I woke up today at 11:11am. Yesterday I had an interesting day. I went to drop Amelia off at her house (via the Skytrain) in the afternoon and then wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my day. So I got back on the train, and headed to Metrotown. Metrotown is this massive mall in Burnaby, where all the cool people go, all the Asians, and all the guys hoping to get noticed by the large quantity of girls. Usually I detest that place. But it was sort of relaxing, walking amongst the crowd, not shopping, just looking. I sat down at one point on the floor and started writing in my book, just observing the scene around me. Where do these people find all this money to spend?
After that I decided to go to Value Village. So I walked over there and found a whole tonne of clothes that I liked. I probably had 5 shirts, 2 pairs of pants, a couple suit jackets, and a tie. Well it's a good thing that I try stuff on these days. None of the shirts fit me right, which was too bad because they were sweet, one of the pairs of pants was too short, and niether of the jackets fit. All too small. Hmmm.....I wonder what this means. So I ended up buying 1 pair of dress pants, a tie, and a blue sweater that I found at last moment and didn't try on. Still haven't. I swear that Value Village prices have gone up exponentially. Those three things cost me $18! I'm sorry but that's too much, for there, for me. Anyway I did it and it's over.
After that I was stupidly hungry so I walked down Kingsway looking for food. I saw a Me & Ed's, which is a great little pizza place. So I went in there, and had a mini-pizza all to myself. It was really tasty. The pizza was called Mount Seymour Supreme, how grand is that? It had (from memory), black olives, banana peppers, onions, red pepper, shrimp, Monterey Jack, and feta, on pesto sauce. Mmmmm....so good.
I was contemplating during dinner what it was that I wanted to do at this point in my life. I decided that if ever I was going to do something worthwhile, I should do it now. Well as some of you know, the only thing I really want to do is record music, and specifically record with kids (high school included) for free. This has always sounded like a crazy dream, even to myself. But how cool would it be if you were in high school (or younger) and you wrote a song, and someone offered to record it for you, no charge? How many high school kids have cash to pay $40/hr for studio time? My guess is not many. But I think that through recording, I could make a positive impact in their lives, as well as encouraging musical growth, as a means for emotional and spiritual communication. It's an outlet that more people should have as an option.
The idea is in fact a logistical nightmare. I mean seriously, to find a space to record alone is a nightmare. It has to be more or less soundproof, which cost a lot of money, and commercial space is so expensive out here. A small office in New West cost about $4000/month. I don't make nearly that kind of money, and wouldn't, with the recording being for FREE.
And then there is the equipment. I figure that I'll need at least $40,000, to have the kind of stuff I'd feel comfortable doing good quality recordings. This includes some instruments, because kids don't usually have top notch gear. Seriously, where would I find that kind of cash?
All this and more is why I have always envisioned this dream taking place sometime after I retire, when I have money for these sorts of ventures. But really, why wait? I should be doing this now, while I'm in the prime years of my life, while I still relate to kids on their level. So I was stitting there thinking all this, and wondering what I could do.
I paid for my dinner, and left. I went back to the Train, and took it to Columbia station. I decided that I'd go and say hi to a friend of mine who owns a rehearsal studio in New West. So we sat and chatted for a couple hours, at which point I decided that I'd like to play some drums, so I did that for a while. When I came back down we got to talking about goals and aspirations, and he told me what he wants to do with his business and I told him my idea about recording with kids. Needless to say he said that they were working on converting one of their practice rooms into a recording room, and said that they would donate that, plus the equipment, if I went and found the kids and made a business plan, etc.
Holy crap I am so excited. This is an amazing opportunity. The two most expensive obstacles are out of the way, room and equipment. Now all I need to do is pay off my debts, so I can afford to devote more time to this. I figure that if I was able to work at Greyhound, 3.5 hours a day, and live off that, and maybe a shift or two a week somewhere else, that would leave me lots of time to work on this other project.
The next steps after that are getting a business liscense, maybe non-profit, finding a laptop computer, and a couple other specialty pieces of equipment that they won't have. I'm hoping to be able to find a couple sponors for this, and maybe get some of this stuff donated. Then I just have to spread the word.
All told, if I find myself a decent job that I can work my butt off on top of Greyhound, I should be able to pay off my debts by early 2006. This leaves me a bit of time to make a business plan and get all the details sorted out. But I'm excited. Something is finally taking shape!
posted by matty at 2:30 p.m.
i'm freakin excited to see this come to reality, too...
--rain
12:17 a.m.
If you got a non-profit designation I bet you could solicit all sorts of donations of money, time, equipment. If you budgeted in a wee bit of money for your time then you could probably work on this project and not worry so much about paying your bills.
It sounds like a cool idea.
7:24 a.m.
Post a Comment
<< Home