There's Nothing Better To Do On A Friday Night?

The week is winding down, but the attendance continues to climb with an increase everyday so far. Traditionally Friday and Saturday's are the best days for the amount of visitor's walking through our doors. Though the numbers aren't in yet, Friday's first two shows were very packed and I wouldn't be surprised if we had one of our best nights this year. I think the organizers have to be feeling pretty good about how smoothly things have gone because I haven't heard many complaints or horror stories from any of the volunteers, though I have avoided visiting the kitchen. Tons of credit must be heaped upon Hazel Saito who took on the "thankless" task of coordinating the food for the Pavilion. I haven't got the full story about the drama of the kitchen, but I know that sales have been great and she has managed to pull together a team of workers who have dedicated their days to cooking. I know Sumi has spend her days off volunteering in the kitchen and without others like her this Pavilion would have failed.

Friday's Random Gibberish:
-Last night for Aurora, does that mean the dancer's won't be at the volunteer party? Actually a lot of the dancers (Aurora and Kaeke) volunteer in other areas of the Pavilion. Lucy was presented with some flowers from her ladies, as predictable as it was that's always a classy gesture. Do you think Carol will receive a similar token of appreciation?

-I can't say enough about singer Shayna Paulicelli, it's great to have her sweet voice complimenting the visual beauty of the dance groups and the primal urgency of Hinode. Not only is she a gifted and accomplished vocalist, she is also one of the nicest persons I have met. As I said in an earlier post watch for her in the future!

-Hopefully no one noticed a difference, but I took the soundboard/lighting chair for the 9:45 show. Ryan who was substituting for Karel had to do sound for another Pavilion, he couldn't find anyone to cover for him so I was thrust into action. I wasn't too worried because I have some experience as I did this job for a couple years back at the tent (early 2000's?). The trick is to not confuse the soundboard with the light board and prevent any dead air, fortunately there are only four lights per side and only two sound channels being utilized. My only gaff was when my hand grazed a electrical cord plugged into the power bar and the sound cut out during one of Aurora's dances. I thought I hit the volume slider or hit the stop button on the CD player. After about 10 seconds of panic (and with Lucy breathing over my shoulder) I touched the cord again (loose plug?) and the sound magically returned. I was told after the dancers kept dancing and when the music returned they hadn't missed a beat. Other than that it was fun...and No, I don't want to do sound next year.

-Stay tuned for Saturday as we have a pair of unscheduled mystery emcee hosts. It's probably not a secret, but I'll tell you later.

-There's a possibility (depends when I get home) there won't be a report posted for Saturday until sometime Sunday ( if or when I get up), because of the volunteer party. The good news is that I'll attempt to take a lot of pictures...so smile!

Media Circus

The Japanese Pavilion has definitely attracted a lot of media attention in the last few days. Yesterday it was the Winnipeg Free Press Folklorama report, today it was A-Channel and Global's turn. When I awoke this morning (7:30-ish, I only average about 5 hours of sleep) I turned on the TV, at the foot of my bed and who was on my screen, but Hinode's Shig Saito. He was demonstrating some drumming techniques to Adrienne Silver from A-Channel. I scrambled to find a blank VHS tape, but I was too late. I did have a chance to record the Kaede dancers as they gave a sample of a fan dance. All of this was filmed before Tuesday night's show as opposed to last year when all the Folklorama segments were filmed in-studio. It sure the hell beats going to the Fork's at 6:30 in the morning. I have yet to see Tracy Koga from Shaw TV, who is busy with more Folklorama spots that can't be seen on our television, because we subscribe to MTS TV.

Thurday's emcee for the show was Global Television's Connie Tamoto, which makes my job easier as Connie speaks into a microphone for a living and is very comfortable on stage. Global was also filming for their own Folklorama segment and Sumi was interviewed. I think she talked about Kimono dressing (?) and this will air on Friday's 6:00 and 10:30 pm news. Of course, I won't be home to watch it, but if you can figure out your VCR's timer, please record it for me and maybe I can post it.

Thursday's Random Observations:
-Tonight was the last night for Judo for the Martial Art's portion of the show. I spoke to a few people tonight who were happy they happened to come on the night Judo performed. Maybe next year Karate will return, I know they favoured the longer format so they could have time to demonstrate their moves.

-Anyone else notice how cool it is in the Gym and outside? This is about as ideal as it could be for the performers and I noticed Green tea sales are picking up...second thought, this might not be a good thing

-Kaede danced three consecutive dances (which includes the crowd participation ONDO) for all three shows. Is it too much dance? I think the show is more interesting when Shayna sings, it provides a better balance and more variety. Any ideas or suggestions for next year (I don't know if me or Sumi will be back) are always welcome.

Took my first peak into the Cultural display room and was amazed how crowded it was. If you're a guest, it's a good way to talk to some of the people involved in the different interest groups in the Japanese Canadian community. The small stage provides demonstrations for Kimono dressing, tea ceremony and flower arranging.

I've been eating a lot of cheezies for my supper break between shows. Don't get me wrong I love cheezies and they tasted pretty good dipped in stew gravy yesterday, but either all the volunteer food gets eaten quickly, someone's hoarding food (probably saving all the good stuff for Taiko) or my timing is really bad. I did fry up some perogies and eggs when I got home so all is good.

Only two more nights!!

We're Halfway There!

Yes, the second week of Folklorama is at it's halfway point with only three more nights after tonight. The first two shows were filled to capacity with Sushi once again selling out before the second show. I'm sure the larger crowds will continue as the week wears on as many visitors are trying to squeeze in as many Pavilions as possible before Saturday. I probably said this last year, the second half of the week flies by quick and in some sick way I secretly feel sad when it ends.

Wednesday Observations:
-Tonight the Aurora dancers performed a gorgeous dance that I always enjoy watching. It's the one with the long silky fans that ribbon and sail gracefully toward the audience (see photos). It is elegantly performed by Aurora's most experienced quartet, Mitsuko Miyamoto and the Saito's (Sumi, Keiko and Kim). When I watch the four of them together, I experience some deja vu as I still fondly remember when they danced together during the years when the Pavilion was held in the tent in the Cultural Centre's parking lot. Our entertainment consisted of Aurora, Kaede, Hinode and Martial Arts demonstration between the 3 main shows....hmmm sounds familiar, Shayna replaces the older ladies that sang and some (not all) of the faces are different.

-Shayna continues to shine, it's amazing how quiet the crowd will get when she sings. Everybody wants to hear her and her voice really does seem to mesmerize the crowd. Wish she could have sung every night.

-Anyone read the Winnipeg Free Press Folklorama coverage in Wednesday's paper? The Japanese Pavilion is on the bottom right hand corner of the second page and a large colour photo of Hinode is featured. Sumi told me when she got up this morning and read the paper and saw the photo it put a big smile on her face :) She deserves to smile because the entertainment on the main stage has been well received and...entertaining!
Here's a sample:
ALWAYS popular, this pavilion offers a wide variety of cultural activities to try. Take a stroll through the Japanese street market, have your name written in Kanji, or try origami, the Japanese art of folding paper. The pavilion features martial arts demonstrations of judo and kendo between shows, so the entertainment is nearly continuous.

* HIGHLIGHTS: Hinode Taiko, the impressive Japanese drumming group, is as thrilling as ever. The Aurora dance group performs several graceful, elegant dances and encourages audience participation.

-If you missed it you can read the article on the Winnipeg Free Press website, as well they posted some live video of Hinode Taiko.

Hey! Where's The Food?

It must be disappointing attending a Folklorama Pavilion with the expectations of trying some of ethnic cuisine. Sushi has been becoming as mainstream as Pizza in the past few years, new sushi restaurants have been springing up faster than you can say Superstore, with many of these so-called "authentic" Japanese delicacies. I think Sushi has replaced the wrap as the "in" fast food. There was a time when the Japanese Pavilion was one of the only places to find Japanese food, (Ichi Ban seems about as authentic Japanese as Olive Garden is Italian) and how times have changed. We ran out of Sushi during the first show and sold out all the good food by the end of the second. What the hell? Since Sushi is catered in this year, we are sent only limited numbers, we could be selling twice the amount if we had it. I heard there was a some chicken left and if you're a big fan of white rice you were in luck. Does anyone actually like that vinegary salad-cucumber?

Day 3 observations:
-The Kaede Dancers debuted tonight with the ever entertaining Carol as their instructor. Their pink outfits are very striking and they stood out beautifully from the black backdrop at the back of the stage. Carol grabbed the microphone during their audience participation ONDO, it was a different dance than Aurora's and it's name totally escapes me. Trying to learn this dance confuses even the dancers with way too many steps to comprehend and it confuses matters worse when Carol tries to communicate this to the audience. This could only get more entertaining or painful as the week wears on.

-Biggest crowds of the week so far...okay, it's only Tuesday, but if past history is correct there should be an upward rise of attendence every night, usually peaking on Friday or Saturday. It doesn't hurt to have 5 bus tours in one night. With two of the tours during the last show, it sure filled up the seats more the two previous nights.

-Marli Sakiyama was the emcee tonight and will return on Friday night. She ad-libbed a fair bit which is fine with me, she wanted to inject a little bit of herself into the already well written script. Her best line was, "If you continue to use flash photography during Hinode Taiko, the judo guys will come over and flip you"... or something like that? It was hilarious, especially coming from her.
-Wednesday will be the first night of all-repeat performances, meaning Aurora, Shayna, MC Art and Kendo have all performed at least once. Should be an easy night for me, I was going to skip out after the first show to see the Wilco concert at the Burt, but it was cancelled yesterday. I'm still pissed about it. I've been looking forward to the show for months as Wilco is probably in my personal top 5 (I've seen them 4 times already).

Tell Me Why I Don't Like Mondays?

Monday is usually one of my favourite days because it is my day off from work, (Sunday of course is my other day) but Folklorama week means no time to sit on the deck with a drink in my hand. I spent some of the day picking up and buying things for the stage, which of course is my responsibility, so I'm not complaining. At least I had time to update this page (the previous post) while I had a piano tuner over to...tune the piano.

Monday's show again went without any problems, it feels like after the first show everything seems to run on cruise control. The 6:45 show was visited by the "Folk Arts Council Inspector", who has a 5 page checklist of standards and procedures (sponsors, signage, displays...etc.). My only concern is that the show starts on time and ends on time before 7:30. The first show of the night with a different emcee than the night before could be problematic, but for an ol' pro like Keiko Saito, everything went smoothly and on time.

Mondays' observations:
- Martial Arts tonight was Kendo, you know the art of stick hitting. I suppose it's a combination of fencing, jousting and samurai fighting complete with body armour and a steel cage helmet mask. Always entertaining and the loud screaming sure draws attention to the stage.

-Shayna Paulicelli is back again this year with many accolades and accomplishments since last year. She played the lead in Grant Park's production of "Ragtime", performed in the Fringe Festival and she was crowned Italian Idol in their singing competition, it was even worth a mention in the Winnipeg Sun. I believe bigger and better things are in her future, so enjoy her at our humble Pavilion while you can.

-The ONDO proves to be a popular feature, many audience members are jumping at the chance to get on stage and make an ass of themselves...okay, it's me that's looking like a fool, I'm sure Sumi will continue to mock and laugh at me throughout the week, but I promise I will master this dance! Problem is there will be a different Ondo tomorrow with the Kaede Dancers. My apologies to Alex Allen for stomping on her foot on the backwards step.

A Hot First Night

When the Folklorama planning committee was deciding on the venue this year our choices were Sisler High School, where it was held last year and Tec Voc where it had been the previous 2 years. T.V. had a large restaurant-sized kitchen and it had a excellent quality theatre equipped with all the state of art equipment we need. The knock against T.V. was it's lack of air conditioning which meant the theatre got uncomfortably hot for the audience and performers. The choice of Sisler (for me anyways) was popular because of the cool air conditioned gym which accommodated the food, bar and the main stage entertainment. Last night the AC was mysteriously absent which meant a stuffy sweaty gymnasium. It's not like it was sweltering hot outside, fortunately open doors provided some relief from the heat. Seeing the members of taiko sweating on stage for 3 shows reminded me of the Tec Voc days.

All that aside, I thought the show went off without any major hitches, all three shows were under the allotted 45 minute time period and the flow of the show worked well. I was pleasantly amazed by how well the Ondo/crowd participation dance went. The members of the Aurora dancers invited VIP's and members of the audience up on stage (and at the sides of the stage) to learn a simple circle dance. Last year when we tried to get people up to dance to Eijanaika the response was lukewarm at best. Last night the stage was overflowing with guests and I would say it was a surprising success!

Some other observations:
-thought the lighting could have been a little lighter, though when Aurora danced their kimonos shimmered as the light seemed to bath them in a beautiful moonlight effect.
-Judo before the 2nd and 3rd main shows worked well, it gave them more time to demonstrate their sport and with Wayne providing commentary it was informative for those who were interested. Too bad there wasn't much of a crowd before and during the 3rd show, hopefully it'll pickup during the week.
-Hinode had some new pieces (to me at least) and having them close the show with 3 consecutive songs wraps up the show on a high. I know Pam is gonna give me shit for all the flash photography in the crowd, but the best I can do is have the emcee mention it. So far no one from Hinode has given Sumi or I any grief about the stage or lighting, but the week is early.

I saw a peek at the numbers so far and it seems first night attendance is it's lowest since 2004. Food will be the biggest issue since some of the dishes had to be tendered out and our costs will be higher. If we can maintain last years $ (which was significantly lower than 2005), I think we'll be satisfied. The absence of sushi at the end of the week will be a killer, I guarantee it.

Monday's show will be similar with Aurora dancing again, but with singer Shayna Paulicelli returning for a third year, to add some sweet music to the show. Supposeably the temperature is reaching a high of 29c, so if the air conditioning isn't repaired by show time, expect good beer sales.

Before The Storm Or Waiting For The Llama

Yes, it's that time again, Folklorama 2007! Every year I dread the days leading up to Folklorama week at the Japanese Pavilion. I am the co-coordinator (with Sumi) for the entertainment portion which means, deciding which groups will perform, making a schedule everyone can agree on and making sure there will be a stage and sound/light system. Two years ago the stage and lights were built into the venue at Tec Voc high school, here at Sisler we get an empty gym. Last year, Chris took care of the stage, lights and sound from start to finish and he was also there every show as our sound man. This year his friend Ryan is filling in, I believe Ryan assisted last year with the setup so he is familiar with the venue. The problem this year is that we had to pick up the stage from MTYP with our volunteers and a rented truck. The day the truck was available and the time someone would be at MTYP and the time the stage had to be at the school was more difficult to coordinate than expected. I felt somewhat guilty as I had to work that day and I couldn't skip out because we were short staffed that day, fortunately there were barely enough strong bodies to finally get the stage there. The morning of dress rehearsal (Saturday), I received some panicked phone calls at work, "how come there's no walls on the side of the stage?...how come there's no curtain on the side of the stage? we need a backdrop....etc.. I spend the next half hour calling stage companies and thinking of a temporary solution with my co-worker. Needless to say by the time I arrived at the rehearsal most of the problems were resolved or would be taken care of before the show. Ryan knew someone that could provide the stage cove-walls, we borrowed some shoji screens from the Culture Centre and he picked up a black backdrop. Really, let's no need to panic, yet!

Last year I posted a night to night review of the main stage show, this year I may format it a little differently. Every evening after the show, I'll write a quick review as well as some personal observations from my notes that I'll be writing during the breaks, kind of diary style. If someone impresses me or catches my attention in some way, I may tell you about it, but if someone is pissing me off or just annoys me, I won't be afraid to blow off a little steam on this blog. This could be a good behind the scenes report, so if you have any gossip or better yet, rants, let me know. Last year I came into the week feeling kind of negative, but as the week progressed everyone involved in the Pavilion relaxed their attitude which actually made the week quite enjoyable.

I know this year it's been stressful for Sumi, she takes things to heart and that's what I love about her, she really cares about how people perceive our community. She has worked hard in so many ways, apart from the entertainment, she is arranging the catering of the volunteer food, helping out in the food prep room and dancing four nights. Working alongside Sumi makes me realize I have no right to whine about long hours and extra work, we need more people in our community that has her passion and gumption.

Quanzee

Here's another flick from the gang at Next Week Films (Jesse, Sam and Leif), a pseudo-commercial for a fun new game called Quanzee! A game that has everything- dangerous, speed, teamwork, cunning and in their age demographic. If you're from Winnipeg, see if you can recognize the various locations around the city. Again, this was all filmed in one night and a very loose concept was conceived spontaneously.

Warning: turn down the volume after the credits as there is loud mysterious static that will irritate. Enjoy!

Slow Son

I'm back! I haven't have much access to the computer because Jesse and his pals have been busy making some mini movies. This film was all shot within one day at our house and Sam who plays the father, didn't read from a script as it was all pretty much improvised. J took only a couple of nights to edit and then they posted it on YouTube. This is a very clever film and a promising debut....Stay tuned!

Closed: Gone To The Lake

It's bad enough that there is so much time between posts, but I'll be away for the next 2 weeks so don't expect anything until August. We are heading towards Flin Flon where we have a cabin on the lake near Baker's Narrows (halfway between Cranberry Portage and Flin Flon). Due to the fact we have no internet access, except for the FF Public library with it's primitive dial-up systems, I'll be computer-less for about 13 days! A good time to catch up on all the books I received the last 2 Christmas' and my promise of painting some sweet watercolours...we'll see what happens this year.

Wish I was around for the annual Fringe festival, but I always seem to be away that week. August will be a busy time with my week long coverage of Folklorama, so stay tuned.

I Hate Those Flippys!!

I went to the Winnipeg Folk Festival last year mainly to see J perform on the Young Performers stage. I'm going again this year, just for Friday, but I could definitely live without going to the Folk fest. You see, I used to go every year back in the 80's and early 90's, I used to really enjoy attending for a couple of days sampling different performers and discovering music I would otherwise not listen to. But something happening, I dreaded hauling my ass out to Birds Hill Park dogged down with tarps, backpacks, extra clothes, bug spray, sunscreen, folding chair, cooler...you get the picture. Kind of like going to the beach without the water. The kid's didn't want to watch the music, they wanted to play in the sandbox or paint or run around, crap they could do in the city for free.

I'm going to pay $57 (before tax and the convenience fee...why do I have to pay a CF if I buy the ticket at the gate?) so I can my watch my son play 2 songs, what a f*cking rip! I looked at the program tonight and there is nothing that interests me at all on Friday and then there's the people that attend the Festival, I can't stand those phonies. My co-worker (Brian) and I were spewing our hatred of the Folk Fest and he came up with a great term..Flippys. Flippys are those annoying people that are hippies for the weekend, kind of pseudo-hippies that flip from their otherwise conservative 9-5 suit and tie attire, to dressing down in their $200 cut-offs, tie-dye t-shirt, headband, beads and those stupid looking tilley hats. I guess this is their idea of slumming.

All things aside, the music is still the best part, so I will try to record J's performance, stay tuned I will post the songs on the Teenage Dogs blog . Should be entertaining, I'll let you know how thrilling Friday at the Winnipeg Folk Festival really is.

MPLS, The Place That I Like Best *

It's been over two weeks since I spent a short, but sweet vacation in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Actually, I was there 5 days and 4 nights, the longest time I have spent in the Twin Cities. I was thinking the other day about how I have been to Minneapolis more than any other city, It is the closest large city within one day's drive and there is so much to do and see every time I go.

The first time I visited Minneapolis it was on a school trip with my University Art class. Every year the first-year students get the opportunity to visit world-class art galleries, the Walker Art Centre (which houses Modern Art) and the Minneapolis Institute Of Arts (old masters and museum style) and we stayed in a hotel close to the old bus depot in downtown Minneapolis, just off Hennepin. We were within walking distances of all the shopping and all the cool night spots (this is the mid-80's pre-Mall Of America), I spent hours in Northern Lights Records, Let It Be Records and a variety of bookstores (some even adult) on the strip. I also took in a North Stars game as one of my classmates was a friend of Mike Luit (goalie of the St. Louis Blues) and by coincidence the Stars were playing the Blues at the Met Centre in nearby Bloomington, which is now the site of the Ikea by the MOA. This trip was monumental of many reasons, it was the first time I visited a large city without my parents and it introduced me to a whole pile of new indie music that I had never been exposed to in Winnipeg..yes, the records I bought are considered high priced imports in Canada.

My second visit was on the fourth-year art school trip, I became more adventurous and went to the First Avenue nightclub for the first time. It wasn't to see a band, but it was some sort of disco inferno type of thing, it must of been around the Prince Purple Rain-era of the club, so it was a very popular nightspot. I just remember you had to sign your name so the security staff could compare your signature with your photo ID (in these days Manitoba didn't have photo ID yet) and they had metal detectors at the door (this was pre-911 security measures). I also discovered Loring Park which was across the freeway from the Walker Art Centre, a large green space and pond on the edge of downtown. I spent a nice afternoon in this park with my friend Deb feeding the giant mutant-sized Black squirrels that inhabited the park.

Through the late eighties I went to Minneapolis because my girlfriend's family attended Minicon (yeah I'm not joking, a Sci-Fi convention!) and I knew it was another chance to invade all the other great record stores in the surrounding area. Down In the Valley, Electric Fetus, Roadrunner, Garage D'Or, Aardvark, Oakfolkjokeopus, Know-Name and one of the largest record stores I've seen, Cheapo. I also went to even more North Stars games including a playoff game and one of the last ever North Stars games in their history (until the Wild came along).

I seem to visit Minneapolis almost on an annual basis, the occasion is usually to see a band that won't be coming to Winnipeg in the near future or in this most recent case my wife's business trip. There are places that are becoming habit in recent years, the Mall Of America of course, I tend to stay in Bloomington near the MOA, but this year it was on 11th and Marquette in downtown Mpls. I really like the Uptown area (Lake/Hennepin) as there seems to be plenty of cool stores, unique restaurants and clubs a plenty. I still check-out some of the record (CD) stores as this time I revisited Electric Fetus (I haven't been there for years) and it still reeks of incense and they still have a section of smoking accessories(pipes etc.), overall an excellent CD store. I saw Fountains Of Wayne at the First Avenue and I attended a concert/interview with writer/musician Laurie Lindeen and friends (Paul Westerberg, Steve Wynn, Mark Olson and Lindeen's ex-band, Zuzu's Petals reunion) at the legendary Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul. Speaking of St. Paul, after I took this picture of Mickey's Diner in downtown St.Paul, I went back to my hotel room and flicked on the TV and watched the Mighty Ducks movie. There was a scene where the coach Gordon (Emilio Estevez) talks to one of his players (the one whose mother the coach has a crush on) inside this very diner where his mother is a waitress. The movie was filmed in and around the Minneapolis/St.Paul area, thought that was kind of funny.

I always have a great time in Mpls and I feel very comfortable finding my way around this big city. It's starting to make sense when large cities have numbered streets and avenues, much easier to find places, just remember to factor in the north, south, east and west. If I ever had to move to an American city, it would definitely be Minneapolis.

Paul Westerberg (Grandpaboy)- Mpls mp3
(*The title for this blog entry is in the lyrics of this song.) I saw Paul perform this time for a couple of songs at his wife's (Lindeen) show, as well as in 2002 when he performed solo at the Guthrie Theatre. One of my all time favourite performers, would love to have seen the Replacements.

Lucinda Williams- Minneapolis mp3
While I was in Minneapolis, Lucinda was in playing in Winnipeg, is that weird or what?

Help, I'm Obsessed!!

...Obsessed with Facebook and Myspace! (I'll get to that later)

So sorry for the lack of updates (I've been distracted), since my last post The Ducks won the Stanley Cup and Paris Hilton went to jail, twice. I don't think I really need to talk about Paris because every other blogger and news media has full time coverage already. So, how about those Ducks! Imagine a team full of Canadians playing in California, carrying the Stanley Cup on the beach and the Governator claiming to be a hockey fan. I must admit I felt good for the Ducks, I really don't like the Senator's that much and it'll be worth it to see Stephen Harper wearing a Ducks jersey in Parliament.

Myspace.com is pretty cool, it's a fast and painless way to post songs and self-promote an otherwise unknown band. It's easy to use and the adding friends feature is a nice way of knowing someone might be looking at your site. When I have more time, I'll post some new songs and possibly works in progress on the Zamboni Joe myspace, to get some response from the millions (dozens?) that are reading.

A similar, but quite different social networking website is Facebook.com. The cool thing about Facebook is you can invite (or get invited by) friends and/or co-workers/classmates to join networks and in simple terms talk amongst yourselves. You write your personal profile and provide as much or little information that you want. You can control who sees your profile (only friends, only people on your network, or everyone) and with added applications you can add music, movie reviews, video, horoscopes, quizzes etc. The main highlight is the sharing of photos much like Flickr, where you can set up photo albums from events, family gatherings or random. You can also give status reports about what you are doing or thinking about at the time of posting. It's fun to search to see if you can seek out a lost love from High School or ex-co-workers or you can just browse for attractive people. So far it's a lot more fun and time consuming that I originally thought, it sometimes could be classified as "Too much information", but it'll allow me to post lots of photos from shows I've attended and events such as Folklorama.

If you're registered on Facebook and want to be my "friend" click my "add to friend" on my profile.

What Are They Waiting For? It's Almost Summer!

Well, actually here in ice-box city Winnipeg we may hit 0 degrees tonight, so it is anything but Summer weather. I think we had our Summer two weeks ago when we peaked at 32 degrees for a couple of days, it's amazing how we can have 3 season's worth of temperatures during the course of a week.

Which brings me to the question, what is the NHL waiting for? The Stanley Cup finals are set to begin on Monday May 28th, 6 days after the last series ended. The Ducks finished off the Wings on Tuesday (Ottawa knocked off Buffalo last weekend) and if there was to be a seventh game it would have been played Thursday. we're left with almost a week of NO hockey and a possibility of game 7 in the middle of June, talk about dragging on the season. Anyone that knows me knows there aren't too many more obsessed fans like myself, but even I want to get on with Spring or Summer or whatever it is? To me the most exciting hockey is played during the first two series, multiple games each night, endless highlights, upsets... I love it!

For whatever reason, I find it hard to call the Ottawa Senators Canada's team, I've never liked them and I still have a hard time cheering for the team. Sure they boast an amazing line with Spezza, Heatley and Alfredsson, but I'm not a huge Emery fan, nor do I like Bryan Murray's coaching (or GM-ing), and to top it off I think I saw PM Stephen Harper wearing a Sen's jersey. The Anaheim Ducks though have so much to like especially their Manitoba connections. Teemu Selanne is one of the greatest players to wear a Winnipeg Jet's jersey, coach Randy Carlyle played on the Jet's and coached the Manitoba Moose, and Winkler Manitoba's Dustin Penner is a solid winger on their second line. It's a bonus to see both teams stacked with so many key Canadian born players on their rosters: Ducks- Giguere, Getzlaf, Perry, Pronger, McDonald, Beauchemin and the Niedermeyer's. Senator's- Redden, Phillips, Emery, Heatley and Spezza. I can guarantee this will make Don Cherry very happy.

So get off your ass and enjoy our first hockey-free weekend since last September, because we're headed to the home-stretch. Go outside, see the wife and kid's, barbeque something, just enjoy the Spring while you can, because if you sit on the couch too long, you might miss it.

Zamboni Joe On MySpace

Here's a shameless plug, my band (the semi-retired) Zamboni Joe now has internet presence with a page at www.myspace.com/zambonijoeband. We have posted 4 songs (live and living room) for your enjoyment or amusement. I'm also writing blogs on that site (along of course with www.teenagedogsintrouble.blogspot.com, my music blog), to provide some information and history about this legendary hockey-rock band. We're also looking for friends that want to have their profile picture plastered on our page, please add us as friends, we're so desperate!

Zamboni Joe hasn't played an official show since September 2005, but I've done a few solo performances and if we're tempted with big $$, I'm sure we might be talked into getting back together as a band for another show.