M

Oh yeah, Happy Birthday to both Marks!!

Have an awesome weekend!!

Cully, you're such a wanker sometimes!

It'll be Gavin Maguire (drums); Jeff Heisholt (keys & back-up vocals); Doug Friesen (bass); Pete Elkas (vocals, guitar, keys).

Gav & Jeff also play in Burt Neilson.

CD is great - I've heard some stuff off the new one he's recording & it's excellent as well.

oh... and another reason i love Ottawa... i managed to eat 3 orders of poutine b/w Saturday night and Monday AM... damn! LOVE it!! they just don't make the shit like that here in toronto.

THANK YOU TEAM OTTAWA!!

What a fantastic night... I couldn't have asked for anything more. I'll echo a lot of previously stated sentiments in that it was great to see everyone out and about, from all walks of life.

Thank you to my dear BNB boys.. love ya all to bits... and to "that place" & it's darling hosts for the afterparty... and to everyone who made me laugh, dance & brought such spark to the eve.

And, as well, a HUGE thanks to Maverick's... never in all the travels w/ those boys have i met more gracious and accomodating staff / owners than the Maverick's crew. 3 cheers to them & to all you lovely folks for such a great kickstart to 2006.

xoxo

Mary

soo.... to 2006 - - the year we get our fix? meet hot chicks? what were the rest of 'em??

oh yeah, and BASS LASER woooo yeaaahhh

(couldn't resist!)

Alexis -- not very nice. I love ya and all but seriously... I think passion for music should be encouraged... and that shit's just mean and unnecessary.

Dave brings a lot to this board & to the artist himself by taping him every week and sharing highlights of the night for those who can't be in attendance. In the future, just don't open his posts then!

If this was strictly sarcasm and you have some sort of inside joke about this, then I'll step back. But if not, no need to say this kinda stuff.

Happy bday mister!!! I hope you have a wonderful one.

See ya NYE and we'll party it up good.

Mary

Beautiful shots Bouche! Looks like you guys had an awesome trip!

hmmm... dress up party anyone?

no idea....

howler, i seriously have no idea what you are talking about.

I have no idea what you are referring to...

It was all about meeting Stan Loungeman.

this just in from Stan in Peru... Dr. Loungeman will be in attendance @ Maverick's on NYE!

...but this COORS LIGHT situation MUST be remedied prior!

haa haa! Loungeman! Thanks Freeker.. yup, he's a friend of mine from Queen's who lives in NYC now and i party w/ him when i'm down there. actually, i think his buddy jordan kronick who lives there brother owns babylon?

and the N20... yes a huge component for sure... all over the place that night!

the bar / lobby party at our hotel across the street was crazy too!

Booche -- is that Dan Torjman? If yes, that's a buddy of mine, hysterical. If no, then are there 2 people in this world that go by Stan Loungeman?!

ps. i was front row at that show, page side too... it was awesome. my that was a blurry evening.

ahh haa haa!!

Thanks for the feedback guys! I appreciate it.

And Ollie, re: your question - - my dad retired last year and has since taken up some courses at U of T (for interest sake). He wrote this essay for a class recently, although I'm not sure which one.

My dad wrote a beautful essay about life and emailed it to me today... I think it's very well written and states many key things anyone at any age can learn from. I thought I would share as I think we can all try to focus a little more on the positive in life... it is a wonderful life, after all.

I love my dad, and these words that he writes below are the words he raised us by... and I think should be shared.

Mary

Look For The Silver Lining

by C. O'Connell

It is 6am on a Monday and you are jarred awake by the incessant beeping of your alarm clock. As you struggle out of bed in the cold dark of morning, you stub your toe and a searing pain jolts you wide awake. While shaving, you draw blood with an overused razor. In the kitchen, you swear as you remember that you forgot to buy coffee last night. As you peer outside through the fogged-up window, you curse the driving blizzard. The perky voice on the radio cheerfully predicts another three inches of snow and confirms that traffic is already a mess. You shovel your way to your frigid car, before soldiering out, coffeeless, onto city streets with a million other disgruntled commuters. And another week begins…

As a species, we are pessimists by nature. In his book, Learned Optimism, psychologist Martin E.P. Seligman explains that without pessimism, mankind may not have survived. He claims that, “our emotional makeup has been shaped by one hundred thousand years of climactic catastrophe: waves of cold and heat; drought and flood; plenty and sudden famine.†It was man’s capacity to constantly worry about the future and to brood, “that the sunny days were a prelude to harsher weather†that aided our survival. He writes, “We have inherited these ancestors’ brains and therefore their capacity to see the cloud rather than the silver lining.†We are hard wired pessimists.

“Life is difficult.†This simple sentence begins The Road Less Travelled, a book on personal growth by psychotherapist M. Scott Peck. The book debunks the theory that life, by design, should be sweetness and light, and argues that it is instead a steady struggle until death. However, if asked what we want out of life, happiness is the elusive goal that many of us long for. Happiness can roughly be defined as being free from all pain and suffering, mental and physical. Peck would argue that this is an unrealistic desire as, â€life is difficult.â€

I believe life is made up of a series of moments that take us from birth to death. How we live these moments determines the quality of our life. Firstly, by accepting the reality that life will bring both joy and pain, we will more easily cope with day-to-day living. Secondly, by focusing our minds to look for the positives in everyday living, we will enhance our life and the lives of those around us. And lastly, by reframing difficult situations, we offer ourselves the opportunity to break away from negative thoughts. Easier said than done. Rewiring a pessimist takes time and effort, and we should not expect overnight success.

In his poem The Rainy Day, Longfellow says, “Into each life some rain must fallâ€, but he also says, “Behind the clouds is the sun still shining.†It is this balance that we must strive for, the knowledge that every day will not be perfect, but everyday will not be a disaster either. We are a resilient species and our will to survive is strong. An old tale tells how the great King Solomon asked his minister to find the magic ring that, when worn, made the sad man happy and the happy man sad. After many months of searching, the minister returned with a ring inscribed with the words, “This Too Shall Passâ€. With the wisdom that, whatever the challenge, it “too shall passâ€, we can face each day with more acceptance and optimism.

By focusing on the positives in life, we create a mental shift away from negative thoughts. When Barbara Ann Kipfer was in the sixth grade, she began to record the little things in her life that made her happy. For over twenty years she recorded her thoughts, culminating in a book, 14,000 things to be happy about. The book is a simple stream of consciousness that contains word pictures of the things that brought Kipfer moments of pleasure. As she says in her introduction to the book,“ Words, and the images they create, can be a great source of pleasure and inspirationâ€. But it is the process of her writing this book that struck me. Imagine if each of us, every day, took the time to write down the little things that made us happy. Imagine the mental reprogramming that would take place. Barbara’s book contains words that conjure up pleasant pictures: “Quilts wrought during long winter eveningsâ€; “Bread, cheese and wine on a hillsideâ€; “A stormy weekend to get reacquainted with the most comfortable chair in the house.†What a wonderful way to record one’s life! What an effective way to push pessimism into the shadows! It has been fifteen years since Kipfer wrote her book. I expect she has since accumulated many more thousands of things to be happy about. One thing is certain; each day she is expecting good things to happen and, if goods things are not obvious, she is going to look for them. She focuses on the positives. We can all learn from her.

When bad things happen, as they will, we can try to reframe them in a positive light. As a child, I was blessed with a mother who seemed, much of the time, to be quite serene, given the challenge of raising a large family on a meager income. Whenever my siblings or I complained too much, our whining was answered with lines from her favourite poem, As You Go Through Life by Ella Wheeler Wilcox:

Don’t look for the flaws as you go through life,

And even if you find them,

Be wise and kind and somewhat blind,

And look for the virtues behind them.

These words were rarely heeded then, but as I matured, I realized that these simple lines confirmed what Peck was saying. My mother accepted that there would be trials and tribulations in life. Instead of letting them overcome her, she tried to reframe them by looking for anything that could give her hope or encouragement. She made lemonade out of lemons. But it was in the most unlikely place that I learned most about the power of reframing: a funeral home.

Some years ago, I attended the funeral service for a friend who had been killed in a car crash, leaving behind a devastated husband and two teenage children. The minister’s homily was inspiring. He acknowledged the huge pain and loss of all attending the service saying, “Each one of you here is asking, ‘why did she die?’ I would like to reframe the question and ask, ‘why did she live?’†He explained that this woman had touched everyone in the church, and over her lifetime, had touched the lives of thousands of others. It was this reframing of a tragic and hopeless situation that encouraged the family to refocus on her life and what she meant to them and those around her. It did not lessen the tragedy, but redirected their energy in a more positive way. Our challenge is to make each day better by reframing the negatives. Instead of cursing the blizzard, look at the beauty of the snowflakes. Instead of fuming over the traffic jam, feel blessed to have a job to go to.

Life is difficult, but it is also interesting, exciting, and should be lived to the fullest. By accepting that there will be tough times, and by looking for the positives and reframing the negatives, we can make a fulfilling life for ourselves. It requires effort to reprogram our brains away from dwelling on the less enjoyable parts of life towards savouring the goodness in life. The effort is well worth it. We may be hard-wired pessimists, but rewiring can be enjoyable. We only go around once, so we should enjoy the ride!

Now THAT above, is a sharp photo.

[color:green]HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRIENDLY - - we got simultaneously wasted in honor of your day last night apparently.... woooooeeeee

You da man, baby... cheers to you my friend, the best leg guitar / dolly & kenny lovin' dude a girl could ever know.

Mary

ps... WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

[color:green]HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAKEY

XO

THE PICKLE FROM COVENTRY

[color:orange]******[color:green]HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAKEY!!![color:orange]*******

Ok, I'm a bad friend and it was yesterday... but better late than never -- we will make up for it tonight!!!

Cheers to my good buddy... one of my all time favorite old roomies... and one of the "funnest" dudes to be around... you're the best!

Tweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

Mary

ps - I'll bring the red wine tonight!!!

this is where we sat on stage @ the rehearsal hall... go bruce!!!

agreed -- the double bill is what's hooking me!

cool - i might come down for that if i don't make it there tonight.

anyone know if the horseshoe show's sold out tonight? i'm going to a bruce cockburn show @ the bravo studios before hand and really want to head to this show after.