Dyniss

I’m in another band now

I haven’t yet mentioned that I started playing with these other three fellows who are calling themselves “Fifteen Minute Lecture”. However, I think the band name might change. They’ve been together for 6 months and never had a show. I replied to an ad I saw on KickInTheHead.com. They’re good guys, and they’re playing my style of music. Mike and I had a chat at my solo show on the weekend about potential conflicts with me and my solo music career, versus playing with them. I basically said, “I’m playing with you guys because I’m enjoying it and I’m simply not thinking beyond that”, which is true. But they’re learning my songs, and I’m learning theirs. We joked about “Fifteen Minute Lecture, featuring Dyniss”, or “Dyniss and the Fifteen Minute Lecture”, depending on the show. But I think that’s a bit silly.

Hamilton Music Scene

Aha, over a week since I wrote. Well, in terms of shows, I played as part of the Hamilton Music Scene Festival this weekend. There were lots of people about, since it was also the last weekend of the 2003 World Cup Bike Races here. My show was fun. Had my friend Mike play with me on some songs, and I played with my CD player for a few songs. No sound person showed up. I had to do the sound for me and the two other acts. I also met a drummer I hadn’t seen in years. I appeared on CFMU on Friday night with Ric Taylor to promote the show. Ric had researched me through this site and had a lot of poignant questions which were unexpected… …A sign of a good interview. He invited me to return there around Christmas to promote Hey Michael.
My girlfriend and I got that apartment in Toronto for Nov.1st. We’ve already got 20 boxes of stuff together. I’m job hunting 8 hours a day, including weekends right now. Great cover letters, decent resumes. It’s rather frustrating. Too bad I’ve already used up my “I know people in Toronto” resources to land me work. However, for the record, I’m actually quite sad about leaving Hamilton here! I got to know some people, the community, the sights, etc. I felt I could handle a city of this size with ease. I lived here for one year.

Green Party PARTY

I played solo at the Ontario Provincial Green Party post-election party last night. No seats were won by the Greens this election, but votes were up by several hundred percent when compared to the last election! If Ontario had fair proportional party representation, then the Greens would have won at least three seats yesterday.
Too bad the sound wasn’t very good and I didn’t play The Green Anthem very well. However, it was awesome to be around so many Greens at once! A few inspiring speeches were given by candidates. I look forward to playing the next Ontario post-election party in 4 years — they’ll definitely win seats then.
In other news, my girlfriend and I will definitely be moving back to Toronto as of November 1st. We’ll soon find out if we get this apartment we want. It’s cool! I definitely have got to get a new regular job in Toronto. Rent is about to double.

Red Hill Valley

On the weekend the only dramatic thing I did was go to a local get-together to oppose the building of the Red Hill Valley Expressway here in Hamilton, Canada. This is yet another long-term planet versus short-term business issue where the natural environment is about to get shafted. I was a little bold and leapt onto the stage when the host was nowhere to be found during presentations, and played the Green Anthem for folks there. There was a great slide presentation by a local resident. You could see he cared so much about this last natural corridor in our city. A part native local fellow gave an incredible speech about our local history. A few poems and rhymes were given. There were video presentations, too. I got seriously choked up when one of the videos made a play on that popular series of credit-card commercials. You know the ones? “Waterproof backpack, $50. Digital watch. $110. Rain coat. $62.” The clincher was, “Red Hill Valley… Priceless.” Then they showed a few stills of a snail and some other natural images that will be wiped away with the building of the Expressway. I was gonna start crying. Crying! So many things are like this!

Extreme Makeover

OK, I saw “Extreme Makeover” for the first time on T.V. As do many other people, I was sort of shocked but couldn’t stop watching. I told my girlfriend, “You know, I used to read a lot of sci-fi. Some of those writers predicted this a long time ago”. I added that there’s still a lot of room for growth. There are many more predictions beyond “Extreme Makeover”. My favourite prediction is regarding personalized genetic mods. Imagine having cheetah or zebra skin instead of regular skin. Or imagine going to the local sex-change guru for an overnight gender overhaul just because you’re bored with being a guy. Sound outrageous? People would have thought that “Extreme Makeover” was impossible only 30 years ago.

Looking 4 Work

I am now spending a lot of time looking for new work in Toronto. I might end up moving there. The need for cash is strong, and the draw of the big city is sucking me in.

Shoreline Cleanup

This morning I picked up garbage on a Hamilton bay shoreline with my girlfriend as part of the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. It was pretty fun with great weather and a decent sense of camaraderie with other cleaners. However, I had mixed thoughts, from feeling great about us cleaning up other people’s messes, to realizing that pollution will only get worse with time. Omigod, I think I’m a pessimist! So much for Mr. Positivity! Some of the things our little group found in only a hundred square metres were straws, plastic bags, tampon applicators, syringes, rubber bands, fishing bobbers, toys, cigarillo tips, tennis balls, bottles, tons of unidentifiable plastic pieces, and wrappers for chocolate bars and chips. People just LOVE throwing these things away while they enjoy nature areas. As I looked out at the beautiful birds hanging out about 15 metres from the shoreline, I thought, “sorry, guys”. I felt embarrassed.

Stuff

Ooo, I already feel like I’m not keeping up with my blog. It looks like I’m going to move back to Toronto after living in nearby Hamilton for a full year. This means I will have to get some new work with decent income to pay the higher rent. How shall I do that? Hmm…a new job in the music industry? Har, har. I learned that it’s virtually impossible to just walk into a good job in the music industry, regardless of experience. You usually have to start at the bottom and work your way up. I might end up working some dumb job. Such a senseless waste of talent! La dee da, we shall see.
Word on the street is I might play the Ontario Green Party election night party on Oct. 2. We’ll see about that, too. It’s amazing how much effort I’m putting into things to make them happen. Offering to play only one song (specifically written for the Green Party) at their election-night party for FREE involved some research, almost a dozen calls, messages, and various e-mails, and even then I don’t know what’s going to happen. Mind you, the Greens are super-busy now, but this is pretty common everywhere.

My First Entry

Welcome to my first blog entry. Seeing that the blog has become somewhat of a trendy thing to do on the internet, and considering I’ve wasted a lot of time meandering through other people’s lives this way, I thought it would be a neat idea to get my own going. This isn’t the first diary I’ve ever kept — I used to keep a diary in a laptop before the laptop was stolen. It was super-detailed and pretty interesting. It was something, however, that I was too shy to share with anyone — lots of private things and thoughts. I suppose that’s why the classic little diaries came with keys (which you could easily pick, though) to keep prying eyes away.
How private shall THIS diary now become? Nowadays, I always say, “I don’t have anything to hide”, which I believe to a great extent. The problem, however, is that what is on your mind can always hurt other people. The reality of raw thought has a blinding and painful quality to it. We have to filter what comes out of our minds and mouths to protect other beings’ feelings. Self-censorship. Sometimes people even tend to take what you say and can possibly hurt you with your own thoughts by criticizing them! Hmm…