Sunbear – Moonbath

Kate Boothman hired me to design and produce a handmade cover for the new Sunbear cd. It’s limited to 100 copies, and this is what it looks like.


The credits are stacked with A-list Canadian music people. Does that make me an A-list Canadian music person?

Kate is heading out on an East Coast solo tour with Kate Maki on Saturday.

28 Apr Dakota Tavern w/ The Baird Bros. Toronto, ON
1 May Townehouse Tavern (Kate Boothman) w/ Kate Maki Sudbury, ON
3 May Casa Del Popolo (Kate Boothman) w/ Kate Maki Montreal, QC
6 May The Capital (Kate Boothman) w/ Kate Maki Fredricton, NB
7 May Struts Gallery (Kate Boothman) w/ Kate Maki Sackville, NB
8 May Company House (Kate Boothman) w/ Kate Maki Halifax, NS
13 May Fou Bar (Kate Boothman) w/ Kate Maki Quebec City, QC
14 May The Black Sheep Inn (Kate Boothman) w/ Kate Maki Wakefield, QC
15 May The Piston Sunbear w/ Kate Maki Toronto, ON
16 May House show Guelph, ON
20 May Dakota Tavern w/ Christina Martin + Wayne Petty Toronto, ON

Covenant

I found this Walkerville Baptist Church 75th Anniversary pamphlet from 1987 in my School Day Treasures book. It captures the beliefs I was immersed in for the first 20 years of my life. The congregation was small, only about 100 people, mostly comprised of bitter deranged senior citizens, schizophrenics and others with severe emotional, mental and occupational problems.

It was only 10 years ago in the summer of 2000 that my mind began to fully break free from my Christian upbringing (the version stated in the Covenant below), and only in early 2003 that I stopped going to church completely though I was still living at home with my parents, finishing my degree at the University of Windsor.



Some days I’m still consumed by anger and frustration by memories of the backwards thoughts I was raised on. My mindset and behavior as a child reflected the instruction I had received from birth, that my first priority in life was to convert people to “believe” in Jesus Christ and that it would be better to die or be a martyr for Christ than to denounce him or give other things first place in my life.

I experienced a lot of social problems during elementary school, starting around 2nd grade and peaking in 5th and 6th grade. I spent my days those 2 years getting C’s and D’s in school, trying to disassociate from the harassment I felt from my peers, and going to sleep every night imagining different scenarios of dying or killing myself. Things got significantly better once I’d changed schools at the beginning of 7th grade and I was able to create a new persona for myself, but it’s not easy to forget those feelings of isolation, frustration and self-hatred I experienced so young.

My parents meant well, but the situation is what it is; the childhood foundation of my consciousness is a whole lotta pain and a LOAD OF HORSE SHIT! The best explanation I can come up with is that we’re all living in a rapidly changing world. My parents were nostalgic for the conservative 1950′s they grew up in and wanted things to be the same yesterday, today and forever. It’s ironic that their strict rules caused me to become so OBSESSED with secular art, media, fashion and youth culture novelties of the past 60 years.


Days like this, all I can do is punch walls, listen to Deicide and wait until the rage passes.


I’m glad bands like Deicide exist, because it helps.

School Day Treasures 1983 – 1984

The first place I ever started collecting things was in this School Day Treasures book. This started it all! I can remember having it when I was 4 or 5 years old. It’s got a total of 16 folders, 1 each year for Pre-Kindergarden, Kindergarden, Grade’s 1 through 13, and the last folder for University.

There are only 2 things in the Pre-Kindergarden folder; this drawing of a lion I did in church. It says it’s from age 3.


I’ve also got this letter from May 20th 1983, exactly 5 months before my 5th birthday from my Grandma McCready congratulating me on accepting Jesus Christ as my personal lord and savior and telling me to focus on him and everything would be alright.


No cheque attached.

Here’s my kindergarden picture, September 1983. I was wearing an outfit my mom had made for me. It’s a cute outfit and at that time it was age appropriate. I was a happy little boy!



I took my first swimming lessons that year, and our family went to Disney World in Florida a couple of weeks before Christmas.

My parents used to tell me that I drove my kindergarden teacher Mrs Plaut nuts because I didn’t know how to behave myself and that she’d wanted to hold me back another year but my parents stood up for me and made her put me into grade 1. That’s not at all the impression I get from reading my report card from that year. I wonder why they’d say something like that to me? The only things I really remember about Mrs Plaut was that I really liked her and her husband was a Rabbi.

Photos of Ray McCready and Tim McCready from 1984 to 1988

Charades at Shermans

Last night, after eating tacos and playing charades at Christopher Sherman’s apartment, Adrienne and I went to the Dakota Tavern to see Great Lake Swimmers and Sunbear.

New Moves

I’m working on a score for a new short movie written and directed by Mark Pesci called Grey – Bruce. This is the intro music I’ve submitted so far.

I spent today out in Stouffville on set for a short movie called Killer Overtime written by Lorna London that Alex Hughes recruited me to play the male lead in. I’m portraying a crazy funeral home director.

Alex is in charge of the sound.

Amy Quick plays my mortician girlfriend.

The house we shot in today has an indoor pool!

Today was fun, and I didn’t get pissed off even once! There’s 2 more days of shooting this week, and then I hope to do more acting for other projects in the near future.