I was with a couple that was getting married. They were trying to put together their announcement to send in the mail but couldn’t quite get the message correctly. I t reminded me of the lord’s prayer and I as I was looking at the five different announcements they’d come up with, I realized that I had the perfect message for them. I shared it and they loved it. I explained to them that I used to recite the lord’s prayer in Hebrew when I was a kid and shared it with them which they also loved. I then walked out of the building we were in which was like a guest house on some property, and proceeded to the main house. I was wearing the woman’s wedding dress I think, or maybe carrying it, I’m not sure. I was trying to keep it from getting dirty and wet which was difficult considering it was raining. As I got to the house, I realized that I needed to climb down a small rickety wooden ladder to get into the house. I was having difficulty keeping the dress in good shape as I descended the ladder.
LaFaMos Marketing and PublicityNovember 4th, 2012
I held off for a really long time on doing this post. I really don’t like having to criticize someone and I’ve always worried about defaming a person or company for having done something I didn’t agree with if fear that they’de retaliate. I guess now, I don’t care because at this point, I’ve kinda given up on the music business. Sitting around on my keyboard was the contract that I did with LaFaMos to do some publicity for me. Whenever I got thru my stack of bills, there it would be, sitting at the bottom like the mold under a shower mat that’s waiting to be cleaned.
I met a canvaser for LaFaMos at the Taxi conference down in L.A. in 2009. I gave him my name, number and web site. Some time later, Gideon Black contacted me and told me that they reviewed my content and really like what I was doing and thought that his company could really help me get some publicity and for a discount rate. For $570 per month with a two month minimum contract, I was told that they would be able to do all the art work to put together a nice press page for me with sample tracks, and get my press kit out to bloggers, radio stations, and other print and online publications. I looked around to find out if there was any web feedback about LaFaMos but didn’t really come up with anything. I really like Gideon’s enthusiasm so I made another trip down to L.A. to meet him at their new office on Hollywood Blvd.
The meeting went really well and I felt positive about it so I agreed to the two month minimum contract and laid down $1140. I didn’t need any creative services because I’m a graphic designer and so all my own work so it was really simple to just hand over a bunch of content. I did this just before a 3 week trip to New Zealand. In an ideal world, I’d just hand it over, go on vacation and return with a nice press kit and maybe a couple blog posts. I was very mistaken.
Amanda Blide was assigned to my account. I liked her attitude when we started out but I found that the communication via email was very slow. It began on Feb 3, 2010 and it took until Feb 20 to get a simple press kit up and approved by me. When I’m talking press kit, I’m talking about one page on the internet with mp3s and a bio. Mind you, I already had all this on my web site. They took my already posted bio, my already posted mp3s, and the graphics I supplied them, and made their own page from this in 17 days, WAY too long. The first blog article happened on March 3, one full month after I signed the contract. By this time I was getting worried, especially when the next possibility for any review of any sort came in the form of notification of a possible radio interview. This came via email on March 18 while I was out of the country. I specifically told Amanda that I would be out of the country and NOT to email me because I would not get it. If she needed to get ahold of me, she must call. That didn’t happen and I lost the opportunity for the radio interview, partly because I told them to suspend the account because I wasn’t getting anywhere with them. Amanda said she’s still try to schedule the interview for me, but she didn’t. So, two months of publicity and $1140 and I got a blog post buy a random blogger. I was really unhappy about my experience and wrote Hunter Scott, the owner of LaFaMos a letter that I had sent via U.S. Postal Service with a delivery confirmation. It came back marked “rejected.” Another big red flag for this company.
The thing is, I don’t know anything about publicity, and all that I do know is that they’ll take your money and make no promises. I’ve confirmed this with every publicity agency. They hold your music accountable for everything they do and don’t do. I can’t say that it doesn’t work because some people do experience success, I assume, or there wouldn’t be publicists. But as for LaFaMos, look elsewhere. Like I said, their attitudes were great, but the delivery fell flat. I didn’t feel that the competency level was up to snuff. And as for Hunter Scott, I chatted with him briefly on the phone when I first signed the contract, but afterward, I couldn’t get him on the phone, he wouldn’t return my calls, and he rejected my personal letter to him when I wanted to complain about their service. As far as I’m concerned; snake. Sorry Hunter, gotta call’em like I see’em.
This Monday at Red RockJune 16th, 2012
This coming Monday, June 18th is the night I will *actually* be playing at Red Rock Coffee in Mountain View as the featured performer for their open mic. I play from 9-9:30pm. The address is 201 Castro Street Mountain View, CA 94041 — (650) 967-4473.
Come out, have a coffee, scream a little… and wear something fun!
Tonight’s Show RescheduledMay 21st, 2012
Tonight’s show has been rescheduled to June 18. Sorry for the last minute notice.
Monday Night ShowMay 20th, 2012
I rarely play out anymore these days, but if you’re missing hearing what I’m up to musically, come out to Red Rock Coffee in Mountain View, CA. 201 Castro Street Mountain View, CA 94041 (650) 967-4473.
I’ll be playing pretty much all new music from the past 12 months or so. It’s a half hour set after their open mic for which I’ll be the featured performer of the evening, starting at 9pm.
It would be great to see y’all.
How a Stimulus Package WorksMay 11th, 2012
It’s a slow day in the small town of Steadman , and the streets are deserted.
Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit.
A tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the hotel, and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night.
As soon as he walks upstairs, the hotel owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.
(Stay with this…..and pay attention)
The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.
The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier; the Co-op.
The guy at the Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her” services” on credit.
The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner.
(Almost done…keep reading)
The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the traveler will not suspect anything.
At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves.
No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town
now thinks that they are out of debt and there is a false atmosphere of optimism and glee .
And that, my friends, is how a “stimulus package” works!
Linked FragmentsJanuary 26th, 2012
I was sitting in a kitchen with Andy and who I thought would’ve been Kevin but it didn’t look like Kevin, and this guy was an attorney. We were talking about the fact that a printing company was soliciting him to move his business to them instead of doing it in house. I asked him if he made a lot of copies, and then I retracted the question and gave him the answer. “Of course you do”, I replied, extending my memory back and relating to him that when I was much younger, I worked in the copy room of a large law firm in L.A. He commented that the copy company was trying to persuade him by offering a getaway on a secluded island that was equipped with high powered telescopes that would give him ample opportunity to study the celestial sky without interruption. It sounded like a pretty cool deal and he was on the verge of accepting.
I sat at their kitchen table during this conversation with a portion of my attention on a picture of a young black woman with a round face and smiling eyes. The picture sat in a tooled tin frame of the ornate Mexican variety and my found my finger skimming the edge of the frame until all of my attention was absorbed into it. Suddenly, I found myself on a street running parallel to a river wash. The street was lined with large bull pines, and I was being towed on what seemed to be a skateboard. Who I was being towed by was a largish Mexican man in his early twenties. He was wearing dark, stylized jeans with embroidered pockets. Every so often he would crane his head back far enough to make sure I was still there. I commented to him that he reminded me of George, whom he probably didn’t know.
We pulled into a driveway on the left and into a large parking lot. He continued forward until we came up to the curb in front of a restaurant that glistened white and bright in the noon time sun. “They” ushered me into the restaurant to be seated with a group near a patio. I started talking to the waitress and the others I was there to join on how surprisingly empty the parking lot was and that, before the downturn of the economy, that parking lot would’ve been packed to the gils at this time of day. I also pointed out that “The Barn” was closed down, which was a huge restaurant that had been there forever. I asked if anyone remembered “Maya”, the breakfast place that had also closed to everyone’s surprise, since that had he best breakfasts in town. The blonde waitress seemed the most interested in what I was talking about, but everyone seemed to be going out of their way to take care of me and make sure I was happy.
New Coming Home single available for free download @ https://www.rhythma.com/coming_home.phpJanuary 20th, 2012
I’ve created a page for the single, Coming Home, and added iTunes and Amazon download links. But I’m also offering the song for free. You can make a donation to PayPal if you so desire. I’ve added the video onto the page as well.
Welcoming Home the Troops VideoJanuary 9th, 2012
I’ve always believed that the universe was forged in primordial sound, and at our core, we’re musical, and music is healing. That’s why it’s important for me to introduce music in a way that touches and informs.
I’ve created a warm thank you video for our troops to welcome them home from 10 years of war. If it’s true that there are only six degrees of separation between every individual, then I believe that if you help me share this video with at least 6 facebook friends, or just forward this email to 6 people, it will eventually reach every solider so that we can all show our appreciation for their courage to risk their lives to help make this world a better place, and welcome them home.
I hope you enjoy this. Thanks and blessings to you.
