Woods & Strings

I love playing with words. Back in the day -- which, for me, was quite a long time ago now -- my friends and I used to practice writing by giving each other assignments. One of our favourites was the "15-Minute Sonnet." We would set a timer for 15 minutes, and put the hammer down on crafting a Shakespearean sonnet. But, it had to be good! Challenging, yes, but a great exercise that forces you to do things with language you wouldn't normally do. In fact, prior to that I was awarded with a young playwright's award in my home town for having composed an entire Shakespearean comedy in five acts. It was actually my major assignment for my writing class. Winning garnered a live stage reading, so that was pretty cool. Flash forward to 2016, and my wife and I were discussing Shakespeare once again, and I thought, "I wonder if I can do this with song lyrics?" So...I did. This is what I came up with. I realize it's not iambic pentameter, but it's still a fun e...

A canto, in memory of Hubert O'Hearn. A spontaneous improvisation, not unlike a conversation with Hubert: casual, meandering, tongue-in-cheek. Happy, but with a mist of melancholy. Press play and read on... Hubert was poised to give his support to my blues project; but, as we creators who knew him know well, he didn't "support" his friends the way most people do, with a Like on Facebook and maybe a one-in-ten chance of buying the finished product. No, he championed the creators he believed in, throwing the weight of his critical voice and substance of his publishing platforms behind their projects and using his literary voice to make sure the world knew and appreciated what his friends were up to. Hubert O’Hearn was one of my creative mentors. I was never brave enough to do the things he did; throwing caution to the wind and expatriating myself to more authorly climes as he did. But he was always encouraging with my writing, always willing to hand...

Originally published August 7th, 2011 on The Man Sphere When I met Hubert O'Hearn, I was just a pup coming up in the arts sector in Thunder Bay. Hubert had the role of antagonist in a cheesy melodrama production I had the dubious honour of directing music for. One thing about a man who knows his craft; whether as an actor or as a writer; is he knows when the upstart who "outranks" him in production needs a subtle nudge in the right direction, and when to stand back and let the upstart's training speak for itself. When a master ends up working for a student, the master's strength shows in his ability to let the student work confidently. Of course, being a writer, Hubert's interview took on a prose of its own. So I left it. The answers are all here. Name:  Hubert O’Hearn Age:  53 Occupation:  Writer Relationship status:  Engaged/Common-Law Spouse to Kimberly McInnis For how long?:  6 years Kids:  Two Step-children: Amanda age 22 and Bradley age 15 ...

Tight, classic tone. When I was growing up, I wasn't all that into guitar effects. Distortion, maybe some kind of reverb or delay, and that was about it. My friends and I discovered Rocktek pedals, which were the cheapest of all possible budget pedals, and that changed our ability to experiment. My buddy got a Flanger, and I got a Phaser. And we had literally no idea what to do with them. In fact, his dad referred to my phaser experiments as resembling "frogs farting underwater." That ended my phase shifting career. Flash forward some 30 years, and while watching some guitar FX demos on YouTube, I saw a great one for the Joyo Vintage Phase. In the hands of the player using it, I realized what I'd been missing. It isn't just a modulation sweep effect. It can create a leslie or tremolo effect as well. So when I saw a used one for sale on the Facebook Marketplace, I grabbed it. I mean, even brand new these things sell for less that $50 Canadian on Amazon, so ...

Buy this pedal. It's as simple as that. I'm fully impressed with this little rocker pedal. Like most people, I've only used it as a volume pedal, but I plan on doing a fully video review later on when I try it with some delay to see how the expression side works. The instructions on how to use the expression function are a bit lacking; you need to connect it directly to your controlled pedal using a stereo cable. The circuit reads it as expression function automatically. So, for the details... Line in, line out...no surprises there. The shell is plastic, but it's a very high quality impact plastic. It runs passively, so no power source is necessary; it's a simple volume pot on a rocker switch. Yes, it's tiny, but it has a great traction pad on the top and bottom so it doesn't slide around like you think it might. And it's perfectly comfortable to control. As a volume pedal I've used it both in-line and through the FX loop, and it's aweso...

Insane sound from a mini pedal After years of scaling back to just my amp tone, I've started getting back into guitar pedals. 20 years ago, if you couldn't afford the Boss or DOD pedals, you were forced to go with the only budget brand out there: Rocktek. Those things were awful, but affordable. These days, the budget brands are king, in my opinion, and the compact size of the circuitry makes it possible to grab anything you want and try it out for less than fifty bucks. I wanted to start out with a good distortion, and after playing around with online reviews I decided to take the leap to the Donner Giant Metal. This little powerhouse lives up to its name! Super solid aluminum construction, easy to use controls, a fairly wide gain profile, and surprisingly flexible tonal control. It just has the one tone control, and the switch boosts highs or lows (top or bottom), or runs right down the middle. I won't say that this can replace a high-end Boss distortion, but if y...

Follow my blog with Bloglovin