Fstars.com: Blog

I was up most of the night surfing the internet educating myself on podcasting and how-to's. I think I have the hang of it now. Will test out from another blog and then should be ready for broadcast.

On band news: The Fstars are scheduled to play this evening at Fat Tuesday's Cajun Bar and Grill in Rahway, NJ - however, snow may dampen the travel. We'll see in a few hours.

Wired 13.03: Adam Curry Wants to Make You an iPod Radio Star

Have to get into this and I will. Give me a few days to experiment and then decide if it'll be this blog or the website that hosts the podcast.

Tech is great!

We are in our next phase as a band: performing. Last week we played The Pirate's Den in South Jersey and this week, we're setting our sights on North Jersey. Right now, we want to see how many audiences are attracted to our music/message/style. Next we'll worry about focusing that a bit further.

But it was good to don our instruments and play to a crowd, albeit one that prefers harder, metal-ish genre. We did our best and were friendly and that was returned ten-fold by the bar crew and audience. A pleasant experience overall.

Now, we did hear unexpected praise that 'we could pack in the colleges in Philly with our sound and setlist' and that 'we should be playing out everynight'. I'll refrain from the self-praise and leave that to the fans, however, I do agree that we need to move the frequency of our exposure upwards. We have the songs and the stamina, so that's what we'll be doing in the next few weeks.

How much more can be said on or about this day? I'll leave this poem by Emily Dickinson as a stamp in cyberspace. I'm not familiar with her entire catalog, but this one has remained with me since being introduced to it.

"Here's a sigh to those that love me/And a smile to those that hate./And for whatever sky's above me/Here's a heart for any fate."

The financial industry has made many gains, money and power, by following a key prinicple: Diversification of assets. That is, put a little money in many things, rather than a lot of money in one thing. And the word comes up again in successful societies: Diversity. Better to have the opinions of many type of people, than to subject to the whims of one type of people.

So, why not use this concept in music? I know the road is harsh to our goals musically and I know we are guided by human nature to pursue one thing singularily - like being the best singer, best guitarist, best dancer, best live, best acoustically, etc. But why stop there? What if this road of musical destiny was really a highway with many lanes and it was just our own ignorance or 'foggy' minds that was obscuring the other lanes to paint a picture of only one available road? Would you rather drive on a singular road or a multi-lane highway that allows for passing and speeding and a clear view of the obstacles ahead? I opt for the latter.

Diversify...your talents. Don't think singularily. 'If you've got it, flaunt it.' Multi-task. ETC - put it all out there for the world to judge, b/c you never know which road on the highway will prove to be the fast lane to you destination.

Been tinkering with the website over the last week. Added a new start page that asks for a choice between "Falling Stars" - the film script and "The Fstars" - the band. It's about time that I was fair to all my writings, not just the musical ones.

Read an article that proclaims "Rock is dead, nearly". And every couple of years or so, a similar article comes across that makes us ponder the question of Rock n Roll's longevity. I'll agree that RnB, Rap, Emo, NuMetal, etc are the dujours, but Rock is simply hibernating. Gathering up lifeforce to come crashing through again - as Nirvana, U2, Police, Green Day...-did in their respective periods.

But you can't escape the eMentality. It's here to stay. Savy DJ's now carry a laptop in place of vinyls and thus, compact their eq to a single backpack. iPOD Bars are the new thing, as music is traded in bits and bytes. It's a portable culture now. Still, humans with artistic merit are needed to create those MP3 files and moreover, humans with a desire to perform are needed still to disseminate the soul of the music.

So, rock is not dead, yet. Not as long as people are compelled to write words and play instruments instead of opting to twist knobs and type words.