Calvin's Weblog

March 8th, 18.5 degrees - Vancouver is the envy of Canada

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day - reaching 18.5 degrees in the Tri-Cities. (that's like 66 yankee degrees) I came home from work and put my shorts on for the first time in half a year, then head out to the back yard to rake the leaves and pull the weeds. To my surprise, my herb garden (left since last year) is in full bloom. Sage, Thyme, Basil, parsley and even 8 inch chives are already up. It's technically still winter... this is so amazing!

I've been cooped up editing music for the last two weeks - four songs and 42 hours later, I finally got to see what outside looks like. I think it was worth it though, 'cause last night I burnt a CD of my first mixes and played 'em at rehearsal for the rest of the band. Ron and Wayne both said these were the best recordings they've ever been a on - so that made me pretty damn happy. Of course, we practiced like mad to get these songs tight, so no amount of mastering would have fixed crappy performances - I was just lucky that we laid down such great bed tracks. I'll tell you though, I couldn't have finished this mixing a minute sooner... talk about ear fatigue! Imagine hearing the same 4 songs over and over again for 42 hours out of the last two weeks - yikes. Oh joy for me, I think after we've got a few gigs out of our systems, we're going straight back to record another 3 or 4 songs... we've got 12 or 13 that we want to do ultimately, but I think if we want to be selling CDs any time soon, it'll have to be a 6 or 7 song album.

Anyway, enough about the band... remember that sleigh bed that Carole and I bought almost exactly a year ago? Well, we ordered the matching armoire about 6 weeks ago, so that means it should be delivered like any minute now - we're pretty excited about that. Hmm - since I've actually got a few minutes here, why not catch up, eh? A few days ago we saw '50 First Dates' - it was a pretty good movie. I like Adam Sandler though, and I think he and Drew have good chemistry, so, for a comedy it was pretty clever.
The weekend before, we saw "The Passion of Christ". I had planned to write a review of it in my blog and had even thought of some really catchy titles and clever stuff to say, but after walking out of the theatre, I really didn't think I had much to add... I mean, there has been so much hype and controversy that pretty much every angle has been put in print and every opinion has already been voiced - so why add to that. I can say though, that I think EVERYONE should see this movie once. It's not really the kind of DVD you'd want to buy and watch every Sunday morning after church. Don't get me wrong though, it's an amazing and powerful movie. It's impecable in it's detail and historical acuracy. No matter what your religion, or even if you don't believe anything at all, nobody can deny that this guy suffered a lot for what he believed in... humanity. Oh, and as for the claims of anti-semetism? Every scene was pretty much exactly as it was written in the Bible, so, unless the New Testament is anti-semetic, I don't think that argument has a leg to stand on.

Anyway, enough of that. Other than the armoire, we've actually got lots to look forward to right now. I've got my 33rd brithday coming up in two weeks, and we're seing Henry Rollins that night. We'll be skiing in Whistler the weekend after that, and then it's only a month wait until we're in Cancun! The band has a gig at The Pic on Thursday, and we've got two other gigs in the works. Speaking of work, it's still as crazy as ever - totally swamped, but hey... that's why I make the big bux, right? Well, I'd better start earnin' my pay today... talk to everyone soon.