Lifestyle, Music

Tommy Emmanuel In Calgary

There was much anticipation of the Tommy Emmanuel concert at Calgary’s Jack Singer concert hall. I literally felt giddy earlier this evening upon dressing in blazer and slacks wondering what exactly what was about to unfold. I have watched his youtube rendition of “Classical Gas” about 20 times and “Lewis and Clark” probably ten. I’ve listened to other players rave about his prowess on acoustic guitar. J.P. Cormier ranks him as the best in the world. Other youtubers also put him there.

Made a point of getting there early. I was by myself and envisioned some sharing among a kindred spirit in the lobby. I walked right in and chatted up William. He had just stumbled on his ticket and never heard of the guy. His party hadn’t yet arrived so I eagerly set William up for the evening at hand.

Sat next to Kevin. He was a mandolin player so that was cool. He had just heard Christie Lenee at a folk club here in town and came to know about Tommy via the Christie crowd. Surprisingly, the place was not sold out and the top floor bar was closed.

Unassuming is how I’d characterize his demeanour as he took the stage. He jumped right into lively new material from his latest album. This helped him shake off some nerves. He was a bit tight early into the first set and I was thinking about the sound. The Jack Singer concert hall is spectacular and is particularly amenable to acoustic sound yet he was running his signal through a PA. I knew in advance that this is his typical large auditorium set up and was slightly disappointed that he didn’t decide to just run via acoustic amp akin to Cormier.

“Angelina” and “Never Too Late” came up in the first set and they were both done beautifully. He plays from the heart and his stage show is fantastic. There were no shortage of fast lead lines in between ballads and he wowed the crowd with a demo of his one man band methodology. One song in particular ran half way through full of one note harmonics only. I wondered if he was going to strike a chord and he finally did. This was the talking point between Kevin and I at half time. The precision just to hit consecutive harmonics is tricky never mind half a song worth of them.

I had never heard the song “Eva Waits” and it was solemnly melodic stemming from the story of separated love at the Berlin wall. Despite being fully cognizant of his penchant for using a guitar top for percussion…he dazzled my mind by gymnastically eliciting every imaginable sound from a guitar fixed with a mic and pick up. This was breath taking for him and us.

Tommy didn’t disappoint by bringing his reknown Beatles Medley topped off with select lines from Classical Gas. The Billy Joel song “And So It Goes” was flawless and closed with a colorful story of the “added bridge”. Eric Clapton was on his mind so he brought out an old run down Maton specially equipped with effects in and ode a la creme de la Cream.

Lifes Lessons, Philosophy, Politics

Ambivalence Must Now Be Shown The Door

You grew up in a household which taught values. You learned them and you now hold them dear. You also use them on a daily basis but you’ve seldom been tasked to deploy them within your macro social environment. Now is the time for that.  

You see…not everyone is as blessed as you. Some had not been blessed with a functioning household infused with integrity. Some folks now peer through a dark lens void from the loving canvas of a warm home. Cynicism has overtaken some of them so that their judgment has become clouded with apathy. Some have come to trust no one. Imagine that! 

You cannot allow the cynicism to develop into policy like it has recently in the United States of America. You cannot rationalize complicity and succumb to the lowest common denominator of life. You cannot exempt yourself from expression because of fear. You must speak. You must now express those values which have brought you abundance in spirit and peace in your heart. Help others come to know that covetousness and greed imperil and that love conquers all.     

Politics

Partisanship Exempt of Objectivity

All objectivity is absolutely lost with the partisan digging in deep picking sound bites for support of irresponsible rhetoric and decisions gone mad. The U.S.A. has lost their mind and may be imploding and losing all credibility across the globe referring to “wokeness” as a justification for ego stroking and destruction. Even Steve Forbes who has at times has been eloquent can’t differentiate communism from fascism. Wasn’t that a Nazi salute made by Elon Musk on camera? Now he runs ramshod over the public service whereby his President now gets even warmer to Russian aggressor while Ukraine wonders if they have a seat at the table.

Lifes Lessons, Sport

A Boxing Death In 2025

We are not evolving as human beings. I suspect we are actually regressing in intellect and in conscience. I have never paid to see a boxing match except for Rocky in the theatre as a child. I did see a nephew once in bout. I don’t understand an effort of beating someone up as sport. If I was accosted physically by someone on the street, I would see this as a perfect place for inflicting utter harm on another but not in a ring surrounded by spectators. The martial arts have a strong modicum of respect and conduct entrenched and disciplines are oriented around self defense. In other words, boxing and martial arts are two different things.


In a core subject within my Physical Education discipline back in the early ’80’s we had taken up the merits of boxing in a debate. My position then was as it is now. Don’t do it. Don’t support it. It doesn’t serve society or the individual. There are so many other ways to compete physically and mentally which don’t have the end goal of uncivilly harming someone else’s good health.


Why do we pay to watch? Why do boxers pursue the sport? Do men and women box and pay to watch boxing because of some neanderthal like instinct of survival where fighting is perceived as a means for self sufficiency and perhaps expressive toward the onlooking female as way to gain favor. Of course, this motive contrasts with the cooperative ideal of a civil society whereby conscience in a higher form may morally restrict unleashing unnecessary physical harm on another human being.


In our quest for freedom, do we act beyond the conscienable? Do we exempt moral suasion in the face of a perceived overriding freedom and quest for profit? Do we actually possess intuitively the capacity to empathize wholly with the plight of another when another is carried from a ring on a stretcher? Can an individual be guided intuitively at all by an awareness of spirit extending beyond the self or is any effort only fictionally derived from parent / teacher coaching? If we are more than blood, bone, and water….where from do emotions such as guilt, greed, and love manifest? What must we think of the love lost by the death of a boxer? Having paid to watch boxing where a person dies, what are we to think of ourselves?


The fellow who recently died was an Irishman named John Cooney aged 28. It’s very sad. Thinking of all who knew him today and all his good deeds throughout his 28 years.

Politics

Trump I Told You So II

I was at a dinner party at a friends house at around the time when Trump was campaigning for his first term. Having listened to him closely through the media, and having watched his conduct via “The Apprentice” (accounting for any perceived thoughts that acting within the role may or may not have been apparent) I gained a feel for the man. I started to generate an opinion in regard to his utter essence as a human being and I’ll tell you frankly, I was very unimpressed.


At the dinner party… the evening was winding up and Trump’s name came up. I said – watch. He will align with Putin and coordinate a strategy to walk right into Canada via Alaska and the Bering Strait. Of course the statement should have been perceived as “ridiculous”. My friend’s reaction was neutral but the other dinner party guest was understandably aghast that I should state such a thing.


Where are we now? Through all the turbulence of his first days in office, there has been no talk of Putin and Ukraine and how peace is being delivered to the region. Why has Trump not ever exclaimed in absolute terms that Putin withdraw from Ukraine? I will leave that speculation up to you. What could the U.S. possibly offer Russia for concessions?


Now we have Prime Minister who has come to conclude Trump’s unspoken agenda (absorbing Canada) with respect to Canada. He was caught on a “hot mic” speaking his instinct when his instinct could have been made readily available to Canadians should he have deemed his insight material.


This backdrop is one which supports my opinion that no political leader should be meeting in private with Donald Trump in quarters other than officially sanctioned governmental institutions. Danielle Smith was so naive that she had even brought along a character presumed similar in financial stature to the kinds of people that Trump is now installing to lead his “Project 25”. Ironic or not, since her Trump visit with Kevin O’Leary, Smith is now in hot water at home with allegations of conflict within her department of health at Alberta Health Services (AHS).