Dream as if you'll live forever
Live as if you'll die today

Saturday, January 19, 2013

David Bowie


It was the summer of ‘83 and I was working in Banff, AB at The Banff Springs Hotel.
Living in Banff is so much fun but we’ll save those stories for another day.

One of the perks of working for a hotel was the discount at other hotels in the same chain. I think at the time the Banff Springs was a CNR Hotel later bought by CPR who later bought the Fairmont chain.

Anyway a group of us decided to go on a road trip to Edmonton to see David Bowie on his Serious Moonlight Tour. Rooms at The
Hotel MacDonald were booked with a late arrival, or so we thought and we piled into the rented van and took off.  Honestly I don’t remember much of the trip there, I wasn’t driving so the party was on. We rocked that van all the way to Edmonton.

We arrived at the hotel hours past check in time but we had stated a late arrival so we thought we were good but oh no, front desk says no mention of late arrival was stated so our rooms were given away. So picture a van full of wasted people going WTF you gave our rooms away we just drove all this way you have to have a room. We made a point of saying we would be late your mistake not ours. I piped up “we’ll just sleep in the lobby until you find a room we don’t care”.  We were pretty defiant actually. And you can imagine that the hotel is rockin’ as everyone there is there for the same thing, the concert the next day.

Well the hotel can’t have drunk kids sleeping in the lobby so they gave us a banquet room to sleep/hang out in until they found us a room.  They did supply us with linens which was kind. I grabbed a sheet and lay down on a banquet table for a quick cat nap. 

I was awoken from my nap, it was time to move to a room.  Oh my lord what a room it was! It was a huge suite with grand bay windows overlooking the river. The only deal was we had to be out at check out time and then they would have a room for us to check in to for the next night after the concert.  Since we didn’t have to be out of the room until 11 we partied until the sun came up then went to sleep for a few hours until we had to get ready to go to the concert. Remember I said this was a suite, we found one of the girls stretched out, sleeping in the closet in the bedroom as we were gathering everyone together to head out.

The concert was to start at 3pm and as it was a general admission open air concert at Commonwealth Stadium having to leave the room pushed us to get to the concert grounds early and because we did we were in ‘row 5’. Back in the day general admission was such a great thing, especially at an outdoor venue. You could lay out a blanket, claim your space and hang out until the concert started and nobody jostled for your space or to get to the front.  Even when the concert was on and you had to stand as more people flooded the infield we remained in the same spot and this concert is in my Top 5 best concerts ever. There were 60,000 people at this concert it was if I recall 30degrees plus that day and it was the best possible day.

The line up was The Tubes, Peter Gabriel and David Bowie. The reaction to The Tubes was fun to watch as I don’t think anything quite like them had ever been seen in oil and cowboy country. Peter Gabriel was next and as much of a fan of Bowie as I was at the time Peter Gabriel rocked my world that day with his performance and I became an instant fan!  Shocked the monkey right off my back awesome show.

David Bowie was amazing of course, he played for 2 hours and took us all on a rock n roll odyssey. And there we were in the front in the thick of it all at the largest capacity concert every held at Commonwealth Stadium.

We made our way back to the hotel after the show and the place was off the hook. There was an open door party going on on every floor, people wandering the hallways, bouncing off the walls. I always welcome a wall when I have had to much to drink otherwise I’ll fall over. I have a hard enough time when I am sober to walk straight let alone drunk.

I wouldn’t have wanted to be a guest in the hotel having to deal with the rowdiness. It was so much fun though but extremely hard to get up the next day to drive back to Banff. The ride home was somewhat more subdued then the ride there. If I was true to form I slept the whole way home and there my fable ends as I can’t remember anymore.

Until next time
TS

Fable #1 
Series:  ‘A Rock and Roll Fable’
Series title in honor of my favourite movie Streets of Fire.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Bucket List?


What happens if you don’t fulfill your bucket list?
Do you leave your life feeling as if your bucket is half full or half empty?
Why make a bucket list at all?

Personally I have never thought about a bucket list.  It seems strange to me that you make a list of things to do before you die. You could die tomorrow and what have you accomplished nothing. So why set yourself up for something that may never be possible.

Perhaps instead of sitting around making up a list of things you want to do which empties the bucket why not make a list of the things you have already done that will fill the bucket full of special moments in your life. Good memories are so much more important than something that may never come to be. I don’t think there is any thing wrong in dreaming but we must be realistic. Appreciate life for what we have and make realistic goals not yearn for things that are unobtainable. Live life and don’t work so hard that you miss it.
I am going to live my life to the following quote and start to fill my bucket.

Dream as if you’ll live forever
Live as if you’ll die today
~James Dean~

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

The End of What?


Well here we are at the end of another year.
Are we any further ahead than we thought we would be?
Or do we find ourselves behind the proverbial 8 ball?

Personally I am a little of both.
After taking 6 months off for a ‘sabbatical’ this past year.
I find myself much further ahead in my own personal state of being.
But still a little behind the 8 ball, as are most people in the world
Some much worse than I.

Really what are my problems compared to others in the world?
They are miniscule, they are nothing.

We bitch about our jobs when others are even lucky to have a job.
We moan when someone else gets a promotion because we truly didn’t have the commitment to the job.

We are jealous of those who have more than us when we truly have so much more than others. One thing I have learned this past year is that it is all perspective. Those with more  are no happier than we are with less and there are so many more people out there much more unfortunate than us.

So truly think in this new year to make a change for yourself which in turn will help make a change in the world.  Think about someone less fortunate than you who works a lot for much less and never complains when you next bitch about your situation whatever it may be.

Compassion, peace and love is what I wish for in the year ahead and for many more to come.

Love and understanding
TS