Mark (de Rossi) Verona, 21 (Main Character)
Lead and rhythm guitarist and songwriter for the rock band “Reckless Life.” Supports himself with a job at the music equipment pawn shop “Manny’s Power Sound." Though it is a place that sells used music equipment, it has a huge reputation within the musical community. Some really high end stuff has come through the place in the past.
He started the guitar around age 14 with his step-father’s own Fender Stratocaster, after listening to a collection that ranged from the Stones to Aerosmith to Alice in Chains to Guns N' Roses -- he heard the solos and knew that he wanted to play like that.
Mark spent much of high school on the fringes; he wasn’t like a bitter dork, but he also never really fit in until he and Dalton met up. Dalton was marching band, and therefore a geek, and Mark was an outcast, but they enjoyed playing music together. While he was a bit awkward and too skinny and small growing up, a typical hyperactive little guy, he's had a growth spurt that kicked in during sophomore year and continued through junior year, when he joined the ranks of the average male height. Besides Dalton, in high school, there was Julie, though she was a more distant figure by then. They lived next door, but they didn't socialize in school -- there was always a reason to sort of keep a distance between bells.
He’s still finding his sound, though it seems as if he's really found his voice in the last couple years-- in high school, playing talent shows, he tried to exactly imitate the song he was playing. Now he puts his own spin on it, letting his technique into the playing when he does cover someone else's song. On the other hand, much of his focus is on moving from merely playing to actual composing.
Mark is tired of hearing people that try to dissuade him from music because ‘you have to get lucky’ and all that jazz; they like to talk about how hard it is, in his mind, because they never had the drive to make it. They talk about him wasting his life and being lazy and needing to get serious as if Mark isn’t playing a guitar sometimes ten to twelve hours a day and relentlessly composing and writing songs -- at first, the songs weren’t so hot, but they’ve been evolving into something far better with the constant practice he puts into it. While he initially rotated through a few different bands at the end of and after high school, they didn't always have the same skill level or drive that he wanted (one band wanted to just play covers and smoke weed.) Eventually, through making contacts at Manny's, he met the right kind of people, including his buddy Dalton, and formed Reckless Life.
Reckless Life has only been around less than a year, but they did at least two road trips, they call these little jaunts ‘tours’ without knowing what real touring is like, to Portland and then Seattle, where the hipsters hated them, and to a couple clubs in Austin Texas, Cave’s hometown, where people ate up the hard rock. Reckless Life also put out a small promo, self-published EP with some live material and shittily recorded tracks without the benefit of professional producing or a real studio, but at least it’s on their own terms so far. They have a fairly strong internet presence, as youtube and facebook are important parts of any band's ground game, and that's mostly thanks to their own grass-root efforts to promote themselves. They’re starting to get known and play real gigs now, and as a stage show, they have a raw ferocity and intensity that stands out in a rock world that seems to be very whiny, with lots of maudlin complaints, as if it’s all on a therapy couch. By contrast, Reckless Life shows up and plays loudly and exuberantly. They're still trying to find their sound, experimenting in that zone between the over the top death metal and the stripped down rock that tends to dominate the airwaves, but they're hitting a stride.
Psychologically, Mark tends to be willing to put up with shit rather than confront; his approach with Bryce is to sort of keep it all locked up inside, though he vents to the others in the band about the dude, who he feels has undue influence on Julie and is trying to control shit too much at his own apartment. Mark doesn't like conforming to much of anything, and so having some douchebag boyfriend of a friend try to call the shots in the apartment he pays half the rent for is annoying. Mark has the occasional casual on and off relationship with women, but has not really ever done a steady relationship, and he makes a point of not bringing them home to the shared apartment.
Lead and rhythm guitarist and songwriter for the rock band “Reckless Life.” Supports himself with a job at the music equipment pawn shop “Manny’s Power Sound." Though it is a place that sells used music equipment, it has a huge reputation within the musical community. Some really high end stuff has come through the place in the past.
He started the guitar around age 14 with his step-father’s own Fender Stratocaster, after listening to a collection that ranged from the Stones to Aerosmith to Alice in Chains to Guns N' Roses -- he heard the solos and knew that he wanted to play like that.
Mark spent much of high school on the fringes; he wasn’t like a bitter dork, but he also never really fit in until he and Dalton met up. Dalton was marching band, and therefore a geek, and Mark was an outcast, but they enjoyed playing music together. While he was a bit awkward and too skinny and small growing up, a typical hyperactive little guy, he's had a growth spurt that kicked in during sophomore year and continued through junior year, when he joined the ranks of the average male height. Besides Dalton, in high school, there was Julie, though she was a more distant figure by then. They lived next door, but they didn't socialize in school -- there was always a reason to sort of keep a distance between bells.
He’s still finding his sound, though it seems as if he's really found his voice in the last couple years-- in high school, playing talent shows, he tried to exactly imitate the song he was playing. Now he puts his own spin on it, letting his technique into the playing when he does cover someone else's song. On the other hand, much of his focus is on moving from merely playing to actual composing.
Mark is tired of hearing people that try to dissuade him from music because ‘you have to get lucky’ and all that jazz; they like to talk about how hard it is, in his mind, because they never had the drive to make it. They talk about him wasting his life and being lazy and needing to get serious as if Mark isn’t playing a guitar sometimes ten to twelve hours a day and relentlessly composing and writing songs -- at first, the songs weren’t so hot, but they’ve been evolving into something far better with the constant practice he puts into it. While he initially rotated through a few different bands at the end of and after high school, they didn't always have the same skill level or drive that he wanted (one band wanted to just play covers and smoke weed.) Eventually, through making contacts at Manny's, he met the right kind of people, including his buddy Dalton, and formed Reckless Life.
Reckless Life has only been around less than a year, but they did at least two road trips, they call these little jaunts ‘tours’ without knowing what real touring is like, to Portland and then Seattle, where the hipsters hated them, and to a couple clubs in Austin Texas, Cave’s hometown, where people ate up the hard rock. Reckless Life also put out a small promo, self-published EP with some live material and shittily recorded tracks without the benefit of professional producing or a real studio, but at least it’s on their own terms so far. They have a fairly strong internet presence, as youtube and facebook are important parts of any band's ground game, and that's mostly thanks to their own grass-root efforts to promote themselves. They’re starting to get known and play real gigs now, and as a stage show, they have a raw ferocity and intensity that stands out in a rock world that seems to be very whiny, with lots of maudlin complaints, as if it’s all on a therapy couch. By contrast, Reckless Life shows up and plays loudly and exuberantly. They're still trying to find their sound, experimenting in that zone between the over the top death metal and the stripped down rock that tends to dominate the airwaves, but they're hitting a stride.
Psychologically, Mark tends to be willing to put up with shit rather than confront; his approach with Bryce is to sort of keep it all locked up inside, though he vents to the others in the band about the dude, who he feels has undue influence on Julie and is trying to control shit too much at his own apartment. Mark doesn't like conforming to much of anything, and so having some douchebag boyfriend of a friend try to call the shots in the apartment he pays half the rent for is annoying. Mark has the occasional casual on and off relationship with women, but has not really ever done a steady relationship, and he makes a point of not bringing them home to the shared apartment.
Cave Wyatt, 22
Lead singer for the band Reckless life; born in Texas, ran away at age 17 and working odd jobs to support himself while crashing at various people’s houses. Cave is impulsive and potentially emotionally unbalanced and seems to consider himself a disciple of the Iggy Pop school of singing; his voice has very much the deep tone and searing howl that Iggy had. He’s also an egomaniac. Bryce hates him above all others in the band, though only slightly more than Mark, and the hate is mutual -- prior to meeting Bryce, Cave crashed at the apartment a time or two, a situation that ended around the time that Byrce started hanging around more. Cave doesn't take Bryce's shit the way Mark will to be diplomatic -- he throws it right back in Bryce's face. In fact, Mark crashes less often at the apartment because Bryce is around an awful lot and he freakin’ pays rent to the place. Cave has his uses; he is the guy that often works hard at marketing the band. He knows a lot of drug dealers, strippers and shady people, but he manages to get a lot of help in promoting the band and getting them gigs at increasingly better places; he was the one that came up with the idea of playing Texas after the Portland and Seattle thing didn’t turn out so hot, and gave the band confidence in the process. Cave occasionally holds down a job like as a cashier or a call center guy, but not very often; he has issues with bosses and authority and inevitably winds up fired or walking off the job.
Stace Calvert, 21
Rhythm and lead guitarist with the band Reckless Life. A dropout from Berkeley on a scholarship in engineering after a year, since working phone collections to pay the bills. The guy is a bit of a mystery and likes it that way; he does the damnedest things on a whim, but he generally puts off a vibe of having his shit together. He does the silent man bit real well. He plays primarily Fender guitars through low-powered amps with the knobs all the way up rather than messing with effects pedals. He makes his money in shady sorts of ways, no one really knows quite what the hell Stace does, though like the rest of the band he is either totally broke or damned close to it.
Florentino “Ren” Kong, 23
Korean-Mexican LA native and bass guitarist in the band Reckless Life, works construction to make ends meet, which probably gives him the most cash of the band, since he lives at home and can save it, whereas Mark pays rent. Ren is wrestler material -- and did that in high school -- and he’s a bit on the protective side of his buddies -- the entire band has a ‘us versus everyone else’ mentality, but Ren is more than willing to cold-cock a guy that starts talking up. Otherwise, he’s pretty good-natured, but likes his drink. He prefers a Fender Precision Bass.
Dalton Marquez, 21
Drummer for the band Reckless Life. Unemployed, living with mother. Afro-Cuban that learned to drum in a high school band, where he played like a boss, Dalton transferred in during junior year at Mark and Julie’s high school. When Mark and Dalton met, an instant friendship was formed on the basis of a similar taste in skateboards and disdain for attending class, which evolved into music and cutting class when they both discovered instruments -- Mark learned guitar from his stepdad, initially anyway, and Dalton got signed up for marching band as part of a pact with his mother to make up for some long ago misbehavior. As a result, he's got a powerful style of drumming he honed in high school marching band, where he had a blast. It was literally the only class he showed up to. For whatever reason, Dalton has the touch with women, which he uses in the most inappropriate ways -- such as to nail a married woman or someone’s sister -- but so far has not fathered kids. He's happy go lucky in a dopey pool boy sort of way, but hapless -- Dalton tends to get into trouble, but mostly the embarrassing kind, rather than the serious kind.
Lead singer for the band Reckless life; born in Texas, ran away at age 17 and working odd jobs to support himself while crashing at various people’s houses. Cave is impulsive and potentially emotionally unbalanced and seems to consider himself a disciple of the Iggy Pop school of singing; his voice has very much the deep tone and searing howl that Iggy had. He’s also an egomaniac. Bryce hates him above all others in the band, though only slightly more than Mark, and the hate is mutual -- prior to meeting Bryce, Cave crashed at the apartment a time or two, a situation that ended around the time that Byrce started hanging around more. Cave doesn't take Bryce's shit the way Mark will to be diplomatic -- he throws it right back in Bryce's face. In fact, Mark crashes less often at the apartment because Bryce is around an awful lot and he freakin’ pays rent to the place. Cave has his uses; he is the guy that often works hard at marketing the band. He knows a lot of drug dealers, strippers and shady people, but he manages to get a lot of help in promoting the band and getting them gigs at increasingly better places; he was the one that came up with the idea of playing Texas after the Portland and Seattle thing didn’t turn out so hot, and gave the band confidence in the process. Cave occasionally holds down a job like as a cashier or a call center guy, but not very often; he has issues with bosses and authority and inevitably winds up fired or walking off the job.
Stace Calvert, 21
Rhythm and lead guitarist with the band Reckless Life. A dropout from Berkeley on a scholarship in engineering after a year, since working phone collections to pay the bills. The guy is a bit of a mystery and likes it that way; he does the damnedest things on a whim, but he generally puts off a vibe of having his shit together. He does the silent man bit real well. He plays primarily Fender guitars through low-powered amps with the knobs all the way up rather than messing with effects pedals. He makes his money in shady sorts of ways, no one really knows quite what the hell Stace does, though like the rest of the band he is either totally broke or damned close to it.
Florentino “Ren” Kong, 23
Korean-Mexican LA native and bass guitarist in the band Reckless Life, works construction to make ends meet, which probably gives him the most cash of the band, since he lives at home and can save it, whereas Mark pays rent. Ren is wrestler material -- and did that in high school -- and he’s a bit on the protective side of his buddies -- the entire band has a ‘us versus everyone else’ mentality, but Ren is more than willing to cold-cock a guy that starts talking up. Otherwise, he’s pretty good-natured, but likes his drink. He prefers a Fender Precision Bass.
Dalton Marquez, 21
Drummer for the band Reckless Life. Unemployed, living with mother. Afro-Cuban that learned to drum in a high school band, where he played like a boss, Dalton transferred in during junior year at Mark and Julie’s high school. When Mark and Dalton met, an instant friendship was formed on the basis of a similar taste in skateboards and disdain for attending class, which evolved into music and cutting class when they both discovered instruments -- Mark learned guitar from his stepdad, initially anyway, and Dalton got signed up for marching band as part of a pact with his mother to make up for some long ago misbehavior. As a result, he's got a powerful style of drumming he honed in high school marching band, where he had a blast. It was literally the only class he showed up to. For whatever reason, Dalton has the touch with women, which he uses in the most inappropriate ways -- such as to nail a married woman or someone’s sister -- but so far has not fathered kids. He's happy go lucky in a dopey pool boy sort of way, but hapless -- Dalton tends to get into trouble, but mostly the embarrassing kind, rather than the serious kind.
Harry Cohen, 47
An entertainment lawyer, Mark’s stepfather for a period of about four years while married to his mother. He is irascible but sort of seems to feel a bit guilty about divorcing Mark’s mother and not providing a very good father figure -- he’s a workaholic. Surprisingly, he’s the one that supported Mark’s guitar ambition, to the point of buying him a Gibson SG Standard when he was 16 and it was clear that it was serious for Mark -- Mark still has that guitar. He was also the guy that taught him how to play, at least at first before his student ran away with it. Cohen was actually, once upon a time, a real punk rock fan but he ‘grew’ out of it.
Annette de Rossi, 42
A native of Seattle but a graduate of NYU with an Master's of Fine Arts in Curatorial Practice that works at UCLA's Hammer Museum as well as consulting for brokers, owners and prospective buyers of expensive artwork in LA, which has a pretty big, rich market, but also a sometimes tasteless clientele that need someone to hold their hand as they go shopping for shit to show off. Mark’s father is not known, for a variety of reasons, including that she’s not saying much about it. She’s made a good living in the art business though, because it takes money to live next door (in the Valley) to Julie's parents. She has connections with Hollywood types, movie and music, who appreciate her sensibility when it comes to picking the sort of artwork that make people thing edgy and jagged; she’s even sold a couple Jackson Pollock and Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings through the brokerage she is a partner at. She is fairly settled down now, out of the habit of having raised a kid, but she never could keep a marriage and never seemed to worry too much about it. She has hinted about partying around in her youth, but doesn’t really deliver details, which keeps it an interesting mystery. As one can imagine, one of her foremost traits is discretion/tact; she is good at steering people away from foolish decisions while making them think they came up with the idea themselves. When she does dress, it’s stylishly but not overbearing. She clearly has conflicts about her son’s choices in life, but is better about supporting him than other people often are.
An entertainment lawyer, Mark’s stepfather for a period of about four years while married to his mother. He is irascible but sort of seems to feel a bit guilty about divorcing Mark’s mother and not providing a very good father figure -- he’s a workaholic. Surprisingly, he’s the one that supported Mark’s guitar ambition, to the point of buying him a Gibson SG Standard when he was 16 and it was clear that it was serious for Mark -- Mark still has that guitar. He was also the guy that taught him how to play, at least at first before his student ran away with it. Cohen was actually, once upon a time, a real punk rock fan but he ‘grew’ out of it.
Annette de Rossi, 42
A native of Seattle but a graduate of NYU with an Master's of Fine Arts in Curatorial Practice that works at UCLA's Hammer Museum as well as consulting for brokers, owners and prospective buyers of expensive artwork in LA, which has a pretty big, rich market, but also a sometimes tasteless clientele that need someone to hold their hand as they go shopping for shit to show off. Mark’s father is not known, for a variety of reasons, including that she’s not saying much about it. She’s made a good living in the art business though, because it takes money to live next door (in the Valley) to Julie's parents. She has connections with Hollywood types, movie and music, who appreciate her sensibility when it comes to picking the sort of artwork that make people thing edgy and jagged; she’s even sold a couple Jackson Pollock and Jean-Michel Basquiat paintings through the brokerage she is a partner at. She is fairly settled down now, out of the habit of having raised a kid, but she never could keep a marriage and never seemed to worry too much about it. She has hinted about partying around in her youth, but doesn’t really deliver details, which keeps it an interesting mystery. As one can imagine, one of her foremost traits is discretion/tact; she is good at steering people away from foolish decisions while making them think they came up with the idea themselves. When she does dress, it’s stylishly but not overbearing. She clearly has conflicts about her son’s choices in life, but is better about supporting him than other people often are.
