…And picked up the keys to the new place today. I’m excited but I’m not really sure where to start. Moving out is a pain while moving in is fun for the most part. I’ll be posting a little QuickTime video of the new place and you folks can see what little space about $800.00 a month will get ya’s here in Hollywood, CA. I might even post it later tonight if I get time. Keep in mind that the video I’ll be posting is actually a great deal… For the money…Specially compared to these crappy Motel type places.

Underneath the apartment is the production company of Eriq La Salle from ER fame. The building is very cool and it’s kind of swanky to have a Sunset Blvd address. I’m going to miss my little corner store but it’s close enough for a short drive (I’m only moving about a mile west of the place I’m at now.

well..Back to thinking about when to do next…I also need to get some work done too

All good news here…

It’s been a busy, rainy day here in Hollywood. Let me start off by saying for anyone who’s in the metro Detroit area…Go see my Aunt Jennifer. She’s acting in a play The News-Herald gave a nice plug to. Aunt Jen plays a fascinating “other woman” (Jennifer Gentry). Read more about it here

Onto another good news…Lisa the super cute and hip gal who showed me the GREAT apartment yesterday called to let me know that everything is a “GO”…And so tomorrow I’m meeting her at 2pm to pick up the keys to the place [fast huh?]. Lisa’s so VERY nice…So much so that I get a few weeks free rent. I can even start moving tomorrow and not be charged for these days leading up to the 1st of the month. Cha-ching! Moving is never fun, but I don’t have too much to move and now I have time and won’t be rushed. I feel relieved!–not to mention I LOVE THE NEW PLACE!

Tonight’s Indie Music show taping might be rained out. If the rain doesn’t slow down, it’ll be a bust[wet cameras = no good]…We’ll see. On the same show…The next interview I’m told will be with the fellow who’s the lead singer on the touring company of Billy Joel’s “Movin’ Out”….it’s a good thing I saw the show back while I was in NY trying out for “Rent”… It’s nice to be familiar with the production.

Speaking of going to NY and trying out for “Rent”…I’ll have to devote a whole journal entry to just that trip. The quick short story…I went…I auditioned…I ended up being there all 4 auditioning days as everyone was weeded out…What started as 150 guys…Went down to about 4 or 5 all for the same part… I didn’t get it. What I did get was a free 1st class trip to NY and a great time. Do I wish I would have been offered the part? Sure! Do I think I would have done a great job? Yup! Is it something I stay up night after night thinking about? Not in the least Do I think it’s their loss? No Comment.

We nailed down rehearsal schedules for the show on the Nov 9th. THAT makes me feel good. I talked to the booking agent for the club just today and I pick up the tickets for the on Friday afternoon. This is my 1st time using this agent and so we’ll see how it goes. So far, it’s smooth but…As Debi pointed out in an email to me:

HI BOB,

I WENT TO THE LINK FOR “THE KEY CLUB” IN HOLLYWOOD…CHECKING ON NOV.9TH FOR YOUR SHOW,AND THERE WASN’T ANYTHING THERE!

CAN YOU GIVE ME AN UPDATE…A COUPLE FRIENDS AND MYSELF WERE/ARE PLANNING ON GOING.WAS GOING TO PURCHASE TICKETS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

HOW IS EVERYTHING ELSE GOING? LET ME KNOW,TAKE CARE!

HUGS,

DEBI

The bright side… I’m making this a FREE SHOW. I’m not sure if I have to leave a list of names at the door or just pass out tickets [they're giving me 150 free tickets]…I’ll know more on Friday

I just got off the phone with the agent..the show may not be listed on their website(yet) but I go on Nov 9th at 9pm (sharp). It’s in stone…or at least in a contract I signed

Diane in Las Vegas writes:

“Dear Bob,

Found your Blog on the net…By the way, does “blog” mean “biographic log”?

I’ve always wondered…. Also, I buy tons of stuff from eBay, and still don’t

know if what the “Bay” means…”e” is for electronic, but what the heck does “Bay”

stand for? If you know, please enlighten.”

Hmm…”Biographic Log” makes sense but I’m not sure… Dictionary.com says:

blog

n : a shared on-line journal where people can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies

I think Diane’s “Bio-Log” makes more sense. I guess I need to get more personal in the personal experiences ay? As for “Bay”…i see 21 entries found for “bay”…i read through all of them… Not one says anything about “Auction”….perhaps the e-bay folks just thought the name was catchy

More soon

I just returned from looking at an apartment that was just AMAZING! I’m still in shock. I mean, after looking at other places in worse areas…Here I find a better area for less money and get a better place?? How can this be?! Luck? Well, I don’t have the place yet but I’m filling out the credit application…Of which I’m pretty sure my credit is good (otherwise these banks would stop sending me these platinum Credit Cards [danger!]). Speaking of banks…The bank of “Mom” said she’d help out a little on the moving expenses. –I’d like to take this opportunity to say that Mom Rules. I recommend you all have one Well…Keep your fingers and toes crossed about the apartment for me.

Onto another subject, someone suggested I started selling 8×10’s of myself on the website:

“Later on you could introduce the “Bob Bares it all Collection“! You know -shirtless, shaving, in a towel after a shower -certainly not hard core.. Just a thought. Put the idea on the Blog and see if you get any feed back, first just 8×10s for sale, then the other, see what happens.”

“Bob Bares it All” …Has that tone of “Girls Gone Wild” LOL!! What do you all think of this idea? It’s a little weird to think that someone might actually want to purchase photos of me, but I’m game …I’m certainly way too shy for anything X-rated(at least on camera). Anyway…Email bob@bobgentry.com and let me know what you all think of this?

On a song note… Drummer Jason ran across an old song I’d written called “Too Busy”…He found the drum files that my old band Moisture had recorded. For some reason we never finished recording the song…I think at that point in time the band was fizzled…But I remember thinking the song ROCKED! Jason made mention of finishing the recording and I’m all for it.

Now that I think about it, there were quite few good songs that never were recorded that we used to play out at the clubs …With both Detroit’s version of Moisture and California’s version. Doing the whole “solo” thing, it’s harder to figure out which is worth spending the time and money on getting to CD. See, as a band…We could test the songs in front of people …Complete strangers….Just to get a reaction. Usually we ended up recording the songs that sounded the best live and what received the best reaction. Not having the audience and band to bounce things off of makes picking and choosing a little harder but not impossible.

I’m hopeful this recording and publishing company we’re doing the show for on the 9th decide to offer a deal of some sort. I’ve got a TON of songs in my pocket just waiting to be recorded properly. If they don’t offer anything, life goes on and I try knocking on another door. The same goes for this apartment I looked at today. Ah, the life of a starving artist.

Here’s a little blurb about my CD thanks to the folks at Southbound Beat Magazine….No complaints from me. The review is nice and as we all know “any press is always better than no press at all.” And so…Thanks to Dave Howell and Ray Carver at Southbound Beat Magazine.

I’m still on the hunt for places to live..And I have 2 new leads all in my price range. I hope to see those places tomorrow…Basically, all I need to a bed, bathroom…And cable modem hook up and I can live just fine. More to come on this.

Talked with Jason today about band rehearsal for the November 9th show…Makes me feel good to nail down a few dates. Juggling musicians schedules can be a pain but I’m happy to have some great players with me.

Email from Amie Zavala today….

hello you .. how is everything lately? I tried to call you on Friday to let you know that i was in town and wanted to see if you had to time to meet up with me and of course i got some extra cash to work on another original project … so naturally I wanted you on board.. well.,… you to be the board if you are interested .. anyhow, you did not get back to me … so I am there again the weekend of the 29th if you are free

Amie…Call babe, we’ll do lunch I don’t know if you’ll be reading my entries but you better be extra nice to me otherwise I might have to start writing about a certain time you and I were at The Rainbow Room on Sunset causing a drunken stir

[evil grin] LOL

I’ll end with a note about this Jell-O thought…An email from friend Patti

Hey Bob,

I was in Costco yesterday and they had jell-o by the crate load…..They

should be backing up to your door at any moment now! lol!

I don’t know if I’ll ever live this Jell-O comment down [giggle]

Um…Boy did I get quite a bit of email yesterday when I mentioned being naked with a bowl of Jell-O [grinning]. Someone who wrote in talked about taking a “Jell-O Bath“!!! I’d like to know more about this…I started thinking about it… And just how does one do this? I mean…In order to fill up a whole bath tub, you’d need about 3 full fridges of Jell-O. Wouldn’t this be like taking a cold shower? Perhaps Jell-O isn’t the way to go…Oh wait…It could be store bought and pre-made Jell-O. LOL! I can picture it now…Walking into the supermarket and stuffing 3 carts to the top with just Jell-O and checking out. Priceless!!!…This might be worth doing just to see the look on the check-out person’s face! This is also the sort of thing that should be captured on camera

Ok…:End of gelatin rant:

I looked at a Studio apartment yesterday with the hopes that it would be my future home. The two guys showing the place to me were very nice but the place itself…Well…It looked like a Motel 8 only not as nice. Their selling point was that someone from MTV’s Real World had once lived there. I just thought “poor guy“…And so…The hunt goes on.

Oh…Yesterday an email came from a friend to remind me that it was “Sweetest Day” and that I should call people and wish them a happy “Sweetest Day“….Well, this is a Michigan holiday. It’s made up and only celebrated in certain states…If I walked into a card store her in CA and asked “Where are the Sweetest Day cards?”…they would have me locked up. Other Michigan things we don’t have here are thing like “Fat Tuesday“…I think this is the day before Ash Wednesday where people give up sweets for Lent… And so on the Tuesday before they eat the most fattening doughnuts they can find… I could be wrong about this but I just know that I’ve asked people in CA about Sweetest Day and Fat Tuesday and they just look at me funny.

There’s actually quite a few sayings that will get me a strange look here if I say ‘em. Other than saying SODA instead of POP…A few other sayings like “party store” and “money machine” confuse folks. There’s more…But these are two that I recall getting teased over.

1. Party Store: n. This is a Michigan term than mean liquor store..Or a 7-11. Not a store that sells “happy birthday hats” or “Sweetest Day” cards

2. Money Machine:n. seemed obvious to me what this was…But for those scratching their heads..It’s an ATM machine.

Now…This works the other way around too. There was one saying that this Californian friend of mine used to say that just struck me as extremely ODD.

:drum roll up to the saying….:

1. “Flip a Bitch“ …This saying I STILL don’t get! One would think it means to give the middle finger to someone else maybe….Or make a female dog roll over….But what it means here is “to turn around“…Weird ay??? Here..I’ll say it in context…

[driving down the road] “hey Bob, Flip a Bitch at the next intersection“…The 1st time this was said to me…I was CLUELESS! I know what it means now..But I still don’t get it.

well…back to apartment hunting.

Originally I was looking for a roommate but the more I think about that, the more I just want to find another studio instead. I really enjoy living alone….it’s not that I’m a major hermit or anything like that. I just like having my own space to escape to even if it’s just for a few hours a day. I think it’s pretty important for people to have their own space even when living with someone else.

It’s just nice to be able to walk around the place completely naked with a bowl of orange Jell-O. [grinning] Ok…ooops…did I just write that? Err, I mean…it’s nice to clean when you want and not worry about invading someone else’s space. My last roommate Mike was GREAT….good company and we got along fantastic but that was because we respected each others privacy (not to mention we were good friends). Not saying that I’d never live with someone else ever again…I guess I’m just spoiled with all the Jell-O to myself [kidding]. Speaking of Mike…I need to give him a call and see how he’s doing. Last time I spoke with him he was living in Florida and about ready to get married.

I got a nice email today from someone in France saying that they like the song “Too Fast” a lot. The power of the internet is amazing! I also got a GREAT gift in the mail the other day….it’s something I’ve always wanted. A Welcome Mat that says “Goodbye”!!! That’s just WONDERFUL!!! I can’t wait to move into the new place so I can set it outside “My Door”….Thanks for great gift! A very clever one!

Well, I suppose I should get back to work.
[note...please do not send Jell-O]

I’m up late tonight…Having a hard time falling asleep. I watched a movie tonight I remember LOVING as a teen called "The Best of the Best"[They just released it on DVD]. Yeah, It’s one of those crazy mid-1980 kung-fu movies. But BOY I remember thinking that movie was wonderful…Enough so to make me want to try and karate-chop my hand through a layer of bricks

This was back in the day when Eric Roberts started that groovy "let’s pull my hair back in a pony tail sumo-hair-style" … It was also the days when people saw Julia Roberts and said "Hey, she’s the sister of the guy from that movie The Best of the Best"–at least in my group of friends.

The reason I even bring this movie up is because one of the leads in the movie [Sally Kirkland] is a good friend of mine. I was also fortunate enough to be a guest on her talk show here in Los Angeles a few months ago.

[Bob Gentry and Sally Kirkland at The Key Club in Hollywood].

What’s strange is, I HAD NO CLUE SHE WAS EVEN IN this movie…And here it is as one of my childhood favorite Kung-Fu Flix! How could this have slipped by me? Sally’s been in a gazillion other great films as well and is a WONDERFUL actor…Anna, JFK, ED TV, the list goes on and on. (For a complete list be sure to check out SallyKirkland.com).

I’ve been noticing quite a few things in my life that have been more just a little more than ironic, coincidence and borderline mystical. [cue the spooky music]
Maybe it’s because I live in "tinsel-town"…I’m not really sure. All I know is there’s been quite a few occasions in my life that just seemed like I was destined to meet certain people…And talented people I’m glad and honored to have befriended.

Included in what I call the "Bobville Wall of Weird" is meeting Rod Mckuen. The fact that my old Detroit band Moisture used to cover the song "Seasons in the Sun" before I even realized who the writer was is one of those reasons. I mean, seriously…What are the chances of these types of things happening to people?

I’m a strong believer in that we make our own luck and fate, but something strange is going on here. I could list numerous other events in my life that get clumped in this list. Some I’d like to keep private though

And so..I’m not sure what point I was trying to make….Other than it’s interesting what an older movie(that I remember like it was just yesterday) can do the hamsters spinning around on wheel inside this head of mine.

No wonder, I can’t sleep tonight. Maybe I drank too many Chai Tea Lattes …arge…And who says I have to figure it all out anyway? For now, I’m just going to roll with it. SLEEP!

Here’s a little QuickTime clip of me cornering Larry the same night we were at the Gig. It’s a large file so if you’re on 56k it’ll take you a while. Keep in mind, this is unedited and is just a little glimpse.

This month has been incredibly busy for me and I haven’t really been able to find time for myself. On top of being swamped, I’m going to be moving into a new place by the 1st of the month. My landlord increased monthly rent in our complex by $100.00 and so I gave my 30 day notice. I guess it would be different if the complex I lived at was being kept up…But the hallways look like they haven’t been painted since 1970–which is cool if you like that super hip retro look.

It’s funny how little a space $1000.00 per month with get you here in Hollywood. It’s really a shame to throw that much away just on rent and not be buying something ay? Well…Perhaps in other parts of the world, a person can buy a house or condo for a reasonable amount….But not in Hollywood… Not for under 300k…And if you’re lucky to find a SMALL condo for that much, it’s a shoe box. I hear New York is just as bad. Perhaps the market will drop soon and I can actually own property??? For now…It’s on to look for another rental

My friends Jeff and Greg from Michigan are flying in for the November 9th show. Looking forward to seeing those guys! Jeff runs a great website called YOU MUST CHOOSE.com. It’s a hoot! If you have time to kill, drop in and spend time making choices. The site gets quite a few hits.

Speaking of getting hits… My own site is ranking very high according to Alexa.com. As of today, they say “Average Traffic Rank: 437,543″ Not bad considering last year I was ranked around 4 Million! Of course, Alexa is not always correct…At the moment they say there’s only 4 other sites out there that link in to me??? Um…NOT.

I keep emailing them and asking kindly to be “updated”…

What’s funny is going to Google.com and doing a search on my own name…I’m always amazed at what I find Okay…Sure…Doing a google search on yourself sounds strange but it really is fun. [By the way, It's not as though I spend hours doing this ...LOL].

Well…I need to go grab a Chai Tea Latte and O. T.

oh yeah, before I forget…My Rib is starting to feel better. It still hurts but I think I’ll live.

Last night was a BLAST! I must say, it’s REALLY a strange feeling to be the one asking the questions. I’m not used to having a camera looking over my back.

We went to The Gig on Melrose to interview Lee Nestor. She’s a great artist and sang with a little soul mixed with pop. We managed to get some questions before and after the show as well as some shots inside the club as she was performing. I saw little clips from the interview with her and she looked great on camera….once it’s all edited, I have a feeling it’s going to be a GREAT little segment!

The Lee Nestor interview wasn’t scripted…I was totally winging it. And so there were more than a few occasions where I stumbled over my own words but after watching most of what was taped I realized it wasn’t as much as I thought. (I was being overly critical) In fact, we got some really great stuff.

I learned quite a bit last night as well…little things that are hard to explain but one example is to remember the questions I ask. [This is for getting a different angle of me asking the questions..etc.] Future interviews will be scripted..or at least a basic set of questions. If we had a production assistant there to write down the questions I asked Lee, it would have been a huge help. Any hoot, these are just some of the things I learned last night. Much of this is stuff that takes a little bit of time to learn..and learn by doing it and seeing what I feel are “flubs”…Without going into too much of the negatives…I’ll say that the biggest thing I need to work on is annunciation and controlling the speed of the questions.

Back to the good stuff…I REALLY loved doing this. I was on a little bit of a high last night after. And Lee was great on camera. Of course I realize not everyone is going to have the energy that Lee gave. I’ll be sure to link to the Lee Segment when the editing is done.

Oh…and after seeing some of the clips from last night I realized I was saying Lee’s last night wrong half of the time! (Sorry Lee, we’ll make sure that’s edited correctly I was saying “Nest’er” instead of “NestOR”…today, thinking back on it, I should have thought [and not that Lee is evil of course]“Lex Luthor”–that would have helped me out.

We’re still ways away from having a complete pilot but we are one step closer.

I’m EXTREMELY excited about performing back in Hollywood and happy that folks have already emailed saying that they’re flying in from different states for the show. Hell, any excuse for a nice vacation to Hollyweird is a good one no?

Another email that came today is from friend Michael Emmerson at Digital Replay, Inc. Michael’s one of the art directors there who’s helping with my next CD cover. Digital Replay makes 3D graphics…They sent me some examples of things they’ve done and I was seriously BLOWN AWAY! And so, the plan now is for the next CD to be a CD/DVD set with a 3D cover. More to come on this….The hardest part is coming up with a damn title for a 2nd CD. GRRRRR!

Well, on with the rest of the day.