Moments That Matter - Early March Edition

Pop Culture: What I am into these days.

Music: Eric Church "Carolina" (advance) / Johnny Reid "Dance With Me" / U2 "No Line on the Horizon".

DVD: "Burn After Reading" / "War of the Worlds".

- Happy Birthday To Me
- We had the big birthday party on Friday, February 27th at our place. We had some good friends over for a few bottles of wine. Nothing too crazy, just some good catching up.
- On Saturday, February 28th we went to West Edmonton Mall with the Dynamyx Gymnastics gang for a night at Galaxyland. The whole family enjoyed rides from 7:30 until 10:30.
- On Sunday, March 1st we celebrated my birthday with the family by going out to dinner at Boston Pizza in St. Albert. My actual birthday was on Monday, March 2nd but Mally had gymnastics right after school that day so we opted to do dinner out on the Sunday instead.



Mr. Mom
- Lesley took off for her annual Epicure Convention in Toronto on Wednesday, March 4th. She was gone until the following Tuesday. I had a whole week of being Mr. Mom. I learned that being a single parent would really suck. It was hard to juggle work and all of the various kids activities. On the good side of things, the house was clean when Lesley got home (even though I was exhausted and ready for the loonie bin).

In Like A Lion
- March came in like a lion...so let's hope it goes out like a lamb. We got pounded with snow and cold at the end of the first week of March. It didn't help hearing from my boss, and friend, Rob Chubey about how nice it was in Nashville for Country Radio Seminars (72 degrees!) or from Lesley about how nice it was in Toronto (+15). The kids helped me shovel a couple of times but for the most part it was too damn cold to go anywhere while Lesley was away at her conference.



I Knew The Bride When She Used To Rock N Roll
- Dave and Carol came over on Friday, March 6th to go over some music for their upcoming wedding. We had a good time going through my CD collection and picking tunes that we hope everyone will dance to at the wedding. If Dave and I had our way though it would be all Blues Brothers and Van Halen with a sprinkling of tunes from the Animal House Soundtrack. Good thing Carol was here to reign us in.

Who Do I Cheer For?
- Warren came over to watch the Oilers versus the Leafs game on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday, March 7th. I was having a hard time deciding who to cheer for. I want to see the Oilers make the playoffs but I am a die hard Leafs fan. I don't think the Leafs have a shot at the playoffs this year and would almost rather they lose down the stretch to sink in the standings and have a better shot at the John Tavares sweepstakes for the top overall draft pick this off season. Still, it was hard not to cheer for the Buds. It was nice to have Warren drop in for a little adult conversation. The kids were making me a little mental by this point.

Underoath
- I worked with Christian Metal band Underoath on Tuesday, March 10th. The guys were nice to work with and we had no problems with any of our contest winners that got to meet the band at their soundcheck. I have to say that Christian Metal is really not my thing though. I much prefer the more melodic, Satanic version of Heavy Metal. Still, the band put on a good show at the Edmonton Events Centre. I wasn't singing along with any of the tunes when I left the gig but I had been impressed with their stage show as well as the cool lighting and video effects.



Trivia Time
- Wednesday, March 11th I went out to Table Team Trivia at the Beer Hunter, hosted by my good buddy Jake Daniels from Team 1260. I joined Warren and Dave about an hour into the trivia as I had stayed to watch some of Mally's gymnastics class with Lesley and Hope and Ella. We had a decent round of trivia and all of us ended up winning some draw prizes. I came home with a deluxe BBQ tool set and a new t-shirt. Not too bad a haul for a couple of hours of drinking with buddies.

No More Sex and Candy!
- On Thursday, March 12th I spent the day with Marcy Playground. The band is working hard to get the word out about their forthcoming new CD, due out in July. So many people only know them for their huge hit "Sex and Candy" that it makes it hard for them to get the word out about the new material. Hopefully some of the new stuff will cut through though as the band are all great players and the tunes are all quite clever.
I met the band at 8 A.M. at City TV where the guys played a couple of songs on Breakfast Television. They weren't going to do "Sex and Candy" but ended up doing it when John Wozniak's voice gave him a bit of trouble. We chalked that up to just being early in the morning and the dry Alberta air. Later that afternoon I took John, the singer / guitar player from the band, over to Sonic 102.9 for an interview and acoustic performance in the Listener Lounge with Layne Mitchell. John's voice really started acting up and he was getting worried that he might have to cancel the show that night. After the Sonic interview we stopped at London Drugs and loaded him up with Halls and other throat medication to get him through his last radio interview and the concert. Our last media visit for the day was at Joe FM where John did a live interview and an acoustic performance with Gary James.
The show at Jet Nightclub later that night was good despite John's voice problems. Not a huge crowd but certainly some hard core fans that knew more about the band than just "Sex and Candy". John had to pull some of the new songs from the set though as his voice was not going to be able to cut it.
I hope they come back after the new CD comes out this summer. Hopefully John will be able to do those tunes he missed playing here this time around.



Sp-Oil Kings
- Sunday, March 15th I went with Warren and Dave to see the Edmonton Oil Kings play their last regular season home game of the 2008-2009 season at Rexall Place. The team was in a tie for the last playoff spot and only needed to get a single point against the Red Deer Rebels in this game to secure the final spot and make the playoffs for the first time in their current history (the old Oil Kings were a very successful Junior franchise and won the Memorial Cup a couple of times back in the 1960's). The game was not that great. The team didn't look like a team that desperately needed that one last point. They lead 1-0 going into the third period but ended up losing 2-1. Now they have to travel to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan for a one game, sudden death, tie breaker with the Prince Albert Raiders. The winner of that game will get the last playoff spot. Hopefully the Oil Kings will play with higher sense of desperation in that one.