January 2006 Archives

I've never had a huge desire to go to China -- I've been oversaturated with media images of teeming masses and enviromental degradation -- but these photos provide a breathtaking view of the country that has nothing to do with smog. Gorgeous.

- thanks to Surfstation.

For fun the Porktrashers applied to North by Northeast (oh, I know, the delusions of grandeur never end, but for $30, why not?), and the way you apply is by setting up an account at Sonic Bids, an online Electronic Press Kit site and management tool thingy. I'd never heard of it before, but it's actually pretty well done, and if you were a "real" serious band with a manager and wanting to gig then it would be a really efficient way of doing managing press releases, sample songs, and calendars. For the Porktrashers, it's less of an issue.

So our EPK, should you be interested in booking the Porktrashers for your wedding or bar mitzvah, can be found here Rock on.

Oh I know, this is what youv'e all been waiting for. What, you ask -- no, demand! ---are the Porktrashers up to?

Well I'll tell you.

We're recording more stuff for starters. Our new guitarist (and I guess member of the band, although we, being guys, have never really discussed it) Mike Shostak has an amazing digital 24 track recorder along with a bunch of other cool stuff in his home studio, and we've been working on developing new material, along with just recording stuff we already know. It really is the only way to go. The board records in 24 bit sound, has mastering capabilities and an onboard CD burner. The quality is spectacularly good. Every missed note, bounced back to you in playback in 24 bit stereo... well, that's about the only issue with great sound. It does require decent playing. Ahem.

Recently, Carol got a call from a guy saying he was a clothing distributer and that he was interested interested in seeing more of her stuff etc. There was something about it that was a bit smelly -- maybe his reference that he was exporting to and from China -- and she didn't follow up.

And indeed, you just never know you is going to scam you. This guy found that out the hard way.

http://www.johnnycupcakes.com

I have some RRSP money with the fund company AGF, and I recently got a letter with a "compensation" cheque for $14. The letter was so masterfully worded that I had to laugh. Basically, AGF got nailed for allowing market-timing trading within its funds -- sophisticated investors could move in and out of funds very quickly, artificially boosting their profits at the expense of others is my understanding -- but to read the letter you'd think it had just been a rounding error. The overall settlement to the OSC was $29 million, which, given the money that industry rakes in, I guess does add up to a rounding error.