Me me me ... ok, enough about me, what do YOU think of me?

Greetings one and all! The posts on this blog from on or before July 28, 2007 are copied from my blog on MySpace. I've had countless invites to join all these networking sites like Hi5 and Facebook and you name it ... for a luddite with no cell phone, no car and no instant messenger, it's almost impossible for me to keep up with all of that. The reason I am active on MySpace is because I am a musician, and unlike all of these other networking sites, it offers the added benefit of my being able to post my music.
So, I will continue my blog postings on MySpace as well as mirroring those posts on this site, for the reading & commenting enjoyment of all you folks who don't happen to be MySpace members. The following post is largely related to MySpace and also contains some general personal tidbits that you can find in my blogspot profile, but there's also some amusing stuff you may enjoy:

(from January 14, 2007)

I always found it a bit annoying that on MySpace you're either a person or a band. So a musician isn't a person ... meaning that I can't have a personal profile where I can also post my music & other related information.

I could also gripe about a few more issues I have with MySpace, like the fact that everyone is so concerned about "pimping" their page (after which it usually ends up completely unreadable and takes 7 years to load), but I can't actually SEARCH through my 800-some-odd friends when I actually need to find a particular profile in order to get in touch with someone. No search function, but hey I can post 45 You-Tube videos on my profile page all at once. YeeeHaw!

Before I finish ranting, I'd also like to say that my own personal comments page is NOT a free-for-all message board for people to advertise shows, CDs, reviews etc. Neither should anyone else's be. When I go visit a particular MySpace page, I don't want to see someone else's unsolicited spam about what amazing, earth-shattering experiences I will have if I go visit THEIR page ... I want to see what people have to say to/about the person whose profile I'm ACTUALLY viewing at the moment, thank you. Look, we're all here to be supportive of each other and check out each other's stuff, but for Christ sake PLEASE stop doing that -- IT'S REALLY ANNOYING. Post it on the bulletin board or something, that's what it's there for.

Now, contrary to popular belief, musicians are also people, so I'd like to share some of my interests, etc. like normal people get to do on this site. If the very thought of this bores you to tears, read no more and instead check out this YouTube video of a Vegas Bellagio-style choreographed fountain made by exploding diet coke and mentos!!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=znoSaHwbHYg

(it really is amazing -- I love it and I want one in my back yard!!)

General: music, travel, architecture, exotic cuisine, languages, Hammond organs, clocks & other cool machines, cycling, dragon boat racing, super mario bros.


Music: there are 2 kinds of music - good music and bad music. I like good music.

Movies: Life of Brian, Night at the Opera (Marx Brothers), Being John Malcovich, Nobody Loves Me (Germany), Diamonds are Forever, Austin Powers (just the 1st one ... nothing beats that "Number 2" scene!), Bon Cop Bad Cop, The Party, disaster/action/suspense/drama/comedy movies from the 60s & 70s, anything with Robert Redford in it.

Television: Six Feet Under, Simpsons, Allo Allo (UK), Fawlty Towers (UK), SNL Celebrity Jeopardy, Mercer Report, Discovery Channel

Books: Cat's Cradle, Bartimeus Trilogy, Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy (the book, NOT the movie), Memoirs of a Geisha (see Hitchhiker's), His Dark Materials (trilogy)

Heroes:

-My sister Keriann - has incredible artistic talent and is a billion times wittier than I can ever hope to be. Check out her blog, e-less haiku (a poetic art form that my friend James and I thought of, yet she is way better at writing them than I am!):
http://elesshaiku.blogspot.com/

-My cousin Brianna - has an engineering degree from Queens and a law degree from Oxford and is working for a company in Europe dealing in sustainable energy technology -- before that she lived in Bolivia and helped the locals start their own small businesses. She's out saving the world while I sit on my butt and play Nintendo games from the early 90s.

-Diane Nalini - just as much of a slacker as my cousin :) ... a wonderfully talented jazz singer and composer, who in her spare time is a physics professor (and a Rhodes scholar to boot!) who dabbles in rocket science. Visit her on the web at:
http://www.dianenalini.com/
or on MySpace at:
http://www.myspace.com/dianenalini

-My 92-year-old auntie Kita - orignally from British Guyana, has lived in Montreal for decades and still lives by herself. She goes to the casino regularly wins a lot of the time! She still puts on her Merengue records and dances, and always insists on cooking us a huge meal of curry, roti & fried plantains (and rum cake at Christmas!) when we go visit. Sometimes I can't reach her on the phone because she's out partying with her kids (who are in their 70s), or at her aerobics class. She's 92!! If that's not inspiration I don't know what is!

-Dr. Lonnie Smith, of course - I learned so much about music and life from him that month I spent on his couch in Florida. Some artists who are as great as he is tend to be a bit spaced out, tunnel visioned and out of touch with reality. Completely on the other side of the spectrum, Lonnie has a very deep understanding of life, the world, and other human beings, no matter their age, race, social standing, whether or not they're a musician ... you have to meet him in order to really know what I'm talking about. I want to be him when I grow up!

Details:
Status - In a relationship
Hometown - Montreal, via Edmonton
Zodiac Sign - Scorpio
Smoke/Drink - not cigarettes/not shitty beer like Bud or Labatt
Education - Bachelor's degree, Dr. Lonnie Smith's couch

Schools:
McGill University (Montreal)
Universidad de Salamanca (Salamanca, Spain)