Month: February 2008

Yesterday Vero, Larisa and I went to Greg’s memorial service.  Point #1 – Church parking lots aren’t what they used to be, indicating to me that this is a clear proof that membership is down.  I had to park approximately 23 kilometers away (at least it felt that way after walking back to the church in the biting -30 cold) but I survived the chilling walk (barely.  I think my ear fell off along the way.)

It was a packed house and we managed to get a spot in the back pew (oh memories of Christmas) and I managed to find a chair to sit on outside of the pew (as there wasn’t enough room for me).  An excellent memorial service in my opinion…it had a choir (Greg was part of a choir back in Montreal), it had insightful readings, it had some great hymns (although SOME people didn’t hear the point about Amazing Grace’s third verse being sang in French and they gave me some strange looks) and some excellent memories brought up by friends and family.

We then headed to the kitchen area to munch on some food (where we noted that there was no crust on the sandwiches usually at a funeral…why is that?).  There was a massive lineup and we discovered that it was due to Greg’s parents (or I’m assuming they were his parents, I’ve never met them) at the entrance of the room.  It was nice to see some photos of Greg and they had some of his music playing in the background.  It was also nice to see Phil there and we got to chat with him for a few moments.  I personally felt a little out of place considering I didn’t know any family or friends of Greg (other than Phil) so I didn’t spend too much time there.  I came to pay my respects to a friend and hear some great memories of the guy.  On my way out, I picked up a hacky sack that they left in memory of Greg as he was known to carry one at many times.  That was a thoughtful possession to give to everyone.

I was commenting with Larisa and Vero on how being at a memorial service makes you think about your own life and more specifically, how you would want things happening at your own memorial service.  Some may say this is a morbid thought process, but I think it’s just natural to think about aspects of death while at a memorial service.  For example, I would hope that somehow they get a choir in for my funeral (otherwise everyone in the church will have to belt the tune and you know nowadays 99% of people don’t like singing unless there’s a karaoke machine in front of them) and they rip into a Christmas-powered singing of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” because for some reason, they never sing that one at the church at Christmas anymore and that disappoints me.  That’s a killer tune.  Silent Night has nothing on it.  Get me the planning committee for the Christmas service at St. Mark’s!

I was thinking, where do your thoughts of your memorial go?  Are they with your will?  Are they with a loved one?  I’m going to make a wild assumption that the older you get, the better idea of what you want to happen (or the sheer fact that you don’t even really care) and you’ll let someone know, whereas a young buck like me doesn’t really sit and think about these things until something snaps and makes you sit up and realize that death can come at anytime.  It’s a scary thought…unless you are Socrates, chances are, you have some fear of death.  However, I think that this fear is correlated with your age.  Once you reach a certain age, you may be comfortable with the prospect of death.  Plato writes of how Socrates was not afraid of death because if a philosopher’s main goal in life is to obtain ultimate truth/knowledge, then the only way to do this is to escape the body, as the body brings the soul down into material wants/needs…health issues, want for a better body, better wealth, etc.  The soul can’t obtain the truth as it wants until it sheds the vessel that keeps it tethered here on Earth.  So that being said, once you realize this (and if you believe it) then I suppose you’d have a much easier time with the acceptance of death.

I suppose that if you really care a lot about certain aspects of your own memorial service (like how they should play some classic AC/DC tunage and have everyone do their best leg-guitar move, even the old timers!) then you should write it down somewhere and let someone know where it is.

Anyhow, that’s that.  Greg, you were a good guy, and judging from all the amazing memories and the amount of people that showed up at the service, you were loved by all because you gave your love to all.  Here’s to you, brother.

iplaying: The Water – Feist (The Reminder)

As you may or may not know, Krista is my work buddy.  I wonder if everyone has those work buddies…those people that you talk to ten times a day, go to break and lunch with, etc.  The great thing that comes of our meetings are our radical ideas for the office.  Here’s some thoughts over the past few weeks…feel free to skip these if you have lunch with us each day considering you’ve undoubtedly heard about them.

Our summer student film crew – In thoughts of resurrecting the Morning Show, we talked about how we usually have some interesting conversations and that our lives (in our minds) are pretty exciting to the outside world.  So then we thought that we need a film crew and what better way to get one, but to apply for a grant from the Federal Government for some summer students!  Note the pluralized version because we would need two cameras…one to follow myself and one to follow Krista.  Considering we need 22 minutes of footage to make up your regular 30 minute sitcom, we feel that we can definitely gather enough daily material to get this done considering we spend a minimum of 1.5 hours together.

Survivor in The WorkPlace – We’ve all had bosses who just don’t make the cut.  Of course, we can talk about those who do make the cut (Hello Catherine!) but let’s focus on the negative for a moment.  There’s always some managers who just don’t seem to grasp reality and you wonder what plane of existence they are on and whether or not (probably not) they are sharing the same plane that you are working in.  A prime example is from our good friend Mike who comments how after every team meeting, someone goes to a ‘higher-up’ meeting, but when they are sharing the information, they say something like “Well, they talked about Topic X, but I don’t know much about that.” and then some team member has to fill them in.  I will excuse ignorance only to a certain point…if you’ve been around the block for two years…not so much.

So, we recommend that a Survivor-type probation period be in effect.  USUALLY there is some form of formal competition process to get a promotion which is fine and dandy if the person who wins is great, but sometimes it doesn’t work that way.  There should be a six month probation period for the manager and then you go to Tribal Council.  Your team decides whether or not you stay on or off the island.  Now, the manager can do whatever they want to ensure they remain there…bribes, beer, women, whatever.  Heck, this is what a good manager should provide anyhow!  But this way ensures that if you’re good enough, you will obtain the respect of your team and if not, well you weren’t cut out to lead that particular team anyhow.

Ratings – What employees need are ratings to show them how they are doing around the block.  Let’s say you just came out of a meeting and someone pissed you off by hogging all the talk-time by focussing on their issues.  That’s just plain rude.  We should be able to go back to our office, and indicate that this person should have a decrease in their ratings due to their rudeness.  While this method hasn’t been ironed out yet (and we would hope it doesn’t affect your rates of pay!), we feel that if we saw that our rating was low, we would definitely be calling up Trish ASAP to make us some cookies that we could give to co-workers to win them over (however we would never tell her this.  We would tell her it’s for some firemen.)

There you have it.  What goes through my mind in a given day.  Don’t even get me started on how I think we should hold a raffle to get rid of Benoit’s 50″ television (which he can’t seem to sell for $400 anyhow, if anyone’s interested).

Is there a celebration needed considering this is the 996th posting on the website and soon enough, it will hit 1000 posts?  What would you like to see?  A retrospective from the past three years?  A Top Ten list of posts?  Guest Speakers trying to emulate Palmer in the way he writes?

If anyone has a copy of the Montreal Gazette from Saturday, February 23, 2008, it would be much appreciated if you could send me a copy of this great article about my friend Greg.

The original e-article is here but I’m copying and pasting it also considering I’m sure the article will be lost in a reshuffle on the original site but will always have a place here…

——-

Musicians played and died together

Alan Hustak

The Gazette

Saturday, February 23, 2008

CREDIT: Courtesy of Steven Barker Greg Barker: “loved challenges.”

Jérôme Petitgirard and Gregory Barker were talented Montreal freelance musicians who were just beginning to achieve recognition on the local scene when they were killed Feb. 13 in a car accident on Highway 158  in the Laurentians between Lachute and St. Sauveur.

Petitgirard, 39, billed as The Horns Guy, was a tenor saxophonist originally from France.

Barker, 29, who was from from Ottawa, was a pianist who obtained his arts degree at Concordia two years ago and had recently joined the St. James United Church choir.

What they had in common was music; both loved to entertain at the drop of the hat, whether there was money to be made or not.

“There is always push and pull in launching a career, and Jérôme died just as he was starting to come into his own, do recordings and make a day to day living at it. Greg had already basically built up his own network,” said saxophonist Adam O’Callaghan, who knew both.

“Jérôme lived every day for the moment. Everyone who knew him remembers him as an incredible musician and as a very social person, out there hustling to get gigs.”

Petitgirard was born in Paris Oct. 22, 1968. Both his parents are pianists, and he started taking piano lessons when he was 6.

He took up the saxophone and continued studying classical music and jazz at a Paris conservatory. He was 16 when he started teaching and playing professionally

He emigrated to Canada in 1997 and took out Canadian citizenship.

“He lived for music. He played flute, trumpet and saxophone,” said bassist Thomas Viardot.

“It was his life, and he wasn’t in it for the money. He lived on a plane of his own. He decided he was going to make a living from his music and not take any other jobs. He was super nice, always ready to play even if the gig didn’t pay. He was even into marching bands, big time.”

Drummer Ray Newton remembers travelling in the early morning hours with Petitgirard after doing shows with Petitgirard sprawled in the back seat of the car playing the sax.

“He was hilarious, a lot of fun,” Newton said.

“Considering he was 6’4″, he was also the hardest guy to find in a club. After he finished his solo, you could never find him. He’d leave the stage, get lost in the crowd, or sit at the bar drinking beer until it was time for him to play again.”

Friends at the wake in St. Sauveur Thursday recalled an insouciant, devil-may-care character who was lackadaisical about everything except his music.

“He was hopeless at paperwork. You knew he would show up for a gig, you just never knew when he would show up,” said Newton. “But he was really cool. He worked everywhere. All the jazz musicians in town knew him.”

Gregory Barker, the youngest of three sons in a retired civil servant’s family, was born in Ottawa Dec.11, 1978, and began piano lessons at age 9. He obtained a degree in computer programming from Carleton University, but after he graduated in 2002 he decided he didn’t want to be a computer geek and he moved to Montreal to study music, obtaining his degree in 2006.

Even as a youngster, he was socially committed, volunteering at area hospitals and championing environmental causes. He especially enjoyed playing for seniors in retirement homes.

He was an avid cross-country skier and cyclist who often biked the 100 kilometres from Montreal to his family cottage near Ste. Agathe and once hitchhiked across Canada.

“Greg was very much a free spirit, fiercely independent and resourceful,” said his brother, Stephen. “He loved challenges and shunned the safe and easy way of doing things. His anti-materialism, love of jazz and classical music, travel and living each day to its fullest, was like a character out of a Jack Kerouac novel.”

Petitgirard is survived by his 9-year- old son, his parents and a brother. Barker leaves his parents and his two brothers.

Petitgirard was buried in St. Sauveur on Friday; Barker’s funeral was Saturday at St. James United Church in Montreal.

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While I tend to pull into a left lane if there is an emergency vehicle on the side of the road, I never knew it was a law…until now.

Here’s an article from a man in Ottawa who got nailed with a $490 ticket and three demerit points for not knowing that it is law to pull into the left hand lane (on multi-lane highways) so you don’t go near an emergency vehicle.

My thoughts: I do agree with the law wholeheartedly.  However, I do not agree that people should be getting fines of this extreme nature on a law that (according to the Ottawa Citizen article) has been in effect for the past three years and I am one of the many who have not heard about it.  You would think that new driving laws of this serious nature would have an advertising campaign of sorts.

Here’s the article.

iplaying: Set The Fire To the Third Bar – Snow Patrol – Eyes Open

We headed out to New York Subway for an excellent jumbo satay lamb burrito while also taking a look at the fire damage on Queen Street West. It is a shame that the old building were destroyed. Hopefully some new age condo doesn’t take its place.

I managed to find Fleetwood Mac’s debut album on vinyl for $5 downtown. After witnessing Uncle Greg’s vinyl collection a few weeks back, I’ve realized that if I can find any old classic rock albums on vinyl for cheap, it is a bonus to my collection. So if anyone out there is getting rid of their vinyl, let me know!

Krista ended up meeting up with Jill further downtown (after a mishap with Jill staying at a friends overnight but waking up to some swollen eyes because she is allergic to down pillows!) and Mike and I met up with Miguel. I haven’t seen him since our trip to New York City so it was good to hook up. We ended up at a random corned beef house and then headed to Smokeless Joe’s which is a great time if you like some imported beers. We tried a few beers from around the world, with Mike starting from the top of the list in Belgium.

Considering the sun was going down, Mike and I left Miguel to head back to the homestead, ordered some Chinese food (which was AMAZING the last time we were in town a few weeks before but pretty horrible this time around….how does that happen?), played some cards and then headed out to the Swan and Firkin on Bloor Street (which was just down the block from us). It was a decent time and we all had some good laughs when I (supposedly) proposed to Mike (because he’s just that swell of a guy) and Krista kept getting some awful martinis delivered to her.

Headed home, watched some Boogie Nights on television and then awoke the next morning to clean up a little, grab some breakfast at the Swan and Firkin (not the best…everyone should head for the Sunset Grill) and hit the road back to Ottawa.

All in all, a good trip to Toronto with good times, good friends and good music!

After waiting a bit for a seat sale for my trip to Vancouver in the spring, I stumbled upon one today and was excited for my great find.

But then Krista reminded me that I had an Aeroplan card and I should see if I have enough points.  Considering I’ve never used the card, it didn’t hurt.

It didn’t hurt at all finding out I could take a flight on 25,000 points and I had 40,000!  Bonus!  I’m stoked!

So I’m flying out to Vancouver in June to meet up with my folks and head to Uncle Brent’s.  I am also hoping to see my cousin Troy and Connie there as well but that depends on whether or not Troy can get time off.

I am looking forward to this trip as it will be my first time out West.  Should be a good time.

In other travel news, I am hitting the road this weekend to head to Toronto to see Matchbox Twenty on Friday night.  Unfortunately, Queen Street West burned a few stores down yesterday so I will not be able to hit up Suspect Video while there, but at least New York Subway is still standing (I hope!).  I expect a road trip filled with really bad music (really, can anyone beat the mix CD that Trish brought on the United States trip?  I think not.)

Quote of the Year: Taken from last night’s lunar eclipse…from our very own Michael.  “What is this?  A solar eclipse?”

iplaying: Eye – The Smashing Pumpkins – Still Becoming Apart

So I went to the Doctor today to find out how I fared in lowering my cholesterol over the past five months.

A steady diet of oatmeal and fish has brought my cholesterol down from 5.8 to 5.2.  I can’t recall if that is HDL, LDL, or WTHDL (I have no idea nor ambition to become like my parents who sit around talking about this kind of thing!) but all I know is the doctor said he was impressed with the change and that I should keep up the lifestyle change and see him in October.

That being said, I would like to share my story of how I lowered my cholesterol for those out there who feel that it’s hard to do so.

Things I have Changed:
– In the morning, instead of having a yogurt, I switched to oatmeal.  I’m talking about the oatmeal that I can put into a bowl and microwave for 45 seconds.  Dad went to a cardio-training center and they told him this type of oatmeal is a higher in fat than regular oatmeal.  I think I’ll stick with this stuff for the time being.

Because I ate oatmeal in the morning, I had to start waking up 10 minutes earlier to accommodate this new change in my lifestyle.  While you all are probably having a good laugh at reading about this slight change, I’m just listing everything I can think of that I have changed so I can look back in years and say “Oh yeah!  That’s when I started eating oatmeal.”

– I ate more fish.  A lot more.  3-4 times a week.  The doctor thought four times a week was pushing it so he recommended 2-3 times a week.  I like my fish.  I usually pick up salmon or trout and put it on a bed of rice.  Grill that thing on the George Foreman and you’re set.  While this may be a little more costly, in the long run, I would like to think that it helped in the lowering of cholesterol.

– I was more conscious of things that contained cholesterol.  For example, I avoided the bacon at breakfast the other morning at Uncle Greg’s.  I also try and avoid pizza whenever I can (which is sometimes hard considering pizza is the ultimate easy-order item when there are a group of people).  But I can honestly say that the times I’ve eaten pizza on average in a month would be once a month.  I didn’t tend to eat that much pizza anyhow.  Is pizza bad for you?  Unsure, but I guess the cheese doesn’t help in cholesterol matters.

– Exercised: Well I did join a gym in the new year.  Considering I just went for my blood test in February, I don’t know if exercise changed my cholesterol in a grand fashion considering I had only been going to the gym for awhile (whereas I had changed my eating habits since October).

In the end, I consider it to be very simple changes to my dietary system to achieve the result I did.  I would like to think that oatmeal and fish were the key factors, but who knows?  I will continue on this track and see what happens in October.  At least I am happy that it is something I can control and not something that I couldn’t control and would have to take medication for it.