sans pollo

Sans Pollo is my odd way of mentioning that AR’s piano mainstay Fito (Pollo Loco) was absent from the gig this weekend.  That wasn’t so bad though.  Frankie filled in on piano for Friday while Saturday only had the guitar holding down all the comping/changes/tumbao stuff …and the odd thing about it was that it wasn’t as busy as it normally is when Frankie or Fito were around.  I think, personally, this was good.  It was more open sounding of course, but then it gave the ear a break from the regular mashed-up-crunchy chords that both piano players are notorious for, in my opinion.

I liked it.  Sure, there could of been more guitar in volume and in right lines etc., but generally it worked well enough, and with some of the guitar parts tweaked I could easily handle being pianoless more often.  Of course it’s needed for certain things, but it’s only the front/solo stuff where you obviously miss it, and when the song gets going then the guitar functions fine.

I think they're happy cause there's no piano!?

On other matters, I’m kinda bagged lately.  I seized my back up the other day by simply jumping, and the muscles went into spasm and I’m just now feeling an improvement.  It’s been a while since I last put it out, but luckily this time I didn’t hear or feel anything ‘poppy’ when it happened …just a giant lower back spasm that took my breath away and made it close to impossible to move. Damn backs.

On to better medical news …my Dad had to have the defibrillator used on him a few days ago and is now in the critical care unit.  It is good news by the way …you see, he’s been having these ‘fainting’ spells for the last 6 months, once a month or so, where he’d go unconscious for no appearant reason.  They tweaked his meds, ran all sorts of tests on his heart and brain and came up empty, but late Thursday night he had another episode that the parametics were lucky enough to be present on, and they were able to put two and two together and decide that he needed a pacemaker.  I guess it’s a 40min. procedure and is typically done as a ‘day patient’, but he has to stay in the hospital until they can schedule him for the surgry because they don’t want him to have another episode and not have anyone around to respond.  He feels perfectly fine …but has to hang out in the hospital until Tuesday next week when he can get his pacemaker and go home.  So yeah, it’s a relief that we know what the problem is and that it can be corrected.  No more guessing.

Rehearsals also started for the musical thing I’m doing …so between that, my Dad, my late nights and my tweaky back – I haven’t been able to really sleep like I need to.  On the plus side it’s probably a good thing as I may have been hitting the gym, pool, trails etc. too much over the last 3 weeks …so maybe my body needs the 4 or 5 days off.  Or at least that’s what I think it’s trying to tell me.

Despite The Blindness

It was my final gig with DTB tonight.

It’s kinda sad in a way, but at the same time my decision to leave is an attempt to free up time for my own stuff …and the group needs someone who can give a lot more than I can when it comes to writing/gigging etc.  Leo and James are great guys, and as much as I’m the BEST BASS PLAYER ON THE PLANET (wink wink) I know they’re going to find a more than suitable replacement.  They’ve written some fine songs, have more than enough skillz as musicians and over time should have success with their new album …of which I’m going to contribute bass tracks too!

They’ve been hard at it in the studio lately too, and James will be sending me some rough mixes shortly.  It’s material we’ve been playing for the last few months or so and I expect to lay down lines similar to what I’ve been doing.  We’ll see when I get some more time to hear things …but it should be fun.  One of their new songs is called Passenger (I’ve included a small sample below from this last gig).  Some other tunes are quite heavy, some have slap, some latin, some with smooth stuff …it’s quite a mixture actually, but if done well, should easily draw attention.  That’s the hope of course.

But yeah …it was fun for the time it lasted.  They are great people …and I wish them the best.  I know they have the organization/dedication to make something of it in the long run, and if they ever need a bass sub for a gig they have my number!

Despite The Blindness - me with James and Leo ....and thanks to Crystal for the pic!

the Yardbird Suite

Tilo did another gig at the Suite tonight.  It was OK actually …although it probably should be considering he’s been doing some of the same tunes for what seems like forever.  Jugi was on guitar as well adding some tasteful blues stuff.  And it was kinda full too from what I heard …so that was good.  Tilo was his typical heartfelt self on stage, and I think he may have been a little nervous.  Usually it’s hard to tell with him, but when we finished and the crowd was cheering for an encore, he was kinda in a pickle over what he had left to play …and couldn’t remember the tempo/intro for a song that he’s played a million times over.  So he was happy …and that’s good.

Here’s a shot from the gig of Dave and the Serge …and it seems that Dave has some interesting ears.  Or maybe sideburns?  I’ll find out later I suppose.  There’s some audio below as well.

Spidey Sense

It’s a jazz tune kids.  Ignore the butchered piano, hacked bass and sub-standard boning.  The drums came from a ‘brushes’ sample pack that I paid $2.99 for …so by that measure they’re great!  Click on the arrow to listen or *here* for a .pdf lead sheet.

kenny loggins & classic spidey

‘I Need A Hero!‘

Not really of course …it just happens to be one of the songs in the Footloose Musical I get to do in mid-November or so.  The scores just came in I was perusing some of the tunes of yesteryear.  It looks pretty straight forward though.  Lots of key changes of course, but generally rock.  And some roll I suppose.  Maybe even a mix of the two …that’s exciting.  I think?!

Aside from that, I’m hoping to sell off the ibook (500) tomorrow, which is the precursor to the selling of the iMac (2.4 GHz) within the next few weeks, which is also the indicator of the soon to be arriving Macbook.  Yep, I decided it was time to get back to the laptop thing …and I have a feeling the timing might be right.  My iMac is pretty current for being almost a few years old, but rumor down the pipe is that there’s a change a-comin’ …and I don’t want to be stuck with it when it’s too far out of the loop.

For a guy who doesn’t like to be behind the times though, you might wonder why I decided to order the recently discontinued Macbook Unibody instead of going for the firewire/SD-slot/7-hour battery Macbook Pro that just released?  Well, and it may come back to bite me, but I think the Macbook is on its way out.  The MBPro is here to stay, but I sense a small ‘netbookish’ offering from Apple sometime next summer.  Something between the Macbook and the iPhone, and that should squeeze the Macbook into that 5th dimension that the made-for-tv classic Spiderman was so often in.  Essentially I’m thinking that the unibody Macbook of today is going to become the Clamshell of tomorrow.  Or that’s my hope at least.  Time will tell I guess.

And in the meantime I’ll be watching for the postman to arrive …and hoping he doesn’t get stuck in the 5th!

Hey Ocean

Welcome to my part rant and part Canadian music post.

The Canadian music part of the post has to do with this neat little band I was recently turned on to.  They’re called Hey Ocean and are from Vancouver, BC.  The main vocalist is a chick who almost does a spoken/rap/neatly-displaced-singing thing that after a while is somewhat infectious.  At least in the few songs I’ve listened to.  They’re on their way through Edmonton and area shortly (then afterwards moving on to some shows with Cat Empire) …and if going by this video, might be something of a thing to watch for if you’re into watching those things – if you know what I mean.  Here’s one of their tunes called ‘A Song About California’.

The rant part will be short and sweet…
I hate bands sometimes.  Especially ones I’m in.

Was that short and sweet enough 

redetesting the wheel

It seems I’ve been driving this whole Fall away lately.  Maybe not all of it I suppose …Old Man Winter has had his greedy hand in things as well, but with the recent trip to SK, normal driving for The Man and then this weekends venture out to Calgary, I think I need some time away from man’s best four-wheeled friend.

Calgary was fun though …Despite The Blindness did a little Friday night thing (I can’t emphasize the word little enough though, unfortunately) and the Wafer Thin Mints hosted another Ship and Anchor Saturday afternoon.  I also got to visit with Aunty J and cousin Kristen (she’s an environmental planner …which I recently discovered in both vocation and meaning) …so that was all good.  Kristen’s couch wasn’t too bad either, and her cat Stella gets my vote for the Best In Not Being A Bad Kitty category at the upcoming Felinies this November.  I ate like crap again as well, so I’m going to have to smarten up for a while.  Of course my Thanksgiving Part II comes up this Monday – so maybe I’ll wait till after then.

That’s it I guess.
Did I mention I feel bloated and it’s hard to breathe?

DTB's Leonardo Gonzalez and WTM's John Newton. One of these guys is a slacker?!

Kaleido Festival

Tilo Paiz did another Kaleido festival gig this afternoon.

I was prepared for an outside show (like last year) but they had some wind gusts come up later last night and I think the organization decided to err on the side of caution and move the venue inside for today.  Probably thinking of the Big Valley Jamboree fiasco that went down this summer.  I didn’t mind the move though, although the sun was out it was only 13 Cel. and my fingers don’t respond so well if they’re a little cold.  Yes, I’m a wuss.

Anyway, it was moved indoors and into a pretty formal set-up as well.  What did we do?  Hummmm, started off with Yesterday, then Watermelon Man, St. Thomas, Mantecca, Seven Steps to Heaven, Fiesta De Melones (a track from the 2003 Sandro Dominelli release), something else and then wrapped things up with 500 Miles High.  A lot of standards …something Tilo doesn’t do too often, but then I think he’s getting tired of the other stuff he typically does.  He has a Yardbird Suite gig coming up on the 30th which I think he’s somewhat ambitious about, and mentioned something about new songs and rehearsals.  His problem though is that he likes to leave things to the last minute (and who doesn’t I suppose) but then finds everyone is already committed to other things and has to default back to his old repertoire of sorts.  Hopefully things will be different.

Failing that, it’ll be the same old, same old.  Which means I get another chance to maybe get it right this time

Tilo and Jonny. Do sunglasses ever get old?

the three tenors

Ahhh, weddings.  What’s not to like about weddings!

Actually …when you’re a bitter old cranky bastard like myself you can find quite a few things.  But I digress, as I always seem to do.  The wedding was fine.  Heck, it was darn near beautiful – and full of all that stuff that makes all weddings special.

But enough about the wedding.  Instead, let’s talk about how the Wedding Crashers did!  Surely having a live band at a wedding would produce endless stories and memories that kids and parents could share with future generations ….reliving those special musical moments that a DJ could never duplicate!

Actually …when you’re a cranky old bitter bastard like myself there’s really not much to dwell on.  The gig worked, people danced, sound came out of the speaker thingys that sounded vaguely similar to the people producing it and it was all good.  Or rather good enough I suppose.

So, now you’re probably wondering what exactly it was that I came away with after the day.  I’ll tell ya ….I cleaned my car!  I also made a neat ’stack’ by placing the sound mixer on top of my bass cabinet …and that made it look cool.  I also gleaned some info from the wedding picture-taker girl about saving my images in RAW format as opposed to JPEG – this is good cause it might help me clear up some color issues I think I’m having.  I also vacuumed the basement and cleared up a lot of the cobwebs that were down there.  Our basement lies beneath a trap door in the kitchen btw …kinda spooky, but able to contain 5-6 full bodies before arousing suspicion.

Really …I never joke about that kinda stuff.

The three tenors ....kinda. Actually, if they sang tenor then perhaps ...but they don't. Or maybe they do? Hummmm. L-R - Jeff, Joel and Don.

Mount Rundle

My scramble up Mt. Rundle was a success this time around.

I managed to get up early, took lots of water/food and made sure I didn’t tire myself out too much the night before.  Having done all that, it really wasn’t a big physical feat.  From trial head to summit was about 3 hours and I was never all that tired.  I pushed though …but not to any extreme.  After I had rested for about 45 min. at the top, another climber came up.  I’m pretty sure I was the first one up that day as I didn’t see anyone in front of me, and this other climber was kinda surprised to find me there.  He suggested (and asked nicely) if I wouldn’t mind going down with him just in case he (or I) decided to perish which meant that at least somebody would be around to tell what happened.  I supposed it was a good idea.

Anyway, his name was Detlev Swoboda and he was currently on a solo, cross-Canada biking expedition.  He started in Halifax back in May and was on his way to Vancouver and possibly into the US.  He’s originally from Germany and currently lives in Perth, Australia as a teacher of some sort.  The incredible thing is that this guy is 56 years old!  He does 100km on average per/day and after this climb, was on his bike again the next day heading off to the hostel at Lake Louise.  It was actually nice going back down with him …he went slower than I would normally and as a result my knees didn’t get too sore.  He had a lot of fascinating stories as well, and has been traveling/hiking all over the world since he was young.  He’s not rich, but is fortunate enough to be able to work for a while and then take the time off.  A really interesting guy, and I’m glad I got the chance to hang with him for a while.

The climb was great though.  I was actually excited when I was close to the top …and I don’t usually get too excited about things.  I think I posted something earlier about life being a journey and not a destination.  This trip couldn’t have rang more true.  I’m glad I was able to pull it off though.  Yea me …and I put together a little movie with my camera – it’s not much but at least it’s a keep-sake of sorts.

done

As far as the gig goes, that was fine as well.  Thursday was the slowest, Friday was much better and Saturday was a blast.  We all had friends who came out as well which made things even busier.  I decided to drink on the Saturday night (the night after the climb) and it didn’t take a whole lot for me to start feeling a little tipsy.  Just a little mind you.  But I held it together though.  Heck, after how many years of playing the same songs …you’d think I could play them in my sleep by now.

Let’s hope it never comes to that though.

L-R: Am, Marge, P-Drum, Katlin, Ceej.