Tuesday, February 05, 2008

If you don't know DJ... you don't know Dick!

Well, here I am. Back in Winnipeg. Who'd a thunk it! Stranger still is the fact that I'm here working at daCapo. Sitting at a computer all day writing music and hanging out with some really great human beings is a far cry from having your head in a toilet and asking customers what shade of beige they want they're bathroom walls to be. It's a little surreal to say the least.  I mean after all, not three months ago I was living in the land of milk and money.  That's right ... the center of the universe... Calgary, Alberta... YA-HOO! (The correct term is "Ya-Hoo" not "Yee-Haw". "Yee-Haw" is the American version of that expression. (This I learned during my years in Calgary.) 
When I left Winnipeg 14 years ago I thought I'd never come back (except to visit a few friends and family). But here I am freezing my big western ass in this white frozen prairie province. Don't get me wrong I am happy to be here, but this winter thing is well... unsettling to say the least. I was thinking someone should make one of those little snow globes of Winnipeg for tourists. You know the kind I mean ... you shake them and the snow flurries around and when it settles you see this cute little scene representing the place you're at. Mine would be filled with snow and when it settles you see a thermometer stuck at -40 degrees. I can't  wait to get my official tourist T-shirt... Winnipeg "Home Of The Wind Chill".  BBBRRRR!
I do however look forward to the summer. Ah... all that warm air, great lakes, fishing, lying on the sand at Grand Beach. There's a real "buzz" about Manitoba in the summer. Oh right, I forgot about the mosquitoes. Hmmm, maybe someone should make a little shaky snow globe and fill it with mosquitoes instead of snow for the summer tourists.  
So why does a construction contractor from Calgary pack it in and move back to the land of  his birth?  Simply, it was time for a change, and what a change it has been for me.  I had been running my own little bathroom renovation company for a lot of years and enjoyed touring and giging with a little group called "The Rodeo Riders" in Alberta and performing my children's show (which has been something I've been doing since 1986).  But when Olaf and Clint asked me to join daCapo I had to say yes.
Being part of a creative team is a dream that I had for many years, and now thanks to Olaf and Clint it's becoming a reality for me. I am enjoying the new things, the people and experiences here at daCapo. Like... the "album of the week" is a fun thing. I liken it to eating out a different restaurant every week. You may not like the food but at least you tried it. And like some food that your mother would make you eat as a child I am currently gaging on this weeks special and can't wait to dump it off of my ipod.
So here I am, and there you are.
And now you know...Dick. ( at least a little)