It’s always cool to rediscover an old tune that you’ve forgotten about. The other day I was talking with a buddy of mine and he started talking about older songs…and then he brought up a band called "April Wine"…they had a few hits but I think their most well-known is a song called "Just Between You and Me"…

So i iTuned the sucker yesterday and have been listening to it ever since. Man, this song is jammed packed with nostalgia. Hearing it gives me this crazy feeling …hard to explain. This song was more my older sister’s generation but I was the tag-along little brother who always kept my ear open to what they were listening to. I liked the song then, and like it even more now.

Funny thing about nostalgic songs…even songs I couldn’t STAND in the 80’s (mostly due to them not being cool enough) are the same songs i CRANK when they come on the radio today. Ya know, those early 80’s bands like Haircut 100, Flock of Seagulls, The Thompson Twins [So, what was the deal with that chick who only played the wooded block??? LOL].

Ooooh… remember those silly late 70’s/early 80’s "coming of age" comedies? Ah …maybe i’ll go out and rent "Up the Academy"  for old time’s sake. They all were pretty formulated… i’m pretty sure you could watch "Caddy Shack", "Meatballs", "Revenge of the Nerds", "Porky’s" back to back and it would seem like 1 movie. I’m not sure I was old enough to be watching those movies back then but maybe that’s what made them seem "cooler"… Ok, I’m showing my age. Time to stop.

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!

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!!!

Since 2004, I’ve been doing these little blogs entitled Goodbye 2004, 2005 at the end of each year, and now it’s time for Goodbye 2006. I’d say GB 2005 was by far the most raunchiest. I ended the 2005 post by saying:

• If the saying "what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger" has any truth to it, I should be bulletproof for 2006.

Well, I’m not sure I was quite "bulletproof" but I was a little more guarded to all the bullshit and kept the mentality of "it is, what it is"….so what was 2006 like for me? Well…here are some thoughts on my 2006. [THIS IS THE LONGEST POST I’VE EVER DONE, SO IF YOU DON’T LIKE TO READ…JUST SCROLL DOWN TO THE "FOAM" VIDEO].

Lotza people DIED in 2006…Last year started off with Shelly Winters and Wilson Picket and ended on President Ford and James Brown (and of course Saddam). I keep a DEATH Category on my journal but I’ve slowed down on reporting every single death…it’s a little morbid, and yet last year there were just too many to keep up with.

On the 1st of February 2006, I met the gal who is now my manager [Waves "Hello" to Candice]. I popped in the set of a TV show called Starving Actors(a show that I’m supposed to have some of my music in but I’m not really sure what’s going on with the show). It’s really nice to have a manager…not only is it a big help, but people take you more seriously.

On Feb 20, 2006, I got a callback for the CBS show Rockstar: Super Nova…That was exciting. I got the call before anyone knew who the band was to be and by time I actually did the audition, it was pretty obvious I wasn’t a good fit for Tommy Lee and Crew Still fun though

Meanwhile, started doing the score to a movie titled "Reel Guerrillas" which starred Joel Moore. This was my 1st time scoring an entire film. It was work but FUN work and now I have my 1st IMDB Credit..YAY LOL

Hmm…let’s see…some time in April of 2006 I taped and put together a music video for friend Tony B. That was fun and painless. The video didn’t come out quite like I envisioned but I liked the dark Meet the Beatles lighting and feel to it.

Also in April I De-Friended someone. I’ve only done this maybe 2 times in my entire life but this one is probably the one I’m most bitter about. Basically, I was never paid for work I did on writing and producing and then wasn’t given proper credit on the project. I thought about taking this person to court, but I’ve never taken anyone to court…it’s really not something I want to do so I backed down. To this day, I find out this gal is reading every journal entry I write… probably hoping I say something about her. So since I’m pretty sure she’s reading this, let me take a moment and say: Ms. Diva-Wanna-Be, go fuck yourself and please stop reading my journal you pathetic bitch!

Let’s see…speaking of Evil things that can kill you… last year, I cheated and started smoking again after quitting for 2 years. It’s so amazing that 1 cigarette can get me back to my old addiction of a pack a day (even after 2 years!). I’ve since quit AGAIN and I now think of myself as a Smoker who just doesn’t Smoke. Boy I still want one though…there isn’t a day where I don’t think of having one

In July 2006 I was contacted by NBC’s "StarTomorrow"…You guys remember this…it was the online TV Show that made me beg everyone for online votes Being part of this show was truly a BIZARRE EXPERIENCE. I was in Chicago when they were shooting their Casting Episode so I wasn’t even sure I was going to be on the show…when I returned from my trip they said "come on in and shoot for it" so I had about 2 weeks to get the band and everything else together for the 4 songs we taped. I wasn’t even sure if I was on the show until my videos started appearing…very strange!

My 1st round, I beat out The Egg People and I remember being very excited about that 1st win. I’m now told that the Egg People lead singer is one the Cover-Band Vocalists on "Dancing With The Stars"…The rest of the rounds were so exhausting and filled with online and personal drama. I’m super glad that I made it all the way to the Final 5 though. To this day, I keep getting emails and comments from people who voted for me saying things like "we’re sorry you didn’t win" ….and since I signed something at the start of the show saying I wouldn’t talk about the contracts and stuff like that…my reply is usually something like "If you ONLY knew… I won by NOT winning" ….I can’t really say any more about this show but it DID bring some exposure and I made some friends by being on it and it DID open some other doors I wouldn’t have changed a thing….besides, it was pretty sweet to have my mug shot on the front page of NBC.com! That Ruled!

Music Placement… I’m supposed to have some of my songs in the movie "Anderson’s Cross" but maybe this is something that would fall into the year 2007 since it’s not released yet?…Oddly enough it was shot in 2004 Also last year, I got a song placed into the Fox Show BONES [air date 11/15/2006 "Aliens in a Spaceship"] I’m told there’s a chance I have another one placed in 2007-Fingers crossed!

One of the COOLEST things that happened to me in 2006 was signing an Endorsement Deal with YAMAHA! I’m very happy about that…More things I was honored and happy about?

I was nominated at the 16th Annual LA Music Awards for Male Rock Singer Songwriter of the Year and I WON that award! Also, another CD I co-produced and wrote songs for won R&B Album of the Year. More Awards? I got nominated for the JPF Awards for Male Singer Songwriter and placed 5th- Not quite as cool as taking home the LA Music Award but still pretty cool.

Off the wall stuff of 2006… I now have a Text Mailing List if you text the word bobgentry to the number 66937. This has turned out to be fun. I’m also hooked up through this Eventful.com site [Take a moment and Demand Me on your hometown damn it! ]

Q: The craziest Off The Wall Moment of 2006?

A: When my half-brother who doesn’t know I’m his brother, voted for me on StarTomorrow and left a few comments there…it’s going to be hard to top that.

In November of 2006, I did a show at the Key Club in Hollywood. This was SO much fun. Here’s a NEW VIDEO of the song "FOAM" with clips taken from this show. I’m scheduled to be doing another show Late January at the Key Club opening up for the band Great White. This event is supposed to be Hosted by Pamela Anderson. More to come on that when I know more. but back to 2006…

My last funny and yet cool thing that happened to me in 2006 was being placed in the Beautiful People Section of LA’s The Place online Magazine. I’m still getting teased for this

Ok…so that was most of my 2006. I’d say it was a pretty GREAT year for music stuff!

Oh, one last thing I could slide in here is that some of my videos have been picked to be part of this Cable TV On Demand thing. I don’t know all the details on this or when it’ll be up but I think soon… Comcast users will soon be able to view my videos on their TV sets after downloading them to their digital cable. More on this when I know. [this is a teaser]

Ok…let me close this post off…I blabbered on way too much already but there was quite a bit of stuff to include in my Year in Review…I’m pretty sure I left some stuff out too.

Let me end by saying….2006 was a GREAT YEAR for me and I will be very sad to see it go.

I wish all of you the VERY BEST 2007!

Before I go into my mindless thought process for the day, let me say a quick THANKS to those who have "Demanded Me" in their cities. I’ll keep that link up on my sidebar and My Space and hopefully over time, the list will fill up with names. Don’t forget, it helps if you spread the word to friends and have them sign up for a Demand :)

Without sounding too much like a commercial for that website, let me just say…I think it’s pretty SWEET! I find myself getting a little obsessed with it actually….and Friending people…searching for other demands…etc. I have a feeling this site will explode even more once more My Space bands get it figured out. What’s most helpful for me is… it being more like a specified location mailing list for when Santa-Bob is Comin’ to Town. Quite Handy!

• Special Thanks to Brian [the founder of "Eventful"] for the comment on the last entry and for being helpful.

On to other thoughts for the day…

Oh, I got an email from a guy [Mark]who I’ve known since 1st grade but haven’t actually seen in 10 years! It was so nice to hear from him. I often wondered what he’d been up to and how life has been treating him. Mark was my 1st friend who I’d ever knew who actually owned a guitar and I STILL can remember being 7 years old plucking out "Smoke on the Water" and talking about SCTV just like it was yesterday. Flashback City! [Mark, I dunno if you read the blog but your email made my day! GREAT to hear from you!]

Well… I need to get some things done but wanted to jot down a little something. I hope you’re all surviving the lead up to the Holiday.

Oh..speaking of friends…another one of mine sent me a link to Ms. Dewey’s Search Engine…pretty funny!

So it’s the busiest Shopping Day of the Year and I’m having a bad flashback to the days working in retail. Working retail ranks up there as one of the worst jobs ever. Not only do you work every weekend (since that’s when most people shop) but you have to put up with tons of other crap and hardly take home a paycheck.

There were days when it could be fun and you could meet some nice people out there shopping…but for the most part, shoppers can be NASTY… cranky… downright bitchy [again, I’m not talking about everyone]. It was as if the customer thought the salesperson was out to screw them over.

I know most of us realize that these salespeople only get paid if a sale is made but there are people out there who don’t know this. This is just something to keep in mind when making a salesman run around and work his ass off for you for an hour only not to purchase anything. Sure, you can say… “well his service was bad so I didn’t want to buy from him or her” …GET A NEW SALESPERSON. One last thing most people do not realize about salespeople who work on commission is…when you return something, it gets taken off their next paycheck [not all stores work like this, but it doesn’t hurt to ask when shopping].

The customer is NOT always right…but then again, neither is the blogger

Bleh! Ok…must stop having these bad flashbacks to retail days.

But someone please tell me why stores open up at 5am today???!?!?! That’s so wrong on many levels.

So…if you’re reading this on my website rather than an RSS feed, you’ll notice the new theme…I got bored with the other and needed a change…hope you like

Here’s just a few photos from the cruise. I’ll post more when I get them.

[Me and Mom at dinner]

The photo above was the 1st formal dinner. There were 2 nights where I had to wear a tux. 

It feels pretty weird to be back. I’m super Jet-Lagged and there’s a part of me that still feels like i’m STILL on the ship. After rocking back and fourth for the last week and being stuck all day yesterday at airports, my body is just not used to being on land.

I had cell reception in St. Thomas but I spent most of the day there Scuba Diving. What a weird feeling to be underwater and not have to come up for air. We only went down 40 feet but my ears hurt a little as I went deeper.

We didn’t dive from a boat…We just did it from the beach. The guide gave us these little milk-bones that you would give a dog to feed the fish with and once you crumbled it up, swarms of fish surrounded you. VERY NEAT!

I’m still sick today. I had planned on having tea tonight with friends but waking up at 8am and not feeling any better than yesterday made me cancel plans for tonight. Man this sucks! I’ll try not to gripe too much about that though.

Since I woke up early and had nothing better to do, I looked at a box with old photos and found some funny ones that brought back some fun memories. The one picture that really isn’t such a great photo brought back the most nostalgia.

[I’m the one on the top right grinning ear to ear]

This picture above was snapped at a party at my old drummer’s place. It was a live viewing party for a TV show we were on. They had a projector set up and there were probably about 150 people all jammed into the living room (which explains why i’m standing on top of some sort of table). I only knew a few of the folks…I don’t know where everyone else came from…I’m guessing it was friends of friends. I noticed right around this time was when we started getting all these new people popping up and hanging out at shows. Most of those people vanished when the record deal vanished …funny how that works but it helps to know who your real friends are.

In any case, I was happy for the short-lived attention the show brought. A small taste of fame, leaving me wanting more. The only way I can describe it is…it’s like a drug. Once you’re bitten, you become this sort of vampire hunting out more of it.

I’m learning that if I stick with it, the Merry-Go-Round (if I’m lucky) comes back around but it’s twice as hard to get there again.

I think things came way too easy the 1st time. It was literally a script from some Hollywood movie. I moved to California…started a band…made a CD…at our CD Release Party we were lucky enough to have someone in the audience hand off our CD to an A&R guy …who then put us on this TV show….and then 2 days after shooting…they offered us a recording contract that was pretty dandy. This part of the story ended with the Record Company going under before we had a chance to sign the damn thing but the tornado spinning around us up until this point was a pretty strong one.

The whole ordeal was actually pretty surreal but one of the best times in my life. Funny how one of the best times in my life was followed by the worst. That whole saying of "the harder they fall" is really understated. I’ll skip the story about everything falling apart just as fast as it came together but you get the idea. The good thing about everything crashing and burning just made me realize that if i could pick myself up off the ground after that, I could live through anything

I’m not sure where this post is headed but It’s just thoughts that this picture brings to mind. I just hope that one day I’ll get a notch higher on the ladder of success. Good things have happened since then but so far none have been as exciting as the 1st time. I hope to change that

Well…I guess that’s enough nostalgia for one day eh?

Last night’s American Idol was a shocker… I thought for sure that Gedeon would have stayed on the show a bit longer. Poor Ayla…it was as if she had never failed at anything in her life up until this point. I felt bad for her but I do think the top 6 girls are the correct ones. I wish I could say the same for the top 6 guys. Kevin’s not going to be on the show much longer. He’s a likable underdog but to say he’s a better singer than Gedeon is a joke. Looking forward to next week’s show though.

Well…I should go back to being curled up in a ball on my futon and cocooned with my blanket. Happy Friday!