Archive for October, 2005
A lovely Sunday brunch
Oct 24th
My sister gave Diane and I a wonderful little Christmas present last year. A gift certificate for La Ronde to have a Sunday brunch there. For those who don’t know, La Ronde is a rotating restaurant on top of the Crowne Plaza hotel. You get a beautiful scenic view of downtown Edmonton and the river valley, and if you don’t like your current view, you only have to wait a few minutes and you’ll have a new view! 
Its a classy joint. I’m not the most comfortable with these higher end establishments – I kinda feel like people are watching me and disapproving of me. Its probably just my imagination. Still, the company (Diane) was wonderful, and the food was amazing. The view was incredible on a sunny Sunday afternoon … and really, the whole day was just fantastic. So, many thanks to Megan for her generous gift. It certainly was nice
Heraldk
“If You’re a Christian, Muslim or Jew – You are Wrong”
Oct 24th
Religious discussion always seems to bring out the worst in people. This guy claims that religion is the cause of so many problems in the world both in the past and today. He talks about people who go insane and believe that their religion is what is guiding them through their life’s actions. Ugh.
It’s a touchy topic. I’m not going to go out on a limb here. Religion, both in the past and today, has been the dispution point for many many wars and much hate and disagreement. This guy here seems to be just paying attention to the headlines. The newsmakers. The people who give religion a bad name. Seriously, for the average joe person who believes in one faith or another, religion can do a lot of good. There’s a lot of psychological comfort available! Not to mention a community of people who are friendly and willing to help when you are in trouble.
What I don’t understand is why people cannot give each other respect for their own decisions. For me, actions speak FAR louder than the label they bear. I don’t care what faith you are in. If you can’t give other people respect for what they believe, then you need to chill out and realize that faith should really be a personal choice. Sure, you can talk to other people about your faith, and if someone shows an interest, you can introduce them to it. But there isn’t a “right” way to believe. I’m sorry folks, but that’s where its at.
But then, maybe I’m just crazy.
Heraldk
Super Mario Bros
Oct 16th
Seemed to be a theme this month. First, someone plays a level’s worth of super mario brother’s theme music plus the sound appropriate sound affects entirely on guitar. Craziness.
Then, someone comes up with a super mario brothers opera. Yes, really.
Some people, I tell ya. Crazy!
Still, I can’t help but be intrigued. Somehow, mario still holds my interest.
Heraldk
Hockey Night In Canada
Oct 9th
Wow.
My dad was able to get a pair of awesome tickets from his boss to last night’s Vancouver vs Edmonton game and I got to take my sweetheart to the game. It certainly was an experience and a half!!
The house was packed with fans including a surprising number of vancouver fans. The game was exciting, though extremely frustrating in the 3rd period when the Oilers got into penalty trouble. Edmonton took a 2-1 lead into the 3rd period but almost lost the game. It was 3-2 until the final minute when Edmonton had a powerplay and had their goalie pulled … and managed to score the equalizer.
Overtime solved nothing and we got to see our first shootout – where the Oilers showed quite a lot of talent – Torres and Hemsky scored for Edmonton while Maarkenen stopped both Naslund and Bertuzzi.
The atmosphere in a packed and pumped Oiler crowd is amazing. The volume when we scored was deafening, and we had to laugh as many of the Oiler fans shouted out their very opinionated comments at the refs. Like “This is the worst game I’ve ever seen in terms of ref-ing”. I say that while I was none too happy about the number of penalties the Oilers took – I can’t say that we should blame the refereeing. They did a really good job, and its the penalty crackdown that we need to make the game better. So kudos to them.
Heraldk
Edmonton Stratovarius Show Review
Oct 3rd
Boy was I excited. And nervous.
Since I found out that Stratovarius was coming to town, I was really wondering what sort of crowd would turn up to a band that is, as far as I know, virtually unknown in town. I was also nervous that the people I had dragged to come see the show (like Diane) wouldn’t like it and be forced to endure a few hours of misery.
Thankfully, I really had no reason to worry. Metal fans came out of the woodwork and we had a decent sized crowd – more people than I expected for sure!
Now for my show review.
I arrived at the door around 8:00. The starlite room is a members only club – so some of the people in my group needed memberships. We hung around there and got memberships for them and then entered the place. This was the first time I’d been at the starlite room – it was a pretty neat venue. Pretty small, but my first thoughts were that it was an awesome little venue to see a top notch band like Stratovarius.
The opening band, Into Eternity, started up at 8:45pm sharp. I had not heard anything by them before, and I think its obvious that I would have benefited from doing a little research before hand. I wish people would realize that its not all about making music as loud as possible. Sure, more volume can make things sound really good. But the clarity and balance of all the instruments together that makes for a good listening experience. That is my biggest complaint for the opening band – they seemed extremely talented, but because of the balance issues, I could barely hear the middle range of the vocals. The only notes we heard were when they were growling into their mics or when the lead singer hit some super high notes. I may have to take a listen to some of their music to see if I like them. Unfortunately, the show was not enough to make me buy a cd right then and there.
Finally, Stratovarius made it on stage, and they started in with a great deal of energy. The volume/balance issue did affect them too, but to a lesser extent as more of the Strato songs included quieter ballad songs that took us away from the sheer volume for a few songs. Still, the balance was a major complaint of mine and if I hadn’t heard the songs before I think I would’ve enjoyed the show a little less than I did.
Don’t get me wrong – the show was amazing. I find myself wishing that I had more time to spend with my keyboard to try and learn how to play as well as Jens Johannson. For those who don’t know, he used to play backup keyboards for Yngwie Malmsteen – often heralded as one of the best speed guitar players. So Jens is a pretty amazing keyboardist since he was able to keep up with Yngwie, and is now playing with Timo Tolkki – who is pretty amazing as well.
They could’ve kept playing for another hour and half at least and not run out of songs. Stratovarius has a long list of cds they’ve put out over the years. I think the count is up at 12 cds or something, and almost all the songs on the discs are good enough to be played in a live show like this one. Unfortunately, they couldn’t play all night, since they needed to be in Calgary the next day … They gave us a good selection of music from their repertoire, including some old and some new.
They played two encores – the first ending with Hunting High and Low and the second ending with … of course … Black Diamond. There was a startling number of fans who knew the words to many of the songs and that was pretty sweet.
All in all, it was a pretty incredible evening. I’m very happy that they came to town, and at the end of their show they had a slide at the back that said they were coming back in 2007! Woohoo!
Maybe I can drag a few more people to the show this time 
Heraldk
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