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Almost a year - gotta be some sort of record. Might have to change the name to 'Urban Man out of Media'.

Time to resurrect.

Busy year - a few shows come and gone. Now a vespa owner (great for the commute, and the wife loves it).

Seems that the time has come and gone to 'play' with the blog and it is now time to take it more seriously.

I realized a few things throughout the Spring of this year. My career and personal position within it truly has responsibilities. I am no longer a 'newcomer' to the industry, nor an 'emerging talent'. I think (if I do say so myself), I am 'established'.

Sounds great, but as many will tell you, when you've got nothing to loose, things can only get better. When you have an established history and reputation (a good one), not only do you have to strive for continued excellence and maintain your professional relations, you also end up with a greater role in your community.

Some people inherently value this role, I've seen newcomers with the appreciation for community, often because of what it has to offer by being associated with it. But as you go through your professional career journey, the information you amass offers a certain perspective where by situations and/or conversations that were once new and horizon-expanding, are recurring.

You've been through them before, and have seen the variety of outcomes (depending on how many times you've been privy to that specific instance). The question is, will you be at the table, able to offer insight as to how those situations can/might play out this time? Are there new variables involved now that weren't the last time(s) you had seen it through? Are you informed? Are you relevant to your community and have a voice?

I have grappled with this for the past year or so, coming to certain realizations as mentioned above, this past Spring, and now continuing to act upon it by reviving this dusty, old blog.

So what happened in the Spring that shone light on this newly discovered role?

For the more than the past 10 years, as a partner in fish-fry music and sound, our communications and efforts in relationship development have been focused on promoting our services as original music composers to tv/film directors and producers. Raising awareness, of course, on why they should hire us.

In the Spring, I began noticing a strange occurance. I started receiving emails/calls from people we've gotten to know over the past decade (clients and potential clients, not competition!), looking for advice, recommendations, references as to contacts that we could put them in touch with, in efforts for them to promote their careers/projects. Seemed a little far-fetched at first, the concept that we might be able to offer them something more than originally composed music, but this was in fact the case.

I managed to break it down to this: We've been doing well - touch wood - with our business. We show an initiative, acumen, pride and commitment to our craft, as well as to the industry that hires us. We endeavour to approach everything with the highest level of integrity. It would seem that this has not gone unnoticed, and has been given a 'weight' within our circles. It's a very exciting prospect that we could earn loyalty by giving something more than great service and product; being a resource for connections. I had never considered that aspect of business before. At least, for my business.

So, my question to you: What are you already, kind of doing in your business that you consider to be 'nothing of consequential value' that will indirectly add benefit to those you provide service or product to? It is quite possibly those things that differ you from 'just another person providing that service or product', and also a big reason clients will come back to YOU.

Dog walkers:

It's garbage day, I've just gotten home and am bringing my empty garbage and organics bins around to the back of my house. I check both bins to see if indeed they are empty and the contents have been taken away. In the organics bin is a small, clear plastic bag tied up with dog poo inside.

I don't own a dog, and don't want dog poo in my organics bin for the next week... is it not just common courtesy for you to bring that bag home with you and dispose of it in your own organics bin?

Or is it just me!?

Surfing for facts or for fun?

I can remember when I first got word of the 'internet' back in 1992... described to me as the 'information super-highway'... I asked my cousin at that time what that meant and she kind of fumbled through a non-explanation. As the world-wide-web flourished, the term 'surfing the web' became commonplace.

I never saw myself as someone who 'surfed' the web. Pretty much a calculated destination each time... whether for going to a known site for information, or using it to resource information that I had no idea where it would be. This was probably 'surfing' but I used to think of surfing as more of a session of meandering through different things that grab your attention, with no real destination in mind.

This morning during a 30 minute period, I experienced both; a 'sourcing info' session and a good old random surfing session (again - I don't really do this part... find it usually pretty fruitless).

My sourcing session involved typing words into my Google search engine that probably 5, definitely 15 years ago would've been totally foreign to me and made no sense: "winamp hijacked location bar search".... wow even now that seems to make no sense, but I'm sure you reading will get the gist. Sure enough, within two minutes I found a direct hit on how to reinstate Google as my default search in the location (address) bar in Firefox. Whew. Disaster averted... Fun? Not really. But impressively informative considering I would have no idea where else to begin looking for that information if not in 'Google'.

My surfing session was initiated by a friend's feed on facebook... a posting for a story: "Bing Goes the Internet: The Creepiest Jingle Ever." with a little image of the Microsoft 'Bing' logo. I clicked it to find the story on www.mashable.com that MS had just had a competition to find their new jingle... Great, another 'music writing competition' to serve another blow to my industry that's already competitive enough... Okay, perhaps I am a little annoyed that I didn't know about it until it's too late. At any rate, it had the video and the song by a guy named Jonathan Mann, who writes / has been writing a song a day and is up to around 220. His 'Brief History of Creative Work' piece on YouTube is quite unbelievable. How did it effect me compared to finding out how to reclaim my google search engine? Though it doesn't have quite the same practicle applications as the 'location bar' solution, it was inspirational. Here's someone who, as I write, is penning a new song for today. I've never met him or heard of him before, and although his 'product' (what his music sounds like) is of little consequence, the key element to focus on is the process that he is going through. The process that he has committed to. One half of success is creating something worth talking about. The other half is talking about it. With those two attributes combined effectively, you're on your way.

I know that I won't get this inspired/lucky with every click-provoking headline, but at least I can (hopefully) count on searching for any problem and knowing that someone, somewhere has experienced the exact same problem, found the solution and posted it.... No matter how you slice it - I think this 'information-super-highway' thing is definitely gonna catch on.

GF

Purpose.

Here is my blog.

Like all blogs, it has a purpose. A purpose for being here, as well as a personal purpose to me. Both happen to be one in the same, and they feed off each other.

This combined purpose of my blog is to convey my observations and opinions as a man who predominantly composes music for television, while living in the city of Toronto. I am presently 38-years-old.

The entries to follow will probably never be evocative all of these aspects, but that's where they will be coming from.

I have no idea where the entries will meander, but they will. Most often, my motivation will be to put a smile on your face while hopefully provoking you to consider something big or something small.

Enjoy the ride.

GF