Every now and then Critical Mass has an event called Beercamp and most recently it has morphed into an event called “Frideas.” The first friday of every month gives employees the chance to discuss any topic of their choice for 15 minutes while the crowd enjoys their favorite flavor of beer. Last Friday I presented my first Fridea or Beercamp on (fittingly enough) beer – the micro-brewed variety.

The speech covered why you might want to choose a micro-brew over a macro-brew, health-benefits, movers-and-shakers and why the growing micro-brewing industry might matter to people who work in an agency like Critical Mass.

Unfortunately there wasn’t enough room for me to display the beers that I’d brought to recommend to the attendees, so here’s the list:

If you’re wondering why I’d include beers available only in BC Liquor Stores, next time you’re in Radium having a soak in the hot-springs, head into town (Invermere)….They carry most if not all of the beers mentioned here!

Cheers, J.

Since the Vancouver 2010 Olympics came to a close and Canada finished with its best medal-count ever setting a record for the most medals received for a host country and most gold medals, there’s been a lot of talk about the “Own the Podium” (OTP) campaign. This was introduced in 2005 and provided transparency for the traditional providers as well as Corporate providers of funds to National Sports Development Associations into where their money was to be spent.

After the first week of competition, I was skeptical of the OTP as the results were nowhere near where they were predicted to be. But as the games closing drew nearer the Canadian athletes finished very strong and proved me and many other Canadians wrong about our ability to “own the podium”.

One concern I saw with this was the affiliation of Corporate funding to events. I would hate to hear something like: “This gold medal in Men’s downhill brought to you by Bell Canada….”. There should only be one logo affiliated with any result in the Olympics – Winter or Summer and it is that of our National Flag. Every brand I’ve worked with wants their logo splashed and tagline read with every success they accomplish and my worry is that this is where the Olympic Games are headed…. As many media reports pointed out – The Olympics are a big business.

Canada achieved a better result because of not-only the usual sponsors but because more people got involved with local and school-level sports development. There was more money for kids to learn how to ski, luge, skate and curl and many people got out of the proverbial armchair, rolled their sleeves up and helped develop the athletes that brought home Gold Medals in Vancouver.

This brings me to the (perhaps) crowning achievement of the Canadian team, the Men’s Hockey team winnning Gold. CBC published the credo that adorned their dressing-room wall and it’s a testament to the will and determination they showed in battling through each round to meet the US Men’s team again in the final game:

• LEAVE NO DOUBT
• That this is our game.
• That this is our time.
• That 14 days in February will be 2 weeks for the ages.
• That every day counts.
• That every meeting matters.
• That every practice makes a difference.
• That each one of us will rise to every occasion.
• That this isn’t about us, it’s about our country.
• That we know 33 million Canadians will attend every game.
• That home ice is an advantage.
• That nothing can distract us.
• That nothing will stop us.
• That our determination will define us.
• That we are built to win.
• That we are a team of character.
• That we are a team of destiny.
• So let the world be warned on February 28, 2010, we will …
• LEAVE NO DOUBT

Before leaving for Cabo San Lucas, Melody (my wife) had gathered a bunch of t-shirts from her school (Calgary Preparatory School) that they were no longer in need of. These t-shirts filled a suitcase which we checked and brought with us to take to the Captain’s Kid’s Daycare Center. This school in Cabo San Lucas, literally a 10 minute drive North of the resort areas that line downtown Cabo was a very eye-opening and humbling experience.

The school is situated in one of the “better off” areas according to the director giving us the tour. We could see that most of the neighbourhood citizens didn’t have running water, electricity or even walls or ceilings over their head. We saw a truck with a loud-speaker on the hood which the driver would read the daily news through as 90+% of the people living there could not read. This driver of the truck was also selling water to those who stopped him in the street – right outside the school.

The school facilities actually started as a simple palapa – or small grass hut – in the neighborhood. After years of donations and support the facility now has classrooms, a medical clinic, shelter, showers, running water, a kitchen and secure entry for all the children. Patricia Lozano, the director who showed us the school mentioned the need for security considering the poor conditions of the surrounding area. When we were there, the thrift shop that the school also operates out of the facility was closed due to the fact that no one has any money until people are paid on the 15th of the month.

During the visit we went through each of the classes with children in the age-range of 1-5 years old. Melody, being a pre-school teacher, taught the kids couple of songs and all I could do was snap pictures and sing along. Despite the tough conditions of the neighborhood and some of the heartbreaking stories about some of the kids attending the school, the children seemed so happy to have visitors and were constantly smiling and waving and craving attention.

We gave the t-shirts to Patricia and last week received the photo (above) of all the student population wearing their “Calgary Preparatory School” t-shirts and ball-caps that we’d donated to them.

Both Melody and I intend to visit the Captain’s Kids each year we go to Cabo and will donate whatever we can to such an excellent foundation for the children of Cabo San Lucas.

To see the slideshow on Flickr of all the photos taken that day at Captain’s Kids, click the photo above or click here!

So a bunch of us from work decided it’d be a pretty good idea to get together and go check out Kim Mitchell when he came through town. The show was originally slated to be in the Big Sky room at the Stampede Casino. When the tickets were sold to us, it was unbeknownst to us that the Casino was in receivership…. Yes, they sold us tickets to a show that was never going to happen on their premises and knowing that it would be impossible for them to refund us those funds.

About a week after the tickets were sold,

• Kim Mitchell cut his hand and cancelled his tour.
• The Stampede Casino (publicly) went into receivership.
• The Stampede Casino was no longer a Ticketmaster outlet.

Due to the fact that the Casino was in receivership, all of their accounts were locked down by a court order and all monies controlled by an external party until the Casino is sold and all of their assets liquidated…

My beef is the fact that the Casino was still selling tickets to a show knowing they had no control over that money once it came through the front door. Now that the show is cancelled, I’m out $100 plus service charges because some shit-for-brains realized it’d be a quick cash grab to sell tickets until Ticketmaster yanked their license.

I refuse to support the Stampede Casino because of this lapse of responsibility and you should too… Customer service aside, if you are in the business of taking people’s money you should also have the decency to refund it if you can’t provide the promised good or service….period.

It used to be that everyone at a concert would have a lighter. When that ballad came on all the lighters went up in the air. Now it’s cellphones. At the Coldplay concert in June, Chris Martin had everyone hold their cellphone up and do the wave. There were enough cellphones to pretty much light up the Saddledome here in Calgary.

So what’s next? Will everyone hold up a netbook? Light-sabre?

What is the next thing that is pretty much guaranteed to be in a concert-goer’s pocket other than perhaps a bag of goodies, keys, a lighter and a cellphone….

For anyone wanting to check out some great classic rock this weekend in Calgary come down to Denim Lounge and check out Stash. I’ll be sitting in with the band on drums Saturday night making loud noises!

The setlist includes hits moving from The Rolling Stones, ZZ-Top, The Beatles and Lynyrd Skynyrd all the way up to Van Halen, Jet and The Black Crowes.

Come down for a pint and a plate of wings and a whole bunch of classic rock!!

Happy New Year everyone – here’s to a successful 2009. Be safe and have fun!
Cheers, Jeremy.

On Rememberance Day (of all days – yes this post is a bit late…) I went down to Mac Hall to check out one of the most recognized voices in Rock/Grunge/Alternative (whatever) music today – Chris Cornell. Playing most notably with Soundgarden in the early 90′s, he went on to front the mighty Audioslave and is now venturing into what will be a solid solo career.

I had yet to ever see Chris in concert and really wanted to know if his voice was really that good LIVE or if the studio had enhanced it – like they do with many artists today. I can happily say that he absolutely WAILS live and managed to scream his way through two sets of Soundgarden, Audioslave, Temple of the Dog and even Led Zeppelin covers. Speaking of Zeppelin, a recent article in Spin Magazine mentioned that there were rumors that Chris Cornell would be heading out on tour with Led Zep in the summer of 2009 as Robert Plant has made it clear that he was committed to his tour with Alison Krauss. It just made it more special when for the second encore, Cornell’s band launched into Immigrant Song.

The sound was great, the band was insanely talented, Cornell absolutely ROCKED the house and had the whole place in the palm of his hand when halfway through the first set he came out solo and played 6 songs acoustically from both his solo albums and former band albums. Most notably was his version of Billie Jean from Michael Jackson which was very well done.

His new single “Scream” was co-written and produced by Hip-Hop producer Timbaland and has to be one of the best and most unique tracks I’ve heard Chris sing on. If you haven’t checked it out yet, hit up your favorite online/offline store and check it out.

Once again this year I managed to get myself and a few friends down to the Calgary Co-op’s Grape Escape at the Round-up center. Every year the suppliers to the Coop liquor store (and the main grocery store) put together and all-you-can-eat / all-you-can-drink show and each year it is a ton of fun. This year was no exception with an incredible selection of wines, spirits, liqueurs and beer.

For me the highlights were some of the old world wines from Spain and Italy that Coop has constantly tried to push from their “premium cellar room.” I know this as the Coop liquor store was my first place of employment when I moved to Calgary… Also of note were the new flavoured blends of Vodka made available by Van Gogh Vodkas. Of note were the Double Espresso and the Acai – Blueberry flavours. It was probably some of the most enjoyable “straight-up” vodka I’ve ever had!

Where I spent the most of my night (and a first for me at the Grape Escape) was in the beer area. Every year I’ve been to this event, the beers highlighted consisted of Labatts, Molson, Bavaria, Kokanee etc… Hence the reason I avoided this section entirely. THIS year however, someone was paying attention to sales out of the beer cooler and invited all the local (and not so local-) micro-breweries out to sample their Holiday season creations. I was thoroughly impressed by Wild Rose Brewery’s “Cherry Porter” and Anchor-Steam Brewing Company’s “Christmas Ale.” Of course I spent a good portion of the evening chatting with the boys at Steamwhistle brewing about their brewery in Toronto as it was one of the major highlights of my trip to Ontario in the summer.

All-in-all, Calgary Coop once again pulled off an amazing night of food, drink and fun. I will definitely invite more people in the years to come and help people come to the realization that Calgary Coop really does have the best Liquor Stores in the city.

Cheers!

Having just returned from the Great Canadian Beer Festival it was interesting to see what concoctions the local brewers have come up with in one year of my attending last year’s festival. Some notable longstanding “innovative” beers are the “Back Hand of God Stout” brewed by Crannog brewing in Sorrento, BC. This is a black lager that tastes like Guinness but goes down like Corona – and is 8.5% alcohol – hence the name. It has won 8 gold medals at the festival as a favorite of all beer connoisseurs.

Another 5 year favorite is the Great Canadian Pumpkin Pale Ale that literally tastes like a slice of pumpkin pie. This year was no exception with some of the breweries coming up with some really unique and amazingly tasty beers. My favorite had to be the “Basilsner” – pronounced “Bah-ZIL-sner”. This was a very light and easy drinking Pilsner finished with (you guessed it) fresh Basil. It smelled and had an aftertaste of freshly toasted Focaccia bread….amazing.

The other stand out this year was the Chocolate Porter which is brewed by local favorite the Phillips Brewing Company. In fact one of my top 3 beers is one of theirs which is called the “Blue Buck” – a light cream ale finished like a Pilsner with really strong hops.

It’s really refreshing attending a beer festival that only allows organic, micro-brewed, no-gas-tapped-hand-pumped kegs and promotes fresh, healthy and very tasty beers for all to enjoy. I intend to come back to Victoria for this festival as they are attracting micro-brewing companies from all over the world now. There were actually two breweries there this year from New York and 6 from the Seattle area alone!!

I highly recommend trying to come out and attend the GCBF and see what all the “hubbub” is about all this microbrewed beer!

Cheers!!