Music

Backstage At Loverboy

Forty years ago in Kamloops, B.C. as a teenager when at home listening to Loverboy’s self titled album with my aunt and mother on what can now be described as a vintage cabinet record player enraptured by songs titled “The Kid is Hot Tonight” and “Turn Me Loose” in no way could I have imagined that last night I’d be back stage of a concert in Calgary shaking hands with the lead singer Mike Reno and guitarist Paul Dean.

As if intended through some unknown protagonist, upon taking up guitar and piano there’s been opportunity to circulate in music circles and attend performances which have proved to be sources of inspiration and everywhere I turn I discover fellow amateur guitar players where we share about the instrument’s intricacies. 

Don’t be shy if you’re a single male in the crowd with a backstage pass encircling your wrist. Work it with the ladies preferably in a fashion that at least gets you a date. You see Tom Cochrane was actually the closing act and he apparently offered leverage power to backstage pass holder.

The question I had for Mike Reno last night was, “have you ever had voice training”? His answer was “no”. He still carries the high pitch exemplary of his singing. It’s not falsetto but just a high range he’s obviously carried throughout his career.

It was thanks to a client with connections that made this night out extra special. It was also fun to wear a neck badge with photo of the band purchased for me by my client’s wife from the souvenir stand. In response to perplexed inquiries I represented the keepsake as my “premium backstage pass” much to their astonishment and my silent guffaw.   

No photo….didn’t turn out. 

ski, Lifestyle, Sport

Nakiska Day Trip

https://youtu.be/pCs3krz3OpU

Ski day at Nakiska and first foray into vlogging March 14, 2019. Busted out with a day off work after the schedule cleared. I’ve had a season pass here for the past five years. Definitely good value if you catch the early bird discount. It’s really the quickest trip from Calgary and need not occupy the full day.

Those learning to ski need an easy going comfortable setting with appropriate terrain. Nakiska fits the bill.

There’s never a snow issue here because of the well developed snow making infrastructure. The snow park is well equipped with ramps, jumps and rails. Downhill skiing not your thing? Just jump on a tube or snap into X country gear and tour the picturesque landscape of Kananaskis Country.

Homesteader Fork

Lifes Lessons

Complexity Theory And Airplane Automation

Does the human mind have limitations when confronted with multiple variables presented during short time windows requiring a life and death decision? I took a course in third year university called “Human Performance” and in the course we pondered the question of “reaction time”. It was postulated by our professor that when a football team was confronted with a “third and one” (American rules) scenario that the offensive team should be guaranteed a first down because of their advantage of snap count cognition. However; any fan of the game has witnessed the defence putting on the stop. After all, a quarter back sneak requires execution after the snap.

Airplanes now have all this automation which is predicated on electronic data flow. In fact, some of the data flow is initiated from conditions exterior to the fuselage. Ice pellets, rain, snow, wind, lightning and thunder are all conditions which airplanes may encounter and hence require the pilot whether automated or not to interpolate. But wait…shouldn’t these automated systems adjust for the conditions? Hasn’t every imaginable metric been created to account for weather events which have now been deployed within electrical circuit boards and decision switches?  Has it not been established that auto pilots can now drive the plane from just after take-off to just before landing? Does a pilot dare interfere with the scientific deployment of automation when his / her instinct has been aroused? Has the human mind been compromised through excessive deployment of automation in an environment which carries living souls through the air in a cargo machine?

Lifes Lessons, Politics

The Feeling of Corruption in Canada

Your Attorney General of Canada claims that your Prime Minister placed undue influence on her with respect to a prosecutorial decision in lieu of criminal evidence. In my mind this amounts to “obstruction of justice” subject to the penal code. It’s apparent that Justin Trudeau was motivated politically to save an engineering firm, namely SNC Lavalin, from consequences arising from their apparent conduct. The firm is based in Quebec. Trudeau is a Quebecer. It’s postulated that pensions would be saved by interfering with the prosecution of the firm and somehow that would philanthropically justify such immunity. I suppose Canadians are now expected by our Prime Minister to rationalize the penal code depending on circumstances of a person, or a company? This in my opinion makes our country’s leader unfit to lead. Now that he has cast away Jody Wilson-Raybould from her post as Attorney General in lieu of her steadfast integrity, the next incumbent will be faced with an office stained of its independence. Canadians are asking whether our justice system is now not only pitiful in its timely and cost effective execution but also lacking in credibility. If our Prime Minister is not ousted from office in the short term, I will be asking whether Canada is any better than corrupt Venezuela. 

Politics

Jaw Dropping Adam Capay Story

I attended a municipal forum last week which dealt with the possible replacement of the Calgary Saddledome for the whiny Calgary Flames organization. Let me take that back…they’ve been better behaved lately having come to grips with the economic landscape in this city in lieu of the oil price drop and the difficulty in transporting the resource due to political obfuscation. 

Today I consider the impact of failing to fund “correctional facilities” in which tax payer money should be rightly allocated. Last month, Adam Capay walked free from murder prosecution because Canada’s correctional system was either ill equipped to manage his incarceration humanely or lacked the   necessary will to do so. As a result of his rights being breached under the Canada’s Charter, he has been immunized from prosecution of murder. Imagine that? In a world where cars can now drive themselves and governments throw funding at “artificial intelligence”, our country has lacked the resources to keep this man, Adam Capay, housed within a humane environment. Consequently, the family of Mr. Capay’s murder victim wonders about a system of justice whereby lawyers grow wealthy through exorbitant fees, and justice fails after years spent haggling in a legal purgatory.

It doesn’t matter the government. Navel gazing politicians more interested in pet projects oriented around ego as opposed to execution of administrative policy drop the ball on matters relevant to the public purse whether it was Mr. Harper’s obsession with Mike Duffy’s suspected abuse of public perks who was ultimately exonerated, or the endless apologies by Justin Trudeau to groups offended in decades past, or photo ops of white men in turbans….politicians are failing to do the job such as humanely incarcerating criminals and administering a system of justice which is fair, expedient  and cost efficient.