whoisnick.com

Now for a personal plug of musical fun

For those of you in the Greater Vancouver Area, feel free to come out and celebrate the release of the Blue Morris 6’s first album, “Swing Me, Blue Me”. You can stay for for dinner or just enjoy some drinks and live music. I’ll be there playing with Greg, Blue, and of course, Carly. CD’s will be available at the show.

Please bring as many people as you can! We look forward to seeing you there.

Wednesday, August 23rd
El Cocal Restaurant
1037 Commercial Drive
7:30pm - $5

For those who aren’t in the city, province, or even the country, Blue has worked hard to make sure you aren’t forgotten. He’s set it up so you can order online.

Like my previous project, Nick is a poet, I’m starting a new sub-blog called Nick Reviews. This blog is designed soley for my opinions on Movies. I do watch a lot of them, and might have a few words to say about them.

It all came about with a writing exercise for my creative class. We were given the task to write a review. I enjoyed the process, plus I also enjoy giving an opinion without spoiling the movie. There is no need to give the plot away. There are so many other things you can review a movie besides the plot. Acting motivations, cinematography ( if anything cool ), and general feeling.

The whole idea is to improve and tweak my writing style, plus to learn more about the industry. I hope you pop by and take a look.

http://www.whoisnick.com/reviews/

Because I have nothing to do
One might say that it’s a cage
Raging inside one cannot
Escape to forgiegn lands faded
Defining life becomes futile
One barred from existence
Murder, boredom is murder

broken as a child
not by force
or single trauma
but drip by drip
until faucet twists

beat a little quicker
bound of spin and slither
fused with Aries fire

like Cash it walks
with speed and rage it cocks
its blade in air to strike

Transformative fear
instinct is bitterly clear
feel the venom and strike

Tomorrow is not a day
for those like us to stay
content and passive

poisonous medicine
induce Today with a pin
to rest the future

And now it’s dead
can raise it’s head
with pride and boast

the fight for Now is won
seek for the next hunt
do not give in

race down your corridor
towards your steel door
and hold your power

tight to heart
embrace our Dark
and be like Scorpion

Still on the topic of right tools. Another aspect of having the right tools, is to make sure that they are updated. This isn’t to say that you need the newest and coolest. Sometimes the opposite is true. If I stuck with only the newest Piano’s then I couldn’t experience the full richness of an old wood piano.

When I started learning the piano, I could care less about the condition or feel of the keys. I didn’t know any better. The right tool was anything that had the ability to play a one octave scale. But as I got better and learned ( some might say refined ), soon I needed to make sure that I always had 88 keys. I found that if I closed my eyes and couldn’t feel the weight or kickback, It would seem dead to me. No longer was a cheap little Casio going to work. I needed to revise.

For writing, I’ve been finding the more I do it, the more hardcore I get. I don’t want bells and whistles. I don’t want fancy formatting. I don’t want auto correct. WIth the recommendation of my Teach, I’ve even completely turned off all squiggly lines. Its refreshing. Its feeing. My program of choice ( I’m typing in it right now ) is TextEdit. A simple rich text editor on the Mac. Nothing fancy, completely simple. I didn’t even expect I would ever type in it.

I didn’t just wake up one morning and automatically know. Finding tools needs to be an ongoing process of experimentation. Get used to saying “It’s new, I gotta try it”. I like my tools today, but I’m open to the possibility that they might not be my tools tomorrow. Perhaps I might try a classic typewriter. Or maybe I need a keyboard that clicks like a typewriter. Maybe there is another kind of Pen I like. Or maybe a type of paper. If it sticks I’ll try some more. If not, I’ll put it in the pile with the others and solidify my tools today. But I’ll always keep reviewing and revising and asking “Does it still keel right”.

For any job one must do, you need to have the right tools to do it. For Piano players it evident, that if there is no piano, they can’t play. For writers, no pen and paper, no typewriter, no computer, there won’t be a story.

I’ve been working on this for a little for myself. Asking, what tools do I need to be creative. What tools do I need that would help. And although on the surface to those who don’t write, or those who don’t play piano, these would be accurate statements. Any pen and any keyboard should do. But as I continue to write, and continue to play piano I’m finding that there is more to that.

When I write, it’s not just any pen or any paper that would do. I need a flavor mini pen with an orange grip and a Moleskine small lined notebook.

When I play the piano, I can no longer use just a simple Casio keyboard I got from radio shack, I need to have weight in the keys from either a high quality electronic piano, or even more preferably a baby grand.

Being creative incorporates all your experiences and all your senses. So it makes sense that you need to incorporate them all in your creative tools. They must smell right, feel right, sound right, look right, and taste right ( perhaps for chef’s or maybe you need to chew the right kind of gum ).

So if you are looking for your right tools, don’t just look for something that will “do”. Look for something that inspires.

an old desk
thrown against the wall
and shattered like the child
that once sat in it with glory

in an old house
stained with fear and hate
that singes the senses
with it’s secrets stored
in stairways and carpets

down in it’s belly
a den of education
with desks now piled up
and forgotten in a corner
like the children in their glory
shattered against the wall

When needs collide
Sometimes a child is torn
When needs collide
Sometimes a man is born

And sometimes he cries
And sometimes he hides
And sometimes he smiles
But mostly he hides away

Looking back there comes a point
In Life when there’s a choice
The road less traveled by
And you path into the waters tide

Wash up on foreign soil
Bind up tight in your coil
When fear has you stand your ground
And look home from the land you’ve found

When needs collide
Sometimes a child is torn
When needs collide
Sometimes a man is born

Hypocrite is just a word
Made by a Hypocrite, for a Hypocrite
To be said by a Hypocrite, to a Hypocrite
To hurt the Hypocrite
Then again,

hypocrite is just a word
Made by a hypocrite, for a hypocrite
To be said by a hypocrite, to a hypocrite
To hurt the hypocrite.

Asshole is just a word
Made by an Asshole, for an Asshole
To be said by an Asshole, to an Asshole
To hurt the Asshole
Then again,

asshole is just a word
Made by an asshole, for an asshole
To be said by an asshole, to an asshole
To hurt the asshole