Wish him luck, and I understand where he is right now, but sure wish he had worked it out to stay with the band.

You can see interviews with Steven and Ed on this Canadian TV news site. It really is a sad day, and yet…well…the only constant in the world we live in is change. And change can be good in creative endeavours.

Thankfully, it was a friendly separation by all accounts. It leaves the door open for Steve to jump back into BnL, either temporarily or maybe even as a regular member again someday. (I mean, if Ships and Dip taught me anything, it taught me that artists dropping in on each other is a great thing.)  I’m really looking forward to seeing what both he and the band do in their separate projects. I really liked Steven’s Vanity Project album. And I think, maybe, in some ways BnL will grow into the hole he’s going to leave in the band.

You can follow Steve at his blog, and also read about several really kewl sounding projects he’s doing.

It’s okay to be sad, but don’t write anybody off. Life is all about creation and creation is all about growing and changing.

Good for him. I hope he turns things around. And I’m looking forward to the new BNL album, and also a new Steven Page solo album which seems like it’s in the works.

Be careful guys! I need a new album!

I was reading some of the fan boards today and it’s amazing just how Google and Flikr have really made everyone’s life more public.

• Here’s the official police report made by Steven’s girlfriend’s roommate.
• Here’s Steven’s girlfriend’s photo stream on Flikr

Yeah, not feeling positive about the “exonerated on all charges” statement now. I hope Steven can straighten out his life. It’s sad to see him mixed up in all this. Hopefully the band can get through this. They seem like a pretty tight group, although, as I was saying, on the last cruise they seemed to have a kind of distance between them that I hadn’t seen before. I distinctly remember Steven kind of seeming just a tiny bit at odds with other band members. There was something mentioned about how he and Kevin had a fist-fight because Kevin wouldn’t introduce him to Lou Reed. Originally, I thought it was a joke, but they were so serious about it, I wasn’t sure.

Steven Page on Ships and Dip 3

With any luck, Steven will find a way to get through all this. Seems like a bit of a rock star mid-life crisis. I suppose I shouldn’t feel disappointed, knowing the music industry is what it is, but I can’t say it doesn’t bug me. But I want to see Steve rise above what I would call stupidity and move on, as so many other artists have done.  Good luck, Steve. Good luck, BNL…

Natasha and I were actually talking not too long ago about Ships and Dip III, the Barenaked Ladies cruise that we went on earlier this year, and we were thinking that Steven, of all the band members, seemed a little grumpy. He showed up with a full beard, too, which I don’t think too many people liked. In fact, I remember some people threw razors on the stage (from the in-cabin store of toiletries) and he shouted something kind of grumpy about not coming to their work and throwing guns on the stage, I think. Was kind of a joke, but it just sounded grumpy for him.

It might have just been our impression, because ultimately, the band seemed to have fun. Neither of us knew that Steven had broken up with his wife either. We saw him around the ship quite a lot with a cute girl who was covered in tatoos, and assumed that was his wife. They seemed really happy together. We even watched them take pictures with some other guests and they totally seemed to be having fun with it.

Anyway, my best wishes go out to him and the band. I can only hope he really wasn’t involved in the whole drug thing.

Barenaked Ladies at the last show of Ships and Dip 3