Jan-February 2007
Right after Christmas I hopped on a plane to travel out to live with Jessica for 6 weeks. We really haven’t spent any length of time together in years so it was much needed. I took my Avid and my laptop and conducted business as usual every day as she worked at the hospital. I have to admit it was really nice to have a girlfriend that wasn’t 10 thousand miles away! I got more work done in those 6 weeks than ever before in Saint John, Im sure it’s all because of the lack of social distractions! I did make a few friends when I was there, including Chris, Courtney Peter and Kendra, the 4 I met at Vegoose, wonderful people.
New Years night Jessica and I headed to Canmore and met up with our friends from Saint John Winnie and Bill Clerk. We went to see 2 great bands at the Canmore Hotel (The Ho) and Jessica and I had a ball…from what we remember! The next day Jess Winnie and I went skiing at Sunshine Village…man the mountains our West are unreal, so much great terrain, so much powder! PERFECT. In fact I did more snowboarding during those weeks than I ever would have in a few years back home. Sunshine Village was great, Kicking Horse in Golden BC was ridiculous…so steep, Jason Lyons, an old family friend, and I hit Kicking Horse together…sick. Not only did I get a lot of snowboarding and skiing in, Jessica and cross country skied, hiked and jogged quite a bit as well...I was finally getting into shape! Ha ha…which brings me to “The Challenge”. Jessica has challenged me to run a sprint triathlon by this summer! Ha...I am a crappy swimmer, I don’t run very far without getting totally out of breath and I don’t own a bike…but for Christmas she gave me swimming lessons at the Talisman Center for the time I was in Calgary, I bought bike, and she took me jogging all the time...so I think if I keep at it Ill succeed. But for her to give me a challenge like that I needed to hit her back with one, I dared her to shoot a documentary…which she already has shot! Ha-ha…she’s a few steps ahead of me. Jessica went to India with a few other medical professionals and hiked into the mountains to service hundreds of patience a day. AND SHE FILMED IT! Im very proud of her. I hope to find time to edit it for her…hey maybe she’ll return the favor by doing the jogging part of my triathlon!
My business accomplishments while I was in Calgary where substantial. Before Christmas I filmed a concert at the Imperial Theater of Matt Anderson and Ross Neilson...full on Last Waltz styel, Job Crane, dolly, high definition, 5 camera set up and full multitrack audio…we are making a DVD. I managed to edit the concert together in a few days in Jessica’s living room (my new editing suite!), it looks great. I edited the Vegas footage together into 2 different pilot ideas, I edited much of my Belize documentary together (still not finished that yet) but most importantly I got a new TV series! Literally as Jay and I where in the gondola at Kicking Horse I sealed a deal with the Fight Network to produce a 6 episode documentary series following the lives of 4 independent wrestlers on the road as they try to make a living! Ha, crazy...Ive never watched wrestling before in my life, this is going to be an interesting one, Im stoked. Thanks to cell phones, one of my co producer for this show Rick Doyle, and my lawyer Angelika Heim, we managed to finalize the details on our next TV series! We will be shooting this in May. My other co producer Peter Smith is wrestling in Europe currently, he is bigger than Hulk Hogan in the UK, but he’s from Moncton New Brunswick and no one here knows who he is! I have permission and rights to film EVERYTHING, this show is going to be so edgy and controversial, I can’t wait. The rest of my time in Calgary was spent writing proposals trying to raise money for the project. Currently I have about 50% of the budget secured.
I spent my 30th birthday on Ground Hog’s Day watching the Jimmy Swift Band play in Calgary, so good to see all the Maritimes out. I went to Edmonton as well the next night to see them play again, stayed at an old buddy of mine Paul Cherry, Paul was traveling with me when I shot “A Head’s Tale”, he was at the gathering of the Vibes festival with me, that’s when we met and we’ve been bros ever since. I also had the pleasure of hooking up with old friends in Canmore Tara and Tony, Joe and Sarah. No matter where you go in Canada, you will see Maritimers!
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