Sunday Night

Life is pretty good these days. I’m feeling somewhat liberated… One might say footloose and fancy free even. (Although that may be a little much.) I’m brimming with ideas, almost too many for my own good. I suspect the only thing worse than having idle hands, is having them too full.

Anyway… As you may have noticed, my attentions have been once again focused on my chosen career. I’m currently in the process of assembling a new promo package. It’s about bloody time I got off of my comfy lazy ass and got to it too. I have all the tools and no more excuses, so the ball is finally rolling.

I see real potential in creating a sort of “multimedia” package. The incorporation of Blogs and DVDs seem like a natural pairing to me. It strikes me that if used properly, they are the building blocks of a brand name. Their construction however is the easy part.

The real trick is speaking to your target audience. I know who I’m looking for, now they just need to know they were looking for me. It sounds easy on paper, but it’s a different story in actual execution. (Barring giving birth to a flaming monkey, or finding Jesus in my grilled Cheese…)

Mind you that sounds a little calculated, but I would argue that it is also necessary. Branding helps in separating the herd, and sadly I need to start thinking this way. If I want to stay busy at this, I need to. There are no ifs ands or buts.

Make no mistake, I’m not trying to manufacture something artificial, content speaks for itself. I just think it’s important to use a little acumen from time to time.

The menus for the DVD are really starting to look smashing. So far it’s been a really simple task to get them straightened out. The flow is really natural, almost ergonomic even. I can’t wait to shoot the video.

The really nice thing about having a Mac is that audio and video layout (Not to mention mastering…) are a snap. I remember trying to put this stuff all together on a Pee Cee, and having nothing integrate well. It was really brutal. It was truly too frustrating for words.

Speaking of shabby, I’ve decided to remove the myspace site. It sucks, and it just plain has to go. I will try again, but so far I really hate how it works.

Today I got another handful of requests from exotic dancers wanting to be “buddies.” Geesh…

Anyway… more to come…

Just a Quick Update...

There are some life changes looming in the near future for me. I’m excited. I need the shake up. I feel like I’m covered in moss and need to emerge from this groggy state.

This past week was really fun. I had shows on Tuesday and Wednesday, and they both went really well. I felt like myself on stage again. The self-imposed exile seems to have done some good.

The new stuff is starting to take some shape. It still needs work, but it was nice to see that I can fit it into a pro show, and not look like a total retard in the process. None of it is polished, but at least it’s funny.

I have been toying with a myspace site. So far, I’m none too pleased with it. I really have no desire to have 1000 “friends.” (Most of whom are web cam girls and strippers…) I see some potential with it, but I also think it really might be too late for it to do any real good. (In terms of concrete promotion.)

I have started to build contextual menus for a coming DVD. My thinking is that this blog, and the DVD will be companions to each other. I think using them as vehicles for each other is a clever idea. The DVD adds voice that’s missing, and the blog offers what could be described as a set of “living” liner notes.

The Video for the disc will be shot Aug 10-12 at the Calgary Yuks club. I’m hoping to get all my friends out for it. The more support the better for this one. I’m excited about it. I’ve needed this kind of promo for a long time. I will be adding a link to the blog that will permit people to download my press kit. (As soon as I can figure it out…)

Anyhoo, More to come soon…

Rainy Days and Terrorists get me down...

It’s raining today. Actually it’s been raining for a couple of days, and the last couple of nights have had thunder and lightning. I always thought that was cool. When I was a little kid, my Grandma used to say that with each flash, God was taking another picture. A cute explanation for sure, but then again, I was five, so I bought in.

Other Stuff…

I’ve been thinking about the events of the last couple of weeks here in Canada. More specifically about the arrests made related to the budding homegrown terrorist plot. It had the nation talking for a few days, but it seems the dust has settled. Given that there was no super fantastic destruction, the average Canadian seems to now look on with our patented “mild” disinterest. As if to say “well that’s over… let’s get back to the Oilers”

The media reaction by all accounts was fairly typical. In every interview I watched, the presenter tried to excrete the most irrelevant minutia from the “special guest terrorist expert.” It was like watching someone try and squeeze blood from a turnip. The segments progress from “What kind of training do these guys have?” to witless banter with staggering speed. Very quickly, and with a convincing certainty, I discovered that reruns of Seinfeld had more relevance to me, and flicked the channel.

They (The media…) repeatedly glazed over what I thought was truly the most important detail. The plot was foiled. Nothing happened. In the scheme of things it was a wonderful, happy anticlimax. The Mounties got their men! (See you kooky Americans… It really is true. The RCMP always gets the bad guys in the end.) And with that in mind, the whole thing seems so overblown.

Interesting to note as well, I have yet to hear any whining about how the plot “could have worked…” and it’s ensuing “We need to protect ourselves at any cost” blather. Perhaps we are just tired of it. Maybe it’s more about thanking our lucky stars, and a whole lot less about blaming terrorist radicals.

At the very least, we escaped the “Visqueen sheet plastic and duct tape” self-preservation nonsense. I’m amazed that Tom Ridge was ever able to bark that rubbish out with a straight face.

This strange event speaks to a difference between Canada and America. This plot was foiled by a proactive operation, not a reactive one. It demonstrates the effectiveness of quiet vigilance over voluminous and overbearing defiance, and most assuredly shows that we can protect our citizens without the need for any sort of invasion. We don’t need to push others around to be safe. (Or at least feel safe…) In my estimation, it’s less of beating the war drum, and more of singing folk songs around the campfire kinda thing.

However, for a few days after the arrests, I started to hear something fascinating. There was a lot of talk about the “dangers of multiculturalism”, and how it’s apparently a “breeding ground” for dissent and an eventual societal cataclysm. This was the first time I can ever recall hearing this from Canadians. This was also the first time I heard it coming from one of my friends.

This plot was conceived not because of multiculturalism. The ideal of people living collectively and sharing different cultures is not to blame. How could it be? The inability to communicate within the constructs of multiculturalism is part of the problem and another hefty chunk would be the failure to adapt to change. Those are the “breeding grounds” for a societal cataclysm.

Anyway… More to come as I think of it…

ARRRRRRRRRRRRGH

Today I tried to buy a DVD burner for a Mac. Sounds like a reasonably easy task right? Not fucking likely. I had to go to 7 different stores, and I still don’t have one in my hands. (Although apparently I will have one tonight.)

I went to every place I could think of that deals in Apple. I should have known better than to even try. The cards were stacked against me. First I went to Future Shop and Best Buy, both who stock Macs, and yet somehow, in a truly inept fashion, don’t carry peripherals that are compatible with Mac. (Or any software for that matter…) How fucking stupid is that?

What total clothy eared crap sack made that purchasing decision? I want to meet him, so I can kick him right in the junk. Why bother to carry it, if you won’t bother to support it.

So there I stood, nearly wading in a veritable ocean of burners, literally hundreds of them, and not a single OS X device. It was a Mac owner’s worst nightmare. At first I was confused, and then I just got angry.

So I stomped off to London Drugs, (who normally do a reasonable job at supporting Apple.) I got there to find one, but it was outrageously priced, and made by a cheapo company.

Then from there, I was off to Memory Express, whose employees looked like they had been hit by some alien death ray when I gasped the words “for Mac please…” Once they recoiled their slack jaws, they said as if in unison “we don’t have Mac stuff…” I was ready to rise up with a mighty force and slay them.

So once again, I hit the ground running, this time making it to an actual Mac specific dealer, who ultimately was even more expensive than London Drugs.

So out the door again and off to another London Drugs that I knew carried a different, more trustworthy brand of burner that the other outlet. (Foolish me to assume that all outlets in their chain might offer some continuity of products…) I get to find that they have shipped it off to the first London Drugs that I went to earlier.

So apparently I’ll get it this evening, (It’s on hold… or so they say… I’m not holding my breath at this point.)