A Life, Lived

Do you Get This?

Like Depeche Mode This Never Gets Old

You might not get this if you are not a fan of the 80s music . . .

Adele

Friday was a bad day. I was supposed to take the day off as a vacation day but that was cancelled when I meeting came up that I could not ignore. I will nor lie - I was feeling sorry for myself.

Things took a turn when our Xerox rep called - they had two tickets in their box for that night's Adele concert. Was I interested?

Was i????

It was last minute - there was no way Paul could leave work and come into the city. I was tempted to say no but my colleague convinced me to say 'yes'!

It was one of those impromptu things which becomes the perfect thing you need.

My friend Nancy was free making it a happy date.

We headed to the Air Canada centre and made our way to the box. We were the first to arrive but that allowed us to get the best seats, start in on the drinks, and get the lay of the land.

In the end there were about 15 people in the box, most of their Soebys employees (I guess they have a big contract with Xerox). We drank, ate, and listened to a great show.

All in all the perfect finish to a rather hellish week . . .

 

2CELLOS - Whole Lotta Love vs. Beethoven 5th Symphony

This Led Zeppelin and Beethoven mash-up is pretty cool . . . .

 

 

Fight Song

We have had some challenging issues at work over the past few months. One of our members sent this video to me as inspiration during a particularly rocky time . . .of course it has stuck in my ear ever since . . .

 

An Evening with Jann Arden

For the past 15 years Jackson-Triggs winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake has sponsored an outdoor amphitheatre concert series during the summer months. The ampitheatre is built into the side of a hill adjacent to the vineyard. There are only about 400 seats resulting in an intimate concert experience. The winery has a number of local food trucks on site for the evening and pours numerous wines. It offers a relaxed way to enjoy wine country at its best, while experiencing the talents of top Canadian performers and savouring Jackson-Triggs' outstanding VQA wine and local fare.

Back in April, when the line up was announced, I bought tickets to Jann Arden for Paul's anniversary gift. Jann Arden is a Canadian born, singer, songwriter, broadcaster and author. The much celebrated multi-platinum, award winning artist catapulted onto the Canadian music scene in 1993 with the release of her debut album "Time For Mercy" featuring the hit single, I Would Die For You. A year later with “Living Under June”, she would have her career break out hit Insensitive that would solidify her position in the music world. Arden has released 12 albums with 19 top ten singles. We've seen her perform a few times and always love her shows - she tends to add more between the songs than other performers do . . . talking about the inspiration of the song, what it means to her, he challenges she has faced as a performer, etc.

We hopped into the car on Saturday and made the trek to Niagara for the concert. We took our time - with the horrific 'let's head to Niagara on the weekend' traffic we could do noting but. We stopped for an early dinner/late lunch at one of our favourite BBQ restaurants, we meandered along the 'slow road' through the peninsula (even cutting off to see my grandparents old house in Grimsby - now torn down and replaced with a monstrosity apparently).

It was about 6:30 when we got to the winery and scored one of the last parking spots before the overflow lots across the street were called into service. Once we checked in we received a wine glass, wrist band, and a sticker with our name on it so we could reserve our seats.

Once they let folks in we just walked to a seat we thought we'd like, put our stickler on, and that was 'home' for the night. Once the seat was claimed you could wander the wine stands, food trucks, or lounge about on the lawns until the show started.

We lucked out - our seats were in the front row.

Jann started performing at 8:00. She had another guitar player, a keyboardist, and another back up musician who played keyboards, the mandolin, and violin. One of the neat features of the evening was when she asked each of the back up performers to lay and sign a song which resonated with them. It was amazing to hear the talent there from folks who normally toil away in the back ground.

Jann played all of her hits, some material from her last CD (happily not her upcoming Christmas CD - that would have been weird) and kept us in laughter all night with her patter.

Jann played an encore - introduced us all to her beloved dog midi - and the band took a final bow.

It was a wonderful evening - there really isn't anything better than a performer at the top of their game in a casual, intimate setting. Happily we hadn't been in attendance the night before when a thunderstorm cut the evening short. We were treated to amazing music under the stars . . .

Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)

PC still in the shop. Turns out the repair is relatively minor and will cost less than a new one . . .

Given that all of my ideas to blog about are saved on my other PC and I can't be bothered to load my back up files onto my work lap top I'm going to post one of my favourite Christmas tunes . . . Remember I am a child of the 8os. After the success of 'Do They Know It's Christmas at All' all of the 80's bands made a Christmas song . . . some good . . . some crap.

One of the best of the lot was by U2 . . .

Photo Hunt - Music

This week's Photo Hunt theme is Music. Immediately I remembered that magical night two years ago when we stayed in Montisi, Italy with our good friends. Gail, of Gail's Great Escapes, rents a gorgeous villa in a dream location, and puts together a brilliant week of food, wine, history, art, and fun. One of the very fun activities is the Thursday night party. This event is memorable because it features amazing food, flowing vino, and live music preformed by local artist Liz Cochrane and Pino Teresi (who also serves as tour guide during the week).

Here Liz is in the background and the microphone has been taken by none other than Gail herself. Our friend Sandi sings back up chorus while Pino strums his guitar.

Lots of the slow travel  community members also photo hunt when they aren't traveling. You can find their posts by clicking the links below. 

• Old Shoes, New Trip
• Eden's Wanderings and Wonderings
• My Place in the Sun
• Churches in Venice – Mosaics, Marble, and Miracle-Working Madonnas
• Palmabella's Passions
• What I Really Think
• shave Ice and Gelato
• Jerry's Thoughts, Musings, and Rants!
• Keep your Feet in the Street
• Baked Alaska
• That's my story...and I'm stickin' to it!
• Postcards from the Trail
• Cooking at the Whistlestop Cafe
• Candi's Corner
• Trekcapri's Blog
• Destination Anywhere