Talking Dog
Yes, y’all.
Figured I should jump in with a quick update on things even though there’s not a shit-load going on.
We got the Man Overboard re-issues out there doing their thing and the response has been great. Really appreciate that. Knocking around a few ideas for what I could press up next. Weirdo Magnet, in some form? The Double Nice album? Synesthesia? A comp of stray songs, many of which are on the Bandcamp page? I’m in no rush to settle on an answer there.
As far as new material goes, there are basically four projects in the pipeline. One of them is done. One of them is just a twinkle in the eye. The other two are somewhere in-between. My priority right now is finishing off the unused material from Keep Moving. Originally I hoped to get that out of the way by the end of the year but that’s looking unlikely. The wheels have been turning slowly and I have decided that that’s okay. I don’t want to put pressure on myself. But that’s what’s next.
Speaking of Keep Moving, there aren’t too many copies left out there. There’s approximately a dozen copies on vinyl and a dozen cassettes left. That’s it. Run over to the Handsmade website to nab one of the last few copies. Keep Moving is the ultimate stocking-stuffer.
I’m also thinking about making some archival business available for the next Bandcamp Friday, which is in the first week of December. It’s just a matter of whether or not I can get off my ass. Working on it.
In non-music-related news, I had a lot of people reach out to me during and after the World Series a few weeks ago. Friends know that I’m a Dodgers fan and I live in Toronto, so everyone was saying, “this must be a dream match-up for you!” And it was. My thinking going in was that I could just relax and enjoy it because I’ll be happy whoever wins. And to be honest, I didn’t think the Blue Jays (or anyone else) had a snowball’s chance against the mighty Dodgers. I was mostly just wanted to see some good/entertaining baseball and not total annihilation. A quick and easy 4-game sweep is not a lot of fun to watch, even if your team wins. But something crazy happened - the Blue Jays started winning. A few games into the series, it was starting to look like they might pull off a miracle. The running joke among the American broadcasters and commentators was that no-one knew who these guys were - just a rag-tag bunch of nobodies. Maybe I’ve watched too many movies or something but I could help but feel the Blue Jays were the team of destiny. If they won, it would have gone down as one of the greatest upsets in the history of the sport. In the decisive game 7 of the series, it appeared at five or six different points that they were going to do it. But in the end, a dagger was plunged into the hearts of the team and their fans.
Earlier in the playoffs, the Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts, made a joke about how the Dodgers were ‘ruining baseball’. Most baseball fans hate them because they’re the richest team and they can afford to buy all the top talent. And in the end, it kinda was the Dodgers’ wealth that made the difference. One of their big-ticket purchases last year was star pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto who came over from Japan. The Dodgers almost certainly wouldn’t have won without the super-human effort he gave the team in the World Series. So the Dodgers did what they had to do to win and that’s cool and all. But somehow it feels wrong. The story would have been so much better if the Blue Jays won. And I say this as a Dodgers fan.
Before all of this, I would have said the 1986 World Series was the greatest. The entire post-season that year was totally wild and super-dramatic. It affected me emotionally in a pretty powerful way. In the end, the team I was rooting for (The Mets) won. This year, the drama effected me even more and the team that won me over ended up losing and I’m not sure I’ll ever get over it.
I’m feeling crazy so - what the hell? - here’s a song you never heard before…
Until the next. 3