Starting a New Project

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...

Week Three...

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...

Relaxing Weekends? Hah!

I find it kind of ironic that now we have kids, the weekends are no longer the part of the week we covet.

Is Saturday the new Monday for parents?

I'm not begrudging the kiddies at all, but I find it odd that I now look forward to Mondays as a time to "unwind" and get things done. Today (Friday) is going to be spent preparing for the weekend - cleaning the house and decorating the kitchen for the party tomorrow...

A peak into this weekend:

Saturday:

okay, a bit of sleeping in can be done - at least until 7:30 or 8:00 now that lil' C can manage the remote control.
8:00 - 9:00 - Breakfast chaos
10:30 - 12:00 - Swimming Lessons
1:00 - 5:00 - C & A's birthday party with extended fam
6:00 - ?? New Year's dinner.

Sunday:

8:00 - 9:00 Breakfast chaos
10:00 - 1:00 - some sort of outdoor activity
1:00 - 3:00 - C's birthday party with friends
3:00 - 5:00 - some sort of settle down / party review
5:00 - 6:00 - dinner
6:00 - ??? - shower time and settle down for bed...

It's a tad crazy - what's planned for Monday you ask? Well, I haven't really had time to think about that ... probably some work and tidying up some of the loose errands coming out of the weekend.

The interesting bit is that this is going to be our life until the kids leave home... then, it's their turn! Bwa ha ha ha!!!