Yesterday was the 50th Anniversary of The Beatles’ first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show where they performed to a record-setting audience of 70 million people.
Here’s a clip from one of their performances that night…
“I Want To Hold Your Hand” – The Beatles
Saskatchewan’s Mark McMorris brought home Canada’s first Olympic medal, a bronze in the slope style competition. This is pretty amazing considering he broke a rib only a couple weeks ago at the Winter X Games (not to mention that he’s a kid from the flat Canadian prairie of course!) 😉
McMorris grew up in Regina. The closest thing he had to mountains were a couple of valleys. The biggest local hill was 89 metres (292 feet). But he started skateboarding when he was four years old, and he fell in love with snowboarding because he family took yearly trips to Lake Louise, Alta. He became obsessed with it. He became a huge star. He became one of the first three Olympic medalists in the sport. “I’m on an Olympic podium,” he said, “and I’m from Saskatchewan.” – via Yahoo! Sports
No less than the New York Times has a great feature that provides an inside look at what he’s doing when he performs all those amazing flips and spins.
As is probably common in our sparsely populated province, I have my own “one degree of separation” Mark McMorris connection. One of his best friends got married to a girl from my hometown whose mom nursed with my mom. My parents were at the wedding where Mark was one of the groomsmen.
So, uhm, maybe two degrees of separation? 😉 Anyhow, pretty cool stuff.
Pace’s outfit for “Olympic Day” at school on Friday…
Today saw the opening ceremonies for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Lots has been made about Russia’s anti-gay laws and the statement by the mayor of Sochi that their community of 400,000 people has no gay people which have drawn protests from everyone from the Head of the UN to Google to the Canadian Institute for Diversity and Inclusion.
I think everybody’s got it all wrong and are being *way* too sensitive.
The reality is that Sochi’s already lining up to be the gayest Olympics of all-time.
Here are just a few examples…
Russian Police cover Daft Punk’s neo-disco anthem “Get Lucky”…
Sochi’s main stadium lit up in rainbow colours…
…as were the German outfits:
Often gay people have to use a complicated system of signals between stalls in washrooms to indicate their interest in doing more than #1 or #2. In Sochi, that barrier has (literally) been removed…
Many Sochi hotel rooms feature prominent photos of a topless Vladimir Putin….
…while others have spy cameras in the showers.
What’s next? Lesbian rock stars hitting #1 around the world???
[Edit: Spoke too soon – the Russian Olympic Team *did* walk out to a Tatu song during the Opening Ceremonies’ Parade of Nations. That clinches it!]
Just looked back through my previous posts on February 6 of 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013.
I may have mentioned it in passing in one of those entries or done something on a different nearby date. But apparently I’ve never once written about the fact that February 6 is Shea’s and my legal wedding date.
It’s never been a big deal to us – as I mentioned in one of my earliest posts on this blog, Shea and I have been married three times.
Because of the red tape and extra expense involved in a destination wedding, we got legally married by a JP in our living room in Calgary while wearing jeans and drinking wine. That was February 6, 2003.
A month later on March 5, we had a ceremony on the beach in Mexico which is the anniversary we count as our “real” wedding and which we celebrate each year.
Then, during August long weekend in 2003, we had a Mexican-themed party and reception in Shea’s hometown for all the family and friends who couldn’t make it to Mexico. (Shea wore her wedding dress to this party so that’s why I can count it as our third wedding!) 😉
Anyhow, even though today mostly reminds me of how I called around to every JP in Calgary looking for the cheapest one – and ended up hiring someone who we later found out was going through a divorce of her own! – I wanted to wish a Happy Anniversary to my wonderful, amazing, funny wife.
All this week, David Letterman, whose show is taped in the Ed Sullivan Theatre, is celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Beatles arriving in America with his band playing Beatles music for guest entrances and while going to commercial. On top of that, each night’s musical guest is performing a tribute song as well.
The first night was a band called Broken Bells and I highly doubt anyone will top this (I know Sting didn’t with his version of “Drive My Car” last night!)
Okay, maybe there are a couple performers who could top it.
More and more companies, whether they actually buy Super Bowl ad time or not, are releasing their ads early, starting social media campaigns or otherwise trying related techniques to get as much attention as possible for their product.
One of the best viral videos that wasn’t actually a Super Bowl ad came from Newcastle Brown Ale in the guise of the behind-the-scenes of a cancelled Super Bowl commercial…
I don’t know if it was their intention to be so controversial or not but the multilingual version of “America the Beautiful” in an ad by Coca-Cola has probably generated the most post-game buzz for how it’s being interpreted in a completely opposite fashion to what was intended…
After a blowout Super Bowl with what some are calling one of the best half-time shows of all-time, what other clip could I post but Bruno Mars…
“Locked Out of Heaven” – Bruno Mars
Here are a few other random thoughts about the Super Bowl…
– if it hadn’t been for the Saskatchewan connection, this year’s game would’ve lived up to its usual “Super Bore” nickname and I likely would’ve turned it off after the half-time show
– can’t find a side-by-side image of it but the facial reaction by Peyton Manning on that missed snap for a safety to start the game looked very much like the facial reaction of Henry Burris after a missed snap in the Grey Cup game
– that set the tone for the game, what, 12 seconds? in and after that, pretty much every single thing that could go wrong for the Broncos did – interceptions, fumbles, kick-offs returned for touchdowns.
– of course the real reason the Super Bowl exists is the “$4 million dollar for 30 seconds” commercials. Here’s a slideshow with all of them in order.
Saskatchewan’s been buzzing for the last couple weeks after the Seattle Seahawks qualified to go the Super Bowl against the Denver Broncos.
Usually Saskatchewan football fans are focused on a team wearing a different shade of green and the NFL isn’t as popular as the Canadian Football League for most people.
But this game has special meaning as local product, Jon Ryan, a punter for the Seattle Seahawks, becomes the first Saskatchewan-born player to play in the most watched game of the year (and the most watched TV program of the year as well.)
Here are a few articles, posts and videos I’ve come across to get you prepped for the big game…
SaskTel was out to Regent Place a couple weeks ago to shoot a storytime for their video magazine.
This edition’s topic was “Snow” and they used footage of their host at one of our storytimes to introduce a few other segments shot in different locations such as the Saskatoon Zoo.
The clips aren’t online yet (and it sounds like they’ll only be viewable by SaskTel Max subscribers when they are) but Shea was able to get a watchable video of the Regent sections by using the old reliable “point smartphone at the TV” technique when she was at her folk’s (loyal SaskTel Max customers) earlier this week.
The audio isn’t great but with a baby being cute, the video is all that matters! 😉
