hmmmm.....service.....

This is not the right space to provide free advertising for companies that are already doing quite well, thank you very much. Yet I can't help giving Rogers a brief plug right here and now. Rogers? The giant cable TV company, you ask? The faceless corporation that fleeces thousands of citizens? The evil empire of cable that gobbles up small companies like so many jelly beans? Why would they need your endorsment, you ask....Well, let me tell you. Right at this moment I am quite pleased with Rogers.

I called the cable giant this morning (9:30) to order additional TV channels. After being routed through their mildly annoying voice mail system - easily bypassed by immediately pressing "0" - I was put through to a human operator within a minute or two. I gave her my address and phone number and while chatting pleasantly she looked up my account. "All you'll need is a digital box and you're all set", she said. "The box costs $8.95 a month to rent, each channel is $2.49. You'll get 50 additional channels for free for a period of two months, then call us and tell us which ones you'd like to keep. When would you like us to come by?"
I told her that mornings were usually the best for me, whereupon she suggested this Friday. "Wait just a second", quoth I, "this Friday is Easter..." "No problem, our guys are working through the holidays". Man, now I'm mighty impressed. We chatted a bit more, I told her I was already with Rogers for my cell phone service, then she said: "OK, dear, we'll see you Friday" (her exact words) and that was THAT. A total of about four minutes.

Then I remembered that they would also need my buzzer code to get into the building, as my name is not on the big board downstairs. So I called back, fully expecting to wait longer this time. Nope! I flew right through the voice mail system again and this time got a young fella who immediately asked me for my phone number and brought up my account on his screen. I gave him my buzzer code which he duly added to my account and then he says: "Sir, how would you like an additional discount on your digital box?" Hmmm...let me see...yeah, I think I'd like it. "Well, then, we have a special on right now and you'll be paying $5.49 for the first four months" No objection here! Then he tried to talk to me about ordering Rogers internet and a bunch of other services which I declined. "No problem, Sir! Have a nice day" And that was that. An additional three minutes of my time.

Now, it's quite possible the installers will not show up on Friday and I may change my sunny opinion of Rogers. But right now I say, if this is what huge, faceless, greedy corporations do - I have no problem with it.

recent activity

About a week ago we played a gig in a fairly chi-chi retirement residence in Guelph. A great stage, really nice sound system and a soundman who really knew what he was doing despite the fact that he was in his seventies and a resident of the establishment. It was great not to have to lug any equipment, just show up with an acoustic guitar, tune up and play. We had the fabulous Jamie MacPherson on banjo, in addition to the usual line-up of guitar, standup bass and trumpet. The average age of the audience was over 70 and they dug every note. The biggest crowd pleaser - apart from the usual suspects - was my horn arrangement of Django's "Minor Swing". We hope to be invited back.

Last Friday I was finally able to get everyone together and go ahead with a video shoot. It went very well, though of course we won't know for sure until I get to see the edited results. We were able to complete four tunes, including three originals, one of them ably sung by Amy Rivard. I hope to have the vids on my webiste by the end of April, as well as a bunch of new pics. The best thing about the video shoot was the friendly, easy atmosphere and a complete lack of pressure. We had some pizza, ran down the tunes....no problem. Of course, this was all possible because the people shooting the video were super friendly and professional. Kudos to Alena and Jerry Kott and their son Andrew who served as "Camera 2". Kudos also to Bohdan Turok who played fine as usual but also took pictures of the band and the proceedings. Ian MacGallivary (trumpet) and Brandon Walker (sax) also acquitted themselves in a smooth, professional manner. A real pleasure.

Last (but most DEFINITELY not least), Music on the Corner (known as MNR in its Czech initials) played a sold out concert at Masaryktown last Sunday afternoon. The place was packed to the rafters. There had been a bunch of nay-sayers who tried to dissuade me from holding the concert during March break but I'm happy to report they were all wrong. People showed up in droves and I think we paid them back in kind by playing one of our best shows yet. The first set was a collection of tunes by Jaroslav Jezek, Jiri Voskovec & Jan Werich - classic Czech swing from the 1930's. The second half consisted mostly of American standards with my Czech lyrics added.

MNR is a really fantastic bunch of people. Not just musically but personally, too. All very good friends: Marie Franek (vocals), Lenka Novakova (vocals) and Joe Musil (keyboards and vocals and a great last name: substitute a "c" for the "l" in his surname and you got "music"). Lovely people, just a dream to work with (wow, this blog is starting to read like a vanilla hymn book....I'd better complain about something next time!) The show was also helped by Pavlina Radia who wrote and read some very hip short texts about the authors and the tunes. The rhythm section (Bohdan Turok on drums and Pete Johnston on bass) cooked. We had Andrej Saradin on trumpet (a bandmate of the aforementioned Jamie MacPherson) A suave trumpeter in the style of Satchmo and Bix.

I usually don't wax poetic about my gigs. It's what I do for a living and quite a few gigs are little more than drudgery. This last week, however, was all about reminding me why I had gotten into this business in the first place. Now, if I could only sell a tune to Celine....