Ullr Fest is a yearly tradition that we are going to join this year. Basically it is a paganish night of ski sacrifice to the (probably Icelandic) snow god Ullr. There might be drinking at it too. Anyway, it was clear today that Ullr is hip to the whole thing because in preparation… HE MADE IT SNOW ALL DAY TODAY IN KAMLOOPS!
Our first visit to Thailand (back in 2003) we made sure to get a bit off the beaten path. That led us to the northern province of Nan. There, after a great bus trip (great means - interesting and fun. OK, the bus almost didn’t make it) and a couple of connections by way of the back of a couple of trucks, we made it to Bamboo Hut.
You never know who you might meet at a place like that . In this case it was a nice couple from Manitoba. This was good because Bamboo Hut is a small, hard-to-get-to place. So you get to know the few people that are there. Thus you want them to be cool. We got to know Murray and Lei Anne around the fire. By summer, they run Poor Michael’s Bookshop in Onanole, Manitoba, just outside beautiful Riding National Park. We’ve been there since, and I’m here to say that if you find yourself ever in Onanole, do stop by as they run a great place (and make a decent cup of joe too!). It is filled with treasures from far away places because come winter, Murray and Lei Anne close up shop and travel the world, importing art they find along the way.
I was first aware of Murray from our hut; I heard him before I saw him. He was playing guitar! I was missing mine after being on the road with only a pack on my back so soon found myself following the notes through the hot northern Thai air until I found the two of them. Murray was happy to play songs that showed a special kind of wit - including the one we remember best, “Lonely Planet People”. It was a funny little ditty about meeting people on the backpacking circuit.
Turns out Murray had a band back in Canada called das match SHOW! They have since renamed themselves, and are now Dust Poets, and play witty songs with intelligent lyrics and catchy melodies.
We were lucky enough to see the Dust Poets last week at the penultimate show at the Ashcroft Opera House. Yes unfortunately the Opera House has closed. Fortunately, the Dust Poets were there before it did. We enjoyed the show immensely - this is talented band - and got a chance to catch up with Murray a bit too.
You can check out their music streamed on their website. The new album starts with the great lyric, “Out on the edge of town, everything’s on the edge of town”, and gets even better from there.
There are profiles on CBC Radio 2 Blog here and CBC Radio 3 here. Check it out. And if you ever get a chance to see these players live, don’t pass it up.
You may have noticed a new banner pic recently. It’s one of my favs from our trip to Indonesia. Part of the time we spent on Flores included a multi-day boat trip to Rinca and Komodo Islands - home, of course, to the world famous Komodo dragon. It was a fantastic few days that also included some awesome snorkeling (really awesome) and other fun stuff like a flyover from Flying Foxes. Anyway, the pic above is from that boat trip and was taken on a little side trip we did to an awesome, secluded little “resort” on an island. It was hard to believe that the little slice of paradise was abandoned because they couldn’t get enough guests to make it a go. That was something we really enjoyed about Indonesia, specifically the eastern parts - it wasn’t very touristy (like Thailand for example). Would sure love to get back there one day.
Have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you and yours!! All the best to you in this, the holiday season!!!
Now you may be saying to yourself “Kev, you’re a little early on this one; it’s not Christmas. No sir, Christmas is over a month away”. But you’d be wrong. Take a look around you. Crappy X-mas junk has been rammed down our throats since the morning after Halloween. That includes Christmas music at the stores, advertising on the tube and in the papers and merch everywhere. Yeesh. The only good part of this I can see is that the sweet mandarin oranges are now everywhere.
I came across an interesting article recently on cbc.ca. Upon reading it, two surprising things came to light for me. First was that there is a Toy Hall of Fame. Who knew? I guess it’s not that big of a surprise in this day an age where we have a hall of fame for pretty much everything, and if not, at least there is an “award” for it. I mean really, our house is already in the Dust Hall of Fame (according to Mich) and I’ve won several awards for outstanding bed head. Anyway, I digress - enough about us. So the Toy HOF must be filled with incredible wonders of Toyland like slinkies, and silly putty and Matchbox cars, games like monopoy and checkers (not really toys I guess) and of course… The Stick. Now at this point you may expect me to poke all kinds of fun at the crack Induction committee over there at the Toy HOF (they’ve inducted the cardboard box too), but actually no, I think it’s all quite wonderful. In this time of computer games, and robot dinosaurs and other electronic wonders that younger and younger kids are all hoping to see under the imminent (according to Big Box) Christmas trees, the idea of the Stick and the Box, nay, the idea of ideas is what really warms my heart. I’m talking about imagination here folks.
I remember way back when I was a little kid and my parents received beautiful rosewood furniture from China. It was shipped all the way over in wooden crates. After the furniture was out these amazing crates were moved to the basement and passed on to my siblings and me. In our care they became forts, garages, jails, castles, beds and whatever our little imaginations could dream up that day. They had no moving parts. They had no decoration or electrical plug ins. They had no lights, bells or whistles. But they did have us. And we spent countless hours in the worlds they provided for us.
I remember my nephew as a youngster (maybe 1? 2?) at Christmas one year in PG. Though he didn’t really get what was going on with the whole present thing, we were able to convince him to rip off the paper of his gifts. Soon though he seemed less interested in presents and stuff, and more interested in the boxes! Awesome.
And that brings me to The Stick. Its induction in the Toy HOF shows the genius of the selection committee. There are few places on Earth that a kid couldn’t come by a stick, obtain it for no cost and have it become myriad playthings for him or her. I have many personal stick stories I could share from the simpler days of my youth, but instead I want to share a modern day finding that I thought of instantly upon reading the headline of the aforementioned article. On our spring break trip to Laos we had the opportunity to spend a day and a night in a village on a home stay. It was a very interesting time for many reasons. One of them was that before dinner, we sat on the front porch of our hosts’ house and watched the village kids play a remarkable game. They played for hours, stopping only for lack of light. It was basically a team contest. The only things required were a couple of sticks, a hole in the ground, some space and a bunch of kids. While we didn’t totally figure out all the rules, they were fascinating and intricate. Now there were a few TVs in this village, though not too many other modern amenities. But these kids weren’t interested. They were outside. They had no shoes. They were having fun. ‘Nuff said.
My fav part of the game comes around the 30 second mark of the video below. I’m thinking that’s an advanced move.
And for next year, if it’s not in the Toy HOF already, my nomination goes to The Ball.
Looks like fun eh?
For the whole list of toys that have made it so far into the Hall of Fame, click here.
