It’s been a wild year and I’m delighted to say that my little man Adam turned 1 on October 22. His birthday party is on Saturday but he’s got a bunch of toys already from us and his grandparents – including this sweet wooden block toy.

Big thanks to everyone who attended Adam’s first birthday party. He had no idea why there were so many people in his normally quiet house but it was a blast all the same. And TOYS! OMG toys. Can’t believe Christmas is just around the corner. This kid is going to be swimming in neon plastic.

In other news, he decided to start walking the day of his birthday. I managed to capture it on video, albeit not wonderful quality. See embed below and forgive me for the incredibly effeminate ”yay” at video’s end.

Everyone and their dog has weighed in on the death of Steve Jobs. Will that stop me from throwing my hat into the proverbial ring? Hell no. I’ll try to keep it brief, though.

As a teenager in the mid-to-late 1990s, I was an ardent PC guy, while my best friend at the time was hardcore Mac. I never understood his fascination with this little niche market of computers that didn’t have a lot of games software and didn’t seem to be all that different from windows machines, save for the lack of a command prompt (I was ignorant of the terminal at that point).

Fast forward twelve years or so, and you’d see me purchasing my first Mac – a mid-2009 MacBook Pro, second hand (from a guy who works for Microsoft, no less). This came after two years in college, where most of the labs, recording studios and video edit suites ran Macs. The power and simplicity drew me in and when it was time for a new laptop there was only one clear choice.

Since then, the elements of my Apple ecosystem have grown significantly.

And I can say with certainty that every one of these things is the best product in each category that I’ve owned.

So long, Steve, and thanks for all the fish great technology.

Although I may not have thousands of regular followers, those of you who do check out the blog every now and again may have noticed some big changes over the last couple of days. I’m working on vastly expanding the content on the site, putting up some information about the freelance services I provide (including SEO, web design and email marketing) and putting some neat personal stuff up too, like all the music I’ve ever recorded.

I figured if I’m going to have a website about myself, it might as well include everything about me. So I picked a new design and I’m working on adding more and more new content every day. I hope you enjoy reading and exploring the site as much as I enjoy adding to it. Cheers!

Doug

Some songwriters are pragmatic in their approach, and believe that you can only really write lyrics after you’ve got the music down, or vice versa. I find that sort of limitation creativity-curbing, in that it forces you to have a completed structure before the idea of the song can emerge. Though I don’t necessarily subscribe to one linear method of writing songs, I do find that writing lyrics as you go seems to give you more flexibility to change arrangements of song structure and add new parts easily if a lyric demands.

Mainly I try to do some kind of musical decoupage in which I am constantly writing down lyric ideas, recording ideas for melodies and chord progressions as I move about my life (which has been made MUCH easier in recent months by using my the Evernote app for iPhone) and then compiling those little scraps into a workable song at some later date. That being said, sometimes I will have heard a song in a dream and I use that as a kernel. I have a sinking feeling that it’s my subconscious disassembling and mixing together bits of other music I’ve heard in my waking life. But let’s not get too Inception-ey here.

Refining a song after the initial thoughts are put down is probably one of the hardest parts of songwriting for me. It forces me to come out of my own shell and bounce my innermost thoughts and feelings, in song form, off of other people I collaborate with. I sometimes feel anxious or downright silly discussing the circumstances under which an idea came together, or trying to articulate the theme of a song to someone. This is especially true when I know it’s been put together from pieces of five different puzzles, if you know what I mean.

Lyrics always seem to start as a stream-of-consciousness. Writing for me involves less planning and more just writing whatever comes out when I hear the music. Sometimes full songs have been written this way and not been touched after.

What I end up with is a sort of half-remembered dream, that only makes sense after a couple weeks of playing it over and over again, when finally the words start to build meaning when the context in which they were written becomes clear.It’s like I have to detach myself from the fact that I put those words on paper (or screen) and look at them as objectively as possible, and then the theme sifts itself from the sand.

Of course that doesn’t always pan out. Sometimes I will set out to write about something specific and it takes a long time for a solid set of lyrics that fits into a rhythmic pattern, phrases right and works thematically.

Ultimately, writing a song is different every time, which is what makes it such a rewarding pastime. In the case of the song I was working on today with Keith, there’s a very specific line of events that brought me to the almost-finished product I have today. They are as follows:

• I heard about Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show on Kevin Smith’s Podcast, SModcast.
• After becoming a regular viewer of Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show, I dove into the archives and found a great interview with Billy West and John DiMaggio, the voices of Fry and Bender on Futurama.
• Billy describes in the interview some techniques he uses for creating the unique voices of Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Zoidberg and other non-Futurama characters, including Popeye. West also mentions this in an interview I read about on Boing Boing, one of my favourite blogs. He said the inspiration for the Popeye voice came to him after he watched Genghis Blues, a documentary about the late blind bluesman Paul Pena, who traveled to Tuva to compete in a Tuvan throat singing competition.
• I subsequently found and watched Genghis Blues and was inspired by Paul’s soulful songs, in particular the song Gonna Move (he also wrote Jet Airliner, which would go on to be a major hit for the Steve Miller Band in the 70s).

Then I started trying to put my own spin on that same joyful sound I heard on Gonna Move. And out came my song.

Noting this inspiration reminds me of another similar story. I once e-mailed I Mother Earth, one of my favourite bands as a teenager (and to this day) to ask them a question about the meaning of a song. I was asking about Good For Sule, which appears on their third (first post-Edwin) album, Blue Green Orange. It has a worldly quality to it, which had me imagining it was about the Lion King. In his reply, Tanna said it’s actually about an American professor named Sule who was torn between two worlds – the African village of which he was supposed next ruler, and the life he’d built for himself and his family in the US. Tanna said he had seen a documentary on television about Sule’s choice to either go to Africa and rule the tribe that his ancestors came from, or stay in the US. An inspiring story, apparently.

And now, you have a bit on the creative process for me. What inspires you?

Although I graduated two years ago, I like to keep up with what’s going on at my second Alma mater, Red River College. I follow some current students on Twitter and have picked up on a couple of their projects, which so happen to be blogs. One such blog / IPP (read: crecomm thesis) that i’ve been particularly enamored with as of late is 200 Movies 1 Woman by Jennifer Hanson. An ambitious and enterprising young lady, she’s dedicated herself to watch and blog about 200 movies in one year and present the completed project as her final big project in Creative Communications.

Side note: my IPP was to put on a show for charity where my band performed with an orchestra. An ambitious plan, said my advisors, which was quickly pared down to a string quartet. You can see video from the show after the jump:

Anyhoo, as a fellow appreciator of film (yeah, I took film studies, I can say that about myself with only the slightest hint of pretension), I thought it prudent to help Jennifer out in her quest, so I sent her the following email with my list of recommended watching. Turns out she’s already seen Fight Club and Office Space, but I do sincerely hope she gets to some of the other choices on my list before her 200 movies are up. And I thought it would be good to share my list with you, dear readers, and see what you think of it. Note that the list is in no particular order, just in order of how I thought of them whilst composing.

Movie List
10:51 AM (22 hours ago) Doug McArthur to jen

Like you, I’ve been a film appreciator for years. I enhanced my experience when I was in university by taking some film studies classes. They really opened my world of film going up, allowing me to understand how directors choose narrative structure, how they employ characterization through set design, costumes and even the angle of the camera. So with all those things in mind, I suggest you have a look at a book called How Movies Work, a text that became invaluable in my quest to understand, well, how movies work. I have a copy if you want to borrow it.

And without further ado, here’s my list of movie recommendations. I have decided not to give any commentary on why I chose these movies, I think it’s best that they speak for themselves. Suffice it to say, they’re all fantastic films, for myriad reasons.

1. Dark City (1998)
2. Fight Club (1999)
3. The Usual Suspects (1995)
4. Rashomon (1950)
5. The Untouchables (1987)
6. The Hustler (1961)
7. The Sting (1973)
8. Office Space (1999)
9. Dirty Harry (1972)
10. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
11. On The Waterfront (1954)

If you’re like me, production value plays a role in my enjoyment of a film. So those early ones may be a little harder to get into, but hang on, the acting and storytelling involved will blow you away.

My first admission, before I get on with what I intend on saying – this is a straight rip of my girlfriend’s post of the same topic.

Now that that’s out of the way and I won’t get slammed for stealing precious intellectual property, I have a few things to say to my unborn child.

Stephen Hawking has just announced that time travel is possible. With that in mind, even though I don’t have a large hadron collider and a rocket ship faster than the speed of light, I’d still like to imagine I can visit you 20 years down the road and ask you all the things you wish I would have done differently. My hope is that you’ll love me dearly and tell me you don’t regret one moment of being my son/daughter.

In reality, you’ll probably tell me you really wish I’d bought you that computer/phone/apple gadget you wanted so badly when you were 16. I’d like to think I will teach you not to place such value on material things, but I know I like shiny things with buttons and touch screens and such, so how could I deny you of the same wants?

Here’s a few things I promise to do with you as you grow up. I’ll keep it bulleted, cause I know how kids these days hate reading.

• Take you to your first, seventh and twenty-third concert. Rock, folk, indie, funk, soul … we’ll vary it up. Just no emo/screamo/justin bieber. for the love of all that is sacred. no justin bieber.
• Let you beat around my old guitars. Get a ukulele / mandolin / schroeder’s piano from peanuts in your hands at age 5. maybe sooner, if your mom allows it in between all the books she’ll have you reading.
• Talk to you like a human being (in addition to all the gibberish baby talk).
• Teach you to sing (and harmonize with your dad). Remember it comes from your diaphragm, not your throat! Unless you’re Ray LaMontagne. Then it comes from that cloud of smoke inside your lungs that you never exhaled. On that note, don’t even think about being a smoker.
• Read to you. You’re going to get literature totally crammed down your throat by your mother, but I want some input, too. I’m going to read you cool shit like The Age of Spiritual Machines, High Fidelity and when you’re ready, 1984, For Whom The Bell Tolls and Fight Club. I’ll leave the ones about kids with magic sticks, rings and hats to your mom.

That’s all for now … you’re going to get such an amazing cultural education at home, that I can promise you. Oh, and before I forget, we’re going to love the absolute shit out of you.

Sincerely, your dad.

Hi, my name is Doug. It’s been a month and a half since I vowed not to drink beer for a whole year.

Realizing it’s been a while since I discussed how it’s going, I decided it’s time for a quick update on my situation. Avoiding beer drinking is actually going quite well. Last night I finally rid myself of the Red Stripe that had been lingering around in my fridge, taunting me. Other than that, I”ve been able to do all the fun things I normally do and find great alternatives to drinking beer – either not drinking at all, or enjoying a glass of wine or two.

One interesting effect of my choice to abstain from that most delightful combination of malts and hops is that I just drink less in general. I find myself in situations where normally I’d have a beer or two without thinking about it and since I can’t do that, I decide to have water or nothing at all to drink. And I think that’s where this choice is really going to make an impact for me. I’m not completely cutting myself off, but at the same time, I’m drinking a lot less and that has made me feel much better, health-wise.

I also started playing dodgeball one night a week, which has brought back some familiar injuries originating from my days as a box lacrosse player – specifically my weak knee. It’s been a struggle coming back every week without crumbling but I think the more abuse I give my body, the more it can take.

So I’m starting an ultimate frisbee team for the spring league – but I need more players (girls especially). Any0ne in Winnipeg who is interested, do me a solid and fill out this survey.

It’s my first week as a Mac owner and I can tell you so far it’s been a hell of a lot of fun. I don’t know why I didn’t buy one ages ago. Oh yeah, the crippling hole it put in my wallet, that’s right. But this time around I had some extra cake from FINALLY selling my old car (a ’96 Acura Integra) and decided to spoil myself. So I finally did away with my old Toshiba laptop (it is sitting in its case in the closet, next to my old desktop PC) and got myself a lovely 15′ MacBook Pro – 2.66Ghz Intel Core Duo processor, 4GB RAM and a 320GB 7200RPM HDD. It is soooooo sweet. I’ve been diddling around in iPhoto, iWeb (which I didn’t even know existed until I installed the iLife suite yesterday) and my personal favourite so far, GarageBand. It’s all just TOO easy to use. I am still waiting for it to ask me for the right drivers, or for some weird hardware/software conflict to happen … but I don’t think it will. It’s so crazy.

So now that I own both the iPhone 3G S and a MacBook Pro, I really don’t see what possible use I could have for the new iPad. First off, what a terrible name. I’ve been reading for weeks that the rumoured names for the device were iSlate, iTablet, iPad … and iPad wins. Get ready for the maxi pad jokes, Apple. Actually, MADtv has that pretty much covered in this sketch from four years ago.

And okay, it’s a nice device for consuming media, and the iBook store is neat, but the iPad falls in its ability to be a do-everything device. It lacks a camera and it doesn’t multitask. I heard one defence for the iPad stating that it was made this way on purpose, as to not pull sales away from the MacBooks. That makes sense, but then what do I need the iPad for? I haven’t quite figured it out.

So the fanfare and the hype that has been building up for weeks didn’t quite deliver what it promised, but when does it ever do that? I’d say rarely ever. Maybe iPad version 2.0 will take some of the critics cries into consideration.

Another disappointment I felt during the whole Apple CES keynote was that I expected iPhone OS 4.0 to be released, but it looks like I’m going to have to wait for that, too. I guess that’s okay, though, as I don’t think I’ll upgrade to OS 4.0 until blackra1n or somebody else figures out how to jailbreak it. And my guess is Apple is going to make it a lot harder to do this time around.

All being said, yes. I’m a total Apple fanboy now.

And look at the super awesome shiny wonderful case I am getting for my MacBook! Excited!

I recently spent the week traveling around Saskatchewan for business – I hit up Saskatoon, Watrous, Regina, Yorkton and Melville over four days and saw clients large and small. I trek west for work every couple of months and every time I leave Winnipeg I am reminded of how much I love my dear home town.

Don’t get me wrong, there are interesting things about places in Saskatchewan. Saskatoon has a decent music scene, but not nearly as good as Winnipeg. Watrous’ claim to fame is both the Manitou Springs Mineral Spa and the fact that it was selected as a location for TSN’s Sportscentre broadcast in August 2009.

As I tweeted about on Thursday, I was mighty disappointed with the music scene on a Thursday night in Regina. I want to go into a bit more detail than 140 characters will allow.

It was Thursday night and I had just finished a long day of client visits. None of my Regina coworkers were up to anything but I had a rental car and some free time, so I decided to check out what was going on downtown. I hit up a sushi place first and then popped next door to a pub called O’Hanlon’s to see what was going on. I took a little tour around the pub, which looked really nice. High ceilings, just the right amount of Guinness and Keith’s ads (and mirrors) on the walls. So I go up to the barkeep, a nondescript looking chap wearing plaid, as cool kids do, and asked him if there was to be a band at the pub that night. No, but a DJ is spinning tonight. Okay, no thanks, unless it’s RJD2, Kid Koala or Girl Talk, I’ll pass.

So I ask him if there are any other venues around with live music tonight. His reply? “No, not on a Thursday.”

Not on a Thursday? Maybe Winnipeg has spoiled me, but I expect there to be live music happening somewhere pretty much every night of the week. Especially Thursday through Sunday. That’s a given, isn’t it?

I implore you, people of Regina – either do a better job of promoting your music, if in fact there is music happening that said bartender is unaware of, or just make it happen. That’s all. Have a lovely weekend.

It’s been several days since I vowed not to drink beer for a year, and since I ran the gauntlet on my first beerless outing. Now, through either some karmic retribution or just horrible coincidence, or both, the universe seems to be repeatedly kicking me in the metaphorical junk for making this decision.

Let’s start with the other night. A repeat of my previous outing, wherein my guitarist comes over and we swap song ideas and then head out on the town. This time we make our way to Carlos and Murphy’s, a fine Mexican establishment in Osborne Village. We sit down and while pondering that near-impossible choice between burritos and enchiladas (I swear they’re exactly the same), the waitress takes our drink orders. One Corona and one water, please.

And wouldn’t you know it, she returns with two Coronas and no waters. Now I am forced to do two totally cringe-worthy things: number one, let that delicious beer sit untouched on the table, and two, tell the waitress that yes, I wanted a water and not a beer. She says “oh, I just assumed you wanted the same.” Under normal circumstances, yes, absolutely. But not for the next 362 days.

So, vow-breaking situation averted, I managed to get through the night without a beer again. I think I may eventually just have to remove myself from situations where drinking is encouraged. But I refuse to abstain, bull-headed as it may sound. But how, dear reader, can I remove myself from this?

Apparently staying home is even something I have to worry about – because my friends come over with beer and leave a single solitary Red Stripe in my fridge, just to taunt me. You bastards.