I tried contacting the seller to ask for a reasonable compenstion but he never replied, which speaks volumes about his knowledge of the amp being damaged prior to being sold. Not much else I could do, so using my soldering skills and parts I had in my shop I fixed the amp up. It sounds great, it's very loud for a 50W 1 x 12" combo, and the neighbours are real happy about it ;)

Sunday, Sept 21st 2008 - FANFIC UPDATE - It ain't over 'til it's over. Here's a preview of Chapter 26 of BubbleGum Cross.

Sunday, Aug 17th 2008 - MUSIC UPDATE - As mentioned Aug 1st 08 I managed to complete a couple of mixes for two Digital Men songs that had been waiting patiently for quite some time. But it took some butt-kicking from another project to make it happen. Here are two songs from The Rush Forum Tribute project that I have been helping with by doing a spot of mixing. I'll post more as we finish them.

Between The Wheels Final Mix

The Weapon Final Mix

Friday, Aug 1st 2008 - MUSIC UPDATE - Red Barchetta and Freewill from the Digital Men project are finally DONE! Check out both final mixes in the Digital Men songs section.

Friday, Aug 1st 2008 - MUSIC UPDATE - I have requested that my entry into the Hockey Night In Canada theme contest be removed. Please read this to understand why: http://www.hockeytheme.com/FrameRImpAnnounce.htm. If you'd like to hear my song click here.

Wednesday, July 30th 2008 - MUSIC UPDATE - I added a video clip of Spaceship Superstar to Arcana's webpage. It's 41 MB so go make a pot of coffee while you wait for the download.

Wednesday, July 30th 2008 - MUSIC UPDATE - HOCKEY ANTHEM - Hockey Night in Canada is holding a contest to see who can write the new theme song for the show. $100,000 is up for grabs, along with half the royalties and bragging rights that you wrote the song. Just for fun I put together a short piece of music that I think captures the hope that "This Is The Year" (link removed - see Aug 1st above) that my team finally wins the Stanley Cup. You know which team that is, right?

Sunday, July 20th 2008 - MOVIE REVIEW - THE DARK KNIGHT - WARNING: SPOILERS!!! - I vividly recall seeing the movie Apocalypse Now with my cousin when I was around 16 or 17. When the movie was over my cousin asked me, "What did you think?". My response was, "I'm still thinking about it." He replied, "Good answer."

Having just returned from seeing the movie The Dark Knight all I keep thinking is, "What did I just see?" I loved Batman Begins for it's near perfect blend of engaging storyline, excellent acting, crisp editing, and well-paced action. And after reading all of the glowing reviews for TDK I was anticipating seeing the same perfect blend of acting, storyline and action taken to new levels. But after the movie was over walked out of the theater feeling a strange mix of awe, confusion and a little bit of disappointment. It was not the movie I had anticipated. It was something else, and while I'm still thinking about it, I'm still not sure about what I just saw.

STORYLINE: As hoped, the story is, for the most part, very well thought out and executed with precision, though there are some parts where we are asked to suspend belief and not ask questions about what happens next. This was most distracting to me in a scene where The Joker crashes a party given by Bruce Wayne at his penthouse apartment as a fund-raiser for Harvey Dent, Gotham City's District Attorney and new "white knight" in the fight against the Gotham's growing criminal activity. Intent on finding Dent, The Joker threatens a few of the guests until Batman naturally appears. But after being denied Dent's location The Joker tries to force his hand by threatening to toss Rachel Dawes, now Harvey Dent's love interest, out of a window to the street far below. Batman's poor choice of words, "Let her go", provide inspiration for The Joker, and Rachel is "let go", only to fall out of the open window.

The camera follows Rachel as she slides down the angled glass roof of the building and then falls with Batman leaping after her. He quickly catches up to Rachel and grabs her mid-flight. At this point I expected his cape to unfurl so he could fly them both to safety. Instead, both characters tumble end-over-end for several hundred feet at high-velocity to land on the roof of a car with a loud crash and glass flying. An emotionless dialogue follows that should have started with, "Uhhh, Batman, I can't feel my legs", but instead quickly moves on to the next scene with both characters uninjured, and Rachel completely unphased while most people would be in severe shock.

As this scene ends and the story moves on to a later place and time, we are left to forever wonder what happened to The Joker, who when we last left him, was still upstairs in Bruce Wayne's apartment. How did he get away? Batman was on the street in front of his apartment and unimpeded by serious spinal damage so why didn't he just go back into the building and wait for the elevator to come down with The Joker onboard? Intsead the movie mysteriously moves on, and we are left to guess that The Joker said what must have been an awkward good-bye to the shaken party-goers and then cleverly eluded Batman by taking the stairs.

Despite this plot "distraction", and a couple of other minor holes that made me go "Ummm...", overall the story is still tight and well-executed. The pacing feels a little more up and down, with more noticeable shifts between the slower dramatic moments and the action sequences than Batman Begins. But that should be expected with a sequel where the focus shifts from the newness of character, setting and storyline introductions to the meat-and-potatoes of character development. The morality messages that were weaved so well into Batman Begins are even more present in TDK, but surprisingly don't slow the movie down. At times the story moved so quickly that it threatened to lose me, especially near the end where a hostage situation that is meant to be confusing to all involved except The Joker, moves so quickly from shot to shot that you are left wondering if Batman might have injured or killed one or two good guys along the way.

ACTION: This is a summer block-buster, and for action it does not disappoint. The chase scenes are intense, made even more so by the almost too perfect shaking of the camera as we hang on and try to follow the ebb and flow of scenes between the chaser and the chased. The Joker's pursuit of Harvey Dent, who is in an armoured truck, really works well, especially in the sound department. With the advent of digital recording, sound technology has advanced quite a bit in the last 10 years. But while many recent movies hit us with a barrage of sounds that we can't distinguish between, TDK has several moments where the action is intense and loud, and we can hear and distinguish individual sounds that signal key moments and/or create tension. As Harvey Dent's armoured vehicle attempts to elude The Joker's pursuit, there is a moment where we hear the squeal of tires, the shudder of the vehicle as it rounds a corner, and the hollow metallic "clank" sounds as bullets make dents in the plate armour. Add in the shaking camera and the scene really puts you inside the chase. Of course there are many stunning visual moments too, such as a semi-trailer flipping end-over-end, the "sky-hook" escape, the emergence of the Bat-Pod, and the big scene where the Joker's detonator fails to work as he expects, or should I say when he expects it too. For summer block-buster action you certainly get your money's worth. And despite the 2 and a half hour length, the movie managed to hold my attention throughout due to the tight editing and careful pacing.

ACTING: The acting was very engaging, but more so (and predictably so) when The Joker was on-screen. All of the actors did a great job, though I didn't care for Maggie Gyllenhaal's tougher approach to Rachel Dawes even though she succeeds in adding depth to the character. Christian Bale is by far the best Bruce Wayne/Batman of all of the actors that have tried to portray him, and Gary Oldman stands out for his low-key and likeable approach to Commissioner Gordon, but this was clearly Heath Ledger's moment to shine. Whenever The Joker came on screen the theater went quiet. Everyone wanted to hear what he had to say. I don't know what everyone else was thinking at those moments, but I felt a shifting balance of two emotions. On one hand I felt uneasy as his disturbing and distorted clown features, flicking tongue, and too-calm-for-the-situation voice made me push back in my seat. On the other hand I felt awe, as my limited awareness of Heath Ledger the actor quickly vanished and the character of The Joker came to life. During those too-brief moments that The Joker was on screen I completely believed that this character was alive and real. There wasn't the usual knowing in the back of my mind that I am watching a movie. I felt the way I used to feel as a kid watching a movie, totally immersed. Maybe it is the combination of this immersion and The Joker's disturbing portrayal that has me feeling confused about what I just saw. I don't know.

I'm still thinking about it...

Thursday, July 17th 2008 - MUSIC UPDATE - I just spent an hour with this incredible piece of software called Revalver MKIII by Peavey. If you are a guitar player, and a tone-chaser, and you are interested in guitar amplifier modelling software, then download the demo and give it a spin. I thought all of the amps sounded incredible, but my ear kept drawing me back again and again to the 6505 amplifier. The tone is amazing (thanks Eddie!), and the sustain just sings. Just having that amplifier model alone makes it worth the $299.99, but you also get a ton of great-sounding effects as well. The GUI is very intuitive and easy to work with. For the geeks you can tweak just about any setting including tube bias and power transfromer settings by digging just a little deeper. If I had a ratings system I'd give Revalver MKIII a solid 10 out of 10. My wallet is going to hate me...

Sunday, July 13th 2008 - MUSIC UPDATE - I've added a few more pics to the Arcana webpage courtesy of Shawn Wright's photo archives.

Thursday, June 26th 2008 - MUSIC UPDATE - The Arcana webpage is finally officially open. Have a listen to the band's demo tape and check out some very antique looking pictures.

Thursday, June 26th 2008 - MOVIE REVIEW: Here's a cool review about "The Dark Knight" movie hitting theaters July 18th. You can also check out the trailer here at the official Dark Knight website.

Sunday, June 15th 2008 - MUSIC UDPATE: Couple of things... On the Digital Men front, I just uploaded an alternate vocal ending version of Limelight to the songs section of the Digital men website. Whenever I listen to Limelight in the car I always hear a harmonic vocal part that isn't there, so for fun I recorded the extra vocal part.

In other news, Scott and I did the Music Store road trip to Toronto yesterday. First stop was Steve's Music on Queen St. West. Scott and I have been talking about possibly jamming on some original ideas lately, but I don't have a guitar amp anymore. While I've been checking out amps online for a while now, after setting foot in Steve's door, what became quickly apparent is that tube amps aren't as cheap as they used to be! Consider that 20 years ago I paid $450 CDN for a Used 4x12" Marshall 1960B speaker cabinet, and $325 for a Used 1969 Marshall Plexi SuperBass 100 amplifier head (yes, SuperBass, they sound almost identical to an old Plexi SuperLead but had more bottom end, which was exactly what I wanted!). Grand total = $775. Granted I bought eveything used, but the cheapest Mesa Boogie I saw at Steve's was $1299.99 and that was for a really small combo amp! Same thing with Marshall, which would be my preference if money were no object. But Peavey had some ValveKing amps that were surprisingly affordable. Didn't get a chance to try them out due to the traffic at the store (Saturday afternoon at Steve's busy? Nahhhhhh!). There were several solid state amps available in the $500+ area. Though solid state amps keep getting better I still haven't heard one that sounded great. After Steve's we hit the Black Bull for lunch and cold beverages, then took a walk down Queen St. West to Yonge St. to visit the Apple Store at the Eaton Centre. It's a very nice looking store but it was a ZOO. It's a shame, because I'm an Apple Freak and I wanted that special experience of visiting a store that sells products I really like, but there were at least 100 customers and 20 employees all packed in to a not-so-big space. After 10 minutes Scott and I left empty-handed feeling a bit stressed and underwhelmed. Maybe because we live in the quiet hamlet of London we are a bit spoiled? NOTE: To be fair, Apple advises potential customers to visit early after opening or later in the day as their busiest time is in the middle of the day. Unless you eagerly anticipate and enjoy high-stress environments, then I would heed their advice.

Then it was a 15 minute drive north to Long & McQuade to check out more music gear (we had originally planned to continue on down Yonge St. at this point, to the Hockey Hall of Fame just south of the Eaton Centre, but those plans were scuttled by a lack of time and rising outdoor humidity). L&M pretty much had the same selection of amps though I noticed they focused more on the high-end tube amps than solid state. Pretty busy there also so after watching Scott play a Roland electronic drum kit (they are like a magnet for him...) we re-boarded the Blue Rocket and headed even further north to Just Drums. Just across from the store there were some painters on a scaffold working on a building and apparently their soccer team had done well because they were happily singing at the top of their lungs what sounded like a soccer victory song. Inside the store, there was a "No Tax" sale on Sabian cymbals in progress. We were lucky to arrive when we did at around 5:00 PM because the sale had started at 1:30, and we were told by the staff that at it's peak there were 50 customers all banging on cymbals at the same time to try them out! That explains why we had to ask all of our questions to the staff several times. WHAT? ;) Scott managed to resist buying 2 crash cymbals that really sounded nice, but picked up a splash cymbal to replace a cracked splash, and a Mike Portnoy T-Shirt, and a Tama T-Shirt which had eluded him for quite some time. I also got a quick lesson on tuning a floor tom to get more bottom end out of it from a very helpful member of the staff. Despite Scott's excellent ear for tuning all of his drums, and the excellent sound he gets out of his drums when I am standing in front of them in a room, for some reason his 16" floor tom has always ended up sounding a bit thin when we record it. But after explaining that I was not a drummer (Really? We couldn't tell, even though you weren't hitting anything!) I was advised on how a floor tom drum should be tuned and on proper mic placement and selection for recording. Good to know for future recordings.......

This journal entry brought to by the publishers of "Ethel the Aardvark goes Quantity Surveying". Please visit your local bookshop today, even if you can't read.

Monday, May 19th 2008 - HEARD IT SAID BEFORE BUT NOT AS NICELY AS THIS: "I work for the people who pay to get in. They are my customers, and my focus is on providing the best experience I can for those people." - Harrison Ford on movie critics.

Friday APR 25th 2008 - GENERAL UPDATE - Nothing much new to report on the music front. I was sick with the flu for quite a while and it left me with laryngitis so I have't been able to work on the vocal parts for Phantom Pain (see below), but I'm hoping to get back to work on that song and others soon. I recently organized an Apple Logic 8 seminar for the students of the Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology, a local recording school that I attended myself back in 1988-89 (almost 20 years ago!). It was a very memorable day for me, seeing how the school had changed and being able to give back in some way. After being introduced to the students I told a story that illustrated how far recording technology has come since 1988; one of our tests for editing involved re-assembling a jumbled up version of the song "Strange Animal" by Gowan from a solid piece of 1/4" tape that the staff had previously cut up and re-recorded onto. I got a lot of stunned looks (and a few snickers at the mention of Gowan) from the students who primarily use computer programs like Logic and Pro Tools to edit songs now. In other news, I just watched the movie Cloverfield (SPOILERS TO FOLLOW - you have been warned!). I love monster flicks so I was looking forward to this movie, and while it made me shake my head as I thought about the CG work that must have gone into making the film I was left feeling disappointed at the shortness of the film and the opportunities left unexplored. In the Special Features stuff on the DVD, which does a great job of showing you how the film was made, the film-maker professes a love for Godzilla movies and a desire to make the same impact on the American monster film genre, but he fails in a couple of very basic ways. The Godzilla movies always did a great job of providing back-story about where Godzilla came from that created the rich mythology of Godzilla. In Cloverfield there is no back story as to where the monster comes from, he just shows up. And the creature does little but smash around the city of New York aimlessly. Godzilla always had intent. There was always a reason for him to show up (an earthquake, or perhaps to battle another monster to protect Tokyo). And Godzilla was a character that we could get behind especially when he was standing up for his favourite city. The monster in Cloverfield (named "Clover" by the filmmakers for some strange reason) doesn't have any personality. He just roars, destroys buildings and eats people. As a result the movie ends up without a plot, though there is a love story subtext with the main characters, both of whom I didn't care much about because they are boring, two-dimensional, good looking people without any character flaws. I did care about the two supporting characters, Hud and Marlena, because of their awkward relationship (if you can call it that) that slowly evolves over the first three quarters of the movie, but they both get offed in horrible ways and I was left feeling angry and thinking the film-makers had made a mistake about which couple should have been offed. Finally, the movie finishes way too short at a "we-were-just-getting-started" 73 minutes, and I was left feeling like a lot of story opportunities were left unexplored, especially in the lack of backstory regarding the creature. But it was entertaining and the CG work was amazing. Amazing CG may have meant a movie was exciting 10 years ago, but these days it's par for the course. Film-makers can't afford to leave out the backstory, the plot, and proper character developement anymore. I give it a 7 out of 10.

Oh, and I didn't get sick watching it.

That's it for now. Hopefully some music news and a sample next update...

Tuesday MAR 18th 2008 - MUSIC UPDATE - After reading my article about the Tom Sawyer "growl sound", fellow Roland SH-32 user Joe emailed me and asked if I could send him a copy of my Tom Sawyer patch from my SH-32. I did a little digging in the manual and managed to get the patch data saved as a .MID file and put it on my server. If you have a Roland SH-32 and you are interested in adding the Tom Sawyer growl sound to your SH-32, then click here for further instructions.

Saturday MAR 08 2008 - Found another handful of old concert tickets to add to my online collection. I didn't realize I have seen Rush 9 times. And I found the ticket from Triumph's very last show before Rik Emmett quit, although now I hear they have a reuinion concert booked in Sweden in June.

Sunday FEB 17 2008 - GENERAL UPDATE - Just finished reading the autobiography of Slash. It should have been titled "Our Own Worst Enemies". As a guitar player, I'm a fan of Slash's work, but I, like many people probably, viewed him to be just a famous, drug-addict, guitar player. So when I saw his book and noted that it came in at 400+ pages I was curious to see how he had managed such a feat. After reading it, I am left wondering how in the world Guns N Roses ever became famous. They did everything they could possibly have done to ruin their own careers, and yet somehow they made it to the top of the charts several times. The lack of organization created by their recreational drug endeavours alone should have been enough to kill their chances, but then add the drinking, the crazy women, the backstabbing managers, the controlling lead singer who had zero respect for the band's audiences, and the lack of support from some of their so-called friends, and I am convinced that even if they were all in comas before Appetite For Destruction was recorded the Gods Of Rock would have somehow seen fit to still make them famous. I guess it was just in the cards. Anyway, it was a good read, and it opened my eyes to Slash's depth of character. I would never have guessed that he was so literate. I'd give it an 8 out of 10 for the crazy cast of characters alone.

In other news, I have added some screen captures to the Images section of the My Weekly Crime website. The pics are from a video we shot of the video crew doing their thing during the videotaping sessions for the Tribute Documentary back in April of 2007. If you want to know why Terry is only wearing one shoe you will have to ask him ;)

The music continues to flow. I am in the middle of working on a song called "Phantom Pain". No samples yet, but it is very Pink Floydian sounding. And it has the weirdest guitar solo I've ever come up with.

On the writing front, I am making very slow progress (but it's still progress!) on BubbleGum Cross. At this point I won't promise anything. I'm just happy the story is moving forward and that I am not getting sucked into editing while I write (BAD HABIT BE GONE!). The main problems right now are how to setup Jeena Malso's return, and how to finish the story. Everything else in it's place. I hope.

Thursday JAN 10 2008 - MUSIC UPDATE - The Digital Men version of Freewill is done! I completed the new vocal track, added the synths back in and finished a few other minor tweaks. Check it out and tell us what you think!