Hmm…So last night I ended up falling asleep at 3am and to my surprise, I woke up at 7am and was unable to fall back to sleep. I’m guessing I’ll end up crashing out early tonight. I wish I could take naps but usually when my body falls asleep…No matter what time of day it is…I’ll usually sleep for 7 or 8 hours. I’m a deep sleeper as well, once I’m REM’ing it.

So what woke me up today? Nothing at all…I just remember opening my eyes very fast and looking at the clock and thought “WHAT AM I DOING AWAKE AT 7am??”–I know what you’re thinking: “Bob, MOST of the world wakes up at 7am…It’s not too much of a shocker“….”It’s nothing to be calling 911 over”

And so…I decided to stay up for the rest of the day. Here’s a few things I’ve learned by doing the whole Early Bird thing.

1. Morning TV is still THE PITS [Jerry Springer is STILL ON???]
2. McDonald’s STOPS serving those wonderful little biscuits AFTER 10:30am and if you get there at 10:31am, they refuse to serve you.
3. Eating a Big Mac at 10:36am is not a very healthy start to the day.
4. Driving around before noon, you see a whole different breed of person—I can’t really explain that, only that there is a noticeable difference–just as if a day person where to be out and about at 3am.
5. Being awake early in California is still like waking up late on the East Coast

Truth is, there seems to be just as many good things to being a morning person as to being night dweller. I still prefer the whole vampire life but I have to admit, it seems like you can get more done in a day by waking up with the sun. I just know I’m going to be tired as hell tonight..I wouldn’t be shocked if I’m in bed by the Tonight Show monologue.

Oh…”The Boogeyman” comes out tonight on DVD. Anyone seen this? Any good?

It seems that most people I talk to (and I’m guilty of it myself) think of Memorial Day as mostly a nice 3 day weekend jump-starting summer. Sometimes I forget that today is a day to remember and honor the dead.

I sometimes am not always happy with our countries politics but I am proud to be an American and I’m appreciative of the lives lost so we are all able to have freedom [now there's a word we all take for granted].

I’m quoting http://www.usmemorialday.org/ here:

Over the years the meaning of Memorial Day has faded too much from the public consciousness. From a solemn day of mourning, remembrance, and honor to our departed loved ones, it has degenerated into a weekend of Bar B Q’s, shopping bargains and beaches where only token nods toward our honored dead is given, if at all. Too many don’t know what the day stands for.

I’m not saying we should all be racing to cemeteries and waving flags, but I think just taking a second to realize what Memorial Day really is, would be nice. I’ll not make some long speech about this holiday but I’d just like to give acknowledgment to the lives lost.
[stepping down off the pedestal]

And so the day is quiet here in Hollywood…I slept in EXTREMELY late today. It was strange to not have a hockey game last night. I really miss the ice time.

Oh, I started writing a song I’m really happy with. Do I think it’s a super single or hit? I don’t know…I think the second you start trying to write “hits” or “singles” is the same moment the song is over-analyzed and it becomes CRAP. For a long time, I let whether something was a “hit” or not factor into my writing and then what happened was a case of writer’s block for about 3 or 4 months. I’m finally out of the funk now but it really took some deep thought on why I was writing in the 1st place. I had to go back to square one. I think every writer goes through it. Live and Learn.
The best I can hope for, is that I write something and it connects with someone else…That’s more than enough of a reward for me.

Well…Back to the piano…Happy Memorial Day!

Everyone see the movie Spiderman? You know the part where Peter Parker gets bitten by the radio-active spider and becomes super-human…Well..let me assure you that the only thing that happens is… You get a big lump with two little bite marks that swell up and make you look ridiculous.

Yes,…must have been while I was asleep but I am now the victim of a spider bite. It’s really quite annoying. So where are my super powers huh??? Hell, I’d settle for growing a few more arms. It’d make for some pretty fancy piano or tennis playing

Well…I didn’t get to play tennis yesterday and so we’re going to try and play today.

It seems like this is the day of everyone’s BB-Q. Me? I was already a meal from some lucky spider. I guess it could be worse…Thankfully we don’t have mosquitoes here in Los Angeles[and if so they have yet to find me]. I guess I’d much rather be chomped on by a spider than nasty mosquitoes.

Well…Hope your Sunday is going well…No hockey game tonight due the holiday weekend. The break is nice though.

Another picture taken last night… More of a candid picture rather than posed. No, I don’t have any sort of fixation with mirrors [grin] but I do like the shot Actually, I just got my hair cut the other day so what better way than seeing how it looks than snapping a picture? [Sounds like a line from the movie "Clueless"].

You’ll notice the shadow from the camera flash behind me…I blame the camera flash for making me look so white but the sad truth is, I am really this pale :-I need a tan!

Today, I’m supposed to play some tennis with Rufus. We’re both getting much better the more we play. The last match was filled with super sonic serves as well as slices and putting monstrous spins on the balls. At one point we even had a few people just watching. You know me, I like crowds

Back to the photo for second…I look almost “beefy” in it. It’s really amazing what a camera flash can do

All is well here…Staying busy and active. Need to make my weekend calls to friends and family back in the mitten state and see how everyone is.

Many of you have Monday off work. I hope your 3 day weekend turns out to be a fun one!

Mine? I have no major plans … And that’s perfect. Memorial Day Weekend to me, always meant the START OF SUMMERTIME…Just as Labor Day Weekend always felt like the end of Summer. This is a Michigan mentality I believe [or at least the mind-state of people who live with snow for at least 6 months of the year]. And in-between Memorial Day and Labor Day is my favorite… FOURTH OF JULY!!! NOTHING COMPARES to my Michigan 4th of July memories as a kid. Those were always great times.

Camping…Now there’s something I haven’t done in ages! Of course…These days, I think my idea of “roughing it” would be slightly different than it was back when I was 17 Ok, so I’m a little homesick… It happens. Odd thing is…When I go back home to visit, it no longer feels like home. [ I know, it sounds like a Neil Diamond song ]

Yesterday I received an email that threw me for a loop. Rather than going into details, the analogy of what it felt like was as if someone had come to me for a job interview-of which I decided not to hire this person. And rather than this person saying “thank you for your consideration“…The email basically said “um, no you already hired me and I’m not leaving“. VERY STRANGE and borderline delusional. I won’t go into details here as to the true nature of this email but let’s just say I feel like I’m being stalked and I’m wondering if it’s going to get to the point where I have to “call security” to escort this person out of the building.

Well…enough about the silliness. The shower calls and I need to wash off this grubby feeling before I start a fun weekend.

Well…The big upset that Carrie won Idol last night. I’m not too surprised though I did want Bo to win. And so, Carrie wins the recording deal…And I’m sure Bo will still get a recording deal as well. This being my 1st season ever watching the show, I found it to be educational more than anything else. I have to say, I DID enjoy the 2 hour finale…I thought it was produced very well with the exception in the few technical difficulties.

It’s clear to me that out of the two Bo should have won. Carrie sounds very cookie-cutter(not to mention she was so out of tune the night before)…But I suppose she has a more universal appeal. She’s prettier than Bo …But there’s so many more talented country singers out there with real soul and who sing songs with feeling. Ah well…I did enjoy the season and am looking forward to the next one.

Heading down to Orange County in a second here so not too much time to blog. I need to try to beat as much traffic as I can. It’s not too often that I travel these wonderful California freeways in the daylight …And for good reason

And so, without sounding like too much a shameful plug, I had to send more CD’s to the distribution company [CDBaby.com] today…It seems they’re sold out. It’s not as though they get a ton to start with but it’s still nice to know that I sell a CD here and there

Truth be told, I sell way more digital downloads on iTunes than actual units. It’s really interesting to watch and see how more and more people are not buying actual CD’s and rather just downloading the CD and/or tracks. This is the reason the next CD has to have some extra little goodies included, like perhaps a DVD…3D cover. Anything to make people want the actually CD in hand.

I know I keep talking about a new CD but I’ve sort a put a hold on recording [specially since I'm guessing I'll be put with a producer that'll be adding his or her touches]. It’d be nice to go demo a bunch of new songs I have though. Perhaps soon.

On to American Idol thoughts…
There’s really not too much to say. I mean, I watched the show last night and it seemed pretty obvious that Bo should win out of the two but I really don’t think it matters at this point. Carrie seemed very pitchy to me but I’m sure it was probably a mix of it being a new venue and nerves. Bo will make a CD either way and sell a bunch so long as it has some good songs on it and it’s produced well.

One thing I noticed about all the “idols” who get voted off …The next day, they usually show up on The Tonight Show…It seems to me that the only person who did not go on was Vonzel. Wonder what the story is there. Hmm.

I guess we’ll see tonight….If Bo does win…He would be the oldest “Idol” winner at 29. And we all know, that there are no talented people over the age of 30–kidding

I went to the 5pm showing of the new Star Wars movie today .

I don’t want to ruin it for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet but to me, it was just “ok”. I didn’t love it or hate it. So the main question is:

“Is it worth seeing?”

Sure, but only if you’re a Star Wars fan. I really hate to say it…But the movie trailer seemed much better than the actual movie. It was like they CRAMMED a bunch of stuff in there so it would all be caught up to #4[like..."and by the way here's the reason some Jedi vanish and others just die..."]. I think I’ll have to buy the complete DVD set when it’s released even still though.

It might have been a better movie if I didn’t start off the 1st 25 minutes of the show with a CRYING BABY a few seats ahead of me….And I mean CRYING! Not a soul who paid their $8.50 to get in, said anything …I ended up speaking up and the lady finally carried the screaming kid out of the theater. What sucks about this is…just to be brought to the point of “having to speak up” annoyed the hell out of me. After, I had to spend about 3 minutes calming myself down just to try to get into the movie.

This is the main reason I hate seeing a movie at the theater. Me’sa thinks peoples be’sa sooooo ruuuude.

No, I do not hate babies :)…I just don’t think a 6 month year old
should be taken into movie theaters. As a complete stranger, I would have been happy to pay the babysitting fees.

I suppose it could have been worse. Let’s hope War of the Worlds, The Fantastic Four and Batman Returns is filled with a more polite audience.

Hmm…Yesterday my website had 228 hits…That’s quite a bit for just a Sunday. Maybe it was everyone coming to try and figure out why I said “I hope your Saturday mood is as good as mine“–being that yesterday was SUNDAY–DOH! Oops…It’s changed now. I was confused since I usually play hockey on Sunday nights and knowing that our game for some reason is on Monday this week instead.

Some other fun and interesting facts about the site is what brings people here.
Here are the top 10 keyword phrases that bring people to my page:

1. bob gentry
2. bob gentry journal
3. little hercules videos
4. superhero party
5. jane fonda don’t touch me
6. bobby gentry
7. shrimping toes
8. don’t touch me song
9. gentry journal
10. moisture band

Funny that “shrimping toes” is in there. [mental note that typing the phrase "shrimping toes" in your blog will bring unique hits]
Also, I thought it was pretty interesting that there were other people out there searching about Jane Fonda’s Tonight Show appearance when she said “don’t touch me” to Jay. I guess I wasn’t the only one who thought that was a little weird.

The most refreshing thing is…The top search is people who are looking for “Bob Gentry” Sure beats people getting here who are searching for half nude pictures of Saddam in his underwear.

I guess the nicest things about adding the blog to the site is the extra hits I would have never received. I really need to study and see what the most searched phrases are and just blog those

It’s a heat-wave here in Los Angeles…And even more in my apartment. I DID figure out the trick to my AC unit though….But now, it seems it’s either too cold or too hot. I keep trying to get the setting that’s right in the middle–it’s almost a game Truth is, it’s such a nice day out that it’s a shame to spend it indoors.

I try my best to never complain about the heat since I spent so many years of saying how much I hate the cold in Michigan. Ok…end of weather report.

Normally on Sundays I have hockey games but for some reason we don’t have one tonight but we have one tomorrow night at 9:45pm–which is fine for me. I think I’ll be playing Center as I did last week …It’s a tough position. I like some things about it but I think I feel most at home on a Wing. I’ll see how tomorrow night goes…Perhaps it just takes some time to get used to a few little things. I just like to play

Well…Perhaps I should go outdoors? Hope your Sunday mood is as GREAT as mine is!