Gimme That Keyboard...

It's gotten to the point that so many things have happened since the last time I posted on here that I've been dreading doing this. And every day it only gets worse. Feels like when I was back in school, working on a philosophy paper, and every new article I read would only complicate the issue further, while the deadline got closer. Well, I'm not going to let it cripple me like it sometimes would in those days. But don't expect an A+ report.

Alison had a birthday almost a month ago. We had a great time with a bunch of friends hanging out at Point Pleasant Park by the mouth of the Northwest Arm in the evening. Barbecued some grub, drank some beers, played some frisbee, listened to the radio, and talked until the sun went down. There was even a cake. All right, Alison did make it herself, but I helped with the frosting.


I gave Ali a bike for her birthday, and we've been riding around all over the place together. That day we rode over to our friends Joan and Jason's to help them move out of their apartment. They left for Charlottetown that afternoon. Hope that's working out well for them. I'll be playing a show there with The Lodge next month.

Last month we played the much discussed and little attended show on the wharf in Lower Prospect. There were probably fewer than forty people there, but everyone had a real good time. The locals had picked 120 pounds of mussels the day before, and there were barbecued hots and hams to go with them. Bloodsport played a really great set in the psychedelic fog and we played an all right one. Charles and his family took off into the fog on a boat during the opening set and there was some question whether we'd have a guitarist, but they got back just as Bloodsport were finishing. Didn't make much coin, but we each got a gift certificate for a 2-hour kayak outing.

There's been quite a lot of music recording going on too. The Lodge are finishing up our first set of songs, which will probably be released as some sort of EP. I think we'll put some vocals on tomorrow night. The last session for Al Tuck's next record happened a few weeks ago, to the delight of everyone involved. We'd recorded some of those songs probably twenty times, in as many different styles. On Canada Day we played a set at an outdoor afternoon show with him. The weather was perfect and we got to play under a big tree, so it hardly even mattered that my bass had broken and I had to borrow a fretless one, which I've never played before. Meanwhile, I've been collaborating at home on a couple of tracks with Buck 65, via email. He sent me some stuff he'd been working on that was so far just rhythm and a bit of melody, and I got to flesh it out harmonically with some chord changes and modal tricks. Pretty fun stuff. And finally, I'll be going into the CBC studios in a week to lay down some wacky keyboard sounds on Erin Costelo's next album, which so far sounds really great. Oh, and I'll also be playing a show with her as part of the Atlantic Jazz Festival the following Sunday.

Alison got into the Viewpoint Gallery, I think you knew that. She put a couple of pieces up for sale on the weekend and tonight we went there to see the opening of another member's month-long show. I looked around and am happy to report that Ali's pieces are better than most of the other stuff in there, with a few notable exceptions. Maybe I'm a little biased. But I do know my Photoshop, and I can tell you that some of the photographers in there don't entirely know what they're doing yet. Or else they just don't like things to look natural. I blame Scott Kelby.

Life hasn't been all work, either. In case you were getting worried that we're turning into Jack Nicholson in The Shining. There's been plenty of fun summer parties, softball, and concerts. The Sadies played at the Marquee and blew everyone's minds with their reliable high energy and rock prowess. After a very very long set, they left the stage, only to return about two minutes later and say, "Thanks very much. We'd like to play ten more songs for you." Which they did. Deerhoof will be playing the same venue in a few weeks, a show I've been looking forward to for months now. Should be a really fun night, especially as it'll mark the beginning of a week-long vacation for me. Then I return to work for a week before taking off for another week, this time to Montreal to see Radiohead. I love the summer.

And now we've become quite addicted to Battlestar Galactica. The new one. Charles recommended it, as had other people, and so we finally broke down and rented the first season to see what all the fuss is about. Turns out it's pretty darn good. I probably don't have to tell you this because we're probably the last people on earth who haven't seen it. Or maybe we're not and I do. It's a "reimagining" of the original series. In this one, the Cylons were created by humans and then turned against them. A truce was reached and they went off on their own for forty years and evolved themselves and their culture. Now they look like humans and are ready to kick real humans' collective butt. Some of them don't know that they're not human. Their ships don't have pilots, but are themselves a different kind of Cylon — part mechanical and part biological. Oh, and they believe in God. The humans have a more ancient Greek, polytheistic religion. Starbuck and Boomer are women! The president of the colonies is a woman who was the Education Minister and therefore the highest ranking member of government when the Cylons wiped out most of humanity! The story is told in a documentary, militaristic style, and shot like The Office — especially the fights in space!! It's cool, I tells ya.

OK, that should be enough to get me back on the webhorse. See you back at the e-ranch.

- Andrew