Well, it’s the new year and 2008 has been a truly incredible one for me, with more traveling than I’ve done in a long time, so I thought I’d go through my top five moments from 2008 as well as my one most memorable moment of the year.

1. Completing production and release of Elika Mahony’s Fire and Gold CD
2. Traveling to China for the first time and then getting to go again the same year
3. Getting to experience the most amazing and modern city on the planet, Hong Kong
4. North American Theatrical release of feature film I was sound designer for, Sweet Amerika
5. Launch of my new, innovative record label, Pro Soul Alliance

It was hard to pick just five amongst all the incredible things that happened this year, like the exciting new music I produced for Heather Dore, my trip to Las Vegas with Felisha, the collaborative music promotional project with talented artist, Laura Harley, ‘enjoy the cylons‘ which was viewed by over 16,000 people, the california Baha’i music weekend, Working with the talented Phil Morrison & Keith Williams, Jing R, and Cheng LIn in Beijing, and the completion of various other video and music projects…

If I had to pick one most exciting and incredible moment though, It would probably have to be getting stuck in the middle of a raging Nahatlatch river with my nephew Aaron while Whitewater rafting and getting out of it with barely a scratch!

I had a really tough year in 2007, so I had decided this would be an amazing year of travel and exciting things, and it sure was! Amazing how when you really set your mind on something, it happens.

As for last years resolutions unfortunately things didn’t go so well with them. In fact I actually managed to offend some people I truly care about with some of my blog posts and other casual blunt remarks…  So this year no resolutions, except a determination to improve balance in my life, and drastically simplify things over the next 2 years so I don’t have to work so damn hard all the time.

This first blog post of 2009 is particularly exciting for me because it’s the first one I’ve done using speech recognition software, Dragon MacSpeech Dictate, the best in the world. My typing is terrible ever since I quit that pre-widespread computer use high school typing class (because why on earth would I need to type people letters?)
So yes I actually spoke everything you just read, which I feel gives things a little more personal touch don’t you?

Enjoy 2009, and all the best to you!

Last weekend I went on a whitewater rafting adventure on the Nahatlatch river with my nephew. I felt the need to get away from the crap that bogs down our lives and really experience life and nature the way we should be, and have been meaning to do this for many years as it was an incredible experience the last time I went rafting on the Nahatlatch river at the awesome REO resort in Boston Bar, BC.
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The reason this river is so fantastic for rafting is it’s like it was perfectly designed as a natural amusement park, gradually building in excitement with more intense sections of rapids and natural obstacles… I can’t really describe it more than that, you just have to escape and do it for yourself!

We had a little more adventure than planned this time on the river though, being that the river water levels are starting to drop. There are a lot of rocks showing in the river, but the rafts usually slide around them or over. But in a section of particularly rapid whitewater, we slid sideways up a large rock, and instead of sliding down, the raft stayed on the rock and the right side began filling with water rapidly. The rafts have a brilliant water drainage system preventing them from filling, but the river was so fast in this part, 50 tons of water coming at the boat, that it was totally pinned against the rock. As soon as this happened, the guide told us to jump left, which in this case meant hanging off the side of the boat so as not to be swept away by the river. Our guide, Cody, suggested people either get in the front of the boat, or get up onto the rock which I did somehow. He couldn’t latch his line onto the side of the boat in the water though to pull it back out, and it was looking bleak. All the other rafts had passed us by now, so there weren’t many rescue options. Suddenly, he was able to move the front of the raft enough for the rapids to grab the front of the boat, and we had a split second to jump into the boat, or be left in the middle of the rapids on a rock, having to later float down, bouncing in between rocks! I opted for jumping, but neither of us made it into the boat, and ended up hanging on the side as it went down the river. Luckily, safety training paid off and one of my crew mates pulled me in, and we were off again, but with only half of our paddles!

The other 5 rafts said we put on quite a show, and all were talking about, including the guides. This kind of thing doesn’t happen very often usually in rafting, and I was glad to have had the experience and come out of a situation that in the moment, I could see no easy outcome for.

I highly recommend next summer you take a whitewater rafting trip, on the right river, it is the most fun and exciting thing I can say I have ever experienced. I’m committing to go more regularly, so if your game, get in touch.