October? Already?

It's cold and grey out, must be Fall. We were actually up near the 90s and sunny last week, which was nice, but now things are as they should be, which in turn means I'm sitting under a blanket, feeling under the weather and wishing I was somewhere warm and sunny.

Two months from now, we'll most likely be buried under snow.

Along with the gloomy weather comes the new TV season, so it's not all gloom lately. There aren't many new shows that have grabbed me this year, but I'm really happy with the ones that have. Most people seem iffy on it, but I'm liking the new Bionic Woman and Reaper is pretty cool so far. Chuck is much better than I expected, I'm really enjoying that. Easily my favorite of the new shows is Pushing Daisies. It was created by Bryan Fuller, who was one of the creators of Wonderfalls (an all time favorite of mine), so there's that same quirkiness to it, but with more of a fantasy feel. Here's to hoping it gets more of a chance to thrive than Wonderfalls did and maybe it can even help fill the void left by the recently departed Veronica Mars.

Both animated shorts are still chugging along. I was worried about what I'd do about music for The Girl and the Ghost since the start of the project. A couple weeks ago, Larry suggested I get in touch with an old friend of his about music, so I did. A few emails later, he sent me a sample and I'was blown away. I'm ecstatic to announce Mike Wilkinson is officially doing the music for The Girl and the Ghost.

It's a nice step forward for a project that feels like it's moving so slowly. I'm sure the pace will pick up once the rest of the voice work is finished.

I needed a change of scenery so to speak, so for the last couple weeks, I've had my attention fully focused on The Greatest Fan Film of All Time. I'm trying a bit of a different animation technique at the moment and I'm loving it so far. It's surprisingly strange to be animating these characters again. It's been almost a year and a half since I finished Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face and now I'm back in that world again.

Dad pointed out the other day that when these two projects are finished, their combined length will most likely be more than every one of my previous projects combined. That's a bit of a freak out.

Well, I'm cold. I think I'll go throw a log on the fire. First I need to find a house with a fireplace and residents who won't be alarmed by a strange man in a wheelchair wielding a log outside their door.

Music! Merchandise! Mystery! And Me Without a Brown Trenchcoat. And a Fedora.

It's been a little while since I've been excited about upcoming music, probably since the release of Chantal's Ghost Stories back in August, which, incidentally, is finally being released here in the States in May. Moving on to music I don't already have, Andrea Corr's solo debut, Ten Feet High, is coming out in June.
There's a musician out of New Jersey I've been following on MySpace for a while now, her name is Jenny Owen Youngs. She just signed with Nettwerk Records and her debut release, Batten the Hatches, is set for April 10th. I have her EP's and love her sound, I'm really looking forward to picking that album up.

After Corey recommended it, I signed up and created an account for myself on Virb.com. It's basically a new networking site like MySpace, but not. I uploaded the animated shorts and Sex Love and Honey there yesterday and they've actually already featured the latter on their video page. How cool is that? It's a huge kick having people enjoy something you worked on like that. It's a cool site though, very music-centric, check it out.

The weather was nice again today, hovering around 60, though a bit overcast. I did some running around with Mom and did a bit of shopping to satisfy my nerdy tendencies. I got the Justice League Unlimited: Season 2 DVD set, a bunch of geekily magnificent DC Comics figures (including the excellent new Darkseid figure), and, on a less geeky note, Joshua Radin's CD, We Were Here.

As we left Best Buy, I spotted something that struck me as odd. Canada geese aren't foreign to me by any means, but they've always either been on the ground, flying through the air, or floating on the water when I've seen them. Not today. As Mom and I drove past Bakers Square, I saw a lone goose perched up on top of the building, just looking out over everything below him like the king of all geese. I wish I would have thought to snap a picture before we were too far away.

After shopping was done, Mom and I set out on a rescue mission. Dad's been having trouble with his truck these past few days, today he called from the lot when he noticed he was leaking transmission fluid. We picked some up and delivered it to him, before following him home to make sure he made it all the way.

We were all hungry, so the three of us went to Denny's for the first time in months. It was a bit iffy last time, everything just tasted...off, but it was much better this time. As we were getting ready to leave, we bumped into our old neighbor from across the street, Elise. I hadn't seen her in years, so it was cool to chit chat and catch up a little.

While there, I realized I may have watched too much Veronica Mars when I had my own little Mars moment. As we ate, a man came in and seemed quite perturbed when he was seated at the front of the restaurant. He asked for a table in the back room, but was told they couldn't do that, as they only had one server working. His frustration caught my attention.
Wow. Guess I'm an eavesdropper.
Anyway, he held off on ordering as he was waiting for someone. "Ooh, this guy's having an affair!" I joked to myself. Sure enough, a woman showed up a few minutes later. They seemed familiar with each other, but there was still a sort of awkwardness between them.
Is Denny's an acceptable dating destination for a pair of middle-aged folks? It seems like more of an under-the-radar meeting place, especially with the persistence to be in the back room. Now that I think about it, they did both seem a bit overdressed for Denny's.
Yeah, it's mostly speculation and none of my business whatsoever, but that little rendez-vous intrigued me.

Ahh. To be a Private Eye.

Day 3- On Our Way Home

Saturday, February 24th, 2007

I slept better than the previous night, but I was still a bit tired when I woke up to a sunny Windsor Saturday morning. The previous two days, though jam packed with activities, went by surprisingly fast. Even though I had an amazing time, I felt ready to head home.

Once again, Mom was up and active a while before I was, packing and getting ready for the drive. I flipped through the channels as I woke up and was surprised at what I found. It wasn't Saturday morning cartoons, it was Saturday morning Veronica Mars. Not a bad thing to wake up to by any means.

Not much later, we were packed, bundled, and in the lobby, ready to go. I waited by the luggage while Mom made a quick stop in the gift shop to grab a copy of the local paper, in hopes of there being a review of the concert. When she got back with the paper, I smiled when I saw Chantal featured on the front page in a story about her visit to the children's ward of the Windsor Regional Hospital before the concert.

We readied our maps and road music and made sure snacks were handy (as we were traveling on empty stomachs) and finally set out.


The drive had a slightly bumpy start, thanks to some useless steps in the directions from MapQuest that led directly to a dead end, but we eventually found our way to the Ambassador Bridge.


Mom's not a fan of bridges, heights, or large bodies of water, so it was understandable when she got visibly tense when we saw how backed up traffic was on the bridge. I figured it would just be a few minute long thing, but we were on that bridge for 45 minutes because it was so backed up at customs. Even so, Mom still did great.


A few more confusing directions came and went, but we found the freeway quickly and were on our way. The drive was relaxed and smooth as we listened to my new Our Lady Peace CD and ate the occasional pretzel. A quick three hours later and we were home.

Approaching Cleveland

We unpacked, told Dad and Kris about the trip, and settled in. While watching the news, we saw that the same icebreaker we had seen the day before was now in Cleveland. Also, it looked like we had gotten out of Windsor at just the right time, as they got hit with a pretty nasty ice storm that night.

The night continued with a nice chill session with Corey, Jeff, and Eric. We kicked back, played games, swapped music, and watched my new Trailer Park Boys DVD, which is easily the funniest movie I've seen in ages.

It was a great night that wrapped up a great little adventure. Here's to the next one!

Canada (Better Late Than Never)

It's been bugging me that it's been two weeks since my trip and I haven't blogged about it yet, so I'm taking this opportunity to remedy that.

Day 1 - November 28th, 2006

I woke up still coughing, but determined not to let it derail my plans. While coughing, I hopped online and booked our room (last minute, I know) as Mom made sure everything was packed and ready. After some more coughing, we hit the road around 1:30, a little later than I'd have liked, but good enough.

The ride was nice and uneventful, not many people traveling on a Tuesday in late November. We pulled into the road stop nearing 4:00 and headed into Denny's. I was hungry, but worried eating would irritate my throat and make the coughing worse, so I took it slow. Everything went well until a tiny sip of Coke went down the wrong way and triggered a really bad coughing fit that kept us at the rest stop much longer than planned.

Once we finally made it to Niagara Falls, we missed a turn in the dark and ended up driving the exact same path we walked when we got lost back in September. There was an eerie feeling as we drove due to the thick fog/mist rolling across the road and the lack of people around. I could hear the Silent Hill theme in my mind. Through the fog, and in complete contrast to the creepy vibe, we could see the big display of Christmas lights they had set up along the road, which was pretty cool.

We ended up getting to the festively decorated Marriott around 8:00 and quickly settled into our room. And coughed. I was okay though, I was in Niagara Falls, I was comfy, and Veronica Mars was going to be on shortly. I switched to the channel to get ready and found...a rolling picture. It rolled through the entire show, but I was still able to follow and enjoy it.

Before too long, I took my medicine, had some soup, and called it a night.

Day 2 - November 29th, 2006

This was it, the day I had been looking forward to for months had finally arrived- the day of the Chantal Kreviazuk and Raine Maida concert. I was still coughing, but my spirits were high.

We were up early and had a few hours to kill, so we loaded into the van and headed to the Pen Centre in St Catherines. It was surprisingly crowded for the early afternoon of a Wednesday, it took fifteen minutes just to find a place to park.

I'll admit, I spent a little too much on DVDs, but hey, I'm allowed to every once in a while. I got myself Superman Returns, Trailer Park Boys: Season 5, Trailer Park Boys- Xmas Special and did some Christmas shopping as the music of Our Lady Peace played over the speakers in HMV.

We nibbled a bit in the food court, restocked our Kleenex supply at the drug store, and were on our way to the Centre for the Arts at Brock University, thanks to the helpful directions of a kind taxi driver.

We arrived just before 4:00 and made our way to the Sean O'Sullivan Theatre. You might be thinking that's pretty early to show up for a concert, but as I've said before, Chantal and Raine have always been extremely kind to my family and I, this time they invited us to the sound check. I couldn't fully wrap my head around it until we were actually in there. It was an amazing evening, most of which we were lucky enough to spend actually hanging out with Raine and Chantal.

The concert itself was fantastic and very intimate in the small venue. Raine opened with a poem before playing a handful of songs from his upcoming solo CD and a great acoustic version of Innocent. Chantal played a nice mixture of old favorites and newer songs from her most recent release, Ghost Stories. They both sounded absolutely great and put on an excellent show.

Many many MANY thanks to both of them for all of their kindness and such an unforgettable experience.

Chantal & Me

Me & Raine

After leaving Brock University, we headed back to the Falls, got takeout from Fridays, and headed up to the room to eat and sleep after a long and amazing day.

Day 3 - November 30th, 2006

Before heading home, I had one last mission: find out the name of the delicious wine I had on my birthday. Mom and I headed downstairs to the Terrapin Grille, I looked at the menu, and found it. Jackson-Triggs. Fantastic, I tell you.
We were told we could find it much cheaper at a liquor store or the duty free shop. Works for me.

On our way back to the room to pack, we discovered we were locked out of our room, despite having requested a later check out time. Turns out it was just a mix up and they forgot to update our keys, a quick visit to the front desk fixed that.

I gazed out the window as Mom packed and made a couple quick phone calls. The weather was mild, hovering around 60 degrees the whole time, but the grey look of winter was always lingering on the horizon. It was very strange to see Niagara Falls so devoid of tourists. We never saw more than twenty people on the walkway overlooking the Falls.



Before long, we were on our way. It was funny, the bellman who helped us get our stuff from the room to the van actually remembered us from our last visit.

We made a quick stop at the duty free shop and grabbed some of the wine before crossing the Peace Bridge and heading home.

It was a much quicker trip than two days before, but the weather made it a bit less relaxed. We had heavy winds the whole way through New York. It felt like a giant had the van in its grasp and would randomly give a violent shake.

As we crossed into Pennsylvania, the winds died down and were replaced with dark clouds and torrential downpours. The rain stayed with us for the rest of the drive.

We arrived home just after 5:00 to share our travel stories and relax after the drive. Looking back, I know I normally never would have left the house with a cough like that, but I'm so glad I pushed myself. This experience was 100% worth it.

Ghosts in the Machines?

Technology hates me. I no longer have any doubt in my mind about that.

Our TV (only 5 years old) died back in July, then the one we put in its place died, leaving us with a ridiculously tiny one. It looks like the old TV got pushed back about twenty feet through the wall.

I listen to music as I go to sleep. I pick the CDs that'll help me relax, press play, and drift off. It's just what I do.
From the beginning, my stereo (only 3 years old) never worked quite right. It would skip songs or entire CDs for no apparent reason. Sometimes it wouldn't even read a CD. It was pretty much just a minor annoyance, then it got worse...after the warranty expired.
A couple nights ago, it died completely. Dad opened it up and found the wires warped and discolored from heat as well as a hot smell to it.
Toast.

I haven't gotten a new video games in nearly a year. So, what happened when I recently got one?
If you guessed "the Playstation 2 died before I ever got to play the game", give yourself a gold star.

I love electronics...when they, y'know, work. Is nothing made to last anymore? This stuff costs so much to repair, you might as well just replace it. If you can afford it. Which I can't.
Bah.

I can't believe it's Halloween already. Where did the rest of the year go? This is the first year I haven't dressed up in at least a thrown together costume. We'll be carving pumpkins in a bit here and handing out candy later, though I doubt we'll get many trick or treaters with the chilly and rainy weather.
After that? Veronica Mars, Boston Legal, and tonight's live episode of Ghost Hunters. Low key, but works for me.
I'll probably watch Silent Hill tonight too, gotta have a scary movie. Reviews seem mixed on the movie, but I'm a fan.

Maybe I'll put up some pictures from Halloweens gone by a little later.

Have a fun and safe one!

The Time of the Season

I don't like the Fall. Sure, the leaves and the big billowy clouds are beautiful, but then there's also the days getting shorter, the air getting colder, and the overall dreary look of it, which leads to the complete lack of desire to leave the house.

On the bright side, it's also the start of the new TV season.

In the new show category, I'm already a fan of Heroes, but I'm really loving Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. It's just brilliant, I'm hooked.

Last Thursday was great with My Name is Earl, The Office, Grey's Anatomy, and ER all premiering, but tonight, my Superman sweet tooth gets its fill with the premier of Smallville.

And then next week is the season premier of my most recent TV show obsession, Veronica Mars. Jenny got me hooked over the summer. I got the first disc of season 1 from Netflix and I wasn't quite sure what to think. It had some really cool elements and it was really unique, but something left me feeling iffy. Maybe it was Paris Hilton guest starring in the second episode.
By the end of disc 2, I was completely hooked and itching to see the resolution of the Lily Kane murder mystery. The investigation spanned the entire season and somehow managed to never get old or tiresome, plus, after you've suspected everyone of being the killer, the big reveal at the end actually delivered.
I got Mom hooked and when the season 2 DVD set came out, we watched the whole thing in just 3 or 4 days.
The show is just excellent. Great cast, great characters, and fantastic writing.
So now we're eagerly awaiting the start of season 3 on Tuesday.

Okay, it looks like this Fall should be alright.