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I’m halfway there | Watching “Thank You Goodnight” part I (spoiler warning)

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

Did I have time to watch this highly anticipated Bon Jovi documentary series today April 26 in the year of our Lord 2024?
Of course I didn’t!

I’m guessing there are few people who have five hours to kill on a Friday (or on a weekend for that matter) but these are traditionally my busiest weeks of the year, and with the peak this weekend, and this time the stakes are even higher, because they are more personal.

So when well into our Central European AM, I saw the documentary had finally been uploaded to Disney+, after what had felt like way too many refreshings of the tab, for a documentary that was going to be released ON THE 26th, I went for it.

Maybe if I had seen it first thing in the morning, as I expected it to, I would still have had enough resistance to not click.
But by 9.30 AM my patience and ability to make good decisions has been SHRED to pieces from the waiting!
From the confusion!

I had assumed that one minute after the clock strikes twelve at a small island in the pacific I expect this series would be rolled out across the globe.
I did not expect to get online and have to WAIT!

I’m not a Disney + user, or at least I wasn’t until this week, so I have no experience with the time when a show premieres.
And even if I had had Disney+ over the years, chances would have been slim at best, that another documentary had been so compelling to me, I would have looked for it, while still having breakfast.

Anyway, when then suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere because I had already made my peace with the show probably not airing until 8PM at night (noon on the East Coast of the USA), the search “Bon Jovi” on Disney+ DID come up with a hit, in the form of this series?
Oh, I clicked it with a vengeance!
I did not want to wait even a second longer!

Even though of course I told myself I would watch juuuuust a little bit!
Like when you ve quit smoking or drinking and you think:
“One sip won’t hurt,” but you know you’re gonna lose yourself.

So of course I lost myself.

And spent all the hours which I should have spent on filming two Dutch YouTube videos (I already filmed three international ones, which somehow seem to come easier) watching the docu series.
Nothing got done and I binged.

And then I had appointments and at night, instead of using the final hours of light to film those videos after all;
Ooh, I just binged some more!

So by now I am over halfway there, deep into episode three out of four, and we’re at Crush (2000).
The 80s and 90s are done, and this is me sharing my first thoughts.

The documentary makes the bold choice to weave together two story lines;
The chronological(-ish) history of the band, together with the voice struggles, vocal chord surgery and the recovery process of Jon Bon Jovi, from 2022 and up.
And then there are band members and others involved over the span of four decades, filmed in current day, commenting and providing context to the chronological story line.

We don’t see someone entering the story, unless the movie has reached the point where they are introduced in the story.
This is why you see David Bryan the keyboard player and Jon Bon Jovi opening the first episode, because they already knew each other from when they are teens, but you don’t see drummer Tico Torres until he joins the band.
And you don’t see Jon Bon Jovi’s wife Dorothea until the story hits 1989 and they get married, even though at that point she has been in his life for about 10 years.

As a relatively uninformed fan, I really like finally seeing all the people involved with the band. We all know the names, but now we can hear them bring color to the story.
I was in particular struck by Desmond Child, who for some reason I always imagined as someone very loud and wild, and who turns out to be a soft-spoken, sophisticated and eloquent man.
I’m so star struck I would probably watch a four part documentary of Desmond Child speaking about Bon Jovi.

I just tried to get back to the episodes, but my Disney+ seems consistently jammed or messed up.
Is it possible that Thank You Goodnight has had so many people subscribing and watching, that we actually blew it up?!

I can’t fact check things, even if I wanted to.

The documentary leans heavily on Jon Bon Jovi’s collection of memorabilia, and the documentary shows him turning to curating it himself in the weeks he’s not allowed to sing because his vocal chords need to heal.
In the basement, sporting a black t shirt, a grey beard, and with a hoarse voice, he shows us how he finds comfort in doing this slow, labor intense task of sorting through all the old cassettes.
He lets us listen to Cadillac man.
A song which was until today, only known to the die-hardest of fans. It was played live once, Osaka 1991. and that recording made it to YouTube, it even comes with video.
The recording Jon has, is a different one, but he is genuinely pleased hearing it, and you see him experiencing the satisfaction that this foreign work of curating the possessions in his basement his own legacy (a task that has been outsourced for 18 months, by the time he gets his teeth in it), has brought up.

Jon’s keen sense of legacy and having held on to historic items, as well as the archiving process that was started in tandem with the movie, really solidify the legacy in my opinion.
You can see a selection of finds, items on the website Backstage With Bon Jovi. 

It is very late, and I have to wrap this up, this first impression of the documentary.

I want to conclude it with a Dutch reference: Footage from the Dutch show Countdown with Adam Curry from 1986, is shown.
The subtitles is even still on it, it must have been straight from YouTube.
The two scenes are from the same visit to Countdown, 8 December 1986, but they were aired differently;
One as a “mini-special” where the band behaved as if they had come back to the studio, to participate.
This is the second clip where Adam Curry asks David Bryan “how would you describe your music”?
And David says “good”.

You can watch the video of the mini-special here- the date in the title is NOT correct, it is 1986, not 1988.

And the first Countdown clip in de documentary, where Jon Bon Jovi is standing next to a huge Adam Curry, is from the regular Countdown broadcast.
This video unfortunately lost its audio, probably due to copyright claims, but you can see the video here.

It wasn’t until we got to 1989 in the docu series, that I understood why they had chosen the Adam Curry footage to feature 1986;
Because he was the Headbangers Ball reporter on the plane that carried Bon Jovi and four other rock acts to Moscow in 1989!
So I looked that up for you as well, and here it is:
Bon Jovi Flying to Moscow Aug 1989

That was it, it’s late here and I feel as tired as Jon Bon Jovi on a plane to Moscow in 1989.
So I don’t have something funny, dramatic or compelling to end it with.

Oh. Wait!

Thank you. Goodnight.

Suzanne
☕️ Buy me a coffee
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voor Nederland 🇳🇱 Tikkie van de week

Share Your Work, is a new daily series on social media with what I wrote, posted, encountered or did. You can follow it on
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Today’s episode was this longer stand-alone post.

That was it! 

Thank you for reading my Rock Star Writer blog!
Subscribe to the blog, to get them in your mailbox.
You can find the subscription button on this page, probably on the top right.

my businesses since 2023:

Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

+ My new Dutch company

de Club
yoga voor generatie X

————-

This Rock Star Writer blog is an element of “Rock Star” [phase 3]

Title: “Rock Star”
or “Rock Star yoga/ business/ writer”

artists: Suzanne Beenackers, little bear Puux           
art form: writing + YouTube videos
leg 1: earliest expressions, mixed work, July 2019 – March 2022
leg 2: The Void April 2022 – January 2023
leg 3: Storytelling 17 January 2023 – 

4 blogs
1. Rock Star Writer
2. Daily Bon Jovi Yoga 
3. World Between Worlds
4. Dutch blog: Suzanne Beenackers

3 YouTube channels
1. English YouTube Stories of Bon Jovi and Rock Star Yoga
2. Nederlandse YouTube de Club, Yoga voor Generatie X (Dutch)
3. YouTube Rock Your Business

2 Facebook pages
1. Rock Star Writer on Facebook
2. Dutch: Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver Facebook met beertje Puux

1 Twitter account
my personal Twitter account

1 Instagram
as probably the last person joining there! 

🌍🌎 📚🛒
An online bookshop

& One company since February 2023:

Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

+ My new Dutch company, expected late May 2023

de Club
yoga voor generatie X

Books

You can find my books The Little Mistress Who Turned Into A Baby Koala
A Boyfriend Like Jon Bongiovi
and White Tigress Yoga Workbook
at the bottom of this page: https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter

If you live in The Netherlands, Belgium or Germany, you can also order these books from me – just go to the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter
to check out which ones you want, and write me an email at s_beenackers@hotmail.com.
Payment is via PayPal or bank transfer.

Unlock those vaults and create the legacy | 2020 10 28 | A 2020 bounced email to Team JBJ

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

The past 18 months or so, Bon Jovi has been hosting a radio channel Sirius FM, sharing their concert recordings which up until then were only available in bootleg format.

And earlier this year 2024, the band opened their digital museum experience,  Backstage with Bon Jovi, showcasing their legacy.

Because I remembered sending them an email years ago, suggesting exactly these two things, I finally decided to unlock my own archives, and have a peek.
Was I the one bringing them to this idea?

Turns out, Yes; I did send them a letter.
But it bounced in a weird and peculiar fashion…. I had never seen anything like it.
I don’t know enough about software to understand if that means it is excluded they read it.
But I assume it did.

There is no retry sending it, probably because I vividly remember thinking;

“Well I did my job of trying to tell them.
God, you figure it out because this is clearly not my task to do!” 

And God did.
Obviously.

But on this Wednesday in April, I just couldn’t resist sharing what I found in my Sent Emails box.
The letter that was never read by any human soul.
But maybe, someone upstairs, was listening.
Or chuckling.

Wednesday 28 October 2020
11:51 AM

title:
suggestions w regard to your business model (you’re leaving money on the table and making it hard)

message:

Hi Team JBJ! 

I m really excited for you guys* , but as a fan from Europe I really have some issues that you may want to address,
if you are considering tailoring the JBJ experience to a global audience.

And I also have a suggestion to a business model that you may not have thought of,
that is way less hassle and more sustainable than the one you have now.

First of all, customs fees are NASTY.
You may want to consider offering “International Gold Pack” or “International Membership” without physical products being sent through mail.
Or, alternatively, put up BIG SIGNS that you will be billed by customs, for VAT I think it is officially.
For anything over 20 euros but that’s including postage, so that’s easily “scored”.

Secondly, I received an email yesterday, that my copy of 2020 cd had shipped.
That’s 26 days after the promised date without any apology, or explanation why it had taken so long.
And after mailing customer service, and receiving a “No worries mate, we’ll consider you’re inquiry handled now. Unless you say it’s not handled, then fill out this form with a thousand blancs.” reply.

Sending physical products out globally is a pain in the ass;
But if you do it, you gotta come up with better customer service than standard replies to very valid inquiries why a cd which was supposed to ship on October 2nd, apparently didn’t.

And now the business model:
There are recordings of 30+ years of concerts, which the fans would love to have access to.
Many bootlegs have actually been remastered by fans already, and can be harvested straight from YouTube.
There are fans working on remastering recordings, who you could sign up as an employee,
who would fill your database with the FULL legacy of Bon Jovi, in absolute no time.

You could go for the obvious, and create an on-“site” (behind login) community around the audios,
But you could also offer/ unlock tours, and sell them one by one.
In that case you go to your dashboard and see the tours you purchased,
and of course also, winking at you with special offers, gottahave copywriting and an extra kiss if you decide NOW –
seeing the other tours available for purchase.
You could then for example use the Facebook page to let fans discuss them.
For example:
“We just unlocked the Asian leg of our 1995 CrossRoad tour! Were you there? 
Did you see? 
First 24 hours available for $10.” 

Us fans are so grateful for Bon Jovi still being there, there’s really no expressing our gratitude.
So with that being said, I do feel bad for being a bit critical for responding to your new memberships program.

But we’re all worried that the The Legacy, all those tapes from all those decades, will be lost or not properly looked after.
When NOW is the time to get them out and sign up those fans worldwide who are so familiar with your work,
and could help you out sorting it out and monetizing the s*** out of it –
in a heartbeat.

Curating and safeguarding the Bon Jovi legacy, is your work. It is your responsibility.
How do they call it in the bible?
Being a good steward of the work of the Lord.

And with everybody still alive and kicking, and systems and organizations in place,
I think it is time to unlock those vaults, and create The Legacy.

Warm regards,

Suzanne Beenackers
Nijmegen, Netherlands

* the letter was written as a reply to the (re-)launch of the JBJ experience, hence the reference to me being happy for them

 

 

That was it! 

Thank you for reading my Rock Star Writer blog!
Subscribe to the blog, to get them in your mailbox.
You can find the subscription button on this page, probably on the top right.

SUPPORT
☕️ Buy me a coffee
🥳 PayPalMe 
voor Nederland 🇳🇱 Tikkie van de week

 

my businesses since 2023:

Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

+ My new Dutch company

de Club
yoga voor generatie X

————-

This Rock Star Writer blog is an element of “Rock Star” [phase 3]

Title: “Rock Star”
or “Rock Star yoga/ business/ writer”

artists: Suzanne Beenackers, little bear Puux           
art form: writing + YouTube videos
leg 1: earliest expressions, mixed work, July 2019 – March 2022
leg 2: The Void April 2022 – January 2023
leg 3: Storytelling 17 January 2023 – 

4 blogs
1. Rock Star Writer
2. Daily Bon Jovi Yoga 
3. World Between Worlds
4. Dutch blog: Suzanne Beenackers

3 YouTube channels
1. English YouTube Stories of Bon Jovi and Rock Star Yoga
2. Nederlandse YouTube de Club, Yoga voor Generatie X (Dutch)
3. YouTube Rock Your Business

2 Facebook pages
1. Rock Star Writer on Facebook
2. Dutch: Suzanne Beenackers Schrijver Facebook met beertje Puux

1 Twitter account
my personal Twitter account

1 Instagram
as probably the last person joining there! 

🌍🌎 📚🛒
An online bookshop

& One company since February 2023:

Catacombe
become the Rock Star you were born to be

+ My new Dutch company, expected late May 2023

de Club
yoga voor generatie X

Books

You can find my books The Little Mistress Who Turned Into A Baby Koala
A Boyfriend Like Jon Bongiovi
and White Tigress Yoga Workbook
at the bottom of this page: https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter

If you live in The Netherlands, Belgium or Germany, you can also order these books from me – just go to the bottom of this page:
https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rockstarwriter
to check out which ones you want, and write me an email at s_beenackers@hotmail.com.
Payment is via PayPal or bank transfer.

hAnD90 Channel Down | THE END of Bon Jovi on this site?

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment

This is my last post until:
– the site from hAnD90 is back up
or
– January 2021, when it will continue Bon Jovi- free, probably as Rock Star Yoga

I could not find an image of that beautiful logo that hAnD90 used at the beginning of every Bon Jovi concert video:
A hand.

You could already hear the audio in the background, usually the crowd cheering, sometimes Jon talking.
And after the image of the hand had slowly drifted closer towards you,
it would disappear, and you would see where you were.
In a stadium.
A hall.
Or a more intimate setting.

For I believe ten years plus, Dominik’s YouTube channel hAnD90, has been a beacon for us fans.
And my site Rock Star Writer or Rock Star Yoga as it was called in the first year, is just as much a tribute to his channel hAnD90 as it is to Bon Jovi.

The first time I knew I was going to see the name hAnD90 a lot more often, was when I saved the recording of the concert, Nijmegen Netherlands 2019, knowing I would listen to it over and over again.
It was his, he had received the recording from friends.
Suddenly I knew who the two men were right behind me, who had refused to speak when I said something:
They didn’t want to ruin the recording with their voices!

The hAnD90 recording from Nijmegen, Netherlands 2019, was recorded from the golden circle and it was one of the many excellent recordings, of four decades of Bon Jovi concerts, that had the (I m gonna say it!) honor to be remastered by hAnD90. 

I refuse to go into full-on obituary mode here, after all I don’t even know what happened to the channel.
All I know is that Jon Bon Jovi’s brother has been inquiring which channel had shared exclusive “JBJ experience” members-only recordings on YouTube, and next thing anyone knows hAnD90’s channel is cleared out.

So not going into obituary mode means:
I m not going to look back on who hAnD90 WAS (past tense), and that his description boxes got so personal and at the same time very techy, which I found an enticing combination!
I refuse to see this as The End – 
To commemorate just one brilliant video hAnD90 made.

If this should be final, I will do more research and write a piece about the hAnD90 channel.
But not today.

I also think this is not the time to share my take on business models, 
but I will say that anyone who thinks art can be protected by putting a paywall around it, has got it wrong.

Anyone built for the future is in a continuous conversation with their fans and they can pay to be closer to you, to be in your energy. 
That’s it.
Payment is almost a symbolic thing: It is because you give so much value, that people are happy they can finally pay you.
You pay for the experience of being part of a community; Not because you can’t get the products or digital products cheaper or free somewhere else. 

However, from this day forward, I will never speak or write of them again, as long as the hAnD90 channel is down.
I m quitting all series here, and my YouTube series of Bon Jovi concerts 1995-1996. 
And not just because I looked forward to reviewing the concerts hAnD90 had remastered, but as a principle.

There is so much I want to say, about the business model, about bootlegging (Jon’s loud: “Bootleggers roll your tapes!” has been the inclusive message ever since the 90s!), about how it is the fans that ultimately make the tribe.
Yes, you can remove all your bootlegs from YouTube.
Just ask Guns N Roses.

The reason this site is NOT about Guns N Roses, is because they do not have that legacy. I have nothing to work with.
A handful of GNR albums, and all bootlegs removed….

But Bon Jovi has stayed in business throughout, always making records,
surviving even the departure of their lead guitarist.
But it were the bootlegs on YouTube and hAnD90s remastered recordings that made the fandom ALIVE.

It were the fans who breathed life into Bon Jovi, just as much as they gave it to us.

Ironically the songs hAnD90 posted were called Shine and Luv Can.

As Axl Rose would say:
“Take that one to heart.”

~Suzanne
Rock Star Writer
.

Curious how this will all pan out?!
So am I!
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You can find the subscription button on this page, probably somewhere on the right.

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Bon Jovi concert reviews 1995-1996 Suzanne Beenackers YouTube

How Creativity Became My Great Escape | Do What you Can

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment
At Easter I made the resolution to create daily.
Because although I could not commit to one language, one medium, one craft; I COULD commit to creating.
In fact it was harder not to create, than to just let it flow out of me.
. 
YouTube videos.
Yoga classes.
Blog posts.
Unofficial blogposts, or “illegal” as I like to call them. Where I used a Facebook page or my LinkedIn profile instead of a website to write, because I didn’t want subscribers to get too many emails.
Every day I created 2 or 3 things.
.
Creating daily has firmly planted my feet into feeling absolutely great.
I acknowledge being privileged here, I have little to no worries. But that makes it ( I think) even a bigger responsibility to keep your spirits up.
Creativity keeps my spirits up, but in turn, it also gives me something positive to share.
.
So almost from the get go, I understood creativity to be the antidote to a life in solitary confinement. Although with social media and multiple communication tools present, the term “solitary” is of course extremely relative. 
But compared to 6 weeks ago we all live in this tiny little world, trapped with our thoughts.
And in that world, I have found Creativity, giving myself permission to write, make videos and teach online classes, is really a great escape.
If you have control over what you create, it suddenly doesn’t matter that much that there’s huge chunks of your life and your future, you have little to no control over.
But yesterday night, during my free-flow, improvised yoga class  -where not just the exercises are created at the spot, but the theme itself is given full freedom to develop within the 75 minutes of the class –
I struck upon a wisdom which revealed an even deeper underlying principle, that I had unconsciously be applying.
That was far more extensive than just having something to do.
.
It was the aspect of Giving, without wondering how you were going to “get” stay nourished and taken care of yourself.
After having spent a large part of the class laying the foundation:
To make a decision, to stand your ground, to claim what is yours – all so that your foundation becomes strong enough for you to start inviting people in, and start sharing your gifts- I said:
“There is also a quicker way.”
.
And I said the quicker way is to simply start giving from wherever it is you are, and whatever it is you have, trusting that you will receive whatever is nessecary for you to function.
That it is not up to you to stake your claim, or to defend your resources:
It is only your task to share and give, what you feel called to share.
And to have faith that you will be taken care of.
That the resources will come.
That your work, is only in the giving, only in the sharing what you ve got.
.
And not only is it quicker: But have you ever wondered, that maybe this is really the only way? 
How much money were you going to save, how steady does your income need to be, how many crisis or unforeseen circumstances are you going to insure yourself against, before you feel “ready enough” to start giving to others and start sharing your work freely? 
It reminded me of how I became a yoga teacher. 
In 2001, I was doing more than 1 hour of yoga a day, and I was looking for a way to get taught in a way that supported that.
At that time there were no medium levels of support: It was either your weekly class, or a teacher training.
So I chose a teacher training, without any plans to become a teacher.
I just wanted to learn more and get the support.
But halfway in our four year training we did learn how to teach, and I immediately was one of the few who started doing it professionally.
And it was because of a deep insight:
If I teach, I make space in my mind to receive new things.
Teaching, verbalizing it to others, is the last stage of understanding it. As soon as I have shared it that directly, the lesson (on my part) is learned and has become part of who I am.
And space for the new is created.
It is the giving, that allows you to receive.
You can’t sit on your talents like Scrooge McDuck sits on his money. In year two of my training, it had become evident to me that the way to that made sense to complete this four year education, was to start sharing. 
.
I think it’s the same way with giving and sharing your work.
It is not just in the creation, in the creativity, where the healing comes from.
It’s in sharing it.
It’s in posting that video I created, publishing that blogpost, but also:
It s in teaching that class, and passing on what I know by teaching yoga.
.
You could even say that the reason I feel so good about being creative, is not because of the (narrow minded definition of) creativity at all:
It’s because it allows me to share something.
Yoga classes on YouTube and to my online group, and other videos on YouTube and creative writing.
.
Jon Bon Jovi and his wife have been very involved through their charity organization JBJ Soul Kitchen, providing meals.
They work around the clock, to make this happen, together with a lot of volunteers.
“If you can’t do what you do, you do what you can.” Jon Bon Jovi has called it, in a song he keeps adding different verses to which people send in to him.
He’s even sung it in classrooms, with children telling them what to sing.
You can follow Do What you Can on Bon Jovi YouTube and Instagram.
.
Four wise words that Jon Bon Jovi figured out weeks before I did:
Do what you can..
.

~Suzanne

Update 

In June 2020, I renamed this site from Rock Star Yoga to Rock Star Writer.
I ll update all blogposts (there are 46) and will get my fingers into the YouTube channel soon, including retrieving content I had to take down in January because of technicalities.

New videos expected too, at Suzanne Beenackers YouTube

About this blog

These blog posts will go out randomly, as topics reveal themselves.
You can find the subscription button on this page, probably somewhere on the right.

Rock Star Writer on Facebook*
my personal Twitter account

* sadly enough all referrals/ links to the Rock Star “Yoga” page on Facebook (url), have become invalid. I intend to start curating this blog, and update the links.

Rock on Anyway

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment
As I m writing this I have no idea if I will make yoga videos tonight;
A Bon Jovi talk?
SURE!
But yoga?
Eh…
 
From what I recall from yesterday, when I postponed my “We Rule the Night” yoga video (inspired by a rare 1985 Bon Jovi song) to nighttime, only to realize:
I DO NOT rule the night-
Is that I promised myself I d do better today.
And not wait so long.
 
Because despite the badass ring to it;
My Rock Star Yoga was going to be a daytime thing.
 
However!
Little did I know, that me finding out I lost my bankcard yesterday, followed by intensive searches both indoor as well as outdoor, tracking back yesterday’s hour long walk;
Combined with a few Corona related choices and forecasts I had to make-
Would lead to me living an entire day that was entirely unforeseen.
 
But, and this did come true, as soon as I accepted that I lost the card and it was not going to come back-
I made a decision.
 
That this was going to work in my advantage.
 
That any financial costs or time investments, would pay themselves back.
That things were happening exactly as they should.
 
Maybe if my card was found, it would be like a super high end business card! And picked up by someone who would Google me, and would like what he or she saw.
 
Because I may not rule the night, and not film those yoga videos I promised.
Or toss them out when I do (yesterday’s Rock Star Yoga video ended in the trash bin)
But that’s no reason not to rock life.
 
When I got home, someone who I had sent a message through LinkedIn two weeks ago, had written me a very kind reply.
 
In my mind, at least energetically, he was the one who had picked up my lost bankcard, the high level golden business card!
 
Whatever your unexpected chain of events is today:
Stay calm.
And rock on.
 
~Suzanne
PS: new Bon Jovi talks and Rock Star Yoga videos are posted at:
PPS Let’s rock it together!
The subscription button is somewhere on this page, usually on the top right, and we’re on:

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Access All Areas – A Rock & Roll Odyssey

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment
on VHS

From October 1988 to February 1990, Bon Jovi toured the world with their Jersey Syndicate Tour.
They visited North America, South America, Australia and New Zealand, Japan, Europe; And they created three music videos and one music documentary.
Which could have their last because the tour schedule was so gruesome, and all band members so exhausted, that it would probably have been their last tour and the band would never have gotten back together, if they had finished it one day later..

I saw Access All Areas once, must have been nine months ago or something. And I remember that it was actually quite painstaking to get all the different parts together at YouTube.
But now I found this Spanish subtitled version, which has the entire documentary.
There is no DVD.
After the 90s, when Access All Areas was released on VHS, the DVD was only supplied in the New Jersey Super Deluxe (not regular Deluxe) reissue box, from 2014.
I think being able to rewatch Access All Areas all in one piece will already make a huge difference, compared to the scattered experience from last spring.
But there is another reason why I know it will be different this time, rewatching it;
I found the structure behind it.
.
In preparing the video I shot today – one I ultimately deleted when I was editing it, because my psychedelic glitter top was hypnotizing the viewer – I had encountered the Wiki page that explained the structure of the documentary; What and where.
I think it will make a great manual to (re-)watch this documentary Access All Areas.
.
I like structures. Usually I create them myself. For example I categorized all Bon Jovi albums and all songs per decade, for my Bon Jovi series on YouTube.
.
But to complement this pret-a-porter Bon Jovi content list I found, I added dates from their tour schedule.
.
You can find the documentary at the top of this page.
And here is its content:
<text continues below>
.
1. Introduction
2. Show #3 / Dublin, Ireland – 1 Nov 1988
3. Show #9 / Rome, Italy – 14 Nov 1988
4. Italian TV Show
5. Behind The Iron Curtain
6. Moscow Music Peace Festival – 12, 13 Aug 1989
7. First Leg European Tour – Nov/Dec 1988
8. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 26 Jan 1990
9. Tokyo, Japan – 31 Dec 1988/ 1 Jan 1989
10. All Star Jam, Wembley Arena, England – Dec 1988 OR Jan 1990
11. In Store Signing / London, England
12. Berlin, Germany
13. Nordhoff Robbins Music Therapy Benefit
14. Sydney, Australia – 2, 3, 4 November 1989
15. The Homecoming
16. Rare Club Dates
17. Show #232 / The Last Gig – 17 Feb 1990
18. “Livin’ On A Prayer”
19. Credits
.
I will be watching the documentary again, and hope they have added dates in the documentary. And that mine was incorrect.
Because if my dating is right, it sure explains why I didn’t “understand” the documentary the first time;
They seem to have changed the chronological order.
.
Which immediately shows the downside of being so determined to “figure everything out”. To dig and dissect until you understand the underlying structure, so that you can put it back together again;
Some things are like love. Or God.
They cannot be understood.
Only felt.
..

~Suzanne

PS! I will create another video tomorrow. And will remember to wear a different shirt 😉
Have you subscribed to Rock Star Yoga YouTube yet?
I create Bon Jovi inspired Rock Star Yoga talks + yoga videos

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Rock Your Morning – The Hell Yes! Routine That Will Get You Out Of Bed All Excited

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment
A while ago (I looked it up, it was 2012) a book was published which promised to transform your life before 8 A.M.
Originally I thought this was a brilliant idea.
Who would not want that?
Until I discovered applying The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod included doing an hour of All The Things I Don’t Want to Do before 8 A.M.
And that the time-slot was problematic for me.
.
I was never home before 10.30 P.M and the only time I went to bed before midnight was the half year I had a boyfriend who wanted to have a call every night at 11.15 PM.
I would unwind with a vengeance in 45 minutes flat, so that I was in pj’s in bed, by the time he called.
I know it would sound much better if I said I was naked or only wearing a red G-string, but sexy sleeping is one of those on-and-off things for me.
And one that’s usually off.
.
Aside from that brief period in my life where my lover provided me with a sensible bedtime, I never got to bed before 0.30 AM.
There was no way I was going to transform my life first thing in the morning, unless a boyfriend was going to plan that out for me.
In which case it would last 6 months.
.
But it wasn’t just that Hal Elrod’s ambitious kick start to the day conflicted with my nightly teaching schedule.
It was also because I genuinely dreaded the tasks I was supposed to do.
Something Hal referred to as:
“best practices, developed over centuries of human consciousness”
Well not Suzanne’s consciousness.
I m not going to start my day with a glass of water, meditation, affirmation, visualization, reading, journaling, yoga;
And call that the life I want.
It’s actually a spot on description of a life I will avoid at all costs.
But (again) it is more than that.
.
The reason Hal Elrod’s morning routine, just like 5 step processes or How To- books AND also regular yoga, will fail to impress the creatives, the driven entrepreneurs, the full-on high level badasses of the world who are stoked about life and everything in it?
Is the passivity of it all.
The stillness.
Nothing is created, so therefor it will never satisfy us.
.
I can only imagine that for some people spending their entire morning on inner-work and reflection must work out great, because morning meditation and yoga are thousands of years old, and people have called The Miracle Morning life changing.
So I will take their word for it. 
.
And, get ready for this – and this will require an extremely flexible mind and paying attention, but it is crucial to understand-
It’s not that I don’t journal.
It’s not that I don’t do yoga.
It’s not that I don’t visualize or do affirmations.
But it comes from an entirely different place, and it is something that buzzes with excitement and is so tightly knit to my goals and dreams that it is an effortless, ever changing, don’t-even-have-to-think-about-it, stream of consciousness and activities.
That I have done for 10+ years by now.
.
It is also the reason I at one point stopped doing yoga because I didn’t want to “calm down and relax”.
Why would I want to leave that place at the top of the mountain where you just feel really really good about life?
Why would I come down from feeling great?
What was there to relax from?
.
So the key difference between Hal Elrod’s Miracle Morning routine, regular, standard journaling, and so on and so forth, and what I teach;
Is that I make sure I only do things that GIVE me energy. That is what gets me up every morning super excited to start my day.
Currently I have slowed down my morning routine by watching Sex and the City having breakfast and cuddling the cats. But for years I just took my breakfast behind my computer and started writing.
And maybe I ll switch back some day, because it’s certainly the most natural thing for me. 
.
So before I share my rock star morning routine and also tell you the real secret to creating the life you want (one no one seems to understand) here’s the first big takeaway:
.
DO the things that give you energy
STOP doing the things that drain you.
.
Kicking yourself to the gym every day? Christ! Do you know what else you could be doing with all the energy? Probably save the world and everybody on it.
Activities you do for yourself should GIVE you energy, not drain you.
Not even initially (although I will nuance that later).
But in general, you should be extremely excited over all the things you do in your life. And if you don’t feel that; Reframe it, rewrite it in your head. Find a way so that you CAN feel excited about it.
Attach a big goal to it.
Make it a challenge.
Turn it into a quest.
But do not start doing that activity, feeling all yucky because it’s like energetically rolling around in your own dirt.
You first need to elevate your energy, until you’re pumped to go do that thing.
.
Last week I drew back from what I will call “The Only Job I Ever Really Wanted”. Not because I didn’t want it anymore but because it had been two weeks, and I had not heard from them.
The momentum had just disappeared.  
I had been pumped about it but after two weeks of waiting it was gone.
And as effortless as it had been to go all in, that’s how easy it was to pull the plug.
Because I refused to let something that had given me energy, turn into something that was draining and basically a struggle.
Things should not be a struggle.
.
A struggle is if you want something and you’re not getting it.
The solution is to stop wanting it, and to believe you will get it if it was meant for you. It was already created by your mind, by wanting it;
There is no more work to be done.
.
You just need to stop doing/ actively wanting it, and you need to give it a chance to come to you. 
..
You know the saying that you can’t lose what’s really yours because it will always return to you. And if it doesn’t, it wasn’t yours.
You can’t lose your dream job, your dream partner, your dream life.
You only lose the things that were not that.
Have faith. Follow the flow. Follow the energy, and stop digging through the dirt, swimming upstream, pushing shit up the hill, and then needing to relax and reflect on that.
No.
You need to move the other way, where the energy just flows naturally, and the idea of a yoga class either excites you (because you have some cool ideas on how to rock it!) or it repels you because your purpose work calls you so loudly, there is no way you re going to waste time to slow down.
.
After I share my morning routine, I will tell you the other secret, one Hal Elrod doesn’t know either.
.
So what is my morning routine?
.
Well my favorite morning routine, or daily routine, is extremely simple and monotonous: Write, write, write, write.
I could do it all day, every day, and maybe one day I will give into it.
It’s an addiction of the sweetest kind.
.
But I assume that’s not the answer you want to hear.
.
So my other daily routine, and one I did not commit to, nor designed, until I understood the secret I will share later, is based on doing things that energize me. Or that are very tightly connected to my goals.
I have embedded the “requires (startup) energy” between the effortless activities.
effortless/ energizing = e/e 
requires startup energy = SU 
Here is my 1 hour Rock Star Routine:
1. e/e 8 minutes – finance. Check back statements/ pay bills/ log expenses 
2. SU 8 minutes – journaling. Write out affirmations, all present tense. I am/do/have
3. SU 8 minutes – work on publishing my books. This is the most difficult activity for me, where I have the most resistance around
4. e/e 8 minutes fitness -listening to Bon Jovi
5. e/e 8 minutes stretching/ yoga – listening to Bon Jovi
6. e/e Write for the remaining hour to unlimited, depending on how much time I have. 

Why doing small/ 8 minute tasks is critical
(the secret even Hal Elrod doesn’t know)

One of my biggest rationalizations to not do Hal Elrod’s morning routine, was that I don’t like small tasks and switching. I work from flow, and unless I have at least half an hour, I don’t feel like doing it.
To cut my life up in 10 minutes chunks seemed unappealing and highly ineffective. No one gets anything done in 8 minutes.
And although I still find it unappealing – it will never replace the flow of writing – I eat my words on calling it ineffective.
Doing a tiny bit of something is VERY effective.
You know why?
Because you create from the mind.
If you do it right that is. Which is by treating these “activities” not like an activity – as if you’re ticking off a to-do list –  but like mindset work or like performing a magic ritual.
The 8 minute activity is the magic, the ritual creating your future.
.
My financial future is not created from what I do in those 8 minutes – but from the mindset of being in touch with my own finances, and connecting to my dreams and goals in that field.
My body is not reshaped because I do my exercises, but because it reminds me of my health and fitness goals.
It is not the journaling as in blindly copying yesterday’s affirmations and writing them out another day; It is starting fresh, writing out the affirmations that come up that day.
You should never have to refer back to yesterday’s page to know what your goals are, you should just let them come up and the real goals will come.
..
It all ties in with what I call Rock Star Yoga: An intuitive practice where you just put on a Bon Jovi album, tune in with what’s inside, and move your body the way it wants to.
Someone could write out exactly what it is you do, or what I do, how we move our bodies on the yoga mat and how we’ve spend the 1 hour 5 minutes of “Keep the Faith”;
But it was never about that.
.
It was the tuning in, that got us the experience. The tuning in, is the magic.
.
Tuning into an area of your life, will get you do results.
Not what you do.
..
So now create your own morning routine.
What are the areas you want to focus on in your life?
As a reminder, mine were:
– creating a future/ life of my dreams: which made me include journaling and writing
– becoming a famous author (under my pen name): which made me include publishing my books
– creating the body of my dreams: fitness and yoga
– upleveling my finance: checking in my bankaccount daily. Which highly energizes me, so I could have included it just for that reason only..

Keep track of which activities are 
effortless/ energizing = e/e 
or:
require startup energy = SU
Naturally, to make it fun and a “Hell yes!” routine, include as few SU’s as possible, and as many fun, energizing activities as you can.
Maybe you first want to design and implement a Rock Star morning with energizing activities, and without any activities you don’t like.

So to rock your morning and create a Hell Yes! routine that will get you out of bed all excited:
.
1. do things that RAISE YOUR ENERGY
And that are completely effortless!
Design your routine in a way that makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning.
.
2. implement extra activities to CREATE FROM THE MIND
On any and all other areas in your life, that matter to you.
.
Keep on rocking.
.
~Suzanne
Let’s rock it together!
The subscription button is somewhere on this page, usually on the top right, and we’re on:

Rock Star Yoga on Facebook
my personal Twitter account

The series that took me two days, a restless night, on-screen crying and way too much coffee.

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment
Jon Bon Jovi is currently visiting the UK and giving interview after interview for British radio and TV.
I expect, without bursting into tears.

This is my longest video series to date, and I actually already shot three of these videos yesterday.
Working until midnight.

And after going to bed, guess what?
I GOT BACK UP!
In the middle of the night, I deleted everything from YouTube.
and adjusted the previous blog post, taking out a coaching offer.

Everything had suddenly felt SO wrong.
Afterwards I slept like a baby.

So what had happened?

Well, after a tumultuous Tuesday, I had sat down and broke down everything I had learned and decided I was going to turn up the heat.
I spent hours filming, redoing, uploading.
But the reason I found myself jumping out of bed and frantically taking down EVERYTHING I had created, is because sometimes topics are so hard, that you are not satisfied with how they come out initially.

That the truth is there, but the “Story” is not. Not yet.

So I started from scratch and redid all my work today, and yes.
They’re spot on now.
Still uncomfortably honest, and I may go out the moment I post them, to get my mind off them-
but this is the way they’re supposed to be.

~ Suzanne

Here they are: 4 different videos with Bon Jovi titles. And moving through the decades, like we always do.

1/4 7800° Fahrenheit (title album 1985)

On finding out I had been playing small creating yoga videos (!!)
And had also left way too much space for playing small after a social hiccup.

What we can all learn from this 2nd album from Bon Jovi, which was a do or die moment in their career, is that if you meet resistance or if things don’t feel right, the answer is never to play it safe and play small;
But to turn up the heat, and go bolder and bigger.

2/4 The Fire Inside (from 100.000.000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong, and dated to the 90s)

The Fire Inside is from 5 disk set “100.000.000 Bon Jovi fans can’t be wrong”
and was dated back to the 90s.
The song is about creative passion.

This video is on how I had marginalized my purpose work (the fire inside) to being this thing I was going to PLAN OUT (??!!)
at taking place in 1 hour and 45 minutes on weeknights.

Remembering Freddie Mercury in the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, when he is told off for being late:
“I’m a performer, darling,
not a Swiss train conductor.”

Ending by looking forward (although that might not be the appropriate choice of words here!) to the third video, and how it was already quit the ordeal yesterday.

3/4 Story of My Life (bonus track on Have a Nice Day, 2005)

The story about why I quit teaching yoga, that I never told…..

4/4 I’m Your Man (Burning Bridges, 2015)

Oh, the biggie.
This week I discovered something about my sexuality, that ran a lot deeper than anecdotal events and stories which I may or may not have shared.
I discovered the one major thing, that will always make my sexuality threatening to others.

~Suzanne

Subscribe to YouTube for the Rock Star Yoga Bon Jovi Series 
AND new yoga videos coming up!
(because in video 1/4 you’ll see me realizing I had been playing small there too)

Are you Dutch?
Will soon kickstart my new Dutch Yoga channel!

~Suzanne

Rock Star Yoga on Facebook
my personal Twitter account

We need to talk about Katrina Ruth. What about now?

Published on by Suzanne BeenackersLeave a comment
I knew we’d one day need to talk about the amazing Katrina Ruth
What about now?
Because just as I had planned shooting my “What about now” video on YouTube,
where I would cover how important it is to stay connected to your higher vision NOW so that you can do the work even at times when it’s hard,
exactly how Bon Jovi created their studio album What about now in the midst of struggle,
a question popped up on Katrina Ruth’s page:
Q:
What was it from all of her programs and teachings that had impacted us most?
 
I answered that above all else, it was how she taught us to BE at the level you want to live your life, before you move a finger.
 
That being connected to your highest vision, comes before anything else, and that ultimately THAT is what will get you the results.
 
And if you want to be the first to know how this bold statement has anything to do with living life at rock star level?
 
My next video is “What About Now”.
So?
What about:
You lived your best life, and did what you came here to do,
NOW?
 
~Suzanne
Rock Star Yoga
you weren’t born to follow
.
Daily inspiration from Katrina Ruth:
.
The Katrina Ruth Show YouTube (highly recommended) 
.
website incl free gift

*) YOUTUBE UPDATE  

There has been a fail in YouTube editor, which has “unlocked” the unedited versions of 5 years of content.
This was a blessing in disguise. I see it as YouTube making a management decision to give me a fresh start.
But this did mean I could no longer curate what would stay up and what would not –
and had to take everything down, except the videos from this new series.

My new Rock Star Yoga project means
one wisdom/ lesson/takeaway from every Bon Jovi song known to man.
To receive new episodes in your email, subscribe to this blog.
The button is somewhere on this page,
probably on the right.

Other ways to rock it with me:
Rock Star Yoga YouTube (earliest access)
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my personal Twitter account

Rock Your Yoga

Rock Star Yoga is based on principles of being your own teacher, raising your energy, using your body as your instrument, and full creative freedom in your practice.

If you would like to practice with a teacher first, here are my recommended resources:

Yoga with Adriene
https://www.youtube.com/user/yogawithadriene

Yoga with Kassandra
https://www.youtube.com/user/yogawithkassandra

Rebel Yoga Nederlands:
https://www.rebelyoga.nl/