Connor McGuire’s ‘Song a Week’ Project – Week 7

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Connor's seventh song is a radical departure. It blends his usual writing style with his Pack Mentality mash-up sensibilities. The song, propelled by a beat he played on a floor tom with a tambourine laid on the skin, soars like classic Peter Gabriel, but more likely references Bat for Lashes or Animal Collective. Once again Connor succeeds and surprises.



Derren Brown on Minor Celebrity

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This rang so true to me and made me laugh. Derren is talking about his admiration for Helena Bonham Carter and in particular their attendance at a VIP gathering after a Rufus Wainwright show. "Since then I have found myself alongside her many times, normally when in Rufus’ company, but never said hello. On each occasion I pass by imagining she wouldn’t know me from Adam: then, when I leave, I wonder if she might have done, and whether I had seemed rude. Such are the conflicts of C-rate celebrity."

Derren Brown's always excellent blog is here

Connor McGuire’s ‘Song a Week’ Project – Week 6

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Six weeks, six new songs! I can't say he makes it look easy - as you've seen, it hasn't been - but I can marvel at the fact that he continues to create a brand new, and amazingly good, new song every week! This week's song is a hard-rockin' full-band-style arrangement, leaving behind the acoustic vibe from weeks four and five.



Connor McGuire’s ‘Song a Week’ Project – Week 4

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Every week of Connor’s ‘Song a Week Project’ has had it’s challenges. Week four was no exception. His plan to simplify the process by eliminating a full band arrangement and writing on an acoustic guitar just created a higher expectation for the lyrics - which became a struggle. I'm proud to say that Connor won that battle, and that “Getting Over It” (or whatever the official title will be) is a truly beautiful, thoughtful and damned catchy song. I’ve been singing it all morning!

What Connor is doing with his ‘Song a Week Project’ is brutally difficult work. Making something from nothing - the delicate alchemy of songwriting - can be a gut-wrenching endeavour at the best of times, and doing it on a schedule like this is something I don’t think I could do. I watch his progress with a mixture of fear and loathing … and pride.

Connor McGuire's 'Song a Week' Project - Week 2

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It was touch-and-go, but Connor has managed to complete his second song in time for week two of his “Song a Week Project”. As a not-uninterested witness to the unfolding events that he chronicles on the making-of video, I can confirm for you that there was a significant amount of dramatic tension and excitement involved. This instalment features guitar by Jim Black,  visit to the best studio in Vancouver, Connor’s alter-ego “Pack Mentality” rocking the house and, of course, the finished recording of the song. Honestly though, the best (and funniest) ten-seconds opens the clip, with Connor attempting to remember the date.

PART ONE:

PART TWO:


Connor McGuire's 'Song a Week' Project - Week 1

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Connor decided a week ago that he would try to write a song a week. Then, in a moment of what I would characterize as foolhardy overconfidence, he added a video camera into the mix - recording the emotional peaks and valleys of his pressurized songwriting process.

As most parents probably would, I gritted my teeth, far more concerned about the outcome than he seemed to be. And, although he started out strong he had ground to a halt by the middle of the week.

In the hopes that I’ve built both your interest and suspense, Here's the first two vids. (SPOILER: The resulting song is amazing and more-so after you’ve watched him piece it together)

PART ONE:

PART TWO:

Trooper's 35th Anniversary

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Trooper's first album was released 35 years ago, on July 1st, Canada Day, 1975. 1975 is the year the Vietnam war finally ended, and Sony first introduced Betamax video tapes - the first home videocassette tape recording format.

Bill Gates & Paul Allen wrote the first computer language program for personal computers in ’75 (and then went on to form Microsoft) and the two Steves were hunkered down in a garage in Los Altos, California, working on their first computer - incorporating Apple Computers the following year.

Jaws, The Towering Inferno and Young Frankenstein were box-office hits in 1975. Bruce Springsteen released his amazing third album, Born To Run, the film version of The Who's “Tommy” premiered in London and Saturday Night Live debuted on NBC.

As large stretches of time always do - it seems like an eternity ago - and it seems like just the other day.

SA4QE

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“Being is not a steady state but an occulting one: we are all of us a succession of stillnesses blurring into motion on the wheel of action, and it is in those spaces of black between the pictures that we find the heart of the mystery in which we are never allowed to rest.” ~ Russell Hoban - Fremder

It’s Russell Hoban’s 85th birthday today and I celebrated it by writing this quote on a piece of yellow paper and taping it to the side of the large white rock that my city was named after. All around the world, pieces of yellow paper with quotes from his books were left in other public places - cafe tables, bookshops, park benches, telephone booths, train stations or anywhere the birthday celebrant deemed appropriate. The SA4QE (Slickman A4 Quotation Event) website lists 350 quotes that have been left, on his birthday, in big cities and small towns in 14 countries since 2002.  I am still the only Canadian representative listed on their site, but I know at least one other Canadian who leaves the yellow paper anonymously for the simple joy of having done so.

It was a beautiful morning in White Rock and a perfect day to celebrate the “moment under the moment” that Russell Hoban explores and illuminates in his wonderful books. He remains one of the most original writers of the twentieth century and one of my very favourites.

Happy Birthday, Russ!

The iPad

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I spent Wednesday morning glued to my computer screen, alternating between three live-blogs while simultaneously trying to make sense of a mostly unlistenable uStream feed beamed directly from the Yerbe Buena Centre in San Francisco, where Steve Jobs and his Apple compatriots were unveiling their new tablet computing device; the iPad. I'm a fan of both Apple and its CEO Steve Jobs. I've been to MacWorld three times. I haven't missed a Keynote or product announcement for years. I've owned Apple gear since 1996 when I bought my Quadra 650, and I've been the Mac tech, tutor and evangelist for friends and family since then.

I will buy at least one iPad. And I'll take a lot of pleasure from watching what David Pogue calls "a 1.5 lb sack of potential" fill-up with as-yet unimagined applications and fill-out with next year's (or next month's) software and hardware updates. Just like the iPhone did.

In the meantime, the internet and twitter-verse is aswarm with those whose expectations were not met. Apple's inability to fulfill all of the rumour-mill's rampant and often unrealistic predictions is seen by some as a fundamental failure of a company that should know better. And, dammit, should have done better.

A friend posted on Facebook that "It's really an oversized iTouch being heralded as new technology for the future!" and goes on to say that he's "had a fully functioning tablet for 3 years now!". The PC he's referring to isn't the iPad, or anything like it, and it wouldn't take long to confirm that, but his characterization is already dishearteningly familiar and confirms how rewarding it can be to pass judgment ... even when that judgment is sometimes based on a minimum of related information.

Bob Lefsetz, a pop culture commentator, wrote something yesterday so ill-informed that it made me laugh out loud when I read it:

"The iPad is almost like a computer without software". He said.

A computer without software is exactly what it is at the moment! A powerful, beautifully designed computer that you operate by moving your fingers over a screen. The iPhone had  no software to speak of when it was announced. As of Wednesday there are 140,000 apps in the App Store. But Bob, my friend on Facebook, and many others, are unimpressed.

I will continue to be excited, optimistic and hopeful about what I see as a whole new way to interact with the ever-growing digital data-stream and a new vessel into which we can pour our collective imagination. And I'll leave you with this:

“You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.” ~ Steve Jobs

If you do have some interest in the iPad and want to take a few minutes to learn about it, I recommend the article posted yesterday by British actor, writer, comedian, television presenter, film director and genius Stephen Fry who was at the Yerbe Buena presentation and held one in his hands. I also recommend David Pogue's "The Apple iPad, First Impressions" in the New York Times, and John Gruber's dependably incisive and clear-headed observations on his blog, Daring Fireball.

Pack Mentality

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Connor performed his first Indie/Dance/Mash-Up set last night at a downtown hole-in-the-wall called the Soundlab. It was a guest-list only event featuring three DJs. Unlike the two turntablists, Connor did an Ableton Live set - a seat-of-the-pants high-wire act where all the musical pieces are prepped on the computer and then selected, beat-matched and spat out in real time – the all important groove totally dependant on split second jabs at a bewildering collection of knobs, buttons and faders. He's been creating mash-ups (digital re-mixes wherein one or more popular songs are mashed together) for fun for months, but started working on his set in earnest when he learned there might be an opportunity to try it out live on a room full of drunk and dancing twenty-somethings.

He's posted three early mash-ups and an original electro/club/pop track on his "Pack Mentality" MySpace page - where he has quietly but steadily been building his Nu Disco persona.

This is another musical left turn for Connor - but probably a welcome and rewarding antidote to the frustration of trying to assemble a band of great players and then keep them together for more than one or two cash-challenged shows. His MacBook Pro, Reason, ProTools and Ableton Live allow him to create and perform solo - not with an acoustic guitar like Rev. 1, but with the power and the glory (and the block-rockin' beats) that only an infinite collection of digital samples can deliver. Add to that the undeniable ear-candy of layered iconic pop slices and you can begin to see the appeal - both for him and the dance floor.

And all his gear fits in a backpack.

Stay tuned.

My End of the Decade Story

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Just before New Years, I began writing an ‘end of the decade’ piece chronicling my frustration with the general lack of trustworthy sources of legitimate and reliable information in this digital age. I researched carefully, in order to accurately present both sides of conflicting arguments championed by intelligent and convincing spokespersons. I sweated the details so that my dilemma would be clear. Both sides can not be right, and finding the truth of a thing seems to be growing harder and harder as more and more information becomes available.

I wrote the post using a beautiful and innovative new word processor that fills the computer screen with a peaceful white snowscape, eliminating all distractions. It truly seemed to help me focus exclusively on the writing. The essay grew long, but I was happy with the way it was coming along.

On New Years day, I opened the file to finish it up.

The serene white winter scene filled the screen, the program’s pleasantly unobtrusive music began to play quietly and my story appeared before me. In Chinese.

Or Mandarin. Or Chinese (Simplified) or Chinese (Traditional) - other options I learned about from Google Translator where I later vainly attempted to return my writing to my mother tongue.

The software’s website did have a reference to this problem. “If you get gibberish (oops)” they offered glibly, you could “try” their “workaround”. It didn’t work. I’ve contacted tech support but I am not hopeful.

Transition

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For a long time now, I’ve kept my camera, my flash drives and my noise-cancelling headphones in my backpack, which resides under my desk here at home, so it’s at hand for road trips. I use it as an auxilliary desk drawer. I also keep doubles of my computer power cables, adapters, USB, ethernet and audio cables in the backpack so I can ready my laptop for the drive to the airport in the time it takes to unplug it and pack it away. Since the camera, drives and headphones are stored in there already, I’m less likely to leave them behind.

Jumping up and leaving town is such an expected part of my everyday reality, this routine seems eminently logical …

Until this morning, in the early days of Trooper’s traditional winter break, when I paused for a confused moment wondering where to put my camera.