Stumbling Blocks

Frantic – Jubilation, blissful excitement paid with exuberant whimsy and joyous elation. That’s how I feel at finally being able to announce that my first book (No Loose Ends) is available for sale. I’m happy because it was the first major thing of my adult like I’ve dreamt, plotted and followed through to completion. I’ve got absolutely no idea what kind of numbers (sales) this things will do. I’m confident in the writing and storytelling, but what people decided to like is beyond me. But no journey can take place without some turmoil, a bump in the road or a change of wind at least. And while the majority of this mission has seemed like rolling downhill with the wind at our backs we encountered the greatest resistance in the days where I thought coasting is all I’d be doing.

There was a minor battle with the publisher to get the website right ad launched on time, but after a two week tug –o-war with Table 5 avoiding the muddy pit, and all of the links to www.RamseyVenner.com working perfectly we launched May 16, 2014 with a little bit of fanfare. Picture me cheesing because our National ad campaign on Coast to Coast syndicated Sunday Night Slow Jams w/ R. Dub was set to start 5/18/14 that Sunday night. Awesome right?  Kind of…. So the Reno affiliate that carries Sunday Night Slow Jams is WILD 102.9. On this Sunday WILD 102.9 decided to carry the Red Carpet pre-show for the Billboards Awards. I felt like Yosemite Sam curing Bugs Bunny for tricking him again. Glad I didn't have a six shooter.

So sorry my Reno folks and any other area that tuned in and got some staged interview with One Republic Direction Swift Timberbieber or whoever else was on the red carpet. I was super salty yesterday but just another lesson learned.

Check out www.RamseyVenner.com and post your pics of you and your copy of No Loose Ends. The best of the cutest flic will be getting a $25 gift card for some fine dining courtesy of the Bomb team over at Table 5 (that’s us).

Now the real work starts. #NoLooseEnds

R. Venner

I’m Worried about Something

Shabherish – An adjective describing a rachette female or a poorly attended to appearance or state of affairs. It sounded authentic didn’t it? Well I guess anything can if you put enough effort and money into it. So my dream state came to life this morning and reminded me that as far as recent musical entries go creativity and good music are dying off fast. I watched 106 & Park for 6 minutes and got 240 seconds of commercials squeezing 120 seconds of some song by Wiz Kalifa where he was wearing biker shorts and a beanie and singing through auto-tune. I miss music that portrayed artists as factors or powerful figures maneuvering through an exclusive and/or forbidden entertainment medium and getting rock star bucks in the process. Now the lyrics are watered down to the point that a sing songy catch line for the entire song passes for music. And your memory isn’t even challenged to remember every word of 3014 different verses. Remember Rappers Delight or Tribe Called Quest Scenario?

Now “We Dem Boyz” for 2 minutes in between Community College ads passes for programming. Am I wrong? Or does it seem like they (the powers that be) are turning us into zombies. Think about it, give the current trend about 5-7 more years and music will be basically two words over a phat bass loop and ghettos all over will march to that awful sound. They play bullshit till you love it and then hit you with something even worse the next week. Want proof? How in the hell is French Montana in the game? Anybody please….. Give me 1 tight verse he’s spit. Think about it this way, what if the underground, or conscious rap, back packers or just thought provoking songs were streamed and pumped through the air waves at the same rate. All of a sudden we’d be singing shit that made sense and God forbid, we may even demand good music our of our artists. At the very least our brains would return to functioning enough that we could tell the difference between bad music and good.

Young people wake up! You are being programmed to be less than you are. Parents turn that crap off, feed your children’s minds anything that’ll make ideas and creativity take root. Don’t clap along when your baby says “he ain’t worried about nothing”. Put a book in their hands and tell them to worry about that!

R. Venner

www.RamseyVenner.com

Step-by-Step

     This week started with me “in my emotions." I was distraught, even sad, about my relationships with my family and some friends (I thought). Let me explain... Being in prison comes with an expected amount of popularity loss. Outta sight outta mind right? In this situation, I expect casual acquaintances, work friends, even smash buddies, to fall off to a degree, because I got a pretty huge sentence!

Six to15 years!  So shaky or non-essential relationships didn’t really stand a chance. Many of those disappearing didn’t bother me. My pain this past week came from the folks that called themselves my friends and even relatives.