A Poem

One time, I awoke from the strangest dream
And wrote in a book by my bed.
At least as far as I can tell,
this is what it said:

'Fear is a frightening thing
It can consume you and your precious offspring
giving
taking
giving
taking
Giving potential in exchange for life
A life worth living
Extraterrestrial dreams of
Anything better than this

Vote for your favorite flash in the pan
Make a fad forever
Help support inane memes (Donate today!)
Your flavorless ham sandwich
Looks at you longingly
Like the pig you imagine it once was

Likening illness to a stew
And the potatoes will fuck your day up
And leave you with a false sense of toast

Punctuate. Everything.

capitalization of letters and
        advantages
        Start new lines instead of finishing
old ones

Graffiti your heart
Have big dreams and tiny goals

Don't forget to shut the light off when you're done.'

So Many Separate Projects...

Lately I have been keeping myself busy with a bunch of different artistic endeavours. I arranged a two-song medley of "Idioteque" by radiohead and "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles, and performed the set alongside Cody Kurz and Melissa Gan (double bass and violin respectively). It was a lot of fun, and I really liked the sound of that ensemble. I have a few other songs that I want to arrange for that group, and I hope to drag them both out to an open mic night at Lydia's some time soon.

I have also performed alongside Nolto a few times lately. I still don't know what the general reception is to acoustic hip hop. Once we get a few more tracks ready, I hope to film a performance of ours, and record it as a live album. Slowly, but surely, that project is creeping towards its intended goal.

In addition, I feel really good about the progress we've made on a movie by Five Stones Films. Every time I go through it, I feel less and less compelled to make any changes. The opening scene has already been shot, and you can see an example of it here.

In general, it has been rare for me to consistently make progress on this many projects at once. Normally, I want to do a number of things, but only one gets worked on at a time. The first that I truly started artistic multitasking was in New Zealand, where I had the time to do so. I've proven to myself that I can actually work on a number of things at once, and that I actually truly enjoy bouncing from one project to the next as my interests change. It is clear to me that I have been persistently more prolific since my trip abroad.

Thanks, New Zealand!


P.S. I miss your chocolate bars.

Housekeeping

It has been far too long since I posted here regularly. I went through a less-than-awesome transition period upon returning to Canada from New Zealand, and it took me a while to get settled. I now have a full-time job at Long and McQuade as a guitar salesman, and I hope that the stability of a real job will allow me to return to my more regular blogging schedule.

I have been slowly working on some musical projects lately, and I have a few upcoming concert appearances. I really want to perform live music on a regular basis again, and the next few months should help me regain the wonderful habit of regular performance.

In addition to my musical projects, I have recently begun doing some revision for a script that is being turned into a short film by Five Stones Films. So far it has been an interesting project. More on that as it develops.

In the meantime, I have uploaded a few tracks composed in the late stages of developing Notepad Command.

Notepad Command Extended Music Release by RHProductions

On Forms

I would like to know what kinds of morons always end up designing employment application forms. Clearly they never take the time to fill them out themselves, simply due to the poorly-spaced sections. In addition, there is no reason to include the address of my past employers. There is not a single prospective employer that is going to show up at all of the places where I used to work, so it's not necessary information. And if anyone were crazy enough to do so, they should be capable of googling it and finding the address themselves. Or perhaps call the number I have to provide, and ask them where they are, if it's that big of a deal.

And yet so many forms require the addresses. Those form designers should all be fired, and I should be hired in their place. But, alas, I would have to navigate through the dense jungle of their idiocy in order to fix their obvious mistakes.

Kaikoura

I've been in Kaikoura for the past two days. It's a tourist town on the east coast of the south island, known for whale-watching, dolphin-swimming, and great scenery. Unfortunately, the weather has been shite, and it rained for most of yesterday. However, I stayed at my friend Ayça's place, and worked on some writing projects all day. It was actually quite productive. I also played at a local bar last evening, which was a lot of fun.

Today I walked down to a seal colony, and got amazingly close to some seals. The scenery was amazing, despite the dull weather, and the rain stopped long enough for me to walk there and back home. It's been a great trip. I definitely plan to see more of the country when I am next in New Zealand.

Welcome, 2011.

I spent New Year's Eve busking around downtown Wellington. There were a lot of buskers out there, and most of them had amplifiers. This left my friend, Tamau, and me at a great disadvantage. It was not as wildly profitable as I had hoped, but it was still a lot of fun.

Due to the fact that I have not found employment, I might be returning to Canada sooner than I had planned. As much as I would like to stay here for longer, if I do have to head home early, I won't be sad about my trip. It has been exactly what I needed it to be, and much more. The fact that I haven't been working has actually been one of the best parts of this trip. I had no idea how badly I needed to unwind until I had the time to do so. And the repeated job searches have led me to a bunch of opportunities that I would otherwise have missed out on, including the chance to help rewrite scripts for a comedy that's going to be shot in Auckland sometime early this year. I have always been interested in screenwriting, and now I have gotten a start. I like scripts. I would never have known that if I had found a job right away.

I've written a fair bit of music, and had time to reflect on the shortcomings of my songwriting. I have met some great people, and had a blast here. I have no regrets about what has happened so far. Don't get me wrong, if I found a job tomorrow, I'd be ecstatic. But if I have to go home early with the experiences that I have had here so far, this trip will still have been a bigger success than I was hoping for.

I call it..."Song-taking"

Wednesday morning, I awoke around 4am to the sound of a bird I had never heard before. And it kept singing its tune, and it was damn catchy. So in the darkness of way-too-early morning, I scribbled some mostly legible notes in my music notebook. I returned to sleep, and in the morning, I had myself a sweet bass line, plagiarized from nature itself. Now I just have to wait for a bird to sing me a sweet chorus, and I'll have myself a song.

Tomorrow I have to get a new new bank card. I forgot which pin I selected for my new account, and in the process of trying to figure out which of my regular pins I chose, the bank machine ate my card for security reasons. Classic. As a side note, I will also spend part of tomorrow editing a script for a comedy that's going to be shot in Auckland, New Zealand. Seriously.

Oh, and it's Guy Fawkes Night here in New Zealand, which for me means that we celebrate yet another movie starring Natalie Portman. With fireworks.

In the Beginning...

I have wanted to get a blog going for years, but have always felt that I didn't have the time. Now that I am done University, I have been working on neglected projects. Digging through old lyric sheets and music journals, I have found a lot of musical and literary material from years past. These old projects will take up most of my time and efforts for a while, and will comprise the bulk of the content on this site for a good while.

When I sit down to write a song, I usually play around on my guitar, and wait til something comes to me. Sometimes it will be a series of chords, or a melody. Once in a while, though, it will be a melody with lyrics that I cannot detach from the melody. Even when the words don't necessarily make sense, or fit with the rest of the song that I wish to write, I cannot find any other words that seem right for that melody. I have learned that when this happens, I shouldn't fight the musical instinct to use those words.

The song that I am working on right now, entitled 'Damage Control,' is a combination of two separate musical ideas which had some embedded lyrics. Neither song was going anywhere, until I realized that they could fit together fairly well. Pairing them was the key to finishing the song writing process. I was unhappy with either piece on its own, and couldn't seem to change the lyrics without offending some internal musical sensibility. But they felt right in combination, so I went with it. The recording is almost done, but I still have to finish the glockenspiel part, and perhaps edit the organ part as well. I will post it here once I have it finished.