A Most Underrated Musician

Johnny Flynn.

This past Wednesday we drove down to Chapel Hill in North Carolina to see Johnny Flynn who is on a solo tour of the eastern seaboard in support of his new CD Been Listening. Johnny usually plays with a band (The Sussex Wit), but he is doing this tour solo with his nephew as roadie since they don't have the funds to tour together with all of their equipment etc.

I had a great talk with Johnny before the show and we talked about the state of the music industry (independent music shops to be specific), their first and only show in Edmonton thus far (at the 2009 Folk Fest), the first bear that he saw on this tour aha, and also his hopes to come back and play the Edmonton Folk Fest again.

In our current pop culture society, driven by flavour of the month next-great-things that fill the bars and the clubs, it is rare to find music that seems to transcend all of those things to create something that could have come out now, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, or 30 years ago and still be good.

I truly hope that Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit will continue to produce music and to be able to travel and share this music with their fans. If you have not heard them before I highly recommend giving their music a chance, and I would also recommend purchasing either of their first two albums.

Good night, and happy Halloween!  

Goals and Preference Shaping

When I set out from Edmonton I thought I had a pretty good idea about what I wanted to get out of my experience at UVa. I was excited about the possibility of pursuing my interest in whale conservation, and getting the opportunity to rekindle my marine biologist interest...

And then something changed...

I guess I never really realized how much I actually care about Alberta. Since I have been down here, I have been literally captivated by the oil sands developments. Dr. Schindler's water quality report. The end of the duck trial. The first remediated tailings pond. The Alberta Environment independent assessment currently being implemented. And of course todays deja vu...

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Duck+death+toll+mounts+Syncrude+tailings+pond/3728911/story.html

I get it, I really do, and at the root of it all I am just as blameworthy as every other regular joe and average jane. I like a heated house, a full tank of gas, the occasional road trip, the occasional jet ride, air conditioning (especially down here in hot and humid Virginia), and this list could go on and on... the difference is that I am convinced that there has to be a better way. It has to be possible to develop fuel without creating toxic tailings ponds that can be seen from space, and there has to be a better way to develop our province, which is so fortunately positioned and has such great natural beauty.

Whale conservation remains one of the great challenges for the international community moving forward in the 21st century. But, I am starting to recognize that Alberta might be, as well.

This is Virginia Calling

The campus right now is stunning! The colours make it look like the whole world is on fire!

It is really going to be a busy month, here is some of what is in the works:

1) Halloween (gotta love Halloween. My roommate and I had no idea what we were going to dress up as until we found a box of some really random costumes that our predecessors from years past must have accumulated and passed on... there are some wigs, a cap gun, various masks, a monkey suit, weird fake hands, a clever with blood on it, a cape, and butterfly wings. Pretty strange, but luckily I called dibs on the butterfly wings... )

2) Johnny Flynn is playing a couple hours south in North Carolina Wednesday and a few of us are going to make the trek down. I wont pass up an opportunity to see this guy live, he is simply fantastic!

3) In terms of school I just turned in another paper on American Constitutional law and its impact on environmental law... ugh... really should have taken con law before this class, thats for sure. Maybe just a little confused... but on the bright side my shark finning/conservation research paper is coming along quite nice and proves to be an excellent distraction from some of my more rigorous and slightly less interesting areas of study!

4) We will be checkin out Bob Dylan on November 10th, which should be great, and just found out that Jeff Tweedy is playing a solo show here on December 8th, and so long as my studying is going okay I will probably check it out too!

5) I am in the process of having my christmas flights home booked for December 17 (note, mark it in your calendars) and I will be in Edmonton until January 23rd, and I am definitely looking forward to seeing everyone!

6) I am expecting a visit from my mom early in November, so here's hopin that the weather and the colours stay nice for at least a couple more weeks!

Well, I promise that the next post will be a little more exciting... this is what happens when you spend endless hours thinking about the American Constitution... it just seems to suck a little fun outta ya!

Ciao for now...

Virginia Fall

This weekend my roommate and I took a drive up to the Shenandoah National Park for a hike. We have been told numerous times that fall in this area of the country is absolutely gorgeous and that it is not a window to be missed. For me, it seems a bit weird that it is fall but still 25 degrees outside... but in any event, the colours are starting to change and it was awesome to take a stroll though the woods!

Here are a couple of pictures that exemplify the region:

The last picture posted above is of the Appalachian Trail (the famous trail that runs 2175 miles north south through the eastern mountain ranges). This trail is blazed by the white mark on the tree to the right--I can now say that I have hiked on this trail (although it was only for about 1 mile aha)!

Well, off to study!

An All Purpose Blog

This is a really random blog, I have decided. Every post is an adventure. Sometimes its Climate Change, sometimes its softball musings (p.s. we tied 8-8 today, which for us is as good as a win!), and today it is about an emerging band out of the UK.

As a few of my earlier posts suggest, I love music. And I especially love independent folk music. One such artist that I followed for a bit was Jay Jay Pistolet. He never really broke over here, but he had a couple catchy little songs, such as:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVeBa-4G8Zc

To the best of my knowledge he disappeared off the music scene for a bit, and to my surprise it looks like he has surfaced again in a much different form. I was perusing the NME this week in some downtime, and the suggested that a hot track to check out is The Vaccines - Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra), which can be heard here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzEyOz8A4Q0

These guys have a couple of other songs out, but no official single released or release date in sight. But, it is quite different from Jay Jay Pistolet's last efforts but seems to be quite awesome--and I predict good things ahead for this band!

Only time will tell...

Climate Change Debate -- Worth Watching if you Have the Time!

I am a nerd. We all know this. This blog is pretty nerdy, and this post in particular will ramp up the nerdy factor exponentially, but please bear with me...

So on Monday, the University of Virginia School of Law hosted a most interested climate change debate. Each side (i.e. climate change believers & climate change skeptics) was represented by a respected scientist and a respected law professor. The debate was great in that it was informative and went well beyond the ordinary superficial rhetoric that the daily media is inundated with.

For me the debate really hit home on two key points:

1) A wise professor once told me that the ideal LLM program should both push the boundaries of your closely held preconceived notions since this sort of challenge helps you formulate a properly informed response, and also there should be good free food lectures.... Well I can say that this debate satisfied both of those prerequisites...

2) Climate change, whether you believe it or not, is something that the general public should (in my opinion) inform themselves about given the importance of this issue moving forward. This debate accurately captured the difference between climate change denial (i.e. CO2 is not a greenhouse gas, or there is not any warming) and climate change skepticism (i.e. the complex interaction between positive and negative feedback loops that impact the climate system are still being investigated, we cannot rely completely on computer models to tell us what is happening in the real world, and while a 2-3 degree celcius warming is likely happening does this magnitude require immediate and alarmist action).

I, for one, believe quite strongly in the precautionary approach to these problems and would have not problem sacrificing some amenities in the here and now if it means future generations will be able to enjoy the same sort of world that we enjoy now. I also value wildlife and biodiversity generally quite highly, and as a moral judgment call think we should act now to avoid causing more harm than is necessary. Have you thought about any of these issues today? How about my readers back in Alberta, where climate change and also the conventional pollution issues associated with our fossil-fuel-frenzied society are front and center? Something to consider on a Thursday, perhaps...

If you are at all interested in listening to what the experts down here had to say about it all, here is the link to the YouTube video of the debate (I apologize that this link is not accompanied by the Mexican food that was enjoyed in person):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9Sh1B-rV60

Have a great day!

 

Oh wow such a shame, you came all this way just to lose the game

Today my Russian compatriot and I ventured into Washington, DC for some sight-seeing and the Washington Capitals v. New Jersey Devils game at Verizon Center. The day started early and ended late, but all told it was quite excellent.

I have decided that American hockey fans are just as ravenous about the sport as we are up past the 49th parallel. There were some good goals, bit hits, a successful penalty shot, and 5-7 fights (depending on how you determine what actually constitutes a true hockey fight).

It was 30 degrees in Washington, DC, and it was an awesome time to check it out again a bit into the fall!

Keepin it short an sweet tonight... talk again soon!

PS check out the tunes linked below!

Some Excellent Solo Efforts

Since I am not there in person to recommend some new tunes, figured this is as good a platform as any to kick out some jams (in the form of some solo efforts):

1) Caral Barat from the Libertines - ignore the weird cover art:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhJ84m5glMQ

2) Philip Selway - Drummer from Radiohead:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xwxDra-xyg

3) Laura Marling - nuff said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvwWzcLfH-k

Enjoy!

Boston, and back again...

Hey Y'all,

So. Back safe from Boston! Besides some weird flight delays and cancellations and other such regular travel stuff, all is good!

Boston is for sure a super cool town, and it was fun to check it out with my Pops! Especially the way that they have integrated history and modern business all in the same spot, for example see the buildings contrasted below:

 

The Freedom Trail is a great walk through old and new sites, and it is hard to fathom some of the history that is really all right there is Boston: Paul Revere, John Hancock, Sam Adams (ya that bitter beer guy), Ben Franklin, the USS Constitution (Ol' Ironside), Boston Commons, and the Public Gardens! All great!

Here is Ol' Ironside:

We had the chance to check out a Boston University hockey game (an exhibition game) against the University of Toronto, and all told it was a rather chippy affair and pretty one-sided, I believe that the final score was 9-3 for BU. I'm glad I got a chance to show Pops how seriously college sports are taken down here. Even at an exhibition game the band and the cheering and the painted fans wee out in full force!

After the Freedom Trail and the sports we went over to take a look around Harvard, which is a very eclectic place to say the least--the students and profs all look like you would expect, a little nerdy and sun deprived aha! The campus is pretty nice, but maybe not as nice as UVa ;)

There was seafood, and there was some beer, some awesome walks, and some much needed familiar conversation and a proper bed (ya, mine here kind of sucks)! All told, pretty successful weekend!

Now, back to the books!

Where I'm At, Where I've Been, And Where I Am Going

So this seems to be a logical time to do a bit of a summary of my time thus far in Ol' Virginia. We are now on our fall break (which is something we don't have up in Canada), and I am taking advantage of a few days off to meet Pops up in Boston where I have a good friend studying dentistry. I am definitely excited to see what Boston has to offer and get near the ocean again!

Tonight was also quite cool because I had the opportunity to go to the first meeting of the Virginia Central Fulbright Chapter to welcome all of the visiting Fulbrighters. The reception was held at Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum (which was founded by a former Fulbrighter who started their Australian Aboriginal art collection whilst in Australia on their Fulbright scholarship). The museum is situated in a great little park on the outskirts of Charlottesville, and here is a link to the museum for those who are interested:

http://www.virginia.edu/kluge-ruhe/

It was actually quite cool and I definitely felt privileged to be in attendance. The other visiting Fulbrighters include a lady from Indonesia and one from Hong Kong who are pursuing a PhD in nursing, a visiting Political Science teacher from India and an Environmental Engineer from India, an MBA student from Norway, a fellow from Russia, and a lady from New Zealand pursuing a PhD. Also in attendance were former Fulbrighters who had studied abroad and now meet up 3 or 4 times every year to welcome newbies like me and to reminisce. The live entertainment was provided by a great little trio, the lead singer was influenced quite heavily by the Mali African tribe with whom she lived amongst while in the Peace Corps and as a researcher performing cultural studies for her PhD. She played an awesome African guitar-equivalent percussion instruments and told stories about her time with the Mali peoples.

The semester is starting to fall into place. It definitely took some time to get back into the whole school routine, and now one-third of the way through semester one I think I am back into the groove of reading, writing, and researching!

I would have to say that the two best experiences in Virginia so far have been:

1) the completely unexpected awesomeness that is Animal Law. I enrolled in this class kind of as an afterthought initially not really knowing what it was going to be like, but the range of guest speakers that we have had so far on everything from basic animal cruelty protections to the Michael Vick dog fighting trial and emerging issues in animal rights, coupled with the fact that I get to research and write on novel regulatory reforms for the regulation of shark finning combine to make it all a sad, yet gratifying, area of study;

2) the people are great! My roommate is awesome and it has been a blast getting to know him and his story and to experience America through the eyes of a German!  The rest of my class is really solid as well! Getting to know them academically and then recreationally (through the Deportable softball team) and then socially has been a blast!

With all of that said and done, without a doubt I miss Canada. The old adage that the people make the place is definitely true, and while I always knew that the group I have around me in Edmonton is awesome, you don't really realize exactly how awesome and in how many ways that awesomeness affects your life until they are not there! You all know who you are!

Well, I am going to try to enjoy this weekend because I can tell that the semester will kick into high gear after the break. Papers, readings, and assignments are all going to pick up in intensity and frequency... ugh!

Until we meet again...
 

Where I'm At, Where I've Been, And Where I Am Going

So this seems to be a logical time to do a bit of a summary of my time thus far in Ol' Virginia. We are now on our fall break (which is something we don't have up in Canada), and I am taking advantage of a few days off to meet Pops up in Boston where I have a good friend studying dentistry. I am definitely excited to see what Boston has to offer and get near the ocean again!

Tonight was also quite cool because I had the opportunity to go to the first meeting of the Virginia Central Fulbright Chapter to welcome all of the visiting Fulbrighters. The reception was held at Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum (which was founded by a former Fulbrighter who started their Australian Aboriginal art collection whilst in Australia on their Fulbright scholarship). The museum is situated in a great little park on the outskirts of Charlottesville, and here is a link to the museum for those who are interested:

http://www.virginia.edu/kluge-ruhe/

It was actually quite cool and I definitely felt privileged to be in attendance. The other visiting Fulbrighters include a lady from Indonesia and one from Hong Kong who are pursuing a PhD in nursing, a visiting Political Science teacher from India and an Environmental Engineer from India, an MBA student from Norway, a fellow from Russia, and a lady from New Zealand pursuing a PhD. Also in attendance were former Fulbrighters who had studied abroad and now meet up 3 or 4 times every year to welcome newbies like me and to reminisce. The live entertainment was provided by a great little trio, the lead singer was influenced quite heavily by the Mali African tribe with whom she lived amongst while in the Peace Corps and as a researcher performing cultural studies for her PhD. She played an awesome African guitar-equivalent percussion instruments and told stories about her time with the Mali peoples.

The semester is starting to fall into place. It definitely took some time to get back into the whole school routine, and now one-third of the way through semester one I think I am back into the groove of reading, writing, and researching!

I would have to say that the two best experiences in Virginia so far have been:

1) the completely unexpected awesomeness that is Animal Law. I enrolled in this class kind of as an afterthought initially not really knowing what it was going to be like, but the range of guest speakers that we have had so far on everything from basic animal cruelty protections to the Michael Vick dog fighting trial and emerging issues in animal rights, coupled with the fact that I get to research and write on novel regulatory reforms for the regulation of shark finning combine to make it all a sad, yet gratifying, area of study;

2) the people are great! My roommate is awesome and it has been a blast getting to know him and his story and to experience America through the eyes of a German!  The rest of my class is really solid as well! Getting to know them academically and then recreationally (through the Deportable softball team) and then socially has been a blast!

With all of that said and done, without a doubt I miss Canada. The old adage that the people make the place is definitely true, and while I always knew that the group I have around me in Edmonton is awesome, you don't really realize exactly how awesome and in how many ways that awesomeness affects your life until they are not there! You all know who you are!

Well, I am going to try to enjoy this weekend because I can tell that the semester will kick into high gear after the break. Papers, readings, and assignments are all going to pick up in intensity and frequency... ugh!

Until we meet again...