The Artel. . .

Friday night I played at the Artel as part of Kyra and Tully. The venue is the downstairs of an Artist co-op living/working space. Greg Tilson, of Little Joe Management, is running their shows, and he continues to be a very nice guy and easy to work with. The Darling Demais and Mike Evin were very nice people, who had wonderful sounding soundchecks (I rudely took-off after our set).

Lots of people have reported seeing the posters for the Nov. 4th show, so I'm cautiously optimistic that we can pull a few people into the beautiful Wilson Room. Peja and I went out today and repostered some parts of downtown, and we'll probably go out again mid-week.

Hope everything is going well for you and yours.

Jay.

Hello to Japan

The Line Up. . .

If you live downtown, you might have seen some of the 50 or so posters that Peja and I put up on the weekend; so it appears the gig is a go.

Derek Pyne will be on the bass.

Anthony Popis will be on the drums.

Tim Tran will be on the sound board.

Thanks to former Flyz member Ian Montgomery for volunteering his services when it looked like Anthony was going to be stuck in Ottawa. He's a good man and a good drummer. Check out his band Infotourist -- they play all over the place all the time.

Video from the Spring. . .

November 4th. . .

Hey everyone, the show got moved -- it'll be on the Sunday now. That's Sunday, November 4th!

Musicians continue to be in flux, but I'm sure it'll all settle soon. More news on who's playing what a.s.a.p.

Take care,

Jay.

Mixing. . .

Peja headed out this morning with my in-laws, and I took the time to mix the three Grady Kelneck tunes. I'm just waiting for them to burn to CD so I can transfer them to my computer and master them.

I'll get Grady to post them, or I'll post them, or whatever, so you can hear them a.s.a.p.

Had a great rehearsal with Kyra and Tully last night -- we hadn't played together since the August 26th show in Sydenham -- I'm playing bass/drums with them at the Artel on Saturday, October 26th (we only play shows on the 26th apparently), along with some great Montreal and Toronto groups who's names have escaped me (I'll post them soon). It was nice to be playing bass again.

I gave in and turned on the heat. 54 is too f'n cold. We're enjoying 63 right now. Mmmmm. . . I got out my fleece long-johns, while Sienna and Peja are happy in short-sleeves. My girls are warm. Peja laughs every time she touches my hands -- "you have cold hands daddy!" Indeed.

The High Fives. . .

Is there a band called that? I think there might be. . . But, anyway, it's the new name for my rec basketball team (1-2), after last night's double-header, we cracked the win column, and I continued to suck suck suck at full-court team basketball.

November 3rd is a date that's getting thrown around as a show date -- I think I have enough commitment from enough people to declare that it's going to happen. The venue needs to be confirmed, but that should happen soon. Tim at Dorian will be helping me put it on, and I'm trying to get Grady to come down and be on the bill too.

So, it's like there's a band!

Oh, I shot 4 for maybe 16 on the night. . . Better percentage, mostly because I was trying to crash the boards as much as I could. I got a couple of assists and some steals, but I'm still hopelessly outclassed by my team, the opposition, the time keepers, and the leather basketball. More hustle, more hustle. . .

So, uh, if you happen to be a Barn Fly, maybe bust out your cd's and relearn the songs, okay? I'll do the same. . .

Game 1 -- the stench of defeat. . .

46-26? Something like that. I barely had the heart to ask the scorer. We got run off the court by the Queen's/RMC squad, which I think is actually a cover for NBDL and WNBDL players.

Thanks to Roland, Bonnie, Harold, Alissa, Chris, and Mike for an awesome effort -- it was our first time playing as a team, and the result aside, I think we're going to be a great team. I continue to be in way over my head, but everyone is very supportive, and there was no mention of me jacking up about 20 shots (I made, uh, 3 or 4? something like that). I came up court with the ball, ahead of my teammates, and the sideline chant was "wait for numbers!", which I took to mean, "Throw up a shot, because there's no chance we could rebound it!". My only moment of glory was a soft fade that bounced around the rim for a while -- from my point of view, I could tell it was going to drop, so I turned and ran back while everyone else waiting the 2 or 3 more seconds it took to fall; I think it was the only time all night that my check didn't beat me back downcourt.

All the shooting practice in the world was no help against a team that didn't walk up the ball once -- they ran and ran and ran. . . and ran again. At the end of the game, when I was lying on the ground gasping for air and trying to restart my heart, they were running dunking drills at the other end.

After the game, Mike asked me if I'm in a band, and I'm really starting to feel like I'm not, which is shitty, what with this being a blog about the band attached to the website about the band. I think after I post this, I'm going to throw a dart at a calendar and do a show on that date. No joke.

Take care,

Jay.