little old, cute roger.
Today I went to a songwriters' workshop, which is put on once a month by Songwriter's Assocation of Canada, and I met the cutest little senior man there by the name of Roger Zbigniew Zuraw. I thought I would share with you all my story and of how adorable this man is. .
The first hour we had a workshop on songwriting, where a group of us had to write a story based on lyrics from a song. Just like most songs are written based on a story, we now had to try the reverse and write a story from the song. We all went around and told our stories and well, little Roger was the only one that simply described the song, as opposed to writing a story about it, hahaha. But the best part is that he didn't even realize it, even when we told him, hahahha, ohhh Roger.
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Anyway, the remainder of the time we all got an opportunity to perform the songs we've written. Roger's first song was called "My Timmins Baby" and added that "no, it's not about Shania Twain," hahaha. Roger writes simple story lines but fills his songs with such incredible detail that it doesn't matter how he sings the song, but you can really get into it, hahaha.
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The last song he played before I left was "My Home Toronto". This song is a dedication to Toronto, as he's lived here for 46 years. Listen to the lyrics, and imagine this cute little old cheesy man having the time of his life, and so optimistic about everything, even Toronto, the city, hahahhahha. When he performed this song, I could NOT stop laughing, and I know, I know....I realize that it might sound rude to be laughing at this man's piece of art, but he was laughing with me too, hahaha...plus, I couldn't control myself. I just about lost it when he sang "out on Roncevalles, there's the finest kielbasa, another part of town, my amigo, as que pasa", hahahhahahahahahhahhaha, ahem.
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Anyway, as I was leaving I happened to bump into him and he walked me down to the coffee shop where he invited me to other workshops he's a part of in the city and wanted to exchange contact info. This cute little old man doesn't even know how to use a computer so he said his nephew will be emailing me, and gave me his business card, which has a picture of the Toronto skyline on it - I mean, how cute is that? Little old roger.... you just wanna squeeze his cheeks, hahahah.
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As it turns out, little Roger was born in Wroclaw, Poland and has been writing songs since he moved to Canada in 1960. He has two CDs out, which can be purchased at the Chapters on Bloor West Village and often even performs there live. I was curious to see if Chapters would have it available online, and happened to found this site: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rogerzuraw
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I would recommend you have a listen if you want to lift up your spirits. You might react at first by doing what I did, which is laugh, but isn't that what it's all about? Isn't it all about entertaining and making us smile? Shouldn't songs make us feel good? Well his songs do just that. I hope most of you get this from the songs as well, not having met him, like I did, which is why I thought you might want to get to know him through my little story.
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Roger is one of those people that's had a great life, has a great sense of humour, never takes himself seriously, and can make you seriously smile, even if he is a little naive. Roger has such positive energy around him, that when his nephew emails me about the workshop, I will actually go.
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For those who speak Polish, check out song number 3: O Tobie, and listen for this: "daj mi cukier...cukier do kawy," hahhaha, made my day.
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Oh, and the tiltle of his CD couldn't have been more perfect - The Perfect Imperfect - he does "imperfect" so damn well.
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Have a great weekend everyone!
posted by agoosia @ 11:08 PM
2 Comments:
hey isn't that the same guy that our cousin Agnieszka was involved in her signing days!? ask mom, cause that name rings a bell big time.
Mom said no, but I might ask little cute old Roger still cause I don't know how well mom remembers Agnieszka's singing career, hahahhah.
He's a cute old dziadek eh? hahahha.
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