-I just got news that I’ve been cast in “Stone!” (That sounds kinda weird-HA!) 🙂 It’s for the role of FBI Agent Pagano. I get to wear a suit and shades-good thing I just got both of those recently 🙂 I didn’t get the roles I auditioned for but I guess I made a good enough impression that I still got placed. I’ll be updating in here as things happen. Now to see if I can do this. While I do have over 10+ years performing onstage with bands, this will be different…
-I went to an audition for a feature film being made in Utica, NY named “Stone.” In previous years I’ve only flirted w/ acting-my main focus being music. I have just recently decided to change that focus so that acting is now the main one. I’m not giving up music, but it’s not as consuming as it was shall we say. Interestingly enough, when I was in high school I specifically remember a point in time where I was at a crossroads and had to choose whether to pursue music or acting. Now, after all that time, I’m now switching. It’s funny how life works sometimes…
-The audition went well I believe. I won’t know for a week or two. Hope I did well. In the meanwhile, check out what the company, Mad Angel Films, is all about via the links below.
HEWITT Films just released a promo music video for their upcoming film “Rise Up & Fall” using music from the CAROLINE BLUE song “Dead or Alive.” Scenes from the movie are thruout the video-which has me in a few of them, as well as still shots of me and CB. Very cool Brian-even though I first found out out about this by seeing the video online 🙂
“Football Champ” by Tim Greene has been given the audiobook treatment via FULLCAST AUDIO and it is now released! I had a small role in this as the voice of football player John Abrams. This audiobook can be ordered on the STORE page.
-My last few articles have been discussing the pros & cons of bands using My Space. Last month the “new & improved” My Space debuted & everyone had to adopt it-whether they liked it or not! The work done here was to at least get My Space back in the social network race with Facebook-ideally to equal or topple them. How did they do? Let’s see….
The Pros-it’s easier to add people. Just hover the mouse over any thumbnail-a window opens-click add friend-done. The music player now holds up to 100 songs & you have 2 folders-1 for all music & 1 for public. That’s good if you want to rotate songs-much better than having a limit of 10 songs. They also have Fanreach-which, I believe, is tied in with Reverbnation- the templates & operation are similar. I’m sure I’m overlooking more but that’s because of 1 of the cons. Speaking of which…
The Cons-one of the gripes people had w/ My Space was the amount of viruses that seem to float around. So then why add Flash-known to make it easier for viruses to flow? Most books on website programming/promoting say to use Flash sparingly-guess My Space didn’t get the memo. Now, doing things on My Space has slowed down considerably. Ideally, a site should be easy to navigate & quick to use. Not here. The text is smaller too & stuff is all over the place.
-Of course, this means it takes longer to read/post comments too.If you want to leave a comment, you have to get rid of the “Post a Comment…” text. Then you can post right? Nope-the “Post” button hasn’t appeared yet. So type your thing & click it when it appears right? Nope. Once the “Post” button appears, any text in the comment box is erased-fun times!
-The Stats are off too. Add 50 new people-your friend count will stay the same for awhile.You can link up you Facebook, Twitter & You Tube stats here-supposedly I guess. I tried to do that &, 10 minutes later, it was STILL trying to complete the task.
-I haven’t tried the video section but did look into the pics. You have more options but one that I can’t find is moving pics within an album. It used to be there. Plus the menus here are more Flash which means-you guessed it-going slower.
-I could go on but I have a word limit ya know 🙂 Although many people are deleting their pages, I would say to bands don’t delete your band page. They can still be of use-just not as your main site. Many bands have done-and still continue-to do this. You’re own website should be your main site & all the rest-My Space, Facebook, Reverbnation,etc.-should just be branches to the tree so to speak.
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-Here’s a trailer for “Rise Up & Fall”-a movie being filmed in Syracuse, NY. I play the role of Sammy’s Bodyguard.Pics from the filming of this can be see on the WWJ PAGE ON FACEBOOK.
-Last month I discussed My Space and why it’s still a good idea for a band to have a page on it. To recap: it’s a quick/easy/free way to set up your band presence on the web via pics, audio, video & blogging. My Space music has connections to the major labels-which may or may not be good for you. There’s millions of people on it that you can potentially expose your music to-plus many promoters, agents & managers still use a band’s My Space stats when deciding to use them.
-So, what’s the flip side? Many bands use their My Space page not only as their main site, but their ONLY site. That’s a mistake IMHO. Remember me just saying there are millions on My Space? There are-but that number is dwindling at a major rate-in large part because people have migrated over to Facebook. Yes, you can still do a lot of promoting on My Space-but at times it seems like you’re just promoting to other bands and/or spammers-both who basically don’t care what you do. It doesn’t help that My Space has a bad rap in regards to users getting hit w/ virus’ either. Many sites can now do what My Space does-and better. My Space’s music player can hold up to 10 songs (unless you’re signed to a major label-in which case it’s unlimited). Reverbnation’s player has no limits-whether your signed or not. With pics-one can use Flickr or Photobucket-with less worry of possible virus’. Blogging-Word Press anyone? Same with You Tube for Video. While Facebook isn’t as “band friendly” as My Space-a lot of people like it that way. For ex., how many times on My Space have you looked at your bulletins to see some band sending out a bulletin for their event-not just once, but 10+ times in 1 hour (!). Now multiply that by the 20 other bands on your friends list. Plus the other 20+ bands requesting that you add them, ad nausium… My Space is also slower-especially when you get to a page where someone puts codes/graphics/videos all over and, even w/ broadband, it takes awhile for the page to load up-let alone run.The comment system on Facebook is similar to a blog/message board-whereas WITH My Space’s it’s linear. I have seen many comments from people saying Facebook is easier & quicker to use than My Space-which is one of the main reasons people left. As for My Space stats-well, let’s just say 50,000 friends on your page doesn’t equal 50,000 hardcore fans-or even 50,000 casual fans. It just means 50,000 pages (not necessarily people) clicked “accept”. Take your friend count and multiply it by 1-3%. That’s more accurate.
-Of Course, My Space wasn’t just going to sit around and watch all their people migrate to Facebook right?….Umm, let me rephrase that…. After finally realizing something had to be done to fix things, My Space “reinvented itself”-just a few weeks ago in fact (after I’d already written last month’s article). Tune in next month for my thoughts on this. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!
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WAYNE W. JOHNSON 