The
Squamidian Report – March 17 / 12
Issue #512
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Remember last week when I mentioned putting the snow blower away and that there was always the chance I might be jinxing the weather thing and could in fact cause winter to make a comeback? Well, crap-on-a-cracker, I did jinx it, big time. While the rest of the country enjoyed weather way too nice for this time of year, we endured the wrath of winter in the form of wave after wave of wind and rain and snow, typical west coast winter storms. On several days this past week most of the BC Ferries system was forced to shut down due to hurricane force winds and pounding surf. Mountain passes were buried in snow and driving rain kept everyone huddled inside. The snow-line came right down to the valley bottom below us. The highway up to Whistler was a mess on several days and people living there woke to another foot of snow each morning.
So, in order to make productive use of weather that was so bad we could barely walk the dog out in it, I dusted off the recording software on my computer and hooked up a different mic (Ryan has half a dozen very expensive mics here that are available for me to play around with) and tried to learn a ‘new-to-me’ song in order to record said song. I’m not capable of learning anything that is actually new, just new to me. Somewhere back in the craggy, cobwebbed shadows of my mind was the fleeting remnants of a memory of a song called “Whiter Shade Of Pale”. I have no idea who did the original version. If someone knows, let me know, just for interest sake. Anyway. I found lyrics on the Internet and started working away at it. Progress was slow, but the rain pounding on the roof was loud and non-relenting so I plugged away at it. Eventually I had the rhythm component sounding close enough for my standards, and during a brief quiet period in the house I managed to get that track laid down acoustically.
Next, I had to learn the word and timing of the word and try to get them to fit the music. Always a challenge but a lot of fun. I was again lucky to catch a brief period of quiet and managed to lay down the lead lyrics. Even got it down in one take, again, my standard are fairly forgiving. On another day of endlessly pounding mixed snow and rain another window of quiet came along and I quickly laid down a couple of harmony tracks. That was cool because all the following instrumentation could be done using pickups rather than mics, and therefore could be done regardless of the usual household background noise. I came up with some fairly simplistic upper and lower guitar leads, recorded them, and then added some base guitar. All that was left was to mix it a bit, and ‘a bit’ is pretty well the extent of my mixing ability, but I’ve now added another number to my growing list of songs that will go on my ‘next’ CD. If the rains never end that third CD could be done relatively soon, but if the sun were to come out within the next month or so and bike season got started, it could be many months before it’s finished.
Anyway, there is an MP3 mix of my version of Whiter Shade Of Pale now on my website for anyone interested. Like several of the numbers I’ve recorded, it was a bit of a stretch both from a technical and a skill standpoint, but, and this is all that matters, it was a lot of fun to do. Give it a listen and I hope you enjoy…
I just got side tracked but this is kind of cool. Ryan called using the Mac equivalent of Skype called Facetime from his hotel room in Paris. Using the camera on his iPad or whatever the thing is, he showed me the room. It is triangular. The streets around there all run on funny angles and meet as triangles, so, the buildings are built to fit the street layout. Therefore, he is in a corner room that is shaped like a triangle. Another interesting fact for us to chew on.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Well, it must be spring, there are Robins everywhere here in KW and it’s snowing in Vancouver! LOL!
What a lovely start to the warmer months of the year! Today we hit 18c and tomorrow it’s supposed to be 21c and holding that for a couple more days to follow. I love it when things warm up before expected. I managed to rake up the front lawn yesterday and get all the winter twigs bagged that fell from the birch tree. I even managed to clean out the front garden and Carole and I will do the same to the back gardens tomorrow. The patio furniture is out of the shed and things are looking very inviting out back. It won’t be long before the vegetation starts turning green and the gardens are busting out all over with beautiful spring flowers once more. When we get an early start on the warm seasons it seems to make it easier to get all this stuff set up. The big project of course will be and always is the pond! I didn’t bother covering it this winter so it’ll be interesting to see what’s living (or dead) in it this year! LOL! Looks pretty scummy right now but it’ll clean up nicely I’m sure!
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I wonder if the bikers on the west coast are getting out much? I guess all we’ll have to do is read Doug’s Squamidian to find that out! I sure hope things warm up out west soon, for Doug’s sake! There are loads of motorcycles tooting around KW and the bike shows are popping up all over Southern Ontario. In fact, I think there is one in Toronto this weekend. Adam and I might just take that one in to see what’s new for 2012. After installing our new vacuum system last weekend my arthritis has flared up in my hands so I doubt I could even squeeze the clutch lever on my bike yet. I’ll have to give it a couple more weeks before I’ll be able to take the bike out for a spin. Oh well, nobody said that getting old was fun or easy! It’s a bugger though when you can’t straighten you fingers out anymore! Like they say “shit happens”! Just gotta keep working the digits to make them move enough to get by I guess. Don’t want them to seize up totally, that would be the shits indeed! Guess Carole’s right, less couch potato and more activity!
Well, with the nice weather making an early deput it won’t be hard to get up and out and enjoy! Just have to keep active and get back to regular exercise!
That’s it for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!
Bye for now… Greg
PS: Something To Think About>
I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but I turned out to be an optical Aleutian!
PPS: I hope Russ will be thinking of all of us while he’s basking in the sunshine in Hawaii for the next couple of weeks! …… Yah SURE!
He’ll probably hate himself for going without us!
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Have a good one..
the doug
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