Hell week - get used to it

Next week is going to be fun - Once it's over. I have three major projects within four days. One of those projects is my final recital, which is supposed to sum up the last three years of my life. The other two are related to each other and are pretty much another final project. On top of that I have Tests in both of my night classes, and I work three days a week. Needless to say January has been difficult.

I explained this all to my private bass teacher, and he related to me the events of the past weekend which involved him flying to Paris* - Flying to Nice - driving to Cannes - checking into a hotel - doing a soundcheck - a half hour later, playing a one hour show - going out for dinner - going to the hotel - sleeping for 3 hours - checking out of the hotel - driving to Nice - Flying to Paris - Flying to Toronto. Apparently this all happened within about 72 hours and as you can see included only 3 hours of sleep. All this was surrounded by a number of late gigs and a few recording projects.

Basically what he was saying is "get used to it". If you're planning on being a professional musician there will be times like this. The difference is that he's a session player and does a lot of different gigs. I would prefer to be in a band - one gig, different locations, possibly just as busy.

This picture was taken a while ago, but I think is shows how I'm feeling right now.

*Sorry Tom, I know what you were hoping for with the Paris** link

** fine there it is

For lack of something better

This is going to be a short post. I realized that a lot of people who read this probably have never met me, so I decided to post a picture of myself at my most natural. If you haven't guessed, I'm the one that looks to be in some sort of pain - or pleasure, you decide. The other fellow is one of my current room mates, and I have to say I think he looks like he's enjoying that a little too much.




I didn't know I could open my mouth that wide!

Who would make a list?

The list is one of the fundamental things that makes us human. It is, in esscence, what makes us human. No animals have ever been documented to show this behaviour of list making, in captivity or in the wild. There was one study that apparently showed a Rheus Monkey* making what appeared to be some sort of a shopping list, but this was later disproved. It turned out that the monkey had simply been trying to solve a physics problem and the calculations had a list like appearance.

Since the invention of written language, people have been making lists. An ancient stone tablet found in a cave in the middle east has recently been translated and appears to be some sort of list that a cave woman, made up of things for her cave man to pick up on the way home. Archeological digging in the cave discovered that while the man did get most of the things on the list, he forgot the most important thing, and got the wrong brand of shampoo. This list making has evolved throughout the ages into the complex 'art form' (as some people would call it) that exists today.

There are many kinds of lists. For example:

- A 'people to kill' list/Enemies List**

- A grocery list

- A shopping list (generic)

- A 'to do' or task list

- A list of chores

- A parts list

- A mailing list

- Friedrich List

- A playlist

- A Top Ten list***

- etc.

I could go on and on about the many different types of lists, but no one's really interested. Incidentally, if anyone can think of a really good list, please leave it in my comments section.

Who would make a list, and why? There are lots of reasons people make lists


- Because they are terrible at grammar**** and point form saves them from having to put full paragraphs together

- To prove that they know more than one thing on a particular subject

- They've already been branded***** as a list maker, therefore they are doomed to make lists for the rest of their life

- They are unable to think about a subject in enough detail to write more than a sentance at a time

- For attention

- Because 'The Lydster' keeps bugging them to make another one.

- Boredom

- Because they have something to prove. (I'm not sure what this would be, but we all have something to prove, why not put it in list form)

Well, that's it for today, I think I'll go to Tim Hortons - Hey, there's another list - A price list. See, they're all around us people! We can't escape them even if we want to. I'm surprised that Orwell didn't include the proliferation of 'the list' in his bleak description of the future.


*Yes that is a monkey in a space suit.
**Makes me want to avoid the salad dressing business
***Some top ten lists are pointless and stupid, although I can't think of any off the top of my head. . .
****Yes I know the spelling is different.
*****I'll take an ear tag thanks.******
******You can never have too many asterisks

Sting + genius = Stingenius

Tomtastic likes to post lyrics on his blog, and according to Nietzsche, we are all sheep - So I'm going to do the same.

Anyone who doesn't think Sting is a genius should just stop listening to music right now.


Free, free, set them free
Free, free, set them free
Free, free, set them free

If you need somebody
Call my name
If you want someone
You can do the same
If you want to keep something precious
You got to lock it up and throw away the key
If you want to hold onto your possession
Don't even think about me

If you love somebody
If you love someone
If you love somebody
If you love someone, set them free
Set them free
Set them free
Set them free

If it's a mirror you want
Just look into my eyes
Or a whipping boy
Someone to despise
Or a prisoner in the dark
Tied up in chains you just can't see
Or a beast in a gilded cage
That's all some people ever want to be

If you love somebody
If you love someone
If you love somebody
If you love someone, set them free
Set them free
Set them free
Set them free

You can't control an independent heart
Can't tear the one you love apart
Forever conditioned to believe that we can't live
We can't live here and be happy with less
So many riches
So many souls
With everything we see that we want to possess

If you need somebody
Call my name
If you want someone
You can do the same
If you want to keep something precious
You got to lock it up and throw away the key
You want to hold onto your possession
Don't even think about me

If you love somebody
If you love someone
If you love somebody
If you love someone, set them free
Set them free
Set them free
Set them free
Set them free

How are 'U'

So, I haven't updated my blog in a while, and there are a few good reasons

1 - I was at my parents place all break and they have dial up
2 - I 'worked'* almost every day during the break, and I didn't feel like making any entries
3 - I haven't made any humorous observations about the world around me that I can remember

Except - the lack of the letter 'u' in American spellings (humour, colour, rumour, etc.) Not that I haven't known about this phenomenon for a long time, it's just something that I've been thinking about for a while. I'm sure that a lot of people think that it's because the 'u' isn't really necessary in those words.

I think they're keeping all those u's in a top secret storage facility hidden somewhere under the Rocky Mountains. As a Canadian I'm naturally suspicious of any country that has a huge 'u' surplus. The big question is, what are they going to do with all those u's.

I asked a good friend of mine who recently moved to the U.S. if she knew anything about this stockpiling of the letter 'u'. All she could tell me was that she got some information about it in a sealed envelope when she got her social security card. If she were to give me any more information the government** would come after her. Clearly there is something going on that they don't want the rest of us to know about. I'm not sure how all the American People are able to keep this secret - maybe it's like the ending of The Sixth Sense that for some reason everyone who watched it kept a secret.

There are only a few reasons that I can think of for a Nation to stockpile 'U's

1 - Some sort of a U-boat, not the kind that the Germans built, but an actual boat made from 'U's. A 'U' is already the right shape for a boat, so all they would have to do is stack a bunch of them side by side. A boat made from thousands of 'U's would be unstoppable, it would also be a lot cheaper to build than a conventional boat.

2 - A U-bomb. This is not quite the same as an H-bomb. It would be far less destructive, but no one would expect it. This is also nothing like an F-bomb, which Chuck is quite fond of.

3 - They're planning to sell them to U2 as some sort of promotion that I don't understand

4 - To confuse me. Not anyone else. Just me. I'm not sure why they feel it's necessary to confuse me, but I'm sure that I'm the only one.



* For those of you who don't know me, I work as a ski instructor in the winter, which some people don't think is real work
** In case you didn't figure this one out- she lives in California