Rock and Roll Love Story : A NovelRock and Roll Love Story : A NovelA blog about a novel featuring a Jersey rocker in the dawn of MTV Articles
Goodbye
2007-08-29 22:26:00 Hilly Krystal, the iconic owner of New York's CBGB's night club, is dead at 75.Hilly didn't invent New Wave and punk rock but he gave it a home to thrive.CBGB's closed down last year after a rent dispute with the city. Hilly was going to move CBGB's to Las Vegas but cancer took him from us.I never met Hilly. He's one of those people who almost wandered across my path years ago. We were going to play Maxwell's in Hoboken and then we were going to try for CBGB's.But he will be missed by all of us. More About: Goodbye
Get Well Wishes
2007-08-28 22:06:00 Bo Diddley had a heart attack last night and is in stable condition.Along with Chuck Berry, Bo practically invented rock and roll as we know it. He was one of early black pioneers of "race music" to cross over to a white audience. Like Chuck, Bo is getting up there in years so we all need to pay our respects to this treasure while's still with us.Get well, Bo! More About: Wishes , Well
Brains
2007-08-28 01:14:00 Congratulations to Queen guitarist Brian May, who was awarded his doctorate in astrophysics this week.Rocker Gregg Allman quit dental school to joing brother Duane in the band.And Rock and Roll Love Story's Ronnie James DeRenzo is an A student with a triple major hoping to go to law school when the story opens.A lot of people think rock and roll guys are dumb but lot's of them are incredibly smart. For instance, Mick Jagger is a graduate of the prestigious London School of Economics.... More About: Brains
The Ongoing Saga
2007-08-26 19:12:00 Pete Doherty, Amy Winehouse and Lindsay Lohan are back in rehab, and once again as an ardent supporter of mental health issues, I offer them my heart felt support.I do think however its important to realize the big difference between someone who abuses drugs and alcohol, and the average mentally ill victim of depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.Addiction is an illness but an addict has a choice. He or she does not really need to take substances to live. Of course there are co-dependent issues and brain chemistry involved as to why they become addicted, but the bottom line is, addiction is still a choice.True mental disorders are not a choice. They are a matter of brain chemistry badly misfiring and torturing the patient quite apart from anything he or she is doing. They are often 24/7 issues of searing psychic pain.It is not an issue of lifestyle or choice or good or evil or morality.The only choice involved is whether they choose --- or are lucky enoug... More About: The O , Saga , Going , Goin
Another era
2007-08-26 18:20:00 This is a blog about a novel on Seventies rock but I wrote it in the new Millennium, so I had to be concerned with a number of sensibilities...Nobody cared very much when a 25 year old Jimmy Page took 14 year old Lori Maddox as his mistress in 1972. These days he would be arrested as a pedophilic sex offender and be hounded out of his fortune...so when 19 year old Rocket dates 17 year old Madeline in the book, they are both dateless virgins...I don't recall anyone putting stories on the front page about the way John Lennon completely abandoned his oldest son Julian. But let Britney be seen in public looking like any stressed out 25 year old new mom, and Child Protection is ready to haul her off to court...I won't give away the ending but when Rocket has to chose between his dream lover and the mother of his child, he goes thru a ton of grief and suffering...Don't get me wrong, the old music is great. But as a former rocker who never took illegal drugs, got drunk only occassionall...
Blog Blog Blog
2007-08-26 02:08:00 No really, I havent been thinking of the blog or the novel much. I have been playing with Adobe Photoshop, which my predecessor at the new job used to do her marketing which is like using an elephant gun to kill mosquitos. I have been trying to convince the boss to switch to MS Publisher.The Fabulous Shelly/Abby Warner duality in my life read the first 200 pages of Rock and Roll Love Story and then had a very Abby Warner-like reaction to the spots where the Shelly sequences gave way to the Abby sequences. She promptly stopped reading the book and set some conditions as to when and how she would finish the next 240 pages.In a way that's okay. It gives me time to fix some things, and to get into better shape for those book signings I may be doing. For one thing, she got mad at the Madeline sequences, Rocket's first girlfriend, which I never suspected. I'm not going to change the Madeline sequences, as most of them really did happen in my life, but I am going to be more careful wit... More About: Blog
Patience
2007-08-17 19:32:00 I am going through a major, life changing event with a new job in my beloved Northern Highlands. After five years, I am finally out of the inner city, and I am coming home to where I belong.However I am so overwhelmed by all this, all of my energy is devoted to the process and the novel is way back on the back burner. As I posted a few days ago, the metaphysical duality who inspired the ying and yang of The Fabulous Shelly and Abby Warner is reading Rock and Roll Love Story. At the moment, her reaction to it is more grounded, utterly practical and jaded Abby that the inspirational hippie muse of Shelly.I'll know more about the direction of this book in a few weeks. So hang on till then and try to catch up on the old posts here on the blog. I've had a few questions about my book that are really already answered on the blog. Its just so long that many people cant find the answers.I will be cleaning it up a bit next week. So expect this blog to shrink again. I always said that as we ... More About: Patience
Reading
2007-08-13 03:11:00 An inspiration for the duality that lauched The Fabulous Shelly and Abby Warner is reading Rock and Roll Love Story.We'll see what happens! More About: Reading
A new job
2007-08-09 02:25:00 The final offer came in under what I asked for but enough over the first offer that I could swallow my pride. It just shows you what kind of an economy it is where a 49 year old Who's Who selection gets pushed around by a bunch of suburbanites, and he has to take the job in the end.No matter, I am finally out of the ghetto and back in the mountains, and in that respect its a big win for me.
Negotiating my way out of the ghetto -- hard ball
2007-08-07 05:25:00 Let me tell you something its terribly dispiriting to have to deal with the issues of race and poverty and crime constantly but if youre talking about the basic issue black person, they'll give you lots of attitude and lip but theyre basically not looking to kill you, theyre just simple, straight forward people looking for a little respect. These white people from the suburbs are all filled with curves and angles and theyre all deviously clever and when they fight, they mean to kill you. The reason why whites rule the world is because colored people couldnt really believe the lengths to which whites would go to dominate them. They just couldnt believe that the white people would be so evil. I say that as someone who had the Bloods & Crips set fire to my car but its basically true...if theyre not criminals, and sometimes even if they are, you can find every last black person you know in church every Sunday... More About: Hard , Ghetto , Ball , My way , The G
A snag
2007-08-05 13:44:00 The progress of Rock and Roll Love Story has met a snag that I will find very difficult to overcome quickly. To reveal what it is here would let you in on too much of my personal life, but suffice to say I am just jumping through yet another in a series of hoops that would make Abby Warner proud.It really is for the best in the long run but its no less impossible in the short term.So hang on, it's going to be another wait.
An offer coming
2007-08-04 01:55:00 Hang on readers! A new job is coming my way. My long ordeal in the ghetto is coming to an end.We're talking about a lot more money and a 25 minute commute into my beloved Ramapo Mountains. The new boss seems like a great person and the facility is brand new.I will keep you posted on details. More About: Ming , Offer
Coffee Shakes
2007-08-02 22:20:00 It's the day after the big interview and I don't mind admiting that I am a tad on edge. I can't stay in this job forever, just like this blog can't go on forever with publishing a book.Five years is a long time, and while at times its been terrifying and unbearable, I have survived in the ghetto and I know what to expect. I can do this job half asleep and while it taxes my nerves quite a bit, I know the next day will come and I will get through it somehow.80% of the new job will be doing exactly what I do now only for a genteel audience but it's the 20% new that worries me. I'm going to be responsible for running a whole lot of programs of different varities, and the last person who did this job was very successful but she stepped on a lot of toes and got herself eliminated.The new day comes and we never from one quarter to the next if this gig in the 'hood is going to get funding. We've been running on a budget freeze for 7 years and the pay is totally substandard.A perfect... More About: Coffee
A New Job?
2007-08-02 03:10:00 I had a very promising job interview in a really nice town way up in the mountains, and if you've been following my long struggle back to respectability, you'll know what a huge moment it is for me right now at the prospects of getting out of the ghetto.The key to this job is that I really being hired to be a writer 30% of the time. My new boss is a former writer who spent some time in the same Wild West mountain town that sent my Marquis Who's Who ass out in the streets and dragged my good name through the mud for the better part of six years, making me virtually unemployable.She told me that she got a phone call from one of the Board of Directors one day and he told her "We're going to run you out of town!". And they did!Geographically this place is not too far from that Peyton Place but it's miles away in every other way. When I was in the big corporation outside of New York City and the corporate wars got too stressful, I used to dream of a peaceful teaching job off the new...
Your voice
2007-08-01 01:59:00 From the blog statistics on Blogpatrol and the Friends pages on MySpace its pretty clear why youre coming here now -- youre looking for stories about rock and roll stars and their groupies. In that sense, my novel will not dissappoint!I'm going to try to come up with some more tidbits about the relationships in the story without giving away the plot. Just be patient because it might take a few days and right now, I dont have a few days.... More About: Voice , VOIC
Slow month
2007-07-31 03:48:00 I haven't had much to say lately and the status of the book hasn't changed. I'm waiting for a person I love to finish it. She is a very busy woman and unlike The Fabulous Shelly, rock and roll is not a priority for her. In that way she is a bit more like the very conventional Abby Warner. Since the book is not available yet for you to read, I will resist saying anything more than that.If you've been here before you know that in my real life I am engaged in a seven year struggle to overcome adversity and restore myself to my Who's Who days. This Wednesday I have yet another job interview in that regard.Wish me luck! More About: Slow , Month , Mont
Press Kit
2007-07-26 02:40:00 Anyone who wants to contact me about the book can email me at rrsilone@yahoo.com. I check my email several times a day and I respond to all non-spam messages. Practically speaking I am at work most of the day, and I sometimes work nights and weekends with the public, so the telephone is out of the question. I do not text message. Most of the day my cell phone is turned off and I use it only for personal calls and emergencies.I do give email interviews, in fact I have given several, including one to the Wall Street Journal. I don't set any limits as to what you can ask with one exception : I will not divulge my real name and actual location.If you check out the MySpace page for RR Silone, there is a town listed there, and yes that's just one ancient location of The River before all the development. In the book, the action takes place a bit north and west of there in the heart of the Ramapo Mountains. But I don't actually live in that MySpace town now. I had to have a zip code to o... More About: Press
Britney
2007-07-26 01:00:00 I am a bit depressed. I don't know why anyone would want to read a novel about a rock star having a very public nervous breakdown when they could read the headlines about the dramas involving poor Britney Spears.People are going to attack Britney and the recent magazine interview is just going to add fuel to the fire. But as an artist who suffered my share of health problems, conquered them in the middle of writing my book, and survived to go into a six year remission, I am going to come to Britney's urgent defense.It sounds to me like she could be bipolar, which would explain the mood swings and the paranoia. If she's on Lithium that could explain the many bathroom trips. If this is true, she really needs to work with a trained psychiatrist on getting her medication down. Bipolar disorder is one of the most difficult disorders to diagnose and treat, and the drug therapy often isn't very pleasant. It takes a lot of time to get it right -- sometimes years and years. We have to b...
Rock and Roll Girl
2007-07-25 21:29:00 If anyone close to Lindsay Lohan can get through, and if she's looking for a good script about rock and roll and mental health, I haven't done the screen play for Rock and Roll Love Story just yet but I am open to offers. It's a serious book about a fun topic, and Lindsay is just perfect to play either Shelly or Abby. It could be a catharsis of a role for her at this point in her life. More About: Girl , Rock and Roll
Girls will be Girls
2007-07-25 15:30:00 Lindsay's back in rehab. I wish her well. One of the inspirations for Rock and Roll Love Story's Fabulous Shelly was talking to me last night how genuinely beautiful Lindsay is. You can just tell she is just a sweet person who's going through a difficult time.Let's be kind to her. She needs help. More About: Girls
Faith
2007-07-24 22:11:00 Lindsay Lohan should move to New York City where she will not need to drive a car. And she should check herself back into rehab as soon as possible. The days when a movie or rock star could live a wild party life and stay out of trouble with the police appear to have ended some time ago. More About: Faith
This blog
2007-07-23 19:51:00 This is the only place you can read about Rock and Roll Love Story, the novel which is discussed here. There is a web page at MySpace but that is just a place holder for a future page that will be launched once the book is published. More About: Blog
Carry On
2007-07-22 03:51:00 Needless to say, the New York Times did not respond to my offer to allow a pre-publication review of Rock and Roll Love Story. And at this point, the blog has been up for over two years, I've had over 8,000 hits amongst them a reporter at the Wall Street Journal, Jon Bon Jovi's publicist, a college professor from New York City and several press agents for rock and roll bands so I can't say the cause is lost.However in all that time, no agent or publisher has come calling and the book remains unedited and unpublished.That my friends is discouraging. You have to believe those kinds of people aren't even looking for new authors. They're just sitting in their Ivory Towers rejecting hordes of people, and publishing God knows what, because I haven't read a good book in a real long while and I work in a field where Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal gets delivered to my door every week, and yes it is that bad.It's like what is happening with music. Do you really believe that th... More About: Carry
Grateful
2007-07-19 21:08:00 Author JK Rowling is very upset that the New York Times reviewed a copy of her latest Harry Potter book -- it came a few days before the official release.The Times gave the book a glowing review and did not reveal the ending.If the New York Times wants to review my book now, before it is even published, they can email me and I will send along an electronic copy. I would just hope that they realize that it hasnt been edited yet, and that they would not give away the ending... More About: Rate
The Cast
2007-07-19 15:40:00 I took down the art of celebrities I projected as playing the roles of my characters in Rock and Roll Love Story. I did this because of the uncertain nature of copyright laws governing JPGs on Google. I might use some art from Google in the future but if you are an agent, lawyer or producer of one of these people or a photographer and you have an objection, please email me and I will take the art down. My intent here is mutually promotional ; I assume that many actors and actresses are always looking for good scripts.The art gave me a good opportunity to flesh out the cast in this blog. Here's a brief rundown of major characters :Ronnie James DeRenzo or Johnny Rocket - As the story opens up, Ronnie is a 19 year old art student at State College who plays a mean lead blues guitar. He is the main character in the story.Michelle "The Fabulous Shelly" Williams - Rocket's main love interest, a blue haired blue eyed aspiring photographer at State with an internship at Newsweek.Abby Warne... More About: Cast
Status Report
2007-07-17 00:46:00 I'm moving into the final phase of Rock and Roll Love Story these days. Two people I love are reading it with a very critical eye, and we'll see what they say.In the meantime, I am removing any posts that make mention of my current personal life, and anything at all to do with the second and third books. This blog will shrink down quite a bit as I promised.The inner guts of the novel have been up here for the world to see, and I've gotten some nice attention from rock publicists, newspaper reporters and college professors. All of them were very courteous about respecting my privacy, for which I am deeply grateful.I intend to get somewhat more mysterious from this point on. Part of it is personal and a bit part of it is artistic. I really don't think people will want to read the book if a whole web page of 100 posts is available to give away the plot.So take a good look at what is here. It may not be here for longer.I'm also going to be more careful about the posts I do on polit... More About: Report , Status , Stat
Treaties
2007-07-15 03:58:00 We probably haven't bribed the Russians enough either. They used to be a superpower and they're not content that they own half the gas stations on the East Coast of the United States. We pretty much do whatever we want to do these days, even when it means stationing troops and missiles in territories that used to be in the Soviet Union, whether the Russians like it or not.Sometimes they Russians are very wrong and very self-interested, and sometimes, they prove to be right in the end. The Russians, and the French and Germans for that matter, really didnt have a problem with Saddam Hussein. They could do a lot of good business with him.So call me cynical, I think it's time to start bribing the Russians again. Hell why not? If the North Koreans can get what they want, why can't the Russians? The Russians have 10,000 nuclear weapons. They're sitting on the largest land mass in the world and it loaded with oil, gas and natural resources that they haven't even begun to tap yet. The... More About: Treaties
Hypocrisy
2007-07-15 03:52:00 So great, North Korea is going to shut down their nuclear reactor. What a victory for US allies. They thumb their noses at international law, we wave billions of dollars of aid at them and they come around to our way of thinking...Some call it bribery.Fine, wonderful. I'm glad we didnt end up in yet another disastrous war.But what really does this mean. What does this really mean for a country like Kenya for example? Kenya is a relatively modern, for Africa stable, democracy who always lines up with the United States. Its also dirt poor. It doesn't get a ton of US aid. it gets Al Qaeda bombs in face for its loyalty.What do we tell Kenya now? Kenya will never acquire a nuclear weapon. Kenya will never invade its neighbors and make the continent unstable...What is in it for Kenya?There's a lot of countries like Kenya. Take Colombia for example. Decade, spoiled rotten Americans take a lot of cocaine, cocaine grows well in Colombia. Coffee and corn prices are depressed by world wide ... More About: Hypocrisy , Cris
Green
More articles from this author:2007-07-15 02:50:00 You know the funny thing about trying to be environmentally friendly is, you sometimes set out to do good and wind up doing a great wrong.Take recycling.We didn't recycle until a few years ago and in those days, we really kept our purchases of recyclable materials down to the minimum. When we started recycling, we stopped worrying about it, and before you knew it, we ended up with an immense pial of trash in the recycle bin. And I will admit, I am the loudest about the environment, and I am the worst offender by far. I go through an incredible amount of Diet Pepsi in a month.My encounter with the $8 bill for bottled water coincided with the quarterly water bill arriving in the mail as I said in a previous post. I finally realized that if I bought some diet ice mix and used tap water, I could dramatically cut down on beverage costs and eliminate most of my recycling. And it would be a lot lighter to carry home from the store than the 4 liters of Diet Pepsi I seem to go thru in a few... More About: Green 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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