studio. If you train yourself how to use music recording software like ProTools and all that stuff, you can make some great sounding demos homemade. Why is home recording better?

1) You can record anytime you want to. You don’t have to set appointments with a local studio. You have home recording equipment, you’ll be able to record all day, every day.

2) Saves money. You don’t have to pay by the hour with your own home recording equipment.

You can even turn your own home into your own home studio. It’s easy to do. Just do the research and buy all the equipment you need to make a home studio. If you want nothing fancy; all you need is a computer and music recording software — that’s pretty much it. My home recording rig is nothing all that fancy. I would like to have better recording equipment and more expensive stuff but someday, I’ll have to start saving for the right equipment. I’ll need better speakers and all that stuff.

I think home recording is way cool. You don’t need those studios. Even a lot of famous bands don’t use expensive studios. A lot of famous bands have their own studio at home. That’s where they mostly make their records. Another great thing about home recording is that you have complete control. You’ll be your own boss and won’t be told what to do by the recording engineer. If you need mixing and mastering done… do the research on that stuff and you can get those done yourself with the right equipment you can buy.

There are some musicians around here that I know who do home recording but we need more. Home recording is so underrated. A lot of musicians and bands prefer to record in professional studios because they probably don’t have any recording equipment at home and they don’t know their stuff either that or they just want to feel like a rock star.

I recorded in a professional studio once to record a demo but to be honest, I didn’t like it. I like to keep it old-school by doing home recording. I’m more used to that.

My next demo that I plan on making will probably be homemade too. Studios are expensive and a lot of them rip you off, anyway. If you want to be a real DIY artist… doing everything homemade is the way to do it.

Kev

I’m not saying that everyone should agree with me on certain topics, and I’m not saying that I win at all debates but people really suck at online debating. Most people do. Facebook is proof of that. So is this blog, other forums, and other sites. People just suck at online debating ’cause most of them don’t know what they’re talking about most of the time. I’m not saying that I’m better at debating than everyone else ’cause I know I’m not.

When I post something to debate about online anywhere, I express my opinion on something (whether it’ll be something about politics, music or anything in the news)… it’s just my honest opinion. Everything I post online usually is my honest opinion; that’s all it really is. If someone else or a few other people disagrees with it, they’ll want to get into a back and forth argument with you. The other person I’m debating with will think that they’re telling their side of the truth. Everyone wants to think they’re right on something, all the time and the other people you’re debating with want to act like they are smarter than you.

I like internet debating and all but sometimes it can be a huge pain in the ass and people can be annoying. What I want to see in internet debates is intelligent people writing insightful and positive discussions… ya know, being accepting of others opinions without getting into hateful arguments. Other people will think you’re wrong and they’ll think you’re a whacky person only if your opinion is different than everyone else’s.

That’s how the internet works, I guess. It is what it is. The internet is an open forum and you’ll come across all kinds of weird people all over the place. They’ll want to accuse you of being whacky because you’re different but to tell you the truth, everyone is whacky as hell. We’re all crazy, and that includes me.

When I express an opinion on something like say I’m not a fan of those e-reader gadgets. Another example, I think Scott Weiland is not replaceable for STP, and another big one my anti-Obama rants. People will reply and have an exact opposite opinion then they’ll want to think you’re wrong on everything you said. You see that’s the thing I don’t get. Nothing is factual on either side. We’re all being opinionated on stuff. In other words, people are being opinionated all around. Everyone wants to think they’re telling the truth but in reality they’re opinionated too.

I’ve repeatedly said over the years in my blog, it’s kind of hard to have differences of opinions than everyone else online but I don’t give a shit. That’s how bad the media and pop culture controls people. They help manipulate people to have the same opinions on everything in the news, and I don’t have to be that guy really. Sometimes I feel that other people like what I say and they actually find my discussions interesting, they like to reply with a different opinion and thought because they enjoy that kind of attention with me. They want to see my reaction.

I’m all fine with people having differences of opinions on topics, just wish people would be more accepting of my opinions and thoughts, that’s the point I’m trying to make but whatever. This is the internet and like I said, people are whacked and can be douchebags sometimes. I don’t feel ashamed or guilty of my thoughts and opinions on certain topics. I don’t feel ashamed of being different. It’s not a crime. When I write my thoughts and opinions about things, I don’t change ’em no matter how hard people try to defend their points. I’ll hold onto my thoughts and opinions ’til the very end.

This is about being yourself and not giving a rats-ass what anyone else thinks. Once in a while we’ll get a few intelligent people who will get into friendly debates and know what they’re talking about but there are not too many like that on here.

Kev

Women are becoming more and more easier for me to talk to, in fun conversation. I’ll have to publicly admit that I am quite shy around them… seriously. I am working on trying to become more confident around the ladies. It definitely is a learning skill and takes a bit of practice to get used to talking to them. Treat them like human beings, treat them with respect, and you could be on your way to your first potential date with them. All you have to do is when you see a pretty lady you might be interested in, just walk up and say, “Hi, how are you doing?” — You never know, things will hit it off from there. I’m trying to get out of the house more and trying to be more sociable with people.

I went to Tulip Fest in Albany yesterday (yes you guess it, to see EBJ play — they kill it on stage like usual). After that, we all went to hang out at some bar in Albany to hang out with friends. I don’t drink anymore, I just wanted to hang out and do something since it’s better than staying home doing nothing, ya know? I’m trying to get out more. Meet new people and hoping to make new friends of my own to hang out with.

A lot of people like to comment on me that I’m a pretty quiet and shy person. To be honest, it’s true. I’m the type of person who is only very talkative to people I know really well like family members or people I know from Greenwich. I only talk to people only if they speak to me first and then I’ll gladly respond. I’m looking to change my life around. Trying to be more sociable, even to people I don’t even know.

Back to the conversation of women, you know how they all say that “women won’t bite” — it’s true. Women seem to enjoy talking to me every time I go out. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it could be my muscle building physique and maybe women find me attractive looking after all? Maybe they just find me a good guy? Maybe a combination of all three? I like giving women kisses too. Nothing that serious, just a big hug and a quick kiss on the cheek. They usually don’t mind either. They like it, I think. At least I have confidence to do that. Next goal is to actually try to ask for her number and even ask her out in front of her face. I was talking to a couple of gorgeous ladies at the bar I was hanging out in Albany last night. Good times.

Getting a woman should be easy, you just gotta know how to do it, and do it right.

So that’s what I did on Mother’s Day yesterday. Before anyone asks, yes, I did spend some time with my mother. Went out for breakfast in the morning.

Kev

They’ll be posted on here soon. I still need to review an album by Hard Soul and the new Sirsy album. They sent me these albums a while back. I listened to them a few times; just haven’t gotten around to posting the reviews yet, but will. It’s just that I’ve been trying to keep myself busy enjoying life and doing other things. The nice weather is finally here so I’m just trying to be an active person by going outside a lot more often which I have been.

A few more requests came in today, and I’ll get to those too. I’ll start posting reviews again this week. This is one thing that worries me. The more requests that comes in; the lesser time I’ll be able to do them. I need to listen to their albums a few times before writing down my thoughts. When writing music reviews, you never want to write a review right after the first listen. You have to listen to an album carefully a few times before getting your honest thoughts down. Before I write down the review, I would just write down some notes and ideas, then I’ll start writing the review. An outline, I’ll do first.

I’m realizing this stuff takes a while but I’ll get to ’em all the best I can. Just letting the bands know that I’m not ignoring them.

Kev

I’m beginning to feel like that I’m better at doing cover songs than doing originals. They seem to get better responses. People have been giving me positive feedback on the Richie Havens “Freedom” song. Due to the positive feedback of my cover songs for the last few years, that is what made me want to start doing a lot more for youtube. Perform my favorite songs from the 50’s – today’s music. I’ll do a lot of well-known songs to obscure songs (songs that not many people know about). I would like my “Freedom” cover to get a lot more views than 49, but as long as people have been giving me positive feedback on it, that’s all good to me.

I want to be performing songs by my favorite heroes such as Led Zep, Neil Young, Hendrix, Springsteen, Bowie, U2, Metallica, etc.

I love performing covers. I’m not just an original song guy. Cover songs are pretty important to do.

Kev

Just a few days ago, I just picked up a few poetry books to help get me started. They’re just two compilation poetry books; not by single authors. I want to read a lot of poetry so I can learn how to write poems of my own. Considering that I gave up fiction writing a long-time-ago, I figure poetry will be a great thing for me. Learn how to write my own poems, and then try to turn them into songs. I’m not gonna learn how to write poetry by reading those “how to” things on the internet or instructional books. The real way to learn how to write poetry is to read as much poems as you can by other poets. That way you can get your own creative style. I’ve should have taken up poetry years ago. I just want to change my songwriting direction around. Like I previous said before, I no longer want to do the story-teller kind of thing. I want to be the poet kind of songwriter.

It’s not like I’m going to become a published poet — maybe, I will try to publish poems, don’t know — but this is just something for fun. A new hobby that I want to do. Of course, I’ll probably publish some for this blog. Not gonna start writing poems yet, but gotta start reading first. I really want to get into this, and this is something I could be good at doing.

I could try to start writing poems right now, though, ’cause it’s good practice to start immediately.

Kev

I have a friend who likes to travel on the road full time (who should be nameless at this time, but a few of you might be able to figure it out). This guy likes to travel all over the place on a bicycle; no bus, no train, and not even an airplane. His travels are almost always on foot or on a bicycle. Sometimes he would ocassionally get rides by the police or just by random people he meets out in the public. Currently, he’s travelling all across the Northeast. This is permanent I believe. He just wants to get away from everything. Just wanted to get away from his home life and leaving his family behind.

I understand that there are some other people that can be like this. People who live on the road to get away from life and society, so they want to be on their own but living this way is very dangerous & risky, no matter what you think of it. This guy believes he’s doing a good thing and think he’s doing something inspirational. You can see all of his travel videos on his youtube account. He also mistakenly believes that this world is safe out there and thinks nothing will ever happen to him. In facebook, I would try to get onto him about this stuff and he usually gets all defensive.

Usually when people decide to live on the road like this — staying at various homeless shelters, sleeping at random places in the streets, etc. — usually things don’t end so good for people. People usually go missing or end up in bad situations.

What are the risks of living on the road on a permanent basis? I’ll list them here:

• Health issues & injuries – Who is going to take care of you if you get sick? Who is going to take care of you if you get hurt during an accident while on the road? Who is going to pay for your hospital bills? If you get hurt or get sick people are not gonna care out there.
• Becoming a victim of a criminal act – Muggings, beatings, robberies, shootings, etc. You’ll become a victim of all that stuff if you live out in the streets 24/7. It’s not safe anywhere anymore. Especially with all the tragic gun shootings and bombings happening these days. He has gotten robbed a few times already before in the past and that is just the beginning of it.
• Money issues – I don’t want to get into this guy’s personal life on how he gets his money to stay on the road, but one of these days he’s not gonna get any money at all when something happens. Soon he’ll be digging in the garbage for food or in search of things to recycle.
• Weather issues – Being outside on the road all day is pretty risky for the weather. You can even get sick or even die if you’re not smart of taking care of yourself whether during the Winter or the hot Summer weathers.
• You could wind up dead – Sad but this is true. Just look at Christopher McCandless of the “Into The Wild” story. Most people who decided to live on the road ends up in death. Whether by illness, getting hit by a car, murdered by some criminal, and things like that. All this stuff can happen.

While it’s good that this guy wants to get away from life, and I’m sure he’s very happy of what he’s doing but at the same time, I’m kind of scared for him. I just wish he would wake up and look at reality. It’s good that he wants to see the rest of the world and see what it’s like out there but at the same time, it’s pretty crazy. Someday, this guy’s bicycle is going to break for good and what is he going to do now if it does? Bicycles don’t last forever. They can get worn out after hours & hours of bike riding every single day.

Don’t get me wrong. I like to travel myself. I love it but I wouldn’t do it the way this guy does. I would rather travel with people and not alone. I would rather travel the safer way by bus, train, or airplane. I don’t mean to bust on him and I don’t mean to be harsh, just trying to give him a reality check on things. I think he will be back in Upstate, New York, though. Just give it time. When he runs out of money and can’t figure out what else to do that’ll make him return. I’ve had this topic in my mind all week and had to get it off my chest.

Kev

I think I’m gonna start singing songs for youtube acapella as well. For years, I have always sung songs with a guitar, but I think I want to try singing without an instrument. See what kind of feedback I get with my vocals without an instrument accompanying it. I can never tell how good my singing is, and this will be a good way to do it. Just to test out my singing skills. I really have been working hard on the singing. Trying to become an actual “singer” is tough. It doesn’t happen over night.

If I knew of a vocal coach, then I would work with him/her, but I don’t know any vocal coaches around here, so I just teach myself with an instructional DVD. I want to take singing seriously from now on. Have more range and control of my voice. Sing with more passion too!

Kev