Las Vegas Weekly

April 14, 2009 · 10:42 AM

Twitter helps fans stayed tuned to Dave Navarro and other celebs

By Melissa Arseniuk

Photo: http://twitter.com/davenavarro6767

A glimpse of a rock star's hotel suite used to require posing as a maid, sneaking into the room while the real maid was fluffing the pillows, or seducing said rock star from the front row.

Ah, the good old days.

Alas, those days are long gone, thanks to Twitter, aka "the best thing since Facebook."

While Twitter is great for the rest of us to keep abreast of friends and family members, it's also a fantastic tool to semi-cyberstalk your favorite celebrities.

The simple microblogging tool is technological crack cocaine for legions of attention deficit, self-absorbed and obsessive-compulsive social networkers, social climbers, web geeks and everyday Joes who feel compelled to tell the world what they're doing on an ongoing basis.

Dave Navarro is one of these people. (And, in the interest of full disclosure, so am I.)

He updates his account regularly, often with links to photos, and allows friends and fans to both see what he's up to and interact with him as he goes about his business.

One of his first dispatches from his recent trip to Las Vegas included a photo of groupie mecca, a.k.a. his suite at the Mirage.

"Nice room! Even got my own pool!" he wrote, at 3:46 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.

The tattooed, pierced and uninhibited rocker is one of a growing collection of celebrities who "tweet" their day-to-day goings-on.

Navarro tweets as he has a coffee, heads to the gym, and orders in.

He also filed updates this weekend as he celebrated his Jane's Addiction bandmate Perry Farrell's 50th birthday with a show at the Mirage.

"Gettin ready to go to Perry's birthday party in Vegas tonight," he wrote at 10:17 a.m. "I have a feeling it's gonna be a big Twitter day... At the airport, In the car, at the hotel, in my room, at the show, blah blah blah," he added, 40 minutes later.

Of course not all celebrities have Twitter accounts, and of those who do, not all of them are public. Country crossover princess Taylor Swift has two, one for her inner circle and one for the rest of us. Meanwhile, Britney Spears and 50 Cent are among those who have ghostwriters to update their accounts.

Navarro (Twitter ID: davenavarro6767) is one of the more active celebrities on Twitter. He uses at least thee applications – TwitPic, TwitterBerry and TweetDeck – to update his account virtually any time, anywhere.

Though his feed can be rather dull on his off days, the inimitable guitarist provides an inside peek at life on the other side of the crowd barrier when he hits the stage.

He often includes photos, too, of both himself and his rockstar friends.

Here is his "Perrypalooza" chronicle:

10:17 a.m.: "Gettin ready to go to Perry's birthday party in Vegas tonight"

10:51 a.m.: "I have a feeling it's gonna be a big Twitter day... At the airport, In the car, at the hotel, in my room, at the show, blah blah blah"

3:45 p.m.: "So far so good! When Perry throws a party... He doesn't (expletive) around!"

3:56 p.m.: "Nice room! Even got my own pool! Perry should have one of these every month!" (pic)

4:12p.m.: "Morrison twittering at sound check..." (pic)'

9:34 p.m.: "Morrison decides to not go with the skinny idea"

10:30 p.m.: "Hanging with Billy"

1:54 a.m.: "Debbie!!!!!" (pic)

5:20 p.m.: "Headed back to LA, Perry's party was spectacular..."

8 p.m.: "Just got home... Really no way to top last night so I'm gonna watch True Crime in bed and order in"

Navarro's fellow "Perrypalooza" performer, former Cult guitarist, Billy Morrison, also tweeted before, during and following the show.

The "Camp Freddy" rocker sent photo-enhanced updates from the plane, his limo, sound check, dinner at Japonais and performance itself. He also shared his post-show impressions.

Here are some of the highlights:

7:56 a.m.: "Las Vegas. Hmmm. Bright shiny things and extra oxygen to keep you awake. More money than God but no morals. An interesting place."

9:03 a.m.: "@blasko666 Are you coming to the Mirage tonight?"

10:48 a.m.: "An airport can be a lonely place."

10:51 a.m.: "@davenavarro6767 :) I'll be fine after Jen comes back with the triple espresso!! Looking forward to seeing u."

12:47 p.m.: "How much do we love Southwest Airlines ???"

1:05 p.m.: "I told you a million times..... No white stretch limos!!!"

1:57 p.m.: "Yes, the TV that was made in 1953 rises up out of a box at the end of the bed!!!!"

3:57 p.m.: "Chillin at a soundcheck - ://twitpic.com/36gau"

5:25 p.m.: "Still at soundcheck. Still waiting to play. I have a new found appreciation for how a Camp Freddy soundcheck can be. ://twitpic.com/36naa"

5:53 p.m.: "Perk laying down the groove on Iggys "Down On The Street""

6:45 p.m.: "Double drums, Las Vegas style!!"

7:28 p.m.: "My end-of-soundcheck Iced Cappucino!!"

9:01 p.m.: "And now, we eat! At 'Japonais' - awesome food. Here's our own supermodel, Dono, pulling his best 'Blue 'Steel'!"

9:34 p.m.: "Juliette + Pumpkin Cheesecake + Vegas + Rock."

10:19 p.m.: "My view from stage left before hitting the stage."

10:50 p.m.: "Micky Avalon onstage right now!'

11:22 p.m.: "Blurry onstage with Juliette doing ACDC - waiting to go on with Mr Idol."

11:42 p.m.: "Holy (expletive)!!! I just played 'Call Me' with Debbie Harry. She's the coolest!!"

12:44 a.m.: "The end of the gig - so much fun. Dono and my gorgeous wife."

8 :14 a.m.: "I KNOW they pump (expletive) into the air in Vegas to keep you from sleeping! Awake. Feel like I was run over by a rock n roll extravaganza!"

9:30 a.m.: "Onstage last night playing 'Eyes Without A Face'. That's it from me. Have to rest now."

4:28 p.m.: "Happy Birthday Perry! What a great party. Back in LA - here's one from last night rockin' Rebel Yell with Mr Idol."

While the Farrell also has a twitter account (Twitter ID: perryfarrell), he hadn't updated the account since his actual birthday, on March 29, until yesterday:

March 29 @ 6:20 p.m.: "Has spent his whole birthday in bed with his wife."

April 13 @ approz 7:15 p.m.: "Sweet and Sour soup to soothe the voice, getting ready for the big weekend out at Coachella."

Bassist Eric Avery also has an account (Twitter ID: ericavery), but his Vegas Twitter activity was limited to a lone staccato tweet on Sunday: "Vegas airport. Folks at slot machines looking recently lobotomized. My starbucks cup says it's for 'derrick'. Belles hungover. Perfect."

Drummer Stephen Perkins has a Twitter account, too (Twitter ID: stephenperkins) but while he has nearly 1,350 followers, he has only two updates logged (one on March 5 and another on March 6) and appears almost antisocial, following just one person. (Farrell isn't far behind, following just two people -- one being his wife, the other being Navarro. He has updated the account just 10 times, much to the chagrin of 2,980 detail-deprived followers.)

Farrell, Avery and Perkins' lack of Twitter activity is somewhat surprising, considering how tech-savvy Jane's Addiction is as a band.

While they don't have an official Facebook site, the group does maintain personal blogs, as well as a sophisticated Web site that features free digital downloads and tons of multimedia goodies.

Jane's Addiction has also recently released a special, download-only album with Nine Inch Nails to help promote their upcoming tour. (The NIN/JA tour will visit Las Vegas next month, on May 18, when it rolls through the Pearl at the Palms.)

In terms of Twitter, however, Avery, Perkins and Farrell all pale in comparison to the ever-popular Navarro, who follows more than 250 people (including Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and the 2009 AVN "Best New Starlet" award-winning pornstar, Stoya), and has more than 1,000 tweets under his belt.

Farrell's wife, Etty Lau Farrell, once commented on Navarro's Twitter-happy ways: "Just logged onto my twitter account and realized that Dave really Twitters a lot!" she remarked – via Twitter, of course – on March 26. "Love you Dave."

She isn't the only one who has taken a shining to Navarro's microblogging: With nearly 19,000 followers, he has over three times as many followers as his bandmates combined.

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