Tag Archives: Ottawa

Blue Light Special – I

  The posters had been up around town for a couple of weeks advertising “Blaulicht Tag” which even I know means Blue Light Day. This isn’t K-Mart; Sulzburg was getting a new fire truck and it was cause for celebration. It was only after the fact my wife told me that the new truck wasn’t […]

Remembering Billy Graham

One of the most influential people of the 20th century, a man whose impact will continue to be felt for decades, died Wednesday. Billy Graham was 99. He was the best-known Christian evangelist of his time, a man who spoke before millions of people during his career and was an advisor to presidents and kings. […]

A Winter’s Tale

I remember a January morning, almost thirty years ago, when I discovered the true nature of winter. We were living in Liberia, and the harmattan winds were blowing from the Sahara. It was a welcome relief from the heat and humidity. Overnight low was about 20 degrees Celsius. That 68 Fahrenheit for you Americans. It […]

Grey Cup 2017

It is that day again. The Grey Cup game is tonight. I was supposed to be there, but by the time tickets went on sale I knew I would be in Germany. I might have opted for watching on television instead anyway. I went to the game in 2004, the last time it was in […]

Not Taking The Bus

OC Transpo, our municipal transit service, is down 1.5 million riders from this time last year. That is a significant drop. There’s a cliché about rocket science that I am going to forego here, no matter how tempting. Apparently the people in charge haven’t quite figured out why people are no longer taking the bus. […]

Underground Adventure

The idea intrigued me, then I heard the event was free, which moved it into the “must see” category. ‎Scottish ancestry you know. Kontinuum is an underground adventure happening in Ottawa this summer, ending September 14. For me the major appeal was that much of it takes place in one of the new underground light […]

Music With A Message

Sometimes a line resonates with you; it speaks to your soul. I saw Switchfoot perform earlier this year. First time I had seen them in concert since 2011. That Switchfoot show was the best live performance I saw that year, better even than U2. There was something special about the energy of the crowd and […]

Still Rocking After All These Years

Scratch one from the bucket list. Not that I actually have a bucket list. I missed Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers the last time they were in Ottawa, 36 year ago. I don’t know why it took so long for them to return when the 2017 RBC‎ Ottawa Bluesfest schedule was announced, with Petty as […]

Howl of the Wolf

Strangely enough for the event they call Bluesfest, there are very few blues acts. It wasn’t that way in the beginning of course, but over the past 20 years the festival has become an everything festival, with country, folk, hip-hop, rap, EDM and rock bands headlining on successive nights. You have to work really hard […]

Night of The Zombies

It’s not that I love music any less. Just a sign of how busy my life has become. The 2017 edition of Ottawa Bluesfest was a week old before I made my first excursion.  No time for that one either (I have a project on deadline) but under some circumstances you have to make an […]