Blog Therapy

Shiny New Link

2011-08-25T18:02:00.004-05:00

A new link has been added to the Best Of The Blogosphere in the left column. European Adventure is a blog we started to follow us through our trip through Europe. It's a great way to keep in touch with us and saves us spending our evenings writing emails to everyone. Now our evenings are spent wrestling with the task of blogging from an iPad.

Enjoy.

God's Away on Bussiness

2011-08-19T09:02:00.001-05:00

One of the best mashups I've seen yet. Made me laugh this morning.

Enjoy.

Drunk voicemail left on my girlfriends phone (NSFW)

2011-08-12T12:54:00.001-05:00

Last week my girlfriend began receiving voicemail messages from a disgruntled drunk. After the first tirade was left, I decided to answer the phone the next time the dude called.

I said, "Dude, you got the wrong number." To which he explained, as eloquently as the message he left, "Yeah, my stupid girlfriends stupid number is like 2 digits reversed from yours."

Yeah, it's your girlfriend's phone numbers fault that you can't dial a phone number. So I asked him to be more careful the next time he dialled. Yesterday we received a barrage of three new voicemails directed at his stupid girlfriend.

Damn, I hope this is a wrong number.

All four voicemails can be heard in the following video. Be forewarned that there is quite a bit of strong language and should be considered NSFW.

Enjoy.

The Return of Bomberman

2011-08-08T08:50:00.004-05:00

There has been another Bomberman siting at this last home game at Canad Inns Stadium. This year, the Mad Bomber, was sporting the retro helmet as he cheered on the blue and gold to a 28 - 16 victory over the previously undefeated Edmonton Eskimos. With both clubs at 5-1 on the year, I guess that makes us no.1 in the league having toppled the formerly perfect team.

Here's pics.

Nick and Bomberman sporting retro jerseys at the game. Why do serious Hank? This must have been taken after one of Palardy's early kicks.

Hanks looking happier in this one, after Buck Pierce made a game changing, 48 yard rush into the endzone.

After witnessing one of the most exciting games I've attended, we went for a quick night cap. Nick and Hank ended up closing the Fox and Hound after pouring me into a cab. I did still manage to wake up in time for our hungover trip to Adrenaline Adventures the next day. No better cure for a hangover than dragging yourself around a man-made pond. I was so beat by the end of wake boarding that there was no way I was able to drag myself to the top of the zipline stand.

This Marks the fourth consecutive year that My buddy Dean has come into town for a CFL game and the second year that we started taking his paint job seriously. I'm always proud of the comments, photo requests and surprised looks people give him these last couple of years. How do we top it next year?

Cyanide and Happiness

2011-07-26T11:25:00.002-05:00

Of all the webcomics I've read, I've been reading Cyanide and Happiness the longest. It totally gets my sense of humor and isn't afraid to push the envelope of what is appropriate.

I was very pleased to learn that they have been making short cartoons. So without further ado… I give you, Cyanide and happiness.

Army of Deaness

2011-07-25T23:59:00.000-05:00

Monadeana and the Many Faces of Hank

2011-07-23T14:02:00.002-05:00

Red Bacteria Vacuum

2011-07-05T17:42:00.005-05:00

Last night my brother and I went to see the, A Perfect Circle show at the Centennial Concert Hall and were treated to a one of the best performance that venue has ever seen. Their sound in that hall is a match made in some kind of sonic utopia. They played a little bit of everything, concentrating most on their latest release. I'm not as familiar with their catalogue as my bro is but to my surprise, I recognized almost every song.

A unexpected treat was the opening band. Red Bacteria Vacuum is a punk/speed metal, all girl trio from Tokyo. These girls really blew my mind even though they seemed bummed that they couldn't get the audience to sing along with the song Enso Wa Tanoshii, which no one could understand never mind pronounce.

Update - Using the powers of the internet, I have deduced that Enso Wa Tanoshii means… A perfect circle. Enso means circle, wa from what I could find would work as the article a and Tanoshii is beautiful which I guess could be interpreted as perfect. I would like to stress that this is my findings from cyber sleuthing and is in no way accurate unless I totally lucked out. Seemed like it would fit. If I remember, I will see if my Japanese speaking German friend can confirm it.

Anyway, for your enjoyment… Red Bacteria Vacuum!

Everyone VS. Hank

2011-06-28T13:47:00.010-05:00

This is a campaign I am starting up against my buddy Hank whom you might remember from the paint job I gave him for a Blue Bomber game. I posted here.

Recently ol' Hank has been asking me to prepare for this years makeup design. Each time he sent a request I responded with the following mock-ups.

Reggie Watts is Brilliant

2011-06-28T09:37:00.004-05:00

Had to find an other video because the original one was removed foom youtube..

Netty's Girls

2011-06-20T16:24:00.007-05:00

About 15 years I did a season of tree planting in Northern Ontario. That is where I discovered my all-time favorite summer album, Music for Our Mother Ocean. It was a compilation disc released in 1997 by Surfdog Records that raised money for the Surfrider Foundation, an organization whose mission is to protect the worlds beaches. At the time, I was collecting pretty much any CD with a Pearl Jam track on it and M.O.M is by far the bestl. The song that stuck with me the most, however, was a Beastie Boys track called Netty's Girl. I found the following Mike D quote on the website beastiemania.com where he describes the inspiration for the song.

"This song was another moment of inspiration from the tiny "studio G" at G-Son. It was recorded completely on a four-track cassette recorder and then mixed in our main control room. Mark Nishita had played this cheesy keyboard line, then we turned on the drum machine, and recorded that. Adam H. overdubbed some bass, and then I came with the pathetic falsetto vocals" - Michael Diamond, 1999

After returning from a semi-successful attempt at tree planting, I started putting this song on almost every mixed CD I made. It always brought some sideways looks when it interrupted the otherwise mainstream songs on the mix.

I've recently rediscovered this gem through the youtube in the form of this video.

There is also this great half hour film/music video on the home page of their official website. It stars a crapload of famous people. I love it when talented people do shit like this.

Can I Be Your Friend?

2011-06-10T16:50:00.002-05:00

Haven't posted in a long while. I hope to have some things to post soon. In the mean time I thought I'd share this video that I found funny, hoping that you'll still be my friend.

Paper or Plastic

2011-05-09T23:01:00.011-05:00

These past few days it feels as though we've been living at the Park Theater.

Tonight we attended our weekly improve fix of Soap Scum Presents where talented local actors Improvise a comedy soap opera. This year is "The Western". I you haven't been to it yet, I highly recommend you do. It has cowboys, cowgirls, fancy gunplay and pooh whiskey… everything you'd want in a western.

On the weekend we took in the Plastic Paper animation film festival which featured a screening of Ralf Bakshi's "American Pop" including a Q&A with Mr. Bakshi following the film. Mr. Bakshi's new passion is painting and his work can be seen at the Raw Gallery until May 25th.

On Saturday morning we were treated to 3 hours of Saturday morning cartoon that included "The Mighty Hercules", "Spider Man and His Amazing Friends" and the Bakshi produced "Mighty Mouse" episodes that were directed by the great John Kricfalusi, Oh and all the cereal you could eat. An added bonus was a bunch of the old commercials that I watched on those Saturdays were interspersed between the episodes like Gobots and My Buddy/Kid Sister.

Also on Saturday were some interesting independent films such as "The Beast Pageant" a surreal black and white mindfuck and "The Trashmaster", a film entirely made from Grand Theft Auto 4 screen captures. They capped off the festival with the documentary "American: The Bill Hicks Story" on the late great comedian Bill Hicks. What is a documentary about a comedian doing in an animation festival? I thought that this film was the best use of after effects type cutout animation combined with subtle 3D animation and live footage I have seen in a long time.

The sad thing is that this is the first time I've ever heard of festival and I found out about it 3 days late. I will definitely be keeping my eye out for it next year.

oh yeah, you might have noticed the new banner. I am giving up the darts again, this time with the help of Champix the pharmaceutical smoking cessation aide. So far, no thoughts of suicide, only intense dreams that last the entire night.
In honour of this undertaking inspired by a manitobaquits.ca cash contest, I leave you with the comedy of Mr. Bill hicks. Sorry Bill, looks like I might turn into one of THEM.

I Love the Onion

2011-04-19T11:07:00.014-05:00

Back in college I was introduced to a podcast called "The Onion Radio News" featuring the dead pan Doyle Redlin, reading humorous spins on the spun out news found on stations such as FOX and CNN. I recently discovered a video that epitomizes the onion on Funny or Die.

Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere - watch more funny videos

Other videos I would recommend from funny or die are the series on Drunken History and Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis.

Enjoy.

Warning - To those who thought a video with the title "Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere" wouldn't have profanity, language in this video is NSFW .

R.P. McMurphy

2011-04-06T22:44:00.005-05:00

Here is a painting that I started back in February. The process photos started a couple of weeks into it because I made major changes.

It is was inspired by a scene in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest starring, one of my favorite actors of all time, Jack Nicholson.
I think it turned out alright but my apartment is a little dark for it.

New

2011-04-06T09:40:00.000-05:00

An Eventfull March/April

2011-03-17T12:24:00.011-05:00

Between socials, Moose games and concerts, I am in for a busy couple of months.

Last Saturday my younger bro had his wedding social and as far as I remember, I had a great time. One thing he wanted for his social was a 10' high x 20' wide guitar on one of the hall walls. It seemed like a pretty tall order considering neither of us knew where to get a sheet of paper or fabric that size let alone how to get the image on to it while keeping it at a reasonable cost (the latter being most important). Between the two of us we came up with a sketch and, IMO, a pretty good solution.

We didn't get the chance to measure the walls prior to designing it, hence the encroaching basketball net, and were a little concerned while drawing it out but half way through the second sharpie magnum, I don't think we were too concerned about anything.

Last night I was the Electric Six show at the Pyramid Caberet. This was their second time in Winnipeg, their first being a year ago today. I posted about it here. One thing I love about E6 is their style of merch. At the show last year I picked up this sweet shirt.

And last night I grabbed this one.

Events coming up are a Manitoba Moose game, great local bands at the Albert on April 21st (featuring Antikathera, Of Human Bondage, Wolbachia, Putrescence and Big Trouble in Little China) and The Pixies at the Centennial Concert Hall.

Now I leave you with (as Dick Valentine said last night) Electric Six's "political" song.

Draw One ...

2011-02-23T14:16:00.004-06:00

Stumbled upon this neat sketching site called Sketch Swap. The basic premise is I draw one, I get one. It is a very basic sketch tool that is much easier using a stylus. Worth checking out to exercise your sketching muscle of which mine is very out of shape.

Happy Belated New Year

2011-01-04T10:29:00.004-06:00

First post of the year and I resolve not to make any ridiculous resolutions like promising to post more. I know I'm a blog slacker and might even take a little pride in that.

Last year I got into a show on Bravo called "Star Portraits". For those unfamiliar with the show, it is a Canadian show where three portrait artists are asked to paint a Canadian celebrity. They have no prior knowledge as to whom they are going to paint, are given a two hour sitting with the subject and then 15 minutes at the end for photographs. The artists then have two weeks to return to their studios and paint the portrait. At the end of two weeks the subject gets to pick a portrait to keep and the other two are auctioned off for a charity of the celebrities choice.

It is always surprising to see the different interpretations of the sitters, who range from athletes like Theoren Fleury, entertainers such as Mary Walsh and environmentalists like Dr. David Suzuki. I am sometimes surprised to see which portrait they choose but sometimes I think the choice would be really difficult.

This show inspired me to undertake portraiture like the Blue Dean and more recently, my girlfriends brother in law, the notorious N8 DOGG.

What follows are photos of my progress.

This is one of the early studies I did from photographs.

Here is the transfer of the final lined drawing on the canvas with an indication of the highlights. Not sure what I was doing with the highlights really.

At this stage I was just building up the values of the shadows before working up the colours.

I didn't like the way the nose was going and gave him a bit of a haircut. In retrospect, I kinda wish I'd left the hair a little longer.

Voila, the final. I was pretty happy with the outcome of this portrait. I feel it captures the cocksure attitude of the subject in a humorous manner. It was a total surprise to N8 and most importantly he liked it. Although he said it kind of looked like Yogurt from Spaceballs.

Long Time, No Post

2010-10-20T08:59:00.002-05:00

Rock on!

The Amazing Race Looks Like Fun

2010-09-09T08:03:00.002-05:00

I haven't posted anything in a while because… well because nothing much to blog about. Until I saw this, this morning. The very end is what made me laugh… out loud even.

Blue Dean

2010-08-04T20:51:00.004-05:00

This is a watercolour that I did of my friend Dean (see his painted coconut two posts below) from a picture that I took in May, 2009. It has been a while since I've done a watercolour and I always thought that the photo I took of him (below) was one of my most successful portraits that I had ever taken.

My buddy, Dean, will be passing through again this weekend so I thought that I would surprise him with this painting. It probably won't be a surprise if he checks out my blog with any frequency, like a true friend would. But don't worry, I have plenty of other emotionally scarring surprises in store for him so it won't be the end of the world if this one is ruined.

~cheers

Just a Girl You Want

2010-07-29T13:25:00.011-05:00

I haven't collected comics since the nineties but one of my favorites at that time was "Tank Girl." Tank Girl is a post apocalyptic story set in Australia, about a punk rock girl who lives in a tank and hangs out with kangaroos. This British comic was originally created by writer, Alan Martin and Illustrator Jamie Hewlett (co-creator of the virtual band, The Gorrillaz).

Here are the opening credits to the feature film starring Lori Petty, Ice-T, Naomi Watts and Malcolm McDowell.

I was recently reminded about this comic by stumbling upon a podcast called "Comic Genius" hosted on a website called Gamebreaker.tv which is mostly about video games.

What excited me most about it was that the new Tank Girl comics, called Tank Girl The Gifting, was illustrated by Rufus Dayglo (whom I am not too familiar with but like his style), Ashley Wood (I know from my friend Adrian's, borderline unhealthy obsession with his figurines) and Mike McMahon (the latter whom, again, I am not familiar with).

I found a preview of "The Gifting" on Popcultureshock.com.

To close here is some of Mr. Hewlett's work on the Gorillaz video (that could not be embedded), "On Melancholy Hill." This is the best mix of 2-D and 3-D animation I have ever seen.

~enjoy

Blue Bomber paint job or Quit hitting me, it's not a real helmet

2010-07-26T09:59:00.011-05:00

This past weekend, My buddy Dean (Hank) Barkosky along with his dad and step mother came to visit and take in a Bomber game. Hank usually makes it in for one Bomber game a year and loves to paint up his face for it. In the past the quality of paint combined with mismanagement of time resulted in some pretty weak attempts at face painting. So this year Hank wanted to make sure that we would give it a solid effort.

Here is Hank before we shaved him and started painting.

Hank's dad also known as Mr. B, didn't want to be excluded so I prepare a design for him as well.

I thought it appropriate to have the senior Barkosky sport a retro logo since I was doing the current Bomber helmet on his son.

In the end, the Bomber's enjoyed a convincing 47 – 21 win over the Edmonton Eskimos and a good time was had by all. With exception to the Eskimo fans and players, so let me rephrase that. A good time was had by all that matter.

OUCH! Wouldn't want to be a Eskimo fan after this post.

See more photos at the orange kid flickr photostream.

Big Bang Big Boom

2010-07-09T14:59:00.002-05:00

New (to me) from the folks at blublu.org, "Big Bang Big Boom" looks to be their most ambitious animation to date. Their fantastic, graffiti animation style has been among my favorites since first introduced to their work in college. You can see more of their animations at their Blu animations and other videos on youtube.

Oranje ist OK

2010-06-14T14:45:00.005-05:00

FIFA World Cup in South Africa is well underway and in honour of my Dutch heritage, I offer this wallpaper of the Netherlands national team KNVB. KNVB is an acronym for Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond ("Royal Dutch Football Association").
They haven't reached the finals in the World Cup since it was held in Argentina when I was four years old and hasn't won a title since the 1988 Euro, but they are currently ranked fourth in the FIFA world standings and should prove a formidable force this year due to their crisp passing and a great balance of youth (Their under 21 team won the worlds championship in 2007 and 2008) and experience.

I have been a fan of the Netherlands since my Mother's aunt Mimi visited us from Holland when I was eight. She brought my brothers some trinkets with windmills on them and for me, a tee shirt with a cartoon lion bumping a soccer ball on his foot with the slogan "Oranje ist OK!" underneath. I remember finding it quite funny how modest the slogan sounded in English. When it comes to our national hockey team, you will never see claims that team Canada is just "okay". It probably loses something in the translation.

I was able to find a partial photo of the tee shirt on the Dutch site, Markt Plaza. Markt Plaza looks like an ebay type site, so maybe I'll ty to buy it. It apparently has more text to it that has been cut off in this picture.

The Netherlands will next meet Japan in group E of the World Cup.

Go Oranje!

General Buck Turgidson 2007 - 2010

2010-05-11T11:01:00.003-05:00

In the early hours of Sunday, May 9th, 2010, General Buck Turgidson, our beloved Betta fish, peacefully passed away in his home. Buck is survived by his room mates, Doug and Rae Rae. A donation can be made to the BFCIBFC (Betta Fish Constipation and Irritable Bowel Foundation of Canada).

"Fish on"
~Primus 1991

Challenge For The Collective Blog

2010-04-26T09:41:00.004-05:00

The Orange Kid would like to welcome, friend, Cara to the blogosphere with her first blog called "Challenge for the Collective" on which she explores the possibilities in using social media for corporate learning programs. If you have any input or interests on the subject of the uses of social media, be sure to check it out at www.challenge4thecollective.blogspot.com

Cara also brings my follower count up to three! Probably more like two because the OrangeBane probably accidentally hit the follow blog button. So I'd like to thank James D. for being my first follower.

How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love My Betta Fish Buck

2010-04-01T07:33:00.008-05:00

This is my newly adopted Betta Fish named Buck after General Buck Turgidson from the Stanley Kubrick movie, "Dr. Strangelove or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb." This is my favorite movie of all time and general Turgidson was brilliantly played by the late great George C. Scott.

Fish Buck was adopted from my friend C-Mac360, who had to part with Buck (originally named Ashley after one of the Olson twins, but I think he looks more like a Buck), because he is in the process of moving.

Now for a scene from Dr. Strangelove featuring the good General.

Enjoy!

Magnum K.I. No Way Video

2010-03-29T11:41:00.003-05:00

Magnum K.I. just released their new video for the song "No Way" on youtube.

Check out some of the photos I took at their self titles CD release party here.

Hockey Night In Mexico

2010-03-29T09:11:00.009-05:00

Only Canadians Would Travel To Mexico And Watch A Hockey Game!

Is what a Mexican gentleman said to us after arriving in Playa del Carmen the morning of the Canada vs U.S.A. gold medal Olympic game. Our first morning in Mexico on our trip for Rae's sister's wedding started with one goal in mind. We were going to watch the hockey game that would ice Canada's 2010 Vancouver Olympic cake.

I woke up early to take pictures on the beach, donning my red, 2010 Olympic hockey jersey.

As soon as I left our room and started to walk around the resort I heard a voice behind me ask "You think we'll win?" to which I replied "I sure hope so."

The rest of that morning I became the resort's Canadian Hockey Liaison. I was asked everything from "when is the game?" "Where are you watching the game?" and "We've been here for a week, did we win?", I even heard a few "U.S.A., U.S.A." chants. Sadly, the fact was I had no idea where we were going to watch the game. The only place on the resort grounds that was going to have the game was the exclusive Grand Hotel of which I couldn't go to without buying a $100 day pass.

We eventually met a couple who said they were going into Playa del Carmen to watch it and were going to catch the 2 o'clock bus into town. The problem with that was that the game started at 2 and we only heard of one or two places (the Tequila Barrel and maybe Señior Frogs) showing it. I then told Rae that the next couple who asks us where we were watching the game, we will offer to split a cab into Playa with them. It must have taken all of five minutes for this to happen, so we made plans with our new friends to meet in the lobby and leave the resort by 11.

As you can see in the pictures above, my new hockey buddy and I subconsciously decided to where the exact same coloured shorts and cap.

When we arrived (around 2 hours early for the game) every bar and lounge that was showing the game was packed with a sea of red and white shirts and jersey's. Thus began our search for a bar with seats. We passed patio after patio bumping into more Canadians aimlessly looking for the same game until we became a mob roaming fifth avenue. We eventually stopped at one empty lounge that had a tv because the bar staff were frantically flipping through the channels to find the "money game" that would keep the hopeless Canadian hockey fiends around to drink their coolers dry. This distraction proved to be a good thing as our numbers thinned out to the original four and another couple from Vancouver Island.

Finally after following the advice of a man, who only asked that we mention that he had sent us, we found a place called The Pinche Gringo which was owned by an ex-pat from Calgary.

Through the duration of the game I think that we drank their beer supply out twice as we could never get the same brand of beer twice after the first period, drank warm corona's during the second period and were left to tequila, which was free pored down our throat at the end of the game.

After the game we drunkenly poured ourselves into the street and were promptly invited for drinks at the apartment of another new friend, originally from Montréal, that we met at Pinche Gringos. His apartment was amazing and we partied into the night on his rooftop patio, where most of these photos were taken.

He was a gracious and generous host.
Thanks again A.

Set The Wayback Machine Sherman

2010-03-25T07:47:00.009-05:00

In the spirit of the new movie, Hot Tub Time Machine, here is a website that a coworker directed me to. This site is a must check out for anyone that has used the "World Wide Web" since the beginning of it's widespread use in 1996. The Internet Archive Wayback Machine lets you look at your favorite websites, how they looked as far back as 1996. Some of the images have since lost their links but still have their news articles, like Apple making $25 million dollars in profit in '96. I think that Ipod apps made that last week. One of my favorite vintage sites that I found was Manitoba Hydro's 1996 site complete with animated gifs.

Now here's the trailer for Hot Tub Time Machine.

Important Post

2010-03-23T09:54:00.008-05:00

More important than finishing the second season of Flight of The Conchords?

Yep.

I know I already posted today but after going through my list of favorite blogs, my posts seem a little immature and pointless. So if there is anyone who actually looks at this blog, here is a post that I stole from Rob Peters blog.

Follow this link to The Story of Stuff website, a website that illustrates the importance of being conservative in our collection of needless rubbish and creation of waste. One issue covered is societies perceived need for bottled water.

I hope Rob (of Circle Design Incorporated) doesn't mind me ganking his post for my own blog, but I believe he will agree that getting this message out, is what is important.

Flight of The Conchords Season Two

2010-03-23T09:33:00.002-05:00

Just finished watching the second season of Flight of The Conchors last night. Here is one of my favorite songs from this season.

And here is on from season one, from my favorite episode of all time.

Enjoy!

Swellzombie

2010-03-22T12:30:00.014-05:00

I should have blogged about Swellzombie some time ago as I have been following his flickr account for some time now.

He has a great sense of humor and a fantastic illustration style. His flickr page is one of the most active in my list of contacts due to his passion for sketching.

What turned me on to his photostream initially was one of his comics inspired by a song, like the one pictured below. The first one, which I enjoyed enough to comment on, was his comic for an obscure Weird Al Yankovic song that I loved when I was younger, "Good Ol' Days".

I highly recommend that you check out Swellzombies flickr and enjoy the weekly comics.

Swellzombie's Weekly Lair of the Psychic Creature 099
Originally uploaded by swellzombie

E6 At The Albert

2010-03-18T09:15:00.005-05:00

Last night Rae and I took in the Electric Six show at the Royal Albert Arms. I had never heard of them until starting work at Polar Bear close to 4 and a half years ago. If you haven't heard of them, they are one of those rare bands that don't have a bad song in their catalog. They are currently doing a Canadian tour that ends in Vancouver on the 24th. E6 is a definite must see if you dig their style of music because they put on a great show. Check out their myspace to hear a few of their songs as well as see some of their videos.

The video below is the song they opened with last night.

This one is, as they said last night, "Their best song." It's a total party anthem.

And they do one mean Queen cover.

enjoy!

Momentos from Chichen Itza

2010-03-16T09:10:00.006-05:00

These are my favorite souvenirs from the amazing Chichen Itza in the Mayan Riviera. The statue might look huge in this picture but the chess board is actually quite small. I initially bought the statue for something to carry with me while taking pictures so that when people tried selling me things, I could avoid a prolonged interruption by saying "I already bought something." It didn't work but could you believe that it only cost a buck. Haggling is quite easy when you are genuinely not interested in buying something. What starts at $10, quickly becomes 2 for $5 and then $1.

Rae liked the look of the chess boards made from quartz and onyx and all kinds of stones, so I promised to teach her how to play if she bought one. I also bought a great Guyabera shirt, in orange of course, that has quickly become a favorite.

All in all Mexico was a much more successful bartering experience than Cuba. The key is knowing that if someone doesn't want to play the game at first, you can often find the same thing that you are haggling for in the same market. They are quite aware of this, so if you walk away, they usually make you an offer pretty quick.

Easter Treats and Mexican Weddings

2010-03-15T09:32:00.008-05:00

This past weekend I took some more pictures of some of the Crusty Bun's Easter treats. Once again, I was fortunate enough to get some advanced sampling during the shoot. My personal favorite were the delicious Nougat Cookies in the shape of a bunny's face, pictured below.

As mentioned in a previous post, Rae and I just returned from her sister's Mexican wedding. She didn't marry a Mexican, the wedding was just held in Mexico. I have been working the photos and found that this semi-sepia effect gives it a real nice feel but please comment and let me know what you think. Congrats again to Marni and Nathan.

There are many more Mexico and wedding photos to come. I still working through the Gigabytes of images I took, so it make take a little more time. I will keep everyone posted.

Hasta luego!

Give Maya Pyramid Back Or I'll Punch You In The Temple

2010-03-09T09:16:00.006-06:00

Rae Rae and I just returned from the Mayan Riviera in Mexico last weekend and WOW! What a great trip. we went there to help celebrate Rae's sister's wedding, so a big congrats goes out to N8-Dogg and the Marnster.

I will likely not be posting for a while as I need to weed through the 2000, or so, pictures I took of the trip. I could probably string the pictures into an animation and it would be like experiencing it all over again.

Don't know if my liver could take that though.

Classic Daffy

2010-02-25T15:53:00.005-06:00

I've had this song stuck in my head all day and thought I'd share a version done by my favorite Warner bros. character, Daffy Duck. Before he went all cerebral, Daffy was a maniac and I suppose that is why I like him so much.

This song always reminds me of the scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit where Judge Doom brings Roger out of hiding with the "Shave and a haircut" bit.

Budget Cuts At The R.C.M.P. or Trading Squad Cars For Pintos

2010-02-23T09:00:00.006-06:00

To kick of our visit to Vancouver we went to the Surrey House Pavilion where we saw Mark Donnelly, the "O'Canada" singing good luck charm of the Vancouver Canucks, kick off the opening day with our national Anthem. In true Mark Donnelly fashion he only earned half of his paycheck by getting the audience to sing.

At the Surrey House, they were giving out tickets to see the R.C.M.P. Musical Ride which we took in a couple of day after we arrived.

I tried to get the, back of the old fifty dollar bill pose in this photo below. I hope that I'm not dating myself by remembering that bill.

On our second last day in Vancouver we walked around Granville Island were I snapped a few pictures of a glass blower at work. I was something else to see glass being worked right in front of you and the caliber of work in this guys shop is incredible. I just wish that I remembered the name of the place he worked out of.

That's it for now.

Olympic Fever or Who Set Supeman's House On Fire

2010-02-22T09:14:00.008-06:00

Last week, Rae and I took extra days off on either end of the Louis Riel Day long weekend to go to the 2010 Winter Olympic City of Vancouver. Even though we didn't have event tickets, we had an incredible time experiencing the energy of an Olympic host city.

It was great to see all of the visiting countries wearing their pride, singing their culture's songs in the streets and supporting their athletes by traveling thousands of miles. Check out my Vancouver 2010 flikr set to see more pictures from Canada's new Olympic City. Only a few of the pictures that I took are there right now. I will upload more when I have the time.

Those Poor Kids Played Hockey For a Year

2010-02-05T11:28:00.008-06:00

So I finally changed the banner for this blog. And it's about time. The picture of the kids playing hockey on the river at the forks was taken well over a year ago and was posted over the past summer. I thought that this photo with the cigar, taken at the Tropicana on a trip to Cuba, suited the tag line a bit better. I am not saying that I never plan to give quitting smoking another try, just that this past attempt failed. Plus this is one of the few pictures of myself that I like.

Mango Tango and High Speed Adventure or Suspended Water and Fruit Covered Fish

2010-02-04T09:31:00.018-06:00

I think that I am going to start giving alternative titles to my posts a la old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. Kind of like Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night or What You Will." I like the new technology where you can record television but now I have about 65 episodes of Rocky and Bullwinkle on my PVR that I need to watch.

Anyway that was not the motivation for this post but rather another restaurant review. I am by no means a food critic and had no intention of creating a food review blog but if one stumbled upon this blog or my flickr page they would find a plethora of food pictures (Sí El Guapo, I know what a plethora is) and my opinion on the restaurant.

Samurai Sushi at 330 Portage was where I had one of my favorite maki to date. The roll in the bottom right of the picture above is called a Mango Tango roll and it had the right blend of sweet and creamy between the thinly sliced mango and avocado. It also had a smokey BBQ flavour from the BBQ'd eel inside the roll.

Then, last night, I played around with high speed photography by taking pictures of my leaky faucet.

This was fun and led to playing with lighting to get dramatic effects like in this picture of Rae.

I like how her eyes are lit up and the way the combination of flash and slow shutter make her image clearer on the right hand side and softer on the left. Actually, its all a bit blurry, but still one of my favorites none the less.

pleth⋅o⋅ra [pleth-er-uh] (dictionary.com)
–noun
1. overabundance; excess: a plethora of advice and a paucity of assistance.
2. Pathology Archaic. a morbid condition due to excess of red corpuscles in the blood or increase in the quantity of blood.

Crusty Bun Pictures

2010-01-28T11:40:00.006-06:00

Here are some photos I took for the interior of the the Crusty Bun German bakery. This was one of my first real freelance jobs in photography.

Pop and Drag Group

2010-01-26T09:06:00.007-06:00

I've started my first group on flickr and have been combing people's collections for good examples of pop and drag photography to add to it. Pop and drag is when you use the flash (the pop) and move the camera during a long exposure (the drag). You can add some really cool energy and movement to a photo and even your screw ups can come out looking great. It is a fun way to experiment with your camera and I have really liked the effect it has on pictures of live performances, as in the photos below. Just make sure that the venue, and most importantly, the performers are cool with flash photography.

So if you are on flickr, and have some good examples of pop and drag photography, or are just interested in seeing what the other three people have posted in my brand new group. Check it out here.

Clowns Are Awesome

2010-01-25T11:51:00.005-06:00

I recently watched this Walmart ad on TV that made me laugh. This ad might explain why I receive mixed reactions from this painting that I did for my brother last year.

Magnum K.I.

2010-01-19T17:01:00.002-06:00

As mentioned in a previous post, I went to the CD release party of Magnum K.I.'s self titled album. To quote my buddy Al from The Place Where Al Dwells…,"These dudes slay live!"

I recommend checking these guys out the next time they play, but don't take my word for it, hear them at their myspace.

Go Vikings!

2010-01-18T10:05:00.004-06:00

This past weekend I took in my first live, NFL game in Minnesota. A playoff game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Dallas Cowboys. And What a game it turned out to be. Part of the experience was the tailgating parties in parking lots surrounding the Metrodome. NFL fans are some of the best in the world and show it with creative costumes (pictured above), and elaborate tailgating set-ups. Then there was the game.

I've been to a few Bomber games, don't get me wrong…they're great, but they pale in comparison to having over 60,000 people going nuts for their defense on third down. After this game, having no real NFL team to speak of, I can safely say that I am a Minnesota fan.

good luck next week in New Orleans,
GO VIKES!

Municipal Branding At It's Worst

2010-01-15T13:17:00.014-06:00

It is a shame that Milton Glaser has had to live long enough to see this latest bastardization of his famous I Love New York logo. I think that it is safe to say that Brandon Manitoba didn't blow the budget on this new identity (image from the Brandon Sun online) like Manitoba's Spirited Energy seen below.

I think what bugs me the most about Brandon's new identity is that you couldn't find a more hideous combination of typography, if they chose Papyrus with Comic Sans. It looks like Brandon's city council held a meeting to review professional identities when someone said, "my 8 year old niece could make a better logo", and they agreed unanimously to go with that plan.

I know that design is a matter of opinion, but in this case, my opinion happens to be right.

Magnum K.I. CD Release Party

2010-01-13T15:39:00.012-06:00

This is a poster promoting this Friday's Magnum K.I. show at the West End Cultural Centre. This is a great venue to host the CD release of their new album featuring a lot of local, Hip Hop talent.

Magnum K.I can be heard on the new Hip Hop radio station STREETZ FM or this Friday for the low, low price of $10 that includes a copy of their CD. Show starts at 8:00 and is open to all ages, so come down and support local artists or you just might suck!

Death to Gumby

2010-01-13T15:38:00.009-06:00

On a sad note the creator of one of the most famous green hunks of clay ever, passed away last Friday. Yup, Art Clokey who created Gumby and the Davey and Goliath animations and was a pioneer of claymation passed away last Friday. Here is a video of the original Gumby TV show intro.

An homage to the Davey and Goliath animations can be found on [adult swim] in the form of Moral Oral seen below.

EAT!

2010-01-08T11:08:00.004-06:00

Last night we went to the Eat! Bistro located in the back of Aqua Books on Garry Street. The food was fantastic!

I had the Spanakopita.

with a half portioned bowl of the best split pea and ham soup ever.

Rae had the beef taco salad, it looked awesome.

I would highly recommend grabbing a bite at Eat!!! Bistro for anyone one as their menu caters to vegans, meat eaters and even considers those with celiac disease.

Even though I don't have much of a sweet tooth, next time I will have to indulge in one of their tantalizing deserts.

Timing is Everything

2010-01-06T09:28:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was a day of good timing… other than missing my bus in the morning. Well the evening was full of good timing anyway. After picking up Rae we decided to go to Ivory for supper and had far too much to eat. Our only worry was missing the IIHF World Junior, gold medal hockey game between Canada and the USA. We decided to take our time and enjoy the meal and figured that it wouldn't be that big a deal if we missed part of the first period. When we finished supper the Mâitre d' asked us if we would be going to the Forks to see the Olympic Torch pass through Winnipeg on it's way to Vancouver. We said that we would likely go but really wanted to hurry home so we'd miss as little of the game as possible. Main street looked like a parking lot when we left Ivory, because it was blocked by police cruisers to give the torch a clear path. As we turned down Broadway, the eastbound lane had no vehicles other than a few cruisers, cars with Olympic markings and a Coca~cola rig handing out flags and crap. We waited a few minutes and caught the passing of the flame from torch runner to torch runner right in front of the Hotel Fort Garry. Then the World Junior game popped back into our heads and we made our way back home. As soon as I turned on the TV and tuned into the right channel, the announcer said "And they are ready to drop the puck to start the first period!" or something to that effect.
It's too bad our Juniors couldn't take the gold last night but it was an exciting game to watch and the beginning of a great hockey rivalry.

Christmas Gift Illustration

2010-01-04T10:17:00.007-06:00

This is an illustration that I did for my Dad this past Christmas. My Dad was a Fire Fighter for about thirty years up in Thompson Manitoba, so it seemed an appropriate subject. I did it in conté and chalk pastel on an orange paper. It was kinda rushed as I hadn't had an idea for it until the 25th and had to deliver it on the 27th. I am out of practice when it comes to illustration but was pleased with it overall.

Sacrilegious Content Advisory

2009-09-22T09:05:00.007-05:00

Wow, haven't blogged in quite some time now. I really gotta stop starting every other post like that. Not a lot new going on, so I guess that is why it's been so long. I'm just enjoying the summer too much I guess.

Anyway, the point to this post. Yesterday, after work, Rae and I were flipping through the channels when we stopped on Bravo. This weird film was on called Circa, that was a story about some strange circus magician, his abused assistant Lisa, and the sad clown she falls in love with. It had absolutely no dialogue and was told though short scenes with the actors, an couple performing interpretive dance sequences, and the music by a three piece band comprised of a stand up bass, a jazz drum kit and the sad clown singing and playing the accordion. As you may know, I have an appreciation for depraved and dirty clowns and the baroque carnival style, So we ended up watching the rest of the film. The three piece band struck me so much that I did some internet sleuthing to find out as much as I could about them and it turns out that they are a band from the UK called "The Tiger Lillies"that have been around for quite some time and classify themselves as "The world's foremost Death Oompah band". Some notable songs featured in the film, Circa, were a haunting rendition of "Send in the Clowns", "Souvenirs" which is a great story telling song of a man who traveled the world collecting STD souvenirs, and the song that dropped my jaw and brought Circa to a climactic end, "Banging in the Nails" featured in the embedded video below. This must be a fan video because… well it just doesn't make sense. Regardless, I may have a new favorite band, enjoy.

My First Video Uploaded to Flickr

2009-07-24T08:13:00.006-05:00

Last week Rae and I went to my friends cabin at Winnipeg Beach for the third consecutive year. What began as coincidence, by the third visit, has become an annual tradition. We arrived on Thursday night and were welcomed by high winds. After a dinner with Jamie and his Mom at an Italian restaurant (can't remember the name of it but their Penne al Diavlo with Italian sausage was incredible), we took a walk down to the beach front to find that the beach was gone. It's quite dark, but the video shows just how ferocious Lake Winnipeg was that evening.

Canaday Day at the Downs

2009-07-08T09:46:00.003-05:00

Last week I spent Canada Day with Rae and a few friends at the Assiniboine Downs. Lost more than I won but it was a beautiful day spent with good friends and I had the opportunity to see Canada's rarest race horse (pictured above and below). This horse is rare due to it's amazing, steel blue, coloured eyes and that it is the only one of it's kind that is also a registered race horse. These picture don't do justice to just how striking this animals eyes look.

Leo Mol 1915 – 2009

2009-07-06T12:03:00.004-05:00

Manitoba's finest sculptor passed away last Saturday. Leo Mol died at age 94 leaving behind an impressive collection of sculpture on display at the Assiniboine Park, Leo Mol Sculpture Garden.

I have enjoyed photographing his sculptures that can be seen on my Flickr account here.

Fathers day weekend

2009-06-22T09:37:00.006-05:00

The reason I haven't been posting is that since returning from holidays I've been busy catching up on things. This past weekend being no exception. After doing some freelance photography I did manage to get out and take some photos that were blogworthy. The weekend began with attending the UCW (Ultimate Cage Wars). I won five seats at a table through 92.1 citi Fm. The main event on the card was canceled and it was mostly submissions but a good time was had by all… except maybe for the guys who lost their fight. Then after an early photo shoot the next morning, Rae and I went to the new Pixar movie, "Up", which is a definite must see for any Pixar fan.

After the movie, we took in a Goldeyes game with our friends Carol and Don. The Goldeyes managed a bottom of the eighth, come back from behind win (9-4) over the Joliet Jackhammers to end a multiple game loosing streak. Lets hope it's a sign of a good, long winning streak to come. I've only been to a few Goldeye games and even though I am not a huge baseball fan, for great seats at $12 a pop, I think that these games are the best value for your buck for any sport in Winnipeg. Pictured above is the game winning hit by Big Dee Brown of the fish.

I'll try to posts more regularly.

Fotune Teller of Old Havana

2009-05-19T09:39:00.002-05:00

I really have to get over being shy about asking strangers for their picture, because I saw many interesting portraits on our trip to Cuba. With the lady above, I couldn't resist asking. When I did she held up her index finger and said "One peso". I dug into my pocket to get one and realized that I gave my last peso to a museum attendant that let us into off limit areas. I replied "Desculpe, no peso" to which she smiled and posed for this picture.

More on my Flickr

Tropicana Havana

2009-05-13T09:36:00.003-05:00

On our second full day in Cuba we decided to take a tour of Havana plus Tropicana Show. We were picked up at our resort at about 8:30 am, did the tour of modern and old Havana, stopped in nearly every bar that Ernest Hemingway drank (incredible lush), had dinner and went to the Tropicana show. On arrival the women were given carnations and the men were given cigars. Then we were sat at a table with a liter of rum for each group of four and a can of pop each. Whatever we didn't drink went onto the bus to take us back to our resorts at nearly 4:00 am.
Good times.

Compay Segundo and More From Cuba

2009-05-12T09:21:00.007-05:00

Here is my favorite souvenir from Cuba. It is a painting of the late great Compay Segundo. Señor Segundo was a master Cuban musician in the 30s and 40s that had received a resurrection to Cuban fame with "The Buena Vista Social Club" recordings initiated by American recording artist, Ry Cooder. I found the photograph that this painting was inspired from here.
The song below, titled "Chan Chan", quickly became a favorite of mine. A few more photos of the trip to Cuba have been uploaded to my Flickr Photostream.

Cuba 2009

2009-05-06T09:10:00.005-05:00

So we returned from our great trip to Cuba on May 1st. I meant to post about it much earlier but came home to find that my laptop battery was dead, so it has taken a little while to get pictures online.

One of the great things Cuba has to offer, and something that became a great subject of my photography taken there, were all of these vintage cars. What was cool was that they had, not only classic North American models, but also some old Russian and European cars like Skoda, Citroen and weird three wheeled trucks.

There are only about 7 pictures uploaded to my Flickr page, but in my defense I haven't even pulled them off of my camera yet so expect more soon.

Money Flavoured Chips

2009-04-14T12:36:00.005-05:00

Mmmm, money flavoured chips. Actually it's for a contest where you name the unidentified new Doritos flavour. The winner gets $25,000 and a percentage of the chip's profits. The design of the bag makes me want to get a mask and a black and white striped shirt, and get pictures of myself running from different banks with my hands full of these chip bags a la cartoons.

On the Easter weekend Rae and I found an ice breaker on the Red River near the south perimeter, breaking ice and drawing a crowd.

More 2008 Guardian Dojo Challenge

2009-04-07T09:19:00.006-05:00

I've just posted more of the 2008 Guardian Dojo Challenge pictures that I took last November. I haven't been at all diligent going through the gigabytes of pictures that I took on that day but, as many of you know, life get's busy. I've been a practitioner of the philosophy, especially when it comes to action shots like these, that quantity will yield quality. I am now trying to go in the opposite direction and really plan out my shots and trying to cut down on my insane number of archived pictures. It is getting hard to find that one picture in my head amongst the thousands of pictures in my archives. I know that I will still have to let the Rebel burst when I am capturing a crescent kick to another man's face, but at the same time I am working on really learning my camera so I can focus more on composition rather than scrambling to get the settings right.

Pictured above is the Guardian Dojo's Sensei, Diego Beltran, breaking a baseball bat WITH HIS F***ING SHIN! see more of the recent upload of the Guardian Challenge here. See pictures that I took last year at my good friend and Guardian Dojo student, Adrian Shum's photostream here or some of the pictures of the band Fubuki Daiko on his photostream here.

The Crusty Bun

2009-04-06T13:19:00.006-05:00

This blog is more and more becoming a restaurant review and promotion blog, however biased it may be. In spite of my bias and friendship with Andy and Frieda (owners\operators of the Crusty Bun), The Crusty Bun is one place that I think anyone would agree is world class bakery and café. It's a brand new place at 1026 St. Mary's Road. I recommend that anyone who enjoys wholesome, hearty, fresh baked goods, drop in and visit The Crusty Bun. Try the sunflower seed bread, it is a favorite.

Pictures above is a picture of head baker and owner, delivering a fresh batch of buns.

Damn Straight

2009-03-31T09:15:00.008-05:00

Here is a CD layout design that I recently did for Jack Straight's debut EP release "Coming Alive", that I think turned out really well. The goal, inspired by the Jack Straight wordmark that was provided, was to emulate the look of an old 70's vinyl EP jacket that has become worn over time. Last week I attended Jack Straight's CD release party and took a bunch of pictures. The show rocked the Park Theater with songs from "Coming Alive" as well as some covers including Led Zeppelin's, Bring it on Home, which I thought was a high point. Not to say that their original songs weren't impressive. This is one band, that I did layout work for, that I can honestly say doesn't have a bad song on the album. I encourage you to check out their myspace here and hear for yourself.

You can see some of the choice pics here on my flicker account.

New Pro In Town

2009-03-27T11:31:00.006-05:00

As of 11:33 AM local (Winnipeg) time, I am the newest Flickr Pro Account member. Above is a photo of a waterfall near La Fortuna, Costa Rica, which is the first picture that I posted on Flickr over seven months ago. Now that the warmer days are on the horizon (trust me), I hope to get out and do a lot more shooting.

Proud New Canadian

2009-03-24T09:26:00.006-05:00

I have been quite lazy lately in that; just now I am posting about an important event that happened on the 12th of this month. My good friend "the Ragin' Kjin" Kyung Mi Jin became a Canadian citizen. Rae and I took in the ceremony on the Thursday afternoon at Winnipeg's Union Station along with another friend of mine, from Thompson, Dean Barkosky (in the background of this photo). I encourage all of those who know and support Kyung Mi in her decision to join our great country to send her a note on her flickr page. This last batch of photos I posted on my flickr account marks the 200th photo. I guess it's time to go pro.

Buchstaben Museum

2009-03-23T12:48:00.005-05:00

As anyone who follows this blog knows, Rae and I have been taking German language classes for over a year now. Obviously this is done with hopes to visit Germany and other parts of Europe. Berlin is definitely on our lists of cities to see and among the many things there are to see in Berlin, the Buchstaben Museum is one site I will not miss. It may be a sign of Rae's and my Font Nerdedness but I'm sure that we have many friends who understand and would join us in our excitement to see a museum all about letter forms.

To learn more click on the picture above or visit www.buchstabenmuseum.de

Two in a Row

2009-03-18T17:05:00.006-05:00

Wow, a post two days in a row. I don't think that's happened since I started this blog last August. I have been doing a lot of video rendering, DVD encoding and archiving at work lately and have put pen to paper for the first time in forever (Danger would be proud). Seriously, I haven't doodled much since college and when I did it wasn't much to show, Not that this one is spectacular, I just kinda liked it.

I'll try to make it more of a habit.

Happy St. Patty's Day

2009-03-17T10:02:00.009-05:00

I used to have a passing interest in a site called worth1000.com. I thought that it was a great site for the Photoshop contests and challenges although I never actually posted anything, just critiqued. However I was torn between that and another facet of worth1000. In addition to the Photoshop contests they had logo design competitions for companies too cheap to hire a designer. IMHO this only exploited talented amatures by paying $100 for the winning logo.

Recently I received an Email (which is weird because I had no idea that I was on their mailing list and haven't even visited the site in a year or two) advertising the launch of their new online photo editing, vector program, colour editor and effects editor, all named after birds to go with the Aviary theme. This was in response to Worth1000 members complaining about needing expensive software to enter their contests. I tried the vector program and it's not that great but could never replace Illustrator. It will be interesting to see how it takes off and whether it will force the bigger guys like Adobe to come down in price. I look forward to trying out the other applications when I get the time. They have video tutorials but I think that you have to sign up with Worth1000 to save anyhting that you make. If anyone out in the blogosphere tries it out, let me know what you think. you can find it at aviary.com

My Mom Has Joined Flicker

2009-03-06T16:51:00.020-06:00

Hopper 1 Originally uploaded by heyjudexxoo's

My mother has joined the flicker community. With her retirement she now has the time to get out and enjoy herself and post pictures about it. If you like pictures of Quilts, Crafts, or things found on the ground, I encourage you to help me encourage her by visiting my Mom's flicker page and leaving crass, mindless, thoughtless, ignorant, boorish, oafish, asinine, graceless, tasteless, tactless, clumsy, heavy-handed or all around buffoonish comments on her pictures. Just don't be mean, it was her birthday last Sunday.

Happy Birthday Mom
Love,
Doug

New to my Blogs of Note List

2009-02-26T15:56:00.005-06:00

This addition to "The Best of the Blogosphere" list, to the right of my posts, is long over due. Justin Currie's, "The Art of Currie" is blog that I frequent via my friend James' blog "kalamafraz". Why I hadn't added him earlier, I don't know. If you don't already know Justin through Kalamafraz, you should check out his tremendous talent on The Art of Currie.

Late Blog

2009-02-24T11:15:00.003-06:00

Well this post is about two weeks late but as they say, better late than never. The picture above is of the beautiful tulips that I bought Rae for Valentine's Day. You can see more on my Flickr Photostream. Also missed was a post about Louis Riel Day in the third Monday of this month that also marked the half year (182.5 day) milestone of my smoking freedom and the birth of Blog Therapy. Not a day goes by that I don't feel like lighting up again but I guess I've been stubborn enough.

The Legend of the Fox

2009-02-11T08:02:00.006-06:00

A friend of mine recently decided to learn how to play the piano. His motivation was to be able to just step up to a piano and entertain friends. When I heard this, I instantly thought of The Man Show's late great master of ceremonies, The Fox. If you remember TheFox (featured in the above video) and you knew the 'Los (my friend learning the piano), you would understand the connection (sorry 'Los, you know it's true).
If I were to learn piano I would want to follow in the footsteps of the great Victor Borge or Rolf the dog.

Skating at the Forks

2009-02-10T13:31:00.004-06:00

This past weekend Rae and I took advantage of the warm weather and went skating on the Assiniboine River at the Forks.

There, we watched friends play in an annual, river curling competition. The people we went to see ended up winning the tournament for the second year in a row. Congratulations Don, Dave and the rest of your team.

To see more of the weekend at the forks visit my flickr page here.

Der König von Schnitzel

2009-02-05T21:46:00.009-06:00

Tonight Rae and I enjoyed dinner at Winnipeg's only German diner that I'm aware of, the Kraut King (located under the parking lot on the corner of Garry Street and Portage Avenue). This wasn't our first time trying this restaurant and it is sure to become a regular treat. If you've been following my blog, you'll know that Rae and I are taking German language classes. When we learned about a popular German dish called Currywurst, we really wanted to try it and as far as I know, the Kraut King is the only place in Winnipeg to get it.

At the heart of the Kraut King is the grille. There is something that I appreciate about the open kitchen concept where you can see how a kitchen is kept. It may be paranoia, but I've seen enough of Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares to be wary.

Kraut King also makes a fine Wiener Schnitzel. It was served with a tasty spicy mayonnaise for lack of a better description. They also offer great Bratwurst, large Pretzels and more dishes.

If you don't mind curry I would seriously recommend trying the Currywurst.
See more Kraut King photos here.

Photographing my food has been inspired by my friend K-Jin

Great Caricatures

2009-01-28T09:58:00.007-06:00

President Barack Obama
Originally uploaded by robotalphabet

Recently, my friend at KALAMAFRAZ has been researching caricatures. A while back I came across the work of Mark Hammermeister on his flickr page, robotalphabet. There you will find some wonderful caricature work in vector as well as other traditional illustrations. I especially like his Tommy Lee Jones.

Have You Ever Wanted to Fly?

2009-01-12T09:38:00.007-06:00

It's been a while since my last blog, but now that the holidays are over and life is resembling what passes for normal, I'll try to be more consistent with blogging. for starters I should probably get off of my ass and make a new banner. But in the mean time you should really check out this video that reminds me so much of my favorite dreams, it's scary. Like most people I have had one of those ultra realistic flying dreams which are among my favorites. In this video, these guys are doing it for real. I got this video from Rae's coworker, Karen.

BTW, happy new year and all the best in 2009!

Guardian Challenge 2008

2008-12-05T12:45:00.007-06:00

I know a few people who have been waiting a couple of weeks for some of these photos to be posted. The problem being, that between German class, side projects and my full time job it has been difficult to find the time needed to go through the 3000 or so photos. I hope that those interested in these photos understand. Mostly because I have seen what these people can do at the event. Seriously though it was a great event and all competitors did an outstanding job..
See some of the other photos at my flickr page here.

From The Man That Brought You Peace Train

2008-12-02T11:01:00.008-06:00

Wow it's been two weeks since my last posting . That is the longest break since I started the blog therapy blog. I guess it's because I've been pretty busy as of late. Yesterday I wrote my German level 3 test and other projects are wrapping up so I should be posting more regularly. In the mean time, I found this interesting video of everyone's favorite Muslim, Cat Stevens . I can't believe that this is from the same guy who wrote "Peace Train".

Also, I've been reaquainting myself with one of my favorite late eighties, indy band, the pixies. If you're not familliar with them, check em out.
Enjoy.

3 Months and Counting

2008-11-18T09:17:00.007-06:00

I celebrated 3 months smoke free this past weekend by attending the Guardian Dojo Challange . There I took about 2000 photos and some video with the help of Rae and my brother. I have two friends from college who are members of the Guardian Dojo who performed very well in thier fights. I have the upmost respect for anyone who competes in these tournaments. In sadder news, Debby the Polar Bear was euthanized today. Debby was the oldest polar bear on record. Video of Debby can be seen on youtube here.

Mitch Mitchell 1947 - 2008

2008-11-14T10:30:00.010-06:00

Rock and Roll lost another great drummer. Mitch Mitchell, one of the few drummers that could keep up with Jimi Hendrix, passed away last Wednesday of natural causes following an 18 date tour called Experience Hendrix. Mitch represented the last living member of the trio, "The Jimi Hendrix Experience", R.I.P.
Above is Mitch performing a drum solo in Sweden in 1969 and below one of my personal favorite drum tracks from Mitch, "Catfish Blues" as seen on youtube.

Mona Marley

2008-11-12T11:44:00.003-06:00

I found another fun thing to do from creativepro's wackey website of the week. This week it was for a site called megamonalisa.com where you get to redesign the mona lisa. There are many good and some really bad ones. I had fun whipping this one out. See it posted with the frame on the website here.

All Thumbs

2008-11-10T15:17:00.005-06:00

I have been working on computers in school and as my occupation for over 5 years now and I still have to look at the keyboard to type with any kind of speed. although I am up to using 6 fingers, one thing that I kind of regret is never learing the proper way to type. Now, with the help of the internet, I have decided to take action towards correcting this and hope to be typing without looking at the keyboard instead of pecking at the keyboard with my head down, then proof reading to look for typos in the begining of document/Email/blog entry. Here is a site that I have been playing with so far.
good luck to me.

Happy First Snow

2008-11-07T07:57:00.005-06:00

Well it's been a while since my last post. I've been pretty busy between work, personal projects, and trying to win the Stanley Cup on my Xbox. Anyway I've kinda been waiting for this day to share this video to give us a little hope on a cold snowy day.

Warning: there is at least one swear in this video and violence against snowmen.

This song is from the greatest "C" movie ever, "Cannibal the Musical". I highly recomend it to any South Park and Matt Stone / Trey Parker Fan.
Have a shpadoinkle day!

Helena Sophia

2008-11-03T12:53:00.003-06:00

This past weekend Rae and I had the pleasure of meeting Helena Sophia, our German instructor's new daughter.
Viel Glückwünsche auf Ihrer neuen Tochter.

Happy Halloween Everyone

2008-10-31T09:16:00.002-05:00

For Halloween I thought I'd share a video from the one celebrity whom I would like to invite me to his halloween party, Mr. Rob Zombie.

My First Flickr Group

2008-10-29T09:47:00.007-05:00

I finally joined my first Flickr group. It has taken a while but I hadn't seen a group that suited me (hadn't looked for one either to be honest). Then I came across the Rusty and Crusty group and it seemed a perfect fit. See some of the great pictures from this group here. This group is one of Flickr's largest (over 16,000 members) and has some really interesting photos as corroded subjects usually have such amazing character.

Happy Halloween

2008-10-28T09:21:00.006-05:00

Here is my halloween photo for this year. The photoshop work makes this old pup look a little more menacing than he was. I guess I thought it looked creepy because his stance looked a little suspicious of the camera. All this picture needs is a full moon photoshopped into the sky behind the trees and blood dripping from the dogs mouth. Okay, I may have went a little over board with the blood idea.
Anyway, have a happy halloween and make sure your parents check your candy.

New Streetheart Double Disc Set

2008-10-24T09:17:00.011-05:00

Yesterday I bought my copy of the new Streetheart double disc set "The Hits / Anthology". Since I started working here at Polar Bear Productions, I went from being aware of Streetheart to becoming a fan. This double disc set is for both casual listener and fan. Designed by my talented co-worker Loren Stevenson, this package includes one disc of Streethearts hits and a second disc of the bands favorite gems. It also comes with a sixteen page booklet containing personal insights on the songs written by the band. It is available for purchase at their shows or by ordering it off of their website, www.kennyshieldsandstreetheart.com.

Fat Elvis

2008-10-23T15:30:00.006-05:00

Rob Peters of Circle Design in Winnipeg recently blogged today about this cool Japanese site called Fontpark 2.0 on robertlpeters.com under the news section. You can follow my link to Rob's blog under Best of the Blogosphere in the column to the right. Here is my attempt below titles "Fat Elvis" or see its creation here.

Lower Fort Garry

2008-10-21T09:27:00.011-05:00

This past weekend, Rae, K-Jin, and I went to Lower Fort Garry. It was my first time there and I'm sure not the last. I'd really like to go in the summer to take photos when they have all of the period actors there living in the time of the fur trade. Above is a photo that I took of a York Boat.

It started as a blustery day, as you can see by K-Jin's headscarf, but turned out to be pretty nice by afternoon.

Hydro Tour

2008-10-20T15:11:00.009-05:00

Late last September, Rae and I took a tour of the new Mainitoba Hydro building. Here is a photo of the main entrance of the building that I have recently posted on my flickr page from this, our second tour of the building. I like the way my wide angle lens skews the people in the photo below.

When I get some time I will post the first tour pictures form last year and some more of the ones from this tour.
You can see the building on this live camera that is updated every two minutes here.

Neil Young at the MTS Centre

2008-10-17T09:49:00.008-05:00

Last night the show was more than any Neil Young fan could ask for. Neil was in top form and played a wide variety of electric favorites like Cinnimon Girl, Cortez the Killer, and of course Rockin' in the Free World, and acoustic greats like Heart of gold, Old Man and Needle and the Damage Done. He then topped it off with a great rendition of the Beatles, A Day in the Life. All the while he had an artist painting canvases behind the drummer and backup singers.
Above is a picture of his gear taken with my cell phone.

Read a review on this show from canoe.ca here.

60 Days Without A Smoke

2008-10-16T07:46:00.004-05:00

Ich bin stark. To use todays German word of the day. It's been 2 months, no butts, and doing alright. This months reward is tonight. I am celebrating by going to Neil Young at the MTS Centre. I have been at this point before in an attempt to quit smoking before, so I'm not taking anything for granted.

Old One Room School Houses

2008-10-14T07:56:00.006-05:00

Hope Everybody had a great Thanksgiving. This past year I have been trying to take HDRI (High Dynamic Range Image) photographs. I was initially inspired by a friend and fellow designer Bryan Scott who has a blog devoted to capturing Winnipeg in this photographic treatment. You can find his blog in the best of the blogosphere in the column to the right or by clicking here.
These are my most recent attempts, taken this past long weekend, on a trip to Raelene's family farm in Saskatchewan.

This is the Hope School that Rae's dad attended near her family farm. It was constructed in 1903 and closed in 1961 and now sits in a cow pasture. Rae has an interesting story on how, after her great grandfather first arrived in Canada, he spent his first night in Saskatchewan in this building during a snow storm with only a small jacket and a coal stove to keep him warm.

This old school house was opened in 1920 and closed in 1961 and seemed sturdy enough to survive an earthquake.

This old yellow farm house shows the cool effect that the HDRI treatment has on clouds. I will keep trying to improve my ability in HDR and post more of the ones that turn out on my flickr page. You can find more of the talented Mr. Scott's photos on his flickr page here.

It's Pool Season

2008-10-09T07:45:00.004-05:00

The weather may be getting a little colder out there but many Canadians are jumping into pools. Hockey pools that is. Last night I entered my regular pool that I have misses only once in the last seven years. Sidney Crosby wast the first to go and then Alexander Ovechkin but I had no such luck being that I had the tenth pick. Here is a list of the 13 players that I ended up drafting.

#1 Eric Staal (CAR)

#2 Patrick Kane (CHI)

#3 Alex Tanguay (MTL)

#4 Miroslav Satan (PIT)

#5 R.J. Umberger (CBJ)

#6 Alexander Steen (TOR)

#7 Claude Giroux (PHI)

#8 Tuomo Ruutu (CAR)

#9 Milan Lucic (BOS)

#10 Mason Raymond (VAN)

#11 Mattais Ohlund (VAN)

#12 Fredrick Modin (CBJ)

#13 Christian Ehrhoff (SJ)