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The VC Strut Band Road trip continues. Well after a night of being plastered we all get up shower, re-organize the trailer to get more room in the Ford Expedition, and say our goodbyes to everyone that was still leftover from the party the night before (Thank you to Mr. & Mrs. Lijoi for letting us use the house, your gift is on the way). On the way out

Jon tells us about the Summit Café and how good it is. Picture an old bullet trailer with 6 booths and 12 counter seats, with guys who look like the skit from Saturday Night Live with John Belushi “Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger”. We eat there and it was freakin awesome. So we hit the road to DC about a five hour drive from New Jersey, pretty cool ride and we finally get to Grog & Tankard in the heart of the Georgetown, DC. We get there and there is no parking and we have a lot of Chiefs in the truck giving Shawn instructions on how and where to park. Finally, we park in this government parking area and re-arrange all the stuff in the trailer so we can double park in front of the venue to unload. The rest of the band walks across the baseball field to the venue and I ride with Shawn because my heels are sore from all the walking we did in New York. We get in front of the venue and a parking spot opens up big enough for us to park the truck and trailer. While parking, Shawn tells Jeff to come park the truck (because Jeff is the ONLY person who can back a trailer up perfectly), Nels was standing in front of us to guide us in this valet jerk was parking this Tahoe and almost backs up hits Nels while we are trying to park. Nels was in the spot where we needed to be. Guess what, the valet jerk park too close for us to get the rest of the trailer out of the street. Nels asks him to move up about 6 feet, valet jerk and Nels has some choice words (little did the valet jerk know that the size of people only bigger from Nels). We finally get parked, unloaded, and into the venue, thank you. Next it was time to get something to eat. This was a running joke the weekend, we would walk the streets looking for something to eat and end up eating a couple doors down from where we are playing. So once again we ended up a couple doors down from the venue to eat and chill before the show tonight. We went on at 10pm and did an hour set. Mad shout outs to all the fans who came out to see us perform we had a great time and Chet Vincent and The Big Bend for allowing us to use their drum set (much love). We did some networking; I have females groupies (sweet!) who told me “it was all about you and your high energy performance tonight” made me feel good! We knew we couldn’t stay long so we packed up everything once again, minus Chris who stayed in DC and took a plane back with his wife (aaahhh more room for us). We hit the road back to Nashville from DC.

Shawn started out at midnight and I stayed up with him. I took over at 3:30am, 50 miles outside Roanoke, VA., Jeff took over at 5:45 50 mile outside of Bristol, VA., McBone took over at 7:45am 25 miles outside of Bristol, TN, and Shawn took over at 9:30 on the other side of Oak Ridge and got us home. (Side note: to anyone who wants Kyhil to go on a trip with them, KYHIL DOESN’T DRIVE AT ALL). We still had the mandatory smoke breaks at every stop, but on the way back we didn’t have baby bladders. That may be due to everyone sleeping most of the way back. It’s 10am and I’m getting hungry. We get back to Nel’s house at 11:30am safe and sound.

We have tons of thank you’s for our weekend: The Lijoi’s, Chris Golden’s Family for showing up and helping us out at Sullivan Hall, Adam for acting a plum fool at the show and getting people to buy our merch, Chris’s HOT SISTER Ann for working the merch table while we performed (mad love), all of Jon’s best friends from high school, Baldi & Suburban Graffiti, Sullivan Hall, Grog and Tankard, the countless number of people who knew the words to ours songs and sang right along with us, that Italian restaurant in New York that had the BEST Sangria ever (4 pitchers), bruschetta and food, and the NEW fans we made.

Credits: Grog and Tankard, BR & Time, Chet Vincent and the Big Bend, Jonny Goodman, and The Junkyard Gang.

Hello NJC,

As most of you all know I’ve been networking a lot this year. Last week I went to my first Coffee Talk event hosted by Nicole Dunnigan of Pinnacle Bank, whom I met at a Nashville Chamber event. While at Coffee Talk I met new associate, ran into old neighborhood friends, and so forth. There was this gentleman there I remembered from an event a year ago name Mr. Al Jenkins (Broadwater Printing). He asked me how I was doing. So the conversation moves forward and he stated that he was proud of me for moving forward in my dream. He went on to say that he reads all my blogs (which was a shock to me) considering my demographic is mostly 18-35 and here Mr. Jenkins is in the demo of 60-70 reading my thoughts and feelings. I told him that it made me feel good that he was watching my progress. I pondered on that event after I left Coffee Talk because that conversation had the most impact on me. It just made me think, we have got to put our best foot forward in everything we do from our walk in life, entertainment, teaching, sales, customer services, etc. Someone is watching your progress.

Which brings me to my next subject Networking, how hungry are you!

Kyhil and I got onto this subject the other day about people not wanting to put in the work to get where they want to go. How people want things handed to them instead of working for it. I will admit that I wasn’t good at it at first, but I had to step out there. The question was asked, “How do you begin to network?”. For me, it started out by just saying “Hello, my name is”. How hard is that? I hear band members say they can’t just walk up to people and begin talking. My question is how do you expect to get to the top without talking to people? Now, I think it’s simple to network because I started off with one line to break the ice, then conversation went from there. It’s like going to a party, if you don’t ask anyone to dance you won’t get a dance. It’s the same with networking, you have got to open your mouth and tell people who you are. That’s how doors begin to open and opportunities arise. How do you expect to further your dream, career, and or business if you just pick up and leave an event without saying hello to someone? I still need to work on it more myself, but I do make an effort to at least say “Hello” or “I want to give this to you before I leave”. Just try it and watch what happens.

Finally, How do you feel about people who say this, “Where have you been? Where are you hiding?” When it’s actually them whose been hiding, but they put it on you. People with technology today there isn’t any excuse not to be found (myspace, facebook, all platforms of email, text messaging). If you can’t get them on their phones, try email. It works for me if I’m trying to find someone.

Oh yes, I will be writing later on about VC Strut Band’s trip to NYC and DC which is where I’m writing from today. Boy do I have some stories to tell you!

That’s it for me!

“If anybody asks you about Nashville, tell them, it’s “Not Just Country!”

Hello People,

NJC has come up with 3 new shows for the summer called “Poetry & Music”. “Poetry & Music” will consist of 4 Spoken Word artists and 3 Musical Artists on the same show. As much of you all know NJC’s platform is very diverse and we will continue to keep it that way. With that being said, some of the artists that have committed are as follow:

Music Artist:

• Tim Tyler and Group Therapy
• Juax King
• K-Rob
• Lanny Anderson
• Liquid
• April Rucker
• Joe E. Richie
• Kurtis Stanley
• Stonecrossing

Spoken Word Artist:

• Christina Reeves
• Kevin Hrist
• Debangshu Roychordhury
• Diallo
• Sheerene
• Simply Sil
• Relative
• Gravaty
• Aphropik
• D-Revolution
• Rashad the Poet

All 3 shows will be at The Rutledge on 4^th Ave. South. Saturday, August 9, 2008 9pm and Friday, September 19, 2008 @ 9pm. October date is to be announced later. NJC wants to take this time and thank all the performers for this inaugural series. We are very excited about getting things moving once again. I know we have been quiet for awhile, but thing are moving in a very good direction for HRP/NJC. If you are a Music Artists or Spoken Word Artists and you would like to be part of the “Poetry & Music” series drop us an email at info@njctv.com. We are looking to begin a new series in 2009. When we call, it’s on!

In more VCSB news,

Saturday, June 28th, catch us at the Grog & Tankard around 9:30pm. Tickets are $8 at the door, make sure to tell them you are there for V.C. Strut Band. See the rest of the line-up at vcsb.com/shows/jun-28-2008-grog-and-tankard-washington-dc.

This section goes out to ALL artists in the Middle Tennessee area. We are in the process of making NJCTV.com the place to find out about who is playing where. With all the college campuses and tourist that come to our city, we want to give them a place to go find out what is REALLY happening in the MUSIC city. If you have events that you want on our calendar drop us an email at info@njctv.com.

We will need the basics for the calendar:

·        Who

·        When

·        Where

·        Cost/Time/Age

·        Website (optional)

We (NJC) want to do our part in getting you business in the street!

HRP began our first of two years on the East Area Business Council (EABC) last Thursday. The members consist of (President) Berry Brook- YMCA, Ted Helm- Modular Design, Billy Fields- Nashville Gov’t, Doug Fox- NADC, Anthony Davis- IDesign, Anderson Williams- Oasis Center, Debra Owens- 1^st Tennessee Bank, and Charlie Williams- Nashville Gov’t. HRP is very excited about being part of this board of people who want to make a difference in East Nashville. There will be good things coming from this board.

HRP began sitting on the board for Youth Speaks. Youth Speaks creates safe spaces to empower the next generation of leaders, self-defined artists, and visionary activists through written and oral literacy’s. If you are between the ages of 13-19 and you have mad poet skills, put them to the test. Go to the website, find the next open mic event.

That it for me this time!