Live is so much better

Awhile ago Jim and I decided to buy a series of tickets to performances by artists we'd never heard of.   The tickets were relatively inexpensive, so we weren't losing a lot if we didn't really like what we heard or saw.  The first concert was by Chic Gamine, a group out of Winnipeg and Montreal.  

We'd read enough about them to expect a sort of updated version of a Motown girl group.  Turns out there is a lot more to them - a whole lot more.  They are a talented group of vocalists, songwriters and performers; they were engaging and interesting and totally into the music.  

Because I loved the performance so much, I bought one of their CDs before I left.  I've been listening to it all weekend and I'm actually a little disappointed by it.  Don't get me wrong - it's good; very good.  But it doesn't give me the same feeling about the music and them that their live performance gave me.  There's something about the women (and the guy -  I keep forgetting there's a guy in the group - he's the drummer) that brings life to the songs.  The live versions of their songs are definitely better than the studio versions.

So if you want a treat, go to their website and check out their videos and go to YouTube for more.  Maybe you will fall in love with Chic Gamine, too.

New friends welcome

I suppose it had to happen sometime.  I am now the (proud?) owner of an iPad and iPhone, and I make use of them every day.  Not only for useful things like checking the weather or checking email or reading the paper, but also - more so - for entertainment.  I love the games I can play on my new devices.

Games.  Apps.  Now I understand how people can spend hours on their tablets and never notice how much time has passed.

The best are word games.  I love word games, and a friend at work introduced me to WordOn.  It's like Scrabble without the game board.  I am now playing with 15 different people and I know only four of them; the rest are strangers - people looking for someone to play with.  They seem to be people like myself - lovers of word games and just a teensy bit competitive when it comes to words.

For my part, using words is how I make a living. I have a reasonable vocabulary and.like to think that I am - maybe - above average when it comes to putting words together.  And I can spell.  So I think I have a pretty good chance of doing well at word games.

Obviously, others have the same idea.  I sometimes struggle to find ways to use my letters and the letters sent to me by another player, and I watch the scores carefully, trying to find ways to bring my score up.  I have never thought of myself as a competitive sort, but apparently I am.

What is the best thing about the game is that I can 'chat' with other players - just a few phrases or words of congratulations over a good word or apologies over a profanity that was the only word I could make.    

I have now come to understand what The Kid meant when he was playing online with people he never met.  He would refer to them as "his friends" and I endlessly ragged on him about how he should be spending time with his real friends and how he didn't know the people online so he shouldn't call them friends.  Now I see that even though I don't know most of the people  I play with online, I somehow think of them as "my WordOn friends".  I feel a responsibility to them - a responsibility to tune in and seen what words they've made or which letters they've sent me.  A responsibility to keep this strange, distant relationship going.  And they seem to feel the same way.   We all enjoy the few minutes we take to trade words and letters and maybe a few cheerful comments.

So if you are looking for me and I'm not here (I really did intend to post something weekly ... I'm sorry I wasn't able to keep that resolution) you might find me as valeriew on WordOn.  I'm using the default funny face - that's how you should find me.  I always welcome new WordOn friends.

Saviour wanted

It’s the end of the week and I still haven’t posted anything – the pressure is on.  I checked the random word generator for some help to get me started and it spit out ‘Bodhisat’.   

Believe it or not, I actually know this word, or at least a different form of the word - Bohdisattva – as it came up in a comparative religions course I took in university.  A Bodhisat is a Buddha-in-waiting – someone who has reached the highest degree of enlightenment – or saintship, if you want the word used in the dictionaries – and will become the Buddha in their next reincarnation.  I’ve always liked the word and the concept, but have wondered if Bodhisats actually know they will be the next Buddha.  Do people know they are enlightened?  Do they choose to be Bohdisats?  Do they want to be Buddha?  It’s a big job, and a thankless one - no one wants to listen. 

I’m sure all my questions would be answered if I was Buddhist or took the time to read a bit more.  I do know there have been 28 Buddhas and there’s another expected.  I actually find that kind of exciting.  Having grown up a big-C Christian (although that status is surely in doubt in the minds of some people), I was always taught that Jesus is *the* saviour – no others exist and no more are expected.  

Don’t you find that sad?  No one to show us where we’ve strayed?   No one to remind us what needs to be done?  No one to show us a better path?  

I like the idea of a saviour in the wings – I just don’t know how you’d recognize one.

Totally random

Today I thought I’d use the random word generator to help get me started on this post, but once again I was given a ridiculous word – grotesqueness.  For heaven’s sake – who programmed this?  Cheerlessness; grotesqueness – are there no cheerier words to spit out?

***

 

It’s almost the end of another summer and the beginning of what I consider to be the new year.  It’s hard to tell, though – we are having hot, sticky days and nights and it feels more like the middle of summer.  Except there’s something that makes it feel like fall is coming.  I can’t quite put my finger on it – is it that the sun is lower in the sky?  There’s a hint that leaves are turning soon?  Whatever it is, it’s making me anticipate fall and it’s making me happy. 

***

 

On a totally unrelated subject, I heard Paul McCartney’s new single – “New” – today.  If there was any doubt that Lennon was the more talented of Lennon-McCartney, this song would surely put that doubt to rest.  Why can’t old rockers quit while they’re ahead?  

**

 

And the last in a series of totally unrelated topics … why can’t the media finish what they start?  How many times do they get you into a story and then drop it when it ceases to be sensational so you never learn the outcome?  Why are celebrities who are famous only for being famous even news in the first place?  Do the media decide what they want you to know and who you should be reading about?  

What if?

Do you play the “what if …” game? 

I started playing “what if” awhile ago.  I mentioned in an email to a friend that I wondered what would have been different if I’d gone to graduate school.  I have wondered that off and on, although not all that seriously as I don’t regret the decision I made to not go. 

But then I started thinking more about “what if?” –  what if I’d made this decision instead of that; what if I’d moved there instead of here; what if I’d turned down that invitation; what if … any number of decisions I’ve made through the years.  There are hundreds of decisions – large and small – that have shaped my life. 

I found it amusing that shortly after I started my own little game of “what if”, the topic showed up in a comic strip I enjoy – Pickles.  Both Earl and Opal have started their own games of “what if”, with interesting results. 

It’s hard not to play “what if” – I think we all wonder from time to time what might be different in our lives if we’d made one different decision.  Or would our lives be different?  Is it fate that determines how our lives unfold – in which case no decision we make will affect the outcome.  Or do we get where we are because of a combination of our choices and happenstance?  I tend to come down on the side of choices and happenstance, but sometimes that’s not so comforting. 

Because what often goes along with the “what if” game is the “I regret” game.  This is the dangerous game.  Playing “I regret” has at some points in my life led me – and others I know – to be seriously unhappy with their present reality. Regret can’t change the past, so playing the game seems always to end in a bad place.  It’s a game I hope I’ve left well in the past, although it sometimes beckons in the midst of “what if”. 

I enjoy a good game of “what if”, but it’s also nice to put it away on the shelf and enjoy where my decisions have brought me – assuredly a different place than if I’d made different decisions, but a good place all the same.

It all sounded so good in the ad ...

We are away at a rented cottage for a week's vacation with the kid.  It's been a long time since we all vacationed together and we're having a great time.    And thank goodness we're having such a good time, because if we weren't, there would be lots to complain about with our accommodation.

Like a lot of people, we found our cottage online, through what we have known to be a reputable website.  The website made clear the cottages aren't on the water, but across from the lake.  There is a nice beach and the water is great for swimming.  There's a heated pool, wifi available in the office, satellite tv in every cottage, all the mod cons - all we had to bring were our clothes and food.

Sort of.  As it turns out, the lake is across the road and you get to the beach by walking through trees on a mulch path, until you hit the many, many stairs that take you down to a deck above the waterline.  There is a tiny strip of grass and sand that could, if you use your imagination, be considered a beach.  After you walk over many small rocks at the edge of the water, you get to the mud-and-rock bottomed lake, where you'd better swim if you don't like mud oozing between your toes and underwater plants grabbing at your legs. 

The rest is all true enough as well - I'm sure the pool has a heater but I'm not sure the heater is being used.  There's no one on site through the week, so there's also a lovely accumulation of bugs - dead and alive - floating on the top.  The wifi in the office works - sometimes.  The satellite tv works - sometimes.  Mod cons?  Well, you guess at how modern they are.

But you know what?  It doesn't really matter all that much.  We are together as a family, we are having a good time anyway and we'll have lots of stories from this place.   This place is really giving us a break from the ordinary.

The new menace on the roads

Morning walks have changed.  It’s now dark at just after 5:30 when I head out.  The morning sounds are different than they were just a few short weeks ago – fewer birds are singing and the sounds from the bushes are more ominous (rummaging squirrels?  lurking coyotes?  frightened rabbits?).  Everything is just that much less friendly because of the darkness, and this is what I will face from now until late next spring. 

The darkness makes morning sounds seem louder – it’s like sound carries further and becomes amplified.  That first morning chirp could be coming from anywhere.  Train wheels on the tracks are louder.  If the wind is coming from the right direction, cars noises from the highway are louder, too. 

What’s not louder, though, is the new menace on the roads – electric or hybrid cars and bikes.  They silently come out of nowhere and glide past without a sound.  I am so used to hearing vehicles approach that I barely look when I cross the road during my early morning walks.  Until yesterday, that is, when I almost stepped out in front of an electric bike.  That thing made no sound at all as it approached and it was a last-second, out-of-habit glance that saved me from putting a foot out onto the road. 

I know I should have been more attentive and more careful about looking before I crossed the road, but honestly, you should be able to hear these things.  Hybrid vehicles are the same – they can approach without you knowing it.  As wonderful an invention as they are, they are making the streets less safe for pedestrians who assume they will hear a car or bike approaching.  They are a menace, I tell you! 

 

So now on my morning walk, I have to watch for skunks, coyotes and electric or hybrid vehicles.  What’s next, I wonder.