This Hair's For You

Everyone thinks of A Flock Of Seagulls as a one-hit wonder from the early 80's, even though they had a number of singles, including "I Ran", "Space Age Love Song" and "Wishing", to name but a few. Instead of their music, everyone remembers the ridiculous haircuts. Sigh. Yes, the hair was ridiculous, but the music was fantastic!

I've been rounding out my AFOS collection recently with b-sides and rarities and came across this little gem...AFOS doing a Budweiser beer advertisement!!! How cool is that?

If I'm not mistaken, it is loosely based on their song "Telecommunication".

Ghosts of Jingles Past...

30 years after I first heard it...17 years after leaving Nova Scotia...the bloody Casino Taxi jingle is still solidly embedded in my head. Whenever someone asks me for the number of a taxi, the first thing that pops into my head is 429-6666. Well, sheesh, that doesn't do a feller much good here in Vancouver does it? I tried to find the Casino Taxi commercial on youtube but it's not there. As far as I can recall, these are the lyrics:

"If you're a person on the go, write down this number

It's the key to travelling quick!

It's Casino Taxi's number

429-6666

Casino Taxi, they're the fast ones

Casino Taxi, near as your phone!

No need to run, don't get wet, dial that number

429-6666 (ba ba ba) or 425-6666 (ba-da-ba-da-ba-da-ba!)"

As far as I know, there are no other taxis in Halifax. That was a great jingle.

I can say the same thing for the Halifax Pizza Huts..."42 O - double O - double O, it's ooey gooey good!"

Now if anyone can remind me of the lyrics to the Green Gables convenience store jingle, my day would be complete. "At Green Gables we stay open just for you!"

OK, well it's not the original ad by any stretch, but my aunt June did find this version on youtube, at least to give you a vage idea of the Casino Taxi jingle. The original ad was much punchier!

Thanks June, for coming up with this...not sure if it is 100% right but it sounds pretty close to me...

You forgot to buy some food and now it's late.
You'd like a tasty snack, but it's late.
Come on down to Green Gables, morning noon or night
Our shelves are filled with goodness, our stores are clean and bright.
Day or night, remember what we do
At Green Gables we stay open just for you.

That made my day! Love that tune as well!

Don't Bother Me...Blogger At Work

Hey, get that camera out of my face, Brooks...

If you wanna see more pics of the kids and what they're up to, it doesn't hurt to post a comment every once in awhile, people!

Jamboree G-O-A-L

Saturday was the end of season soccer jamboree, where the Condors played 4 matches at UBC on the spectacular new artificial turf. These games were 7 on 7, played on a much larger pitch than during the regular season. The larger playing surface meant the boys had to practice the skills they learned during the year and play together as a team. The kids who are used to running end to end on the smaller field quickly tired out, and passing was key.

And wouldn't you know it, Justin dashed up to the side of the net and drilled a pass into the net for the first goal of the jamboree for the Condors. Way to go, Justin! It was an awesome goal, and it got him fired up such that he was in the heat of a lot of action. He took a nasty boot to the shin that took him down awhile, but later on made a great play on defense and booted the ball about a mile up field to his teammate. I've never seen him kick the ball so hard and far before.

But you know what the best part of the soccer jamboree is? It is the END! The last games of a gruelling season that runs from September to March, through the cold, wet days of a Vancouver winter. Thank the good Lord it is finally over!!! With the length of the season, I'm surprised Vancouver isn't turning out more world class soccer players. I'm exhausted. Baseball is up next!

Seattle

We spent a few days in Seattle over March break. It isn't far from Vancouver but we haven't been there with the kids before. I guess because its just a typical dirty American city that pales by comparison to the beauty and cleanliness of Vancouver. Seattle is kind of a bigger, dirtier, more run down, less spectacular version of Vancouver. And with an overcrowded freeway running right through the middle of it. Blech. Whoever it was that decided to shelve the idea of a freeway through downtown Vancouver deserves a medal.

The area around the Space Needle is semi-interesting. There`s a combination museum of music and science fiction...right...hmm...ok then, moving on...there`s some interesting architecture there.

The kids were hiding behind the art, and yes, Justin is there hiding in the background somewhere. Zero cooperation! I`m sure I wasn`t that difficult when I was a kid. That`s Jess and Jamie hanging out with us.

Nonetheless, I managed to get a picture of the little monster.

And speaking of monsters, Justin was swallowed by a whale at the Children`s museum, where we blew off about 4 hours! Sheesh! A good rainy day thing to entertain the rug rats.

Justin did a great job on the rock wall.

The weather finally turned and we took in the zoo. The kids enjoyed a ride on the vintage carousel.

Justin, Jess, Brooks and Jamies take a ride on a komodo dragon.

You know, I just don`t even know where to begin to describe this picture. At some point over the past year, I`m sure Justin was abducted and replaced with an alien clone.

Overall, the kids had fun, we had some great pizza from Serious Pies, the hotel was a super mega deal, the zoo was pretty cool and it was nice to get away. If I had to rank the major cities of the Pacific Northwest, Vancouver is by far number one, and I`d recommend Portland over Seattle without hesitation.

One Last Olympics Related Picture?

Holy cow! Just got this picture from Justin's school. Who says Canadians aren't patriotic? But this is a little over the top! We've come out of the Olympics with a fever pitch of Canadian patriotism...sure to impact my kids for their entire lives.

I have to admit that I've always considered myself Nova Scotian first and Canadian second, but I don't think there's any worry of that happening to Justin and Brooklyn. Furthermore, Justin went into the Olympics mildly interested in hockey and has come out a hockey nut! He commented while the Canucks game was on TV last night that Ryan Kessler played for Team USA and Roberto Luongo was Canada's goalie. Wow, I guess he was paying attention!

New Car - BMW 528i

Yeah, I broke down and got silver this time. I got tired of constantly washing that damned black car, even though it was much more stylish. This one has the great luxuries of my old car like the heated steering wheel, heated seats, parking assist, automatic passenger side mirror adjust for parking, handsfree cell phone and so on, plus a usb jack for my iPod, free satellite radio, automatic side view mirror retraction in parking lots so people don't take off your mirrors, gps navigation system and great one touch buttons for your favourite radio stations or dialing phone numbers. Rides like a dream. The US auto makers have a long way to go to compete...