The Medal Count

Well well well....

I don't suppose that you all were keeping track of Canada's medal count, but it appears that, sadly, there is more proof that girls are better than boys: The Olympics. Canada's women are DOMINATING, whereas the Canadian men are sucking out in most cases with the exception of the curling team that is predominantly newfoundlanders. (Go Newfoundland and Labrador, you earned it!)

I'm not surprised with the humiliating loss of Canada's mens hockey. Every other team in the world showed up to play olympic level hockey. The men's hockey team was dogging it out there, probably because most of its players are also in the middle of an NHL hockey season who aren't exactly in their prime either. The olympics, I think, should only be open to the young amateurs, at least in hockey anyways. No one older than 22 on any olympic hockey team, and then my friends, we'll be seeing some serious olympic level hockey.

vanorange and Mudshark audio

Ok, listen up ladies and gentlemen, what an amazing update for you all to take part in.

I, (Billy Ruffian) proudly announces my affiliation with the good people at Mudshark audio and vanorange records as they begin recording and producing my debut CD, SAVAGE GENTLEMEN.

You can find these good folks at:

mudsharkaudio.com

vanorange.ca

They have produced such high quality works of art such as Ritalin the cerebral stimulant's: CAPITAL THOUGHTS and John Akpata's new CD KERHEB.

Emerging and growing steadily ever since their inception 6 years ago, they've been creating high quality work that has garnered praise from artist and audience alike. They've been providing one of the best creative bridges between artists and the artistic community since and have gained the respect and support of some of Ottawa's finest poets and musicians.

Anyone in Ottawa (or near Ottawa) who is looking for an affordable and easy-to-work-with company should definitely hit up Mudshark Audio and it's indie label, vanorange records, for all their recording needs.

And just an update, the first of many I hope, on my own CD. All the recording has been done and now we're about to enter the stage of picking and choosing which tracks sound best together. Andrew and I (my producer and recording engineer) have recorded alot of tracks over the past year, nearly 2 dozen if I recall correctly, we have enough for two CD's, but right now we're focusing on producing the best, most seamless debut CD we can, so while some beautiful and technically proficient tracks may not get to come out first, they may very well come out in a year or so, should I decide that I'd like to do another CD after this one.

Ain't that exciting? Gives me gooseflesh just thinking about it.

After we finish picking and choosing, Andrew will enter into the editing phase and while he does that, someone who knows how to use photoshop (I haven't been introduced to him yet, but apparently he's quite the guy) will touch up the photo art I had done by my good friend Dave Lemke of All-In-One Productions.

I'd highly recommend Dave to everyone, but unfortunately, he is currently in Australia on an academic exchange. You can find a great deal of Dave's work for free on his online portfolio which is here.

I'll let you know when he gets back to the Ottawa area, we all miss you Dave!

And that's that.

Keep tuned to this ol' blog o' mine for free poetry and more updates on the Ottawa arts scene and my own artistic projects.

Holy Smokes

Holy Smokes indeed you must be saying.

Billy, you must all be saying, what's with the no updating?

Well, first off, screw you. Do you know how much stuff I got to do in my life? DO YOU?! Well, truth be told, it actually isn't that much. I'm actually quite free to update at least a wee bit everyday. I just like making you wait.

Oh yeah.

Not that I'm a dick mind you, it's just that, no one READS this thing. If I felt it was actually being viewed, I would make an effort to keep it up to date.

So in that case, I actually do have class in about an hour and a half, so I have to get my gear all kitted out and be going soon.

Sorry!