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How long should an election take

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This past Sunday, the Prime Minister of Canada, dissolved the government, thus opening the door for an October 14th Federal Election. From start to finish, the process will take 37 days.

This, I promise, will be a short (just like me) general post!

My wife in I live in the Danforth area of Toronto, which happens to be in Jack Layton’s NDP ridings. The biggest musical supporters are the Barenaked Ladies, which I find outlandishly entertaining! I’ve never seen them live before, but I hope to ends this little streak soon.

So my question here is, why does it take America about 2 years to do it? To us Canadians, it seems like the US elections has been dragging on for years now. This isn’t a regular length of time, is it? Why is it taking so long?

Keep on Jammin’




Wanna see a masterpiece up close

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I’m not sure if I told you all, but I’ve been on my holidays for 2 weeks and I’ve been having a blast! I’m really doing anything and I recommend it to everyone!

One of my side interests is about the history of religion. I like to understand what the hell happened a long, long, long time ago and why is everyone so pissed off at each other? I wasn’t around way back in 75 A.D., and I’m sure I would of just tried to get everybody to sit down and have a drink and mule over the things that are making everyone mad! It’s not that hard now is it?

Anyways, I’ve just about finished this book called “The Secret History of Christianity” by Malcolm Brocklehurst. It’s basically it’s about how the church has exploited the Myth of Christ, or so that is the idea that the author is trying to convey. It kinda ties things together and fills in the holes about the bible itself and gives over views of the ancient meaning behind things that are in the bible.

Anyways, while reading the book, I came across this website that is about the Last Supper” from you know who, Leonardo buddy. The author talks about some of the hidden meanings behind some aspect of the wall painting and by using this site you can zoom into the painting like you’ve never thought possible and see for yourself. Boy, he wasn’t kidding! So I’ve been checking it out for the past … dare I say hours!

The company is called haltadefinizione and they honestly out did themselves with their super interactive HD pics on their site. If your an art lover and love to look at the finer details of master pieces that you can only get by going there and looking really close … then you may never go and see this wondrous creations in person after your significant other literally pulls your head from monitor! That’s what just happened to me!

I realize this is not what my blog is about, but the pics on this site is just out of this world. Check it out THOROUGHLY!! It’s time not well wasted!

Keep on Jammin’

The summer of 2008

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Well, the weather in Toronto has been more or less shitty this past year, and it doesn’t seem to be over quite yet!

We’ve smashed the total amount of rain for a summer ever since recorded weather history. Our past winter was the second most accumulation of snow in the past 130 years! Now they say that we’re gonna have an early winter, in the words of Charlie Brown, “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”! How long can this go on for! We didn’t get hit with as much snow as Halifax, but it certainly felt like it!

So, howz it going weather wise in your neck of the world?

Keep on Jammin’

Who Killed the Electric Car

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Has anyone out there seen this fabulous documentary called Who Killed th Electric Car? My wife and I have just finished watching this doc for the second time, and it just keeps boggling the mind.

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I realize that this is quite the off topic subject for a guitar blog, but I just honestly want to gauge where everyone sits on this one. I’ve just started off my summer holidays, with the worst stomach virus that I ever have had and taking a number of days off from work to boot, and I stumbled upon this PBS doc while being a zombie on the old couch.

I realize that you should always take everything you see/hear with a grain of salt, but what if only a fraction of the info. about this story is true? Only a fraction … it would make all of us part of the biggest scandal/scam in the history of man! I don’t know about you, but this one really makes me think about it.

Can this thing really be bad/unhealthy for us? Could this thing really bring down the economy? Has anyone ever driven in electric car and lived to tell the tale? What terrible thing can come out of this new technology? Are they protecting us from something? Well here’s a story on experiences with the thing we call the EV(electric vehicle)!

I vividly remember at dinner at my in-laws house one day, many years ago, that flashed into my mind during the first time we saw this documentary.

For many months there was this odd looking red car, it looked like the front part of some B movie futuristic air plane, sitting in my in-laws neighbours driveway. The owner of the house, a long time family friend, was out of the country for an extended period of time and I was anxiously awaiting him to return so I could inquire about this futuristic car thing. Then, the moment that I had been waiting for!

I saw the neighbour and his buddy pull up into his driveway and started to go into this car. I told them, just before serving dinner that I’d be back soon, meaning I’ll be back … well much later. To make a very long story short, they told me that it was a HOME MADE electric car! Yes a home made one! I got to sit in this thing and said, “you gotta take me for a ride in this thing, PLEASE!”

It got up to around 100 kilometers an hour, you could go about 80 km. and to recharge it you just had to charge it into any 120V outlet. They ran a chord from the dryer in the basement to do this, really I saw it. It had not bad pick up and the best was when the car stopped … you didn’t hear a thing! And yes, I lived to tell the tale!

I understand this post is not the equivalent to the protester’s in the documentaries site has on line for you that is in favor of the EV1, but it’s all I have to personally share with you!

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I apologize for the rambling on and on about this, but I think my meds have a little something to do with this post as well!

Keep on Jammin’ (and always be healthy before all of your vacations)

HUGE propane explosion in Toronto

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There has been a HUGE propane explosion in Toronto‘s North end had occurred around 03:25 and then 03:50. It has effected about 12,500 people in the immediate area. The injured ones have been taken to North York General Hospital. The shelters were sent to York University Campus.

Toronto has closed the busiest highway in North America – the 401. This has never been done before.

My sister in-law’s son and husband live around a football field length away from the blast. He said that when he woke up and went outside, all he saw was like a scene from a war documentary. There were blooded people running up and down the street obviously in a state of shook.

A fire fighter has just been confirmed without vital signs on City Pulse 24. My God have mercy on his soul and may his soul rest in peace if this is true.

The company is called Sunrise Propane, and what a sunrise it was for this company! At this link, look for the “A” symbol for the exact location. It’s fairly close to our home, but far away enough that it does not effect us immediately! There were confirmed stories of people who live in Niagara on the Lake have seen a mushroom like light seen coming from Toronto! That is quite a far distance from where the explosion took place!

More to come!

Canada’s second National Anthem

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The theme song from CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada (HNIC) has recently made the news and created a major debate both socially and politically in this country that I call home!

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This theme is something that we all grew up with. Every time this song was played on a Saturday night on CBC, it meant the begging of something that we all waited for, for a whole week! It was like the ringing of a triangle that told the cowboys that dinner was on the table. We all knew that it was the start of something special and that something was known as HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA!

I know that most of my readers may be from another country and you may have a tough time wrapping your head around this one, but this is not just a simple song that unites us all under the same cloth, it’s about a way of life.

I decided to write this post a little bit after the emotional tidal wave of patriotism had past. If you are in the eye of the hurricane, trying to gauge and reason what to do first is overwhelming in the initial stages.

The negative train of thought is to say, What the hell are you doing at the CBC?, This is a nasty travesty of justice, a shaking of ones society’s core values or better yet, a single event that portrays a betrayal of ones country’s essence in the way of Biblical proportions!

hockey.jpgThe positive is to acknowledge that yes, the sun will come up tomorrow and we will continue on with life! What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger …

I’m going out on a limb here folks, but I am leaning towards the positive aspects of this event. I know that I’m in good company to boot, here’s just a few!

Johnny Bower, as long as the song is played somewhere, that’s the main thing. That’s the key, the song will still have something to do with hockey.

Paul Henderson, Things have changed, and things change. They dropped the song. Get over it. Let’s move on.

The song was sold to TSN (The sports Network) and CBC decided not to pick it up. Ok, let’s remember this day and in the words of the hockey great Paul Henderson, Let’s get over it!

Keep on Jammin’

On this day in Rock and Roll History

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Just thought that you should know that this day in Rock and Roll history the following events happened.

Births on this day are …

1948 John Bonham (Led Zeppelin)
1938 Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul and Mary)
1939 Charles Miller (War)
1944 Mick Ralphs (Mott the Hoople)

Miscellaneous things that happened on this date are …

1957 “That’ll Be the Day” by Buddy Holly and the Crickets is released.
1962 The Isley Brothers’ “Twist and Shout” is released on Wand Records. It will rise to #17 on the US Pop chart and will be covered two years later by the Beatles, whose version rose to #2. (I did not know that one!)
1966 “The Monkees” series debut on NBC-TV.
1969 John and Yoko record Give Peace a Chance at Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal
1976 The Who perform loudest concert ever , using 76,000-watt PA system
1977 The biggest and most expensive rock tour in history begins as Emerson, Lake and Palmer embark on a worldwide tour, with a 125 people begin in toe, including a 70-piece orchestra.
2005 The Salvation Army close Strawberry Field, a Liverpool children’s home which inspired the Beatles’ song, “Strawberry Fields Forever.”

Keep on Jammin’

Is Disco really Back

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Well maybe it’s time to pull out the old sequined hot pants, 12-inch records, mirror balls and platform shoes from where ever you saw them last? Is Disco really back or is it just a pipe dream?

The record labels and the so-called people in the know and says it is back! Should we listen and be very afraid OR should we embrace this as a long lost, more then mis-understood cousin? I have mixed feelings.

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Ever since disco started up, I kept listening for some crazy guitarist to jump in and blow me away. but I was just left hanging … for quite a while! Being as nieve back then as I was, I sorta was looking for a different style to come out of no where to bring to my arsenal of techniques to use when I was playing with different bands. The Rolling Stones started to jump on this bandwagon with their disco version of “Miss You”, but they fell far too short of my expectations.

I realize that the point of music is to sooth the savage beast in all of us. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, or so they say. But the most important thing that we have to recognize and acknowledge about any genre of music that it has the proper end result, is someone actually enjoying it?

Way back in the day, (back when I got hit by a school bus, true story here kidz) I had a buddy of mine whose parents had more dollars then sense and they gave their kids basically anything they wanted. Now this is where it gets scary, disco was all the rage and my buddy asked his parents to get a dance floor like Saturday Night Fever and guess what … they did! This thing was 1/4 the size of the dance floor of the above mentioned movie with the lights under the floor, attached to this light organ thingy with 1000 watt speakers to boot! It was really impressive and yes, I did the line thing at least once or twice … I think?

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The matriarchs of disco and both crowned “Queen of Disco”, Donna Summers and Gloria Gaynor are both coming out with new disco music for June and I guess that will help get the ball, or should I say disco ball rolling!

So tell us if you are FOR or AGAINST the return of DISCO into our lives. Was once enough or is it something old is something new?

Keep on Jammin’

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