ADVENTURE RACING! Set list for May 22, 2008

Hello there;

On May 22nd my buddy Mike Melnick came around to talk to us about adventure racing. My feelings regarding the sport are similar to the ones I harbour for ultimate frisbee, and with a similar lack of justification in terms of real world experience: I'm hung up and slightly resistant to the idea of imposing structure and competition into an environment where, in my mind, it doesn't really fit. That said, maybe I should hang up my hang-ups, put away my prejudices, and give it a try. Mr Melnick certainly has a contagious enthusiasm for adventure racing - and if anything could inspire me to give it a shot it might be him. Hopefully you feel the same way, and you enjoyed our chat. In any case, I asked Mike to send me some links so I can pass them on to y'all, so here are links to the AB Adventure Racing site, a local adventure race in June, another one in July, and Mike's adventure racing team (from whom I nicked the above photo - taken during their recent race in Costa Rica). Thanks to Mike for coming on the show, spreading the love around, and broadening our collective horizon.

I also played some music on May 22nd:

1. hang up your hang-ups (live) - herbie hancock (for r. hadrock!)
2. the souk - global noize*
3. guns of brixton (live) - the clash
4. africa irie - chief checker*
5. wayfarin' stranger - spearhead
6. little bit of feel good - jamie lidell*
7. ok? ok - peter project*
8. trouble is - common market*
9. teenage beer drinkin' party - teenage head* (for the mclean creek meatheads)
10. tin cheejha - dj rekha*
11. pluck - ananda shankar experience & the state of bengal
12. night life - the reveries*
13. les rockstars - call me poupee*
14. spring flowers - the great outdoors*
15. new friend - david myles*
16. children's games - enoch kent*

Some friends of mine remarked that I came on a little strong against the mud-boggers. Allow me this opportunity to state plainly that I do not advocate a wholesale banning of off-road vehicles from Alberta's public lands - i just want people to be a little more considerate of the land and the others that use it. I have a lot more to say about this, but the issue isn't going anywhere, so maybe I'll save it for later. Of course, if you want to weigh in, you can always drop us a line...

I've been promising for a number of weeks (bordering on months) to post some photos of our travels over the last little while - so here you go:

In early April I went "home" to New Brunswick, to visit with my folks and help them with the annual maple sugaring fun times. Above is a picture of the cabin my dad and I built in 1988, and it gives you a good idea of why the floods were so severe this spring.

Then at the end of April, the missus and I went on a two-week jaunt to the desert lands of Utah and Arizona - I dedicated my May 8th show to this trip. We saw a lot of pretty inspiring landscape, including Bryce Canyon...





Zion National Park (this pic is of the big bend underneath Angel's Landing)...







and the mother of all Canyons - el grande! It was really an awesome experience, and one I recommend to anyone and everyone - I know it's cliche, but you definitely have to go there at least once in your lifetime if you have the opportunity.





That's it for this post I guess - thanks a lot for tuning in. Sorry for the continued delinquence on my posts, but the fact of the matter is, I most often have other things I'd rather be doing than sitting in front of a computer (no offence...)

See ya!
g