Been Gone Too Long

All right, let's just skip the obligatory apologies and get straight to what we've been up to that's been keeping us so occupied we can't even type a few sentences about it, for Pete's sake. Well, we've both had colds for one thing, not that that's any kind of excuse. Everyone I work with got it, then Alison got it, then I felt like I was getting it so I took tons of Cold FX and vitamin C and echinacea and successfully fought it off, then I got it. I missed a day of work and an Al Tuck practice, and contributed my fair share to Kimberley-Clark's Boreal deforestation agenda, but other than that it hasn't been too debilitating.

There've been a lot of musical projects going on, not the least time-consuming of which has been my cover of this song for the Inbreds tribute album being put together by Scott Grimbleby of Ingersoll, Ontario as the first release on his brand new Gooseberry Records label. I finally finished it a few days ago after a couple of weeks straight working on it, and I think it sounds pretty good even though I never want to hear it again. I'm sure everyone working on the project felt this, but it's quite daunting to record a new version of an already impeccable song. Especially the vocals.

Speaking of which, I don't want to jinx it or anything, but it looks like the songwriter/vocalist in question, Mike O'Neill, is going to be joining the band Charles and Cliff and I have been slowly but surely putting together, taking over the singin' duties. I'm really really REALLY excited about it. Really. It'll allow Charles and me to concentrate purely on playing our respective instruments, and it'll sound ten times better than if I had to do the singing and maybe one and a half times better than if Charles did it. We're getting together with him tomorrow night to see how it goes.

The other two bands I play in, Al Tuck & No Action and The Got to Get Got, are also progressing semi-regularly, so there's been plenty of music to keep me busy. I designed this handbill yesterday for the regular Saturday afternoon gig with Al.


Oh man, there's plenty more stuff going on to tell you about, but Alison just finished making a veggie version of General Gao's Chicken with tofu instead of chicken and it smells FANTASTIC! I'll have to catch you on the flipside. See Spiderman 3 while you're waiting for me to return, because it's awesome, and don't forget to watch the finale of The Amazing Race tonight. Go, beauty queens!

- Andrew