The show all kids love is turning 40! On November 10th, Sesame Street will celebrate its 40th Anniversary. It first aired on November 10th, 1969, and has become the longest running show on United States television.

The Sesame Street characters were originally created by Jim Henson. They became loved by children all over the world, and have formed a show that is an extremely helpful educating tool for children today.

Happy Birthday to Sesame Street and hopefully it continues to be as good as educating kids as it was when we were young! For more information click here.

So a while back Kaitlin had posted a topic about the Youth Volunteer Corps (YVC).  For those who don’t know, YVC is a program where youth can sign up to volunteer in Calgary.  Youth can sign up to volunteer 1 time, or 2 times, or 100 times.  Projects are added weekly and youth can volunteer at their own pace.

The best part is that the volunteering is done in teams.  So when you sign up for a project you’ll be working with a group of youth.  You’re also allowed to bring friends to volunteer with you.  There is a team leader who is there to make sure you’re taken care of.

The projects offered through YVC are awesome and aren’t boring jobs.  I’ve posted a video to highlight one of the previous YVC projects.  This one is from back in September 2009 and it’s from the Calgary International Film Festival.  Youth volunteers came out to rip tickets, greet patrons, introduce films, take pictures, etc.  Check it out.

To sign up or for more information please visit Child and Youth Friendly Calgary.

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Vancouver and Edmonton have both experienced Make It. Guess who’s next… Calgary! Just in time for the holiday season that’s around the corner too.

WHAT is Make It?

Make It is the handmade revolution. It is an event where you can shop for ethically made, one-of-a-kind handmade items from over 50 of Canada’s hottest emerging urban artisans and designers! There will be music spun by top local DJs and tasty treats to be enjoyed.

Make It is about appreciating creativity, connecting entrepreneurs, and giving conscious shoppers an alternative to the mall.

WHEN is Make It?

*Disclaimer: It has recently come to our attention that Ashley Kirilow allegedly lied about having cancer and that her charity was a hoax. Youth Are Awesome does not support this behaviour, nor do we condone it. We support youth that are doing good things with good intentions. We have decided to leave this post up as an example of what not to do, and promote that it is possible for youth to accomplish great things, but only if they have good intentions.

Please see our new post for more information.

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Recently I had the opportunity to talk to Ashley Kirilow, the founder of “Change” For a Cure (C4AC).  C4AC is an organization that encourages everyone to save the change they find – whether it be in their pockets, in the seat cushions, or on the sidewalk – in order to help find a cure for cancer.  The organization also holds various concerts and events to help fundraise, but I’ll let Ashley – who was inspired by the Skate4Cancer project and is even planning to walk across the country to raise funds for her cause –  tell you more about it 🙂

Youth Are Awesome: I have to ask, what is your favourite type of cheese?

Ashley Kirilow: Haha, I don’t really like cheese, but I like these things called “Cheese Balls”…the jalapeno one.  It’s this big ball of soft cheese you spread onto crackers.  Yum!

YAA: How did you decide where all of our saved “change” would be donated too?

A: Being a cancer patient myself, and struggling with finding a treatment that worked for my body and types of cancer I have [Ashley has breast, brain and stomach cancer], the search for a cure has always been my goal. Then I heard about DCA, a cancer fighting drug proven to help cure cancer 70% better then any chemo out there. I just had to help fund it.

YAA: Did you think this organization would take off as quickly as it did?

Whether it’s basketball or piano, this saying will always be true. The more you practice and practice, the better you get. But is the right type of practice more important than we think?

As you repeat an action over and over again, your muscles become accostomed to how the action is performed and how it feels. Your brain starts to remember what to do.

Now, say you play an instrument. You have a song that is very hard, and you start learning it without the help of your teacher. You’ve been practicing all week, but there is a rhythm, fingering or note that you are playing wrong. When you find out from your teacher that you have been playing it wrong, it takes at least twice the time to re-program yourself to play it right than it took to learn it in the first place.

Perhaps you play basketball. You started playing by yourself without a coach, and you developed your own way that feels comfortable to you to throw the ball, but when you join the team, you realise you’ve been doing it wrong. It may take you weeks of throwing hoops before you tell your muscles a new way of doing it.

This is all because of muscle memory! Now you can see why it is important to practice right!

Here are some tips to help you practice right the first time:

– Isolate the problem and focus on improving it.

– Repeat it over and over again to train your brain.

– Practice as often as possible, even if it is just for a short amount of time.

– Visualize what you are doing before and after you do it.

– Never give up!! It may take many tries before you fix the problem!

When an object gets way too big, we start to lose the meaning of its size.  It is easy to imagine how big a city is, maybe possible to comprehend the vastness of earth, or even for some, the giant-like sun.  Of course, these are the objects we see or interact with everyday; we have close relationship with them, but can you visualize a sphere with diameter close to 2.8 billion kilometers?  Yes, I am talking about the largest known star, VY Canis Majoris, a red hyper-giant. To give you a perspective, the diameter of the earth is 12,756 kilometers. That makes earth an almost invisible dot on the surface of that red hyper-giant.

Check out the video below to help yourself visualize the variety of sizes of astronomical bodies:

In my opinion, one can never comprehend the unbelievable gigantic sizes before they experience a personal comparison, that is to stand side by side with the giant and feel like a droplet of water in the vast, deep ocean.

Of course, no one can ever stand side by side with a red hyper-giant.  First of all, you would die from the radiation before you approach it close enough.  Second of all, you would evaporate from the heat.

Are you impressed with the vastness of the universe? Does it help you visualize how big stars can get? You’re welcome to post any comment.

Upon first seeing this post, you may have paused for a moment to wonder if Halloween had already passed, or whether it was all a sugar-induced dream. Alas, it is over, but the sheer creativity, horror, originality, effort, and pyrotechnics of these pumpkins live on. Check out the galleries and start planning for next year. I guarantee that you haven’t seen pumpkins this cool or ambitious before!

Some of my favourites are: the rampaging pumpkin of destruction, the cannibal pumpkin, the giant carnivorous pumpkin (though is it really carnivorous? – I’m thinking more along the lines of cannibal…), the ninja pumpkin, and last but not least, the delicate and artistic pumpkin mummy 🙂

Ok, lets be honest. We all have at least one guilty pleasure of trash TV. For me, it’s America’s Next Top Model. For others it’s Wipe Out! We ‘waste’ hours watching these products of consumer culture that will not advance our intelligence or understanding of the world beyond how to achieve a marvellous face-plant or “smize” (smile with [your] eyes, coined by Tyra Banks). It’s time to rip ourselves away from the glorious screens of our TVs and computers and take a night to watch something worth while.

Starting November 17th and running until November 22nd, the Marda Loop Justice Film Festival is screening various films around the city. The festival is free and is not only screening movies that matter, but is also hosting speakers and a NGO (Non-governmental organization) Village.

With titles ranging from Addiction to Plastic to Iron Ladies of Liberia, something will surely spark your interest.

Not only is the festival raising awareness about some over-looked global issues, it’s also a volunteer opportunity!

Halloween may be over, but for the cast of Sweeney Todd, the bloody and diabolical “tricks and treats” haven’t even begun.

Most of us have seen the wickedly macabre film rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Sweeney Todd. We all loved Johnny Depp’s version of the razor wielding, half-mad ex-convict, but to see it live is an entirely different experience! With riveting tunes, melancholy humour, and intense drama, Sweeny Todd has enchanted and disgusted audiences from Broadway to Japan. Now, Front Row Center Player’s brings this chilling story of vengeance and… savoury… meat pies to the Pumphouse Theatre.

The show runs November 6th to November 14th. Check frontrowcentre.ca for show times, tickets and other show info.

Support our vibrant theatre community!

Come tread the path that few have trod to Sweeney Todd… to Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street!

This Halloween, I watched a movie called Paranormal Activity.  This is a strange movie, and by that I mean it is very different from the traditional horror film.  How so?  Well, in a normal horror film something would pop out of no where accompanied by a loud sound, making the viewer jump.  Also in a normal horror film, we would actually see the source of evil.  Example – The Grudge.

But in this film, the traditional techniques are mostly abandoned.  The title of the film explains what you can expect to see: Paranormal Activity.  This means, you do not see any ghost, just a bunch of things that are not supposed to happen. This is a lot scarier than it sounds.  Also, there are only about two scenes that cause the viewer to jump, but the other scenes are bizarre and stay in your mind even after the movie is over.  The creepiest scenes happen slowly so you see every bit of it – that’s scary.

This movie follows a girl who has been haunted by a spirit since she was 8.  The paranormal activities that follow her have been getting worse and worse, so her boyfriend buys a hand held camera and sets it up in their bedroom to prove that she ‘s just being paranoid.  Right away, the footage captured proves that the girl is right.

The whole movie is shot by the boyfriend’s handheld camera.  This makes it feel very real. This is a really messed up movie, and people either love it or hate it.  This movie is definitely not for the easily scared.  A friend of mine had to sleep with his lights on for a week.

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So I’m sure you’re all familiar with Taylor Swift’s Love Story…

But what about Thug Story? She’s eight foot four and rapping hardcore… 😉

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Taylor Swift and T-Pain performed this song in June 2009 at the CMT Music Awards, so this is still pretty recent. I’ve listened and watched this more times than I can count, but it never fails to crack me up. Seriously, I love this song so much. It is beyond hilarious. Who would have ever thought that the country pop singer would even consider rapping? Taylor Swift is just so adorable. 😀

No, she’s not actually going to be rapping all the time now, but the song is still funny all the same. Check out the lyrics here!

When one walks down the streets of Kensington here in Calgary, one often comes across the question, “which coffee house is the right house?” Well the answer here is, The House! The Coffee Sanctuary, as it is often referred to, was started by The First Alliance Church and is run by volunteers. At The House they make sure that when they are buying their coffee beans, their money is going to the people who deserve it.

Now besides being a place to just hang out, drink coffee and meet people; it is also a place where you can plug in your laptop to  send emails or check Facebook (like every 30 minutes!), and besides all that, it’s a great place to catch some live music!  On Fridays you can often find cafe concerts going on, usually starting around 7:00pm, like this past Friday when local musician, Elise Roller, played an amazing two hour set.  Thursday’s are also great days for live music because starting at 7:30 p.m., it’s open mic night! Admission to these events is always free, but I do suggest you buy yourself a drink, and may I suggest the London Fog or Chai Latte. I always have trouble picking between those two!

As you may know, Youth Are Awesome is a program of Child and Youth Friendly Calgary. One of the staff members here, Andrew Phung, has made it into the top 5 finalists in the search for Canada’s next sportscaster on The Score‘s show Drafted. In the midst of all of this, you may be wondering who the famous Phungmaster is. Click here for some snippets of his interview and watch his video to see not only why they were convinced but also why you should support Andrew. Don’t forget to become a fan of him on Facebook, click here!

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This is it!

Finally, the movie that we all have being waiting for is out in theaters. Never seen before rehearsal footage of the King of Pop opened October 28th, but will only be in theaters for two weeks! This is a must see movie for all Michael Jackson fans out there and even if you are not a fan, go check it out anyways because you will for sure love it! Tickets can be bought online or at the movie theater in advance.

For those who don’t know, Michael Jackson was planning to have “This is it” concert starting in July this year to March of 2010 but tragedy struck. The King of Pop unfortunately passed away just before the concert began and left everyone devastated. This movie is a tribute to his legacy, something to remember his legend by.

Check out the movie trailer below!

R.I.P. Michael Jackson, the King of Pop.