- It all started when we were getting back to trying to finish the record here in order to attempt to release the CD before the end of the year. Trevor and I had just finished converting my teaching study into a recording studio, and were reviewing previously-recorded drum tracks on "Hooters Girl" when the recording unit suffered a fatal error.
- So as the recording unit was packed up and shipped to a repair shop in Winnipeg, we called Chris Nylen at Faders Music & Recording in Brandon and arranged to begin recording the entire album all over again, from scratch. We were in Faders' studio the very next day, I believe, and have been most days since, except when a lack of understanding lead to a postponement for most of 3 weeks while another band was given priority (they had pre-paid for their studio time). While we understand the logic behind the studio's decision, we also consider it inconsiderate and mercenary, as a decision based at least partially on money has now postponed the release of our own full-length CD until early next year. Still, while being encouraged by many to relocate our efforts to another studio, I don't switch horses mainstream. Chris has been a friend for many years, and he stepped up when we needed him, so if it has to take some stronger efforts on my part for him to see things from our perspective (as he's always saying "try to see things from my point of view", despite the fact that we already do) in order for us to work together better, then so be it. This project will be completed at Faders, and we hope that they understand that we're trusting them to make it as easy & comfortable as possible, as it's not easy trying to record an album when it means two hours on the highway every day that I'm required to be in the studio.
- In the meantime, Trevor & I were able to hit Winnipeg for the last weekend in October in order to take in the 2nd Annual Manitoba ComiCon, and visited with several reknowned science fiction actors, including Star Wars' David Prowse ("Darth Vader"), Battlestar Gallactica's Richard Hatch ("Apollo") and Herbert Jefferson Jr. ("Boomer"), Superman's Margot Kidder ("Lois Lane"), and Star Trek: The Next Generation's Barbara March ("Lursa") & Gwenyth Walsh ("B'tor"). I gave them each a souvenir guitar pick, as they'd visited & signed autographs for us, and the thousands of other geeks who had been lured out from their parents' basements.
- Meeting Richard Hatch was especially cool for me (I explained to him that as a boy, I'd always pretended to be Capt. Apollo while making my brother play Lt. Starbuck). Later we discussed MySpace and Facebook and my initial reluctance to make pages for either, and when he asked why, I quipped that each was "like an internet within the internet; kind of an 'inner-net of sorts'" ...he liked the term.
- Trevor nervously met with Margot Kidder, but later on, overhearing her coughing, I asked, "You okay there, Margot?"... she replied, "I'm fine, Alan, but I guess I should ask someone to get me a bottle of water." Without even bothering to look for a phone booth, I flew through the convention room to the other side of the hotel, plunked my last two loonies into a machine and, hurdling kids and nerds alike, ran at superspeed to Margot's table. The dry-throated actress asked what she owed me, and I explained, "Nothing, because now I can say that I rescued Lois Lane". She agreed. Afterwards Trev & I went to Hooters with Fan Club president Karen, where Suzanne became our new favourite waitress.
- Back in Westman, we received a call from Mike Edgar of Nuthin But Trouble, asking us to fill in at the City Centre in Brandon on the 16th & 17th for Blue Steele as their guitarist had suffered a heart attack. Things went well, and we'll be returning on the 25th and 26th of January. Video of one of the few covers we performed (along with our regular sets of originals) is on our MySpace & Facebook pages, and probably YouTube as well. The video was shot by our current booking agent, Anne-Marie Thibert of (Thibert Event & Associated Management), who's working on finding us gigs on the eastern side of the province. In the interim, we're re-working our Electronic Press Kit and our M.A.R.I.A. member page in order to promote ourselves to bigger talent agencies, in order to further expand our horizons, which seem to grow every single day.
- Anyway, as we attempt to wrap up the recording by the end of the year, our Street Team in Winnipeg is currently working on the release party we've now set for Ukrainian New Years Eve, January 12th at Wildside in the Chalet Hotel at the corner of Archibald & Marion in St. Boniface... in the same building as Teasers Burlesque Club, but as John Lennon once said, "we're the band, and you'll be happy to know we keep our clothes on".
"the Blue Devil"
