Sometimes I've been doing interesting things, and I've been like, "I should put this on the blog!" But I'm too busy. And when I have time to update, I'm doing something boring, and I think "nobody wants to know about this!"
Right now I'm cleaning up after making two batches of latkes. One made with purple potatoes, and one made with fingerlings, parsnips, and beets. The latter was amazing - the former, well, I've had worse.
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| Is this allowed? |
What else have I been up to? Well, let's go chronological. Since I last updated, my moustache continued to grow. I went from trucker-handlebar to 1974 junior-league hockey coach to one that I just named "Philippe".
The recording project started to take shape near the end of November. On the 27th I headed out to Montreal to record bassist Joel Kerr, who also donated his studio space for his portion of the recording, as well as two others! I returned to Montreal on December 9th and 10th to record clarinetist Christian Dawid (visiting from Berlin, luckily for me) and Montreal trumpetress Amy Horvey. Aside from being phenomenally talented, creative, and sensitive musicians, these three are some of the loveliest people I know. I'm really excited about the project, which is really shaping up to be something great. I'm looking forward to recording a few other equally-wonderful musicians later this week. And it looks like I might even get another one of my favorite collaborators, vocalist Sasha Lurje, to take part - which was a pleasant surprise, since I didn't think it would be possible to involve her.
Here are some photos from the Montreal portion (aka Phase 1) of the recording project:
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| Joel Kerr, action-bass |
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| Amy Horvey, underwater trumpet |
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| Fuzzy Amy |
My recording with the 3 Jimmys was pretty amazing. I don't know to what extent it's top-secret; since it's not my project, I won't say much about it here until I get the official greenlight. What I can tell you is that I'm on 3 tracks, and the rest of the horn section includes IMOO/Mashers saxophonist Linsey Wellman and my co-worker and UofT alum, trumpeter Meiko Lydall. Anyway, the recording session is best described as "strange and beautiful". The bit with David Suzuki and the Portugese weathergirl was probably the least-expected part. I had moments during the session where I just thought "how great is it that I get paid to do stuff like this?" Those are the best types of gigs; it's a feeling I get with the Potato Mashers all the time. I'm taking my life in a lot of different directions these days, but I'll never quit playing.
Playing for my son's class at school was also really rewarding. They were mostly stunned silent, but one kid mustered the courage to ask if it was made of wood, and they were oddly amazed that trombones are completely metal. Apparently when parents arrived to pick up their kids that day, the metallic nature of brass instruments was a pretty hot topic.
Apart from all that, I've mostly been busy at work. Today I got to record some intros and outros for new episodes of the NACOcast, because we've started recording some of the pre- and post-concert chats, for which I'm one of the organizers. Keep your ears peeled!
Only other thing I can think to say is Happy Hanukkah! Or whatever you do!
Here are some things online I've been enjoying lately.
Happy Hanukkah!
My cohort hates this band. I think she needs to relax; even Robert Plant thinks they're awesome!
The oddest earworm I've ever had
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