The tall ship Kruzenshtern in St. John's

Each year the east coast port city of St. John's welcomes vessels of all types and sizes. Cruise ships have become a common sight in St. John's harbour particularly in the fall of the year. At other times, there are high tech rowing boats moored at dock, designed to tackle the seas between Newfoundland and England. You will commonly see whale watching tourist boats, freighters, tankers, and sailboats and special ones like the Kruzenshtern. The Kruzenshtern is 375 ft in length, and is 169 ft high. It was built in 1926 in Germany, and was first called the Padua. She was surrendered to the USSR in 1946 as war reparation, and was given a new name, after a Baltic explorer in the Russian service.

A light walk in the park

St. John's and rock stars

Fall colors?
Rock stars?
giving peace a chance

Cruising to St. John's

The Crown Princess must have been making good time on this morning. She arrived 40 minutes earlier than her scheduled 7 a.m. time. Boasting a passenger capacity of 3780, this was the largest cruise ship in St. John's this year.
Maneuvering to dock


Check out the size

Electric 2010 Junos Heats up St. John's and Canadian living rooms

The two hour broadcast of the 2^nd Juno awards show in St. John's in 9 years was electric, fast paced, with a heavily music based component to the show rather than a more host(s)-centered show. There were two venues for the broadcast, the main Mile One Centre, and a live feed from a lively sardine-packed George Street.

The live awards show kicked off with rap group Classified rapping their crowd supported "Oh ... Canada". The trio walked, rap-danced through the crowd of possibly 1000's of George St. fans, chasing the camera, as an aerial cam panned the group making the way through. They ended their performance on a circle in Prince Edward Park, which immediately was sequed by the announcer to inside Mile One where fan favorite Michael Bublé took the stage to sing his hit, "Haven’t Met You Yet".

At first, it appeared, at least on my tube that the sound was somewhat stifled, but it improved toward the end of his performance. The crowd reacted with enthusiastic appreciation, and was acknowledged by the BC crooner.

Bublé went on to win three Junos during the night, and shutting out teen fave, Justin Bieber. Whenever, either of their names or appearances was announced, the fans harmonized well practiced screaming. A few other acts were prominent during the night. K'Naan, and Drake both picked up two, they are hip hop and rap artists, which seemed to get plenty of exposure in the broadcast, with Drake taking the stage to sing three different times, and two for K'Naan. It is not surprising, as rapper Drake had been a big hit at the Grammys, and thus, is a hope for the less than super hot Canadian music industry right now.

For this blogger, the most energetic, and riveting highlight was the explosive sounds of rock group Billy Talent. Their song "Saint Veronica" had a hard edged, catchy melody, but carefully crafted sound that makes their music recognizable as Billy Talent. With great guitar riffs, combined with vocal cord shredding screeches by their lead singer, and solid bass and drums, their interesting hooks and stage presence was the most magnetic stage act of the night - interesting lyrics to "Saint Veronica" as well.

The 2010 Junos will also be remembered for the amazing creative and eye-catching stage design. Icebergs were the backdrop scene, which could also have been versions of west coast mountain ranges, and would have been appropriate since the west coast representation were such a big part of the show.

The iceberg set design allowed many different images, lights, strobe effects, and variations to keep the generation of short-attention span audiences, still stimulated by them. The iceberg light, and image patterns were changed for different performances. For example, in parts of the Billy Talent song, when the song reached a momentum point, the whole iceberg set design lit up bright all of the bergs at once to coincide with the particular musical high point. It was executed with excellent timing, and effect to compliment the emotional energy created by the band's fantastic song.

In 2002, St. John's was a big hit with Juno organizers, being the first city to host the Junos on the road. This year has outdone that first Juno event, and the broadcast will be seen as successful event.

Congratulations to NL musician Amelia Curran on winning for the best traditional/roots category.

As a broadcast, it depends on your perspective how you would describe it. From this one, it was mostly exciting, well planned, generally smooth flowing, with nice production direction, coordinating crews, personalities, and two crowded venues. Up to the time of the blog post, there have not been many show reviews nationally. There certainly have been no negative comments so far. The Vancouver Sun said it was a "a potentially tame awards show, uplifted by the energy of fresh blood into the Canadian music canon"

It was tame perhaps, but had some gracious moments, which from this blog view is much more pleasing than some other obnoxious music awards shows internationally.

City lights

Maybe Christmas is starting 9 months early this year as opposed to the regular two to three months, but for some reason the Xmas lights on the hill were aglow. Just fine with me for a night.

Think Outside the Boxes, Fortis

Just a quick viewpoint on the Fortis proposal to develop a 15-storey office building, and refurbish their existing rectangle, on the St. John's waterfront. I don't have a problem with 15 or 20-storey buildings, but while there is still an opportunity, why not really try to make the place look like there is some architectural creative flair and style on the waterfront, rather than just four flat sides and a flat roof. Let's face it, St. John's is the main face of the province, and the harbour front is plastered everywhere and seen from a number of vantage points, from Sig Hill, to boats, planes, postcards, and tv and net. There's an abundance of creativity here, and it would be nice to see a sign of that reflected in the calm waters of the harbour mirroring any new development.

Who or What Caused Tim Hortons Drive-thru Problems? Tim's, Customers, Laziness, City Hall, or the Combo?

There's quite a brew-ha-ha this week over coffee traffic snarls. What's the cause and where's the solution? Maybe it's a little from column A, a little from column B. TV reports can't cover every driver but a few did admit to the preference of waiting in the car rather than parking, and walking in. Though it is not always possible to predict how successful a business or franchise will be, a Tim's franchise is probably going to have them lining up morning, noon and night. One can foresee potential problems.It seems everyone has to have a morning jolt.     Click picture to enlarge

The Conception Bay South example of extending the drive-thru lane further away from the main street seems to have solved the vexing accident-causing stressor over there. Any expense for extra land required would not likely take long to recover, after all, it is Tim Hortons. Too bad the extra long drive-thrus were not part of this type of business development policy years before. Restaurants like Tim's will get away with what is legal.

In the meantime, they can do their bit to solve the problem by, for example, limiting the drive-thru to just drinks? It will likely speed things along.

In the long-run, food businesses with drive-thrus will have to do what works for everyone, extend the length of those lanes. It's kind of amazing how people put up with it, waiting patiently for that coffee or breakfast in one rush hour crawl, only to frantically enter another back on the main streets. Either there is something addictive about the coffee, or the daily communal, single-file gathering itself, is perhaps a comfort before facing the reality of the day.

As consumers we are part of the problem and solution.

Cruising Out of the Fog

The Crown Princess. Notice the height. The building on the right is the Royal Trust building.

Eastern Edge of North America

ObeseCity

St. John's, proudly known as "The oldest city in North America", has a thriving, bursting economy, and lately, is known to have a bursting obesity rate of 36.4%, the highest among Canadian cities.

A University of Alberta researcher found that the rate is related to the proportion of fast-food outlets in the region. The Atlantic region had the highest in comparison to other Canadian regions.

In Quebec city the obesity rate is 17.3% and the # of fast-food outlets per 10,000 residents is 1.97. In St. John's the # of fast-food outlets per 10,000 is 3.54.

There are 100,646 residents in St. John's proper (1/5 of NL's population), and 181,113 (nearly 2/5 of NL's population) residents in the St. John's metro area (City of St. John's).     The following table is from the CTV story


That's a large proportion of people, and, potential health problems related to obesity. This is a concern, most importantly for personal health, but also for the health care system - it's medical staff and infrastructure, and the provinces health care budget.

While this study compared cities, there is no reason to believe that other areas of NL would have better rates.

Various factors are associated with Atlantic Canada's higher rate - socio-economic factors, weather, cost of healthier foods, and quite possibly an inadequate amount of education about the dangers in many foods. It would be an interesting idea to make more room in school curriculums for food and nutrition education, reinforced by healthier food choices in schools. (NL has the highest teenage obesity rate in the country as well)

Food and our body's food processing system is in a way like an engine, or a plumbing system. If you put harmful oils, pollutants, grease, and junk into it, the system can clog, and need to be cleansed (angioplasted, or snaked).

It's not easy to change eating patterns .. boy, it's not easy, but the more we learn about bad foods, and how it can affect our direct health and daily being, the better decisions we can make on what food we want our bodies to process.

This earlier blog post has information that was released a few months back on the relationship between cancer and weight. Another warns of dangerous sodium levels in food, and here is an analysis of Dr. Yoni Freedhoff's exposure of the misleading Health Check symbol.

Food and health education is a big part of individual health, and the health care system. Our province, schools, health and any individual or organization can promote more informed citizens to make healthy choices.

In the first half of the 1900s and before, people in Newfoundland and Labrador, did much more physical work than todays computer age workers. There wasn't much nutritional information going around, but people did eat plenty of organic food, which many grew themselves. Of course, there was lots of fat in meat, or salt meats, but people, perhaps unknowingly, were exercising as they worked, and burned off calories.

The province, and St. John's can help people by encouraging more physical activity. The trail system around the town and Mount Pearl is a great place for walkers, and more can be done.

Ottawa has the Rideau Canal where 1000s of people skate. The city is lucky to have a 7 km canal maintained in the winter for skaters. We have unsupervised ponds but there is a real threat of drownings. A public skating rink would be great for St. John's - a shallow water rink where families can go for general skating.

Unfortunately there are now few areas of the city where such a rink could be placed, as commerce is the first priority it appears. What little practical space is left for such an endeavor should be frozen (pun intended), and assessed to determine how the area could either just simply be flooded in the winter, or an actual open air rink with rink boards, benches, etc., could be constructed.

Winter is difficult for getting around. Sidewalks at the best of winters are hidden beneath tons of snow. It's not possible to keep them cleared constantly like during the last week's four major snowfalls. The city has been doing a fine job of keeping roadways cleared so far. However, better sidewalk clearing than has been witnessed in past years, needs to happen. It would mean safer streets, safe people, and importantly, contribute to lowering risk of obesity.

Some Drivers Need to Learn to Drive

Every day without fail there are people running red lights, speeding, weaving, tailgating, whizzing by pedestrians waiting at crosswalks. It has been happening forever in the old capital city of St. John's, but in just this year alone, there seems to be an increase in mania on the local drag strips cross-town arterials and city streets.
There is a low unemployment rate in the city, and possibly more workers, but there does not need to be reckless driving. Yet, the risks of accidents, injuries and possibly death, to me, seems to be rising. With only 100s of metres between many of the red lights, you would think "why rush and push, be patient", but in reality it's as if WWIII has started and panic has set in. The Mario Andrettis in the city should find a more appropriate drag strip to play race car driver, or, leave for work earlier, before someone gets hurt or killed.

Careful out there folks, these are dangerous times. There's an improving economy, but there are many break-ins and serious crimes, much drug-related, and on top of that, the Christmas economy booster rockets have fired, and drivers are out in droves. To the road racers, slow down, relax, the world is not ending tomorrow, and God-speed.