Not playing too many shows in the next little bit, but I will be up to Edmonton, back to Calgary, and then up to Yellowknife. SOSFest, Calgary Stampede, and then Folk on the Rocks.

That’s all I really have to say today. I hope that you are having a great day, and I encourage you to spend some time with someone special.

Far out,
Michael

Can you guess what city will come next??

Favorite Hotel: Hotel Le Crystal
Run away from: Thunder Bay Travelodge

The tour also showed me that I am incredible at reversing the van and trailer. We had some tricky spots to back into and I moved the vehicle like a seasoned big rig driver. Pretty stoked. Back up plan! Literally.

After Saskatoon we were back in Calgary for 4 days and then I left on an American road trip. On the first night I saw beautiful Beaver, Utah. For the record there is nothing in Beaver. Also be careful when ordering salads at Wendy’s. I wish that it never happened. Oh Beaver… Why would I choose the taco salad? Don’t do it. From Beaver I headed to the Grand Canyon for lunch and arrived in Phoenix in time to see my little brother play sax at a talent show. The Canyon was amazing, I recommend it to anyone.

I spent a week in Phoenix and then left for Palm Springs. Thanks to facebook I ran into some friends vacationing there and we had a great time. Great food. Great pool. From Palm Springs I drove two hours to LA. The LA trip was great; got to spend time with some great people. Went for a bike ride along Venice beach and had delicious french toast in Hollywood. Bakersfield was next. I stayed with a friend from junior high school, had sushi and Baskin Robbins. Watched Turner and Hooch – great work Mr Tom Hanks.

San Fransisco was the next stop, stayed there for two days. My new parking garage friend Jose parked the van and I saw the city on foot. Walked the pier, walked to the golden gate bridge, through the park, and took in an Alcatraz tour. Alcatraz was surreal, I didn’t think I would enjoy the tour as much as I did. Randomly ran into some great friends from Calgary on the pier and had a night out with them. Randomly decided that I wanted to leave, got the car back and took the golden gate bridge to Sausalito for dinner. After dinner I took the highway along the coast and ended up at a California state park, camping for the night.

Woke up at this random camping site (when I arrived the night before it was too dark to see). On one side of the site was the ocean, and on the other side was the bay. Got going fairly early and started driving again. Had lunch at Cafe Aquatica and decided it was the best lunch of the entire trip. I want to play there one day as well. Aaron, the owner, had just built an outdoor stage and we decided that next time I was through I would play it. Maybe August? Drove a few hours and ended up at another camping site. Met a bunch of great people from the Sacramento area and had dinner and a campfire with them. They were all massive Paramore fans, and I really enjoyed hearing acoustic campfire covers. “That’s what you get when you let your heart win.”

I also did laundry at the campground. For the record.

Drove along the coast and started getting into the redwood forest. Those trees are amazing. Stopped at the redwood tree that you can drive through, but the van was too big, so I had to walk through. I made a motor sound with my mouth and used my fingers for signal lights. jk. I did however practice some pay it forward and paid
admission for the two motorcycles behind me. I then took their photos going through the tree. We chatted for about 25 minutes, decided that they should go to Vancouver Island, and then I continued to the Oregon border. Again I must stress, the redwoods are incredible.

Crossed into Oregon and about 30 minutes into the state I found a great Oregon state park to stay at. The campground had both ocean and forest. I spent some time on the beach, ate dinner and decided that it was the best campground in the world. I also decided that I wanted to see some rain as the entire trip had been dry. At 10pm it started raining and didn’t stop for 48 hours. At first it was what I wanted, but then I was over it.

Drove from the campground into Portland, parked the van and checked into the hotel. Found a great coffee shop and had delicious Thai food. On my walk back I found a donut shop and though I don’t often eat donuts, I had a craving. The Portland creme was delicious. On the walk back to the hotel I ran into two 60 year old homeless men. Bought them Portland cremes and pitched on a 6-pack of Pabst. I ended up spending an hour with them. Great night.

Sometimes these beautiful cities I think are more for couples. I had a lot of fun on my own, but I could see how Portland and San Fran would be a lot of fun as a date. Restaurants with elbows locked. One day I will go back.

From Portland I set the GPS on ‘Twilight’ and drove to Port Angeles. Though I was worried about vampires and werewolves I felt safe enough to roll my window down and buy a ferry ticket to Victoria. I also made some twitter vampire jokes. I thought they were very funny. The ferry ride was just over an hour and then came Canadian customs. Because I like bounty sheets and febreze to keep the giant heavy chevy van fresh I was searched for an hour as apparently those products are both good for throwing off drug dogs??? I had a long chat with a border guard about the trip while four others searched the van. They even searched under the hood. Thankfully they didn’t find out that my entire engine contained no metal, it was made completely of illicit materials. After I was cleared I offered them some free CDs.

Victoria and Nanaimo were beautiful as always. Thank you Chris Dowsett for the great photoshoots and video. Christopher Troy Dowsett is an amazing photographer and his rates are always more than fair. Check him out on facebook or send me a message for more details on how to get in touch with him.

In Victoria I played a show for War Child Canada at a private high school. Great afternoon. From there I was ferry bound again headed to Vancouver and from Vancouver I drove 11 hours back to Calgary. I am so tired of driving and my back hurts! I am getting the van serviced today and my friend Donald here at the shop says that the trip was 21000kms.

28 cities in 51 days. I can’t wait to go away again. Next I head to Toronto, Vancouver and Yellowknife?? haha. I will be home for a couple weeks.

Now that I have finished writing this book I will go and ice my fingers.

love,
Michael

clerical ps: We are so close to 1000 twitter followers. The Valerie video is amazing, get on there please and thank you. Also MOVIE LIFE is out, it is on iTunes and is in the library at your favorite radio stations. Send or call in a request and put a comment up on iTunes if you have time. Show announcements are coming soon.

Thank you for everything. I appreciate it all. Looking forward to seeing you soon.

I really do appreciate being random and open in my approach. I have no idea of what will transpire before my flight back to Calgs Friday night. Because of that I am fully excited. THE SHOW however is at 5pm on Friday at the Alberta House Pavilion – which is located on Robson. I actually don’t know much about the show. I do know that it is free, I have heard that it is not discriminatory of age, and I also know that my label mates, (and calgs boys) The Dudes, will be playing after us. Which means it will be a solid solid night.

I am coming with the almost full mbf and sons line up. So Russ on guitar, Steve on keys, Josh on bass, Corbett on drums, Aaron and Jamie on trumps, Steve on sax, and Philly on the soundboard. We will also have our main label detail man Steve somewhere near the stage putting out any fires. My lawyers name is also Steve. I believe that if I wrote down the name Steve on a piece of paper and put it in my pocket and mysteriously lost all of my short term memory – I could pull out the piece of paper, say the name Steve, and really get a lot of stuff done. Me saying ‘Steve, please do your thing’ would result in beautiful sax and keyboards, a clerical advantage and a set of legal recommendations. Luckkyyyy.. lol.

So Vancouver please don’t let me down. I know you are busy, but I believe that we should have a great time together before I have to leave. The last show, mbf and the Loud Love Choir, came to town on February 6th and I have to say it was an amazing night. One of my favorites for sure. The crowd was great, so thank you Vancouver. You really made my day. Friday will be a party.

I would like to point out that the Alberta House Pavilion is the only Olympic related place that serves BIG ROCK BEER – I proudly rep the brand wherever I go. For all those that want to hang while we are in town, a bottle of Big Rock is a great start.

Thank you world for being so great.
love.
Michael

Picture 80-100 voices singing different parts in unison, with percussion and acoustic guitar under all of the vocal layers. To me it is a dream come true, I am loving every minute with this choir. The shows are coming up fast, we have one more rehearsal on Sunday in our stage clothes, and then it’s Lethbridge on Tuesday! I am really excited.

Come and hang with us, a portion of the proceeds are going to War Child Canada – they are sending a rep named Alyson to tour with us! so much fun.

We will hopefully be coming to your town in the next couple weeks, see you soon.

To the choir – thank you so very much for all your hard work.

love,
Michael

My dream is to one day take a choir across the country, this time we will start with five cities. The tour starts in LA! (Lethbridge, Alberta) then stops twice in Calgary. We start driving the next day and hit Kelowna, sleep, Vancouver, few sleeps and then Edmonton. It will be a great time and I have to start choosing movies for the coach bus rides. Any suggestions? I’m thinking they have to be uplifting. So maybe start with Sister Act 1 and 2 and then I’m not really sure. Homeward Bound?

I will semi-regularly be updating about progress with the choir over the next two weeks. They are an amazing group, I am luck to be able to sing with them… In the meantime I will also be playing for the rest of the week in BC with the talented Carly Rae Jepsen. We get to go to her home town which will be great. Its always nice to see a hometown hero return home. I’m hoping to see some screaming CRJ fans.

Love to Haiti,
Michael

The show in Ottawa was a lot of fun, and I am getting ready to play Waterloo tonight. Next week I fly to Vancouver to play with Carly Rae Jepsen. First show is on the 20th at the Media Club, and from there we roll to Kamloops and Mission. Should be a really great week. After that I get back to Calgary for the final choir rehearsals. MBF and the Loud Love choir bus leaves Calgary on February 2 for Lethbridge. I will write more about rehearsals and the tour next time!

I am excited to see you all in the next few months. We will be hitting a lot of great Canadian cities.

Please remember to send your love to Haiti too. The financial aid is 100 percent needed, but a little love goes a long way as well.

redcross.ca

Michael

I am looking for your hand-heart pictures. I’m sure you can make yours more interesting than mine! Going to bed at 4 and waking up at 9 made mine look tired… Send in a photo with a hand in the shape of a heart. The most interesting photos will get prizes!

Prize 1 (for the Toronto folks):
An invitation to bring a friend and join me on the town, December 19th, my last day in Toronto, for tea and desert!

Prize 2 (for my hometown Calgary):
Same as above, but on December 13th, when I am in Calgary for the day!

Prize 3 (for Canada):
A signed copy of the MBF Love LP and an autographed t-shirt.

To take part send your photos, and the city you are from to michael@ilovembf.com by Friday, December 11th. We’ll announce the winners sometime that evening!!!

Please include your name, address, and the best number to reach you at.

Speaking of reach you, the song is still available for free download at www.ilovembf.com – please tell 100,000 friends!

Love MBF

Tuesday also had a session with Russell Broom, so stay tuned for recordings of ‘Fresh Start’ and ‘Secret Keeper’. Russell Broom is an amazing dude.

I want to say thank you to my wonderful Calgary friends and family. Josh you are the man, thank you for lunch and dinner. Mom I wouldn’t have made that flight if it wasn’t for you.

Montreal Saturday, Wakefield Sunday, Supermarket again Wednesday!

Thank you all very much. I appreciate all the messages, photos and videos. Please keep it coming.

love,
Michael

We love our bread,
we love our butter,
but most of all,
we love each other.

love,
Michael