Old Friends

Last night, Gord and I went out to the Drake Hotel. First time I've ever been there, and I must say, I was impressed, nice space. Well we went to go see an old friend of ours play. Ken Reaume, he's a very talented folk singer, a bit like Nick Drake. We surprised him backstage, he wasn't expecting us to show up. After the show we went elsewhere to have to drink and to catch up. The last time I saw him was back in September where I ran into him at a wedding, I was working so I didn't really have much of a chance to talk to him, but before that it was years since I last saw him. He updated us on his life, and we updated him on ours.
It was a good night, it's always good to see friends you don't see to often. Ken's the kind of person who doesn't say goodbye, and doesn't tell people where he's going, but he somehow just reappears.

There were other performers last night as well. There was a girl who performed solo, I won't mention her name, but I'll mention that she plays an Omnichord, and it's part of her stage name as well. But she was really bad, I'll give her credit for trying, and I think I know what sound she was going for, but she just didn't have it. I mean as soon as she started to sing, I was questioning why she was up there, she was completely tone deaf! It was that bad, and she's trying to pitch CDs, and tellling the audience that she plans of having a album produced. Her original songs weren't good either, really badly written lyrics that could have been written by a 12 year old.

The act that come on after her was just as bad. A little better in the singing department but not an improvement to get excited about. Also another bad song writer. The song was so predictable. He kept mentioning things that he had quit, and Gord and I were sort of saying to each other “please don't say it, please don't say it!“, and He said it. Can you guess the line? Think of a love ballad and think of one thing you can't quit!
We left as they started their next song, so no more commentary on how bad they were.
On the way home, Gord and I were discussing the importance of constructive critizm, don't take what you're friends and family say about you too seriously, they may tell you that you're good at something, only cause they don't want to offend you, take it with a grain of salt. Otherwise you just look like an asshole in front of strangers. This reminds of a lot of people in my own life, they hate it when I speak my mind since I'm not praising them, and giving them my honest opinion that what they did sucked. I mean I would never just say it sucks, I'd back it up and give suggestions on how to improve. Positive feedback needs to be earned.

I'm digressing too much.