Ahem.
In other news:
I leave on Friday for Toronto, to visit with my brother's family for 5 days, and then start my tour (my first tour for my own music). Toronto, Ottawa, London, Windsor, Montreal - in that order. If things had gone as planned, it would have been Windsor, London, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal - a nice straight line from west to east. However, booking a tour is, as I've discovered, not an easy thing to do, especially when you're as wonderfully unknown as I am. I had my doubts that it would ever come together. But I wrote that blog back in the Fall stating my intention to tour, and that intention somehow turned it into reality.

I feel significant rufflings of excitement when I think about the small steps my music is taking out into the world. Every now and again I hear from someone in some improbably distant country who has stumbled upon my music. It seems impossible, magic. I listened to a bit of my CD today. (Something I haven't done in quite a while.) Funny how quickly one becomes removed from one's work... it's already a bit of a stranger to me: a snapshot of what I sounded like one year ago, worked into a collage of musical energies and ideas charged with inspiration, circumstances, personalities and challenges. When I listen to it now, I feel a lot of gratitude for the 6 other people involved. I've never quite had this experience before. It's wondrous and still somewhat strange to have a project of my own that other people contribute to passionately. They all give me far more than the work I pay them for. Such a gift. I do hope that I never get to a place of entitlement or start to take it all for granted.

Back to the tour for a moment. I'm really pleased that this is happening, and that I managed to get it off the ground. A year ago I said to several people that I just couldn't imagine booking a tour. Way too hard and overwhelming. So I give myself a little pat on the back. Now, some new challenges: I'm going to book a 2012 European tour. Also, I need to play long weekend mini-tours around B.C. and try to conquer my own backyard a little bit before I head to Europe. I want to find a booking agent and a manager (good ones that I can trust), and get on top of the online media stuff. Get my website happening. I want to send my music to David Lynch and other filmmakers of that ilk. I need to be applying for all possible grants, and to make a list of all the festivals, internationally, that I'd like to play at, and note their application deadlines for next year. Find funding for the next album. Keep writing.
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