Happy Canada Day!

[annathepiper]

To all of my Canadian friends online and off, happy Canada Day! May your fireworks be awesome and your holiday dinners be tasty.

To those of you in Newfoundland or with Newfoundland connections, I hope your Memorial Day is suitable as well.

And I’d like to dedicate this post to awesome Canadian things! Please to enthuse at me, my friends, about things or people or places or books or music which are a) awesome, and b) Canadian! Here are mine:

Music: Great Big Sea, La Bottine Souriante, Le Vent du Nord, La Volee d’Castors, Les Charbonniers de l’Enfer, Natalie MacMaster, Ashley MacIsaac, the Paperboys, Jeremy Fisher, the Irish Descendants, the Fables, the Punters.

Actors and Actresses: Nathan Fillion, Jewel Staite, Grace Park (played Boomer on BSG), Tricia Helfer (played Six on BSG)

Authors: Tanya Huff, Julie Czerneda

Places: Stanley Park in Vancouver

Mirrored from annathepiper.org.

Comments

[maellenkleth]

Oka cheese! A true national treasure, that.

[annathepiper]

Mmm, cheese! I don't think I've ever had any of that. If solarbird and I are able to go on Canadian Trainventure next year, perhaps we can look for some!

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

stanley park. banff, with the hot springs and chocolatiers. and thunder bay, with the largest natural deposits of amethyst in north america. (i picked up a chunk the size of a cement block in the parking lot, i had it in my car when i was out visiting you and defending my dissertation :)

[annathepiper]

Ooh, hot springs and chocolatiers! Sounds like two awesome reasons to visit Banff right there.

Also, woo Thunder Bay amethyst!

Also, wingedelf reminds me on this thread that the Paperboys are awesome and Canadian! All props to you for introducing me to them so long ago.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Gordon Lightfoot and Butchart Gardens!

[annathepiper]

Gordon Lightfoot I have heard of, but not so much Butchart Gardens!

*looks up both*

RIGHT, Lightfoot was "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", as well as "Early Morning Rain", which was covered by Elvis.

And woo, Victoria! solarbird and I keep meaning to visit Victoria because of the beautiful gardens there.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Gordon Lightfoot was my first Canadian music fandom, back in the late 70s, which dates me nicely, I'm afraid.

I've been to Butchart several times, once with my parents when I was a kid, when my dad first fell in love with dahlias, and then again about twenty years ago when I was out here on vacation from Ohio, and twice since I moved here eighteen years ago. It's about time for another visit, I think, but not this year. This year I'm going to WorldCon in Reno, with stops at Crater Lake and Yosemite on the way!

[wingedelf.livejournal.com]

Should you get the opportunity to hear Spirit of the West or The Paperboys, both would come highly recommended, and fit the musical qualifications.

[annathepiper]

I actually have several of the Paperboys' albums, yeah--totally forgot to mention them in my post. All credit to lyonesse who introduced me to them years ago.

As for Spirit of the West, I keep hearing about them and have in fact recently finally grabbed one of their albums off of iTunes for exploratory listening. I figure any band credited as being an influence on the B'ys is definitely worth a listen!