I Got A Few Bad Habits

Things are really coming together. First rehearsal was a smashing success as far as I am concerned. I couldn't be more pleased with this group. They brought a lot of talent to the room and I can't wait for the next rehearsal!

We made it through 5 songs last night. Four of those five are shaping up pretty well and one in particular is pretty polished already. Liam is rock solid on the drums and Joe is right there with him holding down the bottom end. Mimi really has the perfect blues voice and Jay was pulling off Albert King guitar licks at all the right spots. This band thing may not have been such a crazy idea after all...

Oh and we have a name. We are Bad Habits.

I have a sample of Son of a Preacher Man from our first run through, but I will get everyone's permission before I post it.

Making the Band

Well it's been less than a month since my post about starting a band and a lot has happened since then.
Our first rehearsal is Monday night!

The line up as of now is:

Mimi O'Bryan - Vocals
Jason Condon - Guitar
Dale McKie - Guitar
Joe Pigeon - Bass
Liam Kearney - Drums

We're going to try our hand at rockin' some blues tunes. Jay and I got together last night and did a reworking of Dusty Springfield's Son a Preacher Man. Not to be immodest but I think this one really grooves! Can't wait to get the whole band on this one!

This is gonna be fun! I also think if anyone is interested I would like to try to document our progress...maybe I'll post some pics/video/mp3's or whatever. We'll get this first rehearsal out of the way and see how things go.

Next step...finalizing a band name!

Are you crazy?

Since about the middle of last month I have had a crazy idea stuck in my head. I have tried to let it go, tried to not think about it, tried to ignore it, but it's still there. Today I turned 37 and decided it was time to confront this crazy idea head-on.

I am obviously old enough to know better. Life experience, and friends and family would all tell me I probably shouldn't do this. I have had my share of self doubt...perhaps I am too old, perhaps I don't have the ability, perhaps it will just never get off the ground...but none of that is going to stop me from trying!

I want to start a band.

I am looking for other musicians who, like me, just want to have some fun, maybe play a few gigs on the weekends here and there. Anyway if you are interested in putting something together with this aging, mediocre guitarist, that has a firm love of classic rock and blues, let me know.

Bowling For Bros.

This past weekend, I took part in the Big Brothers Big Sisters Bowl for Kids Sake event. I have been involved for several years now and it is always a great time and a wonderful fundraiser for the organization. I look forward to this event and this year it got me thinking about the time I spent as a big brother. It's been years now, but I often think about my little brother and wonder how he is doing.

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am really very terrible at staying in touch with people. It doesn't mean I don't want to or I don't care about them or how they are doing; I am just bad at picking up the phone and calling/emailing/texting/facebooking etc. This was the case with my little brother. After I left Big Brothers Big Sisters, I did a terrible job of staying in touch. I feel bad about that. Aaron was a great kid and we had a lot of fun together. I should have been a better big brother to him, I hope he enjoyed the time we did spend together. I know I did.

In an effort to be better at staying in touch, I tracked him down on Facebook today and put in a friend request. Hopefully that will reconnect us as I would love to know how he is doing and what he is up to now.

If anyone reading this has a little free time and thinks they might be interested in becoming a Big Brother or Big Sister I recommend it.

I also want to put out a big THANK YOU to everyone who sponsored me this year!
In another effort to be better at staying in touch I'll call on you all again next year ;-)

Google It Up!

Google is putting PEI on the map! Literally.

The super cool Google StreetViews of PEI are now live. They drove around last summer in the crazy Google car and took full 360° photos of most of Prince Edward Island. I saw them as they drove through Charlottetown and lo and behold they even captured my motorcycle parked outside work!

This is very cool technology, and I have used it on my iPhone in several times while travelling. It is wonderful to finally see PEI getting added. It's also a little creepy. If you head up University Ave. just in front of Robin's Donuts you can see the MeterMaid (I know he's a guy but I like to call him the MeterMaid) writing up a ticket for some poor unfortunate soul who is trying to shop in downtown. I wonder what else got captured on cam as they drove around? Let me know if you find anything crazy/funny/interesting.