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It’s the summer time and making posts ain’t easy

June 28, 2009 by Chris

So I hope that everyone out there is having a great start to their summer!

As you may all ready have known, I have not been posting that much on this site. Well to tell you the truth, I’ve been working in the backyard gardening! Yes gardening! And let’s not forget the odd family adventure!

My wife and I have both been blessed with being bit by the gardening bug. We’ve had around 56 roses and about 1100 plants in there and loving every minute of it. We tend to be of the extreme variety.

Ever since I was quite young, I’ve had my fingers in the soil. It started off cutting the grass, de-weeding the flower beds and a bit of planting. Truth be told, I’m not that great at planting the greenery, my wife is strictly in charge of that area!

She is the one who does all the research into it and I must say that I do catch on eventually to her technique. There is so much to learn on gardening forums about this hobby that even to this day, it really blows my mind!

As for the family thing, I’ve been in Brantford more lately (sorry for not calling ya Dom, I will get around to it next time I’m there!) the biggest thing I had to do was putting up this massive fence at my parents.

Figuring out where exactly to start digging post holes, cementing them (I hope that they’re all relatively straight), placing the horizontal 2 x 4’s, making sure all is level … It was a hectic couple of days in the sun and rain, but it was all worth it. The multiple hangover days I could have done without.

So hopefully I get back to the task at hand that is to start to entertain you all with my less the grammatically correct writing/English!

Keep on Jammin’




Filed Under: Canadian, Entertainment, Home and Lifestyle, Humor, Toronto Tagged With: family, garden, gardening, summer, summer time, Toronto

Jeff Healey rest in peace

March 3, 2008 by Chris

I found this out this morning while making Midnights breakfast (she’s our new beautiful Labrador Retriever).

Wow, taking about being blown away! I think that I will always remember where I was and what I was doing when I found out of this great musical lose! I can still remember when I found out that Stevie Ray Vaughan had passed. I actually called my wife right after finding out.

Rock and jazz musician Jeff Healey died Sunday in a Toronto hospital after a battle with cancer, his publicist said. He was 41.

Healey lost his sight at age one as a result of Retinoblastoma, a rare form of retinal cancer.

Retinoblastoma, is a cancer that hits children younger than 5 years of age.

Healey had the great honour of playing with George Harrison doing one of Harrison’s songs called As my guitar gently weeps. He also played with other guitar gods such as B.B. King and Stevie Ray Vaughan. It was Stevie ray who actually brought Jeff into the greater world musical spotlight. Being in the 1988 movie called “Road House” didn’t hurt either!

I was in his club called Healey’s in Toronto and saw Saga’s second last show in Canada, the last one was in my home town of Brantford, with the lead singer Michael Sadler. Nice place to see a show, go check it out.

My wife and I are God parents to my cousin’s son and he is blind. This happened as a result of contracting a disease called Toxoplasmosis. He is a very outgoing little fire cracker and has a love for all genres of music. He has developed a great singing/rapping voice and has actually recorded some tunes at a local recording company.

My cousin and his son went to a event for the blind that Jeff Healey was at around 3 years ago. His dad thought that it would be a blast for his son to meet him, so they both went up to talk to him. When they met, our godson went silent, if you actually know this little guy, you would think that I was making all this all up because he’s never Silent! He knew who Jeff was and what he accomplished so maybe that is why he was nervous about meeting him.

So let’s keep Jeff and his family in our prayers.

Jeff Healey
1966 – 2008

Filed Under: Canadian, Culture, Entertainment, Music, Musicians, Playing Styles, Video Tagged With: B.B. King, blown away, Brantford, Canada, canadian blue, Canadian guitar player jeff healey, canadian jazz, Canadian musician, cancer, died, family, fire cracker, genres of music, george harrison, god parents, godson, guitar, guitar gently weeps, guitar gods, healeys, honour, jazz musician, Jeff Healey, jeff healey dies at 41, labrador retriever, lead singer, little fire, Music, musical, passed away, play, playing, publicist, retinoblastoma, Road House, rock, Saga, singer, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Toronto, toronto hospital

Funny thing happened on the way to the Vatican

October 16, 2007 by Chris

Well my mother works in a church and the church decided hey, why not go the the Vatican for a holiday! She also had the idea in he head that mys sister’s son A.J. who is half Italian, might be interested in going to Italy and maybe see some relatives there time permitting. Nice idea there mom!

A.J., is a great kid around 17 years old. He is unbelievably smart but not too ambitious. He has some great taste in music and tried the guitar but dropped it early in his oh too short career. He is a really cool kid!

So last night as they boarded the chartered bus to take them to the airport, my dad and aunt Helen saw them off and then went home to have a cup of tea. After wards they would then go out for dinner at my Aunt’s favorite restaurant, dad’s treat.

So, A.J., my mom and around 27 older people (yes 27 older people) were finally off to see the Pope!

Back at home having their tea 1/2 an hour later, my aunt was reminiscing about the time she and her mother went to Rome and had the time of her life! “Oh the places we went, the art we saw and we met the Pope!” she said to my father! Screeeeech! They then heard the sound of thump, thump, thump, getting louder, louder and louder!

The door swung open, my mom flew by both of them with their tea cups just about in front of their mouths, grabbed something from the bedroom while screaming something unbecoming of my her and then said “A.J. forgot his wallet” all while running back out the back door!

My dad and aunt looked through the dinning room window towards the front of the house only to see the charted bus stopped there with the bus door open, the driver and some of the passengers looking perturbed and A.J. was looking out his window with a smile on his face! Priceless!

vaticancartoon.jpg

I wonder if the Pope had good old A.J. in mind when he was thinking this one up?

Keep on Praying!!!

Filed Under: Culture, Entertainment, Home and Lifestyle, Recreation Tagged With: airport, bus, family, Home, house, interest, mother, nephew, trip, vatican, wallet

I just came back from Dominic Troiano’s house – his old one that is

September 30, 2007 by Chris

I had tried in vain to locate exactly which house the Legendary Canadian guitarist, Dominic Troiano, lived in ever since my neighbour’s son had told me. I kept asking him if he could remember and he kept saying that he’ll someday soon he’ll go around there to try and jog his memory. I’m still waiting on that one Johnny.

A fellow employee in the hospital that I work with was a great friend to my neighbour’s son John. He too also said that he remembers his brother Dominic trying to play guitar. He had told me that they hung around Domenic’s brother and played cards with him for when they were young. I had met him at work one day after John had told me about our previous neighbour and asked him the same question. He had gave me the same response that John gave me.

I, being the very introverted person that I am, talked to everyone in the area that looked liked they lived here for ages. With the same question that I had for John and his buddy in hand, I obtained the same answer over and over again.

Now 5 years later, I stumbled upon the answer on line by chance. My jaw dropped, I grabbed my wife’s Canon camera and got in the car. In case your wondering I took the car because I didn’t want to be seen taking a picture of someone’s in secret. The owners may have thought that I was casing the joint!

Now I’m finally in front of the ex-home of Mr. Troiano. Like a kid at Christmas, I get out of the car and just stare at it. I just can’t believe that I’m there.

dominictrianox400.jpg

He lived at the house on the right hand side of the picture. This is the type of home that is quite common in our area. It’s a semi-detached white house with brown trim. Small front yard with a small parking pad but just knowing that he lived and grew up here made it fell bigger then what it was.

In the front yard there was a middle aged man with his little dog talking to a neighbour. The man looked like a jazz musician and approachable. So what the heck, I might as well get out of the car and talk to the guy.

It turns out that he really is a jazz musician and very well aware of the history of the home. He told me that he has even approached the Troiano family through e-mail to see if they wanted to re-visit their own home! Now that’s a real gentleman.

He said that the home has not been renovated that much and that the feel of the home was almost the same as when he got it. He also told me that he bought it from the Troiano’s. The molding floor and ceiling was original and so was the front door.

After talking for a while, I asked him if I could take some pic’s for this post and he said yes. The thing that got my attention the most was the door. Imagining Dominic going up to that door and opening it sent goose bumps all over me, wow!

So now I know a little bit more about the history of our great neighbourhood and can share it with you all.

Mr Dominic Troiano R.I.P.

Keep on Jammin’

Filed Under: Canadian, Musicians Tagged With: 356 Sammon Ave, Canadian, Canadian Rock and roll hall of fame, Dom Triano, domenic troiano, Dominic Triano Canadian Rock Jazz Guitarist, East york, family, guitarist, Home, house, I Can Hear You Calling, jazz, Joe walsh, Live, Mandala, Music, musician, picture, play guitar, Prakash John, Robbie Robertson, secret, the band Bush, the Guess Who

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