Well, thats all folks!

For the forseeable future... No more blog...

Simply Chosing to invest the time in more productive persuits... and perhaps keep a less accessible public profile.


for personal "whats going on" check my facebook... or just call me...

for other...

Check:
http://www.thestoryofgoodoldrockandroll.com
http://www.bongwatermusic.com

and soon
www.almostfamous.ca
and
www.stillwaterstudios.ca

Frank and Ernest….

Never underestimate the resources of journalists…

Ok.. this is Sur-real…..

I must admit, that while not a regular reader, I do buy the Local frank Magazine from time to time.. So I’m getting a bag of chips today at the lawtons next to my office, to go with the Tim’s sandwich I just got for lunch.. and I see the Headline “Anne Murry Not Gay” and I think… (a) No big deal if she is or isn’t, cause (b) even Elvis himself is (opps, Was) a fan of Anne Murray… So I buy it.. and peruse it over my chicken salad….

And there it was… Not quite front page worthy, but on the 8th page is the article in question… Im guessing they (Frank) must research all the court stuff looking for material because this is taken largely verbatim from my court papers I filed against the people we bought the house from……..

Yep!

Ok.. so that parts I get..... ok... … but then I really started freaking out when I saw a picture of the actual chimney liner, and some personal info about me in there…..

How’d they get that? Did someone I know email them???

Anyway.. that’s possible, but unlikely, cause I just did a google search on myself, and there it was… plain as day.. right from this little uncharted part of the web I call my blog…

Turns out if you google or yahoo search me, invariably, if ya fish around long enough, it leads you right back here…. It also connects you to my MySpace page, youtube postings, and all that jazz, but if you look hard enough, this comes up also… And then, if you have the patients to siphon through the mindless chatter, boring observations, and litany of spelling and grammar mistakes… then you’l find my post about the house and the Chimney… complete with pics…..

Jeepers…. Anyway… I’ve read it about 5 times now, still in shock really.. But after that wore of, and I could re-read it objectively, it really just re-iterates the court doc’s… with some humor, and it does kind of present both sides… albeit it would seem I do take somewhat less heat then the other guy did… Whew!

Bizarre…… Tres bizarre….

Im just gonna move on, as if it wasn’t even there… and hopefully it will just be a blurb, that comes and goes with little or no notice or mention… either way, Im guessing this won’t help my negotiations much, but I wasn’t overly optimistic about that anyway…

Oh well… I’ve only got a few minutes left on my lunch…. Time to read about Anne I guess, then back at it….

In the meantime, I've pulled any reference to the stuff.. at least what I could find, from the site... and Im gonna re-think keeping this thing going...

This time I came out ok.. but you never know who's reading or what their intent maybe... At least on facebook, people have to be a "friend" to read it....

Maybe the solution would be to make this a password option to read it... so that you'd have to subscribe... or something like that..

Whooo-hoo.. a whoopiing 8 people might sign up... oh well...

Maybe I'll just purge it all I guess..

wow..

a lot can change in a day..

Gotta love technology...

20 years ago, if i was trying to learn a really hard tune, I had to take my dads tape deck apart, stick
a small screwdriver into the the motor, and with counter clockwise turn, I could slow down the song i wanted to learn....

Sure.. it was work, but for those difficult riffs, it was essential... only problem, other then the obvious work it took, was the fact that the pitch dropped, and you had to de-tune to keep up...

Enter the Tascam trainers....

You can slow the music down... keep the same pitch. or keep speed, and change pitch...
and more...

Jesh.. youd think I sold the stuff....

Actually.. years ago.. I kind of did back in the day when I was peddling CD Holders and some other stuff..!!! although this product wasn't around then...


anyway, How they do it, is beyond me... but it works... and its awesome...

as to be expected, there is some slight distortion at lower the lower the speed, but I'd say its marginal, and not nearly enough to be a deterant to purchasing one of these...
anyway, I highly recommend it, my only complaint is that I have to wait till xmas to use it...

Yeah... its gonnna be a Xmas present, so fair is fair....
It arrived today, so after a very quick test to make sure it worked, I had to pack it all back up and give it to "Santa" to hold until next month...

I got it off Ebay... I've actually had Great luck on ebay (and kijiji) ...
this was a new unit, from an ebay Store.... And what a deal... With the Exchange now, even after shipping, Import Tarriff and Handling fee, it was still GOBBS cheaper then the local Big Box Music store and any Canadian Site I could find...

Im tempted to open er up again and jam a little bit tonight.. but that wouldn't be right... Its bad enuff I know everything IM gonna get for xmas... But thats just the way it goes sometimes.. Im easy to shop for, but hard to surprise... Still, that doesnt stop Trena for pulling a rabbit our of here arse on occasion.... But still really excited about this Xmas... our Daughters at that age where its soooooo much fun, and my brother's gonna be here to spend it with us too... AND its the 1st Xmas in the new place... and at this rate, we just might have the bulk of our reno done by then...

One can only hope I guess...

Nite all..

Oh Dear!

I snapped a whole bunch of these this weekend from our kitchen window...


the buggers eat all the flowers, and especially love the Hostas, but ya gotta admit... its damn cool to see them...


Sarah in particular loves them.. .




Closer to nature.... Eh... As long as they dont crap in the yard, Im cool with it.. Who needs Hostas anyway...

Progress..

My back is sore, and even my fingers and knuckles hurt, but it was a productive weekend..

We Installed Crown.. opps. I mean “Cornice” molding in 2 rooms, painted it.. then painted another whole room, and painted the Floor moldings of another… Might not sound like much, but that’s 3 plus days of work right there.. none stop.. and I had help…


Whew.. and the kitchen guy comes Thursday to start his end.. so she's starting to come together slowly...


My wife might argue that we’ve not done as much as we should have to the house yet, given that we've been here 5 months now (almost)but I’d argue otherwise.. Sure, its been almost 5 months.. but theres only 2 days in a weekend, 4 weekends per month.. so that’s actually 5x2x4=40 days.. less a wedding, a few trips to bridgewater, a Concert in PEI, and that’s not a lot of days.. especially with a 2 yr old child..

Anyway.. it does feel good to get that much closer to done..
We hadn’t count on painting the whole house, but we really have too.. I wont go into the whole story about the state of the house when we moved in.. but.. how can I put this... .. hmmm fundamentaly, I think its a great house.. I think it was built well, but the Builder had sold it to the previous owners... and they didnt exactly demonstrate "pride of ownership" as the real estate advertisings often say....

What do I mean? Well.. when we sold our old place.. we scrubbed every wall, every floor, steam cleaned the carpets, cleaned all the windows and screens, toilet, tubs ands shower, pulled evey nail, drywalled and painted the affected spot.. I mean that place was Spotless.. , were talking hospital corners.. the new owners only had to unpack…

When we moved into our place, however, well.. it was the exact opposite of that… so we’ve been scrubbing, and gutting for 5 straight months.. At the end of the day, it’s a good house.. the mess did suck some of the excitement out of it for us though… and forced us to accelerate a lot of stuff we’d hoped to delay.. like carpets and window treatments… they’re pretty gundgy… not to mention the drama over the chimney…

Im still in “negotiations” with the previous owner over it all.. Its not going overly well… but Im too tired of all that to rehash it. All I know is that one of 2 things is true..

Either:
(A) they were the absolute worst housecleaners of all time, and we’re left with the accumulation of a decade or more of Creosote and dirt on the carpets, walls, and so on..
or
(B) there was some sort of “event” dumping a larger amount of soot all at once that went through the whole home… If I were a betting man, I’d bet on the latter, but they are admitting nothing, and Im just fed up with it all..

I know one thing at least, win or lose, I’ll be glad when that part is over just so we can move on… but oh well.. We’ll see what develops..

I had hoped they’d hone-up.. as they say, and do the right thing.. Especially given the risk we were in had we actually used the Chimney, but they seem to have some sense of moral-exemptness, and have not been very “pleasant” to deal with to say the least.. I’d say the same of their lawyer, but I can’t fault him.. He’s just doing his job, just wish I could afford to hire someone just like him.. … Anyway, maybe I shouldn’t say anything, as were still, “negotiating” but Im beyond keeping my fingers crossed.. I’ll Hope for the best, but im prepared for the worst…

In other news.. I have the John Mulane gig on the 23rd, I was even offered some regular gigs with him, but with work and home, as much as I’d like to gig regular, I just can’t commit to it.. If I could make a living at it, sure.. but the odds of that, and stability, benefits, pension? Well.. its just not gonna happen.. but that’s ok.. Besides, this new band we’ve pieced together seems to show great promise.. We’ve assembled a good bunch of guys, that all seem to be on very similar pages.(work/family/music - balance). so it could be a lot of fun.. but also a Kick-arse band at that!! I look at the music room now, with all the additional gear everyone brought and wish I owned it all myself.. Drums, Pa.. etc.. but in time, maybe… in the meantime.. I really can’t complain either.. but I guess its just human nature to want more….

Ah well.. here we go.. another work week.. But hey! Its Tuesday already… it’ll be a short one…

Miscellaneous Paraphernalia

Well, its no secret that room over our garage was a big selling feature for me… insofar as its potential as a Jam space.. Oddly enuff, however, in 5+ month, the first Jam was last nite…

It was a little “loosey-goosey”, but shows promise… Some of the guys in the band brought extra gear, and with all the xtra people and stuff, it was a little crowded, but I stayed up after everyone left and re-organized everything to make better use of the space I have… I had to sacrifice on of my keyboards, but its one I rarely use… kind of a “niche” sound anyway, and I just downloaded patch for my new board that emulates it anyway, so no biggie… On the upside, Much more room for people, amps, and all the other Miscellaneous Paraphernalia

It was also a good test of my whole "sound won't carry" theory...

As it turns out..that was reasonably accurate... From the upstairs part of the house where the bedrooms are, you can hear "some" but its no more noticeable then a muffled radio, and certainly low enuf not to keep anyone awake.. which is good..especiallu considering the volume we play at… but, that said, It does, apparently, make watching tv on the main floor somewhat of a futile effort... So I may, eventually try to put a door at the top of the stairs to muffle it, somewhat.... but no big panic... We’ll just have to schedule practice for nite that Trena’s fav shows are not on… (that or get a DVR for the bedroom…. Hmmmm now that’s an idea?)

Anyway… I’m feeling pretty good about the potential of this group… And Im not thinking “commercial” potential, cripes.. with 6 people in the band where too crowded to make any money, but then that’s not the point…. What has me excited is the potential TUNES we can cover, and Fun we can have doing them….

In other news…More Coincidences.. Two of the 3 Steve’s… live two houses from each other and had never met until last nite… and other neat coincidence… that John Mulane gig I mentioned Im doing on the 23rd? Guess who’s also playing drums for that?

Yep..
Our drummer…

Funny how that works…

And the band played on..

In other, more happy news... I got a good vibe about this latest version of the band we hope to get started..

No illusions of grandeur, no egos, no aspirations of fame and fortune.. just some family first folks who love music jaming stuff we love, and hopefully get to play for an audience here and there...

Our first jam got canceled due to power outage, but it didn't stop everyone..

the Reschedule jam is tomorrow.. and I can't wait!


in other news, I got a one time gig playing 7 or 8 tunes at Winstons on the 23rd with John Mulane..

i met him through Jon Matheson... whihc is no surprise as Jons good people, and everyone I've met through him seems pretty cool to.. gotta love rock and roll!!

Dave vs Goliath…???

Well, I’m starting to feel some significant pressure to drop my claim against the folks we bought the house from… I think we have a real case that is valid and has merit, but I’m beginning to feel overwhelmed with the potential litigation and possible costs if we loose…. And wondering, is it worth it…

If you’re one of the limited few friends/family who’ve been following this, you’ll remember our horror to discover the status of the inner liner of our chimney, and much worst, what could have happened if we had used the WoodStove, as it was….

See these links for more details..
http://robsbongwater.blogspot.com/2007/08/anyone-know-good-lawyer.html

http://robsbongwater.blogspot.com/2007/08/how-much-is-enough-and-at-what-cost.html

Anyway… flash forward…

we tried to reach an agreement with the previous owners, that was, in my opinion, more then reasonable..

In short, we believe that
-the chimney had been damaged after our inspection but prior to taking ownership

And as a result, while we also had to repair the exterior of the roof/chimney… that much we mutually knew had to be done… So I wasn’t going after that….I just wanted them to go good for the interior liner we had to replace..

I really do believe that at the time of purchase, it was implied that the inner workings of the thing were in working order… and at the very least, not a deathtrap…

Anyway, given the status of the liner once we got the roofers up there to look, while Im no lawyer, I think that represents a “Material change in condition” that wasn’t disclosed.. and we simply wanted the previous owners to pay for the portion of the chimney repair (2,052 to be exact) its not a lot of money, but, hey.. IT IS a lot of money to us… sigh…

So I then emailed and left them (the previous owners) messages.. and got no reply.. and as time dragged on, I began to feel that they were ignoring me and I do have to admit, that the tone of my emails deteriorate from the polite given benefit of the doubt “By they way, did you know about this and what are your thoughts on it” to, well, something a little more hostile and accusational .. …. Hey, Im only human… But Anyway… I then get a very “Forceful” email from their Lawyer…. Leaving me with two options... Shut up, or sue…

So I pay the fee’s, and filed my claim..

Feeling somewhat "punitive" at that point, In my claim, I claimed for all of our costs… Carpet cleaning , blind replacement, all things that were sincerely affected by the creosote… All stuff we went through, but up to that point I was willing to overlook if we could just settle….. All I wanted was the liner costs… I was ok paying for the rest of that stuff as we would have replaced it all eventually anyway... (it just sucked to have to do it all sooner then later) Anyway, I file the claim, but not one to give up hope.. I also emailed the previous owner one last time, and again offered to settle for the liner replacement cost… there was some back and forth and a glimmer of hope when they even got all “Zen” quoting some budist stuff and referring to stuff like his “Moral compass” But long story short… he said no go, see you in court…

Then today, I get another “Strong” email from his lawyer, stating they are filing a defense (I’ve read it, and think I can disprove most of it but Im on my own, and they have one of the city’s best lawyers… ) And if that were not enuf, the Scarier part is that they are counter claiming for their costs if we go to court I didn’t even know they could do that? Talk about a disincentive to the little guy??? …

Anyway… And wonder what this guys “moral compass” would tell him if, instead of emails from me, it was coming from the executors of our estate because we used the darn woodstove and perished in the fire????” I dunno…
but thank god thats not the case...

So Im at a crossroads...

I fired out an email to a trusted friend who has a friend whos a lawyer to ask “if I stand a chance here” and more importantly, if I might really be liable for their travel cost on the odd chance that I loose… And if that prognosis is not good, then I might just drop the whole thing…

Ethically, I really do believe I’m in the right here… But I’m no lawyer, and won’t pretend to even have a clue as to how that might work once it gets to court…

But weather I roll the dice or note, I do take comfort, however, in the belief that there is “Karma” out there, and that someday, someway, this might come full circle.

(that, or maybe I’ve seen one to many My Name is Earl Episodes)

In the meantime, At least I can’t say I didn’t try….

Early to Rise…

Its amazing how much smoother things can go when you get up even just a half hour earlier… It’s not often an easy transition, having kids, some changes come easy… out of sheer necessity, but others take a long long time… Especially if you have a firmly established habit to break..

Anyway.. We both (My significant other and I) got up between 40 -70 minutes earlier then normal today.. and while I certainly wasn’t early, I was fashionably on TIME. With some to spare,… but the best part is that the morning went smooth as silk, with no stress, no tears (from me or my daughter) and time enuf to grab a tims after dropping her off at the day care….

As simple as that sounds, it really made my day.. couldn’t ask for a better kick start to the week….

In other news, the power outage that affected most of HRM caused us to postpone a full rehersal, but a couple of the guys did come over just to hang out and jam just for fun… Well, its all fun, but you know what I mean…. Steve (Furey) even jammed out some stuff for my original tune I’ve been working on.. Not that I’ve written a lot, but When you write a song, your very much invested in it.. Sharing it can be difficult, and allowing others to put their “stamp”on it can be even more so… but it can also be a beautiful thing…

Anyway… Steve had never heard this tune b4, and doesn’t have the “bias” that I do, insofar as what I “hear” in my own head when I envision the finished product, So I just let him jam along with it… to see where it took him… and I got to say.. It’s a different approach then I was thinking, and I LIKE it!!!!!! A LOT

funny how that works.

I was also very envious of Steve’s Guitar…Partially of the guitar itself, but also of the prerequisite talent/skill and discipline it takes to be able to play it… It’s a special Strat with “Scalloped” frets…. Not a guitar the average Joe can play… I’d imagine that just going to a music store and asking to see one like that would pretty much immediately earn the respect of whatever salesperson you’d be waited on by, as they’d know that to be wanting a guitar like that, you’re in a whole different league of ability then the average weekend warrior.. very neat indeed!!

Anyway… IM even more enthused then ever about the potential of this new band.. I could care less of about any commercial success, but I’m increasingly confident that were gonna have a lot of fun… which is what its all about in the first place..

Storm bound

Well, I got a good fire going, and the kettle on for some hot Choc!

yep.. Im officially an old fart... HA..

No, I had the rum last nite. tonight Im solo with the little one, so I have to stay sharp in case power goes out...


anyway... had a dialogue with the dude who wanted that other domain... Seems like a nice enuff fellow.. probably would have a lot in common with the guy, but alas... he's just a regular Joe like the rest of us, so no dot.com millions... I'll keep my domain, and call it a day... But ya never know..

that guy who wants almostfamous seems pretty cool.. I told him if he can get me a leg up with my documentary, he could have it for free... and he's actually kept in contact about it.. so ya never know...

Oh well.. I got a dvd and some marshmellows that are calling my name...

peace out..

Whats in a name, anyway!

Could this hook?

Well, at the time, I thought “Bongwater” would be a great name for a rock band, and when that didn’t work out, I thought at least a good name for a Studio….

But, I must concede, that given the naturally tendancy for one to question the names origin and/or intent (i.e. the possible negative connotation) that some people might not choose to hire a studio with such a name… So while I’m not going to abandon it, I may change its use, and about a month ago I started “stillwaterstudios.ca” with the intent to migrate Bongwatermusic.com to that site…

Yep!.. While I still have that “rebellious” intent, Stillwater is likely more “sellable” to the masses, less politically incorrect, and still a cool and relevant name… Its where I live, and also the name of one of my favorite fictitious bands (from the movie “Almost Famous” (and the coincidences continue)

So I registered “Stillwaterstudios.ca"

Theres nothing there yet, but I own it…

And wouldn’t you know it… Now someone wants to buy it…

Well, as they say.. Once bitten, twice shy…While I got all excited last time this happened, when that dude wanted to by almostfamous.ca, I learned the hard way not to get too excited…

But would I sell it? HELL YEAH…

But I aint cheap.. I have many wants and needs.. A new camera for filming the documentary… an Uber recording/pa board… and a PA would be nice also.. so we’ll see where this guy is, price wise…

Wish me luck

Gramer police

No... I dont spell check... and definatly dont grammer check..... thank you..

IM just a hack.... People who do this jiberish for pay, have proof readers, editors.. or at least a finacial stake in content... I have none of these... often just random brain farts...

so if you happen notice a spelling error, or an "ing" where it should be an "ed", or tense shifting, or stuff left out... write it down on a 20 dollar bill and mail it to me, or send 20 bucks to my paypal account at robertcrewe@hotmail.com and I'll gladly make the change.. HA!!!!

peace out...

Karma Police

In the 80’s and up to the early 90’s, I really did have my finger on the button when it came to current music, what was new, hot, up and coming… I was bugging radio dj’s (easier to do in a town of 6,000 when they shop at the store where you work) for copies of promo’s, and spend a huge % of my income on albums, cassettes, 45’s, and then CD’s… It was fun.. and my friends were equally as enthusiastic… the calls with “You got to hear this Then…. Reality crept in, with the weight of Student Loans and a Mc-Job income… and I just stopped… I can even remember the last batch of CD’s I bought at the time… Queensryche, Ozzy Ozbourne, Mr. Big, and the Wayne’s World Soundtrack…. From then on instead of 2 or 10 cd’s a week… it was more like 2 or 4 a year… I simply tuned out…

There’s a lot of reasons, some may be practical, but in truth, paying attention to music was, for me at least, a sad slightly pathetic jab in the guts for a guy who turned away from his passion in toward “stability” and other materialistic pursuits. In hindsight, yeah… forget it.. Hindsights a kick in the nutz… But not to blow my own horn, but I did have “moxy” and some decent ideas… so who knows what could have happened…
As a side note (gee, I do get side tracked a lot don’t I?) there was a local singer back home wanted to do a “tape” My dad and I had one of the only 2 functional recording studios on the west coast at the time… (Barry Coleman from the Isleauxmort Boys had the other) So we helped him out… It was all Accordian Instrumentals, and to save time, and keep it simple, I sequenced the drums…. But I FOUGHT to put a twist on it… I thought that everyone and their dog has heard the newfie beat… But what if we modernized it….. Played traditional tunes, but rocked them up with a Rock beat, and flavor, and maybe even “Distortion” guitar…etc… Well, I lost the Distortion lead fight… and for the most part, I lost the drum fight to.. (artist gets what the artist wants… I was just the studio tech) but I did sneak in a funky beat on the end of one tune… the accordion was recorded to a click track.. and I substituted the drum track later… anyway… I thought it was pretty cool at the time, and still holds up… and that if a band could do that, maybe they’d have something… bear in mind, this was a few years BEFORE, Ashley MacIsaac, Natalie McMaster, and Great Big Sea entered the areana… so maybe I could have had a point…. Guess I’ll never know…. But oh well…

Anyway… back to my intital thought… I tuned out.. and really haven’t tuned back in.. I’ve passively spend the last 17 years with my ears and mind essentially closed to new ideas, with the exception of some rediscovery some of my old fav’s and some I was too young or naïve at the time to appreciate.. older Classics like Sugarloaf, Allman Bros, Albert Collins, Roy Orbison and more.. Occassionally something new will catch my attention, like the SupperStack guys… or John Mayher, but for the most part.. I’ve really been oblivious to the new Music revolution… Bands like Soundgarden, Radiohead, Matchbox 20 and Pearl Jam, I’ve truthfully only come to learn about and appreciate recently… So theres 17 years of tunes I’m now trying to catch up on, so I can get back in the groove of tuning in to whats new… and as much as its actually slightly embarrassing to not have been a part of the Eddy Vedder or Rob Thomas following, just as an example, over the last few years.. it is cool to re-discover them now.. and delve deeper into their catalogue, undistracted and undirected by pop-culture, advertising, and hype….

Am I getting too old to catch a new wave? Maybe.. Change doesn’t come as easy any more… I’m still lagging in my acceptance of Rap and Hip Hop.. I mean I like some of the classics… Run DMC, Sir Mixalot, etc.. but much of the genre is lost on me.. But I’m coming around… I previously crediting the movie “Hustle and Flow” to opening my eyes and mind to the Hip Hop scene, and previously, my membership in an R&B band called the SoundDawgs, where we covered some Beyonce , Usher, and Musique SoulChild helped too…. But I still Love my Pink Floyd, Eagles, Van Halen (not to be confused with Van Hagar) and the classic rockabilly tunes I cut my teeth on when I first started jamming…..

Hey… Maybe theres room for a Hip/Hop newfie rap??? Hmm maybe… but someone else will have to tackle that idea… I’ll stick to the familier for now……

In the meantime, It is a lot of fun catching up… take Radiohead for example… I’ve heard Karma Police a dozen times on the radio and thought… “what a great tune, what a great “hook” (“this is what you get, when you mess with us”) and just recently put 2 and 2 together and realize who the band was…. Sometimes this stuff, for me at least, is like being a kid in a candy store….. Funny how that works!

Incidently, “Funny How that works” was a potential Band Name that a former band mate, Mark Radford, came up with years ago…. I think its kind of catchy.. if not for a band… maybe a song or and album???