Am I a Contest Muse (or Something)?

If you've been following me on Twitter or Facebook, you'd know by now that I didn't win a Nissan cube. But that's not what this post is about. As bizarre as this may sound, I'm wondering if I am a contest muse... Perhaps not in its literal sense that I am an inspiration for other contestants, but through a sharing or collaboration of creative work in the contest, this creative connection had brought some destined luck to those willing to who were willing to creatively collaborate.

This past Monday, a second additional Nissan cube winner, Natasha Thirsk (aka: Catlow), was announced. There's nothing particularly odd about her winning a cube; she's creative, unique, personable, and participates in 2-way social media conversations. And she was, after all, on my personal top-50 list of contestants to win a Nissan cube (not to say that my top-50 list was the definitive list, but my list certainly weighed Twitter and social media participation a little more strongly into the equation).

What's a little bizarre with the announcement of Natasha's win was the fact that she was the 4th person out of 5 people in the Nissan Hypercube contest that I had collaborated with during the contest and/or will be collaborating with after the contest ended on June 23. Now 3-out-of-5, I thought, could have been a bit of a coincidence and it didn't trigger any warning bells in my head. But 4-out-of-5?! Ding, ding, ding, ding!

But it was also the sequence of events that coincided with this last cube winner announcement that made it a bit uncanny. Of course, I need to start at the beginning (not the beginning of the Hypercube contest, but the first contestant collaboration)...

Mark Stevenson (aka: SandbarMark) had approached me way back on April 19 about his full-sized wooden cube car idea. He politely asked me if I would be willing to design a Pimp Your Ride spoof logo for the Cube Your Ride video that he was going to produce to chronicle the making and driving of his wooden cube.

I thought it was a cool idea and designed the Cube Your Ride logo for him that you see above. Unfortunately, Mark ran into some problems with his big-little project and ran short on time, but had just enough time to get his raw footage together for his contest canvas, but without any of the Cube Your Ride production he was hoping for. Needless to say, his efforts and participation in the contest was enough to fetch him a brand new Nissan cube! Congrats Mark!

At the end of April, Paul Marozzo (aka: Piablo) made a call out on Twitter looking for someone to tweak the levels on one of his CubeXperience songs. I answered the call and got the levels on the song to match the rest of his songs, removed the clipping, and gave it a little more punch. In June, just a few days prior to the big Hypercube winner announcement event, Paul asked me if I'd be willing to do some final audio mastering on the track, The Floors, which was going to be played at the Toronto event. I'm a nice guy, so I said, "No problem", and got the audio mastering done in plenty of time before the event. Paul told me the song sounded great in the club and he loved how I gave the synth sounds a little more oomph. Needless to say, Paul's fabulous CubeXperience music was definitely good enough to fetch him a brand new Nissan cube! Congrats Paul!

I was now looking for new musical material that I could use to show off some of my music post-production skills because I couldn't use any of my existing production work in the contest (I won't get into why I couldn't use my existing production work for the contest).

That's when I came across Natasha Thirsk's contest canvas. I listened to the music on her canvas and on MySpace, and thought it would be great stuff to remix. I approached Natasha about the remix idea for the contest, and she initially agreed to do it. However, the next day, she had to back out because she realized she had another commitment and wouldn't be able to commit to the remix at this time. Hey, that was cool - I understand commitments and being busy - there were no hard feelings about this. I just needed to keep looking. Now this doesn't seem to have anything to do with my proclamation of being a contest muse, but it does have relevance later in the story, so take note of this.

At this point, I needed to find someone willing to collaborate on a remix of some sort because the contest canvases and voting would close in about 2 weeks, so I posted a public tweet to the #thehypcube tweeple calling for collaboration.

Eric Lafontaine (aka: strych9) was the first to step up to accept the collaboration idea with his 3 Dimensional Rock rockabilly style song. Unfortunately, we both felt there wasn't enough time to produce a full remix with proper percussion (the song only contained guitar tracks and vocals), so we opted to just produce a different mix with the song and add a few additional elements that Eric had quickly put together for me to use. I'm not sure if the remix had any influence on the judges' decision, but Eric's energetic video and rockabilly riffs certainly left enough of an impression to fetch him a brand new Nissan cube! Congrats Eric!

Scott Jamison (aka: HeartsAndClefs) was another contestant that answered the call to collaborate on a remix. Scott let me pick the song to remix, and I picked Three Years. The original source tracks has a lot of crackle-pop sounds caused by some loose connections during recording. But I undertook the challenge and really cleaned up the audio. I turned one short little whistle segment at the beginning of the song into some background music for a good portion of the track, and really gave the whole song the depth and emotion that was not as prevalent in the original recordings (although I could hear it trying to break out). Scott commented that I turned the song into something that he imagined the song would sound, but he couldn't make it happen that way. Those type of comments really make this type of work very rewarding. Thanks Scott.

Scott and I placed the remixed song on both of our canvases to cross-promote our work. Unfortunately, his strong song writing skills, excellent guitar playing skills, likable personality that'll put a smile on your face, and his amazing ability to play impromptu songs over on-line tweetups did not fetch him a brand new cube. Sorry Scott, I really feel your hurt on this one.

A few days after all of the winners were announced and the dust started to settle, I touched based with Natasha again. We discussed the possibility of working on a small collaboration project. Only days after we started to lay the groundwork down to get things in motion for a potential project, I find out that her original slightly quirky guitar-shaped swimming pool music and authentic energetic personality was belatedly awesome enough to fetch her a brand new Nissan cube! Congrats Natasha!

This last little sequence of events of moving forward on a possible project with Natasha and her belated cube prize awarded via a late announcement had really made me stop and go "Hmmmm". Coincidence?! Perhaps. But 4-out-of-5 creative collaborations that turn into a prize-winning cube is a little more than coincidence, don'cha think?! ;)

And to Nissan or Capital C (or Angie), if you're reading this, don't deny the prophecies of this collaborative contest muse... don't mess with the cube forces around us... If you're going to belatedly award another cube, you should award it to Scott Jamison (aka: HeartsAndClefs). A track record of 100% on my résumé as a muse would look much better than 80%.

Being in this contest has had some interesting long-term benefits... Paul and I have plans to collaborate on a few music productions (potentially more if it works out). Scott and I have tentative plans to work together on one of his songs. And I may also have the opportunity to work with Natasha on a little project. I think I'm going to be busy for a little while. But if you have some music production work you'd like to work on together, don't hesitate to ask.

But one thing is for sure... As a muse, I never had a chance at winning a cube. ;)

BTW, please spread the word... Muse for Hire. Payment in creativity, monetary amounts would be nice.

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Below is a playlist of the original and collaborative music productions mentioned in this posting above. Please enjoy.

Prairie Producers Collaborate in Creative Contest

When I did a callout on Twitter looking for any hypercubists who were musicians and interested in collaborating on doing a mix of one of their songs, Hearts and Clefs had also stepped up.

Hearts and Clefs is from Saskatchewan, and I'm from Alberta, so it was a grand ol' time for a couple of prairie guys to work on a collaboration like this.

When it came to choosing a song for the project, Hearts and Clefs gave me the opportunity to pick any song from his web sites. I selected Three Years... a nice little song that tugs at the heart-strings a bit with a nice guitar, some bass, a little sax, and some interesting vocals/lyrics... A nice little selection of source tracks to work with.

The original recordings, however, had some obtrusive pops throughout (possibly from a bad cable/jack during recording). But that didn't deter me! Using filters, EQ's, compression, etc., I was able to eliminate most of those pops. I couldn't remove some of them from the main vocals, so I added an effect to the vocals such that the dull pops sounded like they were part of the effect.

The additional mixing and mastering to the song really brought out some of the interesting parts of the song, and gave it a little more emotional tug. I hope you enjoy the new mix.

Visit my contest canvas to compare the original Three Years song (written and performed by Hearts and Clefs) with the new mix, Three Years (Qubic's Lonely Mix), produced by me, Qubic. And while you're there, please cast a vote for me.

Also visit Hearts and Clefs contest canvas to experience his creative work, and cast a vote for him, too, while you're there.

Tips for Owning a Unique Car (Like the Nissan cube)

I'm no stranger to owning a strange car on Canadian roads. I had owned a 1989 Nissan S-Cargo for almost 5 years, so I've had a lot of exposure to owning, driving, and parking a strangely unique car.

I had learned a lot about how to interact with people showing interest in the car, and how people react to such a unique car. So here's a few tips to help the winners, or any new owner, of a Nissan cube®...

Tips for Owning a Unique Car in Canada:

1. Have fun! First priority - have fun with this vehicle. It's a funky car, and the first 3 letters of funky spells fun. Take it for a drive, pick up some friends, and have a blast.
   
   
2. Don't be shy. You'll have people approaching you and asking you questions about the car. If you're shy or don't like talking to strangers, you'll have a tough time owning such a car.
     
3. Be personable - your approach sets the tone. The first few times when I walked out of a store and saw people standing around my S-Cargo, peering into the windows, and looking puzzled, I walked up to them and politely said, "Can I help you?". They would step back, look at me, realize I was the owner, and would say something like, "No, it's okay. Just looking," then uncomfortably walk away. I thought I was polite and said it with a smile. And I was sincere about helping them. So what was wrong?
   
   One time, I saw a couple standing next to the car, chuckling and shaking their heads in disbelief. I walked up and started off with a different question, "So what do you think of the car? Be honest." Well, they opened right up and we had a good 15-minute conversation about its features and how I acquired it.
   
   From that point on, I'd approach people with a question that invited a more specific answer or comment, making the experience more enjoyable for everyone.
   
   
4. Have more fun! It's that important. If you stop having fun with the car, it'll become just another car. Plan a day trip outside of the city with some friends. Take it someplace where no one has seen it before. Or shine it up and take it to a local Show'n'Shine for a day and meet more people, especially if you've added some aftermarket bling to it.
   
   
5. Plan extra time for your outtings. It was very common for me to spend an extra 10-20 minutes with people who'd stop me when leaving the S-Cargo to go into a store, or when coming back to the S-Cargo. So add some time for your errands so you can tend to your fans.
   
   
6. Know your car, and be honest. People will ask you subjective and technical questions about the car. So know engine specs, safety features, etc. And they'll ask you what's good, what's bad, what you like, and what you don't like. And be honest with your answers. You're not a salesperson - you're an experienced owner. People want to know the real scoop and will really appreciate your honesty. Let them know when the glove box is too small, or it's difficult to see or reach instrumentation, but always end on something positive or something you really like about the car so they leave with a good impression.
   
   
7. Gawking hazards. People may gawk at your car. This is normally not a problem unless the person doing the gawking is also driving a car. Keep alert and aware of potential gawking drivers as you may need to perform sudden evasive maneuvers or lean on the horn to warn them of a dangerous situation... such as running a stop sign or red light, hitting a pedestrian, or other dangerous situation.
   
   On one particular incident, the driver of the car in the lane to my right was trying to get ahead of me while leaning out the driver's window looking backwards so he could take a picture of the front of the S-Cargo... and nearly ran me into oncoming traffic.
   
   
8. Enjoy the car and have fun! You'll get a lot of attention and meet more people. Enjoy every minute of it. The cube® has a similar cute-appeal as the S-Cargo. And quite frankly, the S-Cargo was a chick-magnet... more so than any high-end sports car. If you're male and single and want to meet girls, the cube® will definitely be an ice breaker. However, after the cube® breaks the ice for you, your personality better be able to stand up to the cube's® personality, or you'll be kicked to the curb.