I haven’t written here for a long time. It’s been almost a year. So, why now? What inspired me to write again? The Canucks, that’s what. In particular the Canucks win over last year’s Stanley Cup champions, the Chicago Blackhawks in round one of this year’s playoffs.

The Blackhawks have been a thorn in the Canucks side for the past two playoff seasons and no one really expected the third series between these two teams to play out the way it did. It was, in a word, epic.

When I heard that the Canucks had to play the Blackhawks I was just a little nervous. The ‘Hawks have clearly had the number of the Canucks, who were riding high coming off a franchise record breaking regular season that saw them winning the President’s Trophy for the first time in the club’s 40 year history. Prime targets for a little pedestal knocking.

Every Canucks fan has a soundtrack to their hockey nightmares and it’s that goddamned Blackhawks goal song, Chelsea Dagger by The Fratellis. I was not looking forward to hearing it ever again. I still can’t bear the sound of it, but after last night it doesn’t have the same sting.

The Canucks, who have become known for doing things the hard way, went up three games to none in the series. Then the team promptly lost the next three in a row, being blown out in the first two, both games seeing goalie Roberto Luongo chased from the net by a barrage of goal scoring from the relentless Blackhawks. Even though the third game looked like one the Canucks could win, the Blackhawks managed to embarrass the Vancouver team with an overtime win.

Could this be happening again? Have the Blackhawks sold their souls to Satan in return for the ability to humiliate the Canucks and their fans? Perhaps. Damn them. Game 7 loomed like a 16 ton weight on a frayed rope over the heads of all the Vancouver not-anymore-so-faithful. Please God, not three years in a row. My poor over buttered and under exercised heart can’t take the strain.

There was a hint of good things to come at the beginning of the game however.

As my shifts have been in the afternoon I’ve had to watch a lot of the games on the second monitor of my PC with no sound. Last night I my lunch was scheduled just as the game was to start, so I trundled up to the ninth floor to join the others who I knew would be watching the game on the big screen. As Mark Donnelly affectionately known as Opera Man was leading Canucks fans at GM Place in Oh Canada I looked out the window and saw a rainbow hanging over the inlet and arcing in the direction of, you guessed it, GM Place.

I shit you not.

I snapped a picture:

Could this be a sign from the Universe? Oh please let it be.

The game began and we were on the edge of our seats the whole night. The standouts of the game were Alex Burrows and the goalies for both teams. Man, were they spectacular. Especially the Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford. Holy smokes was he amazing. But it was really Burrows night. An undrafted player from the Atlantic league, he was everywhere last night and alternated between goat and golden boy. Burrows scored the goal that stood as the only one for the first 55 minutes of the game and then gave the puck away on a power play leading to the Blackhawks scoring with only a few minutes left in the game taking it to over time again.

Oh no. Burrows took an early penalty in OT, but ultimately redeemed himself. Here’s what finally happened:

Jim Hughson’s quotes, “What a wonderful day for an exorcism!” and “Exhale British Columbia! The Canucks are on to round two. Nashville is next.” really drove it home.

I’m sure the Predators aren’t going to be pushovers, and the Canucks still have twelve games to win before they can hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup, but I’m not sure even that would match how sweet last night’s victory was. Maybe it really can get better. We’ll see.

I am definitely a soda pop lover. I know the dentist says it’s like giving your teeth a sugar bath but I adore it. I like real cane sugar pop, like those from Jones Soda. I am really sick of the Pepsi and Coke high fructose offerings and am grossed out by the taste of sweetener.

So where does one find good pop? Here’s where:

Obsessives: Soda Pop from CHOW.com on Vimeo.

John Nese is the proprietor of Galco’s Soda Pop Stop in LA. His father ran it as a grocery store, and when the time came for John to take charge, he decided to convert it into the ultimate soda-lover’s destination. About 500 pops line the shelves, sourced lovingly by John from around the world. John has made it his mission to keep small soda-makers afloat and help them find their consumers. Galco’s also acts as a distributor for restaurants and bars along the West Coast, spreading the gospel of soda made with cane sugar (no high-fructose corn syrup if John can avoid it).

What a cool place, interesting man and a great story. The next time I am in LA I will be checking out Galco’s Soda Pop Stop.

If anyone knows where to get a decent bottle of pop in Vancouver I would love to know. Please leave a comment.

I am turning into your grade 10 English teacher:

I am no officially not enjoying the feeling of that thing on my face. I almost absentmindedly shaved it off this morning, but caught myself before the first slice. I do not want to fail at growing facial hair. That would be embarrassing.

There is a reason I am putting myself through all this:

More information and how to donate to Movember: Movember 2009 Info

I wish to thank Audrey C and Dave B for their generosity in giving to the cause. Every little bit helps. Thank you so much!

One of my favorite examples of amusing moustachioed people is this video by, Queen. You’ll see what I mean once Freddy Mercury appears:

My mother was thoroughly unimpressed by my TV music video viewing choices upon seeing that one.

Symphony of Science – ‘We Are All Connected’ (ft. Sagan, Feynman, deGrasse Tyson & Bill Nye)

MP3 available at http://www.symphonyofscience.com.

“We Are All Connected” was made from sampling Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, The History Channel’s Universe series, Richard Feynman’s 1983 interviews, Neil deGrasse Tyson’s cosmic sermon, and Bill Nye’s Eyes of Nye Series, plus added visuals from The Elegant Universe (NOVA), Stephen Hawking’s Universe, Cosmos, the Powers of 10, and more. It is a tribute to great minds of science, intended to spread scientific knowledge and philosophy through the medium of music.

Check out “A Glorious Dawn” by Carl Sagan, another Symphony of Science project!

And my website for more original music:
http://www.colorpulsemusic.com

Click HQ to watch in better quality.

Enjoy!

John
john@symphonyofscience.com

Lyrics:

[deGrasse Tyson]
We are all connected;
To each other, biologically
To the earth, chemically
To the rest of the universe atomically

[Feynman]
I think nature’s imagination
Is so much greater than man’s
She’s never going to let us relax

[Sagan]
We live in an in-between universe
Where things change all right
But according to patterns, rules,
Or as we call them, laws of nature

[Nye]
I’m this guy standing on a planet
Really I’m just a speck
Compared with a star, the planet is just another speck
To think about all of this
To think about the vast emptiness of space
There’s billions and billions of stars
Billions and billions of specks

[Sagan]
The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it
But the way those atoms are put together
The cosmos is also within us
We’re made of star stuff
We are a way for the cosmos to know itself

Across the sea of space
The stars are other suns
We have traveled this way before
And there is much to be learned

I find it elevating and exhilarating
To discover that we live in a universe
Which permits the evolution of molecular machines
As intricate and subtle as we

[deGrasse Tyson]
I know that the molecules in my body are traceable
To phenomena in the cosmos
That makes me want to grab people in the street
And say, have you heard this??

(Richard Feynman on hand drums and chanting)

[Feynman]
There’s this tremendous mess
Of waves all over in space
Which is the light bouncing around the room
And going from one thing to the other

And it’s all really there
But you gotta stop and think about it
About the complexity to really get the pleasure
And it’s all really there
The inconceivable nature of nature

I have joined a Movember team here in Vancouver.

What is Movember?

Movember is the month formerly known as November where men start clean shaven and commit to growing a Moustache. That’s right, we are bringing back the Moustache this November to raise funds and awareness for men’s health – specifically prostate cancer. [source]

That’s right I am growing a moustache to raise awareness, and hopefully, some money to help find a cure for prostate cancer. I my mo sistah Carol take a picture of my mo’ every day, starting on Movember first, and post it here on my blog with Movember related updates including the amount of money I have raised so far.

To date it’s $20 — from me! That was easy!

Here’s what you might see over the coming month:

I can grow a pretty mean mo’ but something tells me it might not be that big.

Check out this great intro video explaining more about Movember:

If you want to get involved you can join our team known as Twi’stache Vancouver captained by Chris Mathieson of the Vancouver Police Museum. If you’re a dude grow a mo’ with us and if you’re a chick love the mo’ growers. Either way we are going to have some fun.

If joining isn’t your thing you can make a tax deductible donation on my MoSpace page.

You might even help me to win a prize.

See you in Movember!

** For more on prostate cancer see prostatecancer.ca **

I love stumbling on things that are pretty to look at:

Rhyolite Ghost Town from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Shot on the Sony EX3 and Letus Ultimate in Rhyolite, Nevada.
Music is by Ennio Morricone from “Once Upon A Time in the West”
Vignettes and grade done of course with Magic Bullet Looks.
Making of coming soon… philipbloom.co.uk

Creativity is good…

Sorry I’m Late from Tomas Mankovsky on Vimeo.

A stop motion short film shot with a stills camera in the ceiling pointing straight at the floor. There’s tons of ‘making of’ stuff at the website sorry-im-late.com

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build’em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling

[source poemhunter]

Learn about meditation at knowthatonething.com

Prosperity and Abundance, originally uploaded by MikeBrowne.

My life is full of prosperity and abundance. Here’s a picture of some of it. Prosperity is in the middle in the form of a black cat. The abundance is represented by warty gourds. It all sits against the North wall of our dining room. Good feng shui.