crows to burnaby

Obviously I haven't been blogging much lately. You can see in the archives that I've dwindled from 10-15 posts/month down to about 4. I've been giving this some thought, and trying to figure out why.

The first thing I reach for as an excuse is time. I'm pretty much pouring myself into my new life these days, and when I'm not booking and promoting ARCTIC, practicing, working at that artist management company, or going to shows, I'm working on some web projects to make up the rest of my time. In the next month, I need to submit three grant applications and figure out how to get P2 visas for the two guys in the band. But really, am I so busy that I couldn't whip together some interesting blog posts if I wanted to? I don't think so. I occasionally spend twenty minutes or so playing Chain Factor (god, it's addictive, don't even try it) and if I invested that into a little writing, I could come up with something to post, no problem.

Next excuse? A sort of reticence. I'm a little hesitant to talk in any detail about some of the things I'm working on now. If they come to fruition, great, but if they don't, I don't really feel like advertising it. Also, I can't talk about most of my work with the management company, and don't think I should. And the private sides of my life, I just haven't felt like sharing with everybody en masse. I just don't seem to have the same drive to explain myself to the entire net the way that I did a few years ago.

But my main excuse - well, it's going to look like I'm picking a scapegoat. The blogging environment has changed, and the biggest change for me has been the growth of Facebook. I used to blog partly because it was a way for me to tell some of my friends and family what I was up to, a place to share things I was pondering and little random observations. Now I can do it much more easily and succinctly in a Facebook status or shared link. I know my audience, and I know I'm not talking to anyone I don't know or don't want to know. I still seem to give people the same entertainment value sometimes with one line of text than I do in a whole post here. It's more immediate, it's very comfortable, and it makes me feel like I'm staying in touch more easily with people with less effort.

Ironically, my first wall post on Facebook says "Don't expect this account to get the same maintenance that my blog, myspace, and Flickr accounts get..."

But I've never been that good at predicting trends.

Naturally there's negatives. Facebook doesn't give me a very detailed record of my life the way this blog does (ultimately, does that really matter?). And it doesn't have the same potential for serendipitous interactions with new people, the way this blog does - I find when I add people I don't have much of a connection with, it dilutes my newsfeed with chatterings about things I don't know or care about (and usually a ridiculous number of application requests, for some reason).

And of course not everyone is on Facebook yet, nor will be nor even should be. It does make me uncomfortable that it's a large corporate entity out of my control. I don't post anything terribly private there - after all, I have work colleagues and vague acquaintances among my friends - but there is more of a dark side to it than a simple blog on my own server.

What I haven't figured out is what I want to do about it. I like having a blog, and a soapbox on which to stand when I need to. I just don't need it right now. Will I feel like blogging again six months from now? I didn't six months ago. If I leave my blog that long, I'll lose whatever little traffic I still have left.

I've had other sites, pre-blogging days, that I gradually let rust over time. I didn't think that would happen here. Maybe crows to burnaby represents the version of me from six years ago, when I first came to Vancouver, before I changed my direction in life, and that's why I don't feel a strong connection to it any more?

Observations are welcome - both here and on Facebook.

As a fair-skinned, freckled, redhead who burns easily and is a textbook candidate for skin cancer, I was a bit disturbed to read about how useless or dangerous the vast majority of sunscreens apparently are. I'd heard rumours in the past that some ingredients in sunscreen cause more harm than good - this certainly seems to confirm it. Out of 952 products, the Environmental Working Group only identified 143 that were both safe and effective - and most of these are brands I've never heard of and wouldn't even know where to find.

This report comes just as it's finally become summer in Vancouver; with the exception of a few days when I wasn't HERE, it's barely broken the 20 C mark for months. Now it's prime beach season, finally safe to wear tank tops, shorts or skirts without worrying that I'll be chilly later on.

I guess I'll just keep up my habit of dodging the sun and hiding in the shade, and in addition to tracking down a safer sunscreen, will give some thought to longer sleeves and skirts if I think I'm going to be exposed to good ol' UV for any length of time. It's a bummer, but I'd rather maintain my pale Victorian complexion than end up with lobster-red alligator skin with potentially deadly repercussions.

Man, you'd think I'd be in the habit of blogging after last month, but I still have to make a conscious effort. At least I'm feeling more inclined to blog again and a little less restrained. Having a month on the road acted as a bit of a "reset" for me; I don't feel like I'm caught up on the same things I was caught up on before I left. (I can always find new hangups, thank you very much.) It feels more like a new start now, coming back to my new place with fresh eyes.

One of the other big changes is my employment situation. I'm finished my contract with Education at UBC, which was nice, but I was in need of a change. I'm going to be getting back into freelance web design like I was doing a few years ago, and am starting those wheels turning again (yes, I am looking for projects).

Also, I've started working two days/week at an artist management company. I'd like to tell you all about it, but instinct tells me I probably shouldn't (okay, there's that restraint again). Suffice it to say I'm really excited about it, the people there seem great, and in one week I already feel like I've learned so much my head is swimming. In a good way.

I have two unrelated observations for you:

1. Where the hell is summer? It's almost summer solstice and there hasn't been much of anything summery going on. It seemed like everywhere we went on the trip, we missed the warm weather by a few days - I was wearing gloves and heavy sweaters in Toronto when we were there, and a week after we left, it hit 41 C. Of course, I'm just as glad to have missed that, but still.
2. I was all excited about the new Portishead album, "Third", being quite a fan of the first two and having seen very good reviews. Someone gave us a copy of it before we hit the road, and I find it terribly unmusical. It's abrasive and irritating, and Gibbons even sings noticeably out of tune from time to time. I keep giving it another chance, then getting annoyed and skipping tracks halfway through. My theory is that Portishead used a new form of copy protection, in which if you make a copy of the CD, the music just turns really crappy. Does anyone have the original who can confirm or deny this?

I noticed a few signs today while out & about.

One, in the window of a vitamin store on Pender, said simply "BUY 2 GET 1".

The other was a pair of signs in front of a gym around Commercial. One said "$24.99/month", and was next to a special promotional offer: "3 months $99".

I ain't buying.

For the past week I've been thinking "Right, I really should get a blog post up there" and then getting distracted and doing something else instead.

And really the only reason you're getting something out of me right now is because I'm avoiding finishing up my taxes.

I hate taxes.

I've had a good but hectic month whilst not blogging. I moved at the end of March, and am loooooooooving the new digs (now that I've dug myself out of most of the cardboard boxes). I'm further east now, closer to Commercial, and I think it suits me nicely. There's a lot going on in this neck of the woods - lots of choices for food and entertainment that you just don't find near Main & Broadway where I was. I loved Main Street, but seriously, not many choices for places to grab a quick cheap bite. Even the dollar pizza places close early, and they aren't very good.

I'm decorating and refurnishing and loving that too. My challenge is to get as much stuff used as possible. This is partly to be eco-friendly and not be buying new stuff when there's perfectly good used stuff to be had, and partly because it's just way, way cheaper. You can find some pretty high-quality stuff on craigslist - good stuff that lost 30% of its value the instant it left the store. The catch is you have to do a fair bit of digging - I'm still searching for just the right comfy chair for the living room. And selling is a pain in the ass, because half the time people flake out and don't show up to look at or pick up the item. And don't even talk to me about the 45 minutes I spent trying to get the old couch out of the old apartment, along with the woman who bought it and two twelve-year-old boys. Not sure it was worth it.

My other preoccupation is the ARCTIC tour in May. We're now past the main booking phase (though we'd still like to pick up one or two more Ontario shows, if anyone can help?) and shifting into promotion. Posters, publicity, press releases - we've got a publicist helping us out and I'll be doing most of the online stuff as usual. Oh yeah, and there's rehearsals, too. Oh, and we did a photoshoot, which was a ton o' fun. You'll see some of the shots eventually. *hops from foot to foot*

So I don't think blogging will be at normal rates for a little while yet. But I'll pop in if the mood strikes me, I happen to be near a computer, and not completely preoccupied.

Guess it's on to those taxes now. Ugh...