Gregg Koval's Blog

Sad News

2012-01-09T12:42:00.000-05:00

Some days, the RSS Feeds are better than others. Today's was a bit sad.

Bob Weston from Fleetwood Mac died. Bob was a treat, especially his slide playing. I even ripped him off using the slide guitar with the AutoWah. He probably had an expensive Envelope Filter back then.

If you kids are wondering which non-Lindsay Buckingham/non-Peter Green CD to get (other than Kiln House and Bare Trees), make sure you get Mystery To Me....and Bob's on that one.

Another great player gone.

Greed Is Annoying

2011-12-07T08:21:00.000-05:00

I should pay more attention to these things since I'm a SOCAN memeber and get their magazine every month(?), but I had to read in the paper yesterday about the rights of copyright holders "to get paid when consumers preview music on iTunes".

That's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read, getting paid for a listen. "Artists" should remind themselves that a royalty is a percentage of a sale. A sale. I'm not sure if Artists are greedy or insecure. Probably a bit of both.

Here's my prediciton (if this actually passes and artists get paid for a preview): it can only mean prices will go up ($1 a song is overpriced as it is), and if there's always that reminder of "prices are up because of previews" then nobody's going to buy anything they haven't heard of. Especially Canadian music. Those two words together aren't the pleasant combination you think it would be. SOCAN could ruin it for all Canadians who would like their listeners to come from other countries.

"SOCAN argues that using previews in support of a purely commercial operation cannot be considered 'research'".

Well, you know what, it is research. I'm researching what I want to buy by basing it on what I hear. Just like at a store when I flip through a few pages of a magazine and then decide to buy it...or put it down. Why should some "Artist" get a royalty for something that I may not like? Next SOCAN will probably try and get royalties for YouTube hits.

I'm pretty pissed off about this actually, even though I should be all for it. This whole royalty/internet thing is getting out of hand since there isn't much common sense behind these kinds of decisions.

SOCAN's been greedy before. I remember a couple of years ago, I had to fill out a set list form because we were playing at a little town festival. I'm in a cover band and I'm having to submit a setlist so royalties could be...I'm not sure...paid to the songwriter? It didn't cost us anything out of our pocket so where's that money coming from? And that begs the question of why is a songwriter getting recouped from a live performance?

It's a shame SOCAN has to see things like this. I can't help where I was born but I'm a little ashamed and embarrased to be linked to them.

On that topic, I'd like to remind you fine readers that all of my CDs at CD Baby are marked down as low as I could go ($5.00) and Digital Downloads are only $2 for an album (songs are still $1.00 apiece; I couldn't change that). And I won't charge you for a listen.

Another Rolling Stone List

2011-11-24T11:07:00.001-05:00

Way back in 2004, I think, Rolling Stone put out a pretty dreadful Top 100 list of the... I don't remember what they called it, "World's Best Guitarist" or something like that. Not important since Rolling Stone hasn't mattered in decades. Anyways, that list was compiled by what looked like non-guitarists.

Sales must be down at the magazine over the last couple of months so they made another list. Last week, RS whittled it down to "The Top Ten Greatest Guitarists of all time".

Jimi Hendrix
Eric Clapton
Jimmy Page
Keith Richards
Jeff Beck
B.B. King
Chuck Berry
Eddie Van Halen
Duane Allman
Pete Townshend

It's such a white list. You may as well throw in Ace Frehley while you're at it.

The people that "compiled" this list remind me of the same type of people that buy Greatest Hits albums and/or get their music from Rock Band. If they changed the title to "Top 10 Most Influential Guitarists to Baby Boomers", then it'd be a lot more accurate.

On that list, I love 2 of them, like 7 of them and just can't stand 1 one them. I'm not going to name names though.

This time around, I'm going to flip through the Reader's Comments. I think most comments refer to the old Top 100 List because there's no way some of the suggestions could be in a Top 10. Some comments have to be a joke. One guy actually said Jeff Beck "was nothing". Have a look:

Mike McCready from Pearl Jam and Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead
Billy Corgan
The Edge
Jack White
Joe Bonamassa
Tom Morello
Jerry Cantrell
Bruce Springsteen
Dimebag Darrell
"Whoever plays lead in the Fresh & Onlys"
John Mayer
Kurt Cobain

When I did my list so many years ago I remember writing a line like, "If kids are told that this is what "great" is, then we're in a lot of trouble." I had no idea I'd be right. John Mayer? Ugh.

Now many years later and many years of hearing new things (my Number 1 pick back from the first list was Django), I may not have a Top 10 list, but I'll tell you who should be a realistic number 1 in a credible and relevant list: Chet Atkins. I bolded it so you kids might get the spelling right. Not one person on that list can or could keep up with Chet.

One Way To Fight a Cold

2011-11-24T10:57:00.000-05:00

When I got sick a couple of months ago (it was only a bad cold), I had a few days off. For some reason, when I get a cold which isn't too often, I put on the Kissology DVDs. I don't mind KISS. When I was a kid, they could do no wrong, and on the DVDs I like the commentaries.

What I always forget about until I see it is how bad Ace Frehley really is. And he hasn't got any better. I would have to say, in my humble opinion, that Ace Frehley is probably the worst recorded guitarist ever. The only thing redeeming about him is his guitar sound on some tracks.

Oh, then there's that God-awful guitar solo he does. The guy's been around for almost 40 years - you'd think he'd learn how to hold a pick properly. But no, it's fumble, fumble, fumble, firework; fumble, fumble, fumble, firework. Rinse and repeat.

He's so terrible, it can actually make me angry.

Subliminally maybe I think watching/listening to him will make me puke and therefore pass the cold quicker. don't know.

I happy to say that I don't have that cold anymore...just the horrible memories.

Let's Have A PETA-free Thanksgiving

2011-11-15T15:35:00.002-05:00

I was going through the RSS Feeds and I saw this one: PETA hounds kids not to eat turkey.

It’s that time of year again: holiday cheer, turkey feasts – and PETA ads, making you feel guilty about the aforementioned feasts.

In an ad released Monday, PETA directs a question to kids: “If you wouldn’t eat your dog, why eat a turkey?” The ad features an expertly Photoshopped turkey-dog hybrid.

“Turkeys may not be as familiar to us as dogs or cats, but they have the same ability to suffer; they are sensitive, curious creatures, and it doesn't make sense to call dogs our friends and turkeys our food,” Ashley Byrne, PETA’s manager of campaigns, told TODAY.com. “There are a lot of kids out there who don’t want to see such cruelty on the Thanksgiving dinner table.”

But wait, that’s not all. In addition to these ads encouraging kids to go vegan, PETA also sent a letter Monday to the mayor of the tiny town of Turkey, Texas (population 421 in the 2010 census), asking him to change the town’s name to “Tofurky” for Thanksgiving Day. In exchange, PETA promises to provide a “healthy, vegan holiday feast for all the town’s residents.”

The letter goes on to explain the horrors faced by farm-raised turkeys, and ends trying to whet the mayor’s appetite by describing the Tofurky meal in great detail:
“PETA's feast would feature Tofurky with mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes (made with vegan margarine), and vegan apple pie topped with vanilla dairy-free ice cream.”

Byrne said the mayor hasn't responded to the invitation, but points out: “There's still some time until Thanksgiving.” She added that she hopes it will encourage some residents of the mostly meat-loving state to go vegan for one of the most meat-filled holidays.

OK, so here's the obvious: Ashley's an airhead. For starters, why would someone try and compare a turkey with a dog? Can turkeys be domesticated? Nope. If they could be, we'd all have to eat chicken.

Me, I love turkey. For one thing, it's tasty, and another reason I love turkey is it's good for you. It's low fat (I don't really care about that one), it has zinc and potassium that keep blood cholesterol levels down and it even boosts the immune system. Not bad for something that's only raised for eating. Turkey should really replace chicken.

I'd love to see a poll of how many people in PETA have ever lived on a farm. Probably not-many to none. "Farm raised" turkeys (I'm hoping that means the same as free range turkeys) are treated a lot better than their over-cornfed counterparts. But the thing is, turkeys have always been bread to be eaten. That's their purpose. They don't have any other meaningful function other than being tasty and being healthy to eat. Turkeys don't know the "horrors" - they only have simple consciousness at best.

It really bothers me that people are so self-centred that they'd think you'd change your habits for them because they think they're morally correct. Does Ashley think that she'll get a town to change its name for a day and expect 400 people to eat Tofu? She might want to give her head a shake...and let some air out of it because, really, who the hell genuinely likes tofu?

So, Ashley, enjoy your kelp and tofu dairy-free Thanksgiving dinner. Me, even though I had Thanksgiving already, will be heading to Subway for a 12" turkey sub next week.

And it's going to be so good.

Giving Up Wood.

2011-08-29T12:37:00.000-04:00

I didn't spend my time doing a who-cares about the MTV awards. I'm listening to them talk about it now on Public Radio. They're arguing that this years' awards were actually about music. Umm hmmm...I see. That's why they're talking about the outfits Lady Gaga wore last night. Ah, yes. It's all about music on MTV.

But I found something important to post, and actually, it's quite scary. It's the story about Gibson Guitars getting raided by the FBI and the revisions of the Lacey Act.

Anyways, here's the article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904787404576530520471223268.html

My question is, what it the U.S. Government going to to with all that confiscated wood?

Puppet Love

2011-08-12T15:01:00.000-04:00

OK, I was in a good mood until I saw the headline of Bert and Ernie getting married.

Married? WTF? And more importantly, why?

Don't worry this isn't going to be a gay-bashing thing because I'm not into gay bashing. If that's how you swing, that's fine, it's just not for me.

The problem I have is that Bert and Ernie are part of a kids show. Meaning, it's for kids. 10 years and younger. Why should kids be exposed to a sexual preference (because that's all homosexuality really is: you bang the same gender) at an early age? Isn't Age of Consent for normal sexuality, on average, 16 years old?

And no offense to gays but it's not the norm. If it was the norm then they wouldn't have to have a parade every now and then.

Let's look at another argument really quick; the hereditary vs conditioned debate. I for one say it's a learned behaviour. All anyone knows is what they're shown. How do I explain if a kid turns out femme? Look at English people. Some just come across plain fruity even though they're not. English people will dress up in women's clothes but they're not all gay.

On the other side, let's say there is a gay gene, then why would you force Bert and Ernie to be gay if they haven't been gay before? They don't even share the same bed. And I don't think any gay man would let their eyebrows grow like that.

All I'm saying is leave sexuality out of a kids show. It's bad enough kids have Sex Education at Grade 3 here in the stunted-growth thinking province of Ontario. I still can't get over that. What stupid, backward idiot actually thought that it would be a good idea to have Sex Ed in Grade 3?

OK, getting back on track: so, if you're gay, that's your choice but it should be a private choice. Leave kids out of it. Not everyone's Catholic, y'know.

RPGs are Realistic

2011-07-25T09:15:00.000-04:00

It's funny what you can come across on the Internet.

I picked up Dungeon Siege 3 for the PS3 and I really like it so far. It's not Baldurs Gate 2 for the PS2 but I still like it. I think I'm about half-way done. That's because I hopped online to find out. RPGs I don't cheat on, so I wasn't looking for codes. Anyways, there was one thing I was looking up in particular ("what's the Doom stat mean?") and I came across a webpage called RPGwatch.com because it had a review of Dungeon Siege. Going off on a tangent, I came across a review for a game called Arcainia.

I can't play it since it's for XBox, but what caught my eye was that the guy did two reviews, one for regular gamers and one for "Casual RPGers".

"What's a Casual RPGer?" you might ask: "Kamaal Anwar, Producer for Arcania, summed it up very clearly for RPGWatch -- "...The challenge studios face is to avoid chasing away potential fans with too many possibilities and too much freedom. Some gamers more accustomed to jumping into games in short bursts may find the lack of a clear direction daunting".

Too many possibilities and too much freedom? May find the lack of a clear direction daunting?

And immediately I thought, "Wow, that's just like people these days."

It's funny but it's not.

Pickups the Pace

2011-07-19T09:34:00.000-04:00

Last week I thought I'd order some replacement pickups for my Goldtop. The Goldtop is an 89 and at that time Gibson were installing P-100 pickups. A P-100, for all you fine folks, looks like a P-90 but is an actual humbucker instead of single-coil and different than a hum-reduced pickup. I thought about swapping the pickups ever since I started getting into humbuckers because I noticed the Goldtop didn't have the gain that my guitars with humbuckers had. Then slowly, those guitars (Studio Plus, SG3) started being my main ones and I retired the Goldtop.

I'm not sure why I have to fix up the Goldtop now. Maybe I was getting sentimental last week. Anyways, I hunted for anyone who makes P-100s (I don't do eBay) and the only place I could find was AllParts for reasonably priced P-100s. Unfortunately UPS' pricing is shit. $75 because it's international. Or maybe because it doesn't get shipped straight to its destination. Have a look at the Shipping Log:

So it starts out by going to Mount Hope Ontario which is a place I can honestly say I've never heard of. I had to look it up. When I read Hamilton, it started making sense.

From there, it goes back to the States; must be out of convenience. Then back to "Canada". Then to the States and back to Mount Hope.

These pickups have traveled more than I have. Honestly, I'd pay $50 if it was shipped straight to the destination. It would probably shave a few days off delivery time and even save some gas.

My favourite Activity was "There is an inadequate description of the merchandise. More documentation required." It wouldn't surprise me if "guitar pickups; quantity 2" baffled and confused people over there at Mount Hope. It's not Secret Squirrel stuff. I bet if you surf long enough, you could probably find the schematics. Mainly I'm wondering why if someone's waiting for "more documentation", why the hell would they ship it back over to the States instead of keeping it on this side of the border and wait for the "documentation"?

Also, I can't wait to see what inflated Duty I'll have to pay. I'm sure I'll Blog about it in a couple of days after they have to ship the pickups back to the States one more time, y'know, just for old time's sake.

CD Lazy

2011-06-24T14:09:00.000-04:00

Welp, I'm pretty disappointed in CD Baby, especially their support.

Usually I get pretty giddy about putting out another CD and even though the setting up a CD is my least favourite part, there's never any problems. Until this CD, I guess.

For something that's called Special Delivery, it's not going that way on both accounts.

The problem this time around is CD Baby, or I'll have to start referring to as CD Lazy.

Here's the hold up: For Digital Distribution you'll need your ISRC codes so you can get paid for online sales. The codes are assigned by CD Baby if you don't have them already. Using Nero, or probably any other CD burning software, you can attach the codes to the songs on the Master. The reason I haven't sent my master to get duplicated yet? No codes. After 3 e-mails, I haven't even received a "we got your e-mail" or an ass-kiss "We're sorry" e-mail yet. WTF?

So what happens last night? I decided to get my own codes for myself. I had to go to a Canadian ISRC site and that's OK. It ended up being free too. Nice. While making the master to send away, guess who decides to issue me ISRC codes? Yeah, CD Lazy. Still didn't get an e-mail about it; I just happened to check it on a whim.

Over the last couple of years, going through CD Baby has been less than fun. At least last time I Blogged about poor service when I was setting up Blind Date, one of their guys posted a comment saying how sorry he was. That was cool and all, and that problem got solved pretty quick but that's OK for the first time. Not that I should be treated better than anyone else, but I've been a pretty consistent return customer for over 8 years. You'd think...ah, never mind.

I'll have to start looking around. I'm sure there's other companies that are doing the same thing, who are a bit more competent and would love the extra business. Call me old fashioned but I don't think people should have to get frustrated doing their hobbies.
I'm thinking I should Blog less. Really, I'm not this cranky of a person in real life.

Hackjob

2011-06-21T15:35:00.000-04:00

I forget if I blogged about Sony getting hacked or not. I meant to. In short it was a why blame Sony for the personal information theft when it was stolen by a hacker? I think a line in there was, "If a robber breaks into an apartment, no one lynches the Landlord".

Hackers bug me. OK, not all of them, just the few piss-ants that can't get a real hobby. Most hackers are smart, read 2600 magazine, and would stop right at the break-in point. Real hackers wouldn't steal anything since to them the real challenge is the breaking in. That's their motive and once they're in, they'll move on to the next challenge.

That same excuse doesn't apply to thieves. It's the same type of person that never mentally passed Grade School, probably bullied or buggered by an uncle and uses that as motivation to be an attention-seeking asshole. So if they get into computers, hack into a company's website and steal customer's information, they think they showed somebody. The funny part is that they can't admit to the hacking and stealing because a) he/she will go to jail or b) nobody will believe them. B's a lot funnier. It's impossible for this type of person to not tell someone else so they'll get caught; maybe not this year or the next but they will. That's just the way things work out.

Anyways, Sony's not the problem. For all you people that joined the class-action suit against Sony, if you win the case, enjoy your $5. If you don't win, then you'll look even dumber than before, but that's what you get for jumping on a misguided bandwagon.

Kids, don't be a rotten bastard. If something's not yours, then don't take it. If you walk by a car and see the door unlocked, keep walking. If you see a wallet on the ground, throw it in a mailbox. If it's not your business, don't stick your nose in it. If you can't wrap your head around what's right and wrong, then maybe you shouldn't be here (ei, on the planet). Integrity is such a lost word, I had to run Spell Check on it.

In short: Nobody likes a rotten bastard, so don't be one. It's more fun watching them when they finally get theirs.

To CD or not to CD

2011-06-20T11:46:00.000-04:00

You know, I'm not having the easiest time getting the new CD setup and I'm just doing the same steps that I usually do.

First off is CD Baby. Maybe they've been reading in my Blogs (OK, probably not) that I kind of hack on them since their quality of service has dwindled since Derek Sivers sold it. This morning I wrote a second e-mail wondering when my ISRC codes will be ready. Normally that's about a day after setting up a CD. Tomorrow, it'll be two weeks. Good thing I uploaded my wav files; if I didn't, I'd be running out of time for getting the CD in (they used to give you a month to get the CD in).

Second is IndiePool, who I always speak highly of. I need them to replicate the CD and print the cover. They've been having problems with their Visa payments but that doesn't bother me since I pay them through the bank; like paying a bill. Never had a problem with it before. Last week I made the payment but the rep tells me he hasn't seen the payment's reference number in any of their bank's faxes. I can bring up a screen shot of my transactions and it's there. So that's slowing things down.

I know better than anyone else that shit happens and that's why I'm not all that ticked off. But, if things aren't patched up by the end of the week, I guess I'll have my first download-only CD. That's not the way I want it but it'll have to do. Then I'll have to start looking for more mp3 sites that will allow you to sell "albums" through them.

I do want to remind you fine Folks is that I really make CDs, not for profit but, as a another way of legally owning the songs. And it looks cooler in shrink-wrapped, Digipak form. Anyways, have a listen to In The Bushes while you're here.

What was the Question Again?

2011-06-17T12:44:00.000-04:00

Well, that was a fun last game of the season and the end result was even better. And Vancouver displayed their amazing car-fire setting skills. Good job, Guys.
Boston wasn't really favoured to win. At all. I didn't think they'd make it past Tampa but I'm glad I did. This is the most hockey I watched in a long time. Anyways, what I'm rambling about today is basically, good help is hard to find. And it ties in with the Bruins winning the Cup.

I said at the beginning of Game 7, "If the Bruins win the Cup, I'll buy another jersey". They did, and being a good guy that I am went to NHL.com's store to see what I could buy. I'm not big on spending over a certain amount so I remembered seeing a Boston Bruins baseball shirt a couple of months ago. It still showed up in my recently viewed items at the bottom of the page so I thought, "Great, I'll get that."

So when I went to order it, I couldn't. The Choose a Size dropdown box was empty and that wouldn't let me order anything. Maybe it was my computer? I had access to another one and same problem. So I contacted Support:

"Hi,
I tried to order the Boston Bruins "Majestic" baseball jersey
but the Select a Size dropdown doesn't show any options and therefore I
can't proceed with my order.

Please let me know when this has been fixed.
Thanks,
Gregg"

Reading back, I can't believe I used the word "therefore".

So, here's what I got back:

"Dear Gregg,

Thank you for contacting Customer Care at www.shop.nhl.com. We are
always adding new products to our online store; however, due to
manufacturer's schedules, we are unable to provide estimated arrival
times for product replenishments unless otherwise indicated on the website.

We operate a real-time inventory system that updates our web store
catalog according to what is available in our inventory. If an item,
size, or color is not available, we remove it from the Internet store to
avoid any confusion. In addition, we do not have the ability to view
the inventories of other retailers or our land-based stores.

We appreciate your interest in our online store. Please periodically
check back with us to see if we are carrying the product you inquired
about. Do not forget to sign up to be on our mailing list if you want to
be notified about our sales and specials. See details on our homepage.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you, and
thank you again for contacting Customer Care at http://www.shop.nhl.com/.

Sincerely,
Troy H.
Customer Service Representative
Customer Care at www.shop.nhl.com"

So, according to Troy, I shouldn't have been able to see the item on the website. It still didn't explain an empty drop down box. Anyways, like a reply from the government of Ontario (see: May 4th's "Ask and Ye Shall Receive...kind of"), I got a three paragraph response that didn't answer my question.

So what did I do? Simple. I went somewhere else. I picked up this doozy on Amazon: http://www.amazon.ca/Boston-Bruins-Heritage-Sweater-Large/dp/B000CP93D8/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_2 . A little warm for the summer and more that I wanted to spend but I kept my word and now I'm happy.

Special Delivery - New CD Time

2011-06-14T16:15:00.000-04:00

It's always a good day when I setup a new CD. That was today. Also my mood's a little better than usual since the Bruins managed to hang on for one more game.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the new CD. If I didn't own it, I'd probably buy one myself. It's a good follow up to Grows On You and still on my track for The New One's The Best One So Far. For what started as a Blues CD ended up being alright. Most songs are the I-IV-V chord progressions (that was the plan) which doesn't really make for strong songs. That means the words have to be good. Or listenable. And even though I struggled with some of the lyrics, I think it turned out to be one of the funnier ones. The only non-funny song was the instrumental.

So how does one set up a new Compact Disc? Why, I'll tell you:
For me, once I get the CD mastered from Mark (http://www.sharktankpro.com/), I have a listen and if things are good, it's to CD Baby to set up a new CD. I used to get extremely nervous setting one up because I didn't want a spelling mistake or anything. After using them for 8 years, it doesn't bother me anymore.

What got me hooked was how it worked. They basically warehouse the CD for you and send it out if someone orders it. To make it legit, you can buy bar codes from them. When I first started making CDs people thought I made my own bar code in Photoshop. I'm still not sure how to take that. Once that's setup, you basically have a month to get 5 CDs mailed into them. What I did new last night was upload wavs to CD Baby after setting the new CD up. Uploading wavs. Geeze. That took a while. It would have been easier to upload mp3 at whatever bit rate they wanted but I don't work there so I don't make those decisions. They used to be really great when Derek Sivers owned it. When he sold it, it went from being great to pretty good.

What I've been using over the last few years is IndiePool's SMRT CD program for the covers. They do the whole CD setup as well but since I setup my stuff at CD Baby first, they're very accommodating at not having me pay for their whole package. Also, their support's really good. And I like the pay-as-you go; there's no way I could unload 1000 of my CDs. I'd love to but I know better. Before I lose my train of thought, I set up a CD with them, sign the agreement, mail them the CD master and upload the artwork to one of the FTP sites. Works great. Here's their site: http://www.indiepool.com/

The cover I'll finish tonight. It's half done (just the outside). I'll try and think of something halfway funny to put on the inside.
When it's ready to go, I'll make another Blog entry. Over on the right you should be able to hear the new single "In The Bushes."

Enjoy.

Ontario Gouge Meters

2011-05-25T15:51:00.000-04:00

Every once and a while I like to gripe about things in my home province. Well, mainly I gripe about how empty the think-tank of the current Ontario government is. Really, they make their own ammunition.

This time my gripe is about how greedy they are. And first before I start my rant I do want to say that I don't mind paying for services. Sometimes some are valuable. But when I'm getting taxed and the people that are supposed to handle the money properly but don't (like having a Minister of Finance that doesn't have any accounting experience), I get a little ticked. A good example is the Ontario Liberal party giving themselves raises but wanting to freeze the pay rates for the rest of the public sector. See? Not very bright.

Anyways, here's why I'm griping:

About a month ago I sat through a "Stay Cool" presentation. The idea's good; tips to stay cool in the summers since degree days over 30 C increase every year. It's a health hazard. It makes it uncomfortable when I have to go outside to smoke. There's been many reported deaths due to heat stroke and one stat that stuck out was that the poor die because they can't afford air conditioning. Me, being the forward thinker believe that air conditioners should eventually become a necessity, like heaters in the winter, instead of a creature comfort since the sun isn't shrinking anytime soon.

Anyways, what does our current government implement? "Smart" Readers. Meaning that you pay more for hydro at certain times of the day, mainly when the sun is out in the summer and all day in the winter. This helps the poor immensely. Especially with HST. When the provincial government says “smart” - think the opposite; just like when they call themselves Liberal - think the opposite.

For a country that basically dodged the recession, Ontario should be the richest province but these guys couldn't organise a piss in a brewery with their financial and decision making skills.

Flipping through the Province’s Smart Meter Q & A, I didn't find anything positive about this scam. They didn't even bother to try and sugar coat anything. It was basically "We're dicks so deal with it". If there's any kind of benefit, it's usually preceded by a "could", "can", "may", “might" or "possibly" That sounds about right since the Liberals don't know too much of anything.

It starts off with:

“Between now and 2025, Ontario will replace about 80 per cent of its electricity system. There are several ways to do that:

building new generating facilities,
refurbishing current facilities (where that makes economic sense), and
investing in conservation and energy management tools so that we require less new electricity generating capacity. “

Here’s a brilliant idea: How about the Ontario Government stops giving every County 2 – 4 million dollars in grants for a new hockey arena and put it towards the above. Then rates wouldn’t have to go up. Maybe I’m too smart for the Provincial Liberals.

“Q. How will smart meters help?

A. Smart meters – plus time-of-use-rates – will provide you with a cost management tool. Smart metering can also help Ontario build an efficient, cost-effective and more environmentally sound electricity sysem (typo):

•Smart metering can help reduce the total electricity capacity we need now, and the amount of new capacity we need to build for the future. Smart meters provide you with a clear incentive to shift consumption away from the daily peaks. “

Incentive? Where the hell's the incentive again? Incentives are good things. I didn't find that anywhere on the Q & A.

“ •Smart metering can help Ontario to reduce its environmental footprint. By reducing our peak demand, we'll reduce our use of the less environmentally attractive resources that are called on when demand is high. “

They should focus more on solar instead of ripping people off that implemented it already. They did a 27-per-cent cut in the subsidy paid out to farmers and small businesses for producing solar energy because "of the unexpected popularity of ground-mounted solar projects."

“•A smart meter system will open up the opportunity for new kinds of conservation and demand management programs in the future. In the future smart meters could allow the introduction of different time-based incentive programs, or the opportunity for you to control your energy use through energy management devices or smart appliances. “

I love the "could". "Could" doesn't mean anything. I “could” grow another 3 arms next week.

I found this to be my favourite:

"Q. Why would I want a smart meter? What are the benefits of smart meters for me?

A. Here are three of the major new benefits that you'll see as soon as time-of-use rates are in effect:

1.You'll be able to take new actions to manage your energy bill. With a smart meter and time-of-use rates, you'll be able to take advantage of two cost-cutting strategies. These include:
Reducing your electricity use across the higher cost (on-peak and mid-peak) periods; and
Shifting your electricity use to lower cost (off-peak) periods.
You'll get rapid feedback about your electricity consumption. Your information about your electricity use will be available to you the next day via the Internet and/or by telephone. Plus your electricity bills will provide a summary of your consumption during each TOU rate period over the previous billing period.
Your electricity bills will reflect the readings taken and by your smart meter over the previous period. That means your bills will always be as up-to-date as possible."

It would have been easier to say, "Well, there's not really any benefit at all." Good thing they're not trying to implement readers that waste time like the above answer did.

The Q/A that burned my ass the most was:

“Q. Will my electrical bill go up?

A. That will depend, in part, on you. Once you are billed on a time-of-use basis, depending how and when you use electricity, you may pay a bit more or less or see very little difference. With Smart Meters, those who work to conserve and shift their usage to off-peak, weekends or holidays may benefit the most. Currently those customers see no price advantage no matter what time of the day they use power. “

A simple Yes would have sufficed. That was followed by the insulting:

“Q. TOU sounds complicated.

A. It's true that, at first, you'll need to be more aware of how and when you use energy, but over time, it will simply become a habit. Smart metering will give you better information and a tool to help you make informed decisions about your electrical usage. Once you review this information, you'll be able to develop the best strategies for you.”

"It'll simply become habit"? What the fuck kind of answer is that? That's the thinking of the Government of Ontario.

So instead of penalizing people that run their air conditioners after it's hot and wasting energy, you pay more when you have to use them. I guess it'll be cheaper to leave my computer lights on all night

So there's my rant. It'll get warmer, no one can afford to pay for electricity, a bunch of deaths. Pretty cool. Kind of makes me want to move. Next they'll say that Natural Gas is a good alternative. My alternative would be to have the province hire an actual accountant and not have a smug useless lawyer bastard leading the party. There's a thought.

And remember, Stay Cool.

Ask and Ye Shall Receive...kind of

2011-05-04T16:02:00.000-04:00

I always get ticked off when I hear anti-smokers rattle off bullshit. This time the bullshit was brought to me by the Ontario Government.

Here's what happened: A friend at mine at my day job jokingly sent me an e-mail about the government's blurb on some tobacco tax (like it's not high enough; in reality, it is gouging), and how increases are always about "protecting children" or some other feel-good reason. Anyways, some of the "Fast Facts" on this website seemed a little fishy, since most of these things are.

I enquired about a "fact"; actually here's what I wrote: "I'd love to hear where the "$5.8 billion in productivity losses each year" comes from, especially when there isn't a definition for "productivity losses"."

So for that, I got back: "The information contained in the "Did You Know?" section on the Strengthening a Smoke-Free Ontario page was provided by the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. Specifically, the reference to productivity losses can be found in a report titled, Evidence to Guide Action: Comprehensive Tobacco Control in Ontario. Please see the bottom of report page 14 (or PDF page 26)."

Welp, right there, I turned off. I was hoping I'd be wrong but I wasn't. How much more biased can you be when you don't have an independent study? Three independent studies usually work for me but when something anti-smoking comes from the Ontario Agency of Protection and Promotion, I'm not going to get an honest answer.

Anyways, I went to page 26. First off I glazed over when I saw mention of Third Hand Smoke at the top of the page. There's no such thing as third hand smoke and there never will be so why even print it? Look at that, bullshit where I didn't even look for it.

I think this was the paragraph that I was directed to: "In addition to these health care expenditures for diseases related to tobacco, there are indirect but very real costs. These are the costs of productivity lost due to increased sick days and the early death of adults who are employed or work at home. The economic value of this lost labour was $4.4 billion in 2002. The 2009 equivalent was $5.8 billion"

OK. Anyone see a few glaring problems? Me too.

We'll start with "indirect". Other than padding numbers, what's the use "indirect" data?

Increased sick days was a funny one because last I looked, most places don't pay you if you call in sick. So really, no one's losing money except for the person that calls in. Now if certain work places have paid sick days, they don't pay you for being sick, you don't get deducted for not being there. It's called a salary. I think if it's a sunny day, golf would probably be the greatest loss of productivity in the work place. Actually, it would be Nice Weather that would be the greatest loss of productivity. I won't even go into going to work and jerking around for 9 hours. Wait, I just did.

The "early death" is an interesting one. If someone is dead, and I'm going to go out on a limb here, they're probably not on payroll. Plus, that dead person's replacement will probably start at a lower wage than their predecessor. The magic number for productivity loss that got pulled out of the air was $4.4 billion.

I did an inflation check, which is 3% per year. So, in 2002 it was $4.4; 2003 would be $4.5; 2004 would be $4.6; 2005 would be $4.8; 2006 would be $4.9 or $5.0 if you like to round; 2007 would be $5.1; 2008 $5.2 or $5.3 if you like to round and; 2009 should be $5.4. Excel doesn't lie. Anyways, there's a billion and a half dollars that got lost somewhere along the way. I'm sure no one's going to own up to that though.
So, in the end, this was a good/bad sort of thing. The good part was they actually got back to me. I'm genuinely surprised about that. The bad part is what they sent me - a bunch of fluff. I didn't read the rest of the report yet. I'm sure there'll be another Blog entry about that.

As to why am I anti-anti-smoking, well, the obvious, I smoke but for the most part, I don't like Anti people, including anti-smokers. Being Anti is more of a controlling personality trait. I can't stand Anti people, mostly because they're not likable and are usually rain clouds that only discuss their anti-issues at any given chance. They're not fun at parties either. I'm Anti-Anti; two negatives do make a positive.

One thing before I go; this stood out: "Tobacco-related disease accounted for 10% of hospital days in 2002, more than the days for alcohol and illegal drugs combined" It's good that, really, alcohol and illegal drugs came in so low (both are "drugs", but here, they're "combined"). But if only 10% is tobacco related, then what's the other 90%, besides drugs and alcohol?

Here's the pdf in case anyone cares: http://www.oahpp.ca/services/documents/evidence-to-guide-action/Evidence%20to%20Guide%20Action%20-%20CTC%20in%20Ontario%20SFO-SAC%202010E.pdf

Save A Bit For Me

2011-04-28T12:09:00.000-04:00

Banning Circumcisions in San Francisco.

Unbelievable. Really. A guy by the name of Lloyd Schofield, got a group of "people" together and "submitted 12,000 signatures on Tuesday to the city’s Department of Elections. In order to qualify, 7,200 signatures are needed and the group has 30 days to verify the signatures."

Schofield said to Reuters, “It’s excruciatingly painful and permanently damaging surgery that’s forced on men when they’re at their weakest and most vulnerable.”

You know what? I haven't heard of anyone whine like this in a while, especially since most circumcisions are performed on babies. It was a standard procedure when I was born. He's right though, I guess I was vulnerable at 2 or 3 days old. Still, I don't have any psychological scars from it. Quite the contrary but that's not, pardon the pun, the point.

What's my problem with this story? San Francisco has a population of 805,000 people and it takes 7,200 signatures to propose a ban? That's .9% or (0.0089) of the population. The 12,000 signatures brings it up to a whopping 1% (0.0149) of the population.

I always thought majority ruled or am I the only one that sees this as being completely wrong?

Thought of the Day

2011-04-14T15:45:00.000-04:00

Y'know, I was just outside and I heard loud Dance Music coming from some car. The odd thing was that a guy was driving the car.

And that just isn't right.

Guys shouldn't be listening to Dance Music in the first place because, well, Dance Music is made for girls. And you know what girls like....that's right: guys. Yuck.

Anyways, that was my Though of the Day.

First Weekend of April

2011-04-04T09:23:00.000-04:00

What a weekend. Pete and I played both nights at two different places and it was like night and day between the two.

Friday we started out at the RyeGate. It's more of a restaurant-y thing and that's OK. We were a little nervous that we wouldn't go over well because maybe the songs we do wouldn't fit. Things like Let Me Put My Love Into You and Love Gun might not go with dinner. In the end, it was a really good time, they had Red Stripe and the staff seemed to like us. I thought it went well for our first time there.

Saturday was a big about face. Me, personally (and I can say this since it's my Blog), I didn't want to go back to the Manchester one bit. After the first gig in January, we were told that we were a little "too mellow". I'm not sure what they were thinking when they hire "acoustic" two-man bands. The next month was the night of a bad snow where they didn't bother to call us to cancel -we had to drive there to find out there's no gig. March's date was double-booked by them so we didn't play that one. With that kind of track record, I wanted to get this gig out of the way and done. The problem on Saturday night was that the place was pretty busy and even a few people from the audience came up to us and mentioned they liked us. But after we got done our second set, they said don't bother to go back up.

No problem. They should have told us that about 4 hours earlier. If I go to the Manchester again, it'll be too soon.

So that was my weekend playing. One great night, one piss-poor night. Can't win them all.

Re: Cap'n Crunch sails into obscurity.

2011-03-10T12:15:00.000-05:00

What's with people these days? Some how Cap'n Crunch is being blamed for obesity and thanks to Pepsico (whose Cola has more sugar than their cereals), the problem won't get fixed AND we're out an American Icon. I know, I'm not from the States but still. I used to eat that stuff for years and guess what? I'm not fat.

There was also "pressure from the White House"? Shouldn't the White House tackle important things? I'd expect this kind of stupidity from the current Ontario government since they run things like a bunch of bad parents. On that note, parents shouldn't really be in charge of making the bigger decisions. They always miss the bigger picture and can't think objectively.

It's too bad we have these types of people running things. Somehow, it's the cereal's fault. I'm sure Pepsico has lots of parents with fat kids. And then some broad who doesn't really have a title (maybe she's a receptionist) from the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University, says: "...you could say that they have retired Cap'n Crunch, and that's a good thing," Thanks for the babble.

It'll be a sad day when I walk down the cereal aisle and there's boxes of 'Flax Seed for Kids' or 'Oat and Buckwheat Bits for Kids'. Kids will slim down alright since they won't eat it. I'm just kidding, you can remove all the kids cereals from the shelves but you'll always have fat kids.

So long Cap'n Crunch. You're way smarter than the people that got rid of you.

RSSheen

2011-03-01T11:10:00.000-05:00

Y'know, I'm getting a bit tired of seeing something Charlie Sheen related these days. It seems to either be about his lame TV show that he somehow manages to get $2 million and episode or that he spends his hard earned money on coke, strippers and booze and doesn't know how to handle it.

Isn't this guy over 40?

And it's not like the guy is a stellar actor or anything. Is it really that challenging to be on an unfunny TV show? If it wasn't for the laugh track you'd think the show was a boring drama.

Anyways, I need to keep Sheen out of my RSS Feeds while I'm looking for something more important like "Girls with migraines pack on extra pounds" or "Couple rescued after 5 days trapped in ditch".

Rewarded

2011-02-10T12:21:00.000-05:00

So I got an e-mail today from Best Buy saying "you’ve earned a new Reward Zone certificate" for 5 dollars. Five dollars. Fifty dimes. 100 nickles. 500 cents. How did I get such a great discount? Why, I'm part of their Reward Zone program. Spend money, earn points and get $5.

You might be thinking, "for a company this big, how can they afford to give away money like that?" It can't be easy but that's Best Buy for you. Here's how it works:

First you earn points: "As a member of the Reward Zone™ program, earn 1 point ("Point") for nearly every $1 you spend on almost any purchase." Then "For every 400 points you earn in the Reward Zone™ program, you will be eligible to receive Reward Certificates ("Certificate[s]") redeemable for a $5 discount off your future purchase of any eligible products or services at Best Buy retail store locations."

I spent $500 and I got $5 back. They even congratulated me. Thanks, Best Buy.

Gregg Koval - Blind Date (video)

2011-02-02T10:36:00.000-05:00

My first video, so be nice.

One Puff Of Something

2010-12-09T15:51:00.000-05:00

I had to laugh today at one of the MSNBC's newsfeed stories. It's the report from the U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin that says one puff from a cigarette can trigger a heart attack.

Yup. And you can catch AIDS from using a public toilet.

So, I'm wondering why cigarettes? What about going to a campfire? What about a wood burning stove? What about going outside in the winter and seeing the smoke from a chimney? Burning toast? What about dirty exhaust fumes from, let's say, a semi truck? Nope. All of these won't hurt you because only cigarette smoke can. Oh, and second hand smoke. Even though no one can agree if second hand smoke is the smoke that comes off the end of a cigarette or if it's the smoke that a person exhales. Two very different things but you may as well lump them together out of convenience. Anyways, cigarettes must be magical if "...one puff on that cigarette could be the one that causes your heart attack."

Sure that's pretty ambitious claim for a report but it's pretty far fetched. This obviously must be the reason why joggers who never smoked, all of a sudden drop dead. There - that solves that problem. It has to be some kind of smoke or second hand smoke from a cigarette. It just has to be.

She goes on to say: "I advise people to try to avoid being around smoking any way that you can." Probably because she thinks it's yucky, gross and stinky. And all people who smoke are poor. Don't forget that one.

The other quote that was great was from some wienie named Michael Cummings, who would probably get mad if you don't put DR in front of his name. The article says he's a "nictoine(sic) expert", even though the report was on smoking and not nicotine. He whines:"How many reports more does Congress need to have to say that cigarettes as a class of products ought to be banned?" He works at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute and helped to review the report. "One-third of the patients who are in our hospital are here today because of cigarettes."

What about the other two thirds? What's causing all the other cancers if smoking isn't causing the majority? Just a thought.

Maybe this will explain something: the article's writer says, "Still, this newest report is unusual because it devotes more than 700 pages to detail the biology of how cigarette smoke accomplishes its dirty deeds — including the latest genetic findings to help explain why some people become more addicted than others, and why some smokers develop tobacco-caused disease faster than others."

In short, no one knows why they're blaming smoking since there's no direct co-relation to anything. But they are. I think 500 years ago they would blame these kinds of things on the Devil.

"There is no safe level of exposure to cigarette smoke, whether you deliberately inhale it or are a nonsmoker who breathes in other people's fumes," the report concludes. You know what? I'm no genius but I think that if you do directly inhale smoke, you will have more exposure. It really is "safer" to breathe other people's fumes. Really. I'll bet if I chained smoked 5 cigarettes, I would probably cough more than someone who watched me do it.

And to end it the article: "Kicking the habit lets your body start healing, Benjamin stressed: "It's never too late to quit but the sooner you quit the better. Even if you're 70, 80 years old and you're a smoker, there's still benefit from quitting."

I found it odd that since cigarettes are so deadly how can people in their 80's still alive and smoking?

Jay-Z's a Punk

2010-11-16T15:55:00.000-05:00

So I'm listening to Fresh Air with Terry Gross on NPR and Jay Z just took the credit for "writing" the chorus part of Ice T's 99 Problems. I couldn't believe it. What a punk bitch.

Hurry Up And Wait.

2010-10-12T12:26:00.000-04:00

The new CD, Grows On You is on its way to the printers (Indiepool). I finished the cover off last night and uploaded it and I mailed the master Friday. I should get the test copy next Monday or Tuesday since yesterday was a holiday. I changed the cover a little bit and made the centre ball a bit fancier.

The Junior is causing a few minor problems. The main one is the stopbar tailpiece. I can not find a happy medium for intonating it. I can get the high E and B perfect but the rest...not even close. The G is sharp and the rest (D,A,E) are flat at the 12th fret. What to do? Well, I don't collect vintage guitars and I certainly want to play and record with it. So I'm trying my luck with compensated tailpieces. Some get pretty pricey and my limit is $100. I ordered 2 last night from All Parts. One's a regular, non-adjustable compensated tailpiece and the other is a Wilkinson one with an adjustable B/G and D/A slots. We'll see how that goes. Those might be in early next week as well.

So now I have to figure out what to do with myself during all this waiting.

Book Burning

2010-09-09T12:51:00.000-04:00

With the recent events and controversy unfolding in Florida concerning the burning of a certain book this upcoming weekend, I can't keep quiet about how strong I feel about this chain of events: Burning books is a bad idea.

Book burnings have been around since people found out that pulp and paper are flammable. There was the destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria and the Library of Baghdad. Even the Spanish were good at it. Nazis too. It's usually some right-winger, or a "Fundamentalist" that like to do things like that. And you'll find some people actually sending out idle threats if someone burns their favourite book. Personally, I'd probably punch somebody on the nose if they burnt my copy of The Les Paul Legacy (by Robb Lawrence). There's at least 10 pages on SGs!

Of course books are like anything, they only mean something if you attach a meaning to it.

But here's really why it is a bad idea to burn books: It's not healthy and it's bad for the environment. For those of you who don't know, here's a short list of chemicals that are found in most books:

Sodium Hydroxide;
Chlorine Dioxide;
Chlorine Gas;
Calcium Oxide;
Titanium dioxide.

(For a more complete list, visit: http://www.paperonweb.com/chemical.htm )

Think of that next time you want to sink your teeth into a book.

You don't have to like everyone, but please, do the right thing. Think green and don't burn a book.

It's Accidentally Official

2010-08-30T08:46:00.000-04:00

On August 25th, I asked Pete, "How mad would you be if I quit the band?"

It's not something that just popped in my head a week ago and thought I'd quit on a whim. I've been thinking about this for quite a while. I didn't realise I don't hide things well when he said, "I'm surprised you lasted this long." Then we laughed.

There was always a little part of me that felt that I would be letting the guys down if I quit but I found myself getting more disinterested with doing the full band thing. Then again, everything is replaceable so I hope they get another guitar player and carry on.

I accidentally played my last official public gig with the band on Saturday, August 28th. It was accidental because we were supposed to play October 2nd but Dwayne can't do it so it'll be just Pete and me that night.

15 years is a long time. On a good and thankful note, I still get to play with Pete in the duo-thing. Maybe I'm just getting older and like the quietness. Anyways, it's not like I quit playing altogether and I do like going out once and a while. And to all you kids out there that think being in a rock band will get you chicks - it's
a rumour; I should know. Also, my arms are just for show so not doing any lifting/carrying heavy items will be nice. Kind of ironic I just bought that new amp too.

I do want to say that I wouldn't change a thing. Over 15 years, there's been way more ups than downs.

Will I get in another band again? I don't know. It's a long life and anything can happen but right now I'm not even thinking about that. There's a whole bunch of things that I have to catch up on.

Anyways, I do want to thank the guys in the band for making my stay the best and basically being an extended family and thanks to everyone who's come out through the years and seen us.

25 Years Ago Today

2010-07-16T10:24:00.000-04:00

25 years ago today, I first heard Deep Purple In Rock. I remember the date because it was my Brother's Birthday. My Grandma would buy something for me on my Brother's Birthday and she would buy him something on my Birthday. I think no matter what, back then, it was always an album. Before CDs came out, over half of my Deep Purple collection came from her - and she doesn't even like them.

Anyways, I haven't been the same since. I still say it's the "hardest album" ever made. Not sloppy like a MC5, not slow moving like a Black Sabbath album, not a rip-off like a Led Zeppelin album (I can't get over their rip off of Small Faces). It's well played and hits hard. Even the weakest song on the album (to me), Child In Time, has probably the best guitar solo on record circa 1970.

So how does it sound today? It got a whole lot better since the Remaster came out. One of the most noticeable remastering jobs on any CD, maybe because the original US CD sounded that bad.

So, if you haven't heard this album for whatever reason, pick it up and you'll wonder why Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath are more popular.

And I still think the cover is amusing.

Favourite track after all these years: Bloodsucker.

Webpage Updates and new CD, Gets Scared, Available

2010-06-07T12:21:00.000-04:00

This is just a short entry.

The updates for the webpage are ready for June (http://www.greggkoval.com/ ) and I'm happy to announce that the new CD Gets Scared is available at CD Baby: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/koval10

Enjoy,
Gregg

Stupidy Rampant In Ontario

2010-05-28T08:41:00.000-04:00

Y'know I don't like to get too political on anyone but I have to type out what I found out the other day. Also, it's rare that I use the F word so use caution whilst reading.

I was talking to a lady at my day job (the job that pays for the "toys") and she was mentioning that her kid was taking Sex Ed at school. When I asked what grade he was in, I nearly fell over when I heard her answer.

"Grade 6".

Grade 6. I couldn't believe it. What kind of fuck-up, know-nothings teach their kids Sex Education at Grade 6? I asked if it was the school and it turns out it was the Government of Ontario that put that in the curriculum. Now the Ontario Government for the last, I don't know how many years, have been royally fucking up, well, almost everything they get their hands on. And get this, originally they wanted to introduce Sex Ed at Grade 3. Grade fucking 3. Unbelievable.

Maybe that's where Dalton McGuinty mentality is. Dalton's the premier of Ontario for all you fine folks in the States. This is a province where you have to hide packs of cigarettes in a store but your grade school kids can learn how to give blow jobs. I can't wait to see the teen pregnancy rates in the next few years. Keep Sex Ed in high school where it belongs, especially since the Age of Consent is 14.

The reason, and this is pretty lame, is that kids are sexually active in Grade School. I'm sure some are. It was like that when I was in Grade School. There were maybe 5. And they were ridiculed and called Sluts and nobody really associated with them. So I'm guessing is that more than a few MPP's kids are sluts. That's pretty fair to say. It does get old changing laws every time it suits some MPP's family member.

I know the government scans Blogs looking for conspiracy theories and all the other paranoia, so all you "Liberal" MPPs out there, I know you wouldn't know what to do if you guys actually came up with a good idea, but give your heads a shake and wake the fuck up and stop being so useless.

Good Long Weekend

2010-05-25T10:05:00.000-04:00

Normally, I like to take my long weekends and make them recording weekends but I couldn't do that this year. But, it all worked out.

Friday, Pete and I played our first gig as a duo at the Tecumseh Roadhouse and I'll tell you what, that was the easiest gig I've ever done. And the time slot was the sweet'ner - 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Sign me up. Home by 10:30 and happy. Good start to the weekend. We're back there on June the 11th.

Saturday, the whole band went to play at a party. Usually I belly-ache about parties with valid reasons but this one was pretty good. When you have to stay over night, you know it was a good one.

Sunday was a big day of rest, and Monday was even more restful. Just resting up for another "playing" weekend. Friday at the Sandbar and Saturday at Lefty's Downstairs. I hope they leave the DJ at home on the Saturday. Nothing's worse than hearing dance music in between a rock band's sets.

And that should take us up to June's updates. See you next month.

A Black Sabbath indeed

2010-05-17T10:23:00.000-04:00

I guess it takes a lot for me to update my Blog but this is a special entry.

You probably may know (or may not) that Ronnie James Dio passed away yesterday and that really is sad news. It truly was a Black Sabbath on the 16th. I loved Dio. Dio's been the background soundtrack for most of my life anyways and was one of those few people I really would have loved to have met. Also it was a real treat seeing him the last couple of times with Heaven & Hell. He kept up his vocal chops whereas other ex-Black Sabbath members haven't. At least he went out on top.

So tonight I'll be putting on Rainbow Live in Germany and I'll be enjoying Stargazer in all its glory.

Btw: the best comment I've heard so far is: "Brett Michael lives and Ronnie James Dio dies...there is no God."

At least for me, since January, I've managed to finish up the new CD Gets Scared and have it available at CD Baby (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/koval10 ). This is the first CD to have the new drums on it. Also, I'm almost done the next CD; I'd say about 70% complete. And I ordered an Ovation online. And lastly, the website hit its 11th Anniversary this month. Always something going on.

Half-way Through January

2010-01-18T21:39:00.000-05:00

I'm excited.

Last Saturday, my friend Dwayne and I went to the music store to look at some electronic drum kits. Over the holidays, another friend of mine paid me a compliment by saying, now, the weakest link in the songs I do, is the sound of the drums. I was told already that my voice "grows on" people, so guess it's not that annoying anymore. I'll take it.

I know the drum sounds from the Korg S3 aren't up to par but it's the only thing I can play. I still love that drum machine, or as they say "Rhythm Workstation", after 16 years now. I know how it sounds and I know how it affects the songs. I know how my songs sound. It's time to retire the S3.

So, after himming and hawwing over the holidays about getting a new drum machine, I decided to get a real electronic drum kit. I wanted to keep it under a grand since I'm not a drummer but you know how these things go. I ended up going with the Roland TD-4SX: V-Compact® Series for a few reasons. One - I liked all the toms being mesh heads. There was another kit there that I was looking at online with only a mesh snare and the toms were OK. Another good reason is that the mesh heads are quiter than the other pads. Anyways, reason 2 is that if I can't play something, I could have Dwayne help. Since he's a drummer, it'd be easier if he played a good kit. Also, a third reason: this'll will be the only time I'll ever buy one so I may as well get a good one. And I'll play it. It's not me buying just an expensive toy. I know all ready it'll take some practice. I highly doubt I'll be able to just hop on the kit and lay a track down after a couple of days but I want to learn.

So the waiting game is on.

In the meantime I'll have to figure out what I'm going record, or maybe re-record. If I can get a hang of it, I may as well redo all the drum parts off Gets Scared. I don't relish the thought of remixing the whole thing again but if it's for the best, then why not?

Last Entry of the Year

2009-12-21T08:44:00.000-05:00

Well, Happy Equinox. This'll probably be my last Blog entry of the year so Merry Christmas to everyone.
So, since the 1st, I have the new CD, Gets Scared mixed. I have the cover idea roughed out on paper, and I might spend some time on it, just to make it different than the last one. I'm not going to use the skeleton one even though I don't mind the woodblock. Once that's done, I'll get it mastered. I ended up liking it; again, no "singles" but that's not what this was supposed to be.

Almost saw the Geminids meteor showers except it was too cloudy.

The Toastmen had their (or "our") first gig in a while on the 19th. It didn't go bad at all. And I know I haven't mentioned it but Al Funaro is our new bass player. When he did his first gig with us in October, he was still in another band, but now I'm pretty sure he's a full-time memeber. Sometimes I wonder if I made that staus yet. They haven't kicked me out after 15 years, so maybe.

Other than that, not too much has been going on. Got all of my shopping done and that's really about it. I probably won't send out Christmas Cards this year, so if you don't get one then no offense.

And I've been seriously thinking of getting an electronic drum kit, for a few reasons. One is I love playing drums. Two is that the faithful S3 is probably coming up to retirement; it's been really good to me for almost 20 years. Shit, I just dated myself. Three is I should get into some workout-ish kind of thing since quitting smoking isn't an option. And four - it'd be pretty cool. I didn't want to spend more than a grand (if all lse fails, finance) but the Roland kit I was thinking of is about $1200. Guess I'll need a bigger downpayment.

Anyways, that's about it. So everyone have a good holiday and don't get too crazy on New Years, especially since this year's makes it a long weekend. And try and watch the Bruins game. Why not?

And a big thanks to everyone who's visited the site, left messages about liking the songs and/or the website.

Half Way Through the Month Update

2009-11-12T08:49:00.000-05:00

Morning,

A little bit new - not very exciting though. I just felt like typing.

I know for November updates, I mentioned that I finally paid my SG off. Actually, I didn't make it to the store. See, I write up everything about a week before I update the site. The night of I do the proof-reading, etc. Anyways, the nice thing is if I forget to make a payment, it comes off my Visa. That means, as of the 5th, my SG-3 is all mine. Nice. And I love this guitar. Why Gibson doesn't make this model is beyond me. Right now, Gibson USA only has about 3 models worth buying.

New songs are coming along nicely. After doing last month's 5 "spooky" songs, I thought I'd top it off with 4 other ones (or whatever clocks in at 40 minutes). Will it be an actual CD? We'll see. No plans for that but it will be an MP3 album at a few sites.

I got the backing tracks done yesterday (I love Stat Holidays), so all that's left is vocals and guitar solos. 3 of the 4 have topics: Scared (or Getting Scared); Older Than the Dirt She Sleeps In is about a mummy and then Get Out which is about being in a haunted house. The 4th one I really have no idea what that one will be about.

On non-musical related events, Modern Warfare 2 didn't take up much of my time since the online Co-op and Private Party doesn't work yet. I think that's why I got so much done yesterday.

Also, I saw my first Bald Eagle. That's not a lead in to a joke either. I've seen a Golden Eagle before and that's about it. Good, old Holiday Beach.

And I finished up watching both seasons of True Blood. What a fun show.

I Got Mono and I'm Not Even Tired

2009-10-20T12:22:00.000-04:00

Wow - after waiting almost a month, I finally got the Beatles' Mono Box set. Nice. I originally ordered it from HMV (or more like HIV since their CD selection is pretty gaunt) and then from Amazon.ca since they listed it as "In Stock". Of course when you check the order status it shows up as back-ordered.

Anyways, Costco, bless them, got a few sets in. How they did it, I'll never know, but they did.

So how is it? Well worth the money. My Mom thought the mini-LP sleeves were cute. But EMI did spend a great deal of time putting the packaging together.

Here's what's in it: Please Please Me; With The Beatles; Hard Day's Night; Beatles For Sale; Help (with a bonus stereo mix); Rubber Soul (with a bonus stereo mix); Revolver; Sgt Pepper's; Magical Mystery Tour (complete with the book); The Beatles; and a Past Masters that's a little different. The Mono Masters is basically Past Masters only disc 2 has the Yellow Submarine songs instead of Old Brown Shoe and The Ballad of John and Yoko. Oh, and a nice little Mono Masters book.

That's a lot of stuff.

I wanted to start at the beginning. I did put on Please Please Me and With The Beatles at my parents' house when I was having dinner but that wasn't a intense listen. OK, so "intense" isn't the right word but it's early. When I got home, I put on the Mono Master CD and was loving two of my favourite all-times: Long Tall Sally and She's A Woman. Nice. From there I jumped right to Help. First big difference is that for most of the stereo songs, McCartney was super loud in the mix (not a bad thing at all) so the mono songs might sound that they lack bass when, really, it's at a good level. Not too many spot the differences from Help except the flange-y guitar at the end of It's Only Love.

Rubber Soul I was looking forward to. No more headaches listening to it though headphones. Anyways, it's way more listenable than a stereo version. Also, this would be the 1st CD where the drums are noticeably brought up in the mix.

Revolver was another treat. Taxman just sounds great (and I was never a big fan of the song). Here, There and Everywhere is a big improvement, as well as my two favourites, For No One and And Your Bird Can Sing.

Then it was to disc 2 of Past Masters, er, Mono Masters. The highlight? Hey Bulldog - by far.

That was a lot in one sitting. I did put on Sgt Pepper's, Magical Mystery Tour and The Beatles in the player and let them go but I had to do dishes, etc so I didn't get to sit in front of the speakers and listen but I did notice that Sgt Pepper's had crowd sounds on the reprise and She's Leaving Home is sped up a bit (or is it at its original speed?)

So that's my report. Money well spent. Although this means I won't be heading up to Toronto for Hallowe'en, you'll know where to find me - in my living room in front of the speakers.

New Songs on the Site

2009-10-15T09:29:00.000-04:00

I know I was a little late. we'll, not really - that was just the deadline I gave myself, but the new songs are finally done. A little while back I thought it would be neat to do some Halowe'en-y songs. They are:

Alien Sex Chicks (an oldie - about aliens)
Wants Me For My Brains (about zombies)
One Piece At A Time (about literally building the perfect girl)
I Don't Want To Feed You (about doing experiments on someone and deciding to pull the plug)
Roaches (an old instrumental that I used to have; I didn't bother to change the title)

Again, the new ones are the best of the bunch; I think "Wants Me For My Brains" turned out the best

The saviour for getting these done is a SansAmp TRI AC that I picked up last Thursday. What a neat little unit. I'll be using that a whole lot more. For all you kids out there, it's basically a pre-amp/amp simulator that you can plug directly into a PA board, or for me, the 2488. It comes with a gain knob but for the most part, I turned that down and went back to using the BOSS DS-1. I just pretended it was an amp. Also, I got to record my newer Line6 Roto Machine pedal on Roaches and One Piece At A Time. Guess I'll have to update my Gear page.

The other surprise for me was using the SG-3 so much. It's just a great guitar. I love the neck pickup in it. Actually, I love all the sounds it has.

So the future plan now is: pay off the SG (this weekend), get an Ovation, record another batch of songs, rest for the holidays, record another batch of songs, then pick the best ones and there's my next CD. If the new songs are any indication what the next CD will sound like then I can't wait.

Griping Again

2009-10-05T17:43:00.000-04:00

Honest - I'm not a cranky person.

So what is it this time? CD Baby again. Here's why: like all the other times, I set up my CDs at CD Baby. Their UPCs are really cheap too. This time around when I set up Blind Date, it took over a month to be available on their site. They can blame it on "site reconstruction" all they want. Now that I think of it, they never answered any of my Support Tickets.

Anyways, today I get 9 e-mails from CD Baby saying I haven't signed up for Digital Distribution yet. This is, I think, Step 5 of when you do the initial CD setup; that's right, I did that over three months ago.

So, now I guess it takes 3 months to get CD Baby to do anything that it used to take them a week. I know a lot can happen in a year but Christ. I'm guessing Blind Date will hit iTunes, oh let's see, February? March?

Brutal.

The unfortunate part about all this is that they're still the best place to go to.

So there. I'm all better now. What's in store for tonight? Recording vocals. Always fun.

Web Page Woes

2009-09-24T11:28:00.000-04:00

Y'know, and sorry about last Blog's rant, I've had my webpage for 10 years (in a row) coming next year, and I can't believe that when my Mom runs a search on just the last name, I'm maybe page 3 or 4 at best.

How the hell is that?

I've submitted my URL to Google and even Bing (more on those clowns in a second) and nothing. I've fixed up my Meta Tags on more than one occasion. And the thing that irks me the most is that I pay for www.koval.ca. How much more plain can it get? And that doesn't even register on Google. Google used to be great until you had to pay for rankings. I think Yahoo is the only one that picks up the "ca" address.

And Bing, Microsoft's new search engine, isn't any better. Actually, it's the same as Google. The description I submitted to Google years ago shows up on Bing. Weak. Actually, that's pretty piss-poor.

It's hard to mildly entertain people when the name doesn't come up.

Anyways, I'm done ranting.

By the way, Gregg Koval Week seems to be a success. I'm over half done 40 minutes of new music. I'm geeked.

The Trashersons Have Moved To the City

2009-09-16T10:26:00.000-04:00

The other day I read in the local paper, a front-page story on something I'm trying to wrap my head around. Now I don't usually blog about non-musical stuff but this one kind of gets to me.

The basic story is a guy who was left paralyzed after a hit and run is suing the city and a local construction contractor for $12.8 M. The guy who did the hitting was driving drunk and had outstanding infractions.

So you'd think it's pretty open and shut.

But after reading a little further, it's turning into a white-trash affair.

The guy who got hit and is now in a wheelchair (which really is too bad) and is suing the City because the street where he was tagged didn't have sidewalks on both sides of the street. Pretty weak argument. Why? Well, obviously he wasn't on the side of the street that had a sidewalk.

“The vehicular traffic on that road (Greenpark Blvd) is of such a volume that the city should have insisted on sidewalks on both sides,” was the quote from the guy's lawyer. Well, if you hop on Mapquest, it's not a high volume road. Actually, I lived in this City all my life and I even said, "Greenpark?"

The reason the Contractor is getting sued is because the Contractor was throwing a fundraiser, and the guy that did the hitting, left drunk from the fundraiser. Since it's a shit law to begin with (the host is responsible for the guests' (adults) drinking habits), that will probably stick even though the guy who did the hitting was a drunk and shouldn't be behind the wheel in the first place.

But this is the part that really, really bugs me: the "victim"'s Dad and Mom (you have to put them in that order after you read the last names) are suing for $1 million each and the brother and sister are suing for the pull-the-number-out-of-thin-air $250,000 each. WTF? Why 4 other people, that weren't even there, are suing the City is beyond me. But the brother and sister too? That's a lot of nerve. How about you two go get a job? If your going to try and profit off of some one's, let alone a family member's, handicap then you really are a piece of shit.

The saddest part about this whole suing-thing is that the driver, who is a bum, doesn't have money which is why I'm guessing the "victim" and the lame-o family are suing the City and the drunk's boss. Y'know, because you wouldn't want to take action on the person that directly caused the accident.

Kids, don't turn into trash - accept responsibility for your own actions and don't become weak people.

I'm done. Now you can go back to practicing the guitar.

Nobody Said I Can't Be A Geek

2009-09-02T12:20:00.000-04:00

Why the title? Because over the last 4 days I've been playing the new Batman game for the PS3.

How is it? Pretty good. Actually, it's really good. I probably will buy it (I rushed through it since I was borrowing the game) but I'll wait until the price comes down or I find it used.

Why 4 days? Because I had the hardest time finding the Batcave for the second time. You can rarely find any hints online for that one (drop down the elevator shaft in the Medical Facility since all other ways are blocked).

Why I think I liked it so much is that it reminded me a lot of Soul Reaver. I figure they'll never release any Soul Reaver games for the PS3 so this is as close as it gets. Complete with changing "modes" to figure puzzles out; Soul Reaver had Spectral Mode, Batman has Detective Mode. And being made by Edios, that doesn't surprise me at all. I didn't look at the credits but I'd bet the same guy did the music for both.

So if you're looking to kill some quality time, this is the game to do it with.

Thanks, Chris - you're alright.

Heaven and Hell

2009-08-25T08:31:00.000-04:00

Well, Heaven and Hell we're just great.

That was Friday at the Meadowbrook Theatre in Michigan. Nice place - much better than DTE.
We got there a little late since the U.S. Border's still a little much because of "security" but we had time enough to get t-shirts and find our seats which were surprisingly close (a little over 10 rows back - we had row K).

The show opened with Mob Rules and was nice and loud. Geezer was stellar all night, Dio was much better than the DVD that was released, and Tony (my hero) was predictably outstanding. Vinny was good - I appreciated him more after watching him.

3 new songs Fear, Bible Black and Follow The Tears were nice to hear live after playing them almost daily in my car since the CD came out. Die Young ended up being probably the most energetic thing they played. I couldn't believe how many kids enjoyed that one. Heaven and Hell was a treat, especially with the long jam and Dio made me laugh pretty good during I when he embellished on one of the lines in the song.

So money well spent. I have the unfortunate feeling this will be the last time those guys hit the States so I'm glad I got to see my heroes one last time.

Sad Day Today

2009-08-13T15:19:00.000-04:00

Well, it's a sad day today. Les Paul died. At 94. But you'll probably read that somewhere else with the whole inventor of mulit-tracking and electric guitar stuff, but I feel bad because I consider him a big influence on my playing. OK, more accurately, I "borrowed" from him quite a bit. Well, quite a lot.

The first I really got to hear him was back in 1996 (see, stuff like that sticks out) when my Mom brought home a Les Paul Trio CD, the "Laserlight" one if you want to look it up. Before that, I had heard the Mary Ford stuff and I liked it but I wasn't dazzled until I heard the Trio stuff. It reminded me of proto-Deep Purple. At that time, I never heard anything that early where the guitar is doing unison/harmony lines with a speedy piano.

Les Paul was that good.

I appreciate him from doing home recording - if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have made this website. Also, my left shoulder wouldn't be sore from playing Les Pauls for the past 20 years. Still, I loved him as a guitar player first.

Even a couple of years ago when I hacked on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Guitarist List, I placed Les at #2 (Django was 1st and even Les would agree)

So, Kids, you probably had no idea what you missed.

Upgrading

2009-08-12T14:09:00.000-04:00

Well, last night I upgraded the hard drive on my PS3.

Why? Well, I only bought the 60GB version about 2 years ago. Best one too, as I found out later. Since my friends were buying theirs I noticed that their PS3s were missing 2 USB slots, SD/Compact Flash slots and probably wouldn't play SACDs. The amazing thing about the PS3 is that it plays SACDs through the optical out. That's not normally supposed to happen. Even my 5 disc SACD player won't output digitally.

So I was running out of space on the 60 GB drive, and after a bit of reading how simple it was, I thought I'd try it. Last night I went out and bought a 250GB drive.

The install and format was painless. Absolutely painless. And it kept all the system settings too. I didn't have to re-setup the network configurations or reapply a System Update or anything. Nice.

Speaking of nice, and I forgot to mention it last post, was a shining glimmer of hope and normalicy (I know, it's not a real word) when I went to Toronto. I stayed in a smoking room; ashtrays and everything. If I ever have to get a room again, it'll be at the Holiday Inn Express.

On other fronts, I think Blind Date made it to CD Baby. Usually, for all the other CDs I sent there, I'd get an e-mail saying "your discs are in; give us a couple days to set it up". Anyways, the stock says I have them in there. I guess I'll have to check everyday to see if it's up. Something I really shouldn't have to do. CD Baby used to be pretty great but I noticed a slide since Derek Sivers left. He started the company way back when and recently resigned. His own website has too much useful information though.

So it's hard to say, "OK, the CD's available" when I don't really know myself.

Also, thanks to everyone that listen to Dirty Tricks on SoundClick. I was really surprised when I looked at the stats. Makes me feel like I'm on to something.

How I Spent My August Long Weekend

2009-08-05T12:57:00.000-04:00

If you read this month's News and Letters, it said that the updates were early. They were. I probably won't go back and update it either. I'm good like that.

So anywayssss (that's how the North American Natives say it), I had a good time. My Boss at my day job was kind enough to let me have the Friday off, so I left about 9 in the morning with two other friends.

About 4 hours later we were in Toronto. Nice day too. I guess the weather hasn't been the greatest. Also, it was Carabana Weekend. We didn't go though. A lot of time was spent eating and drinking. I had a Food Baby by 7:00. I did have to break away from the group since I ended up getting a huge headache and saw my tuna sandwich twice. My advice: never get a tuna sandwich in Toronto.

After a sleep at the Holiday Inn Express, it was back to gluttony with some brewery tours at Steam Whistle and Mill St. I honestly could have went for more bumming around later in the evening after eating, drinking and walking so much.

Up early Sunday and then back home by 2:00 pm. Not bad. I didn't make to any CD stores unfortunately; guess I'll have to go again sooner than later. But, when I got home, I did get my test copy of The Spy Is The Limit from IndiePool and also Albert Lee's Live In Montreaux (CD) and Deep Purple's Hits, History and Highlights DVDs. Nice.

So nothing out of the ordinary or any great stories came out of the trip but that's OK - those are the good ones.

Oh, and I finally saw Cadillac Records. That ended up being pretty good - better than I thought it would be. The glitch I caught right away was Muddy recording 40 Days and Forty Nights before he recorded Hoochie Coochie Man. Other than that, nothing was too glaring. Nice Goldtop too - looks familiar.

People Are Idiots

2009-07-30T21:02:00.000-04:00

Here's a Letter to the Editor from today's local paper:

"I found the film, Bruno, very disturbing and I wish to request that you remove this movie from theatres. This is not a movie and it is not related to cinema. It is made to disturb the common taste that movie lovers have.

The media should be ashamed for promoting this movie and booking spots for the lead actor to appear on their programs.

This makes them accomplices in the conspiracy to destroy the taste of the general public.
This movie is a failure. I also feel that I need an apology. When a movie ends, a customer should feel good about what he watched and about the ending. But not with Bruno, it is a total mess. Please take it off, send a message out, you have a responsibility toward people, you owe it to your society.
Talal Aoun,"

Dumbass.

What makes this person an idiot? Right; they could have walked out of the movie theatre at anytime.

And we all know bans are pretty unproductive.

Assault and Batteries

2009-07-20T12:36:00.000-04:00

Since I love the sound of a Hammond organ and I love guitar pedals, I ended up getting a Line 6 Tone Core Roto-Machine pedal. Obviously, when I came home, I plugged it in and played along with Badfinger. "Oooo, girl; oooh, girl, want you".

How does it sound? Pretty great actually. The use of the pedal/footswitch was actually pretty ingenious for changing the speed setting. I'm still getting used to it and trying to figure out a standard setting for myself and it's still going before the DS-1. I still have to figure out the Joe Walsh "Mother Says" setting. And the thing has stereo inputs and outputs. Also there's a Gain knob that, when full up, sounds pretty awful, so I'll be leaving that down. No big deal.

The only drawback, and why I won't be taking it out too often, is that it's way too hard on batteries. I don't know if Line6 is owned by Duracell but I got about 3 hours out of a fresh Duracell. The only other pedal that I have, and can actually watch the LED dim over a two hour span is my Boss Harmonist. Great pedal, good for Prince impersonations but I just can't take it out. How many bars do you know that have more than 4 available outlets near the stage? That's right. And I'm not going out and start buying adapters.

So, it's a great pedal but I'll be sticking with the Rotovibe. I was really hoping to take it when Pete and I play out but what can you do?

I got my test copy of Blind Date on Friday. It turned out pretty good so I'm geeked. Soon to be in the stores. Well, at least 1 around here anyways.

Also, the Canuasa gig for this Friday (24th) has been cancelled. Sorry everyone; completely my fault.

Jam Night

2009-07-15T12:45:00.000-04:00

Well, last night Pete and I went to the Sandwich Mill to their acoustic jam night.

I know, on a Tuesday.

Anyways, I thought we did OK for our first time out (without a drummer). Let's see, what did we do...we did I Will Survive (Cake version), Love Gun (Hayseed Dixie version), Old Lady (Pearl Jam), Nautical Disaster (Tragically Hip) and Johnny Cash's Thirteen.

So I was pleasantly surprised. My original intention was to bring a small amp out and play clean but plugging into the board (with a compressor and delay) seemed to work fine. Less is more.

Other than that, I'm waiting for my copies of Coffee Stains to send to CD Baby and also waiting for my test copy of Blind Date. From there, I'll be plugging Blind Date as much as I can.

Re-remaster

2009-07-09T12:54:00.000-04:00

Well, I think I'm happy finally. The last 2 days I went back to Mark Planke's Sharktank Studios to have him re-remaster Hits The Spot and On Ice. The reason why is the wav files I originally gave him to work with shouldn't have been those files.

Before I started going to Mark, I used to take the mixes (wav files) and pop them into WaveLab for extra EQ-ing, reverbs, etc... pretty much trying to do my own mastering. It's not my strong suit (I'm only a guitar player). So the first time I went to Mark, I brought him the Wavelab'd wav files. My mistakes ended up getting amplified, hence the distortion and clipping on some tracks.

When I started going through IndiePool to make the covers, I thought I should at least remix Hits The Spot/On Ice and get them to sound good. Normally, I back everything up. I backed up all the 4-track stuff; I backed up Drives It Home; but I could not find my 24 track Hits The Spot/On Ice DVDs. As good as I could find were the pre-Wavelab'd wav files with much less distortion and clipping. The distortion on Worth The Wait is unavoidable but it's not really that annoying.

I haven't given them the headphone test yet but after listening to them, really sleepy-like, last night when I got home, they seem pretty good. Hits The Spot has a snare drum finally; Pictures sounds great.

So lesson learned: never master yourself if your going to get the songs mastered.

On another good note, I have 3 covers left to go before I'm all finished: Hits The Spot, The Spy Is The Limit and I'll Spy Anything Twice.

Blind Date should be available at CD baby, I'd say by the 24th of this month. It's already available at Aime St.

Broadcasting in Pause-filled Digital

2009-06-12T12:30:00.000-04:00

Well, today's the day the States go digital for their television broadcasts.

What an incredible waste of time.

Anyways, for me living in Windsor, it does affect me a little bit. Luckily, I already had a QAM tuner built-in to my TV so picking up the stations isn't a problem. The problem is watching them. The picture is pretty great...unless it decides to snow; rain; look like it might rain; there's a chance of rain in the 5 day forecast; be windy; be breezy; or have a pigeon fly by my apartment.

I tried watching Game 6 of the NHL playoffs the other night. There's nothing quite like watching a breakaway, having the picture freeze and then kick back in after the save.

Ah, technology.

I went back to the analog station, and even though it was snowy, was way more watchable. No hiccups, no freezing - it works.

I'm not sure who sold this idea to the States but wow. Why the change? Was it a cost factor? Does the U.S. want to go back to being Isolationists and close-circuit themselves in? Is somebody getting a kick-back?

Other than picture clarity, it's a completely useless way of broadcasting. Also there hasn't been anything good on television since the Writer's Strike a few years ago.

Anyways, you can never go wrong with analog whether it's radio, TV, or telephone. It just works.

Nothing Really Important

2009-06-10T22:30:00.000-04:00

Last weekend we, The Toastment, were at the Canusa on Friday night. It was their first night with bands in over a year. Turn out wasn't high but that's to be expected since a) it was the first night and b) it's just that part of town. The place looks nice inside though. I used to go there way back when I was underage and they had a Thursday night jam. Now I'm one of the old guys I used to make fun of. Kinda funny.

Saturday I got to take Blind Date to get mastered. Always fun to go to Mark's...and I end up learning a bunch of stuff again (recording techniques, things to watch for, etc.) For the first round of mastering, eveything went well even though there's a few tweaks to do next Tuesday. But, it's basically done. I even printed out a mock cover and that didn't turn out so bad either.

Thanks to IndiePool; the Landing Strip cover turned out nice; I got that last week. I might do The Spy Is The Limit next. That's my favourite cover so far.

Then back at the Canusa on Friday. That was unexpected. When I asked about playing this coming weeked, the response was, "Oh yeah, we forgot tell you". I'll take another gig. I honestly thought last week we'd be done til the Fall. I have my Summer pretty much planned already.

One more thanks to RadioIndy because:
"We want to let you know that we've awarded you a GrIndie Award for your excellent CD "Drives It Home". We published an announcement of this award on your RadioIndy artist page, on your CDBaby CD page, and it will soon be sent via email to our listeners of your genre. We are thrilled to help you promote your excellent CD.
Sincerely,
Manny and Greg
Co-founders, RadioIndy.com

Nice.

New CD almost done

2009-05-25T12:48:00.000-04:00

Well, the new CD, Blind Date, is almost done. I finished up and extra overdubs on Saturday and mixed almost everything yesterday. There's only two songs left I have to remix tonight: Set Back and Gypsy. Other than that, everything's pretty status quo. Also, I'm leaving off the instrumental that's been available on the site for the past 2 months.

So here's the track listing:

Dirty Tricks
Blind Date
Ransom Note
Let Yourself Go
Head For The Hills
Let It Steep
Set Back
Gypsy

I'm just glad everything's done, recording-wise.

After remixing the last two songs, I can finish up the cover. I have the basic idea, I just have to fit it to a 4.75" x 4.75" picture. Hopefully I can get Mark to master this one next week. We'll see, he's a pretty busy guy.

And then the usual CD Baby thing too and then to IndiePool for a proper cover. The whole process has gotten longer over the years. But the whole CD, albeit unmastered, will be up for June's webpage updates.

What a Week

2009-05-15T12:13:00.000-04:00

Wow - what a week.

First off, I want to express my heartfelt sadness on the Bruins' exit from the playoffs. Go Chicago.

Secondly, Ontario got a step closer to being a communist province with the "passing" of lowering the alcohol blood limit to .05. There goes a few more bars to the wayside.

Speaking of bars going to the wayside, one of my favourite places to play at closed down. Aardvarks is no more. What helped with the closing? A smoking ban. The current Ontario Government is bad for business.

I spent most of the week reformatting my machine. I caught a trojan from a bad e-mail (honest), so instead of fighting with it, I decided to start from scratch. Unfortunately, I lost a lot of stuff, like pictures I had forever but "oh well". I kept my PSDs and wavs and, right now, those are the important things, but I'm still hunting for a few CDs that I had as backups.

All this plus a great weekend in Toronto and my Dad's birthday is putting off recording. I really should be done by now. Monday, since it's a holiday, is going to be recording day and well as next weekend. I'm not leaving my bedroom until the new CD Blind Date is finished.

And speaking of CDs, I set up Lays Back in a nice Digipak format at IndiePool too. I think Landing Strip might be next. Anyways, I can't wait to see how this one turns out. On a good note, Will Work For Money and Drives It Home are in digipak format at CD Baby right now.

And before I sign off I would like to mention, because it's neat, this week I hit Number 4 on SoundClick's charts for Drives It Home. Nice. Still, I think the only way I'll become a house-hold name is if I change it to Maytag.

9 Years on the Web

2009-05-08T06:46:00.000-04:00

If you came here from my website then you already know that this month I'm (well, the website) is celebrating 9 years on the Web.

If you didn't come here from my site, head on over to www.greggkoval.com.

Another 9? We'll see.

Thanks to everyone who came and went over the years.

Also, the new CD Blind Date should be ready for next month.

The Devil You Know

2009-04-28T18:49:00.000-04:00

Well, I just got done listening to the new Heaven and Hell (Black Sabbath) CD that came out today and I knew I was giddy the last couple of weeks for a reason.

This was one CD I was actually counting the days on the calendar for its release and I wasn't let down. Overall, it's excellent. I'm listening to it again as I'm typing this.

After reading a review from Rolling Stone last week, (it's pretty obvious the buffoon, Chuck Eddy, didn't even listen to it), I actually though "uh oh". Then I remembered it was Rolling Stone magazine. If I ever one day got a good review from Rolling Stone magazine, I'd go slit my wrist because it would mean I did a terrible job. I was even going to write something on their webpage but I'd have to log in/sign up. Nope.

Anyways, I have to continue on with the webpage updates for May.

Earth Day

2009-04-22T19:28:00.000-04:00

Well, Happy Earth Day, even though the Farmer's Almanac said it was the 21st.

So what am I doing for Earth Day? Instead of turning on the TV and playing the PS3, I'm going to just play my PSP.

Also, I caught a bit of a cold. I'm kind of lucky since I don't catch them often; probably because of the 4Cs. So I'll have to take it easy for the next little bit or until I sleep it off.

Also, the title of the next CD will be Blind Date. The title track will be about me going on a blind date and finding out that she's literally blind. Kinda cute. Other exciting tracks will be about: female magicians ("Dirty Tricks"); ransom notes; heading for the hills; tea bags ("Let It Steep"); and Gypsies. The basic tracks are done and so are 90% of the words. I was hoping to get it all finished for May's Anniversary Edition but I might only have one or two rough mixes ready.

That's OK.

Easter Weekend

2009-04-15T16:58:00.000-04:00

Wow, what a weekend.

It all started Thursday afternoon when I went to the dentist to get my cavities replaced. A little sore. After the freezing wore off I realized the soreness wasn't from my teeth but from my dentist pulling on cheek. Anyways, the rest of the night, Pete and I got together to go over some acoustic songs.

Saturday was pretty weird. It started off to be a great day complete with BBQ steaks and an almost SG fix. That being an "almost" worked out for the best by the end of the night. Since the SG wiring didn't go so well, I brought out the white Les Paul Studio as my backup to Aardvarks that night. That was a fairly good night too except for the last song. I remember looking at the floor, zoning out (guitar playing is the closest I get to zenning) and then on my right side, the PA speaker came tumbling to the ground and on my left I saw my amp tumble off the stool and hit the ground as well, scratching up the white guitar on its way down, but thankfully any marks are only on the back. I also lost one of my input jacks on the amplifier probably because the cord was still plugged in when the amp took a spill. Pete and I could have easily gotten tagged with falling equipment. Maybe we won't play Bridge of Sighs anymore.

It could have been a lot worse: had the SG been there it would have been literally in pieces from the amp hitting it.

Sunday, the SG's wiring got straightened out and it's a real treat. It might just be the most versatile guitar I own. It's still not the Goldtop or Studio Plus; nothing can touch those two. Man, I love my Studio Plus.

Monday, again, was filled with good food and Newcastle Brown. And Tuesday consisted of playing the SG, doing guide vocals on the new songs and word re-writes.

Also, the whole weekend I was up til 4 in the morning playing Civilization on the PS3. It's such a great game.

Power Outage

2009-04-07T09:46:00.000-04:00

So the power went out last night in the apartment I'm in now. And that'll happen, but what I don't get is why some of the tenants had to file out in the hall way and start talking. Oh yeah, the power went out just before midnight. I'd hate to see what would happen if there was an actual emergency.

On a good note, I got some words done. 2 1/2 songs worth. The three songs are: Dirty Tricks, Ransom Note, and Let Yourself Go. Off to a good start.

Also, while doing my "song research" (also known as surfing), I thought that, only in the States can you get a bobble-head of your President. Some countries would have you thrown in jail for that.

Anyways, tonight I'll be making the cover for Drives It Home so it'll work with the digipak measurements.

Neat, eh?

2009-03-31T22:46:00.001-04:00

So yeah, this is my new Blogging spot.

MySpace is terrible

2009-03-19T19:07:00.000-04:00

I should rephrase that: using MySpace, especially if you have a "Musician" page, is terrible to use. Actually, this site was great for formatting; super easy. But MySpace is about as much fun as using iTunes or a rectal thermometer. OK, so the thermometer might tickle a bit.

On a happier note, the Will Work For Money Digipak looks great. I received my Test Copy in the mail yesterday and was impressed. Thanks, Indie Pool.

St Patrick's Day

2009-03-17T14:56:00.000-04:00

Being part-Irish, you'd think that I'd be all over St Patrick's Day. I know, weather-wise it's different this year but here's what usually happens:

After work, go to a bar and stand in a line in 40 degree temperatures;
Finally get in and hear about the fight that happened earlier that day;
Wait 20 minutes to get served a pint;
Go outside for a smoke (which is totally wrong but that's another entry);
Wait another 20 minutes for another pint;
Wait an hour so if you get pulled over you won't get a DUI;
Get home and fall asleep since beer didn't make me drunk, just drowsy.

I can't justify taking a whole day off to drink since it would be the day after that I'd need the day off.

Anyways, it's usually harmless fun and you run into people you know and it's a lot of laughs but I one thing I can not stand is Irish music. It's just a tiny notch above New Country for being enjoyable. And being Canadian, you'd think I'd be able to tell if it's an actual Irish song or something from the East Coast but I can't.

Anyways, Happy St Paddy's Day

Using Twitter

2009-03-13T10:28:00.000-04:00

So I started using Twitter a little while back when I got an e-mail from Derek Sivers (the guy that started CD Baby) and he always has something useful and good in his e-mails/blogs.

I liked Twitter for its less personal angle. But just like Facebook, all of a sudden, it's a contest to see who can get the most "Tweets". Am I saying that right? No, wait, "Followers" is the word I'm looking for.

It is neat to get, almost on a daily basis, e-mails saying so-and-so's following your updates. When you check some of these people out though, almost everyone and their dog is an "Entrepreneur" or some guy promoting his EBay Store (who happens to be an "Entrepreneur"himself).

When the Writer's Strike happened many years ago, its poor substitute ended up being Reality Shows. Now that there's a Recession (the convenient excuse to fire your employees) , everyone's suddenly an Entrepreneur. Or a "web marketing genius". I can see the motivational posters right now. I'm still trying to figure out what the hell a "Full Time Internet Marketer" does, but I'll guess it has the same amount of substance as me playing Dead Space on the PS3 (which isn't such a bad game). Other terms that are all-too-frequent are: Web content strategist; Founder/CEO at suchandsuch.com; Consultant; Personal Trainers; oh and everyone's a Blogger. I didn't know Blogging was an occupation. I'd say 7 out of 10 times, the webpage associated with a person is only a Blog (like what you're reading here) and that's it.

My favourtie guy on Twitter is Henry Rollins. He has 14,000 Followers but is only following 17. Nice. The Onion is good too since I can get the update at night instead of waiting for the following morning. And Glenn Hughes. Good thing that guy's still around.

Anyways, I'll still use Twitter even though I don't think it's helping with much of anything.

Learned a Valuable Lesson Today

2009-03-12T19:54:00.000-04:00

I learned that you shouldn't save to an EPS file from Photoshop. It flattens the whole image. Not good.

So I spent another night making a cover. At least this time it was quicker. Then I had to re-upload my files. I'm pooped.

Making CDs

2009-03-10T23:31:00.001-04:00

Wow - I'm pooped.

I just finished creating my digipack cover for Will Work For Money. I guess it's not like making a table in Word and plopping the jpegs in the cells.

I do think it'll look pretty good when it's done. I followed all the instructions best I could so we'll see what the final product looks like.

Just the thought of cutting out another CD cover with scissors gives me the willies.

March 7, 2009

2009-03-07T10:47:00.001-05:00

I'm thinking I'll probably start using blogger.com for my Blog now instead of using a text document, like I've been doing for the past 5 years.

I thought I'd include this year's entries so I'm not starting totally from scratch.

Anyways, I'm going to go watch the rain for a little bit; I heard some thunder earlier.

February 8, 2009

2009-03-07T10:46:00.002-05:00

Well, had a good night last night at Tom Foolery's. Thanks to everyone that came out. 3rd set was pretty rough but the rest was A.O.K.

And the SG-3 did fine. Still not used to the volume knob being audio taper but hopefully I can fix that soon.

February 2, 2009

2009-03-07T10:46:00.001-05:00

The rest of the site should be updated by the time you read this and before I forget, thanks for visiting the site again. I feel I don't say it enough.

My SG-3 came in today and I really, really like it. It's been a little bit since I played one and the neck is right in the middle of my old SG Standard and SG Classic. The gold hardware's a very nice touch.

I knew I did the right thing by trading my Taylor for it. I didn't even once whince. That's my sign.

Now I have to put new strings on it. Too light of a guage.

January 13, 2009

2009-03-07T10:45:00.000-05:00

Welp, RadioIndy finally fixed my Profile Page there. I noticed at Christmas time that only one song was showing up on my Audio page and I was missing other tabs as well.

So thanks to Paul from their Support.

Other than that I started reading Steve Martin's Born Standing Up.

I know - it's a rough life.

January 6, 2009

2009-03-07T10:44:00.000-05:00

Well, Happy New Year.

Hope everything went well over the Holidays.

You know, maybe it's because I just finished Rodney Dangerfield's autobiography but nothin's going right.

RadioIndy, who's tech support used to be pretty great, botched my account and still haven't fixed it. I show up on their chart page as number 1, 2 and 3 but the chick in the picture doesn't look anything like me. And then they lost my stats. Nice.

Then there's Aime St music that loves to change urls on me without notice. I'm no webdesigner but I know enough to not f*** something up that works. Pardon my potty mouth.

Then, totally not related to anything is the retarded Third Hand Smoke thing, I heard about today. You guessed it, a term obviously thought of by a bunch of people that don't have anything important to do. I can't wait to see what white-trash waitress tries to use this as an excuse for money.

In case you haven't heard, Third Hand Smoking is basically smells left on clothing and furniture. Somehow, it's magically toxic. But when your friends come over and fart on the couch, that's OK. Don't worry about methane. Then again, if you're going around sniffing couches and clothes maybe you should go see a doctor.

Sorry about the rant.

Other than that, everything's going pretty darn good.

My first Blog using Blogger.com

2009-03-02T20:15:00.000-05:00

I know, I just sent one through the RadioIndy ones.

I'll try this for a bit, just to see how it goes.