Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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Practice makes perfect

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I don’t know if any of you happen to also read my husbands blog “Guitar Licks“, but if you have been reading it lately you probably already know that my husband is about to try out as the guitar player for a progressive rock band.

Chris and Sofie
Chris and our neighbor Sofie

This is a big thing for him. He started playing guitar when he was 9 years old and in no time he became quite well known in his home town for his talent. He even played with a few bands in his teens that toured across North America, but by the time he reached his 20’s he knew he didn’t really want that “rock n’ roll” lifestyle, so he just started playing to entertain friends and went to college for a non-music related career.

When Chris and I first met he was playing guitar every day and he was GOOD! Really good. I kept encouraging him to join a band at least part time, like a garage band, just so that he wouldn’t have any regrets later in life. I mean, when you have that much talent (he plays 13 instruments and plays them well) you shouldn’t just let it die, right?

Well, he never did find a band that he was interested in playing with, until earlier this month anyway! Remember I said we went to the Nuance progressive rock festival a couple of weekends ago? Well Chris talked to all the bands, but he really clicked with this one band and it just so happens that they are looking for a guitar player. So Chris is going to meet with them next Thursday for a jam session and I guess perhaps an audition.

I know that the band won’t be disappointed in his playing. He’s a little rusty since he doesn’t play every day or even every week anymore, but he put his equiptment together this morning and he spent oh … about 6 hours going over the bands music and I expect that he’ll do the same tomorrow and Monday (his day off work), so he’ll be ready for them on Thursday.

Practice makes perfect doesn’t it? I hope it does in Chris’ case since he’s a perfectionist!

Along with the sound of guitar playing filling the house all day I’ve also had to listen to Chris list off all this equiptment that he’d like to get if he starts playing with the band regularly … Oh my … I’m going to have to work 24 hours a day on my sites to make enough money to pay for this stuff! LOL Along with a new amp, wah-wah pedal, and a digital voice chorus pedal he’s also mentioned that he’d like to get one of those talking watches (to help remind him when to practice and to remind him of other things – like eating!). I think we’d better start looking on Ebay for some of these items because I know we can’t afford to buy all of them brand new right now.

Anyway … We’ll see how this goes. As I said, Chris is extremely talented so I think the band will give him a try. I’m just happy to see him playing again and trying out for band. I’d hate for him never to try playing with a band again and then have him regret it when he’s too old to really get out and do it.

Do any of you play musical instruments or sing? Do you practice or play with a band?





A concert in the afternoon

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Chris and I did something different today. We went to a Progressive Rock concert at … of all places … the local Legion Hall.

The bands played from 2:30 pm until about 8:30 pm … I know, very strange hours for a concert, but hey .. it was at a Royal Canadian legion after all. Maybe that’s the only time it could be booked?

The bands weren’t professional, but they were pretty good. I’m not the biggest fan of progressive rock, it’s my husband that really loves that stuff. I’m more of a classic rock, indie and techno kind of person. It was a fun afternoon/ early evening though. I’m sure Chris will write about it on one of his music blogs, probably by tomorrow.

The place was close to our home so we were able to walk both ways. On the way back we zig zagged through a few side streets and we past a house with a beautiful garden at the front of the house. If I ever decide to completely redo our tiny front yard I’ll try to do something like what they did. Of course our front yard is really really small … like 10×10 ft. LOL So I guess we won’t have the antique looking wooden swing sets that they had to one side of their garden. Well … maybe if we move and get a bigger house on a bigger property?

So what did you do today? Yard work, visit relatives or did you go to a concert or some kind of event too?

Blaze Media Pro All in one audio and video converter

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Have you ever wished that you had software that could meet all your audio and video editing needs? Well I’ve just been introduced to Blaze Media Pro software and I think you’ll find that it not only meets all of your needs, and has so many features that you’ll never want to use another piece of software to edit your videos or audio files.

Blaze Media Pro allows you to edit your videos and audio files in all of the popular formats such as MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, WMV, iPod, PSP, 3GP and many more. The software includes a full audio and video converter, burner, video capture, audio recorder, data CD/DVD burner, add special effects (there’s a list of 30 special effects that you can use), create and manage playlists and more all in one software application.

I think this software would be great for any bloggers that are thinking of or who already do video or audio podcasts on their sites. Think about it – instead of using two or more programs to edit your video or audio creations you can use just one piece of software. Just imagine how much time you’ll save.

Some of the features that I really like are the ability to extract and save sound files, add audio to video, extract frames to image files in batch mode and the fact that you can create videos from still frame images or by piecing together parts of other videos to create your own awesome movie.

If you want to try out this software you can download a free trial version of Blaze Media Pro. Try it. I’m sure you’ll like it.

Just about ready to go to the Canadian Open and concert

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Well in a little while Chris and I will be off to the Glen Abbey golf course to watch some of the Canadian Open semi-finals and then to go to the Tom Cochrane and Red Rider concert.

We just called the info line at the Canadian Open to find out about parking and the shuttle service that they are offering and we found out that there’s already a delay in play on the course.

I have a feeling there will be lots of delays today because we are under a severe thunder storm watch. We’re expecting severe winds and large hail. Great eh? Maybe Chris and I should wear our swimsuits when we go because I’m certain we’re going to get wet!

Apparently yesterdays concert didn’t start until 9 pm because of delays. Golf play is expected to end between 6 and 7 pm and the concerts start up right at the end of play but because of all the delays the concert started late too.

The main attraction for us is the concert so we are holding off going to Glen Abbey until about 4 or perhaps even 5 pm. We’re also delaying because we don’t have anyone to watch our dog and we don’t want to leave her alone for too long.

I’m almost always home so Midnight hasn’t spent a lot of time alone. of course there’s been times when we’ve been out for two to four hours without her but that’s the longest she’s been left alone. So it looks like this afternoon and evening will be her longest stretch on her own. She’ll be in her crate with her favorite toys so I think she’ll do ok. Luckily she’s not a barker!

We’re going to a Tom Cochrane concert next week

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I got an email from my brother last night. Remember I told you last week that he told me that he was going to try to get Chris a free pass to the PGA golf tour? Well he managed to get two passes!

Now I’m not all that interested in watching a golf tournament, but I do believe that I will be going. You see at the end of each days rounds, well the last three or four days of the tournament anyway, there’s going to be a free concert. Our passes are for Saturday July 26th (at Glen Abbey) and that evening Tom Cochrane and Red Rider will be putting on a concert.

I love Tom Cochrane’s music. I guess one of his most famous songs is Lunatic Fringe or perhaps Life is a Highway. I like all of his music and I’ve never managed to see him play live so this will be a real treat!

I just hope that I’m feeling well enough to go that day. My tum has been causing lots of problems in the last two weeks. Darn Crohn’s. I’ve had terrible fevers and lots of abdominal pain, plus I’ve been losing weight. It’s like I’ve been taking Phentermine or something the way my weight is dropping. That’s the bad thing about Crohn’s, well one of the bad things – you can really lose a lot of weight very fast when you are in a flare. It’s bad.

The last time my Crohn’s flared really bad and caused a lot of weight loss I lost about 40 pounds that I did NOT need to lose in less than a month. I hope that’s not going to happen this time too.

Anyway, I’m glad my brother got us the passes and I’ll be resting up over the next week in the hopes that I can go to the golf tournament and concert.

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