A funny thing has been happening to my brain over the last few months during our new life with Sam.  Despite the massive sleep and social life deprivation, and the overt grown-upedness of parenthood...I'm somehow feeling a lot younger these days.  It's not physical, it's all mental...but it's decidedly real.   Wait, I think I can explain it better.

I feel like that brand new family in your old family photos.  When you look back at them, you always notice it's not the baby who looks so young.  I feel like that Dad in the background of some old TechniColour™ photograph that has barely started to shave, or recognize his potential, or menace over your existence with larger than life Dad powers and authority.  He's just standing there hoping you won't get chocolate pudding all over the interior of his Dodge wagon.  Mom's got funny hair, and a dress that Grandma macramé'd for her while you were on your Honeymoon in Niagara Falls.  

What's not in the photo, but it's palpable....is how much life is there to live, straight ahead.  That's where I am.  Envisioning camping trips, scraped knees, temper tantrums, pup tents, cat mangling, watermelon seeds, piles of broken and neglected toys, Superman sheets, lunch pails.....

Here is my Dad, snuggin' and snarfin' my brother Dave during his first few months of life, and Dad's first crack at fatherhood:

Howdy Folks!

Oooops, forgot to post this fun interview for y'all to peep.  This time my good man TD at iTodd Lounge unleashed his Q&A on me for the new (and very first) "Snapshots" feature.  More free talkin', run-on sentences about music, life, and daddydom from me, SC. 

Make your Granny proud and click here to rock the action:

http://itoddlounge.wordpress.com/snapshots-new/snapshots-scott-cooper/

Much Love & Stuff;
COOP

Howdy Folks,

I had the extreme pleasure to be interviewed and featured in this really cool indie music/culture site Pop-Rock Candy Mountain!  They made the mistake of letting me talk freely about...well, a lot of stuff.  Do your pants a favour and check it all out right here:

http://poprockcandymountain.com/?p=1029

Thanks to the lovely Aly Bike for the interview and opportunity.  When you're done with me, take some time to peep around the PRCM site...there's tons of goodness to take in.

Much Love,
COOP

My first son, Sam Aengus Cooper, was born on May 26th.  He was 5 weeks premature, so his early arrival was quite a shock to say the least.  After a series of surreal and nightmarish events, we wound up delivering him in Markham (!!) instead of the ideally-planned one-block-from-our-home Mount Sinai Hospital in downtown Toronto.  After a marathon length, all-natural birth by my heroic Cookie Momster, Sam was whisked away to an incubator in the Special Care Nursery.   We spent 10 long, scary and emotional days at the hospital (an hour from home) trying to get our precious boy home to us.  The experience has left me grateful, but I really don't recommend it (the method, not the having-of-kids part).

We are extremely happy to have Sam safely at home now, and are getting into the swing of this parenting thing.  We are sleep deprived and scared, but absolutely, positively, over-the-moon in love with our new baby boy and excited about our new life all together.  I could spend hours just looking at this little human bean we created together.  He is an absolute marvel to behold.  I feel completely dwarfed by his significance and the weight of being a responsible father.  

Here's what's been on my mind:  There are people in this world whose job it is to save babies lives.  That's right.  Every single day, they grab their morning coffee and shuffle off to the "shop" and save babies.  Infant, human beings!  How is any career not rendered inconsequential by this fact?  This sort of thing is going on while we stack parts in a production plant, serve coffee, clean toilets, micro manage other people, teach guitar, write plays, design websites, sell cars, or drive trucks...for what?  I'm left with the realization that the only important thing on this planet is the quality time you spend with loved ones.  What does it mean to live in a wealthy country when we don't use the freedom and opportunity to truly enrich our lives?

Much Love & Stuff;
COOP

I've been shooting a video over the past week or so for "Goodbye City".  So far, I've been doing the initial shots by myself, super low budget guerilla style.  Lots of alleyways, parking lots, sunsets, sunrises, and urban spaces.  It's more like taking photographs, I guess.  It's been good, geeky fun.  Walking around the city looking for beauty in strange places always makes me appreciate urban life in some new and unexpected way.  I've found some pretty amazing graffiti and lovely hidden spots that I would have never otherwise discovered.  (My appreciation for graffiti has quintupled since a friend sent me this awesome book about Banksy, an unbelievable artist and urban terrorist.  Have your mind blowed and check him out!)

So today (and not shooting), I started walking through all these back streets and stuff again.  Partly to stay off the main streets and limit my contact with the pedestrian mob and cars, but also because I was enjoying the new route through the backstreets.  Until this morning, that is.   

I came through one alley and upon a small group of squeegee/panhandler/punker type dudes all squatting and hanging out.  One of them shot up and came right up to me, and intensely shadowed me for about 20 seconds with every line in the book.  I had my iPod on, but I'm not (that) retarded so I paused it so I could hear him and keep an eye on him.  

"Oh so hungry, give me some money so I can eat.  Come on man, just some change, whatever you got...."

Did I wake up in Morocco or something?  This guy was intense.  I continued to ignore him, saying "sorry, man...no change" etc and kept right on walking.  He assumed that I wasn't even listening to him, probably because I had my earphones on so he changed his tune and started in with the "I should beat your ass, gimme some money you asshole..." etc etc...all the while looking like he was just asking for money.

When I heard that last bit, I have no idea why, but I stopped and faced him directly and said (firmly, but calmly) "What did you say to me?"  He assumed that to mean I wasn't listening to him the entire time and only now just tuned in.  But I meant it in my best tough guy, Taxi Driver way.  He went right back to the nice guy routine,

"Just need a few cents to eat, man...can't you spare just a little change, pleeease?"
"I said I didn't have any change six times to you already, back off and quit following me."
"Oh yeah, no money but you got an iPod.  I should just take that, eh!?"
"What, you want to eat my iPod?"  (Ha-ha, I'm pretty funny right?)
"Fuck you and your iPod, man." 

Oooohhkay, buddy.

I know I shouldn't get involved with this stuff, it's really stupid.  I was in some back alley, only his panhandler buddies were around (although they didn't seem interested at all).  The thing is, my adrenaline didn't kick in, I wasn't scared or nervous or even riled up.  I've been finding myself getting my back up a lot more these days and I think it has to do with having our child on the way.  Instead of just shutting my mouth and moving along, I start thinking, "what if I were here with my kid and this guy got in our face?" and I start getting all aggressive and stand-offish with people.  I know some of that is instinctual, to defend and protect your child...maybe it's the male equivalent of nesting.  The baby isn't here, but I'm motivated beyond my control to prepare for his arrival.  That's my theory, anyhow.  

Please don't confuse my disdain for this type of person with a lack of compassion for the truly homeless.  This is a completely different beast.  Toronto and other urban cities almost always have a real homeless crisis.  It's a heartbreaking and chilling fact of life around here.  However, each of these places also has a small section of people who actively and willingly choose this lifestyle.  Not that they want to live on the street or benches, but because they want to live "off-the-grid".  No responsibilities, no taxes, no government.  They're also the loudest and most visible group, but somehow we lump them in with the rest.  Over time, their behaviour and day-to-day interactions harden you to the true mental, physical, and social plight of those who are legitimately homeless.  I wrote about this contradiction in my tune "Save Me" and am still figuring things out.  I don't imagine I will ever truly understand, yet I will be forced to deal with it every single day I live here.    

On this day, though...it really got to me.  Here I was taking the initiative to try and stay connected with a place (that's really, really easy to fall out of love with), and it threw back something I can't stand in my face.  Hmmmm.

It was kind of like the time I put my wang in the central vacuum cleaner port and got a 110-volt jolt instead of the nice, pleasant suction I was seeking.  It's not all bad, though.  Without the vacuum incident, I never would have earned my amazing nickname:  Lightning Rod.

Why am I telling you this?  Easy.  It gave me an excuse to write 'wang'.  Much like the beckoning of an unused vacuum port, it's simply a temptation I cannot resist.

Much Love & Stuff;
COOP

Interesting thing happened to me yesterday. 

I jumped into Starbucks to grab my afternoon cuppa rocket fuel.  Pretty stock stuff.  I order, the nice barista lass does her thing, hands me my tasty beverage and we have this exchange:

NBL:  Here ya go!  Can I get you anything else today!?
SC:  Nope, that's it...thanks.
NBL:  Looks like you need to work on your game.
SC:  I'm sorry?
NBL:  See, when I asked you if you wanted anything else, you're supposed to say "Yeah, how about your phone number!?"
SC:  Oh, right...I see.  Um.....yeah.  Sorry, I'm 34 years old and married.  But thank you.     

So basically, I felt simultaneously embarrassed, flattered, and guilty for rejecting another person who simply had the courage to put herself out there.  It's a strange thing to contemplate.  These youngsters are fearless.  Sigh.  It really is a curse, having these competition-worthy buns and fighting off the daily advances of hot-to-trot ladies.  (Pops collar, adjusts package)

Other amazing news to report is that my friend Sean Nilsson of Sheltered In Sound just released his amazing new record "Field Recordings From The City" into the world last night.  He played a rockin' set to a loving and warm audience at The Central.  If you recall, this was the record I produced and finished up around the new year mark.  It's so amazing seeing such great, honest music being put out there and people getting excited about it.  If you heard it, you would get excited about it, too.  So please, go check it out!

Much Love & Stuff;
COOP

HAVE YOU PURCHASED YOUR TICKETS TO THE JUNE 6TH TORONTO SHOW YET?  THEY ARE SELLING FAST!  AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT, GET YOURS NOW!

Howdy Folks!

As I type this, I am dressed in the scariest costume you've ever laid eyes
upon.  Picture it:  dim candlelight, a glowing laptop...and me in my
Batman underwear eating cold KFC drumsticks!  Ooooh, it's the stuff
nightmares are made of!!!

Things are going splendidly well with the record these days.  You know,
stuff like this:

+ SC in the Toronto Star:
--------------------

My first single "Tilt-A-Whirl" was featured in The Toronto Star in their highly coveted
"Anti-Hit List" column.  Each week, legendary Canadian music critic John
Sakamoto picks his favourite 10 new music tracks that hover beneath the
mainstream radar.  I'm a huge fan of this column, so to be included is
pretty dang cool to me.

Oh!  The other cool thing is that each "Anti-Hit List" is made into an
audio podcast, so you can download and hear all the tracks that are talked
about each week.  Awesome!!

For those of you that don't get The Star, here's where you can read it online:

http://www.thestar.com/article/272736

+ SC on the CBC:
----------------

The fine folks at CBC have been spinning my tracks over the past couple
weeks on cool shows like Ontario Morning, Fresh Air, Weekender, The Early
Shift...and more.  Got a favourite CBC show?  Please consider dropping
them an email to request one of my tunes.  This is PUBLIC RADIO, so
they're supposed to play music the public wants to hear.

Simply go to http://www.cbc.ca/radio  Type in the name of the program you
like into the search field, and all the info you need will come up.

Don't be shy, the power of listener requests is incredible!!


+ SC Toronto Show Nov 15th
-------------------------

+ THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15th, 2007
The Cameron House (http://www.thecameron.com)
Toronto, ON
Doors @ 8:30pm, $5.00

I'm on first at 9pm sharp!

SHOW INFO: Toronto City Roots Showcase (http://www.torontocityroots.com).
I'm excited to be a part of this amazing musical series at the Cameron.
Guitar ace Dean Drouillard will be accompanying me, providing some much
needed twang and sproing action. Also featured will be sets by Sarah Noni
Metzner (http://www.sarahnonimetzner.ca) and Michael Brennan
(http://www.michaelbrennan.ca/home.php).

Really hope to see you out on the 15th.  It's been a while.  How have you
been?

Back to my bucket of chicken.

Much Love & Stuff,
COOP

-- 
"...heart-stopping intimacy." - EXCLAIM!

Official SC Site: http://www.scottcoopermusic.com
Buy "Tiny Increments" at iTunes or CDBaby
Request my music at http://www.cbc.ca
Be my friend at http://www.myspace.com/scottcooper