Category: It Happened to Me
Categories
The Pink Wig Gig
I thought I’d post some more “crazy hair from my past” photos.
Before I was an accordion player, I played synths. I owned a number of synths and samplers through my years at Crazy Go Nuts University.
During my time there — September 1987 through December 1994, guitar
players were worshipped and synth guys were viewed with some suspicion.
It was a time bookended by the jingle-jangle of U2 and R.E.M. at the
beginning and grunge at the end. Being a small college town like
Athens, Georgia or Olympia, Washington, the guitar was also king in
Kingston, Ontario. Those damned plank-spankers, as I used to refer to
guitarists, got all the attention, love and respect, leaving we few
keyboard players — namely myself, my buddy Karl Mohr and
“Craigertronic” — in our own quiet musical backwater. My friend Sarah
English once wrote in a music review in the Queen’s Journal that she could never trust a band with a keyboard player in it.
This ghettoization made us synth players a closely-knit bunch, and we
often gigged together, even after graduation. For the April 1999 launch
party of his mother Merilyn Simond’s book, The Lion in the Room Next
Door, Karl invited me and another Kingston-based synth guy, Steve
Skratt, to be the entertainment. Along with our friend Chantal from a
gazillion Kingston bands as well as Rachel Smith and Krista “Lederhosen
Lucil” Muir, we formed the improv synth trip-hop band Lion.
On a lark, we decided that we’d all wear wigs for the gig. I went for
the “anime hair” look, but since Rachel had already claimed the blue
one, I had to take the pink. It didn’t look too bad…
The wig. Attention Mom, Dad and parents-in-law: I promise not to wear this at the wedding…much.
Kraftwerk ain’t got nuthin’ on us!
From left to right: Karl Mohr (who’s switched from wig to fez), Steve
Skratt, me and Rachel Smith. I’m playing my Ensoniq EPS Sampler and
Roland MC-303 GrooveBox.
Not all the instruments were synthetic…but our hair was!
In the background: Rachel, Chantal and Krista, who also
played violin at the gig. Krista is now the Montreal indie pop darling
known to the world as Lederhosen Lucil.
“More major sevenths! MORE MAJOR SEVENTHS!”
Seen at “Super 88 Grocery” the last time I was in Boston…
Categories
I am Rutger Hauer
While looking through my photos last night, I found this one of me from July 2000, during those heady dot-com days:
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Investors’ money on fire
off the shoulder of El Camino Real. I watched C code crash in the dark near
the Golden Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears
in rain…”
Categories
Safe Trip, Gwai Lo!
Richard “Just a Gwai Lo” Eriksson,
who’s been crashing on my couch for the past couple of days, returns to
“Vangroovy” this afternoon. It was good meeting the guy behind the
blog, Richard, and I hope you had a fun time here!
(For those of you curious as to what kind of place I live in — Future
Mother- and Father-in-Law, I’m lookin’ at you — come take a look at this entry.)
My thanks to Rannie, Eldon, Paul and especially Maria and Liz
(with high-larious stories about her new “adult entertainment” tech
support job) for coming out to Tequila Bookworm and helping me
entertain Richard!
I met Deenster a little over five years ago when we were both working
at OpenCola during those heady dot-com years. A bit later — four years
ago today, Deenster started her own blog, pony, which has been going
strong ever since. I — and a number of other pony readers — are
taking this day to congratulate Deenster on four years of pony by
writing Four Things About Deenster. Here are mine:
1. Deenster is a very good cook; it is always a joy and privilege to be invited to her place for dinner parties.
2. I think she tried to set me up with her mom. I warned her of the
terrible consequences, the worst being a scenario in which she would be
staying at her mom’s place one night. I would emerge from her mom’s
room wearing naught but a towel and smile, look at her and say “who’s
your daddy now?”
3. She once asked me: if had to have sex with one of the OpenCola
founders — Grad Conn, John Henson or Cory Doctorow — which would
would it be and why? I believe my answer, humourous as it was, has
scarred her for life.
4. She is a warm, kind and open-minded person and will not judge you for your bad dental hygiene. or hillbilly demeanor.
Happy anniversary, Deenster!
Categories
Make-up For Food
A couple of Fridays ago, after doing the opening stand-up act for Peril from Beyond Space,
I joined Scott Watkins and company at a restaurant/bar across the
street. There, I noticed something unusual about the label on the
bottle of Heinz ketchup that was sitting on the table…
“Hides grill marks?” Since when were grill marks unsightly?