Month: August 2020

Live-streaming has currently levelled up in my opinion.  Gone are the days of dudes hanging out in their living rooms with subpar cameras and sound equipment…now it has become a really good experience from the comfort of my sofa.

Case in point, I checked out the Matt Mays livestreams this past weekend which was put on by Sonic Records/Concerts.  For $20 I get a password which gets me access to a webpage to watch the livestream.  This livestream can be delivered in 1080p and I encountered only one minor hiccup in the feed near the end of the second night.  Actually, now that I think of it, I was watching on both my iPad and iPhone and the iPhone feed kept freezing for some reason.  Strange?

You might think it’s odd that I am watching on two devices.  Well, how about three?  I had one iPad hooked up to the TV via an HDMI adapter.  Then I had another iPad recording the concert.  Then I had my iphone recording the concert as a backup if the iPad didn’t work.

Both days had the iPad emerge as the victor over the iPhone in terms of recording.  It never dropped it’s connection.  Strange isn’t it?

Anyhow, back to the livestream.  Great quality, great soundboard feed…live-streaming has become a really great experience for me considering I have no other alternatives at the moment.  The only issue I’m starting to have with livestreams is that there are starting to be too many of them!  I missed a Trews concert going on at the exact same time and this upcoming weekend we have a double header of Pearl Jam and Big Wreck.  So many choices!  But that’s not a bad thing is it?

Two thumbs up for the livestream future.  I believe this will become a new alternate source of revenue for bands if the amount of people paying to watch offsets the costs of running the livestream.  I can only imagine a film crew is not cheap.

A note about the Matt Mays concerts at the Shore Club

I tuned in to both nights of Matt Mays because a) I want to support the band b) I didn’t have anything else going on and c) It’s Matt Mays.  Always a good time, he will deliver.

But here’s the thing…the set list was pretty much the same except for one song.  This makes sense considering they got the band back together during a pandemic and were only playing four gigs at the Shore Club.

Now, as a guy who spent money on watching the concerts, I was a little disappointed that the set list didn’t vary.

But I can’t really fault a band on this…a lot of bands play the same set list night after night.  Look at U2!  It’s the exact same show for 200 dates in a year.

Watching the same set list over two nights did give me a unique perspective into what I have theorized as the “ebb and flow of a touring band”.

The ebb and flow of a touring band

I theorize that most bands go through a cycle (maybe this even occurs in any live entertainment industry like theatre?).

The first show(s)

The jitters are there, they’ve been practising for awhile now and it’s showtime!  Issues do arise (hopefully minor!) like hitting a chord at the wrong time or forgetting the odd lyric but for the most part, it goes ok.

The next show(s)

This is when the band gets their groove on.  They are familiar with the material and all is good.  They are as we call it, a well-oiled machine.  This can either translate to a second show or if you look at a year long tour, the first third of the tour.

The grind

When you’re passed the first third of the tour, that’s when things get a little relaxed.  Maybe the band has grown tired of playing the same songs every night…it’s the same routine and they are getting tired of it.  Mistakes creep in, they laugh it off but it seems just a little bit more sloppy.  I feel this is what I witnessed when I saw the Matt Mays livestream of August 28th.  It was a great show but I felt sometimes they were going through some motions.

The final night

Considering I saw Matt Mays play both the 28th and the 29th, I would say that the band was a different beast on the final night.  They were tighter, everything was coming together and they had a force to them.  I think the final night can go both ways though…in the theatre world it’s quite common that the last night of a show is when things get looser…the actors have fun with the show and pull pranks and maybe have a few more drinks than usual.  In the music world, I can only assume that it can go either way…you’re either on fire knowing that this is the last hurrah of the tour and so you give it your all, or it’s the most loosey goosey concert there ever was.  I’ve seen both over time and they are equally great to watch.

Even though I was watching the same songs as the night before, I was paying a lot more attention to the show on the final night because of the energy being put out on the stage.

In conclusion, I was not overly disappointed with paying another $20 to see the same songs being played because a) I probably would have been paying $50 to see just one night in real life b) the show was the better of the two so I’m glad I didn’t miss it.

Vero’s grandmother passed away last Friday.  She was a fun woman which is evident in this photo from a trip to the Dominican Republic.

My favourite memory of her involves one Christmas party where I decided to ask her for a dirty joke as a Christmas gift the next year.  Some members of the family thought I was crazy to ask but lo and behold, the next year, I got a dirty joke delivered on a piece of paper and we all had a good laugh!  She had a great sense of humour and I knew she would go for it.

Rest in peace Grand-Maman.

Another beautiful morning at the Castor River

We have the most amazing outfits in this house for the summer

Who is helping who?

On my birthday, there can never be enough sprinkles

Teaching appropriate hand gestures

That’s a BIG puddle!

Sierra and I played a new game.  She think it’s a form of soccer.  I think it’s a form of “Oh, hey, the hallway is the perfect width so I can sit with my back against the wall and just hang out while Sierra tries to get a ball past my 200 pound body.”

A cold windy morning at the beach

Strummin’

Dancin’

The creature emerges onto the land searching for food

Taking in the sun

Hanging out on the hill

I had a good laugh at this photo.  The kids were playing hide and seek and this is where they chose to hide.  Two feet from where they last were.

Waiting for the creature from the Black lagoon

Hanging out with Maman at the beach

Art time

Hunting bug time

Sierra’s first time using the bike pump

Sierra must have taken this photo while we were reading her a story.  This is a typical view from her bed around 7:30PM in the summer.

The summer of never ending cake making!

Wow, that’s an intense face Sierra!

My uke cheat sheet

Helping Maman set up the tent

Big night of Sierra camping out for the first time!  Maman and her started off with some marshmallows.

Shadow puppets!

Here they are before settling down for bed.  Vero told me she didn’t get much sleep that night due to someone tossing and turning!

We heard about Prehistoric World from our friend so we decided we should check it out.  Pro-tip, always have enough facemasks in the car during a pandemic and while you’re at it, carry some cash!  Because we  needed both when entering Prehistoric World near Morrisburg.

This place ended up being amazing.  It looks like some guy has just made dinosaur statues over the past 40 years and charges admission to his property.  It’s fantastic and a good hour with the kids.

 

I would hate to see what would happen if Sierra did manage to pull on his tail!

I believe this one is entitled “Dad, do a scary face!”

Look who wanted to sleep in the tent again!  I can concur with Maman that it’s quite hard to sleep in a tent with a four year old!  Plus it was quite cold!

Only professionals can walk a curb without falling off

Kapuskasing special

The greatest thing about our summer was not our deck, it wasn’t our swimming pool, it was the tent we set up!  We left up there for the rest of the summer and many adventures were had with both Sierra and Ezra bouncing off the air mattress, reading books, finding bugs.

Corn time!!!!  I can’t understand how she likes eating it raw.

This is entirely true.

It was nice to have some visitors near the end of the summer.  Here is Grandpapa playing with Sierra

The hoarder in me always kept a lot of scrap wood for projects.  But we had an electrician coming over to do some work for the new hot tub.

Bam!  A decade of scrap wood was brought to the backyard firepit.

Picklin’ time!  Last year we waited until mid September and the pickings were slim.  We didn’t fall for that trap again this year.

I was in the backyard with Grandpapa and heard a jingle down the street.  My eyes lit up and I went running to the street.  Then I ran into the house saying “EVERYONE OUT!  THERE IS AN ICE CREAM TRUCK HERE!!”

To put this into a little perspective, at 42 years old, this is probably the first time I have ever seen an ice cream truck come by my house.  I think Vero ran a block to catch one when I lived in Orleans, but this was arriving right outside our doorstep.  This was quite the treat for everyone involved!

Vars must have been quite the customers because this truck came back at least three times in the next few months.

Rule #1 of a water pistol fight – the other opponent always has to have a water pistol

The garlic is insane!

Quite the spicy concoction

Cheers!

I think this might have been the last sprinkler session of the summer

My picklin’ partner

Getting some corn ready

I can only assume they were checking to see how the pickling process was going

Grandmaman made a whole bunch of lasagnas for us to freeze and what was the first thing Sierra wanted the day after she left?  Lasagna!

This time we remembered to bring some water shoes

Fetching some apples!  There were tons this year

Now that some restrictions were loosened, we headed over to the Limoges park one morning.  I quite enjoy that park!

Sierra wanted me to put on a princess dress

It was a year late but I finally got it!  When filling out the form to receive my 15 years of service certificate, they asked which name I wanted to have on it.  I had to go through some hoops but I’m quite happy that they printed this name!

 

 

 

 

Context: We’ve been getting her to go to the bathroom by herself, including wiping.

Sierra: “Dad, come and check!”
Dad: “Ok, so…if there’s nothing on the toilet paper when I wipe you, that’s a good thing. So…what do you want if there’s nothing on it?” (insert positive reinforcement ploy that rarely works anyhow).
Sierra: “Uhm…I DON’T want the iPad at quiet time.”
Dad: “Don’t you mean that you do want the iPad at quiet time?”
Sierra: “No, I DON’T want it at quiet time if there’s nothing on the toilet paper.”

I stood there trying to figure this out and then it dawned on me.

Dad: “Wait, that means that if there is something on the toilet paper (which 99% of the time there is), then that means you get the iPad for quiet time?”
Sierra: “That’s right!”
Dad: “Nice try. That’s not how it works.”

Five minutes ago I had a great discussion with Sierra about He-Man so I wanted to capture it while it was fresh in my mind.

Yesterday I got word that the new Masters of the Universe Origins toyline had hit Wal-Mart stores in Canada so I was quite excited.  These things look pretty  much like the toys I collected as a kid.

With that, I figured I should introduce Sierra to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.  It’s probably been 35 years since I’ve watched the show.  Would it stand the test of time?

I would like to thank John and Maureen for having the He-Man episodes available on Plex because they weren’t on Netflix.  They saved the day!

I fired up the episode for the family and Sierra was skeptical at first because it wasn’t her new favourite show called Fancy Nancy (on Disney Plus), but soon enough, the show hooked her in.

There are so many incredibly cheesy moments but everything is super interesting to a kid and so after the show her and I went to her bedroom for storytime and instead of a story, we got to have an extended question period about He-Man.

Here are some questions that came from a four year old’s brain after seeing their first episode of He-Man.  Sidenote: I don’t even know if I’ve ever seen the first episode of He-Man but I have to say that it did a really good job of introducing the good and bad guys.

Sierra’s questions about the first episode of He-Man

• Why did He-Man not disappear from the ray?
• Why was the skeleton man laughing?
• How did the sword not disappear when the ray hit it?
• Why did He-Man go into the crack?
• Who was the floating guy with a wizard’s hat?
• Why did the kid of the King and Queen hide?  (this prompted a really interesting discussion about secret identities and heroes but I think it went over her head)
• Why does Prince Adam and He-Man not look the same (didn’t we all have that question?)
• Why did He-Man hit the guy on the blue flying thing?
• Why did the lion have He-Man riding on his back?

I can’t even remember all the questions but they were great questions from a four year old after watching He-Man for the first time.  Honestly, I was contemplating setting up a video camera to capture this moment because I knew they would be great and hilarious and thoughtful questions all at the same time!

I think I wasted my favourite series of Thundercats on her at 3 years old.  She breezed through them but didn’t have the brain to ask questions about it.  I think she just liked the fast moving pictures.

I’m really excited for the toys to hit the shelves and maybe her and I can play with them!

How do you celebrate a first birthday within a pandemic situation?

With lots of friends!  We drew inspiration from this comic strip from Calvin and Hobbes:

The day before Sierra and Maman worked hard on a cake

We started out the morning with the king sitting in his mighty throne

We hung up some photos of the past year of his life

Sierra hid a few gifts for him downstairs.  This firetruck was from Sierra.  Back when she had her birthday she was so impressed by the gift that Ezra got her that she said “I want to get him a firetruck for HIS birthday.”  He seemed to enjoy it!

Here’s how excited he was!

After the firetruck we decided to take a bike trek around the village

Happy Birthday song!

Maman took some nice photos of Ezra on the front lawn

Birthday smiles

We asked some friends around the house to come join the party after Ezra’s morning nap.  Yes, that is a Mr. Zucchini head!

A lovely cake before Fredo and Ezra tore it apart

Some friends dropped by with some gifts and balloons!

Sierra is getting pretty good at taking photos

The birthday boy arrives!

Always the polite host, he thanks everyone for coming to his party

Everyone gets a birthday hat!

Mega balloon

Snapshot with the parents

Nabbing Maman’s hat

Maybe having the ceiling fan on wasn’t a good idea

Looks like he is enjoying it his first birthday cake!

Of course Maman will take some cake!!

Playing with a new gift

Hanging out on the playset

Baby Yoda from his great grandmothers.  I should let them know that this is what they purchased for him.

In no way did that gift enter this house for me to play with.  None whatsoever.

All in all, if his smile were an indication of how he enjoyed his birthday, it must have been a hit!  Thanks to all who phoned, Facetimed, dropped by and sent gifts.  It was much appreciated.

 

 

 

 

Clearly we have a music lover in the house because whenever a good beat comes on he just bops along with the greatest squat dance move there ever was!

Ezra has been a fun person to be around in his 12th month here on Earth.  He is generally a happy kid and plays well with his sister for the most part.  Sierra does have her moments that she likes to play with Ezra (like in the tent) but other times she likes to play on her own.  Ezra is the same though…there are times where I just sit and watch him chewing on a sneaker near the patio door and other times he loves horsing around with us.

While not walking yet, he is very steady on his feet (he can pick up a ball by squatting down and then picking it up) but he doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to start walking.  When we try, he just resorts to going on his knees again.

Bopping to the music!

I can’t remember the story clearly but I’m pretty sure Vero and I found this set at a garage sale years ago and it was the same set that she grew up with.  Here is Ezra and Sierra enjoying it as well.

Ezra had the privilege of having Grandma, Poppa and Nanny Sybil spend some time with us this summer.  It was extra special because it has been awhile.

Getting ready for a walk

Ezra and Sierra wanted to show Grandma the trails in Russell

We thought it was hilarious that Ezra would just lie down if we fell over.  Maybe he enjoyed the sun?

Ezra was in awe of seeing a balloon blown up!

Playing around with Poppa

Everyone was patiently waiting to dive into some cake!

This was before the silly faces photo

Silly faces!

We put this photo up above the fireplace to replace the winter themed one

I can only imagine they were playing an intense game of Carcasonne on the iPad

A common sight around these parts…not actually riding it but pushing it along as a walking aid!

The first time he sipped water from this cup we found it funny.  Then he decided that this was the proper way to drink water at all times and proceeded to douse himself with water every time he took a sip!  I’m pretty sure I changed him 23 times one day!

What kid doesn’t love hiding behind curtains?

Maman got to join us one morning at the Castor River

Like every kid on Earth, he does enjoy things that light up and make noise

Double fisting like a champ!

If this video doesn’t make you smile, you are dead inside.  Ezra likes playing a game where he lays his head down and everyone follows.

Another day, another visit to the Castor River trail

Who needs park equipment when we have a perfectly good hill?

Ah yes, the ole ‘fetch the gas can toy’ game

It’s fun when Sierra can snap a photo of Ezra and I

It’s rare that we see an actual bird have a bath!

It’s rare that he isn’t putting his hands on the fretboard and preventing me to play!

I brought Eric and Mike out for a drink at the Castor River one evening.  Definitely the highlight of the summer!

Trying to find dinosaurs

Sharing a rubber ducky is a sign of love

Enjoying a summer treat

Wrestling with Fredo

Enjoying the backpack

Here is the poster we ordered for Ezra’s 1st birthday party

Future curling champion

We drive by this giant rooster every once in awhile so it was time to get a picture with it!

Can’t forget the giant cow down the road

Dipping our toes in the Ottawa River

I asked Sierra to take a video but she took some photos instead.  This was Ezra air drumming to Thunderstruck.

Pushing Sierra around

Nap time

Nom nom nom

Smoothie The Serpent decided to make a home in the tunnel

Who wants milk when you can eat ice cream?!

I had a good laugh at this photo

Teaching the kids how to play piano on my birthday

This was definitely a highlight of a gift

Mmm boy!

A nice stroll with the family on my birthday

Vero took a few weeks off before I returned to work on August 10th.  We decided to head to the Petrie Island beach one morning.  It was quite cold and windy!  We didn’t stay too long.

Vero even had to steal one of the kids towels to warm up!  It’s not the end of the world…considering Ezra naps around 10am, we don’t get much time to spend at the beach

The next day looked a little sunnier so we went back and I took Ezra home for his nap so Sierra and Maman could spend some time together

Must have been a good joke!

I’ve lived in Ottawa over twenty years and I never knew that Petrie Island was more than a beach.  They have some really neat trails to walk around as well!

What better treat than watermelon at the beach?!

Enjoying the piano, clearly!

We dropped by Uncle Mike and Aunt Melanie’s place to check on the house and had some fun!

Look at the size of this thing!  It was a seven pounder!

He doesn’t look too impressed!