BennyEast.Com/Blog The official blog of Kenny West

28Jul/110

Artist Band Photos Preview: Loki

Well... here's a quick preview of some photos I'm working on for my friend Loki

check him out on myspace here: http://www.myspace.com/loukotamusic

He's a pretty awesome dude and we took these pix last friday when it was a SWELTERING 100 degrees!  The joke of the day was well... with temps of 100 degrees these pix HAVE to turn out hot!

We shot in a couple of locations in West Chester, Pa and it was seriously a LOT of fun.

So here's my 3 favs.  There were a lot more good ones and I'm working on getting them all done for him but I thought it would be cool to share a little preview.  So check em out!

 

 

Filed under: Stuffs No Comments
28Jul/110

Heroes

I'm working on a new song that is about everyday people being heroes to their peers. I got inspired the other day to work on it and I came up with a pretty good chorus. It still needs a lot of work. I have lots of other songs in various stages of being written/recorded/mixed... but I don't feel all that strongly about posting anything except 1 other song that I am in the process of recording now. That song is pretty good, it's about life and how I think every single day all that happens around the world is somewhat of nothing short of amazing. I mean, think about it? Doesn't it just blow your mind? How it all even works? I just think it's cool. So that song is being recorded now.

But this new song I'm writing I enjoy very much because I just love that idea that we can be heroes to one another and help each other in small ways and big. But I really just wanted to say that I definitely will have 2 good songs relatively soon. I always plan to work on a thousand things after work and then I get home and I just kinda end up only getting a small fraction of the things done I wanted to! So many good ideas and so little time! But the Hero song will happen sooner than later because I'm pretty inspired to write that... and I'm not talking the sandwich.

Looks tasty though! Mmmmm... now I want one of those for dinner... or something from a pizza/hoagie shop... like pizza. Hmm... I should get a slice or 2 of pizza for dinner. Mmmmmm... I might do that. Or a hoagie.

Anywho... so just know that you don't have to eat a hero sandwich to have a hero in you. You can be a hero to anyone! And who knows, they might be to you. 🙂

Filed under: Stuffs No Comments
24Jul/110

Hair today, gone tomorrow, or today actually.

Welps... I officially got my hair cut.  I went up to the KOP mall to the Regis place because there aren't too many hair places open on sundays.  So I decided eh I'll just go wherever is open and I've been to a Regis one time before and it came out pretty well before sooooo why not go again?!?  I called em up and booked an appointment for 2:30.  The dude who did my hair was this pretty chill dude named Jake.  He actually knew someone I know!  None other than Earl.  Small world!  So we played the 6 degrees of seperation game from Earl.  Earl knows just about anyone who is anyone in the local music scene.  So Jake hooked me up with a bomb-diggity haircut.

Anywho here's the before and after pixtures.  I'm bad at taking pics in mirrors with my camera so excuse my funny facial expression and the fact that i'm looking in an odd direction in both pix.  Besides this is about showing you my new haircut and not my ability to make funny faces.

ok so this is before...

and this is after...

 

...yes no maybe so?  I love it lots.  I think I definitely like the short hair WAY better than the long hair.  No more long hair for me!

 

Also I stocked up on gel... so I'm set for a while.  And anyways I like going to get my haircut!  It's usually good fun.  Sometimes I think the haircut person is almost like having a personal therapist and you can chat it up about things that are going on in your lives while they are snipping away.

Know what I mean?

 

 

Filed under: Stuffs No Comments
21Jul/110

It’s just tooooooo hot for long hair!

I was holding out to try and do locks of love again.  But it's just tooooooooo hot for long hair.  Right now my hair looks like something Rod Stewart would sport... or at least maybe a Rod Stewart impersonator.

 

 

Seriously... that's about what my hair looks like right now.  It's just bad.  So I've decided that I REALLY think I'm going to go back to the short spikey gel thing I had going on last year.  Cuz... well... that seems to be what the ladies dig!  Apparently the Rod Stewart impersonator look isn't in right now.

As well there are a few other reasons why I've decided to get my hairs cut up...

A: the long hair gets all tangly and I have to constantly get out the knots!  I hate that.  Girls, I don't know how you do that especially with REALLY long hair!  Kudos to you.

B: it's just hot and sticky and icky... wait... I said that already.

C: I'm using up tooooooo much shampoo.  Shampoo isn't cheap!

Ok that's enough reasons... you get the point.  Anywho I think I want to do it this weekend.  Soooo I might get a haircut this weekend!  Maybe.  We'll see... I always get scared when I go to get a haircut!

Then I have to do that thing for the next few days where EVERYONE I see points out that I got a haircut because I might not have known that my hair was cut.

Person: "HEY you got a haircut!"

Me: "Yep.  That I did... That I did."

Person: "Ok I just wanted to let you know that... I didn't know if you knew that your hair was cut or not... so I just thought I'd point it out!"

Me again: "Thanks.  I, kinda, had an idea that something was different up there.  I just wasn't totally sure exactly what it was... but now that you mention that... you've cleared up a lot of confusion for me!"

 

I'll prooooobably post like a before/after pic thingy.  🙂  Any excuse to play around with my camera!

Filed under: Stuffs No Comments
20Jul/110

A quick funny dream post

I love when I have funny dreams.  Usually they are... super intense, like my post from last week, but last nights dream was funny.  Just like funny commercials on TV I'm a fan of funny dreams.

 

Hmmm like this commercial...

 

So yes, funny commercials are the best and funny dreams are as well.  So last night I had a pretty funny dream.  It was very short but I feel compelled to share it.  Because why not?  So here goes, I'll do my best to recall it.

---Begin dream---

So there I am at the mall.  I was walking around window shopping just sort of aimlessly walking and not really on any mission or trying to look for anything specific.

Then a lady calls out to me... "excuse me sir... sir!"

I turn around to the direction she is calling.  "Yea?"

She holds up a big paper shopping bag with the male and female sex symbols on it.  You know these symbols:

 

 

So yea that was on the outside of the bag.  She holds it up to hand it to me...

"You dropped this back there!"

I take the bag but I say "I don't think I did, I don't remember having a bag."

She insists and tells me that it's mine then she turns and runs off.

Then I open the bag and out pops a baby.  He starts talking to me... "HEEEEEEEEY WHAAAAATS UP!"

 

I say 'whoa... you can talk?"

People stop and gather around me.  One guy stands next to me as the baby climbs out of the bag and starts walking around hitting on girls. "How YOU doing there babe, I'm a baby, you're a babe what'd ya say?"

The guy standing next to me says, "oh... it's a talking baby... Good luck with that!"

I say "What?!?! What am I supposed to do with him!"

The guy say "well, I'm a doctor and I deliver babies from time to time... these are rare... these talking new borns... it happens... but once you've got one... you just gotta keep it."

I look back at the baby who is now riding around someone's golden retriever like it's on horseback.

"Giddy up! Dogggggggieee... WHOAAAAa DOGGIE"

I look back at the Doctor and say " are you sure you're a doctor?"

he says, "pretty sure."

I say... "Well, I think I'll keep him."

The doctor says, "well, good luck.  If you need anything, here's my card."  he hands me a business card and it's got the same male female sex symbol thing that was on the bag.  And that's ALL that's on the card!  Then he runs off at a full paced sprint.

I yell after him "WAIT  THERE'S NO NUMBER ON HERE!!!!"

He yells back over his shoulder "I DON'T OWN A PHONE!  GOOD LUCK THOUGH!"

I turn around and the baby is gone.  I start asking everyone where he went and they all point in different directions and say "I think he went that way?"

Then the lady comes back up to me and says she found the owner of the baby and that I wasn't the real owner.  She asks for the baby back... and I say "well, I lost him."

She says "If you find him let me know."  Then she hands me that same card.  Then I walk over to a bench with her and sit down and just keep looking around the mall for the baby.

---End Dream---

Then I kinda can't remember the rest of what happens.  I think it just kinda meshed into another dream.  Sorry for the sucky ending but it's s dream... I didn't write the thing (I only wrote this blog)!  I just dream the stuff!  But I thought there were some pretty funny parts.  So that's my funny dream from last night.

I don't know why I had a dream about a talking and walking newborn... but I dream some prettty random things some times.  Also I just want to say that I wouldn't ACTUALLY lose a baby in real life.  I'm a pretty responsible person.  Just so everyone knows!  Well that's all I gots for this post.  Laaaaaater.

Filed under: Stuffs No Comments
20Jul/110

Photo #45 “All That Shimmers”

The backstory:

So tonight I decided I wanted to go practice with my new lens.  I bought a second lens over the weekend for my camera.  It's a 55-200mm lens.  I'm still not sure exactly how to use it correctly.  But I think if I just mess around enough I'll eventually get the hang of it.  So that's what decided to do tonight.  I drove down to Media with a plan to take shots of the old theater on the main street with the sign lit up.  But on my way I saw something else that caught my eye.

I decided to stop in a small park just north of Media.   As I drove past I saw a GIANT flag waving in the wind.  It was somewhat mad storminess out and it looked like it was JUST about to rain... so I thought hey that's kinda cool.  I turned around and then pulled into the park.  I walked around a bit and took a bunch of random pics of the flag and some other things.  It started thundering... I was kinda thinking umm this can't be safe.  Then I noticed this memorial towards the back of the park and I... threw my caution to the wind... so to speak.  I decided to walk across the small field even with the thundering. As I walked up to the memorial thing I noticed a bell in the center...  I thought the bell in the foreground and the flag waving in the background could be a cool shot.  So I decided to try my whole "focused not focused messing with the aperture near far objects" thing... This is one of the shots that I LOVED the most.  So I came home and did some photoshopping and here we are!

Fun Fact: When I got home and unloaded my SD card and looked at the picture full size I saw a little spider hanging there.  I used the clone stamp cool to umm... kindly place him elsewhere.  Don't worry... no actual spiders were hurt in the making of this photo!

So there's my picture for this evening.  I hope ya like it!

Filed under: Stuffs No Comments
15Jul/110

Do you ever wake up with a song in your heart?

Today I woke up with a song in my heart.

I can't stop playing it over and over again.  I woke up crying... I had a dream that someone I know died... with a whole bunch of us standing around the person in the ER... and this person was laying there and fighting for life... and...

just kept saying goodbye quieter and quieter and quieter... and everyone else just watched... all we could do was watch...

The doctor just stood there... and the nurse just stood there.

each breath they were more silent than the next...

and each time they breathed in they said goodbye with the next exhale...

and slowly it just got more and more shallow...

and quieter and quieter and everyone got closer and closer to them and held their hand...

until finally there were no more goodbyes...

and the last breath came out but nothing back in.

Then there was just silence... and everyone was looking at each other... and I said...

"say something... someone say something.  Please! PLEASE!  JUST SAY SOMETHING!!"

and everyone just started saying "I'm sorry" back...

and I just kept saying "no"... and crying... and all they said was "i'm sorry"... and I was screaming "NO" to everyone and just crying... and they just gathered around me and hugged me and I tried to fight everyone away... but I had no energy... I just fell to the floor and sobbed... quietly just saying no.

Then the nurse put this song on in the background.  I woke up with it in my head... but not just in my head.  It was in my heart.  It was in my soul today.

The lyrics are just so sad but I don't know I'm not sad at all... so I don't understand why I feel this song so much in my heart today.

I feel like last night I said goodbye to someone in my sleep except there isn't anyone I said goodbye to!  I don't understand it...

I've seriously just had this song on repeat today nonstop... over 25 listens... what is wrong with me?  I just keep thinking of the dream when listening to this... every breath, every goodbye... quieter than the next... until there is just nothing left.

so here's the song:

It's called "Say Something" by Ian Axel

http://grooveshark.com/s/Say+Something/3xF2IQ?src=5

 

Say something, I’m giving up on you
I’ll be the one if you want me to
Anywhere I would have followed you
Say something, I’m giving up on you

And I am feeling so small
It was over my head
I know nothing at all

And I will stumble and fall
I’m still learning to love
Just starting to crawl

Say something, I’m giving up on you
I’m sorry that I couldn’t get to you
Anywhere I would have followed you
Say something, I’m giving up on you

And I will swallow my pride
You’re the one that I love
And I’m saying goodbye

Say something, I’m giving up on you
I’m sorry that I couldn’t get to you
And anywhere I would have followed you
Say something, I’m giving up on you

Say something, I’m giving up on you
Say something

Filed under: Stuffs No Comments
14Jul/110

Tonight

This is just a random blog about the night and just how much fun I had hanging out with some cool friends.  I'm doing the opposite of venting.  What would that be? mmmm just instead of being all starbucks style venti  or venty or venting about something I'm just in a happy mood and just wanted to type out how much fun I had tonight!  Well whatever it's called... I'm doing that.

So this is me just rambling on... and blogging because I just feel like writing.

So tonight was just the best.  I was going to work on some creativeness while waiting for my turn at open mic but then I ended up randomly spur of the moment going to Quotations (it's a bar in Media) with open mic peeps and that was because I got to open mic late and signed up late because there was SOooooo much traffic on the way home.  They also arrived late and signed up in later spots.

So instead of just waiting staying at open mic we went down for a quick drink and food in Media.

We tried Iron Hill first but that place was packed... so then we went over to Quoty's.

At quotations I ended up running into some old friends I hadn't seen in a while!  🙂 So our group of 3 became 4 and then 5!

Then I went back to open mic at burlap and rocked out.  It was just a great night!

So yea.  I've been using this phrase LYL or Love Your Life a lot... I picked it up from someone at camp and I think they brought it to camp from England or South Africa or Australia or one of those places.  Well anyways It was one of those nights!

Does anyone remember the phrase FML?

It just is the completely opposite of FML or well you know what it means... if you don't then google it.

You know, i've been wanting to write a blog on this topic so maybe I'll just write about this.

I mean... I don't know, life is just so wonderful and beautiful and awesome and so I think maybe instead of saying FML which is such a "blah" outlook on life that maybe it would be cool to say LYL which is such a "WOOOO YAY" outlook!

Ok, it's ok to feel down sometimes but I'm just kinda thinking it might be cool to try and maybe on a larger scale as in pop-culturally to shift thinking from UGH life is sooo blah... to...

life really is cool! 🙂  I don't know it's worth a try!!!  Because you just never know what's up next around the bend.

I don't really know what I'm talking about here or trying to say.  But if it makes even the slightest bit of sense then sweetness.

So, maybe I just think it might be something neat.  There's just so much to smile about... so... yea just love your life... it might not be perfect and there's always lots of things going awry and it's hard... it's busy... it's crazy...

it's tiring... it's trying.  It's just life, it's scary!  It's unpredictable and all that... but it's beautiful!

I just don't like the idea that we should hate our lives when it's such a gift!

So, I just think that no matter what just love it.  Love it lots... because it's yours.  And no one else has your exact life line path down life.  And when such cool things can happen and every day has soooo much new potential to just bring a smile to your face...

I just say love it up and do the best you can and that's all that matters. 🙂

I'm just in a good mood and I wish I could share it with everyone!

I'm just rambling... but yea... tonight was a ton of fun!  My favorite thing is just friends and hanging out and having good fun conversations.  And tasty beverages are also good! 🙂 oh and playing music.

And yea.

My second favorite thing is creativeness... so hopefully this weekend I'll get to work on something to post up here.

Ok I just felt like spilling my thoughts here on my blog... haha... sometimes I randomly do that.  Sometimes you just have to get stuff out of your head.

Ok good night all!

Filed under: Stuffs No Comments
8Jul/110

Camera arrived!

The camera has arrived!

How about this luck... I got off work at 1 early fridays in the summer... and then got home and at 1:45ish... the UPS dude showed up!  I mean he could have come ANYTIME because the tracking said it was out for delivery at 7am... so what are the ODDS that he would show up literally almost RIGHT AFTER I GET HOME!

🙂

I opened that bad boy up.  It's pretty snazzy.  Of course it didn't come with everything.  I have to get an SD card.  As well I have to get a lens cap for the back of the lens it came with.  It seems to have come with a cap for the front, and a cap for the camera body... but no cap for the back of the lens?  I don't know if it's proprietary or what... but I'll see what I can find.  For now I only have 1 lens, so this isn't a big dealio.  The bag is nicer than I had thought!  The camera is a little smaller and lighter than I had thought as well.  Overall I'm very giddy about it.  I wanted to fire it up immediately but the battery needs to charge (it's charging now).  Also, I have to buy an SD card like I said so I'm gonna go get one of those.

Anywho I'm just going to take a CRAP ton of pictures with it to get used to using it.  Eventually when I get comfortable after maybe a few days I'll post up my first picture.

The camera also does HD video so I'm going to use it to video myself and post up on youtube some acoustic guitar and singing videos!  I have been told by sooooooo many people that I need more live stuff on youtube.  So I'll work on that.

I'm so excited you have no idea!

Anywho here was what it looked like after I took everything out of the box:

Filed under: Stuffs No Comments
4Jul/110

4th of July

So... I made this little crafty construction paper thing for the 4th of July.  I was just like hey this is turning out pretty neat!  Then I finished it and I was just like wooo hooo... I can't wait to post my little construction paper 4th of July image.

 

And then, I realized...

 

It looks like the Pepsi logo.

 

Sigh.  Ooops.  haha... oh well... I didn't really want to re-do it sooooo i'm posting my 4th of July construction paper craftyness in all it's Pepsi glory.  Anywho....

 

Yep.  Happy 4th er' body.

 

Tomorrow I drive home from camp.  It's been super spectacularly awesome.  I love these people and this place.  They are just such good people.  It's one of those places that just always has a positive vibe going on.  It's safe, secure, creative, friendly... It's just rich with laughter and memories and well it's summer camp.  I wish everyone could share this experience.  it's like gold... ok, so i'm going to stop gushing now.  Anyways I'll be driving tomorrow.  Then once I get home I have TONS of creative plans so stay tuned!

My next thing is to buy a REAL camera because I tried out using one here and oh my gosh... I WANT ONE!  I'm going to start doing maybe nature photography which is basically what i've always done but instead of using my iPhone i'll have an actual camera.  And just cool things and scenes and architecture etc. etc.

Here's the camera I'm getting:

http://www.sony.net/Products/ilc/A-series/a55va33/features01.html

I'm going to get the A33.  So look for LOTS of cool nifty pictures.

Next I'm going to start working on my animated craft music videos and comedy shorts while waiting to go on stage at open mics.  I'll be playing the burlap and bean open mic every week and I think I'm going to start checking out the open mic at the steel city.

Lastly as always I'm doing new music.  I really want to focus on putting out more super positive super poppy music.  I just want to capture this camp vibe and try to incorporate that in everything I do.  Just inspire happiness around the world.  If that's possible?

Ok well again I hope everyone has an awesome 4th of July and all that.  I'm going to head down to the lake to watch the fireworks and hang out at the dance party on the beach for a few with everyone.

Filed under: Stuffs No Comments