TOUR! 😀

On our way to Edmonton. Already! I can’t believe it’s already here…tour. I can’t believe it’s already happening, and I’m on the road AS WE SPEAK! Yep, Steve my partner in crime is driving and I’m here trying to process everything that has happen in the last two days.

We left Wednesday afternoon. There were some serious delays because I refused to drive without music, and had only recently discovered that the tape deck in out 1987 Volkswagon Golf DOES NOT WORK.

This might not be a catastrophe to some, but to me, it’s a seriously huge deal. You can’t go on tour in Western Canada with NO MUSIC!!!

We tried it all…iPod to cassette convertor, one of those iPod to radio signal convertors. Finally I ended up putting a new stereo system in my friend Aaron’s car.
Did I mention Aaron is letting me use his car to drive to Winnipeg in January? What a guy. Hi Aaron ☺

Everything is all good now. Listening to my friend Heather Waters as we drive on the 2 North. Yesterday was a seriously amazing time. I’m a little worried that I am already this tired and it’s only the second show haha! I had a late night getting ready and an early morning packing and running errands before we left. By the time we got to Calgary at about 1am, I was exhausted. I did get to sleep in a bit (something I haven’t done in months) and spent a large portion of the day practicing in the hotel. Very enjoyable.

When I say “practicing” I should say “Writing New Songs”. For me, one of my favourite things about tour is actually getting time to play music haha. I know, funny thing that. Every time I pick up my guitar to “rehearse” though, I end up writing something new. Hey, if that’s the worst of your problems…

I finished writing an actually happy song for my favourite person ever and then got to play it. That’s just a cool feeling…when something is fresh off the press, to get to try it out right then and there ☺

A couple cool things about this trip: I have an almost unlimited amount of documentation devices! I just got a little sound recorded thing that I’m gonna be singin’ new ideas in to after soundchecks and before show time. I also have a video camera, a still camera, this here laptop and a phone. So I will be in touch 😉

After my fun day of Remember My Songs In A Hotel Room, I met up with Brock from http://www.calgaryisawesome.com

We had such a great time hanging out, I’m so happy he asked me to be part of his video blog cause I think I made a friend for life. I got to try out my song at the Greyhound station after the security guards allowed us to film a video in the photo booth! 😀 I will post it here soon ☺

This morning before getting in the car I met up with Jessica from http://www.youthareawesome.com/. I don’t think it could get any more awesome around here haha. We had an awesome vegan breakfast at The Coup and she asked me some very well thought out questions that will be in an interview on the internet sooon! 😀

Calgary was great. Always great to be back there. Did I mention I lived there for two years? Saw some familiar faces but mostly, a lot of new faces! Both just as awesome ☺ Some people mentioned seeing me in Calgary with Raine and I’m very thankful they came out to see me again. Thank you for spending your hard earned dough to get me to the next city, and thanks Raine for taking me on tour with you so I could make all these new friends ☺

K! Talk soon,
Billy!

I’ll never forget my first audition.

Well, the first audition where I got the part.

My *actual* first audition, I totally blew it, and immediately erased it from my memory for all time 😉

Let’s get something clear: I have no acting experience, no acting education, no long lost actors in my family tree and no uncle that’s a director who’s been secretly preparing me for my acting debut.

My first successful audition, the audition where I got the role, was actually my second audition ever. In my life. Ever.

With no education, experience or innate inherited talent, I somehow nailed my second audition and got cast “on the spot” (according to the director).

I’ll never forget it.

So many things could have gone wrong…I could have stood on the right hand side, for example, and when the director said “Slate” I would have responded with: “Huh?”

But I didn’t. I stood on the left. Someone with experience or education or a great grandma who was in the first “talkies” stood on the right and when they said “Slate” she said “My name is (blah blah blah)”.

“Okay,” I thought to myself… “Slate means ‘Say your name'”.

My third audition didn’t go so well. I stood on the right. When they said “Slate and Profile” I said “Hi, I’m blah blah blah”. Then everyone looked at me, waiting. I looked to my left and thought “Doesn’t the person on my left know they’re supposed to go “Hi I’m blah blah blah”? Jeeeeez!”

But still…silence.

Then I hear “Ok now Profile”.

THEN I go “Huh?” and needless to say, I didn’t get that part 😉

The part I *did* get, was the role of a 23 year old mother. My TV daughter, Princess Taea, was dressed up in matching glasses, boots, jeans and sports coat. She was like my own mini me!

Here’s a video of us going up the escalator one of one million times:

We filmed in Tinseltown (yes, the movie theater) in Vancouver. I was the first scene of the day. The director was so nice, and I loved every second of it. Within a few hours, it was over, and I was slammed back to reality.

I get a kick out of my life sometimes. I am literally learning how to act in front of cameras. My first “acting” experience has been at auditions, music video shoots and commercial shoots. I realize this makes me a total jerk…there are a lot of people who have spent hundreds, thousands, maybe more, to perfect their craft and pursue their dream. Others have toiled away night after night in community theater groups and every play, production, musical or comedy they could squeeze themselves in to. Me? I just jumped in front of a camera and happened to be standing on the left hand side.

I do feel kind of bad. Audition waiting rooms, you can generally cut the tension with a knife. Every one is likely competing for the same part, so it’s really hard to make friends. I swore from the get-go I would never be like that, and have tried to make one new friend per audition (of the 3 auditions and 2 callbacks I’ve had in my life).

My agent told me that the thing I had going for me was the fact I didn’t care. I didn’t *need* this job like some kids who have been waiting tables for ten years do. They walk in, and casting directors can smell their fear, the “I Need This” look shines through their best rendition of themselves as someone else.

Me? I see every opportunity as just that…a chance to practice. I don’t know what I’m doing, so the best I can do is just pretend I know what I’m doing. By the time I walk in to the audition room I’m already in character haha

In that sense, I’m a total jerk. I waltz in without a care in the world on the premise that this, these auditions…they’re just a cheaper way to learn how to act than paying for acting classes 😉

I’ve always thought that the key to happiness was asking yourself “If I were to die tomorrow, what would I do?” and then doing exactly that.

I asked myself that same question, and the first thing that came to mind was “Order a soy caramel machiatto (not vegan) and a lemon poppyseed loaf” (also not vegan).

There have been times in my life when I’ve fallen off the vegan-y wagon…mostly for old staples like pizza or veggie lasagna. For the better part of a decade, though, I only indulged in those dishes if they were created by me, in the comfort of my own home, with vegan cheezes and other non-dead affair.

Buuuuuuuut there was a time, I cannot lie, when eating half a pizza was one of my favourite things to do. Now, with my future on my mind, the first thing I think of is the way that icing sugar looks in those coffee shop display cases.

Why do I instantly not care about the future of the planet as soon as I start contemplating my own mortality?

Just cause I could be dying, that’s an excuse to start consuming anything and everything with no remorse whatsoever?

I care about this lil planet. Ask me why I’ve been vegetarian for 16 years and that is one thing I sometimes say. I also love little furry guys. And I care for those that inhabit this earth presently, and beyond me.

Why the hell is my dying wish to eat a god damn lemon loaf then?

This could be my last day on earth, I should be out contributing, bettering, inspiring and aiding!!! Loving and sharing and bringing hope to those hopeless. Hey! It is not so bad!!! We are all of us, currently, dying, in some sense or another.
Whether it is tomorrow, the next day or 80 years from now…you don’t know how much time YOU will get.

So what will you change?