Takin' A Trip...

Not of the narcotic variety, but a little trip down south. Heading down to Varadero, Cuba for some sun, drinks, cigars & time off. It'll be the first real vacation I've ever taken, so let's try to avoid looking like the obvious tourists eager to see everything. Looking to enjoy everything down there though. Some local music, food everything thing they've got going on. Word is that near the resort is a restaurant once owned by Al Capone, gotta go check that out! I'll be gone for a week, but I'll see if I can get a couple pics up here upon my return, just to.... well, why lie, make you jealous lol. Cheers!

-Neil

Live Underground Interview - Slowcoaster

I had a chat with Steve from Slowcoaster tonight about their ECMA win among a few things. Great guy to chat with, sounded like he was having a time. Here's the full interview.

 

Find more about Slowcoaster at http://slowcoaster.ca/

ECMA Loud Recording of The Year

I want to congratulate my friends the Fed Pennies on their ECMA win for Loud Recording Of The Year. I talked with their singer Jake Smith on Live Underground on March 9th. Here's that interview.

Get more info on the Fed Pennies here: http://www.facebook.com/thefedpennies

Live Underground Interview - Alice Stops Time

I recently had Alice Stops Time on Live Underground for an interview and played their song Heaven or Hollywood. I've known the guys for a while, we're all from the Annapolis Valley & I produced their self titled debut in 2009. Here's the interview:

Get more info on the band at http://www.facebook.com/alicestopstime

Social Netowrking Free... Almost

Well I achieved my goal of not using facebook or twitter outside of work for a week. Did a lot in that week, hung out with friends, played music, wrote some songs, cleaned the apartment, actually felt like I had accomplished things. The 2nd week has not gone as well. In the last couple days I've been browsing twitter when I'm bored, which begs the question, "if I'm bored, why don't I do something productive?" Good question. Next time I'm bored I'll set a goal for myself to either learn to play a new song on guitar or write a song. Learning a song may be the easier choice depending on song selection. Let's see how we do from here.

On a serious note, if you're like me and addicted to the technology, take some time out of your life to reconnect with reality by doing whatever you used to do before social networking & cell phones consumed our lives. You might rediscover a passion ;)

Remembering A Friend

A few months back, my parents had to put down my dog, Sparky. She was almost 15, had problems with vision & hearing among a long list of other things, so she lived her life. However, that didn't take away from the fact that I felt as though I'd lost a member of my family. This past week I decided the best way to remember her would be to have a portrait of her tattooed on my right arm. It's important to remember those that touched your life, I grew up with Sparky from the time we got her when I was 9, she will always be considered a part of my family. So this is how I will always remember her, as my best friend.

Goin' Old School

I read a story a while back about a lady who decided to make her family cut back on social networking, as well as Internet & cell phone usage. She went quite extreme with it; had no cell phones, Internet or cable for 6 months in her household. Although I'm sure her family were somewhat disconnected from the real world, they picked up other hobbies like a musical instrument, reading novels & other things that grow the mind.

I'm not gonna be that crazy about it, but I am gonna try something similar. I've found social networking has been occupying far too much of my time. Haven't been playing guitar as much as I'd like to, when hanging out with friends I'm always on my phone and it goes on like this. So I'm gonna try and cut back on my social networking. There has to be some obvious exceptions to this, my job involves a lot of interaction on our facebook & twitter accounts. So I plan to use the work accounts & perhaps a little browsing of my own while at work but otherwise I won't be using my own personal accounts. The real test will be on my days off (Monday & Tuesday) to not use them at all.

I will attempt to go at this for as long as possible, for now I'll set a small goal of next Friday. This is all in effort to get back in touch with reality, realizing that FB & the Twitterverse aren't the be all end all and remember life before social networking (what did we do back in those days anyway?). If you're so bold, give this a try as well, who knows how your life could change....