badlybent.ca

     Yeah, I know.  I’ve been reminded by several kind, well-meaning people, some with a degree of subtlety and some without that I’ve still to put a podcast out.  I whined previously that my Wincrap Shitstsa computer sucked too much, and that I needed something that would work.  So, I got a Mac, which incidentally works better then any computer I’ve ever even dreamed of using.  So what’s the holdup ?

     Well…..it’s me, basically.  I’ve been suffering a sort of ‘crisis of faith’ for a little while now, as far as the blog and podcast go - I’ve wanted to do a few different things, none of which went very well together, and I wanted to prevent The Sieve! from becoming one of those rambly mish-mashy podcasts which I hate. 

    To that end, I believe I’m going to do the following:  I’m going to re-launch The Sieve! in May, retooled and re tweaked, and I’m also going to launch another podcast in May as well, that will showcase an entire different world of stuff.  The Sieve! will also showcase the songwriting challenge, which I’ve had a lot of emails and IMs asking about.l  I think the blog here at badlybent.ca will continue to be a catch-all for everything that is Stevie Z (sorry about that ;)  but I think I’ll also launch another blog site as well for the new podcast.

    Now, I can hear you all already “but face it, asshat, you don’t even do one show on a regular basis, do you expect us to believe that you’re going to do two now?!?!”  Well, yes, because the new format for The Sieve! and the new podcast will be much simpler, more effective, and more entertaining then ever.  Hard to believe?  Believe it, mes amis!  And also, I’m really hoping to bring in some co-hosts, which make my job easier.

    So expect the next couple of weeks to be filled with the sounds of hammers, saws, drills, marmots, and cussin’ because we’re talking some major overhauls….

    One last note - one of the reasons for bringing back The Sieve! Song Challenge and really really wanting to promote it is partly because A) I want an excuse to play my own crap on the air, and B) I had the extreme honour of being a judge for the Inaugural Cambridge Songwriting Competition two weeks in a row, and I’ve met some amazing people, both onstage and at the judges table, who have really reminded me how much j’adore independent, unusual, and to some extent, local, music and musicians.  That got me itchin’ to start recording my own stuff again, and more importantly to offer yet another platform for the unheard to be, well, heard.

    Of course, I might sober up tomorrow and decide that all this is bull and just keep putting out a show every two months, filled with worthless meanderings…..

    Peace, Love, and Songwriting!

    Stevie Z

By Stevie Z

Well, it’s April 16th.  As I start to write this, actually, it’s April 14th.  I’m hoping to get a jump start so that it comes out in time.

April the 16th of 2009 will mean that I will have been married to The Luverly Michelle for exactly 4 years.   I thought it was 3, but I was corrected….fairly sternly as a matter of fact, that it was indeed 4.  Time has sure flown.  When I started my podcast and blog I decided that I was going to wait for episode 100 to divulge the entire story of our wedding.  That was about a year and a half ago though, and since I’m only on episode 17 or so, by the time I reach episode 100 I probably won’t even REMEMBER what the story of our wedding was - I’ll just publish episode 100, eat my dinner pill, fly my jet car home, and go to sleep in my capsule on Mars.  Get it?  See, by the time I actually do publish episode 100 it will be the distant future and……never mind.

Since the Ballad of Steve and Michelle could fill several blog posts, I’ll focus on a Reader’s Digest version of our wedding, give you the key points to whet your interest, and then direct you to an upcoming episode of The Sieve! (my podcast, which I assure you DOES exist)

The Luverly Michelle (hereafter in this blog post referred to simply as “Michelle” to save ink in the court transcripts which will likely follow) and myself (hereafter referred to as doofus Stevie Z)  got married in a Cancer Hospice.  Wow, even typing those words has brought back a flood.

In order for the wedding to happen as it did, a number of things had to go off perfectly, most of which should never have happened.  Caterers that shouldn’t have been able to do a smaller wedding in such a short notice were suddenly free, people that weren’t supposed to be able to attend because of out of town trips suddenly found their plans changed, ministers that weren’t supposed to be able to officiate found a space on their calender, and people that shouldn’t have been in any condition to help plan a wedding made sure that things were all lined up and ready to proceed.

By now the words “Cancer Hospice” have probably burrowed into your mind to the point where you’re ready to start skimming through this post to figure out what the hell I’m talking about.  As I said, I’m not going into too much detail here, but suffice it to say that Michelle’s mother was a guest at the hospice, and it was her situation that prompted the venue.

I’ve typed this particular paragraph about 4 times now, and I honestly can’t find the way to say what I want to say, so I will say this: perhaps some of the greatest amount of thanks and….I can’t even figure out the WORD to use, should go to the staff of Lisaard House (the cancer hospice where we had the wedding) for first of all suggesting the venue in the first place, and making sure that things went the way they should.

The next biggest helping of thanks, Kudos, smiles, hugs, kisses and Love, should go to Michelle, who was my gorgeous bride four years ago today.  I still don’t know why she agreed to marry me, I mean, I sure as hell wouldn’t have married me, but she did, and I’m thankful every day for it…..especially when she lets me buy music equipment and Macs - which, by the way, I have been informed is my birthday/anniversary/Christmas/Easter/Valentines/Groundhog Day present for the next year.

Thank you Sugar Beet Babydoll Honey etc etc.  I love you even more then I did before - 4 years more, to be exact.  Here’s to many more years of me not quite pissing you off enough to leave me.

Love ya Sweetie,

Stevie Z

By Stevie Z

Sorry to paraphrase James Brown there, but I’m very, very, very happy.  Okay, just very very happy.  As of Thursday, April 12, 2009 I’m the proud owner of a Mac Mini.  It’s 7 inches x 7 inches, by 2 inches high, and apparently as powerful as heck, especially when compared to the Windows Vista PC I just got rid of.

I’m still suffering from a lot of frustration, however it’s a different kind of frustration.  With the PC it was frustration because the hardware and software weren’t doing what they were supposed to be doing, and trying to get it to do what I wanted was insanely painful, if not sometimes almost impossible.  With the new Mac, because I’ve never used one before, I’m the problem here.  I’m trying to learn a completely different language and ‘culture’ so to speak.  Things that I’m used to calling one thing for the last 20 years, for example, now have a different name, and a different way of going about using them.  It’s a fairly steep learning curve, for sure, especially when me have small brain.  With the Mac it’s not that frustrating because I know that once I figure out how to ask the ‘puter to do something, it will do it - quickly and easily.

I’m not ready to drink the Mac Kool Aid yet (Apple Juice?) but I do have to say that the Microsoft way of doing things blows chunks compared to the Apple way of doing things.  Most things are so much easier, more intuitive and more efficient then with Windows.  Oh yeah, and the Mac doesn’t hang and crash every time I try to open audio processing software.  That helps just a smidge.

The only real downside that I’ve come across so far is that there is some software that I’ve loved for years that is Windows only, and I have a really really nice Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse that isn’t Mac supported, and so I’ve had to buy a new Logitech keyboard and mouse combo….which is white, like my Mac.  Now my monitor, speakers and Toneport are all black, as is my computer desk, and The Luverly Michelle won’t let me buy all new white stuff.  Actually, I don’t want to buy all new white stuff anyways, so it’s all good.  I DO, however, apparently need to return my brand new Logitech keyboard and mouse combo because the ‘d’ key is futzed and throws in letter “d”s all over the place for no good reason.  I think I found them all, however if you see a spare “d” kicking around this post, you know why….

So, as I learn to navigate the world of Mac, I’m really looking forward to actually recording music and podcasts.  My first 3 songs are already in the works, and I hope to have a new podcast out by the weekend.

Now, off to re-subscribe to the 40 or so podcasts in iTunes again……

Yours Mac-ingly,

Stevie Z