I’ve had a pretty good weekend this far, a lot of it having to do with the Canucks win in Boston. I know it was only a mid-season game but Boston have been playing like they’re in their own (higher) division, and its a pretty nice affirmation how good the Canucks are. Unfortunately my husband works Saturday mornings so I had to lean on my neighbours for moral support. There was an awful lot of hand slapping/high-fiving going on.

I love hockey. Part of it has to do with getting new jerseys for the team I play with, after a year and a half of Petcetera teal jerseys. It’s amazing how a new kit can make you feel more like a part of something.

It was a toss up between these two, and I was leaning a bit towards the Parks Canada logo until they told me that in spite of Stephen Harper’s love of hockey the government of Canada could not be seen to be sponsoring any hockey team, and that they sincerely hoped that my team and I could visit a national park very soon. Technically, their website says any images from their website can be used “just because you like them!” so I could have said nothing at all, or at least claimed “But I just like it!”, so that’s what you get for being honest. In the end though, I am in love with the Minnesota Green jersey. I want to wear it all the time, and in fact, wore it through the Canucks game, and at drop in hockey this morning. Either jersey would have fitting, since an inordinate amount of men on our team do some kind of work with trees.

So the day after hockey, and shortly after the Canucks game, I sat in a hot tub. I love hot tubs. I have been wrestling with wrist/shoulder problems since the end of July, 6 months now. I was seeing a physiotherapist and a massage therapist and then switched to a fancy hand specialist who’s best advice was to apply heat. I think after all the money I have spent the hot tub was the thing that helped me to get better. It’s still an on-going battle – applying heat and stretching and taking lots of breaks – and it’s affecting the things I love most – hockey, drawing, music. I can no longer shoot the puck. I swear, my Beaver team-mates, there was a time when I could, and if you wonder why I couldn’t before either, well, I can only say I was settling in to this new world of men’s hockey and rarely got the chance to. On my days off I have to struggle with not overdoing it, with not spending all day drawing or working on songs which kills me in a way you can not even imagine.

The last new love, Hiss Golden Messenger. Just ordered their new lp, can’t wait for it to arrive. Men in ball caps with beautiful voices, they get me every single time.

Here’s a panel from my comic book:

I also made a resolution that 2012 was the year to try watercolours again. At heart I am a failed watercolourist, probably because my natural tendency is to overwork things to death. Also, I like smooshing colours around. So far, I still suck:

There is a part of me that secretly fears that my inability to draw in watercolours, and therefore traditionally, means I cannot draw at all. Still, I think that probably my true medium would be oils, but I lack a) the space b) the patience to wait for it to dry. Luckily it is only the 5th of January so I have the whole year to keep working on it!

It was my first instance of nearly acting like a crazed fan, because this is my first experience cheering for a team in a Stanley Cup Final (the thing that I remember most about the ’94 run was thinking, imagine what kind of social change we could effect if we could only get out and riot in the same numbers), and good lord, it’s pretty exciting. My husband is an ex Montrealer who watched his team win 4 cups in a row, so maybe, like me, he’s not the best one to understand how it feels to have grown up with the disappointments of being a Canucks fan, or maybe this only makes their previous failure that much harder to take, I don’t know. I do know that I have friends (largely ex-Ontarians/Quebecers) who express that they hate Canucks fans – ergo, they hate me.

Whatever. Seriously. Hate me, and hate the place I live in, I don’t care. I put in my time suffering the freezing cold of Saskatchewan and it’s added to who I am, just as living in the west and raising my children here has. You can tell me we’re barely part of Canada and I won’t hold it against you, because I don’t care what you think. Cheering for the Canucks is just another thing that makes me feel a part of my community. If my team doesn’t make the playoffs I’ll root for whatever Canadian team is left (and hey, now we have one more to root for!). I do feel compelled to add, that regardless of where a team is from, that if you are going to hate the Canucks because there are some Swedes on the team or they’re not a national brand, then you are going to miss out on some thrilling, heart-stopping, awe-inspiring hockey.

One of the downsides to digital is when the program crashes and you lose everything, which is what happened today when I went out to sit in the sun and draw buildings. I use Paintbook Pro a lot, and normally it seems to save your drawings in increments, so if it does crash you usually just end up losing the last few minutes of work. I think that every now and then an app starts failing and you just have to reinstall it. Of course this means backing up all the work that’s in there, which in itself is not an enormous task and should be done anyway, but its one of those things you never get around to until it’s too late.

I had to walk around quite a bit to find a spot that afforded good seating (in the sun) with the kind of building opposite that I was interested in drawing, and even better if it was outside a cafe that served a decent cup of coffee. There’s one spot that I like but I can’t keep drawing the same buildings over and over no matter how interesting they are. In the end I got a good spot and and a drawing I was happy with, before I lost it. The second one, above, seems a little less interesting, maybe because I had drawn it once already, and I couldn’t finish it because the sun started to set and I had to return to the responsibilities of my family.

It’s amazing how the look of your own website can make you feel vaguely ill after awhile. It’s been a few years since my last update, and to be honest I’m not entirely sure what purpose it serves since most of my work seems to come via my agent, or the portfolio sites I’m on, and I loathe updating it even though I’ve got the know-how, baby. I’m not sure why this is, exactly, maybe because it’s my own site and really, after awhile, the whole mess of wordpress and templating and stuff gets rather dull. Not to mention the troubles I’ve had with the latest version of wordpress and accidentally deleting my entire body of work when wordpress and my gallery plugin refused to shake hands. I’m in the mood for something plain, and yet the getting there is so inexorably complicated.

Things are going rather well for me lately, thanks for asking. The biggest event of late, in my sometimes uneventful life, has been making the transition from traditional to digital media, and now that I’ve done so I can’t help wondering why I chose to torture myself for so very long. I guess the people out there in charge of hiring illustrators are liking it too because they are opting to send a little more work my way. I did do some work recently in oil pastel, but I had to clean them up so much in photoshop that calling them traditional might be dubious. I find it kind of amusing because a couple of years ago I took an illustration class with the wonderfully talented Geraldo Valerio who encouraged me quite strongly to work digitally, but I chose to be pig-headed. I guess I have to come to things on my own.

Interesting that I wrestled with this way back when, and rereading this post reminded me that at the time I hated drawing on my computer. I still do. Drawing on the ipod touch is another matter, but I think I’ve raved enough about that particular device – wouldn’t want you to think I’m a pawn of Apple (although I may just be.) The good news? The book I’m talking about there has some interest from a publisher, but that may be better left for another, future post.

I always feel physically and emotionally hungover the day after a gig, because I can never get to sleep immediately after, and because there are so many feelings involved – wanting to perform well, hoping people will listen, and reliving the emotions you were experiencing when you wrote the song in the first place. It almost feels like I went through some kind of intense emotional drama. Was I cool and collected or did I let too much show?

Its odd because I enjoyed myself so much. Last night’s gig was satisfying on many levels – I got to see a great band, they served tea, I didn’t have to stay up too late, and it wasn’t too loud ( you can hear the nuances of music so much better if it isn’t hammering you over the head). The only downside for me was that I still feel a bit like I’m trying to harness the sound of my guitar. It’s not the way I hear it yet, and my ham-fisted bass-playing fingers keep hammering too hard down on those tiny strings. When I talk about these things to friends, everyone is quick to reassure me, which is not what I’m after – I’m just sayin’. I’ll work it out. It’s ok, though, because did I mention they had tea?

The best part of the evening was Buffaloswans (also self-professed tea addicts), who I mentioned already being a fan on in my last post, based on the excellent songs on their myspace page. I hadn’t seen them live. We (the members of Onward Voyageur) stood around trying to describe that elusive thing that sets some bands apart from others that the Swans have in spades. You can call it groove because that’s what it is, a group of people all making something beautiful at the same time (and when it’s good, its so good) but that word doesn’t capture for me sheer soulfulness of it all. The Buffaloswans are that if anything, soulful. Its honest and meaningful and sincere. You recognize it instantly because you know its speaking to you on some intimate level, its music conjuring up what you thought were your own dark secrets, and you’re always a little surprised and relieved that its just part of the human condition. That’s why you connect to it, because we’re all a part of it, and that’s what I felt when I listened to their music. Lovely melodies, harmonies, guitar lines.

Oh yeah, I’m pretty sure at some point in the show we (or I should say I) spent an inordinate amount of time talking about things that only the other members of the band were interested in. Some nights are like that.

crossposted

Last night at band practice Christine was teasing Joyita and I about our husband’s reactions to our ipods (a little bit jealous of the attention we pay to them), and to be honest, they are a bit justified in that jealousy. We have to admit that in a raging fire we’d hesitate just for a second at who to save first (I’m only kidding, darling, you know it’s you). But while the world is focused on the ipad I’d like to write this little post professing my undying love for my ipod, and its not the first time either.

Some ipodless friends think they’re not techy enough to use one (they don’t realize how innovative the operating system is, the whole touch thing is SO intuitive that I’m prone thinking – what?? point and click?? How terribly archaic!) or that the cult-like devotion we have for them signals the downfall of civilization (its probably true). I’m often baffled by people who don’t love them, or are given one by their jobs and say they don’t know what to do with them. Okay, its like shitmydadsays “You didn’t invent it, you just bought it”, but I love it. And I’m going to tell you about it. And no, I don’t work for Apple or any of the manufacturers whose apps I’m going to rave about. Keep reading.

Its a great device to have if you’re a musician. I love jamming with it. I haven’t quite figured out how we can make ourselves look interesting playing ipods, but it definitely sounds interesting and is super fun to play. And yes, it is just like a tiny, somewhat awkward to play keyboard, but the sounds are great, there’s no latency, and there’s such a variety of noises to be had at your fingertips. Some of my favorite music making apps are Yonac’s mini-synth, N-log (free!), Grand Pro, BeatMaker and Star 6. I’ve also moved the computer loops that we use live into BeatMaker so I don’t have to haul my laptop and midi keyboard to shows or practice anymore (the less to carry, the better). Then of course, we record all our new songs and vocal practices so we can remember/learn/keep track of our harmonies and parts. And the same for songwriting – its quick and handy to capture the ideas – 4track is another app that comes in handy for that. I can also tune my acoustic with it, and my electric and bass using a 1/4 inch adapter I bought from Perterson Strobe Tuners. I’m waiting for the dock line-out that I bought on ebay to arrive and then I can process my vocals too. I take notes on it, write lyrics and books on it with Awesome Note (it’s awesome) and can make chord charts on it using SketchBook.

Not to mention drawing. I talked about Brushes earlier and how great it is for that, and now that the bigger screened iPad is out I think graphics apps may have some stiff competition (the prospect of drawing on it really makes me want an ipad). Drawing with my finger is way more satisfying than with my $250 wacom tablet, and easier. Plus I can do it anywhere because its always in my pocket.

And of course, social networking everywhere and anywhere. Having the calendar handy so you can immediately respond if someone says “Are you free?’. Listening to music, looking at photos. The Guardian UK’s app is proving that they are way ahead of other newspapers in adapting to new technologies (the Globe and Mail one is good too).

The only thing missing is a camera, seriously. I don’t care about having a phone so much (too much money for the plans!) but I really would love to have Hipstamatic. Christine has taken some lovely photos already, which you may see posted on our new band twitter page via twitteriffic.

I’m done now.

I received this beautiful necklace as a christmas present from drummer Dan who makes the most beautiful jewelry (the photo does not do it justice so look at it in the bigger size by clicking the photo!). He couldn’t decide which piece to give to who, so we each just picked out a wrapped one and oddly enough we all seemed to get the piece that most suited us. On the back is the word Voyageur. I love this necklace so much its become a bit of a talisman – I don’t pay much attention to the way I’m putting it on, but I’ve found that whatever word faces out sums up how I have to navigate throughout my day – Onward for the days when I’m low or blue or puzzled by a friend’s hot and cold, or Voyageur for the days I have to be a little adventurous. It’s also made me realize what a great word onward is. And how much more I love our band, and our band name as a result!

I have to write some more about my new little camera, because I am so in love with it. Unfortunately the last two days have been a flurry of illustrating and christmas shopping (ack! I just started today!) so I have not been able to go out and take any new pictures, much to my dismay. In the meantime I have compiled some pics taken last week and posted them to the photos page.

I got the idea that it would be nice to have a little camera when I began lamenting not having one on my ipod touch. I’m not even sure how I came across this group – but seeing the pictures convinced me that this was the one I wanted, mostly because of its Holga-esque qualites (a camera which I do own, but I have to travel by bus to get film and anyone who owns one knows how costly it can become to develop the pictures). I was not disappointed – the pictures look a lot like they could come from the Holga, and I can shoot more than a hundred in one outing without paying through the nose for it. I love how colours look and the weird way that whites seem to glow. It sure does take some lovely pictures for a tiny-sized plastic 1.3 megapixel camera. I am quite keen to try some ir photos and some photos through anti-newton glass (although god knows if that will work with such a tiny lens). Now if I only had the time to go shoot some pictures!