if posting about this here even matters.

Who is reading this? What do they think? What do they want? Is this helping them? Do they re-blog any of this? Does it make anyone else ask questions, or just me?

Sincerely,

Walter L. Denney 

Step 1 - Ask your friends to hook you up.

Step 2 - If they hook you up, CONGRATS! If not, proceed to step 3.

Step 3 - Make new friends.

Step 4 - Repeat Step 1.

The 4 step formula to success in the entertainment business, and many other walks of life, as stated by one Filipino cohort of mine who shall remain nameless for the time being. I’ve had the fortune of meeting a myriad of colorful individuals in my pursuit of happiness and I must say the numbers, figures, and planets all seem to be adding up and coming into alignment. No money yet, but it sure looks like we could rule the world any day now. Maybe we are young, or maybe we really have what it takes. The truth is nothing will help you more than a good attitude, a lack of fear, and lots and lots and lots and lots of practice.

So you want to make it huh? Well lets talk about this art form we’ve just so simply laid out here.

Step 1 - Ask your friends:

Now don’t just go up and ask your friend: “HEY! What can you do for me!” This is bad for business kids. There is a difference between use, and abuse. Your friends are your friends because of the relationship you have with them, not because of what you can do for them or what they can do for you. If you want a friend who you think has certain abilities, leverage in certain places, or power over certain things, then don’t base your friendship on this. In fact, base it on everything but. If your friend for example, is the owner of a big record label, don’t hit them up about a record deal, figure out their interest outside of business. Ask them if they would like to come over for dinner, maybe have a conversation about sports, or your favorite tv shows! Anything can potentially be an ice breaker, and this totally calms the situation on both ends, because now you are engaging in genuine conversation and showing one another that you have an interest in who you both are as individuals. They are much more likely to hand out favors to people they feel care about them, than the people who are harassing them for favors.

Step 2- If they hook it up, you’re on your way!

Chances are after you’ve befriended this person, you’ve probably discussed with them a little bit about what they do professionally, and what you do professionally. Work and business are very common topics for people to converse over and should be done so light heartedly, with genuine, mutual interest. If say your pal with the label gig starts talking about their day at work, ask for them to tell you more, because it really does interest you. How was their day? What did they do? Do they like it or loathe it, and why? What kind of people do they have to deal with? What sort of experiences do they have? This works because it operates on one key element of human nature. People are vain. People love to talk about themselves, and even more so when they think somebody is listening, and really cares.

Once this is done you might be able to segway in something about what you do and how it relates to their line of work. You might be an independant artist, and can use your experiences to relate. You might have to deal with other artists yourself much like they do, or endure the pains of trying to make ends meet with music. Maybe you even share interests in styles of music and discuss this and even talk about going to a concert together sometime, as FRIENDS! Use this time to talk about your own successes and experiences and be sure to showcase your professional side, as well as personal will and ambition. These things will set you apart from the hoard of unprofessional ankle biters they deal with on a daily basis. Do your homework, and show you are of the same caliber and are truly worth their time to develop a professional relationship with as well.

If you do these things right, chances are they will remember you and what your skills are and the next time they need someone who does what you do, you’ll be the first person they call because they know they can trust you on a personal level, and you’ll be right there to deliver the goods and show off what you do best. This in itself might likely be the hook up you’re after, or even lead to it later down the road. Pretty soon you’ll be rubbing elbows and people will be asking you for favors!

Step 3 - If it doesn’t work out, make new friends

So what if you are just some poor kid in say, Iowa, and there is no entertainment scene for you to get involved in because all of your friends spend their days in the sun doing whatever it is people in Iowa do. Which I don’t imagine is much music or film, because I haven’t heard of anyone writing a hit, or nailing a lead role in Iowa.

So you’re thinking, man, I don’t have any friends that know anything about this, and the only way to get out of this rut is to move to L.A. And many people do that! Moving to where the action is a very valid move, and it’s worked for lots in the past! But what if you are too young, or too poor to do that at this moment in time. Well there are lots of other options for you, especially with the rapid development of technology and social media! One is to simply get out in your Iowa town and scour the local venues, music stores, record shops, production companies, wherever they may be, and see what you come up with. The rule of thumb here is to go where the people you are looking for are.

 If this still doesn’t work for you, don’t despair just yet! Technology is rapidly advancing and has developed more ways than ever for people to meet, discuss, and get noticed! Search for anything you think might work, bands you like, record labels, management companies, performing rights organizations, conference tours (maybe they’ll stop by in Iowa sometime soon!), production companies, publicity companies, blogs about your favorite artists or actors, magazines, and a whole host of other components that make the biz stay above ground.

Social networks like myspace, facebook, linked in, and bebo have allowed for people, businesses, and agencies to establish an online presence that anyone can be apart of. People from all over the world gather on these networks at respective pages to showcase their talents and meet new people who share common interest. Many of these places also have official websites that are generally good about answering their emails and will gladly answer any questions you have. Youtube is another good place to showcase yourself with video. Record yourself playing a song you wrote, or rehearsing an acting piece, or even vlogging about music and movies you enjoy to attract the attention of like minded followers!

By doing this you’ll probably meet alot of new people, in places you might not have thought to even look before. Never be afraid to overturn stones and reach out to people, so long as you have that good attitude we talked about, and are out to help them before they help you. Try emailing a company or band and ask about what you can do to get involved and help out! The people that reach out to serve others before being served themselves often get the gigs!

And finally, step 4 - Repeat Step 1 Ask your friends.

By now you’ve probably made a ton of new contacts, and now it’s high time you put them to use. So get to it kid, it truly is about who you know and there is no getting around that anytime soon. So get out there, introduce yourself, help out, and seek to create success for yourself and those who helped you get it!

And one last thing. Don’t forget to say thank you. Appreciating those who helped you along the way goes far, and chances are you’ll run into a lot of the same faces over and over in this line of work. Just remember, your success is directly proportionate to the relationships you have, so go make some real friends!

Cheers mate!

Luke

For someone else out there, yes, out there, to begin some form of documentation into which all things filtered through the interface of thee self may be transmuted into words. I’m talking about a blog of course. And like all blogs there will be a theme, a theme for which all objects, concepts, ideas, events, and experiences are to be tossed through and spewn back out like a baby hurled through a high speed air vent. There will be happiness, there will be sadness, there will be love, and there will be hate, abundance and lonliness. A sort of satire if you will. A man once called it fear and loathing. But that man is dead now, and maybe someone ought to fill the void. But I don’t have time for that, I have to blog!

The morning was that of a sunday, and while many were in church, I chose to do my own worshipping at home in bed. I woke sometime between 9:56 and 10:23, never can tell in those first moments of consciousness. I grogged around for a moment and tossed around. I had just witnessed the night before a very long show of metal featuring Judas Priest on their Epitaph tour. The old men just about invented what we call heavy metal and that’s all right. I feel i attended more because A, I could, and B, it was supposably the last time they would tour.

Needless to say the evening was eventful. I had chosen to get my ticket after the rest of my family had purchased theirs and by fate of the universe, there was a ticket left in the very row behind them. Didn’t bother me. I sat in my seat and strangely enough, out of the thousands of seats in the San Bernardino ampatheater, seat Z 28 happened to be home to a familiar face from M.I. The odds I say! Not too familiar, but enough to exchange in the paranoid fist bump of the 21st century and have brief conversation. I found the child next to me much more interesting.

Meet Jake, a possibly 20, but more likely mentally, a 15 year old metal kid who is a bit unappealing to my eyes personally, but I think that’s part of the look. All that aside, him and his cohorts seemed pleased with the way life was going. Jake was far too energetic for his own good and highly outspoken. The asbergers diagnosed child had been up for 36 hours having just the night before drank, smoked, fried and had sex with a female of the asian persuasion. And of course my mind immedietely wondered which asian, a part of me I would really like to do away with, but you never forget your first love, or rather, your first true fuck up in life. The sort of thing that just convinces you that you aren’t worth the air your breathing, and air is free for most of us.

The chances of it being the face in my mind I had determined were next to impossible. I had no idea where the kid was from, and he had no idea where i was from. Finally snapping out of my own dimension of self loathing I eased back into my general optimistic and determined self and congratulated the child.

The show raged on and 4 hours later it was time to leave, and the familiar face tossed me a business card for his band on the way out. Further prooving that everyone in Hollywood is just wondering what other people in the field can do for them. Though in all actuality, he probably just thought I would like to check it out, and i bounced back pitching my own group, wholly unrelated to the genre of music we just witnessed. A whole society of people who i feel have really created some of the finest pieces of ear candy ever to echo the cosmos.

I feel like i’ll write about that another time.

Back to today. Fuck I’ve just been talking about yesterday.

Today once I had gathered myself I set out to do some serious reading and homework. You know, boring things. But I keep my head in the books as a means to an end I am trying to envision. The sort of reality where people are asking me for favors, because they know i can deliver. Past all the boringness i recalled my dream from the other night, which was much more disturbing than the realities of music publishing.

Death and coming to terms with it has been a theme of mind for me for sometime. I had had a dream the other night where i was standing next to a structure in a forest staring at the horizon as the sunset. The backdrop was quickly altered by a grey object in the sky and perpendicular flashes from below it. This was a bomber plane headed straight for me. I stared and watched in horror as the plane grew larger in my field of vision and witnessed it drop bombs below annihilating all life in its’ path, knowing in only seconds i was next. I had about ten seconds to come to terms with my immenent death and departure from this entire reality. I initially was pained to know that my life was going to end so brutally and pathetically on someone elses watch, order, and dollar. And for what cause even! What good were they accomplishing by killing me. Why me! Why do I have to die. And the answer was simply because. Because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The plane finally came and i watched it drop the bombs ontop of me, and there i was, completely faced with the fact that i was soon to be erased, and thrown into something completely, wholly, and utterly of a different existence. Some kind of nonexistence followed by what might be an afterlife.

The fact that people live their lives as if the entire universe wasn’t full of potentials of catacalysmic events is beyond me. Earthquakes, nuclear war, gamma ray bursts, heavenly collisions and the like. However I am far past fearing the matter, and have since moved to a more, live each day like it’s your last sort of philosophy. And that’s what I’m talking about. Why do people ever sit themselves through things they feel are pointless, droning, and wasteful. I sit behind a desk nearly everyday, and cram things into my brain, but i know why i am doing it, and what i can do with it, and i feel fulfilled, and thereby enjoy myself.

I think this is long enough. There’s more, but you’ll have to come back later. Maybe tomorrow, maybe later, maybe never. You’ll just have to ask yourself whether or not you want to hear the rest. It gets better if that makes you any happier.

Peace Kids

Luke

i still don’t entirely understand this place.

a tumblr, this is awful.