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The second coming of Jon is put on hold

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Well we got the old back yard, our pride and joy, finely manicured, the house is all cleaned up, the BBQ all tided up, the steaks are ready and all we need now is JON!

Well as luck would have it, Murphy’s Law is alive and at work again in my life there guys and gals! Jon has graciously bowed out! Big Jon has some unforeseen moving to do. This was truly a last minute thing that kinda fell into his llap and I do hope he has fun at it! He had tons of help to work with, and that is why I did not go and help him. BTW, I have helped him move around, oh around 10 times now, and he still owes me one … not that I’m counting there Jon! 😉

So we are trying to get another date set up for another meeting of the Mensa minds later on this September so I’ll keep ya’ll in the loop!

Keep on Movin’ Jonnie!




The second coming of Jon

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Just got off the old blower, that’s what we use to call the phone, with my old buddy Jon and he says that he needs a fix of Toronto back into his blood! We’re looking forward to seeing his old mug around the homestead here. hopefully it won’t be as expensive as the last time he was here.

The first time he here at our newish home, it was a long weekend. We had a few beverages and started to get a little hungry. So off we went to the grocery store and we happened to come across this store that sold fire works, what a bad mistake on our wallets this venture was going to be! By the time we left the store, we were about $220.00 richer in fire works. Oh well, we had fun and no one lost an eye.

So here’s to more action packed adventure with big Jon(Johnnie), aka Pinhead, and this time let’s really get a guitar lesson in ok buddy? Stay tuned for more updates.

Keep on Jammin’

Our new neighbours

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Long gone are the ones who use to play passable karaoke and we now joyfully enter the era of The von Drats. We finally have really cool neighbors!

We ran into them the other day and they seem to be a great fit for the neighborhood. He plays lead guitar, a huge bonus for me, and they are into renovating their new home! They are around our age and she is into sprucing up her garden!

Looking forward to getting to know them better and the best of luck to them in the future!

Keep on Jammin’

Amos Lee live rocks

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First of all, Amos Lee is a guy who is a bit of an acquired taste, but when you get him, you really get him!

Second, I know I must apologize to my regular readers for not writing on this blog for ages, but it’s the summer time here folks!

The tickets we got for free and the added bonus were the seats. They were 1st balcony, 1st row center right above the sound board. It has been a while since we’ve both been out together and it couldn’t of been better.

His sound was that of many influences. Folk, Jazz, Dixie Land and Jazz were right there front from the start. The band that was with him complimented him perfectly. They seemed like they all were high school buddies, that just happened to stumble upon this thing called playing in a band and was enjoying every minute of it.

The drummer was simple but yet very tight. He also caught my wife’s musical eyes in that he plays the drums the other way from what she normally sees in other bands. The bass player reminded me of Billy Wyman in his stage presence. Great bassist, but seemed very, very relaxed on stage.

Now the keyboardist with Amos Lee was another story. He was the most colorful on stage. His sound was big and bouncy! His stage demeanor had the essence of Levon Helm, the drummer for The Band. He was just a grooving to everything and he knew when to fade in and out perfectly! Now for the man of the hour, Amos!

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The style he plays is quite simple, most of the time, but he shows how to pull out all the stops at the drop of a hat. His voice took some time getting use to, but in the end he made quite the impression on all of us! The song that stood out in my eyes was Sweet Pea. When I was first deciding which free show to go to, it was this song that drew me towards seeing him. The way he plays this one live is just plain and simply amazing! To see what I mean, I highly recommend going out and seeing this guy live … I know you’ll won’t be disappointed.

Keep on Jammin’

Woofstock

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Woofstock is North America’s Largest festival for dogs. It’s held in Toronto on June 7th – 8th in the downtown core. “The summer of canine Love” is a good way to describe it! 140,000 people can’t be wrong!

My wife, Midnight our black lab and myself just came back from this crazy event and what a blast it was! They blocked off a fairly large area of streets in Toronto and it was informative and tons of fun!

There were so many people and their dogs all over the place.

The vendors had great freebees and the products were top shelf stuff! There was even this company called Happy Tails that have a Pet Resort & Pet Camp in the very popular Muskoka area.

Our guests have the freedom to come and go as they please between open pet-sized bedrooms or cabins, fireplace lounge and one of many large dog parks segregated by size and temperament. They can run and play all day, chasing chipmunk and dragonflies, hunting frogs, swimming, and umpteen other things dogs being dogs like to do.

There is also a human equivalent called the Deerhurst Resort not too far away as well. There is no connection between the two but it’s nice to have the best of both worlds right next to each other. If we had more dollars then sense, then I think we’d be there!

The best thing I we took out of this event was the ability to bring our dog right inside a very respectable pub for a couple of Guinesses! Cheers, a little hair of the dog won’t kill ya! Hope to see you there next year, drop me a line and we’ll buy the first round, really!

Keep on Jammin’

John Mayer is coming to Toronto

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John Mayer will be playing July 7, 2008 at the Molson Amphitheatre.

jm1.jpg I’ve been so busy doing everything but blogging and playing that I almost missed this show that I would kill to go and see! I love seeing bands live anywhere, but when looking at ticket prices it really makes ya wonder if it’s really worth it.

Now if I had to choose a guitar player(s) I’d like to be stranded on a desert island with, with a 20 year supply of strings and picks, this guy or Bruce Cockburn would be the winners hands down. Just watching John play, or for that matter even listening to anything he does just makes my mind wonder around aimlessly. Oh all those wild chord inversions!!!

jm2.jpgHas anyone else looked at ticket prices and thought the same thing?

The prices are just out of this world! Who can afford them, I can’t even begin to justify the cost. Is it just me or is the way artists make their money on CD sales?

John, I love ya brother, but are you really worth it? Well … maybe.

Keep on Jammin’

P.S. If someone wants to learn how to play a couple of his tunes, and you have a extra ticket with my name on it, I’ll give you 10 free guitar lessons!


I’m going to rake the snow off the yard now

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Why have us Canadians been so cranky lately? Well it all has to do with the over abundance of white stuff all over the place. Ok some of you guys in the US, yes we’ll include you as well!

We’ve had it up to here, I mean the height of our glacier on our front yard, with all that blowing snow and cold temperatures stuff! For crying out loud, yesterday we took the dog for a walk at Cherry Beach in Toronto and we thought it was warm out, it was only 1 (C)!!! Lucky for us this is about a 10 minute drive from out house.

All we want is to go out to an outdoor patio, ones that don’t mind our puppy too much, and have a drink and something to eat relax and plus bath in the warmth of the sun.

What did we do to you Mother Nature to have you soooo pissed off at us? Please reply back soon!

Keep on Jammin’

Jeff Healey rest in peace

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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

The PATH in Toronto

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I was downtown the other day and we ran into the hidden gem for all tourists to use in the winter time. We haven’t used this way for years and I just wanted to share it with you all.

Like most cities that have cold/snowy weather during the winter, you have to deal with the slush and snow while traversing through the core. This really can put a damper on your experience here. So in the early 1900’s our forefathers came up with this fairly new concept on building a underground city to keep you spirits warm and dry. I know that this sounds like some bad sci-fi movie idea, but it works great!

It started out around the landmark Eaton Centre then other locations started to jump on board with this fabulous idea. Then a 1988 reform in city council decided to scale back this idea. After this, developers had to give way to their tenants cries to have their locations attached to this revolutionary way of shopping. This gave way to the rise in land value of the property making the developers owners of the most valuable pieces of property in the country.

According to Guinness World Records, PATH is the largest underground shopping complex in the world with 371,600 square metres (27 km.)of retail space. The PATH also holds the bragging rights to the worlds largest side walk sale! It’s even bigger then the whole size of the West Edmonton Mall. If you’ve ever been there then you get the idea. Soon, they say, it will cover around 60 kilometers underneath the downtown area.

If you ever come to Toronto for a visit, check out the official PATH site and print out a copy, it’ll be one of the best things you did if you come here!

Keep on Jammin’

Toronto Roofing Industry

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While my brother was here from Chicago visiting this past summer, we all bumped into a mutual friend of ours from our elementary school days and his wife! It was great to caught up with what is going on with each other’s lives and share a pint or two over dinner!

We met up at the Balmy Beach Club, members only and sat out on the patio! It’s right on the beach front in the “Beach area” near our home.

Out in front of us on the patio there are these little break water islands around 75 feet from the shore.

My brother and I saw that our buddy seemed bummed out so we asked him what is was that we could do to brighten up his day. His response was something like “why don’t you two swim out to those break water islands and show us what your made of.” So we did!

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As it turned out it was just a little tried from working too hard with his company Toronto Roofing industries.

The guy was always a perfectionist and was always looking at ways to improve what ever he did. One thing that I can say about Tim is that he always did his homework! He also came over to the house that we were going to buy and he did a quick visual on the roof and was bang on the money. He told us about when the roof was done, the overall structure of it and some tiny little faults in it that was easy for us to fix! Good eye Tim, you should of been a jeweler!

Keep on Jammin’ Tim!

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