Here are some results from our photo shoot. Once again, thanks to Chris Hudson for these photos…

Nothing to say about this one, just that I love how it turned out.

Note:  I did find out that these towers are named Shoal Tower, Cathcart Tower and Fort Frederick Tower.  Slightly embarassed about a previous post in which I referred to Shoal Tower as Murney tower; confused the name of one tower with the type of towers.  They are all Martello Towers.

Here is a new Indie, Folk Style music groups for you to enjoy.

Diana Catherine sent me a note on myspace, so I googled them on youtube and found a few cool performances with Sarah Burton.

I’ve included the information for their next concert.

diana the great catastrophe of the sixth sign

Diana Catherine- Vocals, Guitars, Harmonica, etc.
Nic DiSanto- Bass
Matt Blackie- Drums and backing vocals
Kevin Robinson- Guitar

Diana Catherine and the Thrusty Tweeters Band Pic Idea Girl Consulting

BlackieStuff on youtube.

diana

Diana Catherine Dec 11, 2009

The Merchant Tap House – With Sarah Burton w/ Sarah Burton

6 Princess St, Kingston, Ontario

sarah_burton i hate you - idea girl consulting

yakkingwithfaze on youtube

sarah burton - idea girl consulting

Last night, I joined two Sony EX-1 camera operators for a live webcast at the storied Viper Room in West Hollywood, CA. The feed from our cameras streamed via stickam.com. Over 20,000 web users viewed performances by Nylon Pink, Harlow, and Kingston. After the show, I spoke with Avi Cohen, a gifted EX-1 operator, who showed me footage he shot in California and South Africa as part of his documentary about Chris Gallucci, the Elephant Man.

Harlow performing live at the Viper Room

Photo by Jason Wittman

The Viper Room’s constantly shifting lights presented a challenge to my camera’s sensor. Since my video feed was being broadcast live, I couldn’t afford to tweak with the camera during the show. I considered leaving the camera’s exposure setting in auto mode, but I feared the sensor would be a step behind the rapidly shifting light patterns on stage, producing over/underexposed images. With this in mind, I took an average meter reading of the stage’s light output and locked the iris down in manual mode at f2.4.

Dian Emery is another travel blogger who saw a hole in the internet and endeavored to fix it. While researching a girl’s getaway with her mum, she realized that there was a lack of information targeted directly to women travelers.

She traveled extensively as an “Air Force Brat”, spending summer vacations touring Austrian castles, camping near the beaches of Barcelona, and train trips to France.

Dian Emery enjoying lunch in Banes, Cuba

After university, she continued her life of travel, but soon discovered money was a necessary evil required to support her wanderlust. She launched Girlsgetaway.com a few months ago and hasn’t looked back.

“My goal is to encompass all aspects of a girl’s getaway,” she says. “From letting everything that happens in Vegas, stay in Vegas, to having a life altering experience in Marrakesh.”

While the site’s new, it’s lacking in the content department, but it makes up for it in the quality department. Dian’s passion for travel shines through in everything she writes.

However, the site’s not all about Dian, there are guest columns from writers around the world. I was particularly fond of the easy-to-read question and answer style of Laura Byrne Paquet’s “pampered girls” trip to Kingston and Vanessa Villanova’s short, but sweet video of Machu Picchu.

It’s happened again – I am in full procrastination mode! Now don’t get me wrong, I am usually quite a decisive person – I am a card carrying member of the old ‘just do it’ school of thought – if you want to get something done there is precious little point in wasting time thinking about it. If you do, you usually end up achieving nothing, and that is exactly what is becoming more and more likely to happen in this case. Let me explain…

A few weeks back I agreed to go speed dating with a friend. She is a pretty organised type of person – she had booked a place for herself at the venue which was somewhere in one of the leafy suburbs of SW London, on a date in early December. She gave the details of the times, and the web address of the site that I needed to do the booking.

Get to know me in three...

I had fully intended to book it that weekend, but when I sat down at my PC to do the deed, I couldn’t even bring myself to visit the site – I just spent the rest of the evening on Youtube. I have been trying too figure out exactly why this is. I have no real problems with the concept of speed dating itself – it sounds as if it could be fun. One thing I have always had a bit of an issue with though is booking online. The thought of putting my payment card details out there on the web has always made me feel a bit uneasy, but on the other hand I have booked holidays and paid for insurance over the Web before, so I can’t see why this latest venture should pose any real problem.

As the day of the event draws nearer, my window of opportunity for booking my place is shrinking, so it is basically bite the bullet time if I don’t want to let my friend down. It is going to be done….soon! Wish me luck!

Name, music, logo – almost ready to start getting webpages up and running, just need some decent photos of the band now.

Had a great photo shoot with Chris Hudson at sites around Kingston uni, the rain held off and our only obstacle was a guy with a rake!

Results will be posted soon, but here’s a snap from the ‘models’ perspective…

Could this be the longest lasting bar in Kingston?  I’m in awe that it’s still around…and that I’ve yet to step foot inside.  Will have to give it a go one day.

Natti went through some magazines and sketched some ideas for possible band logos, and for loosewire Productions too, good work Natti!

Still morning waters at Kingston Mills.

Local house music label Eyezcream Recordings has been killin’ it as of late.  They recently signed Montreal’s DJ prodigy MARCO G and recently presented his first release on the label.  This first release called “FAITH” is a serious infectious underground single with lots of emotional synths, and a rumbling bassline that doesn’t let up.  An over-all killer on the dancefloor, at festivals and popular tastemaker radioshows around the world.

SOURCE: Eyezcream Recordings

Kingston, 10 days old.

Today it was just me and our monkey Kingston.  The hubs officially went back to work today after having a little over a week off from work.  Although I missed having the hubs home and appreciate all the help that he has given me during this time, the day seemed to go by quickly - spent cuddling, eating, diaper changing… oh the joys of a new mom!  I did notice that Kingston seems to be eating more these days (i.e. more frequently and for longer periods of time).  At Kingston’s last doctors appointment, we were informed that he would be going through a growth spurt around 2 weeks after birth.  I think he is going through this growth spurt early… or at least I hope so.  If not, I fear that he has an appetite like his father’s… the hubs used to eat a box of cereal each morning before school.  Yes – a whole box of cereal, which was eaten out of  a mixing bowl.  Good thing we’re Costco members…

Points for the gently satirical title? I think so…

25 year old Maple has been dubbed the ‘heir to Tracey Emin’s throne,’ and there’s little doubt she’ll happily piss off enough people to at least keep the seat warm while Tracey nips off for the toilet. With a BA in Fine Art from Kingston University you could say she’s more than ‘qualified’ to be a contemporary artist, whatever that qualification may be. Apparently she’s influenced by her Muslim upbringing, as well as her ‘general surroundings’ – pretty standard, but she does it well.

I think my favourite thing about her is that she’s just so fucking cynical. Her photography ranges from signs with messages that satire the concept of contemporary art, to her sucking a pixelated dick (no wait, it’s a just paintbrush head – letdown). Then there are step-by-step pictures of her in full Muslim dress while praying, right next door to stills taken from a video called ‘Cum,’ in which (what looks like) water is thrown over her face.

In a round-about way she’s basically an anti-anti-feminist, achieving this strange title by somehow satiring anti-feminism, while pissing off feminists at the same time. We really should admire someone who can annoy such a broad cross-section of people in one fell swoop.

Here’s her website: ART

Here’s her youtube: VIDEOS

Here’s her blog: WORDS

Go to it.

…or perhaps that bicycle was pushed.

Sorry I’ve been so MIA lately!

Coming home has been so much fun and we’ve been doing so much stuff. I gots me hair did. And have spent much time watching cheesy ABC Family Christmas movies like Holiday in Handcuffs.

I also have been holding the baby like it’s going out of style.

I will definitely be posting some new stuff up here soon, so please don’t lose your faith in me, and make sure to come back!

ALSO please vote for Ms. Adaline for the Peak Performance competition, the days are growing fewer, and she deserves that moolah!!

If you go vote now I’ll include a photo of baby boy…

Ok I’ll do it anyway because he’s so gosh darn cute.

Antipasto Salad at Savona's in Kingston

These garlic bread sticks should be illegal!

Eggplant Rollentini at Savona's

The Round-out area in Kingston is a nice place to walk around, and there a few lively night spots on the waterfront, but during the week, it is very quiet. There was hardly a soul walking around when my husband and I were trying to find a lunch spot on Monday. Savona’s was the only restaurant that appeared open . We even saw a two happy business people having lunch there. I got a good vibe from the place right away. It is elegant inside, but not stuffy. They had a special 3 course lunch for $11.95 that was tempting, but I didn’t want dessert.  We split an Antipasto Salad for an appetizer. I had the soup of the day (butternut squash) which was rich and tasty. For my main dish, I had the Eggplant Rollentini, which came with spaghetti. The portion wasn’t huge, but I was so full from the starters and the sinful garlic bread that I really couldn’t finish my plate anyway. Savona’s Restaurant, 11 Broadway on the Roundout, Kingston, NY. (845) 339-6800. http://www.savonas.com.

Last weekend, we discovered Kingston.  Now I’ve known of its existence the last 6 months, but we’ve just never made it there for window shopping and the like. It’s really only been because my parents’ visit 2 months ago, and they were quite taken with Kingston, going back there several times to shop.  Mum loved the Marks & Spencer (or more correctly M&S) there.

We caught the bus just outside our front door which took us straight into town.  Kingston’s high street is much nicer than Richmond.  There are more shops and pedestrian malls to wander through. You don’t feel squashed walking on busy sidewalks. Our objective for the day was to window shop a little, see what’s about, check out the different retail stores, visit Bentalls Shopping Centre and then look for Tony Roma’s for dinner.

We did all this in about an hour. For me, window shopping is difficult with a husband and son in tow, both of whom do not like window shopping. Bentalls Shopping Centre is much like other shopping centres you get in Sydney, though it is about 4 stories tall.  Whilst that might seem big, it is on a narrower plot. What I noticed was the crowd.  It felt relatively crowded to me. Appreciate it’s about 6 weeks out to Christmas, but it looked to me like it was the week of Christmas in Australia.  I simply can’t imagine how crowded it will be the week of Christmas.  In that sense, I also did not enjoy window shopping.  I found the crowds a little bit stressful, and also did not feel like browsing.  Also, there were shop assistants around and they kept asking me if I “needed help”, to which I would politely reply, “No, just browsing.” Appreciate its their job everything, though sometimes I wish I could hang a “Do Not Disturb, Just Browsing” sign on me.  Though just thinking about it, that’d make a great T-shirt and bumper sticker and handbag etc etc etc.

Then we wandered out to look for Tony Roma’s.  Hubby and I have had a soft spot for Tony Roma’s ever since our holiday in California many moons ago. I just love their ribs.  It took us a while to find it, having not brought it’s street address and not being able to find anyone else wandering around Kingston who knew either.  We asked a few people on the off chance. Watching their reaction is quite interesting. It’s like a “leave me alone” reaction. Hmm, maybe like my browsing experience.  I wonder if I’ve picked up a London thing.  Anyway, we found the hotdog man knew his Kingston streets and eateries, and he kindly pointed us to the direction of the local cinema.  And lo, we found it.

We were very happy to be in Tony Roma’s.  It looks very different from the one in Sydney.  This one was much bigger and didn’t have oldy oaky type furniture like the one in Sydney.  But it was exciting for us, as it was a little bit of “home” for us – the thing we would do as a family back in Australia.  Menu was pretty much the same, but the real unexpected bonus is that they have a Kids eat free day on Sundays.

Of course, we ordered ribs, and I must say the Tony Roma’s ribs are much nicer than in Sydney.  In Syndey, they boil it so that it falls off the bone.  It’s nice, but somewhere in the cooking, the flavour is not as intense in the meat. Over here, I think they don’t boil it as much before grilling, so there is much more flavour.  Anyway, whatever it is, it’s much nicer.  We also ordered their grilled mushrooms, but I didn’t like that so much.  I like the grilled white mushrooms in Australia, and not the garlic champignons they served us.  So that’s a definite “not again” experience.  The Onion Loaf is also much nicer than Sydney.  Definitely not as oily, and much crispier.  It must come their their collective experience of how to batter and cook Fish and Chips.  The bill for all of us is a very respectable 30+ pounds, so we were very pleased about that.

Tony Roma’s also offer Day specials, like an All-you-can-eat-ribs meal on Mondays, Kids-eat-free on Sundays and some others.  You can see which ones I remembered!

Bob -

I just witnessed the 60th vote in the Senate to move the Democrats’ contentious $2.5 trillion health care bill forward to a vote. No matter what the Democrats may try to tell you this is a bill that will increase taxes, cut Medicare and use fancy accounting tricks to hide its true cost. The American people deserve better and Senate Republicans and our supporters continue to be the only thing standing between Democrats and the socialization of the American health care system.

As the Senate begins to consider this bill, please make sure to visit our new Health Care Task Force site www.healthcaretaskforce.org. And, if you haven’t already, join the effort and stay informed on what you can do. Learn the real facts about this bill and not the Democrat spin. We cannot allow Washington bureaucrats to take control of our health care system.

Sincerely,

Senator John Cornyn

Chairman

425 2nd Street NE | Washington, DC 20002 | Phone: (202) 675-6000
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Contributions to the National Republican Senatorial Committee are not deductible
as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.

Mailing Address:
National Republican Senatorial Committee
425 2nd Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
US

Contact Name: NRSC
Telephone Number: (202) 675-6000

Sincerely,

Senator John Cornyn

Chairman

Now that Reid and his Democrat cronies have pushed this monstrosity of a bill through, we all must do what we can to see that it dos not pass when debated and voted on. E-mail Senator Cornyn’s letter to everyone you know or e-mail this post or the link for this post.

Yeah I am, baby! And it feels so good to even think about it.

It’s the Kingston 40GB SSD Now Boot Drive. You can read a review here: Legitreviews Review on Kingston SSDNow V Series Boot Drive.

It’s a cheap SSD. You must be thinking, “So what’s the catch?” Well, it is a boot drive. It has very high read speeds but it has lower write speeds. Well, still much higher than that of normal rotary HDDs. Bottom line is, it is not a general purpose SSD. And I don’t want it to be. I just want it to make the PC boot faster, load apps faster and to enjoy an overall very high responsive system.

I’m getting it through a friend, and I don’t wanna tell more about it. I will surely tell you what I feel about it when I get it. That will be in mid December unfortunately. I know I can’t wait, but I have to! hehe

This is the chart you need to look at. Not the other mumbo jumbo crap.

Still not impressed?

Check out this youtube video and see how fast that drive is. Here’s an example. How fast does Firefox load on your PC for the first time after booting? 5 seconds? Longer? Guess what? With this drive, it loads up as fast as Notepad on a normal drive. Yeah! Amazing ha? Yes it is!

Never know what you might find under a bridge.

(Found below the Division Street overpass near Weller Avenue.)

The current economic climate has caused many vacationers to rethink their winter holiday plans. With a tumbling stock market and employment numbers down, a recession seems to be looming in both the United States and Canada. Traditionally, the winter is time for many Canadians, and Americans from the northern states, to plan a winter getaway from the cold and snow. However, this year, many will be searching for an alternative to an expensive southern vacation and look to uncover a vacation destination that is closer to home.

One place that vacationers might consider for a winter getaway is the city of Kingston in Ontario, Canada. Located at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the mouth of the historic St. Lawrence River, Kingston is a short drive from the large population centres of Toronto, Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe and New York state, making it a low cost destination. This scenic lakeside city has a wealth of attractions and winter events to entertain the entire family. History abounds here. Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald called Kingston home. Kingston is also Canada’s second oldest city and has many historic buildings, impressive architecture, and interesting attractions. The city is home to the world famous Queens University, the Royal Military College, and historic Old Fort Henry. History comes alive in Kingston with its winding cobblestone paths leading past century-old homes, parks, and museums.

During the winter, Kingston is host to a number of special festivals and events. One popular winter event is Kingston’s Feb Fest, an annual winter party that draws more than 30,000 people each year. Festival events include hockey tournaments, skating, rock concerts, ice and snow sculptures, horse-drawn wagon rides, and much more. The entire town participates, with restaurants offering special menus and shops festive displays. Throughout the winter, the city of Kingston maintains an ice-rink at Market Square located right beside the beautiful and historic city hall building. Each day, office workers join Kingston visitors and area residents for a free glide around the ice during the day or under the stars at night.

Another very popular Kingston wintertime event is The Kingston Canadian Film Festival. The film festival, which takes place for one week every February, is a not-to-be-missed experience for anyone who loves film. Now in its 8th season, the Kingston Canadian Film Festival draws movie fans and movie industry guests from all over. The festival features the best in Canadian films and hosts a wide variety of informative classes and lectures, as well as parties and receptions.

Many believe that Kingston is a great place to vacation because it is a beautiful city with so much to offer visitors every season of the year. Additionally, many tourists and residents alike understand that a trip to Kingston is like stepping back into the past. Its historic limestone stone buildings, fine old homes and intriguing history, along with the city’s abundance of gourmet eateries, delightful shops, museums and thriving theatre scene, give Kingston an truly European flare that make this an ideal vacation destination.

Kingston, Ontario has long been a favourite romantic couple’s getaway destination and leisure traveller’s preferred place to visit, relax, and indulge. By offering visitors a variety of fun winter events, Kingston will also continue to attract to the area more family holiday vacationers looking for an exiting Ontario winter getaway.