I went to my friend’s funeral today. Very sad stuff but also nice to see how many people’s lives were touched just by one person. At the reception they had a nice little slideshow. I’m a little tired and don’t really feel like writing too much …but I wanted to mark the date.

Sometimes, not saying anything… says more.  

Saturday, I got a call from my hockey teammate Carl. He asked me if i was supposed to be carpooling with another teammate, Mike (Mike and I live pretty close and he hitched a ride to the last game with me). Anyway, since I didn’t hear back from Mike, I told Carl "I guess that’s not gonna happen"-or something like that. Carl takes a few breaths and then tells me that Mike DIED earlier that same day. I was in complete shock… and still am.

They don’t know all the details but i was just told that he was playing volley ball Saturday morning and had some sort of seizure and died. It’s very shocking and sad.

So, driving to yesterday’s game was a little strange knowing that just the week before I was doing the ride there with Mike. Just before the game started Sunday, the rink owner was there and made an announcement about our teammate and they did "the moment of silence" thing. Another teammate spoke some kind words and was hoping the rest of us might say something. Tough stuff… I opted not to talk…i was having a hard enough time keeping my contacts in by this point.

None of us really had our heads in the game and we got smashed 6 to 0… Mike would have probably said something like "It’s good to know that some things haven’t changed"… 

I wasn’t really sure how to begin this post but I’m sad to say the "categories" are under "Hockey, Friends, and Death"… I hope to never mix any of those again any time soon.

I found a post from a few years ago with a photo of me and Mike. He was too young to go and will be missed.

This month zoomed pretty quickly…

Two weekends ago, I had my friend from Michigan visit -from Thursday to Sunday. Thankfully, he’d already done all the Hollywood Tourist stuff from his other times here so we didn’t need to do that. I don’t mind going to Universal but having to get out of the car and walk around "The Walk of Fame" is about as exciting as shampoo in my eyes. They have cleaned it up a little and it’s cool to see the 1st 10 times but after that….bleh!  

So we ended up just hanging out and it was fun. We went to see a movie [Forgetting Sarah Marshall–VERY FUNNY]. Coming out of the movie theater, Larry Flint was being pushed around and while in the crowd, almost ran over my friend. We also bumped into Jeff Beck that same day. 

Anyway…Last weekend, it was around 100 degrees. I had a major case of cabin fever….not really sure it’s cured. When it starts to become Summer-ish, I start thinking back to childhood Summers … I know I’ll never recapture those but it sure would be nice to try =) I think the key is PLANNING(something I’m lousy at).

Like…let’s say with this weekend coming up? Today being Wednesday, I should start thinking of something to do on Saturday rather than winging it. So what’s my plan? A: The Walk of Fame (just kidding) 

I’ve been dreading writing my farewell to 2007… but here goes.

2007 started off on a high note. I guess I was still flying high from the good stuff that went on in 2006. In the beginning of the year[January], I played a show at the Key Club opening up for the band Great White. This was a fun event…lotza crazy Hollywood stuff but more importantly, i remember us sounding pretty damn good that night. Some shows feel better than others …this one felt pretty nice =)

The following month, I started a T-shirt contest and gave away a chunk of cash to the winning design that everyone voted on. Since then, I’ve worn my own t-shirt out places and I’m finding that the shirt DOES attracts attention… I usually get people asking me “Who is this Bob Gentry guy?”…or the fun ones are the ones who say “I’m a Bob Gentry Fan too”… Those give me a smile…I guess i don’t really look like the image of myself on the t-shirt unless i turn my head sideways. Of course, i probably wouldn’t wear it myself if the image was that easy to make out A good conversation starter though.

My new Yamaha Guitar arrived back in March. It still has that new guitar smell. I guess that just means i need to be taking it to more dingy clubs. It sure came in handy for recording we did in May. I cemented new tracks for the upcoming CD that I’m happy with and can’t wait to let people hear. This CD is taking longer than I thought it would. Hopefully, it’s worth the wait.

By April, my videos finally made it to Comcast ON DEMAND. I got the news in 2006 that the clips were going to be posted but as i look back i see that this really didn’t happen until 2007.

Somewhere in the year, I stepped on the scale and realized I gained a bunch of weight. Getting older makes it harder… This was my 1st diet ever and I started obsessing over counting calories. Before it was over I ended up losing about 30 lbs. Of course, I DID have a little help when the doctor removed my appendix.

Being rushed to the hospital and having someone put you to sleep for emergency surgery is one of the worst experiences I’ve ever gone through…and the most expensive. While I was recovering, I entered into another one of those voting contests[Rockstar 98.7]. Ya know…the kind that require begging friends and fans for votes… I was too busy begging for a normal digestive system so I’m pretty sure that killed any contest chance …. however, the one major New Years Resolution i’m making for 2008 is… NO MORE FUCKING ONLINE VOTING CONTESTS. Perhaps, if it were a national TV show, I’d reconsider but Online Contests that only care about web traffic suck donkey balls.

Something I DIDN’T blog about but what also happened in 2007 was that I moved…only 6 miles away from where i was before but so far the move has been dandy.

By September… I went back to Michigan for a long visit. Almost a month. This was good trip getting to see friends and family but something about this particular trip made me do some reflecting on my life and question and 2nd guess everything. It was just a combination of everything that happened during the year. It didn’t help that I was dealing with a High School Reunion that made me feel old as dirt.

October brought a job opportunity that didn’t have anything to do with music. Paychecks that come from music come in chunks…the trick is, getting those chunks closer to each other. Sadly, that hasn’t happened so I took this job thinking it would be short-term until music picked back up.

This pretty much takes me up to NOW. The last few months, my attention has been sucked away to “steady paychecks” doing something that I really don’t want to do. This is pretty much everyone’s life right?

So the plan for the upcoming year? It’s hard to say. I just know that I’m tired of the battle, teeth pulling, and basic struggle of wondering where or when the next cent is gonna come from. I’m not giving up just yet… I’ll always write songs and record. For now, I just need to sort some things out…take a breather(even if the “breather” is 9 to 5).

To end on an optimistic word…

I’ve been doing the whole “starving artist” stuff long enough to know that The Good Stuff has a way of circling back around… just as long as ya stick with it. The trick is going to be… not getting sucked into another life before that happens.

Wishing you all the best 2008!

I’ve been back for a little while now but my blog hasn’t reflected that. Will be sure to go back to updating regularly again… I’ve missed writing.

Let’s see…it’s been so long since I’ve written, I’m not sure where to start. I took a ton of pictures while back in Michigan but I’m not going to post them all (don’t want to put anyone to sleep) =) 

My entire trip was filled with a bunch of “reunions” with people I haven’t seen in years. If nostalgia was a drug, I would have OD’d about 3 times on this trip. It’s so weird to see old friends again and it’s even more bizarre to think how many years I’ve known the people in the 2 photos below. I’ve know these folks since I was SIX years old and have too many memories to mention.  

Pictured above is my little gang of childhood buddies (Teddy, Chris, and Jimmy) We all lived within 3 blocks from each other and were very close as kids. I was probably 16 or 17 year old the last time all 4 of us were in the same room with each other. I can’t explain how trippy it was to be together again. Every time I see the movie “Stand by Me” I think of this crew of friends. I guess we all have friends like that eh? I sure wish we would have had more time to hang out when I was back.

 

Wow…what a crazy couple of days!

I learned a few days ago that a friend i grew up with died. Very sad to hear this news. Oddly enough, he died on my birthday. Scott was a year younger than I am…I talked to his sister and she says she’s not sure what he died from but they think that his heart stopped in the middle of the night.

It’s bizarre when I learn of someone from my old Michigan gang who’s no longer with us. It makes me think about my own mortality. Hearing of Scott’s death made me start counting. The number of people I hung out with as a kid who have died is growing. I’m now having to count on 2 hands and it’s not as though I had an army of friends to begin with…I know it’s all part of life but it’s not a very good part of it.

I had one friend(whose name was also Scott) that was stabbed to death about 7 years ago… and other friends who were shot, died in car accidents, Overdosed… the list goes on.

Anytime something like this happens, I’m not really sure what to think but I feel for their families and other friends.

Anyway…I don’t mean to do such a morbid post … I wasn’t going to blog about it but it’s been a few days and it’s still in my thoughts.

To end on a brighter thought… I’m glad I’m doing what I want to do in life. Even though I may not be the most successful person ever…I just realize that life is too short to be living a life you don’t want. I don’t want to look back with any regrets that I never tried.

I’ve been pretty swamped these last few days but being busy is a good thing.

I have about 7 voicemails that are just sitting in the memory of my cell phone that I need to call back but and every time I think “I need to call this person back” I get distracted like a cat watching and chasing around an unreachable beam from a flashlight. I never catch the beam but meanwhile, days have gone by and now it’s been so long since the messages came in…I’m a little embarrassed to call at all.

This happens a little TOO MUCH with Emails as well. I’m sure I’m not the only one. I have some emails from people that I haven’t made the time to write back “properly” to and I’m sure they must be thinking I’m ignoring them…NOT the case… but I must say, I’m getting tired of starting my emails with “Hey _______, I’m so sorry I haven’t been back in touch sooner…” [Something I need to work on perhaps]

A few days back, I discovered the danger of not returning an email from someone (even though I’m pretty sure I DID email back). This person emailed me a little note preaching the gospel of “friendship” and how I somehow broke the Ten Commandments of email etiquette. JEEEZE.. Hang me to a cross already! I wont go into this story too much but it didn’t end pretty.

Most of my friends back in Michigan are very understanding. They know that I have a life here just as they do there. I really do try to keep in touch as much as I can though. Perhaps the saying “out of sight, out of mind” is a little true but with that being said…I have some really good friends that I don’t talk to after a few months have gone by but when we do talk, it’s as if no time has gone by at all. That’s refreshing.

After moving away, I did notice that I was mainly the friend who always called everyone (which I didn’t mind)…I learned this by trying an experiment of not calling to see how long it would be before a call came back my way. Let’s just say I waited quite a LONG time. I wasn’t upset or anything (I’m not that “high maintenance” of a friend) but when they did call, they said something like “Why haven’t you been in touch?”… Um TELEPHONES work both ways but I didn’t say that.

Anyway…I’m not even sure what point I’m trying to get across here.

I did think by blogging, it would be a way for friends back home to check on me and see how things are going but that backfired a little. What happened with some people is they thought I was being too impersonal or something. Not what I intended… however, the upside is that I’ve made some new online friends and readers that I’m very thankful for

It’s been a busy week. I had a very nice band rehearsal the other night…it went really well and was very productive. One of the guys I normally play with …well, his schedule was impossible to work around and we were ending up hardly getting together at all. He’s a fantastic player and in demand by quite a few other groups…so his availability seemed to be holding things up. Trying to get things ready for studio recording and having 1 person not able to be around left us no choice but to try and find a replacement. The thought of it gave me shivers for a few reasons:

1. I really like the guy’s playing and him as a person…not to mention I was not looking forward to saying to him that we were going to start looking for someone else.

2. The actual task of trying to find a replacement [you would think that finding good players in LA would be easy, but it’s really tough].

The good news is…it all worked itself out.

When I talked to him he was very understanding. But, It wasn’t a fun conversation to have. There didn’t seem to be any animosity or bitterness there and it seemed to end of a positive note. I really did dread making that call though but in order to get this next CD done before the next century, it needed to be done…I’ll miss working with him.

Right after that, I remembered talking to a guy on my hockey team who said he was a musician and gave him a call to see if he’d be willing to fill in and help out with this next record. He said "sure" so i sent him some very rough demos and booked the rehearsal space. Probably not a smart move to just have someone show up without ever hearing the guy’s playing.

It could have been a disaster if he wasn’t a good player but I totally lucked out! The guy is REALLY fantastic at his instrument…not only that, he’s a great singer. He showed up knowing the songs better than the rest of the group and was singing and nailing the vocal harmonies. I was extremely impressed.

So what I thought might be a step backwards turned out to be a giant step forward…and now i think things will move even faster. I’m excited at the thought of regular rehearsals and getting in the studio again!

Let me just say a quickie "Happy Birthday" to one of my dearest friends Janine. Last year, I SPACED out and forgot her birthday and felt incredibly bad about it. Well…i didn’t actually forget…I remembered about 3 days after it came and went… but I’m pretty sure that counts as "forgetting"

And so..this year, I had 4 alarms set to remind me and they all went off last night about midnight.

I’ve known Janine since we were about 12 or 13 and though we don’t live in the same time zone, we’re still good friends. Now that I think of it, just about all the childhood friends I grew up with are still people I talk with ever so often and we always pick up right where we left off as if I never moved away.

When I go back to Michigan to visit, it’s always like a fun reunion and not just for me. Many of those friends who all hung out together back then only see each other when I come back to town (even though they only live a few miles away from one another). Everyone has their own lives now but when we come together it’s like being 16 years old again.

When I was 16, Janine and I flew out to California and stayed with her aunt and uncle and I remember it being such a great time. It was my 1st real taste that there was life outside Michigan..the ocean…palm trees…swimming pools, movie stars. I recall getting very sunburned while Guns and Roses’ "Sweet Child of Mine" CRANKED from the rooftop of her aunt’s apartment building. The entire time, we kept seriously considering that we should just stay here in Southern California. I can still remember the conversation as we were about to get on the plane to fly back to Winter Wonderland. It consisted of trying to figure out how in the hell we could just stay and what everyone would say if we didn’t come back

We got back on the airplane kicking and screaming (and sunburned) and on the 5 hour flight back, I thought about how i knew I’d return…someday.

As much as I complain about Hollywood sometimes and the plastic people and the crazy sky-high rent, I really am glad to be here. Out of all the places I’ve visited in my life, none gave me that feeling like it was a place i belonged. Sure, this place can make you a little jaded at times but I can’t think of a better climate to be jaded in

These days, I don’t even notice the palm trees anymore and the ocean is just around the corner… I don’t notice it either but I sure notice every time a Guns and Roses song comes on

Happy Birthday Janine!!!