2006-07-08 - 14:32
Preaching the blues
My update pace gets slower and slower, even though lots has been on the go since I last wrote. A few weeks back, Laurie went away for the weekend, allowing me to discover that I do indeed revert to my usual habits when left alone: sleeping in until noon, playing Civilization 4 until I realize that I haven't eaten all day, and falling asleep on the couch watching boxing.
The next weekend, we went along with Aaron, Loralei, and Nick to the Purdon Conservation Area where the Orchid Festival was in gear. That was a fun hike which resulted in lots of photos. I'm trying to sort through my backlog to get some pictures online soon (well, soonish). We ended that day with a jaunt downtown for Ribfest, followed by some board games back at the house. Pretty much a perfect summer day, by my accounting.
The Canada Day long weekend was fairly busy. Laurie's sister Alison came to visit on Wednesday, with Stacy and Todd arriving Friday (with a Simpsons trivia game in tow). We spent Canada Day itself downtown, catching some of the afternoon and evening concerts (more on that later), with a trip to the War Museum and supper in between.
The War Museum is highly recommended. It's very thorough with lots of great displays. I tried to take in all the details, which resulted in me calling it a day after taking the chronological tour to the end of World War II. I'll be sure to head back for the rest of it another time.
The fireworks after the concerts were pretty good, albeit slightly flawed. We were at Parliament Hill because we had just finished seeing Stars play, which meant that the low fireworks were obscured. Worst of all, for the first few minutes, they ran ads on the video screens flanking the stage, including one from the National Capital Commission. I could live without the NCC drowning out the fireworks that they organized by playing a promotional message telling me how good the NCC is. Overall, though, it was a fun night.
On the Sunday we had a few folks over for a barbecue and more games. It wasn't as large as some of my past gatherings but it was still very enjoyable. We did have enough people to bust out a game of Lupus in Tabula, which is somewhat of a rare event, as it requires at least nine.
The World Cup rolled along well until Germany got tossed. I guess I have to cheer for Italy in the final, though.
So, on the concert front, I finally put up my overdue Bright Eyes recap. The Canada Day concerts included Buck 65, K'naan, Kinnie Starr, and Joe Fafard at Major's Hill Park (afternoon and evening), as well as Stars at Parliament Hill. The smaller stage was the better experience, as K'naan impressed me and Buck was as reliable as ever. That was actually my tenth time seeing Buck, which is the first time that I've cracked the double digits on an artist. My recap for those shows can be found here.
Last night was the start of the big guns: Ottawa Bluesfest. Right off the bat, I had to choose between two of my favourite bands in the whole bill: Calexico and Broken Social Scene. I opted for Calexico, as they are touring on new material and BSS is more likely to return. It ended up being a stellar show, as I tried to convey. (I think that this was a better written review than the others, actually.) Calexico is amazingly polished and tight live. Seu Jorge also added to a strong concert, playing before Calexico.
I ended up running into the same guy who I saw repeatedly at last year's Bluefest, as both of us were going for setlists. Fortunately, we each got one, courtesy of a helpful roadie; and Martin Wenk was nice enough to sign my copy and say hi after the show. You can see a picture on the review page, if you're interested.
Laurie and I have full passes to the festival, so we'll be catching a lot of music in the next week. You can probably guess much of what we'll be seeing, if you check the lineup. Or tune in to see if I'm actually able to keep pace with my reviews for a change (unlikely but not impossible).
J.