Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Bloggerson strikes again

But the only Question is Why?

I think at the heart of the issue the answer lies somewhere around the idea that it is just a fact that Bloggerson is doing it, so then carry on... but then again, along the same vein, if one could come up with some great philosophical answer to why one does anything then answering that question could be worthwhile.

I have a feeling that answers to questions like that are solved by answering other questions and then the logic is strung together to make sense only to be then reduced again to something more portable and poetic. Remember poetry is a Jackass sport... feel free to remember to put that on my tombstone or Urn for that matter.

What do i mean?

Poetry is great in the hands of a true poet but there are a million jackasses out there for every poet who believe stringing flowery language together ad nausium is poetry and they are always trying to share it with you at your own peril. Often these fools would like to discuss it further, and they are such sensitive fuckers that you can't even call them on their "horse shit" without spending even more energy putting out the fire that be ignited by that truth.

Moustache- OK i raised $41 so far for cancer by being part of a "Movember team"... I consider it a deep insult to my character to be on a team of people growing moustaches and most of the eager for the month to end so they can go back to their safe clean shaven mode. One guy on our team looks killer... nice moustache, soul patch... but it's driving him crazy... hopefully he will come around and keep the stache into the new year.

What is really weird is how the other wives get involved in this whole decision... My wife and I, we are in a different universe. I guess it was pretty clear from the get go that by getting together with me you would be in for a life of pro sideburns, moustaches and full beards that will come at you randomly and consistently. Perhaps these fellows didn't lay the proper groundwork before they got married and now all the calls that a man should make are being dialed up by a woman.

Imagine if i married an anti moustache soul releasing poet?

I'll take CT any day... she is a crazy Kook, but she is my kind of kook. Comes up big on the things that matter and then crashes into home plate with a smile on her face. I have a feeling she threw out some of my good stuff last month, but in the end I don't think I'll miss it and our house has a little less clutter to it which is actually uplifting. I Loath to admit that... in the event that she will read this... which I'm sure she will at some point in time... and then get a head of steam and feel all confident to throw out more stuff. I do have plans for all of that stuff... it's just that I'm kind of overwhelmed right now... not that i should be... i waste many hours every day on needless horse shit... i need focus... i am a failure.

But this was Bloggerson strikes again and in a short time i have reduced myself to a failure... nonsense! That equivalent to dissing a good moustache... no worries i just punched myself in the face... kind of wish i didn't hit my eyeball with my knuckle in retrospect... my vision has yet to come back in that eye... but it looks like it is coming back... sharp pain in the back of the eye... but lets face it, I had it coming.

In the Can- So i recorded the latest 21 Tandem Repeats "album" a few weeks ago and i am set to go mix it very soon. I really feel great about this one... and i think if you know me you know that those words don't often. I think the big thing here is that i had the confidence to make the music i wanted to make and knew how to go about doing it. I think on this topic everybody has their own method and there is never any one right way, because of course "art is a line and it follows a spine and you know when you know when it works". That's why art is beautiful, because there is a method behind it and you follow that and then you enter completion and the real trick is not to get stuck on some minor decision and think it really matters. It does matter of course, but you take care of that by making sure you have written your songs properly, and by making sure you can play them expertly, and then in my case by making sure the people playing with you are excellent and aren't sure what is about to hit them, and that those said people are Gun ho on that fact. I have always known this... I remember being in a jam in Northern Ontario at a tree planting camp and i led a jam on a tune that i made up on the spot and everybody had a grand time, and after the fact one of the guys, who was a good guitar player pointed out my gift... the gift was to carry the spirit of the song so that others could play along... here we were in a hotel in Manatuage Ontario In 1993 and now in the winter of 2010 i put it together... mind you i needed to learn a lot of lessons and accumulate a lot of skills and test these over time. I feel great on this one.. perhaps it's the fact that there is a lot of grand piano played by C.S. Rippin on it, or perhaps it's the fact that Alvaro Rojas delivered the masterpiece on "Famous person", or perhaps it's the fact that JLS pulled some baseline from out of nowhere to make the song "Nothing was heard", or maybe it's the fact that Shawn Killaly is just an incredible drummer. I think for me, mostly it was the fact that the bet payed off... I spent more money than i actually have, but i realized what i needed to, which on my end is better than spending less than i have and ending up in some democratic decision making process that one finds them self in when they are in an official "band". Don't get me wrong, i love all the people i have ever played with and made records with and i stand behind everything i have ever released... with the exception of the "Chicken EP".

Whats wrong with the Chicken EP? I'll give you an example of the decision making process. There is a song "East" which is a pretty cool number... so a few band members go out on the town to record some wind chimes and they find some wind chimes in some ladies backyard so they record the wind chimes and while they are recording the lady comes out of the house and confronts them for being in the backyard and one of the guys recording the wind chimes comes up with some smart assed response to her concerns and then there is laughter... it was funny for the record, but it went on for like half a minute. So the question became should that sample be before the track? democratic vote that was split so the compromise was to put the sample at low volume which meant the listener of the CD heard 30 seconds of basic silence before the song started... i tried to point that out at the time but as we know democracies are useless... there are good ideas and bad ideas... everything on that release was that way... for a collection of songs that had potential boy did we ever work against each other... my vocals were brutal and that was helped by the same forces, but the point is that's not how you do it.

To do it right you need to learn how to do it wrong.

You have to be bad to be good.

Monday, November 08, 2010

One tip on how to grow a Moustache

Of course it is Movember, and I was asked to join a Movember team with some of the local fathers. Now it's not like I need any facial hair prompting so sure I'm in.... why not. Besides i kind of need to start a Moustache to look like my passport photo for that trip we are taking in the winter.

Well it has come to my attention that I am dealing with a pack of facial hair rookies, and even worse they are reveling in their rookie state. It's a damn shame and a disgrace to professional facial hair as a whole, but it's for a good cause, and it raises awareness about prostate cancer (will it get all the guys into a doctor to get the rubber finger through the rectal hole for a feel to see if anything is enlarged?) You know you have to do that right?

So the most obvious mistake is the fool who shaves every day to leave a tiny moustache on their face to be ridiculed, and laughed about at work, by family members and "friends"... a test of your manhood right... good for conversation and awareness and perhaps the embarrassment becomes a better fundraiser, but it's all wrong.

Grow a beard... if you haven't done that ever in your life i don't know what to say... really I can't comprehend.

Why?
1) Because you need to know how your facial hair grows in.
2) That will let you know what will look best on your face
3) You will need to carve the moustache from some real growth to be able to see it for what it wants to be.
4) Not only that but if you trim it every day you become suspect to the "over trim", especially as a rookie... a little mistake on one side and then you have to even it up next thing you know you have the Adolf Hitler Moustache... and that's a real hard one to wear.

Other notes include the fact that you spend the first few weeks walking around with a chump moustache, and that becomes the focus of ridicule... you can't raise a proper moustache under those circumstances... like a child, a moustache needs love, and it needs to be worn with dignity. You have to start dressing to the moustache, walk a little taller, speak a little firmer. As a matter of fact if you get a good moustache it's best in social situations to only talk about things you really know... you start flapping your gums talking some B.S. then you are prone to embarrassing your moustache.

I know of a fellow who can really rock a moustache with great dignity and he has a name for his moustache. I always accepted that as a good idea but now that I'm writing this i can see it clearly.. it is about respecting the moustache and so you give it a name and when it has a name you treat it better, like a son, who you wouldn't ridicule in public. I also read on the internet that Tom Selleck`s moustache has it's own publicist... that is not the sign of a silly little joke.

Now next thing you now it will be Mecember and the rookies and their wives who allowed them to do this this "one time" will go back to their clean little faces just when their moustaches are coming into their prime, which is a damn shame i say... like the week you can go to the water cooler, hold court and bark down some facts about brewing stout and for a while there nobody even notices the moustache, because the moustache is just part of the full package that barks authority.

If you want you can Help me raise more money than the rookies on my "team" because this is embarrassing but i realize the fact of donor fatigue.

I'm starting with the "handelbar" with sharp straight lines on the sides that can grow into a fine "standard" moustache in time, so that when I'm sunning in the carribean I'm also looking good. I want to feel that moustache moving with the tide on a moonlight night... What can i say, I'm a romantic.