These manic / coffee influenced ramblings were originally posted on Facebook. I decided to share them here as well! I hope you find something in these ramblings. Thanks for reading...
Hello friends! I’m going to take a short little break from refreshing Indeed & Linkedin and banging my head against the computer screen in frustration and write waaaaay too many words about dreams for the future. haha
I met a lot of really great people in the last month or so thanks to another great Mill Valley Film Festival. I have to warn you all, I like to write these little brain dump essays from time to time. It’s my way of working stuff out that’s rattling around in my head. I cut back on writing this kind of stuff when I overheard someone talking shit about them when they didn’t know they were on speakerphone. With that said, I’m hoping to relaunch my Substack email list in the next week or so. So if any of these ramblings from a madman clicks with you let me know and I’ll make sure you’re subscribed. 😉
It’s been almost two weeks since I got home from the Mill Valley Film Festival! My brain finally feels as normal as it’s going to feel, and I can finally function again. Working 12 days in a row, 12-15 hour days and some of it in extreme heat really kicked my ass, but I also lost 10lbs. This was my second full MVFF, having only been able to work 3 or 4 days last year. Once again, I felt like it was life changing in ways I didn’t expect. I worked hard to put myself out there more as well, and I left the festival feeling even more fulfilled than I had in a long time. I met some amazing people and made some amazing connections. My batteries are recharged and I’m ready to start working once again on taking over the world.
As most of you folks know, I had been the concert promoter and events manager for the Napa Valley Distillery here in Napa. Two years ago, after MVFF 45, I got home to discover both of my jobs did not have the hours for me. I had lived in and run music venues off an on my entire life. I had no interest in returning to that work, but Inspired by my work at MVFF45, I emailed a local distillery out of the blue and pitched them a concert series. It would kick off 4 months later. I was able to take their very modest bar sales and TRIPLE them with most of my events! (And sometimes Triple the Triple!)
There was a FIRE at the Distillery in July and since then I’ve been struggling for work. I’ve managed to make ends meet for the most part, but once again I’m home from MVFF and find that my job just doesn’t have the hours I need.
So I’m sitting here trying to figure out the next steps. Last time I was in this position, I thought really hard on where I wanted to go and sought out ways to get there, and I steered the ship in that direction. It’s been a hard couple of years, but through it all we’ve made some great friends and have met people I’ll call family for the rest of my life.
As I left MVFF once again, it felt like I was once again on a road of change and growth. So I wanted to continue to put myself and what I’m looking to do in 2025 out there a little bit more. I’ve made a lot of new friends, and I have a lot of old ones rooting for me. Writing all this out helps me plan for the future, and who knows… one of you might see something on here you want to help with, or maybe you’ll come across something you think is right for me! So here with go:
1. FILM: I want to do film programming!!! If I can book concerts and comedy shows, I have no doubt I can book and promote films and have GREAT success. I know it!
I have been pitching a monthly Horror/Genre film series to some of the local Bay Area & North Bay/Sonoma County movie theaters and nonprofits and have not had much success getting them to bite. So I’m probably going to have to rent some places out to get this going.
The goal is to do a monthly screening of either a classic horror film with talent there for the screenings, OR host premiers of new and upcoming horror/indie/genre stuff.
We’ll invite horror novelists, comic book creators as well and make these monthly events/panels/mixers all in one. I would also get to dust off my hosting hat and host many of these Q&A’s. But the overall goal is to build up the alternative film community in the area and after a year or so of monthly film events, launch a small film festival in the vein of Telluride Horror Fest, Fantastic Fest or any number of those style festivals. I think Santa Rosa/Sonoma county would be perfect for these kinds of events.
Also, I got about *THIS* close to getting a version of this off and running in Denver with Marky Ramone doing a screening of Rock N Roll High School. Everything was negotiated and after I sent the contract Marky decided to go to Germany instead. I was a little deflated and never got the series off the ground… I pivoted back to music and doing punk shows.
I HAVE SO MANY IDEAS/THOUGHTS. I could write a lot more about why horror, why Sonoma, why why why… If these ideas interest you and you’d like to be a part of it, hit me up. I can’t get these ideas out of my head and they will happen in some shape or form in 2025.
Also, get at me if you hear of any other festival work and think I’d be right for a job! I’ve been slacking on applying to Sundance, but I’m going to try to go work in the Utah tundra if I can swing it. Or maybe Palm Springs? Or maybe… or maybe… or maybe…
2. COMEDY: When I advertise our local comedy shows… I call them THE BEST DANG COMEDY SHOWS IN NAPA! And God dammit! They are!
We have been SELLING OUT almost all of our shows for the past year! Hot damn! The Hollywood Room would hold about 50 seated people and we’d pack that space most every month. When the fire hit the Distillery, we moved our shows (temporarily) to The Fink in Napa! It’s a larger space with more seating and guess what?!?! We’ve been selling that space out as well every month at about 75-80 people, with large numbers of people standing because there is nowhere to sit.
Now I know what you’re thinking, 75-80 people isn’t very much and you’re right. For perspective, there was a Napa Valley Comedy Festival earlier this year at the local college performing arts center. The PAC seats 400+ people and only 17 people showed up to see Eddie Pepitone perform. WILD. We’re continuously getting a ton of folks out to see our little shows and we’re doing it by focusing on local, local, local and working to keep the ticket prices reasonable! It’s growing and growing in the right direction! I’m currently trying to find a space for 100-150 people in Napa to move to as it just keeps growing!!!
I had been in talks a few months back to do shows at the beautiful old Sebastiani Theater in Sonoma, but I took way too long and someone else is booking comedy there now. I was NERVOUS. Getting 75 people to show up is one thing, but getting the 250-300 I would need to make it work at the Sebastiani was scary. So I slept on it… I had envisioned launching the series with Brian Posehn, who grew up between Sacramento & Sonoma, and went to high school in Sonoma. I pitched it to Brian’s people, and to my surprise… Someone beat me to it. Brian will be there in March and I didn’t book it. It was already happening when I approached his people!! So my ideas are not terrible, they’re good. I just have to be quicker. I have to trust myself. I can do this. I can build it up even more.
So we’re looking for new venues to build up for comedy in the Napa/Sonoma areas. My booker and host, Jake has approached me to help him with bigger stuff in SacTown as well! So we’re going to do more and more comedy in Napa, and we’re going to do it right!
3. MUSIC: I’m really burnt out on booking bands and I haven’t actively been doing it since July. I’m still that burnt out on it all. But I’ve been consulting a little bit on the side and it’s been super damned rewarding. I was interviewing for an Assistant Talent Buyer position for two indie clubs in Oakland, but they ghosted me after I sent them a few pages of ideas that read like this post. But the basis for all my ideas was building and enriching the LOCAL market. LOCAL. LOCAL. LOCAL. Especially in Oakland where there is a treasure trove of local talent!
But with that said…. I’m really burnt out on the level I had been booking up until a few months ago. Most of my job was explaining to a local band that they’re not worth $500 bucks for our event unless they can bring out 50 people. “But that’s the promoter’s job to get people out!” Nope! It’s a duality. It’s up to both of us to do the work to get people out there…Also, I’m tired of dealing with all the Jimbo Joe Bobs who only want to play Wonderwall and Jimmy Buffet covers in the corner of the bar for 3 hours, while people talk over them. They’re surprised no one came out… Why…they played right down the street last night and the bar was packed! Sigh… Ugh… That’s not what I do. That’s not what I’m interested in doing.
Side note, I’d really be into running a community center. Not booking, but running a space and helping others book and learn what to do and not do.
I’ve also been helping out with two spaces in town with music advice. It’s been a great joy helping to consult with them! It has set my brain on fire with possibilities! I really want to do more curated events, and I really want to work on more of the nonprofit side of music. I’ve been working with a local nonprofit and it’s been so damned rewarding and I hope to continue working with them to build stuff.
So I want to do less stuff, but bigger in scale. More curated. MORE LOCAL. I want to find the spaces in Napa/Sonoma that actively want to build community and a solid event program and I want to help them build it and teach them how to make it grow.
4. Writing! I’ve been reaching out to my old freelance contacts and trying to do more writing. I’ve got some irons in the fire, but nothing solid yet. So I’m thinking about starting a damned North Bay Arts and Entertainment magazine to showcase and promote all the damned great art in the area that no one can find and doesn’t have any idea about. I did magazines aka zines in the early 00’s. I feel pretty confident I could do it again and tie it in with everything I wrote above and it could all become a really cool little ecosystem.
BUT ALSO IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A “TALENTED” MUSIC JOURNALIST… I’m your guy. My specialty is long form interviews as well as rambling essays heavily influenced by David Sedaris, Douglas Adams and Dave Barry. I’ve written for VICE, Napa Valley Register, New Noise, Colorado Springs Independent and others! I was even offered a gig at the Denver Westword just as I was moving… sigh
5. TALK SHOW HOST: Once upon a time I was the host of a punk rock interview podcast. I would drink too much and interview punk greats, up and comers and slowly it morphed into a podcast about DO IT YOURSELF creativity and ethics with a touch of mental health and whatever else fit in. The show took a break for 5 years before I brought it back during the pandemic and it took another break as I started booking concerts again. In all that time, I hosted a number of live events, panels and film screenings. I hosted a number of panels at Denver Comic Con for a couple of years. I was fired by Michael Rooker mid panel, when he couldn’t hear my questions due to PA issues! We even did a regular live podcast show at my favorite book store on earth, MUTINY in Denver! The shows were stupid, dumb and fun! I loved doing them, but they just kind of ran their course in Denver. I got busy running restaurants and just didn’t have the energy anymore…
But the itch is back! I pitched it to Folklore, but I’m working on bringing back the podcast as a monthly LIVE TALK SHOW EXPERIENCE. What’s that? Once a month we’ll bring a collection of Napa/Sonoma/Bay Area folks to share the stage in a Graham Norton style interview.
The goal is to build community and work to educate the folks in Napa to the talents of the many people who live here. We’ll bring together musicians, authors, artists, business owners, chefs, and other luminaries together on stage to share their stories and mingle. The idea is for it to be a mixer with a talk show at the center. It’s to bring like minded folks together in one room and have fun doing it. Oh and we’ll have a dumb game show element to every show as well. I’m mostly just waiting for a date from Folklore to kickstart this! It’s going to happen.
One of my great joys, was seeing folks who would meet on the old MOSTLY HARMLESS live shows and become friends and collaborators. Let’s see if we can do that here and build up the community into just how freaking cool this place can be!
6. Help Claire find her *THING*:
We moved to Napa for Claire and her career, life and goals. She wanted to try something new, she wanted to see what else was out there in the world, so we packed up our wonderful little cat and moved to Napa. It has been nothing that we have expected… but we have grown and changed a lot in the past (nearly)3 years we’ve been here. I’m so thankful for her love and support as I work on building things for us, but this was never meant to be about ME, but somehow my LEO ass made it all about myself… I sincerely just wanted to get a simple job and work on my writing. That was not in the cards as I’ve had problems finding steady work ever since we moved here. But life keeps moving us in these directions.
My main goal, even though it’s listed all the way here… Is to become successful enough in my endeavors to be able to pay rent, buy a car and save some money so that we can focus on getting Claire to her goals. She’s currently working a very high stress job that she doesn’t like and she’s stressed out ALL THE TIME. Why is she stressed out all the time? My economic situation. Once I can get to more even footing, we can work on finding her what she’s looking for in her future. I just got to get all my shit together…
7. NONPROFIT: I’ve been loving working with the few nonprofits I’ve been working with. Whether they have been film, music or pets… It’s been great work and I freaking love the people I’ve been meeting in this work. I am NOT a capitalist. I only need to make money to pay my bills. Otherwise I’d do all of the above for free…. I ran the Triple Nickel in Colorado Springs for four years and I was paid in PBR’s and the occasional $20 bucks here or there. I love this stuff, so I keep doing it. So how do I find a way to give back, and keep doing what I’ve been doing already? So I’m going to look for nonprofits that are looking for events staff, programming or promotion. I’m good at all this stuff and I’d really like to do it in a setting that’s about GROWTH more than just making a million dollars for some rich jerk who does not give a damn about you or me. I want to spend more time building community and making art. I guess what I’m manically typing here is this… If I can’t get a nonprofit gig… Who wants to help me start one with all the stuff above included?
!!!
This is just a tip of the iceberg and only touches a little bit on my ideas and vision for 2025, but I’ve typed enough and I don’t want to scare too many of my new friends off with my manic, wild punk rock DIY ideas… But then again if they’re scared off, then I probably won’t be too interested in working with them anyways right? So come with me, my weirdo friends. Let’s build some cool stuff together.
Or if you see anything out there you think I’d be a good fit for, please send it my way. I’d love to stay in the Napa/Sonoma county area, but we’re up for any adventure at this point!
I’m excited for the future. I’m excited to look back on this one day and be like, “Damn… You had it all wrong!!!” or… “Damn… Look at us now!!!”
But I feel like we’re on the right path(s). I feel like if I can just figure out how to pay my damned bills for the next few months.. Take the pressure off Claire and if I keep working hard at what I’ve been doing… The seeds we have been planting will be ready for harvest. I think it will be a bountiful one. I guess we’ll see in a year (or longer) when this pops up on “ON THIS DAY.”
Thanks for reading these ramblings. I promise there will be more. 😉
