T.C. Folkpunk: Rants, etc.

Hey folks(punks),

Three things to report here at Folkpunk Manor: First, I'll be a guest on CIUT-FM's Acoustic Workshop this coming Monday (February 20th). The show runs from 7:00 to 8:00 pm (Eastern Time) and can be heard at

http://www.ciut.fm
Or you can listen in on something called a radio, which is like a television (remember those?) without the visuals.

Secondly, in keeping with my resolution to only play Toronto bars once per season, it's time for my Winter 2006 gig. Next Thursday (February 23rd) I'll be appearing at The Now Lounge, located at 189 Church Street, near Dundas. Also on the bill, direct from the God Blessed United States Of America Which Is (Are?) Blessed By God will be Nathan Caswell (who's really from Thunder Bay). The cover is a measly $5, so quit whining already. Show starts at 9-ish.

And finally, this whole Dick-Cheney-shooting-a-guy-thing has (predictably) qualified for "Gate" status. You know how, ever since Watergate, everything that seems the slightest bit questionable within the US government gets called "(Fill-in-the-blank)-Gate". We've had Iran-Gate (Reagan), Monica-Gate (Clinton), Tuna-Gate (Mulroney). Well now the whole Cheney fiasco has been dubbed Quail-Gate. But I think it's time we put the whole "Gate" wordplay thing aside, and I propose a new catchphrase to sum up what took place last weekend when the Veep was shooting birds and, uh, missed:

CHAPPAQUI-DUCK

You're welcome. Again, the gigs:

Monday February 20: CIUT-FM, 7pm
Thursday February 23: Now Lounge, 9pm

See ya,
Timothy-Gate

Happy new year, my fine friendly folkpunkateers. I have two little items of news for you. First, I have a gig coming up in Guelph, the details of which are as follows:

TIMOTHY CAMERON (still me after all these years)
at MANHATTAN'S (951 Gordon Street, Guelph Ontario)
on THURSDAY JANUARY 12th (8pm to 11pm)
There's no cover charge and I've heard the food is great.

Secondly, I'm going to share with you some resolutions I've made for my folkpunking. I made these resolutions in early December, thereby keeping last year's resolution not to be late for appointments. Although I didn't start keeping that one until February, so I think that means I'm breaking even.

Anyway, as far as bar gigs in Toronto are concerned, I'm cutting that little game down to approximately four gigs per year at the most. I'm thinking maybe one show for each of the four seasons (that would be winter, winter, winter and construction...). I'll still play outside Toronto and will still do whatever private parties, house concerts and festivals happen to come along, but my days of being a locally-based glorified beer salesman are rapidly dwindling. Also, I'll only book a gig that allows me at least a 30 minute set. Call me fussy, but I figure I should be on stage for longer than it took me to pack my gear into my guitar case. Besides, I'm never even warmed up until about the fourth song anyway.

Also, I'm planning to do more recording and release the new stuff in download-able form only. I've had a lot of success with things like iTunes and MP3Tunes lately, so I think I'd be goofy not to capitalize on that technology a bit more.

Anyway, thanks for reading, hope you all had a great Chrismahannakwanzakah and New Year, and if you have friends in Guelph, feel free to forward this over to them.

Later,
Timothy

Hello.

Yup, the subject line pretty much says it all. You can now download any or all of the songs from Never Mind The Hyperbolics and/or "...every cloud has a sulphur lining..." through Apple's iTunes store. No longer will a typical conversation at one of my gigs go something like this:

Punter: "Hey, that song of yours, 'She Dates Creeps', is that on your new CD ?"

Me; "Uh, no, sorry that's on the old one and I didn't bring any copies with me tonight."

Punter: "You heartless bastard!"


Now a typical conversation at one of my gigs will be more along the lines of:

Punter: "Hey, that song of yours, 'She Dates Creeps', is that on your new CD ?"

Me: "No, but you can now download it off of iTunes and never have to leave the house to see live music ever again !"

Punter: "What? I can't hear you over the squealing feedback from the microphone which is being caused by the hearing impaired sound man who doesn't seem to be doing a very good job because he is (as previously stated) somewhat hearing impaired... you heartless bastard."

Etcetera.

Anyway, just letting you know.

Later gators,
Timothy Cameron

Hey!

This Friday (December 2nd) I'll be appearing at Grafitti's (170
Baldwin) as part of the monthly Songwriters Unite showcase. Also on the bill are Howard Gladestone, Nancy Dutra, Tressa (aka Slim), Lila Rose, Tanya Philopovitch, Susan Hutcheson, and of course the host Russell Leon.
Show starts at 9pm, and there's no cover.

So I was reading one of those free newspapers that one can pick up in the subway (a "McNewspaper" if you will) and noticed an article on the TTC's plans to spend an untold amount of money on remaking some stations into "cultural attractions". The article included a conceptual drawing of what Museum Station will look like, with the support columns on the platform transformed into ancient Egyptian sarcophagi and mini Greek columns and such. Three of the TTC's downtown subway stations will get the make-over, transforming them into "works of art".

It was an interesting enough article, as were many of the other articles in the McPaper, all of which I had plenty of time to read as I stood waiting for a train that took forever to arrive and when it did finally arrive it was packed to the point that the doors closed on me as I tried squeezing on board. This was at 7:30pm, so rush hour was long since past, and this was the third time in the space of a week that I got to spend an excess amount of time waiting for a train that was full to capacity when it finally showed up.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the TTC is being run by Air Canada. How else can you explain a transit system that values its own beautification over something like, oh I dunno, GETTING ITS PAYING CUSTOMERS TO THEIR DESTINATION. Jeezuz.

Anyway, once again, the gig:
GRAFITTI'S (170 Baldwin, in Kensington Market)
FRIDAY DECEMBER 2nd,
9:00 pm

Later,
Timothy

Hey ya,

Here's some gig news from me to you:

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 27th, I'll be at
CADILLAC LOUNGE (1296 Queen Street West)
somewhere between 4pm and 7pm
as part of Songwriters Expo
along with Neil Exall, Mike Hopkins, and Marion Arthur. There'll be a draw for CDs by the performers too.

And then:

FRIDAY DECEMBER 2nd, I'll show up at
GRAFFITI'S (170 Baldwin Avenue)
8pm-ish
as part of Songwriters Unite
along with many other songwriters, none of whom I can name at the moment because I never thought to get the names before I started typing this email to you. Crumb.

And if you have friends and family in Guelph, tell them about this one.
Or even enemies:

THURSDAY JANUARY 12th, I'm folkpunking at
MANHATTAN'S (951 Gordon Street, Guelph)
from 8pm to 11pm
all folkpunk, all night. For the third time this year I'll be hauling out some originals that I haven't played since the 1990's. I've been
told by people who've been to Manhattan's that it's a nice place and the pizza is amazing.

Okay, and finally this little tidbit from CBC News' website. Seems that Toronto MP Dan McTeague wants 50 Cent barred from entering Canada to perform concerts scheduled for December, adding that the rapper promotes gun violence, a message that Torontonians don't need to hear in light of the recent shootings in the city.

"I think it's time we send a message of our own to those who glorify violence that their gratuitous violence and movies are not welcome in our country," McTeague said. "We need to do a better job at protecting Canadians from people whose message runs counter to all of our efforts of trying to curb gun violence."

Oh really? Then perhaps Mr. McTeague could explain why 50 Cent's new film Get Rich Or Die Tryin' was shot (no pun intended) right here in good ol' Hogtown, and not once did the MP raise his voice in protest during the production. Oh wait, of course, they were probably filming during parliament's summer vacation. How silly of me.

Yes folks, the ECB (election campaign bullsh*t) is about to start hitting the fan. You've been warned.

Later,
Timothy

Hey!

I've got a gig. Again. Yay...

TIMOTHY CAMERON (over here)
SUNDAY OCTOBER 30th
THE RIVOLI (334 Queen Street West)
7:00pm

The event is the monthly Whipped Sundaes thingy, and I'll be part of the songwriters circle, which gets under way at 8:30. This month's Whipped Sundae has a Hallowe'en theme, so feel free to dress up. I'll be disguised as Jerry Leger, and he'll be disguised as me, see if you can tell the difference! Here's even more info if you're so inclined:

http://www.myspace.com/whippedsundaes
Okay, secondly, the still amazing news about my CD on MP3Tunes: I'm still #1 on the Angry Folk charts:

http://www.mp3tunes.com/musicchart.php?chart=song&genre_id=105
http://www.mp3tunes.com/musicchart.php?chart=album&genre_id=105
Yay.

"Reality TV", huh? I don't know where the term came from. I mean really, hands up anybody who regularly happens to be on a desert island hoping to win a million bucks. And how many of you normally compete with 30
other members of your gender for the attentions of one total stranger? Ever tried to break into show biz by having Donald Trump fire you? No? Didn't think so. We've had reality TV for decades already. It's called the news, and even that's just barely real most of the time. And most of the "contestants" on reality TV shows are indeed professional actors
trying to get noticed in an industry that already has a glut of
mediocre talent. In which case, The Price Is Right is more real than Survivor, because the contestants are average shmoes grabbed from an audience full of people who got sidetracked on the way to Disneyland. The producers of reality TV shows should just admit that the whole thing is staged and scripted, and make use of that fact.

I can see it now: "The Bachelorette: Special Victims Unit".

Later,
Timothy

Hi folks,

Sorry to keep doing this to you, but the gig Sunday at the Danforth Music Testicle...er, I mean Festival, has been utterly and completely cancelled. They double booked their own festival. Not bad huh? I mean, who's running this thing, Air Canada? Jeezuz. I took a stroll along
Danforth on Friday to check things out at the other venues, and here's some of what I observed:

One place had decided at the last minute not to be part of the festival so they could host a private party instead. Wise.

The next venue I passed by featured a bunch of musicians on the front patio, which is nice exept instead of, oh I dunno, playing music let's say, they were standing around scratching their heads wondering how to get the PA system working. Two hours after they should have started
playing.

The next gig was a tiny little cafe that had a band in the front window with Marshall stacks ("big honkin' guitar amps" in other words) cranked up loud enough that the vocals were totally drowned out.

Next was a band playing in front of (I'm not kidding) McDonald's, and they had a bunch of their gear set up on the garbage pails. Ick.

And finally there was a band who were playing on the roof of a
restaurant, which is sort of cool in a Let It Be kinda way, but it appeared that they'd hauled all their gear up on this one rickety ladder that was propped up beside the "stage". Let's hope they enjoyed the exhaust from
the kitchen.

So anyway, I'm not doing the Danforth Music Festival, this year or ever.

I am however playing a gig this coming week. Here's the info:

TIMOTHY CAMERON, VAUGHN PASSMORE, CLARK INSTITUTE and JON BROOKS
at HOLY JOE'S
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 8th
8pm Start.

It's four singer-songwriters going around in a rotation of quick 25
minute sets, so if you have to work (or go to school) the next morning, you can catch a fair chunk of each of us by 10pm. And trust me, the three artists I'll be sharing the stage with are among the best at their musical craft in the whole city. Really.

Holy Joe's is upstairs at the Big Bop, south east corner of Queen and Bathurst. Find the Reverb Room, and walk through to the door marked (oddly enough) "Holy Joe's". And thank you for reading this far, hope you've enjoyed the review. And feel free to respond and say hi, I like hearing from all of you.

Later,
Timothy

Hey!

I know this is kinda short notice, and I apologize for that, but I'm
playing one more gig for July and then it looks like I'm off for a month or so. Here's the info:

TIMOTHY CAMERON (over here)
MONDAY JULY 18th
at MITZI'S SISTER (1554 Queen Street West)
with CLARK INSTITUTE and JON BROOKS
9-ish start time, no cover, good food.

My fellow performers are both excellent songwriters, for whom I have a great deal of respect, and I'm honoured to be sharing the bill with them. As far as I know, Jon's on first, followed by Clark/Jim, and then me at 10:30 or 11:00...I think.

You can check out their websites at

http://www.clarkinstitute.com/
and

http://www.jonbrooks.ca/
Okay, so while I'm away, here are a couple of handy tips on how not to piss me (and others) off during this crankiness-inducing heatwave:

1. Try not to ride your bike on the sidewalk really fast in a manner
that requires me (and others) to leap for safety at the last second.
Which part of the word "sideWALK" is escaping you?

2. Contrary to the beliefs of some (including a couple of my
neighbours), pigeons are not, repeat NOT on the endangered species list. You can stop feeding the fucking things now.

There, I've saved the world again so my work here is done....

Later,
Timothy

Remember the good old days when "spam" was something that Terry Jones (in drag) would prattle on about to a cafe full of vikings?

You don't ?!?

Yeesh.

Anyway, all your worst fears have come true: I have another gig. Care for details ? Well, VOILA (or "walla" as it's spelled in Owen Sound):

TIMOTHY CAMERON (that's me)
GRAFFITI'S (170 Baldwin, in Kensington Market)
FRIDAY JUNE 3rd
9:00 pm, NO cover.

It's part of the Songwriters Unite series, hosted by the lovely and
talented Russell Leon. Also on the bill will be guys with names like Kirk, Andrew, Guy, Patrick, Noah, Pierre, and Rex. All good reliable
singer-songwriter type names, no ?

So that's it. No rants or stories this time.

Want a rant ? Wait for Lewis Black to come on The Daily Show.

Want a story ? Go to the library.

Want some white-hot folkpunk? Come to Graffiti's.

It's that easy.

See ya,
Timothy

Hi.

Yup, it's gig announcement time again, so here's the dirt. Or rather
here's the info (dirt is such a dirty word).

TIMOTHY CAMERON (a.k.a. "me") at
MITZI'S SISTER (1554 Queen Street West) on
MONDAY MAY 30th

The show will start at 9:00pm, there's nary a cover charge and the food is great. And best of all, I'm sharing the bill with one of my fave singer-songwriters, Jennifer Foster, and a fellow named Andrew Haughton. I haven't heard Andrew yet but I've heard good things about him.

So I know that the pro-pit bull lobby is upset over the provincial
government's decision to ban the breed, but I'm actually in favour of the ban. However, I don't favour the ban because I don't believe pit bulls are any more vicious than any other variety of canine. I think they're just
dogs, and like any dog a pit bull can have a bad day and snap at somebody. Only difference being that when a chihuahua snaps at you you're mildly annoyed, because there's only so much damage the jaw muscles on a
chihuahua can inflict.

I dunno, maybe the answer is not to be "breed specific" in a ban, but "power specific". Maybe somebody should invent some sort of contraption to test the power of the jaw muscles on dogs, and base the ban on that, since the definition of "pit bull" is a bit nebulous, and the ban gets
into a grey area when the dog in question is half pit bull, half
Sherman tank or whatever.

Then again, maybe Queen's Park has another secret motive, and the breed is being banned for reasons of aesthetics as well. I mean really, have you ever looked at a pit bull? They're not the handsomest dogs at the prom. I'm reminded of what Woody Allen once said about a young lady he
once encountered: "I don't want to say she was ugly, but facially she resembled Louis Armstrong's voice". I always think of that quote when I see a pit bull. They're kinda like the canine version of Ernest Borgnine (sorry Ernest).

Anyway, once again, the gig:

MITZI'S SISTER (1554 Queen Street West)
MONDAY MAY 30th
Show starts at 9:00pm
No cover
No pit bulls will be in attendance (I hope).

See ya,
Timothy

Hey all,

"Could it be another gig?" I hear you asking. See for yourself:

TIMOTHY CAMERON (yup, that's me) at
GRAFFITI'S (170 Baldwin in Kensington Market)
FRIDAY MARCH 4th
9:00 pm-ish
I'm there as part of the Songwriters Unite! showcase. There will be six or seven other songwriters as well, although nobody's told me who they
are yet. Maybe it's a big secret. Yeah that must it. They're such huge stars that it's all being kept very hush-hush. So let's assume that Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Paul McCartney, Ray Davies, Billy Joe Armstrong, Randy Bachman, and uh, I dunno, let's say Cher will all be there.*

So I bought an American Apparel t-shirt a couple of months ago, and if any of you have a Beanie Baby that needs a t-shirt let me know because the bloody thing kept shrinking (although I followed the washing instructions). Twenty-five bucks. They saw me coming. I only really bought it because the company promotes itself as being sweat shop free and all that. Of course when one stops to think about it, there are no sweatshops
in the vicinity of Truro, Nova Scotia, home to a certain company by the name of Stanfield's. And their shirts are half the price and THEY DON'T SHRINK IF YOU SO MUCH AS LOOK AT THEM THE WRONG WAY.

Yeesh.

Anyway, enough fashion victimization, hope to see you Friday.

Timothy

*don't quote me on these names...

Hello.

Yeah, yeah, I know. It's FOLKPUNK, not fokpunk...

Anyway, this Thursday I will be sharing the bill with three of my fave Toronto singer-songwriters. For those of you who like my simple "just the facts ma'am" announcements here ya go:

TIMOTHY CAMERON (that's me)
VAUGHN PASSMORE
CLARK INSTITUTE
JENNIFER FOSTER
THURSDAY FEBRUAURY 17th
at HOLY JOE'S
651 Queen Street West (at Bathurst)
8pm start, Pay-What-You-Can.

Before I forget, here are some more specific details on getting to Holy Joe's: It's on the second floor of The Big Bop which is that big
ominous building on the southeast corner of Queen and Bathurst. The entrance from Queen Street is the SECOND door east of Bathurst which is also the
entrance to The Reverb Room. Go up the black-walled winding staircase (which seems all the more winding when one's lugging an amp and guitar, but I digress...) and at the top of the stairs you'll find yourself at the entrance to The Reverb. If anybody is there collecting a cover for whoever is playing Reverb, simply look them in the eye and (in your best pirate voice) yell at them "Arrrr, I be here for some folkpunkin' so
avast ye scurvy dog". Chances are they'll not ask a second time. Then you walk straight ahead through the doors and keep going so the bar and washrooms are on your left. Just past the washrooms you'll see a little five or six step mini staircase, beside which is painted in huge letters "Holy Joe's". Go up the mini staircase, through the door and TA-DA
you're in...an alcove. But you're really close by this point. If you feel you need for some nicotine after all this spelunking and exploring, turn left to nip out on to the fire escape, otherwise go straight through another door (this is all starting to sound like the opening of Get Smart) and there you are in...another alcove. Look to your right and TA-DA (really) you're in Holy Joe's.

If you leave now you should be there by Thursday...

Anyway, this gig came about after having conversations with each of my fellow performers that went something like this:

Fellow Performer: "Hey Tim, we should do a show together sometime."
Me: "Sure."

We're starting at 8pm, each doing a short set, then starting the
rotation again at 10pm or so. So for those of you who have to get up early Friday, you can catch each of us and be home in your jammies by 11pm, and for the night owls among you, show up later and you'll still see each
of us in action. It's a pay what you can cover, although a minimum of $5 will ensure that we not mutter things about you under our breath. Oh, and we're deciding the running order at the gig, so it'll be a surprise for everybody.

I was going to add some great reviews of the CD which have recently been posted around the web, but this has gone on long enough, so next time.

See ya!
Timothy

Hey y'all,

I've just returned from the big CD release bash at Holy Joe's, and wanted to thank everybody who made it out. It was a rousing success, and a great launch for my humble "little grey album".

And I'd also like to thank John Terauds and/or whoever it was at The Toronto Star who decided that tonight's show was worthy of some ink. I didn't even know they'd written me up until a friend called to congratulate me just before I left home for the club. It's on page A26 of Thursday's Star in case you feel like rescuing it from your recycling. Here's what Mr. Terauds said:

"Punk'd!
Accomplished local singer/songwriter Timothy Cameron, whose punk sensibilities come with a distinctly folk political gloss (think Billy Bragg) holds court at Holy Joe's tonight, where he's likely to dip into songs from his polished second album, Every Cloud Has A Sulphur Lining."

And they even found a photo of me to stick above the column. How cool is that?

And finally a word about the impending hockey strike. As you may have gathered by now, I'm one of the silent majority who have a sort of take-it-or-leave-it attitude toward the game. I liked hockey back when it was a sport, but once it became a religion I lost interest. Now it almost seems like the CBC (among others) are doing all they can to make it look like this is the end of Canadian culture as we know it. Not surprising, since the "Ceeb" has a vested interest in keeping their ratings up, and televising hockey games is relatively inexpensive what with not having to hire script writers or as many lighting technicians (turn on the
halogen floods over the rink and you're pretty much done).

Anyway, there is an opportunity for all the other aspects of our culture and entertainment to finally get noticed, and not be buried under the hockey rhetoric that bombards us for nine months of the year. If you're a musician for example, here's your big chance to build an audience that otherwise might never have stumbled across you, since they have their entertainment dollars burning holes in their pockets and are liable to venture into a club for something to do. Play your ass off and show them how cool live music is, and maybe you'll end up with a few converts.

And if you're a hockey fan who's looking for a diversion, well I just told all the musicians on this email list to get their shit together, so what are you waiting for?

Do I have to do ALL the thinking around here?! Yeesh! And now if you'll excuse me, I think there's a celebratory bottle of champagne waiting to be inhaled...

Later gators,
Timothy.