I Remember... Mix Tapes

Before I get into this blog, I want to first congratulate my cousin Jeremy for recently completing his 365 Trek! I know it has been a hard journey but one that is totally worth it. And to honor my cousin, I am going to swipe one of his column ideas. A good idea is a good idea! I hope he doesn't mind but by the time he finds out it will be too late.

I have been in another one of my melancholy moods where I get reflective about the past and I spend way too much time reminiscing. Combine this mood with my "I have too much crap" mood and that spells trouble. This afternoon I targeted my small filing cabinet. I file a lot of things away (schoolwork, church stuff, notes, drawings) and it was time to go through it and clean out some stuff that I really don't need. I found a small cassette insert and it made me smile.

A few years ago I threw out all my old cassette tapes. I don't use them anymore and they were just taking up room (I must have been in this mood then). I had a ton of cassettes, most of them were mix tapes. For those that are unfamiliar with mixtapes, basically you would either record (using blank tapes) music from another tape, record or even from the radio. Like I said, I had a ton of these mix tapes ranging from musical scores to Queen to heavy metal to well... ...just about everything. But there were about 10-12 tapes that I struggled to part with. These were tapes that I made when I was young and living in Canada.

Living in a big city like Edmonton definitely had its advantages. One of the biggest was their library system. In downtown Edmonton they had this huge library and my dad used to take my sister and I there quite a lot. But I was not interested in the books, I was interested in the music! They had a ton of records (of course this is really all they had since this was back in the 80's) but they also had those small 45 records that normally had only a single song on them. But they usually had the latest hits! My sister and I would spend hours looking for songs and we would come home with about thirty of them. Then the next day I would get up early and record them on to tape and make my own mixtapes. I loved spending all that time mixing music. It was like I was Dr. Johnny Fever! I made about ten volumes of music from borrowing those old 45's from the library and I listened to these tapes all the way until I started getting CDs. But now they are just taking up space so I made the tough decision and dumped them.

But I filed one of the tape covers in my files as a remembrance of those old glory days.

This was Volume One. Can you name some of the artists? And yeah, that is not a typo. I had a song called Sexcrime 1984. I don't know how that slipped past the parents.

About a year ago I found these cool USB Flash discs that mimic mixtapes. I need to get me one of these things. Aren't they nifty?

The Log Driver's Waltz

One of my favorite memories of living in Canada was the neat TV spots they would air on Canadian TV that was produced by the Canadian National Film Board. Basically these were TV spots that would spotlight Canadian culture and its nation. They had a bunch of them but the best one was the Log Driver's Waltz.

"The Log Driver's Waltz" is a Canadian folk song, written by Wade Hemsworth and is also a Canadian animated film from the National Film Board, released in 1979. Kate and Anna McGarrigle and the Mountain City Four, sung the song for the animated short film. The film is one of the most-requested in the entire collection of the National Film Board.

Occasionally, The Log Driver's Waltz appears on Canadian channels like CBC Television as filler between two programs, much like Heritage Minutes. That was one of the few films that I would stop and watch.




I still remember this classic like it was just yesterday. I know the words by heart and I can tell you exactly what happens in the cartoon. It was things like this that made Canada so unique.

Pic of the Week: My Buddy Jared

Day 328

When I was younger I had many friends but one of my friends was this much younger boy named Jared Burrows. He was the cutest little kid and my mom used to babysit him all the time.

He loved all my Star Wars and GI Joe toys and cars and we would play for hours after I got home from school.

I used to hate it when it was time for Jared to leave because he would chase after me looking for a hug. Ugh, I hated to be hugged back when I was at that age.

One time when he was a few days older he invited me to a sleepover at his house. I went over and had dinner with Jared and his family and then played with his GI Joe toys. He had almost every single GI Joe toy so of course I liked going over and playing. When we went to bed he slept with this insane night light that felt like a flood light. And the heat! Holy cow they must have liked to keep it around 90 degrees at night. I barely slept and I remember going into the bathroom not knowing what to do. I must have cried because his parents heard and they came in to see if I was okay. I told them that I was too hot but they thought I just missed home so they called my parents and my dad came and picked me up.

Jared was a neat kid and I often wonder how he is doing 25 years later.

The Bee of Death

Day 199

Bugs don't bug me all that much. I have a lot more sympathy for bugs now than I used to. When I first moved to Utah I was surprised by the amount of insects are around. It is not like we didn't have bugs in Canada since we certainly did but we just didn't have the amount we have here. And I used to kill every single spider and every single bug that came into my house. Now I am a little more tamer, I usually let the smaller spiders live so they can get rid of all the other bugs. All other invading bugs I will usually scoop up and just throw them out of the house.

But if I see an Aragog spider (a nickname for a very large spider named after the King spider in Harry Potter) than I will kill it. I cannot sleep/walk around knowing something that looks big enough to eat me hang around the house. Wasps fall under a different category, I will kill each of those jerks inside or outside the house.

But back in the day I used to be scared of any bug. Even bees.

One time my dad was teaching my sister how to drive. She was driving our Aries and my dad was in the front with her. I was in the back seat hanging out. We were driving along just fine this nice summer day until something came in through the window. It was the Bee of Death. Or at least that is what I thought it was. As soon as I saw that it was a bee I panicked.

I immediately screamed and announced "A BEE!" as I about leaped into the front seat.

That was not good news. Jennifer was as afraid of bees as I was and I think my dad was too. At least he seemed the calmer of us. Jennifer leaned forward (while still driving) and seemed to meld with the steering wheel (like the Terminator in Terminator 2) screaming out "WHERE IS IT?" I was much too busy kicking my dad in the back of the head with my foot as I screamed "THERE'S A BEE!" while jumping over the seat. Jennifer was still driving at this point too even with all the chaos. My dad was yelling for us to calm down and pull over but it was hard to hear over all the screaming.

I have to give my sister some credit here as we didn't crash or run over any pedestrian. We parked at a 7-11 and bolted out of the car as soon as she parked it. We must have looked pretty foolish to anyone watching. Dad caught it in a slurpee cup and chucked it out of the car and drove us home.

I remember this experience like it happened just yesterday and I laugh when I think of it. It was just a poor bee. It was not like it was a wasp or hornet. I'm glad that my dad didn't kill it. He must have been influenced by Elron McKenzie.

Elron McKenzie gave a great sermon about the importance of NOT killing bugs. I have found a clip of it and I think you should listen and heed its message. You can ignore the first part with the music, that is not part of the sermon. And you can ignore the video that comes with it too, it is the message of Elron that is important and that starts at 00:27.

Jack Fishing

Day 186

Every time I tell someone that I am from Canada I usually am asked these two questions.

1) Why did you move?

and

2) Do you miss it?

I will try to address the 2nd question with this post. I do miss Canada, there are many things that I miss about Canada. I miss their chocolate, I miss the cool culture in Edmonton, I miss watching the Oilers play a couple times of the week, but what one of the things I miss a lot is the fishing.

My dad and I used to go to a lake called Lake Wabamun about 40 miles outside of Edmonton. We would pack a lunch (usually consisting of Greek Kalamata Olives, Greek Cheese and some sort of beef stick) and head out in a canoe into the lake to catch Jack fish.

Now these fish were something else. Jack fish are more commonly known as Northern Pike and they are fighters! You know when you catch one since they are so strong and jerk your pole out of your hand! They not only have a 1st class temper but they also have a set of razor sharp teeth capable of easily shearing off the bone. My dad used to beat the heck out of them when we would catch one before he would stick his fingers in its mouth to get the lure out. Visitors to the lake were warned not to wear nail polish on finger or toe nails since the Jack fish might take a digit or two.

These fishing trips were a lot of fun. Sometimes we would go out with a couple of my dad's friends and sometimes it would be just us. A few occasions were certainly memorable. One time it was so windy that we could barely get out into the lake, we would just be drive to the shore. One time it was so windy that we almost capsized. This gust hit and I looked down at the canoe and we turned and the side of the canoe became level with the water. I don't know how we survived that. Right after that happened I looked at my dad and he said we should head back. Which was funny since he was the one telling me that it was not that bad out. I know now that he was just protecting me from realizing how bad it was!

Another time I tossed my line out and it went into the thick weeds. I quickly tried to reel it in so it would not get so stuck in the weeds. When I pulled out my lure it was hooked with a ton of weeds and thrashing around in the weeds was a Jack fish! He was barely an inch or two from my lure. So my dad tossed the whole thing and put a golf putter to it.

Notice that my dad and I are wearing the same hat? I would also like to note that I have always liked wearing sport jerseys. And sweatbands. And to be really cool I wore my watch on top of my sweatbands.

Catching these fish was worth the fight. They had the best flavor. My dad would cook them up with a little lemon and butter and these things were amazing. Unfortunately they were not easy to de-bone and you had to be careful while eating them but they would be so worth it.

There are some places here in Utah that have Northern Pike but I have yet to try them out. Unfortunately I have not been fishing for years but it is something that I would like to get back into.