I assure you, the space between my lines are now clean.

Sometimes in life we have to go it alone.  Some of us are really good at excuses. I mean they could come up for an excuse for an elephant to wear a tutu to a parliamentary meeting and no one would doubt them.  However I have pet peeve excuses.  My least favourite is "I need someone."

Now check yourself because this isn't a rant about being single or how I'm a strong female and raw raw raw post modern feminism!  No, this is a story about an old friend.  

I had a friend once who always had these great plans chased with great excuses not to do them.  He didn't want to do any of these things alone.  It wouldn't be as good, he would explain.  We lost touch and three years later? Nothing has changed for him.  He hasn't met any girl or a significant friendship and he's let it stall his life.

One could deduce that if he stopped worry about going it alone, he'd actually meet people along the way and enjoy things.  But that friend - he never went to Spain.  He never went skydiving.  He never wrote that book or did that thing he always wanted to do.

Loneliness technically won't stall humans.  Not for an hour, minute or second.  I know there have been times I didn't want to be alone, but now most of the time the things I was afraid to do alone, like go out to dinner, see a movie or go to a concert - I actually kind of prefer doing these things alone. Perhaps it's the saying my Nonno had: "Preferisco essere solo che essere in cattiva compagnia" which roughly translates into: "I'd rather be alone than be in bad company".  That's not to say I'd rather be in good company than be alone, however that's another story.

I really do believe that people read what they want into these little blurbs.  Really. I do. I

 assure you, the space between my lines are now clean.

Call it a catch without any strings attached.

Sometimes we run out of things to say.  

So we don't talk.  

It doesn't mean we don't wish the world well or think of the other things often. 

It's just what life is. 

A wishing well... of people wishing each other well.

Call it quits or call lit something else.

Names are just names.

Places are just places.

And games are never an end result.

Vote for your favourite Late July video and win!

With the new record already rolling and the fundraising campaign on full blast, I've been thinking about doing a new music video.

I've done a couple in the past, and I'm creating to come up with some intriguing, slightly creepy but totally arty, interesting ideas, but I need your help. I filmed my first music video EVER in an apple orchard in King City, Ontario. The second? In my parents basement. The third was filmed in the beautiful Toronto beaches. The fourth was filmed in a rented bedroom I was living in and the most recent one.. you guessed it! No you didn't The hallway in my parents house.

What's your favourite video I've made? Vote below! Leave me a message as to why AND/OR pitch a concept for a video.. you just might win a prize.. okay really. You will win a prize if chosen. So do it.

What say you?!

What is your favourite music video so far?

• Literary Kings
• A Well Kept Secret
• Side Swept
• Doghearted
• What's Left
• Good Behaviour

Acepolls

More polls: Stockholm universalladdare.com gzm

Doing what I do.

It's been an odd winter in Ontario there year, at least in the parts I've been around.

I've taken a step back from things, and a step forward into other things.

I've all but euthanized my social life.  Staying in reinventing my diet, learning how to cook new food, bake and be reasonably domesticated.  Trying to spend more time with dear Charlie, making sure he's healthy, happy and safe from any neighborhood coyotes.  Instead of going out on weekends I try to do something creative; creation is the heart of humanity after all...

I started volunteering with Loyal Rescue Inc. again, helping to screen adoptive homes for homeless dogs. 

I learned how to use a curling iron; sort of. That's a work in progress.

But I've really shifted most of my focus to music.  I feel like that got very out of focus for very many reasons I couldn't possibly go into.  But I'm back doing what I doing, and doing it because... it's what I do.

I love to write and song write there's no way around it.  I'm a writer, not a conventional one.  It turns out I'm a singer to.  I'm not conventional in that way either.

The new record is happening, and it's happening to me!  Exciting times, but still only 50% of the way there to fund it.  My fingers are crossed that in the next 30 days some miracle will happen. I have started getting together the perks to send out - t-shirts, photos, buttons, cake. It's all happening.

On Christmas day I saw a green Ukulele sitting in my closet.  I had received it as a Christmas gift a couple years ago but never really did anything with it.  I taught myself how to play and I was a quick study even though the tuning and chords are very different from a standard guitar.  It's been fun. I hope to learn more likeminded instruments in the near future, including the banjo and maybe even mandolin.  In the mean time I decided that I'd do a series of "sadcore" cover songs.

For those wondering what this sadcore entails, I believe it was best and inadvertently described by Tom Waits:

"I like beautiful melodies telling me horrible things"

Uncle Tom is always right.  So I've been picking the saddest of sad songs I know and doing 'mini covers' on the ukulele. Covering The National and Dr Dog was fun.  Tonight when I was thinking of songs to cover I thought of the classic "I Will Always Love You" and alas by the time I was finished covering the song I got news that Whitney Houston passed away.  Go figure.

It's definitely funny having to film yourself.  No matter what I do, I just seem so.. 'into it' when I perform. Perhaps it's because I am :)

Here is one of the tracks for you. To check out more subscribe to my Youtube channel. I've been posting up a storm!

What to do when the black SUV in front of you crashes.

One spring day I was standing in the middle of a busy road during rush hour kicking bumpers to the curb.  Looking back it all seemed like some giant metaphor.

Driving along a road I had driven on, or been driven on, for dozens of years, I blinked.  And in that moment the black SUV in front of me became airborne.  It flipped, and rolled and landed on it's roof.  Yes it happened in slow motion. Yes it was just like the movies. Barely 15ft in front of me chaos had come out of no where.

I stopped.
The other cars stopped.
Paused.
Then most drove away.

In the long seconds it took me to compute what had happened, I realized that there was a person in that car.  It in fact wasn't like the movies, there wasn't a stunt driver and oh my God, someone call 911.

It was an odd feeling to stop in the middle of such a busy road, and run towards a car not knowing if the person was dead or alive.

Other people got out of their cars, in so much shock they were blocking traffic.  911 was called.  Some people just stood, their arms crossed, one hand covering their mouth.

I peered in the window.  It was a lady, mid 50's.  She had a Jackie O hair cut, long manicured nails, was wearing pearls and sunglasses.  She was very calm, despite dangling upside down in her vehicle her body crunched against the former ceiling.

People began trying to pry her out and I begged for them to stop not knowing what injuries she had which could be made worse.  They agreed and waited for the police and ambulance to arrive.

Being rush hour, lines of traffic had begun to build up. The people who had been standing gasping and gawking at the wreck, failed to realize their cars were blocking traffic.  There was debris from the car all over the road, scattering into both lanes.

Feeling of no use to the lady in the car, I began to kick the broken metal and bumpers to the curb.  I started directing traffic around the vehicle, and another man joined in, having to ignore the fact that there was a lady injured in the spectacle.

Finally when things began to move,  I began to ask whose car was whose, then asked that person to move their car elsewhere or leave.  Finally I left, as there were a group of more 'senior' people waiting with the lady, and when I heard sirens I knew I was OK to go.

It was a weird feeling to stand in the road I had only ever driven on, never walked on, kicking debris, while dozens of people in cars watched.  I mean sometimes in life you're the lady in the car and all you can do is wait for help to get there.  Other times, you're the girl directing traffic.  I think the goal is to not be one of the people that gets in the way.  If you're a victim, you're a victim.  The trick is not to spend your life with your arms crossed and your hand over you mouth.

Things in life can change so quickly, so effortlessly, it makes you wonder how anything stays put at all.

I've been keeping a low profile lately, catching up on sleep, rest and letting my brain breathe a bit.

Here's a little bit of a video update:



Here's a sample of a new track off my forthcoming record.  There's now a 45% chance it'll get made thanks to some generous donations, but still a ways to go.  Be apart of it, I think it's going to be a special record.