Oysters have long been reported to have aphrodisiac qualities. I had always attributed this to the fact that once you’re willing to put something like that into your mouth, anything else is fair game.

Up until this week, I had yet to pluck up the courage to put anything alive & slimy in my mouth, but I ended up being taken to one of Toronto’s finest oyster houses the other night, and I have to say, I’m thoroughly undecided on the whole issue.

My friend Darrin asked me out to a Marlies game on Wednesday, but due to a power outage, we ended up having to make alternate plans. The alternate plans turned out to be oysters. I guess if you can’t watch hockey pucks, you should go eat ocean pucks.

It was a truly bizarro experience. First off, I passed on all the sauces I was offered, opting instead for a few lemon drops. That’s the same way I like do consume fish & chips, so I decided to go for it. When I was a caffeine addict, I took my coffee black and my tea clear, so I figured I may as well try to enjoy the oysters in their purest form.

In the end, I survived, although I’ve spent a couple of days wondering when the poison kicks in. I also spent a good period of time trying to imagine how someone figured out there was something edible inside those rocks. I’m not at all sure it was a pleasurable experience. Sure, a couple of pints of Guinness made it enjoyable, but they tend to have the ability to help you gloss over most things. I can tell you this much, I didn’t feel any aphrodisiac at work in my body, but that’s a good thing. Darrin’s not exactly my type, and I’m happy about that. If that weren’t the case, I’m sure my wife would’ve killed me long ago.

This Saturday night marks the last booking on my 11t1 roster. I’ve decided that it’s an avenue that I’m not much interested in pursuing anymore. 11t1 is my electronic project that I started 3 years ago when I first started getting into production, and sadly it’s just not inspiring me anymore.

I’ve wanted to get into digital music production for years now. I’ve always been frustrated by the idea that the moment you bring a song into a band is the moment you give up control of the creative process, so I initially thought that by getting a computer I could start recording my songs without having to pay for studio time anymore and without having to put all out the energy required to keep a band together (which also suited my new life as a dad very well). When I started my experiments recording, I had no experience and I had a really difficult time putting together decent recordings of my songs. I was, however, able to do some fairly interesting sound experiments inspired by artists like Autechre, Boards of Canada & Aphex Twin, so I decided to pursue that avenue for a while.

It turned out to be a fairly interesting route for me for a while. I even managed to attract some label interest (something I had never managed to achieve as a rock musician), and should have an album out soon as a result. You can hear a lot of the tracks here if you’re interested.

But somewhere along the line, I just lost touch with the whole process. I finished working on the tracks for the album in the fall of 2004 (yes, ‘04), and since then I think I’ve written a grand total of 4 pieces that are any good. I just don’t have the motivation to write anymore tracks that way, I guess. Also, every time I check with my label to check on the release schedule, I find out it’s been pushed back once again by their distributor. The last date I was given was late April, which I was told after I had booked a release party based on the evidently solid late-March release date. So, as late April comes and goes, I haven’t got the heart to ask when the disc is coming out anymore.

But, all that negativity aside, there is some positive news to report. Somewhere in the process of making the 11t1 record I guess I learned a thing or 2 about audio production. Out of boredom, I recently decided to try my hand at recording one of my old punk tunes, and it started to sound not too bad (or at least way better than any of my previous attempts). While working on it, I managed to uncover an ancient sound file I had created a few years ago (summer ‘02) when I first tried recording that tune with my friend Matthew on vocals (because I can’t sing to save my life). Even though the audio quality of the original vocal take was dubious at best, the resulting mix was fairly pleasant to my ears. I dug out Matthew’s email address and shared the results with him, and he tended to agree with me, thus re-forging our previous musical partnership.

So now all I want to do in my heart of hearts is concentrate on recording tunes with Matthew (mine & his - he’s a good writer as well). What this all means for 11t1 I really don’t know. What I do know is this - come Saturday night, I’m going to bust it out like it’s 11t1’s last night on earth. If you happen to be in the vicinity of Alex P. Keaton’s in London (Ontario, not UK) this Saturday, you might want to drop in and check out the results.