Kgrind Jonny Wants You to Dream Too

What I think / what I feel ... you suck;)

[dreamchannel]

I’m sitting here in a coffee shop in Sydney just after my ‘rejection meeting’ with Screen NSW - meanwhile I’m getting “where the fuck are u?" messages from all my friends in Cannes …. A very difficult moment . I’m feeling sad and like I’m missing out on the world - its passing me by man

A friend of mine ‘Garnet’ is doing a “Crashing Cannes" TV show in Cannes right now . He’s the only guy who had ever been banned from Screen Australia’s annual Cannes party … He’s the perfect guy for the job … I’m imagining what he’s doing right now … I wish I was there with him … I reckon I’m the 2nd most appropriate guy for that job !!!

Screen NSW were nice ppl but v unsure about transmedia - the idea of adding a narrative to a virtual world is just not sinking in … It was just toooo risky for them to swallow .. Maybe there's some positive to take out of this .. Maybe my concepts are so huge that me and only me can swallow them and make them happen ..… I just need to able to have a go at it .. I’m a Director and a Cross Platform Producer & no one else is (and if you are come and see me cause I want you to come on my next date with Rejected .. she's so hot) ! Please someone get inside my head before its too late … The world is spinning away like a top - catch it with me and come on the lucrative ride that it will be …

[kgrind-jonny]

This blog post  (way below) was from from a while ago ... I blogged it to the wrong page and just found it today ... 

The blog post was all about the feeling of getting rejected by a funding body in Sydney .. One of those funding bodies that start out liking you and then end up hating you ..

To put things in the picture - I was driving along Anzac Parade in Sydney on my way to my editors place (I was in the middle of editing a crap corporate video of the kind that makes your dry reach ... the editor was even jack of it .. and me) when I got this APPLICATION REJECTED phone call ...

I got very upset and went a little over board on the phone with the girl (I can't  remember her name) who was a well known Aussie film maker 

"We are rejecting (I have come to know that word well .. we even went to dinner once)  Dream Channel on two grounds . Firstly it was not interactive enough" ... 

- While trying to stay professional  words spluttered out of my mouth leaving all kinds of saliva bubbles all over my steering wheel.  

"and the second reason is that your project is not being innovative enough"  ...

.. and from there the conversation go really heated .. She wasn't going to give an inch and I was making another date with Rejected .. she was pretty hot after all - but things needed to progress this time -  so I was thinking . Thinking about my date I realised that this conversation needed to end really soon as I was ruing my reputation across the entire Australian film industry with every second more of discussion. 

The conversation ended with her inviting me to a meeting at their offices with the  other guy who rejected the proposal   to explain the reasoning. 

(two weeks later) 

Meeting notes :

-  Meeting feels uncomfortable. Seems clear that  they just want this to be over quickly

- Zero eye contact with the man ..

- Feels like they want this Jon Peters guy to disappear forever .

- Reminds me of that  EXIT meetings I had once after being fired from Price Waterhouse Coopers

- Girl keeps talking about licenses that I needed to get ??? 

- Project described as "too big and needing more qualified staff than you guys to run it"  ... ?????

- guy asks me what company I might be thinking about taking the concept to (Not sure if that means he wants to join the team or not)  

- - "Licences" comes up again ... What's she talking about ?? - Brian (my Producer who came with me) screws his face up. Does he like the girl? 

- Man leaves ... Has to go to a meeting in Ryde ... Shakes my hand without making eye contact again ... He's dressed really well

- Senior supervisor sitting at the head of the table keeps screwing her face up at me ... Does she like me??? No ..  I think she really wants to wrap this up fast ... 

- Meeting ending .. 

- Final question ...  I ask "Licenses what do you mean?" 

- Answer - "next time you present the concept (which wont be to us I might add) you need to have all the  licenses required from the major record labels signed off !!

strange silence .. 

- I explain to her that DJ's own their own music these days and that the major record labels are not involved in this genre ... We don't need licenses .. 

- Faces are dropping... Meeting is over as everyone is getting up ..  

(to be clear we were pitching this thing called 'Dream Channel DICE CITY - a web series futuristic dance music tribes fighting to control the city's social network artery. Each week the 5 minute episode would finish with two DJ's from two opposing tribes facing off in a Running Man style game show called DJ DEATH MATCH . We planned on using cameos from real Dj's in the series) 

(below is what I wrote sitting in a cafe just after the meeting was over) 

[kgrind-jonny]

NEW YORK BENDER WITH A JEWISH LEPRECHAUN AT THE END OF THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD ... 

(day 1 - the three of cups) 

So I went out last Friday night in New York to The Lower East Side - or LES as the like to call it here -  to meet this Mexican Skate crew who I've known for a while. The sound of LES is full on rock .. And when I say rock I don't mean John Bon Jovi .. it's more like the sound of  full on death metal pumping out of an old transistor radio - all scratchy and annoying.  Through the mess of people pushing and shoving (some of the bars have underground caves full of people pushing past each other up and down small stair wells that look like they'e been dug out as bomb shelters in WWII) most of the bars have an artistic flair of some kind .. yada yada yada

So we go this rock bar where JP works  (one of the Mexican skate crew) ..  As soon as we arrive he asks me "you want anything?" which didn't mean "do you want a drink?" if you know what I mean,. .. So one thing lead to another and the next thing I knew we had a whole crew in this booth drinking quadruple red bull and vodkas . (there is no responsible drinking policy in this town ... no bouncers trying to kick you out for having too much fun and it's accepted that every cue at the bathroom is a drug cue)  

Having just finished work JP joined us  in the booth  "Hey should we go to The Three of Cups?" Of all the bars in LES The Three of Cups is renowned for being totally off the hook.  I always described it as a  Marolyn Manson Bar / hang out filled with goths, dudes with metal teeth, punk rockers, tooth fairies, and of course one bathroom only often with one of the longest drug cues in the area .. (if you are in NYC alone this is usually the best place to meet people!)  . The raw energy of the place breeds any kind of action you could imagine .. Ive been there and chatted to girls who passed out on their stool - slumping onto the bar literally  literally while I was talking to them. I even got stuck in the bathroom  once with this  gay guy who thought I was Jimmy Sommerville .. and I let's not forget the time I got invited back to a girls place once where she asked me to try on her new lace underwear with her ... Yes once you visit The Three of Cups you never know where the night might take you ...

"YES LET"S GO" I urged our table! 

Arriving we hung out at the bar and I began talking to this Australian girl who is quite well known - let's just call her Candy for now. As I chatted to her I noticed all this eye contact to coming out way from a Puerto Rican  looking guy .. His eyes were huge and round. I asked the girl "do you know that guy?"  She was like "No" but I think he might be offering something to us" .. Then I noticed that although he looked like he was a the bar he was actually part of the bathroom cue. . So I guess that figured. 

After a few twists of my arm by the girl we were all suddenly friends at the bar with the Puerto Rican guy and a couple of his friends.  We were all knocking back double (maybe even triple ) vodkas, I was having strange close up conversations with this tall black girl all about movies and film (she said she was an actress but I think she was a hooker .. Im not sure), and in between I was dissolving to the  stair well smoking cigarettes with a heavy metal / punk cross over hand who was touring from LA (cant' remember their names) who was trying to hire me as their manager (I think I might have actually started that and put myself fwd) .. and then dissolving back again to the black girls hypnotic eyes and lips once again. 

So anyway it was a usual Three of Cups Night .. there was only one thing missing and that was the invitation to the next place .. I knew it was coming ... it always does .. And then it came. The Puerto Rican guy came up to me and Candy and asked us if we wanted to come to a lock in with them.  The next thing I knew we were all walking along the streets of LES bumping into ppl coming the other way, stopping random dudes and chatting , floating past big groups of girls in stillettos standing out the front of bars with Ozzy Ozbourne beating chunky musical notes out past them (this was one thing that could only happen in America - hot chicks standing out the front of those kinda bars  .. but then again I did say that each one had it;s own artistic flavour - something that it would be all too easy to miss or quickly judge of you were a tourist ) 

The next thing we knew we were being ushered up stairs by a bouncer into what appeared to be some kind of club.  The stair case was pitch black and i expected that the club would be the usual durgy LES style - but when we came up for air what I saw were ferns, palm trees, a roof that was totally open, a hot DJ behind the decks playing to a small lock in crows of around 15 ppl scattered around an amazing club / bar w... As I moved around I noticed that the place was made of wooden decking that you would normally find around a pool .. and in fact there was a pool right in front of the decks!  HOW THE HELL WAS THIS PLACE IN LES??  It just didn't make any sense at all .. The other thing that was totally out of the box was that the place had real bathrooms .. Like ones with a controlled door (you know the pressureised ones that you can't slam that close  slowly on their own? ) polished floors and cubicles with real toilet seats .. there was even a strange metal surface bolted into the wall of each cubicle .. I wonder what they were thinking when they installed that that? 

Candy and I dotted about for about and hour . Im not sure what I can remember actually .(to tell you the truth Im a little worried about memory loss these days - but it seems that i don't do anything wrong in that "i can't remember space" .. well no one every says anything anyway) 

All of a sudden we were all back on the street and the Puerto Rican guy was leading us all in a long and scattered line to the next place. It would have been about 6am and the sun was looming largely behind the dark purple and grey colours of the LES architecture .. in fact as I was being ushered through a set of heavy dark curtains into the next place I couldn't stop looking at what was could have been the  most amazing modern painting ... Dark purple clouds with golden rays of sun streaming across them dotted with blue sky moments climbing out over  the top of dark a mauve, grey and black pastel coloured buildings that looked like they were made out of plaster scene each with black painted fire escapes (does anyone actually ever use those? ) .. It was a modern Hay Stacks *(but we were not on absinth this time) 

Looking around the new venue on what was definitely day two - there were all these amazing paintings on the walls. They all seemed to be of the same African American guy - modern art style portraits that were so out there they could have been classified as surreal art - he was headless on a couple of them . Then I realised where we were .. We were in some LES artists 'art' space. I walked over the bar (There's a bar in here??)  I started talking to this white American guy who had mad hair. "Can I sell you a beer?" He said to me.  "Sure" .. As I passed him $1 I looked at my hand and it as almost as if I was wearing one of those old school 3D masks where you look down and your arms are not part of you ... Either that or that Prodigy clip  'Smack My Bitch Up' .. See which experience you remember.  

"Is this an art space?" I said to the guy. '"yep! Im the artist and you're going to buy a drink from my bar" they guy replied.  I thought it was a pretty good way to raise money for your artistic life ..  Paint, have after parties when everyone is still out and wants to go somewhere .. sell them all drinks!!! 

The next thing I noticed as Candy and the Puerto Rican guy getting pretty close. I noticed them disappear into the bathroom (yes the new one with the cue) a few times and come back again.  At the same time I tried to strike up a conversation with this black dude with dread locks .."Ive met other guys as ugly as you" he replied to my question (I think the questions was something like "do you come here often?") 

Candy came up to me and asked me if I was Ok .. I think she saw the black guy was rearing up to do something that would not have been acceptable in a place like this - like punching Jonny in the face. 

Suddenly we were outside again and past the plasta scene buildings. We jumped in two cabs (there were at least 8 of us) and headed to Candy's place.  I guess this was what Candy and The Puerto Rican guy had been discussing .. I think it was more a case of "Im wasted and I want to keep getting wasted .. WITH YOU" ... 

Candy's place was a building down down ... kinda near Walls Street. It was a studio so perfect for eight people to get to know each other really well (I had no idea who any of them were .. Actually this was the first moment that I realised we had lost the Mexicans .. I wondered when exactly?? )

So Candy's place was full of CANDY that I can tell you for sure .. I noticed that everyone was packed in a focussed around one corner of the room ... two of the girls who had come back with us were .. well I guess you can say on one word HOT! (I was going to say 'schmokin' but was unsure what images and connotations that would bring up) .. One of them  was going through a break up and was wanted to provide all details of that to the party ... Everyone was packed in around her mainly trying to convince her to dump him right now so that they could have a crack. .. This went on in the darkest corner of the studio for most of the day ... I found myself in a bright fluro lit  kitchen  providing stories to people who wanted a break from all the emotion. It was a welcome release for people heading to and from the bathroom - but they did't stay for too long ... I didn't have tits after all. 

Hours merged into hours dissolving into more hours .. I think I might have even pashed someone . Im pretty sure it wasn't a guy. 

The next thing I knew Candy was getting rid of everyone out of the apartment. It seemed like I was the only one who was allowed to stay. (then again I was the only one who knew her .. so why was I so surprised? ) 

It's funny how these things roll .. your phone runs out of batteries early on (the good ol' iPhone 5 is so great for big weekends out NOT) and from that point onwards there is no time anymore . No one can call you,. you can't call anyone else, no-one has an iPhone 5 charger, time begins to slant side-ways and  until you get back to your charger you are in Alice & Wonderland or on The Yellow Brick Road - whichever journey to the other side is more to your liking ... 

Just when I thought I was about to go to sleep I noticed that Candy was getting changed into a new set of clothes. "We're heading to LES again to meet some people" She said with a smile, a laugh and a giggle (Im not sure which order that  happened in)  . "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK" my legs said to me as I pretended to giggle. But hey I was in NYC so why not .. 

So back into a cab we went and back to the LES  to The Three Of Cups ... to do it all again .. I bet you can't guess what happened??? 

(the really funny thins was that the next day (Sunday) I ended up with Candy walking around the LES looking for "that bar / club with the pool and the big bathrooms ! It's just gotta be here somewhere 

Alone  the two of us (somewhere along the line we lost the new group of ppl we were walking the Yellow Brick road with) walked up and down Delancey Street  (the street with all the death metal bars) . I was sure this electronic music / DJ place had to be somewhere there. It made perfect sense!  Candy had no idea and thought the whole thing was some kind of weired oasis or mirage that wasn’t actually real.  I knew it was on the top floor … so I kept my focus on the top floors ..  Then just when my legs were about to totally pack up THERE IT WAS! I could see the ferns, the high glass ceilings and the open roof top!  That had to be the place!  Standing on a street coner about to cross the road I gazed up above the club into the hot NYC sky (it was 100 degrees and a major heat wave BTW .. making the yellow brick road and the mad hatters tea party even harder to deal with) With my eyes almost closed and dreaming of drinking pina coladas by the pool any minute I heard a voice call out  “PETERS!” .. I looked over the road and standing there was my long lost London flat mate from 10 years ago JONAS BRESLIN!  He as an awesome photographer and worked on some of my … well shall wel say more risqué film projects for Playboy and Channel X that I had done while in London  … I gave him and his posse of New York beautiful people a quick summary of the the last few nights and the last 10 years ,..We exchanged numbers and then we were off past each other once again.

  Arriving at the foot of the oasis / mirage we barrelled past the security guard at the door (there was no way he was stopping me .. I was bold and walked in like I owned the place .. New York style)

  Inside the place was even better than I remembered it .. It wasn’t a mirage after all.  It was very real . So were the pina coladas.  I took a series of photos of  myself in front of the Dj and the pool . How was this place in NYC existing amongst all this rock crap (sorry that was  a tourist comment) .

  Candy go on the phone and called the Puerto Rican guy …

  Four hours later the DJ’s were cranking full blown minimal tech house, the place was packed and the balcony was sea of “BURNERS” … we had run into a pre Burning Man Party  … right into it … There was even a couple who came running up to me – they had met me somewhere on the yellow brick road on Friday night .. I must have told them  all about me and they must have had great memories .. the knew all about the  film I was making, where I lived in Sydney, the fact that I lived in Ibiza for a season .. I had zero recollection of who they were …. The guy was an air traffic controller and wanted me to make a documentary about the whole pressurised world he and his colleagues existed in.  .. (it did come to me later who they were and where we had met .. much much later after we had become great friends over it )

  Then one last funny thing happened .. I started talking to this Jewish guy on the balcony .. I told him about the film that I had come to the US to make (well at least to talk about making!!) … I didn’t think anything of it unti the next day when I started receiving emails from a guy called MAYOR BERKOVITZ … He wanted to know about my film … I was like “hey man it’s not funded yet so sorry to disappoint you.  But the emails kept on coming … “How short are you?” ..I hated to dampen his enthusiasm so I was like “way too short to be shooting any time soon” .. He replied again “is it $20k or $200k you are after?” … I replied back to him “Mate it’s like $600k - $1million …

  “There you go” I thought that would stop the emails for sure.

  He then replied “You know I reckon I could get you that money. When can we meet?”

  We arranged to meet in DUMBO (where I am staying – it stands for an area in Brooklyn – Down Under ___ Brooklyn Overpass .. Something like that anyway.

  Anyway Im waiting for MAYOR BERKOWITZ at The Brooklyn Coffee Grind .. He turns up and is very well dressed and very energetic complete with his Jewish cap (can’t remember what those things are called – sorry ) .

  To cut a long story short I guardedly give him the pitch for my feature film The Dream Channel.  .. He looks  interested. So I go a little further and tell him that it’s a transmedia project … ie The film is about a futuristic social network and we are building the one depicted in the movie for real .. We are using it as a way to let audiences access and become part of the story world. Here the audiences even get to recommend and vote on who stars the films itself …

  He thinks for a second … Scratches his chin and all that kind of money thinking stuff …  He then tells me that he’s a graduate from film school in San Francisco. He understands film and thinks that the social network integration is “amazing” (his words .. thanks .. I really love it when ppl say that and then continue to tell my why they cannot fund it )

  He continues to tell me that he has been spending the last few years in Brooklyn “selling stuff” .. I said to him “what exactly do you sell?”  to that replied “I sell money … I work for a huge Jewish enterprise and I can get you all the money for your film!

  Im not sure where Candy had got to at that point OR whether or not the yellow brick road journey had ended prior to this or this was where it actually ended!

[dreamchannel]

The day it all became clear (at East River Ferry Terminal Brooklyn Bridge Park/Dumbo)

[dreamchannel]

Doing Brooklyn !!! (at Huge)

[dreamchannel]

July 4 fucking party man (at Williamsburg Waterfront)

[dreamchannel]

View this post on Instagram

Where I live (at Under The Brooklyn Bridge)

[dreamchannel]

View this post on Instagram

Watch out for trucks when ur talking to the camera (at DUMBO)

[kgrind-jonny]

So Im in the middle of pitching Dream Channel social game here in NYC . The essence of what this is really all about is creating a new on-line economy - one that does not exist and making it make sense to people.  The future is BIT COINS ... I was about to write an entire blog post on what they are and how they can be used in Dream Channel as currency. The fact that you can already use BIT COINS to make anonymous  & untraceable transactions makes my vision for Dream Channel are reality like never before. It opens up possibilities for the average person that never existed before .. It means you can run yourself as a business (YOURSELF) and make money out of all kinds of things you can do in ways never before possible (like selling your presence on-line) ... Anyway before I go on here is an awesome 3 minute video that I found that sums up what this currency does! 

It's very real and with it I predict a very different future ... 

[kgrind-jonny]

MIAMI - DYSTOPIAN POST APOCALYPTIC ICE DEN .... 

So I recently went to the Miami Winter Music Conference ... For anyone who does not know this is the global Spring Break showcase in the US for any DJ or electronic music label ... Every bar, club, hotel lobby, pool, roof top, hotel room is cranking 24/7 to the sound of electronic beats ... The place is pretty hectic and goes totally off ...  Most of the parties take place in and around South Beach Miami .. which is a mix of luxury apartments and hotels that back on the beach.  The main thing that happens there are the BIG fuck off hotels with their even BIGGER back yard pools .. For the two weeks they are converted into one massive crank fest .. Big stages hang over the pools and people ram in and get amongst it all day,  nursing massive hang overs from the night before,  most with only an hour or so sleep and re soaking their brains with over priced alcohol to dry and numb the pain coming from their feet and toes ... !! Sound like fun ? 

Well ... the thing that most people don't know is that the REAL party is not at South Beach ,., The real party is in Downtown Miami .. quite a drive away ... And if you're in the know this is pretty much where you end up spending all of your time .  You see this is the area where the people are so poor (and on ice) that they don't complain about anything .. and even if they did no-one would listen as their voting powers of political persuasion have been so brushed under the carpet for so long that no one fucking cares !

So the upshot of that is that there are all these open roof top clubs scattered around the area .. and when I say clubs I mean clubs that crank the volume past 11 on the dial and until 10 am in the morning .. booming around the suburbs that surround ...  If anything the residents that live and hang out there probably (definitely - read below)  get a kick out of all the activity .. and it's a free listen ... 

So on this one particular night we decided to continue our adventure from the night before (ie we had no sleep) and venture into Down Town and go to this club called EVE to see this DJ called Solumum (check him out he's amazing)  .. Now EVE sits on the edge of what would be the good part of DownTown (if you could call it that) .. What I mean by that is that it's near other clubs ... but only just. 

When we got to Miami we (Murat Kilic and I) decided to hire a car. We decided to do this because we figured cabs would be hard to get and that we'd be able to go anywhere anytime and get to some of those hard to get to places (which do exist .. like Damian Lazarus mansion .. which we went to  .. and would not have been able to without a car) . But the thing that I didn't think about was that although you can always leave a club whenever you want (cause you have a car) .. and you do have to wait around sometimes in some pretty fucked up places for a cab for an hour some times ... BUT the thing we didn't think about was getting the club ! You see cab drivers know where the clubs are .. and all you need to do is know the address and you are there ... like it drops you right there .. right where there are four HEAVY security guards standing there who are outright on your side and ready to protect you from all outside foes ... The thing is that when  you hire a car, even with Google maps, you are going miss a street here and there .. like you might take a bad turn or two .. This is to be expected. What's not to be expected is what could happen if you did this in a place like Miami Downtown .. .. 

So anyway getting back to this one particular night -  Murat and I had just come from a harbour cruise called SHIP OF FOOLS (was amazing as hell .. you would not believe the line up ... you need to check out these German guys called 'Andhim')  .. We drove the car to the boat (good use of the car)  and left the car in the car park at the port ..  This was at around midday .. We then proceeded to hit the next party, and the next until we finally ended up back at this club EVE  ... Entering the club the scene was wild. The music was this pumping house with a mad techno overlay that seemed to crunch in and build almost perfectly each time .. The way the base beat would kick in with the entire crowd predicting the drop each time to the second was a crazy vibe to hbe  a part of .. all under an open roof top ...  With the music pumping Murat came over to me with a concerned look on his face .. I took him aside 

"What's up" I said to him 

"The car dude! The car is still at the port .. If we don't get it out by 6am it's gonna get toed .."

What made matters worse was that we were leaving the next day and the one thing (coming down like a truck and trying to sober up for the plane) is to be dealing with getting the car out of the mafia run pound ... 

Murat continued "It's your turn to drive" 

"Fuck it is too" .. I thought to myself .. You see we had been taking turns driving .." I do one day, you do the next" .. That kind of thing - and even staying sober of drugs and alcohol to do so! (go figure) . The only problem with that kind of strategy was that when you are hitting clubs back to back for days on end - when does one day start and the next one begin ?  Anyway Murat had driven to the boat so it was my turn and I could not get out of it .. I was actually also sober ... So there was no excuse .. 

"Ok  you go and get it and I'll wait for you here" Murat continued. 

Dude we were in Downtown Miami! There was no way that I was heading out into the abyss to (i) try and hail a cab (ii) try and find the port  (iii) try and drive back on my own ... That would be ill advised I thought .. 

So Murat hunted around and managed to find me a navigator .. A young cute girl who I'd chatted to earlier ... I reckon she was kinda keen .. but Im always keen on someone who's up for a mission.. It was kinda exciting that she was up for it ...   So off we went .. 

Now getting a cab was not that hard .. We walked down the street for a bit and there was a Police car that seemed to be circling us .. So we were kinda safe .. Anyways one turned up and he took us to the port .. When we got there we ran into the remnants of the ULTRA Music Festival .. attended by some 250,000 people along the waters edge right near the city  .. ! But most of that had cleared ... 

After a long walk through a deserted shopping mall that runs along the port ,  I turned and noticed that my female companion - who I still to this day cannot remember her name - had dropped a fair way back behind (I was walking really fast .. actually feeling a little agitated and maybe even a little scared)  . I was about to call out to her to hurry up when all of a sudden this Mexcian looking guy with no shirt on came pouncing out of the shadows towards her ... I heard him yell "hey dirty girl" ... I was like "fuck!" As he lunged for her I turned and yelled . "Hey get away you fucking prick" (actually i don't know what I yelled but either way it worked .. He must have missed me totally at first as when he turned he was in mega shock that someone else was there ...  He turned and left quickly ... 

To this day I still wonder what that guy was really after and what might have happened if the girl I was with had have been on her own ... It was pretty scary shit to be going down at 4.30am in Downtown Miami in a deserted shopping centre .. 

Ten minutes of even faster paced walking than before (this time the girl was keeping up with me .. or I was slowing down ... one of the two) we found the car .. As always you then have that final moment of (i) "shit do I even have the keys", and (ii) "has the car been broken into?" .. Anyway the car started and we were off driving out of the port zone back towards the ice den of Downtown with the music from the day before pumping out the windows ... 

Turning back towards where I was sure that we came from this is where things got interesting ... 

"Darling .. Can you please get out your phone, open Google Maps and put in the address of Eve?" " I said with almost a quiver in my voice

"I can't see" was the response from the young cute girl  ... Finally seeing the street lights bounce off her cute face I finally had a moment where I realised just how lucky I was / could have been etc etc ... 

"You can't see what?" I replied

"My vision is way to blurry to see the screen"

"Oh great" "

"Where the fuck is EVe?" I  screamed out - as we headed away from the city lights and deep into Downtown ... "Look we gotta stop so I can get this Maps thing going " 

"You can't stop here!" the young girl called out. "it's too dangerous"

Feeling a lot better I kept cruising still further into the darkness OH SO happy that we had no idea where we were going and that we had both established that it was getting more and more dangerous by the second..  

"actually take a turn here" she said .. seeming for a moment that she knew what she was talking about ...  

So I turned .. all of a sudden we were in a street that had no street lights at all AND every corner has all these gang bang guys wearing hoodies all checking out the car as we so elegantly drove past .. 

"Fuck!" I blurted out pulling my silver and sparkly disco cap down over my face hoping to hide the blatant fact that a white assed no idea guy had ventured into the wrong streets and was obviously hopelessly lost ... Sooner or later I was going to hit a dead end and then it was all going to be over ... 

I had to make a turn or two back toward where we had come from .. The road up ahead looked like a main kinda road so I headed for that with some confidence .. I needed to have it too  ...as we approached the corner a group of black guys broke formation and stepped out on the road in front of the car .. There was this one guy swinging his left arm out with his fingers clearly saying something like "yo fucker" . I swerved and missed him and kept driving .. (with confidence of course) 

Turning into the main road I noticed that it was NOT a main road .. it was in fact Miami's SKID ROW .. As I turned, the lights of my car picked up around 50 - 60 guys pushing trollies, spinning around in circles, swinging arms, waving at the car, waving at the sky .. you name it .. it was a flurry of activity ... 

"Oh shit!" .. this was a bad move 

"Oh shit!" I can't see but I can tell this is definitely a bad move 

(that's me and her talking the same thing and then thinking close to the same thing) 

Hurriedly I tried to do a U turn .. The fact that a guy with a trolly was in the way meant that it quickly turned into a three point turn ... and then the fact that there were some guys closing in from behind that turned into a 5 point turn .. Either way by the time I got the car moving back the way I came there were enough guys around the car for me to actually be genuinely pretty fucking terrified ... 

Getting the car straight I hit the gas ... Looking back out of the rear vision mirror I can tell you the scene was one of those ones from movies like The Wanderers - where you look in the rear view mirror and there are literally a whole bunch of people chasing you yelling stuff out as you drive away ... NO SHIT 

The funny thing was that we ended up turning one corner and there was Eve right there. The not so funny thing was that one street away was all this mayhem ... It was Breaking Bad on steroids ... 

Back in the club Solumum (check him out) was hitting some major techno beats .. That guy is amazing .. but the feeling was one of intimidation rather than release .. I kinda needed to go somewhere where someone was playing classical music ..... 

With the sun rising we decided to leave ... What I saw next was some seriously funny shit .. (I was hard core now and used to it) ... Picture all these beautiful people, all from South Beach, all dressed to the nines - all piling out of a series of clubs, all trying to get cabs ... The sun is coming up. there are cabs everywhere BUT in the middle of all that are about 1000 crack / ice heads spilling onto the streets doing everything they can to fuck people up. In front of us I witnessed three girls getting a cab on one side - and on the other side three crack heads trying to get in with them! The cab driver (aware of what goes on) was trying to work out how to tell them what was going on.

The finally was when we stopped at the final set of lights before turning onto the main road that heads out, away and back to South Beach .. We were sitting at the lights and there was a sudden knock on thew window . I turned and this dude with one arm and one eye was trying to tell me something about going with him somewhere . We hit the gas and we were finally gone ... 

Back in our safe flat feeling like total pussies this Mexican guy we were with informed us that the Semetary that the filmed Thriller in was right there where we were ... Maybe this was where Michael Jackson/ Quincy Watts  got his inspiration for the song ... Who knows but one things for sure I've visualised an entire Dream Channel episode based on DownTown Miami . The place ROCKS! 

[theywillneverfindmy-blog-blog]

[kgrind-jonny]

Most people I meet give off this bad vibe ... (To be continued) 

[kgrind-jonny]

Life's too fucking short ... ;(

[dreamchannel]

“it’s about time I started making some fucking money … Im sick of stuffing around”

Jonny Peters 

[kgrind-jonny]

In 2007 I was saying this to my Dallus investors ... "MySpace would be unable to re-design owning the fact that this would disrupt their very core. The space is clear for a new competitor"  

How did I know this?  The thing about MySpace was that their code was very easy to hack. It allowed all the rock bands and artists to add modifications / customisations to their accounts + you could get these from people on-line and integrate them.  Artists then spent so much time on these modifications and then building audiences around them that these customisations became the part of MySpace that people loved and the very asset that MySpace had (an awesome asset btw) . Fixing their site up and streamlining it like Facebook would mean that users would lose all these customisations that they had spent so much time on.  This would mean the end of Myspace.  In 2007 they were stuck with the web streamlining, functionality now they key driver and sites life FB starting to take advantage of this (even though I still say it's boring and kinda sux) 

So-  Facebook was emerging with slicker & more streamlined designs  ... The only way out for MySpace was to own ROCK, POP and HIP HIOP - which they could do as they had all the deals they needed with the record companies already SIGNED . This is what they should have done .. but alas did not do!  They still could have survived - and when Justin Timberlake joined them he created a 'creative' team that was aimed at re-designing everything and bringing them back from the brink.

But then they fucked up again!  

 The new site disconnected you from your original fan base ...  They expected you had to re-build your fan base all over again@!  They effectively deleted all the work that everyone had done to create what MySpace was. 

Hey Im not Notrodamas but picking the future in social media is something that I reckon I've always been able to do ..  It;'s funny as most of my friends here in Sydney don't know about my life as a social media guy ,, I think they all just think Im a druggie ./ drunk ... I guess you only know what you see and you're only as good as your last game! 

When I explained the future of MySpace (of course not in the detail as I did above)  to my investors - at  the time I was living in London ./ being held prisoner by my investors in an apartment that one of them owned up stairs above where he lived in Shepherds Bush . I was there waiting for my own dot com to go live & was living on hand outs and porridge. We were 5 weeks late on delivery and this had created such a stir with them that they had pretty much taken me prisoner / not allowed to leave London until what was promised was delivered.  I get it BUT 5 weeks late on delivery is really nothing in this space. 

I tried to convince my investors that all we needed to do was invest a little more in Dallus (a similar concept to MySpace but a next generation version) to speed up the delivery and we could take the space on.  I had all kinds of rock bands, Dj's, promoter and the like all lined up to crank it + I was full of confidence. I couldn't convince my investors that I was telling the truth - they thought I was lieing about the state of my own site .. So what chance did I have?? 

In a nutshell I had eroded all my cred - they had no basis to believe me about anything. 

FYI - I arrived there in March 2007 and was still there in November, still a prisoner, when the site finally got delivered. 

How it got delivered is another story ...

p.s and for anyone out there who still thinks Im a druggie / drunk here's what;'s happening next ... Facebook is designed in a very vanilla fashion. It delivers great in depth functionality and it works .. BUT it's boring + they are very 'fun Police' about things.  The next generation of social networks are almost upon us and they will be way way different. Facebook will evolve into simply a log in system that logs you into the social web and ensures that you can connect with anyone on the social web anywhere.  The next generation is all about integrating the social web with entertainment and interests in the form of content & recommendations.  So it's all about CONTENT !  Content creators have been scared off by the social web .. They have been 50% paranoid about it and 50% secretly doing courses at night trying to work it all out. Full blown entertainment channels with the social web so integrated into them that you don't even notice are coming .. They are movies, they are TV shows, they are concert tours, they are conventions .. they 70% user driven and 30% producer driven .. (yes Producers stand up! ) ..

So invest in that if you have the balls!  Let;s not be standing around in 6 years from now re-reading this post .. I reckon I've nearly got my cred back! 

[newagebass]

[kgrind-jonny]

I had this really strange thing happen to me two nights ago weeks ago – well it was something that started just before New Years but two nights ago it reached a head!

  Just before Christmas I met this girl who is kinda gay - well actually she is gay! Im not 100% sure why Im attracted to her and she's definitely not that attracted to me  (we've talked about it) .. But we keep making arrangements to meet … and then each time something weird happens ..  It’s always the same thing – we chat on Facebook and make a plan … I then arrange tickets to gigs, and get unusually excited about the night out that we might be about to have .. You see she kinda excites me and has this kinda mystery about herself .+ we've had some amazing chats about deep stuff. I thought it was a sexual thing at first .. but I think all guys have that initially with any girl they meet right?  So getting past that Im left with something else / a feeling that I can't work out .. Anyway each time we make a plan (and this has happened a few times) I get unusually excited and really up for the night. I’ve even had these strange visions of where I think we’re going to end up (not in bed dummy … visions like standing on top of a sky scraper looking across the city at night .. that kinda stuff) AND THEN each time  something kinda weird happens and we just don't meet.

    Like two nights ago for example – This is how it went. I messaged her on Facebook seeing if she wanted to go out (like take 3)  .. She was like "Im at work (it was 3.30am) but tomorrow sounds like a plan?? What are you thinking " I was then like "Ok how about I work something out like some art house Sydney Festival gig and then a bar in Newtown afterwards?” So let's meet at say 6.30 in Oxford Street at this bar I know" She was like "yayyyyyyy  let's do it" ...  

  Excuse me for being silly but I reckon when it plays out like that then you’d think it was going to happen .. Or am I missing something?

  So stupid me goes ahead and arranges things and gets all excited about the night out (Im not sure what vision I had at that point) . I thought “art house gig” .. Ok Im a Director and Im pretty art house .. She’s a pretty arty kinda girl .. So I started thinking The World Famous Speigeltent (it’s the art house performance art get up that happens every January in Sydney as part of the Sydney Festival – usually sold out!) So I bought tickets ($120 bucks) – I figured I’d just say that I got them comped from a friend (I didn’t want to look like I was taking her on a date)

  So the next night it’s 5pm and I send her a message on Facebook – “see you at 6.30 at Nevada in Oxford street – my friend works there – gonna be fun” No reply .. 

  As I was heading into Oxford street I just knew she wasn't going to show .. I had this kinda telepathic kinda feeling that it something was up. Sure enough 6.30 came and she was a no show.

7.00pm came and Im still in the same bar and still a no show. ..

So I started calling and messaging (all very polite) .. no answer

8.00pm came (4 drinks in another bar .. still in Oxford street) .. still no answer

9.00pm I headed up to Kinselas .. still no answer .. I started talking to these guys and they were like "what a bitch!' .. I was like "no I think it's something else" . They grabbed my phone and messaged her themselves they were so upset for me (thanks guys) 

9.22 - I received a message - "WHERE ARE YOU JONNY? MY PHONE DOES NOT RECEIVE YOUR MESSAGES" ... hooray hooray she's alive.  But then I thought how does your phone know I've been sending messages if it doesn't receive them???  Huh?? 

So I call a few times .(I figured if she's messaging me then she's at least keen to meet and Im not invading whatever she’s doing as she did message me afterall) . Some times the phone rings and rings out .. Other times the phone is out of service ... Other times (yes Im drunk now and getting frustrated .. and smoking a packet of Styvos)  it goes through to a voice mail where there is no message ... 

WEIRD !  She messaged me … So Im not totally crazy .. But then why wouldn’t you pick up when I call … I can handle strange stuff as I’ve had heaps of it happen of the last 10 years (and most of the time Im the weird one)

10.30 ... !! 

10.45 I starting thinking to myself - why am I in such a fuss? Why am I hanging out waiting .. What exactly am I hanging out for? Since when have I ever been like this about someone I've just met and someone I am not even that attracted to / or me ... ???  WTF JONNY ??? HAVE I FINALLY LOST IT ?? 

11pm .. I start talking to the bouncer of the upstairs at KINSELAS. He's like "mate you've had quite a bit to drink. So I sweet talk him and he lets's me in .. 

11.11 – I actually do remember looking down and seeing that

11.30 – I start thinking about this drug dealer I know .. I get out her number and look at in on my phone. I starting saying to myself “Jonny this is a really bad idea .. tomorrow you are going to be in debt and the next 3 days will be a write off” …

11.45 mustering up the soberest smile I can I order one last drink …,. The voice in my head says “Jonny you gotta get out of here now .. Get in a cab and go home”  … I smile and sip on a Scotch and Coke  (fuck they make the weak in Oz) … The sip turns into a chug .. I order another one ..  I think about how my Grandfather was an alcoholic who used to beat up the family .. I think about how worried my mother has been about me .. She says she sees a lot of him in me .. (WTF Im not violent … but I know the devil does exist in other ways) “send me an angel” I say to God … I take another look at my phone which .. a message appears “10% of battery left” …

12.00  midnight I start walking down the stairs of Kinselas remembering the place that I used to visit all those years ago  … My mind flashes back to the days of great pills and summer nights hanging in Taylor Square . I think about my old friends that I never see anymore (all married with kids and don’t go out anymore) … A voice in my head says The drug dealers number!  The battery is almost dead,.

  Looking down at the phone I glance up at someone walking past. It’s someone I know … Someone I haven’t seen in a long time .. Someone I’ve been looking for for 10 years.  My God … My angel … I know I’ll be safe now .. I put the phone back in my pocket  . You see I used to be good friends with this guy Stuart Connelly .. He’s the artist who came up with Gorillaz (or maybe it was his partner.. I can’t remember) .  He was one the crew I used to hang with all those years ago in this very place. His sister was an artist / actress … She auditioned for a TV show that I was involved with once .. She was beautiful and vivacious .. She died of a heroin overdose a few weeks later – and with that Stuart disappeared completely …

  I’ve been looking for him for years and years .. Not actively .. I just thought about what happened and how sad he must have been … how something like that could kill you … I thought at some point he’d re-appear somewhere in my life but he  never did . Over the last 10 years I’ve messaged a few mates more than a few times .. “Did you ever stay in contact with Stuart? What happened to him?” and no-one seemed to know. I was sure that 2 years ago I saw him running across George Street in Sydney getting on a bus … I called out but he didn’t hear …

  “Stuart!” … “How the fuck are you? ” .. I gave him a hug ..

  (he lives in Manly now and that’s another story …. but he gave me a ride home) 

[kgrind-jonny]

I send over 100 emails and texts per day trying to get Dream Channel moving ... So that's 36500 per year ! And I reckon that I've been solidly at it for about 10 years now ... So that's approximately 3,650,000 messages , emails - not to mention phone calls . In that time pretty much nothing has actually happened except for a lot of pain and frustration . What the fuck am I doing wrong ?? I now know the problem ! Every ! I raise goes straight out the door to a designer or a programmer who will gladly take the $ that's taken me so long to raise , and within a few weeks will gladly hold me to ransom , holding back designs and code until I get out there a d raise more $ for them . In the mean time everything stops ! I've been going 5 steps fwd and 4 steps back for years and YEARS ! If I could sit down at a desk and know that every message , every proposal , every wire frame that I push out was actually physically building something ... If I could invent something where ur efforts online = your rewards , and more importantly those rewards were mine - then I would have made millions by now ... I think over the last 10 years I've become someone surrounded by mercenary designers and coders who pray on my desire and energy . They always try and become the main man of the project - the coders are the worst as they always play on the fact that they are the only indispensable one . I'm an easy target wearing my passion on my sleeve I guess . Today I worked out what I need to do to get out of this rottern situation . Ive got to focus my energies on something that i can do on my own. Something that I can build on my own without having my life relying on a blackmailing , scheming coder , or a prima donna designer (most are this I'm so sorry to say) .. . I can direct . I can also write scripts . I can shoot , I can edit (well that needs some work ) I'm trained in story structure . If my project is just these than I can be in control . I can move on with my life without constant manipulation . So you - you fucking programming pricks - u don't rule my life anymore ... I'm moving on ... U can come to my place for meetings from now on ... And btw -(even though I don't do it anymore ) I've almost finished building a social network engine that when finished (if I choose to) will allow me to make $ from every message ... Come and play on The Dream Channel ;) I hate u

[kgrind-jonny]

I feel I've become such a burden on my family these last couple of years . I feel like my mum is still carrying me everywhere with her . I can tell that she longs for the day when she won't have t wake up stressed and have to continually worry about me ... For the last two years I've been writing and developing this feature film ... For me it seems so real, I'm not chasing a dream , it's a reality that us so going to happen . But as I express my anguish (something I could do better than wear on my sleeve) and draw my parents into it every day (and in a manner that I'm sus has a deep subconscious an ulterior motive about building guilt) I can see their pain building more and more each and every day . I got over the stress of a stalker that almost pulled our family apart 3 years ago - a fall out from my last excessive business disaster . At that time I was almost dead dead . I've got no excuse to now be the man that I was born to be and to have fully developed the voice I was destined to have . I've got no excuse not to be over my petty stresses about nothingness ... Ive got no excuse not to have my interactive story world flowing with more interactions than just myself The thing is that I've got everything I need now under my hood ... Now . If I'd care to listen it's all actually purring (while I'm constantly revving it with impatience ) ... And hey you that f@ucking stalker guy ! Step on out cause I'm going to smash u It's time to drive Jonny Boy

[neuromaencer]

[kgrind-jonny]

I had this dream the other night that I was in a 7/11 that got robbed. I came up behind the gun man and tackled him to the ground .. Then something weird happened ..  I was suddenly in the get away car and I was the driver ...   The car I was in was totally futuristic and had all these crazy buttons and gadgets .... The steering wheel was this huge button