Girl Surfers

Quick aside. Growing up in the South Bay, and growing up in the surf, I've always been a little wary of girl surfers. If you ask Speedy, he will give you 20 minutes & 2 pocketfuls of reasons why girls shouldn't be surfing - and he's one of the best surfers around this beach town. But I have to admit, I stumbled upon the girl character they call Holly Beck, whom I've know through name but never placed a face, and she actually has a pretty cool vibe, surfs pretty well (I think she attends her classes at Haggerdes, ah poor Hags), and is pretty freakin hot. Now, I will 100% approve when she outsurfs Troy at Hags, but until then, half nod. So, Im actually changing up my vibe a little. And, yes, for all the women shaking their head in disapproval, I know my approval means nothing, but its my blog and my bar, so I get to say whats on mind. And for what its worth, at least this male is telling the truth.

Finally...Finally...Finally...

There is this thing in small business that can be at times devastating, but at times the most amazing feeling there is. Its called momentum. With what I do, we have ideas floating around daily like flies in the office; we swat them around, some allude our criticism, some die by our critical hand. But in the end, there are always 1 or 2 left in the window sill, waiting for the window open so that they may be free to fly into the world. One such 'fly' in my office is the iROCKe streaming platform, which I have been trying to develop for close to a year. Like the article in the Easy Reader said, I've been trying to break down the walls of Saint Rocke - imagine our little old brick building being as big as the coliseum. Well, for the Rebelution show, it was. 133,000 people virtually in Saint Rocke. And so now the momentum has shifted and that rock that Sisyphus was pushing up the hill finally made to to the top...and for those reading, we all get to enjoy. In April we start our series officially, and the first band that just confirmed is NOFX. Now you guys might think, ok, pretty cool. But if you know the music business, for a band like NOFX to play Saint Rocke is like the LA Dodgers playing a game at Torrance High (no offense Saint Rocke, no offense Torrance). Saufua if you're reading this you're laughing. Chris is my good friend from the flatlands. Anyway, NOFX draws shows of 2000-3000 people, and they are playing a venue of 290. Hence momentum swing. In addition, we have Jim Lindbergh (former Pennywise singer) and our local favorite Colleen (pickupchick.com) hosting the show. And guess what, I got tickets for my blog readers. You guys were part of the negotiation. So, pretty soon you're going to see promo for 8 shows in April /May with bands that you would never think would play the South Bay. And on this little private blog here, we're all gonna hook it up and see some amazing shows. and we're going to see them free. thanks for reading, and go shift some momentum your way. aj.s

Small Business Mentality

Sure, I'd love to sit at an office desk, take meetings, and chill all day. Would love to stay at 80,000 ft, talk in macro ideas & concepts, and then assign people to plans and see what brainchilds are born. I can imagine the CEO of LiveNation now... a decision a day, mixed in with meetings. But when you have a small business, you play everything. Tonight for example, I will spend my Friday night at Saint Rocke filming ALO (which is a killer band by the way), then go to UCC make sure everything is smooth. And by the way, right now Im updating the blog (fun part) so that I can finish the email newlsetter we send out weekly (not fun part). But you know what - thats what small business is I guess - its the sweat, blue-collar work, that in the end you look back at and can appreciate, if you make it. So tell Obama and his crew to give us a break. Tell the CA labor board, and the workers comp union, and all the other people with their hands out, to chill. It's hard enough just making a business work in simple terms of supply and demand. Let us small business people do our thing, and in return, if small businesses survive and thrive, even though we scrape our knuckles doing it, maybe our country will survive too. (wow, was i just doting politically?) aj.s

Online Downloading - The Horror! The Horror!

So who have you have used Legalsounds.com or something like it? C'mon, just admit it. I have. And before having Saint Rocke, I didn't think twice about it. Fast forward to the other day. I haven't downloaded music in I-dont-know-how-long, but I decided it was time for a new album to listen to as I lay in bed at night trying to close the eyes. So I, through repetition, go to that website, and then I think to myself, wow, an album by Josh Radin costs 1.99? how the hell can someone charge only 1.99 for all the creativity, artistic endeavor, and originality that Josh Radin put into the creation of that album? Repeat $1.99. That is 3 Snickers bars, or a 9 volt battery...and for that Im getting 10 songs that I will listen to and will shape my emotions & thoughts for an indefinite amount of time. That leads me to a bigger issue...why, if music is the soundtrack to all of our lives, is the general public so willing to bootleg the artists that are behind it?

The worst part is this. It's overwhelming. It's like the Haitian earthquake. Millions of people read about the horror as they eat their cocoa puffs, and then they put the paper down, get on the 405, and listen to Ryan Seacrest talk about Simon & Idol. WTF (thats what the fuck?). And I found myself overwhelmed by the insanity of a Josh Radin album priced at 1.99, and then you know what, I downloaded it. Shame on me.

Authors Note: listen to Josh Radin. He's an awesome artist. And buy his album for the sticker amount to support him. After writing this blog, author went to his site and bought album for full price to make himself feel better.