The Squamidian Report – Apr. 9 / 16
Issue #724
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
You'l have to forgive me, but I'm going to indulge myself a bit this time on a personal level.
One of life's lessons is that a person must continually push themselves
to do better, to do new things, to be better and so on. If you don't,
you don't just stagnate, you end up going backward. Its very easy to
get into a comfortable rut and simply stay there. We all let ourselves
get comfortable, its our nature. So pushing can and usually does
encroach on the uncomfortable. Here's where I'm going with this....
I've been pushing my comfort level musically for a while now. For
decades I had played music with others who were never willing to
considered me to be good enough to stand on my own, or take the lead in
material of my choice, especially vocally. The suggestion was that I
should 'just be backup'. I was often in demand as 'backup', as in “just
bring your bass”, or “just bring your mandolin” 'cause it goes nicely
with our music. I got tired of that and reached a point a few years ago
where enough was enough. I'd rather just muddle away on my own than be,
or be expected to be, second fiddle to someone else. I've no problem
being 'equal to', but not second to. But even that becomes comfortable
and rut-forming.
So, I began writing my own material which is certainly pushing personal
boundaries as it requires an amount of self exposure. Anyone who paints
or does other creative endeavors would understand what I mean. With
interesting results. Many people quite liked what they heard and yet
others, some predictably, wanted nothing to do with it.
After a while I reached the point where I could do more of my own
material than I could do of covers of other people's material. Thats
kind of cool but where do I go with that? An answer to that question
slowly crept into my head, partly due to suggestions and advice from a
few others, and partly due to the fact that ideas occasionally do creep
into my head all by themselves. I needed to play my material where it
can be heard. In public. But I'm a bit picky about just where in public
I'd be willing to play. You will NEVER see me as a busker on some
street corner or where ever. The only logical choice in my opinion was
at the upper lodge at the gondola, which just happens to be a world
class tourist destination. They have music up there regularly but its
usually 'professional' groups be they local or from the city. Some of
the groups are very good, others not so much. Heck, they had one guy up
there last summer who was advertised as a singer songwriter that would
blend his voice with the mountains. Personally, I thought he sucked
big-time and so did a lot of others. Secretly, I felt I could do much
better than he did. Several gondola employees that we have made friends
with have copies of my music. It is they who suggested I talk to the
ones in charge of entertainment and let them know that I'm both
interested and available, so I did. The end result was that I was
invited to play last Sunday afternoon in the lodge.
Cool. However, that gets me into a double layer of new boundaries. I've
never played my own original music in public before. (Many of my
friends have CD copies but the material on those CDs had been recorded
with multiple tracks etc, as opposed to being performed live). And
secondly, I've never played solo in public. Ever! I've always been part
of a band or group and its been a while since I've been part of either,
and when I did, there was always that pressure to be 'the
accompaniment' for harmony and instrumentation. But what the heck, I'm
playing guitar better now than I ever have, and I'm quite proud of my
own material. Or at least most of it. The rest I can just leave out.
So, I was very pleased to be invited to play up there. I'd been working
toward such a thing for a while and face it, it would be fun. I had my
first solo gig.
So now I'm not just pushing one personal boundary, I'm pushing two at
the same time.... doing a solo gig and playing my own material at said
gig. Thats probably the bigger boundary. Original material can be very
personal, and its material that few have heard before so therefore the
general public has never heard it. Most people react indifferent at
best to music they don't know. But that wouldn't matter. The gondola's
Sunday afternoon music is not a captive audience concert, its casual
and there for anyone who wants to listen but not in the way of anyone
who doesn't.
On the days leading up to the gig I polished up some of my material as
well as a dozen covers of other peoples songs to use if needed or
wanted. I practiced a bit using my sound system and made sure
everything was in place and in order. I don't like loose ends so to
speak. One little thing bugged me a bit, I could feel some apprehension
or nervousness building. I didn't like that but knew it was because
there were a lot of unknowns to deal with. I've never had a problem
being on-stage or in front of people and didn't want to start now. Once
I got there and got busy setting up, that kind of thing vanished and I
was just fine, relaxed and ready to enjoy playing my music to the
world, or at least that little corner of the world. One thing that had
caused some apprehension was that Ryan had originally thought he could
be there to tweak and balance the sound system if need be. Turned out
he had to be at the Juno's to do sound for Adams. Turned out to be a
none-issue, sound was good. Now, I had no idea how this would go over.
I'm just a little old guy sitting there with a really nice guitar,
singing into a mic, doing numbers that no one knows.
It went great!
A lot of people including staff remarked about how nice the music was
and how relaxed the atmosphere was. A lot of tourists took my picture.
Lots of people sat around in front of me listening and enjoying their
coffee or whatever, including staff members on their breaks. And best
of all, I had fun. I truly enjoyed the gig. It felt good. It felt good
to prove to myself that I could do it. I've been invited to play up
there often and could quite possible do it a couple of times a month if
I want. In mid May they are holding their 2nd anniversary party and had
already booked 3 professional bands to play that afternoon. They have
added my name to the list, not as another 'pro' but to play before the
listed bands. The official music program starts at noon, I'll play a
set ahead of that. But thats just fine with me. Now I just need to
practice some more to keep moving forward, push those boundaries. I
might even get around to writing more music in the near future if time
and opportunity permits.
*
And now for something completely different.... for all
you handy persons out there who get frustrated when trying to remove
old wood screws from posts, boards or wherever they are in, use your
cordless impact driver. The one that probably came with your cordless
drill set but has sat collecting dust all this time. Using a cordless
drill as a screw driver works great for running them in but not so good
for removing them. If the screws have been there for a while they will
either stall the drill or the head will strip or even break off. The
impact driver pops them out almost effortlessly. Now you know.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
It’s time to write another incredibly interesting edition of my
weekly. There are times when it’s hard to come up with a topic but this
week for inspiration I used the latest CD sent to me by Doug. It’s a
collection of what I call mellow folk tunes and definitely well done
indeed! Congratulations Doug on another terrific production of your
home grown writings! I only received this one Monday of this week and
I’ve almost worn it through with the needle on my “record player” LOL!
Can’t seem to stop playing the darned thing and every time I listen to
it I can see in my minds eye exactly what you’re singing about and
that’s indeed a sure sign of talented writing! I never thought I’d ever
be friends with someone that would be responsible for bringing back the
“Folk” style of music but that’s how I see it and I’m happy to be the
recipient of your efforts. Your “These Days I Really Hate To Fly”
brought back memories of our trip to Europe last fall and describes the
pain of flying to a T! Thanks for taking me out of the every day
troubles of the world through your songs. When the days of our lives
are filled with doom and gloom and every news cast seems to be nothing
but bad news and reports of terrorism and it’s getting so it’s not
worth turning the TV on for entertainment anymore. It’s indeed a nice
change to have some mellow relaxing and inspirational music to turn to
for peace of mind! When I listen to your “I’ve Never Been A Cowboy” it
takes me back to the days of my early youth when Gene and Roy were my
childhood heroes and Trigger was my favourite horse and Bullet was the
best and smartest dog ever! I think of the summer days when we used to
play Cowboys and Indians down in the field at the end of our street
that abutted the bush in Breithaupt Park. We spent hours and hours
riding our stick horses around the field and shooting our cap guns at
each other and trying to make a campfire by rubbing two sticks
together. I guess it’s just as well that we didn’t manage to make fire
or we’d have likely set the whole field on fire!
Those were the days when the grass and weeds grew wild in the field and
the city never put any effort into mowing the acres of 3’ long growth.
It was much more fun to play in a field that allowed us to hide in that
overgrowth. These days the fields are only good for playing sports on
because unless you have a ball or some other equipment to use in the
short cut grass there’s no inspiration by the long weeds to make a kid
use his imagination. We used to pretend to be hiding in our “forts” and
herding buffalo or cattle across the wide-open plains while riding
“Trigger” and “Champion” through the tall grass that no longer grows
wild in city parks. Seems there’s very little for kids to do outdoors
these days unless they’re sitting somewhere playing electronic games or
texting their every move to what they call “friends” who are actually
people they’ve never even met! Don’t get me wrong, the computer age is
certainly amazing and wonderful but it seems to have taken the fun out
of being a kid. Using ones imagination was one of the biggest parts of
being a kid in the 50s and 60s when I was growing up and the most
computerized thing around was a telephone with a dial on it that was
for adult use only unless of course you had permission from mum or dad
to make a call. When the phone rang in most households, answering it
was something that the adults did and was also used for short pointed
conversations only. Very few adults ever spent more than a couple of
minutes on the phone as it was considered a waste of time and don’t
forget, “The party line might be listening in or needing to use the
phone!” LOL! Until I was a teenager, the phone didn’t have much
interest for me anyway. I’d rather be using my imagination and either
playing with my toys or gobbling down my lunch or supper so I could get
the heck out of the house to go call on a friend to play until the
street lights came on and we had to be home again! I guess the
electronic games and gadgets of today have their place and they do
stimulate ones imagination somewhat but when I think back, I still
think kids should get a kick out of playing with their “Dinky Toys” and
“Tonka Vehicles”! At least when playing with such toys, kids are active
physically rather than just using their “Hand Eye” coordination talent
to push buttons!
That’s how I see it anyway! So, “Thanks”, again to Doug for providing
me (us) with something that stirs the imagination and is actually
interesting entertainment!
That’s all for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next time in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now … Greg
PS: Something To Think About>
Don’t pick a fight with an old man. If he’s too old to fight, he’ll just kill you!
****
Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.
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