Davey

performance enhancing

I don’t write these every Saturday morning. I don’t think I’ve ever written one of these on a Saturday morning, actually. As I write this particular post, I’m sitting in my home office, listening to Art Blakey and drinking my third cup of coffee for the day.

What am I doing as you READ this? I’m in Grande Prairie, Alberta on the morning of a 2-day stint at The Great Northern Casino, playing guitar for an award-winning Elvis tribute show. As this is being posted, I’m preparing to make my way to a local tattoo studio to hang out with a friend who’s in-turn going to cause me pain for a few hours. There’s a vegan bakery / breakfast spot across the street from the studio. Should be a nice lil’ Saturday.

Anyway… following a conversation with a biohacker earlier this year, I decided to rekindle my coffee addiction. Caffeine provides more benefit than detriment – a piece of trivia I have always known, but never thought about in such terms. Caffeine is a performance enhancing drug that is zero-calorie in it’s purest form (which I sully with a carefully measured 1/4 cup of oat milk as of late), and it’s side effects include suppressing hunger, and life longevity. It’s also delicious and makes my house smell fantastic.

Historically, I’ve been a podcast and audiobook guy in my gym-related efforts, but I’ve decided to embrace music streaming, which is something I’m ultimately pretty new to, honestly. I’ve always been a fan of physical formats – vinyl records, especially – but have officially joined the 21st century, and if anything it’s helped me to be more intentional with my record collecting. But on the treadmill, it’s been a game changer.

My favorite maneuver right now is find a record I’m unfamiliar with, or have never heard… or at least haven’t heard in a long time… and get on the treadmill and listen to it front-to-back. There are some things I’ve found that are good, but maybe not good for the treadmill, some things that are good specifically for the treadmill, and some garbage. What’s interesting is how my performance on the treadmill varies.

What should shock nobody is that Rock & Roll is a performance enhancing drug.

Previously, I’d decided for myself that to zone out to music while doing physically demanding things was somehow not ‘living in the moment‘ and while I’m sure that’s still the case, I suppose I’ve concluded that not every experience needs to be meditative. I still prioritize momentary living as best I can, however I do need to acknowledge that I also believe that to entertain people is a noble pursuit, and one that I actively take part in as often as I sensibly can – so allowing someone to entertain ME while I do hard things can’t be as bad as I’d previously thought.

Maybe I’m evolving in my thoughts on this.
Maybe I’m devolving.
Maybe it doesn’t matter.

If I was talking to someone else besides myself right now, I’d tell then to listen to whatever helps them to move their bodies… whatever enriches their lives… and whatever speaks to them.

And right now, rock & roll is speaking to me.
Rock & roll is always speaking to me.

here we go again

We’re a couple days into 2026 now, and although I’ve done my level best to clean up my feed, there’s still so much negative posting about 2025… celebrity deaths being the main culprit, I suppose, as there’s been a bunch of those in the past little while.

I’ve got some real sour news for everyone. If you’re hanging your entire year on the prospect that no celebrities, filmmakers, or musicians you ever liked will die then you are setting yourself up for massive disappointment. Death is really the only thing we’re guaranteed in this life, as it’s the only thing that fate really owes any of us.

Of course, many of these are close to home, and it’s perfectly natural to be upset about the loss of people who shaped your childhood. I’m still upset about Harold Ramis, and nobody can take that away from me, BUT the people who enriched your life as you were growing up are much older than you, and they; too, are given a finite number of days to spend on this planet.

We’re lucky to be alive at the same time as any of them.

This year is going to have it’s ups and downs.
Some really great things are going to happen.
Some absolute shit things are going to happen, too.

How do you want to handle them?
I recommend grace and optimism.

I used to refer to myself as a realist, until one day I came to the conclusion that this “realistic” view of the world I was holding onto was inherently negative. I guess bad things happen… but good things happen just as often, sometimes more often.

I can’t honestly say that my life is worse now than it was a year ago… maybe you CAN say that, but we all have the power to improve things in our lives. It starts with wanting it, but you’re going to have to do some work to get there.

I wish you all the best this year.

another spin

I suppose it’s that time now.

If I’m being completely frank, I’m entirely satisfied that the interruption of my regularly scheduled food regimen and workout schedule is coming to an end. The holiday hours at my gym are less than ideal and at the risk of sounding like a total grinch, the notion that Christmas is ONE SINGLE DAY that seems to infringe upon us from December 20th until about January 3rd is irritating.

I like Christmas. Don’t get me wrong… but I feel like I am one of the few that acknowledges that traditionally, Christmas Eve is the day that a family would go out and cut down some unsuspecting sapling, then on Christmas morning the kind would open their (singular) present, and play with their newfound toy until dinner was ready. Boxing day is a tradition by which leftover food would be ‘boxed up’ and taken to the cornerstone of every community – the church – where the less fortunate folks go go enjoy a meal of leftovers…

… and that’s ultimately it.

What my brain knows about this holiday season, and what my credit card statement knows about this holiday season, are vastly different. My credit card statement’s knowledge of the history of christmas only goes back about 30 days.

It’s fine. I’m happy everyone had a nice christmas, and honestly, I had a nice Christmas.

I don’t live to work out. Nor do I live to eat.
I eat and workout to live.
And taking breaks is an important part of living.

But… now it’s time to get back into my regularly regimented program of eating nutrient-dense food and beating the absolute shit out of myself at the gym. My goals for the new year haven’t really changed much. My athletic goals are an augmented update of the previous year, and my artistic goals are an augmented update of the previous year… and with each passing year those things are more and more important.

My goals need to be steady, really. I’ve got a teenager in my house who is going to finish high school, become a legal adult, and enroll in a post-secondary program that will set her up in a better way than I ever was. Ultimately, I’ll be riding shotgun for those huge steps in amongst my own smaller old man steps.

I’m lucky I get to do that.
I’m stoked for it.
I’m sure you’ll get to read about some of it.

Happy new year, y’all.
All the best in 2026!

holidays

I try to be transparent in these posts – I really do – though I’m cognisant of the fact that; although I think or feel a certain way when I’m sitting at my computer with a coffee and a peaceful house around me, sometimes the follow-through of my namaste demeanor out in the real world is… let’s say… harder to spot in a crowd.

It’s that same contrast that allows us to identify that Christmas is the season of giving while simultaneously road-raging our way to-&-from the mall on a Saturday afternoon. So, in that way… It’s not even a thing I’m willing to apologize for… because we are a complex and messy race; we humans, and are worthy of a little grace and understanding.

But it’s in that very lack of apology that I must also allow people to be people… and generally speaking, people are panicky, stressed out, over-caffeinated, under-slept, hangry, and financially maxed out at the best of times, but December adds it’s own layer of chaos to the mix that tends to result in an additional element of ‘unpredictable.’

That’s fine.
All most people need is a little space, I think.
And a sandwich.

This phenomenon isn’t relegated to strangers. There’s a good chance that your friends and people in your family are behaving erratically as well – and after a recent observation, roughly 1/3 of people (an American statistic, but how different could Canada really be?) are estranged from their families or members thereof.

I think a lot of people are shocked when they hear a family member is estranged, but as someone who has put distance between myself and certain members of my family (in the past, for a good while) I can honestly say than any time I’ve heard that someone has chosen to do this, I’ve congratulated them on making an obviously very difficult decision to take care of themselves first. When an airplane loses cabin pressure and the oxygen masks drop, you are instructed to put your own mask on before assisting others, and don’t think this metaphor is out of place here.

There are also seasons to everything.
The end of my estrangement situation came with the death of a parent’s partner.

I guess what I’m taking the scenic route around to saying is that the holidays are just as hard as they are magical – and it’s okay for the holidays to be both hard and magical… so as we close in on the most hellacious part of the whole ordeal, I hope that whatever your Christmas or Christmas-adjacent plans might be, or where they might take you, that you find some peace, love, and hope.

I also hope; on a more personal level, that you choose to celebrate without harming any of our fellow earthlings – the ones who can’t speak up for themselves. Veganuary can start ANY TIME.

Happy whatever-you’re-into, everyone.

the end of the year

It’s coming up quick… resolution time.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, then you know I couldn’t care less about resolutions, particularly around the new year. I’m a firm believer that the new year starts when you make a change in your life, not the other way around.

I became vegan on March 28, 2000. That was the start of a New Year.
I started working for the company I work for in September of 2011. New Year.
I started training for a triathlon in September of 2021. New Year.

Usually for me, it’s in September or October – which; as I type this, I realize I missed the anniversary of me starting this blog. I guess I’ve been too focused on making the changes I’ve wanted to make to stop and look around at what I’ve accomplished. And… that’s okay… it’s okay that I missed it, and it’s okay that my focus was elsewhere.

I do what I can to stay in the present moment… just like my dog.
He’s a constant reminder of the present moment.
He’s hungry when he’s hungry, he wants to play when he wants to play… not a moment before or after. When we’re walking and I have to pry chicken bones out of his mouth, he’s mad at me in the moment – but a moment later, he’s over it, and he reminds me of this, because I am still pissed off about it moments later, and he’s very irritatingly past it. I strive for this.

However, when I’m making plans for the future, and celebrating the past, I’m not in the moment. I’m living in the future or the past – but rarely the present.

That’s what I want.
More and More, I want that.
But I’m staring at my phone too much.

I actually make my living in nostalgia, both in my day job and in my art… but when I’m playing LIVE, or in the throes of MAKING a record (which I am currently involved in) I am IN the moment and it’s amazing.

And as I typed all that, I was in the moment.
That’s why it was a bit of a tangent.

Anyway… nostalgia is okay.
The past and future are okay.
There’s no shame in thinking about those things, I guess.
We’re geared to think about those things.
But to be truly in the moment is magic.

Not staring at my phone.
Not thinking about how long I have to wait until the snow melts.
Not thinking about New Year’s resolutions.

In the here and now.
And right here, right now, it’s Saturday Morning.
Isn’t that amazing?

vibration

I’m sure I’m not alone in my observations here, but my social media feed has devolved a few notches in an effort to show me content that does not align with my values at all… and by that I mean the advent of artists talking shit about other artists in an effort to… I don’t know, raise their own profile?

I move in country music circles a bit, so I’m speaking primarily about this Gavin Adcock character, whom I’ve never heard of before a few weeks ago, who has grabbing headlines by talking shit about Charley Crockett and Zach Bryan. I won’t get into the back-story because the back-story isn’t the point. The point is that I have now heard of Gavin Adcock, a man who’s decided to take issue with the ‘authenticity’ of other country singers to the point of publicly slinging arrows at Charley Crockett, who has said nothing and continued to just do his thing, which includes making records and entertaining fans.

Since then, Zach Bryan (another country singer) and Paul Cauthen (yet another country singer) have decided to weigh in on a discussion that never involved them in an effort to grab some headlines as well… Bryan going so far as to climbing over a chain-link fence at a music festival to confront Adcock.

I hate this.
This is Trump-style politicking within the arts community.
These people should be creating community and art and propping each other up rather than tearing each other down.

Since then I’ve seen some other musician I’ve never heard of is taking similar shots at Yungblood in hopes of netting a similar result.

This is some low-vibrational shit.
I hold nothing but contempt for so-called ‘reality TV’ and do not wish to see it permeate culture more than it already has. It’s done irreparable damage to our artistic media already, and only serves to distract us from our purpose on this planet.

We should be creating or supporting.

Just take care of each other.
Build each other up and support what you love, and leave what you don’t love alone. There’s so much amazing stuff being created every day and this soap-opera drama is negatively impacting our lives, even if we don’t realize it at the time.

This is not normal or healthy behavior.

Create or support.
Those are our only real viable options here… make something, or support someone else who’s making something.

Increase your vibration.

look at me now

Hey all,

Time for another one of these songwriting videos. This one is a fictional story about my car… but it draws from real life experience.

What I don’t mention in the video is that the impetus for writing this song came from Mike McDonald of Jr. Gone Wild fame when I did a songwriting circle with him, Kimberley MacGregor, and Sean Herbert (we actually did a few of those…) and I mentioned the 7-year cell-replacement factoid (mentioned in the video above) in relation to another story I was telling, and he encouraged me to develop that idea further.

Anyway… enjoy!