Dave MP's Musings from Mecca

[Dave_Pierce]

... the "Mecca" of rock & roll that is!!  8)

None other than my hometown & that of two guys named Gary Weinrib & Alex Zivojinovich - TORONTO!  :D Just down the road from "a place not too far from where he (Neil) was born..... not too far from here as a matter of fact... this is called "Lakeside Park". "  8)

I'm honoured to be the 1st Canadian Moderator of TNMS.  :) I guess it does seem somewhat appropriate to have someone with his finger so geographically close to the "RUSH pulse" be part of the TNMS elite!!  ;)  ;D

As a true-blue Canadian, I will try to uphold all the values that my country stands for and hold near & dear to our heart:
- Intelligent, innovative rock & roll
- Good sportmanship, fair play (except Ben Johnson  :P) and excellence in hockey
- Diplomacy, peacekeeping & general all around mediation
- And the most important of all...... excellent beer!!  8)

I'll try not to bore you will the minute details of my very ordinary life..... unless that's all I have to write about!  lmao

Cheers!

Your Canuck Moderator

[Ashley]

Welcome Dave, thats 4 Canadians we all know now!  ;D

[Ron]

Welcome Dave, thats 4 Canadians we all know now!

[Dave_Pierce]

Who are the other three (Canadians) ???

[Dave_Pierce]

Life in "The Home of Rock & Roll" is GOOD!!  8)

My Maple Leafs are winning, Saddam is behind bars, the Spiderman 2 trailer is out, LOTR 3 opens this week and with the 4 inches of snow Toronto got yesterday, it's starting to look a lot like Christmas around here!!  :D

No RUSH scoops to report although yesterday as I was navigating the slippery "subdivision" roads in my minivan, I passed a snow plow. You'll never guess what the identification # on the plow was..... OK you guessed it... 2112!!  8)

I've been getting back into playing the guitar recently after about a 6 year hiatus (why the delay I don't know  ???). I've learned a few RUSH tunes or parts thereof (Trees, The Sphere: A Kind of Dream, One Little Victory).

As well, I'm planning on buying an 8 track Digital Multitrack Recorder to work out some songs I've been noodling with for the better part of the last 10 years. My son Brian & his friend Paul will also use it to record their song ideas for their band "The Predators"!  8)

That's it from The Great White North for now.... Cheers!  :D

[Slim]

As well, I'm planning on buying an 8 track Digital Multitrack Recorder to work out some songs I've been noodling with for the better part of the last 10 years.

I've got one - more fun than a plate of chopped celery.  have fun!

[Dave_Pierce]

I've got one - more fun than a plate of chopped celery.

[Slim]

The cheapest one I saw was $2,000.00 Cdn and they go up from there.

They're a fair bit more than that here, that's a pretty good price I think.  My first one cost the equivalent of $3,892 CDN, and they are a fair bit more expensive now :-X

Anyways, I just picked up a Fostex MR-8 Digital Multitracker for $500.00 and can't wait to get home and start using it!  8)

Excellent.  Mine's a Fostex too, a VF08.  Very flexible and easy to use, especially if you have a guitar processor.

[Dave_Pierce]

I've been wandering the streets of downtown Toronto on my lunch hour recently, going to a lot of comic book shops and picking up some Spiderman back issues. I'm not too crazy about the current story lines & illustration but some of the older mini-series were excellent so I've been adding to my collection!  8)

One of these days I'll take a wander by "The Orbit Room"..... I've never been in there!  :o Hopefully Mr. Lifeson will be paying a visit when I go.... don't ask me what I'd say to him if I did get a chance to talk to him...  :-[

Christmas is almost upon us and everything is set to go in the Pierce household, due in major part to the efforts of my wife Diane. Thank God she loves doing all the shopping, decorating, etc. If it was up to me, we'd have a pretty sparse Christmas indeed!  ;D

My son Brian belongs to the Erindale Hockey Association, which is the largest contributing group to the Mississauga Hockey League. Every year there are always enough kids who want to play that there are 2 Erindale teams at each level. Brian plays in "House League". There's no bodychecking (2 minute penalty), no fighting (multi-game suspensions) and overall it's just good fun.

Anyways, Brian's team beat their arch-rival (the other Erindale team) on Saturday night 3-2 while playing their best game of the year so far.  8) He hasn't scored any goals yet....  :( Unfortunately, he's on a line with a girl.... that's right, there's a girl on his team because the girl's league didn't have anymore openings. She's a very weak skater and can't handle the puck at all. Therefore, it's as if he's team is shorthanded everytime his line is on the ice. They almost never get a scoring chance while at the same time end up being on the ice for the majority of the other team's goals.  >:( Hopefully the coach will juggle the lines around and put her with some other lucky guys and give Brian a chance to get a few points.

That's enough for today.... I'm supposed to be working but things are SOOOOO dead here in the office, with so many people away for Xmas vacation.

[Dave_Pierce]

Got to work this morning and started feeling a little out of sorts..... suffice to say that the "loo" & I have become constant companions this A.M.....  :P

I'm looking forward to a few Xmas gifts that I'm sure I'll be getting:

- Wayne Gretzky Ultimate Collection DVD
- Peter Gabriel Growing Up Live DVD
- XBox Crimson Skies video game (excellent game!!  8))
- RUSH 2004 30th Anniversary Calendar

The rest is a mystery to me and that's just the way I like it!  ;D

It's dreary & foggy & drizzly here in downtown T.O. I'm sure it's much like many a London day, even though I've never been ("Mist in the streets of Westminster").

I may just head home early today.... hardly anyone around and very little to work on that's pressing.

L8R

Dave

[Dave_Pierce]

The view from my 28th floor office tower window this morning is white..... nothing but white. We're expecting between 35 & 40 cm of snow over the next 24 hours here in the Mecca of Rock & Roll!  :o

Winter took a long time coming. In fact, a couple of days after New Years I took down the Christmas lights wearing a spring jacket. Since then however, it's been "The Great White North"... lots of snow, lots of wind and rarely a daytime high above -8 celsius. But this is Canada afterall and it's supposed to be like this. That's one of the things I love about this place... you truly experience the best (& worst) of all 4 seasons. Since variety is the spice of life, consider me spicy!  ;)  ;D

Nothing new to report on the RUSH front. I haven't heard anything new about Alex, although one article I read on the net said that since the Florida police did not take his passport, the charges he's facing should NOT prevent him from travelling anywhere. If that's true, it's great news for you Euros and RUSH's long awaited return later this year!  8)

I haven't been posting up to my usual standards volume-wise recently as I'm busy as a one-armed paper hanger here at work. The next couple of months are going to be pretty intense. My group here at TD Canada Trust are involved in a $50 Million project to overhaul the lending process in the bank. It's about a 5 year project with many phases and if nothing else will keep me off the dole for a few years!!  lmao

I'll pop in when I can. In the meantime, I'm trying to stay warm & dry. At least I've got my 2 favourite teams to cheer on these days: The Toronto Maple Leafs (2nd overall by 1 point in the entire 30 team NHL!  :D) & the Erindale Blue Bombers (my son's minor league hockey team - also second in their league!  8))

Cheers!

DAVE

[Dave_Pierce]

How are things in jolly old Toronto these days? I can sum it up in one word: WINTER!!  :o

If it's not snowing, it's blowing... if it's not blowing, it's freezing. Many days it's been a lovely combination of all three. In fact, yesterday was the first day in over a month that the temperature exceeded 0 celsius.

I just took a walk to The Orbit Room (closed.. :'(). The part of the city you pass through from my office to get there makes me even more glad that I'm a resident of the "Subdivisions". The sidewalks are ice covered and you take your life in your hands (or feet) trying to get around.

The neighbourhood houses are 1920's-1930's era row houses and after some 70-80 odd years, they're not holding up well. You see all manner of people during your travels: the homeless, people obviously high and/or strung out on something, people with mental illnesses wandering the street muttering to themselves.... just a wonderful cavalcade of humanity.

Don't get me wrong... I feel sorry for all these people, many of whom are in their predicament due to no fault of their own. However, I could NEVER live downtown. I'm just a suburbs kind of guy. It suits me and I suit it... a match made in heaven!  ;D

Well, I should get back to work now. I've got Spock's Beard (The Gypsy) playing on Winamp and no shortage of stuff to do!  :D

Cheers,   DAVE

[Dave_Pierce]

I can't believe it's been an entire month since my last report... my editor's gonna can me if I don't shape up!  ;)  ;D

A lot has changed weatherwise in the "Big Smoke" recently. March definitely came in like a lamb, bringing with it lots of above freezing temperatures and rain. In fact, when I left the house this morning, I could have sworn I was stepping into a London morning (I've never been there but I've heard rumours!  ;D). It's raining, it's windy, it's misty... everything that an Englishman could ask for!  lol The huge piles of snow are practically gone ( 8)) and with a high of 13 today & lots of rain, what's left should be history.

Work's been very busy. My department is configuring a new lending system for the bank I work for (TD Canada Trust). All in all, it's at least a 5 year project and we're just into the 2nd phase. At least I know I've got some job security for a good long while.

Brian's hockey team is in the middle of a round robin playoff. There's 6 teams who all play each other once with the top 4 advancing to the semifinals. So far they are 1 and 1. I'd be shocked if they didn't make it to the next round and I'm confident that they'll have a chance to defend their championship. The problem is that the team they'll surely meet (the same one they beat in the finals last year) has improved drastically. In fact, this team only lost 1 game all year.... luckily it was to Brian's team!!  8) It should all be over by the end of March, which will spell Brian's "retirement" from hockey. He still loves playing but the combination of a very heavy Grade 10 homework load, drum lessons & practicing, paper route, etc. has been a real strain on him this year. It's only going to get heavier in Grade 11 and he feels that if he wants to get a better paying part time job and hopefully a girlfriend next year, something has to give. I support his decision but will greatly miss watching him play.... there's nothing like seeing your own kid in action, whether on the playing field or performing. I'll miss it tremendously....  :'(

Just 3 weeks until Brian & I see Dream Theater at Massey Hall! We're both really looking forward to it as we love their latest "Train of Thought" CD. Even though I've lived in the Toronto area all my life, I've NEVER been to MH. Not sure how that happened but that'll change real soon!  :D

My beloved Toronto Maple Leafs are doing very well in the NHL this season. They're right up near the top of the 30 team league and just pulled off a trade to get an all-star defenceman, something they needed desperately and haven't had in well over a decade. This COULD be the year that they win the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1967. It's been a very LONG drought for us long suffering Leaf fans. I can't even imagine what this town will be life if they win. All I'm sure of is that the celebrations will be something the likes of which we've never seen before... it'll be absolute bedlam and I for one can't wait!!  ;D

That's enough for now.... the bank is paying me to be doing work right now ( lmao) so I guess I'd better get to it.

Cheers!

DAVE

[Dave_Pierce]

I don't know if it's the same in the cities & towns you live in, but I'm really saddened by the changes in Toronto over the past few years.

You can't walk more than 2 blocks downtown without encountering a homeless person asking for change or sleeping on a subway air grating to keep warm.

You see people with obvious mental illness wandering around, mainly talking to themselves and not bothering anyone. However, there are exceptions. The past couple of days I've seen this guy hanging around the ground floor of my office tower. He's wearing an "Arctic Cat" jacket and a hat with earflaps. He stands outside the windows having a smoke and stares into the building, watching the people come and go to and from the elevators.

Yesterday on my way to "Silver Snail" (the greatest comic book store.... "EVER"!  ;) ), some guy I'm passing by asks me "Do you like Ozzy Osbourne?" for some still unknown reason.  ??? I keep walking and say "He's not bad" continuing to the store. On the way back, I see this guy pacing back & forth on the street corner outside MuchMusic. He approaches a young woman waiting for the light to change and starts talking at her (not TO her as she did her best to ignore him). As I passed by, I overheard him say "You're such a beautiful woman....". Fortunately, nothing more transpired before she was able to cross the street and leave him behind. He went back to pacing, probably waiting for another girl to talk to....  :(

As I continued on, I spotted a traffic cop giving out tickets. I told him about the guy and he said he'd go over and have a look. Even if he did, there's not much he can do except talk to the guy and tell him to move on. I'm sure he'll be back there today.

The point of all this is: At the risk of sounding like a "bleeding heart liberal", how did we get to this point? In such a wealthy society, how is it that we have homeless people on the streets, and people with mental illness wandering around not getting the help they desperately need? I just don't get it.....  :-/

Didn't mean to get too "deep" here... it just really struck me yesterday on my lunch time stroll.

[Dave_Pierce]

Feckin' 'ell!!  >:( All our snow melted away last week but Winter decided to have one last (hopefully) gasp and dump 3 inches of joy on us last night.

My morning bus changed schedules and is now coming 4 minutes earlier. So I left the house 6 minutes earlier for the 3 minute walk to the stop..... only to see the bus roar by as I was trodding down the walkway to the stop!!  >:( This left me with a lovely 10 minute walk along the unplowed sidewalks to my alternate bus stop, where I stood in the freezing wind & blowing snow for another 10 minutes till my bus arrived.

I love winter but I'll be SO DAMN GLAD when it's over.... BRING ON SPRING!!  ;D