Phil Keaggy - May 26, 2012

Took a evening drive down to a southern Manitoba border town, Gretna, to the host of a state-of-the art performance facility, Buhler Hall, located at the Mennonite Collegiate Institute high school.

The event was a fund and awareness event for a NGO named Eagles Wings Children's Village centered in Uganda. Their web site is eagleswingschildrensvillage.com.

From their web site history page they say that "it was necessary for us to apply to the Ugandan Government to have “Eagles Wings Children’s Village” recognized as a NGO (Non Governmental Organization). After much effort, we received the certificate on July 27th, 2004.  Eagles Wings Children’s Village is a registered charity in Canada as well. Incorporation of EWCV occurred in the spring of 2005 in both Uganda and Canada, with each country having its own Board members. The land title was secured for the 72.1 acres of land near Lukaya in southern Uganda." Go to their web site for more information.

The excitement for the evening was someone who I have been listening to and seeing for may years and was glad to make the event. As you can see below the new Buhler Hall has a very adequate stage. Because I can't provide any sound to the event, I hope you can fill it in yourself or find some of Phil's music to listen to.  His web site is simply philkeaggy.com.

Thanks Phil for many well said lyrics and notes, you have been a great blessing!

Note: For those of you who take pictures at these types of events something I have noticed is that auto-focus systems on today's cameras grab onto object edges to lock on to so microphone stands tend to be in great focus instead of performers so either pre-lock your focus on what you want in focus or switch to manual focus to get what you want.

Again, thanks Phil and many blessings to you and your family.

MISC NIGHT - May 24 2012

Here are some shots from a MISC (Manitoba Independent Songwriter's Circle) Performance night held at Winnipeg's Folk Exchange Venue. Check out more about them at
 www.manitobasongcircle.com. Real people singing their own real songs - great all around!

Experiments with the Sun

Hi all. Went out of town to Winkler on Monday and as evening approached the conversation turned to the eclipse and how to see it. Playing with a vegetable box I spearheaded a pinhole camera experiment and found we could watch it in safety!

Here is the sun with the "pin hole" box.

 The sun lined up with the pin hole box and the image box.

The image of the sun with the moon eclipse on a Peak of the Market potato box. The 1/2" hole in the pinhole box was finally mounted on the fence post and this box was around 40' away.

On another note,

some of us were attentive to some other 'suns.'

My Dad, Jac

Tomorrow

Yesterday,

we laid my Dad's body to rest.

Today,

for me, is a day of rest, a day of memories.

Tomorrow,

I will get up in time to leave home at 4:45am

my walk, a mile, will wake me to my day

I will walk past the street where I grew up

I will turn my head left

and say a prayer for my Mom

and then

I will join the path

the same path my Dad walked

for so many, many years

to the corner

with the church across the street

to wait for the work bus

the same bus my Dad waited for at 5:05am

I will take the ride to north garage

a ride with many fellow passengers

some, even, whom my Dad rode with

we will enter the garage

and we will transform into fellow drivers

we will prepare for our day

and then, best of all

we will tell and listen to each others stories

stories to wake my heart

and when the right time comes

we will all leave

just like my Dad did.

Peace to you, Dad.

April 18, 2012 - l d schellenberg

MMC Christmas Concert

Here are some pictures of the Miles Mac Choir from yesterday, December 14, 2011. A wonderful Christmas musical extravaganza, and especially, a great choir!

 

The full choir

 Even room for some humour

The full choir with Guitar

 The child prodigy

Simply myself, Mom N & Mom S

Esther, Susan, Daniel, & Jada

Finding some 6 strings

Dennis

Was out one day and took some pictures of guitars I liked.

The first is a Martin DX1E with solid spruce top, HPL back and sides, Piezo Pickup with electronics for ~$650. Probably one of my two top picks although I didn't plug it in! Very eye catching contrast in wood colours.

Next is a  DV-4 Guild with solid Sitka Spruce Top, Rosewood back and sides, no electronics for around $840. Very nice!

 For something different, I saw this Tanglewood Sundance TW45, solid Canadian cedar top, African mahogany, Rosewood Fingerboard. A bit thin and ~$990.

The classic work horse  Gibson J-45. Gibson Acoustic’s J-45 comes equipped with the popular Element Active Acoustic Pickup System from L.R. Baggs, which features a low-profile undersaddle element—or transducer—that’s proven more stable and durable than many standard ribbon-type pickup. Prices are around $2250.

Two other pictures of Gibson classics. Front is a Gibson Songwriter with standard cutaway for ~$3000 and aft is a  J-45 for $2200.

I am sure, now at Christmas, better deals might be had. I also have seen some nice Yamaha's but I only really like ones for around $1000.

Let me know if you have any interst. Like I said, the first two are ones I would buy for sound and feel. The Gibson guitars are more of the 'right' selection but I don't think they sound better.

Cheers.