Last night Amanda and I hit up the Hifi Club in Calgary to watch Frank Black, the singer from the Pixies, do his solo show. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked in. The past few Frank Black shows have each had a different lineup of musicians on stage so I never know what I’ll be seeing. Tonight he was playing solo and it was interesting for the first 20 minutes or so but got boring quickly after that. Frank writes dynamic songs that are best performed by a whole band who can bring the sound down for a quiet verse and then explode when Frank belts out the chorus. When they’re played solo, the songs lack those dynamics.
Before the show we had a good visit with my cousin Nick, his wife Aimee, and Rowen, their 10-month old.
Today will probably be a mellow day of Olympics watching, some more visiting, and I’ll have to pack for the beginning of my adventure tomorrow.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)The past couple of days I’ve been planning my cross Canada route. I’ve decided to go through Canada on the way east and to head back through the States. My journey is going to roughly look like this:
Calgary -> Regina -> Winnipeg -> Thunder Bay -> Sault Ste Marie -> Ottawa -> Montreal -> Quebec City -> Charlettown
I’m for sure going to stop and check out Winnipeg for a few hours since it’s the home of the Weakerthans. On the advice of my Aunt Julia I’m also going to spend a little time at Fort William in Thunder Bay. Montreal and Quebec deserve a little time too although I won’t be there too long on the way out. I’m thinking I may make time for a couple of days in Montreal on the way back before I head to the States for the faster route home.
Assuming I don’t stop too much, I expect I’ll be in PEI in 7-8 days.
This past week I’ve been getting all sorts of things tied up and visiting with my people in Calgary and Amanda’s people. I had a great dinner with the Revak clan and was also out with Amanda’s parents the other evening. Now I’m into the last weekend before the big trip!
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)The first leg of my cross-Canada trip started today with a drive to Vernon. Amanda finally got to meet my Mom and we don’t have to drive to Calgary in one day. The drive over the Coquihalla was sunny and amazing. When we got here we all piled into my car to head down to the Italian Kitchen for good food and wine. This place is always packed but we managed to sneak in before the crowds hit. Finally the day was completed with a tasty pie.
Something you may not know about me is that I have a serious thing for good pies. My Mom used to make some of the best pies when I was young and the love affair with the pie has blossomed ever since. When we were on the island this past week I picked up a delicious rhubarb and berry crumble in a pie shell from a small bakery in Ladysmith. Amanda claims I talked about the pie all day until finally, after our late night BBQ on Long Beach, the pie was taken out and sliced up. I took one bite of the pie, gave a quizzical look at the fork I was using, put the fork down and demolished the rest of the piece with my bare hands. Upon seeing this Amanda exclaimed, “the fork is only a barrier for the pie man!”
Tomorrow we head to Calgary where I will stay for the next week since Frank Black, lead singer for the Pixies, is performing on Sat, Aug 9. On the Monday I’ll be continuing on to the east coast.
If anyone has any leads on an exceptional pie shop in Calgary please share!
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (1)Last night we all wound up at Grouse Mountain for a fancy dinner on top of the mountain. It’s neat to do fine dining from time to time. I had a “rabbit salad” which was pretty much awesome. After that we wandered around the top of the hill, contemplated trying out the logrolling thing, and then took the gondola back down.
We weren’t super-energetic yesterday morning and finally stumbled over to Reilly and Miranda’s to make a waffle breakfast. They live in a live-work place and have leased the next door unit so they can separate their living space from their working space. Yesterday they were waiting for keys to the new unit so they couldn’t leave to go for breakfast, hence the waffle thing at their apartment. All good times.
Today I have to finish unpacking from the last adventure and then repack because I’m heading east tomorrow morning. Amanda and I will be in Calgary until the 11th and then I’ll continue heading east to eventually hit PEI.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)I’m trying to catch up on my blogging since I’ve been too busy doing things to sit down and write about them.
Last I left the Pemberton Festival I was in a cafe on the third and final day. Day 2 was finished up with The Flaming Lips and Tom Petty. The Lips were awesome as always! Their show is a spectacle of chaos with confetti canons firing, a couple dozen people dressed as teletubbies dancing on the sides of the stage, and other random things happening during the performance. Wayne, the singer, came out in his giant transparent ball and rolled across the crowd. I love the Flaming Lips and I’m sad that I’m not going to see them again this summer.
Tom Petty was cool to watch too. Didn’t stay for the whole thing since an entire day in the dusty heat can wear you out. Fortunately, they had better communication about their shuttle service so we made it back to the campground without having to walk anywhere.
The last day started with Vampire Weekend. I was a little tired so I slept through most of their set and only opened my eyes for their big hit song. The singer had these goofy 80′s style sunglasses on and I thought he looked as though he belonged on the set of The Breakfast Club.
There was a big wait after Vampire Weekend since the next act was delayed by all the traffic in Pemberton. Finally, the hip-hop group N.E.R.D. hit the stage and got busy with the show. Now, I’m not a big fan of rap (you can’t spell ‘crap’ without ‘rap’) but these guys were pretty awesome. They somehow managed to get a pile of girls from the audience onstage for their last couple songs and it felt like I was seeing the 2 Live Crew.
The N.E.R.D. show was so good that we didn’t make it over to the sidestage to see Wintersleep until their last couple of songs. Great band and I’ll have to see a proper show by them one day.
For me, the highlight of the day was Death Cab For Cutie. I’m not a huge fan of their albums, but their show at Sasquatch earlier this year was heavier and really good so I wanted to see them again. They weren’t as heavy this time, but they were entertaining nonetheless.
Jay-Z was the second hip-hop act of the day and he was super good as well. I’m still not a rap fan, but I enjoyed their show, especially as they had a full live band who would bust out some AC/DC in the background while Jay-Z laid down his stuff.
Finally we waited in the cool evening for Coldplay. Another good band although, to be honest, I’m not as big a fan of these huge acts with the slick production behind them. It’s neat to watch, but I find that the music isn’t as much the focus when the stage is bombarding you with flashing lights and video clips.
So that was the end of Pemberton. We cut out from Coldplay early to beat the crowd back to parking. The next morning Amanda and I packed up at 6 and jetted home on the sea to sky before everyone else started stumbling out of the festival camping.
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