Chckn8ring

Dreams and ... Songs in my Head

2008-07-18T12:09:00.003-04:00

"Weird" is the only word I can think of...

Maybe it's just a "Freaky Friday" post.

Weird in that I've been having really vivid dreams the past few weeks.

It's not that I have them every night or never had them before, but they seem to be happening more frequently that they used to.

I don't remember them all, but I do wake up remembering that I had a dream ... and usually I remember the fact that a LOT happened. The little gears in my mind were stuck in high during the wee hours of the night.

Last night, I seem to recall snippets of a situation where I was under the impression I was still a teenager in Ottawa (although none of the landmarks were from any city I've been in) and I was riding a bike along the Sea Wall (which is actually in Vancouver) to get to a large pool to swim laps (haven't swum laps for exercise for a LONG time).

A lot more happened in this dream, but I can't remember what... The only thing that I can connect in these dreams is that they're all different and they have nothing to do with what I've been doing / thinking about the past few weeks: kids and moving in...

The other odd thing I'm finding is that I am waking up with songs in my head - not necessarily good ones either! This morning, I woke up with the theme song to the "Big Comfy Couch". I was tempted to whack my head against the wall until the song was out of my head...

I'm thinking the song thing might be a symptom of not having a studio to work in. I've been "composing" music in my head without any way of trying it out ... might be that kind of "frustration" that's causing my mind to play cruel tricks on me.

I attribute it mostly to Tony and Dave over at the Home Made Hit Show. They're running a song challenge "contest" of sorts. You've gotta write a song that incorporates "Summer" in it by August 10th. I came up with a pretty cool idea that I'd like to get down and I've been putting it all together in my head - getting things ready for when we move in and I get my studio back together. I THINK I may have enough time to lay down some tracks and record it... We'll see.

What a Difference...

2008-07-17T12:10:00.006-04:00

WOW, what can I say?

I'm being a bit of a broken record here, but geeze, I think this town is working out just fine.

Can't complain about the weather either! It's been sunny and warm for the past two weeks and that doesn't seem to be changing in the future...

I'm really talking about the climate of people / business here. I've been here three weeks and I've connected up with a bunch of local composers and potentially landed 3 music-related gigs!

I signed in and looked through the GCFC's site a couple weeks ago after updating all my contact info there. I did a quick 'n dirty search on composers residing in the lower mainland. I looked over a few sites and picked a dozen who looked as though they'd been doing well for themselves and sent out emails to each of them.

Within a week, I'd say I'd gotten 10 responses to my request to have a coffee / chat about the industry. I did the same thing back east two years ago, and didn't have nearly the success.

I've met one of the composers so far and he even invited me to come to an orchestral recording session at the CBC studios here. Not to mention, he referred me to some other local cats I might want to get in touch with...

On top of that, we're finally in to our new place ... well sort of. We've got the painters there right now and the floors are going to be done next week. We move in on the 26th...

BUT, I do have to say, it's nice to actually be able to freely go in and out of our new place!

Canada's 141st

2008-07-01T10:26:00.004-04:00

Almost two years ago, we moved back to Canada from Seattle.

I started a post back then (that's still in draft form) that I was trying to compose as an analysis between the two countries based upon my personal observations...

I kept on adding and deleting things from it, but never got to post it... I touched on everything from milk in bags (that's how they sell milk in Ontario) to health care to where you can get your wine and beer in either country.

I was reminded of this attempted post this past week as I've been contrasting life on the west coast against life in Toronto.

Here are a few things I've noticed over the past couple of days:

The people in front-line service are very friendly and chatty here! I've encountered employees at the drug store, grocery store, restaurants, you name it who go WAY beyond the cursory "How are you today"s...

Case in point - I almost had to drag the kids out of the local grocers after the cashier noticed we were buying Mini Wheats with Indiana Jones "prizes" in it. A movie critique ensued complete with opinions on why Harrison Ford should have hung up his whip after the 3rd Jones movie...
There are way less blondes here. We went to a number of playgrounds and a pretty popular pool and when looking around, I couldn't help but notice that blonde hair was indeed the minority.
My tattoo is not the novelty and subject of odd looks and stares that it used to be out east. I'd say that the number of dad's AND mom's around that have "ink done" approaches about a third or half of the peeps I saw. And I'm talking about middle to upper-middle class neighbourhoods here.
People actually stay in the city on the weekends and holidays! Catherine and I went out a couple of times in Toronto to the lakefront and were floored by the absence of people on a beautiful day in the Beaches. We tried taking the kids down to a few of the beaches in Vancouver yesterday (that would be a Monday afternoon) and we could not, for the life of us, find a spot to ditch the car and get out to walk.
A drive along surface streets is actually enjoyable. I drove the kids from the Science Center to UBC yesterday - which is a pretty long way. The streets are well labeled, the main roads are wide, cars stop for pedestrians and drivers actually know how to merge. Things seem to move at a more relaxed pace, but they also seem to move more efficiently for some reason.

I'm sure I'll find more "comparisons" in the near future, but just some of the interesting observations I've come across in the odd brain fart I've had...

We Made It

2008-06-28T17:10:00.002-04:00

Well, we made it.

We're out here on the west coast. I watched our house leave in a couple of containers on the back of a semi on Monday and we all flew out to Vancouver Wednesday evening.

Poor Chris got picked up from school on Wednesday and we drove to the airport from there. Poor little guy - he was really a strong little dude on the playground saying bye to some great friends he made. The cool thing is that he's been able to already email them all (multiple times) since we got here. Alex and Sam seem to be taking it all in stride and I think Catherine is very glad to not have to commute ever weekend anymore!

We saw the new place today. It's definitely smaller than the house in T.O., but not as small as I inferred from Catherine's descriptions and comments. She admitted to purposely trying to set expectations lower... ;) The current owners are still in there, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were now regretting accepting our offer after having our three little tornadoes in for a quick look-see.

It'll be a while before we're in there. Our stuff won't be here for another couple of weeks and the place doesn't close until the end of July. We'll be getting it painted and the floors done before getting in, so we won't be getting in until at least the 28th. Meanwhile, we're at Catherine's parents place.

Kids + Pool = Hours of Entertainment

2008-06-24T13:25:00.005-04:00

Yesterday, our house got cleared out.

We're now the proud owners of an empty house and a bunch of other stuff that's locked up in a couple of containers on the back of a truck.

For today and tomorrow, we're staying at Catherine's brothers' (Uncle Kai) place. He's got this little 4 foot deep octagon pool (about 10 feet from side to side) that the kids are just loving!

Got me wondering when I changed from loving being in the water even though my lips were blue and I was shivering to a "parent" who's always trying to suggest we get out and get warm. Of course, my suggestions were consistently vetoed.

Back to the first point - empty house. Geez! It's really odd and a bit spooky to walk through a place you called home when it's transformed into a echo-filled cavern. Walking through empty rooms brings back a lot of memories.

You'd think that having all our "stuff" there would do that, but, at least to me, it seems as though the absence of any furniture or whotnot, (and probably the impending move) brings back a whole raft of experiences. We're going to head back one more time to look through before getting on the plane tomorrow.

Speaking of being at Uncle Kai's place...

Before I figured out what the password for Uncle Kai's wireless access point, I found 2 out of 4 available WiFi connections in the neighbourhood were not locked down.

I dunno, I GUESS the chances of some malicious hacker driving by and getting into my connection for nefarious purposes are probably pretty low, but I, personally don't want to tempt fate there.

Maybe the new "tiered" or pay-as-you-go services being proposed south of the border may be a bit of a kick in the pants for folks to lock down their access points.

Oh well, off to Vancouver tomorrow! More later.

Wiiiiiiiiii!!!!!

2008-06-23T08:45:00.002-04:00

We got our Wii yesterday!

Mom and Dad presented the kids with the Wii at Uncle Kai/Aunt Nicole's place yesterday. They hosted a going-away party.

After everyone left, we set it up and played until the kids started whining about needing sleep. ;)

What a blast. This is the first video game platform that I think Catherine can actually get into as well!

I can't believe how small the box is too - it's not much bigger than a protable DVD player.

So, of course, it only comes with Wii Sports, but that'll change quickly soon. Guitar Hero World Tour is coming out soon - that'll be the next on the list me thinks.

Ho Hum...

I'm waiting for the movers to arrive. Catherine has the kids over at the playground after dropping Chris at school. The house is in boxes.

The only thing still connected is the phone. I reluctantly disconnected the Internet connection last night, but remembered that there are a couple of unsecured WiFi points at neighbours' houses around here.

After they left, I dug out the laptop and ... bada bing, bada boom ... Back in action! So this'll do me until the the battery dies... ;)

Damn it! Dora is Back...

2008-06-22T07:39:00.003-04:00

After a couple of successful months without having to hear that annoying "Backpack" and "Map" songs or the chorus of "Swiper, no swiping, Swiper, NO SWIPING!"...

Sam, out of the blue, requested to see Dora the Explorer again (there's a Wiki page for everything these days ... low standards).

We have been letting the kids watch TV on the weekends and each have a few requests for what they'd like to watch. Sam had started requesting other shows and not watching Dora (to the absolute delight of myself and Catherine ... not to mention Chris as well). So, we took the show off the PVR recording schedule.

We've been enjoying a whole host of other shows that, I'm sure with time, could become just as grating as Dora - Toopy and Binoo is a show that's first on the list of quickly getting there. We were REALLY hoping that Dora was a phase long gone in the rear-view mirror.

{Groan} No such luck...

The only saving grace is that this is the last weekend with the PVR. We're going to be staying with Catherine's parents for a few weeks before moving into the new place, and we'll see if that's a bit of a distraction from their regular routine. They've got a PVR too, but I'll be sure to see if I can "sell" some other options for their weekend viewing... ;)

Moving

Speaking of last weekend with a favourite piece of technology, I broke everything down in the studio last evening. That means, we are pretty well completely packed. :) I backed up things on hard drives in triplicate and have padding for everything.

It was a solemn evening - only to be revived by a two hour session on RockBand with Catherine. We've almost completed our quest to get five stars on every song. Those last Iron Maiden and Metallica tunes and a couple others are still our nemisis on hard...

Boxes are everywhere. Things are taped up, labeled and ready to go. It's really odd living in this kind of transition period. I really can't wait to get roots settled down.

I think this'll be the last post before Vancouver. So farewell to Toronto and hello west coast!

Been a While...

2008-06-19T18:40:00.002-04:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah...

I've been AWOL for a week or so. It's been packing, packing, packing man!

I can't really take credit for all the organization around here - that'd be Catherine. I was planning to pack up my studio today, but my pal, Travis, sent me a couple of files last evening wondering if I could lay down some tracks.

Sent him a "boy are you lucky you didn't email tomorrow" message and got to work last night and today. I sent him off some tracks that I think might work - we'll see what he says. If it's good, then I'm a-packing away...

On another note, found a cool product called "Autosampler" through a post on The Womb. It'll go through your hardware / software synths and sample them into Logic's EXS|24 sampler. This is cool, cause, I've been essentially staring at my synths for the past couple of months wondering when / if I'd be using them like I used to.

Logic has made using soft-synths so easy, that it's been so painful to even think of trying to record hardware synths anymore.

Plus, me thinks the sale of these synths after the fact will more than justify the price!

Well, maybe another post before the move...

Hockey Night in Canada

2008-06-09T05:45:00.003-04:00

So, I'm a member of the Guild ... the Guild of Canadian Film Composers.

It's a great group to be a part of - supportive and has a few seminars and such that are educational and/or showcase members' work.

I wouldn't say that they're in the same league as the Screenwriters Guild down in the 'States - there's no union or collective bargaining aspect to the organization, although they do seem to add their voice and opinion to some topics.

The latest thing to come across the Guild's listserv is the spat between the CBC and Dolores Claman regarding the failed negotiations to keep the traditional "Hockey Night in Canada" theme.

The "sitch" of it all, from what I can gather, is that now that the negotiations are officially ended, the CBC wants to run a competition to search for a new theme. The proposed "jackpot" is a $100,000 with any royalties being donated to little league hockey.

Now, a thread has been started expressing some concern over what the CBC is doing, but I can't really see what the big fuss is about...

I've seen a couple of arguments:

This will become a precedent for future contracts between producers/directors and composers - stripping composers of their traditional ties to ongoing royalties.
This is yet another example of "devaluing" composer's work.

Now, getting past all the sentimentality that surrounds the theme song and all, I, personally, don't see a real problem with what's going on. The CBC is proposing a way to replace an iconic theme song in what seems to be an open manner - using a competition that is non-exclusive and probably very public. The added bonus is that Canada's national sport - little leaguers get a financial boost.

I haven't really seen any other arguments but the above against this, but from my perspective, to the first point, this doesn't set any precedent at all - it's a competition - they all run like this. From the American Idol songwriting competition to the art contest on the back of Fruity Loops - you relinquish any rights to your work when you enter a competition.

I can't see this as a precedent for producers to keep royalties to themselves - if some producer comes along and holds that argument up, then they can go through the legal and administrative hell of running the competition too...

To the second point - devaluing composers work? There is no "minimum" standard or qualifications one has to possess to write music. Who are "we" (Guild members) to judge that someone with an aspiration to write a theme song and and submit their work to be scrutinized is any less qualified to try their hand at this?

If you're talking about the financial aspect of it, then, again, what are you talking about? The Guild's own salary survey from 2005 shows that less than 10% of commissioned themes for broadcast media fetched 20% or greater of the "jackpot" here. Even if you are giving up royalties, you'll be hard pressed to get a better return on investing the jackpot...

I find the whole "devaluing work" argument a preposterous entitlement mentality! Get over yourself and put your money where your mouth is.

As you can probably gather, I don't really have any qualms about the way the CBC is proposing on how to run this, but rather the whining of a few fellow members.

Merits of Yoga - According to me

2008-05-28T11:12:00.003-04:00

I go to Yoga class once a week...

I can't help notice the disproportionate ratio of men to women in the classes ... but hey, that's not the point of this post, nor is it the reason I go.

...

My regular workouts at the gym consist of some weight training, and a half hour on something that gets my heart rate up in the 120-130 range. And, then there's the shower and such afterwards.

Where's the fun in that I ask?

In the last class I was attended, I was contrasting a yoga class to a "regular" gym workout. Let's see...

With Yoga, you start off getting "centered" (they call this "Dhyana" or meditation)- essentially sitting and thinking of nothing but breathing like Darth Vader ("Ujjayi")- very calming ... I caught myself murmuring "ohmmmm" the other day.

Then, you get into either putting your body through stretching contortions, endurance or balancing poses that can hurt like bloody hell.

But, you suck it up, pretend you're still centered and wait for the sweet, utopic numbness to settle in just before you're asked to untangle yourself and wrench your body in some other position you never thought it could get into let alone keep in for another 2-5 minutes.

After about 45 minutes of this, you get to lie down on your back and rest - they call this "Savasana", but all I can think of is when I was in pre-school lying down on mats on the floor for an afternoon nap. I actually think I dozed off one day... hope I didn't snore.

You finish it all by sitting cross-legged with your hands together in front of your chest and murmuring "Namaste" - which I believe is a form of thanks.

By this time, your body has recovered to a point where the muscles, tendons and other sundry body parts start to feel quite good.

When I think about my "regular" workout, I'm just putting my body through pain right from the get-go and all I get afterwards is a shower in the men's locker room...

With Yoga, I get calmed down, put my body through pain, have a nap and mumble words I don't really know the meaning to ... then have a shower.

So for the same amount of time, although I don't get my heart rate up, my body still gets battered, but I get a NAP! How can you not think that's cool?

After Yoga, I feel relaxed. I feel open. I feel rested and refreshed.

I just wish they'd supply coffee to keep me from walking into doors in my post-yoga daze.

Little Boy in Heap O' Trouble

2008-05-26T12:32:00.005-04:00

Ooooooooooo boy,

One little boy in our family is getting the tough lovin' treatment today!

After a half week and weekend of being home sick and recovering quite nicely yesterday, Alex decided in the car, just outside his school that he STILL didn't feel well.

This wasn't one of those "oh, I'm feeling kind of hot, I can't eat much and I'd like to just lie down and rest" kinds of things. That happened LAST week.

This was a "Hey, that was pretty good last week - I got to stay home, play with ALL the toys and get pampered! ... Let's do it AGAIN!" - all complete with tears and hysterics in the back seat as we were pulling up to school.

I was NOT amused - especially after a whole day and morning of running around like nothing's wrong.

He's eating lunch right now, but I think re-considering his decision as I made it pretty darn clear that he's going to be doing the same thing he did this morning after he's done eating:

NOTHING

Nothing but resting in his bed with

no toys,
no talking,
no TV
... nothing.

And guess what he gets to do when the other two come home from school today?

Week ???

2008-05-26T05:49:00.005-04:00

I've lost track of which week it is for me being Mr. Mom. It's all a big blur now... Catherine's left and I'm typing this while listening to the latest CBC Radio 3 podcast with Grant Lawrence - always a good alternative listen to the live KEXP feed which seems to be comprised of east Indian music - which I'm not really in the mood for at this hour in the morning...

I'm selling a couple of pieces of gear out of my trusty rack on Craigslist now - a Lexicon MPX 1 (the black/blue thing at the top) and my Emu Proteus 2000 (the black thing at the bottom with the grey knob). They get turned on every morning, but I've found that I don't really use them at all anymore.

You gotta love Craigslist!

From an aesthetic point of view, the whole thing just sucks, but it's all text and is so efficient. Not much in terms of bells and whistles, but it works and it works really well. I've shied away from eBay lately as I find it so much less hassle to sell stuff locally - you get pretty well the same price, but it's quicker and you don't have to worry about shipping or anything like that...

I do have one beef with Craigslist "buyers" - I should qualify that - those people who troll the electronics / musical instruments pages. You get a bunch of people who assume that you're desperate to get rid of your stuff and they come back to you with "I'll be willing to take it off your hands for {insert less than half your asking price here}".

It's hard to keep from hitting reply and banging out a snide PFO email with details about how I don't REALLY need to get rid of it and that I've researched the going market prices for the item and please don't waste my time with a stupid offer like that...

Instead, I just send back an email with the asking price less a dollar...

Then, when you're selling musical instruments, the majority of your offers are barters or trades for other gear from, I'm assuming, starving musicians who can't scrape together enough cash... - I made sure that I inserted a sentence in my posts that stated "NO TRADES PLEASE".

We'll see how it goes... I hear the patter of little feet...

Long Weekend Recovery

2008-05-20T06:07:00.004-04:00

I can't say that it was a great long weekend, but then again, I can't say that it was bad either.

Catherine was back for more than 2.5 days - that was good. We did a lot of things - ROM, Science Centre, playgrounds (indoor and outdoor), saw some friends...

The weather sucked - that was bad.

What the heck is wrong with the weather on the May long weekend around here??? I remember being a kid and it ALWAYS being the first awesomest weekend that kicked off the countdown to summer break. It gave you a reminder of what summer was like - a taste of the heat and sunshine to come.

This weekend, it was grey and generally moist the whole way through - oh yeah, and hitting the 'teens in Celsius was lucky.

Start of Week 6

So here I am again - 6:03 AM on the clock. I've been up for almost 2 hours already again. So what's on tap this week? A bunch of little projects - next IHR segment, a song I've been working on and zipping up a couple of cues for a director.

Okay, little feet are tip-toeing around upstairs... They seem to have settled back down - realizing that it's still a bit too early to be "morning time".

Found this link on a forum I frequent called the Womb. I'm pretty sure that if these were real, they'd be selling like hot-cakes.

Talking about online forums... I've been a member of a few recording, songwriting, composing and the like forums for the past few years - occasionally posting and responding to posts.

There was a post I made on one of the forums that I re-read a couple of days later and had this moment - "hmmm.... that might have come across the wrong way..."

Something that's been at the back of my mind - what do I "sound" like to others on the forum? I can't really help but apply some sort of (probably arbitrary) personality and sound on others who post based upon their writing style and comments. I wonder if others do the same and, if they do, how does my prose translate into a personality to them?

I've been told that I write quite similarly to the way that I talk - people who've met me in person have said that they can clearly "hear" me when they read my words. That being said, what do I "sound" like to someone who hasn't ever heard me speak?

Okie dokie, sounds as though some little girl is up now... On to the week...

Let's Get the Band Back Together Dude...

2008-05-16T13:47:00.002-04:00

So, I found a flyer in the mail from the Sony Store down the street - for some reason, they're calling themselves "Sony Style" in some odd, almost unreadable font... whatever.

They're holding a Rock Band "event" in their store where ... "you can challenge our in-store staff for prizes".

It's a total scam to get you into the store ... I know ... but I'm in hook, line 'n sinker.

I'm trying to convince Catherine to get into it. We've had her brother and wife over a few times and gotten quite good - most of us play at the "Hard" level. I'm sure my brother-in-law would be all over this, but it's our respective spouses, who I don't think would be quite into it...

Ahhhh ... what to do?

Starting a New Project

2008-05-14T08:03:00.003-04:00

Dunno what happened yesterday, but all the kids slept in! I got up about 7:20 ... by myself for once ... and Sammie got up. Then I had to wake the two boys who were sawing logs at 7:50...

This morning was a different story. All three little feet were active at 6:45. Sheesh!

Cool tidbit from this morning. Was listening to KEXP via the 'net - it was around 7:00 AM, so 4:00 in Seattle and the DJ put on "Mimi on the Beach" by Jane Siberry! Like holy ___, I hadn't heard that song in like eons! I emailed him sending some kudos for not only playing some Canadian content, but something from way out in left field from the I'd-forgotten-about-that archives. He emailed back and said he'd been on a Sibbery kick for the past couple of weeks and actually acknowledge my email on air a few minutes later... heh.

Anyway, starting a little project for my pal in Seattle - Travis. He and I have been collaborating on his films for almost 3 years now. He and I seem to have this awesome rapport.

Lately, he's been doing a lot of commercial shoots which are definitely different from film, but also regular and come with budgets!

This time, he's working on some "super secret" project with a Hollywood screenwriter and has asked me to score a short 1.5 minute clip that I gather is going to be the calling card for the screenplay / film. Can't get into any details about it, but he's given me carte blanche ... a blank page. He's essentially given me complete control on sound / kind of music, where it goes, what have you... He TRUSTS me with it all ... silly boy!

Well, Crap! Where to start? It's not from lack of ideas or anything, it's the process of self-imposing boundaries and getting down to work.

I think I've got a good idea of the sound and spotting for the scene - which is a good start... now to see what comes out of the muse this morning...

The "Hump" Week

2008-05-12T06:06:00.002-04:00

Well, here I go, almost at the top of the hill... Catherine just left for Vancouver and we're starting week 5 of 10 without Mom.

I'm sick again. The cold conveniently started on Friday evening and thru Mother's Day to today... I guess I can't really be surprised as I've been sort of burning the candle at both ends and being a little too optimistic about the temperature outside. hmmm... Regardless, just a bit stuffed up and tired.

Man! What a weekend - little Alex is a bike-riding monster! Saturday afternoon, I took off his training wheels (with some protest), ran up behind him halfway up and down the block ... TWICE ... and then he was on his own! Starting and stopping by himself!!! It's like he's been riding for months!

Now Chris is much more interested in riding his bike... hmmm... ;)

Embarrassment...

2008-05-08T18:21:00.005-04:00

Okay, so the kid in the picture really has nothing to do with this post, but I thought it was funny...

Right now, I'm listening to Daft Punk's Human After All album ("Robot Rock" just came up) and reflecting on the week while the kids play a bit before bedtime...

I dunno whether or not I should be concerned about a conversation I had with our 8 year old this week.

I've noticed the past couple of weeks, when I've dropped him off at school, he hasn't really been as affectionate as he usually is when he's off to school. I usually walk him into the yard and then give him a hug and kiss goodbye. This past week, he's been reluctantly giving me at least a hug and doing this nervous giggle when I give him a kiss.

I asked him what was up at bedtime a couple nights ago.

"I'm a bit embarrassed to give you a kiss in front of my friends."

....

I hope I didn't let on that my heart hit the floor with a gigantic thud right then and there.

We chatted a bit about it and decided that we'll do quick, stealth kisses instead. As I left his room after a bit of a snuggle, I couldn't help but keep on thinking about the incident:

When was it that I started being "embarrassed" to give my parents a kiss?

Was I older or younger than he?

How'd my parents react to that news?

I know he's a very affectionate kid and also quite confident around his peers, but I guess we're coming to the age where standing out from the rest of the crowd starts to become taboo. I remember those kinds of feelings and dilemmas: "What will everyone else think???"

You lead two different lives - one with your family and another in front of your friends... at least for a while through the pubescent years and then something happens...

You feel comfortable being unique again.

Rediscovering Music from My Past

2008-05-05T16:20:00.002-04:00

On the way home, I decided to click on some tunes from my iPod that I hadn't spun in quite a while ... the Shuffle Demons!

Man, I haven't heard these guys for a while (that's the fun of filling up a 60Gb drive with music ... so many choices). I remember being in sweaty little dives in London Ontario watching these guys. It's a hoot what they can do with three saxes, a bass and kit.

Classic lyrics:

Spadina Bus (Spadina Bus)
Spadina Bus (Spadina Bus)
Spadina Bus (Spadina Bus)
Spadina Bus (Spadina Bus)

I say get on the bus (get on the bus)
Yeah, right on the bus (right on the bus)
Right on the bus (right on the bus)
The Spadina bus (the Spadina bus)

Ain't no school bus (ain't no school bus)
Ain't no streetcar (ain't no streetcar)
Ain't no subway car (ain't no subway car)
The Spadina bus (the Spadina bus)

I want confirmation on my information about my transportation from Spadina station
(We want confirmation on this information on the transportation from Spadina station)
Gimme confirmation on my information about my transportation from Spadina station
(We want confirmation on this information on the transportation from Spadina station)

Well, I start to cuss on the Wellesley bus
And you can't go far on the College Street car
You know the Yonge Street train is a real pain
And the LRT—for that's not for me
Well, you can't have fun on the York U. run
And the Ossington trolley is just a big folly
Well, I don't give a damn ‘bout the Bathurst tram
So I'll make a fuss about Spadina Bus

‘Cos on 77B (77B)
On the TTC (TTC)
Yeah, 77B (77B)
On the TTC (TTC)
Well, 77A (77A)
I guess it'll be OK (that's OK)
But I want 77B (77B)
On the T-T-T-TTC (T-T-T-TTC)

Hey, check it out

I went down to the station
I didn't scream or fuss
I didn't have lots of patience
Waiting for that bus
Dug deep down in my pockets
To try and find some coin
But much to my chagrin
All I found was my groin

Hey!

(Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Spadina Bus) The Spadina Bus
(Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Spadina Bus) It's raising quite a fuss
(Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Spadina Bus) Just wanna get on the bus
Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Sp-Spadina Bus

Holy Frick! We Bought a House

2008-05-05T05:50:00.006-04:00

We just bought this place in Vancouver.

It's in the "Dunbar" area. I've been to the area a few times, but really don't have a true appreciation for the nuances of the different neighbourhoods of Vancouver.

Catherine was pretty excited about it - she's the only one who has actually seen the house! :) She was going on about how it's close to the "Point Grey" area and all that which from what I can gather, is a good thing.

It's apparently going to need a bit o' work - new kitchen and some electrical stuff done. The basement is unfinished and ripe for building out a studio! (bwa ha ha ha!!!), but all in all, we can fit in there.

It was a bit hairy last evening as our agent phoned us just after he discovered that there were going to be five offers presented to the owners. After putting the kids to bed, I discovered Catherine downstairs at the FAX/printer with a phone to her ear looking a bit frazzled. We quickly decided what we needed to bid on the place and phoned our agent back to let him know "the plan"...

We initially had sort of convinced ourselves that we'd lost the bid as we've been in these multiple bid situations before and know that some people can be quite crazy with their bids to get a place. We hadn't gone beyond our game plan or anything like that, but weren't prepared to go to ANY lengths to get the place.

He went in at 5:30 (PST) to present the offer and gave us a call back at 7:30 with the news that we'd got the place.

I really think that we were in total shock (and still are). We sincerely thought we were out of the running and had already started preparing a contingency list of available properties for Catherine to check out this week...

Anyway, she's now preparing to visit banks and such shopping around for nice 'n tasty rates for the financing - every point off prime counts baby!

More later...

Week Three...

2008-04-28T06:02:00.006-04:00

It's 6:00 in the morning and I've been up for one and a half hours already... another early start to the week with Catherine leaving at 5:30 to catch the early morning flight to Vancouver...

Start of week three with me and the kids!

Going to Try out a New Approach

After listening to the Fountains of Wayne last evening, I got this "Ah-HA" moment. I'd posted previously about my aversion to writing lyrics a couple weeks ago. I've been labouring over writing lyrics to music I've been playing around with in my head. Things haven't been flowing very well - writing about these "lofty" kinds of things.

The guys in FOW are phenomenal songwriters - catchy tunes, great hooks, lyrics... - songs that I enjoy to listen to. I started listening to the lyrics (since that's been one thing I have been trying to actively do these days) and found them to not necessarily be these heavy-handed things in terms of subject matter. I mean, there are songs about a relationship being likened to "Traffic and Weather" another one about a Subaru car... pretty quirky, funny things.

I then started to think, well, why do I have to try and do something heavy handed? I don't necessarily have any expertise in that, plus, I'm not enjoying writing about that, so why not something that's close to my life? Quirky, funny... something I actually know about? Duh...

Now, to cull down the subject matter... :)

Online Presence

I'm listening to an interview of Derek K. Miller - the co-host of the podcast I've been part of "Inside Home Recording". He's talking with Nora Young on CBC's "Spark" program. They're talking about Derek's digital legacy.

He has been undergoing treatment for cancer and is facing the possibility of his life being cut short by the disease. He's been a self-described "geek" for a long time and has been blogging since the start of the century.

What I found quite revealing in the interview was the concept of what he and Nora were terming as his "digital legacy" - what happens to all the stuff that he did online when he's not around anymore. People concentrate on a lot of different things in writing their wills - mostly on material and monetary items, but what happens in this day and age to their lives they've lead in the digital realm?

Unlike "reality", a lot of what you do online can be kept and maintained ... if you keep up with it. It makes for a very interesting "what if" scenario. What if your ancestors had access to the technology we had these days and you could go through their online records, peruse their blogs, look at their IM chats, find other records about them? I'd think it'd be quite interesting. I never knew two of my grandparents, I just have odd tidbits my parents told me of them - beyond that level of my family tree, there are a few photos and official records that my dad has collected in his genealogy research, but that's it.

I don't really know what they were like as people. What'd they think of? What was their life like?

Besides using this as a communication tool and jotting down my (seemingly) random thoughts, I'd like to think that sometime in the future, someone may find it interesting or helpful to read through and get a bit of an insight into who I was, what I was thinking, what made me "tick".

I truly doubt it'll be some best selling memoir or what have you, but I'm thinking one of my future relatives may look at the branch/limb on the family tree with my name and wonder - who was that? ... and then be able to find out with a quick search.

Things that make you go hmmm...

Two Down ... Eight to Go

2008-04-25T18:15:00.004-04:00

I'm at the end of the second week as Mr. Mom.

I just responded to a friend about how it's going. I told her that it's not going too badly at all...

Refereeing three kids by myself isn't really too much of a stretch to tell you the truth as with me working at home, I've been doing a lot of the daily herding duties. It's just takes a little longer than when Catherine's around.

We chatted a bit about that last weekend - we concluded that the kids really see us, in terms of parental unit functions, as interchangeable, so having me do it all by myself isn't that much of a stretch for them...

Now, I think I'll fix myself a Mojito now that the kids are finished dinner and happily playing together.

Bad Influence?

I dunno if I should be concerned about this, but it seems as though our middle child is quite smitten by songs with ... questionable subject matter.

I have a fairly large music collection (over 60 Gb on my hard disks so far) and music is pretty well ALWAYS playing when I'm home. I also have Guitar Hero and Rockband for the PS2 my brother-in-law "donated" to us ... he didn't expect us to actually buy new games for it. Silly...

So, I've noticed that Alex seems to really like songs like: "Rock and Roll All Nite" (from Guitar Hero III), "Bang Your Head", "Balls to the Wall" (from Rockband) and now, "Stacy's Mom" (a song about a pubescent boy lusting after a classmates' mom) by Fountains of Wayne which I was playing this evening...

Stacy's Mom Lyrics - by Fountains of Wayne

Stacy's mom has got it goin' on
Stacy's mom has got it goin' on
Stacy's mom has got it goin' on
Stacy's mom has got it goin' on

Stacy, can I come over after school? (after school)
We can hang around by the pool (hang by the pool)
Did your mom get back from her business trip? (business trip)
Is she there, or is she trying to give me the slip? (give me the slip)

You know, I'm not the little boy that I used to be
I'm all grown up now, baby can't you see

Stacy's mom has got it goin' on
She's all I want and I've waited for so long
Stacy, can't you see you're just not the girl for me
I know it might be wrong but I'm in love with Stacy's mom

Stacy's mom has got it goin' on
Stacy's mom has got it goin' on

Stacy, do you remember when I mowed your lawn? (mowed your lawn)
Your mom came out with just a towel on (towel on)
I could tell she liked me from the way she stared (the way she stared)
And the way she said, "You missed a spot over there" (a spot over there)

And I know that you think it's just a fantasy
But since your dad walked out, your mom could use a guy like me

Stacy's mom has got it goin' on
She's all I want, and I've waited so long
Stacy, can't you see you're just not the girl for me
I know it might be wrong,
but I'm in love with Stacy's mom

Stacy's mom has got it goin' on
She's all I want and I've waited for so long,
Stacy can't you see your just not the girl for me,
I know it might be wrong but oh oh
(I know it might be wrong)
I'm in love with (Stacy's mom oh oh)
(Stacys mom oh oh)
I'm in love with Stacy's mom

There are other songs he likes, but he seems to gravitate to these ones - it seems to be for the actual music and grooves rather than the lyrics, but I'm wondering when he's actually going to connect the lyrics and their meaning together.

I'll just have to wait and cross that bridge when we come to it. ;)

What do Jedi's Eat for Breakfast?

2008-04-24T12:48:00.007-04:00

Catherine bought the kids toy lightsabers. I went and picked them up from the Purolator depot yesterday and surprised the little dudes and dudette when they got home...

They've been THE ONLY thing they'll play with since last night - had to be a bit firm with Alex as we wanted to sleep with his last night - it was definitely a little closer to his bed this morning. ;)

Sammie has a purple lightsaber - Alex is calling her Mace Windu - he's such a Star Wars geek a little dude after my own heart! She's been designated as the Padawan (Jedi in training) by Alex and Chris.

Apparently, Jedi's like to eat the same thing that my kids like to eat for breakfast - Fruity Cheerios. There, mystery solved....

I'm still the breakfast garbarator finishing anything that doesn't get done by the young "masters".

New Tunes

Just downloaded a new album by the "Flight of the Conchords". They're a parody band from New Zealand - sort of a cross between They Might Be Giants and Ugly Duckling. Very cool and funny stuff - they cover a lot of different styles and genres and man, their lyrics are a hoot!!!

A Kiss is Not a Contract - Flight of the Conchords

A kiss is not a contract
but it's very nice
yes it's very nice

Just because you've been exploring my mouth
Doesn't mean you get to take an expedition to the south

A kiss is not a contract
but it's very nice
yes it's very very nice

Just because we've been playing tonsil hockey
Doesn't mean you get to score the goal in my jockeys
Just because I'm in an acoustic folk band,
It doesn't mean I only want poon-tang
I can't go around loving everyone
I just wouldn't get anything done
Oh because...

I'm only one man
Baby
We're only two men, Ladies
Baby, oh pretty babies

Technology Sometimes REALLY SUCKS!

2008-04-23T11:07:00.002-04:00

I gotta go and get my eldest for lunch in about 10 minutes.

And, I'm in the middle of technology hell. I'm recovering files from my dead drive - most of them are coming through... I'm getting a replacement drive coming in the mail pretty soon, which is some comfort, but I still have a bunch o' stuff that's not coming off the old one. It's taken over 16 hours to try and go through the 4Gb I'm trying to eek out...

I'm going to go out after lunch and get yet another drive - I'm thinking I'll do the RAID thing with my data drives.

Grrrr... is all I can say. This is NOT conducive to all the cool creative things I was hoping to do this week...

To Pirate or not to Pirate...

2008-04-22T06:06:00.003-04:00

Last week, I posted on my Facebook status that I "was right pissed that my iPod disk had crashed". I found later that it wasn't dead as I was able to update it using Catherine's iBook. I concluded that there was something fishy with the front USB port on my Mac Pro as the data was coming from the same place (a disk on the Mac Pro).

Everything's hunky-dorry...

Fast forward to yesterday morning. Fire up the machine and I'm face-to-face with the gray Apple Logo on my screen for minutes on end. hmmmm....

not good.

Finally, the machine wakes up and my familiar desktop appears MINUS the "Music" drive (which is a partition on one of the 500Gb drives I put in the box).

not good.

I boot up Disk Utility, find the partition in the list and click on the trusty "Repair Disk" button. chug-a-chug-chug.

Found errors ...

Fixing errors ...

Your drive is good to go now!

Great! I open up iTunes and try out some of the tracks. Looks good... whoops, one doesn't play, then another, one more plays, oops, another one doesn't...

not good.

Fast forward through more trouble-shooting through the morning and afternoon trying to rebuild and transfer files to a "safe" location. I'm not entirely panicking as I have been exercising safe disk practices using protection and backups ... well most of the time.

That's what led me to downloading a demo version of a data recovery tool on the 'net. "How awesome!" I think. I can try this out and see if it can salvage the disk. If this actually works, I'll buy it, 'cause I know with all the hard drives I have, it's bound to happen again.

Well, it was a bit too much to expect - the demo version of the product WAS actually crippled and didn't let me do everything I wanted to see it do ... unless I forked out a pile o' cash ... which is non-refundable of course.

Now, here's the dilemma - what to do? I don't want to shell out some clams for the chance that this product might work the way it says it will. I have MOST of the data on a backup, but I'd like to at least try and get it all.

Well, as it turns out a simple search on Google containing the product name and "serial" comes up with a bunch o' hits to sites that publish serial numbers to software.

Wow! Should I? I DO intend to purchase the product if it actually works, but I can't really see if it works to my satisfaction unless I "crack" it which technically isn't ... playing by the rules.

Well, if I use the serial and it works, I'll definitely buy it, and then the company gets my money. If it doesn't work, well, I don't have a piece of software that has been put into the "Write-off" expense category.

So, I guess I'll let you know whether or not I bought a new software product or not later...

Man I SUCK at Lyrics

2008-04-19T19:39:00.002-04:00

I've lately been getting the urge to write songs again.

I go through these cycles when I'm in between projects.

Do I do some major maintenance on my systems?
Do I do some more acoustic treatment in the studio?
Do I learn how to use that new app I bought?
Do I play a video game?

A lot of the time, I still want to write music. I guess that's a good thing since that's ... what I like to tell people I do. :)

I've got a lot of ideas floating around - a lot of aspirations to tackle different things (write that symphony), try my hand at X genre of music...

The past week, I've been toying around with what's turning out to be a couple of songs that I'm simmering on the front burner.

AND, I'm trying to get them to be precisely 2:42 - found a link to this blog on IHR leading to a guy arguing that 2 minutes and 42 seconds is the perfect length for a pop song... {ahem}

So far, it's going great, at least that's what I keep saying. What I'm really doing is trying to put off the inevitable - writing lyrics.

I absolutely think that I suck at writing words to music. Mainly, I find it tedious and simply not enjoyable. That just is a death spiral for anything positive.

First off, I hardly listen to lyrics in songs - couldn't really give a hoot what the lyricist was writing about. Maybe on the 10th, 20th or xth listen, I'll try to catch a few phrases of what's being "said" and that'll be about it.

I get going with the arrangement, the harmonies, the instrumentation, the production, the melody ... all that stuff. I find that I like to pay attention to everything BUT the lyrics. And that's where I think part of my problem lies. I have no inspiration or drive to write words to music...

I started a couple of pages for one of the songs I'm crafting - it's got sort of a Coldplay vibe to it. I've been listening to the last three albums from the band and I'm REALLY trying to pay attention to what Chris Martin is singing about and see if I can some how absorb some sort of pattern and method to his lyrics, but, on the page, they seem just ... well, lame.

We'll see if the writing muse strikes next week...