Okay, so many of you must wonder why I haven’t been posting for the past few weeks. It’s not because I don’t want to. And, it’s defintely not because I don’t have anything to talk about. As a matter of fact, I have a ton of stuff going on and it’s been so hectic, everytime I sit down to put my thoughts to keyboard then push out to the world via this blog, something comes up. The phone rings (incessantly), I’m answering a hundred emails, I’m trying valiantly to read all the newsletters I’m getting from one hundred plus music, media, telecom and marketing sources and StarStyle Music is taking up an extraordinary amount of time. As it should, because it is my job, lol.
So, over the past few weeks, I’ve:
Finished my finals at NYU for the Spring ’06 semester, which I’ve concluded with two “A’s”. One in Digital Media Management I and the other in Wireless Communications. That brings my GPA up to 3.561 as I enter my Junior year. Who woulda thought?
Found a new apartment in Yonkers, NY, right on the Hudson River with beautiful water views. Sadly, I’m ending my time in Brooklyn. I’ve spent 6 tumultuous years here and I’m ready for a change of pace. Will be relocating today, actually. I’m looking forward to the new place. Once I’m settled in, I’ll drop a new mix show for June. Downloaded the tracks from Beatport already. Just waiting to get settled in the new space before I take you through another three-hour house music excursion.
Went to Boston of Memorial Day with my girlfriend, Missy and my dog, Jasmine. Stayed at the Hotel Marlowe in Cambridge, just north of the Longfellow Bridge, which spans the Charles River. The hotel is dog-friendly, with the entire 7th floor reserved for people bringing their pets. The service was outstanding. They even watched my dog behind the front-desk for two hours while Missy and I enjoyed dinner at the Cheescake Factory restaurant. It was good to be back in Beantown, but Missy wasn’t feelin’ all the BoSox merchandise, being from New York and all.
I absolutely recommend the Hotel Marlowe. Phenomenal place to stay. Since it’s connected to the Cambridgeside Galleria, you have both shopping and a lovely little park and water canal to enjoy behind the mall and hotel. We think Jasmine loved it too!
I’ve also been slammed getting the Music section of StarStyle ready for launch from the StarStyle.com web site. The week before last, I worked five 14-hour days in order to keep the project on track. Between developers in India, our web master in London, a Flash expert in London and our Flash programmer here in New York, content people in New York and LA and managing the biz dev side of things, the effort put forth by all has been tremendous as we ready our application for launch and subsequent worldwide press announcement next Tuesday, June 6th.
I’m so excited about this project. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, and as Eminem says, “You’d better blow, cause you only got one shot…” Well, this is my shot…and I’m definitely blowin’ hard. It’s very exciting to work on something that will change the face of how artists are promoted and how they market themselves and monetize not only their music, but also their lifestyles through music videos. I can’t say much more, but stay tuned because I’ll post the press announcement here on launch day next week.
Besides all that, I’ve been working on a web site for Michael Levitton, an artist on Smith Street Records. I’ve got a little more work to do on it. Add some cgi news scripts and modify the CSS for the bulletin board system, then I’ll be able to launch it. Hoping to get it up an running next weekend. Stay tuned.
That’s all folks. I’ll keep you posted with more details as they come.
Tony Z.
