DEC 07 - CATS AND FOOD!
I now have one of my old Cats back. His name is Casey. I quite like him and am glad to have the company around my place. I installed a cat door for him so he can let himself in and out if I’m not around. We had our 4th annual Red FM Food Drive for the Surrey Food Bank on Saturday, December 5th, 2009. This year was our best yet filling 2 5 tonne trucks right up worth an estimated $70,000 worth of food. The great weather may have been the biggest factor for bringing in more donors. Pranav and I have recently published an ad for our event services. (Thanks to Dav for the design work) We are already looking forward to a gig with Sony Entertainment this February. More to come! 26 November, 2009 - Big Plans. Rain, rain, rain. At this rate, I may snap by January! I wrote up a 1 year plan last weekend. I toyed with the idea of a 10 year plan again but for now, I’d like some immediate focus. Some of the goals are work related, some health & education. I would like to focus on a radio production bed track and loop CD. I’ve been thinking about that for some time now. As for music, I’ve decided to try and stick with a smaller range of genres. I usually write what I feel like writing, sometimes blues, upbeat electronic, jazz, down tempo and a lot that doesn’t really fall into any category. I will concentrate on writing mellow electronic for 2010. It’s a genre that I’ve always liked and a genre that I feel like I’m good at. Song writing is such a challenge. I’ve been writing songs for almost 10 years and I still don’t feel like a regular approach to it. One of my greatest challenges Is trying not to be an engineer when I’m trying to song write. It’s an ironic truth that I face I can do all kinds of things that most song writers can’t do for themselves and it’s those things that make it so hard to concentrate on songwriting. I have also decided to take Japanese conversation practice again. It has been a long time but I’ve been feeling like I don’t want to lose it as of late. I would like to at least keep my conversation skills up to a basic level so that I can still act cool when I’m wondering around Tokyo! Oh, who am I trying to kid!
NOV 09 - NEW CAR
On November 2nd, Red FM held its 3rd annual Radiothon to help raise funds for the Surrey Memorial Hospital. We managed to raise $900,000.00 in one day bringing our 3 year total to over 2.5 million dollars! I am now driving a new vehicle, a 2010 Honda CRV EXL. Great car, good on gas and all the extras to make its driver very satisfied. Strangely, I’m enjoying the satellite radio programs. I feel like I’m cheating on conventional radio! I went skating at the Richmond Speed Skating Olympic Oval yesterday. Upon getting out on the ice I realized that I hadn’t been on ice skates for over 20 years. Kind of makes me feel old! I’ve been a dedicated in-line skater for years so the transition wasn’t too bad. I’ve been dealing with a sore ankle for about one month now so I haven’t been running a lot. I’ve also had a sore spot on my back for about 3 weeks which has kept me away from lifting heavy weights at the gym. Is father time catching up to me?
OCT 29 - THE GRIND
I have been an avid Grouse Grinder for many years now. I have always been satisfied by climbing God's Stairmaster, until 2 weeks ago. I drove up on Thanksgiving and upon leaving my vehicle I noticed how cool it was outside. When doing grueling exercise, cool weather is a good thing. Therefore, upon getting up to the top, I felt really good. I mean REALLY good. The cool weather kept my body temperature and heart rate down, so being by myself and not in a rush, I decided to try it one more time. Then I realized that I left my wallet at home and had to walk / hobble my way back down the grind. I made it down telling myself that I may not go up again because my legs might be too tired from going down on foot. Made my way to the bottom and noticed how many attractive ladies I had passed on the way down. This provided all the motivation I needed; I turned around and started right back up again. ;) I was motivated and feeling great so I eventually made it up again. 56 minutes my first time and 71 minutes my second. It was already 5pm and the Grind was then closed so after begging for a ticket down, I was granted a freebie, got to my car and promptly called my friend John to brag about my day! Then an idea struck me, what If I got to the Grind earlier in the day and tried to do it 3 times? This past Sunday, I drove up on my own, taking my time to pick up a few energy bars and electrolyte tablets. I decided to take my time going up early on but still managed to hit the top after 57 minutes. I was intelligent enough to bring some money along this time, took the tram down and promptly hit the trail again. The second time I made it up in 61 minutes. (The electrolyte tablets are a God send!) I could barely contain myself in the tram ride down before the 3rd time up. I was just so stoked about being to brag to John again. I ran from the tram to the trail head and hit it right away throwing caution to the wind because I knew it would be my last time up. I immediately pushed past a few other hikers just to feel like a rock star, they had no Idea that I was an animal, but I knew! Very soon, I felt my muscles starting to quiver and most of the "amateurs" that I passed a short while ago were soon passing me! 1/4, 1/2, I kept telling myself it was all downhill from there, some sort of sick joke only I would be privy to. Electrolytes didn't feel like they were working so well anymore. 3/4, I thought I might be hallucinating for a while there; my pace was dramatically slower than the previous two trips. Then I saw the light coming over the tree line... I always tell other people that when you see the light opening up over the tree line, you know you're close. This time, I felt like the amateur, telling myself that I was almost there. Slipping, slowing, almost crawling, I made it to the sign at the top of the hill. I always find that sign strange. The sunlight reflects off the back of the sign creating an eerie, indescribable glow. Over the last set of rocks which you are still forced to climb just to get to the lodge, one last Grouse Grind display of power, the wooden stairs, (created just to spite tired hikers I'm sure), back to the tram ticket counter with absolutely no sense of humor! The girl working the counter had actually noticed me all 3 times and congratulated me. I had nothing intelligent to say to her, I just wanted to check myself in the local hospital! That's my story, 3 big climbs, maybe 4 or 5 next year, maybe not! I thought it might be fun to train and try to beat the record for most times up. I had assumed that it could only be 6 or 7 times but actually, it’s 13. I do not think I will be trying to break that record in this lifetime! (That person is psycho)
OCT 05 - BABY ARYAN & NEW RED FM CRUISER
My good friends Shivani & Pranav had their first (yet unnamed) boy. Pranav AKA DJ Tantra (or Tantric, depending on who you speak to!) has his hands full as he’s in the middle of a complete home reno on top of becoming a father.
SEP 23 - K***** COMES TO VISIT
So many things going on in my life, so little time to update my journal!Renovations have occupied my evenings over the last month.I’ve re-tiled my tub, put in new ceilings, painted like a mad man, done piles of yard work and yet I feel like there is still so much to do! One of my very best and slowly becoming one of my oldest friends K***** and his lovely wife S****** came to Vancouver last week. (They're under cover) K***** and I managed to get out for a hike.It was a little too easy but still nice to be out in nature! Nick had a bbq on Sunday with Red FM staff.One of our old hosts and copywriters was in from Edmonton so it was nice to reminisce.Road my bike and had a couple of drinks so the ride home was interesting to say the least! We’ve started a new contest at Red FM, Diwali Dhamaka.We’re giving out $5000.00 and putting on a small Diwali Celebration.We’re also working out the kinks on our new station cruiser.Trying to come up with a design that is both fun and professional looking can be a challenge.We’re hoping to have it done by Diwali.
AUG 25 - WEDDING AND RED FM IDOL 3
Chocolate Milk Productions (AKA Pranav & I) played a wedding at the Pan Pacific. It was a great event, mixed crowd of Punjabis & Caucasians so the music selection was all over the map. Congratulations Lee & Anu. We just got through Red FM Idol 3. We planned and executed the event in just over 1 month. The vibe this year was really great; the stage full of white flowers didn’t hurt either! The night before Red FM Idol, a few of us were permitted by the decorator to get the flowers from a wedding at Library Square in Vancouver. (After the wedding had ended.) We brought a moving truck and absolutely filled it with the flowers. Technically all went over great. My runs have been great lately. I’ve only been running about 3 times per week. I think I respond to running better when I don’t run every day and overdo it. I’ve been spending a lot of time
JUL 03 - STAGS AND RUNS
Rode to White Rock the weekend after and burned my quads really bad. Damn sun! Went for dinner with Dad, Lana & Luc at the Jolly Mac Pub last week. Bid on a Ducks Unlimited painting and won. Now I"m stuck with this damn painting and a $250 bill! Long live the ducks! I “skipped” over the Victoria to attend Ross Raymond's Stag on Thursday. It had potential to get really crazy but then I reminded myself that I had to not only work the next day but fly back to Vancouver so I could get to work on time. None the less, congratulations Ross! The 3rd Annual Surrey Red FM Walk and Run came and went on Sunday, August 19th. We had over 1100 paid participants plus spectators. It was an amazing event. I had to begin to hard labor part of set up on Saturday and didn’t get home on Sunday till 5pm but it was so well worth it. I’m taking some time off in the next few weeks, I wish I could say I’m going on vacation but the time should still help rest the mind!I’m going to need rest because the next project at work is Red FM Idol 3.I drove to Vancouver last night to go for a run on the Sea Wall.I forgot that the fireworks were taking place so I had to settle for a run around False Creek to stay away from the crowds.I truly miss being able to run along the water in Vancouver as often as I had in the past.I will say that I have grown to love running the hills of New Westminster, in fact I think that I prefer hills to flat runs.
JUL 06 - THE NEW RIDE
It’s been almost a month since I made a blog entry.I guess that means I’ve been busy.I bought a new bicycle “Kona, Dr. Dew” and I have been riding it like a mad man!The Surrey Red FM Run is almost upon us and we are hoping to break the 1000 participant barrier this year.Most importantly is putting on a great/safe event.Big numbers are great but are secondary.I’ve done the Grouse Grind 3 times already this year and I am aiming for 10 before the fall.I wouldn’t mind riding my bike to the trail head then doing the full grind and riding back home.Then I’ll really be a tough guy!Jazz fest came and went.Really enjoyed it again this year but only saw a few shows.
JUN 08 - DAVE TIES THE BIG ONE
My old buddy Dave decided to marry the love of his life Angela last winter and decided to elope. This meant that only their immediate families were present. So, Angela’s aunt and uncle decided to throw a small celebration for them in North Vancouver just to make sure they knew that we all love them! So, this is how I spent my Sunday and it was great. That Hungarian bubbly was kinda nice too!
JUN 03 - THE BEAUTIFUL SPORT AND GIVING MONEY
AWAY Red FM celebrated its 4th anniversary on January 23rd. For the first year we didn’t have an open house but focused our energy on upgrading all of our in-house sounds for each show. New intros, bed tracks, bumpers and the like were all recreated from scratch, I’ve been busy! We had a jingle contest for the anniversary inviting listeners to come up with a new melody for our Jingle. I decided to go with Juggy Jag who was actually the runner up in the last Red FM Idol contest. Juggy came in to record the vocals and I wrote the rest of the Jingle, I’m pretty happy with it. Check it out here if you’d like! I have been riding my bike a lot lately. I rode to the new Golden Ears bridge, through Mission,across the Albion Ferry (2 days before it ended forever), through Fort Langley and Back home. The trip totaled 76K, a beautiful ride! We finally got the new Red FM cruiser and had it wrapped. Figuring out the perfect design for the wrap took us about 2 weeks. We had a lot of revisions before we figured out what to do. Thanks to Dav “The Bum” Deo for helping us with the design. Went to the Giants game on Saturday. They beat Kelowna 4-3 in overtime. Great game. Diwali is quickly approaching and with each holiday, we always have some type of crazy contest at work. Therefore, I have the privilege of being able to put in more hours at work! October 17th,can't come soon enough! Went to Swangard Stadium in Burnaby yesterday to watch the White Caps. It was such a beautiful summer evening. I haven’t been to a White Caps game in about 30 years. ;) It made me realize that I need to support our local team more often. The atmosphere was great from a fan’s perspective too! Thanks to Greg for the front row tickets! We’ve started our $500/week giveaway contest at Red FM. I’ve designed this contest to operate on mainly pre-produced segments decreasing the workload on our hosts. Contesting is a lot of fun but whatever you can do to keep it simple while maintaining the excitement is good! (We're still recovering from the car giveaway!)
MAY 28 - JAPAN & LITTLE POOPERS
It’s Thursday morning and I am back in Canada! Japan was a lot of fun this time (I think I’ve been there about 25 times) I spent the first few days just floating around Tokyo, recording sounds and making a lot of combinator patches for Reason. Had a “few” drinks on Thursday night, went to a great wine tasting and dinner on Friday. We went North of Tokyo on Saturday to do some white water rafting, had a great/late bbq and went fishing the following morning. Oh Japan! Another activity that I love is running and Tokyo is a very exciting place to do it. Monday morning I went for about a 10k in the Aoyama Ichome area of Tokyo. Sooooo nice!
MAY 13 - IF I WAS MIKE GILLIS
Alright, now that I’ve had a few days to accept the loss, I will write about the Canucks. Those who have to go are: Demitra, Pyatt, Sundin, Ohlund and dare I say it.. Luongo. It is a new era and these these guys are too slow and too expensive. For the right price, I would gamble on: Bernier (although slow), Wellwood, Obrien. But what about the twins? We spent so many years grooming them and now the question is whether to keep them when they might in fact be in their prime. For the right price, keep them. Up to 3.5M a piece. Any more than that and I would put my money where more speed is. The new era of Ryan Kesler is here along with Burrows, Raymond, Edler and Bieksa. Welcome Cory Schneider and Cody Hodgeson. Both of these guys may need a year to develop but let’s face it, we’ve got our future on the farm, it’s their time too. I really thought that we could have achieved more this year but without input from Sundin and Demitra for the most part, we just didn’t have enough fire power. Finally, I may burn in hell for saying this but damn those Hawks are exciting to watch. I may have to cheer for them from this point forwards, simply because that’s the kind of hockey that I'd like to watch!
MAY 10 - MY TERRIBLE VIEW
Spent the evening at GM Place last night. It may be terrible to say, but that may have been our last broadcast for the playoffs. I am BELIEVING that it will not be. We're starting to really get the hang of things! Producing a Canucks broadcast sounds “sexy”, however I spend a lot of my time staring at the back of Bal & Dal’s heads! And the following is what I see when Bal & Dal are NOT sitting! Notice the fabulous TV screen that I may view as an alternative! Sexy isn't it!
MAY 06 - RONALD AND I
We did a live broadcast from McDonalds today for McHappy Day. I haven't done a live broadcast from a McDonalds before! Ronald showed up, I wonder how many little kids have poked and prodded him over the years? Patience, he must have a lot of patience. So, to be Ronald McDonald, I think you would have to be white, male, about 6’ tall, around 170 pounds, around 30 years old, be well spoken, handle public appearances well and be comfortable wearing gobs of makeup for hours on end. I think I could do this….. I mean, I love what I do but maybe Ronald makes huge coin. McDonalds has deep pockets and he's a pretty special guy! I wonder if Ronald is good with the ladies too? Our hosts seemed to dig being around him...
MAY 02 - KEEPING BUSY
Imanaged to get a fantastic recording of the crowd and the on-ice sounds at the last Vancouver Canucks broadcast. For anyone who is into that sort of thing, you can down load it from here.I would love the Canucks to sweep this series in 4 games but selfishly, I would also like to broadcast from GM Place just one more time for this series.Either way, it’s a good feeling!We’ve been having some polarity issues with our new ISDN lines at GM Place so I will swing down there tomorrow to fix the problem.Up until now I have patched us back to Red FM via a LAN connection which is fine as a backup but I would prefer to get our ISDN connection operating.A funny thing about remote broadcasting is that things can melt down, problems can happen, nerves can be tweaked, but when it comes to show time, you always want to insure the listener that everything is perfect.Never mind the 10 miles of cable and duct tape you had to sort out before you went to air, just make is sound like broadcasting from anywhere is easy and you’ve done your job!
APR 18 - LUCKY GUY
We met up with Vijay Sharma at Surrey Honda on Thursday to hand over his new car. It was great! We’ve now managed 2 Canucks playoff broadcasts at GM place. Our hosts are doing a great job. We’ve been taking callers for our post game show which has proved to be a popular segment of the whole broadcast. I actually have 2 days off this weekend. I’m not sure what to do with 48 hours of free time, perhaps I’ll find work around the house, shop for some 2nd hand treasures, drink some wine, write some music. Working so much lately has not allowed me to write music as much as I enjoy doing. Time to start embracing the spring weather. Yippee!
APR 13 - VAISAKHI AND FREE HONDAS
Today we will be broadcasting live from Liberal Party’s convention in Vancouver. We will be piping Michael Ignatieff’s acceptance speech back to Red FM via our wireless broadcast system. We are also hoping to interview some of the former Liberal Canadian Prime Ministers. I may have to edit the interviews on my Mac Book Pro live from the convention then trigger the audio from their for broadcast. How cool is that! Immediately after the convention, I have to hurry over to GM Place for Game 2 of round 2, Canucks vs. Black Hawks. I will have about an hour to pack up the gear at the convention center, get to the GM Place broadcast booth, set up again and get ready for our pregame show. I should have Sunday off but it’s supposed to rain. Great! By the way, happy birthday Ray!
MAY 22 - RANDOM RECORDINGS
Sitting in in Harajuku, just finished some shopping and some recording in Yoyogi Koen. I was hoping to find a few more strange people and events to record but it is mid day on a week day I suppose! I alway love hitting Shibuya too. With the Jet lag, I find that I ussually get places before they really start getting going, that can be a really nice experience too! Off to NHK to check out their facilities in a bit, getting a tour with a local weather person that my brother introduced me to. Made this recording of the street in Shibuya for those interested. More recordings to come! Vaisakhi came and went, so did our Red FM Honda Civic Giveaway contest. We ended up having some problems with our key system and decided to do a draw with all 10 finalist's names. A very nice gentleman by the name of Vijay Sharma ended up winning the 2009 Honda Civic. What a long but rewarding day! Canucks playoff broadcasts begin on Wednesday. Today we meet to determine whom we will use for our play-by-play person. I must say that both are excellent candidates and I would be happy with either choice. We are already dead set on our color guy, congratulations Dal Sandhu. Promos show begin today as well as a website update. This is very exciting.
APR 07 - DRY RUNS
Tonight is dry run number 1 at GM Place. We will take two broadcast hopefuls tonight, Dal for color and Baljinder for play by play. We made it through our last live broadcast for the car giveaway contest last Saturday. Over 700 entries in 4 hours. I will be taking a week off sometime in May (depending on how far the Canucks go in the playoffs) to visit my brother and sister in law in Tokyo. I can hardly wait for the break! I am begining to look at new vehicles, more to come!
MAR 30 - OBSESSIONS
We had one day of sunshine yesterday. It was a Sunday and I had the day off, thank god! I spent a few hours in the garden. Added about 10 new plants and performed general maintenance. Also fixed our chimney yesterday, I feel very handy! I finished my love song together few weeks ago but have hesitated to post it as I wasn’t sure about the synthesizer part. I’ve moved on to another track so it is now posted! I have been watching the Battlestar Galactica series and am somewhat addicted at this point. Each episode is about 42 minutes and season 2 alone has 20 episodes. Guilty pleasure I suppose!
MAR 25 - GOING NUTS AT WORK
Red FM Honda Civic Giveaway Mania! It seems like I'm eating, sleeping, drinking this contest lately! I'm going to guess that we have about 3000 entries at this point and we're still going strong. Great news for station growth, it seems that we may be broadcasting the 2009 Canucks playoff home games on Red FM in Punjabi. (More to come) Life is good, life is busy! Go Canucks Go!
MAR 09 - CONTEST MANIA
We’re now on week 2 of the Red FM Honda Civic Giveaway contest. So far so good! We pulled off our first live broadcast on Saturday with nearly 500 listeners visiting the venue. We’re going to go on-air on Wednesday to talk about the progress of the contest and take calls from listeners who may have questions I’m now going to get the ball rolling on the 3rd annual Surrey Red FM Run. I drew up a 3rd revision of sponsorship packages today and will have the sales department revue them this week. We’ve had approximately 550 participants both years and we would really like to grow the event this year. I’ve got some really crazy promotional ideas that I will write about as they approach. (Top Secret!!)
MAR 03 - HERE WE GO AGAIN!
We launched the "Red FM Honda Civic Giveaway Contest" yesterday. Myself, Kulwinder Sanghera (owner of Red FM), Harjinder Thind (host), Vijay Saini (writer/host) and Nasir Kamrudin (GM of Surrey Honda) all went on-air at 10am and made the formal launch. It went great! Then we had Delpreet Dulay (writer/promotions) call in on-air and announce that the car was already live on location and ready for listeners to start entering the contest. In 30 minutes we had 72 people drive up and enter. The kick off was amazing. The final date of the contest is April 11th, 2009. Details to follow! It is with sadness that I announce the passing of a great person, Sharon Planidin. Sharon leaves behind her husband and daughter as well as 2 grand children and extended family. Sharon was my mother's best friend and someone who really made me feel special as a child. She will be missed.
FEB 24 - JINGLES
We’re now less than 1 week away from the start of “The Biggest Contest Ever” at Red FM. Top secret stuff! We’re promoting the contest pretty heavy this week without actually saying what it is. On Monday, we’ll go on air during the Harjinder Thind Show to announce just what it is that we’re giving out. I’m quite excited about this contest because in fact, it is the biggest contest ever held on Red FM and I’ve been working on it for about 4 months already. Currently, I’m writing a love song called “Together”. I’m not generally known for my love songs but this one just came to me one morning while I was writing and it just flowed so naturally onto paper. When you’ve been writing mediocre songs for so long, it is very important to recognize when something special comes along! This might be my best track yet. I will post it when it is ready.