Retrospective

I turned 68 this year and it freaks me out!

I have wanted to start an online diary for years, and have tried a few times, but have always been too busy to add yet another time consuming project to my massive workload. This is the time. I am aging, and fast, and before it is too late, I want to start logging some of my lifetime experiences for prosperity.

Even tho I have also added some stories to the forum under sojournstar.com, I will spew my thoughts onto this blog at will. My thoughts will most likely not be in any cronological order, besides age is stealing my memory files, but the things I write here will all be fact. I write a lot like I talk and think, so get ready for the roller coaster ride.

Kevin Dubrow

A while ago (years) Kevin Dubrow of Quiet Riot died in his home in Las Vegas. I heard this fly by me on The Soup one night, Joel the host stated something to the fact that "Kevin Dubrow died this week, and to honor his passing we give you this" and he proceeded to show a riot, with silence on the screen. This freaked me, and unfortunately my pc had crashed in the previous Nov, and I could not search it down.

I thought this was kind of a rude way to state this fact, but my other half Stephen said "at least they said something" which is true. When I finally got a new pc and searched it down, it was then it became a reality.

Why did it freak me so much? Because Kevin was once a friend, altho not a very good one. He had a band in the 80's called DuBrow, and he played the Starwood frequently in Los Angeles where I once worked. He played the stages there with bands like Snow, (Carlos and Tony Cavazo, and Stephen Quadros) who are still good friends, and London, the Nikki Sixx band (still known as Frank then) that morphed into Motley Crue.

Kevin wasnt always the friendliest of the bunch, he had an ego as big as David Lee Roth and a way too bad ass attitude, but under all that he was still a nice guy. I hated to hear about his death, and it made me think, he is way younger than me, and so are many other of my old friends who are gone or have serious health issues now. We all get old, but it seems like the Rockers go faster and harder than any others.

Up until a years ago, I was still vital, energetic, and very active. I used to run around the venues I managed or worked in like they were little boxes of nothing. The last big venue I was in management with, the Floodzone in Richmond Virginia (the size of the Starwood), had these huge widely spaced stairwells, and I would run up and down those steps maybe 50 times a night if not more. It never phased me. Now I am lucky if I can walk up my porch steps.

I learned a few years back that another old friend from Motley, has a similair back problem as I do, and when I saw footage of him on a special about the band, I was shocked to find how bent over and in agony he looked. He had the same look of agony on his face that I do now on a daily basis.

I guess the bottom line here is, you never know what, or how quick life is going to hand you a bowl of lemons, and you cant always make lemonaid from them, so its best to try and live your life to the fullest you can before the lemons devour you.

And in the words of Cameron Crowes mother "Don't Take Drugs"!

Find Out More About Me & Visit All My Websites @ AH! Design

An update is due!

I'm a little late saying YAY 2015!! lol, but I have been mentally distracted.

I am updating this blog, and also merging the Sojournstar Music Blog into this newer one. I Am Sojournstar will be used for more personal ramblings etc.

I have many projects on line, nothing new there, except I have spread my digital selling even further to include a couple of teachers websites, and some more shop platforms I am testing out.

We are also seriously going towards the Flea Market, Trunk Shows, and other forms of direct selling, as I still have lots of vintage items such as clothes and collectibles, and still have plenty of jewelry available, including 9.25 silver!

Have been experimenting with a few shop platforms online I can use as a Richmond based selling point, more on this later. The weather must be much warmer than it is now here, for me to proceed too fast too forward there yet

Find Out More About Me & Visit All My Websites @ Sojournstar.com

A long time ago....

A long time ago I made my first blog here on Blogger, called Sojournstar,
and somewhere along the line, I lost the PW and account info,
and was never able to get in it, nor claim my name back!

It has irked me forever lol, but I finally settled on the second best,
I guess. So here is the start of yet another blog.

Truth be told, I just can't stop creating!!

Find Out More About Me & Visit All My Websites @ Sojournstar.com

Printing company

Authored by Greg Fletcher

Living in the city, I have discovered many ways to make money. I have worked in a restaurant and a hospital as well as in real estate and computers. My most recent attempt to be successful has been in the printing business. I started my own printing company when I saw the need for paper products such as brochures and signs. When I first began in this business, I targeted schools and churches, then went to other small businesses. I realized that in order to be successful, I needed to get an affordable communications provider. I decided to get T1 Manhattan in my building and have been very pleased with it. I hope that this business will be more successful than previous businesses I have been involved with. The economy right now is not favorable to many businesses. However, it seems as if there is always a need for printing in any business, whether it is for flyers, bulletins, business cards, or signs. I have even looked into making banners for schools and sports teams. The opportunities in this business are endless.


*************************************** Be sure to sign up for the new Sojournstar Music Network! If your on the East Coast, be sure to sign up for MusicRVA Social Network! and if you want to make money while having fun and promoting your band, music or business, then you must Join me at Weblo Virtual World for Fun & Profit!

Benefits & Incentives

Starting April first, I will begin gifting the most active members of my fashion game network every month, with Diva Chix coins.
(Other coins from other games may follow in the future)

I will post some sort of chart in the next week, detailing the activity level and the gifts, but for now, I encourage all members and future members to start getting active, and earn some coins, mollah, and prizes.....

We can't have fun, if we aren't making friends. Come on, I know you guys can do it!

Also, I have tried to leave comments on several members pages, and been told I do not have permission
so ladies, and gents, unless you are purposely setting your profiles to not recieve greetings, or profile messages from other members, I would really appreciate everyone coming to the site, and setting up your profiles. You have so many wonderful options and tools to work with here, and I would love to see some beautiful profile art here.

As a matter of fact, I think I will also give prizes to the top 3 profiles on April 1st as well!!

So get those artistic juices moving, use the graphic editors to create stuff if you like, and get your thinking caps on and put some ideas out there onto the discussion forums!

Join the fashion network at
http://fashionvixens.com


*************************************** Be sure to sign up for the new Sojournstar Music Network! If your on the East Coast, be sure to sign up for MusicRVA Social Network! and if you want to make money while having fun and promoting your band, music or business, then you must Join me at Weblo Virtual World for Fun & Profit!

Almost time for a new computer!

You know the lifespan of a computer is about 5 years they say, between programs and software going obsolete, to crashes due to who knows what, not to mention viruses, apps that inject all kinds of nasties, etc out there, it is like a drive by shooting sometimes.

My pc has very fast connections, but lately has slowed down to a crawl. I have looked at the new models of pc's, everything from Sony brands to an
asus laptop and there are some pretty good bargains out there. Hopefully it will be a painless search lol!

One thing is for sure, I was lucky enough to get one of the last XP's when I got this one, I will NOT be buying any product with the name Vista on it.
If you all have any suggestions or advice, please do make a comment on this subject.

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Be sure to sign up for the new Sojournstar Music Network! If your on the East Coast, be sure to sign up for MusicRVA Social Network! and if you want to make money while having fun and promoting your band, music or business, then you must Join me at Weblo Virtual World for Fun & Profit!

Tutoring made easy- means No Excuses Left!

Today more and more people are wanting to either finish school after several years, or need more help than what can be offered in schools. One of my family members was quite disillusioned when he decided to take classes in the middle of his life, and found the teachers and professors were too busy to give any student the extra attention they need.

This may be a reason so many people who would like to learn more, hesitate, feeling they may be "too old", amoung some of the reasons.
Maybe Algebra 2 or any form of math is a problem for you, I certainly know it was for both my aforementioned friend, and myself. There is help available for those who would like to further their studies, whether it be 4th grade math or Adding fractions you can get affordable tutoring online in your own home. This is the way of the world today, you can find all the help and answers you need at your fingertips, and at your convenience.

My biggest mental block in school happened to be math, and most other studies that were not music or art. If you ask me to tell you the volume of any particular shape or container, I will probably figure it out eventually, much the same as a 4th or 5th grade math student might, which is why it was so amazing to me that I could understand and construct Astrology Charts, because subjects like the Formula for volume or even trying to understand things like Graphing linear equations are beyond my comprehension at times. There were no affordable online Universities, or schools when I was growing up, I think the internet has made it so there is not any excuse left why people can not get the help they need to educate themselves.


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Be sure to sign up for the new Sojournstar Music Network! If your on the East Coast, be sure to sign up for MusicRVA Social Network! and if you want to make money while having fun and promoting your band, music or business, then you must Join me at Weblo Virtual World for Fun & Profit!

Bottle Rockets and Nikki Sixx

Following an incident where a fan threw a water bottle back on the stage that Nikki had tossed to the crowd, Nikki was sent into a rage. When he saw the fan was a woman. "The fact that you're a f---ing whore just means you can suck my d--- a little more, you b----. Get the f--- out of here." Then she began crying and he mocked her tears

Watch this vid!



Nikki has apologized for reducing the fan to tears, admitting that the bottle the fan threw back at him was the very same one he threw to the audience.

Sixx was introducing the band's next song on stage when he threw a plastic bottle of water to the fans. The same bottle was then thrown back at the stage, almost hitting him.

He got angry and singled out the female fan for throwing the bottle, not realizing that it was the same one he threw seconds ago. He called the fan obscene names and began to mock her when she started crying.

Sixx writes his apology on his MySpace blog, "There was a recent event at one of our shows where someone threw a bottle at me during my speech and I got pretty pissed. The way it happened is, I threw a bottle of water to some fans and didn't realize the very bottle I threw to the fans was thrown back at me."

"I have to admit, Bands get pretty pissed when people throw sh*t at you onstage. I didn't even think it was the same bottle, so with that being said, id like to say im sorry to the fan who threw the bottle back at me [sic]."

"These damn clichés seem to be true, like 'two wrongs don't make a right..... Rock n roll, and temper tantums..."

"PS. These self-help books are really helping. Ha-Ha"

Just for the record, when a performer is on stage, he may do a number of things that strike him at the moment, including throwing stuff into the audience, but most people would have kept a water bottle that had been touched and used by Nikki. If an artist throws something from the stage at a concert you attend, don't be stupid, keep the item as memorabilia, but under no circumstances, throw it, or anything else at an artist on stage. There are numberous things that could go wrong, in this case alone, the bottle still contained water, and could have easily cracked after hitting an amp or other item, and caused an electrical meltdown, or worse, an electricution.

So next time Nikki throws something at you, keep it, cherish it, and thank your lucky stars, (in this case Nikki Sixx LOL)

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Be sure to sign up for the new Sojournstar Music Network!

If your on the East Coast, be sure to sign up for
MusicRVA Social Network!

and if you want to make money while having fun and promoting your band, music or business, then you must
Join me at Weblo Virtual World for Fun & Profit!

Internet Radio Stations

Internet Radio Stations - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: Internet Radio Stations

Internet Radio Stations ---------First, our computers took over our fingers with a plethora of chat options to entertain us. Now, with the availability of MP3's, the internet is becoming our source for music as well. That means internet radio stations are taking over and unsigned/independent artists must not ignore this important vehicle. It used to be you made a demo and while A&R reps at major record companies were your main focus, you still needed to submit your demo to radio stations across the country to request airplay. While this is still a vital part of your demo submission package, there is now an added dimension. You MUST get your songs in MP3 format and get your music heard on the internet where you can reach the largest audience of all. Your website (and you should have one!) is vital but there are other outlets that can help as well. Internet radio stations are becoming a bigger chunk of the MP3 pie, in addition to sites like MP3.com and amp.com who chart independent music on the internet. More and more radio stations are launching on the internet to keep up with the competition. The best part about it is you can submit your music to most stations from the comfort of your own home and save a lot of money on postage! If you're not familiar with internet radio, it's simply websites that stream audio over the Internet. If you would like a more in-depth definition, here is a great site that explains every detail and lists several stations: About.com. Over 20% of internet users listen to internet radio stations every week and websites are a lot better at tracking audience numbers than the regular radio ratings tracking system, Arbitron. Arbitron also does webcast measuring, publishing the first ever Webcast ratings last December, but only a small fraction of webcasters are included. Arbitron measures total listeners and the time spent tuning specific channels, but internet radio websites have the added "visual" medium, making it possible to poll listeners as to their age, sex, household income, etc. Gathering this very specific information can be exactly what you need. Imagine an 80's cover band that's been trying to appeal to 30-somethings discovering that the majority of their listeners are people who aren't even old enough to remember the 80's, it could change their entire focus and marketing strategy. The largest internet radio networks are the Magnitude Network, RealBroadcast Network, Audioscape, and BroadcastAmerica.com. All four ranked in the top 25% for total listeners. OnRadio and NetRadio are their way up, as are thousands of others, check out MIT's list, they link to over 9,000 stations: http://wmbr.mit.edu/stations/list.html or http://www.internetradiolist.com/. Even search engines are getting into the game, Lycos.com and Yahoo.com both have radio networks. You'll also find a lot of "Radio Free" networks like RadioFreeOntario and RadioFreeRadio.com. According to Arbitron, the top ranked internet radio station is Virgin Radio (International) which drew 173,200 listeners in January, that's more than most major metropolitan on-air stations. KPLA scored the top spot for the average time spent tuning at 6 hours, 30 minutes. Web-only stations are reporting as many as 500,000 unique listeners per month. The submission policies for internet radio stations differ. Many are sticking to the old book, accepting CD submissions and press kits via snail mail while others are working completely online. For online submissions, you need to put your songs in MP3 format and attach them to e-mail. Gary Hustwit's book, Getting Radio Airplay is terrific for information about contacting on-air stations and I'm willing to bet it will soon be updated to included internet radio stations as well. Gary outlines every detail from the initial letter to the follow-up phone calls. A radio package is going to be very similar to your regular submission package that you would send to record companies or magazines. If you missed Shock Value's take on record company submissions, check it out: Submitting to Record Companies. If you're not familiar with radio lingo, check out Shock Value's radio lingo dictionary following this article. Your package should include: a cover letter, CD, bio, and bounce back card or in the case of online submissions, a cover e-mail, MP3's, a bio and an e-mail link back to you. The first step is the cover letter. Introduce yourself, tell the music director what song you would like aired, and make sure you mention the genre of music that best describes you, a lot of internet radio stations have different programs with different genres of music, i.e.: pop, rock, alternative, ska, metal, CHR, adult contemporary, etc. You may want to elaborate on why you fit in with that station's format/program, but keep it short. Your cover letter should always be personalized, do not put "MD" or "Music Director". Go to the website and get a name. Whether you send a full length CD or a library of MP3's, make sure your cover letter states the ONE song you'd like added to the play list. Your letter should be short and to the point: 'Dear Mr. So-and-so...My name is...I'd like my song, "Good Song" to be added to the playlist at radiostation.com...My style will add a lot of flair to your pop music format.' Be formal and polite. Your bio, which is also called a one-sheet, should also be short and to the point no matter how long you've been in the business. Here is a sample first paragraph: When she sings one of her trademark adult contemporary ballads, her voice is described as "angelic," but CHRISTYANNA has her feet planted firmly on the ground. "Voice lessons can teach almost anyone how to sing the teacher's way, but you have to feel the lyrics and the music in your heart to have a style all your own," she smiles. This fiery red head captivates listeners with her powerful delivery of heartfelt lyrics. She is right at home on stage, and makes the audience feel like welcome guests. In addition, you would add relevant experience and press clippings. If you include press clippings, perhaps a stunning review in Shock Value Music Webzine, don't include the entire article, take snippets and make them part of your bio. Do not send pages and pages of press. Remember, your bio is a brag sheet, not a book. Put the clippings together in a paragraph and make sure you mention the name of the publication. Be sure to include a picture that is incorporated on the page, do not paperclip a picture to your bio. Include a conclusion paragraph here is an example: CHRISTY pours her heart into her music, and her soul into her performance. Her voice is an explosion of power, harmony, and passion. Her phenomenal voice will dazzle you, her electric personality will floor you. Her name is memorable, her voice is unforgettable. This wraps things up in a nice tidy package and leaves the Music Director with a final thought on just how fabulous you are. Bounce back cards, or return e-mail links will save you money on long distance calls. A bounce back card is just a postcard addressed to you. On the back, you'll want to have yes or no questions, or statements with a blank space for a check mark like these: _____ Yes, I am adding your song to our playlist. _____ Yes, I like the CD. _____ Yes, I'd like to hear more in the future. In the case of a return e-mail link, you will have an e-mail link to you with an automatic subject input that says the same thing as a bounce back card would. To include an automatic subject, your html code in the e-mail would look like this: Yes, We're adding your song! (To steal that code, just copy that text and replace the e-mail address with your own.) You could also set up a webpage as part of your website that is a bounce back card. If you get back a link or card that says the station will be "adding" your song, you'll want to give it a little time, then call or e-mail and see what kind of "rotation" your song is getting. Heavy is the best rotation, light is the least amount of airplay. As always, be kind and courteous, these are not people you can afford to tick off. An enemy in this business will always come back to haunt you. If you don't hear back from them, contact them periodically but be sure not to cross the line between persistent and annoying The only noteworthy problem I am aware of is the lack of coverage of internet radio stations from the three big performing rights organizations, SESAC, ASCAP and BMI. I wouldn't expect residuals from internet radio airplay just yet, but that won't be a problem for long, all three are working on it and as quickly as internet radio is catching on, it won't be long before their coverage of on-air and internet radio are equal. Please contact the performing rights organization that you are registered with and ask them what they are doing to track internet radio airplay. Compared to over-the-air radio stations, internet radio still needs some work but it remains yet another medium for exposing your music. To find internet radio stations, check out these sites: ---------InternetRadio MIT List About.com Realguide TalkRadio.net Lycos.com GrooveRadio.com NetRadio.com GlobalMedia.com Real.com FamilyInternet AltaVista.com LimitedQuantities BroadcastAmerica

Blockbuster made me feel better!

I have been feeling under the weather lately, and have been watching more
movies than ever the last few weeks. Did you know that
Blockbuster managed to get
our movies to us so fast that we have been able to see about 3 to 4 movies
a week.

When we first got into renting movies from Blockbuster Online
I wasn't sure we could watch that many movies in a month, but I was wrong LOL.
When your not feeling well, trust me, you can catch up on the latest flix. So the $17.99 a month is well worth it, especially when you consider the price of movie theatres for 2 people is more than that with popcorn and sodas for just 1 movie.

Stephen has also been utilizing the Online Game Rentals and we find that's a great way to try out tons of video games before you make a commitment to purchase them. I can't tell you how much he has spent on games that he has decided were not all that much fun,
and have left them collecting dust on the game shelf.

Anyway, whether you are into movies, or games, try renting your Online Movies
and games from Blockbuster, I guarentee you will save money, and time. The walk in store is great too, but I got sick of trying to beat the weekend crowd, to find some of the movies I wanted were out already, and between the cost of gas, time and aggravation, I am really glad we decided to go the
Blockbuster Online route.

You should really try it, its easy, and you even get one free instore rental a month. Shipping is free and never a late fee ever. I Love It!