Sly's World

We have a 2011 canadian election, folks. Woo Woo. Boring bunch of men and one woman leader. (She is a green lady.) Here is my take on Money and Elections from a Canadian perspective for Sly called

Friend of Canada

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJIMrldOAK0

I'm baaaaaack! Didja miss me? ;-) (Don't answer that.)

Can't begin to say how good of a time I had on vacation in New Jersey, New York and yes even Cleveland. ;-) It helped that I packed a lot of cool things into a very short period of time.

Itinerary looked something like this:

June 29: Arrived in NJ late evening
June 30: Carol King / James Taylor at Madison Square Gardens in NY - fabulous!

Click here to view all pics from Carol King and James Taylor

July 1: Headed to Asbury Park, had dinner on the boardwalk and drinks at the Beach Bar. Walking along the boardwalk we bumped into people we knew...go figure! ;-)

July 2: Had a personal rock and roll tour of the Jersey Shore, went to some old Bruce haunts, former houses, current houses (I felt creepy doing that but what the hell at one point, Springsteen's car was behind us, wasn't him but it was his car, which turned into his farm). Later that night we had a drink at the Wonder Bar and then headed to the legendary Stone Pony to see Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes (Steve Forbert opened).

Click here for a few pics of Asbury Park Boardwalk and SSJ at the Stone Pony

My brother and 10 year old niece Hannah decided to take a trip on the zip line over Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics. (She's braver than me, let me tell ya.) :-)

For a larger view: Hannah Zip Lines Over Vancouver!

(My brother took the snippets of video and I pieced them together in iMovie 9 using the Filmstrip Theme.)

~Sly

In a moment of absolute insanity or bold-faced cojones (or as Paul Kent said probably both since they are not mutually exclusive), I booked a flight last week in the hopes of seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band tear it up at the IZOD Arena in New Jersey for their 2nd of two shows on May 23rd.

Problem is, I don't yet have a ticket for the May 23rd show - have a hotel, have the flight, but no ticket to the show, which is the reason I booked the flight in the first place. ;-)

I know, I'm not well. ;-)

Sooooo YML Nation, I'm turning to you to keep your eyes and ears open in the off chance that one of you may get a lead on a GA ticket or a couple of seats (face value) to the May 23rd show. I would be ever so grateful to be able to cancel that order for a straight jacket I've made. White just isn't my colour. :-)

Oh ya, and would it be crass of me to ask for Send Sly to Bruce Paypal donations? :-D Ya, I thought so.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. LOL

~ Sly

Wow! Such a small word with such huge meaning.

San Jose was just my 8th Springsteen show, first tour opener, first time with GA tickets and the concert karma Gods smiled brightly on me - made the Pit, Patti's side (2nd row and then front row), beside the right side stage extension. I’ve only now just had a chance to put my thoughts about the show into words because it was such an amazing experience to be that close that I needed to just sit back and figure out what it was that I had the privilege to see.

Was it the best Springsteen/E-Street Band concert I've seen? No. Was it more than a solid effort for a tour opener - absolutely! I was actually surprised by the energy of it and yep, there were a few miscues, transition issues that I am sure will be ironed out throughout the tour, but overall and for the first show of the tour, I was not disappointed.

Click here for my full review & photos of Springsteen's tour opener in San Jose!

~Sly

As many of you know, I'm a *little* bit of a fan of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. ;-)

To see why, watch their Super Bowl Performance here:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Anyhoo.....I plan on heading to San Jose for the 1st show of his latest tour on April 1st (got tix) and to at least one of the May New Jersey shows (got shut out of tix during the the whole Ticketmaster debacle on Feb 2nd). This is where the YML Nation comes in - if any of ya, particularly those of you in the Jersey area who may have tix or have a line on tix for the May 23rd show, I would be more than grateful if you thought of me. ;-) Ideally, I'd love 2-3 GA's (gen admission) but I'll take lower levels as well. Payment could be sent asap. I'm on a ticket drop call list as well as monitoring Ticketmaster as much as I can, but I figured if the YML Nation kept their eyes and ears open, I'd have an even better shot at it. :-) I'd love tix as well to the May 21st show, but my first choice is May 23rd.

It's a long shot but what the heck. It's Bruce, he's worth it!

Muchos grassy ass! ;-)

~Sly

Courtesy of a Bruce fan site, here are a few videos from last night's Obama Fundraiser with Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel:

Caroline Kennedy starts the night off at 9:10pm

Bruce and Patti join in with John Legend and india Arie

Bruce speaks in between Promised Land and This Hard Land

Spirit in the Night

New York State of Mind

Born to Run
(Bruce jumps on Billy's piano at the end then jumps off and wipes the piano top clean) LOL

People Get Ready
(Bruce introduce's Barack Obama at the end)

NY State of Mind and People Get Ready are FABULOUS!!! :D

(All videos can be watched in high quality.)

~Sly

Yamaha FG700MS

"Well I got this guitar and I (hope to learn) learned how to make it talk."

Here's hoping these wonderful words written by Bruce Springsteen (minus the words in brackets, of course) will be something I'll be saying someday.

So far, I've learned how to tune the guitar and simple C, G and G7 chords. Somehow I don't think Bruce has anything to worry about. ;-)

More later...if my patience and my fingers survive. :-)

~Sly

My family got together last night for a combined birthday dinner for me and my brother (mine Sept 22 and his Oct 7), which is nice because it's a chance to see all the nieces and nephew in one place.

Luckily Eli hasn't grown camera shy just yet, like most of the family. ;-)

(Sweater knitted by my mom.) ;-)

~Sly

....video from the very first Springsteen concert I saw in Vancouver (October 15, 1984) during the Born in the USA Tour. I was Row 14, Center on the floor (aisle). Stood on our chairs all night long. It was heaven! ;-)

If there's any explanation required as to why I love this band, this explains it all. BTW, Show was just shy of 4 hours, if not 4+ hours long.

Detroit Medley

And another reason I admire him so much, he's just a regular "Joe". Here's Bruce during a Today Show interview with Matt Lauer touring Asbury Park, NJ.

:-)

~Sly

It's so hard to believe that it's been 7 years since 9/11. I remember the day as though it was yesterday, and even though I was across the continent in another country, I sat on my living room floor in utter disbelief as to what I was seeing unfold on the morning news that day. While fortunate enough not to have lost anybody I knew, I have friends who did and to this day I still have a hard time wrapping my brain around it all. To any of you who were affected directly, my deepest sympathies.

Since I've been on a Springsteen high of late, here's Bruce, doing what he does best, healing through his music at the "A Tribute to Heroes" telethon just 10 days after 9/11. (While this song was originally written for and about Asbury Park, it's uncanny how it sounds and feels as though he had this occasion in mind when he wrote it.)

My City of Ruins

~Sly

I have to first start off by saying thanks to JoAnn Groves (@joannkc) for being a great hostess, thanks Backstreeters for the great pre-party and most importantly, of course, thanks to Bruce Springsteen and the booty shaking, earth quaking, history making, legendary E-Street Band for giving me memories on this tour that will last me a lifetime.

Standing in line waiting to get into the Sprint Center, I was surrounded mostly by casual fans that obviously weren’t aware that the show never starts at 7:30 and were in panic to get into the building. Took the opportunity to tell a few that they didn’t have to worry as he probably wouldn’t start til 8:15/8:30 anyway.

As we settled into our Section 109, Row 12 aisle seats (pretty much to the side of the stage – Charlie’s side), a lovely redneck couple sat behind us, she with her 5” stilettos resting on the arm of my chair, constantly kicking me, and he already 3 sheets to the wind. Oh joy! Thankfully a few minutes later two guys came to claim their seats, where the aforementioned redneck couple were sitting and they moved a couple of seats down the row. They whined constantly about “starting the show already” and at one point Ms. Redneck 2008 threatened to pepper spray anyone who stood up in front of her. Alrighty then! (Needless to say, nobody listened to her.) ;-)

All that was soon forgotten however as the lights lowered and the calliope music started playing. Got chills as the band took the stage and knew at the first strains of Ricky Wants a Man of Her Own that this show would be something special. Cynthia was one of the songs I wanted to hear and I got it, along with Out in the Street and Hungry Heart. From crowd surfing, knee sliding and somersaulting (okay, okay, *rolling*), Springsteen never ceases to amaze me, which is why I believe he still has much much more to show us in the years to come.

Finally posted some of my pictures from my trip to New York and New Jersey. I've been to New York a few times before so I didn't take as many touristy pictures as perhaps I would have liked, but I hope you enjoy:

New York State of Mind

New Jersey/Springsteen Bound

Cheers,
Sly

All I can say is WOW! What an experience it was to see what is arguably one of the best live acts perform on their home turf in front of 55,000 screaming fans, and leaving it all out there on the stage for 3 1/4 hours.

Yea, I said, 3 1/4 hours!!

The whole day was a surreal experience for me and one that I won't soon forget, but stepping foot onto the floor of Giants Stadium and making our way to our Row 10 seats, I was excited beyond words.

Bruce Springsteen is a master storyteller and once you truly listen to the words and messages behind the stories he tells, you come to appreciate not only one of the greatest musical artists of our time, but one of the most thought provoking and influential people that transcends generations. That might seem to be an overblown statement and perhaps you'll even disagree (usually with Springsteen you either get it or you don't), but you can't deny the mark he has left and continues to leave on the musical world.

I was completely blown away seeing him perform live in New Jersey and if you wanna hear more about the concert and see pictures and videos, please click here for my full review of my "New Jersey/Springsteen Experience".

~ Sly

Oh my f*cking God!! (sorry Pastor Rory) ;-)

Going to see Springsteen on his home turf of New Jersey is, for a Springsteen fan anyway, like meeting the Pope at the Vatican (again, sorry Pastor Rory). ;-)

It's an experience that is hard to put into words for it to sound anything other than a fan *gushing* over their favourite singer. Once I recover a bit and go back to relive some of the amazing moments of last night's concert at Giants Stadium, I'll post a link to my review and photos (couple of videos as well, which may have to wait until I get back home).

Let's just say hearing him do Jersey Girl live, IN NEW JERSEY, well it just reinforces to me that I am definitely a Jersey Girl at heart. :-)

Also managed to get to the Stone Pony before the concert, so two dreams fulfilled in one day. Let's just say Sly is a very happy girl today. ;-)

Thanks to Loren for sharing this experience with me, it was a blast!

More later,
Sly

Some of you may recall that my nephew/God Son Eli was born prematurely and weighed just 4lbs .02oz - unbelievably though, a year has already passed and today, July 23, 2008, Eli celebrates his first birthday - seems like it was just yesterday that the little guy entered the world, and nothing has been the same since. ;-)

My family decided to get together in advance of his big day today (since I won't be able to get to the kid's party today) to celebrate and I thought you guys might like to see how things have changed in a year.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELI!

Love Auntie Sly :-)

p.s. You can choose to watch it in a higher quality if you'd like by going to the link directly and clicking on "Watch in high quality".

My sister-in-law's parents live in West Vancouver, their backyard/garden "goes up" instead of out and is beautiful. Seems it's so beautiful that the bears like it too:

Sunday Visit:

Monday - "She's Baaaaack":

Eeek! :-)

~ Sly

In case you're interested in seeing what a concert on the Great Lawn at Central Park looks like, here's 14 minutes from Saturday night's Bon Jovi concert:

Bon Jovi Rocks Central Park

;-)

~ Sly

Well I did it, I gots me an iPhone. :-)

Decided to head over to my cell retailer that I got my previous phone from (a Motorola KRZR) during my lunch break to see if I qualified for an upgrade on my account and sure enough I did, even qualified for a $50 rebate as a "preferred" customer (translation: Rogers sucker), which wiped those pesky "administrative" charges and brought down the purchase of the phone from $199 to $175. Kewl! ;-)

No lineup to speak off, oh they were busy, but I was lucky to catch one guy just finishing with another customer and walked right up and started the transaction. Thankfully, I didn't experience the whole having to wait in line dealie that others did, but I made up for it in waiting to be activated. Rogers' site kept going down and was so slow to process the actual activation on their part to add a data plan to my current phone plan, that I was asked to just take the phone and once things were done administratively from their end, the rep would call me on Saturday to let me know and I could begin the activation process through Apple. (BTW, initially I was to come back after work and everything would be complete, which I did and it wasn't cuz of the aforementioned glitches.)

So basically I had a brick to look at all Friday night and Saturday while I waited.....and waited...and waited some more for the guy to call me back. (It was a beautiful brick to look at of course, but a brick nonetheless.) By 1pm I was getting a little miffed cuz I had now frittered away most of my day waiting on a guy that wasn't even gonna buy me dinner so I called him: "oh yes, hi, yes you're all activated, you can start the activation process with Apple". Doh! Guys..this is why you should never tell a girl that you're gonna call her the next day (especially if it involves technology), cuz you usually don't!!! :-)

Metro Vancouver's all growed up; we have police chases just like the big boys (ok, ok so they're not speedy ones). ;-)

(Shawn, FYI it's no longer called the Lower Mainland but rather "Metro Vancouver".)

RCMP & Semi Truck Chase - Lougheed Highway in Maple Ridge, BC - May 26, 2008

~ Sly

Disclaimer: Some images may be disturbing to some viewers. Discretion is advised.