Kensington is by far my favourite place to hang out in Calgary. With stores like Hot Wax and Mañana, I could spend days there without a second thought. But above all, what keeps me coming back are the coffee shops.

The Higher Ground is one of my personal favourites. It boasts a 100% organic and fair-trade coffee menu, and a long-standing track record of community involvement. In September they hosted “Blank Canvas”, collaborating with ACAD artists to provide an exhibition space for over 50 students, hosted an all-ages show featuring Bob Quaschnick of the Dudes as part of Sled Island 2009, and have a monthly artist spotlight. The “All the Best Music” series brings Calgarians free performances from local up & coming artists on the last Thursday of every month. Playing next is Noel Johnson on the 28th. I know I’ll be attending for a welcome reprise from diploma-writing.

Most recently this cozy cafe has introduced Vegan Thursdays.
They’ve teamed up with Anahata Foods, a local independent business, to provide a full 3-course meal every Thursday between 5 and 7pm. If you’ve got some free time tonight, check it out. But call ahead – these meals are receiving such great reviews that they now require a reservation to attend.

The Higher Ground fuses concert venue, art space, restaurant, coffee shop, and even bar, meanwhile maintaining an all-ages friendly reputation. For more information head over to their Facebook page which is updated constantly with upcoming events and seasonal drink specials.

Looking for something a bit more mentally stimulating on the internet? Well, math, medicine and history are the topics today.

Better Explained is a website devoted to helping people understand mathematical concepts, especially when it comes to calculus. Its creator, Kalid Azad, had this ambition to help people better grasp these various concepts in math, as he faced some difficult trials during his own university studies.

There are frequent updates on the site adding in new material to help you with math. Also, he added his own ebook which covers many topics essential to understanding calculus. This is a great site if you need assistance or are intrigued by math.

Science-Based Medicine is a fantastic website focused on the role of  medicine in science, along with its relation to pseudoscience.  The excellent writing team is composed of:

physicians who, alarmed at the manner in which unscientific and pseudoscientific health care ideas have increasingly infiltrated academic medicine and medicine at large, have decided to do their part to examine these claims in the light of science and skepticism.

The site is frequently updated with various topics on the disputes between the two fields, and the contributors provide an in-depth analysis on these issues to try and reveal the facts and expose the lies.

Finally, if you are interested in World War II, here is an amazingly extensive Flash presentation of the Eastern Front during this time.  There was  a lot of extensive research put into this to make sure all the information is accurate, to acquire stunning photos and footage of the environments, and impressively provide real accounts from people who were there.

Enjoy the education!

Earlier this month, 16 climbers stepped foot on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, one of world’s largest stratovolcanoes, approximately 19,341 feet from sea level.

These climbers are doing this to raise awareness of the billion people worldwide who lack access to clean drinking water. They hope that this climb will raise awareness of the global clean water crisis and funds for various charities and organizations.

What draws my attention about this event is the way they are raising money for this noble cause – they created world’s longest website, featuring 19,340 feet  of webpage, each feet of website for each feet of height they climbed.

Even cooler, their fund raising campaign offers 1 cent for 1 litre of water for those in need and each donor gets to choose to engrave their name on one of the foot on the website. So, after you donated money to the event, you get to show off to your friends that your name is on the world’s coolest website. =D

In addition, the climbers who have reached the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro posted their pictures, tweets, and stories on the website as well, so you can see what it is like to be on various places on that mountain as if you were really there.

Lastly, I hope you have fun scrolling up and down the website of Summit on The Summit, and donate a couple of dollars at least for those in need of clean water.

I personally enjoy the website very much; tell me how you like this website by placing your comment at the end of this post.

Does anyone remember those salad dressing commercials where a landscape was speedily assembled out of vegetables and then salad dressing was poured on as the “water” in the scene?  I loved those commercials and thought that they were so creative.  Imagine my delight when I stumbled across these fantastic vegetarian landscapes.  For those of you who prefer to be carnivorous though, I’ve thrown in a meat-laden image as well.  (Note: these are all done by Carl Warner).

For more of Carl’s wonderful world (made) of food, check out his other landscapes.  He also has other interesting art on his website.

For the last month Avatar has been the movie virtually everyone has been talking about.  In the first week since its release my Facebook news feed lit up with glowing reviews in the form of status updates.  Almost everyone told me they loved it.  Initially uninterested in the film, my curiosity eventually grew to the point where I had to see it for myself.  And so this weekend, that is what I did.

As the Empire Theatres employee took my ticket to rip off the stub she asked me how many times I had seen the movie thus far.  When I said I hadn’t seen it yet, she told me she planned to see it at least twice more. “Sooo good…” she added for emphasis.

James Cameron’s Avatar released in Canada on December 18th, and nearly an entire month later the theatre was so packed I ended up having to sit in the second row from the front.  After the movie was over the lineup for the next showing was startlingly long.  The moviegoers patiently waited in line, at least 30 minutes before their showing was scheduled to start.

When this happens, when so many people insist that a movie is just fantastic, I become determined to hate it.  I walk into the theatre trying my best to keep an open mind, but as soon as the movie starts to play, I unconsciously start looking for things that are wrong with it.  I start scoffing at clunky dialogue; I sneer at the slightest sign of cliché and I begin to ignore parts of the movie which I might have actually called good if I had truly sat down with an open mind.

All of Avatar’s characters appeared to me as shallow variations on clichéd archetypes.  I saw the plot as cheesy and predictable.  I perceived the underlying message and the film’s themes as insincere.  Even Avatar’s action sequences (which I must admit, got my heart beating), I dismissed as special effects fluff.

That said, even with all the effort I put into trying to hate it, after the credits rolled I still couldn’t call Avatar bad.  It just didn’t ‘wow’ me.  In many ways I went looking for a verification of my own preconceived judgments, but I would like to think that I wanted Avatar to be good and that I wanted the movie to live up to the hype.  I had just set the bar too high.

But that of course would be untrue.

  The 2010 Winter Olympics logo was unveiled on April 23, 2005, and is named Ilanaaq the Inunnguaq.  Ilanaaq is the Inuktitut word for friend.
 
The mascots for the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games were inspired by traditional First Nations creatures, the mascots include:

Miga — A mythical sea bear, part orca and part kermode bear.
Quatchi — A sasquatch.
Sumi — An animal guardian spirit who wears the hat of the orca whale, flies with the wings of the mighty Thunderbird and runs on the strong furry legs of the black bear.

Miga (right) and Quatchi (middle) are mascots for the Olympic Games, while Sumi (left) is the mascot for the Paralympic Games.
 
Now, lastly, there are the Red Mittens.  If you’ve been under a rock for the past few months, you won’t have noticed the hundreds of flaming red-and-white hands wandering around the city.  Little do most people know that there is actually real purpose behind these fuzzy gloves.  These mittens are meant to mimic the ones designed for the 12000 Torchbearers, who carry the spirit of the games from coast to coast.  As such, they are a must have commemorative item.   You are showing support for our amazing athletes while keeping cozy!

Can’t get enough of that Olympic Spirit? Come down to Olympic Plaza on January 18th and see the torch pass through our city.  Check here to see when and where the torch may be passing through your community!

Cheer on our athletes and stay tuned for regular Olympic updates once the games get going!

Part 2 of “Please Do Not Taste the Artwork” is here!

Fast food is a sign of the commercialism of society!  Of loss of creativity!  Of conformity and lack of imagination!  If I’m wrong I’ll eat my hat!

Well, maybe it’s not… I’m not actually wearing a hat – that shoe might not taste so bad though.  And yes, that is a pizza Sudoku (much cooler than donut Sudoku in my opinion) :).

When Calgarian youth get involved in their communities, we at CYFC think that it’s worth recognizing. We posted about the YMCA Calgary Peace Medals and CYFC’s own ConocoPhillips Youth of Distinction Awards, and now the City of Calgary is gearing up to recognize citizens with the Calgary Awards.

For the awesome youth in Calgary, there is a special category that is part of the Community Achievement Awards.  This award is presented to a youth whose “exceptional achievements have brought recognition to, or improved the quality of life in, Calgary,” with a focus on volunteer and community contributions.  We’re proud to say that last year the award was granted to an awesome CYFC volunteer, Natasha Somani.

If you would like to nominate someone, the form can be found here, and is due March 5th, 2010.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I love carving pumpkins for halloween.  The problem is, these often beautiful (or terrifying) creations are only truely festive during October.  They bring connotations of fall, shortening days, spooks. Spring is just around the corner, and frankly, I wouldn’t mind if some type of carved fruit brought to mind thoughts of new beginnings. I nominate the watermelon – cheerful, bright, and “ripe” with possibilities.  Why doesn’t Easter get on the carving bandwagon?  (Don’t worry, for those of you who want to start a new Halloween tradition next year, I’ll throw in some stranger-than-flowers designs too).

Update:  Check out The Wooden Sky in Calgary on February 12th at 8pm.  They are playing at Broken City along with The Rural Alberta Advantage. may be a group forged in a downtown Toronto garage, but they have taken their “folk rock” sound across Canada to perform, record, write songs, collaborate, explore Canada and make friends along the way.  The four musicians that make up The Wooden Sky, Gavin Gardiner (vocals, guitars, harmonica), Andrew Wyatt (bass, vocals), Simon Walker (piano, vocals, guitar) and Andrew Kekewich (percussion), believe that their sound is something much bigger than “folk rock”…it’s the sound of collective will. Gavin Gardiner took a few moments to sit down with Youth Are Awesome and describe what it’s really like to be a musician, and someone that’s accepted the adventure of touring during Canada’s cold winter.

The Wooden Sky

Youth Are Awesome: When did you realize Andrew, Simon and Andrew were the people you wanted to play music with?

The Wooden Sky: I kind of realize it every time we play together. It all kind of happened organically.  I met [Andrew] Wyatt at an open mic night, that we were both playing that night. He was drunk and he started playing along with me.  It was so annoying, he was just sitting there, waning guitar solos.  I was starting another band at the time and my friend said he knew the guy playing guitar solos and that he was also a bass player so we recruited Wyatt.  I met Simon through Wyatt, and Andrew [Kekewich] joined the band to fill in on a tour and we had such a good time playing together.  Everything seemed right playing together and hanging out. Then Andrew went off to school, so we found a new drummer for our next tour and something didn’t seem right. When we got back, the first person we called was Andrew, even before our girlfriends. Haha.

YAA: Where did the inspiration come from for your name The Wooden Sky? What does it mean to you?

The Wooden Sky: The band had a different name before, “Friday Morning’s Regret,” which was just Wyatt and I, and we wanted to change it, but everybody hated it, the name I came up with.  So I wrote a song around [The Wooden Sky] and we all decided just to go with it. There was no flaming pie in a dream or anything.  Band names are just a necessary evil.  I just hope that it’s transparent enough that people don’t hear the name without hearing the music and think they know exactly what it sounds like, and I think we accomplished that.

YAA: During the songwriting process is it more of a jam session or does an individual take charge of song?

The Wooden Sky: That changes song to song. Mainly, I write a piece of a song, but because I’m a procrastinator and don’t finish things very well, I bring that piece to the band or Wyatt and we often work on them together since we live together, and then everyone collaborates on it at band practice. Once that happens it usually becomes something completely different.

YAA: Your new album, “If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone,” is now out, what was the recording process like, are you involved with every aspect?

The Wooden Sky: Oh yeah, super involved.  We’re kind of control freaks when it comes to that. We recorded it all over the place.  We recorded in Montreal working 12 hour days on it, all living together, and we had both of our drummers there. Then we transferred it all to computer files and recorded more in Toronto with my friend (who has one of the best guitar collections I’ve ever seen), and we recorded  a lot of vocals in my apartment. Simon’s dad is an Anglican minister so we recorded in his church with the piano and pipe organ.  It was hard to record because everything was resonating, and we had to use five mics up in the balcony.

YAA: What is one of the coolest venues you’ve played in, and one of the more  questionable ones?

So I’ve been listening to Amp for the past bit, using it as background music (or background noise, whichever you would like to call it). I’ve noticed two songs that are ridiculously overplayed. Not that radios don’t overplay songs in general, but these two songs… bug me. Really bug me. Maybe I’m being picky, but seriously, every time I hear these songs… I literally want to bash my head into the desk, heh.

Now don’t get me wrong, I do love listening to Amp. And I’m sure there are lots of people out there who love these songs and think they’re amazing. I can see why: they’re catchy (hate it when they get stuck in my head) and they’re fun (but the lyrics are a tad ridiculous). Maybe I’ve just heard these songs way too much, but something about them bugs me anyways. So without further ado…

The first of these incriminating songs? Ke$ha‘s TiK ToK.

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Why, would you ever, ever, EVER, want to brush your teeth with a bottle of Jack? That’s gross. Sure the party life may be fun and appealing, but I’m pretty certain minty fresh toothpaste works just as well. In addition to that, this song definitely doesn’t promote a healthy lifestyle. Trust me, sleep is much better for you than all night partying. 😀

The other one? Lady Gaga‘s Bad Romance.

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I quite like most of Lady Gaga’s songs, but this one was just… an over the line kind of thing. Repeating nonsense syllables? Fun for the first few times. After that, it’s just headache inducing. You and me? No, it’s you and I (as oh so kindly mentioned at the previous YVC meeting, heh… glad to know I’m not the only one who gets bothered by that!).

My apologies if you adore these songs. I don’t mean to hate on them—just expressing my annoyance at the the songs of today with a bit of quirky humour. Or my annoyance at how hearing a song too many times can drive you insane. (And you know what’s even better? I’m listening to Amp as I write this… and Bad Romance just started playing. Lovely.)

Any comments? Otherwise… enjoy your day! 😀