Anticonformist Everything

In Canada a few months ago we learned that the famous long-running CBC “Hockey Night In Canada” theme song would not be renewed or heard on the network again. There was much passionate public debate over this development. So CBC created a music challenge to find Canada’s next hockey anthem. Yours truly wrote and recorded an original anthem and submitted it. Semi-finalists will be decided upon in coming weeks. The quick link for your listening pleasure is below. It was mega-fun to make a quick instrumental new song while keeping the quality high. Check it out!

Toronto buses.

The older buses sometimes leak fumes from the diesel they use into the rear half of the bus, which is where I’m often seated. The natural rejection from my lungs and a mild sense of panic means I don’t need a scientific PPM measurement to prove that the fumes aren’t healthy.

Recently on my usual route I said to myself, “I can’t take this any more, I’m going to complain to the driver.” As I exited the bus, I kindly reported the problem to him. The look in the driver’s eyes and the sound in his voice said, “I will do nothing about this.” I walked away in disappointment.

Later that week, I reported it a second time, on the same bus and route, to the same driver. But he got defensive and again left me with an impression of inaction.

So a few days ago, on another bus route, I was breathing the fumes again. They were so strong that I nearly gagged. But I had already been walking around downtown, irked by fumes and garbage smells on the street. Exhausted from my work day, knocked-down by the environment, I decided to remain where I was.

I breathed deeply, and embraced the fumes as they entered me. I was the city’s victim, relieved in some sad way to give in.

Fought for 2 days trying to upgrade this blog from Wordpress 1.5.2 to 2.1.2. It was an extremely exciting process.

I started getting reams of junk comments/e-mails here a few days ago, and solving the issue isn’t my priority with the dwindling traffic. This blog is just going DOWNHILL, man! I’ve disabled comments until I care to figure it out.

Hmm, while I’m here, what’s new? I upgraded my aging G4 Mac with a new processor, that was fun. I was actually responsible and backed up a whopping 160 GB of data before I swapped processors in case something went wrong. WHY did I get a new processor when everything technically runs fine on Mac OS 10.3.9 (which I must continue using because of my old soundcard)? I’m winding up to do a new record and need to get compatibile with some new plug-ins.

Good golly, I cannot believe that I haven’t written here since February this year, and this only became apparent when a co-worker quoted me the date. Interesting that February of this year is when I received a promotion at work. I have indeed complained about not having as much time for my music since being promoted, and the interval is the proof!
I’ve spent most of my last months writing new stuff, and putting video-songs together for some of my tunes. I spent *some* of that time on the computer assembling the new songs, but it’s not going toward a new album or anything official yet. The way I look at it, I should just be playing more shows, with focus on new material and the video-songs. But in the last couple of weeks a new excitement rose in me, probably brought on by the orders that have been rolling in for my Christmas song. Speaking of which, just what am I supposed to do with the 1,200 blank CD-Rs I still have left for that darn project? At this point selling them in bulk (with custom screenprint on them further de-valuing them) would be a financial faux-pas, so I suppose at this rate I’ll have only 6 years to get through all the discs at current sell-through.
I wonder if we will we still have CDs in 6 years…

Up until today, not playing shows has made me feel somewhat restricted from being an activist. This is because many of my songs have activist angles to them, and I believe people can potentially begin thinking about new things when they see/hear the songs.
But recently, I’ve had some micro-results in the mega-corporation office I work in — which has given me some solace. A guy I work with today told me he purchased his first organic produce — oranges. “It was tastier!” he exclaimed. I know his purchase took place in part thanks to my blabbering about the benefits of eating organic food. We discussed the topic a little more after he told me.
When I conveyed this phenomenon to an organic-eating friend of mine she said, “I try to tell people things like that, but they frown or want to discontinue the conversation.”
I replied with sympathy, since I used to receive the same responses as well (and still might), but I’ve been learning how to “work somebody up” to my heaviest thoughts over a period of time.
At work, I have had some other micro-successes, including having our shoes people consider buying non-leather shoes for our stores (we are a retail department store chain) after my mention of it.

Here’s how I suggest trying to micro-influence others positively in the workplace.

1. Don’t mention heavy-heavy things in a topic the first time a topic comes up. In my white-collar environment where people usually only talk about the weather, offering a strong set of beliefs to anybody usually gets received poorly.
2. Make stereotyping your advantage. I am quickly stereotyped when I give somebody even relatively harmless info on a touchy subject like meat eating. I don’t begin with, “Meat is bad!” or, “You know animals suffer needlessly everywhere, right?” Such strong statements upset people and shut them down. Instead, I approach people with something like, “I enjoy being vegetarian.” Such discourse is very non-chalant, very downplayed. I might even try to steer the conversation AWAY from the topic thereafter and return to the exciting topic of weather.
3. Give your co-worker heavier info (but friendly) at the next comfortable encounter. People will often without my encouragement ask me more about the topic I had opened. This is thanks to the “friendly” stereotype of me they created. And by empathizing with the person, I can determine just how little I should say, and ALWAYS favour saying less over more.
4. Give your deepest thoughts on a topic by the 3rd or 4th encounter. Only do this if it feels right. There may of course never be such an opportunity, and some people will reject your information no matter what. But more often, people by now have an open mind and do not reject the information. Things that are unusual can be intriguing to others, and your activist perspective is unusual, right? Put yourself in a curious person’s mind and approach them with this awareness in your own mind.

Convincing somebody to buy organic oranges for the first time may not be a big deal to some people, but I’m trying to feel good about succeeding small where I think it will help the planet.

(back-dated to night of show)
I was surprised and pleased that the Rhino Bar & Grill donated a large upstairs space to the Green Party cause, specifically for Canadian Federal Green Party hopeful Mark O’Brien. In addition to being a good speaker, he danced, he sang, and he played live Andean folk music as well! His band of 7 was decent and musically honest. The massive pan pipes blew me away — no pun intended.
As for my own performance, I performed a new grand total of 6 slide-show songs. They went on basically without a hitch. I noticed several people puzzled with my unorthodox presentation, including Provincial Green Frank de Jong, who was a very pleasant fellow and conveyed the usual good qualities of a leader.
I chatted with various other people there, including Alex, Andrew, Sam, Gary, and others. There were quite a few South Americans at this show, definitely due to Mark O’Brien’s ties to the band and his family. Those of us Canadian-born would not have hit the dancefloor were it not for their easy dancing, especially this wee little fellow (Mark’s son I think) whose bundled energy kept him running and dancing around all night. Pretty cute.
Anyway — good show, good times — good luck to the Greens on Canada’s Jan 23 election.

Erm, I’ll be upgrading this blog page over the next little while, so if it looks a little too “standard” or like crap, it’s because I’m trying to figure out how to re-write the code to make it look the way I want.

The title of today’s entry was something a teacher once said to me and other students, asking us not to remove “Christ” from “Christmas” by writing “Xmas”. It is a fair and interesting comment.
Right now I’m getting about 20 unique visitors to this blog page every day. I find this surprising. And people rarely comment. I must be boring. Actually, I must definitely be boring. I mean, I talk passively about my basement-only music career and my sick cat. La, la, la. Perhaps I should talk about racier things like “anal sex porn lovers”? (Hmm, now that I’ve typed that, I’ll have to see how many more visitors show up here on the statistics page.)
But now since you want to hear the exciting music news, you’ll be thrilled to know that I have continued to work on my synchronized video collages for my songs. It’s been slow-going, but a lot of fun. I just finished a collage for my song, “People are Porn” (”Porn” again! I didn’t mean it!) — which comments on our sexuality and how human nature and the media influences it. But the images I’ve assembled are non-pornographic — I’ve used medical diagrams and things like Budweiser ads to explain things. The Pope even makes a photo appearance!
However, I might find myself in Copyright Hell with my video fun. Will I end up selling DVDs of my cute little collages and then get sued to death like legendary copyright deviants Negativland?
I figure I’ll have some time after Christmas during my one week off to complete maybe 2 more video collages if I’m committed. I’m pretty revved-up for the eventual new live performance format I’ll have with all these collages. I’m technically creating a crappy music video for every song, which is some sort of bonus.
Oh, back to Xmas Christmas — if you need a gift quickly, you MUST check out my PERSONALIZED CHRISTMAS SONG. It’s pretty darn cute. I can e-mail you a copy in a jiffy to give to your loved one.
Hmm, having typed the words, “Christ”, “Pope”, “Catholic”, “Hell”, “anal”, “sex”, and “porn” in the same entry could get me in trouble, too.

I have been very busy between my day job and the time spent on an adopted cat who became very sick after I adopted her. I’m spending 2 hours per day force-feeding her through a tube that goes to her stomach. But hopefully she will be tube-free within a couple of weeks.
In music news, I did indeed have my first show using synchronized video. It worked out rather well! It definitely added to the show’s entertainment value. I saw people pointing at the screen, giggling, all sorts of interesting reactions. My plan is to perfect these first 4 slide-show songs and then do some more for about 10 slide-show songs in total. I dumped money into a small screen, a projector, and a portable dvd player. I believe that this will also influence my future songwriting since there isn’t a lot of meaningful visual stuff that can go along with general love songs and the like (unless I want meaningless images or MTV-style productions). My “opinionated” songs are much more appropriate to make use of visual assistance.
I also realized that I have a LOT of equipment to lug around now, and it will take me at least 30 minutes to set up. These will be serious considerations for future gigs.
In any case, I am looking forward to what will come…

If you walk around Toronto, you will see that the city is inundated with corporate advertising. The ads are big, colourful, and are everywhere but our public parks. (And did you know that advertising in our public parks is now being discussed?)
I was utterly dismayed when I heard of Toronto City Council’s recent decision to outlaw postering on 98% of public utility poles. If you think postering is just an eyesore, think of this: There are no other good ways for important community messages to be shown in public. No more music or art show announcements, piano lessons, babysitting, community get-togethers or celebrations. Toronto now says that if you can’t pay, you can’t be seen.
This is a great prejudice against community in general. The streets of Toronto now only show corporate advertisements for the public to look at when they leave their homes.
Toronto the very bad.
See where the war was being fought through this website.

I really enjoyed the 100th Toronto Santa Claus Parade this past weekend. Floats rolled by and marching bands strutted their stuff. The energy was excellent and some of the bands were pretty good (the all-black marching band I saw near the end of the parade really kicked some a**). It felt good to stand near the bands and feel the music in my chest. Kids and adults watched with glee.
But what left the strongest impression in my mind is what the parade left behind.
Santa Claus himself is always the last thing the public sees in the parade — standing on top of a float, waving and wishing “Merry Christmas” to everybody. I thought, “Hmm, I wonder will be behind him after his float passes?”
A few support ambulances and vehicles followed, and then then I walked into the instantly crowded street. I looked in the distance and witnessed an approaching army of garbage trucks and garbagemen.
Obviously, organizers knew better than I just what a parade like this leaves behind: tons and tons and tons of GARBAGE. There was so much crap lying around! Most of it was recyclable coffee cups and bottles and cans. RECYCLABLES, people! At least they were cleaning it up right away.
I shook my head in disbelief. Am I one of only a few geeks who actually bothers to carry the empty cans or bottles I drank from with me until I find a good place to recycle them?
As I followed the parade as it progressed, the waste remained thick. We’re talking about being unable to walk anywhere without stepping on something.
I thought Santa was supposed to leave toys behind.

This will be my one and only comment on the 2004 U.S. Federal Election. Please forgive me beforehand. And no, I will not even mention my beloved yet under-promoted Green Party.
When I think about the Republican win, I feel a wee bit numb. I believe that the results of the election hold a significance which is greater than the details most people are talking about. You might think I’m overreacting, but I truly believe that it represents the inevitable future decline of our society.
Try to think of those types of people on this planet who possess very long-term perspectives (let’s say 25 years+) on a variety of things like government, society, economics, environment, and personal relationships. If you know the sort of person I’m talking about, I am sure that they would agree with the following statement: If the Democrats had defeated the Republicans, it would have indicated that the majority of people in the U.S. were, on a very basic level, showing that they cared about something more than the short-term future.
If the Democrats had won the election, not much would have changed in the average day of the average American, but it would have represented some of the following things: the feeling that it was a bad idea to invade Iraq, the feeling that the old ways of doing things needed to change, and the feeling that a lot of the world’s negative attitude toward America needed to be addressed.
Unfortunately, it appears that we (all people in general, represented pretty nicely by Americans) continue to think a lot about ourselves. We still like to focus on money and power, and we strive to avoid change. Suggestion: listen to or read the lyrics to my song, People are Afraid of Change.
I am numb because this election has shown me for the umpteenth time that dangerous long-term consequences are beyond the cares of the average person. Is that OK? I try to force myself to be content with the fact that this can only be the natural unfolding of things, but my very own animal instincts fill me with discomfort.
I believe that the future only holds decline for all of us wealthy Western folks, and we should not be surprised when we feel the loss of our wealth, our status, and our freedoms.

I auditioned for a lead role in a new theatre show opening up in Toronto. I even made it to the 2nd callback. The character? A Blue Man fronting the incredible Blue Man Group. I can talk about it now, since I just found out that I didn’t make it — only 1 Torontonian was chosen.
You have to check out Blue Man Group live if you ever get the chance. Their successful multiple productions now add up to a 500+ employee, multi-million dollar independent empire. If you’ve ever seen Intel T.V. commercials with blue-looking guys in them, those are the 3 original actors.
Describing one of their shows in print wouldn’t do it justice. The audience always participates, thumping music abounds, and there are a lot of laughs. The Blue Men are sort of like mute aliens visiting earth, and they like to drum a lot.
Two weeks ago, there was an open call for drummer/actors to play one of the three Blue Men characters for the show. I thought, “Wow, what a change this would be!” Agreeable hours, steady artistic pay, and an unquestionably good experience.
When I went for the auditions, I had a great time, and the Blue Man character was one that I felt I related to personally (should I say that?). In fact, I had so much fun playing the character that I’m currently thinking of modifying the idea and creating a Green Man or something. Before I even knew about Blue Man Group, I had already appeared as “The Holy Green Eco-Warrior” at one of my shows. Hmm, meant to be?
Anyway, better luck next time to be a Blue Man.
Although I doubt there will ever be a “next time” for something this peculiar.

Looking for a place to just sit and relax in Toronto’s Eaton Centre today, I ended up in a Starbucks. I was trying to get away from it all. There are so few places to sit peacefully downtown without paying for something. But having paid for the privilege (1 peppermint tea, 1 evil cookie), I was still unable to relax — Starbucks was playing the latest record by Bryan Adams from start to finish.
Don’t get me wrong — I used to be a fan of Bryan Adams. But his latest stuff is just awful. Adams, like many artists who have seen the big time, usually end up putting out soul-less music because they have nothing more to strive for.
I bristled with discomfort several times while being forced to listen. The music had no life, no memorable sounds or arrangements, and all the musicians who played on it sounded like they were just going through the motions.
I like to call this sort of music “non-music”. Currently, you can refer to anything by Sting, current Celine Dion, current Alanis Morisette. All these artists have also released ballads (the most common sign of an ailing songwriter) — telling of how wonderful life is, how we all have to look through the smog, and how we will see that everything is beautiful if we just think about it. I have to agree with that in fact, but I can’t help feeling uncomfortable when I hear it bundled in a lifeless song.
But my personal conclusion after listening to Bryan Adams today was this: there is just way too much mediocrity in everything. (Yeah, I know you know that, but it really stood out today.)
Is it grooming us all into mindless entertainment slaves?

On Saturday, I walked for an organization called Farm Sanctuary. When I showed up, there was somebody in a pig outfit and somebody in a chicken outfit, which made me smile — but I got anxious when I saw the protest signs. I like to live and teach through example rather than through protest.
I marched anyway.
Previous to the walk/march, I had to get some donations. You might be interested to know that I ended up omitting the word “farm” from “farm animals” from my general fundraising speech. Some people had reacted unfavourably when they realized that cows, pigs, chickens, etc. were going to be the recipients of their hard-earned cash. There was a big difference in reaction between saying “help for animals” versus “help for farm animals”.
Why was this? In short, I think people feel that if they eat a certain type of animal, then they aren’t worried about that species’ general well-being. The same person will admit that a dog is worth more than a pig if they don’t eat dogs.
The major “scientific” problem with this thinking is its inconsistency! Opinions on animal worth vary from human culture to human culture. Horse meat and dog meat are popular dishes in the Far East, for example.
The main thing that I would wish for all humans to have is some compassion for every single creature that lives on this earth. No creature should suffer needlessly.
Listen up: I can’t do too much about you eating animals — but please give a damn about its time alive and the way it’s slaughtered.
I appreciate these animal care standards, used by organizations such as PETA.
So was it wrong for me to censor the word “farm” in my donation requests in order to procure others’ money?

I went ahead and did indeed spend some $ on new gear over the last 2 weeks. I am now the very proud owner of one Godin LG P90 electric guitar, and one Yamaha Magicstomp effects box. Yay! I am quite happy about this decision, since I have really been uninspired to play solo lately. I do believe that a guy playing by himself with an acoustic guitar (for more than a few songs) can be a bit of a drag. The exception appears with already well-established artists, however. People will go to see Neil Young play 3 hours of solo kazoo.
An electric guitar with effects gives me some more sounds and some creative fuel. It’s easier on my hands, too. I did get my “new” equipment with some forethought: doing a lot of research beforehand, and then locating both items used but in great shape. At the very least, it will result in a few more dreamy songs and a few more heavy songs from my currently suppressed musical soul.
A good thing, methinks.

A Gear Slut (from the Latin, musicus obsluttivus) is an obsessed individual who feels overly comfortable purchasing music or sound equipment that he or she cannot afford.
Today, I saw a guitar in Long & McQuade in Toronto, and I wanted it. Oh, did I want it.
I must have it.

During my veggies-and-hummus lunch munching outdoors today, I intently watched a squirrel foraging for his lunch. This was behind Old City Hall in Toronto, where there is minimal greenery. There are some trees, but they are the type which are small and surrounded by concrete except for openings just around the base of the tree trunks. And there’s no green at the bottoms, just wood chips to help retain water for the water-starved trees.
Anyway, this squirrel was doing a fine job of retrieving nuts out of one tree across the street and then making his way back to find places to bury them. I was all of fascinated, happy and sad at the sight of him trying to do so. He went from one isolated tree to another, sniffing at “nature”, but concluding that he couldn’t bury a nut in the wimpy wood chips (Acidic? Poor consistency?). He paused once where there was a crack in the sidewalk, as if he could smell the earth below and somehow stuff his nut down there. After much meandering each time, the final resting place for the nuts was always in the 4-foot-high concrete plant holders in front of the building on whose steps I sat. I could tell the squirrel was reluctant each time. The planters were filled with weird “plants”.
Did the squirrel succeed or fail?

Yesterday I volunteered at the Toronto Vegetarian Food Fair. I’ve attended this fine show at Toronto’s Harbourfront for many years. What a great event for somebody like me! The volunteer part was easy — you can choose to do a 3 hour shift doing any number of things as a minimum contribution. That’s what I did, selling the Toronto Vegetarian Association’s t-shirts, buttons, stickers, and paraphenalia at one of their tables. They were super-organized, including supplying our table with a cell phone with key people’s phone numbers properly programmed in for you to buzz in case you needed help. And everything was labeled brilliantly. Actually, it was pretty anal. Perhaps being anal comes with being a vegetarian? I can be an anal vegetarian sometimes. Hmm…
Many veggie-minded vendors and attendees were there, and I sampled a lot of food.
Oh yeah, I was asked to be a performing musician at the Fair a couple of months previously. But even though they had planned to have a lot of things set up, they did NOT include a sound system. I decided not to play because nobody would be able to hear me playing my meek little songs unplugged outdoors. So much for playing my 4 veggie-oriented songs to a target audience.