Yes. The hockey was played and I took part. It is already on the list of amazing things that have happened to me. In front of a crowd...I scored a goal against "King" Richard Brodeur on a 2 on 1 with Randy Heath (ex-Winterhawk, NYRanger). With the afternoon sun streaming in from the west wall of the half glass building and casting an outdoor glow on the rink I worked my way through the first two jittery shifts. When you're on the ice with real hockey players its evident you are a musician but the joviality of the affair can help you recover some self esteem. We were down 7 to 5 in the last period and the "eMeNeM" (John Mann, Matt Johnson, and me...Northey) line was on with Heath & Lumme on defence. Randy jumped up at one point and I dragged a foot to stay onside and dug in for the net. To my surprise the lane was open on the left wing and, as I am a right shot, I cocked a little so he could see I was ready for the pass if he wished to make it. He fed me the perfect flying saucer over the defenceman's stick and I batted it in from a few inches off the ice at a pretty good clip. As I curled left to avoid the end boards I could see it hit the back twine halfway up the short side. A gorgeous little black blur. I still can't believe I did it. It wasn't just any garbage goal (I'll take those too ...I'm happy to crash in there and have someone bounce it off my head and in). It was a "nice goal". In that instant my whole being was denying that I accomplished the task. I am not programmed to accept such things as real. They do not happen to me naturally as part of my skill set. When Randy Heath punches your glove and says "beautiful shot" and Gino Odjick and Jyrki Lumme are skating towards you for the three way hockey hug with beaming smiles it starts to get even more surreal. I'd like to thank Randy for making "King" think he was going to shoot and then feeding me the glory. King Richard told me later at the banquet that he thought Randy was going to shoot. He was trying! I could have missed ...BUT I DIDN'T.
The whole weekend had that fantasy camp aura. I didn't score in game two but there were as many little joyous boyhood blasts as there were breaths to take:
Crouching on the right of the face-off circle and getting ready to see if Matt Johnson (54•40) can beat Bryan Trottier and haul it over to you was just a tiny nugget. If Matt won then I wouldn't have the puck for long. Getting in a lucky pokecheck on Russ Courtnall in the corner (that's all you get). Making the right choice to give Tiger Williams room when he was coming in hard on you. Joking with Cam Neely while running warm-ups in the zone after the anthem in GM Place. Having the Hanson brothers be the 1st line and being on the second line yourself. Having Howie Meeker coaching with his hand resting on your back and saying, “Red is going in next with Mann and Johnson”. Yes. Howie & the Tiger dubbed me “Red”. What Canadian kid wouldn’t pay $10,000 for what I got to do?
Brent Butt (Corner Gas CTV...WATCH IT) was in goal for us and as he stopped Trottier and Courtnall on a 2 on none I thought, “Fuck Brent! How many goalies who tried and almost made it to the NHL never got to do what you just did after spending every day of their young lives trying to get there?You spent all that time in clubs becoming a comedian”. Amazing, sad, joyous and fun.
Today I play in the "Sea to Sky Hockey Challenge" to raise money for our future international amateur athletes...Olympians. The game is in Whistler at 1:30. Tomorrow we play at GM Place in Vancouver at 2 pm. Tickets are pretty reasonable. They won't argue with you without a reason. This new website should be up over the next few days.
The Northey Valenzuela album is mixed. I'm VERY excited. On to mastering, artwork and finding it a home. I'd like to thank Colin Nairne for soldiering through 11 mixes in 3 days with me. I'd like to say a huge thanks to both Colin and Blair Calibaba for recording such great sounds. Huge thanks to Paul Baker for all his help making "Bakerstreet" our musical home.
The process of making this record took about 4 years in calendar time but in that time it took only 5 days to record and three days to mix. That's 1452 days eating donuts in the green room. Nice work when you can get it.
Codiene cowboy. Had a bit of corrective surgery to my underface. The post op dreams are being recorded and quickly forgotten. Last night my middle boy had 18 friends over for a sleep over. I was in a T3 semi coma. At 4 am I was reminded of the time when all the boys at a sleepover are too tired to lift their heads but they keep talking anyway. This is when you will hear stories from the inner core of the 11 year old boy. The banter is less frantic and scatalogical. One boy laid out the heaviest story. He claimed there was a boy with a swollen stomach and everyone teased him for looking pregnant. One day he "got sore" and they had to open him up to look inside. Inside they found a ball of hair and teeth and bones. "They found out that when he was born he was a twin and when he was inside his mom....HE ATE HIS TWIN"!
Speaking of surgery!
The site will undergo massive renovations on Feb 20 to 22nd. My good friend and genius Alistair Calder has been building the thing for the last while. It will be structured in a way that will allow for more pictures, audio and ...yes...video. I promised the video and damn it if it takes a year to the calendar day...I will deliver. The new site will allow me to alter things myself.
Big news on the Northey Valenzuela front. We start mixing tomorrow. Our schedules have really scuttled our attempts to finish it but things are looking up.
There are other events unfolding today. Vancouver's Mojo Radio changed their format to "all sports" and the Paul Myers Show was cancelled. Just because the guy is my friend doesn't mean I can't say objectively that it was a great run for a pure a noble idea. I will respectfully include Paul's own comments on the matter:
"The Paul Myers Show leaves Mojo with its head held high. We never jumped the shark. I will miss my daily routine, I logged almost 500 hours of radio last year, but I'm very proud that my show featured documentary film makers, "Fog Of War" director Errol Morris, "Capturing The Friedmans" director Andrew Jarecki, "American Spledor" creator Harvey Pekar, Author / Political satirist Al Franken, Eric Idle from Monty Python, Rick from Cheap Trick, Adam from Fountains of Wayne, Mike Myers (twice!) Matthew Sweet, Susanna Hoffs, Ron Sexsmith, and regular progressive political segments, local musicians and touring musicians like Starsailor and the Thrills and Pete Yorn. I even did on air eulogies for Warren Zevon and Elliott Smith. The show was for me first then anyone else who wanted to listen, and we got a lot of people turned on to things they didn't even know existed, so there you are. And this was only my FIRST ever radio show, imagine my next one."
When things that are even marginally sad rear their heads I turn to the whimsy of hockey. I have my head buried there most of the time. So...
Yesterday marked the debut of the "line that should be" when Joe Sakic, Todd Bertuzzi and Markus Naslund took over the NHL All-Star game. How can the Canucks get that guy? My appreciation for Markus Naslund's sense of humour began today with his comments that Peter Forsberg held them back in last year's game because he didn't backcheck or shoot enough. Yeah..Forsberg sucks.
Credible officious carport. One of the bet spam titles of the day. I feel like everyone should have one. Auspicious day it is. Warren Zevon gets his due at the Grammies. He even gets the Grammy that Rosanne Cash was nominated for. I guess that’s what you call a good problem. My buddy Vince Jones (see keyboards on “Giddy Up”) plants himself between Alison Krauss and Sarah McLachlan for millions on the Grammy telecast -- honourable mention to Diamond Dave Kershaw (Giddy Up video key grip and Sarah keyboardist). The Outkast CD is my current favourite and I love how its as crazy and ambitious as “Sign O’the Times” -- even Prince was on the show. I feel a long way from an event like the Grammies but my six degrees of Kevin Bacon meter was on 1st degree tonight. Guess I’ll get to work with Outkast next.
Cop out. I have no creative gas so I will just reprint a much reprinted George Bush quote regarding his position on quotas:
"What I am against is quotas. I am against hard quotas, quotas they basically delineate based upon whatever. However they delineate, quotas, I think, vulcanize society. So I don't know how that fits into what everybody else is saying, their relative positions, but that's my position."
I too am afraid of a vulcanized society. I have this in common with George Bush.
He's almost as good as Henny Youngman:
"When I go to a restaurant I always ask the manager, "Give me a table near a waiter.""
Remind me to tell you about when I met Henny Youngman in NYC.