Tuesday 30 August 2011

Missed Planes and Burning Neckties :: August 31, 2011


Hey Folks

Last day of August.  Almost had a great meeting with Gary and almost set our direction for the coming year which includes post production of ON THE BEAT AND PATH for television, and post production for two, potentially three documentaries for submission in to film festivals in 2012. However, Gary is not in Malaysia.  He missed his flight from Macedonia and spent a night (or potentially two in Istanbul).

No there is every reason to believe that Gary missed his flight because of crazy traffic in Sofia.  No doubt.  Gary is a man of his word and I must take him at that.  But with a year of traveling under our belt (we’re talking 17 countries and over 25 cities here) it is safe to say, the man plays with fire when it comes to challenging planes’ ability to depart on time (with every passenger).  It takes two hands to count the close calls and long mornings.  Even Vanessa has been heard to drop a, “goddammit Gary” once in a while.  

Gary performing a self diagnosis test after an ill-fated motorcycle accident in Lake Toba, Indonesia


Gary should be arriving between sometime today and next week.  It just depends on how good the Turkish bath houses are. 

I am continuing to do stand up in the region and am headlining a show in Kuala Lumpur (well…a suburb anyway) on September 13th.  The show is at Nero Fico and is a great spot to get a delicious feast in you before the show.  Local comic, Kavin is MC’ing the event with MACC comic Chi Ho opening with a few minutes.  The price is set at 20 rm and you can get more info on the FACEBOOK event page here:


Steve live at Nero Fico, September 13, 2011

As mentioned in Monday’s blog, I wanted to share the reason why we had Randall start a fire for us.  While in India back in April 2010, we wanted to perform a ceremony, some sort of celebration of the creative task we were about to start.  I thought it was rather appropriate to light a fire and burn some neckties.  So here is Erik, Gary and I on the beaches in Goa with nothing but a fire, some neckties, a few guitars and an improvised song.


Rocking on the beaches of Goa just before the tie burning ceremony


Catch Us Live Somewhere On This Planet
Peace
Steve

Twitter: twitter.com/#!/OnTheBeatNPath
Blogspot: onthebeatandpath.blogspot.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/OnTheBeatAndPath
CBC Radio 3 (Original Canadian Indie Music): radio3.cbc.ca/#/bands/On-The-Beat-and-Path

OTHER BORED OF DIRECTIVES PROJECTS:
TITS (Totally Incorrect Travel Show): www.boredofdirectives.com/TITS.html
Stand Up Comedy: www.boredofdirectives.com/northcott_comedy.html

steve@boredofdirectives.com
gary@boredofdirectives.com

Sunday 28 August 2011

The Creative Process :: August 29th, 2011


Hey Folks

It’s been awhile, apologies.  I’ll keep this short. 

Gary gets back from a month of vacationing in American and filming his wife/dancer Paola (she made a performance piece in our Brazil episode - www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d0WMXlmCw8) in Macedonia.  She does some terrific work with a music festival over there and we’ll be excited to bring you some footage of that in due time.   So much more to come in the meantime.

We have been releasing bonus scenes, lost scenes, deleted scenes and summer content which includes clips from Toronto’s Fringe Festival, Singapore’s Rock & Roots Festival and Guelph’s Hillside Festival.  You can check out our YouTube Channel for episodes you may have missed.  Plus Gary will have everything available on our new updated website very soon.  Check out the cool things he has been doing at www.onthebeatandpath.com.  Not everything is active as of yet but stay tuned, there is so much more On The Beat and Path coming.

That said, we’ll release another bonus scene today.  For those that remember, or were with us during Season One, we paid a visit to Bali and joined a local Gamelon band at a recording studio run by the great DJ KAZZ.  Together and through the language of music, we created the season two theme song, the kick-ass, “Everything Matters”.

Here is the online Season One Bali segment:


Here is the BEHIND THE SCENES segment of our recording the above segment:


Well, today we are happy to release footage of us in India when we first came up with the idea for this song. The footage is a little grainy, obviously the song wasn’t in it’s polished state but it gives you a glimpse of our creative process and reintroduces you to characters from Season One, Episode One in Goa, India.


From Left to Right: Gary on Guitar, Jungle Chris Horton on the nylon string, Erik is banging on the Cajon somewhere on the floor and I am on the right. 
The setting was perfect under the Banyon tree by the ocean.  It was difficult to leave.

All the while, Randall was trying to get a fire going.  It took him seven hours before we finally gave him a lighter.  He was not impressed.  On Wednesday, we will share with you what we did with the fire.

Coming soon:

We’re going to release a full 27-minute documentary from our time at the Hillside Music Festival in Canada with performances from Lights, Chali 2na, Sloan, Ganga Giri, Kim Churchill, Serena Ryder, Emmanuel Jal and so much more.  It’s probably better than anything you are watching on TV at the moment anyway (especially the 2011 MTV VMA’s – Does MTV still care about music these days?)

Serena Ryder at Hillside Music Festival Guelph, Canada 2011


Catch Us Live Somewhere On This Planet
Peace,
Steve


CBC Radio 3 (Original Canadian Indie Music): radio3.cbc.ca/#/bands/On-The-Beat-and-Path

OTHER BORED OF DIRECTIVES PROJECTS:
TITS (Totally Incorrect Travel Show): www.boredofdirectives.com/TITS.html

steve@boredofdirectives.com
gary@boredofdirectives.com

Sunday 7 August 2011

Slam or Be Slammed


Hey Folks

We released another small “featurette” from our summer shoot at Hillside Festival in Canada.  This time, in an effort to perform at the festival, I signed up for the Sunday Poetry Slam, hosted by The Guelph Poets Society. 



I have never entered a Poetry Slam.  I find them cool in every sense of the word and while a dark bar and a groovy basslines would have seemed more appropriate accompaniment than a lake and birds, I had no fear.  



What was originally supposed to be an open mic (signed up for only by yours truly) turned in to an actual slam (performed by seasoned ‘slammers’).  It was random selection to see who got to go first.  As tragedy had it, I was picked to go last.  I think I held my own.  You can see first hand here:


Please comment on the YOUTUBE pages for our videos.  Much appreciated.



Coming Soon from On The Beat and Path:

Singapore Rock & Roots Festival (Michael Franti & Bob Dylan)
2011 Toronto Fringe Festival
2011 Hillside Music Festival (Chali 2na, Sloan, and 3 days of musical wonderfulness)
Episodes from Thailand, Myanmar, Dubai, Malaysia, Newfoundland and New York
Deleted Scenes from Season One & Two


Please, Catch Us Live Somewhere on this Planet.
Peace,
Steve
www.boredofdirectives.com


Twitter: twitter.com/#!/OnTheBeatNPath
Blogspot: onthebeatandpath.blogspot.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/OnTheBeatAndPath
CBC Radio 3 (Original Canadian Indie Music): radio3.cbc.ca/#/bands/On-The-Beat-and-Path

OTHER BORED OF DIRECTIVES PROJECTS:

TITS (Totally Incorrect Travel Show): www.boredofdirectives.com/TITS.html
Stand Up Comedy: www.boredofdirectives.com/northcott_comedy.html

steve@boredofdirectives.com
gary@boredofdirectives.com

Thursday 4 August 2011

Growing up Muslim in a Hyphenated World


“Growing up Muslim in a Hyphenated World”

It’s Friday, the first from our first week back.  Today we are releasing our third segment from the Toronto Fringe Festival.  Anyone growing up hyphenated in this multi-cultural world will relate to the adventures of Zed Headscarf.  Ch-Ch-Check it out here and spread the love during this Ramadan season:

Tons to see at Toronto Fringe
Please post comments on our YOUTUBE page if there is something you would like to share.

Had a great time at the comedy show last night with TimeOut Comedy Thursdays.  Mad respect to all the comedians who performed to inspire the 300+ strong crowd to giggle in to the night.  Kavin did his usual bang-up, smooth job MC’ing with strong, crowd-friendly polished material even if his “intros” were about 20 minutes in length each (he likes to make the comics sweat I suppose…all good).  All the way from Hong Kong, Gary Jackson hit the stage delighting the diverse crowd with some fresh material and perspective.  Always great having comics from different countries show up and do a few minutes.  He wasn’t the only one as Jinx (Singapore) started the show and had the challenging task of warming the audience up. 

Being a little jet-lagged, I requested (you know me...forever the diva) to go on in the first set and was awarded the nice cushy spot before the first break (thanks Mei).  I did about 15 minutes of new material I worked on over the summer (read: on the plane back from Canada), which is always a little risky.  Smart comedians will sprinkle some time-tested material in to their sets for some breathing room but I have never claimed to be a smart comedian (Just a comedian with what I believe to be smart material…or so I convince myself).  My material consisted of bits titled; “Penis’ & Politicians” “Airplanes & Pornography” “Side Effects” and “Mid Wifery”.  I don’t normally name my bits but last night I felt a need.  One of those “spur-of-the-moment-stage-things”.

Tragically, due to the aforementioned jet lag, I left as the 2nd set began.  I am certain it was spectacular.  No disrespect intended to the comics who performed.

I will do a headlining show on Tuesday, September 13th at Nero-Fico (that’s one of the fine Italian Nero eateries in KL and surrounding area).  I believe that Kavin will be MC’ing the event and there will be an opening comedian (I just don’t know who yet).  I’ll break out the guitar, some new approaches at storytelling and of course mix in some never before heard bits and hope for the best.  I will remind all when the date comes closer.

Coming Soon from On The Beat and Path:


  • Singapore Rock & Roots Festival (Michael Franti & Bob Dylan)
  • 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival
  • 2011 Hillside Music Festival (Chali 2na, Sloan, and 3 days of musical wonderfulness)
  • Episodes from Thailand, Myanmar, Dubai, Malaysia, Newfoundland and New York
  • Deleted Scenes from Season One & Two


Gary & Steve at Hillside Festival (Canada)

Please, Catch Us Live Somewhere on this Planet.

Peace,
Steve
Sneak Preview of our New Site:

www.boredofdirectives.com/OBPath.html

Facebook ("like" us): www.facebook.com/OnTheBeatAndPath
CBC Radio 3 (Original Canadian Indie Music): radio3.cbc.ca/#/bands/On-The-Beat-and-Path

OTHER BORED OF DIRECTIVES PROJECTS:

TITS (Totally Incorrect Travel Show): www.boredofdirectives.com/TITS.html

steve@boredofdirectives.com
gary@boredofdirectives.com

Tuesday 2 August 2011

America's Least Favourite Country & Western Superstar


Hola Everyone,

While Gary plays scrabble with the genius, I am happy to continue releasing footage from our summer tour. 

Continuing with our 2011 Fringe Festival releases, here is The Billy Willy Show.  A name like that could bring with it many descriptions.  I will let America’s least favourite Country and Western superstar, Billy Willy explain.



If you are in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow night, I am performing as part of Time Out Comedy Thursday at Velvet Underground.  There are cheap tickets to be had if you follow the link.



I will be bringing new material from my summer ponderings and will be looking for the crowd to help me figure which material to scrap and which to build on.  It’s all a wonderful honest process.

Have you seen the new website that Gary has been building?  While not completely finished, you can get an idea of where we are going.  We are trying to ensure that you can find videos based on themes and topics easily.  Instead of finding episodes based on Country, you can now find clips based on themes such as markets, hunts, instrument building, live jams, etc.  Check it out here and check back often as we continue to build.

We have had a great summer building relationships throughout North American.  Please help spread the word of On The Beat and Path and invite music and travel lovers to join our FACEBOOK site.  While Gary is away, it will be the only place to get updates on new videos (and twitter of course: OnTheBeatNPath).

Update from Songs From The Mekong:

There are 6 videos to enjoy from our shoot.  We wanted to do daily blogs to give an insight to our creative process.  We managed to come away with 4 songs (studio recorded), a great live improvised jam at the local orphanage and countless riverside jams (including band favourite, God Dammit Gary).  The documentary is currently being worked on and will be released within the next twelve months.  Is that vague enough for you?



It appears that Randall, determined to be a better employee this next creative year, has purchased a pair of normal rubber shoes.  He has taken the hint that the wooden clogs he traditionally sports will never make hipster status and has hing them up.  We are doing everything in our power to get him to wear them again.  While annoying, it does provide us with entertainment when in public.  Vanessa is currently baiting him with sexual innuendo and flirtation in order to get the shoes on.  She deserves a raise.


Please, Catch Us Live Somewhere on this Planet.

Peace,
Steve

CBC Radio 3 (Original Canadian Indie Music): radio3.cbc.ca/#/bands/On-The-Beat-and-Path

OTHER BORED OF DIRECTIVES PROJECTS:
TITS (Totally Incorrect Travel Show): www.boredofdirectives.com/TITS.html


steve@boredofdirectives.com
gary@boredofdirectives.com