The Fog Machine

They had a fog machine. We're talking about children who have had like, at most, 15 hrs of total instruction. And they're on a huge stage, with about 7 spotlights, servo-controlled spinning multi-coloured spotlights hanging from the catwalk 30 feet above them. And there are big mains, speakers suspended from the walls blasting out music, and 18" bass bins shaking the floor.

Now, I want to say, Peja's ballet instructor won me over today. I'm not talking about the bullshit $60 it cost 4 of us to see the show, or that they told us Peja needed her own ticket to watch the show after they performed (god bless Sienna for sneaking her in -- here's a really long parenthatical digression; back in Minnesota when we were first friends, on a day-off from planting, I had bought a $3 basketball at Target, and we were going into another store, and I got Sienna to carry the ball, because she's a cute japanese girl and I look about 100 times more likely to be shoplifting, and I knew no one would bother her about it -- and it worked with Peja and a complete lack of ticket). Wait, where was I? Oh, yeah, Peja's instructor -- both of her classes did dances with story lines, and although they had the cute factor (since the kids are crazy young and small) working for them, the applause was still way over the top. The crowd went ape shit.

A friend of mine was there with his daughter, and he asked me, "so, are you a full fledge ballet dad?" And I don't really get it. I don't understand putting together a bunch of random steps and then dancing them in front of people with dance music blasting. But I get what Peja's teacher did, because it was dramatic and interesting and suspenseful. So, thanks Miss Felica -- it was rad.

And a quick shout-out to Ben, who is the star of Peja's class, and who was awesome.

Thus ends my first post about Ballet. . . Uh. . .

The Bookstore Cafe

Was driving out to Camden East yesterday with Daniel, the drummer from Kyra and Tully, and we were talking about how, back in highschool, we made so much more money playing music, and our friends and us took such bigger risks and worked so much harder to pull off shows. I'm not sure what to make of that.

We played our show at the bookstore cafe, opening up for Rozalin MacPhail, who is a solo artist who uses loops to do a full show while still performing nearly all of the parts live. This will explain better than I can:It's pretty impressive that she's controlling the loops with a midi foot-board while performing the next part. I was up in my studio today working on some tracks, wondering if I could do the same thing. . . It'd be a super fast-motion version of how I record. . . I think this old video is the exact opposite: a deconstruction in non-real-time. . .

The show was good and we got some free food and a bit of cash for our troubles. Kyra and Tully have a busy summer coming up, so look for them around Kingston.

May Fair

Rocked some acoustic guitar action at the mulberry fair this morning with Kyra (and a little bit of Tully). Saturday morning is a strange time to sing, but it was fun, and lots of friends were there. Sienna and Peja got to hear some of the set -- they were moonlighting between the May fair and the Sydenham Public School spring fair; a busy morning indeed.

Bought a pair of dual-flush toilets today, hopefully they're among the final pieces of this crazy house puzzle.

Thinking about an early summer show. Maybe something outside? Gotta get something going. . .

Jay.

Babies, Studios, and Baby PJ

Most of you, courtesy of facebook or human contact or something in between, probably caught this earlier, but my wife Sienna is preggers again, and the little one is due in November (the month when all amazing things arrive, except for Peja, who gets to be amazing anyway, because she could read a teleprompter long before she could read anything)

So, if all goes well, we'll have a good little 2 on 2 game going in about 7 years.

Sienna's folks are moving, and they ditched a really cool desk that her dad made; it's arrival has spurred the set-up of the studio. The 24 track and it's friends are back humming again*. Spent some time today re-recording vocals for a song called "revenge" which has some fuzz bass and some tumbling organ parts*.

Peja and I woke up around 8:30 this morning, possibly 8:36, which is pretty late for getting to school on time -- well, let me qualify that -- pretty late to get to school on time, having eaten a good breakfast, brushed teeth, combed hair, pony-tail, packed lunch, and generally prepared for a full day of forgetting stuff I taught her last year. It's actually a great time to wake up if you skip most of that stuff. We, however, believe in a good breakfast, clean teeth, non-dreaded hair (unless so desired), pony-tails (headbands when so desired), a packed lunch, and shoes on the correct feet. We walked in to Central around 9:07, which I think is decent, all things considered.

Tomorrow's plan -- recording with Peja in the newly reformed studio!

Spent the long weekend with my extended family. Celebrated Queen Victoria's birthday by blowing stuff up. Ages of participants ranged from 2 months to 92 years. Held my super cool Nephew for the first time. Good man, that PJ Bonney. Gonna be one hell of a power-forward one day.

There are noises upstairs. It's 12:25. My preference is that it's Peja having a night terror, and not poor Sienna dragging herself to throw-up for the 4,938th time this pregnancy. (Peja's pregnancy broke 10,000 and involved 2 dehydration trips to the ER). My girl makes awesome babies, and awesome babies demand all-day morning sickness for months and months and months.

Hope all is well with you,

Jay.

*I started putting asterisks on everything that sounded dirty, but there were only 2 things, and they were both in the same paragraph, which was about music stuff, where things tend to sound dirty. Like the time I had to ram a cheese-cloth up the slide on my trombone*.

asterisks

Play a show with Kyra and Tully at the Brew Pub today -- really nice room upstairs; I think soundworks donated the sound gear, which someone set up awesomely, and then I got to play sound guy. I was playing bass standing at the sound board (right beside the front of the stage, where it should always be if there isn't a sound engineer*, but never is, because people always want to hide them at the back of the stage, where you can't hear how it sounds in the audience while you're tweaking knobs**), and it was really cool, because although I really can't sing and play bass at the same time, I can mess with monitor levels.

After the gig, instead of being cool and hanging around for a free drink with cool people and good music, I was a dick*** and walked home in the pouring rain to eat a brownie and then cut a 4" vent hole into the floor of the laundry room of the apartment (tenant is coming, must make things legal. . .). How does one cut a 4" hole in a floor? I have no idea, so I just drilled about a million 1/2" holes and smashed at it with a sledge hammer and crowbar. The dryer is now vented -- into the crawl space, but soon through the crawl-space, across my basement and out the conveniently placed hole where someone didn't quite finish closing in a window (2 rows of concrete blocks, 5 bricks, some cement, and a rock. . . uh. . .). Actually, my real plan just involves putting a vent pipe out of that hole, and then pretending that they are connected. Don't tell Sienna.

Hope all is well,

Jay.

* "sound engineer" is the genderless, over formal, never used form. They're sound guys. Or sound chicks. That's how it goes.

** This sounds dirty.

*** This doesn't sound dirty, but it involves the word "dick" and I wanted to asterisk something else.

Flattered, I Declined. . .

Rehearsal with Kyra and Tully tonight. Their puppy tried to hump my leg. Flattered, I declined.

We play tomorrow at the Brew Pub at 2pm. It's part of this whole home-grown music fest thing.

2007, that's when the record came out. This is the longest in the history of the band, of my owning music recording gear, that something hasn't been slid across the checkered table cloth while I slyly look out the window and dare a grin.

And my studio is a sad fucking mess of unopened boxes, a hockey table, and a drum kit.

This needs to change soon.

Jay.

The Hockey Table Abides. . .

Jammed with Peja yesterday. She had a crazy busy day with school and ballet, and we only played through a couple of tunes, but she sounds as good as ever, and this morning we spent some time on iTunes looking at possible cover songs for our band.

I set up my drums, which is the big first step towards having the studio operational again. The hockey table, as always, is the big item to find a spot for -- it's huge, and you need space on both ends to play. But it's coming together.

Kyra and Tully got into North by North-East, the big Toronto music festival thing in June, and they've very kindly asked me to come along and rock the bass. The only issue is that the show is on Peja's birthday, as well as the awesomely awesome Skeleton Park Music Festival. I'm trying to rig it up so I can do everything -- it will be a mad day indeed.

This morning Sienna and I both seemed to forget we were working today. . . She slept in and I hadn't arranged child care. . . But it'll all work out.

Hope all is well with you,

Jay.