Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Jeff Tuesday Aug.25/09

Hey...
A few moments to see how you're all doing out there. No twitters, tweets, chirps, barks or oinks, just good old fashioned blogging. Ahh, the good old days... hey, what the... that was only last month. Don't you just love how technology makes you feel so out of touch!
Well, summer is flying by and with sports radio talkin' Canucks here in Vancouver well, you know Christmas can't be that far off. Ok, I've still got tomatoes on the vines on my deck so let's not get ahead of ourselves too much here.
Uhh... I've been booking flights for upcoming gigs the last couple of days and generally catching up on business responsibilities and structuring some semblance of order in my office. It's still kinda early so, I am keeping myself occupied until our agent gets to work so I can begin harrassing him... again. Actually, we are lucky to have a direct line to our guy and that affords us the luxury of knowing and deciding what's going on, at least most of the time, with our lives as opposed to some cynical, bored secretary taking a message which will be passed along as soon as "he gets back from lunch". Yeah... heard that one enough . ( Hey c'mon, gettin' old over here.) Right, it's not as bad as, "If you know the extension of the person you are calling please enter that now". Uh-huh (saying with my best New York/Bronx accent) Yeah, I got your extension number, right here buddy.
Let's see... I'm taking my girlfriend to the PNE tomorrow to eat donuts, candy floss and fish and chips. She believes that it is our duty as loyal and true Vancouverites to go to the PNE every year and eat as much junk as we can and see if we survive. Are you kidding? Donuts, candy floss and fish and chips are all essential food groups right? I've been (literally) on the road most of my life and have basically lived on salt, sugar and grease. That's what keeps my hair so shiny (ok, that's actually A&G Wax). Hey, here's a big, on the road dining tip for you all. When you are far from home in a small town that you have never been to before, always order the clubhouse. Don't ask why, just do it and you'll thank me later when you're not puking. Here is a partial list of things not to order;
1) Caesar salad north of the 52nd parallel (right Daryl?)
2) Fish in any town where the main business is the oil industry
3) Don't ask for french fries in Montreal
4) Pass on any cheesecake served at a gas station restaurant
Other than that you're pretty good to go... just remember the clubhouse. Always a survivable choice. Ok, looks like I am approaching the 9:00am hour which means I can start making my calls and stuff. I'd better eat some breakfast as well since all I've had is 2 cups of coffee so far this morning. I have been using an especially good Italian Espresso blend lately which pretty much gets me so jagged that I'm usually grinding my teeth by now... So, I'm off to find food. Hmm... I wonder if that tuna casserole from last week is still good? Hey, just think of me as a gastronomic Evel Knievel sans the jumpsuit. Hopefully I'll survive breakfast and I'll be back to tell you all about it... bon (scott) appetit. J.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Jeff Wednesday Aug 12/09

Yeah...
So, it has been a busy summer (as you can tell by my absence on the blog) and I just got back from 10 days in Winnipeg. We played Harbourfest in Kenora on Aug 01 and that was such a great night. 2,200 people rockin' the house and as our good friend Howard Mandshein from 92 CITI FM said, "The place was electric!". Yes, it was great and personally, I had a gas that night. It sounded big, the crowd was terrific as expected and it really was big time rock and roll fun. Thanks to David Blake and all his staff for putting on such an excellent event and we are looking forward to playing there again. Come on Dave, lets get that return gig back in Kenora before the year is out!! Oops... did I mention I forgot to give back the dressing room key? Sorry man, I get kinda sidetracked after the shows sometimes. Too much to do I guess (I mean, where the hell was the bottle opener!). It's ok, I gave the key to Kenny last week. He'll get it back to John soon... I hope... lol. One thing I do need to mention was, I wanted to apologize to everyone who waited for the meet and greet after the show. As you well know, we didn't show up and that was because the fire marshall decided to shut things down and therefore the M&G was nixed just as we were about to go out to the table. Sorry kids, the fire marshall is king at these events and we all are subject to their decisions even if they seem unfair at the time. Next time... We had breakfast on the lake with some of our friends the next morning and if you have never been in the Kenora area, this is where God goes fishing on his holidays. I may be biased being a Northern Ontario boy and all but really, this part of the world is amazing. Thanks Chris, Big Chris, Rose and Mel for the beautiful breakfast (I ate 14 pieces of bacon Pete...jealous?) and enjoyed one of my personal favorite things, a Sunday morning beer on the dock. What a great weekend...
Last week we played a couple of shows. One in Norway House MB and one in Gillam MB. Both events were first class and we have so many people to thank for the wonderful experiences and great memories to be added to our summer of '09. First of all, thanks to Glenn Ranville for doing such a great job putting together the shows. Everything was spot on. You rock Glenn, let's keep it goin'... To Mike, George and Maria in Gillam, thank you for your generousity and for making us feel so welcome (did I mention all the great food?). We'll never forget it. Also, to Anthony, Vernon and everyone in Norway House our deepest thanks for your kindness and help as well. Thanks to NCI radio and in particular Melissa Spence for giving us some air time and for your help promoting the shows. Finally to all the great people we met who sang their hearts out, you really touched us and again, these memories will stay with us a long time... Aren't we a lucky bunch? Plus, I got to eat free cashews on our private plane... Oh, did I forget to mention our PRIVATE PLANE? Yeah, yeah, just like Led Zepplin and the Stones. We're rockin' now... So, a little catchup on the life and high flying times of Streetheart, soaring swiftly through the skies in the middle of the night... eating free cashews. Perfect really.
Ok, so you are now sorta up to date. Oh yeah, one last thing. Kenny and I were doing some remixes and tweaks on his solo CD (with award winning engineer Howard Rissen) so that project has been re-energized again and I am looking forward to a release date hopefully before years end on. It is good to have the Witness Inc. Singles CD done and we've been getting some nice feedback and response from a lot of happy Witness Inc. fans. Thanks for your patience on that everyone. Yes, I am also working on getting Live After Dark out on CD somehow due to so many requests for it's re-release. Other than Meanwhile and Streetheart, LAD seems to be (at least according to our poll and email) our most popular CD. Funny how life unfolds for us sometimes... That's it kids, I'm out for now. See you soon.... J.