crows to burnaby

Aaaand the award for Best Year of 2006 is: 2006!

It was a good one. It was full of new experiences, something I'm a big fan of. It had highs, it had lows, and it had a happy ending but with enough of a cliffhanger to make me want to tune tomorrow and see what happens next.

Have fun tonight, people, and let's all keep our fingers crossed that the sequel is even better than the original.

Having had a lovely Christmas day, we were faced with the prospect of what to do on the 26th. (The U.S., shockingly enough, does not have Boxing Day.)

Our original thought was that we'd go in to Philadelphia proper, check out our old haunts and favorite places, and wander around for a while and see what's changed. However, we managed to soak in the luxury of sleep for so long that had we gone in to the city, we'd hardly have had enough time to do much of anything. Plus, the hassle of traffic threatened to take the fun out of the few hours we would have to spend there before coming back for dinner.

So we ended up at the King of Prussia Mall, which is less satisfying but much closer. The town of King of Prussia contains one of the largest malls in the United States, a sort of consumerist Mecca for the region. It represents much of what we despise, and yet curiousity (and a wish for new Playstation 2 games) sometimes draws us there when we visit.

Parking was sheer madness, but all things considered, there was less stress and havoc than a typical Canadian Boxing Day sale day - the prices aren't discounted that much (I guess "Black Friday", the day after Thanksgiving, is the U.S. equivalent for megasales).

Things we learned:

• We know this, we lived this, but we have to be reminded every time we come here: East Coast drivers are far more aggressive than West Coast. It's not a myth.
• 2,856,132 square feet of people ignoring each other is kind of creepy.
• You can have a fruit smoothie in your hand or a cell phone; it's your choice. But you'll need the other hand free to carry your coat and/or bags.
• People will walk around the mall for hours and hours, but drive around a parking lot for the same amount of time to avoid walking too far from their car to the mall.
• It may be fun to take your yellow Lambourghini to the mall, but remember, it doesn't have as much trunk space as your Hummer.
• Fashion tip for Vancouver: fun printed pajama bottoms are now acceptable outerwear.

We escaped with only a few minor purchases. I can even claim I sort of needed some of them. I think a spiritual purging may be necessary, though; I'll be spending some quality time in the forest after we get back to BC...

Yesterday, here near Philadelphia, it was beautiful and sunny and warm. The sun was so bright and blazing that it made me realize just how small and puny our winter sun is north of the border, even as far south as we are in Vancouver. The difference in intensity was obvious. We walked around outside for a bit, just because I hoped that soaking up a little extra light would help me through the next few months of grey.

Today it is steadily pouring a solid rain and the weather looks exactly like what we left behind in Vancouver.

I thought half the point of travel was to get somewhere that feels different for a little while...?

Ah well - all the more reason to stay in, get a fire going in the woodstove, and eat delicious turkey 'til we burst.

Alright. Today's flight hasn't been cancelled yet (I'm still mentally prepared for anything, including being rerouted to Oklahoma somehow), the dog & apartment have a sitter here to look after them, we're packed and ready to go.

So posting might be a little light for a few days, or if I've got a lot of spare time, who knows, I might post a lot.

For now, I leave you with a example of the quality meal we can expect on the airplane:

and some party tips for your holiday celebrations.

Have a good 'un.

So the plan was that this Friday morning, Greg and I were going to fly out to Philadelphia to visit his parents for Xmas.

So far so good?

Wednesday evening, we got home from work and checked our messages. There was an anxious message from Greg's mom letting us know that the Denver airport was closed due to a snowstorm, and since we change planes in Denver, we'd better check on our flights.

I thought, that's nice of her.

I checked the itinerary on Expedia. It said the flight was Thursday.

I checked the tickets I had printed out the day before. THEY ALSO SAID THURSDAY.

And then I vaguely remembered that yes, we HAD booked the flights for Thursday. I had a moment of real panic, realizing that I had misremembered our departure date and that our flight was actually leaving in just over twelve hours rather than a day and a half. You understand, I never, ever, ever do things like this. I am meticulous about travel plans, I like to get to the airport well in advance, I tend to anticipate every potential problem and figure out what has to be done to avoid it. The idea of me missing a flight because I got the day wrong is sheer horror.

But I took a deep breath and called up Expedia to see what was happening with the flights.

Sure enough, they were cancelled. No other flights on Thursday or Friday, and there was ONE flight available on Saturday. We took it.

So it all worked out okay. But I'm still freaked out about the idea that if there hadn't just happened to have been a snowstorm in Colorado, we would be obliviously missing a flight right now. It'd be near-impossible to get another flight, and the stress would be unreal.

Sometimes the universe helps you out a little bit. Thanks, universe.

I'm not a fan of Rocky, or Rambo, or Judge Dredd, or, well, any of Sylvester Stallone's movies. I know little about him besides that he does thug-like action movies that tend not to interest me, and that there's an amusing and obscene anecdote about him circulating on Vancouver sets which may or may not be true. So it's been a bit of an eye-opener to learn that Stallone is actually a well-spoken, thoughtful kind of guy. He's been answering questions from fans over on Ain't It Cool News. And not just a few questions, but everything that gets thrown at him. He's up to 180 questions as of this post - ten questions per page, 18 pages. This is not typical celebrity movie-star behaviour.

On page 18, a fan asked him, "Why did you go through all this for us?"

I’m glad you asked that question. I was trying to surmise our relationship, because on the surface we seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum. The truth is, we are not that dissimilar. I relish the relationship we’ve developed and truly take to heart the insights provided by the talk-backs/comments… because you open up a window to the world that is closed to most celebrities because of arrogance on their behalf. But the time comes when professional gravity sets in and you, my friends, are the keepers of the flame, the bearers of the truth, and quite often the truth comes wrapped in barbed wire. More than being physical, I consider myself cerebral and a person who lives his life alone. I came up that way. I feel the way many of you feel, there’s a kinship there, and that’s why I’ve savored this experience and will miss it when it rides off into the sunset. But, I will return with RAMBO IV and welcome your insights into that character and life in general. I may be a freak on the exterior, but I’m a geek at heart.

He talks a little about his familiar voice:

I’ve always sounded like a family of swallows decided to build a home in my mouth shortly after birth. It’s not easy sounding intelligent when you’re being muffled by a bird’s nest in your throat, but I’m an animal lover and chose not to remove it. Truthfully, I mumble, I wish I didn’t. It’s mainly because of an accident at birth (not going for the sympathy vote here), which makes it very hard to articulate with any sense of clarity.

Reading his answers, you get the impression of a man who's enjoying being able to represent himself online in his own way, and a real sense of gratitude towards his fans for all their interest and kindness.

I still may not like his movies, but at least now I have some respect for him - certainly more than Schwarzenegger, anyway...

Besides not contributing to sweatshops and pollution from transport, clothing made here is less likely to attack you.

You know, it's really not all that difficult to cook a turkey. It does take a while, and if you were also cooking ten other side dishes for a table of twenty I suppose it would become pretty stressful in a hurry.

But when you're just having a few couples over and they're bringing the side dishes and desserts, it can be quite a joy.

The turkey could've been slightly less done, slightly moister - but we cooked it for the minimum amount of time suggested to me by the guy at Windsor Meats, so what more do you want? Anyway, it was good, and the stuffing was fantastic.

We've never really hosted a holiday party, or for that matter a dinner party; most of our parties are the usual "drop in for a while and bring some food/alcohol if you like" where our little condo gets filled to capacity. Sit-down dinners are trickier; with a little maneuvering and the help of some patio furniture we were able to get eight people snuggled in. It was a really good time and it was nice to see it all happen. Now I kind of get why people "entertain"...

And as a bonus, we should have enough leftovers to tide us over for the week. We have turkey, cranberry sauce, green beans, a chocolate pudding cake, pumpkin pie, stollen, peppercorn bread, and salad greens. Plus there's broth from the turkey, and leftover pad thai from the night before the party. (Sadly departed are the stuffing and the yam poutine.)

Of course, that's a lot of rich food already, and it's not even actually Christmas yet. Roll me to the gym...

At lunchtime I lost a game of dice to Santa, in the middle of a monkey's wedding.

Santa was offering free drinks at a local non-Starbucks coffee location to anyone who could best him with a single die. I took him up on it. He rolled a six right off the bat, but gave me another chance; he rolled a three and I rolled a one.

Not my lucky day, I guess.

In the meantime, the monkeys were happily exchanging vows.

I've been getting a lot of these lately - pump 'n' dump stock spams with the spam part in a graphic and the rest filled with supposedly non-spam-like text. They're pretty easy to recognize from the header (hmmm, a letter from Elvin Overton titled "Good Morning Elvin") but I clicked on this one anyway and was greatly amused by the text that's supposed to trick the spam filter into thinking it's not spam:

Sometimes a green submarine hides, but a girl scout always sanitizes the paper napkin! Indeed, another fried judge figures out an avocado pit defined by a short order cook. A pig pen starts reminiscing about lost glory, and an obsequious crane takes a coffee break; however, the chestnut living with the tomato makes love to an ostensibly stoic customer.
Sometimes the minivan of a class action suit self-flagellates, but a financial cowboy always graduates from a fruit cake of a ball bearing!
Sometimes the minivan of a class action suit self-flagellates, but a financial cowboy always graduates from a fruit cake of a ball bearing! When a tabloid ruminates, a minivan about the chess board sweeps the floor.
Sometimes the minivan of a class action suit self-flagellates, but a financial cowboy always graduates from a fruit cake of a ball bearing! When a tabloid ruminates, a minivan about the chess board sweeps the floor.
Sometimes the minivan of a class action suit self-flagellates, but a financial cowboy always graduates from a fruit cake of a ball bearing!
When a tabloid ruminates, a minivan about the chess board sweeps the floor.

If spam was always this tasty, I might even read it more often.

You'd think I'd make a post like this once in a while, but I haven't really, have I?

Most of the new music I get into is by recommendation from friends - I use last.fm or Pandora sporadically but they rarely give me something that really moves me. It's like I need someone to TELL me to listen to something before I'll take it seriously, invest emotionally in it.

• I know I'm just a BIT behind the curve on this one, but this year Jen and Marcus finally got me listening to Nine Inch Nails. I always thought it'd be too shouty/aggro for me - I hate screamy voices - but Reznor has more of an anguished gritty tone that still can carry a melody. And it's more electronic than I thought, like if Depeche Mode just got really pissed off. And, hey, sometimes you just want to feel like a tortured soul. So I'm making up for lost time and listening to lots of NIN these days.
• I'm also quite enjoying a few tracks by Tweaker, the solo project of ex-NIN drummer Chris Vrenna, courtesy of our actor friend Craig. More electronica/downtempo, not as harsh and angsty, very listenable. Check out "Worse than Yesterday".
• Marcus pointed me to one song by Meletus is a Liar and I bought some tracks. I like the lonely, pensive sound to it; it's not something that I listen to every day but it mixes well with my other music.
• It goes without saying that I love Thom Yorke's solo album, The Eraser. Okay, it did take a few listens for me to love it, but I do now.
• I've gotten into Regina Spektor lately, via a recommendation from my friend Jon (who was the one who got me to listen to Radiohead, so I will forever respect his musical taste). Regina is in the sort of eclectic singer/pianist genre, like Tori Amos or Fiona Apple. Oddly enough, Darren also posted a rave about her the day I bought the CD.
• When ARCTIC played out east, we played a show in London, ON with Portia and I greatly enjoyed their set. Their Myspace tracks are live off the floor and give you a good idea of what they sound like - very Bjork/Massive Attack-ish sound. It pleases me when their tracks appear in shuffle mode on my iPod.
• I'm also really enjoying listening to the partially-finished ARCTIC track currently in progress. That's a good sign - if I got sick of them after a few listens, there'd be something wrong...

I have been craving new music, so if you have any suggestions, bring 'em on. In general I'm into anything that combines the acoustic with the electronic - Radiohead, Massive Attack, Beck - and very textured things, like Boards of Canada. I haven't found myself getting too excited about much new stuff lately - everything seems so "post"-everything and lo-fi and sparse, and sometimes that's nice but I'm finding a lot of the new indie bands to be derivative of each other. But I'm all ears if you've got ideas.

I seem to be in a Blogging Lull at the moment. I'm sure it'll pass. In the meantime, here's a list of sustainable holiday tips from Stop Global Warming:

• Choose energy-efficient LED holiday lights, which use 80% less energy.
• Select alternatives to wasteful paper gift wrapping -- scarves, newspaper, reusable boxes, tins and jars. If you buy paper, always choose recycled and save wrapping for re-use.
• Give the gift of an experience, rather than material goods, and save resources. Ideas include: theatre and concert tickets; museum memberships; and season tickets to sporting events.
• Shop early and avoid overnight shipping. Ground shipping saves more fuel than air shipping.
• Buy cards made from post-consumer recycled paper, or send holiday email greetings.
• Buy a living tree and plant it after the holidays.

I'll add one: if you buy things locally rather than ordering them (to avoid shipping, which uses fuel), I recommend you don't drive if you can help it, because you'll end up driving around in circles looking for parking as it is currently madness on the streets already.

Greg and I going out east for a few days over the holidays. But we stalled on booking our flights until early November, and then it suddenly dawned on us that we hadn't booked a place for our delightful dog to stay.

By that time, all the kennels we contacted were completely booked for the holidays, from Gibsons to Surrey to Aldergrove - one of them said they'd been overbooked since mid-August. We got put on multiple lengthy waitlists. All the dogsitters were booked. Our vet, who boards a few animals, was full up. Bringing him on a cross-country flight is not a fair or reasonable option. We thought we'd ask our usual dog-sitting friends to share looking after him while we're away, but they'll will mostly be out of town themselves. It was getting a little panicky, but as it turns out one good friend of ours will dogsit and water the plants and so on, and we'll have a dogwalker coming in on a few of the days.

It got us thinking, though. Vancouver's a big city, with a lot of dogs in it, and apparently not nearly enough boarding for everybody, at least at one time of the year. What if someone with even less notice than us has to make a trip in a hurry, a few days before Xmas? They wouldn't have a hope in hell.

Of course, dog kennels can't really exist in the urban environment - the noise would get them shut down in an instant. And dogsitting is not a lucrative business. There's a practical limit on how many dogs a single person can look after responsibly.

If you could come up with a service that would find dogsitters just over the peak period, you'd do alright. It's a tricky one, though. I thought about some kind of online dogshare matchup where people would offer to take in dogs, but on a trust level it'd never work. Proper dogsitters are insured and bonded, because no one wants to let random strangers into their homes, or take a chance on them stealing or losing their dog. You wouldn't hand your kid over to a strange sitter you found on the net - most people are like that about their dog, too.

Still, if you're the entrepreneurial type, think about it and maybe you'll see the angle I'm missing, and come up with something.

And then book us in for next year, would you?

It's been ages since I've written anything about recording ARCTIC. This is mostly because it's been very stop-and-go for the past several months - between NXNE, Marcus's solo tour, and a few live shows and rehearsals, and myriad other timing & scheduling issues, it's been hard to get into a recording routine. When you start and stop over a period of weeks, you forget where you were and what needed to be done, and all the gear gets moved around and has to be rewired, and it takes so much time just to get back to where you left off. Now that the band won't be playing out for a few months, the focus has switched back entirely to recording, and there's been some good things happening.

We spent some time rewiring things, adding a new ribbon mic and an incredibly helpful and amusingly named studio control center, shuffling bits of the studio around, and creating something more like a proper sound booth between dividers. That and some creative buffering helped to cut down on some of the ambient sound in the studio. It wasn't that bad before, but it's better now. We're also having a smoother time of switching between mics and speakers as well as dodging latency.

And of course, it's not as if nothing was tracked that whole time - there are a good solid number of songs in various states of doneness. There's also very different multiple variations of a few of the songs. One song was originally in 4/4 but it looks like the version that was spontaneously recorded in 3/4 is going to win out. Another started off slow, then was rerecorded at about 1.5 times the speed, but I think we'll be going back to the slow version.

Everything is far enough along now that I can listen to all the tracks and get a sense for how cohesive the album could be. It's not defined enough to be able to come up with a track order or anything, and there's still a handful of songs that aren't anywhere near done. But it's enough to get a rough feel for how it might flow, and I think we've done the most complex parts already. It's less nebulous, and that's nice.

Things that are good about the current weather situation

• Snow on branches looks beautiful
• Snow on mountains looks amazing
• The way the snow softly dampens all sound and makes people walk thoughtfully
• Watching the dog bound joyfully through snowdrifts like a rabbit
• The amusement value of hearing Vancouverites respond to snow with confusion and disgust: "This isn't Vancouver - this is Whitehorse!"

Things that aren't

• Yeah, the snowplows are out, but too late to prevent the three solid inches of ice coating the street
• Rediscovering that your winter boots leak, something you noticed towards the end of last season when it was too late to care, and then forgot about
• Having to stand in the cold while the dog searches in vain for a patch of grass
• Mind-boggling bus lineups, to which the only alternative is driving, which would be worse (do they even sell snow-tires here?!)
• The horror of hat hair
• Having the same conversation with every other East Coast import about how this is nothing compared to what we grew up with
• No longer having bragging rights about how mild the winters are here

I woke up abruptly at about 4:15 AM from a dream in which I was getting ready for bed on Monday night, but had a horrible sinking realization that I hadn't done any of my UBC work for the day, not even turned on my laptop or checked my email so I frantically started trying to get some work done.

Then I woke up enough to figure out it was still Sunday night/Monday morning and today hadn't happened yet.

But then I couldn't get back to sleep, which happens to me often when I wake up between 4 and 6. Usually if it happens it takes about an hour, but I gave up at 6 and got up and read for a while. I curled up on the couch eventually and got back to sleep sometime around 7:15-7:30.

At 8:15, I half-heard Greg getting ready for work in the background, and my dreams shifted into me waking up and talking to him and sitting on the floor patting the dog. Then I moved a foot in real life and realized I was still asleep on the couch. Then suddenly in real life the dog started barking like an idiot, because he does that when the phone rings, and it shook me very harshly into an ugly, noisy, sleepy, groggy reality.

It turned out to be someone from Greg's department, calling to tell him the power is out all over campus and all classes are cancelled and any non-essential services are suspended. So he gets to stay home today.

Now, me... I was going to be working from home today anyway. I have power.

Do I work because I can? Or take a snow day because everyone else is?

I was still too sleep-deprived to decide, so I went back to bed for a while and now I feel better.

I think I'll do some work. Partly because I can and might as well, but also because if I don't, I'm going to go to bed tonight, Monday night, and realize that I haven't done any of my UBC work for the day, not even turned on my laptop or checked my email...........

It's a snowstorm!! Everybody stay indoors! Keep off the roads! Stock up on candles and batteries!! Close your curtains and blinds! Don't talk to strangers!!

UP TO FIVE TO TEN CENTIMETRES ARE EXPECTED! *shrieks of horror*

(Yes, Craig, you may now laugh until you cry.)

I know people who are calling in sick tomorrow.

Me, it's my work-at-home day... I don't have to worry about it. *yawn*

Take a slice of really good bread (Terra Breads makes an amazing rosemary olive oil loaf that should suit. In fact, if you don't live in Vancouver, have some rosemary on hand).

Toast it.

Put some honey on it.

Sprinkle curry powder over top. If lacking the appropriate aforementioned bread, sprinkle some rosemary as well.

Slice up an avocado and spread it onto the bread.

Eat.

You can wait until you're done eating to thank me - don't talk with your mouth full.

Man, I just love that big glowy thing at the Backstage Lounge. It's practically a reason to play there, just 'cause the pictures look so great.

It was a good show. We were on second, which is perfect... the crowd is at its peak when you finish. The place was pretty full, and we had lots of people up front, some sitting watching up close, others bopping around a little further back. (Vancouver is one of those cities where it's very difficult to get people to dance, so I take any dance-like motion as a compliment.)

Au4 closed the night; it's the fourth time I've seen them now, and I still enjoy it, much like I couldn't stop listening to the CD when I got it. They're also super nice and professional and easy to work with. You learn very quickly to appreciate and respect the other people who are serious about what they do. It makes things go so much smoother and that, in turn, makes it all much more fun.

The ARCTIC crew all stayed out ridiculously late after the show. I can't believe how functional I am today after only five hours or so of sleep. But I'm starting to run down now; this rock star needs an afternoon nap...

UPDATE: Want to know what you missed? Here are some live videos from the show.

I try to be reasonably conscientious about wearing earplugs at shows, both as an audience member and as a musician. On stage I'm pretty close to a drumset and even though it's not like we're a heavy band, that kit can sure make a racket. And attending shows, you never quite know what you're going to get - some venues and sound guys appreciate that excessive volume can make people miserable, and others like to crank 'er up until your teeth hurt. I remember seeing a show, I think at the Railway, where I found my eyes forced to blink in reflex every time the drummer hit the kick drum.

Plus, I've got a bit of tinnitus already, which happened at some point during a loud summer spent in Philadelphia - I suspect the July 4th fireworks display, which I remember finding painfully loud. It's not all that bad - I only notice it in a really quiet room, and it isn't distracting at any other time.

But a few months ago my left ear, over the course of a few hours, suddenly felt clogged and uncomfortable and my tinnitus in that ear became very loud. I had it checked out immediately, and was told it was probably a viral ear infection that would have to go away on its own. It improved dramatically over the next few days, but there's still a residual hissing/ringing in my left ear that wasn't there before that day. I'm told it may get better in time - but that can take quite a while.

The upshot of all of this is that I'd been tossing around the idea of getting custom earplugs for quite a while, but that experience with my left ear gave me a scare. Having had a taste of how much worse my tinnitus COULD be, through factors out of my control, I decided I needed to make the changes that ARE in my control.

As I've said, I've worn store-bought earplugs faithfully, but they are very unsatisfying - they strip off so much of the high-end that you lose all the subtleties of the sound. Sometimes I found myself putting them in loosely, or leaving out the plug that isn't facing the drumkit, which defeats the purpose but was often the only way I could get enough clarity to perform well. I've tried a number of different types, but nothing was optimal. Custom-made earplugs are expensive - but tinnitus and deafness are forever.

So Marcus and I both made appointments at the Western Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing to get fitted for custom musicians' earplugs. They cost $140, which is cheaper because WIDHH is a non-profit - other places charge about $160-170. They're available with 15db or 25db filters; some places offer a 9db version. We decided 15db would be about right. You can also buy additional filters if you want to swap them out in different circumstances; they're an extra $80 or so.

Now the freaky part. They have to make a mold of your ears and send them out to the lab. So the first thing is to stick a little piece of foam, attached to a string, as deep into your ear as it can safely go. The fellow who did our ears poked the foam so far in that your brain is sending you alarm signals - your body KNOWS you're not supposed to have something that far down your ear canal, and it's a bit disturbing and not very comfortable, either. I had to have one of mine adjusted because it was starting to ache, and Marcus had to start over as the first piece of foam was too big a fit.

Then the fun part. The guy mixes up a sort of epoxy-like goop, some pink and white substances, that end up looking like bubble gum. This goes into something that looks like a icing tube. This then goes into your ear. And that's why it's a good thing you've got a piece of foam buried deep in your ear canal, because who knows how far the goop would go without it?

Having pink goop squirted into your ear makes a disturbing squelching FHHHSSHHPPPSHHPPP sound... and then nothing. Once both your ears have been filled, you can't reasonably hear much of anything. Conversations are difficult and you quickly switch to gestures. It's quite still and strangely peaceful - when you know it's going to end in ten minutes. I wouldn't want to make it a habit.

Then the molds get worked awkwardly out of your ear and you feel like your brain's going to get pulled out as well, and then you get to see what the insides of your ears are shaped like. They're much more crooked and bendy than you'd think. Everything sounds so much clearer after you've been deaf for ten minutes.

It took exactly two weeks for the plugs to arrive, so last night's show was the first opportunity I had to use them.

I should've done it years ago.

It really is just like having the volume turned down. It's an even attentuation. Foam plugs cut out more of the high-frequency sounds (which are more harmful, so that's usually a good thing) but that's what makes the sound so muffled. I could still hear things quite clearly with the earplugs in, and I had no trouble distinguishing anything - it just took the edge off. They're fantastic. Singing with them was a little strange, not because I couldn't hear myself as I feared, but because I could hear myself so clearly that I wondered if I was too loud.

So if you have a need for good earplugs and you've been waffling about whether or not it's worth the money, I say do it. These really are a cut above standard earplugs - and $140 won't buy your hearing back if it starts to go.

I'm always highly amused by "musician wanted" ads that specify "no flakes".

If you're a flake, do you really think you're a flake?

Sure, many people will admit they're flaky in one way or another. But the type of "flakes" referred to here are usually the type who blow off rehearsals, don't learn the material, don't have their gear ready, and are in general unreliable. There's a lot of these people out there, but the problem is they don't realize it's a problem.

No one is going to look at an ad and say "No flakes... oh... uh... guess I'm out."

"No druggies" also shows up in ads, but that should be pretty clear. Either you're a druggie, or you're not. There are druggies who haven't admitted it to themselves and might answer the ad anyway, but they're likely to be in the minority.

But I doubt "no flakes" works as an effective filter.

I'd suggest making the ad itself a deterrent to flakes - ie., "We work really hard and expect you the same from you". Of course, everyone's definition of "work really hard" is going to vary as well...

A few days later, and the accuracy of this software has gotten better. But I still don't think I can realistically use of for transcription - as you see. There are just enough mistakes that going back in correcting them will take as much time as taking it in the first place (and that should be "typing"). And most of the mistakes are insidious - minor grammatical things that are hard to pick up skimming.

Buying and string a fast type this

I am extremely fast typist, so unless I am actively trying not to use my hands, this software is not a huge benefit for me.

The other strange thing is that it is hard for me pose my fonts strictly in my hand

The other strange thing is that it is hard for me to compose my thoughts strictly in my head. I am very much of visual writer - I need to see the words in front of me. I like to rearrange my sentences after they have already been written. I guess I could get used to this, but I find myself staring blankly at the screen, uncertain what to say next. And by the time I am done making corrections, I have lost my train of thought.

It's back to the keyboard for me.

We're planning to use voice recognition software at work to transcribe video. Alas, since industry leader Dragon Naturally Speaking isn't available for Mac, I'm using iListen by MacSpeech, and I'm in the process of training the software to recognize my voice. So far I've read about twenty minutes or more of text into it. The results have often been less than stellar, but I do understand it takes a while to fine-tune things.

Everything you see from this point on will have been dictated using iListen, without any editing:

Unfortunately I haven't yet learned all commands to back tracking and make corrections using iListen. It's a bit strange same words come out that aren't exactly when I would have sent, but it's still not that. Bad. I meant to save bad. Know that should say say for knots say if. I think it's starting to panic. It seems to do better if I speak smoothly. I guess that makes sense since I've been trained at to listen to Maine while I talk they headed. Who were the hell dividend main from?

This is not going well.

There something like three pages worth of instructions and demands, and really I should be training at with corrections while I'm talking. But I just want to dive then and use the software. Maybe that is in the best approach for this.

I said it isn't.

Here's something I've been meaning to do for a while. Meg Fowler does this often and well and it's lots of fun - questions for you, o precious visitors. Some of you I know well and some of you I don't even know exist. Now is your time to shine, your moment in the sun (if there was actually any sun today or likely to be any for the next week, that is).

So move your hands from mouse to keyboard and let's see what you have to say for yourself. Yes, YOU.

1) Hi! How are you today?
2) Do you have a calendar nearby? What's the theme?
3) Do you prefer sweet or savory?
4) What would you do for a living if you could do ANYTHING - time, training, physical strength and talent are not barriers?
5) Have you ever played lasertag?
6) What's your favourite article of clothing you have?
7) Do you have a superpower? What is it?
8) What song would you sing at karaoke? (You have to pick something, you can't just squirm and say oh I can't sing.)

That ought to get you started. C'mon, this'll give you a way to put off doing that unpleasant task you're avoiding at work for at LEAST ninety seconds.

Boy, it's really one of those just-when-you-think-it-can't-rain-any-harder- it-suddenly-does kind of nights, isn't it? For that matter, most of the weekend was like this, except for occasional bursts of actual, real SUNLIGHT.

I like this kind of rain, though. It's kind of warmish out, and the intensity of the rain gives you something to react to. I can't stop peeking out the window to see what it's doing. Vancouver's typical grey drizzle is so unexpressive, but a good downpour like this catches your attention. I used to love New York thunderstorms in the summertime for that reason - that's still one of the few things I occasionally miss about Long Island.

I even walked home in it tonight. I'd been at the studio all afternoon, and headed for the bus stop - then just kept walking. After several hours spent sitting in a chair, it felt good to move around, and the rain just added atmosphere. Took me about an hour to get home, and the umbrella couldn't stop me getting soaked below the knees, but I enjoyed it. I got one good splash from a car at a point near the end of my walk where it really didn't make any difference - just made me laugh.

If it's got to rain, it might as well do it with style.

Greg keeps me up to date on the latest & greatest movie news, and so when he spotted an article about the upcoming film production of Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd", he knew I'd be all over that.

See, here's the thing. When most of the other teenagers were listening to, oh, Rick Astley or Bon Jovi or something, I was the freak interested in Stephen Sondheim musicals.

Even anyone else my age who would've said they liked musicals would probably have been talking about Cats or Les Miserables. But my favourite musical of all time is Sweeney Todd, the story of a murderous revenge-seeking barber who kills his clients and lets his landlady, Mrs. Lovett, cook them up into meat pies. We had the George Hearn and Angela Lansbury version on VHS, and I watched it so many times I've pretty much got it permanently burned into my brain. I used to love showing it to friends just to get their reactions. (Most of the time, they were still my friends afterwards, too.)

There's this great moment, for me the real turning point of the entire show, where Mrs. Lovett gets the idea of what to do with Todd's victims. She presents the idea to him, a bit shyly, hesitant, wringing her hands on her apron:

Seems a downright shame....
Seems an awful waste...
Such a nice plump frame woss-'is-name has - had - has...
Nor it can't be traced.

In the video, you can hear audience members groan and gasp as they realize what she's implying. They're disgusted, but they're riveted. Mrs. Lovett is bumbly and harmless and seems to see Todd's bloodthirsty revenge quest as an endearing personality quirk, which she doesn't fully understand but is happy to assist him with, especially if it'll help out her pie shop a little.

Business needs a lift -
Debt to be erased.
Think of it as thrift, as a gift, if you get my.... drift?
[pause]
No?
[sigh]
Seems an awful waste.

Todd hasn't caught on yet. But by now the audience has got it. They're still shocked. But she seems so innocent and reasonable that by the time the next song, "A Little Priest", finishes the first act, we all think the whole thing is a quite practical and decent venture and we wish them all the best in their new business partnership.

The movie version will be directed by Tim Burton and star Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. This sounds like a deadly good combination, and I have high hopes. I am slightly concerned that Burton might make it too "cute", and that the stars will be too young 'n' pretty to be believable as aging, weathered working-class Londoners. And it may be that nothing can ever live up to the high standards set by the version I've got memorized already. But I can't wait to see how it comes out, regardless.

Looks like I spoke too soon about last week's show being our last of the year - we're playing another one after all, because we were offered the show and it's just too much fun not to. It'll be on November 17 at the Backstage Lounge, and we'll be with the ever-impressive AU4 again, as well as Bradley.

This Sunday was the first time I can ever remember that I didn't know about the time change beforehand. Usually I look these things up in advance, or I see it on a calendar, or notice something somewhere that says "Don't forget to set your clocks back!" This year, I was oblivious.

And it was great! Because I hadn't been able to fall asleep for an extra hour Saturday night, and so I needed to sleep more and decided I wouldn't have time to stop by the Vancouver Guitar Show before meeting up with my parents. And when I awoke, and learned that I was the lucky winner of an extra hour in my day, I was so damn happy.

How often do you wake up and discover that you have an extra hour that you weren't expecting? Not often.

So I went to the guitar show after all. It's a good thing I don't actually play guitar or it'd be like walking into a candy shop and wanting everything. I gawked at some very cool and very old and very custom and very interesting guitars and a few nice basses. Didn't see anything I couldn't live without, though there were some pedals that were seriously tempting, and some incredibly small yet powerful bass amps that would make carting my gear around almost pleasant. I picked up a little Yamaha sampler for $10 from a dealer who just wanted rid of it - it'll give me a new toy to play with, and something new to learn, and if I don't like it I expect I can sell it for $20.

The next plan for the day was to meet up with my parents at IKEA, since we both wanted to get something there (including meatballs w/lingonberry sauce) and figured it'd be a convenient meeting spot. Surprisingly, the power was out for a small chunk of Coquitlam, and IKEA's restaurant was down. What are the odds? We got sushi in PoCo instead and went for a walk in a park somewhere in between the two places.

Next item on the agenda: the second annual Halloween Haunted Studio Tour. Once again, Greg was a tour guide at this event, in which Bridge Studios sets up an elaborate haunted house on their sets. Makeup artists, special effects, actors and stuntpeople volunteer their time to entertain tour groups for the weekend. This year was far bigger than last year, with longer tours, more people, and more parts of the studio included. It sold out weeks in advance - I was going to post something about it but there almost didn't seem to be a point. You get a good look at major Stargate sets (including the Stargate - now I wish I had actually watched the show before so that I'd recognize the sets and get excited about it - ah well ;).

I wasn't particularily scared but I was certainly entertained, and Greg was a terrific host despite trying to feed me to a witch at one point. But he'd been fending off zombies, vampires, and a giant mutant spider-beetle for days, so who can blame him?

After this, Jen and I went out for Ethiopian food at Addis Cafe on Commercial. I've been saying "oh, we should try that" for years and never done it, so it was pretty exciting. I'm a definite fan of eating with fingers. Ethiopian food is eaten by scooping up the food with a type of bread called injera, which has a pleasant spongy texture. The flavours were fantastic, seriously. Very very tasty (and not too spicy, if you're worried) and fun to eat.

All in all, it was a pretty rich weekend. Well, Saturday wasn't as eventful, but it still had its perks. Not every single day can be filled with interest and novelty (though I'm not sure why not).

On Friday I spent most of the day in delightfully music-oriented meetings. Friday evening I went out with some friends first to see Paula Toledo at Cafe Montmartre. She played a lovely solo set at the semi-Parisian cafe on Main Street, where crepes, wine, and flickering candles set the atmosphere. Her last album was recorded in France, so I think the setting is quite appropriate and suits her songs well.

From there we caught Mongoose, a "Rock Punk n Roll quartet", at the Lamplighter. I'd heard plenty about Mongoose before - they're known for not only being a wildly energetic heavy & loud band, but doing it with great technical proficiency. Shockk, the guitarist, also does an ambient guitar project called Interior Design - he played in between sets at our last show at the Lamplighter. And Johnny Wildkat, the bassist, has done sound at our last two shows. They're all an extremely talented bunch, and so while Mongoose is a definite departure from the sort of thing I would usually listen to, I had a great time and got right into it.

Paula and Mongoose have very, very different styles, and would be unlikely to ever be on a bill together. But when you've got a city's worth of music to choose from, setting up your own dramatic contrast can be good fun once in a while.

Somebody seems to be compiling a list of female Vancouver bloggers (and a few male - hey Darren, that's you) to approach for... some commercial venture...?

Psst! ....WE CAN TELL IF YOU LINK TO US.

Lucky for me, my blog wasn't the one described as "Another girls [sic] who yammers on about this and that, and not much substance. Perfect." That might have been more criticism than I could take in a week.

UPDATE:

I've removed the links as the page in question is now gone. The author of the page wrote me a lengthy embarrassed apology. He was helping his girlfriend organize a wedding fair, and hoping to get some bloggers on board to talk about the event - but accidentally put it on his public server rather than a private LAN server. Links were clicked, and hijinks ensued. But like a good sitcom, everything and everyone is back to normal now, and there's a good ol' moral to the story that we can all learn from. Whee!

Got to play the Railway Club last night, which was lovely. I've always liked it there - it's got a good vibe, the sound is usually excellent, and it's cozy.

The event was CiTR's Shindig, which is a sort of elimination-round battle of bands thing, but much friendlier and less aggressive than the rest. We signed up not really with any delusions of grandeur or real expectations of winning (we didn't even realize it WAS a competition at first!) but because we like CiTR and we like the Railway Club. People know about Shindig and it's nice to be a part of it.

All three bands played well; I was quite happy with our set. I could tell pretty quickly that Better Friends Than Lovers would be picked as winners; they had a good crowd and a nice energy on stage, and a sort of Pink Mountaintops vibe which is big right now - big group of people on stage, organic sound, very melodic and upbeat. Kudos to 'em; I wasn't surprised they won. It was a good call.

I don't think I'd want to play a competition again, though. I didn't expect to win, but I would've rather just played a normal gig with no strings attached. It's like going to an event where you find out there's a raffle. You've got your raffle ticket, and for a moment you think "Oh, wouldn't it be great if I won the iPod?" and when they call the numbers you have this flash of hope, but then they don't call your number, and you're more disappointed than you would have been if there'd never been a raffle at all.

The bands were also all a little standoffish to each other, too. That doesn't happen as much with normal gigs. No one was rude or anything, just... distant. I smiled and said hi, but there's something about knowing that you'll be ranked against each other that makes it harder to be chummy.

The other trippy thing about it is reading the judges' comments. I'm one of those people who is prone to taking bad things personally and discounting the praise. There were some lovely glowing comments in there, about the band in general and about me as a player. Which were very nice to read. But I feel that if I'm going to take that seriously, then I should also take the less positive stuff seriously, or the suggestions that are meant to be helpful. And then you get into a slippery slope of letting other people - anonymous strangers! - shape the course of your music. Even if the comments are good, it makes you think "Oh, well, we'd better keep doing it this way then because it's successful".

There were some very interesting and useful observations, and I do like to know what sort of impression we make on people. There were also one or two comments that I would have actively taken issue with if I'd been talking to the writer directly - things to which I would have had to respond, "Well, if we did it like THAT, it wouldn't be the same band!" In those instances the judge clearly preferred a different style of music and their suggestions pushed us more towards that style. And, well, that might be what they like, but we're not setting out to make music for that one person.

Marcus has a totally different approach to reviews - he doesn't read them at all, whether they're good or bad. And that's probably a smart move, because it can really mess with your head - I'm not even the songwriter in this case and it messes with mine. I think when you get to a certain level you stop reading all media and reviews entirely; I'm still at the point of "oh boy what did somebody say about us???" where I can't resist it.

In Radiohead's tour documentary Meeting People is Easy, an exhausted Thom Yorke tries incoherently to discuss with the band how being so hyped changes them and changes what they do, and finally bursts out, "It's just a headfuck, it's a complete headfuck! ...Isn't it?" I don't expect to ever get 1/10000th of their popularity - but I see what he means.

In some ways I've got a real thirst for validation, but I have to be careful about where I look for it. When I play and I know we sound good and we're really on, that's the reason that I'm doing what I'm doing. And then there's nothing better than to have someone I've never met before come up after the show and tell me they really enjoyed it too. Which happened as well after the show last night. The point is those real, spontaneous connections - not seeking high praise from critics or judges. That's what I have to focus on.

Despite the wild success of wikis and blogs, I still think the forum can be the best format for many things (depending on how it is structured). But they've gotten a bad name, largely because of Field of Dreams syndrome - webmasters believing "if we build it, they will come", and then being surprised when the forum still looks like a ghost town a year later.

A List Apart just posted a very good article on cultivating a great forum community. It's worth a read.

So says the spam that I've been getting to my projectarctic.com email for the past week or two. So far I've received the following important missives and more:

• Serious message. You require to read.
• Essential message. You should to read.
• Significant note. You need to read.
• Grand note. You should to read.
• Weighty note. You need to read.
• Weighty letter. You have to read.

I assumed it has to do with vast quantities of money available to me in Nigeria or someplace along those lines, but I just clicked through one and it's actually about a stock that I should be considering investing in. "The great predictions are drawn up."

In other news, I just got roped into sitting on our building's strata council for next year. I guess it had to happen sooner or later. Hopefully the extreme management issues of previous years are behind us now...

I got my hair cut on Saturday... pretty much the same length, just thinned it out a lot (my hair gets very thick and poofy when left untended). For the fun of it I let her straighten it with one of those iron-like thingies. I like it, though I keep doing double-takes every time I pass a mirror (and Greg keeps being startled as well). There are definitely some things that are easier about straight hair, and it's hella fun to have a new look for a bit, but I'm glad my hair will change back to curly next time I wash it.

People with curly hair always want straight hair and people with straight hair always want curly hair. It's not so much the other type of hair we want - it's only the ability to change it easily.

Here's a picture. My hair's also still pretty red from a few weeks ago, and it looks so much lighter without the shadows from my usual curls.

Now, the quandary: do I leave it like this for Tuesday night's show, or wash it back to default curliness? I'm leaning towards washing it. You are welcome to offer an opinion, but it'll only be truly taken seriously if you plan to attend.

Okay, people. I hope this is coherent, because it's 2:00 am and I'm feeling a bit fuzzy.

I set myself a challenge this weekend. I have a bad habit of starting songs or experiments in Pro Tools, hitting a point where I don't know where to go with it, abandoning the song and leaving it alone forever. I had a few hours in the studio tonight and I decided I would start something from scratch and just post whatever I came up with at the end of it all. That'd force me to turn it into something I was willing to share. Good exercise.

It's nothing earth-shattering, but here you go:

The Untouchables (6.1 megs)

Now I must hit SAVE on this post before I change my mind. Then I must go home and go to sleep.

UPDATE 11/1: Haha, I see I'm getting hits for people searching on "The Untouchables". I forgot there was a movie with that title. This song has NOTHING whatsoever to do with it.

ARCTIC's next show is this coming Tuesday, October 24th at the Railway Club (579 Dunsmuir @ Seymour). Yeah, I know it's a Tuesday night, and that sucks for most people. Even me, since I have to do a little rescheduling to accommodate it. But it'll be fun, and it's part of Shindig 2006, aka "CiTR's annual music deathmatch". For those unfamiliar, it's sort of a weekly elimination thing.

This will be a full band show, with me on bass, and our guest Max (of Kooper Kain) on drums. It'll probably also be the last ARCTIC full band show of the year (unless we win, I guess), as Marcus has been making some headway on writing and recording lately and would like to keep that momentum going. We've learned it's a bit of a see-saw; if ARCTIC is rehearsing & playing, then recording & writing stalls. Either activity requires a lot of focus, so it's best to put all efforts into one at a time. And between a solo tour and three band shows this fall, all the focus has been on playing out.

I've been wanting to play at the Railway for ages - it's a neat place. We're on at 10:30; Belcon Migs is on before us at 9:30 and Better Friends Than Lovers follows us at 11:30. Come by and say hi after our set!

Many people who know me are familiar with my routine bitching about the car. Our '96 Ford Probe GT was wavering at that awkward point of "is it worth putting any money into it" for the past year or so. It was mostly doing a good job of getting us from point A to point B, but it was doing it more and more grudgingly. There were so many little things that needed to be done (punched-out lock - thanks, Vancouver! - a trunk that you had to prop open when loading gear into it - a "Check Engine" light that wouldn't go away) which we stalled on for quite some time.

But we've finally made the leap, and traded in the Probe, and taken out a two-year lease on a brand-new 2007 Mazda3.

This is momentous for a few reasons:

• We've never leased before. I'd always read it wasn't as good a deal, because you don't own the car, etc etc - but given the sudden random maintenance that had to be done on the Probe with little or no warning, long-term car ownership has lost its appeal at the moment. Plus, this gives us the opportunity to get a newer, more fuel-efficient car - and maybe in a few years the prices of hybrids might come down a little bit to the point where we could consider one of those.
• Neither of us has ever had a truly new car before - we've always bought something used. I think I've only even sat in maybe one new car in the past several years. So it was a heady experience to drive a car with genuine New Car™ smell and only two digits on the odometer.

It's only been a day, but I'm pretty happy. It's so quiet! It's so smooth! Also, the Probe was manual, which I'd gotten used to but never liked; traffic jams were especially annoying, and I didn't have a lot of confidence in my ability to shift quickly in a tight spot. Now I'm back to automatic again so I can cruise along happily. And having a newer car means that there's features that seem futuristic enough to make me giggle: rain-sensing wipers! Dark-sensing headlights! An engine that doesn't completely intimidate me when I look under the hood! It's like magic.

So, a fond goodbye to the ol' red car; it was sporty, but not the best choice for city dwellers. And welcome to the new Mazda (which, like any 2007 car, IS the car of the future since it's still 2006).

First of all, why did it have to be spinach? I really like spinach, and it's one of the only veggies that Greg and I willingly seek out and eat. It's easy to prepare, goes with anything, and tastes pretty good. If it were cauliflower - I really wouldn't have cared. I like cauliflower, but I don't have it very often. But spinach! That's just tragic. I'd actually just bought a bag of Earthbound the very day the news came out, and was eating a sandwich with it when I read the news. I survived, but felt obligated to throw the bag out.

Secondly, I have to point something out. I'm neither vegetarian nor die-hard carnivore, and I do think there's some things seriously wrong with the way our meats are raised and consumed. But every time something bad happens in the meat market - say, mad cow disease, or avian flu - all the vegetarians and vegans get very, very smug and start saying things about how it was all just a matter of time, and it's a sign of the instability of a meat-based diet, and carnivores had it coming, and so on. Well, what do you have to say for yourselves now? Now that our spinach salads have been terrorized and our healthy carrot smoothies ravaged? Eh?

I'm just going to go back to overdosing on sushi. I already KNOW that's got high levels of mercury in it. No news there.

After several years of living in the States, and the fact that the Thanksgiving weekend is longer and more of a big deal there, Canada's October thanksgiving still takes me a bit by surprise. It doesn't feel quite like time for turkey yet. Still, I would never let that hold me back from a really excellent turkey dinner, and having a partially American family gives us an excuse to do it all over again in a month if we feel like it (only without the statutory holiday).

It was a good weekend - attendance at ARCTIC's show on Friday was quite respectable despite the long weekend, we played well, and it was a fun night. Today Greg and I spent our day off doing some much-needed cleaning and making an impromptu trip to IKEA. Now the bedroom looks terrific for the first time since we moved in, but the rest of the place looks like something exploded. I guess it's necessary to keep a consistent percentage of messiness throughout our home, or life would be out of balance...