Unconfirmed Reports

This isn't strictly a music blog, but I have to say, the West Coast is certainly melding the worlds of nature, art, and expression for me. I started this blog documenting my social, political, and natural observations, and it quickly morphed into my adventures living on the rugged coast of Vancouver Island. The more beauty I see, the more melody dancing around in my head. But don't worry fellow space travelers, baby boomers, fern aficionados, and thought police... there are Orwellian conspiracies lurking around every corner of this blog. Sometimes you just have to look under a rock or two to find them.

Moving on. I started writing songs when I was very young on a classical Mexican guitar my Nan bought me. 17 or so years of songwriting and performing has been an amazing journey, but something has changed while living out here. I met some amazing friends who started this music project with me. We settled on the name Unconfirmed Reports, and have set out to take over the island with an eclectic mix of indie, roots, rock, folk, and other flavors. Since moving out here, there has been this intensely relentless swell of melody and lyrical ideas crashing around my brain. Also, I have composed a story. A story the centers around two people, but is much, much bigger than that. This story is slowly being unraveled through these songs, and embedded within are various reflections on the social, moral, and everyday fragments of life. I hope over time, these pieces paint a picture that resonates in one way or another. That is the true and naked beauty of music. It can inspire you, bring you to tears, and redefine you. In my case, it inspires me to create. And with that, I give you "Getaway," a small but important part of this story.

What the Hiatus?

Holy intermission of life. Friends, Fiends, and unknowns, I have no words for
my disappearing act. Let's just go with one part Delorean, two parts Stephen Hawking, and a dash of Jean-Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise for good measure. I hope you fellow time travelers have stayed with me throughout this journey, and so I am eternally grateful. It feels like we got sucked into different wormholes, but some how came out the other side of the rabbit hole together. What adventure have I been on you ask? Oh, just a little musical one. I have resurfaced with a band, and this band is called Unconfirmed Reports. What musical style you wonder? That is a good question. Take a peak at the live jam below from our last house show on Quadra Island, and if you so desire, check out some more live songs on the Facebook. And the Youtube. Travel well, and always keep a copy of A Brief History of Time at arms reach.

https://m.facebook.com/unconfirmedreports?ref=m_notif&notif_t=like

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCicZJj5qfJROil5Z00JLuxg

Mega Moon Adventures From a Lost Inlet

And so it was. The opportunity arose to have ourselves a little portage, and then witness the full moon rise whilst meandering about the ocean. Our vessel was a canoe, and our velocity was governed solely by our arms. After a rewarding portage, we boarded the nautical watercraft and broke away from the soupy saltwater inlet known as the Goose Spit. After testing the reliability of the canoe through an ancient and highly secretive set of orchestrated maneuvers, we pointed our bow towards the city of Vancouver. With Denman and Hornby Islands to our right, and Texada Island to our left, we positioned ourselves perfectly for an ocean view Jacques Cartier would have been envious of. As the moon's outer edge began to break through the rusty hue hanging over the great city of the Best Coast, we got our first glimpse of the Mega Moon. I was in absolute awe of the power of Earth's primary satellite, as its influence was all around us. From the steady rocking of the tide to the creatures taking advantage of the changing water levels, Mega Moon was a palpable force. With the moon now suspended above the smog by commanding cosmic forces, it finally revealed its true beauty. One could distinctly make out the lighter lunar highlands, and with even greater clarity, the darker lunar maria. Its cosmic reflection in the oceanic mirror before us stole our breath. Marvel and wonder were upon us, and we all appreciated the beauty with which only nature could produce. For us, Mega Moon provided an efficacious partner, and we were very humbled guests.

(forgive me)

Oh Internets... as I'm sure you have guessed by now, I have met someone else. That someone is life. I have however, come back, and I ask for your forgiveness. I'll try harder to stay committed, as I think the two of you can co-exist nicely. Let's move on together shall we? So it has been 12 months to the day since I arrived on planet Vancouver Island, and it continues to amaze me. Its roots are twisting and turning around my heart, and I can't imagine going to sleep without the ocean breeze or going on a fern-less walk through the woods. Every weekend something new is discovered - take the picture below for example. A random hike eventually led to an amazing waterfall with a few nice chaps serenading mother nature with their guitars. Edward Sharpe would be proud of those folks. I will be posting with greater frequency, so I hope you all stick with me for the ride.

Heavy

Idle No More, Occupy (insert your city), Arab Spring... what is happening here? Are these just the fashionable proclamations of a bored youth? Blind societies voicing discontent with their own life decisions? People frustrated by a poor economy? No, No, and wellll kinda. I think this last point starts to scratch the surface, but it is much deeper than that. These aren't uneducated movements, and they certainly aren't just gatherings of naive "commies and hippies." While at an Occupy rally last year, I was in a small discussion group with 2 university professors, a medical doctor, and a lawyer. This wasn't a gathering of nihilists, these were people genuinely concerned with the state of our communities. A look at what has been happening around the world hints at a common thread. The arteries of the world have just been given a shot of discourse-tinged adrenaline. A confidence is now running through the veins our world's inhabitants, and I like it. The courage to stand up for what you believe in is spreading quicker than skinny jeans. While we still sit with embarrassing voter apathy in North America (just over 60% voted Stevie Harps in), people are getting frustrated. Frustrated with inequality, environmental degradation, corporate hegemony, government dominance, lingering sexism in the workforce, so on and so forth. This is global angst. I don't have to agree with everything other members of a particular movement believe in, but it is an amazing thing to find common ground and stand together on united issues. The fact that apathy is being eroded is a great sign. I just hope this societal awakening can create enough of a seismic shift that it reaches everyone from safe suburban homes to decaying housing complexes. The question is... will it be enough? Here in Canada, we have Enbridge's push to dissect our surreal Great Bear Rain forest, a Conservative government hell-bent on crippling environmental protection for our lakes and lands, and the usual Corporate supremacy. There are only so many times you can steal cookies out of the cookie jar before it is empty. The oven is broken, no cookie dough is left in the kitchen, and we are going to have to go to our neighbor's house for supplies. But guess what? They are running low too, and they just upped their prices. Let's think of our next generations folks. Kid's kids and things like that. Ok, next blog to be lighter.

We barely made it

Phewph dudes, that was close. December the 20th saw me dance around falling frogs like Fred Astaire, evade locusts like Peter La Fleur from Dodgeball, and catch Ratfish out of an inflatable zodiac. I am definitely mixing up my prophesies a bit here, but it is inconsequential. Those calendar makers must really wish they didn't skip that calculus lesson on calendar cataclysms. Those 7/11 cream soda slushes were good, but now we don't even know when the big 'splosions gunna be. At least we can go back to looking to the heavens for aliens instead of ridiculous end of days delusions. This talk of cream soda has got me a little nostalgic. Remember the packs of hockey cards that contained that sacred single stick of bubble gum? The gum that you would eat even if the pack was a good decade plus old? You knew you shouldn't eat it - but seriously, how could you not? You would pop it in your mouth, and within 3 seconds it would just disintegrate into nothingness. This gum would break the first law of Thermodynamics every time - energy can neither be created nor destroyed. This stuff just vanished, and you didn't even get to swallow anything. I could go on all day talking about Dunk-a-roos, hockey cards in the bike spokes, Magic cards, etc. but I will stop here. I just wanted to express my relief that we all made it out of the rabbit hole in more or less one piece. Don't drink the Kool-Aid folks...it ain't natural and has a bad after taste.

Happy December 21st

It has been far too long friends. So what is new? Planning for the end of the world have you? Oh nooooo he didn't. Look folks, I think most of us know that December 21st isn't going to be some calendar-triggered wrath of the gods Armageddon thang. But you know what is scary? A lot of people are serious about this, and I just can't figure it out. We trust antibiotics and antiviral drugs based on observable evidence (and evolution), we trust the tides when we are boating or on a beach walkabout, and we certainly trust gravity when we must. This "trust" comes not from feelings, but rather from direct evidence. But when it comes to life/death, we often throw all logic out the window and trust some archaic fairy tale. Now don't get me wrong, there are amazing ancient achievements that we must appreciate. But that does not include slavery, racism, sexism, literal belief in outrageous myths, so on and so forth. So why believe this nonsense? No offense intended, but if you tell me that the Earth is flat I will say "no it is not." If you tell me the Sun and Planets revolve around the Earth I will say "Nope, wrong again." We have obvious evidence, and people have come to trust this (only after a long battle with logic, reason, and the sciences). We have come a long way earthlings. So why all the intellectual fuddy duddy surrounding matters such as the aforementioned? Do our brains have a propensity to make up stories when ideas become to complex or confusing? I personally trust the things I know - the look in my partner's eyes when we wake up together, the way a run in the wilderness takes me away, the happiness I get when visiting good friends and family, the way six strings sound around a campfire, and the way 90's punk rock still makes me feel. Perhaps we would all be a little more in touch with each other if we trusted that which is close. That which we can see, and that which we can measure. Why worry about the future? I don't profess to sit on some intellectual Percheron or mean to come across as though I have all the answers - I just think time spent building bomb shelters and buying plastic wrap for the windows might be better spent actually living. I dunno. Just spit-balling here folks. Call me a materialist, but I need science to guide my way. Give me some evidence, and I will take the bait. Give me definitive proof and I will scream from the tops of mountains. Give me a cup cake and I will eat it. Then go for a run. Then write a blog about it. Take care homies, keep it real. As a wise man once said "let's shoot for the moon - if we only get half way, it's better than workin' for the man."