Jesse Rivest's Blog

Winter lightning

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 05:32:00 +0000

Winter in Wellington.
Thunder and lightning, hail and rain
Crashing down tumultuously.
Never have I seen such a mid-winter spectacle.
This kind of heavenly behaviour I've only seen mid-summer.
I am, after all, from B.C. and Alberta.

I was caught in it, surprised, during my late evening
Walk out to the corner store to get some melodies.
I danced soaked with glee.
I walked through gushing icy streams that raced down streets towards the bay;
The sidewalks covered in crunch-crunchy pellets.
I giggled absurdly and took shelter next to a parked car
As the wind lashed me with it's angry kernels.

When I returned
She rolled me up on the floor.
Hot cocoa, nuzzle-snuggles,
And I was warm with wonder.

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I love movies

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:58:00 +0000

Sometimes I wonder if I'd be writing more songs if I watched less movies... Ah, but movies are so inspiring! Books, too. But this is about movies.

In the past couple years, while living in New Zealand, I've watched a good share of movies. Some Kiwi made (like Eagle vs Shark - a goodie - and Scarfies, Out of the Blue...), and some foreign films.

I thought I'd share my top 7. Two of them are old, which I'll comment on. But they're all great movies, so if you're looking for something to watch, try one of these. Who am I kidding? You've probably seen them already.

Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) (2006, Germany)
Eden (2006, Germany)
Amadeus (1984, USA) - I was too young to appreciate this film when I first saw it... but now I love it.
Adams æbler (Adam's Apples) (2005, Denmark)
Once (2006, Ireland)
La Science des Rêves (The Science of Sleep) (2006, France)
A Beautiful Mind (2001, USA) - I've never seen it till this year - oooooh I love a good twist - plus I love anything to do with mathematics!

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Aerosmith a.k.a. The Inventures

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:32:00 +0000

This is mystifying. There is a website called globalinventure.com and it is totally whacky. Without wasting too much of my time, I've noticed two very peculiar things.

First go here. It's the very first bio I (must have) put on CDBaby for my CD, Seventeen Oh-Two Oh-Six. Probably this site is a mirror of an old snapshot of CDBaby, as I no longer use that bio, and there are countless other similar pages for other artists/CD's. Also, who are those South-Park-looking characters at the top of the page?

Well, go here. Those South-Park-looking characters are... Aerosmith!? While you're there, click on the links at the top: Home, About Us, News, and Future. It's all about Aerosmith, except they're called "The Inventures". Very weird.

Anyways, don't waste any more time looking at it. I'm not even gonna waste any more time writing about it. We need to be very efficient - time is not to be wasted.

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Homesickness

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:53:00 +0000

When I first left Canada to travel in 2005, I marvelled at how I seemed impervious to homesickness. Every month away seemed like a prize or a gift. I was heard to say that I was having the best time of my life. I was away about 9 months - the accumulation of which seemed a blissful eternity - and my return to Canada was for musical reasons, not from homesickness.

Once back home, I was restless and anxious to leave again. And so I did, after about 8 months. Since then, I've essentially been in the one place - Wellington, New Zealand. The first year here was mostly exciting - I adjusted to the different weather and climate, and I dived into the culture and music. I felt that I'd like to stay longer, so I did.

It is now pushing two years of being away, and I've noticed a growing confusion, and a longing for Canada, and North America in general. The confusion results, in part, from setting up a home - a place to live - away from the environment that I've always known to be home. Once I did this, I grew to realize that I was no longer travelling - and the question "how long is this for?" appeared. And I haven't been able to produce an answer to that. I won't go into the various complexities involved.

I often think of my friends in Canada; I miss them. I sat down and wrote their names, their full names, and the names of their partners, and their children's names - if I could remember them. Many of these friends I've known for nearly 15 years. Some of them only a few years - yet in some cases we managed to form bonds as strong as those of longer friendships. Writing this list was bittersweet - I'm happy to remember and cherish people, and I'm sad that we are so distant - literally and figuratively.

I've grown homesick. Missing friends, growing out-of-touch with family, longing for the Canadian and North American environment - this is it - homesickness. New Zealand is a beautiful place (from the small bits I've actually seen), and Wellington is very happening city. Yet I have to work at appreciating where I am and the things that I've accomplished. I almost daily take a walk and feel some peace from my environment - I have it pretty good here. But a great deal of the time I feel a default confusion and longing - a displacement. How long is this for?

I'll discover the answer when I'm ready. Meanwhile, I will officially (anything on my blog is official, ha ha) admit that I am homesick. I miss you Canada. I miss you, North America. Please don't reject me, for I have not rejected you.

Oh yeah, p.s. please find my podcast from my website, listen to it, like it, and tell your friends about it. Done.

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More podcast episodes, for her pleasure

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:18:00 +0000

Lately I haven't been blogging much, instead I've been podcasting. You can find my podcast from my website. I've podcasted some live recordings from the Mussel Inn and a live video from Happy - these shows were part of my mini-tour of New Zealand in April, 2008. Songs podcasted so far are Greyhound Through the Rockies and The Romance of Kaslo.

In addition to live tracks, you'll find a poster for the mini-tour, and I may also be podcasting some photos from the gig in the near future. Yes, you can podcast posters and photos. But maybe I won't podcast the photos, maybe I'll find some other, more webulous way of bringing said photos to you. Perhaps I'll just put them up at Myspace and Facebook. All these known and unknown options make me sleepy.

I may podcast some more live tracks from these shows, so please subscribe to my podcast if that's what you're into. And if you like my podcast, please share it with your friends. I'd like that. Obviously.

By the way, there's another song I podcasted called Summer Grace. It has nothing to do with the New Zealand tour. It has everything to do with stealing fruit. Dig it.

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The world is an amusement park

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 03:00:00 +0000

I was on my way to the music store today, where I had a quick, introductory listen to Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and I spotted the following:

A man wearing a tee shirt saying "New Mexico: Cleaner Than Regular Mexico". In "regular" Mexico's defense, I miss your sandy courtyards and chicken barbeques in half-barrels at roadside.
A lady busking with a 3-or-4-foot-tall harp outside in a mall courtyard. There were no jesters nearby, but I thought of joining as a bard.
A Maori fella preaching from a bible to an indifferent, bus stop audience. He kept peaking at the bible for lines, then refocusing his gaze to the bus-waiters and continuing on as if the words were his own. I wondered if his gentle accent contributed to the endearing quality of his sermon?

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0.01 "horse power" insufficient in high winds

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:37:00 +0000

You know you're going to have a great day when you are cycling to work in the morning, and you have to pedal just as hard downhill as you did climbing uphill.

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Cigarette gold

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:22:00 +0000

I saw an un-smoked cigarette on the ground and nearly picked it up. I don't smoke, but many people do, and people are always asking for them from friends and strangers alike. They're expensive to purchase - they're valuable. Perhaps someone dropped this one and, later realizing it, felt a loss... like the loss of a dollar.

I imagined if it was a dollar, then I would pick it up. But imagine if cigarettes were acceptable for trade... I think I'd charge 20 cigarettes for a copy of my CD, knowing that I could trade those for two meals. I could get a good shish taouk for 12 cigarettes, or fish and chips for 6, or a burger and fries for 10. Thick milkshakes are 5 or 6 cigarettes, depending upon the quality of the ice cream in them. A cheap beer might be 3 or 4 cigarettes, and then a lot of people might smoke 3 or 4 cigarettes while drinking a cheap beer.

The bank would have to reserve and store cigarettes and issue notes that were legally "backed" by cigarettes - that way we could pay rent and make major purchases without moving boxes of cartons of cigarettes. A new Subaru WRX Wagon might cost 100,000 cigarettes (probably more)! Eventually the banks would commence fractional reserve banking, and only a portion of our cigarettes would actually exist at the bank. Perhaps the missing cigarettes would have been smoked by wealthy bank owners and aristocrats.

Eventually the bank-issued notes would become legal tender (no longer backed by cigarettes) and commonly accepted for trade, instead of cigarettes. Cigarettes would become rare and coveted, and the majority of the world's cigarettes would be in the hands of the wealthy. People would be disgruntled, feeling tricked out of their wealth of cigarettes. People would pass by banks and wonder where all the cigarettes in the world are truly residing.

Cigarettes would still be traded on the global stock exchanges as a commodity. Investors and brokers would trade bank-issued notes for bond documents that prove ownership of a specified amount of cigarettes. When the market was good, people might sell their stock of cigarettes (for bank-issued notes). Ultimately, nobody would actually see the cigarettes.

Anyways... I wonder if anybody after me picked up that cigarette?

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Podcast: Welly Wonky

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 19:21:00 +0000

This is a slide guitar instrumental that I wrote in late 2006 after arriving in Wellington, New Zealand. It came out (of me, if one can say such a thing about a song) around the same time that I began writing Silent. The recording is from Access Radio - we were recording a radio show in August 2007. It's a rough one-take, but it does the trick for my podcast!

download mp3

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Podcast: Down Again

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

This song is proof that you can start a song idea and return to it years later - it remained strong in my mind for a long time. I had started with the guitar rhythm and melody line, the first verse, and a chorus that I didn't care for. One night, a couple months ago, I felt inclined to finish it; new verse, new choruses (or is it chori?), and overall cohesion.

Imagine, if you will, some streets-of-Italy-style mandolin and accordion in this song (especially the instrumental break)...

download mp3

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Dear Steven and George

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 06:27:00 +0000

0h boy oh boy please oh please oh please Steven Spielberg and George Lucas when you make Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull can you please make it super old school awesome like the old days with the old movies it will be so great if you do i will love you long time oh boy oh boy please oh please can you keep the computer generated graphics to a minimum or maybe even none nil nada because you know how you used to do it at ILM it was so cool you made models and special sets and with special lighting and it was real movie making and it had just the right amount of cheese and i love cheese especially aged crotonese and Indiana Jones oh boy oh boy i soooo look forward to viewing your movie the much anticipated sequel in the revered series while seated up close to a big screen just like when i was a kid pressed up to the screen in The Last Crusade oh yes i will be in the movie theater as soon as i can get there don't you worry and maybe you can do that trick again with the paramount logo in the first epic film where it morphs into the actual mountain that was cool thanks oh and Harrison Ford if i was a lady of taste and distinction i would fling myself at you

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Christmas sours summer Down Under

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:33:00 +0000

Ah, summer... a time of kicking back, relaxing, barbeques, outdoor adventures, extended hours of beautiful daylight, swimming, camping, road trips, and general fun, and... Christmas?!?!

Christmas - a time of hustle and bustle, with people mashed together like potatoes in the big consumer pot, shopping and shopping and shopping to mangled festive music seeping out of store stereo systems. The pressure builds, anxiety flares, frustration lashes out.... until the big day pops... and then everyone shuts down for a week.

I have realized that living in the northern hemisphere has an advantage over living in the southern hemisphere. In the south, the Christmas epidemic runs rampant at the brink of summer, diminishing it (summer) for two weeks or more. In the north, Christmas occurs at the brink of winter, when the sun barely graces the land with its glamorous rays, and in no way affects our precious summer!

Christmas was meant to be in the winter. Sleigh rides loop through moon or star-lit snow and return to warm winter fires. Ovens floweth-over with baked goodies and hams and turkeys, warming homes and appetites. Santa Claus, who lives in the North Pole (where there is lots of snow) has a sleigh, and sleighs are meant to run in snow.

The other day I was baking some Christmas cookies in a friend's kitchen; it got so hot that when I was done I went outside to cool of and let the summer breeze and sunshine dry my shirt. It was weird.

I'm probably being an ignoramus... I just got off the phone with a Kiwi who says he knows it no other way - this is how Christmas is and should be. He doesn't "buy" the whole "snow and sleigh-bells deal" that the north propagates. Christmas, to him, is warm, long sunny days with barbeques... however, I did coerce him to agree that the north gets summer, *plus* a Christmas festive season - the south has the two lumped unfairly together.

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CD Review: Seventeen Oh-Two Oh-Six

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 04:09:00 +0000

This review of Seventeen Oh-Two Oh-Six is quite old now, but I neglected to acknowledge it on my site... so here it is. It's from LucidForge.com, a web-based arts review.

click here for review

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Not receiving newsletter updates?

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 04:22:00 +0000

Just a quick note to say that if you are on my mailing list, and you are not receiving newsletter updates... it's because I haven't been sending any. Oh, but wait! I just sent one last week and it was real nice!

If you didn't get that one, then let me know... you need to have mailman@jesserivest.com in your "friends/safe" list, or in your address book, so that there is a hope (in this wicked world of spam filters) that you will receive my newsletters.

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Podcast: Guy Fawkes Day

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 03:55:00 +0000

I went for a walk through the suburb of Island Bay (Wellington, New Zealand) in the evening of Guy Fawkes Day (November 6, 2007). Normally Island Bay is a peaceful and quiet suburb, but on that evening it was a veritable war zone!

download mp3

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The Tide is Rising

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 05:42:00 +0000

It was December 6, 2006, at the Paramount Theatre in Wellington... a nearly-full house of movie spectators... it was the grand premier... it was the one-and-only showing... are you excited yet?

Oh stop, it's not that big of a deal! There were three short films premiering that night, the final product of the 2006 graduating class of The Film School. Actually, it was a bit exciting - I wrote the soundtrack for the first film, titled "The Tide is Rising"!

I sat in a rear-ish seat (it was quite full, several hundred peeps) and took in the moment - the glory - and as the film began, I immediately thought, "Wow, I wish we'd recorded the soundtrack better!" And, "Not bad for a week-end's work!" Alas, it was cool to see a movie in a grand theatre, knowing that I wrote the soundtrack for the film.... with my friend Vorn... he wrote the bass line for the scene where Jenny is walking along the street.

The film's editor has made it available on YouTube, so you can check it out!

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Randomness from Wellington

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 04:54:00 +0000

There are some people behind me in the office that are engrossed in a conversation about their performance reviews. I am filled with shuddering memories of past employment in a past corporation.

Corporations are hilarious - big clumsy puff-marshmallow-men stumbling through the city, like in the movie 'Ghostbusters'. I want to blast them with Egon and the boys and watch them burst and melt into sticky bits. The onlookers will be filled with glee!

Here's something intriguing: Wellington city planners/caretakers have planted silverbeet in the middle island (of the road) on Lambton Quay. It's beautiful, and potentially delicious (silverbeet = chard) - I want to make a big green, red, and yellow stew of earthy bitterness for all the suits that don't have time to cook for themselves. That's why it's there, n'est-ce pas?

Some random thoughts popped in my mind this afternoon; they are observations about Wellington. First, don't cross any street, at any crosswalk, without definite confirmation that cars are going to stop for you. In general, cars will not stop, so you better be looking! Second, drive cautiously, because you never know when oncoming cars have right-of-way to turn through your lane. It's true - there are unassuming places where you must stop if any oncoming traffic wants to turn through your lane! Caution - this defies all North American logic!

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Podcast: Silent

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 05:09:00 +0000

I wrote this song while living in Wellington, New Zealand, over 2006 and 2007. It's based upon memories of Australia in 2005.

Rachael Linton joins me with her wandering cello on this recording, which is owned by, and copyright of, Radio New Zealand. This is actually an excerpt of a live interview/performance that can be heard in full on the Radio New Zealand National website. I'm not certain that I'm allowed to make this excerpt available on my podcast; for now here it is.

download mp3

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Saving versus borrowing

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Thu, 10 May 2007 02:25:00 +0000

Having experienced both scenarios, I'll say that I prefer saving first and then enjoying the spending, rather than enjoying the expenditure of borrowed money and then having to recover the money. The joy of the initial expenditure doesn't last throughout the process of recovering the money! But if you save first, then you have that "light at the end of the tunnel", you can "keep your eye on the prize", and then you can enjoy the expenditure and afterwards there is no yucky, depressy, I'm-in-debt feeling. Think about it!

Regardless, I'm lucky I have a lot of credit available to me, and suck as it does, I am repaying as quickly as I can.

Here's the latest in day job goodness:

Day jobs I have quit

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U want some jello?

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 05:48:00 +0000

I mean cello? National Radio? New song?

It's a 41 minute interview on Radio New Zealand National. The sound quality of the internet broadcast stream is sub-par but it gets by. The beautiful Rachael Linton plays cello with me! Also thanks to Jimmy Stewart and Chris Whitta.

Mesmerize Me is at approximately 5 mins 30 secs.
Worth the Wait is at roughly 18 mins 20 secs, and they changed the sound mix immediately before this song (sounds better, n'est-ce pas?).
Silent ***new song*** is at nearly-precisely 30 minutes.

Here's the linky-link:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/aft/nz_live6

I may podcast Silent later, we shall see, I think I signed something restrictive in the studio. (Jesse has a podcast? I didn't know that! Where is it? It's right on his website! Oh. It's pretty low-fi! I know, but he has plans...)

If I stuck my foot in my mouth during this interview, I assure you that I chewed vigorously.

Love,

Jesse Rivest

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They called me a drifter!?!

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 07:58:00 +0000

Click this image to enlarge it.

I associate drifter with someone who wanders around, aimlessly, wherever the wind blows. I'd say I've had a fair amount of aim this past couple years... drifter I am not. Although it's a romantic notion - drifting around, in and out of people's lives, from town to town. I suppose I've done a bit of that, but I've had some aim, I say!

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I have a white afro

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 23:22:00 +0000

I was about to get on stage last week when a fellow approached me and said, "You know you have a white afro?"

I said, "Sure, I guess so."

"Yeah man, you have a white afro!"

"Okay, cool."

"So, I hope you play like you got a white afro."

"Uhh..."

I think he was a bit drunk. Does anybody know what this could possibly mean? I don't.

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Debauchery and other divinities

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 06:03:00 +0000

On Thursday, I floated into the twilight, over a large crowd of spectators, guitar for voice and voice for guitar, soaring and beholding the spectacularity of Gravity and Other Myths.

On Friday, Shady passed to me the pipe-of-resonant-thoughts, and I witnessed the blues ooze like warm brie off of Alan Norman's celestial accordian, and The Warratahs were wicked.

On Saturday, we defied gravity (and other myths) and narrowly dodged Sunday; the turn-tables got dizzy, the burlesque danced, and the keg poured Strong Ale until it passed out, at which point medium-white wine braced the insides of our skulls against pending implosion. We slept lustily.

I'm loathe to return to a normal day.

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Okay, I'm American

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 00:17:00 +0000

To those Kiwis that ask me... yes, I'm "American" - yes, I'm from "America". Specifically, I'm from North America - precisely, Canada. Canada is part of the Americas. So is Brazil.

To those Kiwis that ask me what state I'm from... I'm from the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. Canada has provinces, not states.

To those Kiwis that have asked me if I'm from Canada, or asked me where I'm from... I'm impressed that you didn't assume I'm "American".

To those Kiwis that don't ask, but explicitly assume I'm "American"... you really do intrigue me!

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Vorn Thunk

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse) — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 06:18:00 +0000

As you can see, Jesse endorses Thunk by Vorn.

Sorry, this picture is lost off the server, boo!

It's my belief that Vorn is another of the musical brilliantalists in Wellington, New Zealand. Try him out at http://www.myspace.com/vornmusic and enjoy. I recommend the whole CD. So does Holly, who is 10 years old, I think. She is often heard singing "the americans are going to kill us." I am babysitting. I need a haircut.

Sorry, I lost this picture, too! I'm not sure that I'll regain these images.

This blog entry made possible by Georgie's computer and webcam. Georgie is Holly's mom.

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