Vancouver singin' the Chicago Blues!

Kelowna audiences had the chance to enjoy the legendary Buddy Guy a week ago in concert. It was his first time here and the review in the Daily Courier newspaper said: "a living blues legend renowned for his ability to change gears in midstream, able to morph from raspy ribald whisperings
to screaming lead guitar pyrotechnics in a heartbeat."

It looks like 1957 was the year the now 74-year-old Buddy Guy left Louisiana to make his mark in Chicago. That year Montreal beat Boston in the Stanley Cup final and again in 1958. In 1959 and '60, Montreal took home the big prize against Toronto but in 1961 Chicago won the Stanley Cup against Detroit! Of course, the Chicago Blackhawks did not win it again until last season. They are now on quite a comeback trail against the Vancouver Canucks - winning their third straight playoff game yesterday! Game seven is tomorrow night in Vancouver.

• A Chicago radio station with The Danny Mac Show had some fun today at Roberto Luongo's expense on "Luongo Weeps Tonight."
• Striking back at Chicago is this four-year-old singer named Violet. 

I am hoping the Canucks will be conquerors tomorrow!
This collapse was inconceivable the last time I blogged.

Rising to the occasion! Vancouver Canucks & Vancouver concert

This headline from yesterday's Okanagan Sunday was a perfect follow up to my last blog post: Crunch time: NHL playoffs = beards!

Unfortunately, our hometown Kelowna Rockets were eliminated from the WHL playoffs last night against the Portland Winterhawks, 4-2. That ended up being the best-of-seven series result as well. Seems to be a popular hockey score right now as the NHL playoffs tonight saw Philadelphia beat Buffalo, 4-2, and Boston do the same to Montreal.

Wow! The Vancouver Canucks could sweep the Chicago Blackhawks tomorrow! Cue the Sedin twins:


Vancouver's old NBA team won their first ever game in the NBA playoffs yesterday. Congratulations to the Grizzlies in Memphis! They won a showdown with the San Antonio Spurs, 101-98, with Toronto Raptors announcer Matt Devlin on the mic.

On the microphone singing in Vancouver last night, Robert Plant lets out 'The Voice' in Vancouver. Led it be...Led it be...Zeppelin...

Crunch time: NHL playoffs = beards!

The Vancouver Canucks start their quest for the Stanley Cup at home tonight against the defending champion, Chicago Blackhawks. The word just came down on Twitter that the @VanCanucks hashtag for Round One is #3venge. Chicago has beaten Vancouver in the last two playoff seasons so we are taking revenge this time around!

Chicago 2010 wins Cup!            Chicago 2011 NOT smiling!

My picture to the left sums things up.
Last year, Chicago had much more size (crunch!) in the lineup but they are too smooth now - missing big boys like Dustin Byfuglien and Andrew Ladd, who are playing in Atlanta.

Playoff beards are a hockey tradition but beards are sprouting in baseball bullpens!

Gary Bender calls his final game tonight after 18 seasons with the Phoenix Suns. He spent 45 years in broadcasting and called 27 sports for CBS. Thanks for the memories Gary!

High 5's for Monday include the football field and Butterfield

Only 55 days until BC Lions training camp launches on June 5th in Kamloops. No numbers 55 or 52 on the current roster but the other 50's are there. Ed Jovanovski made the #55 famous for the Vancouver Canucks over seven seasons but has played for the Phoenix Coyotes
the last four seasons.

The Toronto Blue Jays have a #55. It's Third Base Coach,
Brian Butterfield. He dreamt about having that number.
Listen in a moment right here:

High 5's for Friday include the Sabres and Luongo!

Dan Russell just mentioned on the broadcast that this series is the 55th in the history of the Saskatoon Blades. They trail Kootenay 3-1 in the third period.

Roberto Luongo had his 55th career shutout last night as the Vancouver Canucks beat Minnesota, 5-0.

Baseball's Manny Ramirez retired abruptly today - with 555 home runs to his (tainted) name...

Congratulations to the Buffalo Sabres, who officially made the NHL playoffs tonight! #55, Jochen Hecht, did not play tonight against Philadelphia - but look who's approaching 55 points on the season for the Sabres:

• Brad Boyes - 52 points
• Drew Stafford - 51 points
• Jason Pominville - 50 points

Friday Facebook FUN! April Fools' Day edition

We haven't done FFF (Justin Bieber edition) since February 18. Meanwhile, it's #FF on Twitter: #FF stands for "Follow Friday." Twitter users often suggest who others should follow on Fridays by tweeting with the hashtag #FF. Thank you for the mentions today Anne Ganguzza and NHLMedia!

My Facebook status this morning: Spending April Fools' Day on voiceover banking tutorial for bank fraud. I guess the two are a good match...

My Facebook status last night: Bring on the Cup! The Vancouver Canucks can become the 1st NHL team in ‘expansion era’ (from 1968 on) to lead in goals for/against, PP and PK in same season.

Thursday morning Facebook status: The cat is out of the bag...BATS are out of the (duffle or duffel?) bag! GO Blue Jays!

My Wednesday afternoon Facebook status: Yes, I took part in Whopper Wednesday...Did you know a Whopper contains HOPE? So does this local Kelowna blog: Buddy Breathing. ‎Congratulations to Leslie-Anne's parents for hitting 50 years of marriage today! Wow!

Tuesday afternoon link from the NFL - The Bengals have been called "quacks" for a long time...

‎Tuesday morning Facebook status: 7 on-hold messages just voiced...
2 were movie trailer reads. Phone FUN!

‎Monday morning Facebook status: The Final 4!! Basketball and days left in March...I like tomorrow (29th) as our son, Jordan, turns 16. I will also pick Kentucky to win the Final 4. *We will know if I'm right on Monday, April 4th...Until then, have a great weekend!

Twitter, Juno Awards and Odds!

The cat is out of the bag!

For three weeks now, I have been on Twitter...I did beat my cat to Twitter after all...scroll to the end of this post from last summer.

Today on Twitter I learned that the Toronto Globe and Mail named #Rush's #RedBarchetta the top Canadian car tune in celebration of #Junos week. I just learned more about hash marks here. Click here for the Top 10 Canadian car tunes!

The Juno Awards go tomorrow night - honoring Canada's top musicians. As I finished up my fifth and final year with Warner Music Canada in 1996, I had the chance to take in the Junos out east in Hamilton.  

The host for the evening was Burton Cummings while inductees into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame included:

David Clayton-Thomas (lead singer of Blood, Sweat and Tears)

Denny Doherty (The Mamas & The Papas)

John Kay (lead singer of Steppenwolf) #2 on the car list above.

Domenic Troiano (versatile songwriter, performer and producer)

Zal Yanovsky (member of the Lovin' Spoonful)

Ronnie Hawkins received the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award at the Junos back in 1996.

Below, I am with Craig Northey of Odds fame at a Juno party the previous night.

It was a year earlier on February 22, 1995 that I arranged for Odds to sing the national anthem at a Kamloops Blazers hockey game against the Prince George Cougars. The next night, Odds opened for the legendary Tragically Hip in Kamloops. See the autograph I got here! 

Craig is a BIG hockey fan and he sent this note through to the Kamloops Blazers when they won the Memorial Cup later in 1995:

Keep up to date with Craig and Odds here.

March's third blog post: 3 Ralphs!

Nice work Ralph!
Macchio that is..."The Karate Kid" took down the boxer and the wrestler on the "Dancing With The Stars" season premiere last night.

Today on the NHL.com site they linked to a bunch of Dancing NHL Stars. Check out Gretzky and Roenick in LA or the nice moves of Dallas Stars announcer Ralph Strangis.

I am in playoff mode for the Western Hockey League playoffs starting this Friday on Shaw-TV. Here is my promo for the Battle of Alberta (since the NHL teams there won't be qualifying for the playoffs):

Words of Wisdom from the BBall court

I was hooping it up Thursday night as usual with my basketball-playing friends. We have a regular group who play at Immaculata High School in a 35+ league. It has been a fundraiser for the school since 1992 and I have been part of the action for the last five years.

The picture here is from the gym and the quote belongs to NBA great Tim Duncan.

Congratulations to the Senior Boys basketball team from Immaculata on a great showing at the Senior A provincials! They will play for third tonight after losing a heartbreaking 60-58 decision to West Point Grey last night.

My son's team, the Kelowna Christian School Knights, are the number one ranked team in the tournament and play West Point Grey in the finals tonight at 7 pm. They will be coming home on the bus right after the game so pickup may be around 1:30 am...I better rest now...Go Knights!

Before my basketball on Thursday, the Kelowna Chiefs had another Pizza Appreciation night for staff and volunteers to wrap up a great first season in the KIJHL! As I blogged before, I appreciate Thank Yous!

It was my pleasure to serve as the public address announcer for my neighbourhood team. Several handshakes and even a couple of hugs as

I left the building...Hockey has a way of drawing people closer together.

Persistence and Perseverance

Two recent newspaper articles ended with those words of wisdom from two bright ladies:

• Dianne Buckner, the host of CBC-TV's hit reality business pitch show, "The Dragon's Den", was in Kelowna last week speaking at the Presidents' Dinner for the Chamber of Commerce. In the Kelowna Daily Courier on February 23rd she outlined her top 10 business tips for the crowd. #10 was Persistence. Learn and get better continuously.
• Lori Welbourne's column in the Capital News on Sunday, Feb. 27th was her last there as she moves to the Daily Courier's eVent Magazine this weekend. Congrats Lori! The art of happiness says: Perseverance is the key and rejections are just tests to make sure we’re strong enough to push past the pain and carry on towards scoring our goals.

I encourage you to read Lori's whole column, The art of happiness, as she shares how a rejection letter to her cartoonist did not prevent him from reaching the top with MAD magazine.

========================================== 

Here are the top 9 business tips Dianne Buckner shared for entrepreneurs last week in the Daily Courier:

1. Successful entrepreneurs know how to pitch to get a 'yes' answer. That's the whole basis of "The Dragon's Den" - pitching business ideas to get support and financing.
2. While focused, entrepreneurs also have to be open and flexible to make deals happen.
3. Tough times aren't necessarily bad times. Let them spur your creativity.
4. Stay abreast of trends. Eco-friendly and social media are hot right now.
5. Successful entrepreneurs are brief. (Another necessity on the TV show).
6. Great entrepreneurs have a comfort level with their own weaknesses. They understand them and deal with them.
7. While taking risks, entrepreneurs should still proceed with caution.
8. Nothing replaces hard work.
9. But don't work too hard. Respect your health and relationships.