Sunday, August 30, 2009

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Stealing Stuff

Aside from those extremely ridiculous $600,000 judgements against that one lady in Kanas or whatever, whose kids shared like 3 songs on Kazaa in 1998, pirating music, movies, and software is pretty darn risk free.

In most cases, it's simply the easiest way to get stuff. It's fast, free, easy, DRM free, and doesn't require remembering passwords, credit-card safety codes, my mother's maiden name, or anything else.

Today I bought my first single from iTunes.

$1.29

Hmmm. . .

Yeah, about that. . .

I've always justified home-taping, cd-dubbing, and downloading by saying, "hey, I'm a musician, and I hope people copy my stuff ", but it's got to the point where it's actually more convenient to pirate something that I already own on cd rather than walk across the room, take out the cd, and rip it into iTunes. So, when compared to actually working, earning money, and going to a record shop. . . Forget it.

But not today.

Because the Pirate Bay's trackers are down. . . I hear. . . From someone else. . . Who pirates stuff. . .

So, $1.29 for the new Weezer single.

It kicks ass.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Thursday, August 27, 2009

The Deal is Made

1. Offer up your 15 year old car as a trade-in

2. Get offered a price w/trade-in that is still too high for the vehicle without the trade, because everyone knows the trade-in going to be crushed into a cube.

3. Offer slightly less, to save face with wife and 5 year old daughter.

4. Enjoy the car dealer's high pitched "what!?!?!?!?!?!?!" of disbelief at your counter-offer.

5. Sign the papers.

Tomorrow I go back with cash and the Contour. Fairwell, Europe's 1994 Motor Trend Car of the Year.

Any 7 people need a ride? I've got 8 seat belts. I call shotgun on one of the rear-facing trunk seats.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Wagon? Wagon!

Again, in deciding that we were better just driving our car into the ground, and then going car-less in the spring, we have inevitably started ourself down the path to owning the very car we turned our backs on.

Peja and I took the titled wagon out on the highway today and enjoyed it's subtle power and frosty air-conditioning.

Tomorrow, perhaps, our trusted mechanic will give it a rating and, perhaps, we will own it soon.

Boo, I say, boo.

Alas.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

The Way I Work. . .

1. Decide to not play basketball this fall.

2. Dedicate myself to finishing new album.

3. Time spent practicing on basketball court the past 5 days: 7 hours

4. Time spent in studio the past 5 days: 1 hour.

Hmm. . .

Oh well, the fade is falling like f'n hail.

Swish!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Tornados and the Ol' Leather Pumpkin. . .

Sienna called me up a couple of hours ago to warn me about the big storm headed this way. It hit some places around Toronto, tornado style, and did some real damage. Sienna asked me to bring in Peja's basketball net, which really made me smile.

Played some one-on-one at the park tonight; trying to remember how to shoot the ol' leather pumpkin. The chain mesh has reappeared on one of the nets -- they were ripped-off a few weeks after the new court was put in -- and I played to a stalemate while Peja stayed up past her bedtime playing in the playground with one of her friends.

I've decided not to play KSSC basketball this year, after 3 great seasons, and one season where I shot the ball 100 times a game and we generally lost by 20 points (I deny any correlation), I'm going to take a break and try and work more on the band. Don't worry, long suffering readers, I will still regale (read: bore) you with my basketball stories, but they'll be from the local pick-up game instead.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Balance Sheet. . .

Just installed the 3rd ceiling fan in 2 days.

Maybe 2 more today.

The apartment has a water leak.

The heat wave broke.

I have allergies that make me sound like a muted muppet.

I owe the government $500.

There is mesh again on one of the nets at McBurney Park.

I'm going to call it even with the universe.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Muskoka Cottage Trip By Numbers




1 Santa's Village

2 Boat House Roof Jumps

2 Meals with Grandma

2 My Cousins Visited

1 Peja Cousins Visted

13.6 People at Saturday Lunch

6 hp on the Sea Flea

1 Lake of Bays

1100 km Driven

1 Fear of Swimming in the Lake Conquered by Peja

5 Hot Sunny Days in a Row (4 more than any other stretch this summer)

56 Years Old -- Happy Birthday Dad!

93 Years Young -- Happy Birthday Grandma!

1 Black Forest Cake

1 Banana Cake

200 degrees in Kingston when we got back

2 Jobs Returned to Tomorrow

3 People convinced that driving back tomorrow is a good call

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

The Old Tunes. . .

The new song up over there -->

It's called "Wave", and it's from a record called "Great Lakes". The art from that record is two pictures, one from the window of the boathouse at my grandma's cottage, and the other out of the window of the cottage on Wolfe Island that we lived in for 9 months when Peja was 1.

The guitarish bit at the end is stolen from Radiohead (right at the start) via Cuff the Duke (near the end of the cuff the duke tune)

It's really completely derived from those two songs, and the lyric couldn't mean less if it was about being a rich coal minor's daughter's sick goldfish. Not that I did it on purpose -- not that I could've if I tried -- but it's interesting to me now. Retrospectively. Retroactively. Retrorocketry. Retrospeculatively.

Is it cool to put the old songs up? Is one at a time the best way? I figure then you don't get sick of them, and when there's a new one, it's all "oh, I wonder what this is?". Thankfully, since this band has more records than we've played live shows, there isn't any shortage of songs to post. . .

Hope you are well.

Monday, August 10, 2009

The Past returns to Kingston

It was a reunion weekend for Sienna's university friends, including the complete original line-up of this little band: Brent Ferris, Adam Bell, Nick Kaars. And the first bass player to ever play my tunes, when they were just a little side-show in the Radical Dudez spectacular, Andy Landen. Now the group has spread out a little bit -- Brent is almost a pharmacist and has a 1 1/2 year old, Adam lives in New York with his brand-new wife Anna (also a Radical Dudez member), Andy lives in sunny California and makes movies.

Nick now plays bass in Andy's brother Jesse's great band, Born to Busk, in the relatively close city of Toronto, and we're going to try and set up a gig for our two bands to rock out together. Maybe I can even talk them into sponsoring us for a gig in the big smoke.

News as it happens.

Jay.

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Post Show. . .

Just got home from the Kyra and Tully show at the Mansion.

My last time at that bar was in 2004, at a Radical Dudez show. Back when it was called The Peel Pub, we got asked to play at some big party there. The P.A. System wasn't grounded properly and if you were touching your guitar while darling to touch the microphone, you got 120 volts of fun in the face.

Tonight's show was the opposite -- amazing perfect sound. Their 2nd floor live music space has amazing JBL powered monitors and mains, and the sound guy was super nice and awesome.

I opened the show with some acoustic stuff -- I managed to spill my glass of water on my setlist during sound-check, so I was guessing a bit as to what to play. . . Thanks to Daniel Shipp for playing drums with me, and thanks to Kyra for singing along on a couple of tunes.

Thanks to everyone who came out for the show.

8:30, at the Mansion, and a more about the station wagon

Made a call up to Sydenham today. Same wagon, 1 year newer, 30,000 less km. I found it in two different online ads, with a $1000 price difference -- the lower price was only $500 higher than the wagon I test drove yesterday. However, the phone confirmed that yes, the lower price was a typo.

So, the test drive. I drove up and met with Jerry Jackson at Jackson Motors. "Been in business for 53 years, and I'm one of the first ones to put the price on the car, you know, I might see a guy like you walk in and just say, "$7,800", you know? The dealerships would be calling me and asking me what the hell I was doing, but I told them I'll run my business my way, and they can run their business their way. I do things honest. I'll tell you the truth."

Now, generally, in life, when someone tells you over and over that they are honest, odds are, they've already stolen your wallet.

So he got the keys and I took it for a drive, and met up with Peja and Sienna on a walk. The girls loved it. The stereo doesn't exactly pump, but it tries, and it does have a great clear sound.

Decisions, decisions. . .

Oh, and tonight, 8:30-11ish, Kyra and Tully, Lia Dawson, Jay sans les barn flyz, at the Mansion; see you there!

Jay.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Used Car Lot. . .




Drove out to a car lot with Peja yesterday. It's something we did together about 5 years ago, when we were moving to Wolfe Island. She was a stroller-monkey back then, but she was very tolerant. We ended up buying our car privately from this grandmother who's other car was a pimped-out Mustang. . . And now, with the new baby coming, we figured, why not get a giant 2002 ford taurus wagon.

Oh, you know it seats 8.

Personally, I'd prefer a Roadmaster Wagon, which is like 2 feet longer, but they're pretty rare these days, and generally have 300,000 miles on them.

The Ford seats 3 across the front, 3 across the back, and two rear facing in the back. If that doesn't say coast-to-coast tour, I don't know what does.

Maybe we'll go out for a test-drive today.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Wed Aug 5th -- Acoustic Barn Flyz. . .

Kyra and Tully have been asked to fill in for the usual Wednesday night blue-grass night at the Mansion. They, in turn, have asked me to play some of my stuff, solo-acoustic style. The great Lia Dawson will also be performing.

Show details:

Wednesday, Aug 5th
The Mansion (2nd floor)
8-11pm
KYRA AND TULLY
w/ Lia Dawson and Jay sans les barn flyz

I ran into Kyra and Tully's drummer Daniel Shipp at the park yesterday, and he agreed to play some drums while I'm singing -- which we improvised before at the community garden show -- which is bound to greatly improve my set.

Hope to see you there,

Jay.