Superunknown… did you know?

Revisited an old favourite: The album Superunknown by SoundGarden.

The Wikipedia page for the album holds lots of interesting trivia, though the most interesting to me was only hinted. I may add to the page after this posting.

As stated, there were an unprecedented 6 commercially successful chart singles off the album, with 2 awarded Grammy’s, but what really impressed me was the unusual timing signatures in many of those singles.

Although the biggest hit, Black Hole Sun, and the least popular title track Superunknown, are in 4/4 time, the remaining 4 songs were more daring:

My Wave – 5/4

Fell on Black Days – 6/4

Spoonman -  7/4 and 4/4

The Day I Tried To Live  – 7/4 and 4/4

Although any musician can create a song in a variety of timing signitures, to create one album with several commercially successful singles all with unusual signatures is quite impressive.

Holy Power

A breakthrough solar power technology from the Holy land promises 1500 times the energy absorption and return than a conventional solar cell.

Another Israeli company, Solel Solar Systems Ltd., is also experimenting with concentrating the sun’s energy with mirrors and farming California’s Mojave desert. This technology is somewhat “simpler” in concept in that it uses the suns energy to heat up tubes of oil, which then boil water, etc…

I want to see the governments of the world embrace these green technologies, but all are hesitant to be first. Maybe due to the fact that what you own in the end is just the technology, and not the natural resource itself. And the technology is still a fragile one. Mind you, there is one natural resource required as a prerequisite, acres of land in the right geographical location. Canada for example does not have what it takes sunshine-wise to be a viable consumer of any current mass solar power technology.

Read more in the CBC news story, Looking to the Sun.

Lesson Learned…

Don’t play basketball in Crocks…

Jazz and Blues at the Beach(es)

Another late post… I’m almost caught up. :)

Is it “The Beach” or “The Beaches”? … Well on Saturday July 28th, it looked more like Bourbon Street thanks to the 2007 Beaches Jazz Festival.

It’s more a blues festival than a jazz festival, but still a treat for any music lover. As part of the Street Festival, a blues band gave a great show on the steps of the United Church.

And below, latin guitar strums echoed to provide the crowd with yet another highlight as they strolled along Queen Street East.

Good music and great food. Especially by Green Eggplant: Thai Chicken skewer on wild rice with a tomato sausage penne for $6 … Delicious! And what a deal! Can’t wait till next year…

Wet and Wild… and Wet

This is a late post, but now that I’m on vacation I’ll have some time to catch up on a few past thoughts.

Went on an ATV tour for my anniversay last month.

Don’t give me that look, it was actually my wife’s idea. She wanted to check it off of her “Things I must do before I die” list.

The weatherman called for rain, and he was right. It poured rain all day. We were soaked. But surprisingly it added to the fun. Mud puddles everywhere!

more photos.

We booked it with Bear Claw tours up near Perry Sound on 900 acres of beautiful land (owned by 3 lawyers). The folks at Bear Claw were amazing, very friendly, and cater to your needs. The owner is a former CTO for a dot-com company who retired at just the right time. We had a few interesting conversations during the various tour stops. Overall, a great adventure. We plan on going back during the fall next time for the turning of the leaves.

If you are looking to book an ATV tour, book it with Bear Claw, and make sure it’s raining that day.

While on this subject, here is an interesting find. Ran into this on their ATV blog… the future of ATVing?

Autumn Blaze

Looking for a couple of trees for the backyard. Have a walkout basement, planning on expanding our deck from the first floor (second from the back), and hoping one tree would provide some privacy for the deck. Also wanted something that turns a nice colour in the fall with fairly large leaves for easy fall cleanup.

This led me to Maple trees. In particular the Autumn Blaze Maple.

Why?

• Traffic stopping, reliable, red fall color
• It’s the fastest growing Maple tree (3 ft. or more a year)
• Insect & Disease Resistant
• Pleasing, uniform shape
• Minimal mess after its leaves drop in the fall

It also won urban tree of the year 2 years in a row (2003-2004). Yes … there are awards for urban trees.

It’s sitting on hold right now at Sheridan Nurseries for me … I think I just made up my mind. No longer stuck in my head.

But now for the second tree…. another maple, except one that turns yellow in the fall for contrast? Or a Poplar?