The Pogues

Tonight I watched the finale of American Idol.

Jordin won, but I was pulling for Blake. Ah well, your pony can't always bring it home I suppose.
Cheers to Jordin though, she is a solid singer.

While watching the show, I somehow got to thinking about The Pogues (don't ask me how it happened, but it did).
For those youngsters out there, The Pogues were an Irish band which played Irish folk songs, with a punk influence.
The Pogues formed in the early 80's, and are still around today in some form or another.
The did fire the lead singer, and front man for the original band, Shane MacGowan in 1996 (he was heavy into drugs and alcohol and was a total wreck.....and still is).
In my opinion, they may have become more stable after firing Shane, but the vibe was never the same. Shane embodied the spirit of that band, and they lost a lot of fans afterwards.

But, as I was thinking about their music, I got the itch to hunt around for some clips on YouTube (as usual).

These may not be the best clips, but it brought back some memories for all the same.

Enjoy!

The Pogues & The Dubliners - The Irish Rover


The Pogues - Sally MacLennane


the pogues - fairytale of new york


Katie Melua and The Pogues: Fairytale of New York


POGUES St. Patricks Day 1990 - singing White City, and Body Of An American



Laterz
AH

The Art Of Valentina

Since I am off work for a week at the moment (took a week of vacation time), I have been doing quite a lot of surfing. Specifically I am trolling around YouTube, LiveVideo, FaceBook etc.

There are people out there who don't care for the internet for various reasons. And admittedly, the internet is chalk full of scammers, porn, and other sewer level sites and characters. I think it's part and parcel of how the internet is made. It's something that will likely not change for a long time, and will likely not change for the better entirely.

In the future, there will be laws passed to protect the innocent, and regulate what we can see or post, but even then I'm not sure to what extent "they" will be able to control everything.

Time will tell.


But today I found something very refreshing while surfing around!

Amidst the plethora of garbage on YouTube (a place I have been frequenting lately), I found someone who is genuinely honest and upbeat. Someone who is a pleasure to listen to, and seems to have a zest for life. Someone who is doing what she has a passion for, and wants others to share in that passion.

Meet Valentina.

Val has a web site entitled valsartdiary and can be found at http://www.valsartdiary.com

Val is a painter, and creates vlogs of her life as such. She videos herself creating her paintings, and even gives away one painting every week to one of her subscribers (she has a YouTube and LiveVideo account where she gets her subscribers from).

Initially, you will see the things which attract people to her channels and web site - she's pretty, has a cute accent, she is energetic, and she edits her vlogs with flare and style.

But once you get to watching a few of the videos, you become enthralled in the things she is creating. All the while she is talking about quite a few different things, she is also discretely talking about her painting, and it draws you in, and you cannot stop watching.

Well, at least that's how I perceived it anyway.

It is very nice to find a gem like Val in a sea of idiocy. I would recommend everyone to check out her videos on YouTube, LiveVideo, or her web site.

I will leave you with a couple of her videos, and you can judge for yourself:








Laterz
AH

Quality Pictures

I was surfing around earlier tonight, and found some great pictures from yesteryear.

The quality on these pictures is surprisingly good, and I wanted to show them to anyone stopping by.

Enjoy!








Laterz
AH

The Manitoba Social

Like most Manitobans, we've all been to a social at one time or another.

Those of you who are not from Manitoba, there is a reference in the Wikipedia under the term "social" with the heading "Regional Uses". This explains fairly good what in fact a social is to us Manitobans.

Here is the excerpt from that article:
"Regional uses -
There is a peculiar use of "social" in some parts of the world. In the Canadian province of Manitoba, a "social" is a fund raising party (for a wedding, non-profit organization, charity, or some other worthy cause). It is also known as a Manitoba Social. Typically, they will include music (current popular music for the youth and "oldies" music older adults), dancing, food, raffles (and other fund raising games). When held in support of a wedding, often they are used as a way to shake down some details of the wedding (e.g., letting the bride try a hair style, practicing dancing, etc.)"

That sums it up pretty good.

The reason I am posting about socials tonight, is I am heading out to attend one tonight. It's in honor a friend of mine getting married in June.

Should be a good time.

I hope the phenomenon of socials will be around for a long time, it's one of the things which set this region of the world apart from others. And I realize it may be a small, unimportant thing to think about, but we all define ourselves somehow, and the social is just another thing we can be proud of when we say we are Manitobans, and Canadians.

Here is the only wedding social video I could find. Seems people here in Manitoba don't post a lot of video's of socials on the 'net.




Laterz.
AH

Caddy Lake

Myself and some fellow employees volunteered to help a Girl Guide camp site get ready for the upcoming season. We cleared debris, set up tents and cots, repaired a dock, built a ramp to another dock, and lots of other odds and ends.
My company does this every year, but this was the first time I have gone. It was great!
The weather was a little cool, but I wore shorts to spite it, and we all ended up having a great time.
The camp staff cooked us great meals throughout the day, and we took lots of pictures.
I will definitely be going back next year.

This video was taken on the way home in my friends civic. The video doesn't really do the drive justice though. It is extremely beautiful out there, and the road was a little narrow, very winding, and we were going faster than we should have. It was like an amusement ride to tell you the truth. The road also pitched up and down, and was very rough. But at least I got a little video of it.

Driving Home From The Lake


Also, here are a few pictures from the outing today: