Weird weather in TO

It's early afternoon on Sunday and the weather is just strange. Out of the front of the house, to the south, there's a cloudless sky and beautiful sunshine with birds singing.
At the back of the house, huge black clouds with constant rumbling thunder.
I'm in the Twilight Zone!

10:26 AM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Next: Buy a car.....

So here I am, age 55 and I've never had to own a car..
Can this be North America????

Well, yes...as I am about to discover.
Toronto is great as you don't really need wheels unless you need to get out of town. And that's what car rental is for.

But I'm about to move 'out of town'.
Now, I'm going to get to work every day by train. It's 15 minutes walk from the new place. An hour trip and 5 minutes walk to work.
Downside: a choice of only 3 trains in the morning and 3 back in the evening and it's a little pricey: $30 per day.
As opposed to now: 55 minutes subway commute at $5.00 per day.

But I'm assured that I'll need a car for other stuff. I'm sure I'll find out soon what that 'stuff' might be..
I have NO idea what kind of car I'm going to get. I suspect maybe a 4-5 year old Honda Civic would do the trick.
It's the cost that blows me away.
$10k for the car plus taxes and stuff and then insurance which will hit me up a HUGE amount ($4k?) because I'm a 'first time driver' as far as they are concerned. Being over 55 might help a bit.
Anyway, I'm looking at getting up to $20k just to get into the game. Yikes!!!!! To think it costs my entire family $150 a month for all our public transit needs here in TO.

But it's time to grow up, I suspect.

More later on the expense involved in living out of town. I never realised..

10:53 AM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Sold the House!!!

Lord, is this ever a relief!
Apparently, a young woman saw the place on Saturday and brought her husband and two kids in yesterday to see it......at 9:30 in the morning. (Usually these things start at 10).
Not so bad you say? Maybe for me...but the son and his girl had been out on a toot and only got in at 2...quite the experience getting them up, tidy and out for that time.
Only the lure of Golden Griddle's breakfast did the job!
Anyway, the buyers came back with an offer early Sunday evening. Pretty much in the middle of my family birthday party.... (Nice duck, Moira!!!!!)
Anyway, our two respective real estate agents came over and sat around the table for a couple of sessions until we got the deal hammered out.
The nice thing is that the buyers are a young couple whose kids are exactly the age that our kids were when we got the house. It feels more like I'm passing it on the next generation than a commercial transaction should. (I'm SUCH a sentimentalist!)
And the little girl was heard to shout 'Hooray! We got the magical house!'.when she heard that we signed. She is SO right!

Anyway, I got a pizza party, presents (saw Iron Man on Saturday. Wicked! Go see it!!)..and sold my house. A pretty good weekend in the end.

11:21 AM - 6 Comments - 5 Kudos - Add Comment

I’m selling my house

Sorry there's been nothing here for a while.
Life has been happening in huge chunks lately.
And the thing that is consuming most of my time right now. I'm selling my house.
Anyone want a killer quiet spot right in the middle of TO?

http://www.mls.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?vd=&SearchURL=%3fMode%3d0%26Page%3d1%26vs%3dResidential%26ret%3d300%26sts%3d0-0%26beds%3d0-0%26baths%3d0-0%26aid%3d3341%26MapURL%3d%253fAreaID%253d6367%26tte%3d1%26tt%3d1%252c2%26mp%3d200000-550000-0%26mrt%3d0-0-4%26trt%3d2%26of%3d1%26ps%3d50%26o%3dA&Mode=0&PropertyID=6933054

Let me know and I'll tell you tales of walking the kids to school through the park, having hurdy-gurdy parties under the apple tree, watching the family of cardinals raise their family in the 'beauty bush' at the end of the garden, walking the dog beside the river, reading in my hammock under that same apple tree, etc......

It's been a GREAT place. Did I mention the solarium....lots of light all year.....

We're moving to Cobourg.... To those that know Cobourg, we're right on the harbour. I believe that explains everything.

I'll be back soon to tell you all about my busted rib, Waleed's wedding in Halifax and other sordid tales soon.

1:59 PM - 4 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment

Some stuff I’ve been doing.

Mainly I've been cocooning under a flat stone. I'm not too good in winter. But the sun has started to come out again...so here's a blog entry to get me caught up.
And I may even start commenting on friend's blogs again too! (Here I come, Whim!!)
So here we go:

Shirley's birthday. Early December
Our family being our family, we've started a tradition of family concerts for important birthdays. So the latest was MIL Shirley's 80th.
The space was upstairs in a very nice North Toronto restaurant 'Herbs'. The stage was big enough for, maybe, three. The P.A. was BIL Mitch's amp. But we got by.
We had me and Barbara playing a violin/classical guitar duet., fiddle sets with BIL Doug on fiddle, rock and roll with Mitch on guitar, djembe percussion outings led by family friend Kwasi Dunyo and we finished with niece Emma leading us in 'The Time of your Life'. (Yes, we know the song really doesn't mean that...but WE did!!!)
As good a 'kitchen party' as you could have asked for. And Shirl deserves all of that! She's the one who assembled a family like this!
Maybe we can fit another generation in for her 90th....

Christmas
So daughter Moira brought her guy Steven over for Christmas Eve dinner. Steven comes from a Jewish family and hadn't done a proper Christmas before. So they started off by giving me and early Christmas present of a DVD of 'A Christmas Story'. Which we watched after dinner. And a fine way to start Christmas it was.
So the kids leave about 11 and Barb and I set about tidying up for tomorrow's festivities. Which were supposed to start quite early as Moira wanted to come over first thing and open her stocking on Mum and Dad's bed just as she always has......for 32 years!!!!!!
Anyway, we're still tidying up about midnight when the phone rings. Barb picks it up and it's Moi. 'Mum.......................'
'What's wrong, Moi?'
'Mum...................Steven just proposed to me.................'
Well, I guess we must have done something right that evening.......
The two of them are really good together. It's going to be grand.

New Year
Another family tradition is going to Ann and Eli Kassner's for New Year. Eli is 'The King of Classical Guitar' in Canada and puts on a fine musical party every year. And I always get a kick out of the things that happen. This year it was trading solos over 'Smoke on the Water' (Yup! My fault!) with virtuoso classical flautist, Robert Aitken. Bob was a bit out his genre...but he did just fine! If I can get him to stand on one leg while he plays, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull may have to watch out!!!!!!

Outfront's 10th Anniversary Party. Early January

So the show I work on, Outfront, hit 10 years old this month. Time flies when you are having fun.
I've been on it since day one. Before that in fact.
I got in because Judy, Outfront's first Senior Producer, needed a theme for the show. Then she needed technical help for some of the first freelancers. And then she needed production help... I just seemed to ooze in.
Anyway, we had a get-together last Monday night at the Trane Studio where I usually play with my buddy Waleed Abdulhamid. So it seemed only right, as he was the subject of one of the first Outfront musical profiles, to get him to come along and play. Well, him and most of the rest of the band....
And it just grew from there. For a sizeable crowd of folks who have been featured on the show these past years, we were able to provide a concert with flamenco (Roger Scannura), African jazz fusion (Waleed Kush..minus John and Dave admittedly..but we got Rob Thaller in on keys...YOWZA!!!), Somali funk (Shego), steel pan Jazz (Hamid Shaqq) and we finished off with reggae courtesy of Treson.
It was wonderful! Now, don't you wish you could have been there? All you have to do is have a successful pitch to Outfront !!! Get on it NOW!!

1:33 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

What I’ve been doing while not blogging

Well, a bunch of cool Outfront episodes, of course.
And there's a Facebook 'Friends of Fiddlers Green' group that's been needing some photo input (the negative scanner has been working overtime).
And this:

http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/singleConcert.html?20070930walee

Check it out. It's cool. There are even photos.....

12:27 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Responding to ’Whim’s’ nag.....

OK, I'm guilty of not posting.
And it HAS been a fun-filled summer. And busy too.
My getting-ready-for-September workload has been whizzing along. I have a bunch of fine freelancers who are all working like Trojans getting fascinating pieces ready. Neat stories too.

There's been a fair amount of music (Hot and Spicy Festival and Jazz by Genre last weekend, Summerfolk this weekend and the Trane Studio next Friday).

BUT...to show how geeky I truly am....I filled my 80 gig Ipod!!!!!!! It was a task...but it has been accomplished! (And I have more available on my external backup drive!!!!)
9,500 songs and a fistful of movies, videos and podcasts available on demand...Oh Joy!!!! My transit trips to work have flown by!

Kids and their toys! Sheeesh! (Next up..a new amp for my violin!)
OK..back to work. I have 2 freelancers due today. And they are both smart cookies. I'll have to run to keep up.

9:31 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Catching up!

Well, it turns out that I'm not much of a 'writer'. Who'd 'a thunk it!
I've had a TON of things to write about. A vacation to Arizona and California, some fine projects at work, lots of musical adventures (The Goldberg Variations by an African Band????)(and the annual street concert!) and, to cap it all, as fine a case of sciatic pain as I've heard of. (Just call me 'Gimpy'). And I became a real 'Pod' person too!
Part of the problem is fatigue. It must either be 'time-of-the-year' or this 'getting older' thing is actually having an effect. (Looking at what my folks get up to, I'm having a hard time believing that one. I still can't keep up)
Anyway, I claim that I've been draining my writer energies writing e-mails to friends. I claim that once I've written something once, I can't do it again. (And they say, heard of Control-C, Control-V????....party-poopers!!!)
Well, here comes the summer and I hope I can get back in the 'blog' saddle. That and 'digitising' my record collection...
Watch this space.....and if there's not enough here...nag me.

And watch for me at at the 'Trane Studio', the Owen Sound 'Summerfolk' Festival, the opening of the Flying Cloud' and Cuckoo's Nest' folk clubs in September and the Glenn Gould Studio on Sep 25th! And at Jimmy Buffett concerts in Chicago and Toronto.

1:09 PM - 1 Comments - 1 Kudos - Add Comment

What is it about our neighbours to the south??? Another rant!

I have many friends on the other side of the border. And, Lord knows, Western Civilisation has long held the US up as it's role model. But they've gone loony.
They're starting to worship this psychopath killer guy. His photos are all over the media . (Here too, for our sins…)
And the gun folks are our telling us that the carnage would have been much reduced had EVERYONE had a gun.. Yikes!
I think we're seeing a glimpse of the REAL American Dream. They're trying it out right now in Iraq to see how well it goes….

See this:

----------------

http://mediamatters.org/altercation/
Wed, Apr 18, 2007

Name: Lt. Col. Bob Bateman
Hometown: Capitol Hill, Washington DC

But what really puts me over the top is one particular brand of NRA stupidity. That is the myth of the Wild West. In other words, if I hear one more stupid gun-loving sonuvabitch talk about how, "Well, if they just had allowed all those students to have guns, this lunatic at Virginia Tech wouldn'ta got far," I am going to slap his dumb ass on the first plane smokin' for Iraq, where I would like to personally drop him off, with as many guns as he would like, in Dora (that's a particularly nasty South Baghdad neighborhood with which I am familiar).
Yes, Dora would be perfect. In my mind's eye I am imagining plopping said gun nut off outside the blue-painted major police sub-station, just about six or seven blocks from another walled-in compound which is now a police barracks (or, at least it was, last year.). As a microcosm, Dora should be the NRA's dream town, as it perfectly matches the NRA "Wild West" theory of what is needed in a society: honor is important to the individual; the family is the most important part of society; all of the inhabitants are very religious (except for when they are not); and absolutely everyone has at least one gun.
In fact, I would very much like to personally place the CEO of the NRA, Mr. Wayne LaPierre, there right now. What'ya say, Wayne? Want to experience a world where everyone has a gun? C'mon, buddy, I'll even let you hump the pig.
(That means, "Carry the M-240 7.62 mm machine gun," people. Get your minds out of the gutter.)


--------------------------

Now THERE'S an American I can admire. They DO exist.
Why are they in hiding????

9:38 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Radio Rant: A Major Soapboxy Thing

Radio is a really neat medium. (I was going to write 'cool' but McLuhan put a whole different spin on that that I don't want to get into.)

You can play music on radio. (Or you can play other people's music on it)(another hobbyhorse of mine ..play your own!!!! Original production is THE ONLY WAY!!! EVERYTHING ELSE is being a PARASITE!!!) (Eeeek! He's gone NUTS!!!!)

You can talk on it. (which can be good….but eventually is monotonous)

Or….you can actually use the transmission of sound in a creative and communicative manner. That'd be radio plays, documentaries and other stuff more adventurous than just talking, playing a CD or just reading the news from 'the wires'.

And I'm not sure that anyone really pays attention to this bit….(I'm going to COMPLETELY contradict this in a second. It's rhetorical.)
The thing that bugs me about most radio out there is that it only uses a tiny fraction of possibilities that the medium can afford. And that the most successful folks to use the possibilities of sound…use other media as their outlet.
Tell me that 'The Simpsons' isn't the best radio around! (OK, they stick pictures on it…but they don't need to. It works BETTER without them!) They are the direct descendents of the 1950's classic 'The Goon Show'. Ditto stuff like 'Toy Story', The Incredibles' and, I'm willing to bet (I haven't seen it yet) '300'.
So how come we don't take productions like this and put it on radio.
Or, even better, create more like them. It's been done before (Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
Hell, with a bit of imaginative marketing, you could even sell the radio production to some 'animation house' and EVERYONE would make cash……

It's not like we don't already actually HAVE the audiences. When 'This American Life' host Ira Glass was asked recently how it felt to be promoted 'up' to TV, he had to point out that the TV show, even if it got the maximum rating ever for The Showtime Network', would still only get one third of the numbers that he already gets weekly with the radio show……

And, as this is MY blog, I'd just like to point out that 'This American Life' is Outfront's major contender in the creative documentary stakes. They're not bad…but we get more international awards than they do!! (There are radio AWARDS????????? Hmmm. Yes.) (Childish aside over….for the moment.)

And, speaking of relative audiences (pardon the grasshopper mind), CBC TV recently had a BIG hit with 'Little Mosque on the Prairie'. Because they pulled 'a million' viewers. Which is big in Canada. (And they got these numbers by summing two showings of the same episode in a week.) This was BIG news.
BUT…if you look at the daily numbers just for the CBC morning radio show (Metro Morning) in Toronto…they easily match those numbers ..daily. And, if you were to play the SAME summing trick over a week…….Oh Lord, that's a BIG number.
(Another childish aside…) Outfront's daily numbers are about 80,000. Not bad but not great. But check them against 'Trailer Park Boys'. THE SAME. And we get that DAILY!!!!!!! Can I host the East Coast Music Awards now?????? (sorry…)

And the point of all of this?

If the material is written and produced well, it can be unbelievably popular. And the potential audience is there. They are already listening (if only with half an ear)
Can someone not get these two things together???? (Hell, this is the 'Pet Rock' story. Make something and market the hell out of it!!!!!!!!!!)

Consider me to have started:
Listen to Outfront. CBC Radio One. 8:43 pm (Yes, I know..) Tuesday through Friday. We win Prix Italia's, Gold at New York…hell, you name the radio award and, if we don't have it, it's because we don't know about it. We make GOOD RADIO. (There's an archive of older material in realaudio on our website www.cbc.ca/Outfront under 'past shows'.)

But it's not just about our show. It's the whole medium. Here is CBC downsizing like crazy to make money from real estate…when we have a GOLDMINE already in hand!

DOH!!!!!!! The frustration………..

11:36 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment