Great question.
I’m sure most of you have heard of Angus and Julia Stone before. You know the oh so lovely couple from way down under. Anyways, Julia (yes, of course we are on a first name basis) has branched out and is igniting up the musical waves with illusive tunes full of eerily, mystical, theatrical bliss that is a “must hear” on all fronts.
Check it out for yourself – it’s a guaranteed “gotta have”.
Have you heard of Rick and Dick Hoyts story? If you haven’t, take ten minutes out of your day and watch this video (make sure that you have a kleenex – it gets me every time).
This is so incredibly inspiring.
I prefer the latter.
Maybe it was because of a crazy December, or because of my adventurous spirit, either way, when 3:45pm hit yesterday afternoon, I decided that I was in need of some change. I looked in the mirror, and it became clear to me what needed to happen… It was time to say farwell to my much beloved hippy, free flowing, too long to breathe, too tangly to comb, too much to handle – hair.
4 hours and 15 minutes latter I pulled up to Hedkandi in Bankers Hall in Calgary Alberta (one usually has to book two weeks in advance, must have been my lucky day!)
I had just worked out, showered, threw one of my infamous hats on, found parking 5 blocks away, and showed up panting, sweating, and late. Visualize a lion that has just jumped out of a lake, with hair flowing free and wild in the air, while frantically running around downtown Calgs – that was me. When I walked into the salon, not going to lie, I was expecting some “eww” and “ughs” (the bad kind), but to my surprise, this place turned out to be the coolest, friendliest, most rocking salon that I have ever been to in my entire life (def recommend).
After my hair stylist, Lisa, took a quick assessment of my hair, she asked me a few questions. Last one being, “So what would you like me to do to your hair today?” I showed her a couple of pictures of some potential directions, then took a deep breathe and replied, “Whatever you want. I give you full creative freedom to rock out. Even though I don’t know you, I trust you.” This seemed to get her pretty stoked – or maybe she just thought I was crazy.
Ten minutes later, she had cut off 10.5 inches of my gnarley hair to donate to Locks of Love – still so stoked. She continued to work her natural, talented brilliance, and by the end, she finished off with cutting me some “non committal bangs” – it only took 30 minutes for her to know me oh too well… haha
Locks of Love
Non committal bangs
If you need a cut, and are looking for a cool, chill, friendly and rocking place, I definitely recommend HedKandi – ask for Lisa and Tessa:)
Cheers mates!
Today is yet another joyous day, for it’s National Coming Out Day. To those who are struggling, and to those who have persevered, know that it’s diversity and difference that is needed to change the world. Step into who you are, and be proud, because courage unveils the true beauty that is inside of everyone. I look forward to years from now, when humans live in a genderless society, and look back and feel deep sadness for those that were treated with injustice because of the bigotry, prejudice, and ignorance that was used to chain humans down from progressing into a world full of love, light, and unlimited possibilities. Cheers to those who are different. Cheers to those who challenge the status quo. And cheers to all my brothers and sisters, whether you are gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgendered, transexual, or straight – you are beautiful.
I often like to take a step back from everything that is going on around me so that I can truly appreciate and take in my surroundings.
So I want to send gratitude and love to all of those who have helped create such wonderful, cherished memories in my life. How can one miss those loved most, when vivid memories of laughing, crying, dancing, and loving play on repeat in one’s head and heart? 
Perhaps this song was a little over played – everywhere. But, it’s one of those songs that when played, a projector of past memories play over and over on the blissful horizon of my glazed over eyes. So indeed, another joyous song to share.
The Calgary Folk Festival this year was absolutely amazing – for many reasons. The music was great, people were amazing, and atmosphere was so energizing. My favorite thing about attending music festivals is finding artists that I have never heard of before, and this year’s folk fest was full of them. One band in particular, Painting with Ella, captivated me beyond words. Their music reminds me of angels standing at the gateway of death welcoming you in a solemn, angelic, and almost, haunting way.
They are a young band from Edmonton, just getting their foot into the door. This song, “Daughters”, was what actually got them into the folk festival because they won the Calgary Folk Festival Songwriting Contest in the Youth category.
Anyways, check them out – and support local Albertan talent by picking up their EP (or two:))
Everyone sees and perceives things in different ways. I tend to focus my energy on ideas, stories and various happenings that are full of light and positivity. But from time to time, I seem to stumble across things that are so completely backwards in the world we live, breathe, and “be” in. So I’ve decided to branch this blog out, yet again, in hopes to hear your opinions on these stories that I can’t seem to understand.
Example 1:
Catholic Charities of the diocese of Rockford, Ill., will cease providing adoption and foster care services because the state will not exempt it from serving gay couples when the civil unions law goes into effect.
“We believe in the natural order of marriage and the sacrament of matrimony between one man and one woman. We also believe and promote the optimal God-given privilege of every child to be reared in a safe and loving family with a committed and loving male father and female mother whenever possible,” diocesan spokeswoman Penny Wiegert
Short summary:
So because the state is granting civil union between same sex couples, and won’t grant this church the right to be able to refuse same sex couples from fostering children, they are completely abandoning their foster care program which will have huge negative and harmful effects for a lot of children.
Where is the “love” in that? And how does that make any sense?
Are they aware that if one looks behind the surface of EVERY human being, beyond what seems to be sexual barriers, we are all exactly the same? Who one loves, does not decipher what type of person they are. But rather, the choices they make, the feelings they express, the life they create, and the love they have to share, are far better dictators of what type of person has the room and capacity to share their love with children.
Sexual orientation has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not one has the ability to provide and support a child with all of the love that is humanly possible to give in this world.
This will be my first year volunteering at the Calgary Folk Festival. To say the least, I’m pretty excited. No, I’m not doing one of the more perceived glamorous jobs like being an artist liaison or media and promotions – I’ll be out on local farm land, bucking my plaid shirt, covered in head to toe in dirt, and getting the vegetables and fruit prepared for the week. Although I painted a picture few people would like to endure, I’m actually pretty pumped about that too (outdoorsy type, what can I say). Anyways, one of the reasons why I wanted to volunteer, other than the fact I went to the festival last year and LOVED it, is because of the sick line up that is going to be there.
Here is one of my new favorite finds that will be coming to the festival. The Head and the Heart: River and Roads
The part that really got me liking this song is at 1:55 – absolutely amazing.
You can try to run from it, hide from it, or even deny that it’s a reality, but lets face it, if you are online there is no way to escape the fact that you are being marketed to. Scratch that. If you are ANYWHERE, whether it be driving in your car, walking down town or in a mall, on a bus, or people watching, you are CONSTANTLY being marketed to.
It’s kind of creepy when you think about it.
But it doesn’t have to be.
I recently had a small epiphany that I actually enjoyed some of the Facebook ads that were specifically directed to my profile wall because of my Facebook settings. And I can now feel myself slowly transitioning from being one of those people who didn’t fill out their likes, interests, music, movies, books, and activities section because of not caring to share that information about myself, to actually wanting to fill out as much information as I could do in ten minutes (I’m at work and only have so much time to spare!), so that I can be kept up to date on some of the things I find cool. It’s kind of like that cliche expression, “If you can’t escape the game, you might as well try to play it better” – okay, maybe I made that one up.
So essentially, I’m starting to market to the marketers.
Kind of a neat concept:)
I often find that I tend to surround myself with people and situations that are constantly inspiring me in various different ways. Which got me thinking, “Where do ideas come from?” “Where does this so called inspiration derive from?” “How can I ensure that I continue to find this inspiration around me?”
And, which often occurs, the answer magically appeared right in front of me.
The other day I was in Chapters — a dangerous thing, because I love books, and love to read, which is a “love” that doesn’t help my pocket book — and I happened to find myself, like usual, in the philosophy / business / marketing section. I was busy doing my usual “thang”, i.e Scurrying through books and accidentally running into innocent passersby that only came to my attention and realization after hearing someone mumble a sly “urgggh watcchhhh where yourrr goinggggg gawddd” – My bad.
After much scurrying, I looked up, and a book POPPED out to me.
“Where Good Ideas Come From” – by Steven Johnson
I’m only 80 pages deep, but I thought I would share something that really made sense – to me, anyways.
“Recall the question we began with: What kind of environment creates good ideas? The simplest way to answer it is this: innovative environments are better at helping their inhabitants explore the adjacent possible, because they expose a wise and diverse sample of spare parts – mechanical or conceptual – and they encourage novel ways of recombining those parts. Environments that block or limit those new combinations – by punishing experimentation, by obscuring certain branches of possibility, by making the current state so satisfying that no one bothers to explore the edges – will, on average, generate and circulate fewer innovations than environments that encourage exploration.” (page 41)
Surely you have many questions. One for example is probably that your curious to understand what exactly the “adjacent possible” is. And to paraphrase, and simplify, the adjacent possible is when different doors open throughout human evolution which opens doors for new ideas to pop into someone’s, or many people’s, mind(s). When another door opens, a new possibility exists. So as we continue to push ourselves to learn and understand more and more, we create new possibilities at an increasing rate. Each new door that opens, is actually a spark in the neurons in one’s mind (we have over 100 trillion neurons in our brain) which connects thoughts, memories, and experiences and forms a solution to an answer, a new idea, and/or a new realization.
The book goes into detail about carbon molecules, neurons, amino acids, and the primordial soup of chemicals – but I won’t go into much detail about that, so that I can spare you from confusion, and also because I for one, am not an expert or highly educated in the matter – I just enjoy reading books.
Anyways, what I have taken from this so far, is that innovative environments are important when it comes to creating good ideas.
The advice I’d give – take it or leave it – is that I’d think twice before you attempt to restrict and confine someone from doing something/anything.
Unless of course, you’d rather conform, than create.