A Strange Package Arrives

Our Friday afternoon was interrupted by the arrival of a strange and large package addressed to all daCapo staff members. We naturally assumed the worst, and called in the bomb squad to help deal with a potentially explosive situation... As it turns out, there was not much to worry about! It was a grab bag from our friends at FatKat Animation, filled with all sorts of things we need to keep going.... like dildos that spew insults! Nolan got a pair of in-link skates from Gene... Annalee was excited about the DVD on Miriamichi Salmon Fishing! I got that lingerie that I've been talking about for the last six months, and tried it on for everyone! There were some mishaps amidst the celebration however, as Nolan turned too quickly on his new skates (OH NO!) We also got some 'Happy Tree Friends' mints... ... that Nolan and Annalee were REALLY excited about. 'This is even better than that talking dildo' 'You're not kidding' OH NO! SEE WHAT THE MINTS DO (they got this move from Spraychel) Thanks all you Fatties! You made for an interesting afternoon. It has been awesome working on wacky projects for with you and hanging out.... now let's all go see what we can find in OUR basement to send to YOU...

daCapo Relay

Ok, this is old news, but I have been negligent in the Blogging department from time to time. Last month, daCapo had a relay team in the Manitoba Marathon, and we actually finished BEFORE SOME OTHER TEAM DID! Anyhow, I was poking around the Marathon web-site the other day and found these gems of photos from the event posted for the world to see... Here is Gene with half of Olaf... ... And Olaf with half of Gene. Gene's a good client and friend of ours from FatKat animation in New Brunswick... for some reason we thought it would be fun to have him come visit us....and run 12K. He must have liked it, 'cause he continued running until he did a half-marathon distance... here he is with Nolan on Nolan's leg. ...and here is Nolan running alone after Gene decided that half-a-marathon was about as much as any sane person should consider doing. Annalee could not make it out to the event (she says it was a family commitment, but I think she just had too much to drink out at the cottage the night before) so we got her sister Lisa to run for us. This is me... run Clint run. I ran the second last leg of the relay, which is awesome, as all the real runners have already done 20 miles AND ARE TIRED! You can breeze right by them and pretend that you are some kind of superhero (not that I actually DID that!)"

In other Marathon news, Olaf wrote a song to market the Manitoba Marathon a couple of years back, and you can hear it here...I Never Knew that I Could Fly

We've Been Framed

Construction continues, and we have now had our new studio completely framed and ready for heating/cooling and electrical work! On the left of this shot you can see where the new control room will be... And here is where the isolation booth will be constructed. For recording vocals, guitar and solitary confinement if necessary... Speaking of solitary confinement, I think Nolan wishes our old bathroom (soon to be ripped out and replaced) was a bit MORE solitary. He has that incontinent look in his eyes again! This old furnace is leaving us... in fact it is going this morning and a new high-efficiency one is coming to live here! OH NO! I know what is going on here... he has that 'cat in the litter box' look on his face...

Construction Day 1!

Things have been busy around the studio these days, and that's why we are BUILDING A NEW STUDIO in the gross and disgusting pit of despair that is our basement.

Thankfully the only person who will have to work in the basement, is Kevin the new guy, and he doesn't even KNOW about the hissing cockroach infestation!

Anyhow, I am going to try and chart the progress on our new rooms on this blog, starting with today, when the crowbar started pulling the old duct work off... Believe it or not, these shots are of the basement AFTER we cleaned it out! We are disgusting pigs! The fridge in the corner is a bio hazard. We have not opened it since it broke... 20 months ago. I am guessing the lettuce and liverwurst have done some pretty raunchy things since then... This old 'bathroom' was beyond disgusting... ...believe it or not, certain butt-cheeks have caressed this porcelain Petri dish in moments of gastro-intestinal upheaval (I'm looking YOUR way Nolan). And finally, here is a drawing of how it WILL look...

Stay tuned to see how things change day-to-day!

I Can't Believe It's... tomorrow already!

Things really heat up when daCapo works crazy hours. We are all stuck here at the studio doing some really funky audio for our (lovely, really we love you, LOVE!) clients: FatKat, Byte and Unilever!

Nolan realizes that the audio has to be mixed in COLOUR... It's 1:00 AM.. do you know where you sanity is?

Very Late Banff Update

Due to a delinquent blogger (me) we are really behind with our blog update from the Banff International Television Festival.

All went well, and Olaf had the opportunity to meet with many exciting producers and directors in the conference centre while I met with many directors and producers on the golf course!

The golf is amazing. Here's a shot from the Kananaskis Golf Course which I played with Cookiejar Entertainment, XMC Sports and Entertainment and Heenan Blaikie. Among the few events we did not forget to bring a camera to was the Banff Awards night. Olaf, his wife Ange, myself and Sherri my spouse on our way to the awards night. Hanging with Ralf-Peter and Corolla from ZDF in Germany! Here I am with Heather Watson in a really sexy flapper dress (Heather not me... I save that kind of thing mostly for at home). Olaf and I discussing who is going to look cooler in this shot. Note his look of quite resignation.

The other really freaky thing from that evening was that we found NOLAN'S EXACT DOUBLE! Assuming of course that Nolan was black, about 25 years older and about 50% cooler than he really is. Check it out... the resemblance is UNCANNY! The real Nolan Balzer who we know and love in a completely platonic sense... AND... his UNCANNY and COOL DOPPLEGANGER!

On Our Way To Banff

Unfortunately, due to the studio being REALLY busy these days, my cunning plan to cycle from Winnipeg to Banff in time for the Banff International Television Festival has been thwarted. Instead Olaf, myself, and our spouses all crowded into a VW golf, and undertook the 16 hour drive to Banff for the festival. When we hit Calgary, Olaf and Sherri debated directions, while we endeavoured to hook-up with our newest employee, Kevin Aichele (starting in September!), who is wrapping up a run of Jesus Christ Superstar in the sprawling oil city. After finding the Aichele, we grabbed lunch... easier said than done in downtown Calgary on Saturday (or the-day-every-single-store-is-closed-day) afternoon. We ended up scavenging out of rubbish bins, while Ange hid under a palm frond to keep an eye out for other marauding bands of other hungry non-Calgarians that might have designs on our hard-won nutrients We finally said 'Goodbye' (for now) to Kevin, and hurried on to Banff to have dinner at the worlds-longest-sushi-table with the gang from Frantic Films. The staff at the sushi restaurant evidently had no idea that 30ish people were going to descend upon them that evening, and wanted to throw us out, until I managed to defuse the situation with some clever chop-stick acrobatics. ... more to follow as Andrew Dunn and I show the rest of the television world how golf is REALLY meant to be played...

from the archives...

Things have been really hoppin' here lately. We've been lucky to have a large number of original music projects crop up (more about these later when they are close to being wrapped), and our good friends at FatKat have got us auditioning everyone for their animations, including this dog who showed up and wanted to read the part of a shark in 'My Adventures With Cloe' (nobody had the heart to tell him the microphone does not care WHAT you are wearing). While I was looking through some archived projects for some old voice demos, I came across a radio play that I wrote and recorded with Nolan, Olaf and Ben Reynolds (formerly of the band Sweetsalt) in the style of 'The Lone Ranger'. This was for a scene in Frantic Film's 'Quest for the Sea' in which a girl was supposed to be listening to a non-copywritten radio play on an old radio about 40 or 50 years ago. So pull up a chair, warm up those tubes, and tune in to the continuing adventures of Captain Radisson © of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police © ® !

We're Gloomy About Ruby Gloom

Last month, Nelvana contacted us to request a submission for theme music for 'Ruby Gloom', a new animated series they have in development. We were honored to be asked, and happy to put something together for them. Last week, Norm from Nelvana contacted me to let us know that our production was among the finalists for the series theme. Hurrah! Unfortunately, the focus testing in the target market (young girls/female teenagers) identified another submission that worked better with that demographic... stupid *%##! focus groups! Anyhow, I still am proud of the work that Olaf and Kevin did on this music, and thought at least I can post it on the blog so's it can be enjoyed a bit before being relegated to the damp and dusty recesses of our basement archives... (a place, ironically, that Ruby Gloom would probably like!).

Anyhow, click HERE to have a listen at our go at a Ruby Gloom theme!