North of 49

Well I thought this would be unlikely if not impossible but it seems I have the same blog title as some else on here. Now what to do? I am going to think of a new name and search it. Just keep on doing this till I find a no results message. Or go to the help section and see if there is an easier way. Maybe it doesn't matter? Oh why was I born in the late 50's and lived long enough to become a computer dolt!

My sister pulled up in a rented Dodge and off we went south to Lethbridge. Not too much to say about the trip down except we listened to Cheryl Crow for most of the trip and we took the secondary highway through Vulcan (not the planet on Star Trek)to get there. I had told the xwife and kid that we would arrive at 1:30pm so I knew our timing would be tight. If I were driving, which I couldn't because of my broken foot, we would have made it in time. It was at my suggestion that we take the secondary road because I know from experience that it is devoid of hiway patrol. The RCMP concentrate on the main hiways. Unfortunately my Sister is a stickler for details such as speed limits so we chugged along at 110kmh. The trip at that speed is about 2 hrs, my best time has been 1 hour and 15 mins, we were at the 2 hr mark when we passed the town of Barrons. At 2 hrs 20 mins we pulled into Lethbridge or as it is sometimes called the "Bridge" both as a shortened name and it fits with...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcolman/441030585/ Good day eh. That phrase denotes my country of origin to anyone in North America. The subtle and not so subtle nuances of language keep the Canadian and American cultures just short of a hug away from each other. So what the heck is a Canadian doing waving an American flag? Funny enough the inspiration for this short piece comes from a conversation last night at a bar in Canada with a man from Poland talking about America. His question was this "Why is it that we love to hate the USA?" His query related directly to my changing views on the behemoth to the South. I have always had a black cold spot in my heart for my yankee cousins the bravado of the USA has always offended my Canadian Goodness and from there it is a slippery slope to HATE. I want never to be a hater and it is an inner struggle that I am dealing with to keep that darkness out of my heart. So in the spirit of being unbiased and to the process of looking at the who...

I am going down to Lethbridge today to visit my daughters, the darlings are pictured above. Of course they are much older than the picture here, sorry girls for implying that you are in anyway old. My middle daughter Taya (the one pictured on the left) is in a band with her Mom and they wondered if I would come down to work sound for the band, as if I would say no. I get to meet with my good friend Harlan, see the band, visit the Daughters and take in the small town ambiance of Lethbridge. I have fallen in love with that place the affair started long before they were born. For some reason I have had a connection with the place even before I had met my exwife. It is strange because I had visited the town but once yet it was in my dreams. As I was getting to know this woman named Donna Donnelly, who later became my Wife, I had a very vivid dream in which I was at a bar and we were at opposite ends of the room. I was on stage and she was at the back I motioned for her to come up and she s...

This is the start of another song, sometimes the tune comes first sometimes the words, a tune for this will come later. Later as in I don't know when. So many people with so many views they all say they've got the good news Every is one different yet all the same All of em want to give nature some other name Once you get through the doctrine, judgement and lies You see they all have heaven in their eyes They argue, yell and kill for the right To tell you exactly how to live in the light All of them believe that they're truly blessed they put up thier flags to create a big fuckin mess When you get through the doctrine, judgement and lies you really see they've got heaven in their eyes They are all rightous, good, pious and kind but when you want truth they all lose their mind To most the holy of holies is a copy of man the power that binds us seems few understand Once you get through the doctrine, judgement and lies You see they all have heaven in their eyes I am a man w...

Photo from the Vancouver Sun The 2010 Winter Olympics are for the most part over. The medals are all but won and the memories are both wonderful and provocative. An Olympic event that had the amazing come from behind wins the front runners losses and performance over immeasurable personal tragedy. In 1988 I worked for the CTV host network at the broadcast center and even though I was not even close to any of the action and normally got to work and left for home long before and after the daily action I still found the air in Calgary rarefied with the excitement of the Olympic Games. The office from which I was working had no fewer than 20 TV sets on the wall all showing the grand spectacle this visual overload along with my general disinterest in sports led to a very blase attitude toward the games yet I could feel the spirit of those games when walking down the street, when going into the walking mall downtown and seeing these people from all over the world here for this unifying expe...

All of this gear I would record with but never figured out how to mixdown and have my songs ready to listen to except through the project file on my computer.  Not that I am stupid I just never took enough time to read the manual. Always living a face paced life with work (yeech) being of paramount importance. So for years, 4 to be precise, I would put all the tracks down for a tune and never be able to properly share them. To explain would take a while but I will say that I found ways around my ignorance or maybe more accurate my stubornance and still had other peoples stuff put to cd. Never properly mixed but at least I had a signal go to disc. If I used an analogy it would be like a painter never having a finished piece to show. He would go into a room and paint a masterpiece and the only place he could show others this great work would be in that room and the possibility of it being slightly to very different each time would be great. This was depressing and made...