Philson graduated from high school and is planning his departure to SMU residence. I totally support his decision to move into residence to get the full experience of university. I am sure he will come back home on weekends to fuel up with food and to do laundry. Oh, and maybe to see us!
The fact that I have a child who is now a man makes me think of my own mortality. I have to face the fact that I am actually middle-aged, something my body has been telling me for a few years, but my mind refuses to acknowledge.
Meeting my Grade 10 science teacher the other day made me think about my place in my life. He informed me that I am the same age as he was when he was my teacher. Huh. That really put things into perspective for me. I didn't think he was really old back then, but I remember that I considered all of my high school teachers to be quite aged at the time. The fact that there are probably just as many still working as there are retired should tell me something: they weren't as old as I thought they were.
I guess I still have some viable years left. However, watching one child -- and next year another -- fly the coop is making me take stock of my life. Am I where I want to be? Am I as happy as I can be? What are my regrets and can I do anything to make sure I minimize any future regrets? These are questions a man asks himself as he stares the age of 39 down the barrel.
Showing posts with label Philson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philson. Show all posts
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
T.O. Twice in 3 months!
Follow up on our trip to Toronto to see The Police:
- Good concert, although this experience taught me that if one is going to fly to another city to see a concert, the concert tickets are only a fraction of the total cost of the trip. Therefore, it makes sense to pay extra to get good seats.
- Philson and I enjoyed our brief visit to Toronto, including Philson's first visit to the CN Tower Observation Deck. It is freaky to stand on a glass floor at 1,122 feet above the ground! Fortunately, the glass floor can withstand 595 psi pressure, so there was no need to worry. It is counter-intuitive to look past your feet down to the earth over a thousand feet away!
- We shared a hotel room with Dave Dawood and we three were the youngest people in the hotel pool when we went there and generally horsed around, much to the chagrin of the older patrons.
- Philson and I saw the Blue Jays from great seats behind home plate, thanks to Dean (who couldn't join us due to double-booking himself).
- We had breakfast with an old friend of mine from Sigma Chi - Sully Ahmed. Sully is doing well, has a beautiful little daughter and works for Apple. It was great to see Sully after so many years.
- We saw a disturbing scene on Yonge Street as we walked to our hotel. An obviously mentally disturbed man was sitting against a building across the street. At first glance, he appeared to have a red long-sleeve shirt on under his white short sleeve shirt. Then we realized he was slashing his foreamrms to the point of being completely bloody from his elbows to his wrists. Philson and I kept an eye out for police to tell them about this man, but he got up and walked away, behind the building and out of our view. Philson had never seen anything like that before and he was shaken up by the experience.
- Philson and I went to both Hard Rock Cafe's in Toronto. We watched batting practice from our table in the Skydome HRC, which was fun. At the other HRC on Yonge Street, we took advantage of the deal they offer on HRC glasses by purchasing a beer in the signature pilsner glass. Philson paid for the glass and I paid about two bucks for my beer! I saved about five dollars versus buying the beer alone and the glass in the souvenir store. Every little bit helps!
- Porter Airlines is the best way to fly to Toronto. You land at the City Airport, they provide a shuttle bus to Union Station, plus you get free booze and food on the plane as well as in the terminal while you wait for your flight! How cool is that? Air Canada needs to take a page out of Porter's book and remember the the passengers are the reason that they are in business, not the shareholders.
On Friday, Cheryl, Natalie, Jonathan and I are flying to Toronto (Air Canada, since we are using Air Miles)so that Jonathan and I can see Van Halen in concert.
Van Halen-with-David-Lee-Roth Van Halen.
I am so excited! They are one of a handful of bands who I absolutely want to see in concert and I didn't think it would happen because of the band members's internal fighting over the years. So it turns out 2 of my must-see-before-I-die bands -- the Police and Van Halen (the others are AC/DC, U2 and #5 changes between Beastie Boys and James Taylor, believe it or not) are both touring this year, so I get to see two shows in the span of three months.
I will post again after we return!
- Good concert, although this experience taught me that if one is going to fly to another city to see a concert, the concert tickets are only a fraction of the total cost of the trip. Therefore, it makes sense to pay extra to get good seats.
- Philson and I enjoyed our brief visit to Toronto, including Philson's first visit to the CN Tower Observation Deck. It is freaky to stand on a glass floor at 1,122 feet above the ground! Fortunately, the glass floor can withstand 595 psi pressure, so there was no need to worry. It is counter-intuitive to look past your feet down to the earth over a thousand feet away!
- We shared a hotel room with Dave Dawood and we three were the youngest people in the hotel pool when we went there and generally horsed around, much to the chagrin of the older patrons.
- Philson and I saw the Blue Jays from great seats behind home plate, thanks to Dean (who couldn't join us due to double-booking himself).
- We had breakfast with an old friend of mine from Sigma Chi - Sully Ahmed. Sully is doing well, has a beautiful little daughter and works for Apple. It was great to see Sully after so many years.
- We saw a disturbing scene on Yonge Street as we walked to our hotel. An obviously mentally disturbed man was sitting against a building across the street. At first glance, he appeared to have a red long-sleeve shirt on under his white short sleeve shirt. Then we realized he was slashing his foreamrms to the point of being completely bloody from his elbows to his wrists. Philson and I kept an eye out for police to tell them about this man, but he got up and walked away, behind the building and out of our view. Philson had never seen anything like that before and he was shaken up by the experience.
- Philson and I went to both Hard Rock Cafe's in Toronto. We watched batting practice from our table in the Skydome HRC, which was fun. At the other HRC on Yonge Street, we took advantage of the deal they offer on HRC glasses by purchasing a beer in the signature pilsner glass. Philson paid for the glass and I paid about two bucks for my beer! I saved about five dollars versus buying the beer alone and the glass in the souvenir store. Every little bit helps!
- Porter Airlines is the best way to fly to Toronto. You land at the City Airport, they provide a shuttle bus to Union Station, plus you get free booze and food on the plane as well as in the terminal while you wait for your flight! How cool is that? Air Canada needs to take a page out of Porter's book and remember the the passengers are the reason that they are in business, not the shareholders.
On Friday, Cheryl, Natalie, Jonathan and I are flying to Toronto (Air Canada, since we are using Air Miles)so that Jonathan and I can see Van Halen in concert.
Van Halen-with-David-Lee-Roth Van Halen.
I am so excited! They are one of a handful of bands who I absolutely want to see in concert and I didn't think it would happen because of the band members's internal fighting over the years. So it turns out 2 of my must-see-before-I-die bands -- the Police and Van Halen (the others are AC/DC, U2 and #5 changes between Beastie Boys and James Taylor, believe it or not) are both touring this year, so I get to see two shows in the span of three months.
I will post again after we return!
Monday, September 17, 2007
Update on the concerts
It's funny how fast time goes by when you are busy with life. I have a lot to catch up on, so I will post a few items to get my thoughts and recollections on the record.
Friday: Joel Plaskett concert
Philson and I took our time getting to the show because we weren't too excited to see Jenn Grant, the opening act, plus it had rained heavily all day and we weren't sure watching the show would be all that fun, standing in pouring rain. As it turned out, it stopped raining so we headed down to the Dartmouth Landing.
Unfortunately, we missed almost the entire set of Peter Elkas and his band. We only caught the last song for that set (which was really good) and then waited for over half an hour for Joel Plaskett to come on. The two opening acts must have only been on for less than 30 minutes each, because we weren't that late. Joel and his band put on a great show, with Peter Elkas helping out on the keyboard and guitar for some songs and Gordie Johnson (the producer of Joel's latest album), looking cool in black and a cowboy hat, added to the show by playing rhythm guitar.
The Emergency played almost all of the songs from the new album Ashtray Rock, which is good because it is full of good songs and it is a concept album, so to fully present the concept you kind of need to play at least most of the songs. They also played Bo Diddley's song near the end of the show (as they did last summer at the show for the Lunenburg Exhibition that Cheryl and I attended); I think Joel was really moved by his meeting Bo Diddley a while back. They slowly turned the Bo Diddley song into a tribute to the deceased Bob Switzer who owned Taz Records in Halifax. "Hey Bob Switzer" fits in nicely instead of "Hey Bo Diddley". They also played a Big Sugar tune, which was cool since that was Gordie Johnson's band, and finished the night with "Come On Teacher" and "True Patriot Love", two earlier hits for The Emergency. Overall, great show on an open-air stage and the weather held off just for the show, which was lucky for us.
I will post my thoughts on the other concerts in their own messages.
Friday: Joel Plaskett concert
Philson and I took our time getting to the show because we weren't too excited to see Jenn Grant, the opening act, plus it had rained heavily all day and we weren't sure watching the show would be all that fun, standing in pouring rain. As it turned out, it stopped raining so we headed down to the Dartmouth Landing.
Unfortunately, we missed almost the entire set of Peter Elkas and his band. We only caught the last song for that set (which was really good) and then waited for over half an hour for Joel Plaskett to come on. The two opening acts must have only been on for less than 30 minutes each, because we weren't that late. Joel and his band put on a great show, with Peter Elkas helping out on the keyboard and guitar for some songs and Gordie Johnson (the producer of Joel's latest album), looking cool in black and a cowboy hat, added to the show by playing rhythm guitar.
The Emergency played almost all of the songs from the new album Ashtray Rock, which is good because it is full of good songs and it is a concept album, so to fully present the concept you kind of need to play at least most of the songs. They also played Bo Diddley's song near the end of the show (as they did last summer at the show for the Lunenburg Exhibition that Cheryl and I attended); I think Joel was really moved by his meeting Bo Diddley a while back. They slowly turned the Bo Diddley song into a tribute to the deceased Bob Switzer who owned Taz Records in Halifax. "Hey Bob Switzer" fits in nicely instead of "Hey Bo Diddley". They also played a Big Sugar tune, which was cool since that was Gordie Johnson's band, and finished the night with "Come On Teacher" and "True Patriot Love", two earlier hits for The Emergency. Overall, great show on an open-air stage and the weather held off just for the show, which was lucky for us.
I will post my thoughts on the other concerts in their own messages.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Three concerts and a wedding (with a concert)
Wow. I am going to see three concerts in four days. First up, Philson and I are going to Dartmouth's Alderney Landing Theatre to see Joel Plaskett Emergency with openers: Peter Elkas and the Elkaholics (great name!) whom I read about in Exclaim! -- I picked up the magazine for Joel and learned about Peter too. Check out his website!, local Jenn Grant, and ex-Big Sugar's Gordie Johnson. What a start!
After my eardrums recover from that, Cheryl and I are attending Dave and Jenn Finlayson's wedding reception. They got married today, but Saturday is the big bash at Pier 21. They are having a local band named Big Fish who are a favourite of Sigs since they performed at a few Sweetheart dances (sorry, I can't call them Sweetheart Balls). They mostly do cover tunes but they mix it up and put their own stank on them!
On Sunday, Cheryl and I are going to the Halifax Metro Centre to see Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman, the two creative forces behind The Guess Who and BTO. We have floor seats in the "Gold Circle." Oooooh! I saw these guys at the Sarsfest concert on TV a few years back. At that time, I thought, "I should really go see these guys if I ever get the chance." Originally, I was planning to head up to Toronto on Sunday night to see the next concert, but it was almost $400 cheaper to fly up on Monday, so I decided to do that and spend part of the money I saved on these concert tickets for Cheryl and myself. I am looking forward to this show because I hope they talk about their inspirations behind writing the songs that they perform.
Monday morning sees Philson and me jetting off to T-Dot to see The Police!!! This was one band that I never even thought about going to see since they had already broken up by the time I was of concert-going age, not to mention the fact that they never came close to Halifax. Now that I am older and have discretionary income, I have taken the opportunity to see one of my all-time favourite bands perform live (perform live -- is that redundant?). As I mentioned to a friend a few weeks back, this concert will be better than most since The Police broke up when they were at their best, with only strong material behind them, no unfortunate creative lapses or disappointing albums here, so the songs should all be fantastic.
Philson and I will be in T.O. until Wednesday. On Tuesday, we are going to see a Blue Jays game and I am going to the Skydome Hard Rock Cafe to add another shot glass to my collection. We have no other plans for the 48 hours we are there, but I am sure some adventure will present itself.
Originally, Alistair was supposed to attend the show with Dave Dawood, Dean and me, but Alistair got double-booked by work and I took the opportunity to bring my oldest son to see a band that I am not sure he really likes, but it is the chance of a lifetime. Alistair's loss is Philson's gain, although Alistair has the chance to see The Police elsewhere and I hope he does. Plus, I think Alistair likes the idea that Philson is getting this chance and that he was part of it.
So four concerts and a wedding reception! I think I will be tired next week...
After my eardrums recover from that, Cheryl and I are attending Dave and Jenn Finlayson's wedding reception. They got married today, but Saturday is the big bash at Pier 21. They are having a local band named Big Fish who are a favourite of Sigs since they performed at a few Sweetheart dances (sorry, I can't call them Sweetheart Balls). They mostly do cover tunes but they mix it up and put their own stank on them!
On Sunday, Cheryl and I are going to the Halifax Metro Centre to see Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman, the two creative forces behind The Guess Who and BTO. We have floor seats in the "Gold Circle." Oooooh! I saw these guys at the Sarsfest concert on TV a few years back. At that time, I thought, "I should really go see these guys if I ever get the chance." Originally, I was planning to head up to Toronto on Sunday night to see the next concert, but it was almost $400 cheaper to fly up on Monday, so I decided to do that and spend part of the money I saved on these concert tickets for Cheryl and myself. I am looking forward to this show because I hope they talk about their inspirations behind writing the songs that they perform.
Monday morning sees Philson and me jetting off to T-Dot to see The Police!!! This was one band that I never even thought about going to see since they had already broken up by the time I was of concert-going age, not to mention the fact that they never came close to Halifax. Now that I am older and have discretionary income, I have taken the opportunity to see one of my all-time favourite bands perform live (perform live -- is that redundant?). As I mentioned to a friend a few weeks back, this concert will be better than most since The Police broke up when they were at their best, with only strong material behind them, no unfortunate creative lapses or disappointing albums here, so the songs should all be fantastic.
Philson and I will be in T.O. until Wednesday. On Tuesday, we are going to see a Blue Jays game and I am going to the Skydome Hard Rock Cafe to add another shot glass to my collection. We have no other plans for the 48 hours we are there, but I am sure some adventure will present itself.
Originally, Alistair was supposed to attend the show with Dave Dawood, Dean and me, but Alistair got double-booked by work and I took the opportunity to bring my oldest son to see a band that I am not sure he really likes, but it is the chance of a lifetime. Alistair's loss is Philson's gain, although Alistair has the chance to see The Police elsewhere and I hope he does. Plus, I think Alistair likes the idea that Philson is getting this chance and that he was part of it.
So four concerts and a wedding reception! I think I will be tired next week...
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