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DEC 8TH 06 - WEATHER UPDATE: Here are some more pics as of 7:30 AM this morning. Local news is saying there is now 60 cm (23.6 inches) of snow on the ground with another 10 cms forecast before the snowsqualls taper off this afternoon. They are also saying this is the most significant one-day snowfall in 30 years. Note the backyard picnic table is now completely buried. Yes, that's a car under all that snow in the second pic. 
Click on thumbnails for full-size images DEC 7TH 06 - WEATHER UPDATE: Around this time of year, we generally get a few centimeters of snow for our first snowfall, and then things get more serious in January. Not this year! The radar pic below shows a very persistent snowsquall that setup over Lake Huron this morning and so far has dumped about 30 cm on my hometown of London with more to come tonight. Note the yellow area just north of London (see the cm/hr scale on the right of the radar pic). The second picture is our backyard getting slowly buried at around 10:00 PM. The third picture is our backyard again just over an hour later at 11:10 PM. 
Click on thumbnails for full-size images NOV 12TH 06
- MUSICAL UPDATE: Back to work! Or is it back to play? After 6 months off the guys and
I got together 2 weeks ago to discuss what was next for My Weekly Crime. After deciding to put the cover tunes aside for a while to focus
on our own music we listened to some original ideas Terry had been working on over the summer and rummaged through my collection
of dusty old 4 track tapes. Last weekend we got together to jam on some of those ideas and during the week Terry and I did some arranging
on the computer. Today a song finally emerged from all the cutting and pasting. Looks like we could be very busy over the winter! More soon...
NOV 11TH 06
- MUSICAL UPDATE: One of my favourite things to do on a Saturday is drive to Toronto and
check out the music stores. Scott came along for the ride this time, and while neither of us was looking to spend money on this trip I had
been doing a lot of research into a new bass guitar. I've been playing a Fender Squier Jazz for the past 4 years and it feels like it's time
to move up to the next notch. I have been scoping out Spector basses for some time now, the Performer 4DLX specifically, but I also
wanted to try a few other brands just to get a better idea of what was out there.
Our first stop was Song Bird Music on Queen St. I'd spent a lot of surfing time at their webpage scoping out the
used keyboards and other MIDI gadgets but I'd never been to the store before. They have a lot of interesting vintage stuff including several old Plexi
Marhsall amp heads one of which was a 1970 SuperBass 100W going for around $2000.00 CDN. Several years back I sold my
beloved 1969 SuperBass 100 for $1000.00. Hey, we've all got a story about something we sold that we shoulda hung onto....
They also had a Moog Little Phatty synth which was very cool but way outside my budget. Scott inquired about an Alesis DM4 Electronic
Drum "brain" that I had seen on the website the day before. "Sorry, it was sold yesterday." Doh. The used basses were hidden near the back
by the acoustic guitars. There was a nice Ibanez that was very comfortable to play but someone had obviously played it a lot as the faux
wood finish had worn off where your right arm would rest. As we headed back towards the front door I noticed lots of cool gadgets and pedals
very reasonably priced. Both Scott and I agreed that this should be a regular stop on our music store tour from now on.
Just a few blocks East of Song Bird Music we parked the car, and after an always satisfying lunch at the Black Bull we walked over to Steve's Music. It was a busy Saturday afternoon at Steve's (as always). We were greeted by the sound of a dozen guitar players all playing different licks at the same time. It wasn't the first time that I had entered Steve's and wondered what the people that work there do when they get home to
decompress after listening to all those guitar players all day long. Scott and I went our seperate ways (me to the basses and
he upstairs to the drum department). I tried a blue 2006 Spector Performer, a Spector Legend and another more expensive Spector model. While I had been blown away by a 2005 Spector Performer
during my last trip in December of 2005 the new 2006 model wasn't doing it for me. I didn't like the flattened body shape and it just didn't have the same
feel in the neck. The 2 more expensive Spectors were better but didn't make me want to shell out the extra coin. I then tried a Peavey, a couple of Yamahas, a few Fenders, an Ibanez and a Schecter.
Of the bunch the Yamaha and the Ibanez left impressions, but nothing felt magical like the 2005 Spector had last year. After buying some strings for a friend and some other small items we decided to skip
the rest of the stores on the tour (it was getting late) and headed back home. I was a bit dejected after the trip, but I have since contacted the good folks at Spector and they told me they are working on their new
line of basses for 2007. NAMM 2007 is coming up in January so maybe they will come up with a new Performer model or something else. I'll just have to wait and see.
SEPT 22nd 06
- RG UPDATE: Here's some video at YouTube of someone
modelling a cosplay BGC Priss hardsuit at the Animazement 2004 convention. Nice suit! But it looks like it's murder on the ankles...
AUGUST 19th 06
- MUSICAL UPDATE: Big thanks go out to Lorena and Brad from the online radio show "Rush Hour" for playing the Digital Men covers of red Barchetta and Vital Signs over the past few weeks. Be sure to tune in Tuesday night's at 9:00 PM Eastern Time for a solid hour of Rush, and then stay tuned at 10:00 PM to listen to their "After Rush Hour" show for lots of prog rock goodness!
AUGUST 12th 06
- MUSICAL UPDATE: A new rough mix (version 6a) for Red Barchetta. Check it out at the Digital Men songs page.
JULY 16th 06
- MUSICAL UPDATE: Another song
from the Digital Men added to the list, this one still in progress. Check out Red Barchetta at the
songs page.
JUNE 4th 06
- MUSICAL UPDATE: A couple of updates on songs
from the virtual Rush tribute "Digital Men". Check out the songs
page for updates on Freewill and Xanadu.
APRIL 17th 2006
WRITING UPDATE: I sat down at my computer this morning, determined to get
some work done on BG Cross (cue the crickets). Yes, I know, it's been a long
long time since I made any progress on that long forgotten story, and I've promised an update so many times! But
after an initial bit of resistance, and several attempts by my email to distract me, I actually made some real progress!
I started off slowly with the mundane stuff that has always been a big source of distraction, like deleting duplicate chapters
and getting rid of old files that may or may not have some new writing in them. After clearing out the clutter I got down to
work. And first thing I did? I got rid of a character! Not a major character, but a new character I had created that was
supposed to be Leon's new partner with Daley busy elsewhere. But then I remembered that Leon had another partner before
Daley. And she wants revenge just as much as anybody...
APRIL 17th 2006 MUSIC UPDATE: Summer break! The band is taking a bit of a break over the summer with fewer practices so that everyone can enjoy all those Sunday family barbecues to come, but that doesn't mean things are slowing down. We're all keen to work on some original material and will be doing so on our own over the next few months. Hopefully we'll all have some new material to share and work on at the end of the summer. In the meantime we're starting work on learning a song by Dream Theater. That should keep us busy for a while ;) MARCH 12th 2006 - GENERAL UPDATE: So what's new? Not too much, but things are evolving in subtle ways. On the Sunday band front we are discussing the possibility of working on some original songs. At my end of this creative process, I'm slowly sifting through a box of tapes (yes tapes) that represents 20+ years of my efforts to write songs. Honestly, most of it now sounds dated and unusable (though amusing to listen to) but a few pieces may be useful. At this point though I'm more anxious to see what we can create now from scratch. To that end I am employing GarageBand and Logic Express to capture some new ideas on my PowerBook. Tapes... sheesh!
On the Virtual Band front, work continues to progress on Xanadu. Most of the framework has been completed. All that's left to do is bolt in some percussion effects and finish the vocals. The final result will be posted here once I've completed the webpage I am working on for this project, hopefully within a week or so. On the writing front, things have been less productive, but the writer's group I've been with for the last few months has been inspiring. I'm hoping to enter a writing contest that's coming up soon. Perhaps that process might inspire me to finish some other long overdue projects... One last musical note- I recently purchased some new synthesizer software called GForce Minimonsta being distributed by M-Audio. For those not familiar with this software, it is a softsynth, a program that emulates a hardware synthesizer, in this case the venerable old MiniMoog. It's a great piece of software though a bit overwhelming with all of it's options. I've used it on the Virtual Band's latest project and the results have been very positive, but I am hoping to put it to even more good use on any original projects that may be produced in the near future. If you've always wanted a Minimoog but could never afford one (like me) then check this program out. Be sure to look for the demo download link to have a listen to what it can do. Stay tuned... JANUARY 22nd 2006 - MUSIC UPDATE: The band worked on "Witch Hunt" this week and last week, and what a cool tune! Not a toughie by Rush's standards but it's such a powerful tune and really exhilirating to play it loud so that those big synth chords fill the room. We also attempted "Cygnus X-1 Book II" from Hemispheres. It has to be one of the toughest things I've ever tried to play but it's a welcome new challenge. JANUARY 22nd 2006 - MUSIC UPDATE: I'm an analog synthesizer fan, which helps when playing in a Rush cover band of course. But I'm also a Roland synthesizer fan, and my favourite synth company just released 2 new synths at this years NAMM show that I'm excited about. If you're into synths then check out the Juno-G and the SH-201.
JANUARY 17th 2006 - MUSIC UPDATE: The new mixer is here! What a difference. I think everyone in our band would very happily recommend Behringer Mixers to anyone thinking of getting a new mixer with a tight budget. We picked up the USB2442-FX Pro. The preamps are super-clean and we can now hear everything much more clearly. With a new mixer, and the "semi-live" recording project now behind us, we hope in the near future to record a few more Rush tunes and ultimately some of our own original material. Stay tuned...
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