in anticipation of green

Got sick. fevery and achy and hot and cold and ugh. did get to stay @ home with cats for two days, which was nice in itself, I guess... anyhow, now that the worst stage has passed I am expecting this tickle in my throat to turn shortly into an all-out hackfest, which is what happened to Jen... just hoping it does so *before* my gig @ the freeway.

also got all the extra demo packages in the mail to the places I missed last Saturday when I was in hustling gigs... so once I follow up the idea is that we'll start playing a bunch around TO and maybe actually start making some money doing so.

in fact, all in all, had a fairly productive sickness, if there is such a thing: also finally finished my review of Gregg Brennan's CD Bird on Triangle... afraid I wasn't as effusive as usual - had a hard time with this disc and particularly with a couple of players on it... so. I think the review's fair, but it's not gentle. Anyway, had to get it done because Richard Whiteman has sent me one to review, as has Andrew Barker (though his will hopefully get published somewhere like the National Post or something - he's got connections...!).

No practicing, but even managed to lift and arrange Radiohead's Nice Dream (from The Bends), which I think should sound great, though it is yet another tune in 6/8 or 3/4...lots of prettymelodic stuff juxtaposed by a jarring chordally dirty section 2/3 of the way through. I'd post a chart for your enjoyment, but I don't think I can put pdfs up here.

Who Do You Know?

so... having recorded the show @ the Casbah, I threw together a demo of four of the tunes, and after teaching on Saturday drove into TO to peddle it for gigs. Started at the Rex, where I think we may actually have the best chance, then headed out to Mitzie's Sister, and finally to Hugh's Room. Well it turns out it's been a while since I lived in TO, and 1554 Queen St W didn't mean much to me... but it also turns out it's about two blocks from Roncesvalles, though when I set out on foot from the Rex I had no idea. Finally did get there - an hour later - and near-collapsed. Had a beer, chatted up the barmaid (incl. giving her the demo and asking for a contact name), and then hopped the streetcar to Hugh's Room, where the manager basically told me that he wouldn't hire us unless he had heard of us... we could play, but it would cost us about $500. maniac.

In other news...

While working on my FACTOR proposal, I discovered that I need a copy of my producer's resume to submit with the application. So I asked him for that, along with some help on the budget, and rather than do that he is going to give our demo to Holly Cole's producer, with whom he is friends, and who happens to own Alert Records, to see if he would sign us. Either that, or make sure we get a FACTOR grant because he's actually on the board and can get it approved...!! Unsure how excited I should be, and feeling nervous about the relative ramshackle-ness of the demo, but still pretty buzzed about that one. Turns out it really *is* who you know. wild, huh?